French hospital discovers Covid-19 case from December - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/french-hospital-discovers-covid-19-case-december-retested <comment><USER2> I am not surprised, knowing that[1]:

> As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that > a contagion was sweeping through China's Wuhan region, changing the patterns > of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to > four sources briefed on the secret reporting.

> Concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were > detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center > for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with > the document's contents.

> The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, > coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control > disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that > depend on the NCMI's work.

[1] [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report- warned-c...](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report-warned- coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources/story?id=70031273)

<comment><USER3> The ABC News article was deemed "not correct":

 _" As a matter of practice the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists," Colonel Dr. R. Shane Day, director of the National Center for Medical Intelligence, said._

Quoted here a few paragraphs down:

[https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/intel-agencies- covid...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/intel-agencies-covid- november/index.html)

<comment><USER2> It was separately confirmed to be correct two days later by NBC News[1]:

> U.S. spy agencies collected raw intelligence hinting at a public health > crisis in Wuhan, China, in November, two current and one former U.S. > official told NBC News, but the information was not understood as the first > warning signs of an impending global pandemic.

> On Wednesday night, the Defense Department disputed an ABC News report that > an "intelligence report" had warned about the coronavirus in November.

> But the current and former officials told NBC News that while no formal > assessment was produced in November — and hence no "intelligence product," > in the jargon of the spy agencies — there was intelligence that caught the > attention of public health analysts and fueled formal assessments that were > written in December.

[1] [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s- spy-a...](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-spy-agencies- collected-raw-intel-hinting-public-health-n1180646)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Talking about Covid, France is one strange outlier. Something is happening with their numbers.

<comment><USER5> What do you mean?

<comment><USER6> pvaldes explains this in another Hacker News discussion: see pvaldes post that starts with

 _" We have a single virus, but it does not behave the same."_

in pvaldes profile at:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pvaldes](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pvaldes)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Maybe. More likely a false positive? Hopefully they repeated and followed up with tests from other providers to confirm.

<comment><AUTHOR> From the article:

> Each sample was retested several times to ensure that there were no errors, > he added

<comment><USER7> I still think a contaminated sample is more likely, all else being equal. Not saying this is impossible, but would like to see at least a few other cases this early. If this patient had not been to China then there must be some.

And if this turns out to be a true positive then it indicates the virus is so contagious that it spread that far and wide, that quickly, that overall infection must be much more widespread than is thought.

<comment><USER8> His wife worked together with people from China.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Nine Billion Names of God  - <AUTHOR> http://downlode.org/Etext/nine_billion_names_of_god.html <comment><USER2> You know, when I first read this story years ago, I thought it was great and quite clever. I must confess that rereading it now, it strikes me as really dumb. Not only does Clarke spend the interminable first part of the story in crude exposition—'Surely you mean two!' 'I mean three. But that's not important right now.'—but the very premise of the story—there's these Tibetan monks, who have invented a special alphabet and are writing all the permutations of the name of God in order to bring an end to the universe—is completely at odds with any fact about Buddhism you care to mention. Which is particularly depressing considering that three years after the writing of this story, he would move to, and spend the rest of his life in, one of the most Buddhist countries on Earth.

It might seem like I'm nitpicking, but when you have a little story like this whose basically only propositional content is, 'What if a computer made the universe disappear after it completed a mathematically intensive religious task,' the specifics that you overlay become awfully important.

<comment><USER3> Friend, the point of the story is that no matter how rational or scientific your views may be, they are still based on assumptions that are beyond any human verification. That fact should open our imaginations to some very remarkable possibilities.

<comment><USER3> My first downvote to zero! with no explanation why the comment is stupid / offensive . . . .

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> For a more mind-bending perspective of permutations, look at Jorge Luis Borges. In particular, _The Library of Babel_ [1] and _The Lottery of Babylon_ [2].

These two stories are a bit like HP Lovecraft for mathematicians and computer scientists. What starts with a simple premise turns out to lead to an ever- unfolding sense of dread as the story approaches the consequences of infinity.

 _Babylon_ deals with probability directly, _Babel_ deals with the concept of permutations. Some people say that _Babel_ is outdated in the modern world but I disagree -- the fundamental problems still exist. The library is a platonic version of the "document-verse", just as the lottery is a platonic version of ordinary life.

I thoroughly recommend these stories and all others by the same author to hackers. Be prepared to be deep in thought for some time afterwards.

As for Arthur C Clarke, my favourite story of his was _The Food of the Gods_. Wonderfully paced and very funny.

(edit: linked to better-formatted version of _Babel_ )

[1] <http://simonsarris.com/lit/library-of-babel> [2] [http://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/faculty/armstrong/cityofdreams/t...](http://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/faculty/armstrong/cityofdreams/texts/babylon.html)

<comment><USER5> I went and read _The Library of Babel_ and was a lot less impressed than I'd expected to be. It describes a library world in which all possible n-character strings from a 22-letter alphabet, for large n, are written in books. This has _very_ low information content -- I could write a program to print the library's contents in a few lines of code -- so I don't see what the big deal is. (I'm using the Kolmogorov complexity definition of information content here, which I think is the most useful.)

Any filing system which can precisely specify any given book from the Library must contain within each specification (on average) exactly as much information as a given random sequence of n characters -- the catalog numbers have to be as long as the book itself! Given the Library's preposterously low information content, the characters' fascination with random searching seems kind of ridiculous.

On the other hand, I loved _The Finale of the Ultimate Meta Mega Crossover_ , which has some similar themes but is orders of magnitude more mind-bending:

[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5389450/1/The_Finale_of_the_Ulti...](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5389450/1/The_Finale_of_the_Ultimate_Meta_Mega_Crossover)

<comment><USER4> I've seen the critique that the Library is uninteresting because it can be generated with a series of nested for-loops to itself miss the many other points.

 _Babel_ is not so much about the _library_ , or how it came to be, but about the consequences of enumerating every permutation -- and there are many of them sketched within just a few thousand words.

Amongst other things, the characters have no choice but to search at random. There is no trustworthy index. The chances of finding the catalogue at random and still further the chances of finding a _truthful_ catalogue are miniscule. Yet there are still expected to be an unimaginably large selection of such catalogues.

Even if you digitised and indexed the Library, you immediately face the same problem: which books are sensible and which aren't? Every book, and every potential book, and translation of these, is present in the library. How do you know that 410 pages of "MVC" isn't actually a cutting critique of information theory?

The ultimate irony of the Library is that ultimately, due to the presumed equal distribution of characters, its information content sums to zero -- and so too the algorithm which created it.

I feel as though you might find more to the story if you spend some more time pondering it. Thanks for the link, I will read it (edit: oops, no I won't, I haven't got around to _Permutation City_ as yet).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This story is reminiscent of and inferior to Asimov's "The Last Question":

<http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html>

<comment><USER7> To me it immediately sprung to mind as almost a combination of The Last Question (about 'the end') and another one of my favorites, The Library of Babel (about permutations) by Borges.

<http://simonsarris.com/lit/library-of-babel>

 _By this art you may contemplate the variations of the 23 letters..._

<comment><USER4> I've updated my link to point to your copy. Better formatted.

Serendipitously I re-read both _The Library of Babel_ and _The Lottery of Babylon_ just yesterday.

<comment><USER7> Oh, thank you.

I host several of my favorite short stories merely because the other pages on the internet that host them look as if they were constructed in 1994!

Borges and Garcia-Marquez are my favorite authors. There's something about magical realism that is very alluring.

<comment><USER4> I have to say that I found Garcia-Marquez to be underwhelming. As an author, Borges is like a jeweller -- tiny little works of amazing beauty and perfection.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Odd, I actually have this book checked out from the library right now (this story, with others, was bound into a collection sharing the same title). Clarke's brand of science-fiction struck me as much more principled and technically interesting than most of his contemporaries. Most of them have the unique property among science fiction stories of _actually being possible_ given our knowledge of astrophysics. The speed of light is a minor plot element in many, especially the fact that it can't be broken (no 'warp drives'). I don't know if it was Clarke himself who said this, but I recall someone stating that many stories break so many fundamental physical laws that they are more accurately classified as "science fantasy," not science fiction.

</comment><comment><USER9> In fact, there are only 21 million names, and the monks have secretly tricked crypto-currency enthusiasts into calculating them...

</comment><comment><USER10> pretty neat maths problem inherent in the story:

[https://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/th...](https://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/152e83bcefd45865/000214c0f0939a71)

</comment><comment><USER11> Relevant: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/may-21-2011-judgmen...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/may-21-2011-judgment- day_n_804166.html)</comment>


Radio Garden – Listen to world radio by navigating an interactive globe - <AUTHOR> http://radio.garden/ <comment><USER2> Developer here. We weren't exactly expecting this to become as popular as it did.. Just survived being #1 on Reddit – sheesh.

