RetroShare: For the Paranoid in You - <AUTHOR> http://www.linuxadvocates.com/2013/06/retroshare-for-paranoid-in-you.html <comment><USER3> I'm no security expert, but at least in theory Retroshare may be one of the safest ways to communicate out there (along with some of the OTR-enabled apps; Retroshare doesn't use OTR, I believe, just P2P OpenSSL).

When the general Petraeus scandal happened, I was thinking that if he would've used Retroshare, which is P2P and encrypted, to talk to his mistress directly, he wouldn't have been found out (unless his PC had a keylogger).

Now if only someone made a prettier interface for it, so "normal" users would be compelled to use it.

EDIT: More info on its security and privacy models, by the team behind it:

Ideals:

[http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/retroshares-a...](http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/retroshares- anonymous-routing-model&#x2F);

On security:

[http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/cryptography-...](http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/cryptography- and-security-in-retroshare&#x2F);

On privacy:

[http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/privacy-on- th...](http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/privacy-on-the- retroshare-network&#x2F);

Distributed chat:

[http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/distributed-c...](http://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/distributed- chat-a-k-a-chat-lobbies&#x2F);

<comment><USER4> Agreed. The main sticking point for Retroshare is it's atrocious interface. I love the concept but can't bring myself to actually use it.

<comment><USER5> This really was/is the main sticking point around free software. The UX is awful until a designer comes along and fixes it.

Or ruin it...

<comment><USER4> Contributing any sort of design to an open source project is often a horrible experience.

Probably explains why it rarely happens.

<comment><USER6> It's open source. You don't even have to talk to the developers if you'd rather not. Fork it and make it beautiful, and release it. The world will thank you. If there's enough demand, the devs will merge it into the original project.

<comment><USER4> If I was a designer and not a programming type, this would be extraordinarily difficult, especially when it comes to refactoring someone else's code and interface to fit my vision.

<comment><USER7> Indeed design is not about sticking a pretty UI on top of the existing software.

You have to apply UX to the development process, such as how a user interacts with features, or the steps involved in each action, or the way the app communicates to the user, or delivering feedback after an interaction is completed. Design influences the software requirements.

It's necessary for designers to collaborate with developers if you want a well designed app... not just a pretty one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What happens if one one assumes that the likes of the NSA can directly access one's computer and poke around at will?

For years Microsoft has been accused of building or allowing back doors in to windows. _If_ that is true, none of these schemes will work, right?

For years now, I have just assumed that my computer is a government spy sitting on my desk. OK, paranoid, no real proof what so ever, and OTT. But, I feel it is wise to assume and act like that is true. Or, know the risk you are taking.

How to be secure on the internet? Don't use the internet.

<comment><USER9> Yep, it's amazing how many people start by assuming that their OS is safe... and there's no basis for this assumption, even without assuming intentional backdoors baked in, there are some many 0 day exploits for all the software we use daily that...

...heck, I'm not even 90% sure that _compilers_ don't add backdoors to software (it's not paranoia... but with a 30 y o idea, you can imagine that people have had time to refine it to unimaginable subtlety :) [http://cm.bell- labs.com/who/ken/trust.html](http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html))

<comment><USER10> The only alternative to making this assumption is to treat computers as compromised non-trustable entities, forgoing their use as true extensions of the mind and leaving all individuals at the mercy of the ever-growing computing system. Instead, we treat the assumption as fact, making do with the imperfect OSs we have and incrementally fortifying them to solidify the assumption.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> One important thing with RetroShare: Don't add random strangers that you don't trust.

Once you have someone as your "friend", random traffic will go between you and him (the network works as sort of p2p). If that "friend" is actually some government agent/copyright enforcer, you can then have troubles with illegal sharing of files, even when you didn't share them yourself.

This is not theoretical, this actually happened in... Germany or France, I am not sure. Probably France.

<comment><AUTHOR> About the case in Germany: [http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=...](http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2834&p=10348#p10348)

Quote from the post: the IP's of the sued user "rechner3" was from an IP Range from the lawyers (Rasch Legal).

The e-mail of the user "rechner3" was "pm.hh.04@gmail" it is possible that pm stands for the anti Piracy Company "ProMedia" hh == "Hansestadt Hamburg".

and other indications that lead to the lawyer company and anti-piracy company.

The maximum value of discussion was 10k. If a lawsuit had been started, this value would have been cut down. There was never a lawsuit to discuss the case and start a prove collection or discussion.

There is only a contract with rechner3 and the anti-piracy company, where rechner3 committed to not use RetroShare again.

rechner3 was never seen afterwards.

It looks like, this was a "forged" case to be present in the media with a high value sentence.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for this information, I didn't knew that and I admit, I took the original report at a face value.

However, the general point still stands - RetroShare is routing random traffic through you, if you happen to be near the nodes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > Once installed, you send an email to your Friend(s) with a copy of the F2F > key. Then, they do the same, by installing RetroShare and sending you their > F2F key.

Uhm.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, key exchange is always hard. You need to use a secure channel for that, we found a OTR-encrypted jabber-message the easiest way to go.

Sadly, RetroShare didn't really work for us. The UI is too clunky and the software has too many weird issues, like reindexing all files occasionally.

<comment><USER12> Then you need to secure the OTR channel, i.e. authenticate the remote users; the same goes for using PGP-encrypted email – in both cases, it is almost impossible to securely authenticate someone who isn't sitting next to you.

<comment><USER13> Yes, you should do this. Mechanisms for authentication of OTR-chats is build into the usual plugins (exchanging a secret). It is not almost impossible - <USER2> doubt, just call him.

<comment><USER14> Exactly. One phone call to verify the signature is all you need. Skype (or any other insecure (against passive attacks, i.e. the attacker shouldn't be able to modify what's going between you) channel) will work just fine, as long as you can be sure you're talking with the person you think you're talking to.

<comment><USER12> Yes, if you compare fingerprints, then the important point is to authenticate both sender and content of the message. 'Common Secret' authentication as it is supported by OTR with Skype as the channel to negotiate that secret won't be any good, nor will Skype text chat be sufficient to authenticate the sender of the message.

If it absolutely has to be remote, I'd go for a combined audio/videocall on Skype where one reads out the fingerprint and holds up a (ideally hand- written) sign with it – though I'd still prefer IRL-authentication (plus it's more fun! :)), and 'only authenticate keys in real life' looks like a helpful rule-of-thumb to me.

<comment><USER14> Why is just reading the fingerprints to each other via video chat insufficient?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> for those who just would like an encrypted chat. i'm very happy with the otr plugin for pidgin. additionally every adium (macos) user could use this feature ootb. but.. maybe the hardest part.. you have to convince your "i dont care"-"i have no secrets" colleagues to use it.. :)

</comment><comment><USER16> If only it would run on the browser. Installing something is a big barrier this days.

<comment><USER17> With WebRTC this might actually work. But there's still an issue with trusting code that is redownloaded from the net all the time. (The WebApp things from Chrome and Firefox might come to help here, once they support both signed code and version pinning)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If I understand it right, it doesn't offer deniability.

If you want a system with encryption and deniability, try Bitmessage.

[https://bitmessage.org](https://bitmessage.org)

</comment><comment><USER19> This is fantastic. I've been wanting to create something like this for a few years now but never actually did anything about it. Now I have an existing project to contribute to.

