OrbitDB – serverless, peer-to-peer database on top of IPFS - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit-db <comment><USER2> Here's a quick overview of how OrbitDB works.

A "database" in OrbitDb is a single document or single log, with fixed at creation write permissions. So if you would want ten users to each be able to write their own log of data, but not touch the other's, then you would have ten separate OrbitDB "databases". Anyone can read.

Each new piece of data is an "Entry", and is written to its own IPFS address. Each entry contains a bunch of IPFS address pointers - to the last entry on that "database", to any extra entries you found out about, and to a bunch of previous entries (just to speed up reading). So given one entry, you can keep recursively crawling all previous IPFS addresses contained in them, to discover all previously known entries that make up that database to that point. The entries work a lot like git commits. It's a sweet DAG.

In order to get started knowing the state of a database, you have to have the latest "head" entry. To do this, you need some way of talking live to other OrbitDB "peers" hosting that database, and asking them for the latest head entries. OrbitDB does this through IPFS PubSub, looking for other peers subscribed to the same database, and exchanging latest head entries with them. Importantly this means that if no one is currently online with your database, then you can't get the current state of it.

OrbitDB (and IPFS PubSub) are definitely, absolutely not production ready. But that's another topic.

<comment><USER3> >> OrbitDB (and IPFS PubSub) are definitely, absolutely not production ready. But that's another topic.

That seems to be the story of the whole blockchain space unfortunately. It's incomplete at every level of the stack, even the IPFS pub/sub layer still needs a lot of work to scale.

A problem with the blockchain community is that there is an ICO first and then do the work later mentality. This is a bit like the startup mentality of Silicon Valley.

I think that what works for centralization won't work for decentralization. You need the people who own the coins to be skilled and for them to directly contribute to the projects; you don't want your network to be made up of random shareholders who don't understand what they're buying and aren't capable of adding real value to it.

<comment><USER4> GUN and SSB are production ready, both running now large communities:

\- Patchwork has grown & scaled with spanning trees.

\- Notabug.io handling large influx of users with daisy-chain ad-hoc mesh- networks (DAM).

<comment><USER5> notabug.io looks like an awful community, but it does seem to work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You may also be interested in (full disclosure: ours)

[https://github.com/amark/gun](https://github.com/amark/gun)

The Internet Archive ( [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17685682](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17685682) ) runs it, and D.Tube and notabug.io run it in production and have pushed terabyte/daily of P2P traffic.

They both use CRDTs, the CRDT that GUN uses is capable of mutable (and immutable) decentralized cryptographically secure (user accounts and all) data. This is important because indexing data can be done in realtime with P2P updates without having to rediscover the new hash of changed data (which adds extra latency/delay on immutable-only backed stores).

<comment><USER6> I hope the text is just a little unclear and that: [https://gun.eco/docs/Auth](https://gun.eco/docs/Auth)

"... Finally, you can then save data to their account that nobody else can write to:

(...)

When it is stored on disk or sent over the wire, it uses cryptographic signatures (see the video explainer), to secure the account and data without relying upon any trusted servers!

And then when you use GUN to read the data, it automatically verifies and decrypts the data for you:..."

Really means to say that data is always signed and _encrypted_ (presumably, effectively encrypted with authenticated encryption) - and not simply signed?

It's one thing to be able to prove who wrote what, another to be able to read what everyone writes... And the latter isn't _usually_ what you want...

<comment><USER4> SEA automatically signs/verifies.

To encrypt (cipher/decipher) data, you need to call `SEA.encrypt` ( [https://gun.eco/docs/SEA#encrypt](https://gun.eco/docs/SEA#encrypt) ).

There are a _couple_ properties it automatically encrypts/decrypts (account data when you login), but beyond that you have to tell it what data is private versus public with `SEA.encrypt`.

Thank you for pointing out those docs though, certainly need to be fixed to clarify more (rather than leaving it to the video explainers) - will do that now. Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Who pays for this? IPFS would normally need a pinning node to keep contents from disappearing.

Does OrbitDB require the same? If yes, it is not serverless. If no, then where will my data get stored if I upload it and then disappear for a year?

<comment><USER8> This is not a service. IPFS is not a service. Who ever has authorized the software to run on their computer is paying for it.

IPFS is a set of protocols, in the same way that Bitcoin is a set of protocols.

Do you consider a peer2peer WebRTC collaborative text editor serverless?

IPFS is just a fancy content addressed value store that allows peers to ask the network if someone has the value for any address, and OrbitDB is a database built on top of it.

> If no, then where will my data get stored if I upload it and then disappear > for a year?

On your computer, and it will be available to the network if you turn your computer back on.

<comment><USER7> (1) IPFS is a service, because it is a single database with consistent information. It is somewhat unusual in that it is widely distributed and is owned by multiple independent actors, but that does not make it any less of a service.

An example of set of protocols is HTTP. There is no single "HTTP content cloud" \-- each HTTP server is unique and provides different content.

(2) I defined "serverless" as "does not need the server to operate" (we traditionally ignore static files servers in this definition). So the case of "collaborative text editor" is a great example, because there are two very distinct products using this name:

\- Some of them are designed for throw-away documents and have little expectation of durability, like collabedit -- these could be truly serverless, with all data stored in LocalStorage (of course a commercial entity would still at least maintain a TURN server, thus making it not fully serverless)

\- Some of them are designed for more permanent purpose, like Google Docs. For those, even if you use peer2peer synchronization, you still need a central server. After all, you don't want to lose your life's work if you cleared your browser state.

My assumption with most of the databases is that unless mentioned otherwise, they are durable and capable. For OrbitDB, it looks like if you want your database to survive browser cookie clearing and/or to have more than LocalStorage limit, you need to maintain a real server on your infrastructure. So it is not serverless.

<comment><USER9> I think I know what you're on about.

In my mind "Serverless" just means "Requires a server" and the author doesn't particularly think about their terminology.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> While I prize anything that may help go distributed for our freedom and safety I'm not much convinced by IPFS (IMVHO a nearly-unusable monster) and while I comprehend many of it's reasons I prefer a network that distribute contents to any peer so it basically give a guarantee of existence of contents if there are enough peers.

<comment><USER11> What's the incentive to host this content?

<comment><USER10> Being a society, free, not tied to few big guys, for instance with the best "backup" possible for our valuable data. Apart of that if you want a distributed network (and we desperately need it) you can choose to participate or not if it's architectural designed for that...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hm.. Am I reading this correctly?

[https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit- db/blob/master/GUIDE.md#acc...](https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit- db/blob/master/GUIDE.md#access-control)

Currently, the only access mode is read-write? So as soon as you move beyond the use-case of private, single-client data (eg: browser storage) everyone involved can read and write data?

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that the only access mode is read- write.

> You can specify the peers that have write-access to a database. You can > define a set of peers that can write to a database or allow anyone write to > a database. By default and if not specified otherwise, only the creator of > the database will be given write-access.

It would appear that the database is read-only for all other peers.

<comment><USER6> "OrbitDB currently supports only write-access and the keys of the writers need to be known when creating a database. That is, the access rights can't be changed after a database has been created. In the future we'll support read access control and dynamic access control in a way that access rights can be added and removed to a database at any point in time without changing the database address. At the moment, if access rights need to be changed, the address of the database will change."