It seems our non-profit Bing maps key was revoked.. Switched to Arcgis imagery instead for now. Too bad, the Bing imagery was really great.

<comment><USER3> I love this thing you've made. I've been exploring the world with radio since long before the WWW was invented. I used to carry a shortwave radio with me wherever I traveled back in the 1970s and 80s. I would lie there in the dark in Japan listening to the broadcasts out of North Korean screeching about the "Great Leader" (Kim Il-sung) or in Thailand listening to the Khmer Rouge (whom I couldn't understand, but I knew who controlled Cambodian broadcasts) or in the UK listening to Africans (not putting on a show for Americans but putting on a show for their own people) or on the East Coast of the US listening to callers to talk shows in the UK arguing about local issues. What do people there talk about amongst themselves? What do they like to listen to? What does such-and-such language sound like? I loved exploring the world this way.

My kids don't understand how magical the world is today--how they can do what cost me so much money and time and effort by doing nothing more than poking a few icons on their phones. These things don't mean much to them; they were born into a world where magic was just daily life.

But, things like this are still magical to me, even though I've been a developer for decades. Somehow, even knowing how the "tricks" are done, I still think it's magic. Just tonight, I fed YouTube into my HD TV and watched as someone walked around my old neighborhood in Tokyo with a 4K camera. Then again where I used to live in Seoul. And a couple of days ago, I found something for my father out in the desert a thousand miles from here by using Google Street View to "drive" down a remote highway, looking around until I found it. And now I can just spin the globe and point at a dot to hear a broadcast coming from that location. I've been listening to online broadcasts for 20 years using lists of online radio stations, but this is so much nicer.

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who sees all of this as real-world magic.

<comment><USER4> You are not alone. I've been online for over 30 years now, since the mid-1980s, and deeply involved in Internet technology. And yet I still find applications of that technology that are wonderfully magical. (This radio.garden is one of them!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Oh man, this is so much fun. I'm listening to radio in Islamabad, Pakistan, and the male and female host are bickering about how winter is, in fact, NOT coming this year. And now they're playing John Mayer.

So much more perspective than just whatever the news media wants the narrative to be about some of these places. (And I've traveled plenty, but this is just a lovely taste of day-to-day for people on the other side of the planet, but fortunately in English!)

</comment><comment><USER6> Amazing example of how good UI can make something so interesting and useful.

I have seen plenty of websites which lists the radio stations from all over the globe, but this interface makes it so much more interesting and fun.

Really well done to the devs.

</comment><comment><USER7> Love the concept and simple design. Very cool. Resist those wanting land boundaries added; it will lose some mystery then.

Reminds me of that not-uncommon movie intro implying that aliens are listening to Earth, where the camera zooms in on the planet as random stations and static play.

<comment><USER8> Seconding leaving the boundaries out. What would be awesome though is day/night simulation!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Amazing product!

I was curious to know their source of stations; the history ones are coming from: [http://www.transnationalradio.org/database#Search](http://www.transnationalradio.org/database#Search) \- which they have mentioned on their page as well.

LIVE ones are streaming directly from the streaming websites, further searching in their code and looking the URLs it seems its shoutcast.com API its the same thing I used a decade back with winamp! but as they didn't mention it anywhere I am not sure.

The way they presented it with map, history is simply great.

</comment><comment><USER10> Worth mentioning, a somewhat similar project with more entropy: [http://radioiss.com](http://radioiss.com).

I love it in the background when working, for the dose of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect).

</comment><comment><USER11> Two additional global radio places to explore:

global time machine with [http://radiooooo.com/](http://radiooooo.com/) and streaming with [http://tunein.com/radio/regions/](http://tunein.com/radio/regions/)

<comment><USER12> TuneIn's app (at least on Android) has got worse and worse over the years. I think there's even ads in the "pro" version now that I paid for a while back. Also, why does a radio streamer need access to my contact list?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Fantastic app! (But I'm keeping my short wave radio anyway). Can't help but notice vast areas of radio deserts. I presume there are at least radio broadcasts there, but they don't stream?

What is the meaning of the size of the dots? I was guessing it's related to transmit power?

<comment><USER14> I think it represents the number of radio stations available for that city (each dot is a city, and you can switch individual radio stations using the list at the lower right corner of the screen)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you are into amateur radio, this [1] does something similar, allowing you to tune into amateur bands across the world in real time.

[1] [http://websdr.org/](http://websdr.org/)

<comment><USER16> And it lets you listen to real radio, not streams, which will improve coverage outside of the US and Europe (found two streaming stations in Japan, neither of which work, and about a dozen in all of India)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> One suggestion: maybe change the background to something black. Then it will feel more like the Earth is a part of cosmos - a context will be shown and will create a nicer feeling.

</comment><comment><USER18> Cool! I even like the fake static and squelch... it reminds me of tuning the 80s era shortwave radio I found when I was a kid.

</comment><comment><USER19> Brilliant concept and execution! I figured, it must be every station that has a live stream, but no, my nearest station, KZSU Stanford, has multiple streams and isn't there. And the list of presences in the one green dot in SF is much too short. So... what's the source?

</comment><comment><USER20> As it appears to me (running Chrome on Linux) it's really hard to go looking for a particular location, since it's just dots on a solid blue browser tab. Is that by design? (Also, it shows stations in Madrid, Spain at a spot that I think is a bit west of Ames, Iowa.)

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the heads up on this – should be working again now.

<comment><USER21> From the you-can't-please-everyone dep't: in a weird way, the non-functioning map made the discovery process a little more fun. The map just started working for me–I didn't know that it was supposed to–and I was slightly disappointed.

Tho I support using satellite imagery and nothing more.

Brilliant site, and very well done. Thanks for putting it together and sharing it.

<comment><USER2> We are actually working on a game mode, which takes away the map and has you track down countries by listening to different radio stations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I love this! I love the static when tuning as well as how quickly it starts playing from each station. The only suggestion I have it to put political boundaries so it is easier to see where you're at.

<comment><USER21> On the contrary, I think adding political boundaries would remove some of the power of the concept.

<comment><USER23> Make it toggle. Then you can be magical or practical.

<comment><USER24> I'd like to have an overlay with borders and city names.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I just turned into an Australian DJ bitching about the fact that they get charged extra for online listeners, vs. over-the-air listeners.

</comment><comment><USER26> Simply awesome. Ironically, I haven't had a radio in years and I don't own a car, but I found a local radio station I've never listened to before.

The designer's website is a trip too[0].

[0] [http://puckey.studio/](http://puckey.studio/)

<comment><USER27> That real time typing reminds me of chatting via direct modem connection to your friends. It gives a slightly better awareness of the person's feelings. Instant messengers now don't seem to do that, I guess the latency on the global internet is too high.

<comment><USER24> That webpage is painful to see 'till the end. Too slow.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Why are you using WebGL for this with no other option? I am using Chrome because it is infinitely faster than Firefox. I get the following message from your site:

        Error constructing CesiumWidget. Visit http://get.webgl.org to verify that your web browser and hardware support WebGL. Consider trying a different web browser or updating your video drivers. Detailed error information is below:

        RuntimeError: The browser supports WebGL, but initialization failed. Error at new t (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:13:1700) at new B (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:37:3393) at new ce (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:36:6010) at new e (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:32:898) at t.e.value (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:10:9355) at t.e.value (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:9:21370) at e.notifyAll (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:5:4913) at r.h.close (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:7:12663) at r.o.closeAll (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:5:8329) at r.o.perform (http://rg-60c3.kxcdn.com/bundle-792cb1b42393ce14840f.js:5:7818)

From `[http://get.webgl.org`](http://get.webgl.org`) I get

        While your browser seems to support WebGL, it is disabled or unavailable.

I tried to enable WebGL and found that it was only experimental for application development:

        chrome://flags

        WebGL 2.0 Prototype Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android
        Enabling this option allows web applications to access the experimental WebGL 2.0 feature. This option should only be used for application development, and should not be used when browsing arbitrary web sites. #enable-unsafe-es3-apis

So I am required to enable something that is warned against just to be able to use a single site. Not exactly what I would consider _user friendly_ …

</comment><comment><USER29> Is an open source list of radio streams available, e.g. with URL/name/lat/long?

</comment><comment><USER30> Good work

I see you host some broadcast segments (e.g. "jingles"). Do you have the rights to broadcast them, regarding copyright rules?

This is a project lead by several universities, maybe these audio segments are part of a public dataset?

