The real source of Apple device IDs leaked by Anonymous last week - <AUTHOR> http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/10/13781440-exclusive-the-real-source-of-apple-device-ids-leaked-by-anonymous-last-week <comment><USER3> Matt Blaze, on Twitter:

@mattblaze: So, instead of being tightly held data given to the FBI by Apple, UDIDs are widely available to random app developers you've never heard of.

@mattblaze: And thanks to Anonymous, if the FBI didn't have that list of UDIDs before, they do now.

<comment><USER4> Matt always has a great perspective on these things. At one of his talks I attended he commented on the difference between the 'security' business and the 'intelligence' business and noted that they both depended heavily on obfuscation and misdirection. Prior to that I had never really connected them in that way, but in hindsight it seemed amazingly obvious. Interesting times indeed.

<comment><USER3> Matt Blaze is probably the most important computer scientist at the intersection of security & privacy; look at the relatively recent work his group did on wiretaps for a good example of why. He's not a grandstander.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Make sure to read the actual details from David Schuetz's – @DarthNull – blog post (the dude who did the digging):

[http://intrepidusgroup.com/insight/2012/09/tracking-udid- src...](http://intrepidusgroup.com/insight/2012/09/tracking-udid-src/)

<comment><USER6> ... and the BlueToad blog post. Nothing of substance, mostly just a "sorry" and "we've fixed it".

[http://blog.bluetoad.com/2012/09/10/statement-from- bluetoad-...](http://blog.bluetoad.com/2012/09/10/statement-from-bluetoad- regarding-the-cyber-attack-suffered-in-the-recent-case-of-stolen-apple-udids/)

<comment><USER7> I wish they also said they were not collecting "other personal data as, full names, cell numbers, addresses, zipcodes", which the pastebin posters claimed was in the original file.

Unfortunately, BlueToad's statement leaves some wiggle room.

"BlueToad does not collect, nor have we ever collected, highly sensitive personal information like credit cards, social security numbers or medical information. The illegally obtained information primarily consisted of Apple device names and UDIDs – information that was reported and stored pursuant to commercial industry development practices."

Edit: The "98% correlation" leads me to believe the publicly posted info is the full extent of the leak.

<comment><USER8> Why? If 98% of the posted UDIDs are in their database then I could see them say "98% correlation"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can we agree to stop using Anonymous as a collective noun? It's like saying "In other news, a site was vandalized by The Hackers."

All it means is that someone published something anonymously, with an intent to associate themselves with this larger collective. Maybe for those in the know, they can say that this particular hack was discussed in Anonymous' IRC chanels or something. Better to say "an Anonymous" or "a hacker claiming allegiance with Anonymous".

Of course, this is how the media is being hacked. Unlike the devil, Anonymous' greatest trick was convincing the world that it did exist.

<comment><USER10> IIRC, wasn't this leak made by the group AntiSec? IIRC, they consider themselves separate from Anonymous and have their own very odd manifesto having to do with exploit disclosure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is still somewhat consistent with Anonymous' story....

The chain of events could have been:

1\. Blue Toad either gets hacked, or gives their data to the FBI or someone else.

2\. Somehow this data ends up on an FBI agent's laptop.

3\. Anonymous breaches the laptop and gets the data.

4\. Anonymous sees all the UDIDs and mistakenly thinks, "Apple and the FBI must be in cahoots!", and publishes it.

<comment><USER12> My guess is somewhat blander.

1\. Anon breaches laptop, finds UDIDs.

2\. Anon tells other anons he got the UDIDs from a laptop.

3\. Other anons tell more anons it was a government laptop.

4\. Release group writes "FBI laptop" in their pastebin.

(5. ??? --> 6\. Profit!)

The heterogeneity and disorder in Anonymous (at least it was like this back in the day) means that the chain from leaker to releaser -- usually passing through several people and IRC channels -- plays out a bit like a game of telephone. This serves to protect the leakers, but it can mess with some of the details.

<comment><USER13> The releaser of the data mentioned the name of a specific FBI agent and claimed the data had a specific file name containing the acronym of an non- profit organization set up to share data between private industry and intelligence organizations.

Details like that don't emerge over the course of a game of telephone. If this story is correct, and the data was not in the possession of the FBI, someone deliberately decided to make up an elaborate lie.

<comment><USER14> The FBI Agent (Christopher K. Stangl) appears in a recruiting video for cybersecurity experts. It is no sign of secret knowledge when his name is used.

<comment><USER13> Wasn't implying that it was.

It's entirely plausible that someone, disliking the FBI, made up an elaborate lie to discredit them.

<comment><USER15> It's entirely plausible that you work for the FBI and are trying to discredit talk of the FBI's involvement by proposing relatively poor arguments to the contrary.

See how ridiculous you sound?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16>
      The analysis found a 98 percent correlation between the two datasets.
      "That's 100 percent confidence level, it's our data," DeHart said.

The numbers don't quite add up. Having said that, the hackers may have removed their device data, this might be (some of) the 2% missing data.

<comment><USER17> That would be insanely stupid [#] for the attackers to do - especially as they claim the FBI have the original 2%.

      diff ours theirs | xargs fbi_arrest_warrent_generator.py

I cannot come up with a convincing reason that the 2% is missing however - <USER2> if the 2% is in addition to. Which would raise even more weird questions.

edit: [#] that seems a bit aggressive, but I am not aiming at the parent post here, apologies if it reads badly. I think I mean these guys would make it onto Americas Dumbest Hackers TV special if that were the case.

<comment><USER18> The md5 sum of the UDIDs list contains 1337 on purpose.

It seems to me that the easier way to achieve this is either by randomly modifying the order of lines, which they didn't do, or to add/remove some bytes.

It could be the 2% diff between the two files : bruteforcing the md5 hashing by removing some random lines till they got a md5 digest containing 1337.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> So Blue Toad doesn't feel it's their responsibility to contact the people they exposed? The individual publishers assumed the risk of working with Blue Toad so they are partially responsible, but Blue Toad isn't going out of their way to make people feel sorry for them.

<comment><USER20> It seems like Blue Toad's customers were intermediaries between Blue Toad and the final end-users of Blue Toad's apps. Much like the RSA breakin a few years back, it makes sense for Blue Toad to make a general announcement and leave the direct customer communication up to Blue Toad's customers (who own the direct relationship with the customers).

Of course, this brings up the question of why Blue Toad should have Personally Identifying Information about its customers' customers.

<comment><USER21> It provides an SaaS solution, and it had a security breach. If we compare their solution to Salesforce, is it Salesforce's (legal) responsibility to keep all of your customers' data encrypted and inaccessible to anyone except your company? Only if they provide an SLA saying that, or otherwise advertise that feature. Blue Toad never advertised that feature, and it wants to be invisible to its end users.

<comment><USER19> Legal responsibility? Probably not. Ethical responsibility? I think so. Think about if, say, Conde Nast got hacked and login information was leaked from all of their servers. What would I expect from Ars Technica, Wired, Reddit, etc? A link to a Conde Nast page with one unified statement, closing with something like "We at Ars and Conde Nast apologize...", "We at Wired and Conde Nast..." etc.

Even if Blue Toad wants to be invisible to end users, it's gone a little beyond that. Legally they only have to follow the fairly open-ended PII laws that are in place (I believe California is the only state to require they notify users of a breech), but ethically I believe their responsibility falls a little beyond that line.

<comment><USER22> What if AWS security was breached. Do you think they should email all Dropbox customers to inform them of the breach or leave that responsibility to Dropbox? (Dropbox is hosted on AWS) I think that analogy is more accurate because Conde Nast actually own the web properties you mentioned whereas BlueToad is an independent service provider.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> BlueToad said they were able to confirm several of their own devices in the dataset which they go on to use as evidence that the dataset is their own. If antisec took this database from BlueToad why would they not trim out the BlueToad devices that could help confirm that this leak didn't come from the FBI? They trimmed out 11 million rows but left in the 19 used by the developer itself?

<comment><USER24> How would they do that? The data contained "Apple Device UDID, Apple Push Notification Service DevToken, Device Name, Device Type." None of those fields necessarily indicate who owns any of the devices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> This doesn't necessarily rule out the FBI as the Anonymous's source, but it does cast a lot of doubt on their story.

<comment><USER3> It also doesn't rule out the aliens from Zarvox who may secretly control our government from the highest levels.

<comment><USER26> I'm glad someone brought this up! I've been concerned about this for years!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Now that's another story !

Kudos to Mr. Schuetz who went through all these UDID to find out what seems to be the truth, for once.

</comment><comment><USER27> > The analysis found a 98 percent correlation between the two datasets.

Hate to say "I told you so" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4473971> :)

</comment><comment><USER28> So which apps were to blame?

</comment><comment><USER29> Sorry for the OT, but for crying out loud, a professional journalist has no excuse at all for using "pouring" in place of "poring".

</comment><comment><USER30> Blue Toad could be a front company for the FBI ...</comment>


Ask HN: How is Salesforce able to retain customers at this price? - <AUTHOR> It looks really expensive (~$140 per month per employee ?) but the company seems to be growing crazy and also a very good place to work for.<p>How are they able to pull off such a high subscription price ? <comment><USER2> Even if it makes a sales team a few % more productive, it pays for itself. Plus, it's such a gold standard that there's not really a lot of justification for using a different CRM.</comment>


Performance-related pay doesn't encourage performance - <AUTHOR> http://www.management-issues.com/2009/6/25/research/performance-related-pay-doesnt-encourage-performance.asp <comment><USER2> There's a classic experiment where people turn some pegs a quarter turn for an hour or so. There were three groups, the first was paid a dollar, the second $20, and third was control, paid nothing. Of the three groups, which do you think enjoyed the work the most?

