Steve Jobs wasn't even okay with Google hiring former Apple engineers - <AUTHOR> http://www.tuaw.com/2014/03/27/steve-jobs-wasnt-even-okay-with-google-hiring-former-apple-engi/ <comment><USER2> >Adding a bit more context to these emails, a 2008 article from TechCrunch details that Hullot and other members from Apple's Paris engineering team were actually given pink slips.

So he was not okay with Google hiring former engineers Apple _let go._ Unbelieveable.

<comment><USER3> _Unbelieveable._

At the level of principle, I agree. At the level of practicalities, knowing a little about Steve Jobs, this is believable, unfortunately.

<comment><USER4> Hopefully history remembers him as the dick he really was.

<comment><USER5> I doubt it since many historical figures that be look up to were bigger dicks.

<comment><USER6> Yes, but as long being a dick is concerned Jobs was class apart.

<comment><USER7> I dunno, Gandhi is the most obvious and he was WAY worse than Jobs.

<comment><USER5> Ask the Dakota about Lincoln and see what they think.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> nezza-_- I wonder if in the ongoing process of this 'scandal' any numbers will appear on how many people were rejected because of such agreements. This is such an unfair move towards people who have great talent who might just be better off working for Google instead of Apple or vice versa because of their mindset. I hope for high penalties for the involved companies.

<comment><USER8> Screw 'penalties.' Have you looked at Wall Street over the past decade? Every month or so there's some 'settlement' with a regulatory agency with some fine or the other for all kinds of issues. Class-action lawsuits also enrich the lawyers mostly. It would be best if the engineers themselves would get compensated, but not sure how it would be possible to identify the plaintiffs.

<comment><USER9> And honestly, you'd have trouble convincing many people that wages were kept all that low. What's the median salary of an engineer in the Valley? [1] would seem to indicate a starting range in the low 6-figures is common. I don't know if these things go to juries, but if it came down to that, I imagine that an engineer complaining of a low 6-figure salary with stock options will convince a jury that (s)he is really being hurt that much will be very tough.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/record-salaries-for-valley- pr...](http://www.businessinsider.com/record-salaries-for-valley- programmers-2013-10)

Edited to fix grammar.

<comment><USER10> The Valley is also an expensive place to live. I was at a conference in San Jose; and the organizers donated a portion of their income to a local Charity.

The charity organizer spoke a bit during one of the keynotes and said that any income under $70K was considered below poverty level due to the cost of living.

With that said, a 6 figure salary is not hurting, but not rolling in it.

<comment><USER11> I kind of think the high cost of living thing is not that relevant here. The cost of living is high because the people who live there make a lot of money. If they made more money the Valley wouldn't be more affordable for them. It would just be more expensive.

<comment><USER12> Not everyone in the bay area makes a lot of money. There are a lot of blue collar/service workers who don't even know what hackernews is who would kill to make that 70k a year.

<comment><USER11> Correct but they have nothing to do with the conversation we're having.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> What I'm mostly learning though this saga is that an uncomfortable number of SV executives are feckless weaklings in the face of a sociopath like Jobs.

<comment><USER14> I don't think it's necessarily that other SV executives were weaklings, it's that they thought the non-poaching agreement was in their interests too. Jobs was definitely cunning and ruthless but he wasn't all brute force, he set up a deal whereby these other companies would see things his way due to their own greed.

I think that scenario played out a couple of times in Jobs' career. He would do something ruthless or somewhat distasteful, but because the people he was pushing his idea on stood to profit in some way they agreed with it, even though it enriched Jobs a lot more than it enriched them.

<comment><USER15> > Jobs was definitely cunning and ruthless but he wasn't all brute force, he > set up a deal whereby these other companies would see things his way due to > their own greed.

So, basically, he did the same thing for employees that he did for iTunes music licensing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Don't forget, by the way, that when Steve Jobs left Apple to found a new company in a line of business perilously close to Apple's he took a number of important Apple people with him, despite giving a misleading promise not to do so.

<comment><USER17> Jobs had a personal scorched-earth vendetta against Google ever since they stabbed him in the back with Android (as he seems to have viewed it).

I imagine if he thought there was any way he could accomplish it he would have banned Google employees from buying Apple products or getting within 1000 feet of an Apple store.

<comment><USER18> Your comment doesn't apply here. Android was released in 2008 and these emails were written in 2006.

This is not correspondence between companies at war. On the contrary, Apple was leveraging their strategic partnership with Google to block the hires.

<comment><USER19> Google acquired Android Inc. in 2005: [http://www.webcitation.org/5wk7sIvVb](http://www.webcitation.org/5wk7sIvVb)

So it was before the shape of Google's mobile ambitions became clear, but the acquisition made it pretty obvious that Google had _some kind of_ mobile ambitions.

<comment><USER18> There is nothing to indicate Google & Apple relationships soured before 2007, when Android was unveiled. Prior to that, by all public accounts they enjoyed a relatively amicable partnership.

Moreover, simply having a mobile ambition isn't that big of a deal in and of itself. Jobs viewed the close imitation of iOS features as being tantamount to theft. I'm thinking of grid layout, multitouch, swipe to unlock, etc. This is, at least by his own account, what lay behind all the "thermonuclear war" hyperbole.

<comment><USER20> Yep. Recall even that Eric Schmidt was on hand for the iPhone reveal in 2007 and went on stage to tout the device's integration with Google services.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> There are two things here that are new. Firstly it's got an international angle, and laws around the world do definitely differ on things like poaching and anti-competes.

More interesting is Alan Eustace's comment about the value of the Apple relationship to Google, in 2006. Were they really that close? I struggle to think of why they viewed their relationship as of particular strategic importance at that time.

<comment><USER22> Apple was putting Google Search and Maps in front and center of iPhone experience among other things. This would be hugely valuable relationship, ofcourse.

<comment><USER23> The iPhone didn't come out until 2007.

<comment><USER24> That partnership didn't come about on the day the iPhone was released. It had to have been brewing for quite some time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I think these poaching agreements had more to do with IP than salary escalation. The interaction here makes it clear - the employees were no longer with apple, hence there was no hypothetical counter offer to give.

<comment><USER26> There are already laws against transmitting IP, there was no agreement necessary to deal with it. Risk-minimization, perhaps, but companies have been dealing with business secrets since before the Industrial Revolution. Frankly, I think an unexamined angle is the fragility of these companies that the agreements imply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The tone that Eustace, a Senior Vice President at Google, uses with Jobs is beyond deferential.

"Based on your strong preference that we not hire the ex-Apple engineers, Jean-Marie and I decided not to open a Google Paris engineering center. I appreciate your input into this decision, and your continued support of the Google/Apple partnership."

I'd be surprised to see one of my peers use this kind of tone with the President of the United States.

<comment><USER28> The POTUS seems a tad more sane than Jobs with regards to taking offence to trivial matters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Wow Google, as if your embarrassment couldn't go any further on this story.

Not to get dramatic, but we're talking about dignity, integrity, the moral center to understand the difference between right and wrong. Didn't _anyone_ at Google have the ability to get beyond groupthink?

All that money and resources and control and influence, and the only thing that mattered to everyone was....getting more of it. How sad for all of you in those companies to act like this and affect the livelihood of others, all in the name of a few bucks.

Funny thing about money; it's so damn expensive.

<comment><USER30> Very well put :)

The surprising thing is people tend to get worse as they get richer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> > This is such an unfair move

Which unfair move?

Google could have gone ahead and hire these people anyway. Nothing prevented them from doing so except their decision to not risk angering Jobs.

<comment><USER32> This isn't about being intimidated by Jobs, it's about colluding to defeat an iterated prisoner's dilemma that lies at the heart of the value proposition of free market economics. They _are_ capable of thinking more than one move ahead.

Jobs's wrath was a tiny concern next to the prospect of losing tens or hundreds of millions a year to engineers that could suddenly start playing big companies off one another.

<comment><USER33> I've read all the released documents, I get the impression that most of this was instigated by Jobs. Sure they played along for this purpose, but the threats and escalation started with the Job's emails in 05.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Sounds to me like Steve was a serious control freak.. Article after article, it's the same thing... Don't get me wrong. The stuff his company did was cool, but cheesh..

</comment><comment><USER35> As a CEO, this situation is more than complex. There are times when you are working with 'partners' or anyone in the same industry. And you can not avoid collaborating with each other. Apple needed Google, as much as Google needed Apple.

However then there is the ugly part, since your partners are in the same industry, they are ultimately your competitors too. It's not about laws or specific rules. It's about human nature, you will be less pissed if someone hooked up with your Ex, but things could be entirely different, if your Ex is hooked up with one of your friends.

This is perhaps not a smart analogy, but it's somewhat relevant, remember a time when Eric was on Apple board, and then they went on to launch Android? It certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth and incites a war.

<comment><USER36> So what you are saying is that the "everyone acts in their self interest" free market ideology is bullshit and that we are all in fact people after all? Avoiding the ravages of the market is important for profit. Capitalists always hated the market when it comes to their own business...

