The Problem at Yale Is Not Free Speech - <AUTHOR> https://palladiummag.com/2019/08/05/the-real-problem-at-yale-is-not-free-speech <comment><USER2> I find this piece fascinating. To honor it I offer a tl; dr

1\. Author recounts experiences of people lying about their class/wealth at Yale, often feigning _less_ wealth.

2\. Explains behavior 1 as style, safety, loss-of-perspective, and avoiding social responsibility

3\. Retells several incidents where a vocal minority of students at Yale picked and won battles over verbiage (e.g. emails, Calhoun, "Master of college").

4\. Interprets the battles in 3 as at best insignificant and at worst a distraction from real problems of class disparity in America. Contrasts these protests against Vietnam protests.

5\. Proposes "American Elites" have no idea what they stand for anymore, are shirking their responsibility, and have no capability to be self-critical for fear of losing belonging in the in-group.

6\. Rejects these Yale social movements: "This ideology is filled with inconsistencies and contradictions, because it is not really about ideological rigor. Among other things, it is an elaborate containment system for the theoretical and practical discontent generated by the failures of the system, an absolution from guilt, and a new form of class signaling."

7\. Interprets the "inconsistent" Yale protests as an unproductive way for students to avoid guilt of their privilege and distance themselves from failing "legacy institutions."

8\. Holds the Yale administration accountable for siding against a "vacuous" student cause instead of their own faculty. Demands more from "an institution older than the Republic"

9\. Asks what it means if "Yale dies" and why this matters. Proposes it speaks to a more universal problem.

[All that said, I recommend reading the whole thing if you can find the time. This distillation has only a fraction of the value of the whole piece. Many tangential points are very interesting.]

<comment><USER3> > 4\. Interprets the battles in 3 as at best insignificant and at worst a > distraction from real problems of class disparity in America. Contrasts > these protests against Vietnam protests.

I tend to agree. I view the "tempest in a teapot" protests that go after some academic functionary in the same light as I view most of the animal rights protesters--deeply hypocritical.

You don't see these college students go after someone with actual power just like you don't see the animal rights advocates throw paint on Hell's Angels for wearing leather.

Protest is good--until you you might actually face consequences for your protest. Sorry, protest without consequences isn't a real protest.

If the Yale students want to protest, we have an oversupply of things that need to be protested--feel free to join us. But, these might upset people with real power, they might get arrested, they might wind up with a criminal record like the plebeians and that might upset their getting that cushy Goldman-Sachs position in a couple years.

<comment><USER4> > You don't see these college students go after someone with actual power just > like you don't see the animal rights advocates throw paint on Hell's Angels > for wearing leather.

This is a strange example of inconsequential protest, as the movement against furs was highly successful.

<comment><USER5> You're kind of illustrating GP's point. Throwing paint on a fashionista wearing fur poses very little risk- compare the risk to a Hell's Angels biker who might literally kill you. And furs were always expensive which kept the quantity relatively low- compare the number of fur animals killed to the number that are killed for their hides to make car interiors, house furniture, clothing, and more.

If the fur protesters want to make a big impact they should protest leather, but you don't see that. Instead they took their smaller symbolic victory because the meaningful fight is too hard and too risky.

<comment><USER6> No one raises and kills cows for the leather; the leather is a byproduct.

<comment><USER5> The leather is a product, not a byproduct, just not the sole product. I fail to see the logic that killing a mink for its fur is wrong, but killing a cow is okay because we get meat along with the leather. You can also make arguments about how it's okay because cows are raised specifically to be killed, but the fact remains that we kill orders of magnitude more cows than we ever have minks. My previous argument stands unchanged about how protesting mink is a small victory and most animal rights protesters stopped short of going for a big one.

Btw, I'm not an animal rights protester, I eat meat and have leather furniture. I'm just backing up the top level argument that Yale students aren't protesting the big stuff.

<comment><USER7> Not to mention cows are a major contribution to global warming.

<comment><USER8> So are datacenters. And cows were here first.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think the author is ascribing too much intent to a simple economy of shame that's omnipresent in all classes; if people find out you have more than they do, they hate you.

The author herself appears to be biased by this. She believes that the "rich elites" have a great burden of responsibility towards the world, which she justifies with shaky zero sum logic that suggests that because they have more, they necessarily took it from those who have less (her bulky villager metaphor). She might not be openly jealous, but she still seems to believe that her rich peers must somehow earn this wealth (an undefined and likely impossible undertaking), and writes about them with condescension when she sees they do not meet her burden.

The kind of "rich elite" that attends Yale—that is to say a child who has access to vast sums of wealth they themselves did not amass—is an otherwise normal person who simply wants to live a happy life. Some end up president, some end up "gypsies", but as the observes all of them have learned that in order to pursue these goals unmolested they have to put on the cloak of being less privileged than those around them. If they don't, they'll drown in a sea of hate from those of lesser means than them.

Thats it. There's no mystery here, just a bunch of kids trying to avoid being systematically bullied for circumstances outside of their control.

<comment><USER10> I went to college in the Bay Area and to a small private college with significant portion of very wealthy. Some in the private college concealed their wealth, some didn't. The thing is, most middle or above folks with an once of sophistication can sense the trust fund kid a mile away - most working class can sense something too, just maybe don't know the middle-class from the trust funders. I'm shocked the author was shocked to discover someone, at _Yale_ , who spent their time in self-absorbed, non-survival-oriented activity was very wealthy. I guess some at the Ivy League spend their time learning to act wealthy without realizing that's what they're doing (I think the 2% of actually poor who get into the Ivy Leagues tend to be "hard working rules followers", who by this tend to not notice the obvious about people).

But given the real wealthy folks signal who they are, whether they like it or not, all day long, the situation makes your point about "they have to conceal it to be treated as human" ring totally false. Nah, they can't conceal it, not to very many, and most know it.

I've met some who didn't know but they were sad and I assume there are others who go in for much deeper cover but that's a small minority.

<comment><USER11> > _the thing is, most middle or above folks with an once of sophistication can > sense the trust fund kid a mile away_

My experience has been the same as the author's. My college classmates (at Swarthmore) and I were repeatedly surprised when we learned that our friends were trust fund kids. I remember junior year we found out that one kid was super wealthy because he bought a last-minute cross-country plane ticket, first class. Even his roommates, who had lived with him for years, had no clue he was wealthy.

Another time, I learned that a girl was wealthy because she bought an iPod ($400 in 2004!) on a whim. I'd previously thought she was upper-middle class because she drove a Honda CR-V and didn't have any other trappings of wealth.

<comment><USER8> Both of those examples are put-it-on-a-card-and-worry-about-it-later territory for even normal, middle-class people. Super-wealthy is buying a yacht on a whim.

<comment><USER11> First class round-trip tickets across the US? Thats a thousand bucks. And $400 for a music player? Those are not normal expenditures for middle-class 20-year-olds (in 2007, before MP3 players were ubiquitous and inexpensive).

Regardless, I'm not saying these are only ever purchased by the ultra-wealthy. I'm saying this was the first sign anyone had that these kids had any money whatsoever. It turned out both have trust funds and are extraordinarily wealthy.

<comment><USER8> That particular example resonated with me. I'm not super-rich, far from it, I certainly wasn't even earning much in that time-frame. And I did a similar thing because it was the last ticket left and I had to get to a funeral. There must have been other clues that lead to the conclusion that they were trust fund kids!

<comment><USER12> The last ticket left was a first class ticket?

<comment><USER8> Yes. It was about $2000. But what was I going to do, just not be there? Took me a bit of work to pay it off but I would have regretted not going so much more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The articles contends the rich kids at Yale pretend to be poor to shirk the elite responsibilities, which then leads to deterioration of the elites. I find it doubtful that the kids have thought it through that far. A couple of more likely explanations come to mind:

\- Rebellious teenagers always want to establish independence from their parents. Giving up part of the money takes you part of the way there.

\- It's hard to be friends with people much poorer than you are - they may not accept you, and you may have hard time adjusting your spending patterns creating various embarrassments. Pretending to be poorer significantly increases the number of people you can be friends with.

As to the deterioration of the elites, I believe that our country lacks raison d'etre, and absent a clear mission people to turn to scrutinizing wealth indicators, culture wars, and such to decide why they get up in the morning. The US used to defend freedom from the Soviets and that was a pretty solid mission in the mind of the missionaries, then it coasted for a while, then tried to fight the terrorism which frankly was never the proper scale of a mission, and now it's just adrift.

<comment><USER14> Hopefully the fight turns to sucking carbon out of the air and creating a sustainable future.

