We're giving out free 1CPU, 2GB, 10GB SSD -servers, celebrating our launch. - <AUTHOR> https://secure.upcloud.com/freeserver

<comment> grey-area I've just tried this out - you can sign up without CC details. I don't think it's fair to characterise this as just bait - there has to be a reward for both parties in an offer like this. I think this is of interest to the HN crowd, and as long as they don't keep spamming HN with it, it's useful info. So not flagged.

The service looks great - control panel looks good and covers much of the same stuff as linode, setup is a breeze. I think the design of the panel is nice and clear. One thing I would recommend is that you guide customers not to leave root login open, and perhaps request a key during setup instead (at least as an option), as leaving ssh open on port 22 and accessible by root by default is going to leave a lot of your servers more vulnerable than they should be, particularly if people change the root password to something silly.

Do you offer DNS? That'd be a nice addition if not, haven't looked around fully so might have missed it.

I'll be testing this out in a small way for personal projects, but it looks comparable to something like Linode _IF_ you can match their uptime and service, which is a really hard thing to do. Obviously I wouldn't trust it for anything important until I and many others have tested it for quite some time and found any issues, so you might find it difficult to collect serious customers at first, but I think this offer is a great way to entice people to try it out.

I like that backups have a very low price per hour - £0,000056

A few tiny localisation hints:

Customers in the english speaking world will find commas as separators on prices confusing.

There is no verb 'backuping' that should be backing up - I'm trying one now!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment and initial feedback!

Uptime and service is definitely something which is hard to do, but at the top of our list on things to focus. And as always with services like ours - we are in the business of trust, we need to earn it over time so we're not expecting miracles.

Thanks for the localisation tips as well - much appreciated :)

<comment> grey-area One other thing I noticed - backups are attached to servers at present. What I would really like to be able to do is this:

1\. Backup any server to a central store of backups

2\. Set up new servers from those backups

Having the backups attached to a server make them a little less useful (I assume they'll go away if you delete a server?). The above would let me have a known-good setup saved and ready to use and use that to create new servers (rather than cloning off an existing server as you currently offer), and thus save on setup time for common server types.

If you have to clone a current server to set up new ones, either you have to keep a blank 'template' current server around, or live with duplicating all the existing server files even though you might not want them for the new server.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback!

Even though our control panel describes the backups as server dependant, backups are in their technical sense separate storage entities.

The downside is that our control panel doesn't currently allow the creation of new instances from backups (but you can naturally clone running or stopped instances - which many of our customers do). You can circumvent this through our API for the time being, which allows backups to be cloned to regular disks through the clone storage -function. We're adding this functionality to our control panel soon though.

<comment> grey-area Great, thanks...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> And to add the fine print:1) We give 100 euro of credit that enables you to run it for more than 70 days.2) No commitments, credit cards needed. 3) Non- transferrable, non-refundable, one per account - 1000 servers given out in total.

We're just eager to make a splash and hear feedback on how people use and would like to use a service like ours.

ps. Here's our recent discussion on HN: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5317647>

<comment><USER2> Hi, I've just signed up for a server, and my initial impression is a happy one. I'm going to trial a service on it and I'll try and provide as much feedback as I can.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, looking forwards to it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why do ISPs always have sysadmins who look so smart? Where do you find them? <https://en.upcloud.com/images/ourmanindc.jpg>

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting. Good luck with the service! Where can we read more about it? What technology are you using? Are you using any of the popular cloud platforms (openstack, cloudstack, opennebula etc)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Nux! We're really excited :) Our technology is home grown, there's a lot of information on our site regarding the decisions we have made.

You can find the information here: <http://en.upcloud.com/features>

<comment><USER4> I (and prolly many others) would be very interested to hear about any open source technologies you are using, if at liberty to discuss. The features page is nice, but not really technical, I imagine it's addressed to "IT managers" and such kind of people. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I can (have) rack 2 x 1U top spec Dell servers (12 2.8ghz cores, 32gb mem, 4tb hd) with 3 year hardware warranties (next day), in separate locations with 1000mbps pipes at a grand cost of ~£200 a month over a 3 years period.

The equivalent with yourselves (max 8cores and 1tb hd) is well over £800 .. I've not spent much time looking into the advantages of cloud servers but can you at least give me a quick list of reasons you think your service is worth so much more?

I'm guessing the key is only spinning up what you need. Doing a quick calculation of peak times for my services, which is about 12 hours per day not including weekends the cost drops to about £300 per month. But this doesn't take into account the overhead of having to plan and implement something that can spin up resources when unexpected traffic hits.

I can see the value in your service for low value customers whose blogs suddenly hit the front page of HN or reddit for example .. but the cost of servers and rack space is so low I find it hard to justify the massive cost involved in cloud servers when you can just rack stupid amounts of computing power for such a low cost yourself.

<comment><USER6> I think that's the standard question for cloud computing.

Is your system:

* Very consistent (no significant peaks or troughs of ~5x normal usage)

* Has predictable growth

* Comfortable with half of your capacity being down for x hours due to hardware failure

If you can answer all of that with "Yes", then cloud computing (and even virtualisation) is probably not for you, you'll be paying a premium for something you don't want or need.

But if you were to scale up your own application to have peaks that needed the capacity of 20 physical servers instead of 2, but with 18 of those same servers running idle 5 days a week, then the answer might start to look different.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well said, sir. The only thing I'd add is that few people/companies want to carry the risk of paying the fixed sum for 36 months.

If this is not an issue, then your own equipment is definitely a better way to go.

<comment><USER6> Very good to see a cloud provider agree with that, it seems a lot of them want to try and force the wrong workloads into their systems :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I had a problem with registration. My last name was treated as invalid value, so I went with ASCII version (without diactric). Same letter seems to work fine in first name, but to be consistent I used there only ASCII letters too in the end.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for letting us know - if you can't sign-in or activate your account for this reason, please contact our support to solve the issue. You can e-mail them here: email@example.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've put together a few very quick tests I carried out after the last story on here about Upcloud, you can see them here if you don't want to go through the hassle to just run some perf tests:

[http://www.ewanleith.com/blog/1228/upcloud-cloud-iaas- perfor...](http://www.ewanleith.com/blog/1228/upcloud-cloud-iaas-performance- tests-and-initial-thoughts)

I think it's an interesting approach that they're taking, but they'll need to build out more services like load balancing, DNS, hosted databases and so on, before they can make a significant impact as a cloud service provider.

</comment><comment><USER8> We currently use servers with SSD and I am always interested to look at new offers.

I found your site very nice in term of design but the message is really not clear. "Excellent CPU- and IO-Performance 24/7" does not mean anything, I want to have more concrete information with for example an overview of I/O performances.

The 100% SLA agreement does not mean anything for me. I would prefer to have an overview of the technical architecture and decide myself if it worth it or not...

And the end I did not found enough technical information to go further.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the honest feedback! We're going to be benchmarking ourselves against other providers on Serverbear and CloudHarmony, for example, in the near future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> A minor note on the form's validation: if you enter a phone number with a space separating the code and number, it'll be rejected, but with no indication as to what failed, or why. (Not that UpCloud is alone in being flummoxed by spaces in numbers - witness the many, many credit card entry fields around the web that refuse to strip spaces out)

Also, on activating the account, if you don't have JS and cookies enabled, the page is simply reloaded, failing silently. That done, however, it works fine, even with, in my case, a relatively unknown browser. ^_^

</comment><comment><USER10> Registration page (from the email link once you've signed up) appears to be broken on Safari on my iPad. Basically every character entered causes the page to refresh and hide the keyboard.

Otherwise I've just signed up and like the look so far - the control panel and machine deployment is clearly presented and straightforward.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, thanks for this! We'll definitely investigate this further.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> How does this compare to DigitalOcean, which is about a quarter of the price of this? ($19+ vs $5), for similar specs?

<comment><AUTHOR> I can only comment on our offering, but naturally DigitalOcean is putting up great competition in terms of pricing.

A few things to consider when hosting with us:

1) We only use enterprise grade hardware currently from Dell and all network related devices are from Cisco (so high performance is guaranteed through out the device lifecycle in SSDs for example).

2) We take redundancy very seriously. All of our stack is redundant from routers, switches to the software level - basically. Performance is nothing without control meaning your data is hosted always on two separate storage backends, both RAID5 secured. In addition to this, you can naturally take backups which are hosted on a different physical machine.

3) Control: we have Android and iOS apps to control your servers when not in front of your computer. You can create the most basic server tasks while on the go. In addition to the mobile apps, our API enables more demanding solutions to be put in place by clients. We also use our own API for our Control Panel, so it is always up to date with the latest additions.

4) 100% SLA: as we have built everything by ourselves we can guarantee extreme availability (and also taking into account our redundancy).

Just to name a few.