That _sounds_ like data is either private, or world read-writable.

Ed: but I take it, data is World-readable in general? So private data would need encryption?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does anyone know if a similar thing exists for RDF?

I'm looking for a distributed scalable P2P triple store (or graph database) to store and retrieve RDF using SPARQL.

<comment><USER4> You should probably check out:

\- SOLID (Tim Berners-Lee, RDF)

\- GUN (ours, graph)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is super cool. Love it!

</comment><comment><USER13> Is this related to OrbitJS?

</comment><comment><USER14> "serverless"...

<comment><USER15> in the real sense of the word

<comment><USER14> I would define anything that responds to remote request a server program, which then would make the system that runs that program a server. =)

<comment><USER16> That definition is wrong.

<comment><USER17> There are two separate meanings of the term server.

1) An application which runs on a network and services clients 2) A dedicated computer which runs server applications.

<comment><USER18> Serverless as 3) An application which run on a network and communicate with others on an equal status, you cannot distinguish one node from the others based on the source code or the logic it is running. In a sense even amazon serverless platform is not server less but it is server lite.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Opera claims ex-employee took trade secrets to Mozilla, sues him for $3.4M - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/29/opera-claims-former-employee-gave-away-trade-secrets-to-mozilla-sues-him-for-3-4m/ <comment><USER2> Opera gets in bed with Google Chrome and then sues the other camp? I thought they were above all this.

Either way, an idea for a browser feature is hardly a huge industrial secret - Webkit, Blink and Gecko have near-parity on features, and are competing more on speed. How would this stand up in court?

Neither Google nor Opera have anything to gain from this - what could be the economic rationale?

<comment><USER3> "Opera gets in bed with Google Chrome and then sues the other camp? I thought they were above all this."

These two things are not linked, stop trying to make it so.

<comment><USER4> They seem linked to me. Since cases like this are _much_ harder to pull off under European law unless you can show actual copy-pasted code, this (like the WebKit move) looks like the symptoms of clueless non-technical management taking over and destroying the company by desperately trying to 'save it.'

<comment><USER5> There is _nothing_ in the article that says anything about anything related to Google Chrome.

<comment><USER4> I'm trying to say that they are linked through an underlying cause. Pornel says it much better than me in his comment though.

Jon's closing email is also quite telling:

        Dear All,

        It is with a heavy heart that I send this message. Next week will be my last
        at Opera. It has become clear that The Board, Management and I do not share
        the same values and we do not have the same opinions on how to keep evolving
        Opera. As a result I have come to an agreement with the Board to end my time
        at Opera. I feel the Board and Management is more quarterly focused than me.
        I have always worked to build the company for the future. I believe the
        foundation we have is very solid to build further upon.

        I do believe strongly in Opera as a company, and in all of you working here.
        Our products actually make a difference for a lot of people in the world, and
        I wish you all the best of luck moving forward. I will be following the
        company closely and rooting for you all.

        Yours truly, Jon.

<comment><USER6> In that email he was probably referring to the direction the board wanted to take Opera in. There has been consistent speculation that Opera's board wanted to make Opera better suited for sale, and was looking forward to getting acquired by someone with deeper pockets. JvT of course, wanted to stay independent and continue to innovate.

Related: <http://techie-buzz.com/opera/opera-tetzchner-reacts.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hard to say anything without hard details, but in Europe this stuff can be hard to make stick.

Also this kind of actioning is distrubing from a company like opera.

Death throes?

<comment><USER6> He has denied the allegations (as expected). But, at the same time, he also told this to Digi.No.

"When I left the Opera, I did not feel my ideas bore fruit, and I also notified management about. I am a very creative person and I feel that my ideas had value. I would like that my ideas were to reach users".

Source: <http://www.digi.no/915782/opera-saksoker-eks-ansatt>

<comment> at-fates-hands This is probably closer to the truth. Seems like Opera is acting more like a jilted lover than anything else. Guy has some good ideas and in the interest of profit, they get buried. He goes across the street where Mozilla sees the potential and implements them and now Opera wants he to pay up for them?

I'm all for keeping trade secrets, but this more along the lines of abstract ideas, not the sort of thing you'll have an easy time in a court of law proving.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interesting that the claim is "took trade secrets to Mozilla" when apparently Mozilla wants to have nothing to do with that Junior prototype.

</comment><comment><USER9> Their lawsuit claims that "Opera Software ASA is an innovative company which has developed software and technology which have proved to be successful internationally".

The article talks about features which aren't really IP. Perhaps their trade- secrets relate to coding and construction methods that make their product superior, but these really can't be protected unless they're so esoteric that no one would logically come up with them independently.

So they sue a non-profit to stifle competition in their industry ... show me more innovation (and market-share) than Mozilla and then maybe I'll believe you're the innovator.

<comment><USER10> Trond Werner Hansen is not a non-profit. In fact, he's not even a corporation.

As a side note, 80% of features in Mozilla were first done in Opera. I even remember a Firebird (as it was called back in the day, before version 1.0) fan or zealot badmouthing Opera and its tabs as being a ridiculous and unnecessary feature. After just four months, that feature was copied. It seems that crowd has not changed even a little.

The only good thing in Mozilla is the OSS license. The only reason they have market share is the OSS license.

<comment><USER11> I don't think the event you describe was possible, because Mozilla had tabs before Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox even existed. In any case, Opera copied the tabs from other browsers too, so I'm not sure what's your point with that story.

By the way, it wasn't just about the OSS license. Back in the day Opera had a big honking ad right in the main window. They only released an ad-free version in 2005, when Firefox already had 16 times the share of Opera.

<comment><USER12> I think he perhaps means tabs with a true document interface[1] (i.e multiple web pages can be opened within the same application window and be resized, moved, tiled, and cascaded like normal application windows in the operating system).

Edit: Seems Opera added tabs slightly before Mozilla after looking it up out of interest[2]. Also just some random history on tab integration in web browsers. Mozilla 0.9.5 added them a few months after Opera 4 in 2001, though of course neither was the first. I guess one can say Opera was the first browser to add them that is still a fairly popular browser in present day.

 _Four years later, in 1994, BookLink Technologies featured tabbed windows in its InternetWorks browser. That same year, a text editor called UltraEdit also appeared with a modern multi-row tabbed interface. The tabbed interface approach was then followed by the Internet Explorer shell NetCaptor in 1997. These were followed by a number of others like IBrowse in 1999, and Opera in [June] 2000 (with the release of version 4 - although a MDI interface was supported before then), MultiViews October 2000, which changed its name into MultiZilla on 1 April 2001 (an extension for the Mozilla Application Suite[7]), Galeon in early 2001, Mozilla 0.9.5 in October 2001, Phoenix 0.1 (now Mozilla Firefox) in October 2002, Konqueror 3.1 in January 2003, and Safari in 2003. With the release of Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, all major web browsers featured a tabbed interface._

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_of_the_Opera_web_brows...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_of_the_Opera_web_browser#Tabbed_browsing)

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabbed_browsing#History>

<comment><USER11> I don't think so, Mozilla browsers never had MDI[1], so they couldn't have copied it from Opera.