<comment><USER15> Fossil Free Yale kids are making a good effort, not mentioned in the article.

[https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/12/08/ypd- arrests-48-peo...](https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/12/08/ypd- arrests-48-people-at-divestment-sit-in/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I went to an English boarding school long enough ago for the intent of that system to still be to train the officer class of the British Empire. But not so long ago that it was actually practical for any of us to realistically be colonial administrators.

This piece reminds me of that education. We were in the middle of the feminist and multi-cultural ideological revolutions. Being culturally aware; not insisting that British culture is superior to everyone else's, was both socially mandatory and against the dominant narrative of the school's educational message. It made for interesting confrontations between the institution and the students and staff

Britain had lost its empire, and the institutions that were set up to administer that empire, and train the administrators of that empire, were failing. Are still failing; though the UK's latest PM is an archetypal product of that system, he is being parodied for it rather than respected for it.

I wonder if America is going through the same thing? For decades the USA has been utterly, unshakably confident that its values, its culture, are superior to the everyone else's. Now... not so much?

<comment><USER17> > unshakably confident that its values, its culture, are superior to the > everyone else's. Now... not so much?

I feel the same way about American values that Churchill felt about democracy.

<comment><USER16> I would agree with you. Well, except for the guns and religion bits of it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Yeah, self victimization is trendy right now. People are desperate seeking to find micro oppression from their life experiences and wear them like accessories, while in fact they are top privileged.

I would say that is just the new 'rich kids get boring' stories in our post- modern/post-truth world, and the fashion right now is to dress/act as their imagined oppressed.

Cruel pleasure indeed.

</comment><comment><USER19> Economic inequality is at its highest level since 1928 and is about to increase even more due to automation, this climate of victimization/identity politics is being increasingly forced at a higher level by corporations, a simple way to build goodwill in the public opinion and feel that they are in the right.

<comment><USER20> This comment kinda baffles me, mostly cause of the implication that "identity politics" progressives don't talk about economic inequality enough. Not sure where exactly that is the case, except maybe in pop feminism that wants more black women of color to be billionaires. But that kind of thinking is widely criticized by the left too.

<comment><USER21> In my experience they do not take it into consideration at all. I've been told far too many times by silver-spoon identity-politic progressives that I don't get a say because of racial and gender privilege, with no regard for any economic struggle.

You'll have to forgive me for daring to ask if renaming buildings of alumni who held what are now regressive views is the hill to die on. Of course it's a black-and-white right or wrong, so if you ask a question you're just excommunicado.

<comment><USER22> This has been my experience as well. My favorite was being "schooled" by a woman who had grown up overseas: with servants who'd wait at her feet, private prep schools, US top private college paid in full by parents, etc. Then telling me how privileged I was. Growing up lower class American definitely did not see a lot of privileges..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> One thing that struck me from the piece (what I could read, before switching to skimming) was the implicit acceptance of the outsized power of Yale people. It sounded like the concern was that they acknowledge and wield this power well. I didn't see a question of whether they should have this power.

<comment><USER24> No doubt they should not, but that would be a different topic, one which has been (and will continue to be) abundantly addressed, in this era and every other. Yet, there is always a ruling class, and their children don't always act this way. So, it is a worthy topic to consider: why this way, and why now?

To the question of "why does the ruling elite have so much power?", one could answer, "it was ever thus", which is hardly satisfying but is true. But to the question, "why do the children of the ruling elite pretend they are the oppressed?", such an answer is manifestly untrue. So, there is a question there that needs answering, which doesn't already have centuries of answers written.

<comment><USER23> I've seen "it was ever thus" serve as a rationalization. I'd have liked to see an acknowledgement of the question of rightness of power; otherwise, I think it just reinforces the default. Even (in so many words): "perhaps it's neither fair nor optimal for society that you have so much power over others, but, given that you do [then all the stuff about responsibility]"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> i was rooting for some weighty insight but was disappointed by a lack of perspective and coherence. the author writes at length about what yale, and the problem, isn't and much less about about the consequences and potential avenues to shape them. she seems to lack enough life experience to put her critiques into a wider context that's relevant much beyond yale. for instance, the ivy league is viewed through the lens of 3 schools: harvard, yale and princeton, which suggests she's wholly internalized the elitist tunnel vision she decries and can't see beyond.

as far as i can tell, she's saying administrators, students and faculty are at odds, particularly around what it means to have privilege and how to properly account for it (resulting in deadlock & status quo). beyond that, it's hard to tell.

despite the harsh critique, i'm interested to see where this goes. more research and exploratory writing on the subject should help, as she clearly has something she wants to say.

<comment><USER26> Interestingly, I found parallels for what she was describing in much of society these days. The comics, games, movies, anime, etc... industries are all going through this same sort of thing. And if you look at the skeletal structure of what she describes going on at Yale, it's mirrored almost perfectly in those spheres.

<comment><USER13> Can you elaborate? How do games, for example, display this?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> In Christianity, you admit that you are flawed and wicked, but you can repent by accepting Christ as your lord and saviour, and by helping the poor and needy, and then carry on with your business, providing you publicly pour scorn on the unrepentant.

In Woke Studies, you admit that you are white and privileged, but you can repent by accepting Diversity as your lord and saviour, and then carry on with your business, providing you publicly pour scorn on the poor and needy white people who don't share your wokeness.

</comment><comment><USER28> Fascinating exploration.

It seems the 'eternal adolescence' of the modern mind is effecting class dynamics.

At MIT I remember being told that we were expected to be the best in the world at a particular technical subject. I remember a mixed feeling of awe and trepidation at being told of the responsibility we held to society.

I hope the elite can improve and practice sacrificial leadership for the betterment of all.

</comment><comment><USER29> >But this low number of 2% surprised me because when I was at Yale, everybody kept talking about how broke they were.

>"Want to go out for brunch?" "I can't—I'm so broke." This was a common line.

Seems like a huge stretch to assume this is a lie. The 2% figure is for the bottom quintile. The same source says the median family income for Yale students is 192k. That's perfectly consistent with a student who's taking on a heavy debt load to not have much disposable income. The family could have several kids, perhaps be paying partial tuition for 2 kids and have basically no money to give their kid aside from the minimum for food and board.

<comment><USER15> My second child is starting at Yale this fall, and yes, the tuition struggle is real (trying to do it with no debt). My son has 3 summer jobs, and my daughter is moving off campus to save money. We might make that median this year, but only because I just took on a second job. They won't be posing when they can't go out for brunch -- not when that damned meal plan already took $9 for breakfast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> You should see what happens when these people leave university and continue the charade in a variety of broken down diesels. A lot of the worst behaviour I have ever seen by people in travelling communities has been from the expensively educated children of the exceedingly rich, pretending to be gypsies.

<comment><USER31> the woke-est girl i ever met was from the ivy league, the daughter of state department parents. she'd been 'traveling' for a year, and just returned to the bay area... to sleep on a filthy couch in the warehouse where i was living with a handful of other folks.

except for the dreadlocks, filth, and b.o., she was as white as the driven snow. she lectured me for 40 minutes. when i told her i was raised by a single mother, went hungry sometimes as a kid, and paid my way through college she helped me understand that i needed "sit down and shut up" to hear other people's oppression

at this time, i don't remember her burner-name. i do remember she was cute, and i had a bit of a crush on her until that day. the experience comes to mind every time somebody asks me "why in god's name?!" would i leave the bay area for texas

<comment><USER32> It's like the Pulp song Common People. The moral is that you will never have the same experience as common people because you dont have the same existential dread.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> The Problem at Yale, based on the length of this essay, seems to be Too Much Speech. This is an extended complaint about annoying people one might have brunched with at a few elite institutions, dressed up as cultural analysis.

I am minded of McAdoo on President Harding: "His speeches left the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea; sometimes these meandering words would actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly as a prisoner in their midst, until it died of servitude and overwork."

In a shock development, university students dress down, pretend to be poorer than they are, and get into conflicts with administrators over things (often pointless things); clearly something that has Never Ever Happened Before.

There are nuggets of good sense here, but the overall message is a scrambled mess. Apparently what's going wrong in the world can be largely attributed to liberal elites patting themselves on the back while trying to do good, or something. I'm sure this plays well in certain circles.

In a world where we have gazillionaire plutocrats actively working 24/7 to fuck other people over (the Koch brothers and the Sacklers spring to mind) I'm not losing too much sleep over this micro-diagnosis about how some kinda- liberal rich people in a tiny slice of American academia pissed off the author and should be spending their lives differently.