<comment><USER12> Kudos for having iOS/Android apps available already. It may be just a small touch, but as a new Digital Ocean subscriber, I was a little irked to find out they only had an Android app done via a third party and no iOS or mobile web view equivalent.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment. Haven't signed up for Digital Ocean my self, but applaud them for the prices they're offering.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> From UpCloud's AUP: Intentional or careless use of the Services in excess of a typically expected server load, such as continuosly high CPU or I/O use rate.

Does this mean that uses cases like ZenCoder (video encoding "in the cloud") would not be allowed on UpCloud, since they would max out the CPU?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the question! ZenCoder and other resource intensive cases are what our service was built for.

The item in the UAP is there by our lawyers to make sure we can take steps to prevent abuse on the infrastructure by others (and thus possibly hurting others' performance).

So please run ZenCoder on our platform and do let us know how it compares to others :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> « During the trial period, you cannot change firewall configuration. »

Please allow us to add in/out rules !

<comment><AUTHOR> To enable the firewall - we ask users to deposit the 10 euro minimum to the account. This releases the limitations as a free server with no pre-configured firewall rules could increase abuse on the network substantially.

We hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience.

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Does the SMS activation messages come to US phone numbers? I haven't received mine yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> They should! We just had a major push on our partners' SMS gateway so if it hasn't come by now - please use the voice activation we have in place (please check instructions in your e-mail).

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> just checked out the service, and i really like the administration pages. i could see this as a viable alternative to other vps services, but would love to see some more server location choices.

what i was wondering tho: the activation sms originated from the same number as google's calendar reminders, what's up with that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the suggestions! We will be adding service areas later this to North America and Asia.

For our SMS delivery, we use an international provider - could be that Google uses the same provider.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> wow, you're really fast sending the sms, it arrived just when I clicked the button.By the way, I don't really like your administration panel, it's kind of ugly and it reminds me very much gandi's admin panel.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment!

Design is something we're really keen on, so all comments regarding usability are taken seriously.

<comment><USER18> The front page uses both "MB" and "Mt" when talking about the server's memory size. "Mt" is really weirding me out, no idea what it means.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment - we just fixed this. We're a Finnish company and for some reason this page refused to read the proper language file for those two parts (the text was Finnish).

Mt = megatavu = megabyte in English. Finnish 101 :)

<comment><USER19> Like the French megaoctets. Just use megabytes everyone!!1 :P

(I'm not French btw)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> What is the default username/password to SSH into the sever?

</comment><comment><USER21> the form's validation message is rather hilarious.

<comment><USER19> What is the message?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Flagged as blatant advertising. 100€ is nothing, and I have to make the investment to work out how to use your cloud infrastructure. That investment (of time) is worth much more than 100€, so once the 100€ run out I will feel that I have invested so much already, it will be cheaper to keep using your service.

I'm sorry, but that is not a give-away, it's just a bait.

Btw. Google App Engine is currently "giving away" 1000$ for startups if you register through some affiliate. Technically of course it's the same but the 1000$ will probably last a lot longer than two months on App Engine (depending on the web site of course).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment!

As a small company, we can't give out machines/resources indefinitely so we need to have a cap on this.

However, I do believe 100 euros towards a free server is a significant giveaway on our part and due to the nature of cloud computing, not everyone needs to host their services from here on onwards (think campaigns, etc.).

Sad to have received the flag, but we're just trying to offer a server for developers to test/play with.

<comment><USER22> I can understand your motivation, maybe I just take issue with the wording. There's nothing wrong with offering a free trial. I just wouldn't call it a give-away.

Edit: unflagged... Your terms sound good anyway :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Much appreciated - and if you like to reach me personally, you can e-mail me at email@example.com. :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What unpopular opinions do you have about software development? - <AUTHOR> https://www.quora.com/What-unpopular-opinions-do-you-have-about-software-development?share=1 <comment><USER2> Come at me, scrubs.

\- Languages which "compile to javascript" are little more than linters with delusions of grandeur.

\- Significant whitespace is still syntax. Replacing brackets with non- printable characters only offers the illusion of elegance, at the expense of legibility and explicitness.

\- PHP and Javascript may be terrible as general purpose languages, but they're very good at their intended purpose.

\- There is no moral dimension to software licensing. FOSS software is not fundamentally good, and proprietary software is not fundamentally evil.

\- The web is actually much better now than it was in the 90s.

</comment><comment><USER3> The following opinion proved quite unpopular on Hacker news:

"If I was going to try machine learning I would code up from scratch rather than relying on black boxes."

Another one, a preference for Python (or Go, or Rust, or whatever it is next week) is due to its fashionability, rather than any intrinsic merit of the language.

See also this discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14057953](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14057953)

<comment><USER4> I would disagree with that one.

I worked on a neural network product that was coded in C++. It worked, and it came out early, before deep learning got bigger than beatlemania.

It used intrinsics to incorporate SIMD instructions, thus it was tied to a particular processor version. I seemed to be the only person who noticed or cared if the derivatives were calculated correctly, or to implement constraints with Lagrange multipliers rather than wishful thinking. Once we got it working we would be crazy to change anything.

Thus tensorflow, keras, and similar tools can save you a lot of grief.

<comment><USER3> > I seemed to be the only person who noticed or cared if the derivatives were > calculated correctly, or to implement constraints with Lagrange multipliers > rather than wishful thinking.

In other words, it was a black box.

<comment><USER4> It may have been to the people who made it. I was the one who had to understand it in order to make it ready to go in front of the customer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Violations of software licensing are irrelevant. What matters is how useful the end result is to the end-user.

If you violate every copyright law in the books, I still wouldn't care as long as your program does what I need to get done to get on with my work/life.</comment>


Ask HN: Is Apple repeating the same mistakes it made 25 years ago? - <AUTHOR> This is a possibly interesting question; I will try to explain how I just arrived at this conclusion in a discussion with some friends. Back in the rainbow-colored Apple area we were big fans of the architecture, alongside with Amiga and Atari. However, all three of them faded away because of one simple mistake: they had either vendor-lock-in (Atari, Amiga) or made it hard to develop for the platform because of exclusively proprietary tools and compilers that were impossible to come by legally (Apple). They vanished against DOS on the long run and we (had to) moved on (to DOS :S). Then came Linux and we happily switched our development platform, yet mostly still using Windows for multimedia and/or games (except for the "core" Linux guys, but then to them this whole question should be irrelevant, anyways). Then Jobs "came back" with the glorious ideas of a FreeBSD-based OSX and moving on to Intel processors that combined the two worlds,  so we switched (again). In our discussion, we at least to some degree even agreed the true reason for the recent rise of Apple is not so much in iPad or iTunes alone, but the ability to develop open software on an Intel platform that works almost as if it were Linux while having the comforts of the "closed source" world: no longer we have to dual-boot Linux for work and Windows for multimedia (the games guys probably still are Windows, but whatever), and a platform that is dead-simple to use for non-IT guys. All was fine and up until recently there was nothing seriously wrong. But now Apple has dropped support for Java (the probably most followed language) and at the same time has created the "Mac App Store" (MAS). We have already seen the reception to the "iPhone App Store" (PAS) from the open source community - e.g. from the VLC guys, so I won't comment on that any more. And, for the MAS, you even need to pay $99 to get "into" it. I have no exact idea how open source-unfriendly the MAS is vs. the PAS, but I doubt even if it seems rosy now it will not be long before there is a real difference between the PAS and MAS. So, are the Apple guys apparently about to cut one of their "life support veins" after the other, and Android, etc. will take over the mobile sector and Linux/Windows will be again the norm in the home computing sector? I at least am seriously considering moving back to Linux again, and I am seeing patterns in Apple's current policies that make me think the question I put out to you guys has at least some substance. So, please, comment! <comment><USER2> The "Apple is closed, and in the 90's they tried the same thing and it failed" meme is quite a common thing to hear.

But "winning" a market rarely has a single reason. One could easily argue that Microsoft in the 90's was similar to Apple in that they went it alone, abandoning OS/2, whilst Apple tried to build alliances like Taligent (with IBM). Or perhaps that Apple's practices in controlling the AppStore are similar to Microsoft's use of market power to build the Windows monopoly.

One thing is for sure: Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt (ex-Novell) etc all remember the 90's pretty well, and they are all spending every waking hour making sure they don't end up losing again.

History's echoes can be distracting enough to make one forget that it never repeats itself.

