Ask HN: what tunes are you working to at the moment? - <AUTHOR>

To start the ball rolling...<p>Debut by Ini Kamoze <comment><USER5> Can't we leave this to Twitter? I don't visit a news site to hear what music you're listening to right now.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=367418>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=212682>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=139901>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=132026>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99936>

<comment><USER6> If this were _strictly_ a news site, Ask HN or discussion posts wouldn't exist.

<comment><USER7> your comment reminded me of __python__

<comment><USER8> your comment reminded me of self

<comment><USER6> Or __LINE__ or __FILE__. :p

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My programming playlist consists of mostly

      – M83					Electronic/Shoegaze
      – Ratatat				Chillout
      – Eluvium				Ambient/Classical
      – Sigur Rós				Post-rock/Ambient
      – Mono				Post-rock/Ambient
      – Explosions in the Sky		Ambient
      – Air					Ambient
      – Brian Eno				Ambient
      – Godspeed You! Black Emperor		Post-rock
      – Jesu				Post-rock/Drone
      – Mogwai				Post-rock
      – String Quartet Tribute to Coldplay	Classical
      – Yongfook (Jon Yongfook Cockle)	Ambient

Mostly ambient, post-rock, drone, and chillout. Either no vocals or ambient vocals. About 280 tracks in total, about 25 hours.

Hit shuffle on that, and I have myself a killer well-mixed playlist in terms of variety, tempo, and genre selection.

<comment><USER10> Nice! Lots of stuff on there I listen to.

I have a growing appreciation for Yongfook... I'm using his Sweetcron script (which is brilliantly executed), his other projects are also really well done. It's just him and it amazes me that he has time to pump out his own music.

Speaking of which, if you haven't heard this artist yet... you'd probably really like him. He was well known as a designer (iso50.com) and self-produced his own music, equally talented.

<http://tychomusic.com>

<comment><USER11> Tycho is really good!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Everything by Zappa. I discovered him this month, and he's quickly become my all-time favorite rock musician, and one of my favorite composers in any style. Today I listened through The Yellow Shark and Grand Wazoo, and "G-spot Tornado" more times than was probably healthy.

Other biggies for me are Stephin Merritt, Sufjan Stevens, Bach, and Charles- Valentin Alkan, who's the best pianist nobody's ever heard of. (I listen to the Jack Gibbons recordings of him, for the record.)

</comment><comment><USER13> Right this minute, the album Worlds Collide by Apocalyptica. Two of the songs are just amazing:

Helden, with vocals by Till Lindemann: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhq9n8gq4-0&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhq9n8gq4-0&feature=related)

Yes, this is a cover of David Bowie. And it's vastly better than the original.

SOS, with vocals by Cristina Scabbio: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHEqpoADTY&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHEqpoADTY&feature=related)

A little while ago was some Bob Dylan.

</comment><comment><USER14> [http://www.thesixtyone.com/stammy/collection/#/stammy/collec...](http://www.thesixtyone.com/stammy/collection/#/stammy/collection/show_collection/73326/6/)

<http://hypem.com/stammy>

<http://thefeelgood.com/paul/favourites>

although i don't use the latter as much as i used to

and as of late, "Alaska in Winter"'s latest album "Holiday" - it has lyrics but its more of electronic alt rock to me

</comment><comment><USER15> the entire saturdays=youth album, specifically:

m83 - graveyard girl

[http://www.thesixtyone.com/M83/collection/item/35995/?autopl...](http://www.thesixtyone.com/M83/collection/item/35995/?autoplay_song)

<comment><USER9> That is a great track, and the entire album is excellent. My favourite track other than Graveyard Girl is We Own The Sky.

And so are their other albums, Before the Dawn Heals Us and Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and Digital Shades Vol. 1 and... hell, all their albums are good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> <http://www.last.fm/user/jonursenbach>

</comment><comment><USER16> Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

<comment><USER17> You can concentrate while listening to that?!

<comment><USER18> I certainly can, in fact I've found it to be rather good coding music.

Then again, I also find Lighning Bolt, Slayer, and Merzbow to be good stuff to listen to while coding. Merzbow especially helps me get in "the zone".

Also: Shpongle, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Q and not U. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, American Analog Set, Fugazi, Fuck Buttons, Radiohead, and a million other bands / musicians I can't remember right now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> <http://www.awdio.com>

Live DJs from the worlds best clubs. If you like house, lounge, downtempo, trance, electro, or even rock... this is for you!

</comment><comment><USER20> <http://www.last.fm/user/gniado>

Some favourites for actually working to:

\- Godspeed You! Black Emperor

\- Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band

\- Radiohead

\- Sigur Ros

\- Boards of Canada

\- Laura (the post-rock band from austrlia, not the pop singer)

\- Do Make Say Think

\- Ratatat (mostly reserved when doing design work, not coding)

\- Portishead (see above)

</comment><comment><USER21> Battlestar Galactica Soundtrack.

</comment><comment><USER22> I really like to have mixes on, so I like <http://www.mixriot.com> for electronic/dance music.

</comment><comment><USER23> Metallica's new album is actually pretty good - awesome music - though it seems that James's voice is starting to lag a bit behind the rest of the band - shame really - their first legitimate shred album in years.

btw - I've seen this post on HN a few times now - always fun to read - <USER2> anyone made a web app for this yet?

</comment><comment><USER24> _"... what tunes are you working to at the moment? ..."_

♫ _Prairie-wind blowing through my head - trying to remember what daddy said_ ♫ Prairie Wind, NY ~ <http://www.last.fm/user/bootload>

</comment><comment><USER25> <http://www.last.fm/user/ninternity> Right now, I'm listening to Other Lives's self-titled album. That's for my college radio job, though. For programming, I listen to Brian Eno's Ambient albums.

</comment><comment><USER26> Behind Blue Eyes - The Who

</comment><comment><USER27> today:

the seeds - cant seem to make you mine

hermits hermits - ms brown you have a lovely daughter

joanna newsome - <USER3>

beach boys - pet sounds

panda bear - person pitch

bach - bradenburg concerto 1-4 (trevor pinnock ftw)

sam cooke - live at the harlem square

wire - pink flag

aretha franklin - i never loved a man ...

mark sultan - the sultanic verses (best album name)

the field - from here we go sublime

(it was a long, long day)

misc from beatport.com preview

</comment><comment><USER28> I just have Pandora with about 40 artists that I liked. Also did the whole thumb up and thumb down for most songs, so it usually just plays the things I like non-stop

</comment><comment><USER29> The National - Boxer, Virginia EP

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Dr. Dog - <USER4>

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

Britney Spears - Circus (jk)

</comment><comment><USER17> The new Kanye West album.

But this is between coding; I can't concentrate on code while listening to music, especially with lyrics.

<comment><USER6> Listen to some post rock. Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think, Eluvium, Tortoise.

<comment><USER29> Do you like Broken Social Scene? They are probably my favorite band. They have members from Do Make Say Think, Feist, Stars, Metric, Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, etc.

I saw Explosions in the Sky in Denton, TX at Hailey's in 2004. Best live performance I've ever witnessed. I saw them again last year in Austin, but it wasn't that great because their new stuff isn't as good.

I need to get Eluvium's latest album. I hear it's pretty good.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, Broken Social Scene are the shit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Nightwish Radio on Pandora. Mostly Nightwish, Within Temptation, Evanescence, Edenbridge, Leaves' Eyes, etc.

</comment><comment><USER31> Ah, my favourite vanity topic. This week I are mostly listening to Survival of the fattest by Prince Fatty.

</comment><comment><USER32> I could tell you about all the old stuff I listen to, but as for new stuff I _highly_ recommend Ladyhawke

</comment><comment><USER33> Acrid Avid Jam Shred - Aphex Twin

</comment><comment><USER34> The Wedding Toccata Theme by ModeSelektor - very minimal kraftwerk-like beats.

</comment><comment><USER35> Assorted post-rock in Amarok, lately liking My Education and Lymbyc Systym.

</comment><comment><USER36> Forgot the music was even playing...

Feed on Me by Judas Priest

</comment><comment><USER37> Aesop Rock and the like.

</comment><comment><USER38> kings of leon

<http://new.music.yahoo.com/singleVideo/?vid=14315075>

</comment><comment><USER39> Biggie...Large Professor...Big Daddy Kane...Rakim.

</comment><comment><USER40> Amie - Counting Crows (Pure Prairie League Cover)

</comment><comment><USER41> Common's new album

<comment><USER42> Ditto, sometimes I put Be, Electric Circus and Like Water For Chocolate on repeat. Kanye's new album is pretty hot too.

Other than that, a little John Mayer or Coldplay doesn't hurt when I'm tired of spanish guitar music. I try to keep it eclectic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Crystal Castles. And Yelle, thanks to Garry Tan.

