Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1 - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/+GoogleAds/posts/2PmwKinJ7nj <comment><USER3> For anyone interested in the definition of "essential", see the source code:

[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/content/renderer/pepper/plugin_instance_throttler_impl.cc) (See constants)

and

[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/content/renderer/pepper/plugin_power_saver_helper.cc) (See ShouldThrottleContent)

TLDR, essential content is either:

1) On the same domain as the page

2) Considered "Large" (at least 298 x 398, certain aspect ratio, minimum total area), with an exception for tiny content (likely transport plugins).

<comment><USER4> The only other regular 'tiny content' thing I can think of is ZeroClipboard (which puts an invisible flash movie over a button so you can click 'copy') as Javascript clipboard actions still aren't broadly supported [2].

ZeroClipboard is used by Github and lots of other sites for the little buttons next to repo URLs, etc.

1 - [https://github.com/zeroclipboard/zeroclipboard](https://github.com/zeroclipboard/zeroclipboard) 2 - [http://caniuse.com/#search=clipboard](http://caniuse.com/#search=clipboard)

<comment><USER5> Github somehow manages to copy stuff to the clipboard with flash player disabled - apparently it's using the new HTML5 clipboard API.

<comment><USER6> IIRC ZeroClipboard falls back to flash if you're not using a browser with the new clipboard APIs.

<comment><USER7> But this problem is irrelevant, since all versions of Chrome that block flash will have this API, not?

<comment><USER8> But that's irrelevent anyway, as Chrome wouldn't block ~tiny~ flash plugins used by the clipboard transport.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The irony is that while they recommend converting ads to html5 (or auto convert them with swiffy), the performance goes to shit as well, arguably even worse than flash would have been, at least on mobile.

\- [http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/25/google-now- automatically-c...](http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/25/google-now- automatically-converts-flash-ads-to-html5/)

\- [https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=467709](https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=467709)

\- [https://plus.google.com/+ArtemRussakovskii/posts/MtcZGJprWje](https://plus.google.com/+ArtemRussakovskii/posts/MtcZGJprWje)

<comment><USER10> Just out of curiosity - could there be issues other than just performance here? For ex., could it be that Flash based ads can identify user/device contributing to privacy issues?

<comment><USER11> Flash also has a ton of vulnerabilities and a huge codebase, and according to Apple, caused a ton of crash reports from their computers.

<comment><USER12> TBH if a Flash crash or any other user space application crash causes a system crash it's an issue with the OS. Steve Jobs at the time said that every time MacOS crashes it's more often than not Flash's fault, which wasn't really true and would only speak "wonders" of how well MacOS isolates user space applications...

On the security issues it's some what true because the nature of Flash, applications like these are almost impossible to sandbox properly unless you have an operating system that sandboxes everything by default.

Flash it self these days is pretty much code execution as a service it can do pretty much everything you want some browsers sandbox it better than others but it's still intended to pull code from the ether and run it and when you have a setup like that you will never be able to limit it effectively. Flash can be phased out only because it's mostly used to play various forms of media, but any other use of it cannot be converted to HTML5.

If Javascript (as it's parsed and executed in browsers) will ever get to the point of being as flexible and powerfull as Flash is today you'll see browser based RCE vulnerabilities skyrocket also, JS is safe to use only because the browsers restrict it, Flash and AIR are intended to support everything from an animated ad to a full desktop application.

Just look at Node.JS (and many NoSQL DB's that used JS) in it's early years almost every (non-DOM based) cross-site scripting vulnerability in a Node.JS application could result in remote code execution on the server, even today you can still easily cause it if you don't handle the code properly one stupid eval in your node code which was there for lazy debugging can lead to your box getting owned in minutes.

<comment> Arcanum-XIII They're not system crash but application crash, both are reported on MacOS X. So no, Flash didn't crash the OS, only apps like Safari, Firefox or Chrome. Isn't it enough ?

<comment><USER12> >They're not system crash but application crash, both are reported on MacOS X. So no, Flash didn't crash the OS, only apps like Safari, Firefox or Chrome. Isn't it enough ?

That wasn't what Apple (Steve Jobs) claimed... [1]"Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, the world is moving to HTML5." Also Flash doesn't crash Chrome, doesn't crash FF for ages either. No clue about Safari the quote was debunked by everyone, even Apple backtracked on it to a more "we meant Safari in certain cases" type of statement. we can all move along.

