What is the working principle of the invisible watermark? - <AUTHOR> Recently, an employee of our company (Alibaba) leaked a screenshot of a computer screen, and the company relied on this screenshot to find the number and name of the culprit. I want to know why this company can rely on invisible watermarks to find information about leakers. And recently, I'm very interesting about the watermarking technology,  so I developed a android watermark library that supports the invisible watermarks. the library is still under developments, I need suggestions, thanks.<p>@link https://github.com/huangyz0918/AndroidWM <comment><AUTHOR> At present, this framework is still under development, and the invisible watermark only implements the LSB spatial domain. LSB is very poorly robust and does not support lossy compression, so I am going to make a watermark added to the frequency domain in the next step. For an Android framework, I think it is enough to provide these two interfaces.</comment>


California's public schools earn poor marks - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfexaminer.com/californias-public-schools-earn-poor-marks <comment><USER2> I predict that no progress will be made with educational reform until we learn to talk about it with more sophistication than witless metaphors like "marks", "grades" and "report cards".</comment>


Show HN: An AMD GPU Fan Controller for Linux, in Rust - <AUTHOR> https://git.sr.ht/~robotmay/amdgpu-fancontrol <comment><USER2> This was how I spent my Saturday. Needs a bit of polish, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, i.e. it works and my PC hasn't exploded yet.

There's an equivalent in Python that I've seen, but this felt like a good use for Rust to me. One feature I specifically wanted was for it to run the fans higher for longer, so that it doesn't just sit at a temperature boundary turning the fans on/off all the time.</comment>


Ask HN: Are available domain names still important when naming a company? - <AUTHOR> From your experience, do you check domain name availability before naming a company? It looks to me like this is becoming less important...
There's many companies that either use alternative TLD's like; example.app or example.shop
Or prepend "get" or append "app" to the name to obtain the dot com TLD.
I also think that SEO and search engines make the actual domain names less important now right? <comment><USER2> In general most people massively underestimate the importance of naming and treat it with indifference.

The cost of advertising is the long-term tax you pay for poor short-term decision making when naming your product or service.

What most people don't realize is that it's the "sound" of the name that's most important, not the way it looks on a logo or in a domain name.

The reason for this is the part of the brain's working memory called the phonological loop that gets excited by short repetitive rhyming sounds and rehearses them repeatedly, which is why you sometimes can't get a song or tune out of your head. This function results in repetitive and rhyming names being more readily committed to long-term memory, thus making good names not just memorable but unforgettable.

All the the best names are alliterative and rhyming, and I'd argue that Coca- Cola is the best name ever conceived so far.

"So does the available domain matter?"

Yes, but nowhere near as much as the name itself.

It's very possible to come up with original great sounding unique names that position you well in the marketplace, it just takes time and a lot of patience.

<comment><USER3> We have a dash in the company name, which was perfect at the time we started if (1997).

But then came the mandatory domain name (expensive back then) and email adresses.

So we when we had to spell it on the phone, it was a nightmare, even mor in french because we had to explain it was the dash on the 6 and not the dash on the 8 (underscore on French keyboards). So it was something like "g, dash, yes the one on the 6 not on the 8, etc.."

No need to say that there were a lot of lost emails back then.

And that we bought the domain name without the dash when it became affordable !

<comment><USER4> I agree. I used to have a dash ("-") in my domain name and all my friends and colleagues (italians, french, germans) hated it (I ended up hating it as well when having to type it on the phone) => don't ever use these kind of chars in the domain name.

Additionally try not to use long top-level domains - I'm using now ".digital" but every time I have to type it it feels too long to me => I'm regretting having moved my (outdated) webpage there.

<comment><USER5> Also agree. The domain I bought for my family (my wife and myself) is hyphenated after our surnames and it time and again has been a pain to dictate to 3rd party.

<comment><USER6> Why not register the unhyphenated name also, and redirect?

NB: domain names are not for sale. You cannot buy them. You can only register control of them for a time period.

<comment><USER7> Use initials for the last names and thats the default, firstnameln.com redirects to firstnamelastname.com

And neither of those have hyphens

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I casually buy and sell domains. Used to do it heavily when I was in college but have turned down my investments in this space since I believe it is fundamentally antithetical to a free and open internet. I'm usually happy to let go of my domains for substantially lower profits if someone has a genuine need.

This is just to qualify my next statements.

Domainers grossly overestimate the impact of domain names. Entrepreneurs grossly underestimate it.

The truth is somewhere in between. Domains are important, but they're not going to make or break a shoddy product.

As long as you get a domain that's pronounceable, easy to type in, and memorable, you should be fine.

In particular, this means staying away from exotic extensions - both gTLDs like ".travel" and ccTLDs like ".io"

Because the average user still thinks of the web as .com. Tell them that your website is abccorp.io and they will type in abccorp.com. In fact there is a cottage industry of domainers who buy .com versions of websites in other TLDs just to make money off the type-in traffic.

If you can't get the domain you want, add a prefix like "get"

Remember that domains are essentially about branding. You want to sound familiar yet stand out. Imagine the domain name as a standalone retail store. Does the name make sense? Does it seem trustable?

Like if you're selling watches, "WatchCenter.com" makes sense. You can practically imagine a big retail chain named 'Watch Center'.

Some of favorite prefixes/suffixes to get solid brands are: hub, mojo, hero, smart, open, start, center, station, base, next, genius, zap, wire, active, metrics, dojo.

Add them before/after a keyword to get a decent domain (like "InstaPayments" or "CodingDojo.com")

Just make sure that you stick to .com

</comment><comment><USER9> The majority of people don't browse the internet like people on hacker news. They type the domain name into the Google search home page, not the URL bar for the browser. Chances are they are going to type .com at the end. So in my opinion after observing this from many different people in all parts of life I think domain name is still very important. I personally only use .com. This has forced me to think outside of the box and I have come up with, in my opinion, some great company names that have a .com available.

Depending on what your company sells SEO is either going to be really expensive or you aren't going to have to worry about it. In my experience and opinion from a purely SEO stand point you should have your business name or primary product / product category in the domain name. I typically don't trust companies that out the product in the domain name though. For example, bestgloves.com or babyclothes.com. I try to buy based on honest reviews (getting harder and harder to find) but the majority of the internet just clicks on the top Google search result and typically buys from there.

So with all that being said, in my opinion, importance of domain name all depends on your target audience.

<comment><USER4> > They type the domain name into the Google search home page, not the URL bar > for the browser.

I can confirm it - my father keeps doing that (I keep postponing this therefore very soon I'll have to try to explain him the difference, but I have to find an entertaining way to do that when mentioning IP-addresses, virtual hosts, DNS, etc... => difficult).

<comment><USER10> when i try to explain complicated topics to people not familiar with them, i try to simplify instead of going into detail.

one thing that worked nicely for me in the past when explaining domains: full domain name: actual internet address of a company, like a street address of a store. google.com is equal to streetname.number

if you know the number (eg tld) of the house, you just go there directly and enter the store.

if you do know the street (google), but do not know the number of the house (.com) you need to stop and ask someone for the way, and this is what google.com is for.

usually the big aha effect is that google.com is an address which leads you to a page that allows you to find other addresses.

going to google.cn (or whatever country you like) might help too, explaining how google has both .com and .cn and .nz and so on, all different "storefronts" of the same company, catering to different countries.

once that is understood, and if it was easily understood, maybe explain how the top bar (in most browsers) can be used for both searching for addresses and to input addresses directly, then set the default search engine to duckduckgo.

hope that helps :)

<comment><USER11> > google.com is equal to streetname.number

Small correction: the left side of a domain name is the most specific. For example, `translate.google.com` is like `number.street.city`, not the other way around.

It may _seem_ like the end of a domain name is like the street number, since it's often a country-code, but it's more like having company that's so big that they have the same street address in every city.

<comment><USER10> actually very true, i missed that, so obvious, thanks for the correction :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I once purchased quite an old premium .COM domain name. It didn't have any content for several years. I created a prelaunch page with a basic subscribe form and the website immediately showed up #1 in Google Search. It consistently outcompetes everyone, including companies' websites that have very similar company name and been around for a few years.

I'm not a SEO expert by any means, but I'm confident that the domain name still does matter. There must be something about the domain name age, its length and TLDs.

<comment><USER13> "Shows up #1 in Google Search" is impressive if the term it's showing up for is "coffee." Not so impressive if it's "bologna and whipped cream sandwich on pumpernickel."

<comment><USER7> Oh you know its the latter

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Echoing an earlier comment, branding and domain naming is _massively_ important. A crappy brand is to consumers like a crappy API is to developers. People won't be attracted to your idea if they can't relate to it.

