Fame Game Hopes To Make You Internet Famous for a Day - <AUTHOR> http://play-fame.com/

<comment><USER2> Really nifty idea. What I'd like to see is an option to not automatically unfollow the person after the day that you can set on this site - maybe the person who won that day is really interesting!

<comment><USER3> isn't it kind of self sorting though? If you were really interesting, you probably already would have a lot of followers, and therefore would have no need to join this sight to get more.

<comment><USER4> Lots of followers more often indicates "good at self-promotion". Most of the interesting folks I follow have a couple hundred at the most.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is the stupidest shit I've ever heard of. Combining humanity's idiosyncratic desire for fame with a lottery system.

<comment><USER6> i love ideas that are polarizing

<comment><USER7> can you expand on why you do?

<comment><USER8> Because it often means that you're onto something. Polarized opinions are, by definition, extreme, and people that are _really, really_ passionate about your project are often worth the cost of having the same number of people hate it.

Obviously there are limits to that idea- if people hate it because they find it offensive then you might be in trouble. But if they hate it because they think it's stupid (as here), they'll likely just dismiss it and ignore it.

<comment><USER7> I'll reply to this by answering my own question:

Because there is no such thing as bad PR. People on the edges of the spectrum are vocal, and that translates to eyeballs either for the cool factor of the WTF factor. Either way you win. :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice. I made this exact same concept almost a year ago, too. It was fun to code and watch to see who randomly won. These guys definitely have a little bit better Photoshop skills than I do, though. :) I called mine Crowdwoo.

Here is my post about mine: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2576392> and my source code for it, <https://github.com/ryancole/crowdwoo.com>

and with a time machine snapshot to see what it looked like: [http://web.archive.org/web/20110708205146/http://crowdwoo.co...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110708205146/http://crowdwoo.com/)

and finally a link to the original idea source, compliments of Dave Winer: [http://scripting.com/stories/2011/05/15/socialMediaBubblePop...](http://scripting.com/stories/2011/05/15/socialMediaBubblePop.html)

</comment><comment><USER10> This is pretty awesome! Simple silly question -- if you're already following the winner before they win, they won't be unfollowed when their day's up, right?

<comment><USER11> Right, only followers as the result of winning unfollow automatically the next day.

<comment><USER4> I'd suggest a button on the site along the lines of "I like today's winner, don't make me unfollow them tomorrow".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Great idea. Putting a new twist (i.e., twitter) on an old, OLD concept (like iWannaBeFamous.com started over 10 years ago) is a good thing.

I'd like to see this up to 100,000 or more followers to really give the featured person some real fame.

<comment><USER6> totally. the fun is watching what the winner does

<comment><USER12> Next step is to get some media attention for this. Hopefully with media attention you can get some real celebrities on board, who will tweet about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think this is a great idea, it adds a little hint of surprise to your twitter stream.

</comment><comment><USER14> I signed up just to see who gets picked and, if I like what they have to say, etc.

I know who I know. Finding people who I don't know, that might be interesting, is becoming difficult.

</comment><comment><USER15> I like the idea. But why unfollow the next day? At least this should be optional with default set to "don't unfollow".

<comment><USER4> > But why unfollow the next day?

That's the main thing that stops this from being just another of the "sign up and maybe get lots of followers" scam sites.

You discover a new person each day, but that person's going to have to be pretty interesting that day to make you remember to follow them tomorrow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Cool, idea, but I think it'd work better with longer time periods, like one drawing per week. Once it loses it's novelty, nobody is going to be gunning to get the title of "295th play-fame.com winner".

Plus, accumulating a weeks worth of followers seems to be (more than linearly) a better prize.

<comment><USER17> >Once it loses it's novelty, nobody is going to be gunning to get the title of "295th play-fame.com winner".

Novelty or not, the site will keep adding users over those 259 rounds, and all those followers will have value, even if it's just for a day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This sounds like it's ripe for spammers, and given the recent article on the Pinterest spammer, and the current winner tweeting about her "lipob fat loss shots", I don't think it will get any traction. (Or at least it won't be abused).

<comment><USER6> abusers are instantly removed/banned.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Do you need to have a minimum of followers before "trying out" ? To avoid people submitting a lot of empty profile just to maximize their chance of being picked up?

<comment><USER20> Would that really help? If you're going that far couldn't you just make all of your sockpuppets follow each other?

<comment><USER19> Hmmm that would not prevent every attemps (someone really motivated could always game the system) but at least prevent someone losing 30minutes to creates dummy accounts and easily obtain one of the first fames (when going with 100 000 users it will be harder). And making fake accounts all following each other can be detected easily, especially if they all join the lottery

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I have a big soft spot for concepts like this -- bravo!

</comment><comment><USER22> You should really just have everyone follow the @fame account and then retweet the winners tweets for the day.

<comment><USER23> ... But then they wouldn't have a lot of followers. Then, only @fame would have a lot of followers.

Note the goal of "YOU'RE NOW PLAYING TO WIN 1,652 FOLLOWERS" not "YOU'RE NOW PLAYING TO SEND TWEETS TO 1,652 PEOPLE".

<comment><USER22> I'm just telling you that trying to do this with the follow/unfollow API is likely going to end in tears and that the retweet style will have the same effect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Silly but it isn't as if mass attention is logically or productively focused. Why not just go randomly? ;)

</comment><comment><USER25> I think it's genius way to get people to follow you, they will rack up followers with this over time.

</comment><comment><USER26> That's... cute.

But wouldn't that get a lot of people's accounts banned? If I remember right (from some time ago) you couldn't follow/unfollow too many people all the time, or you'd get banned.

<comment><USER6> you only follow 1 person/day, and then unfollow 1 person/day. no technical issues w/API.

<comment><USER26> Oh, right. For some reason I was conceptualizing it as following and unfollowing much more than that. You're completely right. Duh :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I like this. Has potential. Good luck. :)

</comment><comment><USER28> you have to email them to remove yourself? Really? It seems like you could have some type of removal thing.

<comment><USER29> Sounds like MVP. I would check again in a few days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> How to make sure everyone plays fairly? E.g. I can cut the ties once I'm famous.

<comment><USER6> I think the actual fun in the game will be watching people freak out when they win. I don't really care if I win, but I will enjoy watching random people do unusual things with their fame

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> genius strikes again!

</comment><comment><USER32> Why, god, I ask Why?

<comment><USER6> that reaction is why</comment></comment>


Target selectivity and clinical effectiveness aren't that correlated - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/01/16/the-landscape-of-kinase-inhibitors <comment><AUTHOR> This is the most comprehensive study of its type ever done, and all the results are open access. Would be really interesting to explore what makes clinically effective drugs actually work, if selectively binding to their intended target doesn't seem to correlate with effectiveness

Analyzing this data could suggest certain molecules that were previously shelved actually have therapeutic potential</comment>


The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something - <AUTHOR> http://zenhabits.net/the-only-way-to-become-amazingly-great-at-something/

<comment><USER2> As important as shipping products, hitting release dates for new web portals, delivering books to publishers on time, etc. is, it is at least as important to:

enjoy the process, get totally caught up in what you are doing in the moment, and look at learning and skill acquisition as a life long process.

</comment><comment><USER3> If anybody hasn't yet read Peter Norvig's "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years", it's really worth checking out.

<http://norvig.com/21-days.html>

</comment><comment><USER4> I am not sure that I learned much from the article. Pretty much, it summed up to "work hard". HN crowds are probably more enlightened to know how much that "hard" is, compared to average people who think going through related education would be enough.

Anyway, those fast-track programming books are not totally useless. I started with those too. The important think is to not stop there, but continue to work with more technical books and actual standard/specification.

If I want to learn new language i.e, Clojure, F# etc, I'd probably start with fast track books (free ebooks) too. It has become a habit, I guess.

</comment><comment><USER5> Let me sum up that page in two words: Do it.

Obvious, don't you think?

<comment><USER6> Isn't it rather: Do it REPEATEDLY. KEEP doing it, even if you're bad at first. LEARN TO LOVE doing it. Do it GREAT.

So yeah, i have to admit, in the end it all boils down to: Do it.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, "practise it" would have been what I should have written. I had it in my head before visiting the site but then it changed to "do". Meh. :)

<comment><USER7> Long ago I learned "Do it Right, Do it Right now".. but it's more "don't half ass it" rather than "do it perfectly"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Seems that adapting Buddhist practices to general tasks became a mainstream. ^_^

Yes, there are detailed guides how to avoid distractions, concentrate, focus and enter so-called "flow" by trying again and again.

btw, recently I've seen a very simple quote on the wall of Sri-Lanka's Immigration department - "The secret of success is a hard work. That is why it is still a secret".

Nearly 70% of population of Sri-Lanka are Buddhists.</comment>


We've Spent Billions to Fix Our Medical Records, and They're Still a Mess - <AUTHOR> http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/epic-systems-judith-faulkner-hitech-ehr-interoperability <comment><USER3> I'm surprised I don't see any comments about the FHIR api here. It's a project seeking to standardize a RESTful api for clinical encounter data that's gaining a fair bit of traction.

If the existing EMR companies don't manage to subvert its goals, the problem of data interoperability will be largely solved within the next 5-7 years.