</comment><comment><USER31> This is awesome! I'm a mobile developer and I built an app similar in concept for iPhone a few months ago (except mine is way less robust and has wayyy fewer stations). Good work guys! Link to the app I built RadioAtlas: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radioatlas-explore-world- thr...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radioatlas-explore-world- through/id1141789251?mt=8)

</comment><comment><USER32> How did they pick the stations? There are only two in Japan, one of which is playing "I've been Working on the Railroad" in Japanese.

</comment><comment><USER33> Hi there! I work at a small radio station in Southeast Alaska (KCAW), which I see is on here, however it says station is unreachable. We just updated our stream url this week. Is that something I could give you to get us back up and running, or will it eventually find us again? Also, don't know if this is relevant, but in our update we changed from shoutcast to icecast. Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER34> Here seems to be the stations in JSON format in case anyone wanted to extract them. There are about 12,000 but some of the stations at the end don't have a source. [http://rgapi-60c3.kxcdn.com/live.json?b=89eae48362c03fe07fcc](http://rgapi-60c3.kxcdn.com/live.json?b=89eae48362c03fe07fcc)

<comment><USER35> The link shows 403 Forbidden!!

Has it been HN'ed or what?

<comment><USER36> Try this : [http://rgapi-60c3.kxcdn.com/live.json?b=1c6525f1332a13762931...](http://rgapi-60c3.kxcdn.com/live.json?b=1c6525f1332a13762931&noOutdatedSC=1)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I normally stalk YC, hardly comment. I have to say amazing product. Why dont you put it on product hunt?

</comment><comment><USER38> Hi, This is great!! However there are several radios in Portugal that do not appear. One of them is Kul: Radio, from Castelo Branco. Can you add? [http://proxima.shoutca.st:8232/stream](http://proxima.shoutca.st:8232/stream)

Thanks :)

</comment><comment><USER39> Having a lot of trouble getting it to load. Congratulations on being so popular!

How do we get our community radio station on this map? I see that question has been asked here already but I can't find any answers.

Much appreciated, Sybil A., WORT Community Radio musicdirector (at) wortfm.org

</comment><comment><USER40> Would love to try this but getting the following error

[http://imgur.com/a/l4iqP](http://imgur.com/a/l4iqP)

I'm running chrome 54.0.2840.100 (64-bit) in ubuntu 14.04 with nvidia proprietary drivers

<comment><USER41> Same here. I'm running Chrome 55.0.2883.87 (64-bit) on Mac 10.10.5.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> London has a radio station for Bird songs [0]. Is this real?

[0]: [http://radio.garden/live/london/birdsongradio/](http://radio.garden/live/london/birdsongradio/)

<comment><USER42> Yes, Birdsong is real. It is used by Digital One on the national DAB network when a station is off air or under maintenance. As of right now, this station is not on air.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Operations Manager of a cluster of 10 stations in US. How does one get added to your amazing platform? All stations stream. You have one of our stations (KSCJ/Sioux City) already on. Love to add our others!

</comment><comment><USER22> Is there a way to submit stations to this? My city doesn't have any stations listed, but I do know a couple have online streams that could be added to this. Thanks for the great work studiopuckey!

</comment><comment><USER44> Sincere congratulations! This is the best thing I've seen in a while.

</comment><comment><USER45> Great idea!

A few points for improvement:

\- only change station if map is clicked on

\- show station details on mouse hover

</comment><comment><USER46> Beautiful! What a great ui for such use case! And it works perfectly on android huawei honor 7 (because somebody said it doesn't work well on smartphone!)

</comment><comment><USER47> This is awesome. I tuned into an old Kingston rock stations for a bit of college nostalgia. Of course they'd be playing The Tragically Hip right then.

</comment><comment><USER48> Great app. Is there a way to flag favorites. I think this will help fill time on my driving. But of course I don't want to tune and drive

</comment><comment><USER49> Great app. Is there a way to flag favorites. I think this will help fill time on my driving. But of course I don't want to tune and drive

</comment><comment><USER50> Hey, hit us at Mapbox, let's get you back live again. email@example.com, I'm Erin and I'll get a discount going for you.

</comment><comment><USER51> Awesome creation dude well done, i m sharing it to all my frends in karnataka, Bengaluru Hats off to u and team. Truly Radio Garden

</comment><comment><USER52> The static/tuning sounds never stop playing for me in Safari. It would be nice to have a button that completely turns it off.

</comment><comment><USER53> Doesn't load on Firefox 50.0 for me on Windows 10. Any suggestions? Works fine on Windows Edge, BTW . . . .

</comment><comment><USER54> I rarely comment, but this is awesome! :D

</comment><comment><USER55> IE can't handle it. And Chrome doesn't play audio for me. Any ideas why Chrome would not play audio?

</comment><comment><USER56> Crashed My WiFi hard drive and would Not disconnect to My Mac Laptop . Loved It till this Happened .

</comment><comment><USER57> Gostaria de adicionar minha emissora.. Www.radiomanchetefm.com.br cidade planaltina Goiás obrigado

</comment><comment><USER56> Crashed my WiFi hardware on Mac Computer - would Not disconnect even when shutting down window

</comment><comment><USER58> bom dia eu queria adicionar minha radio se fosse possivel radio portugal fm regiao de paris (villejuif) [http://22.214.171.124:9934](http://18.104.22.168:9934) obg boas festas feliz natal e obrigado por exitir

</comment><comment><USER59> Now someone should create a world map of Youtube live streams (akin to facebooks livemap)

</comment><comment><USER60> Awesome! Thanks for sharing.. Can I ask what tech have you used to develop this?

</comment><comment><USER61> This is amazing! Very nice to see there Russian radiostation from my hometown

</comment><comment><USER62> Truly awesome experience. A mobile app like this would make it even better.

</comment><comment> d--b Great work, and nice complement of radiooooo.com

</comment><comment><USER63> This is magical. Thank you for this experience.

</comment><comment><USER64> Why so small number of stations from Africa?

</comment><comment><USER65> Love this! Works great and simple design.

</comment><comment><USER66> Not a single radio station in Greenland?

</comment><comment><USER55> That's my mind-blow of the week

</comment><comment><USER67> como colocar uma radio web no aplicativo? firstname.lastname@example.com www.estacaoleme.com.br

</comment><comment><USER68> Support Radio Garden 100 per cent

</comment><comment><USER69> Radio.Garden = App of the year!!

</comment><comment><USER70> This is awesome! Great idea.

</comment><comment><USER71> Awesome. Mobile app please!

</comment><comment><USER72> Hello guys How do I add my web radio to Radio Garden Thank you al

</comment><comment><USER73> radio. on. internet.

</comment><comment><USER74> Wow! This site is pretty amazing. I like how it picked up my location and tuned into a local San Francisco radio station. The I scrolled the globe and rotated into my Dad's hometown of Bombay (they call it "Mumbai" now) and it zero-ed in on a Gazhal station. This one => [http://radio.garden/live/mumbai/planetradiocity/](http://radio.garden/live/mumbai/planetradiocity/)

Question to the creator / OP: Are the ads (voice ads) that play injected into the stream? I ask because even though I selected an Indian radio channel, it played a long AT&T get a go phone this holiday season blah blah blah for like 2 minutes, and the voice was American accent and also the address it said to go to was att.com/gophone (which I would think is only US customers). What gives?

<comment><USER75> Maybe it's the radio station itself doing that? I remember reading about software for online streaming that targeted ads based on the client's IP.

<comment><USER74> > targeted ads based on the client's IP.

Didn't think of that. Wouldn't put it past them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER76> Perfect--now I can bone-up on Russian in time for the inauguration.</comment>


The promise of static typing - <AUTHOR> https://labs.ig.com/static-typing-promise <comment><USER2> This analysis seems a bit shallow and I'm not sure what point it's trying to prove. There are a lot of factors that aren't accounted for (as other commenters point out, project size is a major one), and a few others I can think of that would affect the metric used (apparently bugs/repo):

* Project management strategy for the repo/project.

* Commercial vs. non-commercial project.

* Ability and experience of the developers.

* Popularity of the project.

* Type of project (library, application, etc.)

I suspect all of these will correlate in a meaningful way with the language choice. Commercially produced or consumed projects may be more likely to have comprehensive bug reporting/tracking, and are more likely to be in a "mainstream" language, for instance.

Like Torvalds says, with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. A corollary to that could be that without knowing how many eyeballs there are, and how well they can see, you don't really know how many bugs there are, either.

</comment><comment><USER3> This analysis fails to take into account the popularity of a language. The repository of a library is likely to have more users if it's written in a popular language, and these users will probably report more bugs and feature requests.

Considering this I'm not surprised at all to see that Java, Python and C++ repositories have a higher "bug density" than Clojure, Go or Erlang ones.

<comment><USER4> What about Ruby?