Well, the one dollar group said they enjoyed it the most and indicated they were most likely to do an experiment like it in the future? Why? You can read more here: <http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Festinger/>

So what this says is, when you get paid enough money, you can admit to yourself that what you are doing for the money isn't that great and you don't like it. If you aren't paid that much, then you have to justify to yourself why you are doing it and this might include that you enjoy it, you're helping a group, "doing your part," or some other reason besides being fairly compensated. Otherwise, you'd say, "I do it for the money."

I wonder if collectively, programmers/hackers/IT people work for less than their value and so they (we) compensate for the lack of compensation with "passion for the work."

<comment><USER3> > the one dollar group said they enjoyed it the most

Counterintuitive. Interesting. But not really definitive.

Here's the key quote:

> The difference between the One and Twenty Dollar conditions reaches the .08 > level of significance on a two-tailed test (t = 1.79).

The sample sizes here are tiny, about 20 people per.

Without meaning any offense to you in particular, I've often observed that "interesting" social science findings like this take on disproportionate significance when verbally summarized as "enjoyed it the most" or "more effective". That only tells you a tiny bit about (respectively) ranks or the sign of the difference. Lacking detailed knowledge of the experiment (= effect sizes + confidence intervals), one doesn't know how robust those ranks or orderings are if the experiment was repeated...which is, in this case, what the citation boils down to: a tacit suggestion to repeat the experiment with compensation at your business!

Again, zero offense intended. My only point is that social science type findings like this should be handled with great skepticism, particularly if the results are counterintuitive and involve small sample sizes.

(PS: I do agree that money is often the most expensive way to motivate people. It does not motivate me. But I think some of Dan Ariely's work is more persuasive in this regard.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The problem in my experience has always been that management can't just leave well enough alone and make it straight performance based. They have to tie in all these things that they think should lead to good performance, whether they actually do or not.

<comment><USER5> What you said makes a lot of sense. How would you define straight performance based for developers?

<comment><USER2> Some ideas that quickly come to mind.

Number of bugs caught in test. Number of lines of code written, fewer would be better, but it's difficult to measure this, because more functionality is often correlated to lines of code.

Number of hours of maintenance required after release. Bugs found after release. Downtime caused by code written by the developer. Amount of time projects are delayed due to the developer. Number of hours or days code is ready before deadline. Speed of the application or functionality they write. Longevity of the code.

<comment><USER6> All of your proposals have serious flaws.

* Bugs caught in test - testers file more bugs given the same number of defects.

* Lines of code (less is better) - People talk more, do less.

* Hours of maintenance required after release - Developers delay release excessively for testing.

* Bugs found after release - Developers look less hard for bugs.

* Downtime caused - Developers avoid working on things that might cause downtime.

* Time delayed due to developer - Impossible to measure.

* Ready before deadline - Developers test less rigorously, cut features.

* Speed of the application - Application will do less, or developers optimize beyond what is necessary.

* Longevity of code - Not strongly connected to quality, dependent more on organizational use case.

My point is not to get you to come up with new proposals, because they will likely fail too. It's to get you to realize that the entire idea of coming up with these metrics, or balance them, does not make sense. You would not say to a water colorist that you would compensate him based on how little red paint he wastes or how many square inches he paints.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "While compensation reform is needed, it must come from within--from executives and boards, acting in the company's best interests," he added.

I don't like the pay Czar notion. However, I doubt that the executives will reduce their own pay, and boards have often been in management's pocket on this issue.</comment>


Hindsight Devalues Science - <AUTHOR> http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/08/hindsight-deval.html

<comment><USER2> Every science has its branch of engineering. Physics has Physical engineering, Comp Sci has software development, physiology has medicine.

What's the equivilent branch of engineering for sociology or social pyschology? I can think of: Propaganda/public relations/advertising, group and crowd control, realpolitik, etc.

Nothing too good in a general sense.

<comment><USER3> More importantly, every science has its branch(es) of bias and hard sciences are no exception.</comment></comment>


UN reports rich will save themselves in 'climate apartheid' while poor suffers - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/climate-change-rich-poor-un-report-1.5189662 <comment><USER2> There's this apocalyptic movie where world leaders built giant submarines and people paid a billion USD or Pounds per head to get in.

</comment><comment><USER3> Ah, Malthus, what have you done?!</comment>


Customer development as an optimization problem - <AUTHOR> http://martinsosic.com/customer/development/2015/07/16/customer-development-as-optimization-problem.html <comment><USER2> Mathematician view of customer development. This article should be read by every engineering student who wants to have a startup. gj

</comment><comment><USER3> This is an excellent approach. It makes very clear what is happening in customer development.

</comment><comment><USER4> Amazing - I'm a computer scientist doing customer interviews and I love this!</comment>


Previewing Meteor's new rendering engine: Using jQuery UI Sortable - <AUTHOR> http://www.meteor.com/blog/2013/09/13/previewing-meteors-new-rendering-engine-using-jquery-ui-sortable

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. I love getting to work on these problems every day. If building these kinds of systems is your thing, drop me a line at email@example.com.</comment>


Network of Donald Trump's Tweets - <AUTHOR> https://www.alexkras.com/mapping-donald-trumps-tweets/ <comment><USER2> Do the results change if you filter out filler words like "would" and "many"?</comment>


Apple RIP Logo design - <AUTHOR> http://jmak.tumblr.com/post/9377189056 <comment><AUTHOR> I know normally this (an image) wouldn't fit here, but I thought it was poignant and relevant considering the front page.

<comment><USER2> It's an excellent design, and a fine tribute.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Wow...love the intelligence in this interpretation.

I suspect this will likely become apart of the imagery associated with our loss, like the Shepherd's Hope poster became associated with Obama's campaign.

</comment><comment><USER4> Apparently news sites are using this logo. I hope he gets paid for this.

<comment><USER5> You hope he gets paid?! I hope he doesn't get sued by Apple.

<comment><USER6> Why? He can always claim it's meant to be a parody, and thus should be safe. Or not?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I made a few wallpapers [1] with this in case anyone wants one (sorry for the poor vectorization, I'm working and I had to make this fast). Imgur seems to compress jpegs a bit hard, so please feel free to ask me for less compressed images.

The different images are for the different resolutions & styles.

(I am not the creator of the original image, credits go to Jonathan Mak)

[1]: <http://imgur.com/a/ASm7b>

<comment><USER8> That's a lovely form factor. Kern the numbers more evenly, the distance between the "1" and "9" is far more than the distance between the "9" and "5", and the "2" in "2011" is far closer to the "0" than the "1".

<comment><USER7> Thanks, I must admit I was rushing so much that I didn't even work on the kerning. I'll check this later today.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I tried an Apple logo variation back when Steve's illness was first announced. It's not as subtle as Mak's, but this seems to be the time for this sort of thing:

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/imark/3210793896/>

<comment><USER10> This is also very, very nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Definitely appropriate, for this community even more so. Steve was an inspiration, an icon, a legend.

</comment><comment><USER12> Apple's missing piece.

</comment><comment><USER13> Subtle, striking, and minimalistic. Just like Steve's design ethic.

</comment><comment><USER14> Posted on Aug 26th, 2011?

<comment><USER15> When he stepped down. Notice the post itself doesn't actually say anything about his death.

<comment><USER16> The post tags include "death" and "RIP". probably a server misconfiguration tho.

<comment><USER17> More likely those tags were added afterwards.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I put it up at www.bitkeeper.com, if you need a copyright stuck on there or whatever, let me know. Very nice logo, I like to think that Steve would also have liked it.

</comment><comment><USER19> For some reason, this reminds me a bit of the Dreamworks logo.

</comment><comment><USER20> Apologies in advance for questioning an Apple aesthetic at a time like this. Perhaps SJ would have appreciated the design critique.

But someone pointed out to me the similarity with, um, POW*MIA YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_POW- MIA_flag...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_POW-MIA_flag.svg) and it's kinda stuck in my head now. :-P

<comment><USER21> What? How are the two even remotely similar?

<comment><USER22> The downward tilted silhouette of a face? I think the similarity is pretty apparent and thought the same thing when I saw it.

<comment><USER23> Reminded me more of the Jane Eyre 'silhouette' book cover: <http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/4722840-jane-eyre>

<comment><USER24> fyi, that link redirects users to a signup page unless they're already logged into goodreads. (which I'm not, since I have no account there.)

<comment><USER25> I think this is what he meant: <http://bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/jane_eyre.large.jpg>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> The cover of Chicago Tribune's Thursday edition of the Red Eye was strikingly similar to your design: <http://www.poynter.org/wp- content/uploads/2011/10/redeye.gif>

I can't imagine that they independently arrived at that cover without having seen this here first.

</comment><comment><USER3> Btw, congrats on the notoriety. I just saw your image on an NYT article.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/business/steve-jobs-and- th...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/business/steve-jobs-and-the-power-of- taking-the-big-chance.html?pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB)

That's awesome. Would love to know how that worked out for you.