<comment><USER4> That's the best news I've heard in a while. I was just complaining earlier today, that I hate the way I have to login to so many different EMR systems to look at my medical records, and there's no interop between them, or (mostly) any convenient API to download data.

I want record from my GP? FollowMyHealth.com

I want records from my cardiologist? UNC's EMR system.

I want records from my bariatric doctor? Duke's EMR system.

I want records from my dermatologist? Yet another system.

I want records from my othopaedist? You guessed it, yet another system.

What I want is to be able to put ALL of my medical records, AND my "fitness" information (stuff from Strava, Fitbit, etc.) into one freaking place. This current setup is horrible. :-(

<comment><USER5> The more irritating detail to me is that very few places want your records. Even if you carried your up to date medical records on you in some kind rugged secure flash drive, you're likely to be told "thanks but no thanks" if you suggest any medical professionals should look at them.

9/10 they don't want to look. I know there's lots of valid reasons why so I understand that part, but there's a bigger problem it speaks to. To me the greatest failure of modern medicine is that we have a word full of doctors (specifically, general practitioners) who have no time to stay current in their medical knowledge or to learn anything beyond the superficial details of a patient before pronouncing their diagnosis and moving on.

I truly miss having a GP that not only dealt with my medical matters for the first 24 years of my life, but 26 years of both my parents, and close to 20 and 15 years for my siblings as well. There's no way to replace this knowledge now he retired.

<comment><USER4> Hmm... I haven't encountered that, at least not to that degree. In fact, my cardiologist was happy to get some lipid profile numbers from me, that I read off my phone to him (I had emailed them to myself for safe-keeping) based on my most recent bloodwork done at my GP's office.

Likewise, I just started visiting a new internist who specializes in diet/lifestyle who supervises people going on a ketogenic diet. He asked if I had recent bloodwork, and as it happened, I'd just had a physical about two weeks before at my GP's office. So I fired up the "Follow My Health" app on my phone, pulled up the relevant test results and handed him the phone. He took the notes and says "Great, you just avoided having to have blood drawn today".

<comment><USER6> Ditto. My current GP was _delighted_ when I lent him my copies of my lab work going back to 1996 for him to copy, and when in every visit I give him copies of updated spreadsheets showing the history of the relevant results going back then, one each for PSA and lipids and the like. Asked me to add liver enzymes to the latter after my previous visit revealed they'd spiked, so that he'd have a better picture of what was going on after the two month later followup to that.

Any doctor who's not interested in this sort of thing when relevant should be fired on the spot; remember, whatever the "God complex" or the like they require to stay sane making decisions that will inevitably sometimes be wrong and harm or kill a few of their patients, they still work for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Given we're 320M people you could say "we've spent billions" on many many things and not solved it. We've spent billions on food this week -- and we're still gonna get hungry!

"Billions" is a scary sounding number that doesnt mean much anymore. Show me 10s and 100s of billions.

</comment><comment><USER8> Coding errors abound in this space. For example, you can go to the CMS.gov to lookup ICD codes.

This is what you get when you lookup the word "finger"

[https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage- database/staticpages/i...](https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage- database/staticpages/icd-10-code- lookup.aspx?KeyWord=finger&bc=AAAAAAAAAAACAA%3d%3d&)

It contains hundreds of entries.

Here are just a few selected at random:

S61.352S Open bite of right middle finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.353A Open bite of left middle finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.353D Open bite of left middle finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.353S Open bite of left middle finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.354A Open bite of right ring finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.354D Open bite of right ring finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.354S Open bite of right ring finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.355A Open bite of left ring finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.355D Open bite of left ring finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.355S Open bite of left ring finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.356A Open bite of right little finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.356D Open bite of right little finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.356S Open bite of right little finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.357A Open bite of left little finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.357D Open bite of left little finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.357S Open bite of left little finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.358A Open bite of other finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.358D Open bite of other finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.358S Open bite of other finger with damage to nail, sequela S61.359A Open bite of unspecified finger with damage to nail, initial encounter S61.359D Open bite of unspecified finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter S61.359S Open bite of unspecified finger with damage to nail, sequela

<comment><USER6> Well, this is the notorious ICD-10 "upgrade" from ICD-9. Which has some "wonderful" codes, e.g. try [https://www.google.com/search?q=icd+10+codes+funny](https://www.google.com/search?q=icd+10+codes+funny)

Everyone's unfair favorite is " _V97.33XD: Sucked into jet engine, subsequent encounter._ "

Unfair because that doesn't mean you were stupid enough to do that twice, but had to see a doctor after the first visit.

" _W55.41XA: Bitten by pig, initial encounter_ " is OK, it happens. But " _W61.62XD: Struck by duck, subsequent encounter_." WTF??? I'm from a hunting family, and I've never heard of smallish birds like ducks harming people in this way. Ditto " _W61.12XA: Struck by macaw, initial encounter_ " and " _W59.22XA: Struck By Turtle_ " (now, being bitten by a big snapping turtle is horrific, but being _struck_ by any turtle???).

But this remains the most bizarre of all I've heard: " _V91.07XD: Burn due to water-skis on fire, subsequent encounter._ "

OK, at least we can laugh about ICD-10. For now.

<comment><USER9> Pretty much every code added to a code set like the ICD is added because someone, somewhere needed it, and didn't have it in the previous version.

And ICD-10 codes are used for a variety of purposes -- statistical, billing, etc. -- so if its important for _one_ of those uses, its going to get added. Especially since, with the degree of automation preferred now, if it a distinction could reasonably affect any decision in _any_ of the roles that the code set is used for, it needs to be represented in the code set.

<comment><USER6> _And ICD-10 codes are used for a variety of purposes -- statistical_

And that's where it goes off the rails, this revision is trying to serve too many masters, in which actual health care is subservient to collection of data for the usual nosy suspects. Did anyone even contemplate the trade-offs?

And even then, look at all those codes for bites of fingers. Are you really insisting they will provide anything other than fancy looking statistics for self-important bureaucrats?

<comment><USER9> > And even then, look at all those codes for bites of fingers. Are you really > insisting they will provide anything other than fancy looking statistics for > self-important bureaucrats?

While I don't know the history of the particular codes, a lot of the hyperspecific codes are driven by needs of insurance payers (public and private) and their desire to incorporate elements that would otherwise be identified in (comparatively costly) non-automated review and provide the necessary resolution in coding that they can be identified and distinguished without that review and the associated cost.

Driving down that area of administrative costs is a different thing than providing fancy looking statistics for self-important bureaucrats.

<comment><USER10> _non-automated review and provide the necessary resolution in coding that they can be identified and distinguished without that review and the associated cost._

What type of _review_ \- automated or manual - requires the categorical specificity of distinguishing between 359+ different types of marginally varying finger trauma from bites? This is just madness. That anyone would even suggest that that level of specificity was even useful, never mind required, is bureaucratic madness.

Step back from the tree and you can see the forest burning.

<comment><USER11> Believe it or not, these codes are used to define contracts and aid in payment all the way from patient to broker.

<comment><USER6> So, pretend I'm a doctor and tell me, will I get paid more for _S61.354D Open bite of right ring finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter_

Or _S61.355D Open bite of left ring finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter_ ???

And with such specificity, why include this code:

 _S61.359D: Open bite of unspecified finger with damage to nail, subsequent encounter_

I'm assuming "other finger" is the one between your little and middle ones, and we'll all sleep easier knowing that, while not found with jhulla's search, your left and right thumbs have not been neglected.

<comment><USER9> Generally, you don't get paid an amount for a diagnosis, you get paid for the services you bill.

Whether a payer accepts that the specific services you billed for are medically appropriate and thus pays them depends, often, on the diagnosis they are treating. (And, often, there are three possibilities: the payer pays the claim directly, or the payer requires additional supporting documentation which is manually reviewed before making a decision, or the payer denies payment outright.)

The more detail diagnostic coding provides (and, for that matter, the more detail _procedure_ coding provides), the more an automated system can move cases that would otherwise be in the manual review category (which adds costs for all parties, and delays) to an automated decision (which is quicker and cheaper for all parties.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Athenahealth, the company I work for, makes cloud-based medical systems with a heavy focus on user experience and interoperability. Our More Disruption Please team is working hard to bridge the gaps in the healthcare continuum, and we do publish our API: [http://www.athenahealth.com/developer- portal](http://www.athenahealth.com/developer-portal)

Oh, and if you think your code's good enough to fix healthcare, we're hiring ;D

<comment><USER13> Its a pretty challenging industry, isn't it?

<comment><USER12> Yes, there's a lot of bureaucracy involved, and providers are picky users =)

<comment><USER13> Oh yeah, I definitely am aware of that one. I heard you guys were doing an initiative for getting providers up and running on Athena in 5 days. Neat stuff!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Many hospitals went sold significant assets (like office building - <USER2> guaranteed rent) or took on loans to fund their EMR purchases. Hence, deals with these dollar amounts are tough to reproduce for many hospitals.