<comment><USER3> I'm not saying that this metric measures language popularity, but that language popularity seems to have a big influence on it. I may be wrong, but that's what caught my eye when I read the article. There are plenty of other factors that aren't accounted for, some of which have been pointed out by other commenters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does anyone know what unit is being used for the x axis on these charts?

Edit: Figured it out (total bugs / repo). Seems like controlling for overall project size is an important missing component of this analysis.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. I think (bugs/LOC) could even work.

<comment><USER7> That might be better, but it would still be misleading. "Denser" languages would have more bugs per line, but also fewer lines per program.

I've never used APL and wouldn't want to debug it, but its bug-to-line ratio could be much higher than Java and still come out ahead in practice.

<comment><USER8> APL is considered by many a write-only language.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This analysis seems as though it could be misleading. Couldn't the number of bugs reported vs. the actual number of bugs that exist in the code differ significantly?

</comment><comment><USER10> It's impossible to find the truth by a single observational study with ten data points and tons of unaccounted variables.

</comment><comment><USER11> Aside from project size, the problem domains of libraries are likely to vary hugely between languages. With statically typed languages being biased towards either systems programming or more algorithmically complex tasks.

The proportion of Haskell libraries for tasks like string padding is probably lower than the proportion of ruby or js libraries, for example.

</comment><comment><USER12> static languages and dynamic languages simply have different ways to injure yourself.</comment>


Is the Fourth Amendment Now Illegal? - <AUTHOR> http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/08/is-the-fourth-amendment-now-illegal.html

<comment><USER2> No, but it is apparently misunderstood.

In the meantime the Fifth Amendment already should protect you against being compelled to incriminate yourself.

For the rest, for better or worse it's always been a government loophole to wait for you to tell a third-party something and _then_ grab it. We used to have a government office that would read all (ALL) Western Union telegrams going abroad and coming within, for example.

Sometimes the government self-limits it's ability to do this (e.g. wiretapping phones... we've gone from days where phone conversations were conducted on a "party line" where all could listen it, to where no one may legally tap a phone line and even the government must obtain a warrant or court order).

The problem with self-limiting is that such limits can be just as easily undone (e.g. Patriot Act).

So perhaps a specific Amendment regarding privacy itself is warranted, because the Fourth Amendment doesn't speak to that itself, unless we wait for another activist Supreme Court decision ;)

But even in that case, I just don't see the NSA completely going out of the game as I don't think Americans will subject themselves to a "no foreign communications wiretaps" law, as that is something even the Germans seem to explicitly permit in their legal code.</comment>


US condemns EU over plan to demand millions from Apple in unpaid taxes - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/apple-tax-probe-eu-us-treasury-unpaid-taxes-amazon-starbucks-fiat-a7208681.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/apple-tax-probe-eu-us-treasury-unpaid-taxes-amazon-starbucks-fiat-a7208681.html <comment><USER2> This is you know Apple really has the Feds on the take.</comment>


Is this microservice? - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1upfZP0O8Jn3izR59TmWe0F31doHQci-KGEBryYJcb6M A web frontend to receive requests. Some requests are stored in a pub/sub message broker like Kafka / RabbitMQ. Some daemons would subscribe to the broker and do some work. Any processes would have HTTP REST API call / Thrift RPC to some other functional services. Each of those functional services and daemons are load balanced.<p>Is this microservice? <comment><USER2> It depends, likely not given the daemons are showing direct communication to what appears to be other services etc. But in reality, I don't feel there is enough data to answer that question completely based on the diagram.

IMO, a micro-service does only 1 thing, does not access common data repositories and stores its own data isolated (could be same physical db server but separate db/table/catalog etc.). Additionally, at least as I see it a micro-service does its job and then pushes a new message on the queue with the results, it never talks via the network layer to anyone else for coordination or status. But of course it may send out data or make calls via the network, e.g. HTTP, SMTP etc.

You probably already know this but from reading and my experience a micro- service should only act upon data it receives in the message. Sometimes this is where people have a hard time because it means passing an entire data set with the message to make sure the micro-service has enough information to do its job. But doing so is the only way to decouple the services and get the benefits of a distributed system. If you use the database as a communication layer it will cause you all kinds of headaches and it couples the services to data structure changes which means you still are not isolated. You should be able to update any micro-service without the need to update any other service at the same time.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was confused that a micro-service (architecture) is just renaming SOA / Rest API / what-so-ever and connecting different components with a scalable message bus. And, now, you point out some great distinctions from those :) ty.

'''does not access common data repositories and stores its own data isolated'''

&

'''does its job and then pushes a new message on the queue with the results, it never talks via the network layer to anyone else for coordination or status'''

<comment><USER2> Your welcome, glad it helped clarify. Good luck!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why do people care about the arbitrary names used to classify custom solutions?

<comment><USER4> He might be trying to learn more about Microservices by identifying the structure in a current project. So it is a valid question.

Those names are useful to communicate ideas. It is just like software patterns. It doesn't correlate to a direct implementation of the pattern, but a pattern correlates to an idea, and it is extremely useful to communicate them. Microservices are just that.

<comment><USER3> That's a bit like saying, i'm trying to learn about supercars by asking if this car is a supercar. It's a generic classification. Moreover, knowing how to classify it does not change how you design it or why.

Unix programs are non-networked microservices. An LCD controller and display driver could be described as a single-function single-process non-networked microservice. It really does not matter what you call it or how it is categorized; it just is.

Better communication is great, but we don't need a new word for every idea. Especially if people get wrapped up in what counts as that word.

<comment><USER4> Microservices is a new "word" assigned to an old idea. But it is still new for someone. I agree with you, I just think this is a valid question. It might be improved by asking "Why is this is/isn't a Microservices architecture?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm going to say no. You can have multiple WWW/API nodes, but that's not the main issue. The different daemons, they have to be able to connect to eachother, and the Redis/DB/SMTP nodes, they're simply one of the microservices. There could be any number of DB nodes. Every micro service might have their own persistant storage or caching mechanism.

Might have, not must have, of course.

To really show the merit of microservices, this must really be reflected in your drawing.

</comment><comment><USER6> At first glance, the diagram does not look isolated enough.

There should be clear _separation_ and _interfaces_ between the different _services_.

There seem to be only one database for all of the system, wich sets a strong dependency between services.

Perhaps the right question is: It this microservice enough?

</comment><comment><USER7> No. What was the question?

<comment><AUTHOR> eh, my fault, cannot edit the post... The question is here ... [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8885965](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8885965)</comment></comment>


Fibromyalgia is a garbage bin diagnosis - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/DrWillPowers/comments/faviam/fibromyalgia_is_a_garbage_bin_diagnosis_and_i/ <comment><USER2> Sounds like the difference between average and excellent physicians. Plenty are happy to use such a "garbage bin diagnosis" for stuff they can't find a more specific diagnosis for, others just keep searching.

It also reminds me of my own RSI. Had it 20 years ago, got treated for it by an (in my estimation) excellent physical therapist. Recently started at a different physical therapist for a different issue and mentioned, this, and he insists that RSI doesn't exist; it's always something more specific.

</comment><comment><USER3> Similar to rheumatism [0], a generic "diagnosis" that many lazy doctors would slap on you a few decades ago for any sign of joint pain.

If you were over 40-50 any joint pain would instantly be labeled rheumatism, the "old person illness", you couldn't be old and not have it. And the treatment was any one of those needed for the 200 different conditions under that label. Possibly chosen at random based on costs.

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

</comment><comment><USER4> Fixed link to avoid the horrible new reddit interface: [https://old.reddit.com/r/DrWillPowers/comments/faviam/fibrom...](https://old.reddit.com/r/DrWillPowers/comments/faviam/fibromyalgia_is_a_garbage_bin_diagnosis_and_i/)

<comment><USER5> What bothers you about the new one? The reading experience feels very similar to me, apart from one being on the left and one being centered.

<comment><USER4> It sucks on mobile, and it's a resource hog.</comment></comment></comment>


Why getting the Obamacare exchanges to work was difficult - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/04/heres-why-getting-the-obamacare-exchanges-to-work-was-so-difficult/ <comment><USER2> Did anyone expect a bunch of "lowest bidder" contracting firms to build something for someone else that works perfectly on day one when companies like Blizzard[1], EA[2], and SquareEnix[3] don't get it right when they are building something for themselves.

Especially considering how the lowest bidder has worked so well in the past[4].