<comment><USER20> Nice :) Please do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> If you're paranoid, use QubesOS and run Retroshare and other things in isolated VMs. I loved Retroshare except for the part of never being able to delete stuff you posted.</comment>


Here's how bad the calorie counts on apps and wearables really are - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/421049/heres-how-bad-calorie-counts-apps-and-wearables-really-are

<comment><USER2> I've often been frustrated with calorie-counting apps. Let's say I eat a hamburger from a local restaurant. I go to my calorie-counting app, and I type in "burger". It shows me a list:

* McDonald's Big Mac 485 calories

* McDonald's Quarter Pounder 435 calories

* In 'N Out Burger 400 calories

* Bubba Burger 315 calories

* Beef burger (raw) 239 calories

* Hamburger Beef on a Bun 243.9 calories

And so on. That range there is over 140 calories. That's a wild margin there. And I also got fries:

* French Fry (Sodexo) 260 calories

* Curly Fries 200 calories

* McDonald's Medium Fries 310 calories

* Five Guys Fries 300 calories

And so on and so forth.

But you know, I just want to Local Burger Joint Restaurant. I don't know exactly how many ounces this patty was, or whether they put butter on it. I don't know if they fried these fries in duck fat or peanut oil or veggie oil. Depending on how they prepared it and what the portion sizes are, the calories per serving an vary wildly.

Yet when you go into a food app, they say:

> "How many ounces of fries did you eat?"

> "I dunno, MyFitnessPal. I ate what they gave me. Let's make it a round > ballpark figure of 30 french fries."

> "Sorry, Jemaclus. That's not a valid measurement."

How about this. How about instead of making ME guess, why don't YOU guess? Why don't YOU say "Okay, generally when you get a burger, it's between 250 and 500 calories... we have 394 samples of burgers in our database. The median calorie count is 412, the mean is 425, the range is 150,... some other statistical mumbo jumbo, and bam. Okay, Jemaclus, we think the burger was roughly 418 calories, or between 410 and 430 calories."

And then do the same thing for the fries.

Because at the end of the day, I'm just guessing too. When I look at my calorie count at the end of the day, I would be a fool to say "I ate precisely 2318 calories today." What I really think when I see my calorie count is: "This app says I ate 2318 calories today, which is _roughly_ between 2200 and 2400 calories. That's pretty much where I want to be, so I'm okay with that."

I mean, don't make me think about it. Don't make me pick which burger I ate from which chain, because the odds are that the exact food I'm eating isn't in your database. Don't make me pick the serving size, because I don't carry a scale around with me -- or measuring cups.

Just ask me what I ate today. Then you figure out the rest. We're both guessing here. Just handle it for me.

Thanks.

<comment><USER3> > How about this. How about instead of making ME guess, why don't YOU guess?

Because then it would be precise, but not accurate, and calorie counting apps are designed as tools to help people who care about accurately tracking what they eat; they aren't intended to replacing _knowing_ what it is you are eating, they are intended to facilitate going from knowing what you are eating to having a log of calories (and, often, additional related information like macronutrient distribution.) You might occasionally need to estimate if you are eating a serving that isn't in their database (e.g., the "medium fries" of a fast-food outlet they don't have) or not eating a full serving, etc., but even then you'll be able to estimate better than the app would be able to guess, if you have put even a minimal effort (and if you care, you will.)

What you are asking for is basically an app designed to provide the false comfort of an illusory accuracy for people who really don't care about tracking what they eat but would like to feel like they are doing it. Which, I suppose, might be a real and possibly even quite large and profitable market, but isn't the market most calorie counting apps are aiming for.

> Don't make me pick the serving size, because I don't carry a scale around > with me -- or measuring cups.

If you care about controlling or tracking your diet at all, it takes very little time and effort to learn to estimate portion sizes reasonably well. And portion sizes vary widely, and there's no way an app can do that for you (well, I suppose, with a camera, the same techniques used to take synthesized 3D pictures, and some kind of reference object that you can put in frame for scale, it probably could, but that's probably more work for the user than just estimating for yourself.)

<comment><USER2> I think there's room for both models. I care about what I eat, but the way calorie counters work now is that they have _too much friction_ for someone who's basically guessing most of the time anyway. You can add some minor qualifiers to help narrow down the quantities.

> "Hey Jemaclus, it's 2pm. What'd you have for lunch today?"

> "A burger."

> "On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the healthiest, how healthy was the > burger?"

> "4" (I made it myself)

Ping me with a push notification -- hey, time to enter it! -- then ask me a quick question or two to qualify the results. How healthy was it? How many common-sense servings do you think you just ate?

My point is that the numbers regular calorie counters give are very exact numbers -- 489 calories for a Big Mac -- but food is rarely served perfectly. Two burgers cooked within 10 minutes of each other at the same restaurant might vary wildly in the number of calories, depending on the size of the patty, the amount of seasonings and butter and what-have-you added to the dish, and so on. At the end of the day, I'm just guessing.

On calorie counting apps, the serving sizes are almost always useless. This burger is measured in ounces -- is that before or after cooking? How many ounces is the burger I just got from the restaurant? I know a Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonalds is, well, 4 oz (before cooking!), but does that translate 1:1 with my app? Who the hell knows?

I think if you're neurotic or otherwise obsessed with tracking your calories super seriously, then maybe you're right. But in my experience, most of my friends who start using calorie counting apps _stop_ using calorie counting apps, because it's so much damned work to track everything they eat all day long.

I'm advocating a smarter system. I'm guessing, which is more work than I want to do. Do the guessing for me. Do the work for me. Prompt me when you don't think you can make an accurate guess. I'm happy to say "I think it was 1.5 servings and relatively healthy", but I don't need to sit here and compare a 4oz burger from McDonalds against a 1/3 lb burger from In 'n Out against a "2 patty" burger from Joe's Burger Shack and try and figure out which one more accurately reflects the burger that's sitting in front of me right now.

<comment><USER3> > I care about what I eat

Then you _can 't avoid learning to estimate portions_. And once you do that, the way most standard food logging apps, web or mobile, work should generally work (there is room for improvement in friction, in some cases, but not in the particular area of making the app guess more.) There's no shorter cut from which meaningful results can be gathered. And its not that hard.

> On calorie counting apps, the serving sizes are almost always useless.

They aren't "useless", they do require you to understand portions. They replace manually logging and tallying what is logged, not actually recognizing what it is you are eating.

> This burger is measured in ounces -- is that before or after cooking?

Pre-cooked. Its the generally-accepted standard (most logging systems I've seen expressly indicate this, though some don't).

> I think if you're neurotic or otherwise obsessed with tracking your calories > super seriously, then maybe you're right. But in my experience, most of my > friends who start using calorie counting apps stop using calorie counting > apps, because it's so much damned work to track everything they eat all day > long.

Calorie counting apps aren't useful, though, if the user isn't visually making meaningful estimates (and, yes, they'll generally be estimates if you aren't preparing it yourself) of quantitative portion sizes and specific included elements beyond "1 to 5" ratings of healthiness -- _because_ of the very kinds of variability that you yourself point to. Calorie counting apps _can_ facilitate the process of tracking, but they _can 't_ replace the recognition and quantification of what you are eating part (which, yes, is _initially_ the hard part of food tracking -- but its also the part that gets easy with experience.)

There's some pretty simple rules of thumb for visually estimating portion sizes, etc., that can be helpful if you _aren 't_ eating a predefined menu item that is already in the apps database, and its possible that UX could be improved by facilitating access to guidance on those when logging such items. But that's different than the model you propose, which has serious GIGO problems.

> I'm advocating a smarter system. I'm guessing, which is more work than I > want to do. Do the guessing for me. Do the work for me.

Sorry, you're the one who has the sensory input from which to make a meaningful estimate. Its obviously not impossible for a machine to do this, given the right sensors and the right application of them to the food, but its not going to save you any work on a smartphone platform.