<comment><AUTHOR> But there is a minute, yet important difference: the App Stores are entirely controlled by Apple, whilst Microsoft never restricted or controlled your access to their platform as a software provider. So, maybe they "dominated" because of Office et al., but they never pro-actively locked out other providers - a policy common on the iPhone, formerly on the old Mac OS, and now apparently coming "back to the Mac [App Store]". The same thing was (and, in parts, even still is) the case with hardware: it was a piece of cake to sell hardware for the Windows platform (worst case you had to write your own device driver), but particularly tricky to do so for Mac. Apple now has the lead because they were first with many neat things on OSX, the iPod, then the iPhone and now maybe the iTablet. So they were first with a clean mobile platform. But Android has caught up and Windows 7 has just downright copied the entire OSX experience and maybe even added a few features of its own. So can Apple stand its grounds with their tight policies? I say, only if they manage to constantly stay ahead of competition, just as now maybe with the tablet PC approach. But how much longer will they be capable of delivering ahead of everybody else? And if they don't stay ahead, will they open up to let independent and innovative developers to maintain the lead or will they not? And in that respect I think current signals are rather discouraging.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why do you say that Macintosh tools were impossible to come by legally? Maybe Mac development was limited to certain developers in the early days, but Apple released MPW in 1986. THINK Technologies introduced Lightspeed Pascal and Lightspeed C in 1986 too. Inside Macintosh was published in 1985.

(I had to research this, because I didn't own a Mac or program for Macs until about 1995.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, for us back then the only ways to lay hands on a good C compiler - except buying some extremely expensive proprietary software we could not afford (we all were under 20 and w/o regular income) - would have been via not-so-official channels (no comment...) and in the end more of a pain than it was worth it. For me at least, therefor, it was far more easier to develop on an Atari and then a Linux PC than it ever was for Apple's machines (before OSX).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Steve Jobs probably has a different view on what caused Apple downfall.

</comment><comment><USER5> The current trend of Apple shifting its marketing emphasis from innovation as what differentiates their hardware to access to content as the differentiator is, in my mind, a radical shift.

I think the MacApp store may be a sign of a more fundamental issue for Apple - they have one UI that _looks and feels_ less cutting edge every day and doesn't scale well beyond a 5"-9" screen...and another which hasn't had significant architectural improvements for some time (and doesn't scale down to 5"-9").

Apple may not have mortgaged the farm for iOS, but it appears that they have bet a significant portion of their future on it, perhaps without fully acknowledging the scaling issues. The shift towards content and media access as what makes an Apple product "insanely great" is not a good sign for those whose concern is utility.

</comment><comment><USER6> There are still people who think GNU/Linux is for "techies" and if you don't know C++ and a half a dozen other languages, your computer will explode.

GNU/Linux is gaining popularity, but it will take awhile for it to be on most computers.

<comment><USER7> With the ease of learning due to the unlimited resources we have these days more and more people are labeling themselves "techies" and running Linux. I think Linux will gain some ground as more people run it with the notion that it will make them a better programmer, when the reality is that they will still work a day job at Futureshop for the next 10 years (that is if large tech stores exist in 10 years).

<comment><AUTHOR> And, if I may add, ever since Ubuntu (not that I like it, personally, but whatever) I've seen more people using Linux than ever before. Give it another ten years and they might have something really competitive on the end-user side, especially if Microsoft and Apple keep creeping more and more digital restriction management BS into their OS's.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't know about their downfall from before, but the way I see it, Apple is focused on consumers, not developers/hackers. That is, they will always choose the consumer's experience over the hacker's convenience.

The recent move with the Mac App Store just confirmed my suspicions.

That's kinda why I want to stay away from the Mac, even though their laptops are _very_ tempting. Damn, today I went to the apple store and saw the new Air. Very seductive.

But, I'm sticking to Linux. I don't do lots of multimedia stuff, so Linux works fine for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> If I may ask - why is that so that you don't want to switch? The best reason IMO for following your model might be the increasing amounts of DRM we are seeing in the two big desktop alternatives. It honestly makes me think that there is no free software/open source future on the Apple, either (and I'll accept that RMS would probably mentally kill me just for thinking even that... :)).

<comment><USER8> This was all based on my experience with the DRM in the iPhone. The iPhone is sort of a gadget, so it's ok. But my main development machine? The place where I do my real work? No way!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> From a slightly different point of view; I was always under the impression that Apple got trounced by Microsoft in the desktop PC market. People quickly realized Apple didn't have a lot of software past Adobe, plus of course you could copy software from your friends.

History is now repeating with Android/Google as they start to dominate apple with much the same situation. The Iphone is an overpriced toy for a lot of people.

You could always blame the Apple downfall on that bloke from Pepsi.

The next big fight is going to be Apple TV vs Google TV. Apple already has Disney on their side, while Google is just giving Google TV away much like Microsoft did with with DOS and Windows.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, I sort of tried to say that - although, my impression is that it was harder to develop for Apple than DOS because of the unavailability of developer tools for Mac OS. Although I must admit I stuck to Atari to the bitter end and directly jumped to Linux, so my impression might be wrong. However, as you say, in any case, they faded away because of insufficient software and did solve that by opening up in OSX and having XCode and other stuff directly available. So, are they doing that again with their recent policies?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What trends do you think will shape startups in the next 10 years? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Customer service is a big one. Buffer ([http://bufferapp.com](http://bufferapp.com)) is setting a pretty high bar with their Happiness Heroes, and even their founders spend time every week doing customer service. In a world where more and more processes are becoming automated, the human touch is going to increasingly become the differentiator: and if you execute well on that, people are going to take notice.

Example: Airbnb and photography. When the founders went to New York to meet their customers in person (instead of emailing them from behind a screen in SF), they realized that many of the hosts didn't have any good photos of their listings, despite the spaces themselves being beautiful. The guys took some nice photos of their customers' listings, and WOAH: they started booking more nights. Now, Airbnb partners with local photographers around the world to provide their customers with this service.

They started with a human touch that "wouldn't scale", and it's this sort of service that, I believe, will separate the startup wheat from the chaff.

</comment><comment><USER3> -Docker and PaaS

-Bitcoin and the possibilities arising from currency as data

-Home automation/small sensors

-Pull based discovery through AI (evented ways to tell me what I want to know without me asking)

-Virtual Reality (for real this time)

</comment><comment><USER4> Any idea which destroys information exclusivity.

e.g. searching for houses online as opposed to offline eliminating brokers, destruction of politics and law in current form for smaller states with better control over resources, food recipe sharing, establishment of online communication forums for _every_ industry, be it agricultural, scientific or cola production (whose exclusivity should end soon)

Increasing cost of transport driven by reduction in oil production. Force optimization of mass transport. Will force improvement in distance communication tech.

Improvements in food distribution driven by intelligent agents. Resource optimization at every level of community driven by smart agents.

As far as language goes, I expect local scripts to die out, replaced by the English script. Motivation will be to avoid reinventing the wheel.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think that we will see much more interaction of companies with consumers in a way that goes beyond advertising. Maybe some people will get used to optimise every little bit of their time and life and others will opt out, or maybe both. Service needs to be provided to both sides. I'm so curious to see how Asia, Africa and South America will develop and what Hot Asia, Africa & Middle East Startup's we will see by 2022. I also think that people will be more and more aware of what is happening in the world and they will start to say themselves more often stuff like: If the government doesn't solve it, let's crowdfund it and solve it. I don't know maybe we can crowdfund Mozambique or Ivory Coast and get a week at a beach resort for our funds?

</comment><comment><USER6> \- Wearable computers - watches, glasses, shoes, gloves etc.

\- Massive amounts of data being spewed out of connected everyday devices - refrigerators, cars, etc.

\- Curation of content - too much being generated today for someone to consume - photos, videos, news etc.

\- Making content reach to the bottom of the pyramid - too much content being generated in english - it needs to be translated to mandarin, hindi, spanish etc.

</comment><comment><USER7> Mobile computing, primarily but I'd imagine financing too. The combination of the two is scary; a huge market (5 billion plus) and relatively easy access to capital. (angels)</comment>


Who is Anthony Levandowski, and why is Google suing him? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/23/anthony-levandowski-google-uber-self-driving-cars-lawsuit <comment><USER2> Such an interesting case to watch from the outside.

Clearly the guy did not realize that Google spends inordinate amount of resources watching their own employees. When I was there, a couple of laptops were stolen from HQ and the amount, and detail, of the laptops they had (location beacons, video footage from dozens of cameras, and RAT like tools on the laptops themselves) let them capture the crooks, recover the laptops, and identify the contractor who had assisted in access to the building in something like a few hours after they were reported stolen. I was really impressed by that, it certainly let anyone who was thinking about it know just how silly it would be to try to do something counter to the company's interests.

But this comment, _" At Google, Levandowski said, he was always chafing at the slow pace of progress. He finally left the company in January 2016, a month after Waymo alleges he had downloaded the technical files, and within days had formed a new company, 280 Systems, which Waymo claims became Otto."_ I find perhaps the most interesting. I can say a lot of things about Google but 'slow' is not something that generally came to mind. So that is surprising.