<comment><USER35> I am not saying what Apple did was right. Actually this is anti-competition and as a consumer I hate it. However I was making a totally different point, being a CEO of small enterprise myself, I just pointed out, that perhaps I would have the same restrictions in place, but it does not justify them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I'd be surprised if any CEO was OK with former employees going to an arch competitor.

<comment><USER38> It's perfectly legal for them to not be OK with it. It's not legal to get the competitor to agree not to hire them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Can someone speculate as to why Jobs would have been opposed to this? The only thing I can come up with is that Jobs was trying to minimize the amount of times that "I know a guy at Google" was spoken in the halls of Apple.

<comment><USER40> He might not have wanted engineers to carry knowledge of Apple's programs and projects to a competitor.

<comment><USER41> Every employee signs an NDA, problem solved.

<comment><USER42> You forgot the /s

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I hope Apple and Google would get penalized aside from paying penalties.

Both companies have plenty of cash so even a $100 million penalty won't make a difference.

I don't have any idea though on what they could be penalized with aside from money.

<comment><USER44> I always thought collusion was one of those things for which executives could be personally prosecuted and jailed if they were found guilty, but I'd guess it depends on the jurisdiction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Steve Jobs wasn't okay with Google hiring anyone who ever applied for a job at Apple. Or really, even people with last names that began with "Mac"

</comment><comment><USER12> Worse than the anti-competitive angle of this story is the idea that Jobs prevented engineers, with families, from obtaining jobs. That's just inexcusable.

</comment><comment><USER46> Don't know a clever way to say this but.. Bureaucracy sucks. List a million reasons why it impedes a happier life.

</comment><comment><USER47> Do no evil?

<comment><USER48> Do know evil

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Just when I thought Jobs couldn't be a bigger scumbag! Someone dig up his grave and make an example of him in front of all of Silicon Valley. It's what he would have done.

<comment><USER50> Now I see what pg was talking about comment moderation. C'mon guys. Let's class it up.

<comment><USER51> I'm confused, has "pending comments" not been fully activated yet?

<comment><USER17> I have over 1000 karma, and I've never seen it. I know it was given a quick trial after it was first announced, but from my surfing since then it doesn't seem to have been turned back on.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hello Londoners, I am a black cab driver (Green Badge) and I come in peace - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/71smpc/hello_londoners_i_am_a_black_cab_driver_green/ <comment><USER2> All the confusion from Americans is totally understandable. That being said, the title addressed his audience...Londoners. Comments suggesting a title change, so that people he wasn't intending to talk to can understand, is expecting too much. If the topic interests you, take the time to read for more context, maybe even ask, or research it.

<comment><USER3> We're very progressive in Australia. We have Black & White cab drivers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I swear something like this has been posted here before... and it had the exact same confusion...

</comment><comment><USER5> You might want to explain to Americans that a "black cab driver" isn't what first comes to mind for them (especially as juxtaposed with "and I come in peace"). It might also be worth a mention what "Green Badge" means.

<comment><USER6> It took me some googling to figure both of those out. I'm still stuck trying to figure out what The Knowledge is. Can anyone help?

<comment><USER7> So London has "Hackney Carriages" ('black cabs') and minicabs. Black cabs are allowed to pick you up on-demand ('streetwork') or at taxi ranks (a designated place where you can expect to find multiple taxis just queued up waiting for you), minicabs you have to order. (Apps are making this a bit hazy, since ordering either via an app is just as easy).

The 'green badge' is your licence. There's green, yellow, and 'minicab' licences. Green is a citywide black cab, Yellow is constrained to one area, and minicab is no black cab, but dispatch-only.

'The Knowledge' is the test (and associated training) required to become a black cab driver. It's years worth of study. It's pretty much memorising an A-Z, but also knowing the best routes, at different times of the day, etc.

Three vehicles you can expect to see almost everywhere in London are red busses, black cabs, and scooters with a clipboard on the handlebars. The latter are drivers on their multi-year study of The Knowledge.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/t-magazine/london-taxi- te...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/t-magazine/london-taxi-test- knowledge.html)

<comment><USER8> > It's pretty much memorising an A-Z

The A-Z (pronounced 'zed') was the most popular London streetmap in the 20th century.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Sex and the single black woman - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=15867956

<comment><USER2> There's another factor working against black women: the article mentions that 96% of Black women are married to Black men, but research by Dr. Julia Hare of San Francisco's Black Think Tank finds that 10% of Black men marry non-Black women.

<comment><USER3> I can't cite where I've seen the statistics, but I recall seeing a similar discrepancy for other races in the United States.

I suppose it's to be expected: women, compared to men, tend to face more pressure from their families (and society) to conform to "tradition."

<comment><USER4> It is analyzed in quite a bit of detail on [http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/05/your-race- affec...](http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/05/your-race-affects- whether-people-write-you-back/) , maybe that's where you saw it; I think it was on HN for a while, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wish they would use the term "African American". The internet is global, and the 500 million other black people in the world are not affected by sentences like "Some 70% of black babies are born out of wedlock".

The problems the article speaks about are relevant only to U.S-American-Born blacks or African Americans, and not black people in general.

<comment><USER6> As a black American, I'm glad they didn't use the term African-American. It's insulting. While I love the African people, many (if not most) blacks in America have no African ties (at least not for the past few centuries). It's just PC nonsense and a gross misnomer.

<comment><USER5> Then how about they use Black-American? The article is not about blacks in general, it's about black people within the U.S.

<comment><USER6> Then all would have been well. ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Problem: 1 in 9 black men are in jail, 1 in 3 will wind up an ex-con. What's a black lady to do?

Solution: Stop being a friggin' racist and try dating men who aren't black.</comment>


Why you should worry about memory leaks - <AUTHOR> http://developer.gnome.org/doc/guides/programming-guidelines/memory-leak.html <comment><USER2> Let's keep things in perspective. I'll take ten memory leaks over one segmentation fault any day. Also, not every forgotten pointer constitutes a memory leak. To talk about a memory leak, your program has to eat up the amount of memory proportional to its running time, or input size. If you just allocate some constant memory for your data structures at startup it is not a memory leak. Still of course it's nice to free it up at exit (for example for reasons mentioned in the article) but sometimes it's not convenient or practical. So let's not get too uptight about it.

</comment><comment><USER3> _[Mozilla] leaks like crazy_

Disturbing.

 _unref, free, g_free_

One of my professors joked that all non-trivial C and C++ projects begin with hiring a guy who already wrote a garbage collector.

</comment><comment><USER4> _This is one of Mozilla's problems right now: it leaks like crazy so how are you ever going to know if you just added to the problem?_

Precisely. You should worry about memory leaks so you don't have web browsers using up 800MiB while doing absolutely nothing and not using any plugins: [http://neosmart.net/gallery/v/apps/Firefox/Firefox+Hole.png....](http://neosmart.net/gallery/v/apps/Firefox/Firefox+Hole.png.html)

Then again, when you're leaking several hundred MiB per tab in Version 2, you can fix up a memory leak or two, halve the problem, then go around claiming "extraordinary improvements to memory management" come version 3. Oh, wait.....

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe I'm just jaded, but this seems like a really basic primer on memory management. Is mozilla failing to meet these standards? Somehow my guess is that the challenges facing the project are a bit more sophisticated. I have absolutely no evidence to support that supposition however.

<comment><USER6> This is a page from the Gnome developer guidelines. It's not about Firefox per se. And it looks pretty old to me; they're talking about "Mozilla" as a product, which it hasn't been for several years now. My guess is that this was written during the early push for Gnome 2.0, maybe four years ago.

It's sane (if unsurprising) advice. Using it as evidence for the current state of Firefox's memory management strikes me as a poor idea.

<comment><USER7> Stronger evidence for the current state of Firefox's memory management comes from the Windows Task Manager ;-)

(284M and counting! Yesterday my Linux Firefox was at upwards of 350M, though it's now at 144M after restarting it.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> valgrind is excellent for tracking down leaks and these days used quite extensively in the open source world.</comment>


Tesla Reports a Rare Profit in the Third Quarter - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/business/tesla-third-quarter-earnings.html <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18295942](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18295942).</comment>


Neil Armstrong Remembered - <AUTHOR> https://ceas.uc.edu/about/neil-armstrong-remembered.html <comment><USER2> For most of the early astronauts, later life was one big letdown.

For most of the later astronauts, later life was one big layoff. NASA had about 140 astronauts at the peak of the Shuttle program. They now have about 40, and no manned space capability. Maybe next year, when Space-X launches.

</comment><comment><USER3> I was a bit disappointed recently watching First Man. I get that Neil was a private person, but it was a little too over-dramatic (towards his personal life, not the space program) in my opinion. It seemed like an extrovert's wild speculation as to what's going on in an introvert's head. I think he was just a stoic, analytical type, which doesn't mean you need to be completely incapable of communicating emotionally with your kids or SO.