> I'm happy to say "I think it was 1.5 servings and relatively healthy

Yes, but that's not meaningful input from which any useful information can be gained. Unless you have a well-calibrated consistent definition of a serving -- in which case, you can just as well say how many ounces, etc., it was.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Who is using Asterisk PBX and how? - <AUTHOR> We're currently deploying a bigger Asterisk PBX setup using SIP only and ARI API.
And there are so many bugs that I'm wondering if Asterisk is really mature enough (despite it's age) for production use...
Feel free to drop some comments; what is your experience with Asterisk? <comment><USER2> I've used it in the past for an office phone system with DID delivered over IAX, Linksys SIP desktop phones, and no usage of the API.

Also separately for an inbound call centre with simple routing based on customer type and language(s) spoken by team members. It worked well, and I remember paying $50 or $100 or similar for a license for an add-on which displayed the live status of each queue in a web page, which we put up on a large screen. It worked well for many years with very minimal maintenance. I experimented with some basic outbound auto-dialing features: take a CSV of phone number and customer ID pairs. Dial each number until one connects, then transfer the call to a member of the team, and pop up the customer ID on their screen, so that they can paste it into our CRM app.

Today I only use it for my personal conference call server. Not using MeetMe, but whatever the newer conference bridge is called.

I like asterisk, and glad to know it now has a REST API.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have never used it but interviewed with two companies lately that used Asterisk. One recently moved over from a Cisco platform and was "still working out the bugs" The guy that was doing most of the configuration was doing so remotely from the Dominican Republic. The owner of the company(25 employees) claims it was the best thing he could have done. But this dude also claimed his competitive advantage was using file pro even though he could find no one with file pro experience to hire.

The next company didn't seem to have a problem with it. Part of my job was to create a system to automate specific monthly reports for their phone usage that was currently being done manually.

</comment><comment><USER4> We have been using asterisk snd freepbx on a vm for 6 years now in our office and are very happy. We have about 40 extensions using sip and use call queuing, conference lines and call recording.

I tip my hat to the creators of asterisk but I do not personally want to -vvv. So a tip of the hat to freepbx as well.

</comment><comment><USER5> We have been using Asterisk (SIP/IAX) for about 7 years both on "cloud" servers and field communication devices with no issues on production devices (only minor problems during development/qualification). Our experience has been very positive and the community is very helpful.

</comment><comment><USER6> I installed PABX based on asterisk (XiVO) for 5 years.

This is a good solution for single server installations from 5 to 1500 desktop phones.

However, I used chan_sip, bri or pri card, AGI and AMI. I do not have too much experience with ARI and chan_pjsip.</comment>


Hybridising SBCL's GENCGC with Mark and Sweep - <AUTHOR> http://www.pvk.ca/Blog/2014/09/13/doodle-hybridising-sbcls-gencgc-with-mark-and-sweep/

<comment><USER2> For anyone with an interest in implementing a basic garbage collector, I recommend SICP[0], specifically section 5.3[1] and the lecture that goes along with it[2].

[0] [http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full- text/book/book.html](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html)

[1] [http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book- Z-H-33.html...](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book- Z-H-33.html#%_sec_5.3)

[2] [http://youtu.be/2s2_FAf- yQs?list=PL8FE88AA54363BC46](http://youtu.be/2s2_FAf- yQs?list=PL8FE88AA54363BC46)

<comment><USER3> This is also a good online reference: [http://www.memorymanagement.org/](http://www.memorymanagement.org/)

<comment><USER4> Also see [http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/rej/gc.html](http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/rej/gc.html) and [http://gchandbook.org/](http://gchandbook.org/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some work has been done on extending Bartlett copying collectors, like the one in SBCL, with mark-sweep: [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spoons/papers/gc/residency05.pdf](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spoons/papers/gc/residency05.pdf).</comment>


Blueberry Farm Uses Lasers to Scare Off Hungry Birds - <AUTHOR> https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/green-tech/conservation/blueberry-farm-uses-lasers-to-scare-off-hungry-birds <comment><AUTHOR> Related article from March this year [0].

[0] [https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/optoelectronics/lic...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/optoelectronics/licehunting- underwater-drone-protects-salmon-with-lasers)</comment>


Ask HN: Favorite Monospace Font? - <AUTHOR> What is your favorite monospace font for prose/code?<p>Related: Do any of you use non-monospace font for code? <comment><USER2> My current favorites are Jetbrains mono and SF mono.

</comment><comment><USER3> The font in my terminal is Jetbrains Mono.

It replaced Input. I loved how you can configure important characters and height spacing in Input to your preference.

If I want something quirky, with a personality, but not so strong as to be off putting, then I reach for Fantasque Sans Mono.

</comment><comment><USER4> I like SF Mono on Mac and its close cousin Roboto Mono elsewhere. Also like Inconsolata a lot.

</comment><comment><USER5> GohuFont. Trying to get it to work in Windows Terminal but it's not working for whatever reason..

[https://font.gohu.org/](https://font.gohu.org/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> My two cents: Ubuntu Mono is the only monospaced font I know that looks good for prose/code. I like to mix code and prose (in web and in Emacs org mode), and I prefer using the same font.

<comment><USER6> ditto.

Ubuntu Mono Bold is very compact horizontally, while not looking squished. Makes understand code with long variable names a bit easier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Firacode and Anonymous Pro

</comment><comment><USER8> [https://github.com/nathco/Office-Code-Pro](https://github.com/nathco/Office- Code-Pro)

</comment><comment><USER9> Consolas, the best mono font hands down. Second best, IMO, is inconsolata.

</comment><comment><USER10> San Francisco Mono

</comment><comment><USER11> FiraCode with ligatures is my favorite.

</comment><comment><USER12> IBM Selectric Pica

</comment><comment><USER13> IBM Plex Mono

</comment><comment><USER14> JetBrains Mono

</comment><comment><USER15> JetBrains Mono

</comment><comment><USER16> Fixed

</comment><comment><USER17> fixed, aka 6x13</comment>


EA refuses to refund user for SimCity, threatens account ban - <AUTHOR> http://www.gamechup.com/ea-refuses-to-refund-user-for-simcity-threatens-account-ban/ <comment><USER2> I would like to say this means I won't buy an EA game but considering how many good franchises they own that would just be a lie. I was going to pick up Sim City. I remember playing it years ago and I loved it. I thought this would be awesome. Now I am definitely not getting it and I can confidently resolve that I will not be buying any future Sim City title.

It is a similar situation with Diablo 3. I was going to get it but after friends abandoned it after about 10 days I figured it wasn't worth it. It also had the same problems as Starcraft with requiring you to be online to even play 'offline' game modes.

A couple of friends and I decided to have a games night a few weeks ago. We lugged our computers to one person's house like the good old days. Got them all running. Installed a bunch of old games and were disappointed to find the majority of multiplayer servers were shut down. Today I read that Sim City stores your saved games online. (I don't know how true this is.) What happens in 5 years time when EA cut back or disconnect their servers? Won't the game be completely unplayable?

Its only in digital good's that you can get screwed like Sim City users are. If I brought Monopoly and found the board was missing I could take it back. Buy a game which doesn't work.. well suck it up fella. Similarly, Amazon can ban your account and you lose access to Kindle books you legitimately paid for...

I might have my facts incorrect here but if an App is removed from the Play / iOS app stores isn't it removed from users devices? What happens to any money you put into those apps?

Pretty much any digital good you buy cannot be resold. Usually reselling your account under which you made such purchases is also not allowed. All in all its a shitty deal for anyone buying digital goods.

Yesterday I read how the EU is getting ready to fine Microsoft presumably for shipping Windows 8 without a browser select screen. I would have thought investigating how consumers are treated by companies offering digital goods should be a far higher priority.

<comment><USER3> >>> I might have my facts incorrect here but if an App is removed from the Play / iOS app stores isn't it removed from users devices?

No, it's not (at least on iOS)

Source: I've bought a Navigation-App which since seems to be discontinued (N-Drive or something like that).