</comment><comment><USER27> I love the design. I took the liberty of using it in an iMovie project called "In Memory of Steve Jobs" that I wanted to post to the guys on HN, who I hope will appreciate it.

Check it out: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edaQyINe5oQ?1>

</comment><comment><USER28> I just saw this in a (German) newspaper. Apparently Reuters picked it up.

<comment> hendrik-xdest I don't think it is the same: <http://ow.ly/i/iHzx>

(I don't know if they wanted to be funny or what but it's very crude and inappropriate to open with "iDeath" and that image).

<comment><USER28> I guess there are several versions. I saw it here: <http://www.taz.de/Kritischer-Nachruf-auf-Steve-Jobs/!79461/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> It's silly, but I made my tribute too: [http://fusi0n.org/wp- content/uploads/2011/10/apple-half-mast...](http://fusi0n.org/wp- content/uploads/2011/10/apple-half-mast.png)

</comment><comment><USER30> My tribute of Steve Jobs' beautiful world: <http://www.servicestack.net/thankyou_steve.png>

</comment><comment><USER31> Channel 4 News (UK) closed the story with this logo last night. They also closed by calling him the "insanely great Steve Jobs" which was nice.

</comment><comment><USER32> That is really, really lovely.

</comment><comment><USER33> Apple should use this logo.

</comment><comment><USER34> Cool tribute. I've used one of the variations for my Facebook Cover

</comment><comment><USER35> GREAT. More than worth to share.

</comment><comment><USER36> It is perfect.

</comment><comment><USER37> Tacky.

<comment><USER38> Excellent!. I loved the creativity. Best Tribute.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Easily implement a social referral program in your app - <AUTHOR> http://developer.appsp.in/

<comment><USER2> Is there a specific way a developer has to integrate this into their app? Or is it up to them? Sounds pretty cool, though, for people that like to share their favorite apps anyway.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this what companies like Uber and Venmo use in their apps? I want to make some $$

<comment><USER4> Yeah! So it gives any app the ability to have a referral program like Venmo/Uber without the hassle of building all the unique links that can track downloads and reward the user appropriately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is awesome!</comment>


Chromebooks and Battery Life - <AUTHOR> http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/02/chromebooks-and-battery-life.html <comment><USER2> Google needs to focus on affordable ARM-based Chromebooks with 10h+ of battery life. That's the sweet spot for Chromebooks.

It's not touch, it's not "retina displays" and it's not expensive Intel processors and terabytes of storage. None of those are needed for a successful Chromebook. In fact they detract from the success of Chromebooks as they make them much more expensive and kill its battery life.

Chromebook Pixel is fine as a "one time only" thing to create halo marketing for ChromeOS and Chromebooks, but they'll never be able to actually have a business with $1,000 Chromebooks.</comment>


YC-Backed Zen99 to shut down, return remaining capital to investors - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@tmzier/zen99-is-closing-its-doors-8-25-169830ec7da8

<comment><USER2> This is very disappointing. I remember how glad I was this finally came into existence when I discovered them. It's a real problem. Of course, since their launch, Intuit came out with their Self Employed offering. I wish more detail was provided about why they're shutting down.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the problem is that most people that are in the category of people using this service: rideshare drivers, delivery drivers, housekeepers, web developers, photographers don't have the extra money to spend on this sort of service.

I just used Turbo tax and Google and it took little to no extra effort.</comment>


Show HN: Tired of entering map directions on iPhone? I've streamlined it - <AUTHOR> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quickmaps/id506283203?ls=1&mt=8 <comment><AUTHOR> I built this after getting tired at how many actions it takes to enter directions in Maps on iPhone. Often I just wanted to navigate from the current location to a common place (eg home, work). With Quickmaps, all I have to do is launch the app and with single gesture I'm done. Feedback is most welcome

<comment><USER2> For a feature suggestion I've been craving (not quite in-line with your app, but possibly a useful pivot): let me specify a route[-gesture] with _multiple_ stop-points, possibly even returning to the start--so that the start of each route is the end of the previous. (Say, go to a friends' to pick something up, then from there to the grocery store, then back home [where I already was while entering the route.]) The one thing I find absolutely tedious is saying "from Current Location, to B", then after arriving at B, having to change that to "from Current Location, to A", rather than just being able to say "from B back to wherever the Current Location was when I was coming here."

<comment><USER3> I've also wanted this for a long time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thank you. As a transit rider, this is exactly what I wanted. The existing form is not so bad if you define those locations in contacts, the form will autocomplete, including "C" for current location, strangely. But this is just that much better.

I look forward to Apple stealing this. Charge money for it while you can.

I still don't have any good mobile integration between my Google Calendar and maps, though. The phone knows where I am, and with the calendar it knows where I'm supposed to be. Why doesn't it notify me at the right time to leave where ever I am, based on estimated travel time in my usual transport mode? Surely someone's done this already...

<comment><USER5> great idea. And it should use how often you are late to improve that notification.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> On this topic -- add your common locations (home, work, trader joes) as contacts in your iOS address book. Then when you need directions, just click on the address book icon in Maps under Search, and select the location, and you're good to go.

I was an iOS user for several years before figuring this out -- it's saved me a lot of time. I probably typed in my home address a hundred times unnecessarily. Although, since I'm going to try out this app, this tip maybe isn't so useful. :)

<comment><USER7> Why is that any better than using the bookmarks feature?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> At first I thought, "Hmm, nifty idea. Could be useful."

But then I stopped to examine the use of it. It seems that this idea is inherently kind of pointless because the places you frequent you already know how to get to. On the other hand places you don't frequent, the case in which this would be fantastic, won't be in there.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you considered using prediction (perhaps by scraping the user's calendar) to show places they have not driven to many times?

Great job with the design by the way.

<comment><USER9> I commonly commute between a small set of places at different times on public transportation. Depending on what time I'm travelling, the best route through public transportation can be completely different. I know how to get to all of these places by walking/driving, but I don't always know the best way to get there given the time, which is why this app is so useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> What I really need is an app to send an address I've looked up in Google Maps on my iPhone to my Garmin Nuvi via Bluetooth.

Search on the Nuvi for places > 5 mi away takes forever. It's so much faster (and easier since Google guesses many of the address details) on the iPhone w/ Maps, and it'd be awesome to add a button that say "Send to Nuvi" and be on my way :)

<comment><USER11> I like the iPhone TomTom app which incorporates Google Local Search. The IQ route planning and traffic avoidance are excellent also, I've found them taking 10% off of city based journeys where I previously thought I knew the roads well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> My first thought is to use this on vacation. Let's say I go to San Diego... I enter in the hotel, the zoo, ocean beach, little italy, la jolla, etc. Then, as I randomly explore the area, I click from current location to any spot I've already entered. I LOVE this.

My most common words on vacation are "How in the hell do I get back to the hotel".

<comment><USER13> "And where did I park the car??" :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> My first thought was that I don't think I've ever needed directions to or from a location more than once or twice, once it's familiar I know where it is.

But then I realized I do need transit times between familiar locations every time I use mass transit.

So then I went to buy it, and it's free -- is there a way I can give you money?

<comment><USER15> > _is there a way I can give you money?_

Was thinking the same thing. I have paid for far less useful apps. This should be 99c

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Brilliant. This is such a common use case I can't believe it's not more optimized in the OS level.

</comment><comment><USER17> If somebody drives often between two locations they know the way, right? Am I missing something?

<comment><USER18> Not for this app per se, but for a public-transport journey planner it'd be useful for getting the next set of travel options to a common destination.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Quick suggestion: style the "Current Location" bubble differently from the rest.

Also, I'm not sure what "?" is. I assume that it lets you enter an address, but it's best if I don't have to try it to figure it out.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree that it could be clearer. The idea of the '?' is to let you enter a location without the hassle of having to save it first. Useful for times when you want to go someplace, but it's not common enough to warrant saving it

<comment><USER20> To me, it seems like this (the ? ) is the strongest feature of the app. My kneejerk reaction is that if you go to a place often enough to save it, you probably don't need directons anyway (or won't after one or two trips).

Nitpick aside, this is a beautifully simple interface.

<comment><USER21> I would guess that the most common use case is getting from the current location to a new destination (?). What if those 2 were more prominent? Saved locations could be an additional option but to make this more efficient, I would bring those 2 options to the forefront.

Needless to say, but well done!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Next: please make an app that tells me what direction I should be walking to find 7th ave if I'm on 8th ave? You'd think the gps should help but it doesn't. You often end up walking more than half way before the gps will sluggishly tell you you're headed in the wrong direction.

Any tourist in NYC would buy it. It's less painful than asking someone like me(happens few times a week).

<comment><USER23> Come on man! A brief & polite human interaction never hurt anyone!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> wow! hurry and get this out for android - otherwise I'll do it for you ;)

<comment><USER25> On Android, you can just hold the search button to bring up voice search and say "navigate to $address" and google maps navigation will guide you to the address, no need to type anything. You can even say "navigate to $business_name" and it will lead you to the closest one.

<comment><USER26> I'm sure everyone on here knows that you can do that on either platform. Presumably people don't think that is as good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> If you know frequently used destinations (routes are familiar) like work, park, Aquarium etc why at all you need maps? Will be useful when going to a new place for which you don't know the route. In any case you need to type the location right. I am not getting the usefulness of this App. Am I missing some thing??