<comment><USER34> fully agreed. the piece exists in some weird space where it suffers from the exact sort of superiority / inferiority role playing anxiety that it's supposed to be about which makes it difficult to draw anything from it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Interesting piece although I don't think they represent the point of view of the agitators fairly, for example the author writes: " you ask supporters, _they will tell you the cost does not matter so much, because this is about creating an ideal world_. Of course the professor should be fired—how dare she stand against the minority student organizations? Of course it's okay that the Yelp reviews were published—she should never have written them. Of course names should be changed if they hint at or honor the wrong ideology. What does preserving _history matter if history is racist?_ "

What does honouring someone who is extremely pro-slavery even for their time have to do with preserving history? That history still exists whether they have a building named after them or not. And I don't think you will honestly find many people who believe that the ends justify the means no matter what, although you will of course find some people who believe anything. So I think the "ideal world" bit is also somewhat a strawman and a mischaracterisation of people who are anti-racist or whatever.

I do however agree that a lot of this stuff doesn't really help those who need it most. The rich kids paying a 2% wealth tax funnelled into social welfare and education for the working class would do more, as would having Yale include more working and lower-middle class student. But it's easy for me to say as a white guy that having many buildings named after pro-slavery politicians is not really doing any harm. Maybe we should ask those who would be more effected.

<comment><USER36> I thought the exact same thing, the "Calhoun incident" mentioned completely takes away from the rest of the examples showing that Yale is acquiescing to unreasonable demands. Not wanting to live in a building celebrating a violently pro-slavery historical figure is not at all unreasonable, and is not erasing history. Being anti-slavery and anti-racism isn't some "politically correct fad of the day" that nobody can keep up with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> This article strikes me as extraploating a select few experiences to make far reaching conclusions. 99% of the people at yale are not children of billionaires or statesmen. They are children of doctors, lawyers, programmers, etc. who are wealthy but not wealthy enough to live off their inheritance indefinitely. People attend classes, do research, play sports, or put up performances - in short what's been going on for decades at virtually every college. Maybe there's a larger structural inequality problem in society, but it seems far fetched to point to her anecdotal experiences with rich kids as the cause.

<comment><USER2> Do you have a source for the claim that 99% of attendees of Yale don't have enough money to live off their inheritance indefinitely?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This mostly makes Yale sound like an extremely unpleasant place to be.

<comment><USER38> Any place where people LARP and hide themselves behind masks of their own design all day can be caustic, Yale is far from being an outlier.

<comment><USER39> I'm fairly certain that some group of people LARP at all the Ivy Leagues. I think we all wear masks, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> The article is interesting and worthwhile, but the author believes she has upper class students all figured out and is a little too condescending towards them.

</comment><comment><USER41> I remember teaching a physics section at Cornell that had an Indonesian prince who was always attended by somebody who I think was a bodyguard.

He struck me as a pretty nice guy.

</comment><comment><USER42> This struck a chord, and not as an Ivy League student, but as somebody working at a FAANG: the same continual narrowing of the space of what is permissible to say out loud and same witch-hunts for people who say Wrong things are happening here too.

<comment><USER43> I think in the workplace it is different though, whereas universities have been progressive environments and places for debate for many years, at companies, people just want to get work done. I don't want work somewhere where I _ever_ have to hear off-color jokes about women or minorities. I am lucky I work somewhere I have not heard those things. People should be permitted to say those things outloud, but not okay at work. Not as a joke. Take it home or to a bar or to golf buddies or something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> If yale is really being pushed around this much and apparently shows zero spine, why is it still considered the place for future leaders? It's far more likely they ll be taught leadership-like qualities in MOOCs these days.

</comment><comment><USER45> I have many reservations about the rest, but the first point about guilty rich kids deserves to be more widely known.

Forget "upper middle class", let's ban "middle class" from the discourse. It's 1/2 anachronism 1/2 compromise between guilty rich and aspirational poor.

</comment><comment><USER46> This reads like a prologue to the Cambridge 5 - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Spies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Spies)

There too an empire was in decline.

</comment><comment><USER47> Couldn't read past the first section. I'm still feeling guilty for spending $15 getting food from a restaurant last night.

</comment><comment><USER48> It appears that they are oblivious to just how problematic a culture of poseurdom is and that itself explains the dysfunctions of the old-guard elite of all sorts. It isn't that they are privileged but that they outright spend their time lying to put up appearances instead of actual substance. It might be reverse pathological causology admittedly - that pathological bullshitters get into power not that those positioned for power are trained to be pathological bullshitters.

</comment><comment><USER49> I would have rather wasted my time reading a Skull & Bones expose.

</comment><comment><USER50> I'm fascinated by this sub-genre of "political correctness has gone too far" on campus. Parts of this could have come from a script to generate these.

In particular the bit about how some elderly academic was a liberal, and therefore anyone who disagreed with them must be some dangerous extremist.

Always seems more likely that as a youth they would have been similarly distant from a "reasonable" moderate of a similar age.

A couple of years ago the big trope was that this this was the new face of fascist authoritarianism, that republicans were reasonable moderates and people trying to push veganism, or fight climate change or whatever were crazy extremists. The rise of Trump seems to have muted that a little and rendered most of it ridiculous in hindsight. (Well, it was ridiculous at the time too, but got carried by the same media that would then support Trump).

</comment><comment><USER51> Yale certainly failed to teach the author how to write.

</comment><comment><USER52> The problem is that Yale exists at all

<comment><USER53> You seem to be the one person on HN with consistently the right take.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Good grief, get to the point!

<comment><USER55> When was the last time you read something longer than a tweet?

<comment><USER54> Length has literally nothing to do with it. It's a matter of give and take, and politeness. If there's thirty minutes of content I'm happy to commit my thirty minutes of reading.

If you have five minutes of content in thirty minutes of text you're just being rude.

<comment><USER56> I want to think it's about "show, don't tell" but I gave up on this article, too..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> This is precisely why we have capitalism

</comment><comment><USER58> Brevity is the soul of wit.

<comment><USER59> did anyone read the whole article? At first I was interested, read a few scrolls, but when I saw that she goes on and on I just couldn't finish it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> The Yale campus may be pretty, but immediately outside, a far less impressive New Haven beckons...</comment>


Maze-generation algorithms, with JS demos - <AUTHOR> http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/2/7/maze-generation-algorithm-recap

<comment><USER2> Ah maze generation. I remember doing this back in my Uni days in Java. Its interesting to see some other implementations of the maze generation itself though. I think I only implemented Kruskal's algorithm... two different ways, one poorly and the other somewhat better. That said my implementation was faster then most of the other ones in the class. I even gave it a nice GUI.

I even got bored one evening and ported it to my J2ME phone which impressed most of the people in my class. For those interested here is the code,

<http://www.boyter.org/0/code/maze/Maze.zip> <http://www.boyter.org/0/code/phonemaze/Phonemaze.zip>

</comment><comment><USER3> Why is maze generation so interesting to people? I'm trying to read between the links.

<comment><USER4> For me, it is interesting because fairly simple means can produce complex (and to me, beautiful) results. It's intrigues me to explore this and see what can be done with it.

It is also particularly interesting to me as a way to explore the features and syntax of a programming language. Maze algorithms are handy (and entertaining), but any algorithm would do. The idea is to implement the algorithm in the language of your choice (preferably one you are are not experienced in) and see how the language lends itself to the implementation.

Naturally, not everyone will share either of these interests with me. But I'm okay with that. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This should be called the weekly link, every week it gets to the first page.

<comment><USER6> I only saw a few of them. And what's wrong with maze algorithms?

I want to see 3D maze algorithms next!

<comment><USER4> Nearly all of the algorithms I described extend well into multiple dimensions. I'm not sure how Eller's would work in 3D, but there is probably a way. And the Binary Tree and Sidewinder algorithms seem like they ought to be possible to adapt to 3D, but I don't immediately see how. The others, though, are all trivially expandable to n-dimensions (just add "up", "down" and any other directions you like to the list of possible moves).</comment></comment></comment>


Watcher API Changes - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/blog/1253-watcher-api-changes <comment><USER2> great choices, i think :) And made starred pages too.</comment>


Microsoft Tafiti Is Beautiful, But Will Anyone Use it? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/21/microsoft-tafity-is-beautiful-no-one-will-use-it/ <comment><USER2> Looks like a gimmick made to show off Silverlight. People judge search engines based on speed and usability. This has neither. But it is pretty! :)</comment>


Fake UI - <AUTHOR> http://fakeui.tumblr.com/ <comment><USER2> I almost wish there was a HollywoodUI© Linux distro, where all the movie and TV show cliches are actually true. Need to log in? "Crack 256-bit encrypted password by randomly bashing on the keyboard for 60 seconds". Some text scrolls in the command line? "Brrrt" sounds (per character!). Window moving? "Bzzzt" sounds. Need to open some folder? 3D world opens where you need to navigate from folder to folder in a tron-like world. Need to ping an IP? Write VB GUI Interface. etc.