And then there is what this guy put at risk, there is this comment: _" After covering his tracks, the lawsuit alleges, Levandowski pocketed a multimillion- dollar payout from Google and, using the secrets he had just stolen, promptly set up a new company, Otto, which was acquired shortly after by Uber for around $680m."_

Presumably, as part of the acquisition he was signing that he wasn't infringing on any previous agreements by joining and that he had rights to the material in question. And so if this goes against him, it seems Google will have cause to get back their payouts, and Uber will have cause to get back the $680M they paid too. And perhaps a huge chunk of that will come out of his own net worth. Maybe he squirreled away a bunch of cash that he thinks is out of reach of the IRS/Courts but really?

Going to be interesting indeed.

<comment><USER3> What will be fascinating to watch is how justice is served here.

Regardless of the wrong Levandowski may have committed, he is still an extremely talented engineer in a field where a 'space race' of sorts is going on between a handful of heavily monied-up players.

On one hand, I think Waymo has ability to financial ruin Levandowski. On the other hand, no matter how tainted he is by this scandal, there are still 10 other players in this field who would be willing to pay him a huge salary. So he could easily get a multi-million dollar salary from someone else.

I suppose what could happen is that other companies would be unwilling to work with Levandowski because if a new employer of Levandowski's happens to develop technology similar to Waymo's, Waymo could sue the new company and say the new company received Waymo's proprietary information from Levandowski. Even if that didn't happened, Levandowskis presence is enough to prove otherwise. In other words, just the presence of Levandowski in another self-driving car project is huge legal liability. And that may be his downfall.

It is, however, sad to think that this technology could be set back a few years because of Levandowski's actions.

<comment><USER2> Yes, and the question 'what is justice' is going to get a workout I suspect.

If he loses, I don't think he will be as easily re-employable as you do. Sure he is clearly a talented engineer but he will be on the record as having _cost_ two companies in this space _millions_ of dollars, primarily due to his own actions. I don't know of any hiring manager who will sign off on that level of risk to the company.

Oddly, if he wins, I think it will result in still greater restrictions, surveillance, and lock downs on employees at Google so in some way it may effect way more people than just the self driving car crowd.

That said, I think the risk of setting the technology back will be Google aggressively pursuing infringement claims against anyone trying to develop self driving cars in an effort to 'not lose' the investment they made. Worst case scenario is a 'digital cash' type disaster[1] but even just suppressing a lot of research will be an impact. Again, if Google wins there will be a lot concern about hiring ex-Google engineers fearing taint.

[1] David Chaum developed some early digital cash patents and aggressively sued anyone trying to develop micropayments or e-cash in the late '90s while simultaneous producing no useful technology of his own, pushing out the possibility of useful e-cash until as least 2018.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, if he loses I see him trying to start his own firm.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > He also found a lobbyist and got involved in getting laws passed in Nevada > and California to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles. His backroom > lobbying did not endear him to some executives at Google.

> "I thought you could just do it yourself," he said. "Then I found out that > there is a team dedicated to that, a process. Got a little bit in trouble > for doing it."

Wow. What world is this guy living in, where he thought he should personally hire a lobbyist to change some laws to make his job easier? Maybe it's the difference between me and a 10x-er, but I just don't understand this.

<comment><USER6> Would you prefer that he check the regulations, find out that self-driving cars are illegal, and therefore just never develop one?

I don't understand _that_.

Laws change to accomodate the facts on the ground, as they should. People leading the changes of facts on the ground are in a natural position to push for corresponding changes in law.

How do you think the first human-driven car was permitted to drive on a street?

<comment><USER7> There was probably no law requiring a license/permit or otherwise to have a motor vehicle, or horse, or age restriction... and likely no sobriety restrictions, depending on location, either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> >"Google was very supportive, but they absolutely did not want their name associated with a vehicle driving in San Francisco," he said. "They were worried about an engineer building a self-driving car that kills someone and it gets back to Google."

In what possible world is that a bad thing to worry about?!

<comment><USER9> In a word in which self driving cars are safer than human drivers, presumably.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> What concerns me is that we are going to see more and more of this in the coming years - corporations concerned over ex-employees taking their knowledge with them and taking legal recourse. In this case, they complain about access of 14k proprietary files - which is pretty damning, but I could see similar damning evidence over accessing a couple of critically important design docs relatively near the end of employment. How do you distinguish between files being accessed merely for the purpose out your work vs theft? How can you ascertain what was in their minds and hearts for accessing for those files - and worse, how little would it take to sway a judge or jury that accessing of such files were deliberate (ie part of the bigger picture)? Courts have been wrong before. Previous generations this didn't come up because they stayed in 1 or 2 jobs their entire lives, at least in this aspect, today's environment is completely different.

</comment><comment><USER11> The actual complaint [0] filed February 23rd is extremely thorough and very damning. Somehow I'm not shocked.

[0] [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7dzPLynxaXuQjY3dkllZ2ZKb0k...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7dzPLynxaXuQjY3dkllZ2ZKb0k/view)

</comment><comment><USER12> Move fast and break things has interesting side effects. If in fact you can prove he took documents, not just what was in his brain, then likely Google will win as that law is fairly obvious. If you can't, what knowledge he knows that he took with him is much more difficult to prove as "stolen".

<comment><USER13> Here's the post by Waymo: [https://medium.com/waymo/a-note-on-our-lawsuit- against-otto-...](https://medium.com/waymo/a-note-on-our-lawsuit-against-otto- and-uber-86f4f98902a1)

> _Recently, we received an unexpected email. One of our suppliers > specializing in LiDAR components sent us an attachment (apparently > inadvertently) of machine drawings of what was purported to be Uber's LiDAR > circuit board — except its design bore a striking resemblance to Waymo's > unique LiDAR design._

> _We found that six weeks before his resignation this former employee, > Anthony Levandowski, downloaded over 14,000 highly confidential and > proprietary design files for Waymo's various hardware systems, including > designs of Waymo's LiDAR and circuit board. To gain access to Waymo's design > server, Mr. Levandowski searched for and installed specialized software onto > his company-issued laptop. Once inside, he downloaded 9.7 GB of Waymo's > highly confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design > files and testing documentation. Then he connected an external drive to the > laptop. Mr. Levandowski then wiped and reformatted the laptop in an attempt > to erase forensic fingerprints._

The full legal complaint is at the bottom of that post. It doesn't say how Waymo detected it, but presumably they have internal IT logs.

The claim is not about anything in his brain.

<comment><USER14> Did they reconstruct this from the server logs or were they monitoring his laptop in real time?

<comment><USER15> They probably have all kind of activity meta data on all emps but don't actively monitor and only go back and reconstruct in these kinds of events (leaks, IP disputes, emp misconduct, etc.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Presumably they can cite the decision in Hooil vs. Pied Piper

<comment><USER17> Humorously, when we were going over the scenario, I told them the case would have been miserably lost by Richard, but since Richard had to win, I had to help them come up with a way that was at least not-truly-terrible (and fix the dialogue :P)

But they actually had a completely written legal complaint and everything.

<comment><USER16> Your work is appreciated. Watching that episode originally my thinking was "surely nobody experienced in the business would be unaware of how to behave and act to avoid future IP lawsuits", but I guess this real-life case proves otherwise..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I am actually sincerely curious - is this considered a felony if proven? Seems like a major offense to steal such a massive amount of information blatantly for self enrichment, even if done under the missive of "changing the world"

This cannot end well.

<comment><USER19> The suit is a civil tort, seeking damages. A felony is a criminal charge, usually against a person. I'm sure Google can call the CA District attorney and/or the western US district attorney to make a criminal complaint, State and Federal, respectively. I'm not an expert on the actual criminal charges available on each level but probably something about trade secrets if we're talking federal charges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> >The engineer made Google a world leader in self-driving cars. Now the company is accusing him of stealing its secrets and taking them to Uber

Oh. OK.

The title is not too informative and sort of clickbaity.

</comment><comment><USER21> One thing I hadn't thought of til just now: how was he able to start a company in a competing market right after leaving google?

<comment><USER22> California's laws don't prohibit it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> He should go to jail. The state of California should prosecute him.

</comment><comment><USER24> Strangely the article deletes Sebastian Thrun's roll. Shitty journalism.

<comment><USER25> Sebastian Thrun left Google 3 years ago, and had already been splitting his time between Google and Udacity 5 years ago. The article is talking about the recent events leading up to a lawsuit, not the history of self-driving cars (in which case we'd have to go back to the 80's and Carnegie Mellon, where coincidentally Sebastian Thrun once worked as a researcher).

