Quit Pretending There Isn't A Videogame Rape Culture - <AUTHOR> http://critdamage.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/quit-pretending-there-isnt-videogame.html

<comment><USER2> I read this and then checked the trailer out, and I'm a little confused.

How is this associated with JUST video games and not culture at large. This is a problem with our obsession with Novelty, and our crude history of already being a sexist and violent culture (globally).

If he's trying to say they've taken it too far with this trailer, I find that hypocritical if they wouldn't equally disregard Quentin Tarantino's works. They also have skimpy outfits, and violence.

I just think we're all in a race to out offend each other in this post modern society. It's scary where you wonder we'll be in 20 years from now.

</comment><comment><USER3> I find this baffling. I think this is just not a very effective means to combat such a thing. I've thought a lot about such things over the years. It seems to me this is like having sex to try to preserve virginity...or something. The thing about "rape culture" is that it is fundamentally disrespectful. So is ranting and cussing at people. That isn't the means to combat this.

Something I used to say in online forums when people had a shit fit about too much "fighting" in the community: "Fighting against the fighting is still fighting." Similarly, pissing on other people to protest lack of respect in the world is just adding more disrespect to the world. You cannot get there from here. Step away from the gaming console. Plant a tree. Go be polite to a neighbor. Forgive someone. Pay off a debt. Play Good Samartan. Love the world a little bit and treat someone with respect and compassion today. High handed holier than thou behavior doesn't make the world a better place.</comment>


Someone just published an NPM package depending on every single NPM package - <AUTHOR> https://www.npmjs.com/package/all-packages <comment><USER2> I bet an interesting graph theory problem would be 'by adding one node to a directed graph, what is the largest number of nodes reachable if you are allowed n outgoing links', and in particular what n needs to be in order to get all of the npm graph.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> An explanation of motive on one of the sub-packages:

> _Yo, these are some cool packages imo. Lets make sure we have a nice backup > it 'd be a shame if someone unpublished them._

You're going to need quite an internet connection to NPM install that one.

<comment><USER3> > You're going to need quite an internet connection to NPM install that one.

That's saying more about how terrible npm is than about how big the archive is.

It's common place to install entire operating systems from an internet source, a decent package manager shouldn't sweat trying to install even a long list of dependencies.

<comment><USER4> They're completely different use cases. If I wanted to extract a single file from the "operating system", it'd require me downloading a gigabyte just for a megabyte.

<comment><USER3> Um, no it wouldn't.

A netinstall of Debian doesn't download an archive/image of everything you've selected - it downloads individual deb's as required.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's gone</comment>


Don't do what you love - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@rachelnabors/dont-do-what-you-love-41312c943e2

<comment><USER2> Author actually is doing what she loves and succeeding, by the way.

Any advice should not be taken in a vacuum. It doesn't make it bad advice because it doesn't solve all of life's problems. The point with the notion of doing what you love (and the money will follow) is that too many people are miserable in their jobs. That's an incredible waste. It's much easier to succeed if you love what you do. Of course that doesn't give anyone immunity to life's realities. But if you hate what you do, you've certainly got it all wrong.

I don't think too many people are that naive to think that all they need to do is to solely focus on what they love doing and everything else will line them up with success and wealth, just because.

But make no mistake, if you love what you do, if you are passionate, you are going to do better work than the other sucker who hates what he does (and only does it for the money/security).</comment>


Deep Green - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2008/12/deep_green <comment><USER2> I think the real meat of the article is this:

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>

Figure out the absolute least you need to do to implement the idea, do just that, and then polish the hell out of the experience. Configuration is kept to a minimum but everything essential is there. It even launches fast. Via email, Bondo told me:

" When I compare the various iPhone chess apps (I bought them all), Deep Green offers pretty much the same functionality as the rest, and sometimes more, but with a fraction of the UI. Achieving this is why I'm 4 months later than the rest."

It takes more time and more effort to make software with a simpler UI, but it's worth it.

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>====</comment>


Japanese zoning - <AUTHOR> http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html <comment><USER2> Some anecdotes from my neighborhood in a quiet mostly residential part of Tokyo (All of this is about a 20 minute walk from the famous "Shibuya Scramble" super-busy intersection that you see all the time):

\- I walk past two or three different convenience stores on my 8 minute walk to the train even though my neighborhood mostly _looks_ like it's residential.

\- All of the buildings around me are either very large single-family homes, or medium sized 3 floor multi-unit apartments. Almost nothing higher than 3 stories. There is also a school and an embassy on my block.

\- The very large estate owned by a single family that has lived there for over 30 years that was next to my building was torn down last year. They are constructing an apartment building. That single lot will go from 1 unit to 26 units. Most units are single bedroom and will not have a parking spot and will be priced from about $500,000 up to $1.5M for some of the larger ones. I think there will be 10-15 parking spots in the basement underground.

\- A guy down the street from me has set up a vegetable shop in front of his house. He puts out locally obtained vegetables with prices and you take what you want and drop the money in a slot in a cardboard box he has in his open window. People running little side-businesses like this out of their apartments seems pretty common.

\- Buildings tend to have walls that are built right up to the street edge forming a 'corridor' feel.

\- Streets are so narrow when I first got here I couldn't believe they were 2 way streets. It might take cars 10-20 seconds to pass each other going the opposite way because of negotiating the walls.

\- It's extremely quiet and peaceful (except for the construction next door)

<comment><USER3> > Buildings tend to have walls that are built right up to the street edge > forming a 'corridor' feel.

I can't stand this and wish it were regulated. I stopped cycling in Tokyo because those walls up to corners make for a lot of blind turns for both me and drivers, and as someone with a hearing impairment, I can't count on being able to hear the car before it blindsides me or vice-versa.

<comment><USER2> With all of the prius and electric vehicles, you can't count on your ears to save you anymore anyway.

Tokyo gets a lot of things right about zoning but the way bike lanes are designed here is absolutely maddening.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The difference in zoning practices is super evident the moment you walk down any city street in Japan for the first time. In Japan, there are little shops and mom & pop restaurants on just about every street corner amidst even the most heavy residential areas. In many cases, the business owners live in the dwelling above.

As a north american, I found this odd initially; but came to really appreciate it given all the excellent options for eating nearby!

<comment><USER5> Same here. When I left Japan to move back to the U.S., some of the things that seemed really odd to me were: 1) sweeter food, 2) obese people, 3) old cars driving around, 4) having to drive everywhere, even just to get to a small store, and 5) arriving via car at stores that sold things like electronics and office supplies that looked like throwbacks to a bygone era compared to what they had in Japan. As a small example of the latter, in 1997 I was using the Hi-Tec-C pen and I'm pretty sure I didn't see it for sale in the U.S. until 2007 or so.

<comment><USER6> > _4) having to drive everywhere_

I can imagine that people who have grown up in walkable neighborhoods, would find a totally car-based lifestyle annoying. But how will those people feel who have made the move in the opposite direction? If someone moves from e.g. Texas to e.g. NYC or London, will they feel restricted or liberated when they walk, and use the metro? Or will they try to keep driving everywhere?

<comment><USER7> I moved downtown last month from the suburbs and I've found that in the city, the problem of getting to your destination is vastly more complicated. I'm completely bewildered by the changing bus/train schedules and don't understand how anyone can juggle all of those routes and times in their head to construct a path to their destination. Walk 3 blocks to A stop (absolutely not the stop closest to you, that's very important), wait B minutes for the bus but make sure not to get on the C bus, only get on the D, and make sure not to miss the stop at E or you'll go clear across the bay, and then walk a block to the station at F, take the G train to H; there's no public transport there so you're going to have to walk. Don't stay too late because the lines don't run all night. Oh, and you'd better go now because all of those directions will be useless tomorrow because it's Saturday.

It's insane. I want to leave any time I want, pull up in a vast parking lot less than a hundred yards from my destination, my GPS guiding me every turn of the way, and get there in air conditioned comfort without getting all sweaty from walking everywhere. I want to be able to go to any restaurant or shop within a 20 mile radius without thinking twice about it, instead of being constrained to a few places within walking distance. I want to be able to drive home a car overflowing with groceries from any store I care to visit instead of having to spread my shopping across every day of the week so that I can carry it home on the bus/train.

On the restricted/liberated spectrum, I feel strongly on the restricted side. You can't get _anywhere_ in this city without paying, either for parking or public transport or an uber/lyft/taxi ride. I feel imprisoned within walking distance, unless I have a specific errand that justifies the price of a ride.