<comment><USER4> What if you buy a new device? Does the purchase live in your account into perpetuity, or are you out of luck when you upgrade to the "next" iDevice?

<comment><USER5> If you use iCloud backup and don't ever sync to a local iTunes, then you're out of luck. If you sync with a local iTunes, the app will be in iTunes and will be installed to the device. Unless of course something on the new device prevents the app from running due to technical reasons, but that's the same with old games and new hardware/OSes

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure this is absolutely true. Years ago I installed an app on my iPhone (Now Playing, a movie times app). That app was removed from the store years ago by the author. Recently I bought an iPad and if I go to "purchased/not on this iPad" in the App Store on the iPad, the app still shows as available for download. You can't search and find it in the store though.

Maybe it still shows because all my devices are iCloud backed up and I never removed it from my iPhone.

<comment><USER7> I believe the key is that it was removed by the author. Apps that are pulled for violating the App Store rules don't show up in Purchased, to my knowledge. I know I have a couple IPAs floating around just in case I need an emergency tether or something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's frustrating to me that people put up with this instead of boycotting the game FOREVER!

I was thinking of buying having seen the early reviews. Now I won't, EVER. I've got plenty of other games to play. I don't need this one.

<comment><USER9> Here's the thing. If people don't buy the game because of DRM then EA execs see this as "no one will ever buy a city sim". So a bunch of people who did buy the game doing chargebacks seems like it sends a better message. It says "I wanted this game for so long I pre-ordered. After I couldn't play due to DRM I wanted a refund."

<comment><USER10> It's a long term strategy. If EA never made another Sim City game, eventually, eventually, someone else would. A Sim City game with a different name, sure. But a Sim City game.

<comment><USER11> Plenty of good building games around from the 90s to today.

Gool Ol' Games offers plenty of classics if you haven't played them. Ceasar 3, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Pharaoh / Cleopatra, Stronghold Crusader... all DRM- free and less than $10 each.

Dwarf Fortress is free as well with an awesome following. If you can get over the ASCII / tileset thing, its a good game.

<comment><USER12> Well, that's awesome if you're into that, but personally I like games that leverage the abilities of modern graphics card. I'm not afflicted with a lot of nostalgia, though, either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is ridiculous. The OP said he was going to dispute the charge with his credit card company at which point the customer service rep said if he does that they will ban his account. This is so people don't buy the game, dispute the charge and keep playing that game for free.

There are people that are good at customer support and those that aren't. I would think this individual falls into the latter category. Does that mean EA is plotting to scam everybody? Hell no. It means that this CSA didn't do a good job explaining WHY they won't issue a refund. This "article" is just fanning the flames of hatred towards EA and not adding anything. If the OP is truly that unhappy, talk to the credit card company to get the money back and then re-buy when the game is stable. But don't expect money back AND the ability to play the game.

<comment><USER14> By "account" he was referring to the Origin account, which contains more games than just SimCity. Threatening to remove SimCity from his account would be perfectly fine. But blocking access to ALL other games as well is simply criminal.

<comment><USER13> Ahhh well that makes more sense on the severity of the issue. However, I highly doubt that EA would want their CSAs to threaten to ban anybody based on asking for a refund or threatening to do a charge back and it is just the work of a terrible CSA

<comment><USER15> It's actually par for the course for these places to ban your entire account if you ever do a chargeback. Steam does it routinely, and I'm sure EA does it too. Just another way that this Brave New Digital World is disenfranchising consumers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> EA chose their words well.

 _"if you regrettably feel that we left you down, you can of course request a refund for your order."_

As far as I know, they didn't state they would proceed with the request, only that you can "request" a refund. I can ask for the moon, it doesn't mean I'll get it.

<comment><USER17> And it's regrettable you'd feel that way anyway, shmuck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Given the two hour wait I had to talk to a billing advisor to try and buy SimCity yesterday, people are still buying this game in their droves. The problem is that there is no incentive for EA to listen to their customers - the monopoly that they have on many of the best franchises allows them to act in such a petulant and anticompetitive manner.

I hate to be the one to say this, but I really can't see this issue being resolved without regulation.

<comment><USER19> Let's see how long that lasts. It sounds like this time around is different from being unable to cancel subscriptions, or a multiplayer server going down - people who _bought the game at release_ actually _cannot play it_ , or encounter major functionality breaks while doing so.

I know that it may be unlikely, but I do hope that this affects their bottom line. EA is a toxic company inside and out.

<comment><USER20> Regarding your comment of toxicity inside---when was this? Is this from personnel experience? Reason I ask is that 'toxic' is counter to my experience while working for them. Had a great time working with an equally great team. No pointy hairs in sight. That however was in 93 and things may well have changed.

<comment><USER21> I never worked for EA, but I know people.

1993 EA has nothing to do with EA from 1996 onwards...

EA screwed Origin (that then they already owned, just read stuff about development of Ultima 8 and 9... there are lots of documents about how executive meddling made U8 a meh game, and U9 a totally ruined game), then bought and ruined Westwood, and so on.

Also as the time passed they got more and more problems with employees. Then we had crazy shit, like when EA closed a studio in LA, and people found out that the studio had more middle managers than grunts, and this is why the studio could not decide what to do, it simply had so much people giving orders and so few people doing, that doing stuff was impossible.

The EA that wrote this: <http://chrishecker.com/Can_a_Computer_Make_You_Cry%3F> doesn't exist anymore.

<comment><USER22> Can you elaborate on what happened in '96? EA have been on my "pirate their games if you really MUST see them yourself" list for a decade at least. However, I wasn't really a gamer back in '93-'96, so I don't know how they used to be and how they changed.

<comment><USER21> I never tried to track what happened exactly, or why.

But their games back then start to suffer from lots of executive meddling, with EA interfering more and more on the artistry of their game authors.

My best guess it is related to the launch of Playstation in late 1995, spurring a race for 3D games and FMV games, requiring much more money than before, and thus requiring more "risk management."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> When I buy SimCity, how long will I be able to play the game for? 30 days? 100 years?

Does EA make any promises about how long they will keep their servers running? If not, what would be the minimum time they would need to keep their servers running to avoid a 'false advertising' prosecution?

<comment><USER24> None? The same could be said if the WoW servers get shut down tomorrow. Game over and move on. It's probably in the Eula you agree to at first login.

<comment><USER25> WoW is a different case. It's sold as an MMO and very clearly doesn't have a single-player version.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure if user ignorance is a valid legal claim. diablo 3 is in the same boat. You can play single player but need to authenticate with the blizzard servers. It those go away its game over.

<comment><USER26> > I'm not sure if user ignorance is a valid legal claim.

IANAL, but there is a case that can be made for reasonable expectation [1]. On the other hand, most people who complain about this _actively demonstrate foreknowledge_ , which AFAICT immediately invalidates their legal standing for reasonable expectation.

I think a talented lawyer may be able to figure out how to draw together law into a strong case where there is some obligation to make sure your game can run mostly-featured without an internet connection... but in order to set precedent, you're probably going to have to sue an indie company to have a fighting chance in terms of money (which would also probably kill said indie) or put together a large enough legal fund to go after a worthwhile target like Ubisoft or EA... and I don't rate your chances high, there.

[1] [http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/doctrine-of- rea...](http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/doctrine-of-reasonable- expectations.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Disputing a card transaction has always resulted in a ban on Origin. But it has also always resulted in a ban on Steam as well. Ostensibly for the reason of card fraud and fraudulent accounts.

Note: I'm referring to in the US here, I'm unsure of the legality of doing that in the EU.

<comment><USER28> But in this case it's not the transaction itself that's being disputed. That person wants to return the game because it has a defect. Returning defective goods is not the same as disputing the transaction, is it? The vindictive support worker implied this himself when he said the ban was within his discretion to use as a means to close this support inquiry.