Epic has made major strides in supporting connectivity between EMRs. Partially, through standards like direct - [http://directproject.org/](http://directproject.org/). This problem will be largely solved in three to five years. Actually, a growing number of geographic regions of the US already have seamless EMR records exchange

<comment><USER15> From the DirectProject blog, on 08/11/2011:

"Moving on... It's been a fantastic ride"

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've ranted elsewhere on this topic...but it's far, far worse than anybody realizes, and there is no incentive to make things better for patients. Every other factor is literally stacked against them.

<comment><USER17> Yes. However! Government regulation could cut the knot. If HHS mandated standards for data at rest - since we never got a DICOM for charts like we did for images - the companies would have to write translates. When that happens, vendor lock in goes away and fewer people die.

<comment><USER16> Mandating a single, simple standard for medical purposes would probably be the best thing that they could do. I just don't have a lot of faith in it ever happening.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> If you're interested in US Healthcare, I can recommend "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care". I was surprised to learn that France, for example, has private doctors, private hospitals, and private insurance companies (gee, somehow thought they had 'socialized medicine'). It spends half what the US does per capita and is ranked #1 by the WHO (the US is ranked #37, just behind Costa Rica).

How do the French do it? Well, it's not that hard. All other developed nations using the Bismarck Model (like the US, feel free to google that or any of this) have a few structural differences from the US. The first is a particularly obvious one: insurance companies are non-profit (though privately held and operated). Fees are entirely standardized and printed for all to see ("reference pricing", structurally like medicare/aid). Doctors and hospitals make a lot less money (Doctors drive volvos not porsches). Doctors don't pay for medical school. Claims are never denied. Doctors are rarely sued. Doctors are paid very quickly (3-14 days). I'm not making this up. In essence, the system squeezes all of its players to be as efficient as possible.

In the US, the exact opposite is true. Most of the players are incentivized to drive costs up. A private FOR PROFIT insurance company (which no other developed nation allows) by definition wants to suck all the money it can from the system and pay none of it out (to wit: when an insurance company pays a claim, it is called a "medical loss"). Hospitals are in an arms raise of acquisitions (to better negotiate with insurance companies) and over-built, fancy facilities (to attract patients and justify the exorbitant costs). Doctors start their professional career by having to pay off huge student loans. Insurance companies, hospitals, and (to a much lesser extent) doctors collude, in effect, to steal money from all the other employers out there (in insurance premiums) and from patients (co-pays, denied claims, and an ever- growing number of out of pocket expenses).

None of this is the fault of insurance companies, hospitals, or doctors. It is entirely the fault of our incompetent no-account and utterly failed political system. US healthcare is corrupt because the US political system is corrupt. To fix it, we need to fix that. Entrepreneurs cannot fix US healthcare in the current regulatory environment. The incentives are completely wrong.

EDIT: added a missed "system" after a "political".

EDIT2: I forget to mention the most relevant piece. The French, since 1998, have had 'La Carte Vitale'. It is an electronic medical record they carry around with them. Every doctor's office has a reader. It is a government standard, government owner, and government operated. Epic makes money by _NOT_ sharing its data if it can get away with it. Switching costs are its friend. It's called 'vendor lock in' and its why the government should be doing this small piece of it. It's like building an interstate highway. It lets commerce happen.

</comment><comment><USER19> Definitely not a fan of Epic but the article could have mentioned this: [https://open.epic.com](https://open.epic.com)

</comment><comment><USER20> So, what's the most common standard for PHR information?

I've only heard of HL7 which is basically paying money for a bunch of XSDs (of course)

<comment><USER18> If I understand your question, probably a CCDA. I think the real problem is no system has a reliably comprehensive picture. After that, it is challenging to find a reliable global patient identifier. Epic says they have the health records of 175M americans. I would say they have parts of records of 175M americans and probably a lot of dupes.

<comment><USER13> Given that these numbers are individually sourced from customers, customers own their own data, and all interchange is P2P--there's not a good way to really count. Customers own their range of member-numbers as well.

Plus, the whole thing about identity is even more difficult, you can't go by name, SSN, and DOB alone.

As far as I know, HL7 is mostly used between internal systems within an organization.

For sending actual patient data, allergies, conditions, CCDA is usually used for communication with non-Epic EMRs belonging to other organizations.

As an aside, CCDA and HL7 don't support rich data well, so they usually end up as base64 encoded PDFs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is allowing companies like Kno2 to make quick inroads into the space though.</comment>


Idea Shaping: One idea at a time. Preferably one you love. - <AUTHOR> http://spencerfry.com/idea-shaping

<comment><USER2> Spot on. I programmed for a group of "idea" guys for while. Many a time I was torn off a work-in-progress only to begin another work-in-progress. It was so bad, I was only able to finish _one_ project of dozens.

The key isn't having the ideas, starting the ideas, or even _almost_ completing ideas. It's all about finishing.

Since I left, I now have one working idea; it's an amazing difference. I hope to have a MVP out soon, and I can't wait.

<comment><USER3> True. Coincidentally, I blogged about it recently - [http://www.nilkanth.com/2010/08/02/the-transparent- toaster-c...](http://www.nilkanth.com/2010/08/02/the-transparent-toaster- corollary/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A couple months ago I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations to see the relative benefits of focusing on one idea versus doing many at once, and in most scenarios, focusing on one idea has the highest probability of success.

See the analysis here: [http://www.startuptrekking.com/2010/05/startup- analysis-is-s...](http://www.startuptrekking.com/2010/05/startup-analysis-is- shotgun-approach-or.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> The problem with just one idea is that the success of that idea is also subject to external factors beyond your control (ie competition).

Thus diversifying with multiple ideas, similar to in a stock portfolio, allows these externalities to cancel themselves other out.</comment>


Auto-format and share your json - jsonifier - <AUTHOR> http://jsonifier.com

<comment><USER2> It looks great, but its error handling could be improved. When I forgot to copy a bracket, it emptied the text box and gave me a generic error message. It would be helpful if it could at least give a line number for the error, and refill the text box. Also, putting "jsonifier" or something in front of the title would be great. When I have 15-20 tabs open, I only see 5-6 characters of the title, and "auto-f" doesn't allow for me to easily switch to something.

Other than that, it looks like a useful service, and well done.</comment>


Django 1.0 is coming in early September - <AUTHOR> http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2008/jun/16/save-the-date/

<comment><USER2> Looking forward to this. I've put off learning Django in-depth until 1.0 because the APIs for fundamental things like forms keep changing. I don't want to invest in learning obsolete methods or port code to newer versions. And much of the documentation is full of version-related caveats. Having a canonical, consistent API to build on will be great.

</comment><comment><USER3> That's good. But premature, because frankly, Djang is still way too complicated to use. The API should not have been frozen yet. Rather the django API should have been changed to become more simple. Example - template tags.

<comment><USER4> What?!? I've evaluated Rails and Django and I'd say Django is simpler.

It might not make as many assumptions as RoR does, but IMHO that makes it simpler; you need to be explicit.

<comment><USER3> Django may be easier than rails. I would not know because I've never used rails. But Django is way tougher to use than MFC or OWL because of how inconsistent the various things you can do are. So from my particular programming non-web background, django can sorely stand to be improved.

<comment><USER5> >So from my particular programming non-web background, django can sorely stand to be improved.

I think that's the key statement though. As well, your comparison to MFC/OWL is pretty apples to oranges as well. django isn't a library, it's a framework.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Please to make installing easier...learn from web2py.

</comment><comment><USER7> Following closely on the heels of DNF!

</comment><comment><USER8> I hope, targeting some django products for then... muahahaha</comment>


Simple or Complex? - <AUTHOR> http://lamp.epfl.ch/~odersky/blogs/isscalacomplex.html <comment><USER2> The more I read of Martin Odersky's writing the more I appreciate his wisdom and understated intelligence.

I had the same initial reaction to Scala that a lot of people do but once you start actually using it you soon realize that it really is a fairly simple language built on a handful of orthogonal concepts. For example, if you look at the method list of any of the collection classes it may seem extremely daunting but you soon realize that all the collection classes expose the same common interface and that beyond that there's a very logical hierarchy of subtypes with either different or increased functionality. Scala makes it easy to layer abstractions like this and to incur only the complexity you need to solve the problem at hand.

As you gain experience you will find yourself using the type system in more sophisticated ways to make more guarantees of the behavior and correctness of your code but Martin's stated goal in designing Scala was to build a language that could scale with the user and the application domain and I think he's succeeded.

</comment><comment><USER3> At the risk of getting downvoted like crazy, can somebody please explain to me the point of this blog post? It's just a couple of empty comparisons of Scala to lego/smartphones and C++/C#/Haskell to morse code.

<comment><USER4> The point is stated as clearly as seems possible in the first 4 lines of the post...</comment></comment>


AWS Certificate Manager: Deploy SSL/TLS-Based Apps on AWS - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-aws-certificate-manager-deploy-ssltls-based-apps-on-aws/ <comment><USER3> Just in case people haven't figured it out yet - ACM issues free wildcard certs :)!

[http://aws.amazon.com/certificate- manager/pricing/](http://aws.amazon.com/certificate-manager/pricing/)

[https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/acm- certifi...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/acm- certificate.html)

<comment><USER4> Dumb question: Can you extract the private certificate and use it elsewhere, or is it held securely and only accessible via specific AWS services?