</comment><comment><USER44> I get money remix - 50 cent ft Diddy and Kanye

</comment><comment><USER45> Fucked Up's 'The Chemistry of Common Life'

</comment><comment><USER46> Tool. I always start with Vicarious ;-)

</comment><comment><USER47> Yelle - Pop Up, Santogold, Stereolab

</comment><comment><USER48> Tell me by Ron Sexsmith

</comment><comment><USER49> Plaid - Not For Threes

</comment><comment><USER50> christmas songs - motown christmas

</comment><comment><USER11> Listening to a lot of:

2562: <http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=107955> Martyn: <http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=144550> Burial: <http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=56124> Distance: <http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=64768> TRG: <http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=140948>

All of the above fall under the realm of Dubstep, although 2562 is very techno influenced.

<comment><USER51> Nice to see someone recomending dubstep. The more minimal, techno-influenced stuff is good for working to, particularly anything on Skull Disco. Also check out the Millie & Andrea 12".</comment></comment>


MVC Family Tree - <AUTHOR> http://mvc.givan.se/

<comment><USER2> One persistent source of ambiguity is the arrow from the controller to the view. I've seen so many implementations that take this to mean that in response to a user action the controller modifies the model and updates the view, rather than letting the view observe the model.

My understanding of that arrow is that the controller may send messages to the view.

<comment><USER3> I think there's different approaches. Apple, for instance, approaches MVC that way (controller updating the view, with the view having no knowledge of the model).

<comment><AUTHOR> Right, there are different ways of doing it. In general, an arrow/line between Controller and View is better understood as "there is some type of communication"; then, different variations of the same design will use different forms of communication (observers, data binding, the controller references the view, the view references the controller etc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The "significant" list is a bit biased. Also Struts but no Spring?

<comment><AUTHOR> From what I gathered, Struts was very influential. Many people have it as its main reference. (Rails for example)

I don't know much about Spring. I know is very popular in the Java community, but I don't think it brought much to the MVC ecosystem.

It seems like it was built as a more developer friendly framework, but at its core it still is good old J2EE. Same patterns, MVC style etc. right?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> interesting graph. would be interesting to see what part of MVC is related to system software vs. web MVC

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you mean with "system software"?

One of the main differences between Client/Browser MVC and Server MVC is application state. In the browser you have state. In the server, since HTTP is stateless the server app too. Probably a good topic for an article of its own.</comment></comment>


Tesla DUI driver to court: "The car was driving" - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2018/01/23/a-tesla-owners-excuse-for-his-dui-crash-the-car-was-driving/?utm_term=.ae081e0138bc <comment><USER2> This story seems to combine two distinct events:

1\. Man pulled over in SF for DUI

2\. Man crashes Tesla into firetruck

In both instances the driver blames autopilot, however the author makes the two events into one to create a convenient narrative "DUI crash with autopilot". Questions still abound for Tesla, but the DUI driver was passed out with the car stopped -- not the same story the author presents.</comment>


What kids should do when they see a classmate being bullied - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/life/bulle/2013/02/bullying_can_we_teach_kids_to_stop_being_bystanders.html

<comment><USER2> I was 2 years younger than everyone in my class growing up (skipped a grade and started early). It sucked, especially as I moved from a private school in Virginia to a public junior high school in California. At risk of sounding sorry for myself, I wasn't merely bullied in the sense of taunting, rumors etc .. I was _the_ bullied kid at my school.

One thing adults should do is own up, both to bullying and especially _to being bullied_. The former bullies aren't likely to own up anyway, but the stigma of being bullied is real, even if you don't fall into some protected category.

I wasn't _gay_ , did not chose to live a "goth" lifestyle or anything else (not that there is the least bit wrong about any of those things). I played sports and music competitively, did everything a _normal_ kid is supposed to do. I wanted to be a _normal_ kid. I _was_ a normal kid, and a fairly popular one despite my age before I moved. The first month at my new school, I ran for class president. Needless to say, I did not lack for confidence, at least at that time.

I even got a few votes, and apparently that wasn't to the liking of a certain segment of the population. They proceeded to make my life hell for 2 years, and being new and having no friends did not help. The few who reached out early, backed away as it became clear that I was not wanted at the school. The ringleaders began a campaign of physical bullying, and (worst of all) obscene phone calls to my home. Not only was I afraid to go to school, I ran home to intercept the calls so my parents didn't have to feel sorry for me and here the crap that was being said: "f- your mother, you f--" blah blah. Juvenile, and _really quite pathetic_.

On Sadie Hawkins day, after (a real) girl asked me out .. someone found out and I got literally over 30 phone calls .. ceaselessly, for hours on end pretending to be that girl to mock me .. to this day I cannot understand the purpose of it. Needless to say, I did not go .. and never went to a dance or party throughout junior and high school.

The most painful thing for me, was not only was I so ruthlessly targeted, the Columbine incident happened to occur during those years. All of of a sudden, not only was I the weird kid from out of town that no one was supposed to like, classmates made jokes that I was the _most likely_ to go on a killing rampage.

As it turned out, the Columbine murderers were not bullied so much as they were psychopathic. Yet the public perception still exists that one of the reasons to stop bullying is to stop more Columbines. It's sad, really.

It took 7 years for me and college to become _normal_ again, be part of a real group of friends and regain the confidence I had as a child. Botton line .. plenty of _normal_ adults were bullied and they should stand up so the bullied kids of today know that a good future lies ahead, and the bullies of today know that their dominance will be only temporary. The best revenge, after all, is living well.

</comment><comment><USER3> Adults, and other kids: Give the (your!) kids the tools to deal with bullying. Not just a message. This includes tools to deal with physical aggression; not to start it, but at a minimum to control and escape it uninjured.

Kids: Don't trust any one adult or organization. I like the photo in the article because the girl is substantial documentation, which is much harder to refute or ignore.

You can tell the school administration. And your parents, I should add. If the school doesn't do anything, go to the police. If you can afford to, hire a lawyer.

That physical evidence makes it harder for the police to ignore. They may well try, but, for example, battery is battery... and with enough legal attention, they will get in trouble for ignoring it.

People change when the status quo becomes painful enough for them. All too often, they actively oppose change before things reach this point. Or, they pay lip service, while doing nothing of consequence.

This is a difficult lesson to learn, amidst all the idealistic messaging that gets pushed at kids. Lo, for better and for worse, this is the way the world really works.

Bravo to you, for taking it on rather acquiescing. Hopefully this makes your community better not just for the other person, but for you, as well. And, it sets a pattern for _doing_ , rather than allowing things to be done to you. A good habit to have, in life.</comment>


Ask HN: Remote companies - <AUTHOR>

Looking for a list, directory or some other resource that has companies that work 100% remotely or partially remote (some team members).<p>Any ideas? <comment><USER2> [https://weworkremotely.com](https://weworkremotely.com)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks

Those are jobs which is cool, but looking more for just companies that work remotely - like a crunchbase for remote companies.</comment></comment>


Healthy fat hidden in dirt may fend off anxiety disorders - <AUTHOR> https://neurosciencenews.com/dirt-fat-anxiety-14108/ <comment><USER2> I was once participated in a diet program where I was given some pills to eat to suppress my appetite (in addition to other generic mediterranean diet principles).

Being skeptical, I immediately scanned the ingredients and they all seemed like harmless/filler so I figured it was some placebo to placate those who needed pills as a confidence/mechanic. However, upon taking the pills for a few days, I did notice a marked decrease in appetite.

Re-examining the ingredients, the first one was "silica". Sand. Dirt. I've since come to the belief that our modern diet is too clean, and we are evolved to eat some amount of dirt - even if it's inhaled, so we may need to reintroduce some to control weight/allergies/disorders.

That dirt also contains other beneficial ingredients other than silica doesn't surprise me one bit.

<comment><USER3> This is interesting, but my nonscientific counter might be:

What if "dirt" is harmful, and causes your body to degrade appetite in attempt to overcome the irritants?

I agree we've evolved perhaps, but sometimes modern is better (e.g. portion control). Is it harmful to "feel" hungry and not sate your appetite?

<comment><USER4> > Is it harmful to "feel" hungry and not sate your appetite?

This is something that most people don't understand, given that we live in a world where food is cheap and plentiful.

As many people who have gone through fasting-based diets have discovered, there's a difference between "I'm hungry" and "I need calories, I'm getting weak and tired." Learning that difference is how you discover the actual amount of food your body requires, not just checking off three meals per day.

The feeding patterns of our ancestors were very far from "eat as much as you want all the time with no physical effort required," and that was normal for 15,000+ years, so it'll probably take longer than the 100-200 or so since industrial food production began for our brains and bodies to adjust to the new normal. That, or we'll just have to start teaching our kids about cravings vs hunger vs actual food-need.

<comment><USER5> I'm not clear on what "I'm hungry" means, other than "I need calories, I'm getting weak and tired." I don't experience anything until I experience that; being tired (after not eating all day) is the first sign my body gives me that I should eat something.

What are the qualia of non-hypoglycemic hunger?

<comment><USER6> My understanding is that you feel "I'm hungry" when your blood sugar drop below its typical level. The typical level can be increased by eating a lot of sugary processed food over a long period of time. In other words, sugary processed food change your body chemistry to make you addicted to them. If you largely eat healthy food and are at a healthy weight, then "I'm hungry" is a reliable signal for "I need more calories". If you are not, then it becomes a one-sided biased signal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can see the webloids headlines now: "Should you eat dirt: Newly discovered fatty acid 10Z-HA helps cure burnout!"