</comment><comment><USER28> My reaction: That's awesome, I wonder how much it co… (holy *@$!^&) hit download immediately. This is an elegant solution for a problem that should really be better taken care of at the OS level. Hopefully Apple has the decency to carve out a chunk of it's billions and buy this idea from you. Great work!

</comment><comment><USER29> Consider adding calendar integration? i.e. a "next appointment (3pm / 1313 W. 54th Ave)" bubble...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> OP here. Thanks for all the feedback, wasn't expecting to get such a positive response!

There are a bunch of great suggestions here which I plan on adding in the future. Follow me: @pheeelicks (yes, 3 e's) for updates (inc Android version)

(Sorry for the extra post - it's too late to edit my original)

</comment><comment><USER30> Looks like a great app. Does it offer any password protection?

Dan loses phone, Andy finds phone. Andy emails Dan's wife saying he lost his keys, and can she leave a spare behind the shed? Andy uses phone to find house, Andy robs house.

Just a thought. :)

<comment><USER31> Probably better to depend on the OS security for this.

<comment><USER30> Maybe so, but iirc the iPhone pin-code is pretty easy to bypass.

Perhaps it's just me that's paranoid! :)

<comment><USER32> You can configure the lockscreen to require a fullblown passphrase if you think pins are too short.

<comment><USER30> Of course, but there have been security flaws in the past that allowed you to easily remove a pin or passphrase.

I'm just nervous about saving my "home" address. Your car has keys, but you're still advised not to save your home address under "Home" on your satnav. It's the same thing.

<comment><USER26> Presumably it is on your registration or do you not keep that in your car?

<comment><USER30> I do not keep that in my car.

UK law allows me to carry only the license part and leave the paper part at home. In the event that I should be required to produce it, I am allowed four days to take it to my local police station.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> The one pain point for me in the app, which I installed, is that when I enter/edit a location I want to just drop a pin on the map - ala google maps. And not just be redirected to the native maps app.

</comment><comment><USER34> I am a bit confused, why do you need the starting point? I guess you would be there and for navigation you would need a GPS position anyways.

<comment><USER4> Sometimes GPS isn't working. What if you're in an underground parking lot?

I do agree though, it seems like a bit of a fail if the OS knows that it has a good fix on GPS, you shouldn't even need a "current location". Just tap the location you want and go. If you want to do a route from A to B, then do the swipe. But I expect the difficulty there is that getting a GPS fix takes time, and mobile apps in 2012 can't do it in the background.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Cute interface. The aesthetic could be a little more refined but the behaviour and the animation is quite charming.

</comment><comment><USER36> Hrm. I only use my nav to get to _new_ places. That being said, I do see value using this app to swipe to the "?".

<comment><USER20> That was my initial thought as well. An interesting extension of this concept would be to have generic circles too (eg "Bars") that connect the user to a list of nearby places that the user can select from. Still no typing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I don't really see the point. Getting from my favourite places to my favourite places I usually don't need a map.

</comment><comment><USER38> Why would I need a GPS to take me to dad's or a particular cafe after I've gone there once or twice?

</comment><comment><USER39> wow! cool idea bro! installed it! I am sure I will be using this all the time when I need the maps!

One request: If you can write a blog/comments about number of downloads after making to top of HN, it would be interesting metric to look at :-)

</comment><comment><USER40> what GPS app do you guys use? all the iphone GPS apps I've used are terrible, I still use Siri w/ google maps, which takes more attention than it should when i'm driving.

<comment><USER4> The Motion-X suite of products are a little bit hardcore geo-nerd, but they work for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Siri actually makes it rather simple to query map directions

</comment><comment><USER42> This is really awesome. I would have gladly paid $1 for it.

</comment><comment><USER43> Very, Very clever. Definitely going to give this a try.

</comment><comment><USER44> Brilliant. I would have paid for this, fyi.

</comment><comment><USER45> good job!! question -- did you design outlook and icon yourself? any suggestions?

<comment><AUTHOR> Did all the design myself, except the icons which came from the excellent glyphish (<http://glyphish.com/>) icon collection. The icon is also based off one of these.

<comment><USER45> thanks. is this design in illustrator?

<comment><AUTHOR> Inkscape

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Nice app, I'm impressed!

</comment><comment><USER47> Thank you, thank you!

</comment><comment><USER48> Clever app, nice job. Love the animation on the selection and how it just leaves you in google maps and doesn't try to re-invent the map interface. Might want to change

Swipe from one location to another

to

Drag from one location to another

Thanks for making it.

</comment><comment><USER49> i can see how the UI is awesome from going one place to another, but really, anyone 'navigate' from anywhere that is not your 'current location'?

i don't. so it's an honest question.

thinking about it, the only few times i do search from A to B instead of "here to B" is when i'm getting the subway, but then, i always have to click the nearest station i'm willing to walk anyway... don't see i having one bookmark for each one</comment>


$4 ARM PSoC prototyping kits - <AUTHOR> http://www.cypress.com/?rID=92146 <comment><USER2> The PSoC is an interesting animal. Really shouldn't be compared with the Arduino other than the fact they have 8-bit processor cores in the 20-40 MHz range.

The real beauty of the PSoC comes from the things you can do when you hook up the internal analog and digital blocks in interesting ways. Take a look at this example from Cypress:

[http://edn.com/design/medical/4421721/Product-how-to-- Heart-...](http://edn.com/design/medical/4421721/Product-how-to--Heart-rate- monitor-using-a-programmable-SoC)

Look at figure 4. Everything not in dark blue is in the PSoC Creator IDE to hook up different blocks _on the chip_ and wire them to do some of the processing that you would normally offload to some other chips in your design. This is how they do CapSense with a minimal amount of external parts. There's lots of tasty A-to-D and D-to-A stuff on here. You can also do all of this stuff at the register level if you think the IDE is not your cup of tea.

USB is also very very easy with this part. You can have a HID device running in a half hour when you use their wizard and then flesh out the stubbed routines it creates for you.

<comment><USER3> The 4 & 5LP are 32 bit ARM, the 1 & 3 are 8 bit.

<comment><USER2> Ayup. Sorry. And the PSoC1 barely deserves the name '8-bit', it's a bastardized version of 8051 that Cypress calls M8C. It's nasty.

<comment><USER3> You wouldn't happen to know how close these ARM cores are to LPC1xxx or STM32? Would it be worthwhile to port Chibios to them?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> FYI, this is for the PSoC 4 family.

[http://www.cypress.com/psoc4/?source=CY-ENG- HEADER](http://www.cypress.com/psoc4/?source=CY-ENG-HEADER)

 _PSoC® 4 Highlights_ ARM® Cortex™-M0 CPU up to 48MHz

\- Up to 32 kB Flash, 4 kB SRAM

\- Programmable Analog: Op-Amps, 12-bit 1Msps SAR ADC

\- Programmable Digital: Four PLD-based Logic Blocks

\- CapSense® Touch Sensing

\- Low Power 1.71 to 5.5V Operation

\- 150nA Hibernate Mode, 20nA Stop Mode

</comment><comment><USER5> Any word on whether / how well that Windows-only IDE performs on WINE in Linux? (Hint to Cypress: that Windows-only thing is a dealbreaker for enough of us that you really should address it.)

<comment><USER2> Cypress has shipped over _1,700,000,000_ of these chips since introduction. Asking for PSoC Designer/Creator in another OS will probably be met with a very large shrug.

<comment><USER6> You're probably right, but Windows-only stopped me in my tracks too. I won't bother trying this, because the advantages over an Arduino mini pro (more memory, a snappy USB interface) don't seem to justify the pain of struggling with serial interfaces in WINE.

And although the vast majority of these devices will be going to big industrial users, if I was Cypress I'd consider the cost of developing Linux/Mac versions against the prospect of losing a generation of tinkerers to Atmel.

<comment><AUTHOR> I made an offhand remark about wanting a Linux-compatible IDE in a Cypress survey for educational users a few years ago. Surprisingly, I received a detailed response from a senior manager about some of the reasons that they've stuck with a Windows-only system. They were well aware of the interest from Linux users, but had made a business decision to focus on making their IDE work really well, even if only on one OS.

<comment><USER7> I generally understand the motivation of these companies, but damn I really hate that they all build IDEs. I wish they would focus on command-line tools or libraries and integration with (say) eclipse for those that really want an IDE. Having a different half-assed IDE for each hardware platform makes for a frustrating day at work

Build automation for embedded systems is such a PITA. My previous job we had a build step that used AutoHotKey to click through the manufacturers 'proprietary tools'. You can imagine how reliable that was

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For the curious, shipping is a flat $7.50 in the USA.

You can also get it from distributors for $4 [http://www.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Ntk=P_MarCom&Ntt=16...](http://www.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Ntk=P_MarCom&Ntt=165961099)

Also, the 4200 series part used on the board seems to cost about $3, but there is a $1 promo going on.