<comment><USER3> Yeah, currently the keys are held securely within AWS and it's only available for use within specific AWS services - Elastic Load Balancer & CloudFront at the moment.

<comment><USER5> So basically don't use this if you care enough about security to pin your certificates.

<comment><USER6> Why does this stop you from pinning your certificate?

<comment><USER7> You only care about pinning when you fear that a third actor somewhere between your server and the end client might MitM the connection with a valid certificate.

If a third party controls your keys, certificate pinning is useless to prevent against attacks from that third party or governmental agencies.

<comment><USER8> Most HPKP deployments pin to root or intermediate certificates of CAs (usually 2 separate CA entities, in case something happens to the primary CA) - <USER2> in a typical scenario, the attack surface is approximately the same.

Not sure if this approach is common in native applications that pin to keys as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just a few days ago I spent $200 to purchase a multi-domain wildcard certificate so that I could host multiple secure domains, with multiple subdomains, on a single elastic beanstalk app. It was such a headache to figure out that I needed the multi-domain wildcard cert, then to find one to purchase for a reasonable price.

Now, 5 days later, AWS lets me create one for free in 3 minutes, with zero hassles. I cannot select it in beanstalk yet, but I am sure that will come. I am consistently amazed by how frequently AWS satisfies needs I barely knew (or didn't know) I had.

<comment><USER10> I don't think you configure the LB in EB. Go into Load Balancers in your EC2 section and you can select the cert there. It's a quick switch.

<comment><USER11> If EB decides to tear down and rebuild an ELB, it won't have the correct cert settings.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Can anyone think of any advantages LetsEncrypt would provide over this offering from AWS? Or does this basically kill LetsEncrypt's usage on AWS?

The only thing I can think of is that AWS Certificate Manager only validates by email addresses which can be problematic if you don't have MX records or don't have control over it(Maybe a large organization where the people who do control those email addresses won't click simple verification links)

It seems a bit inconsistent as to when it will use the email on the whois record for the validation too. For some subdomains I try it will allow validation using the whois address, other times it's just the common email@example.com(which requires an mx record) So I guess if you're nesting deeper than one subdomain(e.g. abc.def.example.com) then maybe it'd be easier to get letsencrypt set up than try to get mx records for abc.def.example.com.

Shameless Plug/Disclaimer: I had been working on a tool to make it dead simple to use Lets-Encrypt certificates for CloudFront/ELBs and handled autorenewal via Lambda. I'm not sure there is any use for this now that this exists though.

[https://github.com/ubergeek42/lambda- letsencrypt/](https://github.com/ubergeek42/lambda-letsencrypt/)

<comment><USER13> I believe this requires the use of cloudfront or their load balancer. So if you want to stick with minimal costs you can use letsencrypt with just an ec2 instance.

<comment><USER12> That's a good point. For some reason the only thing I was thinking about was cloudfront/elb.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> "Even better, you can do all of this at no extra cost. SSL/TLS certificates provisioned through AWS Certificate Manager are free!"

Great!

</comment><comment><USER15> Pricing page goes 404 :(

[http://aws.amazon.com/certificate- manager/pricing/](http://aws.amazon.com/certificate-manager/pricing/)

<comment><USER16> Anything too much higher than "free" is probably going to be too high once Let's Encrypt implements DNS based validation.

Of course, it does look like they support wildcard certs, so it probably won't be cheap.

EDIT: Removed EV reference, these are DV only.

<comment><USER17> Let's encrypt turned on DNS validation a few days ago [https://twitter.com/letsencrypt/status/689919523164721152](https://twitter.com/letsencrypt/status/689919523164721152)

<comment><USER16> Hadn't seen that, thanks for the link!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Are these certificates exclusively for ELB and CloudFront? Does anyone see a way to download a certificate for manual installation on a server (EC2 or otherwise)?

[https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/setup- websi...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/setup-website.html)

> _Currently, ACM Certificates are associated with Elastic Load Balancing load > balancers or Amazon CloudFront distributions. Although you install your > website on an Amazon EC2 instance, you do not deploy an ACM Certificate > there. Instead, deploy the ACM Certificate on your Elastic Load Balancing > load balancer or on your CloudFront distribution._

Ideally ACM certificate issuance and deployment would be two separate things, and this would be a general-purpose CA, which just happens to have integrated deployment tools for ELB and CloudFront.

<comment><USER19> At the time of launch only ELB and CloudFront are supported.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> It looks like this is free (the pricing page isn't up yet), as I was able to issue a certificate and not have any charges show immediately.

<comment><USER21> You might be right. Maybe the pricing page 404 was a silly marketing stunt? That would be pretty clever.

BTW, it looks like there might be a lot of people flagging this post (raced to position 1, but then quickly dropped to position 5).

I'm not opposed to people flagging things or anything, but I'm curious as to why a post like this would be heavily flagged, if that is indeed what is happening.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Wow that was super easy. I tried this on one of my sites and it really took me like 2 minutes total to add SSL to it.

The only confusing part was that port 443 was blocked in ELB by default (which made it look like it didn't work but got fixed easily as soon as I figured it out). I've never seen an easier way to do this till date.

</comment><comment><USER23> Looks like Certificate Manager is only available in the US-East region thus far.

<comment><USER24> Yep, tried to access ACM, and got "Certificate Manager is not available in EU (Ireland). Please select another region."

They probably are going to roll out this feature everywhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Buying SSL Cert through Bluehost (my domain registered, and blog hosted) and figuring out how to apply it my web-app, zejoop.com, hosted on AWS was far and away the most annoying and difficult chore in my development/deployment process as a relatively junior SW developer. If I could solve all inhouse within AWS (at reasonable cost) is be very happy. My cert just renewed, so until I roll change to AWS my [https://](https://) is down. If update is as difficult for me as original install was, then I guess it will be about 18 hours of aggravation. So I'll look into this, if the OP title is a reality.

<comment><USER26> FYI (and disclaimer I work here) CloudFlare provides SSL as a service for free and you can host your site anywhere: [https://www.cloudflare.com/ssl/](https://www.cloudflare.com/ssl/)

<comment><USER25> Thanks, I will investigate. Not clear though if I'll need to convert the cert though to AWS load balancer accepted format... that was the bulk of my earlier problem, especially handling the chain bundle. The AWS cert service, I assume, would eliminate the conversion problem for me. Thanks... I'll check it out

<comment><USER25> problem solved

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> This is great for microservices where managing lots of SSL certs can be a pain.

</comment><comment><USER28> Its not immediately obvious clicking around, who's the CA?

<comment><USER29> tl;dr - For now, their root CA is Starfield[0], but AWS may become a root CA very soon.

Amazon had applied to be a Root Certificate Authority to Mozilla and Android since June 2015 [1]. And it's been in pending for public discussion recently [2], which is one step away from being inclusion by Mozilla[3](aka becoming a root CA).

Once they are vetted and being included in Mozilla's Root CA program, they will be accepted by Firefox browser and on Linux. And after vetted in Android, it will be accepted by Google Chrome/Chromium browsers.[4]

[0] [http://i.imgur.com/s2Uijes.png](http://i.imgur.com/s2Uijes.png)

[1] [http://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-wants-to-be-your-ssl- cer...](http://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-wants-to-be-your-ssl-certificate- provider-applies-to-be-a-root-certifcate-authority/)

[2] [https://mozillacaprogram.secure.force.com/CA/PendingCACertif...](https://mozillacaprogram.secure.force.com/CA/PendingCACertificateReport)

[3] [https://wiki.mozilla.org/CA:How_to_apply#Public_discussion](https://wiki.mozilla.org/CA:How_to_apply#Public_discussion)

[4] [https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/root-ca- poli...](https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/root-ca-policy)

<comment><USER3> BTW - The root certs are in the microsoft trust store now.

<comment><USER29> Cool, they will be accepted as Root Cert on Windows then. Yep, Apple and Microsoft maintains their own Root CA programs (private approval process). I bet AWS also applied for Apple's Root CA program.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> If you're trying to enable ACM on beanstalk, I made a guide on how to do it: [https://medium.com/@arcdigital/enabling-ssl-via-aws- certific...](https://medium.com/@arcdigital/enabling-ssl-via-aws-certificate- manager-on-elastic-beanstalk-b953571ef4f8)

<comment><USER25> Guide is great, except my environment (which can't be renamed) is "My First Elastic BeanStalk Application" \- this results in error on CLI "Value 'My First Elastic BeanStalk Application' at 'environmentName' failed to satisfy constraint: Member must have length less than or equal to 23"... stuck

<comment><USER25> I figured out my own mistakes: [1] the actual name was 'Default-Environment', and [2] I had used the wrong zone when I set up AWS CLI using the 'aws configure' command. Fixed both mistakes and zejoop dot com is back online with a working SSL Cert.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This is great, but I'm willing to pay for SSL certificates that are managed inside of AWS, just like domains are purchased and managed in Route53.

As long as AWS provides an API to provision certificates, that would be awesome. I use Nginx, and need access to the private key and cert.

<comment><USER31> Impressively, not only is there what looks like a fairly complete API, but it's shipped and part of their language bindings already.