[1][http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/steve-jobs- unleashes-...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/steve-jobs-unleashes- his-fury-during-town-hall-meeting/)

<comment><USER13> I doubt it's worth picking over all that stuff Jobs said about Flash - it was FUD top to bottom. I mean, in his famous letter he flamed Flash for being closed even as iOS locked people into a single browser, flamed it for being nonstandard while Apple pushed out Safari-only web pages [1] and weird quicktime extensions, etc. He even called out Adobe for being late to adopt Cocoa even though core Apple apps hadn't migrated yet.

So, the language about crashes may have had more or less basis in reality, but it's not as if Jobs was concerned with nuance and details.

[1] [http://www.infoq.com/news/2010/06/apple- html5-gallery](http://www.infoq.com/news/2010/06/apple-html5-gallery)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I can already disable flash ads. Good luck disabling HTML 5 ads without browser plugins support.

<comment><USER15> I've gotten high mileage by blocking OVPs directly. I'm advocating doing this to encourage video providers to _NOT_ enable autoplay on video.

        0.0.0.0			www.autofixinfo.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			c.brightcove.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			player.theplatform.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			link.theplatform.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ci-2862d2c8d6-68f418d2.http.atlas.cdn.yimg.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			video-img2.thedailymeal.net	# Autoplay audio
        0.0.0.0			ht1.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht2.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht3.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht4.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht5.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht6.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht7.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht8.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
        0.0.0.0			ht9.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video

Protip: install dnsmasq which allows you to block entire domains rather than listing hosts independently.

(Note: corrected s/VPN/OVP, see followup.)

<comment><USER16> Firefox provides the "media.autoplay.enabled" setting, which can be disabled. It's a very difficult setting to implement correctly, but it works most of the time. The larger trouble is that many websites, including YouTube, expect autoplay to work and act slightly wonky when it doesn't.

Edit: Have some bug links

Original reporter suggesting the setting should apply to HTML5 media. Includes a very long discussion of the problem and why it's difficult: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=659285](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=659285)

Bug about websites that assume autoplay works, marked invalid because those websites shouldn't(?) make that assumption: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1173848](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1173848)

<comment><USER17> Thank you!

> act slightly wonky when it doesn't.

I would hope so. Autoplay videos are fraught with discrimination: "live in a country where bandwidth is expensive? Fuck you, have an autoplay video."

I hope browsers move toward having autoplay as default "off" in the future.

<comment><USER18> I visited a site that was linked here recently and they not only had an autoplaying video, there was no way to pause it or stop it. The only option was to mute the video, while it still played.

Horrible. That's why people use ad blockers.

<comment><USER15> My canonical example is a PC World page on killing video autoplay ... with an autoplay video:

[https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/CQAJEyHG...](https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/CQAJEyHG9qb)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I use chrome with all plugins disabled unless I right-click to run them, and the only one that I regularly have to enable is the PDF viewer. I find it a much more enjoyable (and faster) browser experience and have no need for an ad blocker because flash ads are the only ones that really annoy me. I think it's a great idea to disable non-essential flash by default.

<comment><USER20> Isn't part of the point here that flash ads are mostly going to migrate to HTML5 and then having click-to-run on flash won't be blocking hardly any ads?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've had pretty much zero consequences from disabling Flash globally in all my browsers.

Where is Flash still essential?

<comment><USER22> I've been disabling by default for a few weeks, though many sites still use it, for example:

      - Facebook (videos)
      - Twitter (bizarrely uses it for gifs in Firefox)
      - <USER2>
      - BBC news
      - The Independent and most of UK press
      - Basically any site with embedded video
      - even github prompts because of that copy+paste feature

I have no interest in Flash games or adverts, so it's annoying that these big sites all still use Flash.

<comment><USER23> Flash-less Youtube works well for me for at least a year now. Vimeo required more effort but also used to work.

Many embedded videos often don't, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Url changed from [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/28/google_says_flash_ad...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/28/google_says_flash_ads_out_september/), which points to this.

</comment><comment><USER25> I think this is actually a benefit for consumers, but this just seems like an invitation to an antitrust suit.