[1]: There's a feature request since 2000, but it was never implemented: <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60775>

<comment><USER12> Oh, I wasn't talking about Mozilla (the precursor) in regards to that, just Firefox after ditching the Netscape legacy. Sorry for the ambiguity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire> Surely work for hire applies?

<comment><USER14> Last time I checked, Norway was not really part of the US, so the law might actually be different…

<comment><USER13> It's not just a US concept. Norway seems to have fairly strong protections on the expression of ideas - i.e. you can't copyright ideas in many cases. I wonder do they have special laws for trade secrets. Opera are going to have difficulty hiring people if they are suing former employees.

<comment><USER11> Pretty sure you can't copyright ideas anywhere.

<comment><USER15> Be sure to let the US Patent Office know about that.

<comment><USER16> The USPTO is likely well aware that they have nothing to do with copyright, just the Patents and Trademarks mentioned in their name.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Guess it's time to stop using Opera

</comment><comment><USER18> Was the trade secret "switch to webkit"?

<comment><USER19> Did you even read the article ?

<comment><USER18> I did. Here's the relevant section:

"For the record: we have not yet had the chance to look at the lawsuit documents or discuss the specifics of the allegations and size of the claimed damages with Opera management or its lawyers, but we'll update this post as soon as we have."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Definitely read that as "Oprah" and was very confused.

<comment><USER10> Definitely beating a dead horse.</comment></comment>


Tinder has a secret success rate value for your photos - <AUTHOR> http://uk.businessinsider.com/tinder-secret-success-rate-photos-right-swipe-percentage-2017-3?r=US&IR=T <comment><AUTHOR> A London startup, Rentify, were trying to replace every photo returned by the Tinder API over their network with their CEO's face when they discovered a secret value showing the success rate of a user's photo. Full marks for fun office hack originality. 0 marks for Tinder for not using https for their photos.

A friend of mine also discovered Tinder was returning dates of birth to calculate age client side, so was able to predict other user's star signs: [https://medium.com/haralds-notebook/tinder-should- probably-f...](https://medium.com/haralds-notebook/tinder-should-probably-fix- this-8f5628046626) It proved fairly effective at getting a reply, as you might imagine. Thankfully he had the decency to explain how he guessed.

<comment><USER2> This was us! Thanks for linking.

The terrifying bit is the sheer volume of data Tinder is leaking -- I would assume accidentally. The swipe % on the images for referrer and referee are pretty bad, but DOB and number of FB friends is enough data that you could trivially locate the person on Facebook.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice work! Agree, basic stuff as well - calculating an age from DateTime on the server is coding 101.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is creepy. Your boss MITMing your internet at work and replacing photos.

What else is he doing to your traffic?

Insert retorts about "but it's their wifi" below. It's still scummy. Provide unmodified wifi or don't provide internet on the wifi.

<comment><USER2> > What else is he doing to your traffic?

Replacing asinine Hacker News comments with meaningful ones.

</comment></comment><comment> wintermute-_- Not a secret. There's a feature called Smart Photos that you can toggle on and off which basically A/B tests your photos and displays the best performing one first.

<comment><USER4> The key difference is that feature simply places your best performing photo first. The relevance of it leaking an actual number which represents the ratio of right to left swipes is the critical part.

It offers a comparison with other users and the average across all of a users photos probably correlates strongly with the mysterious 'Tinder rating ™'

<comment><USER2> And the fact that it's leaking other user's and not just yours (in fact, in order to get your own you'd need to have two Tinder accounts).</comment></comment></comment>


Whisper CEO answers privacy revelations: 'We're not infallible' - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/19/-sp-whisper-chief-executive-on-privacy-revelations-were-not-infallible

<comment><USER2> Wow, just hearing this guy's comments it is easy to deduce what a sneaky asshole he is. He makes it sound as if the tracking and giving the data to the feds was just a mistake...Wow.</comment>


Van Halen & Startups - <AUTHOR> http://blog.favo.rs/2011/09/van-halen-startups/

<comment><USER2> The author is nominating himself for David Lee Roth status by comparing a startup to a rockstars.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Websites before java? Yeah, that's just like guitar before Eddie.

What

</comment><comment><USER4> Perfect post for a Friday night. Loved it :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Van Halen = The greatest rock and roll band EVER.

Let me just say that Panama is the greatest stoner music of all time.

Also, Eddie Van Halen > Joe Satriani

<comment><USER6> > anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

<comment><USER5> lighten up</comment></comment></comment>


Vector Models for Data-Parallel Computing - <AUTHOR> http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.122.5127&rep=rep1&type=pdf

<comment><USER2> Wow! It's a full book, and it uses a Lisp dialect called Parralation Lisp, whose compiler " _is the first compiler for a data-parallel programming language that compiles nested-parallel constructs into completely parallel code_ "[1].

I googled a bit and found this article by Paul Snively,

[http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.08/08.07/Paralat...](http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.08/08.07/Paralation/index.html)

A type of Collection-Oriented Lisp dialect:

<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CollectionOrientedProgramming>

\-- [1] Linked book.

<comment><USER3> Here's the MIT Press page on the book with a description of what it presents: [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&...](http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=5103)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I work on Ct Technology at Intel (<http://software.intel.com/en-us/data- parallel/>). Some of our semantics are heavily inspired by Blelloch's work. It's nice to see this getting "re-discovered" as more people are looking into parallelism again.</comment>


Show HN: Manabi Reader – Japanese assistive reading app for iOS - <AUTHOR> https://reader.manabi.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, author here.

I've built an iOS app that curates interesting Japanese reading material and helps you read it.

There are some similar apps/sites like this out there. Where Manabi Reader distinguishes itself is in the special care taken to segment Japanese text into dictionary lookups (having a lot of custom logic for improving upon the basic MeCab results), the actively-curated library of content, the ability to read Japanese subreddits, and the overall user experience. It also integrates with my other app for creating flashcards from what you read.

I'm actively improving the app, so any feedback is welcome! The next major functionality I'm working on is tracking and analysis of the words you've read, so that you can see which words are new to you, which you're actively learning, and find content that meets your current reading level.</comment>


Using PGD to design deafness in child - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2006/09/designer-deafness.html

<comment><USER3> It would be unethical to maintain a harmful allele of a gene, assuming that the particular allele is unequivocally harmful.

But that is not always the case. The textbook example is sickle cell anemia: although it is very harmful in homozygous individuals, it confers resistance to malaria without negative side effects in heterozygous individuals, which is beneficial.

There's the possibility that a harmful gene today becomes beneficial in the indeterminate future, for a reason that we cannot predict. That is the logic behind genetic diversity in a species, which allows it to cope with new and unpredictable environments by essentially allowing alleles to compete in the "natural marketplace."

If we're going to take control of our genomes and select for ourselves which alleles are harmful or beneficial, we must at least be prepared to preserve genetic diversity, if not in living individuals, then in gene banks or genomic databases.

<comment><USER4> Ditto for Cystic Fibrosis, with regard to cholera resistance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> When I was young, I was browsing one of my dad's medical dictionaries and I came across the term 'Polydactyly' -- essentially being born with an extra finger, typically removed shortly after birth. In most cases it's not usable but there are many cases where the extra digit functions just fine. It blew my mind that the accepted reaction was to just cut it off. Perhaps there are advantages to having an extra finger.. what if 4 fingers was the norm and the 5th finger was cut off?