[1] [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404481,00.asp](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404481,00.asp) [2] [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/clogged-streets- simcit...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/clogged-streets-simcity- launch-plagued-by-server-problems/) [3] [http://gamerant.com/final- fantasy-14-launch-issues-servers-s...](http://gamerant.com/final- fantasy-14-launch-issues-servers-square-enix-reponse/) [4] [http://www.boston.com/news/specials/big_dig_problems/](http://www.boston.com/news/specials/big_dig_problems/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe it's difficult to scale and there were some hard deadlines, but there was some shear incompetence, too. As evidence I present WA's system that is storing passwords in plain text, has off-by-one errors, and reveals system details when you encounter an error. That's what I found by creating an account and trying to log in (which I still can't do). Who knows what I'd find if I were trying.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd have to say some of that is likely incompetence on the people in charge of developing the exchange. In Hawaii (hawaiihealthconnector.com) the whole extent of the online marketplace is a web form where you have to give up the SSNs of your entire family just to have someone _call_ you later with quotes. Not exactly what I think of when I think of an online marketplace.

There are many problems with the form too (e.g., can't sign up if your family has more than 4 people). To make matters worse, the form is down for maintenance. Apparently they couldn't figure out how to scale a single form.

It's hard being a supporter of Obamacare when the execution is being done so badly.

</comment><comment><USER5> The CA website costs $313M: [http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-fi- obamacare-cal...](http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-fi-obamacare- california-launch-20131002,0,4856547.story)

Did they have to build a new data center? Hire specially trained astronauts to run it from it's location on the moon? Sitting in special chairs made from exotic materials they reverse engineered from UFOs? I mean JFC where did that money go? It makes the dotcom days look like an era of fiscal responsibility.

<comment><USER6> See the previous discussions, here's one: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6492127](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6492127)

It wasn't simply the website - it's the entire exchange including call centers, advertising, etc.

<comment><USER5> Ah, yeah. That makes sense. I can't imagine the call center for that program. Probably looks something like mission control or a war room. Then all the surrounding stuff. When you throw in facilities plus all that surrounds the program it makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Isn't it strange that one arm of the government, ie the NSA, can get PRISM and all their extremely complex surveillance and correlation programs up and running but these much simpler and more straightforward web sites are generally failures? If anything it speaks to the quality of work that Palantir does, and the government should get them to do all the work as opposed to IBM Global Services or Accenture. Imagine if IBM or Accenture developed PRISM? We would have nothing to worry about then since it would be a complete failures.

<comment><USER8> How many failed projects do you think the NSA has suffered? The NSA aren't immune to reality (even though they are well insulated from it). As for why you don't hear about the failures, we know of at least one very big IT disaster project called Trailblazer. Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive blew the whistle on this particular project, and was rewarded for that favor with Espionage charges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _...some of your larger companies, your Twitters, your Googles, your Amazons, these are things they do to be able to scale up, scale down their servers as needed to handle the traffic. I 'm not exactly sure what's in place in terms of the federal government infrastructure..._

If only Amazon provided some sort of "Web" services, or Google offered some sort of application "Engine". Imagine, if new projects could rent computing resources from these companies, and make use of their scaling expertise?

(Actually, AWS is the default for federal contracts now.)

</comment><comment><USER10> This account makes me want to become a republican.

<comment><USER11> Romney really messed up royally on his IT during the election. It would have probably been much worse under him.

<comment><USER12> Considering Romney's success in actually managing businesses as well as public-private partnerships with the Olympics judging his abilities in this context based on campaigning IT isn't really a relevant comparison. Let's look at the Bain Capital and Olympics track record as a better metric. Also given that the cost of just the California system was almost half of Romney's entire campaign budget, we're comparing apples to oranges. Part of Obama's campaign successes were due to volunteer engagement not necessarily because he was better at managing IT. Also campaign IT is light years different than healthcare IT. Given the administrative behemoth, it isn't IT leadership that's needed at the top but administrative competence. I'm not knocking Obama, I'm just challenging the assumption that "Romney would be worse because his campaign technology had some issues.."

<comment><USER13> I think this was meant as a joke.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is there any states so far where the rollout was seemless? I work in the public benefit industry as a developer and all I have hearing are nightmare accounts.

</comment><comment><USER15> And yet the static part of the site, written in Jekll, is available on github, has barely any issues at all. Of course it's easier to write read-only static systems but I have rarely ever seen big enterprisey consulting firms get anything right.

</comment><comment><USER16> I haven't been able to get into healthcare.gov yet, but you start with a button labeled "apply." Did they not expect anyone to just curiously browse?

Because for browsing, it doesn't seem to be much data. My state has about a dozen regions, and the only other variables are age and smoking status. You could do the whole thing with a static site, using a little javascript at the beginning to direct to the right folder.

You could handle huge traffic with a few nginx servers. Put it on AWS with Cloudfront and you're not even hitting the servers for a lot of requests.

Then send people to a database-backed webapp when they're actually signing up.

<comment> mkr-hn You sound like you know all the legal, technical, and regulatory issues they faced in designing the system.

<comment><USER17> I doubt there is a legal issue that would prevent the site from being statically served with ngnix.

<comment> mkr-hn > _legal, technical, and regulatory_

Three things.

<comment><USER17> Regulatory issues are legal issues. Why do people comply with regulations? To avoid the ire of the law.

<comment> mkr-hn I think I'm just frustrated with this whole ordeal of _Silicon Valley Knows Best_ that we see when any kind of problem comes up. People get hung up on their pet theories and solutions and never stop to consider that they might be wrong.

It's impossible to solve a problem before knowing what the problem is. How can anyone here even begin to consider a solution before we know the problem? It's ridiculous. Maybe they're not _allowed_ to use your favored solution. The solution is probably political, not technical. You can't fix an outdated/flawed policy with nginx.

It's just...weird. Half the posts in any politics thread at HN is people complaining about politicians coming up with pet theories and pet solutions for problems before understanding the problem, but they're so eager to do the same when the roles are reversed.

<comment><USER16> I wouldn't presume to suggest a solution to the larger problem of getting people signed up for plans.

But the problem right now is, people are very curious about what plans are available. It's public information that doesn't require personal data. The whole point of the exchanges is to give the public clear data on the available plans. Distributing public information is a problem that has been quite thoroughly solved.

The technical people didn't seem to realize that they had two problems to solve, not one. And my frustration right now is that part of Congress is trying very hard to defund the whole program before people are able to gain access to that information, and it should be too late for that.

If someone has screwed up the regulations so badly that this information intended for the public is not actually public, then of course that's where the problem is, but that seems unlikely to me. It would make for a very interesting news story, if true.

<comment> mkr-hn > _If someone has screwed up the regulations so badly that this information > intended for the public is not actually public, then of course that 's where > the problem is, but that seems unlikely to me. It would make for a very > interesting news story, if true._

Healthcare.gov is covered in HN-popular libraries, software, and toolkits (like Bootstrap, jquery, and Drupal[1]), so the problem is apparently not that they just don't know any better.

It appears they went as far as they could with the latest and greatest tech. Someone somewhere along the chain of command failed to include a "provide any kind of useful information on the plans" provision in the design document. All signs point to this being either politics or negligence, not technology.

[1]I'm assuming on this one since WhiteHouse.gov has been covered in Drupal in the HTML and JS since the Obama administration took it over.

<comment><USER16> Drupal generates pages dynamically, usually from a database, which is the exact opposite of what I just suggested. Static pages are the way to go for very high volume. (And as dynamic frameworks go, PHP didn't actually do that well in the techempower benchmarks, though Drupal wasn't one they tested.)

Certainly the design is the root of the problem. You have to "apply" before you get any information. When I say that the team screwed up, I definitely include the people who designed it, not just the programmers who implemented it.

<comment> mkr-hn I was right: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6514775](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6514775)

Poorly-implemented technology was at the core, but it happened because of a flawed and entirely political process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> As a Brit, who quite understands the failings of Government IT (#) I still think it must be an awful lot simpler just to ask "Are you an American? Yes - then get cover"

really guys, we all know technology cannot fix foolish requirements.

(#) www.oss4gov.org

</comment><comment><USER19> I used to work in government IT. A lot of people are wondering why the projects so pricey and why there are so many issues.

1) The RFQ/bidding process isn't as logical as you'd imagine.

2) There are layers on top of layers on top of layers of bureaucracy. The government is its own regulator, not the market. There are no shareholders or VCs that can curtail the government's power. Elections and recalls are slower signals by orders of magnitude.

3) government projects fail all the time. You just don't hear about it because then heads would roll, which is faux past in the public sector.

</comment><comment><USER20> I work for a IT government contractor right now. We don't do work even close to the size of these exchanges, but even in our work the amount of bureaucracy and overhead involved is mind-numbing. To put a simple form on our web page requires an FRS, SDS, binder of validation documents, review and approval from several managers. It could take months just to make a simple change. Lots and lots of wasted time and grant money.