</comment><comment><USER26> So... can somebody explain what the difference between "essential" and "non- essential" Flash content is, and how Chrome can tell the difference?

<comment><USER19> According to the article, it's based on whether it's the "main" object on the page. Size and centeredness both play a role, I'd guess.

<comment><USER15> So, say, a browser plugin which renamed "main" elements to, oh, say, "notmain", would have the effect of killing autoplay.

Though for Flash that's already possible. It's HTML5 that's bugging the shit out of me now.

<comment><USER27> For Chrome: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable- html5-auto...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable- html5-autoplay/efdhoaajjjgckpbkoglidkeendpkolai?hl=en)

For Firefox, I think you can just set media.autoplay.enabled = false in about:config.

<comment><USER15> Thanks, I'd not seen an HTML5 video blocker previously.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> "Google's reasoning for the move is largely performance-based, apparently"

Now if only they can start optimizing Chrome urgently, that'd be just great!

<comment><USER29> > "Google's reasoning for the move is largely performance-based, apparently"

Yeah, because WebGL never crashes the browser (not even the kind of small demos that seems to be all it's used for).

<comment><USER30> I've been developing WebGL content for the past 18 months and, so far, it hasn't crashed from any WebGL issues. And that's with my code which is pretty awful most of the time.

<comment><USER12> I've had WebGL crashes quite often on YouTube. Allot of the WebGL demos are also either forcing a WebGL crash from time to time or just hang browsers due to performance. You can say allot about Flash but atm it's performance and stability are better than WebGL in it's current state.

The problem with WebGL is that it pretty much inherited the mess of OpenGL every driver version on every GPU can implement different feature set of it (similar to the extension mess of OpenGL in Nvidia and ATI minidrivers at the time) which results in Browsers having to maintain blacklist/whitelists[1] for a very large array of hardware and software combinations (Chrome currently isn't maintaining a driver version based list other than a cut off date for certain drivers which also causes problems if you are running old hardware and the best drivers for it are considered out of date by Google).

WebGL it self is also not implemented in the same manner across different browsers Chrome and FF for example have quite a different blacklist/whitelist for WebGL, I don't know if this because of different in browser implementation or because of they are simply encountering different issues and adjusting accordingly.

The worse thing I've encountered so far is WebGL on switchable graphics (e.g. Nvidia Optimus) enabled laptops, some features might switch the GPU arbitrarily even mid execution which causes the whole thing to implode..

[1][https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/gpu/+/master/...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/gpu/+/master/config/software_rendering_list_json.cc)

Whats worse is that WebGL can actually crash your graphics driver and if it's bad enough than Windows can't recover the kernel mode driver it's a complete kernel panic. This doesn't happen often but if you want to do it you can do it sadly too easily, Chrome/FF chase known DOS cases with WebCL quite well but they really don't catch all of them and if that feature isn't blacklisted for your setup well you can crash a machine with a single pixel draw ;)

And the introduction of WebCL would probably lead to some of the nastiest RCE vulnerabilities you can imagine soon enough you are allowing people to execute general purpose code directly on the metal and interact with Kernel mode components. There are already GPU rootkits out there soon enough they'll find an infection vector trough WebGL or WebCL and it will be a very unpleasant period.

<comment><USER31> Chrome & FF do not use OpenGL drivers on Windows, they translate to DirectX using Angle: [https://code.google.com/p/angleproject/](https://code.google.com/p/angleproject/)

<comment><USER12> I didn't say they use OpenGL, the WebGL implementation on Windows is trickey since there is no OpenGL mini driver so native support is implemented a bit differently it's only matters who does the translation (GPU driver, vs Browser).

Also are you sure they still use ANGLE by default? Both Chrome and FF had the ability to enable native support years ago using –use-gl=desktop for Chrome or webgl.prefer-native-gl for FF, 2-3 years ago that was the only way of getting any reasonable performance out of them..

But even with ANGLE, WebGL feature implementation is still not consistent across hardware and drivers (Graphic drivers treat DX like one would treat a 5 year old, they'll hear it and do what they want ;)) from even a single vendor yet alone across the 3 desktop and 3-4 mobile GPU vendors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Embrace, extend, extinguish? I remember when Chrome first integrated Flash into its browser rather than requiring it to be a separate install.