Cypress Semiconductor - CY8C4245AXI-483 4200 Series 32 Bit 48 MHz

[http://www.newark.com/cypress- semiconductor/cy8c4245axi-483-...](http://www.newark.com/cypress- semiconductor/cy8c4245axi-483-promo/mcu-32bit-cortex-m0-48mhz- tqfp/dp/29X4236?CMP=AFC-OP)

</comment><comment><USER9> A friend of mine used to make a sell speech chips turned me on to them. I went to a class hosted by a Cypress vendor a couple of years ago. I was excited by the potential for mixed digital and analog designs. Unfortunately, their development tool chain really let me down. After a couple of updates it stopped working and no amount of registry cleaning or re-installing would fix it.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had problems: [http://failheap- challenge.com/showthread.php?4488-My-rant-ab...](http://failheap- challenge.com/showthread.php?4488-My-rant-about-Cypress-PSoC-s)

"Designer was a great system for making PSoC's do shit, it worked quite well. Lately though, it's gone to hell leading to some wild speculation around the office of outsourcing, disgruntled employees, corporate favoritism, or a combination thereof. It's gotten to the point where Designer won't even install on my dev system, and it only actually STARTS on one machine in the office."

<comment><USER2> Designer (the old IDE) was pretty bad. Besides that there were two choices for the backend compiler/toolchain, Imagecraft and HiTech. Imagecraft produced awful code, and HiTech got bought by Microchip, who promptly killed all upgrades and support for the product.

Creator was a fresh start and plays much nicer. But that's not to say it doesn't have problems too.

<comment><USER9> Thanks, I look forward to giving them another try.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The USB interface looks like it was designed to be snapped off - program your device, remove excess, deploy, just beautiful.

</comment><comment><USER11> I have worked extensively with PSoC3 chips and they have been rather remarkble beasts to play around with. You know your hardware is only 8 bits. You want to implement FFT for 16 bit numbers. or 32 bits. This is slow. Well, don't fret. I give you CPLD components to design your very own DFT block in hardware which is 16 or 32 bit wide. So you have still some CPLD blocks left? Create another component in hardware, link it with DMA. Finally ahem, you want to do Filters. That is 8051 there, too slow. Use the DSP chip on the PSoC to utilize hardware optimized filters.

Essentially, DMA them all up and you can create a multi-tasking environment in a PSoC chip.

</comment><comment><USER12> The major cost of these sorts of kits is the development environment.

Arduino is great because their tools are all free. Atmel Studio is free, and built on top of GCC. Atmel even offers free software tools for their line of FPGA-AVR chips.

[http://www.atmel.com/tools/fpgaintegrateddevelopmentsystems_...](http://www.atmel.com/tools/fpgaintegrateddevelopmentsystems_ids_.aspx)

What is the Total-Cost-of-Ownership of PSoC? How much do the software devkits cost?

<comment><USER13> The dev environment is free (although it looks like it is windows only). [http://www.cypress.com/psoccreator/](http://www.cypress.com/psoccreator/)

<comment><USER12> Thanks for your quick response.

In that case, it looks like a pretty good deal. Not all chip-manufacturers are willing to give free tools for some reason.

Other companies have digital logic packaged chips... but this is one of the first times I've seen programmable Op-Amps on a cheap SoC.

<comment><USER14> The free tool thing seems to be becoming a more and more common thing. Atmel Studio's also free, as is TI's development studio, albeit with some annoying limitations on program size, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Interesting form factor (flat=easy to ship!) and price.

I wonder which features it offers and how it compares to a Raspberry.

Cheaper than the Raspberry, powered by USB, but also connected (usb-serial). No info about memory and flash (I guess some ports must for for a SD or for a USB client)

(it might make a cheap flashrom device - reading the specs ATM to see if SPI is there)

<comment><USER16> This competes with Arduino, not Raspberry Pis. The chips are 24MHz ARM cores with 32KB of flash, and you can get them in PCBs that with pins to fit Arduino shields.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Very cool, but what is the difference between the 4100 and 4200? Do I have to unzip the schematics to find out?

<comment><USER18> From the datasheets, it looks like the principal difference is that the 4200 has "programmable digital blocks" which are basically micro-FPGA's, programmable in Verilog. I'm not sure how capable they actually are but it's a pretty cool idea.

4100: [http://www.cypress.com/?docID=46324](http://www.cypress.com/?docID=46324) 4200: [http://www.cypress.com/?docID=46322](http://www.cypress.com/?docID=46322)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is very impressive for being so inexpensive. I assume you program it over the USB plug on the end, is this correct?

<comment><USER2> The USB plug and chip on the left appear to convert USB to serial for communication with the device, so there's probably a bootloader sitting on the PSoC to accept new user code over serial. All PSoCs can reflash themselves from internal code.

There's also a spot for the traditional MiniProg device on the lower right for erasing/reflashing and advanced stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> so is this just cypress dumping lots of units or is this something they are selling with a margin? someone asked a similar question on hack-a-day earlier today because the PSoC 5 was something like $80.

<comment><AUTHOR> The development kits for the PSoC 5 (not the chips themselves) are $99 [1], but there's a lot more on those boards than on these.

[1] [http://www.cypress.com/?rID=51577](http://www.cypress.com/?rID=51577)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Does anyone know what the programming environment is like for these boards?

<comment><USER2> The Cypress-supplied PSoC Creator IDE is all in C. C++ has been done to some degree with the GCC toolchain. Or you can cross-compile to Cortex-M0 with the language/toolchain of your choice but that's really out there.</comment></comment>


The Dark Side of the ForSSHe // a Landscape of OpenSSH Backdoors [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.welivesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ESET-The_Dark_Side_of_the_ForSSHe.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> Just to clarify: the title refers to backdoors in malware executables _based on_ OpenSSH, not in the OpenSSH source.

> All of [the backdoors] are the result of modifying and recompiling the > original portable OpenSSH source

Story is also reported in: [https://www.zdnet.com/article/eset- discovers-21-new-linux-ma...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/eset- discovers-21-new-linux-malware-families/)</comment>


GDPR: One Unintended Consequence - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@iffy/gdpr-one-unintended-consequence-7a151ad1cf4f <comment><USER2> oh yes. a fine of 4 percent of 20 mil is something that can make small timers go completely out of business. I do understand that because i have sat with my organization's meeting to device better policies that are gdpr compliant. and it's not just us. when we sat down for that, we saw our competitors doing the same thing, huge brands and giants like facebook, twitter, google and others and even medium scale businesses like ivacy vpn and hotjar are turning things around. we're monitoring them and a dozen others just to make sure our team gets it right and come may 25th, we don't get hit by any mammoth penalty.

<comment><USER3> Here's a venture capital funded organisation who was handled sensitive personal data of many people. They had a legal requirement to register with the English Information Commisioner under existing DPA law. They didn't register.

What fine do you think they got?

(penultimate para) [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-26/u-k- healt...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-26/u-k-healthcare- startup-cera-is-said-to-have-posted-fake-reviews)

Big fines are reserved for the worst incompetent or deliberate repeated failure.</comment></comment>


Razor Burn: A Flood of Fancy Shavers Leaves Some Men Feeling Nicked - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704699604575343210255777650.html?mod=WSJ_hps_RIGHTTopCarousel_1 <comment><USER2> A brief word of warning to those that have expressed interest in shaving with a straight: not only is it addictive, it can warp your outlook on life.

I bailed on modern shaving equipment in favor of antique (100+ yrs old minimum) straight razors over a year ago and I haven't looked back since.

Initial investment was roughly $200 for a good shave ready razor, soap, brush and a strop. My first multi-pass shave took me about an hour to complete.

Once I had my basic shaving technique down I bought a set of hones and started learning how to restore vintage razors to active use.

After a year and a half my findings are as follows:

\- shaving with a straight provides the smoothest possible shave and turns shaving from a chore to a meditative experience that isn't to be missed.

\- It's possible to do a three pass shave with touchup in 15 minutes without rushing.

\- shaving with a straight is not economical compared to disposables.

\- The fact that it's possible to restore a 150+ year old straight razor to perfect working order (I know this because I've done it myself) says quite a bit about modern build quality and designed obsolescence.

<comment><USER3> > The fact that it's possible to restore a 150+ year old straight razor to > perfect working order (I know this because I've done it myself) says quite a > bit about modern build quality and designed obsolescence.

It doesn't actually. It's simply selection bias. All the bad razors were thrown out years ago. The ones that were saved were the good ones.

<comment><USER2> This is not correct.

Overall quality and price point for razors manufactured over the last 150 years or so are generally well documented, and there are more everyman cheapo razors floating around on the market than heirloom collector's items. Having done restorations on both types I can tell you "cheap" razors typically shave just as well (or better) than heirloom pieces.

Also it's substantially more likely that a "good" razor would have been used to death due to hone wear.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I bought a Merkur Futur a year ago and haven't looked back.

The initial investment in going to an old-school shaving setup is about $100. Safety razor, some blades, badger-hair brush and saving soap. But the payoff is huge over time. A $5.00 bar of shaving soap can last 6 or 8 months with daily use. High-quality DE blades are $0.50-$0.80 ea, depending on quantity.

As the article states, it takes a little more time and finesse to get a full shave done, and I _like_ that. It's been, for me, an enjoyable way to start the day with a routine that requires some craftsmanship and skill.

<comment><USER5> Can you speak to the additional time commitment? I have been considering ditching the Fusion for a Merkur, but I'm worried about adding more time to my AM routine. Are we talking double the amount of time? Triple? The thought of getting up at 5:30 AM just to get a better shave has been the primary reason I haven't pulled the trigger.