Go interface (the docs haven't been updated as of yet):

[https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk- go/blob/87b1e60a50b09e4812dee...](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk- go/blob/87b1e60a50b09e4812dee560b33a238f67305804/service/acm/acmiface/interface.go)

And the changelog from the Ruby project:

[https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk- ruby/blob/8ed439546619f78263f...](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk- ruby/blob/8ed439546619f78263fd6755429d54cdce812133/CHANGELOG.md#2213-2016-01-21)

<comment><USER32> While awesome that they have API support already; that's only half of it as you don't get access to the private key.

Still incredibly exciting and a great feature for Amazon solutions!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Sucks to be in the cert market today. This is great news for everyone else though!

</comment><comment><USER34> This is fantastic news. Now, let's see Heroku use either this or Let's Encrypt and eliminate their onerous $20 per host SSL fee, which is making the Internet less secure.

<comment><USER35> This would be huge. Heroku's high monthly SSL cost is a big reason I've moved dozens of smaller apps and sites to Digital Ocean. As I moved to using SSL everywhere I realized Heroku's costs were not sustainable for random side projects and static sites.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Currently It's Only supported in US East (N. Virginia). Is there any way I can use it for apps deployed in different geographical location?

</comment><comment><USER37> Given that Let's Encrypt is free, is there any reason why someone would use paid service for SSL certificates?

<comment><USER38> I recently needed a cert and got one from letsencrypt. Haven't read about them or followed all the news. I have no idea about the architecture of Let's Encrypt. So these might sound stupid;

\- Why do we need a local client app to issue certificates? Is there a web interface in development? Is there a technical reason for it to work this way?

\- Why does it issue 3 month certs? Beta period? (This is reason enough to pay btw, If I did not screw something up to end up with short term certs)

<comment><USER39> > Why do we need a local client app to issue certificates?

So it can verify domain ownership automatically.

> Why does it issue 3 month certs?

Because it verifies domain ownership automatically.

<comment><USER40> Well, that and they didn't do DNS based validation first. I guess they have that now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> How will Amazon's new root certificate be spread to all browsers and mobile devices, so it's made sure that it will be trusted on every possible endpoint? Is the root certificate cross signed with another, already trusted cert?

<comment><USER42> Amazon bought one of the Starfield roots from GoDaddy. See their roots here: [https://www.amazontrust.com/repository/](https://www.amazontrust.com/repository/)

<comment><USER41> Thanks, but funny: Not all test URLs are working on my Marshmallow Android. Only the "valid" tagged "Amazon Root CA 1" is accepted by my mobile Chrome, not so the others. Also the revoked Starfield test url is still being accepted by my browser.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> It's about time.

<comment><USER44> It is past time. Where was this last month? We just started using Let's Encrypt to get certs onto ELBs. With a few mods to stuff on github we can easily generate certs for multiple domains (up to the 100 domain limit) and put them on the ELB.

I'm glad they are getting into this, competition is always good. With the pricing page giving a 404 I can only guess that it will cost more than Let's Encrypt, but if you haven't already rolled your own, it might be a nice option.

<comment><USER45> Dumb question; I'm not an aws user, but I thought with ELBs you did ssl termination at the load balancer, then unencrypted to downstream servers? But you seem to indicate you have ssl between elb's and downstream? Is that correct?

<comment><USER44> Not a bad question. You are correct, the ELBs are doing ssl termination, but the way I'm using Let's Encrypt and a 3rd party python script means that each web server needs to be able to answer the challenge on port 80. For web server without a LB, that means you just run the script and it generates the file that needs served up on 80.

With more than one web server you need to be able to server that file up on any instance that might get hit when the challenge request comes in.

For some, DNS might be an easier way to prove domain ownership, but we have clients who control their DNS. Doing it all on the web means it is 100% in our hands.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Wrong title. This is a Certificate Manager.

<comment><USER47> We changed the title from "AWS is now issuing SSL certificates".

<comment><AUTHOR> Why? AWS is issuing certificates. They happen to be doing that through their new Certificate Manager service, but the more interesting news is that AWS is issuing publicly trusted certs.

<comment><USER47> It's a moot point now, because the announcement post (which we changed the URL to) has a different title. But the answer to your question is that we don't always have a magic title accuracy detector—though HN readers come close.

<comment><USER48> Thanks for updating it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> Implemented and deployed! Now just need Terraform support to bring it full circle.

</comment><comment><USER50> If you use the AWS Simple Monthly Calculator, it shows a $600 a month charge for one dedicated IP/SSL certificate on Cloudfront. Is this not the same thing as the new free certificate?

</comment><comment><USER51> Wow, this is awesome for my needs.

</comment><comment><USER47> Url changed from [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/acm- overvie...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/acm- overview.html), which seems to be the main announcement.

</comment><comment><USER52> You mean TLS certificates.

<comment><USER53> Oh shit, how will people ever know what the article is referring to?

<comment><USER54> Your sobriety humbles me.</comment></comment></comment>


Job-Hopping - <AUTHOR> http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2010/05/job-hopping.html

<comment><USER2> One important point which the author fails to discuss is the fact that someone who has a history of job-hopping might be bad at choosing where to work. I agree with the statement that "if you are job-hopping, you are over- qualified," except that I would add that if you are job-hopping, you need to do more research on the shops where you accept jobs. The job-seeker is responsible for making sure they actually want to work for their potential employer.

Thus, I think it is legitimate to hold job-hopping against a candidate (to some degree) because it may indicate that they will not put forth due diligence before they accept a job offer, and therefore they might be accepting a job that they don't really want.

</comment><comment><USER3> "When two people disagree about business, and one of them is a millionaire, but the other is a billionaire, the mere millionaire should shut the fuck up and listen."

I agree with the author's position, but I refuse to grant an argument to someone simply based on how much they have in the bank. Yes, even when talking about _business_.</comment>


Ask HN: What industries are most underserved by technology? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> It's really hard to define underserved. Deep learning now has a lot of potential, but it's not being used to solve a lot of things.

YC's RFS is a good place to look: [https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/](https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/)

Government and health care can be difficult to penetrate too, and there would be a lot of potential for people who have the connections.

<comment><USER3> Machine learning can do a lot of things, but it won't as long as people are putzing around with the NIST digits.

The missing link is the ability to create training sets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not an "industry" per se; but civil servants everywhere struggle _rutinely_ with technology...

</comment><comment><USER5> IMO: Food. Just think how many thousands of dollars the average person spends on food per year and how very little of that is tapped by technology. There's Uber Eats and other food delivery services popping up, but there's still a lot of money to be made in the industry.

</comment><comment><USER6> Aviation, Private Aviation.

Most systems are legacy and haven't moved forward because of so much regulation. Once you've moved past that user adoption is hard because most of the industry hasn't seen tech before so it's manual work.

<comment><USER4> If I remember well just preparing a flight plan used to be a lengthy, tedious, task.

Looks a good field to me. And making $PEOPLE/$COMPANY life easier is a sustainable way to earn the bacon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I would suggest what are sometimes called "trades". How does technology currently fit into the work of your plumber or cabinet maker?</comment>


Google separates its mapping and commerce unit, Jeff Huber steps down - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/14/4103682/google-separates-mapping-commerce-unit-jeff-huber-steps-down

<comment><USER2> is Google X something real or the retirement community within Google?</comment>


Tell HN: We just raised GBP 50,000 using Seedrs.com - <AUTHOR>

And you know what... I just wanted to tell some people who might appreciate it.
http://seedrs.com/browse_startups/1217
The pitch is for new discussion forums: Like tumblr, for forums.
Raising the money isn't wholly a surprise or shock, we have extremely passionate users who have been bugging me for a good chunk of this year that they'd like to be investors at some level. So when we got rejected for YC we determined whether the users were truly interested, and then completed a Seedrs proposal, emailed our users... and within 15 hours we hit our £50k target.
Of course, there's little time for celebration and champagne, Sublime Text 2 welcomed me this morning, and now getting something out there fast is what matters.
I'm stoked though, and want to say thanks to people on here for sharing so much as although there are bad moments, by and large being on here is a great thing and exposes one to a lot of other people's experiences and stories... and there's mine, we made the hurdle that was in front of us and can look forward to the next one. <comment><USER2> Congratulations, I'm interested to know how easy it is to raise money from Seedrs. Glad to hear a startup kept going after rejection and hopefully will continue to do so.

I'm guessing you provided much more detail in your pitch and product than I can see on the public page. As all I see is "Discussion boards. Like tumblr, for forums." Which sounds a lot like Branch. Example: [http://branch.com/b/freelancers-small-studios-what-s-in-a- na...](http://branch.com/b/freelancers-small-studios-what-s-in-a-name)

They're working with publishers to create branch discussion sub-communities on popular publications.

<comment><AUTHOR> Seedrs has several layers of visibility as part of their regulatory requirements.

What you're seeing is the least information.

If you're registered and have passed the KYC checks, which include self- certification that you are an experienced investor, that you accept the risks involved, know you may lose everything, and that you prove your identity, etc... then you see the next layer.

What investors see is much like a detailed KickStarter page, with details of the idea, the market, the team, the experience, how far we've come to date, what we'll spend the money on, etc.