<comment><USER3> [http://hackertyper.com/](http://hackertyper.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So I guess my theory is: They make their own UI's to avoid showing copyrighted material -- and would it be fair to say that it's not important enough (to the plot) to hire an expert web designer, so they end up with something like what we see here?

<comment><USER5> Typically if you do a closeup of a computer screen in a movie/TV there's a specific action the user is performing or message they've received that is important to the plot. You want that message to be big and obvious enough that in the 1.5 seconds of footage of the screen, it's obvious to an engaged watcher what is being done. Real UIs rarely make one thing so much huger than everything else on the screen that it will immediately draw attention as fast as the film needs you to, so they make up their own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> UI from Moon is not fake, it's sci-fi! :) Uhm... and it's not UI! btw, great movie.

ah, if HAL was IBM... GERTY is... ??? Apple? Linux?...

</comment><comment><USER7> If you like this, you might also enjoy the SciFi Interfaces blog, which analyzes actual interfaces used in SciFi films and TV shows, and rates them based on usability, likelyhood, etc: [http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/](http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I stole the link from this interesting post on the subject:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11827005](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11827005)

</comment><comment><USER8> Silicon Valley on HBO often shows real UIs.

What's interesting is that one episode in Season 1 was using Jenkins (a continuous integration tool) and they took the logo and name but made a new UI that was simpler with a giant progress bar. My guess on the reason is that showing the full Jenkins UI wouldn't allow casual TV viewers to grok it quick enough.</comment>


Myths of the Knowledge Society--It's Not New - <AUTHOR> http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/10347.html

<comment><AUTHOR> One example cited:

"Walter Wriston pointed out that "A person with the skills to write a complex software program that can produce a billion dollars of revenue can walk past any customs officer in the world with nothing of 'value' to declare." And this is true. But the ability for a person to carry knowledge of huge economic value in his head is by no means new. An interesting example is provide by the U.S. textile industry, which basically began in 1789 when Samuel Slater left England for America with his vast knowledge of how textile machinery operated. (In order to protect what we would now call intellectual property, emigration of textile workers was actually prohibited by British law)"</comment>


New immigration rules make it easier for Americans to work and stay in Canada - <AUTHOR> http://globalnews.ca/news/3075089/new-immigration-rules-make-it-easier-for-americans-to-work-and-stay-in-canada/ <comment><USER2> My wife and I applied for the Canadian Express Entry program. We started the process in September, once we realized that a Trump win was more likely than it seemed.

We are minorities, and immigrants. We are also highly educated, earn a combined total of 250k+, and were planning to buy a house this year. We've been in the US for 7 years, are well integrated, and liked living here.

Now, we are planning to leave the US as soon as we can. We have enough points that we should be invited soon, and we'll be out of here.

We are not alone. Many (6, as of yesterday) friends of mine with similar backgrounds have asked me about the process, and are starting it themselves.

Anecdata, I know, but six month ago my wife and I were looking at real estate listings. Now, we are looking at international moving companies. Our jobs are secure, nothing else has changed. We just don't want to live in a country where the president routinely insults people who don't look like him. And people in our state have started noticing a rise in insults and discrimination that simply didn't exist before.

<comment><USER3> From a fellow immigrant, please don't believe everything NYT/CNN tell you (i.e. daily fearmongering).

<comment><USER4> i also believe the op to be anxious and irrational because of the media coverage. i think many people are. the media was wrong about trump, and now they are doubling down by stoking fear in the hearts of viewers. it's insanity. let's not talk about how these outlets are all owned by individuals and groups/interests opposing trump and his agenda.

this is basic US partisan politics 101, and it's scaring people who are not used to it, or do not understand how it works, like this person who has lived here for 7 years and is now shocked that we do not live in a nation that would vote for basically a 3rd obama term. this is literally his first white president (lol, think about that) and now he lives in a racist shithole? come on.

2 of the deepest red states in the nation elected indian american republican governors. louisiana, and south carolina. the entire nation elected obama twice. california has yet to elect a non-white governor, or senator. has new york? i don't know, but i doubt it. silicon valley is still run by nearly 100% white people. the only time i've ever seen open racism was in boston massachusetts.

notice how his justification for moving is "a chill in the air", "people look at me longer" .. these aren't words or actions by other people, these are feelings that arise internally from a heightened state of awareness due to anxiety.

my parents immigrated here in the 80s and faced some really fucked up discrimination and have persevered and succeeded (and so have i) in a great country. if this person is going to throw away their 7 years of work and quarter million dollar income (immigrants making $250k, sounds like an awful place) for a "chill in the air" i say good riddance. they're in for a rude awakening when they meet their first canadian racist and their first canadian tax withholding.

<comment><USER2> A 300-word HN comment does not encompass everything about my life and my decisions. Please understand that there are good reasons for what I'm doing - I am a rational human being, after all, and I'm not going to write essays that go over the hundreds of hours of thought, deliberation and research that lies behind my decision.

I'm very glad your parents (and you) succeeded here. And the US is undoubtedly a great country.

However, in my particular case, in my particular circumstances, I have made this decision.

If you feel that I'm being silly, and "good riddance" to me, that's your prerogative. People are complex beings, and I will afford you the courtesy that you denied me.

<comment><USER5> Your overreaction is stirring up divisive reactions that aren't helping constructive discourse. If you want to move, fine, do what is best for your family. But don't be surprised that HN calls you out for providing insufficient evidence for your claims.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


An unexpected origin story for a lopsided black hole merger - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2020-09-unexpected-story-lopsided-black-hole.html <comment><AUTHOR> >Astrophysical Implications of GW190412 as a Remnant of a Previous Black-Hole Merger

[https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.12...](https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101103)</comment>


My Favorite Papers of 2017 - <AUTHOR> http://www.nicolabortignon.com/my-favorite-4-papers-of-2017/ <comment><USER2> Could I slip in a request here for contributions to my Ask of 3 days ago, still on top page, but not many answers yet,

 _What are the best scholarly papers you read in 2017?_

I'm hoping for some discussion on there.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15991373](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15991373)

</comment><comment><USER3> Slightly OT, but I wanted to know if there's any group/forum where we can read and discuss papers regularly?

I know the morning paper ([https://blog.acolyer.org/](https://blog.acolyer.org/)), but it is not so interactive, in the sense that you can't have discussions with peers and it turns into just passive reading.

<comment><USER4> Not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe you or someone else might be interested on this: [http://fermatslibrary.com](http://fermatslibrary.com)

<comment><USER5> Very interesting, thanks!

Somewhat related,a general purpose annotation platform is [http://hypothes.is](http://hypothes.is) \- a great feature is that PDF annotations are location independent because they use some kind of fingerprint to identify the document.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Huge, massive, credibility-undercutting typo in the slot pulling analogy: "you loose."

I'm not sure when people started making this mistake, but it's one of my more cringe-worthy ones to see.

<comment><USER7> You find a rather common spelling mistake (which has been fixed) "credibility- undercutting" and "cringeworthy"? It seems like you are holding blog posts that have made it to the first page of Hacker News to a ridiculously high standard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> TFX is indeed quite a massive one. Well played Google

</comment><comment><USER9> My favorite is the Jeff Dean paper from NIPS in using NN for data base indexes.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are referring to this [http://learningsys.org/nips17/assets/slides/dean- nips17.pdf](http://learningsys.org/nips17/assets/slides/dean-nips17.pdf), right?

It didn't make the cut just because is a keynote and not a paper, but nevertheless is a great engineering fit. Even more if considering that in the meanwhile Jeff is running the entire brain team, and keep pouring contributions on a regular basis: [https://research.google.com/pubs/jeff.html](https://research.google.com/pubs/jeff.html)

<comment><USER10> There is a paper for the index structure part; several authors.

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.01208](https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.01208)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, great catch! thanks for sharing

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wish Apple was sharing even more, and not just on Machine learning.

</comment><comment><USER12> Website broken with Firefox on Android.</comment>


Too many academics are now censoring themselves (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/11/censor-lecturers-trigger-warnings-students-distressed <comment><USER2> Sometimes I think that that colleges and universities should accept students after they sign consent (kinda like medical consent): I understand that classes take sensitive subjects and i Agree that being exposed to information about disturbing historical circumstances is necessary for learning and graduating

<comment><USER3> I don't know whether they're signing any consent documents but from what I've heard this is what the university of Chicago is doing - make clear to prospective students that a university is a place to learn and be challenged, not a 'safe space', not a 'home away from home'.

