Ask HN: How does an average CS graduate get a job? - <AUTHOR> I graduated with a CS degree, May 2015. No one in my entire family tree has ever graduated high school, so I've never had any encouragement or mentoring for CS. I ended up in a very average university: is not in top 100 of USNews. It's top 20 in Northeast.
In the school's job fairs, we get only local, unknown companies (like 3 of them). Problem is I don't live locally there, and they only hire locals and don't assist with relocation. I've applied elsewhere, but yeah... I'm unemployed after 5 months.
I've had my resume checked by multiple sources, and no one's had any problem with it. My non-school projects consist of websites. They're not exciting with no "xTreme-Framework-of-the-month", but I'm working on updating and integrating new features. I've also volunteered my programming skills and worked for an unpaid internship. I also have some related extracurricular.
Clarification: I have received many phone calls from unknown companies; zero on-sites. The problem is I can't get past the phone calls since they always ask me exclusive, tricky questions about their stack. I never get any algorithm or data structure questions like I hear in other threads.
My big problem is since no one in my family has an education and sees the CS degree as "a worthless piece of paper", they don't want my sister to go to university.
So, I really don't know how to find a job. I've tried the blackhole websites (e.g., dice.com); multiple 3rd party recruiters; school's job board (at this second, literally only has one position posted for software engineer); my neighbors and family's friends. No luck. <comment><USER2> Keep your head up. I am proud of you for getting that degree in CS.Don't let anyone or anything discourage you.Apply to as many places as possible. There are so many jobs for developers now.If the job descriptions say you need 1 to 3 years of work experience,apply anyway.Dont worry about it.

Aside,be ready to relocate if the need be for now.These are jobs in many bay area start ups.

In the interim,take a look at the following places and see if you can see what fits you [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=p](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=p) [https://angel.co/jobs](https://angel.co/jobs) [https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/) And if you are really good in Python,Data Structure and Algorithm,summit an application at [https://www.google.com/about/careers/search#t=sq&q=j&li=10&j...](https://www.google.com/about/careers/search#t=sq&q=j&li=10&jed=BACHELORS&je=FULLTIME&jc=SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING&) You will be fine.

</comment><comment><USER3> Have you thought about moving somewhere where the job market is a lot better? Or as a lot of people recommend, doing simple freelance work?

Also if you're having trouble getting a developer job, you might want to look into associated fields and move around there, such as QA or Sys admins etc. There's so much more out there and having a CS degree allows you to be pretty flexible.

</comment><comment><USER4> Keep your head up! A CS degree is one of the most sought after diplomas anywhere in the world. It will pay off big time and is definitely not a "worthless piece of paper", it's the exact opposite! Have you tried internships or part-time work? Take a look at what people are willing to pay for on job websites and master those skills.</comment>


Monitoring at Spotify: Introducing Heroic - <AUTHOR> https://labs.spotify.com/2015/11/17/monitoring-at-spotify-introducing-heroic/ <comment><USER2> Music companies really seem to like building time series databases (See: Prometheus.io)</comment>


Resetting the Clock of Life - <AUTHOR> http://alliance.nautil.us/article/241/resetting-the-clock-of-life <comment><USER2> A great example of the way in which researchers leap to try to alter downstream consequences of aging. This impulse is why 99% of all efforts to treat aging as a medical condition are doomed to failure.

The research community has an institutional problem in that all the short-term incentives have them studying the biochemistry of the system in a broken (aged) state, and then working backwards towards causes. Each link in the chain takes years of work. The first place they stop is thus a long way removed from any root cause, but then the incentives work to say "prove your work is valuable" and someone tries to commercialize it.

All medicine for age-related disease (so far) is marginal precisely because it attempts to compensate for or tries to improve downstream consequences that are a long way removed from fundamental damage that causes aging.

You can change the oil as much as you like in a car that is failing for mechanical reasons, but the degree to which you gain benefit from that action is much what you'd expect. You can press the accelerator to try to drive a faltering engine faster. Same story. You fix problems by fixing the root causes, not by ignoring those root causes in favor of things that happen to be what is right in front of you.

</comment><comment><USER3> How many people periodically restart their computer just because they think it might run better afterwards? Maybe it was easier for natural selection to periodically restart the clock than to debug all the molecular pathways so that they remain stable over an organism's lifetime.

<comment><USER4> > debug all the molecular pathways so that they remain stable over an > organism's lifetime.

It did just that. Hence the lifetime being what it is...

You now want to debug the molecular pathways to remain stable longer than the present lifetime, which will merely move that point a bit into the future, and will then be the new lifetime.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder what occasional socially accepted sleep deprivation (staying out late, working long hours, making love all night ^^ ) does to a body. The day after does typically feel like part of you died, and that dead part has to go to work anyway.

<comment><USER6> I used to make the effort to go to work after a long night out. Now I just call in sick and sleep. Work will be there the next day.

<comment><USER7> > Work will be there the next day.

Not if you regularly call in sick to sleep off long nights out.

<comment><USER8> Well if he has a lot of nights out, neither will his liver, but developer employers, like our livers, are fairly tolerant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Life has no clocks. It, as a set of processes, has phases, which happen follow the phases of the environment and use these phases to maintenance and repair.

There is no such thing as time, so Nature and evolution does not have any clock or counters. Life does not work the way we conditioned to think as observers. It cannot use abstract mental concerts which does not exist at molecular or cellular level. Cells do message passing and explicit pattern matching. No clocks or counters.

<comment><USER10> Cells have an entire range of clocks for tons of purposes. Including a number of "death clocks" tracking a number of things, from passage of time since last cell division (including the famous telomeres), to amount of energy passing through the cell and a lot of more specialized clocks as well. (death clock meaning the cell will self-terminate if the clock runs down)

Just listen to your heartbeat and think again whether your cells don't track the passage of time.

<comment><USER9> And which exactly protein acts as a counter? What unit it uses? What is representation of the current value if the counter? How it deals with overflows?

Again. There is no counting inside a cell in principle. Only pattern matching of phisical molecular structures and "mechanical" triggers. No counters, no clocks, no notion of a number.

Do not confuse oscillations or rotation with time. Processes do exist. Time does not.

<comment><USER10> > And which exactly protein acts as a counter?

DNA

> What unit it uses?

That's defined, if rather complex. Essentially it's a basepair sequence.

> What is representation of the current value if the counter?

It's unary.

> How it deals with overflows?

It doesn't.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Joyent's Bryan Cantrill on technology, fear, and the rise of Trump - <AUTHOR> http://www.structureevents.com/joyents-bryan-cantrill-on-technology-fear-and-the-rise-of-trump/ <comment><USER2> Site is hosed, but it's just links to the video/slides of this event keynote speech.

Video: [https://vimeo.com/190937358](https://vimeo.com/190937358)

Slides: [http://www.slideshare.net/bcantrill/the-state-of- cloud-2016-...](http://www.slideshare.net/bcantrill/the-state-of- cloud-2016-the-whirlwind-of-creative-destruction)</comment>


Host a web app on Twitter in a single Tweet - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/host-a-web-app-on-twitter-in-a-single-tweet-9aed28bdb350 <comment><USER2> I'mma need a demo. It's so annoying when people never post demos of their work.

</comment><comment><USER3> Demo?

</comment><comment><USER4> Twitter applies lossy compression to images, you'd need to take that into account instead of the pixel perfect expectations.</comment>


Openstack: Open source cloud computing software - <AUTHOR> http://openstack.org/

<comment><USER2> What a great move by rackspace.

That's very impressive, they're essentially risking enabling their competition by doing this and still they've done it.

This actually will allow the development of 'micro clouds', a thing I wrote about a while back because I don't like the centralization issues of clouds for a number of reasons and use cases.

<http://jacquesmattheij.com/node/37>

Getting rid of vendor lock-in is also fantastic.

<comment><USER3> It was touched on in the article, but allowing the actual plumbing of a cloud to become commodity, it allows them to focus on their core business: managed hosting.

Along with other benefits such as a developer community around their infrastructure and ease of friction around moving cloud hosting providers (i.e. Vendor lock-in) makes this a clear win and an excellent move by Rackspace.

<comment><USER2> This could very well be the biggest announcement of something being open- sourced made this year. I wonder if Amazon will make a comparable countermove or if they will join. (Or ignore it altogether, unlikely).

<comment><USER4> They won't have to make theirs open, or join OpenStack. All they would have to do is write a set of binaries that translate commands from one to another, and translate return values. Presumably some hackers will sort this out and open source it.

<comment><USER5> boto, libcloud, etc, etc mostly support talking to multiple clouds. The API is far from the hardest part of migration - it's actually pretty simple in most cases, unless that vendor picks something like SOAP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm a developer on swift (OpenStack storage == Rackspace Cloud Files). We've been pretty excited about opening this, and I'd love to answer any questions you have.

Swift documentation is at <http://swift.openstack.org>. Check out the "SAIO - Swift All In One" page to see how to set up a VM to run it. With some very small tweaks, you can also run it on a single slice (mount a loopback device rather than another virtual drive).

Although I don't know as much about it, the compute docs are at <http://nova.openstack.org>

<comment><USER7> I'd be curious to hear how Swift compares to MogileFS. MogileFS never took off like memcached did, but it's another piece of infrastructure that came out of LiveJournal and similarly allows one to create a storage architecture where files are redundantly stored on commodity nodes.

I'm guessing that both Amazon and Rackspace took a look at MogileFS and its architecture so it would be informative to hear what you liked and what you might have found lacking.

<comment><USER6> Interestingly, our first implementation of Cloud Files was based on MogileFS. It's a decent design, but it doesn't scale to the levels we need. The central DB that stores the metadata was the bottleneck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's open, it's cloud, it's new, it's got NASA involved! So how does this help me move 20 terrabytes of data and a range of web services and customer facing applications from my current cloud provider to a new provider?