/sigh If only it were so easy.

<comment><USER8> Anxious? Eat dirt!

<comment><USER9> Pica?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_\(disorder\))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The wikipedia page on this bacteria says it is not pathogenic and when fed live to mice their maze solving performance increased. If it's not pathogenic to humans, why haven't they tried it with people? With all the rage about gut bacteria an experiment like this seems obvious.

<comment><USER11> Human trials are expensive and involve a whole lot of being careful beyond "the wikipedia page says it's fine so let's do it!"

Part of that being careful often involves mice.

<comment><USER10> Clinical trials are expensive. Trying something on yourself is not. I'm not advocating any of us do that. But if the mouse researchers actually believe it's not harmful and believe their own results, why wouldn't they do an ad-hoc experiment on themselves?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This paper: [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00213-019-05253...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00213-019-05253-9)

indicates IL6 ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6)) is down regulated in ex vivo tests (outside animal, cell cultures)

and specifically 10(Z)-hexadecenoic acid may be related with PARa signaling in mice

so this is pretty cool. I hope they get some similar results with humans.

</comment><comment><USER13> Maybe the hidden reason gardening is a viewed as a reason peeps live longer

<comment><USER14> If soil indeed has anti-inflammatory properties, that would make a whole lot of sense.

<comment><USER15> I'd be more likely to believe (at least part of) the effect is caused by giving the natural defense systems of the body something actually foreign to 'attack'. Sort of like regular training exercises and legal explosives/fireworks days give a more controlled and thus safer expression of pressure relief, training, and general readiness inspection.

PS: Related to the fireworks I mentioned, I'm for having local fire departments provide basic fire knock back training with basic safety gear (bucket of water and hose) that should be required when they're in use. We focus way too much on black and white bans rather than enforcing responsible consumption.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This could explain why some people pick and eat nasal mucus (a dirt colloid) when anxious

</comment><comment><USER17> As a vegan, I'm not surprised. We all have to get our vitamin b12 from functional food because it would otherwise naturally occur on the foods we eat from bacteria. Our foods are sterile and thus the bacteria never deposit b12 for us. There's probably much more we don't know about.

<comment><USER18> I remember reading a study a while back about the B12 found in unfiltered river water being sufficient for maintaining healthy levels in humans. It would be interesting to see a human study on this - albeit not useful for most people, as river water in most places if very much contaminated.

Also for something more anecdotal, I worked as a labourer on a couple of farms for a while (which had a lot to do with why I went vegan...), and the animals had to be supplemented to the teeth to get sufficient vitamins and minerals. My guess is this was because their feed was all from processed grains and legumes, and their water came from the filtrated mains system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Off topic but does anyone else automatically filter out any headline that has "may" in it? Literally anything can be true if you add "may".

Eating dirt may cause cancer. Eating dirt may cure cancer. Earth may sit on the back of a giant, invisible tortoise.

It feels like a lazy way to pump out blog articles when there's no real information available.

<comment><USER20> I would love a huge study done on say NY Times/Wapo and a few other sources and going back through their science reporting through 2000-2010. Focusing on articles like this and see if how wrong/right they were. Or, if it's so inconclusive, that we really shouldn't be letting scientists push out their work willy nilly without establishing better data/proof. Science journalists seem to take these education PR departments at their word a bit too often.

<comment><USER21> I'm working on something to track stuff like that. What would you consider evidence of a study being disproved?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is old news (circa 2002) and was published widely under the subject heading of "The Dirt Vaccine". Here's a link to "The Edge" series on this topic:

"The Dirt Vaccine (Bacteria and Health) 2002":

[http://emro.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=1059](http://emro.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=1059)

Google for "the dirt vaccine" for more:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=the+dirt+vaccine&ie=UTF-8&oe...](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+dirt+vaccine&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)</comment>


How Many Type Parameters Can a Java Method Have? - <AUTHOR> http://justinblank.com/experiments/howmanytypeparameterscanajavamethodhave.html <comment><USER2> One little thing - the string that's running out of space here is the signature of the interface, not the signature of the method. You could use that fact together with method scoped type parameters to get a few more, if it weren't for the fact the descriptor would blow up too soon already.

Since it's not mentioned in the article - the _signature_ of a method is the description containing generic information. The _descriptor_ is the erased signature, which, because A strips to Ljava/lang/Object; will likely be a fair bit longer.

An aside - you can (mostly) still get away with corrupting signatures, if you want to obfuscate code.

(eg [https://github.com/ItzSomebody/StopDecompilingMyJava/blob/ma...](https://github.com/ItzSomebody/StopDecompilingMyJava/blob/master/decompiler- tool-bugs/Entry-005/Entry.md) )

(yes, I used to blow up on one of these in [https://www.benf.org/other/cfr](https://www.benf.org/other/cfr) \- (my java decompiler), but it's all good now).

<comment><USER3> Thanks for that. I confess I got a bit lazy about checking _which_ string was at issue--I'll try to do an update when I get home, if I can make time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A fun short article, but if you're too lazy to read, the summary answer is "way more than you will ever need."

<comment><USER5> Or if you need that much, your design is severely broken

<comment><USER6> [https://github.com/groovy/groovy- core/blob/master/src/main/o...](https://github.com/groovy/groovy- core/blob/master/src/main/org/codehaus/groovy/runtime/ArrayUtil.java)

<comment><USER4> Wow -- that is some ugly code. Why couldn't they use a single varargs method declaration? Does this code need to support older Java versions that lack varargs support?

<comment><USER7> It may be a performance hack. Varargs results in an array being allocated. I've seen this trick in the past, but they usually stopped at a handful of arguments and let the rest be handled by varargs.

<comment><USER8> Groovy is chock-full of absurd little microoptimizations that will forever fail to make even the tiniest dent in the general overhead relative to java. For several years there was even an "assume equality of hashes match" shortcut hidden in certain set operation code paths.

<comment><USER9> When compiled statically groovy has almost zero overhead relative to Java. I appreciate how much effort they have made to keep the overhead low and reduce the bloat as much as they can.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I tried this with the F# mono REPL - it eventually failed after creating a let binding with 1328 params: [http://blog.mclemon.io/f-number-polymorphic- parameter-overfl...](http://blog.mclemon.io/f-number-polymorphic-parameter- overflow)

<comment><USER11> one can store a whole Forth OS in a java signature

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think it's pretty cool that the result emerges, as the author points out, not from the implementation details of any particular JVM, but from well- defined parts of the Java specs intersecting in a fully determined way.

</comment><comment><USER13> I wonder if it would be feasible to scan, say, GitHub or Apache projects to find the highest parameter count in the wild?

<comment><USER14> Do you mean type parameters or regular parameters? If it's the former(and Scala is allowed) then I think Rho's Result type is a pretty good bet with it's ~60 type arguments: [https://github.com/http4s/rho/blob/989db04e6dd828518770a42fd...](https://github.com/http4s/rho/blob/989db04e6dd828518770a42fdbb17f4d4d7d3643/core/src/main/scala/org/http4s/rho/Result.scala#L9)

<comment><USER15> Ugh, why would they do that?

<comment><USER16> Looks like the type tells you which HTTP status codes are possible from a given route, so that e.g. a route that can return only 200 or 403 is a different type from a route that could return 302. Which makes a lot of sense, because certain transformations / routing directives that you might want to do only make sense for particular HTTP status codes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> this reminds me of that one table with more than 255 columns which hibernate converted into a class that could not be compiled since the constructor had too many parameters. we split it up using the component mapping to realize some of these column as if they were composition.

the early '00 were a lawless wasteland.

<comment><USER18> If you were using Hibernate in 2000 and not caught up in the EJB hype, you were ahead of the game.

<comment><USER17> maybe because I was fresh out of academia then but neither xml defined behavior nor the ejb looked like something that really removed work, moreover I've always been biased against things I can't put a break-point and debug in the event of having issues (which is also why I skipped on angular, for example).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I imagine that the limit on the .NET CLR is even lower because there needs to be runtime support for type parameters all the way down to the JIT.

<comment><USER20> I modified the python script to generate C# and it compiled with 131072 type parameters. It did take 9 minutes though so I didn't continue after that.

<comment><USER21> In theory, the maximum encodable compressed unsigned integer, as used by GenParamCount in MSIL, is 0x1FFFFFFF.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> > Nonetheless, if I was king, I'd consider explicitly banning any class or > method from having more than 255 type parameters.

As he says there is probably no use case where you need so many and the additional overhead of time to implement this is (in my eyes) a bit wasted. But he can be actually the king by contributing to the openJDK project.

</comment><comment><USER23> Going to leave it here

Inside the Java Virtual Machine by Bill Venners

[https://www.artima.com/insidejvm/ed2/](https://www.artima.com/insidejvm/ed2/)

<comment><USER24> Is it still relevant? If you've read it, what's your review in one sentence (or not just in one if you wish :D)?

<comment><USER23> I read it a few years ago, when I wanted to know how many methods can there be in a Java class. (count: 2 bytes, but compiler fails to compile such a class a long before that).

Many of the concepts such as structure of class files should still be relevant (fact that all classes start with hex code CAFEBABE etc).