<comment><USER8> > I'm completely bewildered by the changing bus/train schedules and don't > understand how anyone can juggle all of those routes and times in their head > to construct a path to their destination.

Two words: Google Maps.

<comment><USER9> This is pretty much it. There's literally no need to memorize schedules, just plug in point A and point B.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> From the chart, I probably live in a Neighbourhood Commercial Zone which is weird for me coming from Canada. There are small factories making sheet metal or agricultural products right next door to or across the street from someone's home.

I live in a city of 400,000 people. The sheet metal factory has been in business for 65 years so I'm guessing that they were here first and as the city grew, the area was designated as a Neighbourhood Commercial Zone so they could stay but allow houses to be built since it is close to the centre.

Some other weird things in my area:

\- there will be 3-4000 sq ft mansions and then down the street there are people living in basically what amounts to something a little bigger than a shack

\- there is one new house near me that was literally built in a parking lot. It is surrounded on 3 sides by a parking lot and the back side faces right onto an apartment building.

\- another house comes directly up against a graveyard

</comment><comment><USER11> I was as giddy as a school girl when I read the phrase "euclidean zoning", but alas, it has nothing to Euclidean geometry:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Euclid_v._Ambler](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Euclid_v._Ambler)

</comment><comment><USER12> It's unfortunate that zoning laws seem to keep us far away from our food and nature. The inventor of the skyscraper intended it to allow for high population density and be surrounded by nature. China's trying to do this with Sky City, but it would be hard anywhere else.

<comment><USER13> I think this is one case where the law is largely following many people's desires, at least in the USA. I used to live in a city with no zoning (Houston), and yet it was exactly the same thing: no retail or commercial anywhere near the residential area, and very low density. Why? Houstonians reinvented zoning via private-sector contract law. Since many people apparently want to live in residential-only neighborhoods—or at least have fears of what kind of noise/crime/etc. might happen if the alternative were allowed—developers cater to that by putting "residential-only" deed restrictions on new developments, so there are large tracts of land where it's prohibited to use the land for commercial activity. Usually higher-density redevelopment, or even subdividing/subletting, are also prohibited by the contracts.

<comment><USER14> They believe they want to live in residential-only neighborhoods? They believe they want to drive cars everywhere?

Yet, when it did come to living in those neighborhoods, would they change their mind?

<comment><USER13> I mostly grew up in American suburbs, and my conclusion from that is that many people really do seem to like that lifestyle. Not everyone; some people who live in residential-only, car-oriented neighborhoods would rather not, but have various constraints keeping them there. But quite a few people moved there on purpose and like it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Exclusive zoning sounds really odd to me. Not only because you have to travel to get to anything. It also divides the usage of the city into different zones for different times of the day. 7-17: People are in the office or industrial districts. 17-20: People are in the shopping/eating districts. 20-07: People are in the residential districts.

Even the most busy office district can become quite dead and scary at night time, would you want to walk alone there at night when nobody else is around? Who watches over your house during the day?

The problem is also when you combine these time slices with the traveling - Everybody has to travel between the different zones at exactly the same time, causing major traffic congestions.

</comment><comment><USER16> Japan has some of the most awesome architecture as house resale value is extremely poor.

<comment><USER17> For those curious - this is apparently due to laws regarding depreciation: [http://www.archdaily.com/450212/why-japan-is-crazy-about- hou...](http://www.archdaily.com/450212/why-japan-is-crazy-about-housing/)

"Collectively, the write-off equates to an annual loss of 4% of Japan's total GDP, not to mention mountains of construction waste."

<comment><USER18> I'm not seeing anything in there regarding any law. My understanding of the issue is that it's simply the norm. Expectation is houses only last 30 years, so nobody spends more to make them last beyond that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This meshes with my impression that the separation here is almost nonexistent; the zones are more a matter of density than category. The lower residential zones can't have quite the same type of commerce in them, but I think most people in Tokyo live somewhere in the quasi-residential/neighborhood commercial/commercial row, so the more limiting zones aren't something you necessarily see a whole lot of.

</comment><comment><USER20> Zoning on a national level in the US would be horrible. I bet it can have some draw backs in Japan when you are trying to get something rezoned.

<comment><USER21> Why would it be horrible?

How about zoning at the state level?

<comment><USER20> a regional or state level would be much accurate comparison.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's worth nothing that bigger cities in most first world countries generally have more expensive housing, rent or buy. Wages rise in bigger cities, too, but not as fast as housing prices.

Sometimes we're told that it's a natural result of city living, sometimes we're told that without high rise apartment density, it's inevitable. Tokyo has 35 MM people, almost double the second largest first world city (Seoul, 21 MM), and has housing prices to income ratios far lower than London, New York, or Los Angeles. [0]

Tokyo has very few high rises, medium density (150/hectare or 40k/mi^2)[1], low traffic, quiet streets, and mostly single family residential homes. What it doesn't have is low density suburbs (everyplace is medium density), mandatory free parking, or a street grid that serves much car traffic.

There are eight first world cities over 10MM people and their housing to income ratios roughly run like this:

(Middle class people can easily buy homes) Osaka/Kyoto Seoul Mexico City Tokyo (Things start to get really expensive) Paris Los Angeles London New York (Insanely expensive)

Japanese zoning has a lot to be proud of. If Nagoya were a smidgen larger, Japan would dominate the liveable and affordable part of the list even more.

[0][http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/japan-shows-the-way-to- affor...](http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/japan-shows-the-way-to-affordable- megacities)

[1] SF is about 70/ha incl. parks, Manhattan 260/ha, Paris (20 arrondissements) 210/ha

<comment><USER23> > Wages rise in bigger cities, too, but not as fast as housing prices.

If you want to lower housing prices, get rid of rent control policies and ease up on the zoning. Developers will create more housing units and you'll see a substantial increase in supply, leading to a lowering of the price level.

The problem is that those already living in the city don't want this. They are against new development and they're all for rent control. They want to continue paying artificially low prices, while keeping anyone else who may want to live there out. Just a tad bit selfish.

<comment><USER24> this is false and boston proved it

<comment><USER25> More information please, for those of us who aren't Bostonians?

<comment><USER26> NYT article comparing Boston post-rent-control and New York City: [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/nyregion/when-rent- control...](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/nyregion/when-rent-control-just- vanishes-both-sides-of-debate-cite-boston-s-example.html)

One of the big complaints about "increasing rents" is more of the matter that low-income rental stock is almost never built, whereas luxury apartments are built constantly (though they have to provide a number of low-income units that are the same quality as everything else in the building). The low-income stock still exists, it's just the most sought after rental stock in the Boston market.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Vulnerabilities – the World Through the Eyes of Hackers - <AUTHOR> http://landing.edgewave.com/Choice-WhitePaper-VulnerabilitiesReactful_Website2.html <comment><USER2> I remember when people made fun of the word "cyber-warfare", now it's everywhere.

<comment><USER3> Those who actually have a clue still make fun of it. The fact that now it's everywhere doesn't make most "cyber"-publications any less bullshit. On the contrary... (cf. homeopathy etc.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I would love to hear more about your view; What's your take on "CyberWarfare". Also if you could state your credentials/background that would be awesome. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There is nothing in the document specific to Israel. How was that association derived?

<comment><USER5> The author (and OP) Or Weis is Israeli and according to his LinkedIn [[http://il.linkedin.com/in/orweis](http://il.linkedin.com/in/orweis)] worked directly for and then consulted for the IDF.</comment></comment>


FreeBSD 10.0 is here - <AUTHOR> http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.0/ <comment><USER2> For the love of goodness, _please link to the release notes!_ Cannot fathom why people do this (and its not just OP - it happens all the time).

[http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/10-STABLE/relnotes/article.h...](http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/10-STABLE/relnotes/article.html)

Most interesting to me, this is the first stable release supporting netmap(4).. [http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=netmap&sektion=4](http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=netmap&sektion=4)

<comment><USER3> You are linking to 10-STABLE release notes, and 10.0-RELEASE is something else, than STABLE branch. STABLE's are a bit ahead of RELEASE's and are considered to be less stable than RELEASE's - the wording is a bit misleading.

<comment><USER4> That doesn't make much sense. In what kind of versioning scheme does a release not contain the same code as the stable branch in a specific version?

In that case calling them " _Release_ notes" is even more confusing...

<comment><USER5> In short what you get from STABLE branch is what version 10.1 will have.

Here is an explanation:

\- RELEASE is actual release that is forked out (it will only contain security and other critical fixes) of the STABLE branch.