The theory is that I can take a data snapshot of my 20 terabytes, move it to the new provider's network by driving it across town (still the fastest way to move data), "drop it in", switch over DNS and excluding a few lost transactions during switch-over everything should work fine.

The reality is that this removes the pain of proprietary configuration from a data center migration but it's still a painful process to switch cloud providers that involves a lot of work, some risk and down-time. So while this is a great marketing play from Rackspace there is still a level of lock-in when you commit to using a provider and so the risk to Rackspace to go 'open' is minimal but the benefits of being the leader are huge.

<comment><USER9> I think it's more about the worry that if your chosen provider goes away you have no way to run the service yourself. You would have to rewrite everything using google storage to S3 instead of just migrating data centers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you have questions come join us at irc.freenode.com / #openstack

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm sad RackSpace chose to market this effort under the term "Open Stack".

A number of us in the open web community have used that term to a great extent to talk about OpenID + OAuth + Portable Contacts + Open Social ([http://therealmccrea.com/2008/09/19/joseph-smarr-at- web-20-o...](http://therealmccrea.com/2008/09/19/joseph-smarr-at-web-20-on- the-new-open-stack/))

Admittedly the initiative has lost momentum (for many reasons and factors) but things are still out there. This just creates confusion and branding collision.

I notice RackSpace is pushing a "TM" on their OpenStack branding, which calls into issue anyone using the term for it's prior and original meaning.

<comment><USER10> I'm sorry, we didn't think the two communities would cause confusion. Almost everything you can name something these days will cause a "name collision" of sort. The infrastructure and application folks are pretty separated and so are the concepts so hopefully the context in which it is used will make it clear. Detail wise, the OpenID + OAuth... is "Open Stack" and this should be used only as "OpenStack".

<comment><USER12> Preamble: thanks for the software, looks awesome.

The problem is that the domains are very close. There's a lot of modern web apps are cloud based and use the open stack (I recall Mike Malone and Joe Stump doing a great talk at PyCon about these topics using that exact term). This makes searching really really annoying.

How about OpenSkies?

<comment><USER13> OpenSkies is an airline

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I attended the design summit, and I believe this is going to be a really big deal.

Whether it's a big hosting company running a public cloud, a corporate running a private cloud, or a smaller dev/test cloud, they can now all run the same free software stack, and software can move freely between those environments. It's clear this announcement will have ripple effects throughout the entire cloud ecosystem. I hope the project will also boost adoption of cloud-style infrastructures, now that the fear of supplier lock-in is removed.

</comment><comment><USER15> Rackspace had a design summit last week in Austin, TX for Openstack. I was an attendee and learned quite a bit from the folks at Rackspace. They've built and re-built their infrastructure enough times they know what they need to look out for. The drop-and-swap component model is great too.

It was fantastic to see what they've put together and the business model is great. Commoditizing architecture and software really is the next step.

If anyone is interested, I could write up a blog post about my experience, maybe provide a little more insight into the buy-in.

<comment><USER16> Please do write a blog post, and what do you mean by "drop-and-swap component"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> You should get a canonical URL. openstack.com and openstack.org both resolve now, probably better to redirect from openstack.com to .org.

</comment><comment><USER18> Personally, I find the OpenStack Object Storage component more interesting than OpenStack Compute. I like the idea and implementation of S3 for saving important data. Similarly, the same sort of lazy replication of EBS just makes life easier.

I think that there will be a real sweet spot for smaller organizations who would like an internal system like S3 that offers robust data security with using really cheap disk drives and servers.

Hopefully OpenStack Object Storage will have good support for multi-datacenter replication.

<comment><USER18> I did downloaded it, looked at the source, but did not install it. OpenStack Object Storage looks like a very interesting project.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Okay I don't know much about Cloud Computing but can anyone tell how is going to help someone like me who has one or two blogs with some web hosting company.

Or should someone like me even care?

<comment><USER20> Here's a possible advantage: you have your site, some php code, mysql, apache, a ton of data, maybe more stuff on disk. Your hosting service jacks its prices, or announces it's shutting down.

Right now, to move to a new host, you need to handle a number doable but annoying steps. Imagine tho that you could just download "The Site". Web server, blog app, database, everything. Including the OS. All as one (albeit large) file.

And then just upload it to a new host, where it Just Works. No reconfig because you're on a newer os or have to use a dfferent version of mysql. All of that is bundled up for you.

This is what virtualization (i.e. cloud computing) can buy you. And an open standard for infrastructure can make it easier to move your virtual system to other hosts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> While I'm running on AWS I strongly support a push for interoperability and freedom from lockin. We'll just have to see what kind of adoption this project gets.

</comment><comment><USER22> Does anyone know how this compares with Eucalyptus <http://open.eucalyptus.com/> that's the core of Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud <http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/private> ?

</comment><comment><USER23> In April, NASA's Nebula project was based on Eucalyptus

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/28/nebula_goes_to_godda...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/28/nebula_goes_to_goddard/)

Does this mean they are completely moving away Eucalyptus?

</comment><comment><USER24> looking forward to the combined efforts.

we really want to make the cloud that hacker news users would want to deploy on their own infrastructure.

</comment><comment><USER25> What benefit does Rackspace get from doing this?

<comment><USER26> They commoditise the software and sell the services.

This reduces the risk that a competitor will come along with either (1) a popular vertically integrated solution that locks you out of market share or (2) some arrangement that allows them to dictate terms to you. Further, if a participant does emerge matching one of those patterns, they are organised respond through their established platform.

IBM does something similar with linux, which competes with non-free unix solutions and Windows. Google have done this with android, which reduces the risk of their being held to ransom by Apple.

<comment><USER25> What do you mean by "commoditise the software"? If it's open source, how much of a commodity can it be?

Also, and again I apologize for not understanding your language here, but what do you mean by a "vertically integrated solution"? Could you give an example to illustrate what it would mean for a competitor to do this?

It would be interesting if there is a competing solution on the horizon, the success of which Rackspace is trying to preempt with this offering. I guess time will tell.

<comment><USER26> When I think of commodity I think of oil, or grains, or pork bellies. A good that is generic and interchangeable, 'fungible'. You're not locked in to a source, you can get it from several sources in a competitive marketplace.

        Also, and again I apologize for not understanding
        your language here, but what do you mean by a
        "vertically integrated solution"? Could you give an
        example to illustrate what it would mean for a
        competitor to do this?

Definitely!

Let's start with an example of vertical integration: Apple has a strategy that involves heavy vertical integration. They sell the hardware and the software and the services. If you want OSX, you have to buy the hardware. More so in the phone space: if you want IOS, you need to buy an iphone. Once you've bought an iphone, you have to buy apps for it through the appstore. Even if you hate one part of the Apple solution, you may be forced to take the good with the bad. Even if you only want one thing, you generally have to get everything. If you want to run something that's not in the app store, too bad.

A scenario where this could happen with cloud services: imagine Amazon came up with a really good payment services platform, and then said that in order to use it, you had to live in their cloud. The market would have to interact with their cloud to get access to the payment services. Rackspace would lose access to the segment of the target market that needed this functionality.

By building a capability on the software side of cloud services, Rackspace will have better options in a situation like the one above:

* They will have a platform that they can build a competing payment services platform.

* It's possible that other groups who want the same outcome will contribute to their platform, strengthening it in lots of small ways to compete against other offerings.

* There may be other developers out there who are skilling up for their own ends, that Rackspace can hire at short notice if it needs to skill up quickly.

* They can start building a library of prior art and patents to use in defence against sniping from one proprietary operators in the cloud space.

In the mid-90s, IBM found themselves in an odd situation. They were offering a desktop and corporate operating system platform, but weren't very good at it because it wasn't their focus. Microsoft were good at OS strategy. So IBM found itself in a situation where it needed to invest heavily in Windows NT to avoid losing ground, and this meant that another company was setting its direction to a large extent.

Since then, IBM has got behind linux in a big way. There's far less risk of agenda-setting coming at them from the linux community. It's a stronger proposition for them to offer their customers, because potential customers don't have to fear IBM trying to lock them in to IBM products because in the way that customers might have been wary about this with AIX or OS/2 (or mainframes).

Imagine if Apple move into cloud services, and then get a patent on something ridiculous, and then use that to hound opponents. That's what they're doing in the phone space.

I think the guys at Rackspace have their heads screwed on. I'm looking forward to seeing a free and open cloud platform emerge.

<comment><USER25>
       imagine Amazon came up with a really good payment
       services platform, and then said that in order to
       use it, you had to live in their cloud. The market
       would have to interact with their cloud to get access
       to the payment services. Rackspace would lose access
       to the segment of the target market that needed
       this functionality.

Good example, but I thought the idea with OpenStack is to allow anyone to take this and run with it, customize it as they like and eventually end up with their own platform, potentially distinct from Rackspace's. In your example, Amazon says "in order to use the payment system, you have to live on the Amazon cloud" but I don't see any parallel restrictions in OpenStack, simply because it's open source and can be tailored unpredictably.

It's for this same reason that I question whether the benefits to Rackspace that you pointed out above really are such a sure thing for them. Seems like it could just as easily turn against them if someone else turns their open source solution to better advantage (assuming the open source license permits this).

<comment><USER26>
        Seems like it could just as easily turn against them if
        someone else turns their open source solution to better
        advantage (assuming the open source license permits this).

Sure, but that's their comfort space. They're confident of their skills and economies of scale here, and enthusiastic for this to be the battleground.