I think that any kind of tampering to 'take away' any part of a person without their informed consent is unethical (unless the removed component is likely to be problematic in some way, as in the case of unusable extra fingers that may be cause pain or cramping of the other fingers).

But at the same time I acknowledge that some practices I disagree with are so ingrained in cultures that they're not even questioned. For those of you who are male and circumcised, think about this: If you hadn't been, would you choose to have it done now? Are you glad it was done at birth? I (like I assume most men) absolutely would NOT be able to bring myself to go through with it now, but at the same time, since there's good evidence to suggest it's a largely unnecessary procedure with very limited benefit, and a measurable downside as well, my own opinion is that it shouldn't really be performed at all (someone else mentioned genital mutilation -- this is a form of it). Deaf parents who want to rob their child of its sense of hearing so he or she will be more like them are probably not so different from my Jewish parents. When framed this way I'm sure it's likely to divide a lot more people though.

</comment><comment><USER6> What if the predominant traits in our population were supra olfactory capability (smelling) that helped us recognize people instantly, or avoid poisons, or perhaps infra-vision (ability to see at night), etc...

What would it be like to be unable to recognize without the use of smell? How would we avoid some subtle poisons without smelling them? And wouldn't we be basically helpless in the dark, for 25% of the day, requiring artificial aids just to keep a car on the road? Walk down a path?

Would deliberately having a child to be like, well, us, be cruel?

I wonder if deaf parents basically are looking at it like this. They are fine with the way they are, they don't consider being deaf to be a particularly profound disability, and they want to have children that are like them; not a particularly unusual instinct.

<comment><USER7> The difference is we live in a culture and a world that has been built around the senses "normal" people _do_ have, so you would be depriving them of a large part of that world.

Though if you are happy, then so be it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Every human attribute could be redefined as "cultural" or individualistic and therefore under the scope of individual or group choice.

But to claim that the state gives up all responsibility for these choices is absurd since there is there are very real costs for those choices and their consequences.

For example, increasingly and controversially European state welfare systems are bearing the cost of IVF treatments, even for the oldest of couples and unusual parent systems (e.g. 3-parents). But there are clear trends in those societies for decreasing birth rates which cannot be entirely filled by immigration. The state has to act if it wants to continue to exist and thrive (as Japan will probably discover in 50 years time!).

In the extreme, at one end there is Gattaca. At the other end, all members of society and their children are being required to support choices that would otherwise never naturally exist, or only exist from enormous harm, but provide no objective benefit. In both cases, the long run damage to the human race or individual societies is unknown.

Perhaps the only solution is the minimum one. When it comes to procreation, allow only choices that permit any viable life and absolutely no more?

Perhaps one day, in combination with AI, there will be an internationally ratified and strongly enforced _Minimum Viable Person Treaty_ \- a sort of NPT for Sentient Life?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> My first knee jerk reaction is that this is awful and unethical, but there are similar questions with possibly different answer:

1) Is it ethical for two deaf persons to give birth to a child without screening for their genetic disease?

2) Is it ethical to create a child with disease, that guarantees his death? (Senescence)

<comment><USER4> A bit confused by your referencing senescence, since that's just growing old. I digress ...

As to #2 there's a huge difference between conditions that cause death. Some cause very early and painful deaths. I have Cystic Fibrosis, and I should be able to make it into my 60's (probably far beyond, but I'm assuming today's science).

As my wife and I are considering children #2 is a very real question (let's say you don't die young, but have a lower health quality compared to most, and have tens of thousands of health costs every year with all the financial instability that comes with - would this be unethical to force on someone?)

<comment><USER9> _A bit confused by your referencing senescence, since that's just growing old._

Everyone is born with a fatal disease: mortality. The first and second questions asked in the grandparent's post can therefore be seen as similar, which, from a purely logical standpoint, should have similar answers. However, most people would say that it is not ethical to pass a specific fatal disease to your child, but that it is ethical to have a child at all, even knowing that it will die eventually.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> For those that see this as depriving a child of music, sound, etc - <USER2> that for this particular potential child, it's deafness or never existing at all. It's not as if that particular child has a chance of hearing.

Those that argue that a different "hearing" embryo should be deliberately selected instead are guilty of the exact same thing they're protesting against.

I think the only consistent ways to argue against this are to either argue against the entire practice of embryo selection for _any_ reason, or to argue that deafness is a sufficient reason to prevent any embryo from coming to term.

Anyway, I see this practice as being wildly different than that of choosing an embryo of a hearing being, and then causing it to be deaf.

<comment><USER11> Put yourself in the child's position. You'd grow up and discover that your deafness is not due to some random genetic mutation, or even just inheritance - but your parents selected you to be deaf - just so that you could be exactly like them.

I'd be outraged. Wouldn't you be?

And I'm not saying that we should abort deaf children, nor am I saying that we should deliberately select "hearing" embryos instead.

<comment><USER12> The point tunesmith is making is that if the parents hadn't selected the child to be deaf, that particular child simply wouldn't exist. The parent's child would be a different combination of genetics. The child themselves really couldn't be outraged, because if the parents had made a different choice they would have never developed into anyone.

It is an interesting ethical question. It isn't nearly as simple as the circumcision debate, or the "remove an extra finger" issue discussed elsewhere. In both those cases, the parents make a choice to modify an existing child. The child grows up knowing that had their parents made a different choice, they would have a foreskin/extra finger etc. The deafness debate is profoundly different, because the child simply wouldn't exist had the parents made a different choice.

If the choice for me was between being selected to be deaf and not being selected at all, I'd choose the former.

<comment><USER13> Considering the countless potential never-borns is a terrible game. If the children who could be born get a full say in the matter, then all women everywhere should always be pregnant, so that the maximum potential number of children can be born. Worse: we should really be inducing labor prematurely at 7 or 8 months, once survival is nearly guaranteed with current technology, so that the mothers can become pregnant as soon as possible, giving even more potential children the chance to be born. Simply matching up every egg with a sperm does not give every potential child the chance the exist: we need to clone every egg and every sperm a trillion times over, and match up every possible combination. Half our population must be constantly pregnant, and the other half tending the endless fields of frozen embryos waiting their turn, if every potential child is to be given their day in the sun.

There are just too many potential children to go down this road. Every action we take closes the door on an infinite number of potential children while opening the door an a different infinite set. Getting pregnant closes the door on the infinite number of children you can't have while pregnant with the one actual child.

<comment><USER12> I completely agree with you in broader terms, but that wasn't really what my comment was about. The poster I replied to suggested that they'd be outraged if they discovered that their parents had made a concious choice to select a deaf embryo. My point, and the reason that it isn't a black and white debate, was that if the parents hadn't made that choice, the deaf-but-outraged child wouldn't exist.

On a larger, societal level, I think that purposefully selecting deaf children is wrong. On a personal level, if I was that deaf child, I don't know if I could be outraged at my parents choice because if they hadn't made it I simply wouldn't exist. You'd have to be fairly certain in your beliefs to be outraged at acts that resulted in your being.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nothing throws this into a grey area as much as deafness. Deaf culture is truly profound. Entire vibrant deaf communities exist within 'normal' communities and can interact with others on an equal basis.