<comment><USER33> > Embrace, extend, extinguish?

Only the 3rd properly applies to Chrome and Flash. Chrome didn't embrace an API they could extend; they shipped a plugin providing an ~ABI of a foreign/closed API then still had to make atomic decisions like this one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I got plugins disabled by default in Chrome for ages now (right click run plugin when needed).

Before that on FF i had an add on that disabled autorun for flash also (very similar to how chrome does it with plugins gotta right click to load it).

But if Google does it only for none Google adnetworks that's going to be a huge lawsuit. The article doesn't really clarify why would it work on Google own networks because they convert to HTML5 or because they will white list their own stuff.

TBH we could've gotten rid of Flash years ago, Google was actually a big supporter for Flash, it was very important for them at some point in time, Google Chat, Gmail Extensions, Google Wave, and most importantly getting high bit rate video on YouTube off the ground (DXVA, OpenGL support was critical for YouTube and every other streaming site out-there), and heck Google promoted Flash on Android until JB as their big gotcha over Apple..

<comment> dao-

      But if Google does it only for none Google adnetworks that's going to be a huge lawsuit. The article doesn't really clarify why would it work on Google own networks because they convert to HTML5 or because they will white list their own stuff.

It's because their ad network converts stuff, at least that's the only way I can read these sentences:

      Google said advertisers who are worried about having their ads switched off should consider converting their Flash artwork to HTML5. According to the cyber-goliath, "most Flash ads uploaded to [Google] AdWords are automatically converted to HTML5."
      So, in other words, if you're not on Google's ad network, you're locked out of Chrome – unless you also switch to HTML5 artwork.

<comment><USER34> You don't need to be on Google's ad network to use swiffy (the conversion tool that they are using), it's open source.

<comment><USER35> Is the conversion tool actually open source? The Swiffy Wikipedia page says "There is a server-side component (source currently not public) that converts SWF to an intermediate representation serialized as JSON.".

<comment><USER34> Oh sorry, I was thinking of shumway. Swiffy isn't open source, but it is _free_ at least, so third party ad networks can still use it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Wish they would do this for animated GIFs...

</comment><comment><USER37> Is this anti competitive?

<comment><USER38> That occurred to me, too. It certainly hurts any competing ad networks who don't have a Flash-to-HTML5 converter ready.

On the other hand, I think Chrome is the only major browser that ships with the ability to play Flash, so one could argue that it is just altering the benefit that Google has been providing to all Flash providers for years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Good riddance.

Sometimes I forget to turn ad-block back on after testing stuff. Thanks Google.

<comment><USER15> Tip: use different user profiles. A "stock", "raw", or "testing" profile for unfiltered use.

Though better sandboxing would be my choice.

<comment><USER39> Wouldn't switching between different profiles be the same effort as enabling/disabling?

<comment><USER15> Extensions are specific to profiles. Rather than toggle a bunch of extensions on and off, just switch profiles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> but will continue to autoplay html5 ads provided by Google ad network? Or does Google ad network explicitly prohibit auto play?

</comment><comment><USER41> This is awesome!!! Now no more unwanted stuff while browsing.

</comment><comment><USER42> I hope that Google takes the next, bigger step and kills its YouTube Flash player. The HTML5 one is superior in almost every way and so many browsers now support HTML5[1]. It would be a really meaningful statement. This is just a bit 'meh'.

[1] [http://html5readiness.com/](http://html5readiness.com/)

<comment><USER43> What irritates me is that flash is required for google music. I really like google music over all the other radio services, plus I have some music in my lib, but I've resorted to just looking up albums on youtube. If it's an absolute must have for some technical reason, a desktop client would be nice as an alternative.

<comment><USER44> In GM settings, you can opt in for HTML5 audio. I have been using it for more than a year, it works extremely well.

<comment><USER43> Thanks for this. I'm not sure why they wouldn't use a fallback mechanism instead of making this an explicit setting?

Edit: This is strange. I went to change the setting and it is greyed out and cannot be changed. This is in both chrome AND firefox. Both are up to date with most recent version, and my macbook was bought this year. Neither have adblockers enabled.

<comment><USER44> It is indeed strange, I have been using this option for some time. Works like a charm on 2015 mbps, as well as older ones. There is maybe an issue with your specific model ? That might also explain why it is not a default yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Taking Flash away is always a good new for privacy and security :) Anyway, is not sufficient.