My point with the amazon example was partly that if Rackspace found itself needing to build something similar, it has a stronger starting point if it already has a software group. And because the platform is open, they might have a shared interest with another company who has taken on their software to collaborate on new features. Or another party may build an open payment system on top of this open system when they're not even looking, and they benefit from the network effects.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Adding the TC synopsis of the project posted in another thread for continuity. [http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/18/openstack-org-rackspace- ope...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/18/openstack-org-rackspace-open-sources- their-cloud-services-platform-and-gets-nasa-on-board/)

</comment><comment><USER27> Seems right that NASA use Launchpad to host the Openstack code

</comment><comment><USER28> is there a way to add DNS entries via API yet? I don't see where to get the code except for swift-1.0.0, and I'm not sure what that does.

<comment><USER6> swift is the storage piece (think S3 or Cloud Files). In fact, it is what is running as Rackspace's Cloud Files right now. Although it is listed as 1.0 and a developer preview release, it is production-ready code that is currently being used.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Yay. A marginally competent hosting company just released the code to their mostly unsuccessful cloud! This is like IBM open sourcing OS/2 a year after they admitted defeat to Microsoft in the desktop operating system market.</comment>


The friendship that made Google huge - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship-that-made-google-huge/amp <comment><USER2> @mods this was posted earlier today, discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18588697](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18588697)</comment>


Dynamic Configuration with the HAProxy Runtime API - <AUTHOR> https://www.haproxy.com/blog/dynamic-configuration-haproxy-runtime-api/ <comment><USER2> Anybody know why companies like cloudflare use nginx versus haproxy as their public facing infrastructure ([https://github.com/cloudflare/sslconfig](https://github.com/cloudflare/sslconfig)) ?

It always seems to me as if haproxy was the superior tool with worse UX/configurability than nginx.

<comment><USER3> Cloudflare is (among other things) a CDN/cache. haproxy does not cache.

<comment><USER4> It does now !

<comment><USER5> I wouldn't use it. Use the right tool for the right job.

Nginx is good at caching but Varnish is often better.

HAProxy is far better suited to providing load-balanced HA. Regarding this article, this API makes is ideal to dynamically-reconfigure HAproxy, adding and removing servers on-the-fly, which is super-useful in production.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6>
        $ echo "help<command></command>" | socat stdio /var/run/hapee-lb.sock
        $ echo "help<command></command>" | socat stdio tcp4-connect:127.0.0.1:9999

Seems a bit weird, there's no XML anywhere else. Wonder if it's a markup issue on the page.

<comment><USER7> It has been changed now

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It is useful to be able to add/delete ACLs without restart.

Wish we could modify settings such as "use_backend", "backend" and "server" the same way.

Maybe there is a workaround.

<comment><USER9> You can change the server settings using the "set server" command, but I think it is not possible yet to change use_backend.

<comment><USER8> Note I mean individual server settings for each backend in the backend section.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm not sure I understand well: is the api only accessible from socket ? It can't be piloted from another container/vm/vps/whatever one use ?

Or did I misread this ?

<comment><USER11> It's accessible via TCP as well as unix sockets, so accessible from anywhere.

<comment><USER10> Great ! Thank you for your answer.</comment></comment></comment>


Hook – Open-source Back end as a Service - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/doubleleft/hook

<comment><USER2> At the risk of sounding like a fool, I offer the following:

I've looked at the Github page, read the README, and skimmed the documentation....

...and I still have _absolutely_ no idea what this does or what its intended purpose is. None whatsoever.

<comment><USER3> Also pretty confused as to what this does. There's a few examples and sample code for initialization, but I have no idea what the use cases are, what type of "backends" I could build with this, how it's better/different than popular existing frameworks, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is an explanation of this backend approach [http://nobackend.org/](http://nobackend.org/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> the main purpose of a backend is the access to data... e.g. like Firebase. For open-source approaches, ArangoDB Foxx looks more intersting with this regard: [https://www.arangodb.com/foxx](https://www.arangodb.com/foxx)</comment>


Our Cluttered Minds - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/books/review/Lehrer-t.html?_r=1

<comment><USER2> In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, the story is retold with Harry having a loving Biochemistry Professor as a stepfather rather than the begrudged Vernon Dursley. This has the strange consequence of Harry learning rationality theory at a very young age, becoming somewhat of an intellectual prodigy. By the time he is thrust into the world of magic, he realizes the untapped potential of magic almost immediately. Untapped in the sense that many wizards and witches before him had never considered the wonders that magic may enable.

The internet is our current version of magic. We have grown up as it has grown up. We have to deal with it as an intrusion rather than another tool for learning like a book. Less than fifty years from now, the internet will be refined and beautiful in ways we have had no reason yet to imagine. Fresh minds will approach it as Harry approaches magic. With nothing to lose, but so much to gain.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sidenote: Jonah Lehrer flamed out pretty spectacularly in 2012 after it emerged that he had distorted and fabricated some of the information in his book _Imagine_.

<comment><USER4> That's a bit of an ad hominem for a book review of a book that he didn't write, isn't it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Google, in other words, isn't making us stupid — it's exercising the very mental muscles that make us smarter. *Larry & Sergey will love that!</comment>


Road safety tips from Sweden - <AUTHOR> https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/upshot/car-seats-road-safety-us-sweden.html <comment><USER2> 90% of the article is about forward/backward facing child seats. But also the article spells out the the paper it was based on falsely claimed there was a significant difference between them and was retracted, restudied and agreed to not be statistically significant. Then it goes on to say, that Sweden does use rear-facing seats as though that somehow proves that there is a statistical significance.

Seems like the article could have been cut down to these two paragraphs:

> Because accidents are inevitable, Swedish regulations aim to make them > nonlethal. Roads rely more on roundabouts, less on intersections. Cars are > not allowed to turn at all when pedestrians are crossing. There are national > camera enforcement policies. Sweden also focuses on pedestrian bridges, and > separates cars from bicycles and oncoming traffic.

> Far fewer people drive under the influence of alcohol; stricter policing has > reduced impaired driving to less than 0.25 percent of tested drivers vs. > about 1.5 percent of American drivers. (Sweden also has a more stringent > definition of driving under the influence, 0.02 percent vs. 0.08 percent.) > The speed limit in areas where cars might come into contact with pedestrians > (think all of New York City) is less than 20 m.p.h. Speed bumps and other > traffic-calming interventions are common. The average cost of obtaining a > driver's license is the equivalent of more than $1,800.

<comment><USER3> > Because accidents are inevitable, Swedish regulations aim to make them > nonlethal.

I sometimes wonder how it would be possible to just adopt new laws and regulations wholesale from countries that have aimed to do a thing well, and succeeded. I know countries take ideas from each other, but it always seems to be small things and adapted with local modifications. Laws are obviously not for "move fast and break things" approach, but feels like we could achieve so much more.

<comment><USER4> Kind of related:

There's a small Swedish state-owned (soon to be privatized though) consulting company with about 15 people that exists with the sole purpose of exporting this know-how to other countries. It's been relatively successful in selected developing countries. The know-how is typically given away for free, only actual work (training etc) is charged for.

[http://www.sweroad.se/](http://www.sweroad.se/)

They haven't been hugely successful though. I hear there's often way too much national pride and similar factors ("our country is unique because irrelevant factors X, Y and Z") involved.

These people have an odd mix of

a) satisfaction because they are helping people not get... killed or maimed

b) but also an extreme amount of banging your head against the wall kind of moments

Anyway, if you want to implement road safety quickly in your country, they are who you should go to.

<comment><USER5> Person from (semi)developing country here (Ukraine).

Car is often seen as status symbol due to Soviet baggage. This leads to disregard of some traffic laws that are about "lesser status" pedestrians, e.g. speed limits, sidewalks parking, etc. The trend is slowly changing though with traffic calming measures becoming more common. This leads to a good number of accidents with drivers who can't ignore laws of physics as easily as traffic laws[1][2] though.

[1] [https://www.facebook.com/comfycity.lviv/videos/vb.6665275535...](https://www.facebook.com/comfycity.lviv/videos/vb.666527553506020/924859431006163/?type=2&theater) (sorry for FB videos)

[2] [https://www.facebook.com/comfycity.lviv/videos/vb.6665275535...](https://www.facebook.com/comfycity.lviv/videos/vb.666527553506020/925792900912816/?type=2&theater)

<comment><USER4> It should be noted that apart from alcohol aspects, Swedish road safety thinking systematically treats the human behavior as something that can not be changed with training, propaganda etc. The only thing that works is to change the environment to fit the human, and to make the human behave safely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Our 4 year old daughter uses a Swedish rear-facing car seat, and she seems fine with it. I'm sure she would prefer a front facing one because she'd be able to see more, but since she was 3 she's been able to see pretty well. It's definitely not uncomfortably small for her.

A woman asked a friend of ours "how do you get your kid to eat brown bread?" and our friend replied "she doesn't know there's any other kind". I think the same applies here - we've never had a problem with the seat because she almost never goes in a front-facing one. Even when she has used a friend's seat for whatever reason, it's never been an issue getting her back into hers. And she's a pretty argumentative kid.

<comment><USER7> My kids are a little older, but I've used the same strategy with bicycle helmets. There's never any argument about using them, because they've simply never been in a bicycle without a helmet, not seen me ride without one.

<comment><USER8> It is a bit worrying, there's no real evidence that rear facing seats improve outcomes for children, and similarly there's no real evidence that bicycle helmets improve outcomes for people in bicycle accidents.

But somehow, the "safety industry" has leapt on these things and now everybody has a ludicrously fearful attitude to cycling and you get looked at funny (or even harassed by strangers) if you dare to let your kid ride about without body armour on.

<comment><USER9> While I don't know about rear-facing seats for outcomes, having cycled recreationally and for commute for the last 10 years, wearing a helmet has on multiple occasions saved me (yes I understand anecdata of 1) from mild lacerations to letting me walk away from a 40 mile downhill crash with road rash. Cycling without a helmet is a personal decision, but I don't understand how you can argue that increased head protection does not improve overall morbidity and mortality.