Finally there is what the entrepreneur sees, which is all of the above and then for every claim that you make in your proposal you need to provide evidence. Such as, if you say "We've made the database schema and believe that we can import other fora"... prove, provide links or documents to such evidence.

I was really impressed by Seedrs validation process. It was very thorough. To the point of wanting to validate a work position from 10 years ago using multiple payslips at points within the employment to ensure that the statement that I'd been there multiple years was true.

Even when you're declaring market size, a nebulous and vague thing at best, you're asked to prove the numbers at least are realistic and show research into the market.

Once you submit a proposal you then go through a process of verification, where Seedrs will now read all of your statements and will suggest re-wording where necessary to ensure risk is communicated and to defuse liability should some event not come to pass: "We hope to", "We plan to".

Once all of that is done, you are approved and get two choices: Go live, or make a video and subject that to approval before go live.

I chose to go live immediately.

To be successful with crowd-funding you cannot come in cold, you really should realise that investors will follow other investors and that the best thing you can do is to line up a lot of interested investors.

I found 100 small investors, mostly my users, but a couple of friends too. And kept in touch with them via a forum, and also email. I followed their progress through the KYC checks and when the vast majority were through I alerted them all that I would now go live.

All I was hoping, was that if I could push us to 50% of the goal, the investors unbeknownst to myself would step in and invest too. But I now believe that I'd done so well at lining up investors that virtually all of my fundraising was from investors known to me.

I get to see investor names, unless they're opted to be anonymous.

I'm afraid I cannot vouch for whether it is easy to raise money from Seedrs, just that it is via Seedrs.

The tax advantage with SEIS ( <http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/seedeis/index.htm> ) is ridiculously good, and if you're in the UK and want to raise money then definitely make sure to take advantage of this, it's win-win for everyone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Well done!

I'm pretty sure my business was too early stage when we launched our Seedrs listing so it looks like we're not going to make our target. Definitely come along quite a bit in the 2.5 months since it went live so might list again.

<comment><AUTHOR> We are very early stage, but we have done a lot of research and testing of the idea including identifying customers.

Where we're at is that we have a few organisations lined up, quite a few medium and small forums wanting to move, and what amounts to about 60,000 users ready to move onto the platform we make.

Because of this process, we also now have a lot of people who believe in what we're offering.

We perhaps have been too successful at finding the market, as we don't actually have a product yet.

Our focus is now going to be to very rapidly produce the first prototype, and then iterate ridiculously fast on the path to releasing the best product we can for those customers and consumer demand.

The only tip I've give anyone using Seedrs is that it's really important to line up some investor interest. If you've validated your idea by finding potential customers who will pay, then this shouldn't be too hard. But you should do this _before_ you go live on Seedrs.</comment></comment>


The SSL/TLS handshake - <AUTHOR> http://www.ecnmag.com/articles/2015/01/ssl-tls-handshake

<comment><USER2> Servers should get away from rsa based key exchange once a user has a password.

client and server then have a shared secret, good IV and a strong cipher using that shared key, a strong IV and no more need for CA's and public keys can be nothing more than securely share the IV.

<comment><USER3> If my password is catsanddogs, there is not much entropy in this password. If the connection was based off symmetric crypto from the get go, where the key was seeded from that password, you could capture some traffic and offline attack the key based off a weak user password.

The alternative is safer. You would have to brute force the login online.

I think you don't know what an IV is. The IV is not secret. Maybe that's where the confusion comes from?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Misses the fact that SSL/TLS uses HMAC.</comment>


Prisma: Turn your database into a real time GraphQL API - <AUTHOR> https://www.prismagraphql.com/ <comment><USER2> I am so excited about Prisma, I have been lucky enough to follow Graphcool for almost a year. I am sure with all the experience Graphcool team had hosting a Graphcool BaaS, prisma is a take on the harder problems in GraphQL ecosystem. From an initial look at the docs, I can see that prisma is language and database agnostic (with the help of connectors) and it has built in support for subscriptions (and more). I have a few questions about the service though:

1\. GraphQL specification does not have the spec for subscriptions yet, moreover, even when added I am sure where and how to manage the state of subscription will be an implementation detail. How close is the Prisma implementation to what can end up in the spec? What does the subscription implementation detail look like, how is the state stored? I noticed from docs "Because Prisma is a standalone process, it can be scaled independently from your application layer and provide scalable subscriptions infrastructure." Can we elaborate on where prisma sits in the stack?

2\. Is prisma language agnostic? How easy it is to add new languages?

3\. Is prisma DB agnostic. Can it be connected to an existing database or REST service.

I think questions 2,3 boil down to "How is prisma different from a GraphQL application server like graphql-yoga with GraphQL binding"

Awesome to see Graphcool team coming up with solutions to build a flexible and scalable GraphQL infrastructure.

</comment><comment><USER3> Prisma is a great layer of abstraction for GraphQL! I started using Graphcool Console, then switched over to the Framework when it was announced. I've loved the experience so far!

I do wonder... Why does Prisma only support SQL? What's holding Prisma back from supporting NoSQL databases as well? I'd be very interested to hear why!

<comment><USER4> That's a great question!

There is great interest in supporting multiple kinds of databases and this is something we will actively work on in the coming months.

SQL is a great general purpose data store, but there are certainly cases where you need a more specialised database. In Prisma we introduced some API changes to simplify working with nested data structures. An obvious next step is to use MongoDB for documents while keeping SQL for relational data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Prisma (what used to be Graphcool) has increased my team's dev speed by 5x. These guys have a product of amazing value.

This isn't even to mention the inclusive, responsive, and engaging community. Whenever support is needed or there are questions to be answered, they are on top of it ASAP.

Came for the product, stayed for the team (and the product ).

<comment><USER4> Thank you for the kind words hoodsy!

Did you already have a chance to look into the new architecture for Prisma and GraphQL Bindings?

</comment></comment><comment> gentle-noah Prisma (used to be Graphcool) has completely revolutionized the way we approach product development at MarketMuse. We are still trying to calculate the actual velocity difference, but I can't recommend Prisma enough.

</comment><comment><USER6> Guys! This looks extremely promising like all the things you create.

What databases does it support?

Also love the name and logo. I see you at the dark side of my resolvers :v

</comment><comment><USER7> Interesting concept.

What are the options for self hosting?

<comment><USER4> Thanks!

Prisma is available as a docker image If you are familiar with Docker it should be fairly simple for you to set up a cluster. We also have a tutorial walking you through deploying to Digital Ocean in 20 minutes: [https://www.prismagraphql.com/docs/tutorials/cluster- deploym...](https://www.prismagraphql.com/docs/tutorials/cluster- deployment/digital-ocean-texoo9aemu)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do you use to write your tech docs? - <AUTHOR> What do you use to write and collaborate on your technical documentation?
As product/engineering teams we tend to generate a trove of text, ranging from architecture documentation, request for comments, product requirement document and more...
Do you use Wikis (and which ones)? Something else? <comment><USER2> I've used a bunch of Wikis: GitLab Wiki (pretty awful), GitHub Wiki (same), Confluence (capable, but tedious), Moinmoin (crufty), and MediaWiki (kinda over the top).

Confluence's export to PDF is kinda useful: we were able to maintain manuals that looked acceptable using it.

Other than Wikis, I've used: Texinfo (it has a "look", but is pretty capable), LaTeX, troff (and nroff), ReST / Sphinx (clunky, but the end result is ok), DocBook and FOP (for structured docs), Framemaker, Word, and Google Docs.

Things I'd consider when making a choice are the skillset of the authors and editors; the balance between text and not-text (figures, photos, videos, whatever) in the content; the required output (PDF? HTML? man pages? Windows help?); and the toolset support (eg. useful diff and merge tools).

If I had to choose today, I'd probably go with Confluence (largely because the plugin ecosystem is just so much bigger/better than any of the other Wikis I've used) for internal or knowledge-base type things, and maybe Sphinx/ReST for more complex published documents, although I'd likely have a look at AsciiDoc or something else in that sort of space too. For a seriously large documentation project, I'd possibly still build a DocBook-based workflow.

<comment><USER3> Hi, Community Advocate from GitLab here. Thank you for writing about GitLab Wiki, we appreciate your comment.

Could you please let us know what could make your experience more convenient? Are there any suggestions you'd like to share? We'd like to hear what made your hard time using our Wiki.

Feel free to raise an issue or submit a feature proposal over at [https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues](https://gitlab.com/gitlab- org/gitlab-ce/issues)? We'd love to follow up on it. Thanks!

<comment><USER2> Hey .. thanks for the interest!

I guess my expectations are for something approaching competitive with Confluence (ie. focus on being a great documentation system, not on GitHub feature parity :-). The real win with Confluence is the plugin ecosystem, and there's no reason GitLab can't support that too.

One conceptual issue that always bugs me is that a wiki can only exist in the context of a project: if you want something that's organisation-wide, you seem to have to create an otherwise-empty project to host it. And then put a README.md file in the project with a link to the Wiki root, so users can get there with only two clicks, at least. It'd be great to have a way to have a first-class Wiki that didn't require this extra hop (I know, it seems trivial, but I think it matters).