Garbage collection, security should be more or less relevant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> i wonder if it's possible to generate type parameters such that computation is done with it at compile time?

<comment><USER26> Theoretically, sure: [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.05274.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.05274.pdf)

<comment><USER27> I think it's a good idea to link to abstracts [https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.05274](https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.05274) (as ygra does ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19777896](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19777896) )) rather than directly to PDFs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I wonder how many other articles could do with a conclusion entitled "None of This Matters"?!

<comment><USER29> Tempted to make that my email signature.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> The article will make Uncle Bob shudder.

<comment><USER31> He can assuage himself with more tests.</comment></comment>


The Myth of Architect as Chess Master - <AUTHOR> http://www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2020/myth-of-software-architect-as-chess-master.php <comment><USER2> Off topic, but you know the person doesn't play chess when (this is very common) they think that a chess master can spot a mate-in-1 and nobody else can. Mate in 1s are fairly easy to spot if you've been playing chess for, let's say, 2 years. In reality, a chess master would spot something like "bishop to queen whatever, rook takes bishop, pawn to whatever, rook takes pawn, queen to whatever and then you have mate in 2" I'm only whining about this because it's too common a cliché in popular culture.

<comment><USER3> Yes, yes a thousand times yes. In fact just the fact that mate is invariably imminent in movies and TV is annoying. Also the board seems to have the wrong orientation _more than 50% of the time_ which basically violates not only statistics and probability basics but fundamental principles of the universe.

<comment><USER4> You would think there wasn't chess clubs all over the world where you can walk in and find people who know something about chess and copy their game. Just copy a game two ~1700s play in a friendly match and have your characters play that exact game - you will have your choice of games so you can choose who wins. Get the best player in the club to advise you if you want the characters to talk about something - it isn't hard to get this right with a little expert help.

<comment><USER5> <cue two investigators working at the same keyboard to do things twice as fast>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Let me tell you about the time I was called in as an architect to a technical meeting. Two teams were baffled why their systems weren't integrating properly, and each was heatedly pointing the finger at the other.

Annoyed, I pulled up the code for the system call that was failing, and within a few minutes I found an int64 that was getting truncated incorrectly.

I pointed it out to the team in the room. The shouting match suddenly grew very quiet, and I strolled out the door in satisfaction.

Sometimes, on rare occasions, it _is_ a mate-in-one.

<comment><USER7> I had something similar but unlike you I was freshly in the company and it was a room full of people close to retirement.

When I saw the suspected error before the meeting I spoke to one of the guys. He said I absolutely cannot mention the issue right away. He helped me workout a couple of questions I could ask to nudge them in the right direction.

When the meeting started the Director of Infrastructure, some people of the accounting department and a couple of the IT people supporting them were shouting at each other and trying to find the one responsible for the fault(this bug actually cost them a couple of millions).

I interrupted them by saying I don't care who's responsible and asking the questions I rehearsed. The director of infrastructure who was supporting the accounting people then found the issue(he retired a year later and yes weird structures in that company).

Anyway, the guy was really proud and the accounting department was praising him and the blame each other games stopped until ...

... I had my 1on1 a while later and the CIO told me that he heard I was yelling at people in that meeting.

<comment><USER8> Sometimes you can achieve a lot if you don't care about getting any credit.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, but sometimes it gets you fired. Different company, different situation. Careful with this kind of advice.

People like to think that the world is this magical place where in the end you get what you deserve when you collect enough good karma and do the right thing, but it isn't really the case.

<comment><USER9> If you do get fired for that you don't really want to work there anyway

<comment><USER10> Maybe but most people also don't want to not be working involuntarily with no notice.

<comment><USER9> I would not either and never happened to me to date, but if it did, I wouldn't sweat it and would not put undue pressure on myself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If the argument the blog is trying to make is Architects can't know everything then it's a bad article to submit.

On the other hand, if the argument is a boss should not expect someone called Architect or senior engineer etc. to be able to troubleshoot based on experience I have a problem with that.

If someone can't be air dropped and they have a title that is intended by the business as code for _a senior level software person who can think of how to build systems and can also build them themselves_ , then I am not sure what they bring to the table.

<comment><USER12> This is the problem with development for, forever. Most of the time, people are tasked with: Here's the spec/user story/loose idea/unrealistic wishlist, and can you be done before this weekend at least?

What's the problem again? The facilitation of foundational discussions and exploration is seen as waste. So the business spends X months building the wrong idea, without any feedback and adjustments along the way whatsoever instead.

To air-drop someone senior to set things straight. What a great way to sabotage organisational learning and simplification. Not that anybody gives a rats ass about eachother anyways, right?

<comment><USER11> There are a lot of problems in the industry but the experienced helping the inexperienced on demand in response to a crisis doesn't seem like one that is nearly as serious as others.

I am old enough to have been on XP teams and to have become a certified scrum master in its first few years. It's gotten out of hand. Being agile and blasting to an MVP is fine for people who think Netflix or sending dick picks is mission critical but with IOT and AI scenarios emerging that allow all the little software napoleans to fuck up something serious or inadvertently create a universal spying machine it might be time to put the breaks on for at least a class of problems.

No industry hates old people as much as tech and that industry has people all over it like an idiot on another thread who clearly had no idea who Brian Kernighan was when they wrote their post. Young programmers have always been arrogant idiots. I was one myself. But it astounds me that _many_ programmers today don't even know a ton of stuff that would make their job easier since it is shit that is already figured out or is shit the science says can't be figured out.

I hate people that wallow in history as much as the next person with an ounce of inclination to independent thought but for fucks sake learn some basics before applying that code golf to 20,000 cores because that shit costs money you free food demanding little jack ass.

As for building what the customers need or want? The more time I spend around programmers the less inclined I am to want them deciding anything for anyone in terms of features.

If you're blessed enough to be great at programming and picking things people actually want or need then you'll be too rich soon to bother with stuff like being told to help a team fix their shit anyways.

<comment><USER12> I don't know about hate, but each man an island was the tone set by top owners and executives since 1999.

Dev is hard enough, but the demands of divisive process micromanagement just creates heroes and firefighters, and sets up org for continual failure.

While endless backlogs and mitigations documents processes, creative collaborative progress nosedives.

Majority of devs need facilitation though. No history of otherwise, but perhaps a silo issue.

Drop-ins can be natural, but not so much as upfront restrictions-planning outside teams.

<comment><USER11> I think you are saying you want the industry to be better. I support that. But until we get there, the need for people who can airdrop is going to be there. Sometimes you may be dealing with a fortune 50 like customer with lots of $$$ in play or a smaller customer who needs to get something running or they are in deep trouble of going under. It's not so much about looking inwards sometimes as it is about helping customers who depend on the crap that was built to get past the bugfest the industry seems comfortable selling all to often.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I know people who are good at architecture but I always get skeptical when people have the title "architect". If they don't keep working in the weeds I feel they often get out of touch soon. They may be good at doing nice presentations but their designs become more and more unrealistic.

<comment><USER11> Any software "Architect" who can't build what they say to build should have to get a new job.

Any programmer of less experience who continues to argue with the "Architect" after they have met the challenge of proving their ideas can be done should also have to get a new job.

Many less senior programmers are better at the every day idioms of a given language or tools used in daily programming. Many senior people have to do more than just code. But most senior people who can still practice if called upon are much better problem solvers in part because they have already failed so many times and each new batch of programmers keep re-inventing the same mistakes.

<comment><USER14> What toxic pit do you work in where junior programmers are ARGUING with senior architects and the senior devs aren't mentoring, reviewing and empowered to make key decisions in another room before junior developers ever see a spec? And how do I avoid working there?

<comment><USER15> I've seen this in a couple of places. Junior dev assigned to design new system. Senior dev assigned to mentor junior dev. Senior dev encourages junior dev based on experience. Junior dev ignores everything senior dev says. Manager listens to whatever junior dev says and sidelines senior dev. Senior dev goes on vacation. System explodes.

<comment><USER13> At my company management often gives new stuff to interns while senior people are stuck with maintenance work. It's really weird.

<comment> cbm-vic-20 I've been at a mega-corp that let newly hired developers to build new stuff while senior devs are busy putting out customer fires that in many cases, were caused by those junior devs in the first place. "We want to make sure the junior devs have interesting things to work on so they stick around."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Architects have two primary purposes (not roles):

1) Facilitate that architecture and design happens in teams (dev or not)

2) Ensure coherency of architecture

That's it folks!

<comment><USER16> That seems right. City planner seems more apt than chess master.

<comment><USER17> I used to joke that the term "business-to-engineering psychologist" was more descriptive than "software architect". You had to know how to get people to agree a lot more than how to get technology to work together, especially in "larger organizations". It's politics, pure and simple - most of the conflict isn't technical.