<comment><USER4> It seems like Armstrong just isn't that interesting of a movie character. There is nothing wrong with that and isn't meant to take anything away from his accomplishments. No one lives their life with a goal that their biopic will be interesting. It just makes me wonder why this movie needed to exist in the first place. There are plenty of better stories to tell about the space program if you are determined to make a movie about that.

<comment><USER5> Didn't he punch someone who said the moon landing was fake? Or is that something I dreamed up?

<comment><USER6> It was Buzz Aldrin...you can find it on YouTube. The guy deserved it!

<comment><USER7> Buzz taking on the Troll Posse, now _there 's_ a movie!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This site mis-quotes him. It's "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

<comment><USER9> Isn't the story that the script he was given was to say "one small step for a man", but on the day he flubbed his line and actually did say "one small step for man"

<comment><USER10> He wrote those words himself, and he's always claimed that he actually said "a" and the mic didn't pick it up.

It's been the subject of some technical analysis over the years: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8081817.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8081817.stm)

NASA trusted those guys enough to give them carte blanche with stuff like that, which is why Pete Conrad said "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me" in order to win a bet (and because it was funny).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thanks for posting this; the comments/memories at the end of the article are pure gold!

</comment><comment><USER11> This has turned into a discussion about First Man rather than the article, so I may as well contribute:

I think Damien Chazelle intended to frame the movie as a war movie, even toeing towards a parallel between the Apollo missions and the Vietnam War. The idea that we actively gambled with these men's lives, somehow collectively desensitized ourselves to human loss, that we are all boys pretending to have protocol- obvious parallels to war, in that a bureaucratic borg overlooks human lives in a competition the borg itself created.

But the thing is- its pretty hard to not lean into the inherent heroism of landing on the moon, especially since the studio clearly gave Chazelle a blank check to recreate the moon landing as immaculately as possible.

So its a little hard to parse the final message. The movie is the inverse of Apollo 13, pessimistic where 13 is optimistic, even though First Man is about the successful one. To some extent, Mission Control are the villains in this movie.

It isn't not going be a loved movie, like his last two (Whiplash and La La Land.) The characters are constantly aware of their mortal peril, which in turn makes them coarse and hard to like. But its such an interesting take on the Moon missions.</comment>


Ask HN: would an overview of state of the world help you make decisions? - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,
I'm building a website[1] that will basically sum up all the most important information about current world problems and display it as an explorable overview (think command and control centers from sci-fi / computer games and sci-fi movies, Google Earth, or something similar to Fate of The World[2]). The idea is for following questions to be answered by just taking a glance and/or exploring the site for few seconds.
- What needs to be fixed? What's the progress?
Especially how many things are broken - do we have ten big problems problem, or ten dozens of them? And then not just a list of problems, but a) how close are we to effectively solving given problem, and b) 1'st derivative - is it getting better or worse, and how fast?
- Who's fixing it?
What solutions are targeting those problems? Which NGO's are working on them? Just a curated list (think GiveWell) and contact info for those, who would like to join the efforts.
- How can you help?
What skills are needed where - for those who want to steer their development into the area. Who's fixing it - for those who want to help organizations.
Do you, as hackers and/or enterpreneurs, think such tool could be useful in making decisions about what to build, who to help, or just to have a better understanding of the world?
[1] - a brief description is posted right now on http://planetstatus.org (in pl_PL; sorry guys, it's mostly parts of my original idea document uploaded because of TEDxKraków Award workshops I attended to develop this idea further.
[2] - http://fateoftheworld.net/. A great game, but it could use a better interface and visualisations for statistics. <comment><USER2> I really like the idea, I think it would be interesting to see this kind of info centralized and organized.

Though, I'm of those who think that more information tends to distract instead of help in making decisions

</comment><comment><USER3> Check out some of MySociety's sites. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySociety></comment>


Another power failure in India - <AUTHOR> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/liveblog/15291183.cms <comment><USER2> In short the reasons for failures are something like this.

a. No proper control systems/automation to detect and prevent overload/tripping in case of excessive power consumption by any particular state.

b. No back up/redundancy planning.

c. The grid architecture is badly designed, and leads to cascading failures of sub grids.

d. Low quality equipment which fails often.

India's energy infrastructure is ancient. Its patch work for overgrown villages(Read cities) totally incapable of meeting any sort of dependable demands.

Add to this massive bureaucracy, license raj and corruption in purchase of equipment in electricity boards. They buy low quality equipment which fails often(because they are bribed to do so), since equipment fails often they buy more.

The state of affairs is so bad, transformers fail and burst even if rains a little heavily. What follows next is hours together of effort installing and fixing new transformers. This is a common scenario in many areas in a city like Bangalore. This is apart for hours together scale of unscheduled load shedding which is frequent.

On top of this there are frequent protests and lobbying to stop the construction of power plants(Hydel/Nuclear or otherwise).

And these are all state controlled monopolies. Recently I heard, Electricity board in Bangalore is complaining against builders of gated communities(Flats and Villas) and forcing them to use Govt supplied equipment. Because the private builders are using better quality equipment which is exposing and is making the Govt board look bad in front of them.

Any attempt to correct this system is met by massive political hostility. And people proposing modern changes are perceived as anti-Indian culture capitalist stooges being used by companies in the west to sell their equipment.

<comment><USER3> Would love to know why you say what you do. Do you work in the field?

I just switched over to a firm in the power generator sector in India, and the Govt Contracts for power are beasts. Those are things which we make sure we go over every page to fulfill.

They are also not that archaic - their backup/redundancy planning exists, at least on paper. We've supplied it for various institutions/bodies. Plus the Engineers in BHEL and the like are pretty smart chaps, sure they may be slow but they are far from being daft. (Again! My experience, and mileage will vary)

Not sure about how bad the architecture is, or how badly designed it is either. From what I recall quality levels are a patchwork. As I assume are equipment quality levels.

I'm not well versed in this, so I'm more interested in learning, whats going on.

<comment><USER2> You have to look at thing in comparison. We are made to convince that we are the best, well that is hardly the case. Compare this with any western metropolitan and you will see how ancient we are in terms of energy infrastructure.

The problem really is corruption, bureaucracy and license raj in awarding contracts and purchasing equipments. And this is not just the major/big equipment. Electric wires used to supply power are so feeble, they snap if it rains a little heavily.

>>Plus the Engineers in BHEL and the like are pretty smart chaps, sure they may be slow but they are far from being daft. (Again! My experience, and mileage will vary)

This is precisely the thinking we need to change. 'Lets give it to our people' ideology. This needs to change. We need to accept that if somebody is better than us, then they are better than us. Besides most modern electric contracts these days are rightfully going to companies like ABB and Siemens(Eg: Bangalore Metro). And they have done an awesome job, far better than BHEL can ever do.

What we need currently is privatization with regulations and accountability.

Just look at how private real estate developer are transforming Bangalore. Government agencies like BDA(Bangalore development authority) will never and can never do that.

We need to bring that in every walk of life so that merit based competition thrives and corruption/nepotism is weeded out.

<comment><USER3> Funny you should mention Bangalore Metro...

From what I know about Siemens in that particular project is that they are buying most of the pieces and then assembling it. As opposed to fabricating parts and putting it together.

Anyway - I have studied for a while in the west, and I've seen both systems.

AFter reading your comment, I don't think you know where precisely they are better than us. Or where privatization works or precisely how good certain government organizations are.

The engineers who get taken, the civil guys in something like ONGC, they make pretty good and help build great infrastructure.

The engineers keeping our grids alive, I've never once heard anyone call them uninformed or unaware.

I don't think this grid failure had anything to do with "giving it to Indians" that mentality died in the workplace in 1990. Our engineers who work here actually make a good grid and good systems. Heck it hasn't collapsed in a long long while.

I think the collapse has more to do with people drawing more due to subsidies and political sops than anything else. And thats not something privatization is going to fix directly.

Matter of fact, so far Govt contracts have been the more exacting contracts from what I have come across, and the private ones except for the MNCs have been the more lax.

Further - from what I can see, the government contracts for a lot of these things are open and if you are in the country, you can bid for it. (Be you Siemens or Kirloskar) And those contracts? like the BGLR Metro order? Thats vetted and checked against by govt engineers.

The way the contracts are being set up in many places, end up favoring large firms. And AFAIK MNCs aren't paying bribes.

So we already have privatization with regulations and accountability to an extent.

You could say we need more and I won't disagree. We are moving towards that.

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

Unsaid when discussing "privatization" is that it's tough to work in India. Competition is harsh and margins razor thin. I know that some companies would rather sell in other places than this market for better profits with less effort.

What I want to say is that you are painting a dark picture, but having more first hand knowledge at the moment, the picture is a lot more grey, and lighting up.

If you want to see how real estate developers fare on their own, you should always remember the message of gurgaon. A beautiful example of private enterprise - a great city with well developed plots. - And no common sewage system.