<comment><USER24> It paints levandowski as the origin of google's program, and X predating the program as well, neither of which are true.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Just curious, is he related to the football player Robert Levandowski from FC Bayern ? :)

<comment><USER27> It's Robert Lewandowski</comment></comment>


Wireless Communication using FLEX and ERIKA Enterprise Basic  - <AUTHOR> http://dev.emcelettronica.com/wireless-communication-using-flex-and-erika-enterprise-basic# <comment><AUTHOR> Wireless communication is becoming more and more pervasive, that's why new development tools for wireless applications are welcome. The goal of this demo is to provide basic tools to develop more complex wireless applications, using the Erika kernel in conjunction with the FLEX Board {with a microcontroller from Microchip}</comment>


Third by volume Bitcoin exchange is down and won't get up. Bitcoins lost. - <AUTHOR>

https://bitomat.pl is down - lost vm at amazon, vm with site, wallet and all wallet backups
You can buy bitomat.pl out of its trouble if you can pony up 17000 BTC.
UPDATE:
Users can now withdraw their cash. Fate of their bitcoins remains unknows, although each user after logging in can see how much BTC he had. <comment><AUTHOR> Autotranslation of the statement (<https://bitomat.pl/Home/Statement> ) issued by the exchange creator and owner:

STATEMENT

I wish to hereby inform all users of the service www.bitomat.pl of system failure that occurred on 26 July 2011 and its consequences.

At the outset I would like to apologize for such a long delay in publication of this statement. I explained that it was dictated only by the good service investigation conducted to determine the causes of failure and the people responsible for it. Unfortunately, to date, despite intensive efforts, could not determine these issues. However, I believe that the longer pause to disclose this communication at this stage would be unreasonable. I am also aware that service users are the appropriate explanation.

On 26 July 2011 at about 23:00, I noticed that absorbs all Bitcoin server machine resources, and probably not used for making. So there was need to increase the amount of RAM in the server. As a result of that procedure - suddenly the whole virtual machine has been erased, all data stored on the server has been lost!, Including records concerning bitcoinowego portfolio and its backups (backups).

I have taken action have established that the disappearance of the data was the result of the introduction of virtual server settings, which he never would have introduced. Amazon Web Services Company, which is located servers, website says that the machine that has been cleared has been set up in such a way as to be irretrievably destroyed automatically with the data on disks attached to it at the time of her arrest by the shutdown. We are constantly trying to determine who made changes to these settings and whether it will be able to recover lost data. Unfortunately partnership with Amazon Web Services, which was placed servers service is difficult. Once I realized that I deleted the machine have redeemed the biggest package of technical support, I talked to the manager, asked about the security of disk space, I explained, so far unsuccessfully. Still exerts pressure on the Amazon Web Services to accelerate their activities but without concrete results.

At the moment I am unable to clearly determine the causes of crashes, I suppose that it is the result of actions of third parties, which are causing the server tried to cancel to hide their illegal activities, or intentionally wanted to website disappeared. If my suppositions are confirmed, the fact will let police and prosecutors. At the same time if possible take action through which it would be possible to recreate lost data. But what I need to interact with the server's owner, and that as I mentioned above is difficult.

At this point I wish to inform and assure you that your cash deposited into your bank account service and not converted into BTC and unpaid cash from the sale of BTC remain safe and intact.

Any further findings will you keep. At the same time I am counting on your help in solving the problem.

I realize that the situation is very difficult, and you fear for the fate of their BTC. We are constantly working on a solution to the crisis, and I'm open to your suggestions.

Today I intend to: cancel all active orders so far, restore the site to act, to enable the performance of any operation (in particular the payment of PLN).

Please your suggestions and ideas.

I wish to inform you that I had several conversations with potential investors from home and abroad. Www.bitomat.pl service is on sale for EUR 17,000 BTC. If interested, please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.

<comment><USER2> So .. site is run by someone playing at being a Sysadmin who used a service s/he didn't grok (evidenced by their lack of understanding of the difference between ephemeral/instance storage and EBS), and is now trying to blame the service provider for their personal fiduciary failure?

Developers != Sysadmin. Deal with it.

Just because something is easy to get started with doesn't mean you understand it properly.

<comment><AUTHOR> Epic fails happen.

One thing makes me wonder. Who keeps all backups of such precious thing as bitcoin wallet of bitcoin exchange on virtual machine, the same virtual machine that is used for all operations?

<comment><USER2> Developers? >:-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Other thread about same subject here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828445>

</comment><comment><USER3> Another example of Bitcoins being run by a bunch of amateur clowns. Drag this poor excuse for a financial instrument behind the shed and put it down already.

<comment><USER4> It is through mistakes like this that the ecosystem will improve.

<comment><USER5> Only if entire bitcoin concept itself is not a mistake or a racket or a scam or the other names that just all, uh, competent economists call it.

After a long series of bank failures, the US learned that financial regulation plays an important role (despite from being far, far from perfect).

Bitcoin's organization stems more ideological predelictions than an understanding of the problems of the existing financial system.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to submit your product/Idea to productHunt? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Check out this link. It explains the process involved pretty well. [https://help.producthunt.com/posting/how-to-post-a- product](https://help.producthunt.com/posting/how-to-post-a-product)</comment>


Amazon Web Services signature version 1 is insecure - <AUTHOR> http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2008-12-18-AWS-signature-version-1-is-insecure.html

<comment><USER2> Perhaps it's just late and my mind is tired, but it took me a minute to understand what was going on. Maybe a simpler example would be helpful.

Since the delimiters are removed before computing the signature (so each is just "ABCDEFGHIJLM"), the signatures for the following two query strings are the same:

        ?A=B&C=D&E=FHIJKLM

        ?A=B&C=D&E=F&H=I&J=K&L=M

So if the value of of the E parameter is controlled by the user, they can construct a value ("HIJKLM") such that the resulting signatures is the same as the signature for a query with a bunch of additional parameters they choose ("H=I&J=K&L=M").

Clever.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a lovely reminder that designing cryptographic protocols is hard. Even something as simple as signing a bit of data can have nasty pitfalls.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't say that this shows that designing cryptographic protocols is hard. "Use hashing and signature methods which don't have collisions" is a simple rule, both to remember and to apply -- no harder than "drive on the right side of the road" (or "drive on the left side of the road", depending on your country).

Would you say that driving is hard because people have to remember which side of the road to drive on?

<comment><USER4> If there were 40 sides of the road to choose from, and the side you drove on depended on the time of day and the color of your car, then yes, Colin, I would say driving on the correct side of the road would be hard too.

Have you ever, in your whole career, worked with a team that wrote their own crypto and got it right in version 1? Because I haven't.

<comment><AUTHOR> _Have you ever, in your whole career, worked with a team that wrote their own crypto and got it right in version 1? Because I haven't._

As far as I know, I got the crypto right in tarsnap. If I didn't, please let me know. :-)

<comment><USER4> I don't think you really answered my question, Colin; I think that's a cop-out answer. =)

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe I misunderstood your question. I thought that "as far as I know, I got the crypto right in [product where I wrote my own crypto protocols]" was a pretty clear answer to "have you ever written your own crypto and gotten it right?"

<comment><USER4> I was asking if you'd ever worked with a team of (other, I implied unsuccessfully) developers who got a cryptosystem right on the first try.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, that explains it. I didn't catch the fact that you were excluding the degenerate case of a one-person team. :-)

<comment><USER4> I also assumed you'd like your own stuff. But, now that we understand each other: was that an answer to my original question?

<comment><AUTHOR> I believe I got the crypto right in version 1 of tarsnap, but I wasn't working as part of a (non-degenerate) team. I've never done crypto with a team -- so my answer to your (clarified) question must be a vacuous "no".

<comment><USER4> But you've worked _against_ a couple teams now that got it wrong (Amazon, OpenSSL). Do you agree that the evidence supports my argument?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not really, no. Amazon screwed up on a well-known widely-understood rule; there aren't 40 different sides of the road involved with "hash collisions are bad".

Similarly, the one _cryptographic_ complaint I have about OpenSSL (as opposed to non-cryptographic security bugs) is their lack of attention to side channels, and the same applies here -- we KNOW that side channels are bad. The fact that the OpenSSL developers haven't made any systematic attempt to prevent them doesn't mean that cryptography is hard; it just means that the OpenSSL developers are careless.

<comment><USER5> That's an interesting criticism of OpenSSL. Do you know of a general purpose cryptographic library that has done a better job than OpenSSL at hardening against side-channel attacks?

By default, OpenSSL has: RSA blinding, constant time montgomery multiplication, careful review and correction of the conditional branches which were attacked in that amazing series of branch prediction papers.

Doesn't seem to me that OpenSSL developers are careless and indifferent about side-channel attacks.

<comment><AUTHOR> _Do you know of a general purpose cryptographic library that has done a better job than OpenSSL at hardening against side-channel attacks?_

No, I don't know of any better cryptographic library. (This is why I said a few days ago that writing a better cryptographic library was something I'd like to do if I was rich.)