<comment><USER18> damn right!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Being an architect is like training a bag of cats. You are also in the bag

</comment><comment><USER20> And then you go another level deeper and see everything is actually just different ways of doing the same old Linux and/or Java. I feel especially in Ops people can see that all the time. For instance just today I saw someone debug a NO_PROXY topic in Kubernetes. Kubernetes is super cool and works different than the old LAMP stacks or even Openstack. But still they deal with NO_PROXY not being standardized problems. Also shows that the same, actually hard problems (like standardizing something that is "out there" for more than a decade already) are never really solved. Each shiny new tool comes with its own way of doing things, but what they do with your input is in the end always the same. Mounting, multiprocessing, sockets, string parsing, memory management, log searching, etc.

So yes, I think there's a way to become a chess master. You just need to go one level deeper and accept that there might be multiple topics that each will need half a decade to learn good enough to be useful.

</comment><comment><USER21> I enjoy this line of thinking, having domain knowledge is always critical to success. Being invested is always ideal.

I would like to counter with the delivery transformations I have been apart of, the role of the architect has dried up.

I do predict for most large enterprises the role of a manager will start to become more full stack and becoming that invested visionary technical leader and mentor. At least that's what I hope for...

</comment><comment><USER22> The interesting thing about grandmasters is their ability to recognise a winning position regardless of working out the moves yet, something AlphaZero (chess engine) seems to take to the extreme of recognising winning patterns that it can intuit will lead to winning games without hard calculation.

Maybe the architect equivalent is someone explaining the structure of a system and instantly knowing roughly where the problems are before inspecting the individual parts. Like the grandmaster the architect will intuit better than most where the problems likely are given a high level overview.

</comment><comment><USER23> The fact is that the architectural mindset is a very distinct and recognizable mentality and most certainly not the byproduct of a "process".

I suggest one first try their hand at defining what is "architecture" and if one has trouble with that, suggestion is to not venture to the subsequent topic of "what is an architect and how does one recognize this rare [1] animal?"

[1]: it is definitively a talent and a rare one at that.

<comment><USER24> I've long had the notion that _taste_ is secretly the most important quality of a good developer or worker in computing technology more generally, and we only pretend other things matter so much because taste is hard to measure in an interview, difficult to quantify, and no-one knows how to teach it reliably.

<comment><USER25> What do you mean by taste?

<comment><USER26> Taste and Aesthetics [https://www.artima.com/intv/taste.html](https://www.artima.com/intv/taste.html)

Taste for Makers [http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I wonder if the analogy "software architect" isn't being stretched too thin.

What are the essential or characteristic traits of the architect as a professional and of architecture as an enterprise that translate or have direct equivalents in the software world? Are trained architects expected to be better sofware-architects than trained physicists or... chess masters?</comment>


Those 68M Hacked Dropbox Account Details Are Free to Download - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/those-68-million-hacked-dropbox-account-details-are-free-to-download <comment><USER2> [2016]</comment>


Mark Suster: Raise Money Now So When The Party's Over You're Sitting Pretty - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/18/mark-suster-raise-money-now-so-when-the-partys-over-youre-sitting-pretty/ <comment><USER3> Except that as soon as this becomes conversational wisdom the market has reacted. The moment for a land grab pitch has passed. Let's be real and make some money.

</comment><comment><USER4> Kinda makes me want to get a job, and raise money with a really strong team of bubble pop refugees once this bubble is over. Who is it that said the best companies tend to get founded after the bubble, and grow a lot/monetize during them?

Kinda makes me wanna do that. But not really.

</comment><comment><USER5> The money is not free. This guy has an interest in you raising money, because it means that he owns a part of your company.

</comment><comment><USER6> The ones whowill be sitting pretty will be then ones who don't need market money.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think this bubble is primarily fueled by central banks making money available to primary dealers basically for free. This is unlike the New Economy bubble where the money came from peons who invested in stocks. As soon as the central banks (the Fed in particular) step on the brake, it's over. Thus, lots of truth in what this guy says.

<comment><USER8> That cannot be the whole story because even if they get the money interest- free, investors are not going to invest in start-ups or venture funds unless they believe they can a better return there than they can in other investments.

<comment><USER9> When the central banks pump money into economies, it has a cascading effect that influences the behavior of investors directly and _indirectly_.

Take a wealthy individual who is a limited partner in several VC funds. Like most wealthy individuals, he has investments across numerous asset classes. Many of those asset classes (equities, commodities, etc.) are heavily impacted by the Fed's policies. Needless to say, this individual is far more likely to feel comfortable pouring some money into a new VC fund he has been pitched when his other investments are doing well courtesy of Helicopter Ben's printing press.

Without willing investors, VC firms can't raise new funds and certainly, had there not been a massive pumping of cheap money into the global economy from the central banks, many of the massive VC funds, more than a few of which are being used to buy up shares in companies like Facebook and Zynga, would not exist.

<comment><USER10> _"Take a wealthy individual who is a limited partner in several VC funds. Like most wealthy individuals, he has investments across numerous asset classes. Many of those asset classes (equities, commodities, etc.) are heavily impacted by the Fed's policies. Needless to say, this individual is far more likely to feel comfortable pouring some money into a new VC fund he has been pitched when his other investments are doing well courtesy of Helicopter Ben's printing press."_

That's just exactly wrong.

"Helicopter Ben", as you oh-so-blithely put it, is injecting money into the economy (as was Greenspan -- a famous conservative -- who started the process). This tends to _lower_ interest rates across all sorts of different asset classes. It's a big part of the reason that savings accounts are returning <<1%, and why people have been taking their chances on ever-riskier investments for the better part of two decades. They _can't get returns_ in safer asset classes.

People aren't investing in VC funds because they "feel comfortable" -- they're investing in VC funds because they can't match the inflation rate in anything better. Nobody invests in a high-risk asset if they can get great returns in a low-risk asset, no matter how "comfortable" they may feel.

<comment><USER9> First, you seem to confuse "rate of return", "inflation rates", and "interest rate." They are _not_ the same thing, yet you conflate them.

But let's roll with it. You still make a number of flawed assumptions:

1\. That all investors believe inflation is the problem. George Soros, for instance, is more concerned about _deflation_ and up until recently, had significant holdings in gold as protection against deflation. Ironically, others, like John Paulson, are still holding gold as a protection against inflation. Only time will tell who made the right bet for the right reasons.

2\. That an individual seeking capital preservation has to take on "ever- riskier investments." High net worth individuals _do not_ have the same investment options as you do. There are numerous ways you can preserve cash (without sitting in cash) without having to bet the farm, even in today's economy.

3\. That diversification plays little to no role in investment decisions. Again, if your portfolio has large exposure to equities, commodities and other asset classes that have gained substantially over the past two years, you are far more likely to feel comfortable cashing out some of your gains and/or throwing idle cash into other asset classes.

4\. That VC provides a solid return. If you look at the 10 year returns, VC hardly looks like the asset class an aggressive investor would park his money. See [http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/16/venture-capital- re...](http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/16/venture-capital-returns-more- in-short-term-less-in-long-term/).

5\. The above brings us to your last flawed assumption: that every investment decision is rational. If every investor made truly rational decisions, the desire to protect against inflation would not lead one to invest in VC. You'd be overweight commodities, FX, etc. Again, there are a whole host of reasons investors throw money (generally a small portion of their total portfolio BTW) at VC. Diversification is one of them, but don't doubt the lure of bragging rights either. If you golf with high net worth individuals, you'll quickly learn that they like to brag about their investments, even if they're not necessarily good ones. After all, nothing says cool like "I have $2 mil in a fund that owns a bunch of Facebook stock."

At the end of the day, my original point stands: when the central banks pump money into economies, it has a cascading effect that influences the behavior of investors directly and indirectly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I agree.

Raise money. OK. Lets all do it - everyone in! Mark is a smart guy, and obviously right on the mark.

But please lets focus on businesses with a real business. Those will continue through the ups and downs.

</comment><comment><USER12> Anyone an idea how long it will take before things are back to normal - <USER2> there is a bubble? Months? Years?

<comment><USER13> Well I suspect this bubble (if it is indeed a bubble) is somehow related to the recent stimulus efforts, so I suppose it depends what the Fed does after ending QE2 at the end of this month, if they eventually begin a new round of QE (in one form or another), and how long they maintain exceptionally low interest rates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> At least this time we know when the bubble is coming.

<comment><USER15> This time? A bubble was widely reported back in the late 90's too. It's not like it came out of nowhere.

<comment><USER16> No doubt - even Greenspan's "irrational exuberance" comment was back in 96, well before things peaked.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: I'm chaperoning 7th graders for a Google trip. What would interest them? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> At that age, we can hope they do not have yet the same attitude as in this strip: [http://www.commitstrip.com/en/2013/11/12/la-feature-que- lon-...](http://www.commitstrip.com/en/2013/11/12/la-feature-que-lon-attend- depuis-15-ans/).

</comment><comment><USER3> Glass.

It's an ageless 'mind-blower', but I can only imagine the type of response it would elicit from kids that age, especially if they're even just a little tech-inclined.