You need to think of your company or product name as the interface to the collective psyche of your customer base. The stronger and more positive the association the higher chance your little idea has a chance to be understood and stick around in people's minds long enough to catch fire.

Two essential tools for domain name research:

1\. [https://domainr.com](https://domainr.com): search a name across multiple TLDs simultaneously

2\. [https://wordoid.com](https://wordoid.com): search for different versions based on a root word (i.e. word-oid, nap-ster, etc)

Happy hunting!

<comment><USER15> [http://impossibility.org/](http://impossibility.org/) is a good one for multi-word names.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> People need to be careful of new TLDs not just for branding and communication reasons. We had a client in the UK healthcare industry who had to switch their domain name from clientname.healthcare to clientnamehealth.org.uk because NHS systems were rejecting email addresses with the .healthcare TLD as invalid.

</comment><comment><USER17> It's on the top 10 list of things to consider - along with finding real customers. How high is debatable. If your product/service resonates with customers, you could change the name to something more appropriate later. It might be expensive to buy the right domain, but if you've got $ or stock that's worth something, it's totally doable.

Consider the fact that a brand and the company name are two separate things. Think Uber Cab (Uber), Google (Alphabet), Tide (P & G). The domain name can/should be tied to the product - and the brand. The company name itself can be anything really. As a first step to a rename if you really really want to do it, you could file an incorporation document amendment that says "Company AD15asd Corp, d.b.a. NiceBrand"

</comment><comment><USER18> The company I work for recently switched TLDs from .io to .dev, because apparently the former has some serious reliability issues.

I don't know the details, but given how painful the process of switching email addresses of everyone in the company is, it must have been really bad.

<comment><USER4> Really?!

".io" is used quite a lot (subjectively) => I thought that in general all top- level domains were reliable... .

Any kind of additional info like what kind of reliability issues, how often, etc....?

<comment><USER19> [https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for- produc...](https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-production- traffic-b6aa17eeac20)

<comment><USER20> >2017

<comment><USER4> Thx

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Double edged sword I suppose. I know of one company that got one a trendy 5/6 letter ending in o that you see a lot of CPaaS companies get (Twilio, Nexmo etc.) but it had been used years earlier as part of a scam that resulted in prison time. Still comes up when you google their name.

</comment><comment><USER22> It's easier to remember example.com than example.app, so it matters in contexts where someone has to remember an URL. Imagine nike.get - sounds like a scam. Big serious brands have a .com. And now you have the association: if you have a .com then you're a big serious brand.

> Or prepend "get" or append "app" to the name to obtain the dot com TLD. This > is bad advice - always check if the word is trademarked. I learned it the > hard way - I was running mentionme.app and mention.com sent me a cease and > desist letter, since they own the word "mention".

Similarly Facebook sent a cease and desist letter to openbook.social.

I'm collecting cases like this, as I recently had to go through the rename. If you know more please let me know. I've documented my story here: [https://medium.com/syften/you-should-obsess-over-your- produc...](https://medium.com/syften/you-should-obsess-over-your-products- name-c95a407bd992)

</comment><comment><USER23> > There's many companies that either use alternative TLD's like; example.app > or example.shop

Careful with domains outside of .com, .org, .net, and maybe the major country or region TLDs. Spammers are real quick to jump in when a new TLD becomes available. Mail with a from address in those domains can quickly become a very good indicator of spam to a spam learning filter.

Plus, some people might not be patient enough to wait for their filters to figure that out, and just do it manually. I've got all the following TLDs going straight to mostly ignored mailbox, because I receive a ton of spam from them and have never received a legit message from them:

accountant bid christmas click club cricket date download faith gdn gq help info link loan men party press pro racing review science site space stream team top trade uno webcam website win work xyz zone

It might be fine to use the newer TLDs for web stuff, but I'd say try to get a domain under one of the classic TLDs to use for email from and reply-to addresses.

</comment><comment><USER24> From an SEO perspective I do agree that domain name isn't as critical as content.

From a company perspective I do think a domain name is important when it comes to being easy for people to remember, related to the business properly and uses a well known TLD. I think the use of the classic TLDs will become less and less important with time, but I see a lot of people nervous if a site is using a new TLD they haven't heard of. This matters depending who your target audience is in the end. If it is engineers than probably less important, if it is general consumers the importance is higher.

Also, I generally try to avoid abbreviations in the name but at the same time try to avoid long names the best I can. Outside of that I wouldn't get overly excited about it myself. But to answer your question, I won't name a company unless I have done searches for decent domain names I think are easy for the target audience to grasp/remember and type in.

<comment><USER17> Yep. Totally agree. I do the same.

The thing I find interesting is that doing the research gives me a new perspective on whether or not I really want to go after that business/model. The SEO search turns up potential competitors, domain squatters, etc. While thinking about different names to lookup and key words to search for, my context changes to a potential customer...

A lot of times it reminds me ("oh yeah... did I talk to real potential customers yet?") and if I didn't, I'm in real trouble of building another tool that no one wants :(

<comment><USER24> Yea, I totally agree. And like you said, it may highlight things you didn't think of when you start analyzing search trends etc. So you have more ideas & information to talk to potential customers before you go all in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> They are important, but less so if your primary distribution method is an app store. There the app name functions similar to how AOL keywords worked on top of the Internet.

Keys to naming: 1\. Come up with a temporary throwaway name and build your MVP 2\. Start brainstorming permanent names and see if any are trademarkable available on secondary market for less than $100,000. 3\. As soon as you can afford to, acquire your preferred domain name and file the trademark. 4\. Rebrand the company.

This should ideally happen before you build too much brand equity in your temporary name. I spent $2000 on my name because it perfectly describes my business. When I made the decision, it actually cost $5000.

The final name should not be related to the first name to avoid tipping off domain owner.

</comment><comment><USER26> Well Paul Graham says to always get a .com though I get the feeling as long as your domain comes up first (easier with a good name + .com) it wont matter. It could be .xyz and people will click on it if its high enough. Though there is more legitimacy in having a .com

If I remember correctly though Discord used to be DiscordApp.com it wont hurt to start out with a longer .com that has app at the end. I would also consider .app maybe Google will rate it higher but I am no SEO expert and that would involve separate research.

Post from Paul Graham, surprised HN didnt share this one yet:

[http://paulgraham.com/name.html](http://paulgraham.com/name.html)

<comment><USER27> Ah yes, the founder of HackerNews.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> As much as we like to think that we don't have to pay for premium domains, they still do have a good reason to purchase..

Not all TLDs are treated equally. Think of this yourself: would you trust URLs with .xyz or .to? Those domains are used so much in spam (because they are cheap or free), and we already have bias against them.

At best, these novelty TLDs work as an extension to the .com domain. If you can, always always buy the .com. you will probably need to pay a premium (domainers awfully overcharge you), or choose an abstract name at least.

You will need to think about the TLS registry and technical details as well:

\- Most novelty TLD nameservers are run on "shared" nameservers that handle other TLDs as well. \- Some TLD nameservers are quite slow as well, which can result in recursive nameservers to be slow. \- DNSSEC, Nameserver glue, and whois considerations. \- Registries will have to pay ~$25K in annual fees in addition to costs to run the servers. This cost will be spread among domain owners. This is one of the reasons why certain TLDs tend to be expensive (apart from the registry greed)

<comment><USER29> I don't think DNSSEC is going to matter at all. Virtually no major tech companies have signed their domains.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Communication is more important than discovery. You will most likely be selling more than being discovered early on.

I'm starting [http://watch.ly](http://watch.ly) and even with a short name like that I don't expect to get a lot of customers from online advertising and the like. But the name is easy to remember which is important.

</comment><comment><USER31> Others have said that it is quite important, and it is, but picking the wrong name (such as if that's the only one available) can also be the kiss of death. If the name just sounds dumb, people either won't want to use it, or might use it but won't tell anyone, costing you word of mouth marketing.

</comment><comment><USER32> If it's a mobile app, it doesn't matter nearly as much. Otherwise, try and get the .com.

</comment><comment><USER33> You need to know your audience. You need to think of ways it could go wrong. This means researching if it sounds or looks like something offensive. Sexual, political, racist, swear words, unpleasant associations, etc.

But there is plenty of marketing that hinges on there being an acceptable _sexy_ interpretation of a name or catch phrase -- _hot and ready_ pizza, _Easy Stripper_ paint removal product -- so it isn't even as simple as "Just make sure it can't possibly be interpreted as sexual."

Different people approach this space differently. I like casually collecting stories or examples of successes that _break the mold._ Questionable Content has a .net name and as far as I know is the best monetized webcomic on the planet, or was at one time. Hyperbole And A Half uses blogspot and has no TLD. She just uses the blogspot url.