 _Doesn't seem to me that OpenSSL developers are careless and indifferent about side-channel attacks._

They're playing whack-a-mole. There are over a thousand conditional branches in the large integer arithmetic code alone. The fact that nobody has pointed out how to exploit them yet doesn't mean that they're not exploitable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does it worry anyone else that there seems to be no protection provided against replaying any particular authenticated request? If I were using this service, I'd heavily recommend restricting non-https requests to read-only operations. Any updates or deletes should be done using a security protocol proofed against replay attacks, like HTTPS.

<comment><AUTHOR> At least in the case of SimpleDB, replaying requests is usually not a problem -- if you Put or Delete an attribute which has already been Put or Deleted, it has no effect.

<comment><USER6> Sorry, but you aren't thinking like a security professional here. Consider the case, e.g., where you create a domain, delete it and recreate it. An attacker monitoring the deletion can with impunity wipe out your data at a later date.

<comment><AUTHOR> I did say "usually". :-)

 _An attacker monitoring the deletion can with impunity wipe out your data at a later date._

Only within the next 15 minutes. Beyond that point, AWS will reject the request for having excess clock skew.

<comment><USER6> Ew! They use the timestamp parameter for that? That's both sick and wrong. Requiring people who access your webservice to have an accurate clock is the most braindead thing I've heard this month, at least. Oh boy, network congestion and clock skew could combine to produce some wonderful heisenbugs for developers. And for what? The want of nonce? Some ridiculous design principle of making your API totally state free. _sigh_

<comment><AUTHOR> State-free protocols are useful when the server side is distributed and potentially disconnected. :-)

As for "wonderful heisenbugs" -- the AWS services return a clear "hey, your clock is broken" error, so it wouldn't be very hard to developers to figure out what was going on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is interesting: I submitted this article both here and to programming.reddit.com; but at the same time as becoming the top story on news.yc, it got voted down on reddit (well, 1 up vote, 2 down votes).

I wonder if this is just the random luck of who happened to see the post on reddit first, or if news.ycers are innately more interested in security- related stories than programming.redditers.

<comment><USER7> Seems to be doing better on the netsec subreddit. +8, no downvotes in an hour, vs +4-8 in 11 hours on progit

<comment><AUTHOR> Aha, that explains why I've been seeing traffic from reddit in my logs for the past two hours -- thanks for resubmitting it to the more appropriate subreddit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Example #489643876834 of why you, a very smart, very capable developer, should not be writing crypto code. Rule #1: if you have to type the letters A-E-S or S-H-A into your code, _you're doing it wrong_.

<comment><USER5> There are pretty big mistakes to be made on the other side of this philosophy as well. If you need to solve some cryptographic problem which is not exactly the same as something which has already been designed, implemented, and reviewed by competent cryptographers, then you essentially need to create a new protocol and accept all the pitfalls which that entails.

PGP seems to be a popular 'primitive' to try to roll your own broken crypto protocol out of.

Exhibit A: <http://enigform.mozdev.org/>

Exhibit B: <http://web.monkeysphere.info/>

Even SSL/TLS is not easy to use correctly (while understanding all the risks) for purposes other than what it was originally designed for: Preventing credit card numbers from being sniffed between a browser and a web merchant.

<comment><USER4> Design a transport security protocol that is different in some way from TLS, and a good chunk of those differences are going to be vulnerabilities that the TLS designers figured out that you missed.

SSLv1 may have been originally designed for securing credit cards, but I'm not sure that argument survives a close read of TLS; why waste time with mutual authentication, with forward secrecy, with a custom record layer, with arbitrary length certificate signing chains, etc etc etc. You might be surprised at the number of systems that leverage TLS successfully on ports other than 443.

We probably agree; no matter how you choose to implement crypto security in a system, you're probably worse off for trying.

<comment><USER5> Forward secrecy was one of the important mistakes I had in mind actually. If you use TLS naively, you have none. You probably didn't even realize you needed it.

Verifying certificates correctly is not so easy to get right either, if you can even figure out what PKI means for your particular application in the first place.

<comment><USER4> Certificates are a lot like git branching. They're intimidating if you consider them in their entirety, but simple if you stick to your old use cases.

Enterprise apps make good use of certificates. A common use case is to set up a private CA (a three-line shell script) and issue internal certs to all endpoints in a system; you can then do crypto-strong access control just by checking signatures. This is approximately to PKI what "using git just like you used Subversion" is to git.

Another place where TLS has been a huge win is in wireless security; EAP-TLS with mutual certificate auth is the de facto corporate wireless security standard now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> i believe flickr's api uses the same method of creating signatures.

<comment><AUTHOR> I just looked at the flickr API documentation, and it looks like you're right -- maybe that's where Amazon got the idea from. I'm not sure if it's a problem in flickr's case, but I'll send them an email pointing out the possible problem.</comment></comment>


On Port 80 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@maradydd/on-port-80-d8d6d3443d9a?source=rss-a8213df67b10<comment>2

</comment><comment><USER2> > Many Redditors are debating the relative merits of other Usenet-on-port-80 > sites, such as voat.co and snapzu.com, both of which are groaning under the > strain of so many emigrating Redditors. This misses the point, though. > Smaller centralized sites can't support the load of large ones,

Usenet still exists, minus the ubiquitous availability of feeds.

It could be the best solution to the Reddit/Digg problem is just to subscribe to a usenet service.

As a fastmail user, I very much prefer the experience of being a customer rather than a product.

I imagine once the pain for users/products on a service transitioning from hippie commune to suited business happens enough times at enough sites, people may start flipping the fuckit bit and subscribe to a usenet service. There are many.</comment>


Modern scientists are wrong far more than you think (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://psmag.com/education/scientists-are-wrong-a-lot <comment><USER2> I liked the

"There are many compelling reasons to push for publishing "uninteresting" or "negative" results. Efficiency is one obvious reason: Scientists need not waste time testing hypotheses that have been repeatedly shown to be false. …

But perhaps most importantly, without negative results, evaluating whether a purported scientific discovery is true is simply impossible. "

<comment><USER3> Experiment 1: Ceramic are good conductors. Result: false

Experiment 2: Ceramic are superconductors. Result: false

What is your conclusion?

<comment><USER4> Maybe it's a topological conductor under high pressures? Is there some kind of dopant or glaze which could improve conductivity? Is it a very good insulator? If so, maybe those properties could be useful.

I'm being a bit facetious, but too many great discoveries have a backstory like, "We thought Jello might cure cancer, but it turns out not to. During the course of our investigations though we realized it was a novel treatment for Alzheimer's." Sometimes going back to solved problems with new tools and insights is valuable.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Applications for IBM's Watson? - <AUTHOR>

Example: Wikipedia.
I can imagine Watson being used to accelerate the curation of content.  For an assertion that [needs citation] a system like Watson can present possible supporting evidence, ranked by confidence scores.
Can you think of others? <comment><USER2> Watson's strength seems to emerge from using multiple contextual clue to find related information (from a large database of known info). So it might be really good at targeted advertising.</comment>


Eating reindeer meat - <AUTHOR> https://agfundernews.com/dont-tell-kids-reindeer-meat.html <comment> pi-rat Actually had reindeer roast with mashed root vegetables and lingonberry for Christmas Day dinner today - highly recommended :)

<comment><USER2> That sounds delicious. Ikea really turned me on to lingonberry

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> In Alaska (where I live), reindeer meat is extremely common. You can go to most diners and get reindeer sausage. It really is excellent, and good for you.

I would love to see reindeer spread. Not only would it be great for our small villages, but I think it's a healthier alternative. Win-win

<comment><USER4> _and good for you ... healthier alternative_

How exactly? I mean, just because it's meat in general (how good that is, is debatable and heavily depends on the amounts ingested), as opposed to other types of meat, as opposed to vegetables or ... ?

<comment><USER5> I guess they mean because it's a very lean meat, tho of course not everyone would agree that fat is unhealthy

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ate it on a recent trip to Finland. Absolutely delicious — probably closer to bison than deer from a culinary perspective.

<comment><USER3> Yes, definitely reminiscent of bison. Although if I was told it was beef I might believe it. Although reindeer sausage could easily pass for pig sausage, other than it is leaner and has a much better texture IMHO. It's often spiced differently and I like it much better. Man this is making me hungry.

<comment><USER7> It doesn't have the pig taste and it's less fatter. Maybe it could pass as pig mixed with >60% beef or horse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Here in Eastern Canada, we call them caribou and they are regularly hunted as food. Though, moose is by _far_ the most popular game meat. Almost everyone gets a moose hunting license in the (mostly) rural areas.

<comment><USER9> And here in western Canada, there are plenty of ranches which raise caribou, and it's very popular in higher end restaurants.