<comment><USER4> Thank you for this informative comment. Although I mean no offence towards the GP, Indians are prone to blame the govt./corruption etc and say that the "whole system sucks". In that light, information from someone in the industry is highly appreciated

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> As far as I know, Indians are more prepared for such failures than most people. Every (middle class) Indian house I know has batteries or a generator because of the daily load shedding.

Such failures somewhat complicate the commendable struggles against new nuclear plants and dams (e.g., [http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2803/stories/201102112803090...](http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2803/stories/20110211280309000.htm))

<comment><AUTHOR> Even Indians are not used to such large scale load shedding, where almost half of the country is without power.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Well hopefully this will happen for a few more days, and that will galvanize people enough to get someone to deal with the rampant power theft, and terrible power gen vs demand ratio.

<comment><USER2> Talking of power theft. Slums steal massive amounts of power without paying a rupee.

Also same with street side functions, processions and religious events.

Everybody feels they have freedom to steal. No wonder corruption is so difficult to eliminate in this country.

<comment><USER6> Wrt the conventional wisdom that "Slums steal massive amounts of power without paying a rupee".

Frontline magazine did a study which showed that a huge amount of power theft was occuring at industrial consumers. <http://www.flonnet.com/fl1906/19060950.htm> (it's a little dry in the typical Frontline style. I hope you will read it).

Also, you didn't mention businesses in places in Chandni Chowk, Lajpat Nagar etc? Given the other "cost-cutting"^Wtax-evading measures they take, I would feel very confident in assuming that they don't pay for most of their energy use.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If Wikipedia isn't missing any, it looks like these are now the two largest blackouts in history:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_outages#Largest>

</comment><comment><USER8> Let's face reality - we have a power crisis and political sops to greedy states only exacerbate this. We were supposed to have several nuclear reactors functional and giving power to regional grids by 2012.

Thanks to the 'green' brigade who live in a dreamland where India survives only on Solar and Wind, there are several "public-interest" court petitions stalling construction on one pretext or another. Local politicians were only too happy to buy media attention and make things worse. To get around this, we are forced to import higher and higher quantities of coal and oil. Yes..that is _SO_ much 'greener'.

In fact several coal power plants are not even running due to coal shortage. This year has been especially terrible due to high temperatures and a bad monsoon leading to more power consumption.

It's a complete mess. And I don't have any optimism that things will improve. We will continue stumbling along to the next crisis..that is if this one gets solved.

<comment><USER6> AFAIK, it's not just the utopian "green brigade" as you think. The amount of compensation that the govt. gives when forcibly acquiring land for nuclear projects is pathetically low. Many of them may fighting because they think that is the only way to get better compensation.

See e.g., [http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-19/india...](http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-19/india/29145859_1_compensation- package-villages-lands) the units seem to be unreliable, but we're talking around $3000 per family in compensation (938 hectares over 2335 families at Rs400k/hectare and Rs50 per USD). LOL. I'd stall a project if I was going to be uprooted, my livelihood (i.e., traditional fishing grounds destroyed) and I was given a insultingly low $3k as compensation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm appalled at the no. of comments that say "the govt. is useless/shit and that the system is torn by corruption". Of course it is. More constructive comments, please!

</comment><comment><USER9> What a shame ! Useless government !!! It affected ATMS, TRAINS , more than 30% indian population affected by this outage crisis

<comment><AUTHOR> This government is totally useless, ineffective, arrogant and insensitive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It started at midday and there are already such scenes, I wonder what will happen during peak commute times.

Note that the first area to have power restored is NDMC, which houses top politicians and bureaucrats.

<comment><AUTHOR> The best part is that they have decided to promote the Power Minister Sushil Shinde as the Home Minister, now all the terrorist will die rolling on the floor laughing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> How many years ago did India not have 600 million people with electricity to lose?

</comment><comment><USER12> Incredible India</comment>


Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/04/01/western-union-eyes-digital-currency-services/ <comment><USER2> Buying bitcoins is a convoluted process especially outside of USA. Western union certainly has infrastructure to speed-up this process for anyone who is willing to pay their outrageous fees.

<comment><USER3> And to your point, this could be their new competitive advantage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It is unclear if this is an April's Fools joke. It's not far-fetched enough to be funny.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not. I emailed the author and she confirmed it's real.

<comment><USER5> To which I think the only response to Western Union can be: Whoosh.

<comment><USER6> Why?

<comment><USER7> Because it's sort of like an old-time telegraph company saying, "Telephones? Hey, let's get in on this by offering a service where we transcribe telephone conversations and send them out to the other party as a telegraph." In other words, totally missing the point.

<comment><USER8> Do you actually think there is no need for money services with Bitcoin? I think you need to stop for a moment and think about this: what would Bitcoin be worth if there were no Bitcoin exchanges?

Western Union can provide a lot of relevant services: escrow, conversion to obscure currencies (or just general exchange), fraud mitigation, etc.

<comment><USER9> > fraud mitigation

Ah yes. The fraudsters favorite service for irreversible cash transfers will certainly have an advantage there.

<comment><USER10> Ok fine, fraud facilitation then. Also a lucrative segment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> With the coverage the Bitcoin exchange rate has been getting, this was just a matter of time.

<comment><USER12> I see WU looking at things like Bitcoin more to minimize transmission time and interbank exchange fees on the foreign exchange market. WU can then control the float time _and_ the margins on exchange rates.

<comment><USER13> I do not believe so - interbank transfers are nearly instantaneous and cheap, especially for a firm like Western Union. The meatier costs are from anti- fraud and anti-money laundering.

<comment><USER14> Actually, the majority of their costs come from direct agent fees and commissions. These fee costs are lower for transactions that originate online, but most don't; of transactions that do originate online, most are terminated by agents that pay out in cash, and are compensated for that. Compliance costs are huge, but they are a fraction of agent fees. It might be said, however, that a good percentage of those fees are to compensate the agent for their compliance activities; a lot of the Western Union's customer contact is handled by the agents, including compliance events.

All of that being said, Bitcoin eliminates or at least reduces many of those costs, in that delivery and receipt of payment can proceed without the involvement of the agent. And FinCEN, with its determination that institutional bitcoin services must be handled by a money transmitter, has just created a barrer to entry that WU is well inside of.

I concur with you, however, that interbank fees are a minimal component of their cost. Also, transfers processed by WU and its competitors are usually instantaneous from the point of view of their customers (part of the value they bring is the massive network of paying and receiving terminals that exist worldwide).

Source: I was the head of IT and operations for a money transmitter in a previous life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> As in, how can we respond to this competitive threat that undercuts our business model while still maintaining our current revenues?

</comment><comment><USER16> Where is the appeal in a WU created digital currency?

1\. This will probably mean WU wants a cut of all transactions in any digital currency they create... for life. 2\. No benefit over fiat currency? 3\. Not anonymous. 4\. All the "coins" are controlled by WU.

<comment><USER17> A WU created digital currency would be convertible to cash, on demand, at one's family's local Western Union agent in their remote village in Africa, so they can buy food and petrol with it when they need it. Much of this target market would never have had any access to any form of online payment service before.

And all the coins being "controlled" by a regulated, profitable multinational business with a lot to lose from scamming people (and probably tied to the dollar) is a lot more reassuring than a software protocol administered by a mysterious foreign foundation - transaction fees or no transaction fees.

Not every product has to be an appealing proposition to US-based early adopters to be phenomenally useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Hopefully hackers can bring us sound money again. Sound money as in money not debt money created out of thin air.

The FED is privately owned by the big banks, see "The creature from Jekyll Island". The senator Aldrichs daughter who was on the island was married to one of the bankers. The by bank created new debt money out of thin air blows up assets bubbles that the central bankers later ride in and try and save, by saving the debt bubbles losses are socialized ie its burden is put to the people through inflation instead of the bank owners/bond holders taking the losses. Central banks centrally plan the price of new money by controlling the interest rate.

It would be good if more viewed the documentary film "The four horsemen".

<comment><USER19> If the FED is private why does turn it's profits over to the US Treasury every year? Why is the Chairman & members of the Board of Governors nominated by the President & confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

I don't like the Federal Reserve either, but ignorance & conspiracy theories of the way the system actually works does no one any good.

"The members of the Board of Governors are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate." <http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_12591.htm>

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> If bitcoin is going to be here in 2 years then I think it's undervalued. In some exchange it has reached past $111

<comment><USER21> Where about do you think it ought to be valued? Personally, as a completely casual observer, the current valuation seems incredibly high and unsustainable, but I'll admit that's an uninformed gut reaction.

<comment><USER22> Current Market Cap is at $1 billion.

Let's say all bitcoin becomes is a paypal killer.

Paypal had a total payment volume of $145 billion in 2012. Now you can't just say a fair value for bitcoin's market cap is $145 billion because that doesn't take money velocity into account. Some of that volume could be the same dollars floating around. You don't need $145 billion in cash all at once to cover that activity. But paypal's revenue was $5.6 billion. So the amount bitcoin needs to be worth to handle the same amount of business as paypal is somewhere between those two numbers, and even a low $10 billion prices bitcoins at $1000 each.