\- STABLE is just a development branch (currently it is anything in version 10) as opposed to CURRENT which is a bleeding edge.

\- CURRENT is what will be next version (version 11), once they finish adding features it will become next STABLE branch and CURRENT will be used for version 12.

While everything that ends up at STABLE needs to go through pointyhat build system, so it should always compile and pass regression testing, there's still a possibility of things breaking up.

Since 10.0 is about to be released STABLE contains what will become 10.1.

Here's example how the branches look like:

        </comment></comment></comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>----- CURRENT (version 11)
         \
          -STABLE (version 10) ---
             \                  \
              - 10.0-RELEASE     - 10.1-RELEASE
                 \     \
                  -p1   -p2

At this time since 10.0 was just released 10-STABLE will be very close to 10.0-RELEASE

</comment><comment><USER6> The release is _never_ officially "here" until the PGP-signed email is sent to the freebsd-announce@ mailing list.

<comment><USER7> In case anyone doesn't recognize the name, this guy here is the FreeBSD 10.0 release engineer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, of course. It is Mr. Barber, Mr. Percival. I really didn't want to annoy you guys and i would like to excuse myself if i did, but to me, obviously no one declares a release "production ready" to one's own environment the day the ISO's are availiable or the announcement is made. I'm just a FreeBSD User who felt the urge to share his enthusiasm about this with like-minded persons. So, no offence, Ladys and Gentlemen.

<comment><USER7> No offence taken, I just know that gjb is new here and outside of the FreeBSD community most people don't know who he is. ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool, i hope we will hear from him more often and again, congratulations to you guys for another great release (when it will be released:) in the past twenty years.

<comment><USER6> Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the latest release.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The iso's are there, but there was no official release announcement yet, and because of that I would hold your horses for now - until the announcement has been sent out, those can be replaced in case of any issues.

<comment><USER7> ... in fact, that already happened once, a few days ago.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wasn't r260665 already an 10.0 RELEASE build?

<comment><USER6> See r260788 and r260789.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, thanks.. didn't knew that. Anyhow, as you may have noticed, i am very excited..

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Could someone please explain something here,

If playstation 3 and 4 are a modified FreeBSD, and on the 4th version console the graphics are AMD that means they (sony and amd) have some sort of driver for this platform. And its not a bad one, because they chose AMD for play4.

Why that has not been release to the FreeBSD audience ? When is this expected to happen ?

<comment><USER7> The PS4 runs FreeBSD on AMD hardware, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the same AMD hardware as you or I have access to. If you're buying 50,000,000 units, AMD will design a chip for you.

<comment><USER9> Not only that, but they allow quite low level access to the hardware. One would have to build, say, libGL on top of whatever drivers Sony might have built.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I hope they add exploit mitigation techniques like ASLR (already being worked on for 11) and close the gap to OpenBSD and Windows. Even DragonflyBSD has some level of ASLR. As Theo said adding is one thing but actually enabling it in the default configuration is what counts. ASLR is just one piece of the puzzle and for 11 they should seriously consider implementing enough to match OpenBSD.

</comment><comment><USER11> This release has official Raspberry Pi support! Definitely trying this out.

<comment><USER12> Is it possible to boot FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img directly on a Raspberry Pi? Or do I have to compile my own image for the Pi?

<comment><USER5> As other told you this version is intended to be used on amd64 CPUs, which means the most popular 64 bit CPUs (both Intel and AMD).

The reason they don't provide ARM version of FreeBSD is because embedded systems are not the same and have different setup. Since Raspberry Pi is quite popular I can imagine that someone might build available to other for download but I wouldn't expect FreeBSD project do it (it probably would be someone else - I see link to images here [https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Raspberry%20Pi](https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Raspberry%20Pi)). If you have FreeBSD machine you can compile it yourself.

<comment><USER12> My bad, I didn't read the '-amd64-' part clearly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> FreeBSD can now address 4 TB of memory, can't wait for us to hit that limit on personal machines

<comment><USER14> JVM support does not seem to be a primary focus of the FreeBSD project at the moment.

<comment><USER15> Did you read the last batch of erratas?

<comment><USER5> I took it as a jab on how memory hungry Java applications usually are.

<comment><USER16> Perhaps you should rewrite your post in Go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you have a torrent client that supports web seeding, you can use these magnet links to download from the official HTTP/FTP servers _and_ simultaneously help seed the torrent, in case the servers get overwhelmed:

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1

      magnet:?xl=591308800&dn=FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso&xt=urn:md5:9d12797f008f6c180a2a514476c2dede&xt=urn:sha1:stkkylieeb2yjzrjqlqkinaqet7lfdy4&xt=urn:sha256:2c09643b3f79c703e424c03408882369025cec655c24a6d81ee073081ee75ebc&xt=urn:tiger:2e1a0db29354e7eb7455d3fd5268b8d43f4eeb1c8bf1015b&xt=urn:tree:tiger:3xk4gcosynup43qsv27co3kcoe7vyrqvfeqegzi&xt=urn:btih:k2wqolmme6cslbevtqhjpmwxwnzul2of&xt=urn:ed2k:db439b6b2c1947346b484b1a6a0f1469&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp2.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp4.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp6.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1

      magnet:?xl=2317000704&dn=FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso&xt=urn:md5:53e905031bf58e105e9842ef8c8f89da&xt=urn:sha1:2fytst53yfw4pxp3vj23nuqyxwabevu7&xt=urn:sha256:dd81af12cfdfd72162e5238ad8241e1ff249398574ca6922d5581ea3274ea66a&xt=urn:tiger:2e1a0db29354e7eb7455d3fd5268b8d43f4eeb1c8bf1015b&xt=urn:tree:tiger:3xk4gcosynup43qsv27co3kcoe7vyrqvfeqegzi&xt=urn:btih:k2wqolmme6cslbevtqhjpmwxwnzul2of&xt=urn:ed2k:db439b6b2c1947346b484b1a6a0f1469&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp2.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp4.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp6.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Fi386%2Fi386%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1

      magnet:?xl=652998656&dn=FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso&xt=urn:md5:fd25619fa0d69c29bea8347b1070ac75&xt=urn:sha1:fi33lrqugfykb6cazpljlfx2rlctslci&xt=urn:sha256:9c377b4a4e63443c0b210080694de26133e6a276eddb07c7e00e1c9aebd84109&xt=urn:tiger:fa403cf15a3651030ccc017b661b545ee2e070d59ccf2a82&xt=urn:tree:tiger:ym3vmwrgr4vdmyqmci7fxltedrvijenevml7mpa&xt=urn:btih:5h2gd2f7qljp62yigooq3qme5hueovlg&xt=urn:ed2k:26968fcdfa727f6e6186a50c8d5c8236&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp2.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp4.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp6.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1

      magnet:?xl=2484742144&dn=FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso&xt=urn:md5:26d11e2d6f24ff1d97dffeaa3c500c03&xt=urn:sha1:infpmiccditq5njs4sv2qcchl36tohvq&xt=urn:sha256:b0f25ae6f165132525cdda690de7b762ba6bcec3a77e784ca293a49a520fe8f5&xt=urn:tiger:bb21d320889ad83a48f2b0423d217f31b9f0076b1b6ccdc3&xt=urn:tree:tiger:kiabue2eslng7vvnkpr5q7j7lkiztjvhpjhcgpy&xt=urn:btih:myw4snizvhucghbstn5tqvx6kpcvn7ix&xt=urn:ed2k:158d326bb9b89c71056eb1d25c265ac4&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ipv6tracker.org%3A80%2Fannounce&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp2.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp4.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso&as=http%3A%2F%2Fftp6.freebsd.org%2Fpub%2FFreeBSD%2Freleases%2Famd64%2Famd64%2FISO-IMAGES%2F10.0%2FFreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso

Links to download .torrent files if the magnet links don't work for you:

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.torrent [http://sdrv.ms/1jiEXRT](http://sdrv.ms/1jiEXRT)

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.torrent [http://sdrv.ms/1jiF6ox](http://sdrv.ms/1jiF6ox)

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso.torrent [http://sdrv.ms/1jiF9Ax](http://sdrv.ms/1jiF9Ax)

FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso.torrent [http://sdrv.ms/1jiFeV3](http://sdrv.ms/1jiFeV3)

<comment><USER18> My Transmission is stuck in "torrent metadata needed", so it fails to download the actual torrent file from the Magnet link. Do you have some directy links to the torrent files?