<comment><USER6> Don't do it. I bought a Merkur two years ago and I just back the switch back to the Gillette.

Here's the issue: errors with a single blade safety razor are much worse. I didn't cut myself 99% of the time, but when I did, the cuts were large divots out of my skin. It sucks.

Go with the modern technology and leave the single blades to the obsessive.

<comment><USER7> Is that unique to de safeties? I am using a straight razor, and while I cut myself sometimes, it's always a slice, not a chunk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm seriously considering getting my beard permanently removed via laser hair removal. It's getting affordable, and not having to shave every day, or every other day, seems like a luxury I might now pay for. I'm thinking of asking for next birthday and Christmas getting the cost covered.

ADDED IN EDIT:

I personally don't like having a beard. Been there, done that, don't like it. Also, my wife would be 100% happy with me being (effectively) clean shaven all the time. Stubble is much less welcome.

Unfortunately I've started to get grey patches, and laser removal is less effective on grey hair. So just as I'm getting to the point where I could afford it, I'm developing the characteristics that make it less plausible/possible.

Typical.

<comment><USER9> Link? I was under the impression that men could not have laser facial hair removal because the thick, coarse hair would scar under the high energy of the laser.

(Although, I'm not sure I would do it anyway. Having facial hair as an older man seems like it would be a rite of passage.)

<comment><USER10> Speaking of old men with beards, I've always loved this portrait of Darwin:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Darwin_by_Julia_Ma...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Darwin_by_Julia_Margaret_Cameron_2.jpg)

There is just something about his huge beard and the way he stares off into the distance.

This is also a good one: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Robert_Darwin_by_J...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Robert_Darwin_by_John_Collier.jpg)

But don't wait until you're old to try a beard! Grow it for six weeks, see if you like it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Here's another tip for sharpening disposable razor blades using a pair of jeans:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Kxiom83Js>

Basically, you're using the denim as a strop to rub off the debris which accumulates on the blade (which appears to be responsible for most of the dulling effect). The blades themselves remain sharp for ages.

I've been doing this for a while and now use each regular Mach 3 blade for 3-4 months of daily use.

</comment><comment><USER12> What, a whole article on traditional shaving methods and no mention of straight razors? A straight razor does take time, care, and practice, but it produces excellent results without too much irritation. (I admit that, when I'm in a hurry, I reach for a Fusion.)

I tried double-edged safeties (the aforementioned Merkurs), and didn't like them. They produce a shave quality identical to Mach3 or Fusion, but take quite a bit longer and result in more razor burn. The blades are cheap, certainly, but if you're going down that road, why not try a straight? Think of it as an investment in the environment: no more disposable trash to clutter landfills.

I don't know if supply of razors or blades is a huge problem. classicshaving.com always seems to have everything I've ever needed.

<comment><USER13> I disagree about double-edge, razor burns, and quality of shave. This video covers a wet method shaving technique that you might consider.

<http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59#p/u/35/_VxFXpdLvG0>

<comment><USER12> Different things work for different people, I guess. I can't imagine what could possibly prepare my face for what the guy in the video did. If I went through it so rapidly, ignoring the grain, for 5+ passes, any razor would turn my face into a raw burger patty.

<comment><USER13> Shaving with a 5-blade Mach razor is like taking 5 passes with a single blade; the analogy is akin to driving an automatic vs. standard transmission. This is why 5-blade razors save time, and why a double-edge can give you a closer shave.

You don't burn your face as long as you re-lather with each pass, and I typically recommend pre-shave oil too. But, tThe Robert's wet method technique takes a bit of studying and practice.

Nevertheless I do agree with your first statement.. different strokes for different folks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The more I read articles like these (they pop up everywhere once in a while), the more I am beginning to see a common theme develop, namely: It depends on the guy.

Google around for a while and look at all of the anecdotes, including the ones given in this thread. People say that _everything_ is the best. It seems to me that a man's goal shouldn't be to find "the best" shaving setup, but instead the setup that works best _for him_. To that end, I've seen each of these setups described as "the best":

* Gillette (Mach3|Fusion) with (Brush & Mug|Shaving Gel|Shaving Foam)

* Straight Razor with Brush & Mug

* Double-Edged Safety Razor with Brush & Mug

* Buying a giant bag of disposable single/double-bladed razors, making a single stroke with each one and discarding it until you find one that was manufactured fantastically sharp, and nurse it with the "arm as a strop" technique for weeks and weeks until it's finally too torn up to use; repeat

Other techniques include:

* Shaving after you shower

* Shaving religiously every day (so that you are only ever shaving short hairs, increasing the life of your blade and preventing ingrown hairs since you don't let the hairs grow)

* Shaving once a week (so that you are only ever shaving hairs long enough to grow, increasing the life of your blade and preventing ingrown hairs since you shave less often).

(Yes, those last two are contradictory and I have heard that both are "the best".)

I went on a bit of a Shaving Odyssey a few years ago, determined to find a better solution than my Mach3 with shaving gel, which yields wildly inconsistent results. I think it has to do with the blades; occasionally I'll get a cartridge that lasts 6 shaves and leaves me delightfully smooth without a single nick, other times the brand new blade will be like shaving with nettles and I look like a zombie.

I sought out my barber, a salty Sicilian who had once given me the best shave of my life with a straight razor. I joined him for lunch and, while he scarfed down a chicken parm hero, I asked him if I should learn to use a straight razor.

"Listen," he said in his thick accent, brow furrowing gravely, "I won't lie to you. I speak to you now, like you are my own son." He mopped marinara sauce off of his lips.

"Don't shave with a straight razor."

I blinked. "What? But you..."

"You'll cut yourself into ribbons. I shave my customers with a straight razor, but you know what? I shave with a Mach3! If you want a close shave, shave every day. It doesn't matter what razor you use. The most important thing is shaving every day. My Mach3 blades last for months at a time."

I felt a little betrayed, but thanked him for his help and duly attempted shaving every day. It didn't work for me, and my Mach3 cartridges still lasted less than two weeks at very best. (Sometimes they will be unusable after only one shave!) I have discovered that my stubble shares some traits with steel wool, or perhaps barbed wire, and that sometimes it will simply destroy a disposable razor. That is, what works for a lot of other dudes simply _will not work_ for me.

I haven't found my perfect setup yet. I'm sure it's out there, but for now, I know it's not a Mach3 with shave gel.

<comment><USER15> Have you considered growing a beard?

(A quest to find the perfect beard trimmer is, of course, a very real risk if you follow this suggestion.)

<comment><USER14> Yes, and depending on the trim-length I look like either a terrorist or a history professor. Neither is preferable!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I consider myself a shaving purist and moved away from multi-blade nonsense to a traditional double-edge razor about 5 years ago. It's very therapeutic, and the cost savings and quality of shave trumps modern razors at the expense of a few extra minutes. To put cost in perspective, for $20 you can have a 2-month supply of razors and have an almost brand-new blade touching your face every 2nd or 3rd shave. When time is precious or I'm traveling, my windfall is a nice electric razor.

Here are some good resources for picking up the art. I tend to prefer the Robert's wet method shaving technique. He's based in Austin, TX and makes all his brushes, soaps, and oils by hand in his shop off Congress.

[http://shaving101.com/index.php/education/11-method- shaving....](http://shaving101.com/index.php/education/11-method-shaving.html)

<http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59>

</comment><comment><USER16> Reminds me of my favourite Onion article - [http://www.theonion.com/articles/fuck-everything-were- doing-...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/fuck-everything-were-doing-five- blades,11056/)

Especially for the line "Here's the report from Engineering. Someone put it in the bathroom: I want to wipe my ass with it."

</comment><comment><USER17> Has anyone else been shaving without shaving cream?

It probably only works for the baby-faced ones like me, but so far I haven't noticed anything bad happening to my face from using just water.

<comment><USER18> I found the same thing starting in my late teens. I shave every other day, in the shower, without foam, gel or soap against the grain with a Bic disposable. Also, I find as long as I can clean the razor out from the back one blade lasts from 3 to 6 months (Gilette disposables don't work for this as they are closed in the back).

I may not be normal.

<comment><USER17> This is similar, except that I change razors more often.. Maybe if I had a good technique to clean the blades they'd last longer, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> At 24 years of age, I have had enough time to attempt shaving with different razors again and again. I have hated every minute of it. Wether I have too sensitive skin or I have not given myself enough time desensitize myself, but none of the different gels, creams or even shaving oil combined with various razors have convinced me.

Basically, I gave up about a year ago and use a trimmer to shorten the hair to sub-millimeter length. A permanent stubble, pretty much. My girlfriend doesn't find it a show-stopper, so all is well on that front.

I sometimes wonder in morbid curiosity wether I should try again in order to look more professional, but then shurg it off quickly. I have two more years of architecture school left, so there's no rush.

</comment><comment><USER20> For my job, I have to shave every weekday. I used to really hate shaving. Now I find it tolerable and occasionally even enjoy it as a quiet and meditative time. My purely subjective list of the things that helped me enjoy it, ranked by my perception of usefulness:

1\. Good shaving cream, in a tub or tube. Try Kennedy's or Nancy Boy or Proraso. This made a HUGE difference.