<comment><USER10> There are three major factors:

\- Cycling accidents under 20mph are highly unlikely to cause head injuries, and most cycling is done under 20mph so there's little room for improvement.

\- Helmets are not designed to protect against the kind of injuries received in an accident with a car.

\- Perhaps most importantly, the phenomenon called risk normalization. Cyclists wearing helmets take more risks than cyclists who don't, and cars interacting with cyclists give more space to cyclists who aren't wearing helmets.

<comment><USER11> >>> Cyclists wearing helmets take more risks than cyclists who don't, and cars interacting with cyclists give more space to cyclists who aren't wearing helmets.

Is this supported by evidence (aside from the oft cited but unscientific University of Bath study)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> We also don't hand out driver's licenses left and right to anyone with the ability to find the correct pedals. From what I have seen in the states, you average bad swedish driver would be an american interstate wunderkind.

<comment><USER13> On the other hand plenty of people that really should have theirs taken away don't get theirs taken away, like old people with clear mental issues or people with bad eye sight that affect their ability to see people crossing roads etc.

<comment><USER14> Do you have numbers on these people causing a lot more than the average of accidents? Taking away driving licenses for old people is a big thing to do, especially if there is no need for it.

<comment><USER13> I have anecdotal evidence of old people with dementia driving and not having any idea where they are or what they are doing. [https://www.thelocal.se/20170809/swedish-experts-call-for- ne...](https://www.thelocal.se/20170809/swedish-experts-call-for-new-rules-to- get-unfit-elderly-drivers-off-the-road) claims that they do recall licenses, but evidently not as thoroughly as they should.

<comment><USER14> I'm just thinking that to my mind it is very rare to hear about old people causing accidents (injuring someone else.)

Alcoholics on the other hand cause a massive amount of accidents.

<comment><USER15> > accidents

Engaging in criminal behavior would be negligence, not accidental.

[http://justicespeakersinstitute.com/traffic-crashes- theyre-n...](http://justicespeakersinstitute.com/traffic-crashes-theyre-not- accidents/)

<comment><USER14> Interesting article. Negligence sounds like such a mild word though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Pushing a big 3.5yo into a rear facing seat is hard, even in Sweden, and I doubt it's very common to keep kids rear facing up to 4 here. We do listen to authorities but it's nearly physically impossible after they reach a certain length. I believe most start using front facing seats some time between ages 3 and 4 depending on size.

One problem with rear facing seats and large children is that it requires a LOT of space in the car, if you want to fit more people in it. A rear facing seat for a 3yo behind the front passenger seat will make the front passenger space tiny in all but the largest cars.

If you look around europe you'll find that countries that traditionally use small cars (France, Italy, Britain) probably don't use rear facing seats as much. What part of this is cause and what is effect I don't know, but you won't find many families with small children driving compact cars in Sweden like you do in say the UK or Italy. I saw someone in the UK describe a golf as a "family hatchback" at one point. That person hadn't been in the front passenger seat of a Golf with a rear facing child seat behind (The front seat is then nearly touching the glove compartment).

<comment><USER17> Father of two twin kids at 3.5 years. Its not hard at all. They climb in themselves, and if u have a seat with adjustable iso-fix bars you get enough room for the front seats.

<comment><USER18> How do larger rear facing seats even fit in smaller European cars? Is your front passenger seat folded all the way down?

When we were last car shopping, we looked at small SUVs (CRV, Rav4, Forester) and a rear facing seat mounted "American-style" still intruded on the passenger seat. I can't imagine how you could shift the seat forwards in a sedan and make it work.

<comment><USER19> We bought our car seats from Volvo in Sweden because they are designed differently than what is available on the US market, in particular and as mentioned in the article there is a metal bar that rests on the ground to support the seat. It makes a huge difference in improving the angle of the seat and saving space for the sake of the front passenger seat (as well as improving accessibility to install the child, or let her climb in when she grows older/stronger). You can see that in the sled-test photos included in the article (US row vs Swedish row); you can also see that the Swedish car seats provide a much better side-envelope of protection for the children.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Here's a map that shows how many deaths in traffic are occuring per 1 million inhabitants in europe: [https://etsc.eu/wp- content/uploads/map_twitter.png](https://etsc.eu/wp- content/uploads/map_twitter.png)

<comment><USER21> In Greece you can buy little metal plugs for your sealtbelt socket so you don't have to use the seatbelt and don't get the error beeps from the car. I'm sure it does contribute to the fatality rate.

<comment><USER22> I don't get why anyone would want that. At no time in the two decades I've been driving a car, I've never, ever, ever thought to myself _" This seatbelt is annoying, I wish I didn't have to use it."_

I don't even recall ever thinking that as a child passenger.

<comment><USER23> There are 2 reasons \- Health issues - trouble breathing. \- getting stuck in the car that's on fire, drowning etc. (yes I know you are better of with the seatbelt)

<comment><USER21> We have a few decades of statistics that tell use that wearing a seatbelt and not getting flung out of a car during an accident is much saver than getting stuck in the car. [http://www.politifact.com/rhode- island/statements/2011/jul/1...](http://www.politifact.com/rhode- island/statements/2011/jul/13/joseph-trillo/ri-rep-trillo-says-30000-people- have-died-because-/)

Seatbelts save lives, it's a fact you can't get around. When they developed and tried them, they realized how good seatbelts are and decided that every car should have them, not patent fee for any manufacturer.

Or just don't buy an electric car...

<comment><USER23> Not sure why the downvote. I'm just presenting BS arguments that people have for not using it. I'm fully aware it's a bad idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Another way to reduce road accidents would be to reduce Americans' dependence on cars. Better for the environment too.

<comment><USER25> It's not dependence, it's preference. Americans (and most everyone else) like to control their 4-vecor.

<comment><USER26> Having spent quite a bit of time in the US, I've noticed that getting somewhere there takes about the same amount time as home (which happens to be Sweden, hence me clicking the link). As an anecdotal example, some common times for me were about as follows: Going to work, 15 minutes. Grocery store, 5 minutes. Larger shopping mall, 30 minutes. The difference is that in the US that time is spent driving, while home it's walking/biking. So my control of my local 4-vector is essentially equivalent, just with a different space scaling factor applied.

<comment><USER25> I can get anywhere in my local city in the time it takes me to jump in my car and drive there. Comparing that with walking to a bus stop and waiting for it to get near my destination is not even remotely close, _and I wouldn't want to even if it was faster_. Talking about speed (while important) ignores the ability to instantly change your plan.

Your experience might work in a closely spaced situation (hence your odd comparison of moving at a magnitude difference velocity), where most people pick the same mall and live close to eachother, but that's not how large countries work.

<comment><USER26> Walking/Biking also allows me to instantly change my plans, even more so than driving does (try turning around instantly in a car). What do you mean "low large countries work"? The absolute size of a country is irrelevant (what New Yorker cares what malls there are in Kentucky?), what matters is population/service density. The US has a 50% larger population density than Sweden, so it should be able to support at least as dense cities and services. The difference not economic or technical, but cultural.

<comment><USER25> It's cultural and technical. We value our time and large KE control. It's also nice being wrapped in steel with airbags. You could ride for an hour, and I could drive for 15min and we have gone the same distance. If we both then change our minds, I need to backtrack 15 min.

Not to mention, try carrying the things I put in my 5700lb car (without any planning) on your bike.

I made the math easy, but it's the same arg if it's 45. The only legit arg I can come up for your point is sometimes I want to run or ride a bike, but in that case, I'm going to avoid roads even if it's 100% 3 cylinders Geo's, or just follow my routine and exercise at the gym since it's more fun than running alone to xyz when I really just need to get something done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> This article talks a lot about child seats... And only mentions the important parts speed bumps, separation of traffic and requirements for driving licenses.

I like speed bumps, bus lock, and round abouts... These features are self- enforcing and violators are punished with swift justice.

When you run over a speed bump too fast, the good old laws of physics will meter out an immediate punishment :)

<comment><USER28> How about just enforcing the speed limit? Speed humps on a road designed for 30 often require slowing to 10. Clearly you have never driven or worked in an ambulance or in emergency services.

<comment><USER27> Fair point... It's not great for emergency services.

But it's great for residential neighborhoods, and city limits.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> We've got our toddler a Hauck seat, and we're very happy with it: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HGH89JI](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HGH89JI)

He moved into it from a baby seat, so he's never regularly used a front-facing seat. He can still see out well enough to see what's going on, and to comment when we don't go the way he's expecting. He's three at the moment, and we fully expect to keep him rear-facing until he's four.

Our older children had to move into a front-facing seats earlier because there wasn't really a choice. But there is now, and I know a couple of other people who have also gone down this route.</comment>


Giving back, the workshop way - <AUTHOR> http://www.kernelmag.com/scene/1495/giving-back-the-workshop-way/

<comment><USER2> I ran two-hour workshops for designers in 2010. Fifteen in all, free to attend, with about 50% non-designer attendance.

<http://vi.to/workshop>

Workshops _are_ a lot of work -- I'd spend 8-16 hours prepping for a two-hour one -- but they're one of the most asked-for types of local events in Austin:

      Presentations by my peers		95	92%
      Panel discussions by my peers		74	72%
      Hands-on workshops			73	71%
      Presentations by companies		60	58%
      "Field trips" to related industries	57	55%
      Happy hours				51	50%
      Social/networking lunches		42	41%
      Panel discussions by companies	42	41%
      Other					 2	 2%

I'm happy to answer questions based on the workshops I held, you can reply to this or email me (contact information in my profile).