Visa Inc had a total payment volume of $6.4 Trillion in 2012. Of course in addition to figuring out the actual money velocity you need to remove the credit component since bitcoin doesn't do that. But some sketchy back-of-the- envelope math can demonstrate that a $100 billion dollar market wouldn't be unheard of, with $10,000 bitcoins.

Of course I'm talking like 10-20 years out for anything like that, not today.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> What is stopping someone from looking at Bitcoin, changing something simple, and competing immediately?

<comment><USER24> Nothing but getting people to use the competing currency. There are already numerous competitors trying to get momentum.</comment></comment>


Earbits Online Radio and "Promoted Spins" - <AUTHOR> http://www.musicthinktank.com/mtt-open/earbits-online-radio-and-promoted-spins.html

<comment><USER3> I'm really liking Earbits so far. I signed up after seeing them talked about here on HN, and so far have gotten around 1000 spins there, more than half off which have been "more than 30 second listens", which, based on my use of a ton of these services, serves as a decent proxy for "I liked it, but not enough to make a comment/social media like." I would easily recommend them to any artist looking for more exposure.

Management interface: Simple, quick, straightforward. They encourage high- quality files (192Kbps recommended), which a couple of their competitors still don't do.

Listening interface: newer style, full screen, big-everything interface. I like it, but I know some can't stand this style. They took the "Sixty-one" style and did it better (and unlike 61, they having working genre channels, which 61 has not gotten around to fixing after a couple of years of waiting.)

Price: Currently unbeatable. Bang for the buck is really excellent.

Reporting: Quick, but still scant. No one beats Jango at this at the moment. See below.

Listener targeting: a weak point. Targeting by similar artists and the ability to self-categorize/tag would be a nice addition. For eclectic artists, single subgenres don't work too well. Allowing multiple genre choices would be best (everyone from King Crimson to Radiohead to Candiria to my project all have a tough time with single genres.)

Customer service: Like many new, hungry startups. They jump all over every email. Very good.

Now, their competitors:

last.fm - So-so interface. Terrible analytics. Reports constantly out of date. Unbelievably, shockingly, mind-blowingly, pricey for what they give you. Does have the ability to add "similar artists" when creating a campaign rather than in advance, which is nice. Slow to update the management interface. Poor customer service. They are still considered a big dog, but they've fallen way behind their newer competitors.

MadeLoud - Straightforward, no-frills, and delivers exactly as advertised, but options are limited due to the format (they give you "promoted downloads" - <USER2> streaming.) Very cheap. Good customer service.

Grooveshark - So-so management interface, analytics/reporting system, and demographic targeting. No longer truly self-serve, which is a downer. They are quick to respond when you want to create a new campaign, but the self-serve system was much better. Pricing is decent. Ability to target similiar artists is present.

Jango - the best out there at the moment, aside from their prices (which are still good, but Earbits wins hands down on this front.) Thorough analytics. Very customizable promotions - their listener targeting system is unmatched (supports "similar artists", has auto-complete suggestions, the works.) Has never been down, can't ever recall having a system feature not work. Email collection capabilities, artist homepages, real-time listener feed, notifications for many relevant conversion and feedback events, comments central to the experience. Everything is self-serve. Good customer service.

Overall, Jango is still the best, but I've got high hopes for Earbits.

<comment><USER4> This is outstanding feedback. Thank you for taking the time. Feel free to email me with any other thoughts. email@example.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Promotion #1

Cost: $29

Promoted plays: 1,800

New Facebook Likes: 31

Mailing List Signups: 24

Sales from Facebook Fans: $24

Sales From Email Signup: $65

Profit: $60

Promotion #2

Cost: $29

Promoted plays: 1,800

New Facebook Likes: 28

Mailing List Signups: 3

Sales from Facebook Fans: $20

Sales From Email Signup: $38

Profit: $29"

That's pretty terrific ROI I'd say. User spent $58 and got 59 FB likes (let's say those would cost $1 each to get via FB), 27 mailing list signups (let's say those would cost $2 each to get through other means), plus an actual $147 in music sales.

So the user spent $58 and got back about $260 in value.

Earbits should be pretty darn happy with that sort of ROI.

<comment><USER4> Edit: Earbits IS really happy with that sort of ROI.

If it stayed like that at just 10 times the scale, an artist could make $890 in net monthly profit, which is nothing short of a miracle for most musicians. At 100 times, a very attainable goal, it's a complete game changer.

<comment><USER5> Right. Curiously, the article doesn't say whether the musician intends to try a campaign at a larger scale. I posted a comment over on the article asking this. I assume your folks are talking to him, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Had a listen to some channels. The pop ones. Is there any quality control? Half the tracks were horribly produced, mixes were completely off, vocals bleh. Who exactly is Earbits aimed at? There must be a pretty specific niche of people who actually like this stuff. Not the general mainstream fan for sure.

</comment><comment><USER7> Reminds me of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola>, although it looks by disclosing it they avoid it

<comment><USER8> pay to play: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_to_play></comment></comment>


July 2019 Was Not the Warmest on Record - <AUTHOR> http://www.drroyspencer.com/2019/08/july-2019-was-not-the-warmest-on-record/ <comment><USER2> Bear in mind that the author, Roy Spencer:

* has a Ph.D. in meteorology, which is not the same as climatology

* believes that most climate change is natural in origin

* is a Creationist: "I came to the realization that intelligent design, as a theory of origins, is no more religious, and no less scientific, than evolutionism"

This doesn't mean his article is wrong. I don't have enough technical knowledge to pick it apart. Just beware that the article might be biased.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Spencer_(scientist)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Spencer_\(scientist\))

<comment><USER3> Do any of your points change the facts that he outlined?

<comment><USER2> No, I explicitly said so in my previous comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If I understand correctly he uses a dataset called CFSv2, which goes back to 1979, and then July 2019 is the 4th warmest on record after July 2016, 2002, and 2017.

If these were numbers (range 1979-2019, winning numbers 2016, 2002, 2017, 2019) that could be used to predict the odds of winning in a lottery then I would be very happy to use them and buy a 2020 lottery ticket.

</comment><comment><USER5> Interesting analysis, but "...it was the 4th warmest on record" would be a good addition to the title. In other words, it was still really warm compared to historical standards. But, interesting article.

<comment><USER6> Also, it's interesting that 2002, 2016, and 2017 were the warmer Julys than 2019, since 1979.

<comment><USER7> It's even more interesting that many Julys prior to 1979 were warmer still. Our (humanity's) temperature records aren't very good before 1895, but the long-term (many thousands of years) temperature record shows that much higher temperatures existed within the time frame of human existence:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Vari...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png)

[http://www.longrangeweather.com/global_temperatures.htm](http://www.longrangeweather.com/global_temperatures.htm)

Going back even further, the record shows that it was MUCH hotter before then:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Five_Myr_Climate_Change.p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Five_Myr_Climate_Change.png)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's a massive red flag to me when these sensationalist articles are still relying on thermometers for data. I thought they'd have enough integrity to rely on satellites at this point. Same as when you have statements like "99% of scientists agree on global warming". Yes,tthey agree that it's happening and that humans are playing some role, not that we're all going to die in 10 years if we don't turn things around.

<comment><USER9> Do they agree that future generations will be dealing with a hot ass climate in 200 years if we don't turn things around?

You'd have to be incredibly selfish to not consider that a crisis.

<comment><USER8> Of course it is a crisis, but the timescale is crucial as far as the kinds of measures we take. Do we ban fossil fuels altogether, raising the cost of living for everyone and plunging developing countries into poverty while we work out a way to make renewable energy affordable? Or do we have the government put money into renewable energy research, lowering its costs and making it a financially more lucrative alternative? The latter would take much longer but I think it's a better solution than making life more expensive for everyone than it already is.. Or maybe there is some other answer.</comment></comment></comment>


CCleaner Installer Overrides Default Browser with Chromium Clone - <AUTHOR> https://www.ghacks.net/2019/07/17/beware-ccleaner-may-install-ccleaner-browser/ <comment><USER2> In this day and age of limitless* storage and OS's that do a great job of keeping themselves "clean", what's the point of software like CCleaner?

Is it just the momentum from previous generations of Windows keeping its use alive?

While bundling crapware isn't anything new, it amazes me that it is worth essentially destroying the reputation of a company over. Piriform also makes Speccy, and I've used it and recommended it to friends to get info about their system. Will definitely not be doing that anymore.

<comment><USER3> Storage is not anywhere near limitless (especially not for the average person) and OSes do not do a good job of keeping themselves "clean".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I noticed this as well. Such a shame. Piriform make great tools for Windows. I use Speccy, Recuva and CCleaner all the time. I probably have myself to blame, having used only the free versions of each.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have refused to use CCleaner anymore since Avast acquired Piriform. I used to enjoy their products.