[https://questionablecontent.net/](https://questionablecontent.net/)

[http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/)

Aflac is not the actual name of the Fortune 500 insurance company best known by that name. Their legal name is still American Family Life Assurance Company. They originally incorporated as American Family Life Insurance Company. Internal tales from when I worked there indicated that they lost the original name in "a gentleman's coin toss" between two CEOs because there was another company in another state with the same name and it had to be settled somehow.

They had low name recognition for an industry that already lacks sizzle and tends towards poor name recognition and thought about renaming it, but that would require filing new papers in all fifty states and other places they do business. They decided to go with the acronym.

It's kind of like calling someone Bill when his birth certificate says William. Everyone knows that's not how he signs his name on a check and no one will be confused by it when his signature is different from what his friends call him.

As noted in another comment, most people don't relate to the web the way most hackers do. You need to have some idea of how people will be accessing your site, from where, when, why, etc.

It's great if you can find a unique .com that hasn't already been taken that is also an excellent name for the company in question, but it shouldn't be the single most important thing involved in picking a name.

<comment><USER34> Corollary: make sure your _logo_ isn't easily sexualized.

[http://blog.wanken.com/9115/uncomfortably-sexual-company- log...](http://blog.wanken.com/9115/uncomfortably-sexual-company-logos/)

<comment><USER35> Ironic from a site called Wanken...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Domain names are not only for websites and SEO, but also for services like email. So I think yes, it is still good to have a relevant, predictable, memorable and pronouncable domain name for a company.

</comment><comment><USER37> Not only does the domain matter the TLD you choose can have a huge impact.

These guys paid €500,000 ($550,000) to buy teamwork.com, they were running under teamworkpm.net. Apparently the change paid for itself in 3 months. [https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/teamwork- pays...](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/teamwork-pays-off-for- cork-entrepreneurs-behind-software-firm-1.3721014)

</comment><comment><USER7> I think it really depends on the target audience

If most of your users will come to your side through facebook posts, instagram stories and twitter then the url really doesn't matter, they're never typing it.

If your brand picks up with them you'll be able to buy the premium .com version

If it cant pick up without your social media users alone then that says what it needs to say

</comment><comment><USER38> I have always been able to find .com domains for my side projects - why would i bother leaving the opportunity for squatting open? Sometimes it takes a lot of searching but it has been doable for a wide range of projects. The naming absolutely depends on availability imho

</comment><comment><USER39> Its definitely something to consider otherwise who knowsm maybe down the line someone who owns a better TLD like .com can be like "Pay me $XXX,XXX or I will put bad content on the domain"

<comment><USER40> Is that not extortion?

<comment><USER41> I can't speak for US law. But i worked at a company that had something similar happen to them. We went to the police and they said there's nothing they can do.

The guy that 'extorted' us dropped out of law school and knew _exactly_ what he could and couldn't say.

So the answer to that is probably that it's not extortion if you know your way around the law and are clever about it. He never extorted us, he just offered to sell us the domain name that was shit talking our company. Of course he's allowed to SEO the domain name with a link farm, that's not illegal. And it's not slander if it's true or not presented as a fact, just as speculation.

<comment><USER38> I think if he asked 'pay me or xx' it would be extortion. What he did was 'an offer you cant refuse'

<comment><USER41> Yeah, just a note though, we did refuse. We fought him on the SERPs instead and he eventually gave up after it became clear we're weren't going to pay. It was certainly more expensive and took longer, but was probably worth it.

You don't really want to become known as an easy extortion target.

<comment><USER42> What happened to the .com? Does he still own it?

<comment><USER41> It wasn't a dot-com, and he let it expire after a year. He (also) goes for $company-criticism.ccTLD etc. whatever he can get his hands on that he thinks he can rank for your company name. That's why I said similar case. The legally-not-slander stopped because we made him work to keep it on the first page on SERPs.

I just checked his blog/authority site and he does exactly the same thing to others now. Apparently he won a court case where he did this to a government agency and his current target seems to be a cleaning company that took his parking spot once.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I actually like the made up names like Google and Spotify. So I'm sure there are plenty of domains like that available still.

If not, I'm sure a combination of things could work, like Facebook or Netflix.

<comment><USER8> You'll be surprised how few made up names are available.

You can bet that the moment Spotify hit big, a bunch of domainers registered every good name ending in "-ify"

<comment><USER20> just [acquisition synonym verb][madeup/foreign language word].com

for eg [get/try/use/make][sutra].com - most common variant is get nowadays.

then when you become big enough pay off the squatter to give you sutra.com

<comment><USER44> Of course, the flip side is that you could pick up sutra.com for $1000 today, but when getsutra.com is big and you need to buy it, it'll be $100,000

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I don't think it's important but your website could be harder to find if you use a different TLD than com, net or something other that's well-known.

</comment><comment><USER46> It's an easy way to get a de-facto trademark on a name that you want to use. So, in that respect it's pretty important. It does help with SEO too.

</comment><comment><USER47> Content is way more relevant than the name. Godaddy.com is certainly not an obvious choice for a sucessful domain seller.

</comment><comment><USER48> Not sure if this will help but for me a company and its products are two separate things.

Sometimes the company is (from a brand perspective) the same with its products. But it might also be that you name your company in a way and then be more thoughtful about the name of the product.

Sometimes the customer remembers more the name of the product and not the company. Also sometimes the customer remembers a USP which could also be the domain name and not the actual product name.

</comment><comment><USER49> depends on the use case. if your company produces apps for phones, not so much. if your company is saas, yes, big time

</comment><comment><USER50> Yes the domain names especially getting a .com domain is pretty irrelevant now.

It was very important very google used to give a lot of weight to .com domains and exact matches but thanks to SEOers exploiting that I don't think a .com ranks higher than .info or .co either just because it's a .com

The only thing that matters is the tld reliability imo. I mean stay away from domains like tk etc which have a known bad history.

</comment><comment><USER51> Just Sue the shit out of them

</comment><comment><USER52> You can buy by paying them

</comment><comment><USER53> I'm OldSkool, I still check domain names first, a .com.

</comment><comment><USER54> How much money did that idiot Morin pay for path.com ?</comment>


The Decision: Apache Kafka or Amazon Kinesis? - <AUTHOR> https://www.jowanza.com/blog/2017/6/19/the-decision-apache-kafka-or-amazon-kinesis <comment><USER2> Kafka is a great piece of software, but running and managing it can be quite tedious. If you can run your workloads in a public cloud my recommendation would be to go with a fully-managed Kafka solution, there are several such services available (such as ours, link in my profile) which make using Kafka in any cloud as easy as using Kinesis in AWS.</comment>


77% of investors made money in 2016 - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/30/investing/stock-market-2016-women-beat-men/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom <comment><USER2> _> The average investor made just over 5% in 2016._

Of course, the total stock market is up 15% YTD (including dividends), so a simple index fund did better than most investors.</comment>


STAPLE - An All-or-nothing transform - <AUTHOR> http://sysnet.ucsd.edu/projects/staple/

<comment><AUTHOR> The wikip page <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_or_nothing_transform> and the outgoing links are also pretty interesting.</comment>


Ask YC: WoW items commodity exchange, why wouldn't it work? - <AUTHOR> http://andreyf.tumblr.com/post/61389798/wow-stock-exchange

<comment><USER2> because unlike a standard material commodity, a playing card's value can be dramatically affected by whatever the publishing company decides to do to the game. whether it be printing more of the card, releasing a new version of the card that's more powerful, making that one obsolete, or even discontinuing the game altogether.

i'm sure you COULD make something like this, but really with the value of the item being intangible and largely based on emotional/prospective value, it'd be hard to get traction with the idea...

<disclosure: i know nothing about WoW cards></comment>


Dr Sarah E. Hill: 'A blind spot about how the pill influences women's brains' - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/19/dr-sarah-e-hill-how-pill-influences-womens-brains <comment><USER2> Its not just oral contraceptives, Its anything that increases progesterone will do the same thing.(as thats the hormone being discussed)

There is the injection, [[https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/contraceptive- in...](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/contraceptive-injection)] and the implant [[https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/contraceptive- im...](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/contraceptive-implant/)]

both of those work roughly in the same way. Infact they cause much higher levels, so the effects may be more pronounced.

For my wife, it causes a perma-period, which is a great contraceptive, but not in the way it was planned.

In terms of mental side effects: loss of humour. She wouldn't watch comedy, as its not funny. I knew when it was wearing off because she'd start making jokes again.

<comment><USER3> > is a great contraceptive, but not in the way it was planned.

Agreed. My repeated experience has been that something about going on the pill almost completely extinguishes any interest in sex, so that whatever prophylactic effects it has are nearly academic...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I still have hopes that someday Vasalgel will make it to clinical trials in the US:

[https://www.parsemus.org/projects/vasalgel/](https://www.parsemus.org/projects/vasalgel/)

It's a one-application, reversible male contraceptive. "Application" is surgical, but not an involved one.

If it ever makes it to the market, it seems like a much simpler, safer intervention, conceptually. Disclaimer: non-medical programmer, so I have no genuinely useful insights into this subject. Just a layperson making guesses.

<comment><USER5> Immersing the testicles in 116 F water for 45 minutes a day for three weeks is significantly cheaper, and gives an undetectable sperm count for 6 months. It's honestly likely the best avenue for male birth control, the only problem is that it's impossible for a corporation to monetize so it's unlikely to get any sort of traction.

<comment><USER6> Something that involves 45 minutes of your time every day for three weeks, every six months... I don't know if I would describe that as "the best avenue". It's not as if it's something I can do while sat as my desk at work.

<comment><USER7> You need more accommodating coworkers. If you can't take your testicles out and dip them into nearly-scalding water at your desk in the open-plan office, you need to do some trust falls at the next morale event.

<comment><USER6> "How _dare_ you disrespect my reproductive autonomy!"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Almost every woman I have ever dated has told me that they hate the pill and believe it seriously fucks with their head. I've never encouraged anyone to use that method, and I wish we had better male options.

<comment><USER9> Same here. And every women I know who stopped taking the pill would rave on how good it made them feel in general, and specific things like an increased sex drive. I was there when my current GF stopped taking the pill and can attest to that: an improvement on many fronts and seemingly no disadvantages. But yeah, billion dollar industry, people are used to it, convenient, ... so I don't see this getting better soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why doesn't Paragard (non-hormonal copper IUD) not come up in these threads? It doesn't have any hormones, and is usually a better experience - and is far more effective. For some reason, at least in the US however it seems like almost no one has heard of it?

Pushing the pill with all it's side-effects and low efficacy frankly seems borderline malpractice?

<comment><USER11> I've had it, twice. Both times it just disappeared from my body and I ended up unwantedly preggo. I never want to go through abortion again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I noticed that my girlfriend and I stopped having arguments after she got off the pill. That was over a year ago. She's much more relaxed. I also got the snip.

</comment><comment><USER13> In my experience, doctors, also GPs, are aware of effects on mood. In fact, my SO didn't start taking the pill until it was recommended for precisely those reasons during the (peri)menopause. There is a great deal of uncertainty about which pill will work, if any, but that's hardly surprising, as we have so little knowledge about the brain.

</comment><comment><USER14> My ex I lived with for a decade would go on and off the pill mostly to deal with her adult acne in the first few years we were together, in our mid 20s.

Every time she got back on it we'd have insane arguments and go through crazy volatile periods where the relationship was crumbling. She'd get off it, and everything would magically stabilize again.

Her eventual decision to stay permanently off it was one of the best things that ever happened to our relationship.

</comment><comment><USER15> As a transgender woman, I can assure you that hormone levels (estradiol in particular) do affect mood. If I forget to take my medication I will get a migraine, for instance, and this is a pattern also observed in cisgender women.

But what levels are ideal, what is good and bad, etc, is not the least bit clear cut for anybody.

<comment><USER16> Same here. Loss of estradiol makes me feel like I'm falling off a cliff. There was a shortage of estradiol here in the UK lately (due to Brexit mostly) and I ran out for a few days and went into a panic. The last time I ran out previously was a bad time for me, but who can accurately say that the lack of estradiol was entirely to blame?

I'm an artist well as techie, and my artwork has completely changed since starting estradiol 4 years ago. I used to draw only in pen and ink, always architectural scenes, black and white, lots of straight lines. Now that doesn't interest me in the least, and its all watercolours, and curves, and trees, and people. I am fascinated by people.

I also really enjoy talking now, about anything to anyone. I never ever used to do this before.

<comment><USER15> It's so hard to untangle hormones from life events.

I transitioned in a way that's somewhat backwards from how people typically do it these days; I was presenting female or genderqueer pretty much 100% of the time before I transitioned.

And through that, I found my female side was the one full of color, life, extroversion, you name it. It wasn't hormones so much as just being me. The party half of me - who went to bars, clubs, etc, was always female.

It definitely does something, though. Both times I got on hormones (once after a few weeks break for surgery) I went through a period of weeks-to-months where I was very zen and in control of my life, though whatever it was, I gradually adjusted. It's almost impossible to tease out what's life events, what's hormones, and then what hormones are causing which things. Because E2 and T are coupled (E2 suppresses T, albeit with lag)... which is really driving what? And never mind P.

Bottom line, biology is too complicated for the very blunt instruments we have to measure it. We're _really_ winging it, transgender people especially. It's easy to say things like women live longer and are way more prone to migraines and depression. But why? Is that from hormones? Are people who have a little bit more of some hormone just a little bit more likely to be depressed? Or is the depression an artifact of how culture treats women?

There's no basis for the assumption that cisgender hormone levels are ideal for transgender people (and even if they were, at what part of the cycle would be ideal?), but it's kinda all we got to go on.

Hormones are weird, yo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think it indicates a problem between the system of science and the observation of the human mind that it has taken us this long to take the psychological symptoms seriously. People need to realize that science is not equipped to discern much of the truth about psychology at this time, we simply do not have enough accurate data collection methods yet.

<comment><USER18> I suspect this was a bigger factor:

> The best defence against the sexist notion that women's hormones make them > less rational than men seemed to be to deny hormonal involvement in the > brain.

Getting funding for something that has very unfashionable implications is hard. Arguing against the pill (which is what pointing out issues with it can be seen as) can be taken as arguing against women's lib unless you have something nicely objective (like blood clots) to point at.

<comment><USER19> This seems a bit speculative. Research is carried out all over the world, and at least when it comes to health many countries aren't as hysterical (excuse the pun) as the US about political correctness.

I agree somewhat with the GP, though. There are ways to discern mental issues, but very few physicians will ask patients about their mood unless problems are really obvious.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> My wife used oral contraception prior to us deciding to have children because it helped her manage period pain symptoms.

Now after children has had a semi perm (merina) contraceptive installed to manage the damage done by having children. Without it she would "bleed" almost all month long.

Its way past the time that the conservative sticky beaks made their uninformed the only message that law makers hear. Contraceptives are NOT just for stopping/managing baby production, they're also about saving lives and improving quality of life.

<comment><USER21> Oral contraceptives were illegal in Ireland at one point, but you could get a prescription for other medical uses such as treatment for irregular menstruation. Allegedly, at that time, Ireland had Europe's highest rate of irregular periods.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've had this discussion with at least a few of the women I've shared some intimacy with. At least one was hesitant to take chemical birth-control over physical prophylaxis due to how it made her feel and act.

<comment><USER20> its worth noting that its not just one pill. there are several different chemical variations to "the pill" some work better or differently than others, it may take some trial and error before one that does the job and doesn't have negative side effect is found for that person.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I had no idea before I took the pill that depression was even a side-effect but within a few weeks after taking it the effect was obvious. I already had depression but it was clearly much worse on the pill and then I found it was indeed an effect of the pill. I don't know how so many women take the pill when the side-effects are so awful.

</comment><comment><USER24> When my partner was on pills, she had way more mood swings than after she stopped taking them. I would say our life changed quite drastically to better after she stopped taking birth control pills.

</comment><comment><USER25> That's interesting. My ex mentioned she felt a lot better very quickly after getting off the pill. There were a lot of confounding factors and as with most medical things different people's responses differ, but it's still interesting to read this support of that observation.

</comment><comment><USER26> Of course pills screw up women's brains. But, it's a small price to pay; nearly all other methods make sex slightly less enjoyable for men. A satisfying orgasm without the concern of paying child support is definitely worth women doubling their suicide rate (per the article) and suffering mood disorders.

I jest. Sort of. The solution, of course, is simple: find a woman, get married, and have kids. It's fairly trivial -- in the vast majority of cases -- to plan pregnancies using the rhythm method. It's not rocket science. A couple who lives together and is the least bit attuned to their mate's bodies and mood can tell when the woman is fertile. Doesn't work for casual sex with semi-strangers though.

<comment><USER27> Or you know IUDs. Not everyone needs to be stuck in the « make 6x as many children because we don't have birth control » mindset. All the « calendar- based » «birth control » have terrible success rate.

<comment><USER26> The calendar method fails for the same reason condoms 'fail' and coitus interruptus 'fails'....

People don't actually use the method properly.

I agree with you... if you expect a couple of dumbasses to refrain 100% from allowing semen into the vagina for a week or so during the cycle, you'll end up with a baby.

But, for the typical Hacker News user in a monogamous relationship -- that is, a person with an above-average IQ -- the rhythm method is perfectly adequate.

It may sound conceited and pretentious, but keep in mind that birth control was invented for idiots who are too simple-minded to pay attention to the absurdly regular cycles that govern ovulation. When you read statistics about the 'failure' rates for certain forms a birth control, keep in mind the sample-size includes folks who literally need directions on how to wear a condom...

In short, when we discuss birth-control, let us -- the non-dumbasses -- be aware that what we are really talking about are methods to keep stupid people from having so many babies. I don't know you from adam, but by virtue of you hanging out here, I would expect you and your mate will have precisely the number of kids your were planning to have, without the use of pills, condoms, or vasectomies. Maybe there will be a 'woops' baby once during a long marriage. But, who cares? It's not the end of the world to knock up one's wife by accident. At least not worth the downsides of the Pill in most cases.

Once again, if the intent is to have casual sex with many people throughout one's life, then by all means you'll need birth control... even if you're smart. And, apparently, society has decided it is preferable to convince women to take mind-altering pills so that there will be a steady supply of chicks we can bang without fear of consequences, to doing what most human males have done throughout history; namely, aspire to monogamy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> One of the best contraception methods of have ever heard of is Vas-occlusive contraception

Where a tiny blob of something is inserted and hardens inside the vas deferens, permanently blocking the sperms exit.

Years later when you want children a tiny incision is made in the vas and the blockage is popped out.

no messing with anybodys hormones.

Vas-occlusive contraception methods are expected to have similar side effects to vasectomy, such as formation of sperm antibodies, though with lower rates.

But... i have never seen it offered in the Western World as an option.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vas- occlusive_contraception](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vas- occlusive_contraception)

<comment><USER29> It may well be a demand-side issue. I'm not sure how many guys want to get surgery, however minor, to do that (especially given the sensitivity of the region.) Even if it's safe, there's a somewhat visceral impulse to shrink away at the thought of getting cut open down there. The rate of vasectomies is half that of Canada or England, so it seems a lot of Americans agree and don't want that. I certainly wouldn't.

<comment><USER30> it's worth noting that vasalgel is a slightly less invasive procedure than a vasectomy, although it is an injection which is certainly a little scary.

I, an american man, feel completely the opposite way. all the women I've dated have experienced problems with hormonal birth control, ranging from mood disorders to severe bleeding and one also had severe complications from a non- hormonal IUD. I don't know if this is a representative sample, but I personally feel that it's unfair to expect your partner to bear this burden just to avoid using condoms. I would be very willing to endure a couple weeks recovery time for an effective male contraceptive. the only things stopping me from getting a vasectomy are cost (I have a high-deductible policy) and the fact that I am young and might want children a decade or two from now.

<comment><USER29> Why is it any more fair for someone's wife to expect him to get his genitals sliced open than for her to take a pill? That's a decision spouses must make. But my contention was that it was a broad statistical figure, not that it applied directly to you. The demographics of HN readership are certainly different from the demographics of broader America.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Which scientific articles does this book reference?

<comment><USER32> At the very least, the ones linked in the article's text:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5658328/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5658328/)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5592309/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5592309/)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23528282](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23528282)

[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2552796)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29145752](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29145752)

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002839080...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390801001873)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Despite how effective hormonal contraceptives are, women have to take them everyday - in case they have intercourse and are at risk of pregnancy not WHEN they have intercourse and are at risk of getting pregnant.

YourChoice Therapeutics is making a non-hormonal vaginal lubricant that women could use just before having sex that's more effective than condoms. We hope this significantly decreases women's reliance on hormonal contraceptives.

<comment><USER34> How far along in the approval process is your gel? Is it similar to Evogel?</comment></comment>


Re-Writing BSD 4.4 Shell Commands: cat [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCuzvy79WWQ <comment><USER2> This is a lot of fun. Really fast, but still fairly easy to follow.

I think half of it is watching someone use Vi really well. Step one: bind a key to compile+run the program. I always just do "^z, foo, enter, fg, enter" (replacing foo and fg with "up, up" the second time 'round.)</comment>


InDinero (YC S10) makes small business finances a snap - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/10/smallbusiness/indinero/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin

<comment><USER2> Is there anything InDinero does for $99/mo that Mint doesn't do for free other than the cashflow projection? That's the thing that keeps me from spending the money to give it a real try (I'd need the $99/mo plan for even just the number of monthly transactions in my PayPal account, let alone all bank accounts, and I'm just a single entrepreneur). I already use Mint.

<comment><USER3> I could imagine with slightly more financial account integration how they could arrange to at years end have a simple process for Small businesses to have tax reports generated and other important information. It's certainly a nontrivial task to get up and running, but I'd definitely pay to have my entire financial information processing all taken care of in one place.

<comment><USER4> The accounting software behind FaceCash (which I run) does this. <http://www.facecash.com>

If you have SSL issues with the site, it's because we just switched hostnames and the new EV certificate is pending.

<comment><USER3> But only for money that comes in thru Facecash?

<comment><USER4> No, you can track everything: cash, credit cards, etc. I run Think on it completely, and it has 12 years of data in it. It does the vast majority of my annual 1120S for me, including Schedule L. The nice thing about FaceCash transactions is that there's no data entry required.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't see this product being recommended by accountants anytime soon. Once they implement debtors, creditors, financial reports, taxes etc, I'll have a look again.

At this point it's just a toy.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd still like to know where the 4,000 clients came from.

</comment><comment><USER6> has anyone tried InDinero and outright.com? those seem like the up and comers to me. I'd really love to see a compare/contracts of these 2 & QuickBooks (QB has 80% market share)

</comment><comment><USER7> They are profitable but the founder isn't earning any thing?

</comment><comment><USER8> CNN? Well done.

<comment><AUTHOR> It would be interesting to learn what they did to get to the front page of CNN. Excellent PR firm? Techcrunch/YC coverage? Or just hard work and ingenuity by the founders?

<comment><USER9> Yeah, this. How do you manage to get that kind of coverage?

<comment><USER10> Quite a bit of it has to do with YC and the tech community buzz and implicit validation. The founder of HipMunk mentioned that CNN contacted him out of the blue within a day after they launched.

If it was the same product done outside YC I don't think they would have got CNN coverage, at least not this soon.

<comment><USER11> Aye, YC is probably one of the strongest startup-related brands these days. It's shocking to see how well people respond to my relationship to YC these days. Back when Steve & I started reddit, we had to explain to nearly everyone just what "Y Combinator" was all about. The association really is validating in a lot of ways -- but every day it becomes even more important to keep up the brand's value.

(Full-disclosure: I'm a new employee at YC - Ambassador to the East)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: is there a "Yesterday's HN" app? - <AUTHOR>

The comments on Hacker News are often better than the article linked to, and I've found the oldest articles on the front page often have the best insight.
This makes me question how many times I've missed excellent discussion by reading new articles too soon.
Has anyone done a Hacker News portal / app that shows "yesterday's front page" or "yesterday's top links"? <comment><USER2> I don't know about anything that does yesterday, but Wayback Letter (<http://www.waybackletter.com/>) takes it even further. It is a newsletter that you can get weekly or daily. It will give you top stories from 1 month, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years and 5 years ago. I've been using it and I really enjoy it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes: <http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/>

</comment><comment><USER4> Yupp! <http://hntimeline.com/></comment>


Ask HN: What is missing from our app to be useful to you - <AUTHOR> We're a young startup with a product at an early stage. Right now we have a Google Chrome Extension that let's you comment on any website (the app works on it's own and the website does not have to integrate anything and even can't prohibit it). In addition to that we've a website where you can see on which sites people commented recently and a feature where you can mark an excerpt from a conversation and create a deep link to it and share it with others. We're working on a mobile version and we have a prototype of an admin panel to moderate the stuff on your own website.
We did this to encourage conversations on any website and we wanted to make it easier for small sites to have a Slack-like (live and/or asynchronous) conversation feature, and for people to be able to speak freely on big sites.
That's a sum-up of our intentions and what we've come up with so far. Now the question is what would you expect from such an app, or what do you think is missing that would make it useful to you?
Btw our tech stack is Elixir/Phoenix/Postgres/Redis. I learned Elixir alongside building the software. And every day I love it more. I can really recommend trying it out, especially if you have a Ruby background. The community is just great and you will always find other Elixir enthusiast who are willing to help you with any problem (as long as it's related to Elixir of course ;-)
You can find the app here if you're interested: http://bit.ly/1k4iMnX <comment><USER2> What is missing is lubrication. There is too much friction in the requirements:

1\. Use Chrome

2\. Download and install an extension

3\. Multi-step signup on Talkaboutjack

4\. Confirmation email

5\. start talking

6\. potentially recieve spam

All of those things are going to cost your customers love from their customers. Sometimes a lot...if someone loves Firefox or Safari or IE or whatever IE is called these days. One of the keys to B2B is being careful when dealing with the other business's customers.

Those people aren't your customers and that means that you have to treat them better than your customers...and anyway, the end users of Talkaboutjack are unlikely to be your customers...they're just average people on the internet.

Anyway, this might be better as a "Show HN".

Good luck.</comment>


Advice from the London Underground (Subway) to iOS6 users. - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/e_kaspersky/status/249419577971318784

<comment><USER2> London Overground. Also no attribution for the originator which appears to be [https://twitter.com/binny_uk/status/248824180395614208/photo...](https://twitter.com/binny_uk/status/248824180395614208/photo/1) some 2 days earlier</comment>


We_are_looking_for_not_found_pages - <AUTHOR> Hi there,
we get a few million hit by someone from various ip adresses (always different or random i think).
The page they request: blog.businessbox.hu/we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages_we_are_looking_for_not_found_pages
Does anyone has idea who the hell wanted hack our site??? Is this a common or known thing? <comment><USER2> Do you mean you receive

        GET http://blog.business.......

requests? In that case this is most likely a scan for open proxies. Why such a long URL is a different question. That might be an attempt to get a buffer overflow, though a bit weird in combination with a potential proxy scan.

A quick search did not show any particular reports about that particular host and/or request path however.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

First time i think, this is a common spam for get my attention to some not found page creator, but when it crashes the apache i start to look forward to known attacks...

<comment><USER2> It can be spam, doesnt have to be however.

Also, is it the request or the referrer? As for crashing, that shouldnt happen. Why exactly does it crash?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> sounds like a job for Fail2ban

<comment><AUTHOR> No, it's isn't, it'll crash with FAil2ban too, beceuse the problem lays under the too much request - from new IP-s, and not from a few ):</comment></comment>


Red Bull Jet Pack Skiing Challenge - <AUTHOR> http://www.redbull.com/en/snow/stories/1331787488815/filip-flisar-jetpack-challenge?items=1331787488815%2C1331845336852%2C1331844883803%2C1331842971688?wtk=YTRef <comment><AUTHOR> This jetpack looks like the perfect power source for the Humback Whale inspired Personal Flight Device I thought up a little while ago, the ParaWing.

[https://thelacesout.com/for-christmas-2016-i-give-the- world-...](https://thelacesout.com/for-christmas-2016-i-give-the-world-the- parawing-fcc63fb3c20d#.itdrfbwf0)</comment>


Ask HN: Is AirBnb / Jumio's ID Verification Trustworthy? - <AUTHOR> Trying to book an AirBnB for a holiday, I discovered that their booking service now requires that you upload a scan of your passport to a company called Jumio for ID verification purposes.
Obviously, that opens up a fairly large range of potential threats if the images ever leak. I figure if any group will know, HN will - is this a serious risk? Is there a reason I should trust Jumio with copies of important documents and assume they'll never have a data breach? Or is this a "sorry, but I'm never using AirBnB again" moment? <comment><USER2> If you stay in a real hotel they will usually take a scan of your photo id, so this is nothing new

</comment><comment><USER3> Photoshop is your friend</comment>


Fossil: A standalone and distributed Version Control, Wiki and Bug-Tracking system - <AUTHOR> http://www.fossil-scm.org From the author of SQLite. <comment><AUTHOR> From the same folks who created SQLite and not coincidentally all data is stored in a single SQLite database.

</comment><comment><USER2> The Plan 9 from Bell Labs file system is called Fossil, due to it's snapshot capabilities.

Unfortunate name clash.</comment>


DirectXTK October 2012 release - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2012/10/02/directxtk-october-2012-release.aspx

<comment><AUTHOR> it looks that they are rewritting some of the XNA features in C++11, e.g. SpriteFont, SpriteBatch, BasicEffect:

SpriteBatch, BasicEffect: [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2012/03/02/spriteba...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2012/03/02/spritebatch- and-basiceffect-for-c-direct3d-11.aspx)

Sprite Font: [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2012/05/02/directxt...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2012/05/02/directxtk- now-includes-spritefont.aspx)

Source: <http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/>

</comment><comment><USER2> Or, y'know, open source cross-platform implementations of XNA.

<https://monogame.codeplex.com/>

<https://anxframework.codeplex.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> there is also ExEn, but it looks that is abandoned by the creator. <http://exen.codeplex.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _> My implementation approximates an ideal geosphere by recursively subdividing a starting shape – in this case an octahedron._

I implemented an Octahedral geosphere for a space game in Panda 3D. Otherwise, you'd get artifacts when looking down at the poles of a planet, where all those longitude segments intersected.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well that's great, but it still doesn't provide a clean API to C# does it? So it can't really be a replacement for XNA?

</comment><comment><USER5> Title doesn't match the content at all. I thought this might be an official announcement re: the future of XNA.

<comment><USER6> Which would be long overdue. DirectXTK looks neat but so far it's no replacement for the bits of XNA I've used. And with all the uncertainty I'd like to see something very official in big, shiny writing to convince me any new MS game development offering is futureproof enough to bother learning.

No disrespect to Shawn Hargreaves, whose work I've been enjoying since discovering Allegro 15 years ago. I'm interested to see whatever he produces post-XNA and glad of the reminder to check his blog more often.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> XNA C# != DirectXTK C++

Or did I miss something?

<comment><USER8> IS XNA allowed by the WinRT? Can you publish XNA stuff via the Windows 8 store?

<comment><USER7> XNA seems to be in a zombie state <http://forums.wpcentral.com/developers/180590.htm>

All the official Metro documentation only talks about DirectX with C++.

But my point was that the title used by the original post was misleading.

If you need to use C++, then there are better engines than an XNA API clone.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Comprehensive security checklist for developers - <AUTHOR>

In the light of the recent Amazon and Apple incident, and considering that HN is full of insightful comments regarding security buried in many discussions:
What would be a comprehensive security checklist for developers?
i.e. everything from OWASP, Schneier, best of the security web etc.
For example, just to get started:
1. Use bcrypt.
2. Use different non-guessable private email addresses and passwords for critical services.
3. Self-host critical email addresses.
4. Two-factor authentication.
5. Disable iCloud Find My Mac or disable iCloud completely.
6. Use FileVault2 or full disk encryption.
7. Set your system to log out after inactivity.
8. Set your screensaver with password to show after 5 minutes.
9. Use a passcode on your iPad.
10. Master server should not have access to backup server.
We tend to focus on securing the app we develop, without thinking too much about securing the suppliers we use, or reducing surface area, or considering orthogonal vectors.
There are many great checklists covering certain aspects of security, but it would be great to have all of this in one place. <comment><USER2> Here is a good start: <http://benchmarks.cisecurity.org/en-us/?route=default>

</comment><comment><USER3> Some of these (e.g. "two factor authentication" and "use bcrypt") require buy- in from management.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Would be great if someone could build a 373 security questions app, which basically goes through a huge security checklist with you, and gives you a score at the end.</comment>


Show HN: Don't waste hours on Google Analytics again - <AUTHOR> http://webplio.com

<comment><USER2> Looks nice! I don't know about the don't waste hours issue. I am more concerned about generating reports that my clients can understand easily.

Looking forward to trying it out.

</comment><comment><USER3> I watched the video and all the data shown is visible in GA within a few clicks, not "hours" as the video claims. If that's too much, you can also create a custom dashboard in GA that shows all this in a single glance.

This is just another pretty UI on top of the GA API, from what I can tell.

<comment><AUTHOR> The approach we are taking is consolidating a lot of the data that Google Analytics provides you into scores. These are found throughout the dashboard and reports, which give you a gauge to go off of for optimizing. This is opposed to exporting all of the data manually and creating your own algorithms to discover new opportunities and figure out what needs to be tweaked, which we've found people do.

The scores and the way the reports are laid out save you time because of consolidation and at a glance views. We have plans for even more powerful features that allow you to manipulate data even further which Google Analytics is not capable of too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A little offtopic, weird they chose to keep the URL at: www.domain.tld, domain.tld even redirects to www

<comment><USER5> [http://www.yes-www.org/why-use-www/](http://www.yes-www.org/why-use-www/)

Not that I have strong opinions on the matter, but this is the go-to resource for that side.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The 'Live Chat' link does nothing as of now just so you know!

</comment><comment><USER7> >3-D buttons that don't actually depress when I click on them

0/10 closed the page

<comment><USER4> Haha, they seem to be working (although a little choppy) in Chrome. However their hover is set to opacity, so on the main "Watch Video" button it becomes transparent rather than just changing to a lighter colour.</comment></comment>


Google accused of GDPR privacy violations by seven countries - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/27/18114111/google-location-tracking-gdpr-challenge-european-deceptive <comment><USER2> The title of the submitted article is deceptive. No countries have accused Google of GDPR violations. Consumer groups in 7 countries have submitted complaints to their country's GDPR enforcement authorities.

The title of the Reuters article this is sourced from is more accurate, "European consumer groups want regulators to act against Google tracking". The article can be found at [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-google- privacy/europea...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-google- privacy/european-consumer-groups-want-regulators-to-act-against-google- tracking-idUSKCN1NW0BS)

<comment><USER3> It is a GDPR violation:

> In our opinion, the scale in which Google tracks the location of its users > breaches the GDPR. Users have not given free, specific, informed and > unambiguous consent to the collection and use of location data, particularly > considering the scale of tracking going on, says Gro Mette Moen.

[https://www.forbrukerradet.no/side/google-manipulates- users-...](https://www.forbrukerradet.no/side/google-manipulates-users-into- constant-tracking/)

<comment><USER4> it's only a violation IF the authorities think it's a violation. they decide the fine, if any at all.

<comment><USER5> That's getting very philosophical. If a tree breaks a regulation in the forest and no agency is around to issue a fine, was it a violation?

<comment><USER6> No it wasn't because "innocent until proven guilty" applies. At the moment there only is an accusation of a violation.

<comment><USER7> Maybe, but in this case there are millions (billions?) of people that can attest to Google's practices.

<comment><USER8> There are probably millions of people with negative opinions about Google. The number of people who understand both Google's practices and the GDPR well enough to write a complaint is probably a lot lower.

Most people just use Internet services to get things done, rather than experimenting with them enough to know how they work. And they believe rumors.

<comment><USER9> Don't worry, the story's worse than the Luddite rumors anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why are Europeans are so much ahead on USA on this? I can guess the reasons but would like to hear what people think. Thanks.

<comment><USER11> The EU countries (generally) believe in positive liberty where people believe those they vote into power then have the right to tell people what to do for the greater good of some ideology.

The USA (generally) believes in negative liberty which is based around the individual being able to do whatever they want unless it actually harms another person.

Both positive and negative liberty are valid views but generally positive liberty leads towards trouble in the form of authoritarian issues.

<comment><USER12> In this case the authorities are telling _businesses_ what they can and cannot do. GDPR denies business the right to track humans who have not consented (i.e. the negative liberty to be free of unwanted tracking). So the real question is whether you consider the liberties of business more important than the liberties of humans.

<comment><USER13> Businesses are just groups of humans. We in the US have constitutional protections around freedom of association and assembly, of which a business is but one example. We extend other constitutional rights to businesses, because to remove them from businesses would be to remove them from the people associating under those businesses, and would thus be a limit to free assembly.

Also, we definitely do not have a constitutional right to privacy in the public sphere for services that we elect to use.

<comment><USER14> This is completely invalid.

Courts and legislatures in the US regumate limits to corporate behavior in ways that are the complete opposite to what you're saying.

<comment><USER13> I'd be interested if you could provide some examples of regulation which would be unconstitutional if applied to another form of free assembly which is currently held constitutional when applied to a business.

<comment><USER14> Businesses have to comply with regulations in the form of record-keeping, safeguarding medical data, determining the composition of its board of directors, etc. HIPAA is not for individuals, neither is Sarbanes-Oxley.

<comment><USER15> > HIPAA is not for individuals

It is. I don't even understand how it couldn't be unless you are trying to state that doctors themselves are somehow not individuals.

<comment><USER16> I think I can kinda see this argument, actually. The punishment for violating HIPPA is not placed on the individual, it's placed on the company.

I work for a company that operates on HIPPA-protected data; if I leaked any of that, I wouldn't face any legal punishment but the company I work for would be on the hook for some seriously large fines.

<comment><USER17> > The punishment for violating HIPPA is not placed on the individual, it's > placed on the company.

Be careful believing that; it's true that direct liability under HIPAA is almost exclusively for be covered entity as such, but individuals may be criminally liable for HIPAA violations in two ways:

(1) Certain directors, officers, and employees may be liable under general principles of corporate criminal liability, and

(2) Individual employees (and other inbividuals) not criminally liable under (1) for direct HIPAA violations that have a role in it may be liable for conspiracy or aiding and abetting (the latter of which has identical punishment to the crime it relates to) related to the underlying crime committed by the covered entity that is their employer.

So, yes, actually knowingly leaking PHI that subjects the company to crimination penalties under HIPAA would likely also subject you to criminal penalties tied to that HIPAA violation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> >As a new piece of legislation enacted in May, ...

It's in effect since 2016. I wish there was better research in these articles...

<comment><USER13> Signed into law in 2016. Most of the major provisions did not come into effect until May 2018.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> If you're on Android it's possible to completely block the GPS daemon from phoning home, usually to 1e100.net based on my observation. To do this you can install an app called NetGuard from F-Droid and enable service blocking. This app is non-root, and it uses a local VPN to provide an almost impenetrable firewall. Google's GPS daemon hides itself under a process called "1021" block that and enable notifications and see the connection attempts every few minutes to 1e100.net getting blocked—you don't even need to have any Google services enabled to see the connection attempts occurring.

</comment><comment><USER20> Duplicate: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18541650](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18541650)

</comment><comment><USER21> Can any Googlers answer: Does turning off these "history" sliders actually affect the data Google gathers from you? Or does it just mean that the information is hidden from your own account view?

<comment><USER22> Judging by Google /FB modus operandi I doubt it, they'll collect all. Googlers that _really_ know would probably not tell.

Looks like EU might put the brakes on a lot of this creepy crap. As much 4% of revenue or close to $5 billion fine....$5 billion for this, $4b for another...and all of the sudden we're talking real money.

<comment><USER23> Any proof of your claims? By law, If they say they do not, they do not.

<comment><USER22> >> _Any proof of your claims?_

Google, FB, LinkedIn etc engage in super creepy procedures and suck as much data as they can. Some to be used today and directly, other data to be used indirectly...or just to be there just in case. Plus, if you read it again, it's clear I was saying what I _believe_ it to be likely.

>> _By law, If they say they do not, they do not._

Ummm, no. Justice system isn't based on what the accused says. That's only part of it, called (more or less) the defense. Others chime in too

<comment><USER23> So zero proof just hand waving.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> to be fair, it's only a claim. not a case (yet). The national data protection authorities can now actually look into it and maybe make fines for that. however I guess proceeding could take a while.</comment>


LoFi hip hop radio – YouTube channel suspended, then restored - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/chilledcow/status/1231154392700727296 <comment><USER2> The channel has been restored. [https://twitter.com/ChilledCow/status/1231302926611644421](https://twitter.com/ChilledCow/status/1231302926611644421)

This is another case where having a large, supportive audience is one of the only ways of getting Google's attention.

</comment><comment><USER3> A little background on this particular channel:

ChilledCow is the user who had a stream named "Lofi hip hop, music to relax/study to". The channel was undoubtedly the most popular lofi music live stream on youtube, and has been around for a few years at least (pretty sure). The channel just streamed a playlist of lofi music as a pseudo radio station. Nothing nefarious in my opinion, but I speculate the argument could be this user is making youtube ad money playing other people's music (with or without permission from the artist)? But again, it's basically a radio station (really no different from analog FM/AM things).

Really interesting to even see this posted on HN. I was looking for ChilledCow's channel while I was cooking lunch today, couldn't find it, and wasn't sure why.

</comment><comment><USER4> It's increasingly difficult to have "business" with the big tech. I lived many years anxious with my Google AdSense account. Recently it a was a Facebook Ads account banned without any clear reason, and a 5yr old Pinterest account too. When the algorithm decides, you are terminated. It just don't matter if you follow all the "TOS" rules.

</comment><comment><USER5> Already outdated.

[https://mobile.twitter.com/ChilledCow/status/123130292661164...](https://mobile.twitter.com/ChilledCow/status/1231302926611644421)

</comment><comment><USER6> The electronic music community in general has zero interest in preventing their music from being spread far and wide, with attribution. Remixing another producers work, for example, is just part of the culture. No one gets DCMA'd for it. Quite the opposite. It's encouraged. It's one of the things I love about this community.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is moving to PeerTube a viable alternative?

<comment><USER8> Not really. The way that people use this live stream is often via YouTube integration with other services rather than via YouTube directly.