<comment><USER4> Odd then that there's a U. Chicago Safe Spaces program - [https://inclusion.uchicago.edu/lgbtq-student-life/ways-to- ge...](https://inclusion.uchicago.edu/lgbtq-student-life/ways-to-get- involved/safe-space/) .

Here's a quote, from [https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9601](https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9601) :

> "At the University of Chicago, we insist that all faculty and students are > free to debate, disagree, and argue, without fear of being silenced," Dean > of Students Dr. John (Jay) Ellison wrote in a letter welcoming incoming > freshmen to campus.

You'll read the 2021 letter doesn't use the term "safe space", unlike in 2020 (where quoting [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/university-chicago- we...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/university-chicago-we-don-t- condone-safe-spaces-or-trigger-n637721) ):

> Ellison wrote, "we do not support so-called 'trigger warnings,' we do not > cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and > we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where > individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own."

See, the thing is, a "safe space" isn't about "retreat[ing] from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own", it's about giving people a place to speak out ' _without fear of being silenced_ '.

That misunderstanding may have lead to the removal of "safe spaces" from this year's letter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Sadly, far too many academics have responded to the pressure to protect > students from disturbing ideas by censoring themselves.

"Protecting" students from "disturbing" ideas is an act of censorship in the first place. The choices for academics who don't agree with this censorship are simple - to quit their job or to secure themselves by not covering some topics. Or probably to be fired (and publicly lashed) for standing their ground - as we have seen has happened many times already.

The whole situation is a total disaster and absolute disgrace for the modern educational system. Being traumatized is a part of being human. It's a part of a life of an adult. It is a good thing, if one gets these traumas in a precise, measured and indirect way - from books and lectures. It's a process of education. If those students are not ready for that, maybe they made a mistake to become students in the first place?

</comment><comment><USER6> Note that this is about trigger warnings, and therefore teaching more than research.

It also hasn't really aged well. I remember this criticism was far more prominent a few years back, including on HN.

What happened since? Trigger warning were renamed "CN", for "content note", I believe. We also got ourselves some actual problems, so nobody cares about these things anymore.

Popular perception of these warnings also became less scandalised with their increasing popularity: first, because people note that the abundance of "CNs" they come across mean precisely the opposite of what was feared: it's a sign that people aren't censoring themselves, but instead using a commonly accepted practice to mitigate any possible negative effects _without_ the need to self- censor.

And here's the second misunderstanding: "CNs" aren't really meant to make people leave the room or not read the book, and the examples from these articles were pretty rare back then and are almost unheard of now.

 _They are, instead, an acknowledgement that I, the speaker, realise that this may be a sensitive topic for you. By flagging this up-front, I show that harming you is not my intention, and that I will be supportive if any issue arises._

This understanding defuses the situation. Because it's not usually texts about the Holocaust that are traumatising for jews. It's people using those texts and that history to hurt them anew.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There is a growing trend of censorship and self-censorship. Far from enjoying controversy for its own sake, it seems clear to me that open, civilized debate is healthy and indeed essencial.

The attitude that "some things are not to be discussed/mentioned" is akin to religious dogma, more at home in the European Dark Ages than the 21st century.</comment>


Operators of Coin.mx arrested by the FBI - <AUTHOR> https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-charges-against-two-florida-men-for-operating-an-underground-bitcoin-exchange <comment><USER2> Interestingly, these charges are published on the same day that the first decentralized Bitcoin exchange opens its public beta [0]. And, yes, the whole point of a decentralized Bitcoin exchange is to circumvent the laws that the FBI accuses Coin.mx of breaking:

 _Coinffeine takes advantage of the P2P model to avoid accepting deposits in bitcoins or fiat money, making it unnecessary to identify users or fulfill costly money laundering laws in each country. ... "Not having to identify users or enforce KYC laws has allowed us to design a much more scalable exchange model. [...]", said Alberto Gómez Toribio, CEO of the company._

For good and for ill, one of Bitcoin's core value propositions will always be its promise to vitiate governments' attempts to control their citizens' money. It's hard to tell who's winning so far, and harder to tell who's likely to win in the end.

0\. [http://blog.coinffeine.com/2015/07/21/coinffeine-launches- wo...](http://blog.coinffeine.com/2015/07/21/coinffeine-launches-worlds-first- decentralized-bitcoin-exchange-70-countries/)

<comment><USER3> The government is likely to win in the end. It's not yet regulated because of it's small circulation and young age. If it were the first thing in history the government could not figure out a way to regulate I would be surprised. [http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?...](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1326)

<comment><USER4> The things most bitcoin proponents dream about are... crazy.

* No, you're still going to pay taxes on your bitcoins.

* No, if you fraud someone, you'll still have to give them their money back.

* No, bitcoin is totally meaningless if you can't pay for food in it.

<comment><USER5> * Presumambly there are political solutions to tax problems.

* Do "bitcoin proponents" dream about defrauding people at a disproportional rate? This has been the opposite of my experience.

* It's already pretty easy to buy food with bitcoin.

<comment><USER6> _Do "bitcoin proponents" dream about defrauding people at a disproportional rate? This has been the opposite of my experience._

The levels of fraud in Bitcoin are vastly higher than in other money systems like credit cards. Even if you count just one incident, Mt. Gox, the % of bitcoins that have been stolen is immense.

So, yes there are definitely lots of Bitcoin proponents dreaming about (and actually carrying out) fraud!

<comment><USER7> Why do you think the people stealing bitcoins are proponents? Bank robbers are rarely dollar proponents in the US, or yen proponents in Japan. Muggers generally aren't cash proponents or jewelry proponents. Conmen might be proponents of certain financial schemes, or they might just be charismatic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> From the press release:

 _MURGIO and his co-conspirators have also knowingly exchanged cash for Bitcoins for victims of "ransomware" attacks, that is, cyberattacks in which criminals (here, distributors of the ransomware known as "Cryptowall") electronically block access to a victim's computer system until a sum of "ransom" money, typically in Bitcoins, is paid to them. In doing so, MURGIO, and his co-conspirators knowingly enabled the criminals responsible for those attacks to receive the proceeds of their crimes, yet, in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws, MURGIO never filed any suspicious activity reports regarding any of the transactions._

<comment><USER9> Interesting charges. Are they ever applied to companies that allow money to be wired or otherwise transferred between banks?

<comment><USER10> "The rich are different from you and me." \-- F. Scott Fitzgeral, "The Great Gatsby"

<comment><USER11> It's F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the quote is actually from another story of his, _The Rich Boy_. [http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/books/l-the-rich-are- diffe...](http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/books/l-the-rich-are- different-907188.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think they buried the lede there, it should have been FBI finds bitcoin exchange that still knows where all of the bitcoin it exchanged went :-)

</comment><comment><USER13> I have a question about a sentence from that announcement: """[...]and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.""" (towards the very end)

Is this standard phrasing? As a non-native speaker this sentence seems odd. I'd have guessed that fact and allegation are xor. The sentence implies that there can be facts that are also allegations (or treated as allegations).

<comment><USER14> That's just poor wording. What it means is "Everything described as a fact in the complaint should be treated as an allegation."

Criminal complaints are written as if everything in them is a true fact, unlike, say, newspaper articles that use phrases like "the alleged thief."

For example, a newspaper article about this complaint would say things like "The FBI's criminal complaint alleges that..." \- even though the complaint itself states it as a fact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> One of the rules I live by: if I have to lie to a bank in order to accomplish a thing, I do not do that thing.

<comment> semi-extrinsic An example where you cannot avoid lying to a bank: if you move to the UK, banks require a proof of residence in the form of an electricity bill or similar with your name and new address on it. But the electricity company requires a UK bank account in order to send you the first bill. How do you break the loop? The easiest way is to fake an electricity bill.

<comment><USER6> 'The easiest way' is not the same as 'you cannot avoid lying'. If you are happy about taking an easy way when it involves crime, you are scum.

<comment><USER16> one time I forged an eyeglasses prescription

now that my soul is under new management, I no longer feel remorse for anything I do</comment></comment></comment></comment>


CloudFlare Enjoined from Aiding Infringers: Internet Unbroken - <AUTHOR> http://cpip.gmu.edu/2015/06/11/cloudflare-enjoined-from-aiding-infringers-internet-unbroken/

<comment><USER2> Ugh. This makes me too irrationally angry to properly respond. All browsers "aid us" in getting to websites. Are they culpable now too? (I know, I know, I shouldn't give them any ideas)

<comment><USER3> (Not a lawyer but) I'd suggest that a browser was a passive aid. Cloudflare were specifically called out as being actively aiding.