<comment><USER3> Hi vitovito,

Thats amazing you ran so many workshops for free. You have my ut most respect as I know how much wok is involved in that!

I'd be interested in any information you could share on how you prepared for all the workshops and what format they took. One thing thats being discussed in Newcastle is weekly workshops, which sounds like _alot_ of work. Are there any short cuts that dont sacrifice the quality of the workshop?

If you want to continue this discussion on twitter I am:

www.twitter.com/byrichardpowell

Of of course here is fine too:-)

Richard

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "What surprised me was how long it took to write the course material. I had planned to spend two days doing this, but it took me closer to five."

Yes, good resources take a long time to produce (I'm a teacher by profession). The article does not state the format of the workshop but I'm guessing one working day, so a five to one ratio isn't so bad.

Anyone any feelings about swapping workshop materials? In the UK there are some grassroots teacher websites where people upload materials and then share in what else is there.

<comment><USER3> Hi Keith,

Yes, you are right, it was a one day workshop. Your comment re swapping resources got me thinking. Prhaps an organisation could help advrtise and run any workshops, then after x amount of time the workshop material becomes public through the organisation.

That wasy the workshop runner gets to make the most of their material, but the material is also spread as far and wide as possible.

Would you mind linking me to any websites for sharing teahing material?

If you wish to take this converstion onto twitter I can be found at:

www.twitter.com/byrichardpowell

richard

<comment><USER4> Hello Richard

I teach basic Maths in the UK. A lot of us use

<http://www.skillsworkshop.org/>

You upload a worksheet or game (granular level, something like 10 or 20 minutes of class time) and the moderator checks it over and classifies it by the level/type. Then it appears as a pdf.

If you upload a lot, you can ask for access to the editable versions of other files. This sort of addresses the 'free ride' problem.

At present, the site is a lot of work for one teacher, but she is recruiting moderators to spread the QA load.

A more commercial example is that run by the Times Educational Supplement (TES, trade paper of teachers over here).

<http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/>

Login required, reputation system in operation.

<comment><USER3> Thats really handy, thanks.

Makes me think there might be a similar format that would work to encourage and make easier running workshops.

Really helpfull,

Thanks

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like the article. I'm kind of at that point in my software development career where I have gained enough confidence in my abilities using particular technologies and frameworks that I feel perhaps it's time to start "giving back." I always immediately turn to blog posts as the way to help... I never think to run a workshop. I've enjoyed sharing my knowledge with the few friends and family that have "tech" interests.

Hmm... any people in the DC area want to meet up and talk about Grails?

<comment><USER3> Hi loeschg.

Thanks so much for your comment. Actually, what your wrote perfectly sums up a point I was trying to get across in the article. I too have reached the point where I want to start giving my knowledge back.

Sharing knowledge is something that's immensely rewarding, whatever form that takes: a chat in a bar, a blog post or a workshop. But, the workshop is by far the most bit of "sharing knowledge" I've ever done.

I wish you good luck finding people to chat about Grails in DC. I'm based in the UK, but if you ever wanna chat over twitter then please gimmie a shout :-)

<https://twitter.com/#!/byrichardpowell>

Richard

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> In Miami via the group I run RefreshMiami we organize workshops like this every so often. We as experienced techies forget that sometimes that initial learning is hard for others or not as common sense as we think.

<comment><USER3> Hi brianbreslin,

When I first started this workshop adventure I was worried that there wouldn't be enough demand for it. In fact quite the opposite. I guess, like you say, I'd forgotten that initial learning is hard for others :-)

I'd be interested to know how you go about organising the workshops at RefreshMiami. One thing I'm painfully aware of is the amount of effort I had to put into the organise the workshop. So any tips on making that easier, and on running semi-regular workshops would be massively apreciated.

Anytime you want to chat on twitter:

<https://twitter.com/#!/byrichardpowell>

:-)

Richard</comment></comment>


I just received my CR-48, now what should I do? - <AUTHOR>

I received my Chrome Notebook from Google this weekend.  I've been playing around with it and put it in developer mode.  Does anyone have anyone know any interesting hacks that people have tried with this computer?  I feel like there is a lot of potential here for a cool project. <comment><USER2> Get GSM up and running using an active SIM Card. Get SubSonic Up and running on a server and access it via Cr48 Try Wiz-help Cloud-in some non existing apps like xmame with tonido If your cr48 is a FISH, open it up and document the inner configuration, I am certain that it is different from the PONY. Find a way to check hardware specs without opening the machine.

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you mean using an active SIM card? I enabled the free 3G data plan with Verizon, if that's what you mean.

What are the different hardwares that my cr48 could be. I was not aware that there are multiple models. Is there some way to check this from the shell?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Me too. The one thing I can't do with it that would be really useful is reading from a USB stick/drive.

Mac OS has already been done and Google themselves give instructions on how to stick Ubuntu on it for replacement or dual boot.

<comment><USER4> you can put the computer in developer mode and access the usb stick from terminal.

<comment><USER3> I've done that - I'd just like to get at it by dragging and dropping files rather than via a console. Lots of people have USB sticks, not so many know their way around BASH. Almost every PC has a USB connector, but it's not so unusual to encounter older ones that don't have wifi or be in some place without a good signal. In these cases it's hard to transfer data onto the CR-48 for later upload to the cloud.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I would love to see a hacker news CR-48 User group. I feel that hacker news played a big role in me getting one.

<comment><USER5> Can you elaborate how? I ask selfishly, but it would be interesting to know.

I have a hunch that one of the main reasons I wasn't sent one was because I said I use Firefox instead of Chrome -- I thought that lying would be a bad idea, even if they never found out.

<comment><USER6> I had that hunch too (of course, pure speculation). Coincidently, I've now moved to Chrome primarily anyways.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Quite frankly, I would love to have my social networking done here instead of other places.

</comment><comment><USER2> when you are done, come here <http://www.reddit.com/r/CR48/> and document your results.

</comment><comment><USER7> you can install Mac OS X on it :-)

</comment><comment><USER8> See if you can install a Linux distro.</comment>


Lapis Lazuli: A Blue More Precious Than Gold - <AUTHOR> https://hyperallergic.com/315564/lapis-lazuli-a-blue-more-precious-than-gold/ <comment><USER2> So now we make PB29 (ultramarine) synthetically, and you can get tubes of ultramarine paint for around $5 for 250 ml of the stuff! This is purer than any artist could have gotten back then!

We also manufacturer other synthetic pigments such as PB15:3 (Phthalo Blue), and PR122 (Quinacridone Magenta) which are far superior than anything historically. Phthalo blue in particular is one of the strongest tinting colors in an artists pallet and is so cheap to manufacture.

Occasionally colors get discontinued, as was the case with Quin Gold (PO49). This is as artists are a secondary market, and when an industry stops needing a pigment, the few artists that use it have no influence. Watercolors for instance come in tiny 5ml tubes!

There is also some confusion about pigments created by the art supply companies. Classical colors such as 'yellow ochre' and 'burnt sienna' get replaced with modern pigments such as PR101.

Golden is very good at labeling paints. Winsor and Newton and Royal Talens... not so much!

[https://www.justpaint.org/sorry-wrong-umber- part-i/](https://www.justpaint.org/sorry-wrong-umber-part-i/)

I love geeking out over this stuff.

Appendix: You want to start painting acrylics? Get the following:

      Cadmium Yellow Light / Cadmium Lemon (PY35)
      Cadmium Yellow Deep (Make sure single pigment) (PY35)
      Cadmium Red Light (PR108)
      Quin Magenta / Quin Rose (PR122)
      Ultramarine Blue (PB29)
      Phthalo Blue (PB15:3)
      Titanium White (PW6)
      Ivory Black (Pbk9)
      Burnt Sienna (PBr7)

<comment><USER3> I'm finding this fascinating, any other good links to learn about this kind of thing?

<comment><USER2> The other fascinating thing is light-fastness. PR83 (Alizarin Crimson) is a cool red (purple facing), and is recommended by many art teachers...

It's also objectively shit as a pigment. It is not light-fast at all, and fades after only a few months.

[https://www.justpaint.org/alizarin-crimson-now-you-see- it/](https://www.justpaint.org/alizarin-crimson-now-you-see-it/)

Yet art teachers continue to recommend it. Nowadays most companies sell it as a 'Hue'. That is a mixture of more light-fast paints designed to emulate the original, but some companies sell 'Alizarin Crimson Genuine', which is still recommended by academics to this day.

Other fugitive colors include aureolin and chrome yellow. The later of which was used by Van Gogh and has caused his paintings to fade irreversibly.

[https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i5/Van-Goghs-Fading- Colors-I...](https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i5/Van-Goghs-Fading-Colors- Inspire.html)

<comment><USER3> Thanks, I'm going to read myself into a coma tonight.

<comment><USER4> > ... read myself into a coma

is this a common phrase or regular expression? American or British english?

I do this all the time, and when I start to feel like I'm going to crash, I force myself until I'm close to the next deep insight (like when you see a set of equations slowly taking a certain shape and you think "ok, I think I see where this is going") and stop reading there and then, go to sleep, and the next morning ... the very first thing I think about is finishing that train of thought... It somehow helps me remember the information better, I don't know why but uf I had to take a guess: when we expose ourself to information we aren't wondering about, our brain does not perceive it as important, while if you set up the experience as a cliffhanger, you trick your brain into pondering the unfinished train of thought, both as you try to fall asleep and the moment you wake up and realize you want to finish the train of thought... it's like you get to pick one low effort memorizable deep insight per day (you could reach more during the day, but those require higher level of effort, and don't reside in the uncertain or pondering phase long enough to subconsciously gain importance, we remember our big breakthroughs not our smaller ones, and when you know you will read the answer in a few seconds your brain exerts less effort in pondering the questionn)

<comment><USER5> I don't know about common, but it just follows the pattern of "drink oneself into a stupor".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One of the oldest exemplars of the use of lapis lazuli is "Ram in the Thicket", a pair of statues that date back to sometime between 2600-2400 BC. [0][1][2]. They're extremely intricate and, unfortunately, photographs don't do them justice. One of the pair is at the University of Pennsylvania and the other is at the British Museum.