</comment><comment><USER21> Nice PR. Anxiously awaiting the article of how Facebook goes down all the time because its handling 600 million users a day. How bout this approach, which can work..

1\. We F.d up 2\. Were sorry 3\. Heres what were doing to fix it

</comment><comment><USER22> _"...Even though in this type of setting the development teams are using what you might call agile methods, there's still a huge layer of requirements and review and sign-off..."_

Aieeee! Brain explosion.

If there's a huge layer of requirements, review, and sign-off, to the point that it's impacting value creation, then they're not using agile methods.

Agile doesn't have a unique, firm definition. Best I can come up with is "best practices around iterative and incremental development"

There's no best practice I know of that requires spending tens of billions in new IT infrastructure to service 350 million Americans with some fairly simple data needs. Sure, they may be using _some_ agile methods, like having nice chairs that have those cool ergonomic options, but they're missed the forest for the trees. Reminds me of the old joke "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play?"

I found the article most uninformative. Nice example: _"...These projects so big is that there is a very rigorous security oversight involved and layers of audit, layers of rules. The kind of thing that small start-up companies who are just winging it [don't deal with]..."_

No, lots of startups deal with high-security situations. These are known problems and have hundreds of existing players with known solutions. The real issue here is the way the environment for the work was structured, not the nature of the work itself. Such comments are misleading at best, duplicitous at worst.

The problem here is that this is a reporter talking to some industry schmuck all too willing to make apologies for "that's just how things are" instead of actually answering the questions. Since the reporter doesn't know any better, there's no context or follow-up.

My money says the reason there were problems is directly related to a large political system dividing up the spoils of new work and insulating itself from being blamed for any disasters. Since lots of folks made money, and nobody in particular is to blame for any of the issues, looks like the system performed as it should.

The real lesson here for startups -- and it is an important one -- is that you can't use people to solve problems that are so far inside the existing system as to have created lots of excuses and barriers for why things have to be done a certain way. Identifying risk is fine, giving up and saying that there's no other way to accomplish things is not.

The larger problem here is using reporters and MSM outlets to analyze how large groups of people perform complex tasks in nuanced environments. Most of the time they're the wrong tool for the job. They're great for telling _stories_ , how one person perceives the way things are, but not so much at _analysis_. Most of the time what passes for analysis is simply an assemblage of stories, either on deep background or assembled piecemeal from phone interviews.</comment>


Gravity's Most Extreme Effects Can Now Be Tested In A Laboratory - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2015/11/12/gravitys-most-extreme-effects-can-now-be-tested-in-a-laboratory/ <comment><USER2> 120 years ago, people thought that experimental results on wave propagation in continuous media could be used to make statements about wave propagation in electrodynamics. That's how we ended up with ether theories, which were eventually falsified with interferometric experiments.

To my mind, we should take this as a lesson that the notion of analogue systems (e.g., using results from fluid dynamics to make statements about gravitation) is bogus. The ether episode seems to indicate that if we want to make statements about gravitational Hawking radiation, we need to do tests on a system where the gravitational dynamics are important (e.g., a black hole), not an unrelated system that just happens to be governed by an identical set of equations in some regime.

Another example of people incorrectly conflating properties of an analogue system with the real system of interest is the Nature monopole paper: [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7485/full/nature1...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7485/full/nature12954.html) The actual result contained in the paper is that you can make a BEC whose vorticity field has regions of nonzero divergence. It is mathematically similar to (but fundamentally unrelated to) actual magnetic monopoles. Nonetheless, the paper contains the phrase "Dirac monopoles" in the title and then spends half the abstract talking about actual magnetic monopoles, as if the result is somehow relevant to actual magnetic monopole searches (which it isn't).

<comment> Ono-Sendai All ether theories weren't really falsified, just discarded on a metaphysical basis as being redundant.

<comment><USER3> I wouldn't say that. The Michelson-Morley experiment demonstrated that if there _was_ a luminiferous ether, it had no measurable inertia. That pretty much falsified the ether as anything that we'd recognize as "real."

<comment> Ono-Sendai I've never read about the ether needing to have inertia.

Also, a modern version of the ether is pretty well accepted - quantum fields that occupy all of space. Particles etc.. are disturbances in this field. Ether is something of a tainted term these days so quantum fields are not referred to as ether.

<comment><USER4> Quantum field theory doesn't seem very much like the luminiferous ether. This seems like finding a new species of grasshopper that lives on a mountain, and saying, "Ah-ha, I've found Zeus! Zeus is a thing that lives on a mountain and has never been seen before, so this must be Zeus!"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I keep running into sonoluminescence lately ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoluminescence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoluminescence)), this kind of reminds me of that? Sonoluminescence reminds me of gravitational collapse, but I think that's probably because I need to read up more...

Very interesting stuff going on with applied physics though--the most immediate application is probably materials science (and hopefully better computers/information processing devices). "Simulating the universe better" may come to be linked with better general information processing systems too, as in discoveries in one helps the other. For instance, more work along these lines: [http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03776](http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03776)

</comment><comment><USER6> I recall reading the first experimental paper on analog gravitational black holes being created using bose einstein condensates([http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105...](http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.240401)), and was happy to see the work continuing here (see referenced paper in the article: [http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.00621](http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.00621)).

What was very surprising was that it was a single author paper (only the prof of the group). These sort of research efforts are usually Prof+possible postdoc+a few grad students. Not sure if prof is leaving grad students out (I hope not!), or is toiling alone at this work.

</comment><comment><USER7> Couldthis be useful for testing the emdrive? I heard one theory is it might be emitting gravity waves.</comment>


How I got hired at a Y Combinator start-up without the necessary credentials - <AUTHOR> https://www.hireart.com/blog/?p=20 <comment><USER2> One thing to note is that he was hired by one of the co-founders. He would have never made it through HR or a middle manager.

Over the 7 years I've been working as a software developer, I've had many similar experiences. Not once have I been even close to get a project when talking to HR or middle managers. Every project I've landed was because I talked to the technical people in charge or to the owner of the company, even without the necessary credentials.

Middle managers and HR will always apply the "no one got fired for buying IBM" technique to people. CEOs and owners are far more likely to take a chance on you.

<comment><USER3> I've been working in tech for 20 years. The key to getting decent gigs/clients is to avoid tournament situations (i.e. a conventional job application/interview process).

<comment><USER4> I wonder if this can be applied to the dating world as well...

<comment><USER5> Dating coworkers / ex-coworkers? My wife and I worked together although by the time we were seriously dating we both had moved in to other jobs.

Another option is the obvious getting set up blind date style.

The coworker thing seems to work very well if everyone involved can keep drama out of the workplace, which is pretty easy if its actually ex- coworkers not current coworkers. The "set up by friends" thing seems to work only slightly better than "met at a bar".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is anybody else stricken by the fact that the email seems to be too much like a boilerplate support email, providing little useful information and offering no real information about the next steps? Even in the context of this hypothetical exercise, the email could be made better:

\- "we'll be contacting you soon" is vague. The client might wonder if it is minutes, hours, days? When should he be expected to reach back to Support if the problem is not resolved? "I'll be contacting you in the next X minutes/hours" would tell the client exactly when he can expect the next step to take place.

\- the support representative could have added "call me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX if you wish to talk to me directly" to make it clear he wants to go above and beyond his job duties to provide fantastic support.

\- the mail could be made more personal by using more "I", as in "I attempted to check with the members of my team, etc" instead of "the members of my team [...] aren't available".

<comment><USER7> Being too specific on timing is a bad thing if you're a remote rep relying on technical people you haven't spoken with to fix the problem

I thought a bigger weakness to the email was that it didn't _gather generic useful information that might help the people actually equipped to fix the problem_. It doesn't even ask the login name the customer is trying to use, never mind other any error messages, browser version etc. Asking those questions should speed up the tech team's work, and might even result in the customer trying something else which fixes their problem. Even in the worst case scenario - the information being useless and irrelevant - it at least gives the customer the impression they're being listened to rather than apologised at.

Since plenty of people that _wouldn 't_ be well-suited to helping customers with problems (unreliable, disorganised, lacking initiative, technically illiterate etc.) could also write a nice canned apology for an interview exercise, I'm more intrigued by the process _after_ the initial screening was complete that earned Dylan his permanent role

<comment><USER6> _" Being too specific on timing is a bad thing if you're a remote rep"_

It is not. I did not promise a time by which the pb will be fixed, but a time by which a status update will be given (even if it is "I have made the technical team aware of the pb, they are still looking into it and will give a ETA for a fix").

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm not sure what the 'necessary credentials' for a remote customer service assistant normally are - anyone know?

<comment><USER9> I'm pretty sure the necessary credentials are exactly what he showcased -- the ability to write a legible, coherent email in a timely fashion.