> The question was whether these acts were passive such that > CloudFlare was > not in "active concert or participation" > with the defendants. Judge Nathan > held that the services > CloudFlare provided to the defendants were anything > but > passive

That does lead into "is serving DNS for a domain actively aiding infringement?" which is much better question.

<comment><USER2> That's what made me angry- that CloudFlare's service would be considered "active". They weren't choosing to help aid infringement. They didn't see the content and go "ooh! let's stick it to the man!". They likely weren't even aware of the content itself and were just aware that another domain was using their service. The infringing individual signed up for their services and the legal services were provided. Or maybe I have that wrong?

I guess I framed my comment wrong when trying to hold back my rage :)

To clarify my thoughts about it, DNS / caching / optimizing to me is an infrastructure-like service. CF is not an ISP, but it is a in-between that simply provides services to help keep sites online and fast. CloudFlare is content-agnostic in this way.

I guess the weakness of my argument in that regard is that if CF is confronted with information showing that their service, even passively, is aiding illegal activity, and they refuse to intervene or investigate- that becomes a problem. Because even with the service being passive, it's still aiding (without intent), but their refusal to intervene makes it seem like they have some intent to continue aiding the activity.

Man, what a mess of words this turned out to be, sorry.</comment></comment></comment>


If you could meet one person that could help grow your business who would that be? - <AUTHOR> http://www.start-up.co.nz/if-you-could-meet-one-person-that-could-help-grow-your-business-who-would-that-be/

<comment><USER2> It would be better if you linked directly to the source(in this case, Seth Godin) than copy paste the entire text and drop a little "courtesy" note at the end of it.</comment>


Irish woman jailed for criminal damage to €1.50 crisps - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46371201 <comment><USER2> Every day I save a little more to leave this pathetic shithole of an island. It is an embarrassment that I cannot identify with and that I can no longer endure.

<comment><USER3> Being there, done that, still overseas.

Everytime I go back it is bitter sweet, I love my family, the fresh air, how green the place is, how much fun I have. Then after 3 days I realise it's just a bit bullshit and the island mentality and 'wink-and-a-nod' politics is insufferable.

Sure, everyone is super woke and wants to liberalise everything, but on a day to day basis the place is difficult to live in.

I saw this 6 years ago, it struck a chord with me, and I'm glad I thrust myself off into the world. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpvxG7S0rbs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpvxG7S0rbs)</comment></comment>


Bribing users for iPhone app installs - <AUTHOR> http://www.alexcurylo.com/blog/2010/09/05/bribe-for-install/

<comment><USER2> _However, we'd have to really, seriously, question whether people you get this way are going to stay engaged with your app long enough for there to conceivably be any positive value proposition attached to their acquisition._

That's been my response the last few times AdsReloaded has come up here.

I still can't for the life of me figure out a plausible scenario where a business would pay a user to install an iPhone app.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Full disclosure: I'm the owner of AdsReloaded.com but thought the article was A) Funny and B) provided some insight.

For iPhone developers out there... what have been your most successful/worst marketing campaigns? Would love to hear stories about cpc campaigns, blog posts, social media, or other unique strategies (both for other developers looking for advice and out of curiosity)</comment>


Can we make sense of the Malheur mess? - <AUTHOR> https://www.hcn.org/articles/malheur-occupation-oregon-ammon-bundy-public-lands-essay <comment> at-fates-hands If only people were as concerned about the BLM as they are about the NSA. . .</comment>


XDSD: EXtremely Distributed Software Development [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.xdsd.org/XDSD-WhitePaper.pdf <comment><USER3> So a company develops their own processes and tools for handling software development and lo and behold! THEY are successful! What a surprise!

Rather than looking at why open source software succeeds (amazing - <USER2> working on what they want to work on tends to yield good results) they should look at why actual software projects typically fail. It's all about people, process and tools - and the process and tools are not usually an issue.</comment>


Asking for a recommendation for an attorney and a CPA in WA - <AUTHOR>

Can somebody recommend an attorney that could review documents for an LLC and serve as a registered agent in the state of WA for reasonable price?<p>Also I would appreciate pointers to a good CPA. Ideally close to Seattle. <comment><USER2> You can find a local accountant on Teaspiller

[http://www.teaspiller.com/find-an- expert/?query=&locatio...](http://www.teaspiller.com/find-an- expert/?query=&location=seattle%2C+washington)

Disclaimer: I work there!</comment>


Sounds of 1950s New York City and More from Folkways Magazine (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sounds-of-1950s-new-york-city-and-more-from-folkways-magazine-10921330/ <comment><USER2> No audio in the linked article, but some of the recordings referenced can be found here:

[https://folkways.si.edu/magazine-fall- winter-2012-listening-...](https://folkways.si.edu/magazine-fall- winter-2012-listening-city/sounds/music/article/smithsonian)

</comment><comment><USER3> Search on "Spotify" for "Tony Schwartz". They have 5 of his albums up there.

Camptown Races

Tony Schwartz records the Sounds of Children

You're Stepping on my Shadow

The World in My Mailbox

Music in the Streets

</comment><comment><USER4> As I understand it, the idea was to put the whole collection online. I would love that, but I cannot find the pertaining link. Did I get it wrong?

<comment><USER5> Here are some samples from one of his albums

[https://folkways.si.edu/tony-schwartz/1-2-3-and-a-zing- zing-...](https://folkways.si.edu/tony-schwartz/1-2-3-and-a-zing-zing- zing/childrens/music/album/smithsonian)</comment></comment>


Foundations of Machine Learning Boot Camp - <AUTHOR> https://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/machinelearning2017-boot-camp <comment><USER2> At first I was confused why this was being posted _after_ the event. Turns out all the videos are now online and freely accessible from the lectures. Pretty cool!

</comment><comment><USER3> A word of caution - these talks are highly technical and theoretical and I don't recommend them for anyone looking to understand practical applications of ML. If, however, you're interested in intro to cutting edge work at the frontier of theoretical underpinnings of ML, this is a fabulous group talks from some of the sharpest academics in the field.

</comment><comment><USER4> For me, a tutorial implies that students will attempt to practice the skill and the instructor is there to help with the practical aspects, and explain how to solve actual problems. It has to be interactive, and it has to involve solving specific problems rather than just talking about general ideas.

I find it very confusing when I come across all these "tutorials" on deep learning, reinforcement learning, etc. They just seem to be general lectures without any actionable instructions or practical guidance.

Am I missing some part of what happens when I look at these recordings, or does the word "tutorial" mean something different in the ML community?

<comment><USER5> I think generally tutorial is a broader term than you're refering to. I've never really thought about it, but the first "php tutorials" and "javascript tutorials" I ever looked at were tutorials, so were the instructor-led practical machine learning classes at university.

Wikipedia says "A tutorial can be taken in many forms, ranging from a set of instructions to complete a task to an interactive problem solving session (usually in academia)." \- which seems to encompass everything from online tutorial explanations, to online video courses, to academia itself. That matches my experience with tutorials anyway.</comment></comment>


"I Contribute to the Windows Kernel. We Are Slower Than Other Operating Systems" - <AUTHOR> http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=74 <comment><USER2> Link appears to be dead.

Edit: [https://archive.is/o5Ev1](https://archive.is/o5Ev1)

</comment><comment><USER3> The post-script retraction is eerily familiar to today's news from DPRK. "Everything is almost wonderful, the previous statements were in utmost error."</comment>


Bypassing the Telegram authentication protocol [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://cert.inteco.es/extfrontinteco/img/File/intecocert/EstudiosInformes/INT_Telegram_EN.pdf

<comment><USER2> Full-Disclosure is recently flooded with dubious submissions like this one. The author proposes replacing the Telegram App with a trojanized version which he then proceeds to MITM. This is not a vulnerability, "it rather involves being on the other side of this airtight hatchway [1]."

[1] The Old New Thing has a slew of similar "exploits" and well-explained comments on why they're false. As they aren't properly tagged, I coulnd't find a nice link -- but the blog is fun to browse and read: [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/)

<comment><USER3> E.g. [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2006/05/08/59235...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2006/05/08/592350.aspx)

<comment><USER2> Thanks! This search query appears to catch most of 'em: [https://www.google.ch/search?q=site:blogs.msdn.com+intitle:%...](https://www.google.ch/search?q=site:blogs.msdn.com+intitle:%22it+rather+involved+being+on+the+other+side+of+this+airtight+hatchway%22&es_sm=91&biw=1266&bih=1026&noj=1&filter=0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> TL;DR version Telegram is completely open-source and has an open API. There is no PKI, so the public key of the Telegram is hard coded in the application.