<comment><USER17> Yes -- I've edited my post to include links to the actual .torrent files now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Should I use FreeBSD?

This may seem dumb, but, my RAID 1 NAS, powered by various versions of SuSE for 10 years, recently died (autopsy & self-reflection indicate gross user error). So I'm coincidentally shopping around for a new set-up.

I need NFS, transmission-daemon, and mdadm. I've used FreeBSD in a vm and on an old laptop, so I'm slightly familiar, but not like Linux (and I love being able to access SuSE's YAST over SSH)

Why would you pick FreeBSD over SuSE for a home NAS?

<comment><USER20> First and foremost reason, ZFS. But if you're looking for something easy to manage, FreeNAS (based on FreeBSD + ZFS) may be a better option.

<comment><USER19> If I already have the raid 1 under mdadm, what's the path to mirrored Vdevs under zfs? I need more drives?

<comment><USER20> Remove one of the disks from the mdadm RAID1, setup a zpool on that disk, setup the OS, copy the relevant data over, and then simply attach the 2nd drive to the zpool and zfs will automatically create a mirrored vdev for you.

If the existing filesystem can be read by FreeBSD (like ext), you can just copy the data over in a single system but in the worst case, you could just copy the data over from a 2nd system over the network. You'll probably want to do that using tar with archive options, so the only difference between doing it locally vs over the network is whether you pipe the tar create directly back to tar extract, or to a tcp utility like tcputils or netcat in between.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Should have called it FreeBSD X

<comment><USER22> A friend of mine made this: [http://mxey.net/content/images/2013/Dec/Screen_20Shot_202013...](http://mxey.net/content/images/2013/Dec/Screen_20Shot_202013_11_25_20at_2014_13_27-2.png)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I might play around with this actually, but I think the biggest drawback when I last tried it was I became too impatient to wait for ports to compile the packages. Does it provide some way of doing pre-compiled binaries i.e. like apt?

<comment><USER17> Yes -- FreeBSD 10 has a new package manager which you can use to install pre- compiled binaries (a la `apt`). If you want to read more about it:

[https://wiki.freebsd.org/pkgng](https://wiki.freebsd.org/pkgng)

[https://wiki.freebsd.org/PkgPrimer](https://wiki.freebsd.org/PkgPrimer)

[http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/pkgng- intro.html](http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/pkgng-intro.html)

[https://github.com/freebsd/pkg](https://github.com/freebsd/pkg)

<comment><USER7> To elaborate a bit -- FreeBSD has had packages for a long time, but this new packaging system is more, err, "functional".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Just installed 9 on a ThinkPad T400 and it is blazing fast with awesome wm.

</comment><comment><USER25> Guys, I was unable to install it with X and GNOME on virtualbox. Can someone share the working virtualbox snapshot of FreeBSD 10 along with X and GNOME on it so that noob linux users like me can try.

<comment><USER3> Try PC-BSD, it is FreeBSD based desktop oriented release that will welcome you with GUI installer and will install you the entire windowed ecosystem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> So, why should I choose it this time over a Linux distro? Any cool update?

<comment><USER27> ZFS

<comment><USER28> I thought btrfs was going nowhere for a while because it seemed way behind zfs for a long time.

But now it looks like it's catching up, and has some nice userspace tools, and some features that I don't even think zfs has (like the option to do overwrite-in-place, but you give up checksums/compression).

The user tools seem worse than zfs, but it does look like btrfs will be a leading filesystem soon.

<comment><USER29> I wouldn't say soon. Btrfs needs much more robust userspace tools. At the moment, the tools tell you nothing, and recovery is basically impossible. I have lost data several times now. While I had backups since I was using btrfs, I didn't expect to lose data the way that I did. The drive filled up with metadata, and since it didn't have anywhere to rebalance the metadata it couldn't move it, and even if I deleted files it wouldn't make a difference. It happened to me on two occasions. The interesting thing is that btrfs filesystem df showed I only had 80gb total, with a 120gb drive. Decided to go back to xfs for that drive, and I use zfs for my raidz2 array.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'm so happy with this release, thank you FreeBSD team!

</comment><comment><USER31> Nothing's on their website yet... I guess HN is pretty fast...

<comment><USER32> They (FreeBSD) typically do builds a few days before announcing the release. See: [http://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.0R/schedule.html](http://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.0R/schedule.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Good, now ATI can release their driver for the FreeBSD 10.0 !

</comment><comment><USER25> Does it come with a GUI or not?

<comment><USER3> It depends what do you mean by GUI: if you're asking if it is a desktop ready release, then no, it doesnt come with GUI, but at any point you can install XFCE/Gnome/KDE on it and turn it into a desktop system. However, you might want to look at PC-BSD which is a FreeBSD based desktop oriented release. If you're asking if it does have graphical installator then yes, it does have ncurses based installator.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Now that Freebsd 10 is release can we haz a Freebsd-ZFS/OpenGL vs Linux- ZFS/OpenGL benchmark?

</comment><comment><USER34> Is there a CoreOS and Docker equivalent on FreeBSD?

<comment><USER35> The only reason CoreOS is interesting is because most Linux distributions are bloated beyond belief.

FreeBSD is not bloated, and as such doesn't need something link CoreOS. And the things that etcd does can be accomplished in numerous other ways.</comment></comment>


Head injury causes savant syndrome - <AUTHOR> http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/from-math-failure-to-savant-how-a-mugging-made-a-numbers-whiz-1.1792281 <comment><USER2> I have met one woman like this and had the opportunity to work closely with another. In both of their cases they were in car accidents. I didn't know either of them before their accidents, but I have multiple friends that had known each of them for years or decades prior. In both cases they were described as pretty average before their accidents. Since their accidents they have both become extremely prolific readers [1] , with drastically better memory and cognition [2], and can't sleep more than 4 hours a night if they try.

[1] In the case of my colleague, she read everything she wanted, at which point she read the first Dewey decimal cataloged book in the local library and then started to read each subsequent book in progression. Less than three years after her accident she had almost finished every book in the local library and was already making plans to get a membership at the state's largest library.

[2] Neither have photographic memory, but it is something eerily close; and they make cognitive leaps that never cease to amaze me.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like something some people would sign up for. If you compared the injuries between multiple people with similar effects, I wonder if it would be possible to find a way to reproduce it?

<comment> bra-ket I see startup potential here, "Head Knock LLC"

<comment><USER4> "Algernon LTD."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Article is very cheesy and full of journalism, but whatever, nothing unusual about it. It's something different I really don't like about that story. He's called "genius", "mathematical marvel" and such, but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so, aside of self-promotion. Telegraph.co.uk article says "He is now recognised as a leading maths thinker." Hm. Maybe he is, but what about any references on by whom he is "recognised"? His book title is "Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel". Yeah, I know, marketing is dirty stuff, but have you ever heard real mathematician call himself a "genius"?

Anyway, something even worse: searching for "Jason Padgett" shows many results on some journal sites, facebook, amazon, fineartamerica.com, whatever. And guess what? Nothing on arxiv.org! Searching for "site:arxiv.org Jason Padgett" results are filled by works of "Deborah Padgett, Jason A. Surace" and such, and no "Jason Padgett" on the first 2 pages! Weird, huh.

<comment><USER6> > but I don't see any reference to what exactly did he do to be called so

Agreed. His experience and transformation is interesting, but the article is pretty lacking in details.

> Searching for "site:arxiv.org Jason Padgett" results are filled by works of > "Deborah Padgett, Jason A. Surace" and such,

Small world! Jason Surace and I are both members of a collaboration studying galaxies which are forming stars a rates 10s to hundreds higher than "normal" galaxies (like our own Milky Way). Just amused to see his name outside of the normal context in which I see it. :)

<comment><USER7> Is that the same Jason Surace who got his PhD from University of Hawaii befor Y2K? If so, small world, few Jason Surace's.

<comment><USER6> Indeed, it is!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I have never told someone about this, but the opposite happened to me. I had been tested because I was different than any other child of my age. And was diagnosed with a very high IQ (you can guess how many friends I had), but after I was attacked and hit heavily at my head by some russians without a reason (for their pleasure), I have lost most of my ability to think as fast as before. I was in coma for 2days at the local hospital and have no memory of what happened, except of what friends told me. I can't explain how life depressing that was for me, but almost 7y later, I started to gain a little in my speed of thought. However I'll probably never be that smart again and it feels like a big loss to me. I'm still quite talented, but nothing comparable to before the attack.