Avast is no stranger to dark patterns, nag screens, and other spammy and user- hostile activity.

</comment><comment><USER6> You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

</comment><comment><USER7> I seriously have no idea why people even use CCleaner nowadays.

</comment><comment><USER8> Who would have thought that scammy app does scammy things?

That things like ccleaner aren't flagged as malware at this point is disheartening (much like the perennial antivirus, etc apps on the iOS App Store)</comment>


Glycolysis, citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation simulation - <AUTHOR> http://metabolism.plict.nl/

<comment><USER2> Hmm. I'm an AP Biology student who just started studying cellular respiration. This is interesting, but I simply don't know enough. Could you provide the correct pathway? :P

<comment><AUTHOR> It's too bad YouTube is under maintenance right now, but I'm uploading a video with the correct pathway... Just hold on a little longer please ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I studied a Chemical specialization in the secondary school, but this is too difficult for me. I will keep trying, without seeing the video (I already have my two [Pyruvate]s!).

Some comments:

* Add an "undo" button. I'm not sure if it is possible to choose a bad reaction, but I'd like to undo some of the tries. (And perhaps a "restart+areyousure" button.)

* Add a lithe graphic to each molecule, so they look more real.

* Some reactions are too fast, for example [Glucose 6-phosphate] -> [Fructose 6-phosphate] is almost instantaneous, so it took me like a minute to realize that something had happened. You should add some delay and more highlighting.

* The page is very tall, so it is not possible to see at the same time the reactives and the enzymes at the bottom, like [Pyruvate kinase] or [ATP synthase].

* Add an "easy" mode, so that when you pick a molecule, all the possible enzyme targets are highlighted.

* If you put a [ATP] in the [Pyruvate transport] and you don't got any [Pyruvate] then the [ATP] is splited, but no [Pyruvate] is transported. So you lost a [ATP] :( !! I don't know if it is biology correct, but I would like that the [Pyruvate transport] is dissable / does nothing when there is no [Pyruvate]. (Same problem with the [NAHD transport].)

* If you put a [ADP] in the [ATP/ADP Translocase] in the Mitochondrial matrix side the [ADP] get stuck until you put a [ATP] in its place. First, it is not possible to remove the [ADP] from the enzyme. Second, I'm not sure, but it looks like that the enzyme is translocating the third phosphate from the [ATP] to the [ADP] on the same side of the membrane.

Nice work.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your suggestions! I've implemented a couple of them:

* Added delay for every reaction

* Made the page less tall, everything is smaller now (I'd underestimated the size, working on a 27" iMac)

* The easy mode was already there, enzymes lit up when you picked up a substrate. I've added an extra help now: when you hover over an enzyme, the available substrates light up.

* The transporters are only visible (and usable) if enough ATP/substrate is available

<comment><USER3> Now it doen't work in IE8 (javascript error). But it works in Chrome. It looks much better in Chome than in IE8. I think that I didn't see the enzymes highlighting because of IE8.

Please don't make the transporters invisible, only disable them.

(I don't like starting with a Pyruvate, it is like cheating.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Please let me know if you encounter errors or have questions about the app.

<comment><USER4> Are there any graphics in the works? It's fun to click around with as-is, but would be a much better learning tool if one could see the sugar chains be broken down etc. Maybe a flash or spark when a phosphate group is removed from an ATP molecule...

<comment><AUTHOR> That's actually a pretty feasible suggestion! I can't spend too much more time on it because of my education and because the main functionality of the app is finished, but the visualization of the release of energy sounds doable. Ideas on how to do it with pure Javascript/HTML/CSS?

<comment><USER5> You could do it comic-book style, by just flashing a shiny graphic that says "React!" over the enzyme.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why IoT Needs a PHP (A Tour of AllJoyn) - <AUTHOR> http://www.iotworld.com/author.asp?section_id=3224&doc_id=563008&

<comment><USER2> I do not understand why things need to talk AllJoyn instead of talking CoAP or MQTT.

If AllJoyn is solving a problem that using CoAP or MQTT does not, then great, but it won't be a PHP unless it's completely opensource and I can run every part of it on my own machines.

This may be the case, though it isn't clear if this covers all the required software

[https://git.allseenalliance.org/gerrit/#/admin/projects/](https://git.allseenalliance.org/gerrit/#/admin/projects/)

The AllJoyn site doesn't seem to have any obvious links for installing and running the whole thing on for yourself.</comment>


Intel pits monster 72-core Xeon Phi chip against GPUs - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/article/3086128/hardware/intel-pits-monster-72-core-xeon-phi-chip-against-gpus.html <comment><USER2> I was pretty unimpressed with the perf of my first gen Xeon Phi. The performance of the scalar operations became a huge bottleneck. Its really hard to keep the AVX512 units busy enough to make it faster than a normal Xeon E5.</comment>


Dutch cookie law may lead to online exodus - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/7ee1f778-9c1f-11e0-acbc-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=9a36c1aa-3016-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8,print=yes.html

<comment><USER2> This is one of those legislative measures that some politicians thought up and are going to cause mass hysteria, confusion and annoyances for a wide spectrum of web-related businesses.

On a side note, not in the article, the same Telecomunications Law also includes articles on net neutrality and by law prevents providers from blocking services. Should make the Netherlands second after Chili to make such a law.

<comment><USER3> It might not actually be that intrusive. As long as you have acceptance of cookies as a condition in your Terms of Service, you can say that the specific permission to store cookies is granted whenever the user signs into their account.

Heck, you could even write that as a separate provision (e.g. "In order to sign you in, we'll need to store a cookie in your browser") and it wouldn't be all that intrusive.

<comment><USER4> I'm not so confident in that. I don't know anything about Dutch/European law, but in the U.S. there are a lot of times that obscure clauses in long contracts/ToS's are disregarded by courts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This law is ultimately for malicious tracking cookies, but likely affects analytics (for example: first touch attribution) and targeted, but relevant, advertisements.

The biggest fear claimed by some writers of the legislation, and perhaps a justified one, is that cookies can (are?) be used to discriminate. If I remember correctly they cite a case where a large publisher could sell the cross-domain surfing behavior of people to insurance companies, recruiters, marketing bureaus or that it can be seized by the police, or leaked to hackers. It is akin to the reason why security cameras, if facing the public, must have a disclaimer sign with: "I am recording you". The cookie must inform the user: "I am tracking you". Right now, most users are unaware cookies even exist.

I agree my surfing behavior should be private, but I don't agree with the strictness and ambiguity of this law. The intentions may be right, so I don't expect them to even enforce it. As long as you don't violate the WBP ( Dutch Data Protection Act from 2001) you are ok IANAL.

That does mean if you build a recommendation engine in Holland you must comply with the WBP (secure architecture, handing over specific user data on request to a user, etc.).

One way to combat this is by using a hash. A salted hash that is untraceable to a user, but build from its IP, allows you to track the user, without the police or hackers stumbling upon personal data. Advertising and user tracking could apply this same principle.

As for the exodus, I believe it doesn't matter where your company or server is based, it is about doing business in Holland that matters for this law.

<comment><USER6> Didn't AOL search release a lot of "untraceable" data that, in reality, proved to contain _a lot_ of personally identifiable information? ("Yes, you, Mrs. Brenda Watkins, of 433 Apple Ln., Omaha, Nebraska - I'm glad you have an interest in romantic novels, and I'm sure that rash will clear right up!")

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cookies are a trivial problem that can be solved by educating users and installing extensions.

<comment><USER7> what wuld those extenions be?

<comment><USER6> Well, Edit This Cookie gives you a lot of options ( [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fngmhnnpilhplaeedi...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fngmhnnpilhplaeedifhccceomclgfbg) ). There's one that blocks all permanent cookies. I imagine there's probably one that blocks cookies altogether, unless explicitly allowed, like NoScript or Flashblock.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I was kinda hoping that this was a law about Dutch cookies. Oh well, a boy can dream.

<comment><USER8> No love for bad jokes on HN :(</comment></comment>


The Sparta Fetish Is a Cultural Cancer - <AUTHOR> https://newrepublic.com/article/154563/sparta-myth-rise-fascism-trumpism <comment><USER2> This article makes a good case about a certain class of racist, bigoted asshats being generally poor societal company. The headline is really just the hook meant to get you to read an article about the latest thing that people are latching on to to make themselves special.</comment>


Why People from Manchester Are Mancunians, Not Manchesterians - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/demonyms-linguistics-nicknames <comment><USER2> For people interested in this kind of stuff, Guy Deutscher's book "The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention" is a fun read!

As is the "The History of English" podcast [0], for the more aurally inclined.

On a related note, the Great Vowel Shift [1] of the 14-16th century really fucked English over. Apparently it was a close call back then, English almost kept its "regular", conservative pronunciation ("meet", "boot" like in German), instead of the current idiosyncratic chaos.

Bizarre pronunciation of British proper names like Cholmondeley (pronounced: Chumley!), Worcester or Norwich are another one of my favourites.