<comment><AUTHOR> Some of them go to this "leadership in tech" class (Phew!) where they tinker with HTML, CSS, JS and of course they use a few google h/w and s/w products at school.</comment></comment>


Moody's: U.S. Telecoms are underinvesting in broadband - <AUTHOR> http://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/moody-s-wireline-providers-are-under-investing-broadband <comment><USER2> We're talking about 3 different technologies here:

1\. Fiber optics - this is growing, and companies which have a lot of it are continuing to lay it out (albeit slowly). Also see, Altice's recent announcement. My hope is that post-election Google Fiber will ramp back up, simply for the legal defense of saying that they too are a cable company and the same laws should apply. In any case, consumers want it. High-end consumers will pay a premium, and the cost for urban footprint fill-out is not exorbitant.

2\. Cable coaxial wire - this is a big thick wire that continues to upgrade nicely. DOCSIS 3.0 is basically the same old 1980s/1990s cable with better comms protocols. It's getting to the point to where they can compete on a reasonable basis with single strand fiber, at a lower speed and price point. So cable companies build out the back-end with fiber, but don't have to replant single homes.

3\. Crappy copper telephone wire - this stuff is thin, it's painful to maintain and upgrade and always lags copper. Companies with a lot of this (Windstream, Verizon, AT&T, Frontier) are trying to run it for cash flow rather than spend a lot on upgrades. The telcos push fiber to the node, but it's a slow grind and involves very careful cost benefit analysis.

3 different technologies. 3 very different strategies. The election has further complicated things. Should VZ save up it's ammo and make a play for Sprint, Charter, Dish, or T-Mobile or invest in more broadband plants? I'd save the ammo given that Tom Wheeler is out on January 20th..

<comment><USER3> _> We're talking about 3 different technologies here_

I'd be interested to know why we aren't talking about four different technologies, with the fourth one being wireless.

You can roll out fast broadband to large areas just by building a few towers to broadcast WiMAX. There's no "backhoe time" and you avoid the cost of digging up the streets.

IEEE 802.16m will now give you a gigabit to a fixed point

You could do the same with LTE but you need a lot more towers and I don't know about spectrum availability.

However, WiMAX seems to have failed in the US, with Clearwire shutting down in March...

<comment><USER4> > However, WiMAX seems to have failed in the US, with Clearwire shutting down > in March...

I played the WiMAX game in the US as a consumer. If you didn't have clear line of site with the tower, you got terrible speeds if you still had a connection.

Driving + WiMAX was a no go unless it was through an empty field (never got to try this one). Using WiMAX near a window and getting up for some coffee was a no go. Hell, being outside that pane of glass made a huge difference.

It was really bad for mobile.

> You can roll out fast broadband to large areas just by building a few towers > to broadcast WiMAX.

I can see this working if customers had outdoor antennas installed.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the feedback. WiMAX does seem to be successful in some lower-tech countries, but I guess it depends partly on what else is available....

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well, if you'd like to know why IRL, go to TIA 2016 [1] and sit in some of the small room "break out" sessions. It's absolutely unbelievable to see very small groups of very senior people in the US teclo industry deciding how the US teclo industry will run. I've done this for a few years and I'm not kidding when I say it's mind blowing how blatant the conversation is. [1]: [http://www.tia2016.org/](http://www.tia2016.org/)

<comment><USER6> Could you give us some examples of the types of things you've heard?

<comment><USER5> It isn't really about one specific thing, nor do I particularly want to name brands. One very senior policy person from a major hardware vendor asked at a small session how that working group could move to "regulate WebRTC" (2013) - Basically, there are high level reps from all the vendors through the whole telco stack, and then politicians, lobbyists, regulators etc. and if you sit and listen, you can see where the interests sit, and who is taking note of what interests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> We need some more Telecom competition here in the US to improve their services. I live in San Francisco and I've been waiting for a good while now for webpass to become an option in my building. Comcast service is really subpar. Meanwhile all my friends in northern europe have crazy gigabit connections.

<comment><USER3> _> We need some more Telecom competition here in the US to improve their services_

The US tried that and it didn't work. Specifically, The US Justice Dept broke up AT&T into a bunch of "Baby Bells", which spent hundreds of billions of dollars on takeovers to reassemble themselves into AT&T.

In brief: Southwestern Bell Corp (SBC) merged with Pacific Telesis, then SBC bought Ameritech, then it bought AT&T and renamed itself... AT&T. Then the new AT&T bought Cingular. Consumers paid heavily for this, and got no real benefits.

The obvious answer is to make broadband a "social good" like highways, schools, the judicial system and (in rational countries) healthcare, and build it out in the same way as Al Gore's dad built the US interstate highway system after WW2.

Unfortunately, that can't happen in the US, because politics.

Under the US healthcare system, Americans pay 2x to 3x more than the OECD average, suffer much higher rates of infant mortality, have far more sickness in the over 65s, and die younger.

Without the concept of a "social good", you'd expect the US telecoms/broadband industry to produce similar results.

Crappy broadband causes a massive loss in productivity and makes the US less competitive with many small countries, but I don't expect those costs are factored into anybody's calculations.

<comment><USER8> I never understood the point of splitting up AT&T geographically. Were they expecting turf wars to explode on the borders between them?

In some European countries, when the former telco monopolies were split, they were split vertically - so there was one "copper company", then the phone service company, etc. The copper company would generally be heavily regulation with local loop unbundling, requirements to be fair to anyone who wants to sell service over the network, etc.

<comment><USER9> The big deal was the vertical split between local (baby bells) an long distance (at&t). It then became possible to easily switch your long distance carrier, which lead to intense competition and lower prices. Local exchange service remained a monopoly, but most jurisdictions had fairly strict tariffs for rates. Later, the telecom act of 1996 opened up to competitive exchange carriers using the existing lines and buildings; would have been nice if the FCC had enforced that for internet too :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Lets see at my house: AT&T, $60 a month for 45Mbit down, 3Mbit up with a 1TB cap. TW/Spectrum $39 a month, 100Mbit down, 10Mbit up, no cap. (and they have faster speeds I actually pay something like $60 for 200/20).

So 1/3 less, for twice as fast internet, or ~5x faster internet for the same price.

So, I don't really see why anyone with a choice would choose AT&T in my neighborhood.

<comment><USER11> So let me add myself into your equation.

I live in Kansas City. I pay $70/mo for google fiber. 1Gbit down, 1Gbit up.

So for twice what TWC is charging you I get 10x more bandwidth down, and 100 times more bandwidth up.

So can we agree transit in the US is completely and arbitrarily priced? There is no basis for their fees.

It costs no more for transit wherever you are in the US vs me. In fact I would argue wherever you are it's probably cheaper because KC is probably smaller than your market. And you have more physical infrastructure and capacity.

<comment><USER12> Pricing as a result of market conditions does not make the pricing arbitrary. The price could be affected by lack of competition, but it could also be because of a number of other economic reasons. Limited competition itself could result from any number of economic reasons (expensive build out costs, restrictive regulatory regimes, etc).

Understanding the various factors involved in building infrastructure, and how they differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, is huge because it plays a huge role in how companies invest, build out, and price. Comparing two different cities' prices, without any more information, is completely useless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It is interesting how in some rural areas, the update to infrastructure is happening via co-ops or small local firms. Volcano, CA and surrounding has it's own small telecom. Plumas County has a coop that is both installing fiber as well as buying up old cable resources to deliver broadband that way. Rock Island Internet in the San Juan Islands (WA state) is installing Fiber on Lopez Island. Cruzio in Santa Cruz, CA is doing both point to point wifi and working with the city on installing Fiber. This is just a few examples that I happen to personally know about.

<comment><USER14> The same is happening even in relatively highly populated areas in The Netherlands. The telco's can't be motivated to invest in fiber optics, probably because they can charge more for 4 and 5G networks, with datacaps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Why invest when you have a monopoly and can rent-extract?

<comment><USER16> It's actually sort of the opposite here. Telecom's let cable companies beat them to the broadband market. So cable internet companies are the market leaders. And telecoms are ceding the market to them and just taking whatever they can get without investing too much.

Verizon Fios is a good example, they built it to compete with cable, but they still can't get more marketshare (in overlapping markets). It's barely profitable.

Telecoms don't think it's worth investing to challenge the cable monopoly.

<comment><USER17> The government allowed them to re-consolidate. So now it makes more sense to milk higher margin wireless service.

<comment><USER18> If consolidation had anything to do with it, wouldn't you expect exactly the opposite result? Companies to see higher margins in the monopoly wired market instead of the wireless market where they have more competition?

<comment><USER17> The wired market is regulated, so they can't just raise prices over time like they do with wireless.

They were successful in lobbying state utility commissions to push out maintenance on the wired network and provide more cash flow to buy spectrum.

None of this stuff was an accident. The only way fiver will expand is if the government pays for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Well that's a surp ... no, no it's not. I think the precedent got set when the government offered $3B to subsidize roll-out and they realized they could just pocket it without any real oversight.

</comment><comment><USER20> Of course they are. They're incentivized to do so.

Bandwidth is a scarce resource, and they're often the only seller for a given market. The more demand, the more the market will bear for that resource. The more contentious and oversubscribed their infrastructure, the more likely they are to make seemingly-convincing arguments for rent-seeking (Internet "fast- lanes"), deregulation (because competition lowers prices), and consolidation (more efficiency drives down prices), all of which they can leverage to increase profit while holding prices steady -- or raising them -- due to further-increasing demand.