<comment><USER29> Visa Chargeback Code 53: Not as Described/Defective Merchandise

MasterCard Chargeback Code 53: Cardholder Dispute Defective/Not as Described

Discover Chareback Code RM: Quality of Goods or Services Dispute

Charging a credit card but providing a defective product is a valid chargeback reason.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Considering how litigious America can be, I'm surprised EA and the other majors have not been slapped with a lawsuit. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, the product fails at least the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

<comment><USER31> I'm quite certain implied warranties are disclaimed in the EULA.

<comment><USER32> I fairly certain you can't just disclaim things like that. It's similar to adding illegal clauses to a contract - just because you signed it, it doesn't suddenly change the law.

<comment><USER29> You can disclaim implied warranties. Virtually _every_ EULA and website TOS document does so (OT: it bugs me a bit that you're "fairly certain" about this, while you've undoubtedly agreed to that disclaimer dozens of times a year all your life). The UCC itself sets out the rules for disclaiming the implied warranties. It has to be done in a clear and conspicuous manner to be effective, which is why that's the part that's always in full CAPS in the contract, making it particularly easy to spot.

For example, Google's TOS:

> SOME JURISDICTIONS PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN WARRANTIES, LIKE THE IMPLIED WARRANTY > OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. > TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE EXCLUDE ALL WARRANTIES.

<http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/>

Or Twitter's:

> THE TWITTER ENTITIES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, WHETHER EXPRESS > OR IMPLIED, OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON- > INFRINGEMENT.

<https://twitter.com/tos>

Or the iTunes store:

> APPLE, ISSUER, AND THEIR LICENSEES, AFFILIATES, AND LICENSORS MAKE NO > WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO GIFT CERTIFICATES, ITUNES > CARDS, CONTENT CODES, ALLOWANCES, OR THE ITUNES STORE, APP STORE, MAC APP > STORE, OR IBOOKSTORE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED > WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE

<http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html#SALE>

<comment><USER33> A company can stick whatever it likes in its EULA (or any contract), but that doesn't make it legally enforceable. Company lawyers are paid lots of money to be extremely defensive. It costs them nothing to disclaim all warranties, the only purpose of which seems to be to dissuade some people from taking them to court because of this.

I am more familiar with UK law, but I am certain that under US law if there is a constradiction between what is stated in an otherwise valid contract and US law, then US law takes precedence and the legal contract is modified to comply with US law. It must be that way otherwise you could sign people into slavery by just saying "look its here in the contract". Or "no I am legally allowed to beat my wife, see she signed this contract saying I could".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> A very bad practice - either don't issue a statement or honour it. Am sure as the story creates some noise, the user may get a refund, but not all of them. Sad.

<comment><USER35> There was no statement by the company. Some employee said it on forums. They honor their ToS - no refunds.

<comment><USER34> But aren't the employees speaking on behalf of the company? If not, then the company should add a disclaimer to their statement.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> It's like Seinfeld at the car rental place. "Sure, you can request a refund..."

</comment><comment><USER37> Hilaroius (and sad) timelapse video someone made of them "playing" the game... mostly server error messages. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m62ppOUwFhk>

</comment><comment><USER38> I'm the odd one out I know. EA refunded my money for BF3 after I complained about silly requirement for a browser plugin to play single player.

Steam/Valve on the other hand actually did the opposite. They did not refund my money for games that had invasive DRM and were not marked but pointed me to their EULA that said they would disable my whole account if I made a charge back.

[https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5406-WFZ...](https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5406-WFZC-5519)

I despise online only DRM, but please lets not only bash EA here. Valve is just as bad.

</comment><comment><USER39> Wonder if users can use credit card chargebacks for cases like this.

<comment><USER40> Easily. You claim the company didn't deliver the product as ordered and is refusing to refund your money. That's what chargebacks are _for_.

That said, chargebacks aren't a blanket get out of jail free card. Some CC plans offer consumer protection insurance, which goes above and beyond simple chargebacks.

<comment><USER41> Be careful - if you have bought any other games on Origin, you will lose those too if you do a chargeback and they ban your account. You are not just losing SimCity, you are losing anything you have bought on the same account.

<comment><USER42> Can they get a chargeback on those games as well? Or how is that not some form of theft? He bought the previous games, and the company forcefully removed them from him and keeps his money.

<comment><USER43> Many credit companies would not let you to contest transactions beyond certain limits (90 days? don't remember) so with old games that probably won't work. Not sure if any of them provide warranties for digital goods... Worst case one may try one's luck in small claims court, though what would be the result is anyone's guess - there's certainly language in EULA saying you're not getting any money back but that may or may not be legally true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Suspiciously, the chat log doesn't include the agents greeting, and seems to pick up mid-convo. Why would someone include part of a transcript and not the entire thing? Makes me think there's something embarrassing to the OP that was omitted.

Either way, this is like seeing a fight but not seeing who threw the first punch: the OP could've been a massive d-bag in the beginning of the convo. If so, I'd completely understand (as a former tech support agent) why the customer may have been denied remedy.

<comment><USER45> If OP felt ripped of to the tune of $60, I think it is quite understandable if he was a bit of a douchebag. I can hardly see that as a reasonable justification for denying a refund.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Apparently, a petition has been started on change.org to refund SimCity customers : [http://www.change.org/petitions/electronic-arts-refund- simci...](http://www.change.org/petitions/electronic-arts-refund-simcity- customers-2)

There is another hn thread about it : <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5343715>

</comment><comment><USER47> What are the biggest challenges that open-source game developers face? Can open-source games ever approach "AAA quality" game designs or art?

<comment><USER48> I wouldn't worry about game _design_ \--if you've looked at an AAA game recently you can probably whiteboard out something more interesting and refine it with iteration once it's playable.

What I would worry about is labor costs. People got-ta get paid. An AAA- quality game isn't something you're going to do nights-and-weekends for free when you could be leveraging those skills to get paid. You might get the help of wannabes who don't have the skills to get paid, but do you want to rely on that to push a game that by your own definition is going to require some fairly serious chops to ship?

Sure, open source blah blah blah--but most open source projects that get significant, large-scale contributions have knock-on effects like being able to be easily hired for consulting gigs, that sort of thing. Game development, not so much. And artist types are not inculcated into the open-source world to nearly the extent of programmers, so I find it unlikely that you'll be able to really source all the media you need.

There's usually a ton of overly naive hand-flapping about how you have Wesnoth and Nexuiz and the rest, but if you _look at the games_ , they're not what a reasonable person would call an AAA title on the level of a Starcraft 2 or a Halo (and Nexuiz in particular is based on a closed-source game engine opened up years after its licensing viability was over).

I'm sure you can make good, fun games in an open-source way (because it has been done) but I strongly doubt you'll make anything that's competitive in the AAA market space without accepting that you're lighting a few million dollars on fire (because let's get real, effectively nobody's going to pay you a dime for it).

.

(This is also why I laughed at the guy upthread who said "oh, _the market_ should solve this, someone should start a Kickstarter for a city sim game!". That's not how Kickstarter works and it's not how somebody who can do math approaches a game. To get attention for a high-ask Kickstarter you need a decent chunk of work _already done_ , and by the time you get there the shitbomb of SimCity will probably have departed and taken its stink elsewhere. To build a game on the scale of SimCity in a length of time that won't have your backers screaming for your head, you're going to need a couple million dollars. With extremely rare, you're-not-it exceptions, Kickstarter backers laugh at such requests. It's the "zeitgeist projects" that manage to hit their targets and then a high multiple thereof--and the worst thing that can happen to you if you're hoping to be one of those projects is that you _make your goal_ and no more.