2\. Badger-bristle shaving brush. You can get a decent one for around $25-30. Don't skimp, it should last a really long time. I tried a boar one, and it smelled really bad and made my face itch.

3\. Decent after-shave. So far I like the Nancy Boy aloe-based one the best, but I haven't tried many. I have never had good results with the alcohol-based ones. They irritate my skin.

I tried a Merkur Futur, and a straight razor. Perhaps I was not patient enough, but even after a few weeks of each I found that I did not see enough of an advantage to justify the additional time. I have heard that the Futur is a bit fussier than the HD, so I have been considering giving that one a try and perhaps using better blades. I went back to the Mach 3, and with the changes above it has been OK, but just OK. I still get a lot of chafing around my collar.

Just my input having given this stuff a try. If you do one thing, get some decent shaving cream and a brush. That made 75% of the difference right there.

</comment><comment><USER21> If you ask me, most of the sound and fury around shaving and shampoo stuff for men is just the cosmetic company's trying to open a new market for crap nobody needs. They have already saturated the woman's market for wrinkle cream that doesn't work and a million shampoo products that are basically the same.

Perhaps I am just a holdover from a curmudgeonly, pre-Metrosexual era...

</comment><comment><USER22> Related: I got tired of buying shaving cream and now use hair conditioner. It works just as well and is much cheaper.

</comment><comment><USER23> I learned a while back about the idea of sharpening your blades. I know, it's obvious. The idea is that these disposable blades that you buy in packs of 4 can actually last quite a while if you 'sharpen' them. Basically, wet the razers, and then run it up your arm. Make sure you drag it across so you aren't shaving your arm, but rather, running the blades face across your arm, sharpening it.

Wow. That's a really bad description. Hopefully you understand. You have my apologies for forcing you through that mess.

Anyways, it's really helped with the life span of my blades. Before I shave, I run them across my arm 10 times, real quick. Takes all of 5 seconds, and then I commence with the shaving.

It's like running a knife of a leather strap to help keep it sharp. Look! A concise description. >_< Need more coffee to get back to default awareness.

<comment><USER24> Here's the Consumerist article and video that popped up on this a few months ago. It's been working pretty well for me so far: [http://consumerist.com/2010/03/make-your-disposable-razor- bl...](http://consumerist.com/2010/03/make-your-disposable-razor-blade-last- for-20-months.html)

<comment><USER23> Yes, that's it! Thank you! That's where I learned it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I realised this a long time ago, I purchased an Open Razor (still learning that one) and a Merkur Safety Razor. I use Feather Blades which are very sharp and require a little more skill to use, however they run about £5 for 10, Mach 3 run around £10 for 8, its not hard maths :)

A good shave also looks after your skin, and using a badger brush with a good glycerine based shaving cream with good pre-shave and post-shave routine makes all the difference.

I use [http://www.tayloroldbondst.co.uk/acatalog/shaving-soaps- and-...](http://www.tayloroldbondst.co.uk/acatalog/shaving-soaps-and- creams.html) (top one in sandalwood) is fantastic, it lasts ages, doesn't numb your skin and works up a very nice lather (when used with a badger hair brush), I would recommend people try it even if they keep their Mach3.

</comment><comment><USER26> Just a plug for Somersets shaving oil rather than shaving cream or gel. Works quite well, and you can carry it on planes without any hassle (I went around the world with it). <http://www.somersets.com/>

</comment><comment><USER27> I have a lot of thick facial hair and the disposable razors just weren't cutting it. I've switched to a straight razor with a DE for travel and when I'm in a hurry, and the difference has been amazing. The area on my neck where I used to constantly have ingrown hairs is finally smooth and happy.

I think there are four issues at play: \- attention to shaving technique tends to be much less with a disposable, possibly due to ignorance \- shaving cream from a can does a bad job of lubricating the face \- disposable razors are poorly designed, with a gap between the razor and the skin, and are easily clogged with cut hair \- the sharpness of disposable razor blades is essentially unknown

</comment><comment><USER28> The prospect of potentially scarring gashes from a straight or safety razor have always put me off on the idea. Even with a disposable double-bladed gilette-sensor excel, the hair on my chin is just so incredibly tough that unless I prepare everything correctly, there is a chance of taking a chunk of skin off. To deal with this I hack away with an electric razor first, then finally attack with razor, since the remaining stubble is much easier to cut without the hair taking the skin along for a ride.

Is it possible to use a straight razor or safety razor in a way that leaves no risk of deep cuts?

</comment><comment><USER29> I have a rough neck, and facial hair that grows fast. I eventually gave up nicking myself every morning trying to get a close shave and went electric. It would grow back by 3pm or so anyway. I got a Braun Activator, and haven't looked back. It still needs a cleaning fluid cartridge, but I love the convenience of running it dry over my face & throat, dropping it in the cradle, and letting it clean & sharpen the thing.

I went with a light beard for awhile which was also convenient - just set a beard trimmer to the lowest setting and run it over every few days.

<comment><USER30> Are you sure it sharpens?

I have a similar setup due to my somewhat african-american hair. Grows in all directions and grows in. Used to have a TON of problems with various non- electric razors.

Nowadays I do a pass with the trimmer part of the electrical razor and then with the razor itself. Works like a charm, no ingrown hairs. I don't go for a super-smooth shave, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I saw this in Money mag a couple of months back and thought it was silly...but apparently going old-school is not only cheaper but better quality as well. I think I might try it.

[http://moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com/2010/04/29/spend- less-o...](http://moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com/2010/04/29/spend-less-on-a- close-shave/)

</comment><comment><USER32> If you don't need your facial hair totally shaved, an electric hair trimmer, like the kind your barber uses on you, is quick and foolproof.

If you do need your facial hair totally shaved, just get a safety razor. The blades are ~55 cents each, and while there is a little learning curve, within a week or two you'll be all set.

</comment><comment><USER17> I have a light beard and only shave every few days, so I've been using disposables so far. I kind of feel bad about throwing them away like that, but I also feel bad about paying tons of cash for a "fancy" razor.

Maybe I should take the plunge just for the environmental aspect. But I just hate feeling like I'm over-paying...

</comment><comment><USER33> My favorite remains the Gilette sensor excel. I used to skip shaving cream altogether with it, in fact. The biggest problem without using cream is that the cut hair winds up getting caught in water that runs down your neck.

</comment><comment><USER34> I've recently taken up shaving with a straight razor. I there was a place like Pasteur's Pharmacy near me because the only place to buy equipment is online.

</comment><comment><USER35> I've been using a straight edge with disposable blades for the past few months. Shaving has suddenly become a whole lot more enjoyable.

</comment><comment><USER36> I use a currently 4 months old Mach 3 "Turbo" (big laugh) for my legs/etc. No matter what the commercials wants you to believe, unless you are one of those men inflicted with steel wool growing out of your chin, the blades really do their job not entirely as swift, but definitely well enough, far longer than Gillette wants them to.</comment>


Show HN: 3-5 Year Japanese Rapid Fluency Online Curriculum - <AUTHOR> We at Japanese Complete have been hard at work on a rapid fluency curriculum designed to take people with no exposure in Japanese all the way to fluency.
Our three-year timeline is designed for the ambitious learner to be well equipped to tackle the Japanese Language Proficiency Test highest level (N1).
We have designed this curriculum because, frankly, it solves a problem our founders had: No good online textbooks or drill-like training systems exist for Japanese that can take one beyond intermediate.

  In 2011 a huge corpus called the BCCWJ (Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese) was released and as a prime sample in the world data science it highlights not only the  most commonly used words in newspapers and novels, but also samples online message boards to "balance" the corpus with actual human use.
 Based on
1) Frequency Analysis,
2) an Additive Intuitive Curriculum Approach,
3) Interactive drills to help you cement what you know,
We've created a curriculum that teaches in an unconventional way to enable adult humans to swiftly acquire an understanding in Japanese.  Typically, Japanese curriculums are restructured around how a native Japanese person learns, year by year, gradually with great peripheral influence, and by rote memorization.
However, in reality, the frequency of certain glyphs makes them far more desirable to learn first than others.  It's much more useful to know how to get on the main highways than to know the nooks and crannies of some untaken sidestreet dusty in its desolation.  We flip the curriculum on its head by resorting to data science and keen intuition from highly skilled bilingual and trilingual team members.
Our project is currently in a pre-sale mode until December.  Please get a supporter subscription if you can.  It's the support and interest of language learners that is bringing our platform to life, and we are excited to share it.
https://japanesecomplete.com/overview <comment><USER2> Im keen on this! is there somewhere we can see some more information, or perhaps a sample of how the course is structured?

<comment><AUTHOR> Wonderful! We are compiling a FAQ. In the meantime, you can e-mail email@example.com who can provide you with more detailed info.</comment></comment>


SelectOut.com - Mass online opt-out site - Anyone use this before? - <AUTHOR> http://selectout.com/optout/

<comment><USER2> Hey, I am the creator of this site. Thanks for submitting this site, but not quite finished. Some neat tools to help inform and really let people realize who's tracking them coming soon.</comment>


GoDoc: package letsencrypt - <AUTHOR> https://godoc.org/rsc.io/letsencrypt <comment><USER2> Also see [https://godoc.org/golang.org/x/crypto/acme](https://godoc.org/golang.org/x/crypto/acme) and [https://github.com/xenolf/lego](https://github.com/xenolf/lego)

Go has some of the best letsencrypt tooling out there, and there was even some support for merging ACME support directly into net/http [https://github.com/golang/go/issues/17053](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/17053)

<comment><USER3> I just recently used lego for dns based issuance, and it was excellent.