<comment><USER9> Your experience would probably be generally the normal one for all of us. And remember people get rich by taking normal tasks and making them better for example Uploading files, renting apartments, driving people around, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I speak as a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor.

I feel that a TBI _may_ have its benefits. The source article is probably a showing of an incredibly lucky case. I know that I only have a handful of positive side effects, and nothing "magical" like this.

But the negatives... oh man, the negatives. I would never choose to experience the negatives again. I endured the side effects for two years and they're incredibly frustrating. You wonder if every moment is a "brain injury moment" and doubt yourself at every decision. It means you're wrong almost all the time and everyone around you tells you so.

There's not much more frustrating than that. One positive that I've found is I'm incredibly open to negative feedback: I understand and accept I am probably wrong. I would have _much_ rather learned this a different way.

I should also note in my last neuropsychology test, I was found to have eidetic memory, specifically the emotional memory: I remember my surroundings when an emotional event happens. I've had this my whole life but, to be honest, I included it.

</comment><comment><USER11> Ironic that people are joking in this discussion about intentionally causing head injuries while elsewhere on HN it is being discussed how head injuries are very common among homeless individuals (and probably partly causative of their inability to take proper care of themselves).

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7648933](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7648933)

</comment><comment><USER12> Padgett's cognitive transformation is real, even if the mathematically- illiterate reporting on it obscures the nature of that transformation. Berit Brogaard, who's a professor of philosophy and neuroscience at the University of Missouri St. Louis, has done a lot of studies with Padgett in the course of her work on synesthesia [1]. I haven't read any of her papers involving Padgett myself, but people looking for a more rigorous treatment of his condition might find something of interest in her writing.

[1] [http://www.stlmag.com/St-Louis- Magazine/August-2013/Pieces-o...](http://www.stlmag.com/St-Louis- Magazine/August-2013/Pieces-of-Mind-Dr-Berit-Brogaard-researches-the-weirdest- aspects-of-the-human-brain/)

</comment><comment><USER13> This was covered, along with 5 other interesting cases of people acquiring interesting abilities after injury, in an amusing Cracked.com article [1].

One of the most interesting, and well documented, is Tony Cicoria [2]. He was stuck by lightning, and then shortly afterwards developed an obsession with piano music, and quickly taught himself to play and compose.

[1] [http://www.cracked.com/article_19504_6-people-who-gained- ama...](http://www.cracked.com/article_19504_6-people-who-gained-amazing- skills-from-brain-injuries.html)

[2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cicoria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cicoria)

</comment><comment><USER14> Another rare after-effect of head injuries is 'Gourmand Syndrome', where the victim (beneficiary?) becomes obsessed with fine foods:

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

</comment><comment><USER15> Some more examples of this kind of thing: [http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/when-brain- dam...](http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/when-brain-damage- unlocks-genius-within)

</comment><comment><USER16> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge)

</comment><comment><USER17> > "He said his transformation also brought a second ability: he can now draw > the complex triangle-based geometric designs called fractals. That lets him > translate high-level mathematical concepts like Pi and the theory of > relativity into easy-to-understand illustrative drawings."

What?

<comment><USER2> Here's his gallery at Fine Art America - [http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jason- padgett.html](http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jason-padgett.html) (aren't search engines an amazing thing! </s> )

<comment><USER5> It doesn't cancel that "what" at all. First off, this is nothing to do with fractals. Second, these "drawings" are nothing to talk about, as their nature is pretty primitive. That means it sure requires a steady hand (if drawn manually), but the pattern itself is really simple (foremost because they are very much regular). Have you ever head of spirograph? "Drawings" made by it are far more complicated than this one and can be done in a couple of seconds by any kid. Inventing such patterns is really simple and can be done by anyone (me, you, I hope) and doesn't require any talent or even any significant math knowledge.

<comment><USER18> Just because the images are relatively simple, doesn't mean they are stupid.

Check out this image and its meaning:

[http://www.simonsfoundation.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/a...](http://www.simonsfoundation.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/amplutihedron_span.jpg)

[http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel- at-t...](http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-the-heart- of-quantum-physics/)

<comment><USER5> This one isn't "simple". At least, not "simple" as in "simply reflecting the beam of light at constant angle from regular polygon sides".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Who'd have guessed that retrophrenology actually works.

<comment><USER14> 'Concussive orthophrenology' might convey more of the prestige that could get these diruptive treatments into the top journals.

<comment><USER19> Quick, get a selection of hammers and rent a boutique while the money's still hot. Start with the hollywood elite, then any early failures shouldn't be too obvious.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Seems like he's just trying to sell a book.

<comment><USER3> If something remarkable happened to you, wouldn't you write a book about it? Do you have any reason in particular to doubt his honesty?

<comment><USER21> I suppose the implied ulterior motive would be greed. Though I have no reason to doubt him aside from general skepticism.</comment></comment></comment>


Expangine – A Visual Development Framework - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/expangine/expangine-vue <comment><USER2> [https://github.com/expangine/expangine- vue#preview](https://github.com/expangine/expangine-vue#preview) looks like Scratch ([https://scratch.mit.edu/](https://scratch.mit.edu/))

<comment><USER3> (project creator here) expangine could easily be used to create something like Scratch. The core of the functionality in expangine is non-visual, you could slap any UI over the functionality to create a visual programming environment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very impressive effort!!

<comment><USER3> Thank you!</comment></comment>


Shaky - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/dbushong/shaky

<comment><USER2> This is really neat, but it would be cool if there was a legend that stayed on the screen to show which characters made which lines.</comment>


Mozilla's Asm.js Technology Drives Dungeon Defenders For The Web - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/22/mozillas-asm-js-technology-makes-its-commercial-debut-with-dungeon-defenders-for-the-web/ <comment><USER2> in case you're anxious to try this out, worth noting that "To get access to the web version, you will have to buy the desktop version on Steam or the Android version later today"</comment>


DSNP: Distributed Social Networking Protocol, with implementation and test sites - <AUTHOR> http://www.complang.org/dsnp/

<comment><USER2> I have some questions. The big draw for sites like Facebook is not just the core social network, it's also the tangental functionality that builds on that core. And this protocol aims to be a secure P2P implementation of the core.

Does that mean "applications" are exclusive to users of an identity server?

How would 3rd party applications fit in?

Some networks are starting to offer embeddable forum- or comment-like behaviour - can this protocol accomodate that?

Is it flexible enough to support other (yet to be invented) uses?

<comment><USER3> At the core, there seems to be just a PKI for RSA keys in terms of "yes, X is a friend of mine" attestations, not unlike the PGP web of trust.

So I'm optimistic that your distributed singing sessions (e.g.) could use the DSNP infrastructure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "The user must trust the server that is hosting their identity"

That's true with DSNP, but given current p2p technology it should be possible to create a social networking application without data on servers. Where is my Facebook-on-XMPP desktop application?

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm happy to see an approach to social networking that doesn't require uploading personal data about millions of people into one database.

However, the cryptography in the source code (encrypt.cpp) seems to be hand- made from RSA, SHA1 and RC4 primitives. While I haven't checked details like how they choose their RC4 IVs, I wouldn't trust mortals to get a crypto protocol with PKI right the first time.

</comment><comment><USER5> Something like this will inevitably become popular at some point. No one should really want any closed site to dominate.

<comment><USER6> For Hackers maybe, but most people do not even see the benefits in using Jabber over MSN or ICQ

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Finally someone steps up to bat for DiSo!

Although, I'm not seeing how this fits in with OpenID or OAuth.

<comment><USER8> I'm yet to look at it properly, but I'd call it a big mistake if this is not built on top of OpenID - to me that is the natural extension of the concept.

Imagine signing into a site with your OpenID and actions being sent back to your hosted DSNP profile Facebook Connect style.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd like for DNSP implementations (which allow users to lay claim to a URI) to support OpenID in the sense that it is a provider of identities. It can't be a consumer though, since an OpenID identity cannot (necessarily) talk DSNP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This site has tarsnap disease: More talk about crypto than about what it actually does. :-)</comment>


Simple Chart Of Embeddable Scripting Options In Erlang - <AUTHOR> http://erlanginside.com/simple-chart-of-embeddable-scripting-options-in-erlang-157 <comment><USER2> Hey, I made this. I'd love feedback if there are other Erlang projects for embedding scripting languages that I missed.I've been focused on Lua (erl-lua and erlua) and I know about erlang_js but haven't found anything else to-date.</comment>


Pie chart progress in your website's favicon - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/lipka/piecon

<comment><USER2> We are using Notificon (<https://github.com/makeable/Notificon>) to display notifications in the favicon of Discover (<http://discover.usabilla.com/>), but I really this pie chart as well. Now I have to think of useful ways to implement it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Neat!</comment>


OpenRailwayMap - <AUTHOR> http://www.openrailwaymap.org/mobile.php? <comment><USER2> Background: [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenRailwayMap](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenRailwayMap)

It seems to consist of a set of railway specialised tags, which exist within the OpenStreetMap database. OpenRailwayMap then runs their own tiling/rendering infrastructure to generate maps with a rail emphasis.