Economies of scale suck for the ambitious, because no matter how cool your idea, people gotta get paid.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I remember when I was playing these games you could just buy it, run it and enjoy. Now you have DRM, overloaded servers, all kinds of trouble - I actually feel good I'm not that interested in this anymore, and if I want to play for old times' sake I'd just fish out old copy of Starcraft, C&C or Civilization and play it as much as I want without having to rely on anybody for permission. What happened to that?

OTOH, there are normal publishers, like Steam, from which I bought a couple of games and never had any trouble. So it's possible to do it right. EA just doesn't want to do it.

</comment><comment><USER49> I wasn't aware the game didn't release for Mac until later this Spring. I bought it, tried to install it and contacted EA after realizing my mistake. After waiting for 45 minutes for a person to answer the LiveChat, then 5 minutes after that, and I had my refund. I've rethought my purchase and probably won't buy it when it comes out for Mac. (Unless they make major changes to the Mac version because of the backlash. _nudge nudge EA_ )

</comment><comment><USER50> I think the big problem here is that EA enjoys a near monopoly in some sense (say for PC games, certain genres). Most of their PC games in the past few years have been a giant shit show of bugs and server failures, but no one else in the industry has the money to be able to compete with them. Result: The monopoly exploits its customers, and the customers come back anyways, because there is no choice.

</comment><comment><USER51> It's sad to watch another company I loved as a kid to go in the shitter.

</comment><comment><USER52> You clearly have no idea how big a problem chargebacks are for companies. I have no sympathy for anyone who threatens with it.

<comment><USER53> You clearly have no idea how big a problem DRM are for customers. I have no sympathy for anyone who use it.

Especially in this case where the DRM have totally screwed up the game, where EA have explicitly said people to ask for a refund, and denied it in the end.

<comment><USER52> No, I don't. What exactly is the problem and would it still be one if the servers were running smoothly?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> People should be looking at this as an opportunity. Start a game company that has a sane distribution model.

</comment><comment><USER55> I'm watching this, sipping a cocktail and waiting for the crack to come out.

</comment><comment><USER56> doubt they can get away with it for much longer. Even amazon is reporting the issues directly on the product page: <http://amzn.to/16cCByx>

</comment><comment><USER57> i smell a class action lawsuit ...

<comment><USER58> There's probably a dozen clauses in the game's EULA that prevent a class action lawsuit.

<comment><USER59> That may be true. But 5000 small claims suits would be devastating to their bottom line. Unless they no-show, they have to have a lawyer representing them at each one.

Death by a thousand cuts, indeed.

<comment><USER60> Petitioners' lawyers are forbidden from entering small claims court. They have to send a representative, or no-show.

no-show -> default judgement -> refund, worst case.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Reader Conditionals in Clojure - <AUTHOR> http://dev.clojure.org/display/design/Reader+Conditionals <comment> aaron-santos As someone who uses cljx and leaves "lein cljx auto" and "lein cljsbuild auto" running in the background, how is my workflow going to change when I switch to reader conditionals?

<comment><USER2> If I understand right, you'll be able to eliminate the "lein cljx auto" and instead the reader(s) will be responsible for using the correct platform- specific snippet.

<comment><USER3> Correct.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> For someone who is very new to Clojure, but trying to learn, can someone please explain what this is?

<comment><USER5> There are (currently) three host implementations of clojure: Clojure(JVM), ClojureCLR(.NET CLR), and ClojureScript(JavaScript). Supporting this reader conditional can facilitate code reuse as much as possible.

<comment><AUTHOR> To expand on this a bit more: while all three implementations are "Clojure", since Clojure is a hosted language (i.e. doesn't specify/implement its own VM) and embraces this fact, there are subtle differences between the various implementations. Some of these differences could be viewed as "bugs" and should eventually go away (e.g. cannot use macros at runtime in CLJS), but some are inherent to the platform (e.g. how do you convert a string to an integer?).

Originally, if your code was simple enough and didn't touch any of the parts that were different between the implementations, then you could simply run the same code under Clojure, ClojureScript, and ClojureCLR. If it was even mildly involved, though, you'd have to write separate implementations for each.

Then the CLJX project came along. It introduced the `#+clj` and `#+cljs` forms that could be used to specify code that should only run under Clojure or ClojureScript respectively. For Clojure v1.7.0, the goal is to implement something similar in the core language. At first the plan was to simply adopt the CLJX forms directly, but as of 1.7.0-alpha6 there is this new concept of a conditional reader.

Ultimately, as a beginning Clojurist the impact to you should be small. Eventually, if you are looking to write libraries to be used across both Clojure and ClojureScript, this will be useful to reduce the amount of duplication in your project. As you move towards the heights of advanced Clojure usage, though, this turns out to be a very powerful concept that could potentially be useful for a wide range of applications.

<comment><USER3> Great answer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Did they change the syntax to full forms? Previously they looked like cljx prefixes I thought. Looks much better imo.

<comment><USER3> Yes, the conditional part is always an expression or a spliced list.</comment></comment>


Arty Bollocks (automatically generated artist statements) - <AUTHOR> https://www.artybollocks.com/ <comment><USER2> Is it possible to permalink one? Is there a technical explanation of the generator?

<comment><USER3> No. No.

<comment><USER2> A blog post with a technical explanation may get more traction here, but it may break part of the magic for your main public.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> thanks for calling out BS in this fun way :)</comment>


Building a CRUD App with Datomic Cloud Ions - <AUTHOR> https://jacobobryant.com/post/2019/ion/ <comment><USER2> I'm working on a web app using the mentioned Datascript library. It is in- memory DB with Datalog query language, written as open-source implementation of Datomic principles. It's usable from Clojure(script) and JS.

Takes some time to adapt way of thinking to its data model and I'm just starting to reap the benefits. Boy does this thing pack some serious power! Prodding the data for complex relations ("find two friends with same birthdays that also have cars of same color") becomes trivial, which opens up a whole new possible features I haven't dared to consider before. Combine it with React rendering and you get a very clean and powerful model for building complex web applications. I'm enjoying it a lot.

If anyone is interested in Datalog query language, here's a good resource: [http://www.learndatalogtoday.org/](http://www.learndatalogtoday.org/)

<comment><USER3> > "find two friends with same birthdays that also have cars of same color"

Wasn't that always a simple thing to do, e.g. in SQL?

And how about monitoring changes in the database based on a query? Is that possible and efficient?

<comment><USER2> It's possible in SQL, in Datascript it's effortless. There's a big difference in mental overhead and thus how often you would want reach into DB. There are other benefits.

You don't do any string mungling, your query is itself composed of data structures. You can build it easily with code, so your queries become as elaborate as you can generate them.

Unlike SQL tables that you have to figure out from start, the data model is a collection of facts, with each fact consisting of {entity_id, attribute, value, transaction_info}. By adding facts to database you build the knowledge about entities and different relations between entities in an organic way. You can still use the table model, or you can use graph model.

The whole DB is just a value in memory. You can transit it to server, store history copies in memory (for undo/redo), do diffs, whatever you need.

As for monitoring changes, I'm using the Posh lib (also mentioned in article). It monitors the DB and re-renders react component if there are transactions relevant to component's queries. It seems very efficient so far, but I still have to test it with large number of components and transactions.

<comment><USER3> > As for monitoring changes, I'm using the Posh lib (also mentioned in > article). It monitors the DB and re-renders react component if there are > transactions relevant to component's queries. It seems very efficient so > far, but I still have to test it with large number of components and > transactions.

Interesting. Do you know if, upon a change, it reruns the queries from scratch, or does it update the results based on the actual changes?

<comment><USER2> It will re-run the queries whenever new transactions contain new data for queried entities. It does so by pattern matching on transaction data.