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

[1] [https://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collect...](https://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=368265&partId=1)

[2] [https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bi...](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=912&ei=8_lJXIK9KOOqggeTwr_gBw&q=ram+in+the+thicket&oq=ram+in+the+thicket&gs_l=img.3..0j0i24l8.518.5642..5960...2.0..1.232.1485.17j2j1......0....1..gws- wiz-img.....0..0i5i30j0i10i24.zGUWPkA6_v4)

</comment><comment><USER7> It's kind of funny how much your perception of old art changes once you know about the value of the blue pigment. If you don't know, the Scrovegni Chapel is just a very blue chapel. If you do, it becomes a ridiculous display of wealth.

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

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47QgqdeSi0U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47QgqdeSi0U)

</comment><comment><USER8> Just heard an interesting story[1] on NPR recently about scientists who were studying teeth in medieval skeletons and found Lapis Lazuli in a woman's teeth. This led them to the hypothesis that she was a scribe and that the residue in her teeth came from her putting a paint brush in her mouth.

The upshot of the article is about rethinking the traditional notion that all/most scribes in the middle ages were merry old monks. But they do describe what Lapis Lazuli is and what it was used for back then.

[1] [https://www.npr.org/sections/health- shots/2019/01/09/6832839...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health- shots/2019/01/09/683283982/a-blue-clue-in-medieval-teeth-may-bespeak-a-womans- artistry-circa-1-000-a-d)

</comment><comment><USER9> How successful in industry are these "please subscribe" popups that come up after about 5 seconds?

Does anyone _really_ subscribe? Is the conversion rate really significantly greater than about 0%? I have never once put my email address into the box and have a hard time imagining anyone doing so -- yet these popup boxes persist.

<comment><USER10> Very.

Our email signups jumped by ~10% when we started using them. And the bounce rate increase was negligible.

I despise them as much as you do, but they work.

<comment><USER11> I've actually come to the conclusion that we have people come to our website just to get the popup to subscribe to our newsletter. I blows my mind. However, I've known for a while that it is a mistake to think that my views are representative of normal people ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I always wanted to read a book on the history of pigments and other artist supplies from a chemistry perspective. In particular, how they were found, isolated and used.

<comment><USER6> Try "Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Colour" by Phillip Ball. [0]. If you're just interested in the colour blue there's also "Blue: The History of a Color" by Michel Pastoureau [1]. The Pastoureau book is more of an overview of art history than a discussion of the history underlying the discovery of the pigment itself.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Earth-Art-Invention- Color/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Earth-Art-Invention- Color/dp/0226036286)

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Blue-History-Color-Michel- Pastoureau/...](https://www.amazon.com/Blue-History-Color-Michel- Pastoureau/dp/0691090505)

<comment><USER12> Oh cool I will check those out for sure thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I cannot read about lapis without being reminded of this tidbit:

"In the middle of the room, set into the lapis lazuli floor, is the foundation stone of the Home of FIFA."

[https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/home-of-fifa/fifa- headquarte...](https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/home-of-fifa/fifa- headquarters.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> I've heard that one of the reasons that ancient paintings kept their colors for so long is because they got them from grinding up the stones like Lapis. Not sure how they make the modern colors but apparently they fade a lot faster. Some of these older paintings are hundreds of years old and still look fresh, which is pretty impressive.

</comment><comment><USER15> I recommend the song Lazuli by the band Beach House very much.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvwl7INZykc](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvwl7INZykc)

</comment><comment><USER4> Lapis Lazuli also plays a big role in the film "Land of the Enlightened" where you get to see kids run the show for once :)

</comment><comment><USER16> Interesting article but the article does not say how much was Lapis Lazuli was worth vs gold. The author gets away with "... often prized over gold...". If Lapis Lazuli was valued only once over gold in its entire history, then statement is true, which isn't really useful info. Click-bait title much?</comment>


Quick Explore of the Ello API - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/conatus/cc665f917d5558c123bc

<comment><USER2> What the heck is the big deal with Ello, anyway? It's just another social network by a private company, and one that isn't even complete.</comment>


Belarus finally bans Tor - <AUTHOR> https://ooni.torproject.org/post/belarus-fries-onion/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me of a paper I read recently about the techniques that China employs to block Tor and other anonymity servers.

Great read, especially the annotated version: [http://fermatslibrary.com/s/examining-how-the-great- firewall...](http://fermatslibrary.com/s/examining-how-the-great-firewall- discovers-hidden-circumvention-servers)

<comment><USER3> I found a PDF version for those interested: [http://conferences.sigcomm.org/imc/2015/papers/p445.pdf](http://conferences.sigcomm.org/imc/2015/papers/p445.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder about the first RST with zeros in the sequence and acknowledge fields. Probably just bad software but if it is always the first RST it could be a sort of canary such that people in the "know" could note the malformed reset and pre-program a 'ignore RST this session' bit.

<comment><USER5> I guess they had to custom build a solution for this and screwed it up. The weird thing is that it seems like this should have been caught in testing. Unless it is a form of silent protest from the hapless programmers forced to write this oppression aid. Might even be some IOCCC level trickery at play here where it works in testing and with official IP addresses, but doesn't work for the majority of the population.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is it possible for anyone to share the full text of the post for those of use behind a great firewall?

Edit: thanks!

<comment><USER7> [https://web.archive.org/web/20161208223355/https://ooni.torp...](https://web.archive.org/web/20161208223355/https://ooni.torproject.org/post/belarus- fries-onion/)

Hope you still have access to archive.org ;)

<comment><USER8> My corp firewall is blocking it for "Cache/Proxy" :p

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Coming soon to a jurisdiction near you!

<comment><USER10> Yup, UK next.

<comment><USER9> Race you

edit: in the interests of clarification, this means I expect to see attacks on Tor within the US before the UK.

<comment><USER11> The US is too busy using TOR as a honeypot and offensive weapon to shut down access.

TOR actually amplifies the asymmetry betweem the NSA and smaller actors: the NSA by owning the whole network can easily break it, but it prevents smaller players from getting the same access.

Of course, the FBI seem to routinely compromise TOR sites they don't like.

<comment><USER12> Usually via traditional investigative means.

<comment><USER13> And then they exploit Firefox bugs to drop phone-home malware on users. _But_ so far, it's only been Windows malware :) And it relies on bypassing Tor's socks proxy.

<comment><USER14> If you truly wanted anonymity why wouldn't you buy a $35 raspberry pi and stuff it between your computer and the internet and route all traffic through it through tor? Too many zero days out there in browsers, flash, java, office not to mention configuration slip ups that could nullify your tor protection.

<comment><USER15> _" buy a $35 raspberry pi and stuff it between your computer and the internet and route all traffic through it through tor? Too many zero days out there in browsers, flash, java, office"_

How does Raspberry Pi help here? If it routes traffic at IP level, it will be transparent at an application level. Firewall/IDS won't help against zero days either.

<comment><USER16> It's trivial to use iptables to block all traffic except to the SOCKS proxy port on Tor, or even forcibly redirect it all through Tor directly using the transparent proxying support.

<comment><USER15> You can do all that on a host PC as well. I still don't see what additional layer of security Raspberry Pi adds here. Or am I missing something?

<comment><USER17> The idea is that even if the host PC is pwned the Pi will still route the traffic from it via Tor.

<comment><USER18> If the host PC is pwned then it can still disclose useful information about itself (files, Geo locations, mac addresses) - it will just be routed over TOR.

<comment><USER13> True. So it must not contain anything that's associated with you, in any way. Buy with cash. No geolocation data. Dedicated LAN. No sneaker net sharing. Compartmentalization.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I know very little of networking but I assume to perform a TCP reset injection attack, the ISP would need to rely on the IP address of the public onion routers. Now, why do they play around with the reset flag instead of just simply swallowing the packets directed at a tor router?

<comment><USER20> Because effectively blocking packets at requires supervising all routes through which they might escape (i.e., managing a lot of dynamic rules on a lot of very critical routers), whereas injecting forged packets only requires one little box.

Kinda like the Berlin Wall. Easier to shoot people attempting to cross than hermetically seal the entire border.

<comment><USER21> I don't quite follow. You can't inject an RST packet unless you know someone is trying to connect to a Tor node, so you still need to supervise all the routes, right?

<comment><USER22> Difference is I can do traffic analysis and RST generation over lots of machines (if it gets slow, worst case my RST gets there late). Changing routes/forwarding table action has to happen on machine moving large data, in real time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Funnily enough I can read the comments here but my employer's filtering proxy (Blue Coat) blocked the torproject.org ;-)

</comment><comment><USER24> Why "finally"?

From a quick search it seems a shot at Belarus' desire to ban Tor back in 2015 but only now achieving it.

<comment><USER25> That's the point. The article itself mentions that Belarus had officially ratified (not implemented) a law blocking Tor in February 2015, but only now is it actually being implemented.

<comment><USER24> Sorry, I missed that although it's in the very first line.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Opening this website in Chrome on my Android device gives me the "ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID" error.

Checking the certificate details, I found out that the certificate is issued to the organization "OpenDNS, Inc." I use OpenDNS's family safety DNS.

I don't think that TOR is owned by OpenDNS. Is it possibly that OpenDNS is MITMing me like previously Avast was reported? But how is that possible? I don't have any OpenDNS software installed that could change certificates.