When editing, it's great to have the full-screen option, but without using that, you have the menu down the left, then a huge gap, and then the editbox, and then another big white space before the right-hand page edge. Why have that white space between the sidebar and the text? It just makes you feel cramped when you're editing. If this is to be a first-class documentation- production environment, you need to use that space. Yes, you can collapse the sidebar, but still there's a massive wasted space there.

Page titles don't retain their text casing, which is kinda annoying.

It'd be great to have a way to take a tree of pages, and export that to PDF. Ideally via some intermediate format, so you could munge it in a CI pipeline to produce the PDF.

I can't really complain about the Markdown: it's pretty comprehensive. It'd be great to have a popup cheat-sheet window (not just a link to the doc page) on the editing page?

To be fair though, this isn't anywhere near enough to justify my "pretty awful" rating above, is it? I think my problem is mostly that it _feels_ unsatisfying in use. It's not a friction-less experience: it feels like it's a secondary priority. Which is unfortunate, because it's kinda got the features to be quite good.

I suspect the problem is that my goal is different: if you want a way to have some web pages attached to a project, something that is clearly a secondary feature to the code, and isn't intended to be used for complex document maintenance, it's probably fine.

I'd like for it to be a way to maintain and produce complex, published documents with an online editor (so authors/editors don't have to clone, edit on the desktop and push back).

I'd like to be able to maintain multiple documents in a project.

I'd like to be able to use a CI/CD pipeline to publish the documents (which could be PDF, or HTML, or EPUB, etc. And have the ability to transform the intermediate rendered form to add watermarks, headers, footers, indexes, tables, page numbers, have sequences for eg. numbering figures, etc, etc.

I sort-of imagine something that could reasonably be used to write a book, or a complex product manual, or a legal document, or something.

If I never had to deal with DOcBook/FOP or Sphinx again, I'd be a happy camper ...

Thanks for asking :-)</comment></comment></comment>


Live Feed of ESA's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle Launch - <AUTHOR> http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Launchers/IXV/Watch_IXV_launch <comment><USER2> I can't warp my head around how quick Vega is to rise (ESA's new light launcher). Here's a video from its qualification flight:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0IZ6d4wTCg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0IZ6d4wTCg)

So far, everything is going well on the mission but I'm very anxious about the reentry of the IXV.

<comment><USER3> It does get going, doesn't it? Vega is a solid-fuel rocket (except for the fourth stage), and those have really high thrust early on.

If it behaves more like a missile than a satellite launcher that's no coincidence: most missiles are also solid-fuel.

<comment><USER4> Most missiles are not designed to carry people ;-)

<comment><USER3> Vega isn't designed for people either. It's a small launcher for small satellites--and though its max payload might loft a Mercury capsule, no one is going to build something that small. Moreover, humans aren't well suited to all-solid rockets. They have a rough acceleration profile and poor failure and abort modes.

But that's not rare. Most launchers, liquid or solid or both, aren't designed to carry people. It's easier, for one, because your abort mode can be "blow up and collect the insurance". (Also, they're ultimately derived from ICBMs.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Shen has a BSD License now - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Qilang/pt1nmdcOOVU

<comment><USER2> Nope, it doesn't.

Or rather, it has a 3 clause BSD licence with an additional "Comment on BSD, GPL and Copyright": [http://www.shenlanguage.org/license.pdf](http://www.shenlanguage.org/license.pdf) which is significantly longer than the 3 clauses minus the all caps disclaimer of warranty boilerplate.

Which _might_ be acceptable, it looks OK at first glance (compared to an unacceptable initial version presented yesterday), but it does add to the overhead in doing things with Shen. Fatally? I don't know, but the usual dismissal that "It's got a weird licence" still holds, even if it has much less weight now.

<comment><USER3> Yes, it does Harold and this is not the first or probably the last time you have placed misinformation about the Shen project online. All the files have the same standard 3 clause BSD license.

But it is the very last time that I will have any public connection with you and whatever you have to say on this thread or in email will not be read by me.

Sayanora.

<comment><USER2> This topic has a discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8992340](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8992340)

(BTW, sayanora has a connotation that there's a possibility we'll meet again :-).</comment></comment></comment>


In Cairo, the Garbage Collector Knows Everything - <AUTHOR> https://lithub.com/in-cairo-the-garbage-collector-knows-everything/ <comment><USER2> My brother and sister-in-law (Westerners) lived in Cairo for a few years and tell a similar humorous story. They too would just set their trash and unwanted items out in the hall where it would quickly disappear.

Once my sister-in-law put out some clothes that included an old T-Shirt that had been printed for a family get-together celebrating her parents 50th anniversary. It had a large photo of her parents on it along with wording like "John and Mary's 50th anniversary" etc. etc. She thought nothing of it. But several days later while walking near their apartment, she was taken aback to see an Egyptian man coming toward them proudly wearing the T-shirt with her parents smiling photo on it.

And it seemed this was his favorite or only shirt. For months afterword, she'd see her parent's photo as the man went about his business in the neighborhood. She took it all in stride!

<comment><USER3> That is so sad she threw the shirt out, were they on bad terms with the parents?

<comment><USER4> Some people attach more emotional value to items like that. Some don't. I did for a long time. After a lot of big changes I kind of stopped hording things as much and it was very freeing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love how HN is so diverse and how many submissions' titles can be read in many ways.

Tip: this article is about a human, real-person garbage collector, and garbage is the real, physical waste that people put inside bins.

<comment><USER6> and it's on lithub.com, not github.com

<comment><USER7> Hilarious. This submission wins the "Most easily misread by a programmer" award.

<comment><USER8> Glad to know I'm not the only one surprised by the content of this story...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> When I read this, my first thought was "wow, this must have been really hard to anonymize, if he wasn't careful to remove/change enough details people could figure out who the garbage man is".

Well, not so much...

> So of course Sayyid was aware that I was researching and writing about him. > At the same time, he is not literate, so there are serious limitations on > his understanding of something like a New Yorker story.

> I also considered whether to change his name or not use a photograph. But I > don't like to do that unless there are serious political risks. Inevitably, > changing a name reduces the reality of the subject, and there's more of a > risk that the person comes across as a symbol or something half-real.

(From [https://www.facebook.com/41268348994/posts/pete-asked-me- to-...](https://www.facebook.com/41268348994/posts/pete-asked-me-to-post-this- regarding-his-recent-new-yorker-articlehi-im-not-on-f/10152490349503995/) , which is a response to [http://edgeeffects.net/tales-of-the-trash- response/](http://edgeeffects.net/tales-of-the-trash-response/) .)

I feel the ethics here are really dubious.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, it's a stretch to say using an alias makes it less real or using a ruckenfigur picture takes away from the story. If the law allows for witness protection via alias, I can't see something less real or genuine.

As someone else had pointed out this man may not realize or care about the consequences of the publicity but the author does have a duty to care and I think he betrayed that duty here.

<comment><USER11> I'm trying to figure this out: What, specifically, is the duty you think he betrayed?

It's pretty obviously not the case that authors have a duty to anonymize everybody they write about — I've never even heard a serious argument to that effect.

Hessler said he considered whether there was likely to be negative consequences for Sayyid if he was identified in the story, and he didn't see any likelihood of that. There don't appear to have actually been negative consequences (at least, nobody has mentioned any), so it's hard make a strong case for negligence on that front.

<comment><USER10> So, to me a lot of what he (the sanitation worker) did wasn't "official". Also, he scavenged (and maybe it's lucrative to him, if so it might interest others). It also mentions he does not observe religious orthodoxy. Someone could come along and try and argue he's not fit for the job or worse.

It's like when writing s story about people on the periphery of society and most writers use pseudonyms for their subjects. It's good courtesy and good practice.

<comment><USER12> I think you have a good thinking about journalistic practice here.

It might mitigate hypothetical undesirable effects, in this case, to articulate some of the effect of the article on readers for whom the article was intended.

For one example, for me, as a citizen of the US, where this article was published, I enjoyed this article, and it fostered a favorable impression of Cairo, by humanizing one of its people. In a movie, he would be a beloved character. I realize he is of humble circumstances, among a diversity of people in Cairo (we have such diversity in my own US city, too). I am glad he exists, and that his society permits him to find his own greatness of role, in his way. This gives me an impression of Cairo as good people, with whom to feel fellowship, a desire to travel there and to otherwise learn about and appreciate their culture, and with whom to have good international relations and engage in business/trade. I would be troubled to ever hear that any harm has come to this person, or that he has become unhappy.

<comment><USER13> oh wow that's an astonishingly wholesome take on it. and now that i think about it, one that is quite resonant with my own experience of it in retrospect. it was certainly an extremely humanizing piece and i think in that regard, it's doing one of the most noble honors (at least in my moral framework): striving to eliminate xenophobia. so much in this world tries to divide us by our national identity and our ethnicities, etc, but at the end of the day, we are all just one species, and any difference that we perceive physically is just a side effect of phenotype expression, and any other more abstract difference such as belief, etc, is a side effect of the culture and society surrounding that phenotypical substrate. we work so hard to divide ourselves from our core nature, which is to cooperate and seek novelty, so it's quite cathartic to see a piece that tries to eliminate a substantial contributor to that division.