In my opinion caribou is far tastier than moose, however I could definitely see moose being a more thrilling hunt.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Atleast in Finland, reindeer meat doesn't taste the same as it used to due to change of food they are fed now.

<comment><USER11> That's interesting to me, as somebody who's moved to Finland recently. Presumably it tastes "worse" ?

(I had some today, I thought it was delicious.)

<comment><USER10> As in other reply, afaik it doesn't taste the same as it used to. Some people might say it's worse but I think it's more about what people where used to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've had reindeer in Iceland. A bit gamey, but not bad.

<comment><USER13> That's interesting. It's never felt gamey to me, but maybe because it's domesticated and farmed.

<comment><USER3> Here in Alaska there is a lot of farmed reindeer as well. My kids love going to see the reindeer farm in Palmer every year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I would love to have access to deer meats in the us.

<comment><USER15> Depending on what state, you may have several options for this.

<comment><USER3> Options beyond hunting for it yourself? I know in Alaska it's pretty illegal to sell game such as moose. Are there states where you can legally sell/buy game?

<comment><USER15> Yes, there are but they tend to be ranched. For an example in Texas [http://www.brokenarrowranch.com/Shop/](http://www.brokenarrowranch.com/Shop/)

This seems to have a recent list of online places: [https://www.thespruce.com/best-places-to-buy-wild-game- meats...](https://www.thespruce.com/best-places-to-buy-wild-game- meats-1666078)

There are lots of constraints on commercial sale of game meats, I don't think you are going to find hunters selling small quantities, if I recall correctly this is illegal to avoid impact on wild populations.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Clojure to MiniZinc - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tanders/clojure2minizinc/blob/master/README.org <comment><USER2> There is just so much interesting stuff going on in Clojureland. I haven't seen anything like it in a long time.

From pushing the state of the art in web clients and servers (Reagent, Rum, Om, Ring, Compojure & friends), to go-style concurrency (in browsers, Node, .net & JVM), to logic programming (this, core.logic), to Overtone (a synthesizer [https://vimeo.com/22798433](https://vimeo.com/22798433)), I saw a library for controlling light shows at concerts. Just so much.

I'm programming clojure in my free time, and when I'm done with my current contract (web servers/clients in JS), few things could make me as happy as to work in Clojure in my day job.

      (= (amazed-by? clojure (me!))
         true)

<comment><USER3> What does (me!) mutate?

<comment><USER4> I imagine me! is a multi-arity function which updates and returns his current state given some input.

He's simply saying that even without external influences, he's amazed by clojure.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Nov 2018 Show your startup - 100-xyz Show your startup or what recent progress have you made.
Our startup is a platform for getting local information via Wifi.  http://www.100-xyz.com
If the SSID is our platform's eg: 100-Johns_Bar, when you join the Wifi you will land directly on Johns Bar web pages.  Or pointing your browser to 100.here will also get you there.
We were struggling to get users.
Recently a live translation startup contacted us and we are testing our devices in their events.  Their problem - if too many event guests connect to their platform for translation, the audio quality drops because of network congestion.  However if they use our product there is only one connection between our server and their remote server which increases the quality a lot.  The audio is then distributed from our mini server to the users via Wifi.  Testing in actual events was quite nerve racking.  However, our product has improved considerabley because of it. <comment><AUTHOR> Cool! I would like to share my site nonforum.com it's a realtime discussion forum that is in open beta

<comment> 100-xyz Hey Sova, Im located in China and am unable to open the site. Just FYI.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the head's up! It must by my essays section, I write about different forms of gov and that probably caught a red flag.</comment></comment></comment>


Stylus: --watch automatically recompile the wrong file - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12578531/stylus-watch-automatically-recompile-the-wrong-file

<comment><USER2> This looks like a roundabout way of posting technical questions to HN. This was (probably) properly posted to StackOverflow but not here.</comment>


Wod Blocks – a full workout timer - <AUTHOR> https://www.wodblocks.com <comment><AUTHOR> I built this purely on personal need. Since the pandemic, I've been working out at home doing mostly Crossfit workouts. These have different parts, usually including warm-up, a strength portion, some rest and then what's called the WOD (workout of the day). For each part you have to configure a different timer, for example countdown, TABATA, EMOM (every minute on the minute), etc. Since I didn't want to interrupt my workout constantly, I thought about making a timer that would self-adjust. More so, I've been sharing workouts with friends and it's usually a big chunk of text that we send back and forth, so I thought why not just share a link that opens in the app and you can start doing right away? Lastly, I included hundreds of preset blocks for those that need a great workout but don't have access to great programming.

Essentially that's what Wod Blocks is, a workout timer that adjusts to the different parts, allows you to share workouts and includes preset programming.

Hope you like it and I'm absolutely open to feedback!</comment>


The Diabetes Cure That Most Insurance Companies Won't Pay For - <AUTHOR> https://gizmodo.com/the-diabetes-cure-that-most-insurance-companies-wont-pa-1826946364 <comment><USER2> > _In May 2016, however, Benari received a procedure known as a gastric > bypass, a laparoscopic surgery that gave him something few of the 30 million > diabetic Americans ever have—a life free of insulin therapy and other > medications._

The article keeps calling this a "cure" to diabetes. If anything, it's a cure to the "never feeling full" sensation that leads some (usually mildly autistic) people to constantly eat. And this constant overeating is what leads to the diabetes.

Having known people who had gastric bypasses, it's far from a miracle cure. The procedure causes many issues, from intestinal discomfort to life- threatening complications. Treating the procedure with such rose-colored glasses could be considered harmful.

\---

Part of the reason nobody wants to pay for it is it costs as much as a Model 3:

> _The estimated average cost of bariatric surgery is around $15,000, > according to a 2017 review. But even these estimates might be underselling > it. Benari recalls that his surgery, with expenses before and afterward, was > about $35,000 without insurance. The price tag kept him from pursuing the > procedure for almost a decade._

And an interesting reaction - the person briefly considered gaining 40 pounds, but instead of considering losing 40 pounds, they guilt-tripped their employer into paying for it.

> _"Obviously I couldn't gain 40 pounds so I could get surgery—that'd be > suicidal. I just held off, trying to not think about it," he said. > "Eventually, through a lot of back and forth, nagging and whining, I > convinced [Microsoft's] HR department to overhaul their policy and allow > people in my situation to get the surgery done."_

<comment><USER3> Nope it really is a cure. I know people involved with diabetes research, and it really is a cure, and they dont know why. Its not because of the weight loss, because it is instant! They day the get the surgery, the loose the Diabetes II. (The people I know, work at Novo Nordisk, i would think its the world leader in diabetes and diabetes related research.)

<comment><USER4> What if they gain weight again, months or years after surgery? Does diabetes come back?

<comment><USER3> Im not doing the research, so I cant answer, but it dosent seem to be weight related, as they loose the diabetes on same day as surgery. They loose none of the weight on surgery,

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > "My diabetes went into remission basically immediately, almost that same > day. And I've been off insulin for about 8 months now,"

That's not because of the surgery. It's because he was forced into an extended fast before (and after) the surgery. Type 2 diabetes reverses almost immediately with fasting.

I have no personal involvement with Dr. Jason Fung's clinic in Canada, but he claims to reverse type 2 diabetes in virtually every case. [https://idmprogram.com/](https://idmprogram.com/)

<comment><USER6> Exactly. Fasting cures diabetes as well as a host of many other "incurable" "diseases". But there is no money in fasting, so our messed up world continues to reject it as a valid solution.

<comment><USER7> Sad that people are already downvoting you, and sad that more people don't know about other options than medication/surgery.

Here's a link to Dr. Fung's article specifically on reversing type 2 diabetes ([https://idmprogram.com/reverse-type-2-diabetes-the-quick- sta...](https://idmprogram.com/reverse-type-2-diabetes-the-quick-start- guide/)).

Keep downvoting me too, Big Pharma.

<comment><USER8> People are downvoting the parent to your comment because of the _" a host of many other "incurable" "diseases"_ part. It's unsubstantiated and unspecific, and it jumps right to conspiracy theory.

People are downvoting you because you are violating at least 3 site guidelines (commenting about voting, alleging astroturfing/shillage, and being civil). Particularly when you could have made a constructive argument and tried to elaborate what conditions it cured, what studies were behind it (maybe summarizing Dr. Fung's research), or other more valuable contributions.

<comment><USER9> These are probably the same people who think CNN is "fake news".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is clickbait at best, and isn't a cure for Diabetes. Yes it will help a very small fraction of those that suffer from Type 2, but on the whole the article (title especially) is very misleading.

</comment><comment><USER11> There is a distinct difference between Type 2 diabetes "cure" and "reversal".

Reversal: what is being described here. Symptoms go away, and the longer you pursue the treatment, more difficult it becomes to clinically determine you ever had the metabolic disorder in the first place. _However_ , the latent characteristics that made you first susceptible still exist.