If I understand correctly, there is no split here, as the OSM database remains the "mother lode" of mapping information?

<comment><USER3> It would be very cool if someone combined this with open GTFS data and a public transport routing algorithm. Imagine having a "public transport" option in the list of routing services - just like Google Maps - but using free software/data and on a global scale.

It looks like Graphhopper introduced an algorithm for transport routing this year [0], although there are still performance improvements to be made. Project OSRM seems not to be interested in adding this feature for now.

[0] [https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/pull/1018](https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/pull/1018)

<comment><USER4> OpenTripPlanner already exists:

[http://www.opentripplanner.org](http://www.opentripplanner.org)

I've only played around with it but it seems very capable. It also has a pretty cool analysis tool that lets you see the changes in transit accessibility when a bus/train is removed, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What would make this super interesting to me would be a historical timeline and a way to contribute historical routes.

For example, here are some old branches off the main San Francisco Peninsula line:

• Hawthorne Avenue in Palo Alto (three blocks north of University) and Middlefield where it crosses San Francisquito Creek were originally a spur line that served the Catholic University (now Jesuit Seminary) in Menlo Park.

• What is now Fry's Electronics in Palo Alto and that row of buildings had loading docks in the back for the spur that branched off the main line there. This line went to where the Veterans' Hospital is now and then followed the path of Foothill Blvd, straight through the Trader Joe's parking lot at Homestead ends, then continued through to tracks that still exist on the other side of 280.

• If you ever wondered why Camden Avenue in Campbell/San Jose has that oddly smooth curve where it veers off Hillsdale, yes, it was another train line. This was the Campbell-Almaden line (thus the name cam-den) which started from the still-existing line that runs through Campbell (you can see some of the old loading docks from Railway Avenue). Where Camden bends right at Kooser, the train line continued straight through where the power lines are now, crossed a bridge to follow what is now Redmond Avenue in south San Jose, and on to the town of New Almaden.

<comment><USER6> OpenStreetMap, the (only?) backing dataset for OpenRailwayMap, is a little picky about purely historical features, as they generally seek to document current facts on the ground. Check OSM policies before you contribute.

That being said, there's plently of historical rail -- running the gamut from disused, abandoned, railbanked, to never-knew-it-was-there -- visible in OpenRailwayMap. A good example is zooming in on Lima, Ohio, between Columbus and Fort Wayne. Dashed lines are everywhere.

<comment><USER7> Disused or abandoned railway lines are still useful for old-fashioned map- based navigation.

Even if the track and ballast has been removed, there's still a narrow, graded path across the landscape, often easily visible from surrounding hills.

<comment><USER8> Those non existent tracks can be mapped in Openstreetmap as well, but not exactly as a railway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> OpenRailwayMap shows the train lines on a geographic map.

I drew a train map where the distance between stations is proportional to the time it takes to travel that far.

[http://peterburk.github.io/tra/](http://peterburk.github.io/tra/)

To do the project, I rewrote my own version of Logo, and scraped the train timetable data from the train company's website. It was quite satisfying because Logo was my first programming language (when I was about 7 years old), and I finally found a use for it.

To my knowledge, there's no other graphing tool that can draw maps like mine. Other subway maps don't have lines that are proportional to the time.

<comment><USER10> Check out [http://subway.nateparrott.com/](http://subway.nateparrott.com/)

<comment><USER9> I saw that here on HN a few months ago! It's cool, but it needs to be interactive. One thing I like about the way I drew my map is that it's a static image that could be printed and posted on train station platforms.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The OpenRailwayMap project is great; I just wish their default map viewer had the Query/Inspect feature. When I'm browsing railways (don't ask...), I find myself using OpenStreetMap side-by-side to Query for more details about a way or relation, while OpenRailwayMap gives me a better overview and labels in the main map.

<comment><USER11> I know you said don't ask, but what do you use this for?

<comment><USER6> Equal parts learning about the world [1][2][3] and armchair engineering [4][5].

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14989538#14991800](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14989538#14991800) [2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277421#14278793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277421#14278793) [3] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11996355#11997040](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11996355#11997040) [4] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13409082#13414587](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13409082#13414587) [5] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15683120#15684346](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15683120#15684346)

<comment><USER11> Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Red means high speed and it's sad to see almost no high speed in the u.s. _sigh_

The one from NY to Boston shouldn't even be called "high speed", if anyone has ridden in one before.

It's actually slower than driving!

<comment><USER13> Make a proper argument for high speed rail. I think it's rare in the U.S. in part because it's not an idea which is popular with people who need to get around and move things. High speed rail is popular with government, since it's an attractive sophisticated infrastructure program, but (perhaps TGV aside) I don't think any high speed rail service could be considered a success in any real way.

<comment><USER14> The US had the largest rail system in the world and more streetcar lines that Europe not over 100 years ago. They're all gone now. Here's a great video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cjfTG8DbwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cjfTG8DbwA)

"America is too spread out" is a bullshit argument. You put the rail architecture back in and you'll watch communities draw inward, zoning laws merge and neighborhoods get closer and more sustainable.

Access to transportation is the biggest factor in being able to move out of poverty. That's not a subjective statement. It's been verified in study after study.

Don't like living next to people and hate public transport? That's fine. There are tons of Europeans and Australians like that who live outside the cities and drive. They have that choice, because the cities are affordable and livable. Every Australian capital has commuter rail except Darwin, Hobart and ACT. In America, it's incredibly difficult to live without a car in almost every major city and most of our capitals, and we have a far far greater population density.

<comment><USER13> > _" America is too spread out" is a bullshit argument._

It may well be _a bullshit argument_ , but it's also _an argument that I did not make_.

My point was entirely that the markets do not seem to value high speed rail highly enough to justify its costs, and that the U.S. (for its faults) largely represents this low market valuation of high speed rail by not financing it. You seem to make an argument with the assumption that you know the utility of high speed rail is higher than the cost, I avoid this assumption.

High speed rail is apparently worth less than it costs, state pricing distortions included. You might like it, it might be attractive, it might make things more dense, you might think that's a good thing... and none of that matters because apparently it's just not worth it to the market which will be tasked with funding it, all things considered.

<comment><USER15> IMO this shouldnt be a cost decission but quality of life for the tax payer. Pretty sure governments arent ment to be profitable in all what they do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I love this site. In the UK there are so many old railways no longer in existence that you can find on this site. It's really interesting to see how old tunnels and paths near where you live used to be used.

</comment><comment><USER17> Cool! It would be awesome to see the trains moving in real-time (even if it wasn't "live", and just based on posted schedules).

<comment><USER18> Netherlands, based on live data: [http://spoorkaart.mwnn.nl/](http://spoorkaart.mwnn.nl/) . It exists for some other European countries too, I think.

<comment><USER18> Click on the "Spoorkaarten in het buitenland" link in the bottom right for more countries.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Related: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_train_services](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_train_services)

</comment><comment><USER20> Is there a site to print maps from OSM? I'd love to print a map of London's train system (an happy to pay for it)

<comment><USER21> There are lots of options:

[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_on_Paper](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_on_Paper)

I haven't used any of them so I don't have anything resembling a recommendation. You could try asking on [https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk- gb](https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb) , the community there is pretty active so someone might have a suggestion for a nicely done map.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I"m surprised at how few trains there are in Africa.</comment>


Retrospective: Google Wave - <AUTHOR>

This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDu2A3WzQpo) discusses what Google Wave was and what problems it was trying to solve.<p>Were these problems of group/threaded conversations real problems, and if so, what now has solved those problems, if any? <comment><USER2> watch this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCK16Junz4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCK16Junz4) ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> Sounds like a multi-user online whiteboard more than a email.

Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen when you invite your spouse to the wrong google "wave"</comment>


Why Do Canadians Say 'Eh'? (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-do-canadians-say-eh <comment><AUTHOR> Sharing this for linguistic and intellectual curiosity. Happy Canada Day, fellow Canuck hackers.</comment>


Use Code from Stack Overflow? You Must Provide Attribution - <AUTHOR> https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271080/the-mit-license-clarity-on-using-code-on-stack-overflow-and-stack-exchange <comment><USER2> > You're doing option A already, right? This is just standard operating > procedure when it comes to finding code on the internet – a hyperlink > comment ensures you'll be able to debug down the line.

XD

</comment><comment><USER3> There goes stack overflow. I'm not going to track and provide attribution of every snippet I ever read, sorry. I'd rather just not go there at all.

I'm all for providing attribution for things that are non trivial and substantial, but a typical SO post does not warrant the effort IMO.</comment>


Anypixel.js - <AUTHOR> http://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/ <comment><USER2> Theres a guy publishing yt vids about his installations of this nature

[https://youtu.be/9Qlmywxjau0](https://youtu.be/9Qlmywxjau0)

The attention to detail, I find the details fascinating. He's a really bright guy but designing the protocol, making software so that the creative agency can program the lighting without him in the loop, writing firmware that protects the installation from damage even if they're ham fisted with the lighting sequence they design etc etc

<comment><USER3> This was so interesting. Especially the part where he investigates the ESD damage to a section of the panel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is rad! I have a bunch of LED matrices I currently use [https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led- matrix](https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix) for, I need to spend some quality time with Anypixel to see how it compares / if I can combine the two.

I wish that "in browser previewer" link actually led to a usable in browser thing rather than just a folder on GitHub.

<comment><USER5> I think this library is intended for touchable applications

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> That page made my core i7 jump from 3% to ~50% utilization, just by opening it in a tab.

<comment><USER7> And it crashes Firefox on my phone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Obviously no way to build these PCBs by hand, 4 layer and a lot of hard to solder parts. BOM cost for the controller is about 100USD.

[https://aisler.net/googlecreativelab/anypixel/controller-r3](https://aisler.net/googlecreativelab/anypixel/controller-r3) [https://aisler.net/googlecreativelab/anypixel/display-r2](https://aisler.net/googlecreativelab/anypixel/display-r2)

<comment><USER9> The descriptions on that page are really weird. They're just descriptions looked up by category, but they try very hard to obfuscate it by being uh, personable and witty.

On it's own, that wouldn't be so bad (just quirky) but the style doesn't lend itself to accuracy _or_ brevity and it's hard to tell which, if any, of the text was written by a person maintaining the project's page on the site.

E.g. in answering the question: "Can I make it?" with an overall score of "98%"

 _Yeah, you will probably be able to make this. Feels like this is almost complete, only thing missing is your spirit and some minor stuff._

Below that is the actual list of things that are missing, which contains one item (apparently worth "+2"): _Difficulty is relative, especially with footprints I have never seen before._

I have no idea what this means (I suppose it's about PCB footprint? I think the first part of the sentence is just banter?), but anyway, the top text is just a representation of the 98% "Can I make it?" category, which a less witty website would describe as "Project progress" or something. The representation of 73% is _Yeah, you might be able to make this. There 's still quite some homework left, but it's doable for you, isn't it?_ And I didn't even quote the parts where they anthropomorphise the website...

To end on a less curmudgeonly note, apart from the copy-editing, the overall execution seems good; I like how they break down the total cost of the project.

<comment><USER10> Founder of AISLER here.

thanks for taking the time to comment on the presentation of the projects. We try to index and rate all open source hardware projects by their development stage. Our goal is to provide an insight for users like you whether the project can be built. For that we evaluate the difficulty and the project's dependencies (like parts).

You are right that some of our copies are a bit quirky and maybe need better explanation/call-to-actions. We already work on that and will soon release a revised version. Our designer has tried to "humanize" our analysis to make it a bit more approachable, maybe we need to put some additional effort into that ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > AnyPixel.js' straightforward hardware/software framework makes it easy to > build any display where each pixel is an interactive element.

Interesting apostrophe here. I'd never consider how to attribute possession to a package name.

<comment><USER12> I think that's pretty standard for anything that ends with an S. My first name is Louis (pronounced Louie) , and I always spell possessives as Louis'.

<comment><USER13> I don't think there is a hard rule (or standard) for proper nouns. I always add the 's (e.g. Louis's).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is it just me, or is that video really bad at demoing the result?

It seems like pressing the buttons does nothing from the video?

<comment><USER15> I work in the NYC office where this is. The button wall is interactive and cycles through various modes that are mostly pretty abstract and colorful, but clicking the button will make a propagating disturbance depending on the mode. One of them was Conway's Game of Life, which I thought was really clever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Very cool. Perhaps Adafruit, Sparkfun or the like will whip up with a kit that utilizes these types of led arcade buttons, but on a much smaller scale. Also, I wonder if they make "mini" led arcade buttons so you could tighten up the array a bit. It seems that smaller buttons would create better visualizations if space was limited.

</comment><comment><USER17> Those buttons looks cool. Anyone know where to get them? ([https://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/img/carousel_02...](https://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/img/carousel_02.jpg))

<comment><USER18> They have full documentation on the hardware they used as well, look at the bom.pdf for "bill of materials" which specs EVERY item. You're looking for [https://na.suzohapp.com/products/arcade_game_parts/58-0091-S...](https://na.suzohapp.com/products/arcade_game_parts/58-0091-SH)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Lol... I had that page open in a tab since last night. Just came into my office to hear my computer fan running hard. Seems Chrome was pegging my CPU at like 200% for like a day.

Whoo hoo.

</comment><comment><USER20> well this is the most beautiful webpage i've ever seen.

<comment><USER21> And it isn't completely broken with javascript disabled, good job who ever made that website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Very cool... OK I'll bite; what is Google Creative Lab?

<comment><USER23> They build cool stuff on top of Google tech, basically. They're in a few different locations, so there's more than one team. I've only worked with them as an external contractor, so I'm not sure what the official elevator pitch is though. But here's a few of the projects they've done: [http://www.thefwa.com/profile/google-creative- lab](http://www.thefwa.com/profile/google-creative-lab)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> How did they make the header loading animation ? Seems to be using canvas but I don't get how it works.

<comment><USER25> [https://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/index_external....](https://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/index_external.js)

<comment><USER26> According to the source code, this works using a few things. The main thing powering this is Pixi.js, a 2D HTML 5 Canvas/WebGL renderer: [https://github.com/pixijs/pixi.js/](https://github.com/pixijs/pixi.js/)

It tracks your mouse, or touch event. Whenever you move, it accumulates a number (search "mouseForce") to the nearby pixels. This number is then used as an index into a sprite sheet[1][2]. It uses Pixi's MovieClip object for the heavy lifting, but they create their own Tile object to hook the mouse force to the sprite sheet.

So to sum up, they create a grid of Tile objects, each of which accumulates a number based on nearby mouse/touch movement, then uses that number to index into a sprite sheet rendered by Pixi.js.

[1] [http://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/img/x_03.png](http://googlecreativelab.github.io/anypixel/img/x_03.png)

[2] The sprite sheet is white-on-transparent, so it's invisible in Chrome. Here's a screenshot: [http://i.imgur.com/rKDrSoP.png](http://i.imgur.com/rKDrSoP.png)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Does anyone know which Google office the button wall in the demo video is installed?

<comment><USER28> > The first display using this platform is in the 8th Avenue lobby at the > Google NYC office.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Reminds me of a Weezer light display</comment>


Ask HN: I cannot do competitive programming or solve puzzles, would you hire me? - <AUTHOR>

I have decent experience working on open source projects[1] (Firefox OS, bower, yeoman etc). I was a Google Summer of Code student this year with Mozilla.Apart from this, I can program in 3-4 languages with ability to learn anything that is required for the job.Also, worked on some projects at my leisure. However, I cannot solve competitive programming or puzzle problems. Is it possible to pull off a good software engineering job? [1] http://github.com/MrDHat <comment><USER3> Speaking hypothetically, you claim you can learn anything that is required for the job. What if the ability to solve problems under time pressure is part of what the job requires?

Flipping that over, why do you say you can't solve puzzle problems? How many have you tried?

And why are you asking? I'm sure that if the answer is "yes" then you'll puff out your cheeks, heave a sigh of relief, and not bother to work on that aspect of your abilities.

But if the answer is "no", how will it change your behavior? What will you do differently?

And why not do that anyway?

<comment><USER4> Well my observation is that programming puzzles that are top in the difficulty tree often typically involve trees, graphs, queues, or bit manipulation and in my experience, they aren't usually encountered in programmer's average life. As it is not easy to get them right the first time for an intense visualization exercise they involve, preople often find them lost and give up their hands.