On the flip side, it can be seen as offensive to others when medical options become available to restore hearing. People will sometimes forgo treatment to 'stay in the clique'. This strong desire to not see deafness as a disability and an independent thriving culture is what might influence the choice to have a deaf child.

And while I'm being all stereotypical, if you ever have a Final Cut Pro question and you have a choice between asking a deaf or a hearing person, choose the deaf person....

<comment><USER9> _Nothing throws this into a grey area as much as deafness. Deaf culture is truly profound. Entire vibrant deaf communities exist within 'normal' communities and can interact with others on an equal basis._

I'm genuinely curious: would curing deafness destroy those communities?

<comment><USER15> Many don't view it as something to be cured. Some would take it, some would not. Those who took the cure would likely be ostracized.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> In a similar vein, there was a documentary called "Sound and Fury" on the controversy of cochlear implants in the deaf community: <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/soundandfury/index.html>

</comment><comment><USER17> Just to be on the same page. The child is not "created" and then "implanted" with the disability. The embryo with the disability is picked to be born. So it is not unethical to the child (the other option for him/her was to not be born).

<comment><USER18> True, but the result is the same whether the child was "picked" from an embryo with a disability or if he was born fine and then the parents injured him in a way that gave him the disability, which would be considered totally despicable and illegal.

<comment><USER19> No, the result is not the same. It's a choice between life with deafness, or death as an embryo so that a sibling can live instead.

<comment><USER18> The result is a sentient being with a disability. It doesn't matter if a mutation caused it or you physically injured the child, the consequences are the same.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is sick. Depriving a child of music, birdsong, etc - just so that it can fit better into your society can't be considered ethical by any means.

<comment><USER19> Read the article. The parents are selecting an embryo with the genes for deafness, not modifying an embryo to be deaf.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> In the end I think it is up to the parent to decide how their children turn out, even if I disagree with that decision. When someone chooses their mate they are doing the same thing, if only in a more crude way, and certainly we've all disagreed with someones mate choice in the past. This is really no different.

If I want to have a child, and the only way I'd be willing to have one is if it completely designed, I would want my child to be tall and intelligent. Some of the variants may be seen as detrimental to some people (HEXA), but I wouldn't want society deciding on that.

</comment><comment><USER21> That is what happens when you push for political correctness. Sure it's not a handicap, it's a "difference", wait it's a "culture", a "community". Keep bashing this over and over, pass laws to force companies to feed that kool aid to their employees, and sure enough you end up with this kind of situation.

In the same vein, you'll see people arguing for neuro-diversity to defend autism as a perfectly desirable condition.

<comment><USER22> And this kind of comment is what happens when people lack respect for those whose experience of life is different from their own. Do you believe that their experience is less valid? What are your objective criteria for deciding this? Differences are just that - they confer advantages and disadvantages against the population average. The weight of balance may fall either way, who are you to declare that without experiencing it?

I find the point about autism especially rich, given that it must be understood at a spectrum, and in a forum such as this, most of us likely sit waaay closer to the end you deride that the population average.

<comment><USER23> _I find the point about autism especially rich, given that it must be understood at a spectrum, and in a forum such as this, most of us likely sit waaay closer to the end you deride than the population average._

Self-criticism being a high and praiseworthy art, at least where I come from. The general sentiment that one shouldn't be permitted to study and improve oneself is _much_ more offensive.

<comment><USER22> I'd like to understand this comment, but I'm afraid I can't fathom its relation to what you quoted.

I meant to convey that the highly analytical mindset is lauded as a great strength here. The popularity of social skill self-help type articles on here also demonstrates that it is a strength with trade-offs. Y'know, like almost all differences in people's make ups.

Sorry if we're talking at cross purposes.

<comment><USER23> Autism (along with all sorts of other things) isn't just 'a highly analytical mindset.' As you say, it has downsides. Which can be very unpleasant (and not just for other people, either).

The idea that we should all just learn to except everybody for who they are, which in my experience is often coupled with the idea that _wanting_ to change yourself is bad, is an idea that I am not a fan of, to put it lightly. I've heard it directed at myself to often for that.

<comment><USER22> Fair enough. I've never had a serious encounter with the opinion that one shouldn't want to improve oneself. The idea that wishing for a change which cannot be achieved might be harmful (to happiness at least) - but not the idea that someone shouldn't try to grow towards a better self.

By respecting someone else's differing experience, I mean supporting rather than dictating their efforts. Who else could know who you want to become?

<comment><USER23> That's a wonderful sentiment, but I really have to wonder, how far does it go? I've heard the same thing from other people who went on to protest scientific studies of sexuality or research on cochlear implants or a dozen other similar things, all on the grounds that such things were 'offensive' and 'destructive towards culture'.

Maybe you don't believe these things. I have little enough reason to think you do. But once you actually have to choose between _this_ group 'curing' themselves and _that_ group 'protecting their culture', who do you have the most sympathy for?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'm sorry, but a 30% chance over 4 cases doesn't equate to "must have happened". There's a 24% chance it didn't happen with rather simple statistics.

</comment><comment><USER25> That is pretty f __*ing unethical in my book...</comment>


New cyberattack against Iranian oil sector - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ivdP6nle_OuBNCj2NAL2rBVQ5-lQ?docId=CNG.a86eb6b2701ce148592ac01588b748be.41

<comment><USER2> Its always going on.

Computers were born of a cold war, and thus spawned a new one.

You could blame the machine or, the ones sitting behind the keyboards.

<comment><USER3> It is not the ones sitting behind the keyboards, it is the people standing behind them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> And you wonder why Iran wants a nuclear weapon?

It is because they need backup when they hit the US and or Israel back their own cyber attacks.

I have no love for the Iranians, but if you don't think they are doing what they feel is necessary to secure their own way of life, you are insane.

<comment><USER5> The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons to put themselves in the position of having sufficient deterrent to attack that all middle eastern nations must use Iran as the crux of their foreign policy. If they accomplish this, anything that goes on in the region will have to accommodate them. Furthermore, it would seriously jeopardize Israel's existence, which would destabilize things even more; Iran is indeed serious about destroying Israel.

Iran is no innocent party, nor are they peaceful in their intentions. Don't mistake their feigned innocence for being a victim.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It was only a matter of time before actions such as these became public. The covert war has been going on for quite a while; I would expect more of these to come to light in the next few months, for good or ill.

</comment><comment><USER6> The cynic wonders if this is the office workers geting more ordianry viruses and blaming the great satan to save face - migt be a bit hard explaining to the vice police how you got a virus from browsing porn sites.

"But Hounoured Mulla - I have no idea how those decadent pictures of those shameless hussys Palin and Widecombe appeared on my PC"</comment>


Beyond Spotify and iZettle: How Sweden became Europe's capital of startup exits - <AUTHOR> https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/07/beyond-spotify-and-izettle-how-sweden-became-europes-capital-of-startup-exits/ <comment><USER2> Let me contrast two European business experiences from the past year.