<comment><USER4> True. I've tried 3 or 4 clients in Perl, Node.js. Only lego worked flawlessly. And the Caddy HTTP/2 webserver also has excellent ACME support.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'll be speaking about these various ACME packages for Go at dotGo next month. ACME is a little tricky, and each package has optimal use cases for best results.

</comment><comment><USER6> Out of interest, is the built-in Go server what everyone uses for hosting their Go websites? I'm used to the typical Nginx / Gunicorn / Python stack and Python's built-in server is used for nothing more than development.

<comment><USER7> We typically run go's built-in server behind nginx. There's no need for something like gunicorn in go.

<comment><USER8> But this would not work in this set-up right? Wouldn't the user facing server (in your case Nginx) have to be the one that serves over HTTPS?

I'm a bit confused about this package.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There is also [https://github.com/dkumor/acmewrapper](https://github.com/dkumor/acmewrapper)

I like this one in particular, since it requires only a couple lines of code.

</comment><comment><USER10> There seem to be slightly fewer Lets Encrypt and ACME implementations than stars in the sky. Which is fantastic. Last week I read about a privsep/chroot/pledge'd (OpenBSD thing) C implementation [https://kristaps.bsd.lv/acme-client/](https://kristaps.bsd.lv/acme-client/) .

</comment><comment><USER11> wondering why not using `defer m.mu.Unlock()` right after line 279: [https://github.com/rsc/letsencrypt/blob/a18c646c3d0772313b7b...](https://github.com/rsc/letsencrypt/blob/a18c646c3d0772313b7b53c78847bb3eb6463f0b/lets.go#L288)

<comment><USER12> no reason imho..the function is pretty trivial. But also not a reason not to use it as a performance impact would be minimal :-)

<comment><USER13> The behavior is different if a panic occurs, isn't it? But is there any chance that this particular initialization code might panic in the first place?

<comment><USER14> Given the current code and no races against the values being initialized: no, there is no chance for a panic.

<comment><USER15> This is not a good assumption. The code will panic, for instance when it can't allocate memory, or runs into signal handling issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Here is the package on RSC's github page: [https://github.com/rsc/letsencrypt](https://github.com/rsc/letsencrypt)

</comment><comment><USER17> Does any of the code snippets on the godoc site constitute a fully working example? The sheer amount of library stuff I go through on a daily webdev basis makes me dizzy at times!

<comment><USER18> Your application likely uses more routes, and has other real work to do that won't be as brief as the example. However, the examples do work for me, and seem like a great place to start building up from.</comment></comment>


Facebook Now Lets Candidates Target Political Fanatics - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/11/facebook-now-lets-candidates-target-election-2016-fanatics/ <comment><USER2> And because more people have "nothing to hide" they will try to convenience undecided, who will vote on those who support surveillance to fight "terrorists"?

</comment><comment><USER3> Url changed from [http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/4/9671826/facebook- campaign-...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/4/9671826/facebook-campaign- political-user-targeting), which points to this.</comment>


Great app to stay focused and beat procrastination: Effortless - <AUTHOR> https://www.producthunt.com/posts/effortless <comment><USER2> Oh my god, it's really good. Do you know if there's an option for PC Windows?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure but I think it's only for Mac right now.</comment></comment>


Social Media - FaceBook is killing us - <AUTHOR>

For over a year I've been a FaceBook-user. Not the one that uses it like Twitter and posts everything he's doing (like telling everyone what you have for dinner, the fact that your dog ate the newspaper of yesterday or you just found out that there's a new brand of toilet paper at the local store). I was more the 'reading' kind of guy. And it irritated me over time. Now the point came that I deleted my account (actually, you can't, you can just politely ask FaceBook to do that for you so they can backup all your information for further use). So why did I do it?
Privacy Yeah, sure. If you want your life to be completely out there just open a FaceBook account, create a Google-account, get Twitter, Flickr and go online. Someone who really knows how to use this information has a nice overview of your life and everything you do. Counting in the fact that a huge amount of people do this, FaceBook becomes the place-to-be when you want to know something. Just imagine what would happen if this information would be freely available by the government or worse: the companies. Your life will be controlled by what you post and what you upload. And now I can hear you think: "But I'm only uploading the things I want." Here comes my second point.
Social Being social these days means something different than a couple of years ago. Today it means having all the accounts, uploading everything you can and telling your friends all the nice things that happened to you that day. We share the nice parts of our life. We have over 100 friends who are all able to read it and react to it. A couple of years ago it meant that you and your friends went to a pub and talked about everything that happened in your lives. The good things and the bad things. It meant that you called a close friend and met each other to talk about the things that really matter.
And that's where the whole difference is. For some reason we're not honest to ourselves when we are online. When we upload some images of our vacation, we just do that to show our so-called friends (more about that later) what a great time we can have with our loved-ones. Bought a new car? Upload it right now so the others can see how well you're doing. We're showing the world how well we're doing.
The last year hasn't been the best year for me personally. Some horrible things happened. And not the things like: my car broke down three times. Let's put it this way: I've been shown who really are my friends. In comparison to the huge friend-lists some people have, it's nothing. But for me it's the most valuable thing I have. Be honest. When you scroll through the list of people who like to be called 'Friends': how many of them are really friends as in: "I can trust them, they support me and they're here for me whenever I need it"? Found three? Delete your account, call them and meet up. Found none? Delete your account and call some people who were your friends. Found over five? Go through them again. Friends aren't made on FaceBook. They're made when they're there when you need them the most. And you will find out who are your friends when you're in need of them.
Currently the social media is nothing more than a way to show others how well you're doing and how great your life is. Nowhere you will read the real answer to: "What's on your mind" or "What are you doing". Sometimes there's a little glance of it, but there are not much reactions to those messages. Of course not. What should you answer. That you feel sorry for them? That you can't imagine how it must be to be in that position? It's not what FaceBook is made for.
If you feel the same, there's only one thing to do. Close those accounts and make your life better by calling and meeting your friends. You don't have to be that perfect person who has a perfect life. Just be honest to yourself.
John Murray
A little note: Of course I know that social media offers the opportunity to meet new people, find old friends and make them friends. But those stories are not "all over the place". If you made some real friends: great. Just great. Call them now and meet them in real life. FaceBook can be the beginning. But don't let it become the end. <comment><USER2> John Murray,

I'm sorry to hear that you have had a horrible year last year. I'm even sorry to hear that you have only had mostly encounters with fake people online.

When the telephone was invented, nobody thought that the phone was eventually going to become the end to face-to-face meeting. Nothing will replace meeting IRL. The internet and social media is just like the telephone, it is one tool out of many.

I also don't know where you find all these perfect people with perfect lives as your facebook friends. I have few facebook friends (less than 300) but they are all genuine and legitimate friends and I do interact with them and they do (all) provide some value to me by having this online connection. And no, their lives are not perfect.

I have a friend who works on an oil rig. I can't just call him up and ask if I could pop over. But we have lots of things to talk about. I like his photography and he likes some articles that I post. We can email each other but MANY other people enjoy his photos and my curation.

My family lives in 5 different time zones. We almost never get to have a 5 way video skype at the same time. Cellphones, texting, social media provides with the closest to real-time updates of my family. Once in a blue moon, we hit jackpot and get everybody to conference together. That rarely happens. We have individual emails but it's so much easier to share photos, videos and stuff like that on social media. Not just to share all the good stuff that happens, but also the not so good stuff.

I like to travel and make new friends (in real life), and we used to write emails to each other but you don't write emails to each other every day/week. And its so hard to like write your life summary once every few months especially when events already passed. My Greek friends are NOT having perfect lives at all. They keep me updated with the protests and riots that happen around Athens, about the economy and politics over there. This is not merely news from the media, these are genuine legitimate friends of mine.

Another friend of mine is a young Chicago native who quit his corporate job to travel and is currently volunteering in Nepal. He builds schools and libraries for kids. Recently he met a boy who needed heart surgery but his family could not afford it, so he used his connections via social media, to ask his own friends to help raise some money for this boy. We're not just internet friends, we're friends in real life, we know him and trust him. So now this boy got his heart surgery did.

In closing, I concur with your last statement. Facebook can be the beginning but don't let it become the end. Certainly! I can't wait to be reunited with my family and friends from all over the world and hear all about everything in more details. Facebook serves as little bookmarks to keep tabs on everyone until I get a chance to. As long as you don't add a bunch of random people, having lots of legit friends on social media is certainly not going to 'kill' you.

Best wishes</comment>


Ask HN: What is an algorithm for making the an efficient network between points? - <AUTHOR> I was looking at slime mold recently [0][1] and thought that it'd be cool to try and test its network mapping capabilities against that of a human designed algorithm, and see how they differ. Problem is, I don't know much about algorithms, and whether one for creating networks with loops even exist. I know HN has some amazing programmers here so I was wondering if someone here knew.<p>[0] = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx3Uu1hfl6Q [1] = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UxGrde1NDA <comment><USER2> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steiner_tree_problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steiner_tree_problem) ?</comment>