For truly reactive datalog subscriptions, let's see what happens with clj-3df project. Unlike Datascript, it requires you to use server infrastructure right from start.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I see two problems with Datomic: the pricing seems a bit high for home use, and the professional version has the problem that you have to submit your data to the cloud, which is not always possible as clients may not always allow sharing of data with 3rd-parties.

The ideas seem interesting though. Is there an open-source equivalent of Datomic yet?

<comment><USER4> This looks promising [https://juxt.pro/crux/index.html](https://juxt.pro/crux/index.html)

datalog, high performance, flexible deployment options, open source. especially interesting for us because you can actually remove data for gdpr/compliance reasons. Datomic has a lot of trouble with that in our experience

<comment><USER5> It does look cool. Is anyone out there using it in production?

<comment><USER6> I'm guessing the creators solved a real business need and decided to go open source. Really nice folks btw. Props to juxt.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


22 Year old Twitter employee critically wounded by Mission District gunfire - <AUTHOR> https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-transit-advocate-critically-wounded-by-Mission-15244213.php <comment><AUTHOR> This was his tweet just minutes before being shot [https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/1257352054051405826](https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/1257352054051405826)</comment>


Ask HN: Best cellular device for verbose real-time IM? - <AUTHOR>

From typical cellphone-size where the on-screen keyboard is impractically small, to a standard iPad where the keyboard is ok if you're used to it but the device is not exactly compact, I'm looking for the smallest device that'll reliably do the job.  I have not tried 7" tablets, phablets, nor obviously the iPad mini.  What works for you in a situation where chats can get pretty verbose yet as engineers we aren't exactly longing for voice and certainly not video conferencing :) ? <comment><USER2> This has always been (and, till now, still is) BlackBerry's forte. Even though their software is not up to snuff, their hardware is undoubtedly built for just this use case.

</comment><comment><USER3> I was pretty comfortable with 4'3 inch android phone (xperia S to be precise), you could also get android phone with physical keyboard.

</comment><comment><USER4> In the old days, I'd have said BlackBerry and BlackBerry Messenger. Now I'd say an iOS device and iMessage.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Great, thanks for the replies before I got scrolled away!</comment>


Netspeak – Search for Words - <AUTHOR> http://www.netspeak.org/ <comment><USER2> This is awesome, the back button hijacking isn't though. right now theres a history entry for every word in the query.</comment>


How Soylent Auto-Transcribes Phone Calls to Build a Database of Legal Advice - <AUTHOR> https://zapier.com/blog/transcribe-phone-calls/ <comment><USER2> Wait so they have their conversations with legal listened to and transcribed by random people at Rev? Considering the things one usually talks with lawyers about, it may not be super great to share that with random people outside the company.

<comment><USER3> Along these lines, in theory allowing a 3rd party to listen to these conversations waives the attorney client privilege. In practice this would amount to being able to compel REV to testify about these conversations when relevant.

<comment><USER4> not if Rev is being paid for their work. Think of it like an english to spanish translator, a spanish only illegal immigrant can still expect privilege with their counsel even if translator is there. Just because a third party is involved doesn't automatically waive privilege, it needs to be a third party unrelated to the case.

<comment><USER3> The Courts will look at the precise role of the third party to determine if the privilege has been waived. Obviously, there is a major distinction in using a interpreter, when the interpreter is _essential_ [1] to further the legal representation. Whereas in the Soylent example, REV is not essential to further the representation, for example the lawyer/client could transcribe the conversation themselves and are only using a 3rd party for convenience.

[1]State v. Shire, 850 S.W.2d 923 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993) - Because the daughter wasn't essential in conveying information to the lawyer and wasn't reasonably necessary to protect her mother's interests, her presence at the meeting destroyed the privilege.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is actually a really bad idea because of attorney-client privilege issues. By having a third party record the call, Uberconference or Gmail or Rev or Zapier itself, and it being sent forward to several other services, Soylent most likely waived any claim of privilege they may have in the event of litigation.

If you are a company considering doing this I would be very cautious.

I commend the hack, but unfortunately the legal world of ethics isn't moving as fast as technology.

</comment><comment><USER6> Lawyers typically bill in increments of 6 minutes.

So when I had a question for my lawyer, I spent a few minutes polishing it up and sent an email. The response was usually billed for one or two increments.

It doesn't require a Rube Goldberg device to turn text into text.

And it turns out that good lawyers are good at writing. It's as central to their job as coding is to ours.

<comment><USER7> This has not been my experience at all. I've found that a phone call is much more efficient. If permitted, many lawyers I've dealt with, several of whom were clearly the best and most professional, would milk an email or text-based response for quite a lot more, even after being asked to keep it brief.

<comment><USER6> If you feel your lawyer is overcharging you, tell them so, complain to the local bar and/or find another lawyer.

<comment><USER7> Complaining over this kind of issue to local bar will get you absolutely nowhere. I did switch attorneys, two or three times, but they all do this and all assert that all others do it. To boot, in some situations such as family court, switching attorneys can be and often is taken by the judge as a sign that you don't have your shit together well enough to hold down an attorney. Even if you switched for a completely legitimate reason, they can hold it against you and play favorites with the other counsel. This was especially true for a family member of mine going through such a circumstance in a small, rural community where all possible attorneys to hire in the area had close dealings with all of the judicial staff.

<comment><USER6> OK, you had a bad experience. I've had good experiences. Let's leave it at that.

<comment><USER8> You've had a good experience,he has had bad experiences. See the difference? The only way you repackaged the discussion was a cheap maneuver, and misleading.

Also, his (only anecdotal, blah blah blah) argument took pains to paint a picture of the entire field/profession using not only his (multiple, to your one) lawyer experiences but also secondhand accounts of people saying the entire industry charges a lot for email.

<comment><USER6> > _The only way you repackaged the discussion was a cheap maneuver, and > misleading._

I object to this. I didn't "repackage" the conversation. I pointed out we had diverging experiences. Telling someone that their experiences didn't happen (his or mine) is plainly silly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Soylent seems like an ecommerce dev firm with a food product on the side. This article is more detailed than anything they've released about their actual Soylent formulation development and testing procedure.

<comment><USER10> That's what bothers me about those guys. Their product testing is inadequate.[1] Their outsourced fulfillment operation loses orders.[2] They only do a few sales per minute. No major distributor stocks their product. Yet they're always talking about how elaborate their computer operations are.

[1] [http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9171521/soylent- prop-65-la...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9171521/soylent- prop-65-labeling-unsafe-chemicals) [2] [http://readwrite.com/2014/07/22/soylent-food-replacement- bad...](http://readwrite.com/2014/07/22/soylent-food-replacement-bad-customer- service)

<comment><USER11> > Their product testing is inadequate.[1]

Did we read the same article? That article has _nothing_ to do with their product testing. It has everything to do with Prop 65 and labeling. To quote TFA:

> But legalities and press releases aside, from a practical health > perspective, none of this may matter: as Soylent notes, Prop 65's guidelines > are notoriously stringent, pulling many everyday products into its labeling > regime — and outside California, there are other more broadly accepted sets > of lead and cadmium guidelines that the product meets.

...?

> Their outsourced fulfillment operation loses orders.[2]

Present tense.. they _had_ major shipping and supply problems at launch. They don't seem to anymore.

<comment><USER12> They didn't put prop 65 stickers on the product, even though the absurdly low limits of prop 65 required the warning.

That might be because they didn't test the product well enough to detect those very low levels; or because they think prop 65 is bogus; or because they just didn't realise it was a thing.

None of those are great for a food product.

(Although I agree the prop 65 labelling is so strict it becomes worthless.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just curious. Did they let the lawyers know the call is being recorded (it might even be illegal not to do so in some states)? and how did the lawyers react?