Cure: you not only reverse, but you could stuff your face with pizza and Ho Ho pastries, wash it down with a gallon of Mountain Dew, and your blood sugar hardly budges, like normal people.

We do not have a cure. Short of genetically rewiring _in vivo_ , or similar advancement, we won't see a cure. However, ongoing improvement of our understanding of how our bodies work continue to make it simpler than ever before to reverse Type 2. Simple doesn't mean easy, though.

<comment><USER12> > wash it down with a gallon of Mountain Dew, and your blood sugar hardly > budges, like normal people.

If by "normal people" you mean "pre-diabetic", maybe.

Any cure to snake bites requires not getting bitten again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is drastically restricting the amount you eat equivalent to gastric bypass? Or is there something more?

Put another way: is gastric bypass a way of solving the psychological problem of eating too much, the lack of will to stop eating?

<comment><USER14> There could be more to it. There's a hypothesis that microbiome changes could be a contributing factor[0].

Restricting food intake is similar in that it reduces stomach capacity[1], though almost certainly not as drastically as surgery. Lots of people have already mentioned fasting in this thread; I'll add an anecdote that for a few days after a fast, I get full _much_ more quickly.

[0] [https://biodesign.asu.edu/news/dramatic-shift-gut- microbes-a...](https://biodesign.asu.edu/news/dramatic-shift-gut-microbes-and- their-metabolites-seen-after-weight-loss-surgery)

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561056?itool=EntrezSyst...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561056?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Dang. I was hoping they perfected pancreatic beta islet transplantation... That is a terribly misleading title and a major click-bait let-down for Type 1s hopeful for an _actual_ cure for diabetes.

</comment><comment><USER16> As a type 1 diabetic myself I'm highly skeptical of the claims. There is wide consensus that most people with type 2 diabetes could reverse it if they changed eating habits and exercised more. In fact many do! Those that don't could possibly profit from a surgery. But that's admitting defeat really.

I sure hope for people who undergo this surgery do see an improvement. I just hope they got briefed on how they could try without it before having their stomach mutilated. This article does a very bad job of it. As if the surgery were a miracle cure.

</comment><comment><USER17> "The net result is that less food can fit in the stomach, and there's much _less time for that food to be turned into calories_ before it exits the body. The vertical sleeve gastrectomy, the most popular surgery in recent years, only tinkers with the stomach, using staples to turn it into a small banana- shaped organ."

Oh, so the "cure" was to make sure his body consumes/processes less calories? And this is considered some novel solution? Is this a joke?

And then there's this technically accurate but misleading sentence - _" But Benari, now 44, was a very unusual patient in one clear way: He wasn't obese._" True. He wasn't obese. But he was overweight - _" Benari's BMI before he underwent the surgery hovered around 28, which made him modestly overweight but not obese."_ Being overweight _or_ obese is a textbook sign of being a diabetic, pre-diabetic, or at-risk for diabetes, as your metabolic functions are most likely comprised to at least some degree which results in the symptom of excess weight. The article tries to mislead the reader to thinking that because he wasn't technically full blown obese by clinical definitions he was somehow an exceptional outlier. Nonsense.

This man was clearly consuming too much food or food other than carbs that also results in blood sugar spikes (excess protein is metabolized in much the same way), which is why the restriction of caloric intake worked for him. The part at the beginning about him being restricted from "most carbs" seems irrelevant in that context, especially when you factor in the knowledge that he was already confirmed to be compromised and a full blown diabetic.

<comment><USER18> _And then there 's this technically accurate but misleading sentence - "But Benari, now 44, was a very unusual patient in one clear way: He wasn't obese." True. He wasn't obese. But he was overweight - "Benari's BMI before he underwent the surgery hovered around 28, which made him modestly overweight but not obese."_

BMI is a poor measurement for obesity. Especially without knowing his body makeup.

When I was in the best shape of my life - a part time fitness instructor, worked out 10 hours a week between classes and my own workouts, and at one point I was down to a 29 inch waist, my BMI was 29.6 - borderline obese - according to the guidelines. I was muscular, toned, and could pass any of the standard physical fitness tests (military, police, etc.)

Currently according to the BMI guidelines, I'm "obese" with a BMI of 30.72 and I should weigh 35 pounds less than I do now. I wear a size 33 pants (waist). At most, I want to lose about 10 pounds or one waist size.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is a good review of current understanding of the effects for anyone interested in more than some of the comments so far.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936261/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936261/)

Abstract

Bariatric surgery is now widely reported to ameliorate or resolve type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults. Some clinical investigators even suggest its use as an early therapeutic intervention for type 2 diabetes in patients not meeting standard criteria for bariatric surgery. However, little is known about the exact mechanisms explaining the metabolic consequences, and much active investigation is underway to identify hormonal changes leading to diabetes resolution. This review includes a detailed description of various bariatric surgical procedures, including the latest less-invasive techniques, and a summary of current data providing insight into the short- and long-term metabolic effects. We outline current hypotheses regarding the mechanisms by which these surgical procedures affect diabetes and report on morbidity and mortality. Finally, we discuss the available data on bariatric surgery in adolescent patients, including special considerations in this potentially vulnerable population.

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019697811...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196978115002454)

Abstract

Bariatric surgery for obesity has proved to be an extremely effective method of promoting long-term weight reduction with additional beneficial metabolic effects, such as improved glucose tolerance and remission of type 2 diabetes. A range of bariatric procedures are in common use, including gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy and the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Although the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of bariatric surgery are unclear, gastrointestinal and pancreatic peptides are thought to play an important role. The aim of this review is to summarise the effects of different bariatric surgery procedures upon gastrointestinal and pancreatic peptides, including ghrelin, gastrin, cholecystokinin (CCK), glucose-dependent insulinotropic hormone (GIP), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), peptide YY (PYY), oxyntomodulin, insulin, glucagon and somatostatin.

</comment><comment><USER20> I looked into getting it, and the doctor's office was surprised that my insurance didn't cover it. They said that the usual version of my plan normally covers it but my employer had a stipulation that specifically excluded weight loss surgery. $15k out of pocket if I want to do it. I probably should.

</comment><comment><USER21> This piece has the stench of public-relations ghostwriting all over it. Describing a gastric bypass as a "cure" for anything is fake news if I've ever heard any.

I know many people who have had them, and in _every_ case they'd describe it as having traded one problem for another.

</comment><comment><USER22> I share the general sentiment of shock in the comments that such a sensational click bait article somehow made it to the front page. A healthy diet with regular exercise might always be the correct answer but this is exactly the kind of problem that would benefit from hacking.

While fasting in various forms may be beneficial and less harmful than hacking out a significant part of your digestive system we must acknowledge the psychological barrier faced in doing so.

As someone who has successfully fasted repeatedly combined with regular exercise solely for weight control, the effort is quite "character building" and simply expecting diabetics and the obese to engage in what amounts to self denial just because it is the correct approach is quite unrealistic.

</comment><comment><USER23> I was totally expecting the cure to be a gym membership. Exercise is still the gold standard of care for managing type 2 diabetes.

</comment><comment><USER24> Imagine consuming less sugar and less carbohydrates, and food at more infrequent intervals...

</comment><comment><USER25> Why even bother with the surgery? Real hackers fast intermittently, and eat strict keto otherwise.

<comment><USER26> Lack of willpower perhaps?

<comment><USER27> Completely agree. My father is a T2 diabetic. He tried keto with great results but could not sustain it. Recently he tried fasting and started getting similar results. Stopped insulin altogether from his peak of 30 units a day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Diabetes can already be cured, without the sick concept of a gastric bypass as some sort of a solution. Type 2 diabetes can be completely reversed following a 14 to 40 day water fast or a series of short 4-7 day dry fasts. This is complete insanity that such a simple solution is still not mainstream in 2018.

<comment><USER28> How do you survive for 40 days with 0 food, and 7 days with 0 water?

<comment><USER29> Do you know many dead people who suffer from type 2 diabetes? Didn't think so... :)</comment></comment></comment>


Siftables - Tactile Computing Blocks - <AUTHOR> http://singularityhub.com/2010/05/05/siftables-are-changing-the-shape-of-computing/

<comment><USER2> these look really really cool. I hope they enter the market at a level which actually makes them applicable for kids to own (think 5, MAYBE 10 dollars a piece). I hope they release an API/sdk sooner than later as well. I am throwing together a quick analog in jquery just for fun to play with "spatially aware" blocks as the math and word finding examples seemed like they would be really fun on the ipad.</comment>


The future of jobs - <AUTHOR> http://pebblecode.com/blog/the-future-of-jobs/ <comment><USER2> It will be interesting to see how the next couple of years play out. Public schools (k12) in the US don't seem to get what is coming or at least they can't change fast enough.</comment>