An attacker could simply take the source code, change the server IP and public-key and has a working MITM, if he can somehow make the user install this one instead of the original.

<comment><USER5> As soon as you have "somehow make the user install this one instead of the original" as a step, nothing is safe from MITM attacks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The claim in the title is plain wrong, this is not a vulnerability in the authentication protocol itself.

Money quote:

      What should an attacker do to launch the attack?
      Briefly, he would have to change Telegram's public key (and the IP address,
      or perform a "live" spoofing attack), included in the client, and distribute
      the malicious client to the victim(s).

For comparison, this would be equivalent to editing entries in ~/.ssh/known_hosts of the victim and then make them use ssh to your server for a MITM attack. Or rather, if you get someone to use a manipulated SSH client, they are vulnerable. Would you consider this a flaw in the SSH authentication protocol?

</comment><comment><USER7> So he suggests to have users connect to (a) attacker's server (b) using attacker's public key for authentication.

That's from the same domain as planting a fake CA cert on the client and then proxying its SSL connections.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is BS</comment>


The Humvee's replacement: Oshkosh's L-ATV - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/meet-the-humvees-replacement-oshkoshs-l-atv/ <comment><USER2> I don't see how this can be a direct replacement. This is a much better vehicle for the HMMWV's combat role, but most of the time you actually use a HMMWV as a pickup truck with 8 soldiers sitting in the back driving around post. Does this mean that units will also get F-150s for driving around in the US?

<comment><USER3> " _This is a much better vehicle for the HMMWV 's combat role..._"

I'm not so sure about that. Exactly how is this thing "light"? I've heard too many horror stories about HMMWVs getting trapped in tight quarters in towns and the excitement of reversing a convoy under fire. If you need a tank, you need a _tank_ ; if you don't need a tank, you don't want a tank.

<comment><USER4> In today's wars, you almost certainly don't ever want a tank. If you want armor, you want a Stryker. I saw several soldiers lose their lives in M1 Abrams tank, and not a single in a Stryker during combat. Due to the extremely large mufflers that run the length of both sides, the Strykers are so quiet and they are fast enough that by the time they are upon you, you don't know it. In Mosul, our unit was known as the Ghost Riders by the locals due to them never knowing we were there until we were right up on them. The only soldiers we lost in a Stryker while I was in country (03-04) was one that flipped off a bridge and went face down in river mud. They were trapped inside :(

On the other hand, the Abrams tanks suffered many casualties as it is very loud and slow moving. Insurgents have time to emplace IEDs or (worse!) EFPs which with enough 120mm artillery shells, will quite trivially take out a tank at close range. The slow moving heavy armor of the cold war doesn't work in today's asymetric warfare. Here is a slightly photoshopped picture of a Stryker I took at the Palace in Mosul: [http://www.digitalprognosis.com/album/images/iraqpics/the- st...](http://www.digitalprognosis.com/album/images/iraqpics/the-stryker.jpg) Note the bird cage armor which stops RPGs cold.

Source: I was US Army and am a vet of OIF II (UAV Platoon D Troop 1-14 Cavalry 4th Brigade 2nd Infantry Division) in country around 2003-2004 (during the Fallujah offensive)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "The L-ATV can be transported by heavy-lift helicopter or by the Marine Corps' landing craft, but it's a much bigger payload than the Hummer, with a curb weight nearly three times that of the older vehicle: about 14,000 pounds, compared to the Humvee's 5,900 pounds."

and

"But the L-ATV also has better fuel efficiency than the Humvee, and its suspension system allows for 70 percent faster off-road speeds."

What the heck?!? It weighs almost 3x as much but gets better gas mileage?

Glad they are buying something that deals well with IEDs.

<comment><USER6> I believe it's a hybrid. My company makes fuel tanks for the current M-ATV from Oshkosh. Working on bids to make the tanks for this one too.

<comment><USER7> There's a diesel-electric transmission option[0], but I'm not sure there's much capacity for battery-only operation so calling it a hybrid is a stretch. It allows the ATV to double as a hefty generator (120kW AC) for field ops which is pretty cool.

[0] [http://oshkoshdefense.com/components/propulse/](http://oshkoshdefense.com/components/propulse/)

<comment><USER6> The wiki directly states that the "hybrid" engine accounts for a 35% increase in efficiency.

Does it need to be able to run in all electric to be considered a hybrid?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshkosh_L- ATV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshkosh_L-ATV)

<comment><USER7> > Does it need to be able to run in all electric to be considered a hybrid?

Well I'd say so, using multiple power sources is what makes a hybrid vehicle hybrid. If it must always use the ICE, it just has an electric transmission rather than a mechanical one.

<comment><USER8> > If it must always use the ICE, it just has an electric transmission rather > than a mechanical one.

I would respectfully disagree. When an engine is asked for WOT most of the time they throw fuel economy to the wind and give it max power bar none. You might spend 50% more fuel for 10% more power versus 90% throttle.

If you have a 3kWh battery bank then you can eliminate this really wasteful special case and use the batteries as very, very short term power source to get the vehicle up to speed quickly. 3kWh discharged in 3 minutes is 60kW which is an extra 50-75HP depending on your driveline efficiency. And then when you're not flooring it you can run the engine a bit harder and quickly recharge the battery bank for the next surge.

Just because you're not running off of batteries for an hour doesn't make it not a hybrid. If you use the batteries for even just 10-15 seconds in particularly fuel-wasteful engine conditions to eliminate them, that totally qualifies as hybrid.

<comment><USER7> > Just because you're not running off of batteries for an hour doesn't make it > not a hybrid. If you use the batteries for even just 10-15 seconds in > particularly fuel-wasteful engine conditions to eliminate them, that totally > qualifies as hybrid.

That means any KERS or regenerative braking[0] qualifies the machine it's a component of as a hybrid, it completely devaluates the word and makes it entirely meaningless.

[0] unless it stores back in the same place?

<comment><USER8> If you have regenerative braking most of the time that's electric, so you've got a motor/generator and some kind of energy storage. To me hybrid means that you have a _gas /electric hybrid drivetrain_ not that it runs off of batteries for an amount of time that you feel is long enough.

Good regenerative brakes probably have to be at least 50-100HP otherwise they don't offer very much braking effect. And that would mean that they can offer a substantial boost during acceleration too. And that can substantially alter the fuel economy of a vehicle.

Since you don't like my definition of hybrid, and you think it devalues the word (despite being completely in line with the Wikipedia definition) why don't you at least offer your definition. This isn't a conversation at the moment, just you shitting on things that you don't like and complaining.

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

<comment><USER7> > If you have regenerative braking most of the time that's electric

That's just a confirmation of my footnote not an answer to my question. Is an F1 with KERS or a truck with hydraulic regenerative braking a hybrid?

> not that it runs off of batteries for an amount of time that you feel is > long enough.

That I agree with actually.

> Since you don't like my definition of hybrid, and you think it devalues the > word (despite being completely in line with the Wikipedia definition) why > don't you at least offer your definition.

That it can use its power sources independently.

<comment><USER8> > That it can use its power sources independently.

I would suspect that all hybrids can use their power sources independently, to some degree. But is that degree useful.

What you're calling a "hybrid" is really more of a "dual fuel" vehicle, not a hybrid. Because in your mind, if it can't run completely 100% off of EITHER power source at any one time, it's not a hybrid. But that's not how most of the world defines hybrid.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I just drove up through WI a couple days ago and saw trailer after trailer of Oshkosh vehicles being shipped out. I saw a new one never seen before, not this L-ATV. It looked like something out of Mad Max. It looked like it had a single seat, cockpit up high, very narrow with big wheels. Can't find it on their products listing or wiki though.I saw quite a few of them too.

Is there a list of new Army vehicles being put into service I can find?

<comment><USER10> > not this L-ATV. It looked like something out of Mad Max. It looked like it > had a single seat, cockpit up high, very narrow with big wheels.

Probably a Husky 2G. They are tandem two seaters used for mine/IED detection and disposal.

<comment><USER9> Yep that looks like it. Thanks!

Looks like they're built by a company in SC so it's weird they were heading out of Oshkosh.