One, very recently, from Paris. Terms of a deal agreed on. But the investor wanted to wet sign over a 2-hour lunch. At the end, he couriered the signed document to his lawyer, to scan and e-mail. The lawyer, unfortunately, didn't notice it come in before leaving early for the week-end. (He promised he would have it out first thing on Monday, at which point he e-mailed it to the wrong person.) Everybody's English is good, but broken, and miscommunications over e-mail and voice occasionally occur. When complaints came up, the reactions were in the form of "calm down" or "be realistic" or a counter-complaint.

Second, a few months ago, from Stockholm. Perfect American English. Documents moved over the weekend. Fast, no-frills dealmaking with a common sense of commercial values. When complaints arose, a discussion emerged around how we could work better together.

As a New Yorker, I love doing business in Sweden over almost anywhere else in Europe. From recent discussions–and statistics–it appears I'm not alone. Culture matters hugely.

<comment><USER3> Only problem with Sweden is that eerie feeling of something being too perfect and those moments, where you scratch the surface and find there is something evil hiding in there just below it.

Sweden is a weird country. It is so controlled and everything is so straight, that it almost feels like there are no real humans. I couldn't imagine living there, if I was one of those people, who don't conform to the worldview as defined and constructed by the establishment.

<comment><USER4> I think what you see is a culture wherein conforming to the majority idea is valued (a lot) higher than the individual's ability for self-expression. This does not mean people don't think differently, the Swedish are notoriously individualistic, but it does mean that your voice isn't heard as often, and when it is, it doesn't really seem like it's your voice, but rather it was agreed upon to be the way forward.

The hyper-individualism, I think, is just the flip side of hyper- authoritarianism. Swedish people are almost happy to pay taxes, Swedish people are some of the most active voters in the OECD (82% turnout last election, let's hope tomorrow's election is no worse!), and Swedish road safety policy is now a Swedish export.

It is indeed a very unusual combination, but I think it's what happens when you mix prosperity, democracy, and secularism for a long time. I hope that the recent waves of misinformation and polarizing media won't ruin it. But it isn't looking good.

<comment><USER5> The term for this is the Law of Jante [0]

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Flater management helps. I have seen developers telling managers that they disagree with some requirement or similar in a way that was not possible in Spain. You will have been fired. Also, the mindset in Spain is that you are lucky if you have a job and people keeps bad jobs as family and friends will not understand "why do they complain if they are far better than other people".

Sweden has been better off economically, and it has a safety net that allows developers (and other workers) to say NO to very stupid things.

When people ask me why I emigrated to Sweden, the answer is easy. It has a healthier work culture than most parts of the world. What use is 20% more salary if I got to live a stressed and miserable life?

<comment><USER7> I'm actually thinking of moving to Spain from Sweden (born and raised in Gothenburg) because the real estate market here is absolutely ridiculous and our personal debts a ticking bomb, and a trip to Spain last year exposed me to the vibrant tech startup culture fueled by growing demand from Latin America.

Would you say that I'm being foolish? Maybe we could take this discussion privately.

<comment><USER8> Just as a curiosity. Where in Spain?

<comment><USER9> Not OP, but someone else on HN about 8 months ago [1] suggested Valencia. As they said, it is lovely, inexpensive, and beautiful (we bought a flat there as a vacation home).

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15975815](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15975815)

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I was mostly in Andalusia and I thought it was gorgeous so it certainly has that going for it, but I think I would like bigger cities. Especially thinking career wise.

(Was very surprised that some Spaniards I met didn't think Andalusia was something special but that the spruce filled forests of Sweden was a paradise. Grass is greener and all that.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It wouldn't take much in terms of salaries to corner the "Europeans that choose not to go to SF" talent market. A $60k salary is still pretty normal here in Denmark. I'm ex-SV doing my own startup, but I wouldn't take a salaried position at another company. It will be interesting to see if these billion dollar exits lead to even slightly more competitive tech salaries.

<comment><USER11> I've always been perplexed by the massive salary rift between Europe and SV.

<comment><USER12> You have to normalise by purchasing power and take the quality of life into account. My 60k salary in Poland gives me similar quality of life like 100k in Denmark and 140k in SF.

<comment><USER13> Yes, that's another abnormal labor market. I'm from Croatia, but I've seen similar things with colleagues from eastern and central Europe.

IT salaries here are much better than western Europe compared to other professions and it's not worth migrating.

I've interviewed for jobs in Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Germany and the highest offer was 75k € for job in Brussels region.

According to online calculators thats 40k take home salary with housing and services at least twice as expensive. My 50k € Croatian salary leaves me with 33k net with vastly better quality of life.

Why are western Europe's developers paid so little while living in much richer countries?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> If I might ask a more general question about start-ups, particularly people who have some experience directly with start-ups.

Is the goal of the start-up always to aim for an exit by being bought by somebody bigger, or do most people start businesses with a view to longevity but then end up being given offers they can't refuse? Or is it impossible to generalise? I suspect it's the latter as is usually the way with complicated human systems.

I always wondered if the point of a start-up was to have a good idea, get a load of funding to flesh the idea out and then throw your bait into the water hoping some large company like Google or Apple comes along and snaps up your IP for an eye watering amount.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. :-)

<comment><USER15> If you get funding from investors most of them will want their money back plus returns. That's why they invest after all. The exit is how the investors get their money back

<comment><USER16> They could get their money back by (gasp) getting their share of the company profits. Which is actually how it usually works outside of SV-like investments.

<comment><USER2> > _getting their share of the company profits_

Early-stage investors and dividend-collecting investors are not the same. They might be different parts of a single portfolio, but they're separate strategies. Switching from one mode to the other is something public markets are very good at. If a company wants to pay dividends instead of getting acquired, it should go public and start paying dividends.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Whenever I read salary comparisons between Europe and US (or between different countries in general) I never quite know what to make of the numbers. There are many different components to it (take-home pay, tax, pension, health insurance) and, for some reason, only some of those are considered your "gross salary", while other are considered to be "paid by employers" (which is pretty nonsensical distinction).

Anyway, for this to not just be a rant, I'll give you a break-down of what is considered a very good salary for developers in Croatia, an EU country (I took a nice round number of 15000 croatian KN for take-home monthly pay). Junior developer salaries can be half of that (even less in some companies). Take note that Croatia is doing pretty bad economically. For reference, average take-home monthly salary is around 970 USD (median is around 800 USD). All numbers are for monthly salary, in US dollars.

Take home pay - 2351,10 USD

Pension contributon for current retirees - 570,88 USD

Personal pension - 190,29 USD

Country tax - 587,77 USD

Local tax - 105,80 USD

Health insurance - 570,88 USD

Employment insurance - 64,70 USD

Work injury insurance - 19,03 USD

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>----

Total cost for employer - 4460,44 USD

Out of these, take home pay, personal pension and health insurance could be considered you own pay and not some form of tax (total monthly - 3112,26 USD). That being said, health care is pretty bad (some stuff is decent) and no young person expects their personal pension fund to survive until retirement (government controls the pension investment funds). Also, education is mostly free but also not that great.

Yearly numbers:

Take home pay - 28213,17 USD

Take home pay with personal pension and health insurance - 37347,18 USD

Total cost for employer - 53525,32 USD

As a side note, first five items from the above list are considered your "gross salary" by law, while the last three (health, employment and work injury insurance) are considered to be "paid by employer".

I wonder how this compares to other countries.