Building and maintaining increased capacity increases their expenses and lowers the value of their product.

Why in the _world_ would they invest? It would be the stupidest _possible_ thing for a telco to do.

edit: it's worth my noting that my basis for asserting ever-increasing demand is that of induced demand for network services

</comment><comment><USER21> Small CEE country: I have 1 Gb download and 300 Mbps upload (900/270 effectively). 15 USD per month.

<comment><USER22> Wow. What country is that?

<comment><USER23> This sounds a lot like Hungary, where Digi will sell 1000 down, 200 up for 5000 HUF/month [1] (4000 with 2-year loyalty plan), which works out to between $14-$17/mo.

[1] [http://digi.hu/ajanlat/internet/lan](http://digi.hu/ajanlat/internet/lan)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> At the risk of being dismissive: didn't Moody's also strongly suggest that banks and pension funds were underinvesting in junk-grade mortgage backed securities? Has anyone read the actual research note? Are there reasons to believe that Moody's is more credible here than they were in 2007?

<comment><USER25> I'll try to read this research note. Maybe I'm biased. I used to work at Moody's and then 2 or so jobs later structured some pretty substantial bond issuances that they rated (and my manager at that gig came from S&P, and one of my colleagues quit to become an analyst at Fitch).

They have some very good analysts, not usually given to making policy type statements like this except where it impacts the issuer's revenue and capital structure that determines how well they're able to pay P&I on bonds. So without reading the note I would say it's pretty significant

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Once you have great FTTH internet you don't want to give it up. It's like a drug. But it creates a kind of scarcity in that I could never live somewhere without it and there are yet too few places with it.

I really like the approach that places like Longmont, CO are taking [[http://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments- e-m/...](http://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-e-m/longmont- power-communications/broadband-service/construction-progress#update)] or Greenlight in Rochester, NY. Love their pricing page:[https://greenlightnetworks.com/pricing](https://greenlightnetworks.com/pricing)

I'm in Pittsburgh and have FIOS and that's set the price-performance bar at which I am not willing to drop below.

</comment><comment><USER27> Instead, they're spending what seems like a lot of money on advertisement and marketing. For over a week, I couldn't seem to get rid of those At&t Uverse ads on my mobile browser, no matter how much I dislike their service. Without competition, I fear, this sort of mindless incompetence will only continue.

<comment><USER28> and I get (at least) weekly mail-in ads from the providers in my area... and when you subscribe, they replace the wire that goes from your house to the pole, but they use the same old copper (and some techs even tell you that it is fiber...)

<comment><USER29> I get a card in the mail every week offering me "High Speed Internet" from Centurylink, no speed specified anywhere on the mailer (it is actually 12 down 768k up).

Meanwhile I have a 100/7 connection via HFC from the CableCo.

Mind you, they send me a mailer every week too, asking me to subscribe to TV and Phone services...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> In Brazil: some 15-20 years ago one power company (Copel [1]) began to spread fiber optics with the power cables. They began in the backbone, then inside cities, and so on, as they were expanding or maintaining their business.

Time passes and few months ago there was a spin-off using that infrastructure for telecom (Copel Telecom [2]).

[1] [http://www.copel.com/hpcopel/root/index.jsp](http://www.copel.com/hpcopel/root/index.jsp)

[2] [http://www.copeltelecom.com/site/](http://www.copeltelecom.com/site/)

Great speed and reliability with a average price.

</comment><comment><USER31> The real problem is the high entry barrier for competition. Tell me why Google fiber is not yet available in the meccah of technology bay area ?

<comment><USER9> Because Google isn't good at dealing with people, and running fiber to homes in the bay area means dealing with lots of cities, counties, the california public utilities commission, and probably more. See public spats between Google and pole owners in other states about drawings not to spec etc, and consider recent CPUC reports on improper pole loading leading to a major fire in Malibu in 2007, and major power outages in a 2011 windstorm: the pole owners are going to be very picky.

Also, consider that AT&T started rolling out their fiber to the home not too long after Google announced cities in the bay area, and AT&T is actually servicing homes, but Google isn't. I don't know what uptake Google was expecting to get in San Jose, but they're probably not going to get it if customers are already passed by AT&T Fiber and may already be serviced by AT&T. (Incidentally, inducing the market to offer 1G probably fulfills Google's goals for deploying fiber anyway)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> No shit, sherlock. Germany: 200MBit for 24 euros/month

<comment><USER33> Depending on where you live. Germany is anything but a shining example when it comes to broadband and internet access. In fact it's rather mediocre compared to the rest of europe.

<comment><USER34> Indeed. One data point: older house ("Altbau") in Berlin. Old copper limits DSL speed to 8 Mbit/s, no fiber or cable available. 25€/month.</comment></comment></comment>


Is Facebook Worth $4 Billion? - <AUTHOR> http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/11/is-facebook-worth-4-billion/

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, they have about 120 million registered users. A 4 billion dollar valuation places the average value of a user at 33.33 USD. Stated in those terms it does not seem like such a stretch.

I think until someone comes up with a proven business model for social media all social network site valuations are bloated. "Hugs" are not a form of legal tender and neither are "maybes".

<comment><USER2> The question is, _are_ they worth 30 dollars? I doubt each of them brings in that much revenue in advertisements. It's arguable over whether or not promos are earning advertisers that much.

I think that valuing a company based solely on users is faulty, if the users are paying nothing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Aye, it's faulty, but how else do you value a site like this?

<comment><USER2> I'd be very cynical and evaluate low. Facebook has a lot of buzz and a killer userbase, but that's a sign of intrinsic value, not monetary.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's is what I meant when I said 33.33 does not seem like a stretch- seems low. I doubt they made the valuation based solely on how many users they have, meaning that they are really valuing their users at <33.33.

The thing is there are so many cool ways to exploit the data that it is tough for people not to give them a multi-billion dollar valuation. They are basically Google without a proven data mining strategy and business plan.

4 billion dollars seems high I admit. I think another thing you have to look at is how valuable fb could be in the "right" hands i.e. someone who is focused on revenue rather than growth. Then the multi-billion dollar valuation becomes more realistic when you think about what a Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google with do with that data.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> no

<comment><USER4> All the data they have might be though. How they're using it isn't worth $4 Billion though.

<comment><USER3> That data may be worth a huge sum of money, but not 4 billion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> uhh, well, there are a lot of people using it. they rant on about images they post, whatever they are doing now. complete waste of time.

don't really see ads generating a huge revenue for them.</comment>


A response to Josh Korr's post on the argument for Progressive Enhancement - <AUTHOR> https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/insert-clickbait-headline-about-progressive-enhancement-here/ <comment><USER2> Do people really use PEer as an actual term? I thought the term progressive enhancement was something used by technically minded folks to convey a concept. Never in a million years would I see it turned into a political term used for stupid binary arguments. To be honest, I couldn't make it through either article. The fact that we're even having this discussion scares me, this article is at least reasonable, albeit a bit unnecessary.

We get it. Progressive enhancement is a good thing. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons you can't have it -- that's ok. I don't think any reasonable person would ever argue that we should never have progressive enhancement, and I don't think any reasonable person would ever argue we should always have progressive enhancement.

<comment><USER3> What should somebody call it who only wants it sometimes?

<comment><USER4> Nothing, they don't need a name. It is an opinion the person holds not a primary key for the the entire person.</comment></comment></comment>


Technology didn't have to glow (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://macwright.org/2018/08/28/glow.html <comment><USER2> I don't understand this. The iPod shuffle was a subset of the iPod, which did glow, specifically meant to be cheap enough to buy for the few situations in which you'd listen to music without using the screen. Meanwhile iPods _are_ the expensive option when it comes to mp3 players, with the shuffle being more expensive than even more feature rich systems. It's not hard to find a $30-40 mp3 player if you want it.

You can currently purchase fitbits with very limited screens, and modern smartwatches have an arguably larger feature set for exercising than older ones.

The Amazon Kindle (one of the e-readers he is pointing out) was still so set on advertising that you could get a discount if you promised to see ads on it whenever you used it, and indeed some versions included Mobile data connections so you can update those ads and buy new books wherever you are.

I'm confused at the examples the author has chosen</comment>


Ask HN: How do I get a lot of voters for my video contest entry? - <AUTHOR>

I made a video commercial and entered a contest with a prize of $25,000. My video was selected for the top 10, out of 700 submissions. The winner is chosen by public voting on YouTube.
I'm facing contestants who are not playing by the rules; they are offering prizes in exchange for votes and that has left my video trailing far behind.
How can I reach a very wide audience in the next few days before the contest ends?
Here's what I've done so far: - advertised on Facebook, Myspace, and every social site there is - posted on Craigslist - thought of donating part of the money to charity (and still considering it) - tried to find a famous twitter-er to post for me - ate a ton of pistachios for inspiration
To see the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/loftylizard. <comment><USER2> You may be able to use Amazon Mechanical Turk. Pay a penny a vote. Though I'm not sure how many rules that may be breaking;)</comment>


Ask HN: Best static website for blogging - <AUTHOR>

I'm seeking the best advise for the best static-based blogging platform. I tried Jykell, Hugo, Octopress and similar ones, and they work great unless you come to the part when you can't ( or not as easy ) to blog on the go, and you should use your laptop for that purpose. <comment><USER3> Any reason why it has to be static?