</comment><comment><USER27> They are late. Turkey already did it few weeks ago.

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm from Belarus.

Belarus laws and politics had been for a long time a playground for Russia. Kinda "before implementing it for all users in production, let's try it on a smaller audience to see if it works or not."

So this ban is mostly an exercise for Russia, to get some experience.

<comment><USER29> I'm from Belarus too. Consider the above a fantasy.

<comment><USER30> By the way, it it legal to _use_ Tor in Belarus? Is it correct, that Tor should be blocked by ISPs, but user can't be punished for circumvention?

That's my understanding of the document [http://www.pravo.by/main.aspx?guid=12551&p0=T21503059&p1=1&p...](http://www.pravo.by/main.aspx?guid=12551&p0=T21503059&p1=1&p5=0)

<comment><USER29> That's my understanding too of the situation too. Thanks for the link, BTW.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Wall Street Journal is actually praising Belarus: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/belarus-is-emerging-as-the- silic...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/belarus-is-emerging-as-the-silicon- valley-of-eastern-europe-1481032802)

<comment><USER2> When I read your comment it made it seem like the WSJ was praising Belarus for banning Tor, which is not the case. (at least from reading the portion of the article that is not behind a paywall)

<comment><USER32> Do a google search for the article title and click the WSJ search result and you'll be able to view without the paywall.

But yeah, no mention of TOR in that article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Got me thinking about hidden communication techniques using DNS queries or ICMP as the "transport" layer. That would confuse the hell out of everyone :P

<comment><USER15> Both techniques are known and have effective counter-measurements. While it might work for a while, as soon as such "exotic" solutions get more widespread, it can be banned and filtered too (just few more rules to firewalls/IDs). China is a great example of this mouse&cat game.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Could they use remote relays still?

<comment><USER35> You probably _could_ do all kinds of things, but is it worth the risk of getting jailed?

<comment><USER36> Depends on how serious the risk is. You run the risk of "getting jailed" for all kinds of minor crimes that people routinely commit. Are people actually going to get arrested for trying to use Tor? I don't think that's very plausible. You could pretty easily claim it was malware trying to make the connection and you don't know anything about it.

<comment><USER37> Yeah, you could claim that. Then, they search your computer and find no traces of malware but they find a copy of the Tor Browser Bundle. Now what?

Besides, law enforcement never just "takes your word for it". I've got a lot of friends in law enforcement and -- as far as "suspects" go -- they'll pretty much (attempt to) verify every claim you make.

<comment><USER36> Plausible deniability/difficulty of conviction means that LEOs rarely pursue cases where that would apply. I agree once they open an investigation, they'll verify the claim; I'm saying that crimes that have high acquittal rates and/or low prosecutorial uptake will get less attention from the police because it's frustrating/difficult/wasteful to spend a lot of time on things that don't usually pan out.

I don't know how the system works in Belarus so I understand it may not really matter there. The point is that it's going to be difficult to prove that the accused made an intentional connection to Tor as long as the accused and/or his/her lawyer has some technical literacy and knows what to say.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Can someone please explain the "fried potatoes are better with onion"? Is this an in-joke? A secret key? Many potatoes, -l

<comment><USER39> From wikipedia: In the Soviet Union, Belarusians were sometimes called bulbashi, a pejorative conjugation of the Belarusian word for potato.

<comment><USER40> Funny, I was just reading about how non-German residents of Germany use "Kartoffel" (potato) as a perjorative for Germans in Germany. I didn't realize "potato" was such an effective insult it would exist in another country too!

<comment><USER41> In Dutch we say aardappel (earth apple; means potato) to stupid people, not Germans in particular as far as I knew. It might originate from that, I don't know.

 _Wat een aardappel!_ "What a dummy!"

<comment><USER42> I've never said that.

<comment><USER43> You're 20, he's 45. Or he's even more of a nerd than you.

<comment><USER41> Nah, that saying isn't nerdy, just wait for the UDP jokes...

(... which nobody gets.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> I thought we aren't supposed to talk politics on HN anymore..

<comment><USER45> What a terrible decision that was. Glad it was reversed. It never would've worked.

<comment><USER46> It did work. The "decision" was to try changing the rules for a short time to see what we could learn by doing so, and we learned a lot. We ended it early because (a) the learning stabilized and (b) there were costs to continuing.

It's strange to me that so many people heard "just for a week" as "forever" and are continuing to comment as if those mean the same thing. The internet is weird.

<comment><USER47> Will you be making a "Tell HN" saying the experiment has ended with your thoughts? Are you okay replying to comments by users who do not know the experiment has ended?

I would be comparing a) data after the first announcement b) data after your comment in an unrelated thread saying the experiement is over c) data after the week is over and d) data after you write the promised lessons learnt post.

<comment><USER46> Yes, we decided to try distributing the info in the threads and see how well that works. So far it seems to be working well, because (a) there aren't that many such comments (as of a few minutes ago there aren't any that haven't been replied to), and (b) nearly all of them are now getting replied to correctly before we even see them. Together with the fact that HN has gone back to approximately normal re political stories and flagging, that makes me believe the information is working its way through.

Making an announcement a la Tell HN doesn't necessarily disseminate information. In this case it would almost certainly turn into a huge rehash of the original argument, with new information getting drowned out in the process. There are so many counterintutive effects to this, and we're still learning--indeed I feel like we're still taking baby steps. Turning up the volume definitely doesn't necessarily turn up the communication.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> We are talking about a political ban, on politics detox week. Why is this thread still here?

I see nothing about security or routing technology, just reportage on the actions of a government - politics.

<comment><USER49> The week-long experiment was terminated early. See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13133855](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13133855)

<comment><USER47> And yet it's almost as if there's been no announcement of this and people still think it's going on. I wonder what the flagging behaviour is?

<comment><USER46> Sorry I didn't see this earlier (your comment defeated my search queries). Flagging behavior appears to have returned to normal surprisingly quickly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> up next: your country too

<comment><USER46> Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN.</comment></comment>


Python 3.4.0 released - <AUTHOR> https://www.python.org/download/releases/3.4.0/ <comment><USER2> Funny, the pathlib functionality is really similar to a saturday morning hack that I was playing with a few months ago.

Pathlib, asyncio, unicode default, bundled pip and venv...

I do like the look of Python3. It's looking a lot more interesting, the further along it gets. I still haven't really done anything with it, due to python2 being bundled with our OSX and Linux workstations, which means painless installs. This year, however, I do want to start porting my projects over to Python3 (well, making them run on both, at least...)

<comment><USER3> What surprised me is that after a long time with string based path libs, Java and Python are now moving onto oo based ones. I wonder how many other languages already had abstractions for this (smalltalk ? ruby?).

<comment><USER4> Do the docs worry you?

"Note This module has been included in the standard library on a provisional basis. Backwards incompatible changes (up to and including removal of the package) may occur if deemed necessary by the core developers."

[http://docs.python.org/3.4/library/pathlib.html](http://docs.python.org/3.4/library/pathlib.html)

<comment><USER5> Actually, there are incompatible changes ALREADY that affect all my projects.

pathlib in python3 has ".parent" property that returns parent-directory, and pathlib in master has ".parent(n)" method that returns n levels UP.

That sucks so much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It makes me slightly sad that the median routine just sorts the data, and looks at the middle. I was hoping for quickselect, which uses 4N comparisons in the average case.

[http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/161/960125.html](http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/161/960125.html)

or maybe Blum, Floyd, Pratt, Rivest, and Tarjan if you're being fancy, which is 24N comparisons in the worst case (but more than 4N for the average case).

[http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/161/960130.html](http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/161/960130.html)

<comment><USER7> I'm sure patches would be accepted as there's no reason the implementation of the function has to remain identical over releases.

<comment><USER6> I haven't got time at the moment, but I would consider contributing an implementation in the long run, if no one else does by then. It just shouldn't be O(n log(n)) when it doesn't have to be.

<comment><USER8> I've just spent the morning implementing various "faster" median algorithms, and it seems that constant factors, function call overhead (for recursive quickselects), etc make all alternative approaches quite slow. The sort-then- select approach is pretty damn fast, especially since I also think / am pretty sure sorted() is implemented in C...

So far I've tried median-of-medians, recursive quickselect, iterative quickselect tracking indices and partitioning in place, and heapq.nlargest. The implementation in Python 3.4.0 is both cleaner/easier to read and faster than anything I can make by an order of magnitude for 10,000 element lists. I'm sure someone else here can do better than me, but (s)he'd have a hard time beating CPython, imo.

<comment><USER7> Not only is sorting a Python list implemented in C, the algorithm was sufficiently impressive to be picked up by Java for non-primitives: [http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/tl/jdk/rev/bfd7abda8f79](http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/tl/jdk/rev/bfd7abda8f79)

The reason it's for non-primitives is because it's optimized for sorting lists where comparison is relatively expensive , such as the dereferencing Python does on every item and Java does for non-primitive items.

Thanks for putting the effort in and testing it! Very interesting results.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Asyncio sounds promising, does anyone with more knowledge know whether it comes close to Go channels?

Go channels are the only experience I have with concurrent programming, but when I understood them it quickly became second nature to create everything using channels. Can techniques like websockets be used now as cleanly as in Go?

<comment><USER10> They aren't like channels. If you want something like channels, try out greenlets for CPython, Stackless Python (a modified version of CPython) or pypy.

<comment><USER11> I suspect that you could easily implement channels on top of asyncio - goroutines = coroutines, hide the yield-from inside 'send', select = asyncio.wait(return_when=FIRST_COMPLETED).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nice to see single-dispatch generic functions coming to the standard library. That will help making some pieces of code simpler and more readable.