<comment><USER10> Defense contractors aren't the most efficient manufacturers. Wouldn't surprise me if they shipped the vehicle from SC to Oshkosh to have the tires installed. But it was probably some of the mine detection equipment. They usually ship parts or vehicles all over in the process of manufacturing. For example, a microprocessor component might go through about 20 different organizations after it is originally purchased, getting modifications from each, before being installed in the final project. Makes source determination near impossible when there is a defect.

EDIT: The Pearson Engineering PEROCC is pretty cool too. Adds a third seat for a gunner.

<comment><USER9> That is interesting. When I was a machinist and worked on sub components the material had to be able to be traced back to the mine that it came from. You would think something like a microprocessor would have the same level of checks.

<comment><USER10> > You would think something like a microprocessor would have the same level of > checks.

Yeah, the chips themselves are easy, but some chips get programmed along the food chain at different steps and if there is an issue everyone assumes it isn't because of their piece.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11>
      Army Program Executive Office Combat Support & Combat Service Support Chief

...what a title

</comment><comment><USER12> More details at wikipedia - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshkosh_L- ATV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshkosh_L-ATV)

<comment><USER7> And on the manufacturer's website: [http://oshkoshdefense.com/vehicles/l-atv/](http://oshkoshdefense.com/vehicles/l-atv/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Lol, they'll end up buying this thing just in time for the next major operation to be in a flat urban environment with narrow passes.

<comment><USER14> The Humvee isn't exactly a thin vehicle either. They're the same width judging by the pictures below, which makes sense because they were designed to fit on the same aircraft.

[http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/1108/41601cd795da32c9c...](http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/1108/41601cd795da32c9c1cb.jpeg)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/JL...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/JLTV_Gallery_2.jpg/800px- JLTV_Gallery_2.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Can any one point to the troop carrying capacity of these, all I can find is tonnage.

Seems more like a wheeled fighting vehicle than a multi purpose utility vehicle.

<comment><USER16> Yesterday's HN article on the topic said two versions, seating 2 and 4 occupants.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> $396K each

<comment><USER12> That's for the base model. They add $1M in gear to each of these.

<comment><USER18> oh, you wanted seats and a steering wheel? What about the underbody coating....

<comment><USER19> Don't leave out the gold package.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


If you have a pizza with radius z and thickness a, its volume is pi*z*z*a. - <AUTHOR>

If you have a pizza with radius z and thickness a, its volume is pi<i>z</i>z*a. <comment><USER2> Math nerds. _chortle_ My sister is a 9th grade math teacher - she will appreciate. Thanks for the chuckle :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Good laugh early in the morning, thanks!

</comment><comment><USER4> very nice :)</comment>


Show HN: Framework-Agnostic React Hooks for Query Parameters - <AUTHOR> https://www.npmjs.com/package/gatsby-query-params <comment><USER2> GPL v3

<comment><USER3> Sadly, this is a deal-breaker for most commercial applications...</comment></comment>


We built an app for tweetstorming - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.writerack.android

<comment><USER2> Talking about making life easier, this app has automated the whole process of tweetstorming without interruption. My best feature is the ability to preview my tweetstorm before posting. Kudos to Fonebase Labs.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow. I like the design.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Let me know if you guys have any questions. It is a product we built at our company. It is NOT a startup. We think it is pretty useful though.</comment>


Ask HN: Our government is spying on us. What are we going to do? - <AUTHOR>

Over the past several weeks, HN has been full of articles, comments, and links discussing Edward Snowden's revelations, but I have yet to see any real ideas, suggestions, or action on how we, as citizens, can prevent our government from doing something like this (in secret or openly) again in the future. This community is full of some of the most creative problem solvers in the world who love to disrupt the status quo. What are some of your ideas? <comment><USER2>
           No, no, go not to Tor, neither private mode,

                  Nor duck-duck-go the tight-rooted, for its secretive wine;

           Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd

                  By anti-cloud sentiment, ruby grape prose of NSA;

                          Make not your rosary in tinfoil hats,

                  Nor let the politicians, the doomsayers-media be

                          Your mournful Psyche. The downy social media

           A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;

                  For shade to shade will come too drowsily,

                          And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

           But when the melancholy fit shall fall

                  Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,

           That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,

                  And hides the green hill in an April shroud;

           Then glut thy sorrow on a morning HN,

                  Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-reddit,

                          Or on the wealth of globed nerds from afar;

           Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,

                  Imprison her harsh hand, and let her rave,

                          And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

           She dwells with Government—Government that must die;

                  And NSA, whose hand is ever at his lips

           Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,

                  Turning to poison while the lying-mouth sips:

           Ay, in the very temple of Delight

                  Veiled Melancholy has her sovereign shrine,

                          Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue

                  Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;

           His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,

                          And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

(Originally By John Keats)

</comment><comment><USER3> Things like this don't make great revolutions. People won't care enough. People need to see a real threat to their lives before you can get an uprising. They have to be hungry or homeless or in some kind of actual pain.

Being spied on sucks. I don't want it to happen to me or you. But in the end, the government is only infringing on what it, itself, established as our rights. It keeps the economy moving along just enough to keep food on our tables and roofs over our heads and thus keeps us, in large, satisfied enough to stay home and not fight them.

There are other countries which don't even have a false promise of privacy. Some whose citizens don't eat daily and whose lives are constantly threatened. These are the countries which have unrest. They fight their governments and ultimately cause real change. We have had those situations here in the past. Privacy wasn't what caused it.

You can "#restorethefourth" if you want but it will be like most first world protests. You'll wrap up around 7, go to your comfy homes, eat dinner and sleep feeling completely secure and you'll dare not do anything to screw that up.

</comment><comment><USER4> crowdfund a new political party with pro bill of rights, anti-corporatist smaller government platform

specific prohibitions for fourth amendment abuses

better whistle blower protecting legislation

supporting constitutional amendments for all of the following; ending corporate personhood, enacting real campaign finance reform, restoring Glass Steagall)

breaking up all too big to fail corporations

when enough money or risk to life is involved making it a capital offense/ treason to: supply false testimony to congress or government regulators, etc, or to disseminate false information to the public or business (eg LIBOR distortions), or to unnecessarily make classified any such information

smaller, better government through 'government as a service' Govt 2.0 ideas (see g.g. Lessig), testing legislators on content of bills before they can vote on them, line item vetoes

This party would recruit its candidates (not accept those who nominate themselves) through a computerized equivalent of the way honeybees choose a new nest (see Sealey Honeybee Democracy). Candidates would have to have a track record of volunteer service and a minimum history of published political writing addressing actual legislation - (likely drawing heavily on bloggers and academics).

<comment><USER5> > specific prohibitions for fourth amendment abuses

Not to be coy, but wouldn't that be the Fourth Amendment itself?

Or do you mean to explicitly expand what the Fourth is believed to cover?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The solution is not in technology, although I suspicion it will be the geeks that will move this forward. I've already laid out a plan at my site unfetteredspeech.com. The following url will take you directly to the plan: [http://unfetteredspeech.com/?page_id=737](http://unfetteredspeech.com/?page_id=737) Live Free...PubliusX

</comment><comment><USER7> Do we use politics or technology to fix this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Politics doesn't seem to be working. I'm thinking technology. Our Primary Election system seems to be broken. It's dominated by extremists from both parties, and rarely reported on in the mainstream media. The media also tends to give the most coverage to the most extreme candidates, because they're the most interesting (and thus get the most viewers). It seems that a system could be developed using social media that allowed you to nominate those you know personally for office (using Facebook, Twitter, etc), and give the nominees a platform (blog, webpage, money-raising features) to discuss their views if they decided to run. This would at least move the vetting of primary candidates to a crowd-sourced model vs the media, which is struggling financially, doing most of the vetting.

<comment><USER7> I won't comment on the feasibility of your suggestion, but you're proposing to use technology to solve a political problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess it starts with how we define the problem. Edward Snowden whistle- blowing to the press is a problem, for the NSA. The government using the NSA to spy on us is a problem, for us. The lack of qualified candidates running for office who won't spy on us is a problem, for us.

Technology makes our lives better by solving problems. Defining this as a political problem is only limits the solutions we can come up with. Obviously the U.S. Government doesn't have any problem using technology for political purposes. As citizens, why shouldn't we?

I'm not anymore sure than you if my suggestion is feasible, but my point is to at least throw some ideas out there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you can't beat them, join them, turn in that weird person today.

</comment><comment><USER9> Nothing, because no one gives a shit.

Stop flattering yourself, no one is reading your facebook messages or emails.

<comment><USER10> Damn, you must be one hell of a guy! I am so happy people like you are around to give great advice!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> #restorethefourth pick a city near you and go protest. It's time you did something real. restorethefourth.net</comment>