<comment><USER10> It was also superbly nuanced. Empathized with both the customer and the problems this was causing him, and didn't imply the whole company was out to lunch.

<comment><USER11> Yeah, seriously. That was a really tough imaginary situation and his answer was perfect.

<comment><USER12> I disagree. As a customer reading that email, I would feel pretty powerless. Any response is certainly better than no response, but the answer reads to me as, "I can't get in touch with anyone, so I don't know when your problem will be looked at, let alone fixed, and I'll be in touch at some undisclosed time in the future." At the very least he could have replied, "I'll get back to you in an hour with an update". Even if that update ended up being, "I'm sorry, I still haven't been able to get in touch with anyone, but I'm still trying and will get back to you in another hour", at least that's something concrete, and implies an action being taken and a set of follow-up steps.

As a tech person on the team who would have to help the customer, my first question of the support person would be, "why didn't you gather more information, like the customer's username, error messages he/she saw, browser type and version, etc.?" Not only would that be useful information to help track down the problem, but it would also give the customer some actions to take that would a) potentially lead to a solution, b) make him/her _feel_ like he was actively pushing his problem closer to resolution.

I'm not saying the poster was a bad hire; given that he's risen in the organization and has spent a lot of time there, I assume he quickly learned how HireArt's business works and what questions to ask to get solutions faster for customers... I'm just a little baffled that this work sample got him a job. Presumably it was the process that followed that the founders really liked. Maybe this was just a good filter that easily disqualified resume- spammers and people who can't form sentences.

I think the real value in this post is pointing out something that many recruiters, HR departments, and hiring managers should seriously think about: asking a candidate to solve an actual real-world problem is much more useful than most interview processes.

<comment><USER10> You raise a lot of good points, but given the constraints presented to the applicant I think that's as good as anyone could do. E.g. the customer feeling powerless is a true reflection of his being powerless as well; when it comes to this sort of thing I go for as much honesty as is palatable.

The "get back to you in an hour" ... not sure about that. You don't want to string someone along with a series of these, and in this artificial case he has _no_ idea exactly how long it'll be before he can get back to the customer. Worse, if enough customers are messed up he'd be sending a lot of identical messages like that out, and for each reply he'd need to make a more personal reply.

The points you make about his interacting with the tech team are well taken, but we might assume the info gathering was already done (ideally there's a ticket system and he could confirm that before sending this sort of reply), and I'm not sure they're relevant for a first level screen like this. If the company has its act together, their next step would be to test all that with some of the people he'd be working together with in the future.

<comment><USER12> I see where you're coming from, but I still disagree. The last thing a customer wants is a reply that has no useful content outside of apology.

Even if he was powerless to help at that moment, the customer does not want to hear that. The customer wants to believe that they are being helped and that the person on the other end of the line is actively taking steps to get them there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Well done. Imagining that you're probably not going to the best candidate (on paper) but having the tenacity to apply anyway, plus being good at what the job actually needs, and, dare I say, being very inexpensive as you're looking for part-time hours and you can work from home is a powerful and heady mix that adds up to the perfect candidate for a start-up hire.

The lesson here is not to be defeated by your own (perceived) failings. What you think is a fault might not matter to a hiring manager. Don't fear rejection. Step up and apply anyway. You never know.

(Plus, if you hire someone like this, your startup gets a really good human- interest news story 18 months later. ;) )

</comment><comment><USER14> This seems like not just good for applicants with weaker resumes, but for all applicants who are serious about a particular job. One problem with open job hunts in the Internet era is it's too easy to apply - applicants can resume- spam companies easily, applying at hundreds of places, and then the companies end up wading through a thousand applications - of course they'll just get discouraged and hire someone they already know. Making it a little bit more difficult to apply for a Job - cant just forward a generic résumé and cover letter - means companies might get only a limited pool if applicants, who actually want THAT job - so if you're one of those applicants, and it's your dream Job, you have a much better shot a really being seriously considered.

<comment><USER15> Yes, clearly it is the applicants who are fault here. What a nuisance they are. They just shouldn't apply to jobs so much. Maybe instead of trying to work they could try doing something else, like just dying.

I propose that candidates should purchase a big engagement ring for the company to prove their commitment. This will filter out the losers who don't really want the job. If the rock is big enough, they pass to the next phase, which is to fake an earth-shattering enthusiasm about how awesome the company and job are. If we are convinced that we are the best they ever had, then they can be allowed to solve our problems for us.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Maybe tokenadult will chime in here. But every time they have a how-to-hire thread he drops in a link to a meta-study outlining the most accurate predictors of hiring success[1]. The top two by far are general mental ability, and work task sample.

This guy did a work task sample and nailed it. Then he got the job. Kudos for him, and kudos to hireart for using statistically relevant hiring criteria.

[1] Schmit and Hunter 1998, Don't have a link handy.

<comment><USER17> Here you go:

Frank L. Schmidt and John E. Hunter, "The Validity and Utility of Selection Models in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings," Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 124, No. 2, 262-274

[http://mavweb.mnsu.edu/howard/Schmidt%20and%20Hunter%201998%...](http://mavweb.mnsu.edu/howard/Schmidt%20and%20Hunter%201998%20Validity%20and%20Utility%20Psychological%20Bulletin.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Honestly, I'm amazed that email was enough to get the gig.

As an engineer who's admittedly not very social, I would have no trouble writing that email. Are standards for non-technical people really this low when someone applying for an engineering position has to go through grueling interviews, code reviews, and resume checks?

(I'm sure that he was a great hire, I'm just amazed that this was sufficient to even get an interview.)

<comment><USER5> I have a theory that due to long term permanent structural economic changes, there's a whole generation (or more) younger than myself who never worked a "summer"/"teen" job. This would normally be a bit excessive as a filter at that level, but he's probably their first/only/works independently customer service position, so they can't just hire anyone and see how/if he fits.

Most "big company" customer service jobs are up or out in a couple months on average, annual turnover ratios in the small integer range. So even if you make a mistake, as long as the hire passed legal, and the general firing policies and procedures passed legal, it doesn't really matter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think this post is more beneficial for start ups/companies/recruiters more than job seekers. The author makes a very honest observation that speaks volumes about the current US job market:

"I know I wouldn't have landed this job if HireArt had been hiring using exclusively resumes. "

For example, I have been unsuccessful in even being contacted/screened by YC companies I have applied for, and in positions I would be highly qualified (not necessarily over-qualified). Example, I am an attorney with 3 years experience practicing business transactions and I applied to Contracts Manager and Legal Coordinator positions.

I often felt if I could only get in front of a recruiter/hiring manager and become a face rather than being just a resume in a pile that would make all the difference, of course companies can not afford to sit down with every candidate. Therefore, I think the author is right on point that performance based application is a good middle ground to be employed by more employers (pun intended).

</comment><comment><USER20> I recently wrote about how eng hiring is not nearly as meritocratic as it could be. As soon as a company gets large enough to have non-technical people doing filtering, people who don't look great on paper end up getting cut before anyone even gets to see their code.

[http://blog.alinelerner.com/silicon-valley-hiring-is-not- a-m...](http://blog.alinelerner.com/silicon-valley-hiring-is-not-a- meritocracy/)

I would love to see more stories like this, for both engineers and non- engineers alike.

<comment><USER21> InterviewStreet, Codility, and Hackermeter may not be the right tools to test a candidate's skills. During the in person interview or phone interview, if a candidate is not clear what the interviewer is asking, s/he can ask questions. If a candidate gets stuck on an online site, who should s/he talk to? If a candidate does not understand the question, how is s/he supported to answer it?

<comment><USER15> These sites aren't for candidates, they're not intended to test a candidate's skills and they're definitely not intended to help a candidate get a job. They are intended to filter out candidates. If you have to ask a question, if you get stuck, then you buckled under the pressure and how can you be expected to do real work with bosses and clients giving you vague specs and yelling at you? We only want A players. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

But the corollary to this is that the industry is really not measuring or even very interested in skills other than interviewing-under-pressure skills.

<comment><USER21> You are saying that "not understanding a question" means "being under pressure" How so?

)!@#$%^&*( <\- Do you understand what that means?

"how can you be expected to do real work with bosses and clients giving you vague specs and yelling at you?" Asking questions, communicating with your boss and clients.

I would love to learn what an A player would do in that situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Are there necessary credentials for being hired by a YC startup? I never had that impression.

Edit: Not trying to be snarky, I just wouldn't foresee the average YC company putting red tape in someone's way if the person demonstrates enthusiasm and value and the company is looking to grow.

Since you got hired by one YC company, even if you felt underqualified, I'd guess there are probably multiple YC companies out there who would hire you. So it seems possible that these 'necessary credentials' weren't real requirements in the first place, just imagined ones.