<comment><USER13> Here's a good explanation of this technique: [http://julien.danjou.info/blog/2013/python-3.4-single- dispat...](http://julien.danjou.info/blog/2013/python-3.4-single-dispatch- generic-function)

<comment><USER14> If I understand the PEP right, this explanation is missing the part where it's only useful to extend abstract classes; python classes are open so you can just add a method to a concrete class to get single-dispatch if that's all you need. I don't think the example given needs generics at all.

<comment><USER15> >python classes are open so you can just add a method to a concrete class to get single-dispatch if that's all you need.

Except then your method shares a namespace with all the other methods defined on the class, which is ugly, and can cause clashes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Wow, pip bundled by default. Very interesting.

<comment><USER17> Having pip and venv bundled with the standard distribution is convenient.

<comment><USER18> Doesnt including those in distribution slows the pace at which they'll be developed and released?

<comment><USER19> It's just bundled, meaning it's still developed externally. In fact, 3.4.1 will include a newer pip version.

<comment><USER20> Assuming we've released a newer version of pip when 3.4.1 is released :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It's time for me to switch to python3! btw, I can't wait for the matrix multiplication operator which might be released in python3.5.

</comment><comment><USER22> Glad to see customizable memory allocators made it in. Now if we could only take it up a notch and allow the run time to assign custom allocators on individual objects I could implement something like CCL's _WATCH_ [0] for Python objects which would make debugging multi-threaded code much easier.

Congrats to the python-core team and thanks to everyone for another great release!

[0] [http://ccl.clozure.com/ccl-documentation.html#watched- object...](http://ccl.clozure.com/ccl-documentation.html#watched-objects)

<comment><USER23> tldr; 'watchpoints' in python can do this already(since before clojure existed), but it's not built into standard pdb.

You could do the allocator yourself with a custom allocator easily. Just inspect the object type or object id, and in your meta allocator select the correct allocator.

I'm not sure how that would help you with a CCL style WATCH though...

pdb, with set_trace or conditions on breakpoints could let you WATCH individual objects. Search google for watchpoints.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Good to see that the internal hash function has been replaced with SipHash. It took quite a while for Python to decide to not try to tweak their own hash function/PRF. Now Python is on par with Ruby and Perl.

[http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0456/](http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0456/)

</comment><comment><USER25> That statistics module makes me happy too

</comment><comment><USER26> ...and Google App Engine still uses 2.7

<comment><USER27> Are any plans for Python 3.x on GAE known?

Speculation: A Python 3.x runtime might be the mystery annoucement promised for the Google Cloud Platform Live event on March 25. Unless it's a Node runtime?

<comment><USER28> my $$ is on a node runtime, assuming google is interested in increasing the # of people that use it. python 3 would be nice but it probably wont get people interested like node would.

<comment><USER27> Agreed. However, Node doesn't really fit their request based abstraction as Node assumes to have a long running server that holds things in memory (like Socket.io connections). But I haven't really used Node enough to make statements like this, so correct me if I'm wrong.

<comment><USER28> that sounds about right. I wasn't thinking about it from the technical end. I was just speculating the business angle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> So is Python 3.4 a good starting option for a newbie to learn coding or should I stick to 2.7 considering all the courses are still using 2.7?

<comment><USER30> I find 3.4 much easier to use, personally.

I've written several production apps in it, and the unicode fixes in particular are a much easier, as well as little things like being able to do enums.

Ultimately, they really aren't all that different- I think the differences tend to be overblown somewhat on HN.

If the course/teacher you like only teaches using 2.7, learn that. You can pick up the changes from 2.7->3.4 on your own pretty easily once you know the basic language.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> When there's a release with a bullet item saying "Full compatibility with 2.7 libraries" I'll get interested.

</comment><comment><USER32> Cool. I love Python, but it's really going to be a decade before this interpreter is used in production by anyone.

<comment><USER33> I find it hard to think of anything that doesn't run on Python3 by now. The only thing that's still good about Python2 is that it's much faster. I always hope for a release that addresses that.

<comment><USER34> Twisted is a pretty big dependency. The entire stack that I work on depends heavily on Twisted, and we use a lot of it, so until it's ready on Pyhon 3, it'll be hard for us to move.

We also depend on Paramiko, which is also red on the WOS.

<comment><USER19> 1.13, released on 2014-03-14, does support Python 3. It's just someone must have forgotten to update PyPI metadata to indicate so.

<comment><USER34> Ah, that's good news about Paramiko.

Twisted is a bit of a bigger matter. A lot of the Python 3 tasks have been closed, but it's a pretty big beast, with lots of corners for bugs to hide in.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Glenn Beck: Don't Move to Canada. Talk to the Other Side - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/opinion/glenn-beck-dont-move-to-canada-talk-to-the-other-side.html <comment><USER2> From the article, Glenn Beck says:

> "Yet, I still go to church, sometimes with a gun."

I don't know why but, that somehow chills me to the core. As a former religious person. I'm so glad I got out American Christianity. It feels insane.

The rest of the article is actually quite sane and rational. I can be wrong but, it reads as if Glenn Beck had a chance to see himself and calm down. He realizes that his rhetoric got him nowhere. Obama wasn't as bad as he had feared. Trump won't be as bad as people fear.

I find myself agreeing with Glenn Beck as we prepare for a Donald Trump presidency. What a time to be alive.

-edited formatting for clarity

<comment><USER3> He has a lot to answer for. He doesn't get a free pass on his past just for spouting some redemption rhetoric.

<comment><USER4> What does a non-free pass look like, then? How do we reconcile with the people on the far end of the political spectrum?

<comment><USER5> A non-free pass would mean Beck actually took responsibility for his actions and apologized rather than than attempt to excuse himself with false equivalence.

Let's be clear, he baselessly demonized Obama's presidency while the man was actively trying to reach across the aisle and even brought numerous Republicans into his administration. Beck fed lies and hate to incite an angry mob, and was a key player in the last eight years of the bitterest partisan divide and obstruction that we've experienced in the modern era. And now he's minimizing Trump's vile words and actions -- arguably a direct product of the climate Beck helped create -- because somehow Beck's own insane apocalyptic fantasies about Obama should normalize them? That is the furthest thing from an apology. It's a gross insult to anyone familiar with the facts, a cynical attempt to abdicate his personal responsibility, and attempts to mainstream the worst of Trump's behavior.

No. What Glenn Beck is doing right now is just pandering to his own audience that he was at risk of losing entirely if he didn't eventually fall in line with Trump.

<comment><USER3> Oh, but he did apologize. Three weeks ago:

[http://www.glennbeck.com/2016/10/19/glenn-apologizes-for- bei...](http://www.glennbeck.com/2016/10/19/glenn-apologizes-for-being-a- catastrophist-were-scaring-the-hell-out-of-the-children/)

<comment><USER5> I wonder whether you actually read the article you linked, because here's how he tries to shift the blame and deny his own accountability:

>Now, I've got people on the left accusing me of creating Donald Trump. And I'm like, "But I'm against Donald Trump. I warned against a guy like Donald Trump." Well, you created the conditions that grew Donald Trump. "No, I didn't. I think it was the government — both parties that weren't listening to the people, that the people got so frustrated they wanted to burn the whole thing down."

And here's the only thing he apologizes for -- a bullshit non-apology for tone rather than substance:

> And so I've been ringing that bell. And I've been telling you, "This is > going to end in disaster. It's going to end in disaster." No exits left. > There's a cliff coming. That's what I want to apologize for. I still believe > that: there's a cliff coming. But that is such a hopeless message that I can > barely survive. And it's because I have gazed upon the problems. That which > you gaze upon, you become.

I'm not going to waste more time debating this, because there's literally nothing to debate. Beck did tremendous damage to the political discourse, and he's never owned up to to it. And what he's doing now to normalize Trump's dangerous behavior is only making the situation worse.

<comment><USER6> I realize you don't want to debate, and I don't either (based on what you've written in this thread, I mostly agree with you). But, I've been listening to the guy on the radio for the last 2 years and I feel like I've heard this change/realization slowly happening over these 2 years. I never saw the guy on TV, and didn't even know who he was until South Park parodied him in 2010. He still has work to do (obviously), and I just think it is best to have these discussions with people so that more empathy prevails in our country. We just need less hate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> So - if you go insane and then insane once more you sound almost normal. Seems like Glenn Beck is the Bursar from the unseen university.

Of course there is the little problem with trying to explain away his sins instead of atoning for them.

You were spearhead, the Scaremonger in Chief of Fox News that frenzied the Tea Party. Admit it and own it.

<comment><USER4> I'm assuming you saw the name and the title and assumed a great deal about the article, which I admit I did as well, but I recommend giving it a read. He directly addresses the divisive nature of the two party system and the equal responsibility both parties have in bringing it about.

It's clearly Glenn Beck's attempt to open up a meaningful dialog between the warring parties, both politically and personally. It's something we're all going to have to do, or all of the great evils we fear will arise from this election's results may truly come about.

And it absolutely must start by not seeking out a label, or a quote, or some ad hominem reason to outright dismiss someone before you've heard them out.

<comment><USER7> I totally read the article. i said he sounds almost reasonable. But that does not erase his body of work in the 2008-2012 years. You cannot make yourself rich with Fox dough and then - oh well, we must unite, when you are probably guilty for 8 to 10% of that division.

<comment><USER4> Honestly, who better? He has a following, people who know and respect him as a Conservative leader. How else do you propose getting that message of unity out to a Conservative audience?

Besides that, if a person sees the error of their ways, is truly remorseful, and seeks to correct those errors, who are we to stand in their way? If Glenn Beck wants to start preaching respect, unity across ideological barriers, and social progress, then by all means I welcome him.

There's been a lot of hurt in this country lately, and if we can learn to forgive people instead of punishing them then we'll all be much better off.</comment></comment></comment></comment>