</comment><comment><USER18> The Spotify cofounders themselves expressed doubts about the viability of Stockholm for startups though.[1]

[1] [https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/13/news/companies/spotify- swed...](https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/13/news/companies/spotify-sweden- stockholm-new-york/index.html)</comment>


OpenIndiana Hipster 2020.04 Released: Phase Out Python 2, GCC7 as Base Compiler - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OpenIndiana-2020.04-Released <comment><USER2> Why do they always comment on gcc not the latest as a bad thing? The base compiler needs to be stable. Newer releases might be faster and better on edge cases, but also have much more bugs. Many of them serious.

7 is a good choice, 8 might also work. everything since 9 is very experimental. 10 even crashes on the simpliest of my testcases. how fc32 managed this is a miracle.

latest is not always best, mostly worst.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm now curious about how are you abusing your compilers. I've never seen GCC crash because of the code I've written.

<comment><USER3> To all the people who will now let us know that GCC crashes for them (and I've no doubt it does, I'm not questioning your honesty), do you put in bug reports?

<comment><USER2> If they care yes. For gcc it's an unpleasant experience. And minimizing the testcases is an art lost to me.

For llvm it's pleasent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Curious to hear about anybody using OpenIndiana in prod and what their thoughts are compared to linux.

<comment><USER5> I'm using SmartOS (and Triton) with minimal SmartOS images in production for hosting mixed services.

In general, I really like it. My biggest frustration at the moment is the age of packages in pkgsrc. Second would be the lack of support for Illumos in third-party packages. These frustrations are manageable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have fond memories of a few decades of using/managing Solaris machines, and I've often considered running OpenIndiana on a Thinkpad. Has anyone tried this? How is the OpenIndiana support for commodity laptop hardware?

<comment><USER7> Run it in VMs. The Qubes OS is optimized for this use case. Then Solaris sees a very stable device environment, removing most of the work in keeping an OS fresh.

<comment><USER8> Anyone actually use CubesOS?

<comment><USER9> 30K+ users according to the Micah Lee video on their website.

I didnt know CubesOS till ncmncm posted about it in this thread, but it looks interesting enough to test drive for a while. If you want to learn more, recommend watching the video here: [https://www.qubes-os.org/video- tours/](https://www.qubes-os.org/video-tours/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What is the most in demand position in start-up? - <AUTHOR>

Non-programmer background, so freaking tired of being seen as a liability to any start-up.
Will learn how to code.
What is the most in demand position nowadays?
- front end? - iOS App? - Android App? - Windows Phone App? - Business analyst?
I don't think I will ever be good at dealing with very hard problems. Just want to get started and join a start-up. <comment><USER2> I've never seen a req for it, but we always dream of a QA person who can code.</comment>


I told a job applicant how much he sucked. Here's what happened… - <AUTHOR> https://www.exasol.com/de/blog/i-told-a-job-applicant-how-much-he-sucked/ <comment><USER2> Garbage article. "I told someone they were bad and then they said ok. The end"

Why would you even post this? Do you enjoy wasting your own time?

<comment><AUTHOR> The main purpose of the article is to discuss how giving an honest feedback can be helpful for candidates.

<comment><USER2> Balony. This story might as well be fake, with how little detail there is. There is nothing to draw from this of value.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Clickbait title. The candidate thanked the interviewer for honest feedback that would help him improve himself in the future.</comment>


Appalachian Balds - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_balds <comment><USER2> Random to see this here, but I like it! I grew up in Western NC on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so I'm a big fan.

Max Patch is always a nice day trip, and Black balsam knob is one of my favorite spots period. Fantastic panoramic views, and go in August if you want to take home a bag full of blueberries. The most seasoned hikers will want to follow the Art Loeb trail out to Cold Mountain, and climb the summit. But it's not for the faint of heart! ;)

<comment><USER3> Or from Max Patch, keep heading generally North following the white paint marks to wind up on Mt Katahdin in Maine :)

One of my favourite memories from the Appalachian Trail was somewhere up in New England; someone was on a day hike and asked "how far does this trail go?", my answer "Georgia" wasn't satisfying to them for some reason...

<comment><USER4> I started at Amicalola Falls in 2014 (where I briefly worked as an intern back in my college days) and thought I'd follow the white marks and see where they went. It took longer than expected. Jokes aside, I grew up hiking on the AT in Georgia and it was fun to do the whole thing. I had no idea there was an entire article on the balds!

<comment><USER5> I thru hiked in 2002. One of my fellow travelers started in Georgia planning to hike for two weeks, made it all the way to Maine!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> These are found in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas, too.

For a related bit of obscure US history you can read about the post-civil war vigilante group named after these: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Knobbers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Knobbers)

<comment><AUTHOR> My parents grew up in the southwestern corner of the Ozark Mountains and I've been to Branson, Missouri a number of times, so I have at least a passing familiarity with the Bald Knobbers. Nevertheless, I had not made the connection between Balds in the geographic sense and the Bald Knobbers. The southwestern Ozarks are actually a heavily eroded plateau, and I'm not aware of any hilltops that look like the Appalachian Balds, but then I have only actually seen a tiny portion of the Ozarks.

<comment><USER7> The Ozark balds exist primarily because the tops of hills in the White River Valley have very little soil, as they're made up of dolomitic limestone that dissolves in rain water instead of breaking down into clays. The scant soil that exists is enough to host grasses, but few trees; Eastern Red Cedar can grow, but before widespread fire suppression, it was pretty contained to fire- protected rock outcroppings. With fire suppression (which may have stabilized the soil and limited erosion as well), Eastern Red Cedar and some oaks (blackjack and post oak) are filling in the balds. This is in constrast to the Appalachian balds that are mainly a product of climate differences between the peaks and the lower hillslopes.

The hills to the north of the White River Valley (around Springfield) and south (south of Harrison) are capped by rock layers that have a relatively high clay content and produce soil that can more easily support forests.

The Bald Knobber history is pretty interesting. I had always thought of them as analogous to the earliest KKK (also a Reconstruction-era vigilante group initially) but I hadn't realized until I read the surprisingly detailed Wikipedia page that the Bald Knobbers were Republicans who sided with the North. (Unfortunately, the Bald Knobbers are history at this point, while the KKK is still quite active in the area, especially Harrison/Boone County, Arkansas).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> They are fascinating. I live in Western NC and I've seen many of them. You're climbing up the mountain, nearing the summit, going through the trees and then, pop, the trees are gone leaving only a mystery.

</comment><comment><USER9> Randomly saw a youtube video on Devil's Gardens in Rainforests, where ants use formic acid to destroy non-symbiotic/competing plants in given areas. Makes me wonder if this could be something similar.

</comment><comment><USER10> I grew up in the Appalachians of South Carolina and I've visited all over them. I've seen the one mentioned in the article and always wondered why it was like that

</comment><comment><USER11> Balds are some of America's hidden treasures.

Jane Bald through Hump Mountain was my favorite section on the Appalachian Trail, except maybe for a few sections in Maine.

</comment><comment><USER12> I sought one of these out for the 2017 solar eclipse in North Carolina, but was sorely disappointed when it turned out that while there were no trees, it was covered quite thoroughly in shrubs and you could not see the sky.