</comment><comment><USER23> Very interesting and spot on. I've always thought that most interviews (especially at the corporate level) do a pretty poor job of determining who would actually perform well in the specified role, and I imagine a whole host of qualified folks don't even get in the door based on a variety of circumstances that could be out of their control...

</comment><comment><USER24> > Since then I've had a chance to see how HireArt helps its clients follow the > same type of process... {{HireArt elevator pitch}}

Not only was the customer service email extremely well-written ---the entire blog post is nicely crafted to deliver this payload paragraph.

IOW I am both cynical and impressed. I see what you did there... and reluctantly congratulate you.

</comment><comment><USER25> This is a great story for the simple reason that ODesk was able to find a very effective way to "test" candidates, without going through the boring, repetitive, outdated task of checking the resume, doing phone interviews, etc.

Well done, and congratulations for your job. I hope that many companies will be inspired by this post.

</comment><comment><USER26> FWIW - in my previous company I/we tried to hire the best people for the job, regardless of credentials and I think we did a good job of it. I take that experience now and apply it to hiring for our newly minted YC company. Same leadership, better pedigree.

</comment><comment><USER10> The Ask The Headhunter guy says this is the very best way to get hired: demonstrate to the hiring manager that you can do the job (and the author is modest, there was a _lot_ more that was good about his prose than that he'd " _used proper spelling and grammar_ ", although I'm sure the promptness was critical).

it's better than any set of "credentials", which are a poor proxy for demonstrating this.

It's one reason lots of us test programmers on both simple coding (FizzBuzz or hopefully a bit harder, I also put some code with errors on the white board), and then, at least in my case, work through a design problem with them. All proxies for showing they can do the job.

</comment><comment><USER27> Great Story. Stories like this give me back my faith in humanity. Often Companies are looking for the 20 year old senior with 10 year experience in the same job, they are applying for.

However in the startup world the hiring process you experienced at ODesk is very common. Most startups don't have a HR team to do all the personnel stuff. The CEOs and 'techies' decide who is joining the company and they are focused on your skillset. Can that applicant deal with our everyday problems? Which of course makes sense; they don't necessarily need a senior or principle. They need someone who can get the job done.

I'm happy for you and wish you best of luck doing the job you've always wanted.

</comment><comment><USER28> Soft skills are a form of credential too. I'd say it's one of the most important credentials you can have.

People can learn to program, learn systems and even learn whole languages. But often, they have the most difficulty learning to communicate empathically and effectively. This is a vital skill that, I believe, is more important than just knowing systems or knowing how to program.

The other stuff you can work on the side.

Talking to people on a humane level seems to be largely ignored or even regarded with condescension among technical people and I think that's really a shame.

</comment><comment><USER29> this is quite interesting.

so i had no credentials or experience when i got my first tech job. although my experience was at a AAA game dev. i became a rendering programmer which is generally considered to be a specialised role as well... this was down to a combination of personal connections, having a rock solid demo and knowing my stuff inside and out.

my experience there was that oxford graduates with 5 years + experience ranged in quality from 'gifted hard worker' to 'dead weight' with a heavy leaning towards the 'dead weight' end. literally you could have replaced some of these people with large rocks and it would have saved the company money.

being able to demo skills is valuable and should be expected during hiring imo, but sadly many employers have not grasped this in their interview and selection process. on the other hand in small high pressure teams avoiding bad hires is super important...

imo this is the genius of the test you were given - unlike almost every single examination and course work in academia, it puts you into a real world situation and demands a solution without warning (knowing when your exam is) support (lecturers) or cheat sheets (textbooks).

</comment><comment><USER30> Congrats! Awesome story and very encouraging. As an employee who was hired based on a "list of credentials" I know how intimidating it can be to apply for jobs. I've heard quite a few of these cases where a company has diverged from the traditional hiring process and has had success and I think it's awesome. The current traditional process is definitely broken and needs change. Enjoy your new job!

</comment><comment><USER31> It's great to hear that someone who didn't have the creds was able to get hired at a start-up. Too often the best people don't get noticed.

</comment><comment><USER32> Awesome story. I'm in a similar boat myself with trying to break into the QA field with no prior experience. I've been turned down from every position I've applied to so far despite teaching myself some Selenium and putting my tests on Github. I'm not going to give up my dream but damn if it doesn't get discouraging after having so many doors closed on you.

</comment><comment><USER33> I feel like the title is little misleading or maybe I'm just bias and I immediately thought that he got a developer job when he is "just" a social media/helpdesk kind a person, which is a job that needs to be done of course, but there are a lot more qualified people to do it than there are engineers

</comment><comment><USER34> He didn't have the necessary credentials for a _tech_ position at the start- up, but he obviously had what was needed - not necessarily "credentials" \- for his current position. Kudos to him.

</comment><comment><USER35> That was a poorly written response.

"Your clients are important to you", etc.

</comment><comment><USER36> Just continues to speak to the benefit of a probationary period or some other tests that are actually applicable to the job before hiring.

Thanks for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER37> great story</comment>


Ask HN: What Does "Holistic" Mean? - <AUTHOR> I keep seeing this everywhere, and have for many years. I still have no idea what it means.<p>Google says "characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole", and I'm more confused than anything. <comment><USER2> Frequently it is used in contrast to "reductionism", where something is broken down into parts.

One "holistic" approach (in my mind) is a broad accounting of stocks and flows. For instance to evaluate the possibility of building a space sunshade with a solar sail factory on a carbonaceous chondrite asteroid it would be reductionistic to design the system and mission in as much detail as possible, It is another to say that you need to make 10^14 kg of mylar and 10^12 kig of aluminum and make some broad guesses about stocks and flows from there. That's more holistic.

I would say use of the holographic principle in quantum gravity is holistic, adding up thousands of Feynmann diagrams is reductionistic.

<comment><USER3> I like how you contrasted with an opposite term to clarify the meaning.

Looking up an antonym of _holistic_ , I find:

> _atomistic_ \- Consisting of many separate, often disparate elements

..which evokes _analysis_ , to break down into parts.

In contrast:

> _holistic_ \- Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the > interdependence of its parts. Concerned with wholes rather than analysis or > separation into parts.

..which is about _synthesis_ , to bring parts together into a whole.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It depends on context

The original meaning was about wholeness: studying or managing something as a whole.

It has been co-opted by alternative medicine, which is where you'll see the word most often. There is (and should be) a concept of holistic medicine, which could mean seeing the body as a whole instead of individual systems. Real medicine is going in this direction anyway, for example with the growing understanding of the link between the brain and gut.

For people marketing alternative medicine, it's a buzzword that makes people think of whole _some_ , and also that the seller is considering things that science-based medicine is missing.

</comment><comment><USER5> Basically, it means to think of all parts of a system as a complete system, not viewing the parts of the system independently.

For example, if you review a car, like in the publication Car and Driver, you might look at the engine and rate it, but it would be within the context of that car. You could have a high output engine and weak brakes, which might make the car less attractive from a holistic view (and maybe dangerous). You want to see how all the parts of that car 'add up' as a complete system.

</comment><comment><USER6> That definition from google is not wrong, but they sure did word it in a difficult way.

It literally means looking at the whole picture -- "whole-istic" would be a misspelling, but makes the meaning more clear. See all parts of a system as a pieces of a bigger entity, and recognize that what impacts one part will impact the whole.

</comment><comment><USER7> All encompassing, multi-source, etc. My take from Oregon, among those at fair.

</comment><comment><USER8> A whole man is a holy man !</comment>


Can A Monkey License Its Copyrights To A News Agency? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110706/00200314983/monkey-business-can-monkey-license-its-copyrights-to-news-agency.shtml <comment><USER2> > But from a letter-of-the-law view of things, Slater almost certainly does > not hold the copyrights on those image

We currently do not view non-human primates as human, so what's the difference between a monkey taking a picture, and me building a machine that automatically takes a photo? Who holds the copyright on the result?

<comment><USER3> You've built and programmed the machine. You haven't built the monkey. So maybe nobody owns the copyright. I'm wondering if there'd be a difference, copyright-wise, between training a monkey to click the button and having a monkey click a button of its own accord. Heh.</comment></comment>


Predatory conference scammers are getting smarter - <AUTHOR> https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/predatory-conference-scammers-are-getting-smarter/3009263.article <comment><AUTHOR> There is also a website about WASET which is a fake conference organizer, focusing on earning money and getting papers published.

[https://wasetwatch.wordpress.com](https://wasetwatch.wordpress.com)

<comment><USER2> Waset now create conference with the same name as others, confusion people even more. These scam are extremely frustrating. I get spam from predatory conferences/journals everyday now.</comment></comment>