<comment><USER14> All recorded calls on UberConference begin with an automated message: "This call is being recorded"

<comment><USER8> Doctors record your health info too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is a great post. I'd love to hear more about multistage zaps people use. I'd also enjoy a post that talked about different zaps that zapier uses in house.

</comment><comment><USER16> > "That couldn't be further from the truth. We drink Soylent because it gives > us the time to do other things that we love."

I find this strange that he acts like food is an obstacle (all of the time). What about the joy of enjoying your food?

<comment><USER11> This again... you can drink Soylent and still enjoy food. You can drink it for the times when you just need food but don't need to enjoy it.

<comment><USER16> Meal replacements have been around forever. Why is soylent better?

<comment><USER17> True meal replacements which are suitable for long-term use are not widely marketed to consumers. They tend to be available only through medical channels.

<comment><USER18> 1\. Why is Ensure unsuitable for long-term use? (It's available at every local supermarket and drugstore, nutritionally complete, and marketed as being suitable for exactly this purpose.)

2\. If we're assuming that this is a meal replacement for when you don't want to eat traditional meals, does it matter if it's suitable for long-term use?

<comment><USER19> "Ensure is intended for supplemental use with or between meals and for interim sole-source nutrition."

Soylent is a total food replacement; you don't need to eat anything else at all. It's not supplemental, and it's not interim.

If you're not eating it a lot, then no, there isn't any _need_ for Soylent.

<comment><USER18> Ensure is also intended for complete replacement of meals; they just don't market that way in the US to the general public. They do to doctors, and they're more open about this use outside the US. From [https://ensure.ca/en/faq](https://ensure.ca/en/faq) :

 _For how long can I use Ensure®?? How many servings do I need to consume each day to meet my daily needs for good health?_

 _Ensure® products deliver complete and balanced nutrition Ensure® products can be used daily. Individual needs depend on many factors — age, gender, level of activity, health status. Please consult your health care professional for details related to your health._

 _Can Ensure® replace a meal?_

 _Yes. Ensure® products are complete and balanced, when used in appropriate amounts they can be used to replace meals._

Basically, if you're going to do something like switch to Ensure or Soylent or _anything_ as your sole meal source, talk to your doctor first, but if the doctor doesn't object, Ensure is as usable for this purpose as Soylent.

<comment><USER19> Yes, it "can replace meals." It can't replace _all_ meals, and that wording exhibits a good deal of effort trying to hide that fact from you.

What is the appropriate amount of Ensure you'd have to eat in a day to survive on nothing else, and is that the actual amount recommended for meal replacement?

<comment><USER12> This is untrue. Ensure can be, and has been, used as sole source of nutrition.

> that wording exhibits a good deal of effort trying to hide that fact from > you.

No, that wording is keeping them compliant with stringent regulatory systems. The fact that Soylent ignores that regulation is a bug, not a feature.

More than one person has pointed out your error. The fact you continue to push it is dishonest.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Didnt have time to read this article. Had friends over and we cooked a nice meal together and had a very pleasant evening. I like it that way.</comment>


TSB boss Paul Pester to step down after IT fiasco - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45406322 <comment><AUTHOR> Plus the timeline of events: [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/06/timeline- of...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/06/timeline-of-trouble- how-the-tsb-it-meltdown-unfolded)</comment>


Ask HN: What's the actual trends in research for AI? - <AUTHOR>

What are the actual challenges in research for Artificial Intelligence and Applied AI ? Is there some common trends ? <comment><USER2> Machine learning.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's the general sub-field, but what is the little corners that researchers are seeking in machine learning for example.</comment></comment>


Show HN: An ORM-like JavaScript client for PostgREST - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/supabase/postgrest-js <comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN, this is a JS wrapper for PostgREST ([http://postgrest.org](http://postgrest.org)). PostgREST turns a PostgreSQL database instantly into a RESTful API.

You can do some amazing things with PostgREST such as querying through table relationships, just like GraphQL. Our library makes it simple:

        let { body: countries } = await client
        .from('countries')
        .select(`
            name,
            cities (
                name
            )
        `)

They just released version 7, and with it some awesome updates (such as the ability to query any of your schemas). We've posted this library before, but we just updated it to support PostgREST v7.

If you haven't already tried PostgREST, I recommend it highly.</comment>


Ask HN: How to build the internal analytics for a SaaS startup? - <AUTHOR>

Currently working in a startup with zero analytics besides Google Analytics. Want to build a lot of more. Where to start? I know some tools such as analytics.js / Mixpanel but what should the analytics strategy be? <comment><USER2> Are you asking which tools to use or what to measure? Strategy to me is what to measure, although there is some technical strategy on how to measure and display the data so it isn't overwhelming and useless.

First, measure most everything at the day, week, month and yearly level, then do week over week, month over month and year over year comparisons. Usually this means we store the most granular level and then rollup from there.

What to measure depends on what you are doing, but IMO these are some general things you should always measure: signups, cancels, time on site, time from signup to first use, A/B tests of course on features, pricing etc. This is in addition to the normal reliability, server metrics etc. I recently setup our sites to start tracking peoples first visit until signup, of course this isn't foolproof as it relies on a cookie, but I think it will help us over time.

The key to the analytics/metrics is you want to be able to cross section them and be able to look at when you add a new feature, or remove something etc.

Frankly, besides storing normal metrics, we store every API call, the time it takes, who made it, which machines were involved etc. This lets us basically look at everything that happens. From that I can get signups, cancellations, engagement statistics and a whole host of other things, this solves most of the business questions and almost all operational concerns like machines being whacked.

Not saying my ideas are 100% right or even correct in all circumstances, but thought I'd at least share.

<comment><USER2> Also, just for a little more detail.

From the business you need to measure profitability, cash, revenue, customer acquisition cost, supply chain (where the customer came from), customer value, life time customer value, time to cover CAC etc. Not sure where you are at with those.

Even in these broad categories there are lots of details. For example on revenue, IMO you should measure it against head count, as well measure profitability against # of employees etc. When you are bootstrapped or working on the smallest possible budget, this will also help you know when you can/should add more staff etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks a lot. This is a good starting point. Any external tool or lib that you recommend?

<comment><USER2> Not really a specific tool. We write all our analytics out and then do some rollups in the database and use Highcharts to display them on the website. Not super fancy, but effective. For our setup its more about the process to rollup the data than a specific toolset. We wrote all our own metrics and tracking using a middleware concept with Express in node.js. That's probably not totally relevant to your use case.

Hopefully that helps a little. Let me know if I can help you any more, happy to share whatever I can.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to land a startup internship as an undergrad? - <AUTHOR>

There are plenty of articles and blog posts about preparing for job interviews, but very few cover internships; specifically technical engineering internships. As an undergrad I often feel pressured to grasp at the latest and most hip technologies simply to be marketable in that sector (ie putting new obscure javascript libraries on our resumes.) It seems that many hiring managers are looking at existing skills in interns rather than the prospective to learn and contribute.
The truth is most undergrads are in the same boat; we have taken pretty much a standard set of courses, done a couple of projects and fundamentally learned only a small set of  languages/frameworks/etc.
So the question is, how do we differentiate ourselves just to get through the resume screener? For me personally it is even more complicated as I am a math and physics major with expertise in fundamental technologies yet a big appetite and willingness to pick up new skills on demand (and that I can do well and quickly!)
Any tips for undergraduates for marketing ourselves the best way are appreciated. (obviously if there are people looking for engineer interns with a math physics background please do reach out to me :) <comment><USER2> Getting something on GitHub will immediately put you in the top 10% in my experience, even if it's not written in the latest/most hip technology. Something on GitHub that other people appear to actually be using = top 2%. :)</comment>