<comment><USER5> I'm a student so please don't think I'm trying to be above you here, but could you clarify this a bit? Maybe I'm getting suckered into the academia way, but I find it hard to believe most programmers will never need trees, graphs or queues?

<comment><USER6> Most people aren't equipped to use trees, graphs, or queues so they don't use them. (Well, that's not so true of queues...) Meanwhile it is true that a ton of the interesting things done involves trees and graphs of some sort or another.

<comment><USER7> The problem is that abstractions are leaky. E.g. when I first started learning C++ in high school, I didn't know a tree if it bit me. But, the STL has a set implementation. If you take a closer look at the docs, you will find out that it is implemented as a red-black tree. I am not sure the assertion that you will never come across a tree or a graph in your life will be true always.

<comment><USER6> There's nothing that says std::map has to be implemented as a red-black tree. And using an abstract data type that's implemented with a tree is not the same thing as making your own tree for your own purposes.

<comment><USER7> > There's nothing that says std::map has to be implemented as a red-black > tree.

Of course not, but understanding what that means is key to using it. If you think a red black tree is some arcane bullshit that you never are going to use, you will probably skip over it when you read the docs and get bitten.

<comment><USER6> > Of course not, but understanding what that means is key to using it.

Not at all. A user could think it's a hash table and they'd still be likely to maximize the potential utility of the type in their application. They could understand that it's implemented with a balanced search tree without knowing about the details of the balancing algorithm and that's pretty much the maximum utility right there. (In fact it's a good mnemonic for understanding almost all the performance and iterator guarantees of a std::map's functions.)

And you're not going to find that it's implemented as a red black tree in "the docs". You generally don't know that. All you know and all you'll see documented is the performance requirements and iterator invalidation behavior of various functions. I mean look at the docs. That's what's there.

The real benefit of being comfortable with trees and graphs is so that you're comfortable with actually using trees and graphs yourself, directly, when they'd be useful to manipulate. If you want to look at a commit log, well, that's a graph, and I guess you can't work with that if you claim that graphs are weird obscure stuff and cringe at the word "acyclic". Want to use a filesystem? Apparently that's a hard thing for some people, sadly enough because it's a tree (or graph, depending on your attitude about soft and hard links). That's where you're writing code that manipulates the actual data structure, instead of just using some lookup-table interface.

<comment><USER7> > The real benefit of being comfortable with trees and graphs is so that > you're comfortable with actually using trees and graphs yourself, directly, > when they'd be useful to manipulate. If you want to look at a commit log, > well, that's a graph, and I guess you can't work with that if you claim that > graphs are weird obscure stuff and cringe at the word "acyclic". Want to use > a filesystem? Apparently that's a hard thing for some people, sadly enough > because it's a tree (or graph, depending on your attitude about soft and > hard links). That's where you're writing code that manipulates the actual > data structure, instead of just using some lookup-table interface.

I am not clear how you are disagreeing with me here. :) Surely manipulating commit logs, understanding say how Git works, squashing commits, rebasing, manipulating access to the file system, surely, these are things that are not out of the realm of being asked to do. Hell, if you are dealing with a freaking linked list at some point or not in your career, you are dealing with a DAG.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've never programmed competitively, nor have I ever solved a programming puzzle. Quite honestly, I don't see the point of it.

Programming is not a competitive process; it is cooperative. Some of your greatest resources are the people around you. Even after 15 years in the industry, I'll still ask questions of my coworkers at least once every couple of days.

A puzzle is something designed by another person, with the specific intention of tricking you. That's not quite the same thing as a real-world stumper problem, although there can be some similarities. And once again, the times when you're stumped are precisely the times when you want to talk to your coworkers about it. Often the very act of explaining the problem to someone else is enough to give you the solution! Sitting there on your own, banging your head on the keyboard is the stupid way to do it.

The most important thing when it comes to debugging is to understand how things work at least one level below where you're working at (such as understanding how the library calls in the language you use translate to system calls, or being able to dissect HTTP requests/responses, or even TCP/IP frames, or if you're programming in C for example, understanding how the compiler works, how it optimizes, where the edge cases are, or even knowing some assembly language so that you can look at a stack dump and figure out what the computer actually did vs what you thought you told it to do). I dislike puzzles for the same reason I dislike trick questions on exams. They're not designed to test your knowledge or ability; they're designed to see if you can find the needle they've oh-so-cleverly hidden in a haystack. That sort of thing is fine if it's for your own amusement (people do, after all, enjoy crossword puzzles), but as hiring criteria I find them misguided at best.

Learn new things from time to time, but focus on what you're passionate about. You'll gain deep knowledge and you'll have the motivation to solve whatever problems crop up.

<comment><USER6> Programming "puzzles" in interviews are not made with the intention of tricking you. They aren't designed to make you find some metaphorical needle in a haystack, either. They're designed to be easy problems with clear avenues or multiple avenues of attack to solve. And people asking them are well aware that applicants sometimes get stuck, which is why they ask multiple questions (unless applicants get stuck on the easy warm-up question).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think it's more than possible to get a good software engineering job - <USER2> have not had to do any competitive programming or puzzle problems to get a job, although I have a history of being competitive in mathematics in high school (which I generally keep secret, along with many of my accomplishments). Actually, I don't even have a computer science background or even took a programming class (excepting in high school almost 15 years ago, where the teacher was a consultant who didn't even know programming).

I don't even think those who have experience doing those things are even a good barometer of whether they would be good coders, or do well in software engineering. They may certainly do well, but I think that companies that look to hire those who can do those are looking for people of a certain mental makeup - some of these companies may arguably be using the wrong criteria for hiring.

Your GitHub would make me curious if my company was looking to hire & probably would be enough to get an interview, but knowing how to talk about tech would be important. Since this is all hypotheticals, I wouldn't be able to make a positive determination without an interview, which would be the clincher.

Also I see that your GH page lists that you're from India? Many companies may find it difficult bringing on a candidate from overseas (HN's audience is predominantly US), although with the right company, remote work would be possible - however, remote work is probably difficult to pull off unless the company is absolutely confident in you as it is.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Also I see that your GH page lists that you're from India? Many companies > may find it difficult bringing on a candidate from overseas (HN's audience > is predominantly US), although with the right company, remote work would be > possible - however, remote work is probably difficult to pull off unless the > company is absolutely confident in you as it is.

I am not a fan of remote work either. However, I am willing (in fact want to) to relocate if I am satisfied with the profile offered!

P.S. This post was supposed to be a reality check for me(and others like me) and not a shameless plug for getting a job :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Absolutely!

Competitive programming is highly focused on algorithms, data structures, optimization and your ability to come up with a solution fast. To excel in it, it may take months, or even years of practice. I've actually never met anyone yet who does really well in these contests, and they still do have good jobs.

Competitive programming can really help you gain expertise in these areas - far more than a typical programmer. But these areas are just a subset of software engineering - there's a _lot_ more to it. Of course it's great knowing it all, but for many programmers this kind of thorough knowledge isn't required.

But if you wanna build new, awesome stuff from scratch (something like Redis, Git or Nginx) or you're working on a system which needs to be efficient, those skills really come in handy.

Lastly, I see you're a GSoC student who has worked with Mozilla - you're probably good enough, if not great!

Read this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6823682](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6823682)

</comment><comment><USER11> It depends on what you mean by a "good" job. Can you get a job @ Google/FB/Twitter/etc. Probably not. But to be honest, as an entry lvl engineer without an Ivy League degree you'll have trouble getting an interview.

If you just want a job where you can build cool things and make 80k+ just out of school. That's definitely possible. There are a lot more companies out there that just want to get shit done and shipped versus ones that wan't to nitpick over 100ms of performance.

As you advance your career, you can spend time learning to do obscure data structure manipulation in C. So you can go for that job @ Google. Who knows, maybe you will discover being an engineer gets boring by working for a smaller company where you get to interface with clients, stakeholders, etc.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> While researching on this topic, I stumbled upon this post: [http://hueniverse.com/2013/02/hiring-engineers-a- process/](http://hueniverse.com/2013/02/hiring-engineers-a-process/)

The point of 'Homework' really intrigues me. It actually ensures that a candidate has the skills to contribute to your product. IMO, it is a far better way to judge than programming puzzles.

</comment><comment><USER12> Don't worry. Just don't play the puzzle geeks' stupid game and work for someone else. You can find a job without solving code puzzles.</comment>