I run a Ghost[1] blog from my iPhone using the Ghost admin editor + SSH for tweaking config files/css and SFTP for uploading assets.

Alternatively, you can just use Journey[2]--Ghost ported from Node.JS to Golang and packaged into single binaries you can run on OS X, Linux or even Windows. It even serves itself over https if required.

[1]: [https://ghost.org](https://ghost.org) [2]: [https://kabukky.github.io/journey](https://kabukky.github.io/journey)

</comment><comment><USER4> You can have a look at;

[https://www.staticgen.com/](https://www.staticgen.com/) and [http://gohugo.io/](http://gohugo.io/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Use an online editor like cloud9 and github - <USER2> [https://docs.c9.io/v1.0/docs/jekyll](https://docs.c9.io/v1.0/docs/jekyll) .

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. however, when it comes to upload and/or manage pictures (or other assets ) to github, it won't work. only text editing.</comment></comment>


Training the Brain: Practical Applications of Neural Plasticity - <AUTHOR> http://scottbarrykaufman.com/article/study-alert-training-the-brain-practical-applications-of-neural-plasticity/

<comment><USER2> Our one year old is doing CIMT ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constraint- induced_movement_the...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constraint- induced_movement_therapy)). She had 3 heart surgeries when she was born, after she recovered we saw her having difficulty using her right hand (doctors say stroke). Over 4-6 months we saw this difficulty increasingly lead to non-use of her right hand. Yesterday we started constraint-therapy with her and we are hoping she can recover use of her arm and hand. Our physiotherapist was surprised that we came to her asking about CIMT, she said that in most of her cases she has to really persuade the parents to do it - and in some they refuse. She also said that her personal results with it have been very positive with most cases making a full recovery.</comment>


From the moon's far side, a radio receiver listens to the universe's origin - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1281622/from-the-moons-far-side-a-radio-receiver-will-listen-for-ancient-clues-to-the-universes-origin/ <comment><AUTHOR> Had to shorten the article's original title due to HN restrictions. Hopefully the revised version still makes sense :-)

Article talks about a launch scheduled to happen this week.</comment>


It's Harder to Get an Uber or Lyft If Black - <AUTHOR> http://time.com/4551521/uber-lyft-black-discrimination/ <comment><USER2> Why bother showing your name to the driver before the ride starts?

I understand the need for the reverse. As a customer you want to know the type of car, color, and the name/pic of the driver helps identify them as well.

But unless you're going to show a pic of the passenger to the driver with the intention of the driver being able to spot them (which would lead to MUCH worse things than "Tyrone" not getting a ride), I see no point of giving any info about the passenger besides a statistical star rating.</comment>


Risks soar, bills come due as 20th-century dams crumble - <AUTHOR> http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060050980 <comment><USER2> Not only are the bills coming due, but bureaucratic complacency has put people in charge who will not be honest about the state of the dams. See [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/oroville-tallest-dam- biggest-...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/oroville-tallest-dam-biggest-lie- united-states-scott-cahill) for a good analysis.

The problem is fundamental to human organizations. People like hearing what they want to hear. And any organization without disasters for long enough will lose barriers to having sycophants who say that rise to positions of power. The necessary result is a growing disconnect with reality.

As Feynman warned, _" For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."_ People and organizations tend to remember this after absorbing the lessons from a disaster.

But a generation or two of no disaster returns sycophants to power. Guaranteeing that the next preventable disaster will some day come.

That day may come very soon indeed.

<comment><USER3> > The problem is fundamental to human organizations

I can't help but think about all the other countries who actually invest in their infrastructure and in public needs and have far better outcomes and social cohesion than the US. There's something wrong with this countries system of governance I feel.

<comment><USER4> It does seem like the US ends up with extra poor outcomes with their government.

Here in Japan, the government is surely also corrupt, with "bridges to nowhere" and construction contracts assigned on a buddy-buddy basis. But at least here that corruption still nets us well-maintained roads and top-notch train infrastructure... just arguably too much of it and at a high cost. In the US they end up with the high costs but none of the good infrastructure...

<comment><USER5> Is Japan really the poster child for ethical corporate/government relationships given the TEPCO debacle around Fukushima?

<comment><USER6> I think the Japanese get more out of what they spend/sacrifice for their government than the US. That's not to imply anything approaching perfection either.

<comment><USER7> Much of that is just that they're depending, at least in part, on US taxpayers for their security.

<comment><USER6> That is certainly a factor, although if Abe and his type get their way, that may change.

<comment><USER7> Yes, well, Japan has just about reached the limits of the "construction state". When you've built rail lines that hardly anybody uses, and when you're finished with cisterns under Tokyo that will handle thousand year floods, you need to start building aircraft carriers or you'll run out of ways to create jobs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's hard to put away money for the future. You can spend a bit less on maintenance now in order to avert a current disaster. The bill will come, but not now, and at an unspecific time. If unmaintained dams would definitely burst on a specific date, this wouldn't be an issue. But they don't, it's somewhat random when it happens, so every day you get away with it you pocket the "win". Probably a large part of this "win" is actually just tolerance or margin of error built in by cautious engineers.

A similar problem is going on with pensions. In many parts of the west, people were promised very comfy pensions. This presumed either a growing population or more productive economy, neither of which has happened in the proportion needed to pay the pensions. In the meantime, you get the occasional unfunded pension scandal. This will probably escalate, especially if the market comes down from what looks like a high level. Now and again it will become clear that people need to either keep working for longer or receive less generous benefits.

We don't seem to have any governance to solve this kind of problem. The people making the promises (elected officials) will be long gone by the time the dams break. On the private side, being inside a corporation doesn't seem to solve it either. The CEO who signed off the generous pensions will also be gone. And everyone can claim they acted in good faith, given the projections at the time the decisions were made.

<comment><USER9> The economy has been more productive. Funds for pension maintenance were simply diverted to other purposes. Politicians signed agreements with unions and didn't follow through with their promises. I have yet to read solid evidence they couldn't have or that it would have been impossible if other decisions hadn't been made. No politician seems to care about what happens after their term is up, so they have no incentive to ensure the financial infrastructure is in place and remains healthy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Very misleading regarding Oroville.

It wouldn't have been a "30 ft. wall of water", it would have been half the reservoir volume as the failed emergency spillway "bedrock" quickly eroded.

And the emergency spillway failure mode wasn't because of age, it was a design flaw from the day the dam was built.

<comment><USER11> TFA's picture of the failed spillway is hilarious. That concrete can't be more than 4 inches thick! That would work for a driveway, barely. It seems really out of place on a giant dam. As soon as there was a crack, the underlying gravel and earth would start eroding, and a complete failure like that pictured was _inevitable_.

<comment><USER12> The spillway is 15" thick.

[http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/17/oroville-dam-what- made...](http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/17/oroville-dam-what-made-the- spillway-collapse/)

The article also explains that cavitation caused the concrete to fail.

<comment><USER13> "The spillway is 15" thick."

That is surprisingly thin. Plenty of concrete surface that you walk (not drive) on every single day is 6 or even 8 inches thick.

I'm sure it's within spec and built to fulfill their design, etc., but ... I would hardly call it "burly".

<comment><USER14> So how thick does it need to be?

<comment><USER15> Cavitation at Glen Canyon Dam chewed through 3 feet of reinforced concrete and dug a 32' pit along with multiple cavitation gouges in a few minutes.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v98omCq1kRA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v98omCq1kRA)

[http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2003-03/water-vapor- al...](http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2003-03/water-vapor-almost-busts- dam)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> 20th century dreams? Oh, dams.

</comment><comment><USER17> The author surely does like to heap praise on himself.

</comment><comment><USER18> Meanwhile, how much money has the USA pumped into Iraq's Mosul Dam?

<comment><USER19> Repairs are being funded by the World Bank, which means that US contribution is less than 30% of the $300 million allocated for this, under $100 million.

Compare this to the money the USA has pumped into the war against nonexistent WMD in Iraq, and you'll see that the Mosul Dam repairs amount to almost nothing in the US expenses "for Iraq". And nothing compared to the total US yearly budget.

So, what was your point again?

<comment><USER18> Thank you. That it's $100M spent on other countries infrastructure while ours rots.

<comment><USER20> Seem to remember someone at the time saying, "You break it, you bought it."

<comment><USER21> I still remember when this issue of The Atlantic came out with this piece from Fallows.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/11/the- fif...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/11/the-fifty-first- state/302612/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Map Shows Places Where Facebook Is Not Popular Yet - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-biggest-opportunity-lies-here-2011-10

<comment><AUTHOR> darkness against light :)</comment>


For non-startups, things just take time - <AUTHOR> http://cameronmoll.tumblr.com/post/3031376012/for-non-startups-things-just-take-time

<comment><USER2> The hardest part for me is not getting everything done ASAP. I'm an impatient entrepreneur, and I'm not sure recovery is an option.

Quality takes even more time, which is why many people don't want to make the necessary sacrifice.</comment>