<comment><USER14> > _so much in this world tries to divide us by our national identity and our > ethnicities, etc_

It is precisely that we have real, inescapable conflicts that makes it heartening to see something transcend that.

If it transcended nothing, what would it mean? Probably nothing.

<comment><USER13> this is certainly accurate. without the presence of the xenophobia in the first place, there would be no means to appreciate it when people manage to transcend it. and xenophobia obviously exists on a biological and instinctual level and has been selected for for a reason so it obviously serves a purpose, it's just a problem when it overactivates. it's all about balance and understanding that just because you feel a certain way, doesn't mean that you have to put it out there on the world

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> See also the "Elephant in Cairo" search algorithm:

1\. Go to Africa.

2\. Put an elephant in Cairo.

3\. Start at the Cape of Good Hope.

4\. Work northward in an orderly manner, traversing the continent alternately east and west,

5\. During each traverse pass:

* Catch each animal seen.

* Compare each animal caught to a known elephant.

* Stop when a match is detected.

6\. If you are in Cairo, then there are no elephants in Africa (other than the one you placed there).

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

<comment><USER16> > 6\. If you are in Cairo, then there are no elephants in Africa (other than > the one you placed there).

Or, perhaps, other elephants already in Cairo ….

<comment><USER17> I suspect there is a "Falsehoods programmers believe about elephants" article somewhere...

<comment><USER18> Not to mention, falsehoods about the geography of Africa.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Peter Hessler's books about contemporary China are super-interesting reading. He's a very low-key, but deeply informed cultural translator. In all his books, he focuses on the stories and lives of the people he meets and gets to know, first as a young Peace Corps volunteer, and then as a journalist living in the country for many years. If you're interested, maybe start with _Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory_.

<comment><USER20> I will give his China stuff a look bc this is the 2nd Egypt piece he has written that is miffed me. But I will try and keep an open mind.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Haven't read this yet, but it reminded me of a very interesting RT Documentary on the life of an Egyptian garbage collector a few years back: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0s7WsoC528](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0s7WsoC528)

</comment><comment><USER22> I honestly thought the post was about the Cairo graphics library and how it used GC

</comment><comment><USER23> >During subsequent conversations with Sayyid, I learned that the Reuters correspondent who lived upstairs paid only 30 a month, which made me feel good about my decision. It seemed logical that a long-form magazine writer would produce more garbage than somebody who worked for a wire service.

Thank you for this gold

</comment><comment><USER20> I guess I'll get in trouble for saying this again. He is compelling and be speaks Arabic blah blah blah, but I feel these articles are more about him than Sayyid, over which we haggle with him vicariously over Egyptians pounds, approximately seventeen to one US dollar now. I know that feeling, but I wouldn't even ironically brag about paying fifty cents over the other wealthy foreigner a month. I would saying something here ironically in cutesy Egyptian Arabic and explain it, but I'd be my own worst enemy.

I have to visit often for family reasons, and they are the reason I avoid being more engaged about being outspoken over there about what goes on. I feel as a westerner we have passively let Egypt totally devolved and we should feel ashamed; these lip service articles only assuage personal guilt, as I see it. I dreamed of being a Hessler and now ashamed I am part of the clique when I visit old friends.

I know I'll go get down-voted for saying it, but oh well.

I would strongly encourage everyone here to visit, and go beyond what tourist books tell you. You cannot freely write on the details of the place anymore, and I learned the most about life from Egypt.

<comment><USER24> I feel you read a bit too much into all this. The guy is a journalist and his wife as well. I suspect they don't make much money from their job so they have to be a bit careful on how they spend it. And knowing they pay a bit more compared to some other Western guy in their apartment complex ... well, I feel most people would feel better about themselves as well given the circumstance. I feel it's just human nature. From his story it's clear it's hard to figure out the "proper" amount of pay, there are no clearly set rules.

I did find his writing compelling and added the book to my Amazon Wishlist.

In the past I visited Egypt once through a more adventurous travel agency. It was still an organised trip, but I was happy to see quite a bit of Egypt which included sleeping in the desert, sleeping in an oasis, have a small boat trip on the Nile, eat dinner with a Nubian family, visit the archeological museum and most important mosque in Cairo, as well as an important coptic church. And did see all the well known attractions such as the pyramids, valley of kings, Luxor, etc... It was fun and I'd love to visit it again in the future, but I feel it's currently probably too unsafe. Even back in 2005 when I visited there were military escorts with out travel group as we travelled to the south.

<comment><USER20> I visit 3 to 5 times a year. It's not that unsafe, in Cairo at least, as police reaction forces roll around in Jeeps and I have never seen people want to make such a fuss to get their attention; foreigners used to be interesting but stuff is so bad I feel tourism took a nosedive and over the years people don't bother foreigners has less of a payout and nothing really matters anymore. I feel the big cities must have more risk, unless we are talking Sinai where people are actively fighting the military and Egyptians not directly in that zone avoid.

Westerners continue to make vastly more than local counterparts, and those 40 pounds buy less in 2007 than they did in 2019 (6LE:1USD,17.8LE:1USD, it was even crazier for foreigners when black market currency flowed freely and was stopped violently, including dragging exchange owners and seizures by police in ... 2018). Letting foreigners say stuff like this and rationalize it is part of how we helped passively ruin it.

You are right. I do read a lot into it, but stuff like this has been bothersome to me for what you can guess is 10+ years now. That we all go wow, look at this foreigner's insight into Cairene culture in 2019 with pieces like this just makes me sad.

Those organized trips are fun, but it limits the people and experiences you have. I understand we gave limited time on this planet and vacations in foreign countries are scary and uncomfortable so the effort and risk/reward is high unless you're a crazy person like yours truly.

I said elsewhere I will read his Chinese stuff and have my sinologist friends read it with me too see if it similar and I overreact.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> FYI as hinted at the top of the page, this is a recycled (duh) version of a much longer article published 5 years ago:

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales- trash](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-trash)

It feels weird to see a journalist republishing the same content just like that, but my guess is he has his book to promote and not that many angles to introduce the topic.

</comment><comment><USER26> So I wasn't just paranoid when I used to shred all my papers at home before throwing them away.

Related, when I moved out, I sold/freecycled most of my stuff, then invited some people to take what they want from the leftovers and finally left the stuff nobody had wanted in a big box in the bin room downstairs. Minutes later I saw the building cleaners haul the entire box into a car.

</comment><comment><USER27> Hahah, I was sure this was a programming story!

</comment><comment><USER28> In Taiwan, the garbage collector also knows everything.

</comment><comment><USER29> Lovely. Thanks for posting this.

</comment><comment><USER30> I honestly thought this was about the graphic API and resource management, I'm impressed by my own restricted imagination at this point.

<comment><USER31> Same. And so struck was I by the writing and the story I scanned that I went back and read it aloud in an effort to get as much out of it as I good.

These gems are treasures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I figured there was some new language Cairo with a next gen garbage collector.

<comment><USER33> I thought someone found a speedup for the Cairo graphics library by looking at the garbage collector.

<comment><USER34> Same. I've been messing with Xlib/XCB/Cairo/etc for the past few weeks and it's all I've been thinking about lately. I guess if you use the Xlib/XCB backends for Cairo surfaces then you would get some sort of GC on the Xorg server side.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> At first I thought it was a reference to Dilbert...

</comment><comment><USER36> tl;dr, anybody?

I came to this article hoping to learn something about public policy, esp. regarding privacy. Whatever insights into those topics there might be are too buried in story for me to find them easily so I stopped reading.

<comment><USER37> When you do not _have_ a publicly-funded garbage collection infrastructure, then the private enterprises that fill in those gaps can, and will, make use of any physical or informational resources they find in the trash they pick up in an effort to make a decent living. Examples given include "a nice camera", "drugs", "porn", and "knowing exactly how much money an ambassador is making". There are no examples given involving blackmail but I feel that's definitely an elephant sitting in the room of this story of one journalist's relationship with one private garbage collector.

Now that I put it that way I feel like this is the core of a good argument for nationalizing social media.

<comment><USER36> Scary.

It's not obvious to me that I should trust the government more than a big corporation with a reputation to defend. If Google was found to be leaking credit card details, for example, it would at least cost them a ton of business (and maybe do much more harm than that). They have the wherewithal to avoid it. The incentives for long-term investment in security infrastructure are weaker in government.

<comment><USER38> > If Google was found to be leaking credit card details, for example, it would > at least cost them a ton of business

Would it? I can't think of a single case where this has actually happened. It's great in theory and all, but it is far from reality.

The biggest data breaches over the past century have been with giant companies that are still known today. Yahoo, Marriott, Adult Friend Finder, eBay, Equifax, Heartland Payment Systems, Target, TJX, Uber, JP Morgan Chase, the US OPM, Sony's PSN network, Anthem, RSA, Home Depot and Adobe are all still in business, and for some of them, the _lack_ of repercussions have been staggering (looking at you, Equifax).

Granted, not all are credit card breaches specifically, but several are, and in all cases a lot of personally identifiable information was stolen.

Source: [https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest- data-b...](https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest-data- breaches-of-the-21st-century.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment>