AOL's Patch to go from local news network to community message board network - <AUTHOR> http://pandodaily.com/2013/01/16/aols-patch-to-go-from-lousy-local-news-network-to-even-worse-community-message-board-network/ <comment><AUTHOR> I really got to wonder how many new media pundits believe this quote from the article:

      > What's more: The audience is solidly rooted in Middle America,
      > not the coasts as it was before.
      >
      > What does that demographic sound like? Oh yeah, people who don't
      > realize they don't have to pay for dial up and still go to AOL's
      > home page everyday.</comment>


Renault ships a brickable car with battery DRM that you're not allowed to own - <AUTHOR> http://boingboing.net/2013/11/13/renault-ships-a-brickable-car.html <comment><USER3> I'm surprised everyone is ignoring the obvious elephant in the room: The car receives a signal to lock itself down. Therefore someone can impersonate the car dealer and lock your car down (as long as their encryption is set up in a broken way, which it almost always is).

<comment><USER4> Is that substantially different than GM's OnStar? It's already been used to slow down/shut off stolen vehicles.

<comment><USER5> OnStar is a feature that can be disabled. This is straight up DRM.

<comment><USER4> The comment I was responding to wasn't about DRM, it was about the possibility of someone else hacking into it. That same issue applies to every person who hasn't disabled OnStar (and I mean physically disabled, since GM can turn them back on by court order, I assume a "hacker" could too).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It looks like this is a lease, but instead of using an expensive repo. man to haul away the car when you can't pay your bill, the car stops charging instead. When your account becomes current, the battery unlocks. Progress marches on! The Boing Boing and EFF "articles" here are only so much outrage porn.

Note that you really do _not_ want to buy an electric car at this point; leasing is really the only option. Technology is changing so fast that if you should buy an EV you risk holding the bag should it become radically obsolete in the next three to five years. There's also a chance the battery will degrade faster than anticipated.

<comment><USER7> You're saying that leasing is better than buying because cost of obsolescence is borne by the lessor.

This is an economic fallacy so common that it deserves a memorable name.

If a product became obsolete so quickly that everyone chose to lease it, then the lease price would rise to the level where leasing and buying were equally good.

For example, if the cost of a product went to $0 after 3 years, then-- _all factors being equal_ \--the cost to lease it for 3 years then return it to the lessor versus the cost to buy it and throw it in the garbage after 3 years would be equal.

<comment><USER8> Yes, and it's likely that the cost of the lease would be signifcantly higher to account for the risk of default.

<comment><USER6> The risk of default in an auto loan is just as high, if not a bit more, as loan payments are typically higher than lease payments. But yes, you pay more for a lease than if you bought the car outright, assuming you couldn't get a higher return on your money elsewhere.

The ability to remotely lock down the car, though, probably lowers the default rate and eases recovery of the car, so leasing this car should have lower "bad debt" costs than leasing a non-DRM'd car, making the lease comparatively cheaper than other cars.

<comment><USER9> I find this risky on the part of Renault. We still have the ENAC principle ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exceptio_non_adimpleti_contract...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exceptio_non_adimpleti_contractus) ). When Renault locks the electric car, they are reneging on their contractual obligations. So given that they want to recover the money, how will that work ? In court you can say "I'm not paying for (a) the period that the car was disabled, ever (b) nor am I paying anything until the car is re-enabled", and that's a defensible position. Given that the car costs exactly the same (in loan repayments) to Renault, whether it's driving or locked down, this seems beyond stupid. I wonder who their legal advisor is.

Reneging on contractual obligations is something you should only ever do if you're not expecting any payments anymore.

(Of course this would be the situation in Northwest Europe, I'm not sure how this works in the US, so YMMV. And of course, you can bet it's unlikely in the extreme a collection agency will see it like this). This does not constitute legal advice, and I am especially not advising anyone to do anything. I am just voicing a concern. Contact a lawyer before you do anything (there is free legal representation for people having trouble with payments to financial institutions in most locations, use it).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This article seems a little harsh. Does leasing/renting the battery out make the car more affordable? Because aren't batteries still a huge cost driver for these vehicles? What is the difference in sticker price? And can drivers be incentivized to share their driving data - maybe lower insurance or insurance per mile, a lower battery leasing fee, etc? Just saying that this 'brickable car' may be worth it for some. No need to write it off just like that.

And would you really want to own an expensive battery that has to be replaced eventually at great cost?

<comment><USER11> I don't think it's harsh enough. Renault wants to 'sell' a product to a consumer that he will never truly own.

>And can drivers be incentivized to share their driving data - maybe lower insurance or insurance per mile, a lower battery leasing fee, etc?

This reminds me of the fictional television set that used its built-in camera to take a photograph of its users' living rooms and lowered or raised the price of streaming movies based on how many people were in the room (as insurance that you're technically not broadcasting it to a group that they've determined as needing a paid license). Sure, it's intrusive and you're potentially paying more for a stream than ownership of the media, but maybe there's a bright side.

And really, do you want to buy a blu ray that's possibly, eventually going to have to be replaced by a more expensive format?

<comment><USER12> > Renault wants to 'sell' a product to a consumer that he will never truly > own.

So exactly like when you purchase an ebook from Amazon, a game from Steam, or dozens other services where you think you own something but in reality you don't. I'm not saying it's good, but why do people get angry when it's more "real"? And at the same time are OK with it when it's something virtual?

<comment><USER13> Amazon, Steam, etc. are not in fact capable of taking away the data I bought, no matter what they do with their servers.

Also I'm optimistic law will catch up and fix the first sale doctrine eventually, so that they won't even _try_ to take away the data.

<comment><USER14> > Amazon, Steam, etc. are not in fact capable of taking away the data I > bought, no matter what they do with their servers.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, could you elaborate? As of now, if e.g. your Steam account is suspended or the Steam servers shut down, you will no longer be able to play any of the games on that account (offline mode and DRM circumvention notwithstanding).

You may have access to a subset of the data on your disk (the games you previously downloaded), but they're still wrapped in DRM.

As an aside, Steam is also capable of removing games from your account, which they do e.g. in the case of a chargeback.

<comment><USER12> Most of the games are in fact not wrapped in Steam DRM. Just by the way, as playing them is equal to pirating anyways. If your service is suspended you "can't" play them (even though you can).

<comment><USER14> This is getting slightly off-topic, but it's only a minority[1] of games that lack the Steam DRM wrapper and they're primarily indie titles. Nearly all (if not all) AA/AAA titles on Steam require Steam to be running.

[1] [http://www.gog.com/forum/general/list_of_drmfree_games_on_st...](http://www.gog.com/forum/general/list_of_drmfree_games_on_steam/page1)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Silly; they claim if you lose your job and can't make battery payments, you can't even drive your car. If you lose your job and can't make gas payments, same effect. This is just another model trying to make an electric car affordable. Why all the vitriol?

<comment><USER16> If you lose a job and can't afford to pay for the car(but still might have some savings to pay for gas) it usually takes a few months between you missing a payment and you losing the car to the bank or a debt collector.

With this technology your car can be disabled as soon as a single payment is missed.

<comment><USER15> So you have gas money but not battery money? Huh?

<comment><USER17> You have $10 a month to charge the battery money, but not $200 a month pay for the car money.

<comment><USER18> What's the rental fee? Is it more or less than the $100-200/month most people spend on gas?

<comment><USER19> _In a bind_ , you can get that $100-200/mo much lower.

Perhaps they can offer a system where partial battery payments will get you reduced usage.

<comment><USER20> They would do that only if they have to fight a competitor, for sure. The whole idea of this rental is to follow the quite successful model one sees with ISP or mobile operators. Currently, they sell a car and that's it. They don't get more money if you use it for 20 years (my car, which is from another french brand, is that old).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is actually sounding like some sort of accounting gimmick, that combines a lease (power) with a purchase (shell). It may have the effect of some cost benefit to the end user. They are trying to sub the "rental" for the "gas payment" ($8/gallon==lots) to not make the stupidly uncompetitive on price. The main risk of this strategy, then would be if people "carjacked" the battery and a black market of non-traceble inter-operable parts emerged. Also, a grey market or secondary market that limited the "ticket sale" to only the commodity shell. This has the also obvious abuse potential (forced maintenence $$, engineered obsolecense, etc). Also, the value of the residual car? Going to take a huge hit. Athough this last point would be mitigated somewhat if the rental was not much worse than petrol costs (op-ex, otherwise incurred).

</comment><comment><USER22> It's worth noting that while Renault is not in the US market and we won't get the Zoe EV, Renault and Nissan are partners and this tech could wind up in the Nissan Leaf. (edit: depending on future battery lease models)

</comment><comment><USER23> If you bought the 40,000Whr tesla model S, they give you a 60,000Whr battery and use similar "DRM" to limit it to 40,000.

<comment><USER24> Is this a fact? It seems like the cells are so valuable that they are selling multiple tiers of battery so they will have a lower cost model. There's real money to be saved in not putting 20,000Whr in the car.

<comment><USER25> They weighed the cost of having variations during manufacturing and installing larger batteries after the car has already been delivered or resold and decided that it would be cheaper and give the car a higher resale value if the battery capacity could be upgraded remotely at any time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Who comes up with these ideas? I can't even picture a somewhat educated group of people, sitting around a board room table, thinking that this is a remotely good idea.

<comment><USER27> The DRM stuff aside, the obligatory battery rental is probably because the battery itself is expensive, and it allows them to hide the price of that.

<comment><USER28> "Give 'em the razor; sell 'em the blades"

<comment><USER27> maybe if Gillette razors were made of diamonds this would make sense. I honestly don't think they'll be making much off of this scheme.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I hope no one buys this. Hit back at Renault where it hurts the most.

<comment><USER27> They seem to be killing this car intentionally. You can't use wall plugs to charge, and the battery rental stuff is also a mess. Apparently they were trying to sell 40k in 6 months, and only ended up selling 10k.

<comment><USER11> The fact that they were able to hock 10k makes me sad for the state of the global society.

<comment><USER27> can you explain why? DRM might be important for some people, but weighed against their primary mode of transportation, I feel like it's a values concession I'd be slightly willing to make (making it clear I'd be willing to go for an alternative).

<comment><USER11> I more or less cover it in this reply: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6732192](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6732192)

The world needs to stop giving in to corporate control schemes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Disclaimer : I'm as concerned as you about data privacy, money etc. I'm not technically a Renault employee, but it just happen that I'm working for them as a consultant (in a non related field). So I'm not representing Renault [insert legal terms here], I'm only trying to transcript the response when I expressed off record some of the concerns to one of Zoe's engineer. Here is more or less what he said about: \- Data privacy: Renault worked with the CNIL ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNIL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNIL)) to legally comply with French/European data privacy laws. All data sent to Renault remains anonymous, Renault does not associate the "ID" of the car with owner's personal information. \- Battery: He used the same gas pump analogy. When I asked him why a renting system for a part of the product, he replied "simply to make it cheaper": Renault could have added the price of the battery (around 8000 euros) to the price of Zoe, but this is not a smart marketing move.

Meanwhile, I'll forward the conversation and your concerns to Renault's communication team. Let's hope they make a public statement about all this. Cheers.

</comment><comment> wes-exp How dare they ship a proprietary car! The blueprints should be open source and it should be assembled by volunteers. /sarcasm

</comment><comment><USER31> _Renault ships a brickable car..._

Nothing new yet.

 _...with battery DRM that you 're not allowed to own_

Ah, news! On the upside, this car is somewhat theft-proof. (Nothing can be totally theft proof.) Next, it should have a 360-degree dash cam that's monitored 24-7 by an organization funded by a consortium of insurance companies and 3 letter government agencies. All the above sounds scary while bringing benefits. (The scary that brings benefits with it is the truly scary stuff, as it has a good chance of sticking around.)

</comment><comment><USER32> So don't buy the car. Lots of alternatives out there!

</comment><comment><USER33> So? Dont treat the automotive market the way you treat the tech market. single companies have a much, much lower affect on the market when it comes to cars.

</comment><comment><USER34> This will be a rather flippant remark, but very occasionally we, the public, need one to sum things up in a useful soundbite.

DRM --> Don't Renault Me

Maybe it will catch on. Renault Marketing and PR would hate that -- which is precisely the point.

</comment><comment><USER35> This has EVIL written all over it, in so many ways I don't even...

</comment><comment><USER36> Security Researchers in the SDR community are going to have a field day with these kinds of features. Companies like Renault need to bring in better consultants. This is not going to work.

</comment><comment><USER37> How long until someone finds themselves in a life-threatening situation because their car refuses to start because it has been remotely deactivated?

<comment><USER38> About a hundred years after the first time someone found themselves in a life- threatening situation because their car refused to start because they couldn't pay for gas.

<comment><USER39> There's a real and fundamental gap between "physically unable to run" and "physically able to run, but blocked from doing so by someone else's actions".

<comment><USER38> If gasoline is available, but the owner of the gasoline refuses to dispense it because you can't pay, then you are in the second category.

<comment><USER39> (Car analogies: the bane of hackers everywhere.. especially when talking about cars ^^)

The gas is available and you already paid for it (via the power bill) - <USER2> reaching out to kill the system is a third party action.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Can't wait until some russian releases a crack to disable the DRM on this battery.

</comment><comment><USER41> CaaS. Car as a service. What will the corporations think of next?

<comment><USER42> With self-driving cars this could actually make some sense.

<comment><USER43> That's called a taxi.

<comment><USER44> Autonomous taxis would largely revolutionize car ownership. Why own your own car, when you can pay a fraction of the price to have one available whenever you need it, and never when you don't?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Hack the shit out of it, say "Re NO"!

</comment><comment><USER46> It's time for someone to root the battery!

</comment><comment><USER47> Yay another car that i will never buy.

</comment><comment><USER48> There are no cars in the future.

<comment><USER49> That would be the opposite of progress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Well, I'm not buying that.</comment>


The next Silicon Valley? It may be New York  - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/06/07/internet.week.new.york/index.html

<comment><USER2> Ah, this nails the coffin: "I don't know if New York will ever become Silicon Valley," Flint added. "In some ways, do you want it to become Silicon Valley? The culture here is very different than the culture there."

It's funny how the article talks about Jay-Z and Sinatra and the local culture's fond admiration of music, fashion and finance. But, in the valley, you get admiration for working at <some_hot_startup> The friends' impressiveness factor is still higher in the valley.

</comment><comment><USER3> Or, it may not. Were they even big enough to have a bust around y2k? Isn't it a factor that so much of the talent is very highly paid in the financial industry?</comment>


Slow languages battle across time - <AUTHOR> http://prog21.dadgum.com/52.html

<comment><USER2> Doesn't seem like a fair comparison of the language implementations, since Python is running on modern hardware, and BASIC isn't. It'd be more interesting to run a BASIC implementation from 80s on a modern CPU and compare that with Python today.

I'd be curious, also, to take an benchmark of a program written in C in 1980, and compare it to Python today. I wouldn't be surprised if the slow Python version ran faster, simply because of the faster CPU. This would completely contradict the author's point.

<comment><USER3> Yeah this article really says nothing interesting about the languages. The BASIC timings are from 48K Atari 800 system and the Python timing are from some unknown modern system. Not sure what the point is...

<comment><AUTHOR> The point is (in case that wasn't obvious, apparently not) that the _real world execution time_ of that program has improved more than 5 orders of magnitude (decimal ones at that).

So stuff that we'd be waiting for for a couple of days in the 80's can be done in a few seconds now. Of course that also means that we're generally much less aware of where the inefficiencies are until something really grinds to a halt but still, it's absolutely amazing to me even today that digital circuits can run at the speeds they have and that we can afford to run pretty numerically intensive stuff in interpreted languages and not bat an eye when the answer pops up in under a second.

2 MHz looked pretty good back in the day.

The computer I worked with most as a kid (besides the TRS-80 and the 'Dragon') was a BBC micro, it had an expansion bus for - no kidding - a _second_ 6502 so you could have true parallelism. That meant you only had to wait for a day instead of two if you were taxing the machine and had something that was compute bound.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Guess I'll have to get my CoCo 3 back up and running so I can see how long a BASIC09 version of the sieve takes. That would be running on a (NTSC color burst frequency / 2) MHz 6809 rather than the Atari's 6502, and, unlike the usual "gutter BASICs" of the era, has integer and Boolean types; also, although you can use BASIC09 interactively, the code is compiled to an "I-code" virtual machine language to be run.

Ironically, The Fine Article from which the BASIC times are taken is one reviewing Action!, a compiler/IDE of sorts for a structured language for the Atari. It has an Action! version of the sieve, and cites a run time of 1.5 seconds, rather faster than 324 seconds the Atari BASIC version takes.

Yes, Moore's Law and all that... but there was more to computing in those days than gutter BASIC.

<comment><AUTHOR> Basic09? Wow, that's the luxury version. The BASIC that came with the regular CoCo was simply microsoft basic ported to the 6809, nothing so nice as compilation.</comment></comment>


Windows 8 Security Holes - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2013512/vupen-security-researchers-finger-windows-8-holes.html

<comment><USER2> I have a feeling Microsoft will be back in that Kasperky's top 10 list very soon.</comment>


This bot tracks planes used by authoritarian regimes landing at Geneva - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/GVA_Watcher <comment><USER2> By way of explanation, an article describes this as "an automated system to potentially provide evidence of money laundering" [http://europe.newsweek.com/twitter-bot-tracks-flights- switze...](http://europe.newsweek.com/twitter-bot-tracks-flights-switzerland- gva-dictator-alert-509513)

 _"When you see a dictator landing in Geneva, it could be a good thing. It could mean the leader is coming as part of a diplomatic effort, to take part in peace talks," Pilet tells Newsweek._

 _"But at the same time, Switzerland is a safe haven for powerful people from third world countries, for people who want to stash away the money that they have stolen from their people."_

I once read something about the possibility of using corporate flight tracking for hints about upcoming mergers and acquisitions...

</comment><comment><USER3> to make them a target???</comment>


MIDIMonster: Multi-Protocol Translation (MIDI, OSC, ArtNet, Evdev Input) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cbdevnet/midimonster <comment><AUTHOR> I've uploaded a few videos of the tool in operation to Twitter:

MIDI->evdev [https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/965384962848456704](https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/965384962848456704)

evdev->ArtNet [https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/965337284982837248](https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/965337284982837248)

MIDI<>OSC [https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/882368440811606020](https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/882368440811606020)

</comment><comment><USER2> This is fantastic! Great work. I'm currently prototyping a custom interface for some controllers/pads I've built and am building. This could be really useful if I wanted to get fancy and make it uber-flexible.</comment>


Miscarriage can lead to 'long-term post-traumatic stress' - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51093999 <comment><USER3> I had a miscarriage at 10w (baby measuring 6w). For many months, I was haunted by things like going in for my first doctor's appointment and seeing my empty uterus on the screen. I thought about all those people, like the receptionist in the waiting room, who said "congrats" even though there was nothing to congratulate me for. I opted for medical management but didn't take the drugs until the pain was unbearable. Although that was the single worst 45m of my life, I don't think about it as much.

I am pregnant again, but I am not the same. I am not excited, I am not making plans. We waited to tell our parents until 13 weeks. Even though I'm showing, I've told the people who absolutely need to know because I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to have a baby shower because I don't want to have to look all the stuff if the baby ends up dying.

I participate in /r/Miscarriage, /r/ttcafterloss, and /r/pregnancyafterloss. People there are sad about losses that happened months, years, sometimes even 10 years ago. They - we! - are triggered by pregnant women, our original due dates (next week for me), the idea of getting pregnant again.

It's a surprise to me that we're able to call this a discovery. I feel like a Native American talking to Christopher Columbus.

<comment><USER4> A bunch of my friends have had miscarriages, and this seems so common. I can't imagine the trauma and I get not wanting to celebrate. And you know what? I think it's ok to not celebrate.

We had a very stressful pregnancy (we were teenagers with no money and unhappy soon-to-be-grandparents). There was no joy in it, we tried not to tell anyone, and only two people said "congrats" when they found out. I'm sad about that to this day ... especially for my wife, who I think missed out on something a lot of women delight in.

Our other three kids came through foster care, they showed up with little notice and we adopted them several years later. There was no pregnancy experience.

So we've never celebrated a pregnancy, but we sure as heck celebrate our kids.

<comment><USER5> > So we've never celebrated a pregnancy

I'm sorry to hear this and it must make you sad every time you think about it.

I think it is very difficult to go through life, experiencing all of life's milestones in the way we might wish.

Another example is in those fortunate to celebrate a work retirement party. Others may fall ill, take leave and quietly retire without returning to work and have no retirement party.

Life seems unpredictable, unfair. Knowing that makes celebrations of life, when we can have them, much more special.

<comment><USER4> The milestones take is insightful. :thumbsup:

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My wife and I struggle with infertility, I have family members with a history of miscarriage, and my wife leads a women's infertility support group.

American culture does not know what to do about natal issues. (Arguably, no culture ever has) We need to recognize that reproductive health goes far beyond binary abortion debates, and can affect women permanently, to say nothing of the rest of the family. I can say, knowing people that suffer from PTSD for natal issues and long term war trauma, the degrees of suffering may be different, but the unhealthy coping mechanisms can do equal amount of damage.

If you or your family is dealing with miscarriage or infertility, there is help and support out there specifically for you. I would be happy to help point anyone toward the resources that I know of, and more than happy to talk to any husbands who want help knowing how to support their wives.

<comment><USER7> _American culture does not know what to do about natal issues._

Because the vast majority of correct answers are politically incorrect. There are a _lot_ of causes of infertility, but the two main ones in the developed world are delayed pregnancy and obesity (mediated most often by PCOS) - <USER2> of which are personal choices.

And it's simply not an option to tell a woman the medical reality that career- before-kids or eating too many calories is guaranteed to reduce your chances of having children. We have collectively decided that sparing others' feelings and indulging in others' have-it-all fantasies is the pinnacle of moral behavior.

On the mens' side, we also contend with sperm counts _halving_ in 40 years and virtually nobody caring beyond half-hearted "hey look at this scary stat lol" level commentary. Motility and morphology have also seen dramatic declines. For whatever reason, we simply don't care.

<comment><USER6> The causal link between PCOS and obesity is more thought to go the way that PCOS (and endometriosis) can cause obesity, not the other way around.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Miscarriages are pretty common too. Anywhere from 10-25% of "recognized" pregnancies end in miscarriage. Among our close friends and family with kids (N=16), we're the only ones that has 2 or more kids and had no miscarriages.

If you have married friends or friends with kids, its probably best not to joke about when they're going to pop one out. Fertility can be long, expensive, and not very fun.

<comment><USER9> While jokes are not good, it's important to talk about it. A good friend of mine had to go through multiple miscarriages, and almost lost her life in the process. She hurt a lot from the feeling of being imperfect and somehow at fault. She was actually surprised how common an occurrence a miscarriage is, and if we manage to make it more normal to talk about it, and more normal to expect that it can happen, I think we would make an important step in reducing the pain.

<comment><USER10> I find quite a lot of people do not agree that it's important to talk about it, for whatever reason. My guess is that overcoming the social stigma around showing your emotions/sharing problems is mostly to blame. Perhaps most people in my social group actually have had such problems and don't even feel comfortable in the meta-conversation.

I often say things like "people should talk about this kind of stuff more because it would help them through it". I obviously mean it in a general sense (very much not trying to get specific people to talk about specific problems). Responses vary from an insincere "yeah..." to the rather odd "you can't tell people what to do".

<comment><USER9> It's not only the people who are directly affected who have to talk it through. I think we all need to talk about these things, to make it more normal. Talk about it before it happens. We all have a tendency to elevate any misfortune, small and large, to be the biggest thing ever, and how can you ever live through it.

(Edit: I'm not wanting to say that a miscarriage is a small misfortune. No, it's not. But there are many many worse things which can go wrong.)

<comment><USER10> Definitely, but I still find others don't agree (or at least don't enthusiastically agree).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I had to go through this with my wife 2 years ago. I'll never be the same. It changed me. I was an exuberant person. When we first came to know about the pregnancy we were so happy but it totally changed my outlook on life after the loss. I did not know how to cope, I developed a deep interest in philosophy and spirituality, spent next 1 year reading and thinking which helped but it changed me as a person. We now have a 10 month old but we did not tell even the close friends ( we live in a different country) until the day of delivery. My blood pressure was 150/90 through the last trimester. I love my son and I know it is supposed to be fun and exciting but but I live in fear.

</comment><comment><USER12> I remember it was a week after the miscarriage, I was targeted and terminated from my company, as part of a coverup.

Double whammy that lead to the worst ~3 years of my life.

<comment><USER13> Wow, that's horrible. I'm curious to hear more details if you feel comfortable sharing.

<comment><USER12> I notified senior leadership that engineering was misreporting it's uptime statistics. In effect breaching contracts with pretty much every major customer, including state governments.

Leadership fixed the glitch.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> For my first miscarriage - no heartbeat, no detectable embryo - the idea of a "failed pregnancy" somehow made the loss more manageable, like something that never got off the ground. My next miscarriage, which occurred after seeing a heartbeat, was devastating for both me and my husband. A year later I found myself in the emergency room with my daughter, two days after I'd found out I was pregnant a third time, and almost had a panic attack right then and there. It was completely unexpected and really shone a light on how traumatic the loss and the D&E afterward had been.

[https://medium.com/messy-mind/emergency-room- flashbacks-871e...](https://medium.com/messy-mind/emergency-room- flashbacks-871ee88d02a?source=friends_link&sk=8c35735fdf0144e79d8c9efa89c6a79d)

</comment><comment><USER15> In case it helps any others in a similar situation:

My partner and I suffered from a miscarriage and then a seeming inability to fall pregnant again. All of the tests we did came back fine - everyone just said "keep trying" but eventually we started to see "unexplained infertility" appearing in the medical notes which was crushing and terrifying.

To cut a long, emotionally painful, and expensive story short, we almost accidentally found out my partner has some quirk in their immune system: NK cells (CD16+, CD56+). This does not appear to be something that is routinely checked for.

A quick consultation at a specialist consultant, a small number of some very benign tablets along with 1 home injection (very cheap - perhaps £80/month) and two months later - after literally years - we were naturally pregnant.

37 weeks so far and everything is completely ordinary and normal - a huge relief compared to where we were several years ago.

If you are in a similar situation, please know that there may be a way out. It is a very dark road, but there _can_ be light at the end of the tunnel. Talk about the NK cells with your doctor and see what they say - the NHS in the UK pooh-poohed it (despite being prepared to give us IVF at significant expense), but it worked for us when going privately, and the consultant's waiting room was full of pregnant women so we're not just a fluke I guess. I just hope that oen day this enters the mainstream so that people can try it before IVF and other invasive treatments.

If anyone wants to know the clinic we used in London, please email any user at e43.xyz (catchall will pick it up) or reply here

</comment><comment><USER16> As someone who has two kids and hasn't experienced miscarriage, this thread is a reminder of what a privilege that is. Even though miscarriage is surprisingly prevalent (at least surprising in a culture where it's not spoken of), I suspect the trauma isn't even carried. Thanks to everyone for sharing difficult stories. Hopefully the rest of us can do our parts to not stigmatize or be insensitive.

<comment><USER16> (Edit: I meant to say, "evenly carried", as in evenly distributed.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> My wife had one miscarriage, we're pretty robust but it was quite brutal, friends have certainly had many more.

We had to wait a bit before trying again but not too long later had twins and in an odd sort of way it seemed like that gave some balance to the situation.

</comment><comment><USER18> Would anything which is traumatic, be able to lead to long term post-traumatic stress?

And miscarriages are certainly traumatic.

<comment><USER19> Yes. PTSD does not discriminate based on type of trauma. Car crashes, for instance, are one of the most common events leading to PTSD.

<comment><USER13> Absolutely. Even though there's the perception that only military people get PTSD, you are right, it does not discriminate. Moreover, the definition of trauma is personal. That is, if it's traumatic to the individual, then it can cause a post-traumatic stress reaction, no matter whether it would be a traumatic event to anyone else.

<comment><USER20> It's worse than a perception (that only front-line military people get PTSD), it often takes the form of gate-keeping.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Miscarriage probability is higher than people who never see the statistics guessed, even for the people with the best age and other conditions(>10%).

Also it is said early occult miscarriage rate is 40%. It's early because less than 1 week, it's occult because we don't realize it, no sign of pregnancy, so we can't observe it most of the time.

The book I'm currently reading(The Vital Question) said that miscarriage rate is high because zygote dies in case of inefficient mitonuclear match, filtering the bad fits.

</comment><comment><USER22> In some cultures it's common to provide funerals for stillborn babies. Perhaps this part of the reason why.

[https://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-loss/stillborn- survi...](https://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-loss/stillborn-surviving- emotionally/)

</comment><comment><USER23> I've a buddy whose wife just had her second miscarriage and it has rocked them. I try to be supportive but I have no idea what it is like. I feel terrible for them

<comment><USER14> Check in on them and see how they're doing, or just offer an ear if they want to talk. If they're anything like My husband and me they don't have many people to talk to about it - and many won't bring it up because they feel awkward or uncomfortable. Knowing someone is there, aware, and thinking about them can make the difference.

<comment><USER23> Thank you — I will.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Things like this lead me to wonder: how is the experience of trauma affected by cultural practice, myth, ideas, etc. Certainly similar experiences can lead to different outcomes from ignorance to indifference to trauma in different individuals. Why is that and how could traumatic outcomes be changed? Should they be?

It is a touchy subject because it is easy to interpret as invalidating deep personal feelings, but that isn't the goal at all.

Would, say, young people drafted for war from a modern Spartan society experience the same trauma in war as young people drafted from Berkeley? I am sure that individuals from both sides would have experiences across the spectrum, but would the distribution differ?

I do think that modern Western society goes to extremes to prevent children from experiencing or even knowing about the harsh realities of the world and it's not hard to conclude that when the sheltered youth are dumped into reality (considerably more) serious mental illness follows as the world they were prepared for and the world they live in are very different.

<comment><USER25> > Would, say, young people drafted for war from a modern Spartan society > experience the same trauma in war as young people drafted from Berkeley?

Most of Sparta was slaves, and the upper class participated in murder of slaves as a rite of passage, so I doubt there is a lot in common.

<comment><USER26> Also, ancient Spartans were hardly immune to PTSD. They were just much less likely to be treated for the symptoms in any real way (or, frankly, to survive the events that cause them). There's really no good evidence that PTSD is a modern thing at all.

What's really, and ironically, happening here is that "Sparta" is a movie utopia us pathetic moderners have invented to mask our anxieties behind an ideal about Real Men who spent their lives kicking Persians into giant pits instead of dealing with credit overdrafts (and, occasionally, PTSD).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Please, forgive me if I come across as harsh or insulting. I cannot imagine what you went through and I wish you never had to.

Some time ago I talked to my neighbor (76 y/o woman), while my wife was pregnant, she happily told me that she had 6 kids and 2 miscarriages. Like it was a very normal thing. I asked and she said it was just part of it, the fetuses were probably not healthy to begin with. She seemed of the opinion that it was just part of life and it didn't seem to affect her. I didn't ask further but I do notice myself that once you start taking about miscarriages or, in our case, difficulties getting pregnant, many people went through the same experiences. And certain experiences seem commonplace. On me that has a consoling effect.

Do you think it would have helped if you would have known about the possibility in advance? Or had friends go through the same and society in general being much more open about these things? My mother in law told me about her miscarriage only when our son was 2. I think it would have (hypothetically) helped us be more open and accepting if we would have known in advance.

Thank you for being so open about this on the jungle that is the internet. It takes a lot of courage to come back and read replies.

<comment><USER28> I imagine it's different, if _for example_ one first gets a child that survives, then another, and then, the 3rd time, there's a miscarriage. Then, that's easier to get over, because you can be happy for and focus on the children you have already?

Compared to if one has tried just once, and that was a miscarriage.

<comment><USER14> I am that first scenario. I had 2 healthy kids followed by 2 miscarriages. I can't speak to easier or harder, but I do know that even the 2 losses I had in quick succession (one in March and one in August of the same year) affected me in profoundly different ways. I think they're all different and terrible in their own way.

<comment><USER28> I'm sorry to hear that. Thanks for replying. I think I will never know how that feels like.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> FWIW not everyone is traumatised. We had a couple of misses (one very early, one around 11 weeks iirc) before our first, and another between first and second. It was sad at the time, but that was all

</comment><comment><USER30> I wonder if women after having an abortion might feel the same? Are there any women who can deny or share thoughts?

BTW, it seems weird that the article is treated as discovery...

</comment><comment><USER31> One thing I didn't see in the article was how a woman might be affected differently if she already had multiple children. My wife miscarried at about 12 weeks, but we already had a bunch of kids so she was basically like, "Oh well" and was fine the next day. But I imagine if it had been our first, or maybe second, that she would have been affected much differently.

<comment><USER32> I think it depends on the lateness as well though. Sometimes the baby dies in the womb and this is discovered before birth, yet the mother still has to go through a full labour, all the while knowing it's for nothing. Pretty horrible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'm really glad we decided to have kids when we did and didn't wait longer. I was completely unaware of miscarriage rates when we started. Even for healthy age groups it's more than 10%.

It's much higher than I would have thought, and rises quickly after 32, just when many people are hitting their professional stride, which is extremely unfortunate.

<comment><USER34> It's far higher than that, but most miscarriages occur so early that in the past, or today if not actively checking if you are pregnant, a woman wouldn't have known it happened. This is obviously difficult to study, but current thought is that miscarriages occur in 30-50% of fertilizations, and with more and more tracking, people are more and more likely to know about it.

<comment><USER35> This was our experience, having a positive pregnancy test and then my wife getting what we would have thought was just a late, heavy period shortly afterward.

Early testing is nice, but with subsequent attempts to get pregnant we chose to wait quite a bit longer after a missed period before doing a pregnancy test, because we didn't want to go through the roller coaster again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> My wife and sister both had ectopic pregnancies, which really sucked. My wife was really hit by it emotionally.

<comment><USER37> I know somebody who had an ectopic. She had to more or less abort it, which made her feel unbelievable bad. For years afterwards. I'm sorry to hear it happened to people close to you twice

<comment><USER38> I hope no one suggested that there was any sort of decision, other than by which method she preferred for it to be ended. Anyone who even implies that waiting it out is a more moral option is either stupid or cruel.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'd venture that the overly systematised, euphemism-happy coldness of the medical establishment is part of the problem. PTSD actually means being upset for a very long time. A clump of cells actually means a baby (but we can't say that because...). Organised support services are probably inferior to support from a strong network of loving family, friends and community (but latter doesn't exist because of social disintegration). A holistic approach would support the family as one, rather than treating the mother as a separate specimen to be processed.

</comment><comment><USER39> Can the same happen for planned abortions? Is it connected to the desire to have the baby or a physiological thing that happens even if you aborted?

</comment><comment><USER40> ive tried several times and cannot seem to comment. I think that speaks more to the impact of miscarriage than my words could. I've had 5. They've all been different. You are a mother the moment you are pregnant regardless of how long. There is an unspeakable, unbreakable connection between a mother and her children. That connections dies slowly over time, not the moment of loss. For me, every miscarriage is something I still process and heal from. They are all my children though they've never had names nor did I ever meet them. I felt them and hosted them and would have given anything for them as I do my other children.

</comment><comment><USER41> For sale: baby shoes, never worn

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn)

</comment><comment><USER42> Where is the study itself? They link to the "earlier, smaller study" from 2016, but not the one they're writing about.

</comment><comment><USER43> Don't forget that miscarriages effect the spouse too.

<comment><USER44> Not sure why you're being downvoted. As the partner of someone who had a miscarriage I was happy to see someone thought of me as well. I definitely also have PTSD from it. I remember my partner being in pain and bleeding and experiencing the sadness of loss on top of all of it. I was scared and lonely and I feel and felt helpless.

<comment><USER43> OP:

> Not sure why you're being downvoted

I find that people on Hacker News tend to downvote any kind of short comments. When I came across this thread, it was empty and I didn't like seeing an empty thread, so I wanted to say _something_ to break the ice. (At this point, the post has 18 points, so clearly cooler heads prevailed.)

My wife tells stories about seeing her father suddenly start sobbing when she came across items that her parents bought for their first pregnancy.

Later, when we had a miscarriage, (fortunately very early,) my boss told me about his. Even though we were on the phone, I could tell he was holding back tears.

Thankfully we haven't had serious fertility problems. What helped in our case was, throughout my life, hearing about my parents' miscarriage, sister's miscarriage, cousin's miscarriage. I knew it was normal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I read this as "Marriage can lead to 'long-term post-traumatic stress'"

</comment><comment><USER46> Considering the infant mortality rate in the 1800s, did practically every family have PTSD?

<comment><USER47> I believe you assume the answer to be "no".

But I'd say it's "yes", and that may be part of the reason for the prevalence of war at the time (causing even more trauma).

<comment><USER46> No, it wasn't rhetorical. I think the answer may just be 'yes'. Wonder if we'll look at historical figures with different eyes if most are likely to be PTSD victims. And we could see what the effects were on societies living like that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Working on an artificial womb because my wife went through the same. Pregnancy is barbaric the sooner we stop forcing half the world to do it the better for everyone.

<comment><USER49> I know my wife would not opt for an artificial womb. We are expecting next month and had some difficulties conceiving.

We talked about potentially doing a surrogate, an option that she shot down unless it was the very last resort. She wanted to carry our child, and experience everything that pregnancy has to offer. Not every day is easy, but she truly enjoys this phase of her and our daughter's life.

<comment><USER48> And no one will stop her. Just how today some women elect to give birth without anesthetics. And others do it at home.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> "1 in 13 children in sub-Saharan Africa died before reaching her or his fifth birthday" (2018)

You can say that's Whataboutism, but for most of history losing a child was what happened to most people.

So calling the sadness and awful experience from a miscarriage 'long-term post-traumatic stress' might be technically true one in six times if physiologists say so (not sure they have, the BBC has), to me that just further stigmatizes what is a sad but common occurrence no one talks about and implies we all live with trauma which can't be healthy to keep shoving down our throats.

<comment><USER35> > for most of history losing a child was what happened to most people

Even if true, that doesn't mean it wasn't heartbreaking and didn't have long- term effects on the family.

<comment><USER50> Trauma and PTSD like suicide is contagious.

Giving it to women and their partners who have a miscarriage or the loss of a child is also heartbreaking.

I'm not saying don't talk about, I'm just saying calling it trauma and PTSD will irrevocably harm some people and possibly hurt more than it will help.

I don't think the media should lie even if it harms people. But equally I don't think the story here is a story that justifies the harm it might cause, they still can tell the truth responsibly if the BBC just took care and didn't chase clicks.

<comment><USER51> This is a deeply silly analysis. PTSD is a fairly specific and in many ways _physical_ set of reactions to trauma; if you've had no personal exposure to it, you'd be unlikely to describe it convincingly to a professional, let alone somehow incubate it in your own mind simply by a suggested association.

It's been suggested that PSTD can be "contagious", but the connection between "PTSD" and a specific trauma (ie: the belief that some specific trauma "is supposed to" cause PTSD) isn't the vector.

If something causes PTSD, it causes PTSD. Pretending otherwise doesn't prevent it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> I think it's fascinating how disconnected we are from death in modern times.

The average life span in the 1700s was 35 years old.

1 out of 100 MOTHERS died during childbirth centuries ago.

You could get an infection and be dead in a week because there were no antibiotics.

Spanish flu killed 10 percent of the worlds population, the black plagues death rate was far far higher than that.

Cholera, red fever, polio, there were so many and such variety of different ways to die.

Death was a constant specter and I imagine life was considered a little cheaper? I don't know.

I don't know if people had constant endless PTSD back then or if PTSD is our natural state, or if PTSD is contextual, and nowdays we live in extremely pro mental health times.

Either way its testament to how amazing modern medicine has become and how valuable everyones lives are nowdays.

<comment><USER53> One take would be that nowadays, you're more likely to survive stuff that nature did not prepare you to survive.

<comment><USER52> That's a hot take as medicine has also made us healthier!</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER3> All books from Basecamp founders. Especially the first one - Getting Real.

I preordered their latest book 'It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work'.

A lot of their advice is aimed towards small teams. And often contrary to SV wisdom. We've built a few profitable businesses by following their advice without raising any funding.

<comment><USER4> I second this. My favorite was Rework.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Pinning down just one would be nearly impossible, but I can tell you a small group that I consider indispensable.

 _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ \- Steve Blank. This is a MUST read. If you read nothing else, make it this book. Note that there is a 2nd Edition, which changes the title to "The Startup Owner's Manual". There is a lot of overlap in the content, but enough difference to justify reading both, IMO. I would start with the older one.

 _The Discipline of Market Leaders_ \- Fred Wiersema, Michael Treacy - <USER2> crucially important book IMO. Does a great job of explaining how there are many different vectors along which you can compete, and explains how choosing which vector you're going to compete on is fundamental to defining your business and market.

 _The Art of the Start_ \- Guy Kawasaki. Lots of good basics on startups

 _Differentiate or Die_ \- Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin. - Title says it all.

 _It 's Not The Big That Eat The Small, It's The Fast That Eat The Slow_ \- Jason Jennings

 _The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing_ \- Jack Trout and Al Ries

 _Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind_ \- Al Ries, Jack Trout, Philip Kotler

 _Crossing the Chasm_ \- Geoffrey Moore

 _Mastering The Complex Sale_ \- Jeff Thull - lays out an approach to selling that I believe is one of the best out there for enterprise / B2B. May not be as relevant for B2C or other approaches.

 _Exceptional Selling_ \- Jeff Thull - more on Thull's selling approach.

 _The Prime Solution_ \- Jeff Thull - and yet more still on Thull's selling approach.

 _The Innovator 's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail_ \- Clayton Christensen

 _Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future_ \- Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

 _How To Measure Anything_ \- Douglas Hubbard. - Maybe one of the most important books I've ever read. The ideas in this book can apply in many domains, related to startups or otherwise. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

 _Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis_ \- Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

 _Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant_ \- W. Chan Kim, Renée A. Mauborgne

 _Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company's Future_ \- Patricia Seybold

<comment><USER6> Great list. I would add:

 _Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It_ \- Chris Voss

<comment><USER5> Oh yeah. I bought that a while back, because it gets a lot of recommendations here. Haven't had time to read it yet though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'll draw heat for this but I think most business books are boring and/or suffer from survivorship bias.

The most interesting business book I've ever read was Creativity Inc, by Ed Catmull. He talks in depth about managing a business where creativity is the most important aspect.

The Start-up manual is good too, if a little drawn out.

<comment><USER8> I think you are right, I've read quite a few over the years but looking back I learned far more by interacting with peers and just getting on and trying things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Although not a technical book and sometimes maligned, I found How to Win Friends and Influence People very helpful to my career and to my life.

<comment><USER10> I second this. In my opinion, it's the best book ever written on relationships, business, leadership, friendship, politics and more.

That being said, a lot of people read it as a way to manipulate people. It shouldn't be read that way. Rather, if you follow the advice, it has to be genuine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Debt: The First 5000 years is more of a historical examination of the modern origins of debt, not really 'business' per se but still a really solid book that I think many people in this industry could benefit from reading.

<comment><USER12> Except you reach the point where it talks about Apple and you start doubting every other single fact in it:

"Apple Computers is a famous example: it was founded by (mostly Republican) computer engineers who broke from IBM in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, forming little democratic circles of twenty to forty people with their laptops in each other's garages."

(Copy/pasted from web, but matches my memory of reading the book, so pretty sure it's accurate.)

<comment><USER11> Yeah this threw me for a loop, but didn't try to get it corrected - did anyone follow up on this glaring error when the book was initially for sale/proof- read more widely?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk".

Check this review of sorts by Jeff Atwood: [https://blog.codinghorror.com/how- to-talk-to-human-beings/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/how-to-talk-to-human- beings/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Hard thing about Hard things and then Rework. Two different perspectives, and both light on bullshit

</comment><comment><USER15> Creativity Inc., by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull. A funny and insightful book that should be required reading for any technical leader who works with artists/designers.

[http://www.creativityincbook.com](http://www.creativityincbook.com)

<comment><USER16> Separately he gives good evidence of what an A-hole and tyrant Steve Jobs was. Most won't talk about it out of politeness or concerns for their network. Having worked for a psycho at one time, you know how others shade their language when discussing. Very entertaining!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> As soon as you start hiring people, strongly recommend reading "Radical Candor" [1].

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kim- Scott/dp/B01KTIEFE...](https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kim- Scott/dp/B01KTIEFEE)

<comment><USER18> +1.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Edward DeBono - SUR/PETITION Going beyond competition: creating value monopolies when everyone else is merely competing.

[https://www.debono.com/book/surpetition/](https://www.debono.com/book/surpetition/)

It's probably out of date now but it inspired me to become an entrepreneur in 1994.

Also this is the best book I've ever read on negotiating by Chester Karass [https://www.karrass.com/dr-chester-karrass](https://www.karrass.com/dr- chester-karrass)

[https://www.amazon.com/Give-Take-Revised-Negotiating- Strateg...](https://www.amazon.com/Give-Take-Revised-Negotiating- Strategies/dp/0887307434)

</comment><comment><USER20> If you have tried to build a business and failed then read "The Anatomy of Peace" or "Leadership and Self Deception" same writer, same message.

If you have build a business and want to do it even better, then "Principles" by Ray Dalio

Both are about mindset and worldview - something I am learning now is much more important in tools and marketing hacks and knowing what to do in every situation.

<comment><USER21> I read Principles, I think it's VERY difficult to implement because you need people around you who value the same things. Is that not the case for you?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I recommend Github's "Awesome Leading & Managing" repo ([https://github.com/LappleApple/awesome-leading-and- managing](https://github.com/LappleApple/awesome-leading-and-managing)).

The readme includes a Google Doc summary by Joe Goldberg. It's like a greatest hits of greatest hits.

</comment><comment><USER22> I wish more technical founders would read this: [http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/07/principles- of-p...](http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/07/principles-of-product- development-flow.html?m=1)

</comment><comment><USER23> The Lean Startup and Good to Great

</comment><comment><USER24> The four steps to epiphany was a pretty great book for me.

<comment><USER25> I'd agree. However, reading it is hard, really skim parts and come back to it over time. It's also where the Lean Startup started.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Zero To One.

</comment><comment><USER27> Cashvertising was interesting - it's more for marketeers but if you're writing your own copy on your landing page it has useful to checklists

</comment><comment><USER28> 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall

</comment><comment><USER29> the Personal MBA, it outlines all the importance points of 2000 business books.

<comment><USER30> Can't agree with this one enough! If this book existed before I started college, I'd have read this and skipped the business major!

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> How to take all the blame

</comment><comment><USER32> Traction / Get A Grip

Slicing Pie

Scrum

Hard thing about hard things

</comment><comment><USER33> Zero to One [http://gsl.mit.edu/media/programs/south-africa- summer-2015/m...](http://gsl.mit.edu/media/programs/south-africa- summer-2015/materials/0to1.pdf)

(Caution: It was written by _gasp_ Peter Thiel.)

<comment><USER34> Why?

<comment><USER33> I've only read one business book, and that was it.

Kidding aside, I think it's a good one because it's a mix of analysis and history. Thiel had a unique vantage point, and he shares it well.

It also challenges you to be ambitious, which is becoming a rare sentiment.</comment></comment></comment>


Buku bookmark manager v2.9 released with editor integration - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jarun/Buku/releases/tag/v2.9 <comment><AUTHOR> ## Features

\- Fast, clean interface with distinct symbols

\- Edit, update bookmark fields in text editor

\- Fetch page title from the web, add tags and comments

\- Multiple search modes, including `deep` and `regex`

\- Continuous search at prompt with on the fly mode switch

\- Open bookmarks and search results in browser

\- Import/export in HTML (FF, Chrome compatible) or Markdown

\- Shorten and expand URLs

\- Manual password protection using AES256 encryption

\- Portable, merge-able database to sync between systems

\- Additional options for power users (see help or man page)

\- Completion scripts (Bash, Fish, Zsh), man page with examples

\- Minimal dependencies

Demo: [https://asciinema.org/a/8pm3q3n5s95tvat8naam68ejv](https://asciinema.org/a/8pm3q3n5s95tvat8naam68ejv)

ToDo: [https://github.com/jarun/Buku/issues/103](https://github.com/jarun/Buku/issues/103)</comment>


CRTC Considering "Minimum bandwidth caps" as solution. - <AUTHOR> http://www.thewirereport.ca/reports/content/12028-usage_based_billing_review_to_consider_minimum_limits_for_bit_caps_crtc_chair

<comment><AUTHOR> Please, write more letters to your MPs. The CRTC obviously doesn't understand any of what's going on or why it's a problem. They have to be made to understand.

</comment><comment><USER2> This problem will not go away. Bell and Rogers need to be broken up. Precisely because internet services are going to destroy their TV and phone businesses. As a tactical maneuver to save their revenue streams they are aiming to raise the cost of every byte of data. And they can do that, because through their influence of the CRTC, and their ability to crush any potential competition, they operate as a legalized racket.</comment>


Evernote CEO calls BS on "the best product doesn't always win" - <AUTHOR> http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2010/05/28/evernote-best-product-founder-institute/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Venturebeat+(VentureBeat)

<comment><USER2> Budweiser, Miller, Coors vs. Dogfish Head, Southern Tier, Bell's (though best is pretty subjective)

He makes a good point that you should invest heavily in the product, but that doesn't mean that the rest of business isn't incredibly important too.</comment>


SHykes has left Docker - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Solomon Hykes is the founder of [https://www.docker.com/company/management](https://www.docker.com/company/management)

Is there a blog post or newsgroup entry or anything that confirms it?

</comment><comment><USER3> Do you have a source for this?

</comment><comment><USER4> why?</comment>


In Blow to Sinclair, F.C.C. Chief Has 'Serious Concerns' with Tribune Deal - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/business/media/fcc-sinclair-tribune-pai.html <comment><USER2> Ajit Pai has 'concerns' with this?

I'm guessing his concerns are pure theatrics.</comment>


Jawbone UP3 Activity Tracker - <AUTHOR> http://jawbone.com/store/buy/up3 <comment><USER2> I have a Jawbone UP, the first iteration that requires you to plug into your phone audio jack to sync.

That itself isn't a problem. It's probably part of the recipe for awesome, week-plus battery lives. But the band itself, while fitting fine on my wrist when brand new, started to degrade quickly.

To be clear: the electronics are fine. The rubber enclosure seems to have expanded up to the point where the button was completely covered by it. Upon "folding" the end so one could access the button, the rubber continued to extend, etc.

Finally, maybe eight months in, the button snapped out. I can't use a lot of the functions of the band now, such as exercise/run tracking; I can't even tell it _when_ I'm going to bed, although the app still auto-discovers when I was sleeping.

When the band starts to vibrate (unless it's my half-hour inactivity buzz), you can either stick with it for two solid minutes or plug it into the app.

The main reason I still wear it is that the motion-aware/light sleep estimate- cognizant wake-up alarm is _the only way to live_. It's the snooze button rebooted: rather than waking up to hit a button and then enjoying some more light sleep, the band will just wake you up when you're already semi-awake.

TL;DR: this band broke down very soon after purchase but even as it does a fraction of its original functions it's really really cool.

<comment><USER3> > plug into your phone audio jack to sync

Wait a sec, are you saying it uses a software modem to communicate over the audio jack, or am I misunderstanding? That seems oddly cool, if true.

<comment><USER4> Hmmm, can we call that a modem? Maybe? Anyway it seems similar to all those credit card readers.

[https://squareup.com/reader](https://squareup.com/reader)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Coming Soon"

 _Snore_

Does anyone think people will care enough to 'check' when they can get one?

just announce a date, and if you _can 't_ announce a date, don't announce it...

<comment><USER6> The marketing was probably put out in response to the Microsoft Band. I've been looking to replace my Jawbone band for quite a bit of time now, but I was waiting to see what Jawbone would release. If they didn't release any news, I would have definitely jumped on to the Microsoft Band.

Not announcing a date also works to their benefit since news outlets will put out another PSA when they announce the date.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The thing that sets Jawbone apart from other health wearables companies is how much Jawbone has embraced the idea of providing insights to its customers.

The next iteration of these devices (Basis Peak, Jawbone up3, whatever fitbit comes up with) will no longer be just about quantifying your physical life. With more data comes an increased ability to make inferences about your behavioral patterns, and that's going to be the killer feature of the future.

The first company that actively tries to answer how to instigate real behavioral change in its users through notifications, insights, and other motivational tools will be the first to make fitness wearables ubiquitous devices.

Of course, the band has to be actually _wearable_, too.

Jawbone is doing both of these things, faster than the competition.

Basis is _just_ starting to try and do insight work, after years of perfecting their sensor infrastructure. Fitbit is a toy in comparison, and afaik they haven't even touched doing inference work on small individual user data.

The insights I get from Jawbone now suck, but they're doing those with _just my steps and sleep_. Who knows what will become apparent with my heart rate and automatic activity identification.

<comment><USER8> As a former Basis engineer, we were doing "insights" almost three years ago. In terms of biometrics, I don't think anyone comes close to Basis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > "Our built in accelerator accurately counts your steps no matter where you > go..."

No GPS makes it an inferior device than Microsoft Band.

</comment><comment><USER10> Bold claims... but Microsoft Band or Basis Peak seem more advanced.

<comment><USER11> Basis Peak does look much more advanced, but I wouldn't say that it has many more features that other bands don't have. In my opinion, the bigest factor for it is the design (both site and product). It just looks a little less futuristic and as something that regular people could actually use on a day- to-day basis.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, from all these devices, this one seems the most fit for 24/7 wear, if you want to track sleep.

Also it looks like just a bracelet, so you can wear it on right hand, and still wear a watch.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've always been a fan of Jawbone for it's design centric approach. Their UP and UP24 are both eye catchening and intriguing. But I'm afraid their new UP3 is a bit dissapointing, not to mention the price tag. Perhaps they rushed development to catch up with other players entering the market? Am I the only one here? It's pretty terrible.

Also, the puffery: The most advanced activity tracker known to man, UP3™ is packed with state-of-the-art sensors that give you the full picture of your health.

Someone in the marketing department should go back to the basics, we are now much more educated consumers and we don't fall for these cute bold statements anymore.

Plus let's face it, we'll soon be inbetween an Apple Watch or Moto 360, especially when these reach the $200-$250 price range in a couple of years. Thinking out loud here.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm still so confused as to why any of these pedometers cost so much. I'm really interested in picking one up, but the price is pretty prohibitive for something whose value-add I can't really judge ahead of time

<comment><USER15> Multiple reasons:

\- Because they can. People are willing to pay this much for this product.

\- It takes a lot of research and development costs, which have to be included

\- You also buy a (lifetime?) service that tracks and stores your data

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> One thing to note is that while Jawbone has a nice API[1] and summary data export, there isn't a way to access device/raw data.

There _does_ appear to be some reversing of undocumented API calls that provide some better resolution, although I don't know how up to date that is: [http://eric-blue.com/projects/up-api/](http://eric-blue.com/projects/up-api/)

[1] [https://jawbone.com/up/developer/endpoints](https://jawbone.com/up/developer/endpoints)

<comment><USER17> If you sign into the Jawbone website you can download .csv files for each year you had the device.

<comment><USER16> Summary, not detailed data, however. Did a bit more looking into it and here's an updated post on the reversed api: [https://niklaslindblad.se/2013/07/jawbone-up-api- updates/](https://niklaslindblad.se/2013/07/jawbone-up-api-updates/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Are there any other heart-rate monitoring devices? So far I've counted 4:

\- Microsoft Band / $200 (available)

\- Basis Peak / $200 (November)

\- Jawbone UP3 / $180 (soon.. probably before Christmas)

\- Apple Watch / $350 (2015..)

<comment><USER18> The Angel band ([http://www.angelsensor.com/](http://www.angelsensor.com/)) looks like it should be out in a few months, from their updates they're doing FCC/CE testing now. The nice difference between all the other bands is they aren't selling an ecosystem, it's designed to be fully open for people to write their owns apps to interface with their data.

(I'm not related to this apart from being a backer on indiegogo)

<comment><USER19> Do you know how to pre-order? Whenever I press shop I get directed to a password protected page.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think this paints a better picture of the product:

[http://www.fuseproject.com/work/jawbone/up3](http://www.fuseproject.com/work/jawbone/up3)

</comment><comment><USER20> Every time I think I'm going to try a Jawbone product that isn't a headset I look at reviews and see far too many people complaining about how horrible their software is.

Is their software really this bad and if so are they ever going to fix it?

<comment><USER6> Jawbone has always been more of a hardware company to me. The issue with the software is that it's not up to par with competitor's software. FitBit, Withings, Garmin all have amazing web dashboards along with a mobile app. Jawbone? Mobile app only...

I don't foresee them improving their software in this sense since they've mostly bought companies thus far to fix their software. The food tracker software is a lot better than when it first started. People have been asking Jawbone to make a web interface for years now, and to date it's still not available.

Basically they are focused on product, design and big data. That's where the money is at anyways.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Wait, it does NFC based payments as well? Huh?

Details are buried in the FAQs, mentions it supports AMEX only. There are some duplicate FAQs as well, wonder if that was not ready for prime time (though NFC is listed under the available sensors).

<comment><USER22> I saw that too. They must have been trying to save that one for later!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I wish one of the new activity monitors would give me HRV data, not just heart rate.

<comment><USER24> What does HRV (heart rate variability) data allow you learn? I'm guessing medical insights of some sort, but what exactly?

<comment><USER25> Recovery from previous sessions - [http://www.t-nation.com/training/heart- rate-variability-trai...](http://www.t-nation.com/training/heart-rate- variability-training)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Does not even support Windows Phone. Too little too late.

<comment><USER27> I've looked at Jawbone for 2 years but their lack of Windows Phone support will prevent me from ever buying one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> The "See full list of compatible devices" link leads to a page that doesn't list the device... so basically I'm still wondering what devices it'll be compatible with.

<comment><USER28> This comment was downvoted for some reason. I don't know who I offended by providing an unbiased, informative comment that could've saved some marketing critter a headache down the road, but whatever.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Who would you send a tech-related investigative story tip to? - <AUTHOR>

If I was a better blogger, I would probably try and build/break the story myself. But I'm not, so I'm seeking the wisdom of the crowd...
ICANN will soon be voting on a change to the .jobs TLD. They took comments on it for a month (http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased-allocation/), and just released a summary of all the comments (http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased-allocation/pdfD2L3BBFXOj.pdf). The thing is that this "summary" so biased that it is hard to talk about it without sounding like I'm making it up. But I'll give an example...
In the summary, they give the following list as a sample of the companies that oppose the change: American Veterinary Medical Association, National Science Teachers Association, Pacific TransUnion LLC, Job Target, IAEWS members, Newspaper Association of America, CareerXroads, LatPro, Inc., and NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Not in the list: Google. Which is interesting, because Randy Levinson of Google submitted a fantastic article regarding the need for the rejection (so http://bit.ly/d8Zx3b). Somebody at ICANN nuked the record of the letter though (http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased-allocation/threads.html) - thank god for Google Cache.
Any directions on who I should try to tell this story to? <comment><USER2> I personally like Ars Technica as a neutral media outlet with skilled writers and editors.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the tip! I submitted the tip and will let you know if I hear anything back from them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can you explain to me why this is an important issue? The jobs TLD in general is considered to be a bust. Only 15K registrations so far, and most corporates don't even seem bothered to register their own .jobs domain.

Edit: The pdf you linked to doesn't exist.

<comment><AUTHOR> The PDF is linked to at [http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased- allocation/msg00316...](http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased- allocation/msg00316.html). As of this moment, the link is now [http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased- allocation/pdf6cGj5...](http://forum.icann.org/lists/jobs-phased- allocation/pdf6cGj5KCss2.pdf) \- I'm not sure if they rotate the URLs to prevent direct-linking or if the original changed.

The issue is important because .jobs was originally sold, and marketed, as a guaranteed legitimate source of jobs because only real, verified companies can buy a .jobs - so if you go to microsoft.jobs, you know it will only shows jobs from Microsoft because Microsoft owns it. The new proposal completely does away with this requirement. It would be analogous to stealthily making the Ford Fusion no longer a hybrid.

What's worse is that the registrar will get first choice on who gets to buy which domain for how much - which would be a first for any TLD and set a dangerous precedent.

A better written piece explaining why this is an important issue (and why rejecting it is important to protecting jobseekers from fraud) is available at [http://www.ere.net/2010/07/15/open-letter-to-icann-reject- th...](http://www.ere.net/2010/07/15/open-letter-to-icann-reject-the-jobs- amendment/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Mike Butcher or Robin Wauters at Techcrunch, or Marshall K at RWW.

</comment><comment><USER5> Are we not giving first picks to Lamo anymore?

Sorry.

</comment><comment><USER6> Bob Cringley</comment>


Patients shocked, burned by spinal cord stimulators touted to treat pain - <AUTHOR> https://apnews.com/86ba45b0a4ad443fad1214622d13e6cb <comment><USER2> There's a broader story about poor regulation in the medical implant industry as a whole. [1]

Unlike drugs, implants don't need to go through clinical trials in most cases.

Furthermore, there is no central registry for aggregating problems that patients experience with particular devices.

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/25/revealed- fau...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/25/revealed-faulty- medical-implants-harm-patients-around-world)

Edit: Summarized main problems from The Guardian article.

<comment><USER3> "Unlike drugs, implants don't need to go through clinical trials in most cases."

The artical says "surgical innovations" which probably means instruments and procedures. Also "some implants" are exempt from showing efficacy in clinical trials under HDE for cases in which the patient would have died anyway (e.g. pacemakers).

All medical devices of Class 2 and 3 must go through clinical trials to prove safety and efficacy as part of the FDA IDE. Spinal implants would certainly be Class 3.

Edit: clarification

<comment><USER4> > _Also "some implants" are exempt from showing efficacy in clinical trials > under HDE for cases in which the patient would have died anyway (e.g. > pacemakers)._

How about if the implant kills the patient?

There was a local story today about a pacemaker where the electrode had failed and he was defibrilated 47 times during 3 hours before the battery ran out.

<comment><USER3> It depends if the implant does more good than if it wasn't implanted. All regulated devices require post market monitoring by the company and reporting to the FDA. If the data shows harm is being done to patients the FDA can issue a recall.

<comment><USER4> That seems like a very slow process. Another story today that implants has caused 83 000 deaths.

I assume/hope they have saved much more lives than that but regardless the types of failures seems to indicate that a lot more could be demanded of these products.

[http://www.tellerreport.com/news/\---83-000-deaths-in- unsafe-...](http://www.tellerreport.com/news/---83-000-deaths-in-unsafe- medical-devices-in-10-years--.SkeMIhDd0Q.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I observed a total knee replacement surgery where the surgeons were not using their preferred system due to the fact that the patient already had one knee replacement and the doctors felt the same system should be used on both sides. The representative from the implant company was in the OR for a couple of good reasons. The first was that every system uses different jigs and guides to aid in the resection of the bone and placement of the appliance, the representative helped the doctors understand how to use the system. The second reason was that the surgeons needed to have access to a range of component sizes to make sure they could place a correctly sized implant. Using the same system on both knees also helped ensure that the geometry of both knees would be consistent.

At the time I was pretty stunned that the rep was talking the docs through the operation but the procedure was successful and I learned that when new devices are introduced it is very often the company that trains surgeons in its use.

<comment><USER6> In my experience of this sort of situation, the reps are there to yell 'stop' when the orthopod tries to smack something fragile with a hammer. Each sub speciality has its traits and orthopaedics is no exception.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> > _Companies and doctors aggressively push them as a safe antidote to the > deadly opioid crisis in the U.S. and as a treatment for an aging population > in need of chronic pain relief._

> _Although there are roughly 4,000 types of medical devices in the FDA's > data, just six of them accounted for a quarter of device injury reports > since 2008. (Francois Duckett /AP) But the stimulators — devices that use > electrical currents to block pain signals before they reach the brain — are > more dangerous than many patients know, an Associated Press investigation > found. They account for the third-highest number of medical device injury > reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with more than 80,000 > incidents flagged since 2008._

This is shocking (pun not intended). I understand the desire and rush to get us off of opioids, but I think this is a horrific reminder that we still need to approach things cautiously and not get swept up in excitement and the promise of a "panacea"

<comment><USER8> _the promise of a "panacea"_

Especially considering that the "panacea" of OxyContin's "impossible to abuse" marketing is kinda what got us into this mess in the first place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Such a device has been life-changing for my elderly father, who is in constant pain. No malfunctions so far -- don't know the exact product, this is Germany.

</comment><comment><USER10> From the 1930s to the 1950s, 'fluoroscopes' used strong x-rays to let customers and employees of many shoe stores consider shoe 'fit'. _Each second_ they were turned-on exposed customers -adults and children- to _a year 's worth_ of natural exposure. And employees?

New medical technologies should be avoided during the de-bugging stages. Guinea pigs are underpaid.

</comment><comment><USER11> If this device works in a certain percentage of users, what is the problem? Pain sufferers have further options i.e. opiates As one who's been in this exact situation it seems very good that there is a partially workable option. If it causes other issues they can fall back to the other ( opiate ) treatments

<comment><USER12> Basic ethics? Seriously, think through the implications of allowing companies to sell medical treatment that don't mention the risks.

<comment><USER13> I would assume that in the US as with the UK with any implanted device/surgery the doctor/surgeon goes through the risks.

I have done this several times in the UK - oh and one of the most serious ones was 1/5000 chance of death :-)</comment></comment></comment>


Switchers – Irony and Operating Systems - <AUTHOR> https://brianketelsen.com/blog/switchers/ <comment><USER2> I find these articles and the recent trend of "Macs used to be cool" kind of strange.

Macs have terminal.app, bash, a handful of proprietary command-line tools (hdiutil) and that's about it.

Never had inherent package management, we have homebrew and macports to thank for that. App Store isn't quite the same and doesn't fulfill the same needs.

You can _still_ run Linux on your MacBook, if that's what you want.

macOS is fine and it's not Windows, that's what this is about right?

Apple makes some pretty decent hardware when it comes to build quality, appearance, and battery life, if it's not your cup of tea maybe look into ThinkPads, they're great machines too!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> author here - not just email, it's plugging a projector into a linux box (I'm a trainer) and praying it might work. There are a dozen small things like that making linux great for dev, not so great for everything else.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have to agree, microsoft is on their game. The surface book and surface studio are the sexiest pieces of hardware that have come along in a LONG time.

Just look at the microsoft surface product family photo [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/surface)?

This is a clear and concise vision for a computing family reminiscent of Steve Jobs' apple. Three form factors, all unique and with their own purpose, all with touch input and pen input. Their operating systems are now all united under the universal windows platform (which means that software is compatible across ALL their platforms, not just their pc platforms). As someone who's been anti m$ with a vengence for the past 13 years or so, I'm astounded at the progress they've made, and I for one betting on them continually making waves for the next few years while everyone else just iterates on the same old crap.

<comment><USER2> Except I've not once seen anyone use a surface in any configuration but "laptop".

And plugged in, always plugged in, is battery life really that bad on those things?

I recall a fellow consultant in the field whipping his out mid-day at a job and it's totally flatlined.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Email is the hold up? I must be missing something because that's never been the "must have" app situation to prevent a user from going linux in my experience.

<comment><USER5> A lot of weird fringe non-standard email systems like Exchange work hard to maintain incompatibility with Linux.

<comment><USER6> Yet another reason to _avoid_ Microsoft rather than embrace them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > The OS itself is still visually superior to anything else, but it's been > showing the signs of neglect for a few years now.

Can you elaborate on this? Without going into any detail your post reads a bit like a paid promotion. Probably not but you gotta be careful because of stuff like this:

[http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/stealth-marketing- micr...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/stealth-marketing-microsoft- paying-youtubers-for-xbox-one-mentions/)

[https://uncrunched.com/2014/06/17/microsoft-paying- bloggers-...](https://uncrunched.com/2014/06/17/microsoft-paying-bloggers-to- write-about-internet-explorer/)

<comment><USER8> I'm not being paid, and not the OP.

Typing this reply on a Thinkpad R50e, which my SO rescued from the neighborhood bin when taking trash out. I put a Debian (Tanglu) on it, and use it for everything.

My beloved Mini is sitting in it's corner of the room, looking as hipster as ever, but it's not the same.

Apple used to have a clearer, more cohesive vision for the UX it's software provides. I feel that they have become more daring with the kind of stuff they let in now. And the stuff that they let go of.

Tiger was amazing, a smooth UNIX, half-way there in each way it mattered but so clearly pointed at the right targets. Leopard was more of everything, and Snow Leopard was the first, I feel that went nowhere in particular. And so it goes.

Stuff keeps changing for reasons of business goals, or background architecture; but not because of matters of taste, or doing more with less. I'm not feeling it.

What Sierra is, in my eye, is a Snow Leopard sitting on the Shared Apple Device Cloud batting it's many eyelashes, whereas before I knew exactly where it was, and what it was about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why not just switch all the way to Linux? It runs Chrome (and Firefox!) just as well as Windows, and with a browser it has the email and calendaring apps folks are using these days anyway.

<comment><USER10> He mentioned the hardware headaches, but for most systems I don't see Linux giving any hardware problems tbh

<comment><USER11> I have the 15 in. current gen MBP and had a fair few issues with the hardware. A few kernel patches fixed most of them, but that's more effort than should be needed, and there's still some lingering audio driver issues I haven't resolved.

I'm under the impression that the 13 in. model works without issue.</comment></comment></comment>


Mozilla partners with news subscription service Scroll to build ad-free internet - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/26/18241183/news-subscription-service-scroll-partner-mozilla-firefox-ad-free-internet <comment><USER2> I already pay a subscription service to be on an ad-free internet; I pay it to my service provider. I've given up on news on the internet its mostly crap, and the rest of it has no impact on my daily life, feel way better without it.</comment>


Blanks in human knowledge - <AUTHOR>

Peter Thiel stated that you should find blanks in human knowledge and pursue them. What do you see as the main blanks?<p>My answer would be how to cultivate aquatic life since there are still a lot of unknowns (for example in which situations do certain types of fish propagate in captivity) <comment><USER2> Cheap desalination.

Cheap harvesting of the sun's energy.

They're probably related.

<comment><USER3> Non pourous graphene desalinizes.

Graphene film studded with methyl butyl suflfide particles capture suns energy and release it into the grid via warping of graphene structure with decreased night temperatures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Basically, anything do do with the deep part of the oceans.</comment>


The movie that almost killed Disney animation - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/dvdextras/2010/10/the_black_cauldron.html?via=gdpr-consent <comment><USER2> My sons' favorite book series. I guess I was unaware Disney had botched an attempt to animate it.</comment>


Ask HN: Will prediction competitions become mainstream? - <AUTHOR> Some examples:
https://oraclerank.com
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/23/facebook-tests-forecast-an-app-for-making-predictions-about-world-events-like-covid-19/
https://kaggle.com
https://www.augur.net/
https://www.gjopen.com/challenges <comment><USER2> As much as sports and fantasy betting would be my guess.</comment>


Perl 6 – Beta released - <AUTHOR> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rakudo/rakudo/nom/docs/announce/2015.10.md <comment><USER2> I really do hope this works out.</comment>


Oregon geologist says Curiosity's images show Earth-like soils on Mars - <AUTHOR> http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2014/7/oregon-geologist-says-curiositys-images-show-earth-soils-mars

<comment><USER2> Interesting. I've been hearing more and more evidence piling up towards the possibility of life on Mars. It makes you wonder if there isn't some sort of PR play at work here. Could it be possible that life has already been discovered on Mars, but they don't want to "shock" the public with a sudden announcement. They're slowly building up to it. A very conspiratorial theory, but possible, no?

<comment><USER3> The link says "The ancient soils, he said, do not prove that Mars once contained life, but they do add to growing evidence that an early wetter and warmer Mars was more habitable than the planet has been in the past 3 billion years." so it's a big stretch to conclude this is a warmup to a big reveal.

In any case, what shock would there be? We even have antecedents by which to judge this, like Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) in the 1990s, where the researchers proposed that they had identified fossilized microbes in Martian rock samples. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars#Possible_biosignat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars#Possible_biosignatures) for others. Some people, like Gilbert Levin, are more confident about the data than others.

Even further back in time, Percival Lowell believed there were canals on Mars. The discovery of life now would be so much less shocking than the impact of Lowell's work, no? If only because we know that any such life can't attack us a la Wells.

Also, wouldn't "shock" more likely lead to new funding for Mars missions? What reason is there to delay and minimize that announcement?

No, I think a better hypothesis is that the information we have about Mars is growing over time ("piling up"), which allows us to make more and more definite conclusions. Since the observed events are compatible with that simpler hypothesis, I see no need to add a new wrinkle to the system.

<comment><USER4> "Shock" will come in the form of conspiracy theorists getting a bump in popularity, further distrust in government (and Netflix streaming an unseemly amount of old X-Files reruns), but mostly in disturbing thousands of years of dogmatic religious teachings that will shake the moral foundation of most of the world.

True, some microbes won't be as meaning-of-life shattering as other intelligent (or even large, multicellular) animal-like life forms, but way too many people believe God created us and only us.

Which is sad. Because looking at the current state of humanity really makes me hope God tried a few more times to get it right.

<comment><USER3> Again I point out historical announcements. Your thesis does not explain the announcement of ALH84001. Based on your thesis, how was that announcement ever permitted? It also predicts that Viking's experiments would never have been allowed, or its results covered up. Gilbert Levin, the PI of one of those experiments, and outspoken proponent that the results indicated life on Mars, has never suggested that that was the case.

What is the mechanism for "further distrust in government"?

Your conjecture that it would "shake the moral foundation of most of the world" is decidedly incorrect. For all of the religions which accept an old universe, there is no conflict. In this Christian faiths this includes, but is not limited to the Catholic Church and Pat Robertson. This also includes Muslim scholars, according to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_evolution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_evolution) . I know less about Hindu views on evolution, but I still see no essential conflict there - Brahma propagated life in the entire universe, not just on Earth.

That's over 1/2 of the population of the world right there.

Don't forget that such life could be from Earth, and migrated to Mars through meteorites. That would not require any special sense of creation, and no conflict with any religion at all.

We don't have the ability, given the limited technology we have on Mars, to be able to tell if something is Earth-based life translated to Mars, or an independent biogenesis.

Even with completely different biogenesis, Catholic Church doctrine says there was a special creation of humans, when humans received souls from God, and this special creation is different from the purely physical evolution. Obviously there's no special creation of the human soul in what little biology there may be on Mars.

Historically too, in the 1800s and the rise of modern geology, you see conjectures about there being multiple creations here on Earth, with the fossil evidence being examples of previous creations; only the most recent involved humans, and our special association with God. Which I believe you reference in your last line.

So again I believe that your hypothesis is untenable. It doesn't explain historical events, it doesn't reflect what we know about most of the world's religions and their histories, and it presumes knowledge far in advance of what we actually can have.</comment></comment></comment></comment>