[0] [http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/page/10/](http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/page/10/)

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

<comment><USER3> "Worcester" and "Norwich" are sort of regular, in the sense that the "ces" in "-cester" suffixes often gets elided into an "s" (e.g. "Gloucester", pronounced "Gloster") and the "w" in "-wick" and "-wich" suffixes is typically dropped completely (e.g. "Greenwich", "Warwick", "Berwick", pronounced "Grennidge", "Worick", "Berick" respectively).

My mother has always insisted that "Cirencester" is correctly pronounced "Sisister", which Wikipedia sort of supports ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirencester#Pronunciation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirencester#Pronunciation)).

<comment><USER4> That's interesting because North Berwick, South Berwick, and Berwick in southern Maine are pronounced Ber-wick.

<comment><USER5> Similarly, Norwich, Connecticut is pronounced Nor-which locally.

<comment><USER6> I have read (no source at hand though) that that one used to be "Nor-itch" but during the 20th century the pronunciation was gradually forgotten and replaced with a spelling pronunciation. If I remember correctly the same was true of Warwick ("War-ick") Rhode Island.

<comment><USER2> Same thing happened with Berkeley in the US: originally "Barclay", and still pronounced "Barclay" in the UK.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The formal demonym for Massachusetts, according to Wikipedia, is "Bay Stater". (You can practically picture some hapless writer trying to apply a standard suffix and giving up.) I don't think I've ever heard it used in real life. I think our real demonym is "Masshole".

<comment><USER8> The demonym for Florida must then be Floridiot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I am from Cologne (Köln), Germany and we use the same word "kölsch" for the people, the dialect, and the beer. It also works as a demonym. I am, speak, and like to drink "kölsch".

</comment><comment><USER10> It is even more granular for some of the cities, I am in Liverpool (also mentioned in the article) and scouser is more of a superset, containing:

* Plazzy – (from plastic, meaning fake.)

* Wools – (from wooly-backs, having accents sounding as if they might live near sheep, traditionally traders would commute to the city from other cities with wool on their backs.)

* Johnheads (the "ketwigs" (those that spend their money on Ketamine rather than haircuts) that congregate near St. John's Market)

Interestingly, the subsets are more likely to cause offence if used since they're terms mainly used to describe others, and less likely to be adopted (though scouser was adopted.)

<comment><USER11> I live in Liverpool but grew up on the Wirral and frequently am told I'm a big Wool, and I understood it to be nearly anyone in merseyside but not in Liverpool and plazzy to be anyone not in merseyside but affiliates as a scouser.

<comment><USER10> To me (from Wales, living in Liverpool) a scouser is anyone with a scouse accent, a plazzy is anyone with a scouse accent that lives outside the L postcode but within Merseyside.

<comment><USER11> I would like to formalise this :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Before sending her the article, I quizzed my mum on some of the examples. It was going well until Dubai.

"Dubious!"

I like hers better.

<comment><USER13> "No, she went of her own accord!"

(oops, wrong punchline)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> At a certain point a term is so unfamiliar that you have to accept it's fallen out of usage. I'm from the UK and had never heard of Leodensian, Wulfrunian or Novocastrian.

Can anyone from those places comment on whether the terms are used seriously in normal conversation - and not just to sound clever or erudite?

<comment><USER15> I studied Latin in Newcastle and definitely heard "Novocastrian", but I'm certainly an outlier. I can't imagine any Geordie you're going to meet in St James' Park is likely to use the term.

Mancunian, Glaswegian, Geordie, Liverpudlian _and_ Scouser, and Bajan are all commonly used. I have never heard the ones for Leeds or Wolverhampton and I assume they're silly back-formations like Novocastrian. Malagasy seems to be a proper term both for a language and a people, according to Wikipedia, though it's not one I'm especially familiar with. I have no idea about "Haligonian" or the Pittsburgh ones.

<comment><USER16> I studied all school subjects in Newcastle, and know a great many people from the area who didn't even get to non-signalling-language level of schooling, yet staggeringly, are aware of the specific name for people from Newcastle; you're not an outlier. It's not widely used, but it's very well known.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> New Zealand is another interesting one. Our demonym is "Kiwi" from the bird. I guess technically it's "New Zealander", but I don't think I've ever heard someone use that.

<comment><USER18> 'New Zealander' isn't really demonym, since it's a noun rather than an adjective. 'New Zealand' is both the name of the country and the demonym: 'The Russian prime minister' -> 'The New Zealand prime minister' (but you can't say 'The Russia prime minister')

<comment><USER19> The New Yorker mayor also doesn't sound right, although that's the correct demonym according to Wikipedia.

Would it be possible that perhaps the demonym is the name of the people, a noun, while the adjective is another thing, that can happen to coincide with either the place name or the demonym or something else, on a case by case basis?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> German has also irregular demonyms. People in Zürich aren't called Züricher, but Zürcher. Same for Basler in Basel. Near Innsbruck in Austria, there is a small village, Igls. I discovered the last holiday there that people are called Igler there. And so on.

<comment><USER21> Are the irregular demonyms limited to places where Southern Germanic dialects/languages are spoken, or is it just coincidence that your examples are all in Switzerland/Austria?

Recall also that residents of München are not Münchener but Münchner.

<comment><USER22> This actually sounds like it might be related to the "Lutherian e" (after Martin Luther, the German reformer and namesake of the Lutheran church)[0]:

Up until the late 1700s, the trailing "-e" in words like "Füße", "mache" and so on were intentionally dropped in most of (Catholic) Southern Germany because it was associated with Luther's translation of the Bible and therefore considered heretical.

The effects of this are still present in German (e.g. the German word for "door" nowadays is "Tür" but "Türe" is still an archaic or rare variant you might encounter, likewise you might colloquially see phrases like "ich seh'" instead of "ich sehe"). If the places with demonyms that drop the "-e-" in places ending in "-en" are mostly in South Germany, that might explain why they differ.

Note, however, that the official pronunciation of "München" according to the German wikipedia actually drops the "-e-"[1] (rendering it in IPA as [ˈmʏnçn̩]), so "Münchner" is actually not as irregular as "Zürcher" (where the local pronunciation of "Zürich" actually drops the "-ch", not the "-i-"[2]).

[0]: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutherisches_e](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutherisches_e) (German)

[1]: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchen](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchen) (German)

[2]: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich) (German)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I have Brummie ancestors - a native of Birmingham (UK), from its dialect, which in turn comes from a slang name for the city, Brummagem (originally Bromwichham, a village subsumed by Birmingham, with its name taken from the Saxon words for Broom (the shrub) and for salt).

Unlike Manchester, Birmingham has little hope of a Latin demonym from the Romans: there was no 'there' there then.

From other relatives, I know that Wilkes-Barre, PA's dialect is called Heyna /Hayna ("ain't it so", used like the Canadian "eh" as a question tag), but I do not know that it is much used as a demonym.

</comment><comment><USER24> Interesting! I've had Chinese people ask me why they're called "Chinese" in English, with a strong suspicion that it's some kind of racist diminutive. I was able to come up with the analogous "Portuguese" to show that it's not just them, but being able to at least say it's French in origin should help further.

<comment><USER8> Vietnamese, Japanese, Javanese, Senegalese

<comment><USER24> Ah right! Part of it was that they suspected it was only used for Asian countries (Vietnamese, Japanese, etc), which is why I went straight for Portuguese. This is useful, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Being from Indiana, I'm really surprised that 'Hoosier' didn't make this list as it's even more mysterious than the others(and most explanations are apocryphal). But fun read none the less.

<comment><USER26> Hoosier is a good one, it would fit right into the "demonyms have some logic, sometimes, except for the ones that don't" conclusion.

Kiwi (as an unofficial demonym for New Zealand) is another surprising omission.

<comment><USER27> author of the article here! i specifically left out hoosier because, well, it's TOO interesting. keep an eye out for a future article about it.

<comment><USER26> Looking forward to it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I worked with a couple of guys based in Monaco and since it is a city state I guess it applies, I asked and they said they are called "Monagese" but I see it is spelled Monégasque.

In the article I see the ese is French ending maybe Monagese is the English version of Monégasque, or I misheard.

In Canada there are two cities Saint John, New Brunswick and St. John's Newfoundland I'm not sure what each prefers with each being so closely named. I do know that you never write out St. as Saint for St. John's that's a paddlin'.

</comment><comment><USER29> Same for people from the Dutch city of Utrecht, never call them Utrechtenaar. As there were a few huge "sodomy scandals" in Utrecht the regular form of Utrechtenaar became a synonym for homosexual. That's why they prefer to be called Utrechters.

Sorry, no English source: [http://m.dichtbij.nl/utrecht-en-leidsche- rijn/artikel/387814...](http://m.dichtbij.nl/utrecht-en-leidsche- rijn/artikel/3878146/-)

</comment><comment><USER30> This is very interesting. As a Mancunian, the term is so common I guess I've never questioned it much. It's just taken for granted.