<comment><USER13> some of them get super foggy too. e.g. Gregory Bald.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hypothesis: For thousands of years, people burned them periodically, to provide habitat for desired prey, and make it easier to see them. Since then, until recently, people burned them periodically for livestock pasture.

Problem: Forest is expected cover, but now you have endangered plant species which have migrated uphill, with global climate change, until there's no uphill left. So restoring forest cover would cause extinctions.

<comment><USER15> Livestock pasture on top of an Appalachian mountain? Not happening. At these altitudes on the east coast forests are mostly left alone.

<comment><USER14> Hey, argue with TFA, not me:

> The character and distribution of Appalachian balds remained stable from the > time the first naturalists explored the region, until forestry regulations > no longer permitted annual pasturing of local cattle. How and why a summit > develops into a grassy bald is unknown; they represent "an ecological enigma > and a conservation dilemma".[4] Weigl and Knowles note that "the presence of > both rare, endemic plants and northern relicts requiring open habitat > suggests a long evolutionary history" and offer a scenario in which grazing > pressure of the giant herbivores of the Pleistocene retained the open tundra > habitat as the Wisconsin glaciation retreated far to the north. With the > arrival of the paleoindians and the disappearance of the megaherbivores, > grazing pressure was maintained by deer and elk, and then by the grazing > animals of European settlers.

I do agree that cattle seem unlikely. Maybe "grazing animals of European settlers" points to sheep? Maybe even goats?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> In a similar vein, does anyone in the Bay Area know why the Santa Cruz mountains on the west side of the valley have a bunch of trees, but the mountains on the east side (near Fremont) have no trees and are mostly just grass? I would think the climate and elevation are similar.

<comment><USER17> The mountains on the west cause a lot of moisture in the air to precipitate out as the prevailing winds blow from the west, so they get a lot more rain than the eastern ranges.

<comment><USER18> Not only is it drier, but the Diablo range is heavily overgrazed. If it weren't, it'd be the same chaparral woodland you can still see around calaveras dam.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I thought it was pretty funny that Mt. Eisenhower in the White Mountains was bald on top. Very little vegetation up there!</comment>


What Framework / CMS Is this Site Using - <AUTHOR>

Trying to figure out the best way to run and setup a similar site to howlifeworks.com, without using wordpress. <comment><USER2> Check out the browser extension "wappalyzer" which helps to identify technologies used on websites. It shows that the website you link to has some decently advanced stuff going on, including backbone.js and a windows server api.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for pointing that extension out. I've been using Honeybadger, which is great for backend tech/whois/misc other data but doesn't give me any info about the front-end stack.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, both help. If anyone has more insight into it, I'd appreciate it.

Anyone with experience building similar advertorial sites let me know, as I'm looking for someone to build it out as well.

</comment><comment><USER4> This might help: [http://builtwith.com/?q=+howlifeworks.com](http://builtwith.com/?q=+howlifeworks.com)</comment>


X-callback-url: a list of apps - <AUTHOR> http://philgr.com/blog/Esquemas-Biblioteca-x-callback-url

<comment><AUTHOR> Skip the first paragraphs if you don't know portuguese, they're solely introductory. In this article you'll find a more updated list of apps that support x-callback-url, as I believe the one held at [http://x-callback- url.com/apps/](http://x-callback-url.com/apps/) is drastically outdated. Hope it helps you out.</comment>


Wifi antenna made from a tetra-brik juice box - <AUTHOR> http://www.drivebywifiguide.com/TetraBrikHowTo.htm <comment><USER2> OK, what was the sci fi story with the aliens that lived on a planet with an opaque atmosphere, so they had box-shaped antenna heads and "saw" with strong microwave(?) beams?

</comment><comment><USER3> nom nom pringles and tetra juice, and warcraft a la nieghbor.

The one tweak i would make is the antenna element AKA "toothpick" is depicted as a blunt end cut. It may be non essential however its called toothpick because the terminus is pointy. The gain in transmitted energy may put you in FCC fine territory, and if you couple this with a WRT upgrade to your router, its possible to produce hazardous energy levels.</comment>


Massive just opensourced the server for World in Conflict - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ubisoftinc/massgate <comment><USER2> This is pretty awesome, so many games have lost functionality due to EOL concerns, this looks saves a lot of reverse engineering time :)</comment>


Rumor $800 Apple Tablet Coming In The Fall - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/apple-tablet/

<comment><USER2> So, "the device will have a 9.7-inch touchscreen, reports InfoTimes, and three Taiwanese gadget manufacturers–Foxconn, Wintek and Dynapack–have received orders for different components of the tablet."

Maybe so. But the source of the "translated from the Mandarin allegations about orders to the thee manufacturers is MacRumor forums:

[http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8071477#post807...](http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8071477#post8071477) | YMMV.</comment>


Ask HN: Best business structure for 3-person part-time startup - <AUTHOR>

Two friends and I are planning to start a web business and were wondering what type of business structure is best forour situation.  We intend to do this in our spare time, and we are not planning to seek outside investments or loans,at least for the time being.  Our initial project is small in scope, but we feel it will be profitable.  In addition,it will give us a chance to try working together and see if we want to try out something more ambitious (our "change the world" project).  We're wondering what type of business structure will be best for us.
We would prefer to:
* limit our liability (in case someone has a bad experience because of something from our site)
* keep our business based in our home state (WI), unless there's a strong reason not to
* minimize the need to involve accountants, attourneys, etc.
* Keep taxes simple and avoid double taxation.
We've been looking at descriptions of partnerships, LLPs, LLCs, and S-Corps, but we aren't familiar with all the nuances.  Does anyone with experience in this area have a recommendation for our situation?  Are there other factors we should be considering here? <comment><USER2> From your description an LLC sounds like the way to go. Partnerships have all kinds of drawbacks, depending on your locality you might become liable for your partners debts. An llc is a good step up to becoming an 'Inc' when and if you are more successful.

It will give you more (a lot more) protection from a legal point of view than a partnership and you still have the same benefits tax wise.

Tax laws regarding llcs vary state by state so plese make sure the above applies to your state.

If you plan on picking up venture capital or doing other things that will require outside partners then you really should look at incorporation, it is my experience that such activities are much easier to undertake when your business is a legal person in its own right (which an LLC is only to some extent).

</comment><comment><USER3> LLCs are the "hot" structure right now for a lot of things, but they don't necessarily have the case law to back them up. So it's possible that you could come up with a situation where there is no precedent.

That said, my co-founder (an attorney) set us up as an LLC initially (when we were doing consulting type work). We just switched over to an S-Corp because of investment requirements (we took seed funding). Also, VCs want you to be an S- or C-Corp

</comment><comment><USER4> We have a very similar situation. After talking with our accounting company, and our attorney, the consensus was to go with an LLC incorporated in our home state. It was easy, and so far has worked out very well.

Only advice beyond that is to hire an accountant/accounting co to handle your books and make sure your business tax, quarterlies, etc... are all handled correctly. Well worth the investment.

</comment><comment><USER5> I was in a pretty similar position recently, and we decided to go with an S-Corp. We figured we'd avoid the double taxation, and if we happened to take VC funding, switching to a C-Corp would be relatively easy, as most VC's prefer C-Corps, or so I've heard.

Just don't get bogged down in making that decision like I was for a time.</comment>