<comment><USER9> What are you referring to? I've only ever had it play in a YouTube tab in the background.

<comment><USER8> Live streams. It's extremely popular as background sound for Twitch streams and, rather than load the tab an direct the audio into broadcasting software, people put the YouTube link into other services that overlay the music on the stream before broadcast.

<comment><USER9> Interesting, hadn't thought of that

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I hate YouTube. I wish there was any legitimate competitor out there.

<comment><USER11> Define "legitimate." There are plenty of competitors which could host the channel mentioned in TFA, and many Youtubers also post videos on other social media sites, Twitch, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I marked the post with outdated because YT channel has been restored.</comment>


Google's Andy Rubin demos Android - <AUTHOR> http://blip.tv/file/698098/ <comment><USER2> Hmmm... it's an "iPhony" for the most part. I wonder what else they have in store. Is the openness of this the entirety of the radical innovation in this? Or am I expecting too much?

<comment><USER3> Even the openness is not what i was expecting last year. So what if it runs on Linux? You're stuck with whatever the Android SDK supports and you have to use Java.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well - for the moment. IMO they're kind of stuck at a crossroads between open and commercial:

[http://journal.dedasys.com/articles/2008/02/21/android- comme...](http://journal.dedasys.com/articles/2008/02/21/android-commercial- meets-open-source)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> For some reason, it makes me so happy that this interview isn't on YouTube.</comment>


Mary Meeker is leaving Kleiner Perkins - <AUTHOR> https://www.recode.net/2018/9/14/17858582/kleiner-perkins-mary-meeker-split <comment><USER2> There is a notion that the highest level of success in the technology sector is achieved when you make the news for either joining or leaving a company.

I have really enjoyed her trends compilations. I don't always agree with the various weights she gives things but I love how widely she casts her net. I'm sure she will continue doing them in her new firm so I'm not very worried there.

What I find more interesting in this story is the sort of iceberg calving effect the rise of "incubators" and the lowering cost to first product, has had on the venture community. Where there were once just venture firms some of which were 'early' investors and some of which were 'late' investors, we now have three distinct sorts of entities;

Incubator/seed - a collection of seed investors who are providing both initial funding and initial integration services for startups. Clearly Y Combinator is the "big" one but there are Techstars, 500 Startups, and others that model this same sort of "more than money, we're your launch infrastructure" model.

High Risk money - this is the more traditional VC (but getting squeezed at the 'early' and 'late' ends) which dumps in a bunch of cash and rides it to the exit.

Late stage money - this is the 'time to go public' or 'buy out your competitors' kind of big cash influx that seems to be more and more operated by hedgefunds that are seeking a bit more alpha than they can get in the public markets.

All in all an amazingly complex set of players from what was, back in the dot com days, a pretty homogeneous bunch.

<comment><USER3> Angel/Round A/Round B and afterwards was already pretty well defined back in the day.

What's changed is really the pre-seed/seed with more granularity, as well as the huge C,D,E etc. rounds that now can be made by massive funds instead of going public.

But the core rounds are mostly similar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Quite an article for providing 0 details about what those differing views and cultures actually amounted to.

</comment><comment><USER4> So she does those 'Internet Trends' things?

The very earliest one I can find is 2002:

[https://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/the-internet-a- per...](https://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/the-internet-a-perspective- june-2002)

Here's the 2018 one:

[https://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/internet-trends- re...](https://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/internet-trends- report-2018-99574140)

</comment><comment><USER5> I handn't heard of Mary Meeker before. The word legendary, naturally, caught my eye. For a quick introduction to who we're talking about, here's [0] one of the videos findable by following links in the article. It's her giving a quick (33mn) glance over her own report on 2018 internet trends.

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdjcdZqODoE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdjcdZqODoE)

<comment><USER6> Her "annual trends report" gets a lot of attention here every year. [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=mary%20meeker&sort=byPopularit...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=mary%20meeker&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's not clear from the article, which side of Kleiner Perkins was Meeker on: early stage of late stage?

<comment><USER8> She was on the late stage side. From the second paragraph:

>Meeker is leading an exodus of late-stage investors from Kleiner Perkins in its most dramatic shake-up since legendary investor John Doerr stepped back from his role more than two years ago.

<comment><USER7> Thanks, I missed that part.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Social+Capital now Kleiner Perkins....

</comment><comment><USER10> I think the long deck did her in.</comment>


Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data To the RIAA? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/20/did-lastfm-just-hand-over-user-listening-data-to-the-riaa/ <comment><USER2> Last.fm utterly refutes this story from Techcrunch. ([http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/20/did-lastfm-just-hand- ov...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/20/did-lastfm-just-hand-over-user- listening-data-to-the-riaa/#comment-2632012), <http://www.last.fm/forum/21713/_/506518/1#f8660996>)

To quote:

 _Hi from Last.fm, I'm one of the founders (and the original founder of audioscrobbler, the music tracking plugin).

I'm not going to write much right now because i'm rather pissed off this article was published, except to say that this is utter nonsense and totally untrue.

As far as I can tell, the author of this article got a "tip" from _one_ person and decided to make a story out of it. Techcrunch is full of shit, film at 11._

<comment><USER3> That was my first thought -- not that the rumor was untrue, but that it was an exceptionally weak basis for a story, and possibly bordering on irresponsible. A tip from a random person via email that starts off with "I heard from a friend..." is hardly the type of thing you go to press with.

<comment><USER4> To be fair, he didn't say "Last.fm Just Handed Over Listening Data to the RIAA."

Several times he says things like "supposedly" and "assuming."

While this might be a little weak to go to press with, he at least did not present it as fact but as a possibly-true rumor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _"Incidents like this highlight how the social Web can sometimes bite back if you are not careful"_

Incidents like this highlight nothing but the need for 'a cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom'.

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

</comment><comment><USER6> Last.fm staff are denying this: <http://www.last.fm/forum/21713/_/506518/1#f8660996>

<comment><USER6> From the comment: "I'd like to issue a full and categorical denial of this. We've never had any request for such data by anyone, and if we did we wouldn't consent to it.

Of course we work with the major labels and provide them with broad statistics, as we would with any other label, but we'd never personally identify our users to a third party - that goes against everything we stand for.

As far as I'm concerned Techcrunch have made this whole story up."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't think that the RIAA can really win any lawsuits based off of this.

1) They have to figure out who the people actually are, either through adept mass-Googling of the usernames or getting IPs that the users log in from.

2) There's only a small portion of the music that they can figure out is illegal from this--stuff they played before it was released. Even though they like trying to charge 10x for such songs in lawsuits, 1 or 2 albums won't be worth much.

3) I don't think that that's sufficient evidence to win a lawsuit (though maybe sufficient evidence for them to bully people into settlements as they often do.) I could have found the track list for an upcoming album and tagged any songs I have with the artist and titles of those songs.

Still, CBS definitely shouldn't have done that.

<comment><USER7> It sounds like enough to win a lawsuit. The burden of proof is more likely than not. If they have software that tells them the names of the songs that were playing, then that is pretty damning evidence.

Sure, you could have renamed your songs, but who is going to believe that?

I've thought about using last.fm but didn't for this very reason. Wasn't it obvious to everyone that at some point CBS would avail themselves to the information that their subsidiary was collecting?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is going to be a pr nightmare if it is true. They are basically attacking their user base. Even if a user doesn't pirate music, nobody would want their information handed over to the RIAA.

</comment><comment><USER9> I don't think that any of Last.fm's data would hold up in court. As far as I know Last.fm just records the artist and track names.

In this case I could rename a track to say U2 when it is actually some other artist and Last.fm wouldn't know the difference.

</comment><comment><USER10> Flagged because HN is not intended as a forum for distribution of unsubstantiated libels.

</comment><comment><USER11> I see techcrunch is getting desperate for stories.

<comment><USER12> I seriously doubt that Arrington would have allowed this story to be published if he was around. I know that a lot of people here dislike him, but even when he published controversial stories, he generally got the facts straight. I find the quality of the others' writing at TC to be of much lower value. The site is really suffering without him.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is a story that potentially hundreds of thousands of U2 fans would be interested in emailing to each other. Not to mention anyone who has ever downloaded music illegally. Sound like linkbait?</comment>


Today – Quantified self and habit tracker app - <AUTHOR> https://neybox.com/today <comment><USER2> That looks neat. Is there anything similar (and good) for Android?</comment>


What Happens When a Bad-Tempered, Distractible Doofus Runs an Empire? - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/what-happens-when-a-bad-tempered-distractible-doofus-runs-an-empire <comment><USER2> When an empire collapses magazines make facile similes with other historical periods, and play to the sentiments of their readership....</comment>