If it makes it easier, it's often shortened to just "manc". We tend to just use that instead of "Mancunian". I recently commented my little girl seems to have a thick Manc accent - it's quite comical. Burger becomes "burg-oh", finger is "fingo" where The "oh" is like the o in "goth".

<comment><USER31> As a fellow Mancunian the thing that annoys me most is the replacing of the 't' sound with a 'c' sound in some words, e.g. hospital

<comment><USER30> My Nana does this but I haven't inherited it. Hospical, keckle. I can see the irritation but makes me think of Nana so it's more nostalgic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Let's not forget the USA - there is no unambiguous denonym for its inhabitants - despite the protestations of the people who live in the US, people who live all over the Americas call themselves "American", just like people all over Europe call themselves "European", and people in Africa are "African", and in Asia "Asian"

<comment><USER7> I took an informal survey of my international friends, and the general impression I got is that "American" mean "from the US" everywhere except Latin America.

<comment><USER22> German here. "Amerikaner" unambiguously refers to US Americans. I have no idea how I would refer to someone from _either of the Americas_ because I've never had the need to group North America with Latin America -- oh, and also "Nordamerika" typically just means "US and Canada" just like "Europa" typically excludes Russia. Sorry.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Related: The demonym for Oxford is _Oxonian_ , and the demonym for Cambridge is _Cantabrigian_ (often shortened to "Cantab" or simply "Tab"). Bot demonyms are based on the Latin names: Oxonia and Cantabrigia respectively.

<comment><USER34> I've only ever heard Tab from students at Oxford referring to rivals (mostly sporting) from Cambridge. Not sure its common in other contexts though.

<comment><USER35> It's definitely used in other contexts. The main two that come to mind are the alumni email service (...@cantab.net) and the Cambridge MA (shortened to MA (Cantab.)).

I do occasionally hear it mispronounced as "Cantabridgarian".

<comment><USER36> There's a bar in Cambridge, MA called The Cantabridgian.

Also in the 80s there was a small computer company based in Cambridge, England called Jupiter Cantab. They made the Jupiter Ace computer, a semi-clone of the ZX81 with Forth in ROM instead of BASIC.

<comment><USER9> I am familiar with the Cantab Lounge, but not the Cantabridgian.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> People in Phoenix are referred to as Phoenicians. Which has always struck me as a misnomer.

<comment><USER38> Kind of, but the two regions (Phoenix and Phoenicia) do pretty much share a name.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Me Favorite is Geordie for people from Newcastle even it's a fairly recent demonym.

</comment><comment><USER40> As an adopted Mancunian (by way of nearby North Wales) I had never really questioned why we used this demonym at all, I suppose in the same way I might not question why a sheep is called a sheep.

Some other interesting ones from the nearby area: anyone from North Wales is called (by those from South Wales primarily) a "gog" typically with a negative connotation. It comes simply from the Welsh for north: Goggledd (gogg-lev).

And one that the Scousers love to use is "Woollyback", for those from the nearby county Lancashire, as the locals would walk into Liverpool with wool on their backs to sell.

<comment><USER10> In Welsh classes in school we used to watch Gogs [0] but it was never once explained to us that it comes from Goggledd, nor do I remember learning that word.

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8VvGbHNBww](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8VvGbHNBww)

Edit: Having just watched a couple of minutes of the clip, it appears that it's independent of language (like Mr. Bean) so I'm not sure why we used to watch it in Welsh classes, but it probably goes someway to explaining why I don't know many reasonable basic words in Welsh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> I'm surprised no one has mentioned the demonyn for those from Sydney, Australia. It is Sydneysider - I have heard Sydneyite maybe once or twice. Of course the state we reside in is New South Wales - that mouthful leads to New South Welshman. Finally, we of course are Australians, but as every one of us gets our name convolved we end up as Aussies!

<comment><USER42> And Melburnian [0] for Melbourne.

[0] [https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Melburnian](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Melburnian)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> A hypothesis concerning -ite: whereas -er belongs to anyone using a Germanic derivative, and -an belongs to anyone influenced by papistry (as a practicing R.C., I jest; basically any western European and their historic colonies), the greek derived -ite belongs only to the greek studying elites, and the resentment thereof imbues the suffix.

<comment><USER22> > and -an belongs to anyone influenced by papistry ([..] basically any western > European and their historic colonies)

Spain? Portugal? Netherlands (pre-reformation)? France?

I see some gaping holes in that theory of yours.

Actually, the weirdest of those seems to be Netherlands with "Dutch", which is horribly confusing to anyone not fully aware of the distinction between the Netherlands and Germany (Deutschland -- which to English speakers sounds dangerously close to "Dutchland").

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> I grew up knowing myself to be a 'Manc' before I found out it was short for 'Mancunian'. When I eventually left Manchester and moved to London I was just known as a 'Northern Monkey' to the locals. Now I live in New Zealand I'm just a 'POHM'. I'll be a Red Manc till the day I die.

<comment><USER38> Maybe they meant "Mancie", like "Frenchie".

<comment><USER44> Northern Monkey is a term for anyone from 'the north'. Some say this comes from the 'Monkey Hangers' of Hartlepool. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_hanger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_hanger) The opposite would see you known as a 'Southern Fairy'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Could also have mentioned Mackem: [https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11826/why-are- pe...](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11826/why-are-people-from- sunderland-called-mackems)

</comment><comment><USER45> Cannot believe 'Galwegian' predates 'Glaswegian', I always thought the former was a relatively recent adaptation of the latter! Galway's a great city for culture, it doesn't need to be borrowing anything from anywhere...

My world is shaken.

</comment><comment><USER46> Hmm, mentions Pittsburgh and 'yinz', but not Pittsburghese. Definitely worth looking into if you're interested in strange regional dialects(?).

</comment><comment><USER47> I recently learned lede (leode) was Old English for People. Which was interesting for me since Leute is still in use in German.

</comment><comment><USER48> Atlanta used to be "Atlantan" but now the preferred nomenclature is "ATLien". Thanks, Outkast!

</comment><comment><USER49> One that often comes up at trivia nights in Australia is the demonym for Geelong, which is Pivotonian.

</comment><comment><USER50> Disappointingly, no mention of "monkey hanger" for our brethren from Hartlepool.

</comment><comment><USER51> TL;DR: The demonym for people from or properties of Manchester is "Mancunian," which dates back to the Latin word for the area, "Mancunium."

</comment><comment><USER52> Tldr: because a previous name of the area was Mancunium. There are some more irregular demonyms discussed in the article, with slightly more detailed etymology.

<comment><USER51> Thanks for this, I wish every news here had a TL;DR post. In fact me myself I do it whenever I have a chance (most articles are 5% information and the rest 95% is just padding)

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> Totally wrong.

People in Manchester are called Bonnaroovians.

</comment><comment><USER54> I'm from Manchester but I don't think I've ever heard Mancunian in usage, although I'm fairly certain at least in NH that demonyms are really not culturally significant outside of the national ones. NH isn't easily demonymed, which probably contributes.

Maybe the rules are just different in the US.

<comment><USER55> You're not from the Manchester to which the article refers. Here, we are definitely Mancunian.</comment></comment>


Hacker News was penalized by recent Google Panda update (11th April). - <AUTHOR> http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http://news.ycombinator.com

<comment><USER2> No, it wasn't. When I saw this headline I went and checked on news.ycombinator.com, and it wasn't affected. In fact, Hacker News actually got more Google traffic on Monday, 5/23 compared with Monday, 4/11.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, thanks.

I submitted because Alexa is fairly accurate with very high traffic sites, and the drop in HN's rank and reach seemed to coincide with Google Panda roll out.

<comment><USER2> No worries, happy to clarify.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> GOOD. HN's placement on Google search results is extremely disconcerting to me. I'm trying to have a conversation with HN people, not the whole Internet.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't see a drop in traffic in those stats - am I looking in the wrong place?

Edit: I think I found it, in mid-April there's a spike downward. But it recovers quickly, and it's not the biggest - change the view to 6 months or max and you can see some crazy changes at times.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why is this a problem? How many of you actually stumbled onto Hacker News via a google search? People put way too much emphasis on their listing on Google. If you're selling doodads, then I guess that's important, but otherwise word of mouth is your overwhelming winner. In fact, I would say that goes for almost every site I visit regularly.

I use Google to find tidbits of information. One-off questions. I can't think of a single site that I have ever discovered via google that is something I visit regularly.

</comment><comment><USER6> Don't trust Alexa, please...

</comment><comment><USER7> Many great content sites were hit by Panda. I would take ehow in the results over most of the garbage Google indirectly promoted when the made algorithm changes.</comment>


Retask 0.4: Celery for humans released - <AUTHOR> http://retask.readthedocs.org/

<comment><USER2> Retask is really "Celery for Humans" that implements and manages the queue so soothingly. +1 for the docs too, nicely maintained. Retask saves a lot of overhead time in comparison to Celery.</comment>