Why would google take a good but not sufficient approach?

IMO because of marketing issues: get some hackers and tech savvy people to evangelize that they are improving their privacy issues. I suppose google doesn't need flash/super cookies, "so lets take them out, we look good, and we still have the same entropy to get to know the user"

</comment><comment><USER46> Chrome has invented Flashblock (2004) :)

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

</comment><comment><USER47> > "essential" Flash content (such as embedded video players) are allowed to > automatically run, while non-essential Flash content, much of that being > advertisements, will be automatically paused.

Can't we just throw out all flash?

<comment><USER48> > Can't we just throw out all flash?

Way too much stuff needs it. For example fun little browser games. For example [http://www.kongregate.com/](http://www.kongregate.com/) [http://www.miniclip.com/](http://www.miniclip.com/) [http://www.friv.com/](http://www.friv.com/)

At least in my browser (Firefox on Linux) flash plays better than html5 for video.

<comment><USER49> +1 for this. Another example would be live streaming. yy.com comes to my mind right now, it's fully flash and used by millions of users. gaming.youtube.com does Flash too on Firefox, not to mention all of the adult streaming sites. Funny how everyone is asking for Flash to just disapear, if it had never been around we'd all be screaming for a plugin that makes all the above possible.

<comment><USER47> No, we wouldn't scream for a plugin making that possible, but we'd scream for a web standard.

We already have a way to transmit two-way video live in browsers (WebRTC).

It should be not to hard to use the codecs existing for that to make a one-way live streaming in browsers.

<comment><USER49> Well, WebRTC is indeed a way, but it's very far from a standard - Chrome and FF supporting it only - and has some issues. It's difficult to do multi- casting with it and eats up a ton of CPU resources. If it were scaleable and usable one of these multi-million dollar businesses would adopt it by now don't you think? I haven't seen anyone pick it up.

<comment><USER47> Yes, we need some additional standards to build upon it, but at least the decoders exist in Chrome, Firefox and Safari on all modern platforms.

If someone would add a small standard extension (like Microsoft originally suggested) to allow for one-way streams, we could do livestreaming over it, too.

Preferably even make it seamless – allow pointing a video element to a livestream source.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google News forget once again my preferred news list :-/ - <AUTHOR> Sometimes I think Google is made of best of the best coder of the planet, maybe that is right, but they are certainly not part of the news.google.com project. For the second time they just loose all my preferred type of news <comment><USER2> Well it strikes me as well that some simple parts of Google proposition with their proud impact on hiring the best, smartest programmers and implementing cutting-edge AI work so poorly.

* I have stopped using Google News and suggested articles because it is such a downhill slope. You get lower and lower quality news sources (I am always thinking Google simply gets more revenues from crap echo news sites) and less and less relevant to your interests.

* Google having so much data on me for so long should be aware that I am male. However Google Keyboard keeps suggesting female forms when I type. Even if they weren't aware of my gender the suggestion engine should learn that quickly simply noticing that I am rejecting female form.

* Google Maps loves to show results from the other side of the planet rather then something less relevant but close to my location.

I could keep going.

</comment><comment> noah-kun Google is actually very bad at everything.</comment>


Xmas at YHacker...  - <AUTHOR>

I just noticed the pretty colors. Thanks for the holiday spirit PG! <comment><USER2> My eyes are still readjusting but thanks for the prettiness indeed.</comment>


Lenovo splits the Think brand into a separate group - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/05/lenovo-business-group-think-business-group/ <comment><USER3> I think this is a good idea. Thinkpads have evolved to a point where - regardless of IBM or Lenovo being the brand behind the product line - the name is a synonym of dependability and quality. I think that by separating the brand from the rest of the Lenovo pack, and giving it it's own two feet they might steal quite a bit of Apple's customers.

I went from my own homemade machines, to exclusively Apple hardware, to owning a t420 (wanted the old keyboard). I'm in the process of leaving the Apple ecosystem and going back to Linux (Arch to be specific) because I dislike the direction Apple is going (the Mac App Store was the inflection point that made me want to leave). The Thinkpad brand was the obvious choice because of upgradeability, quality, dependency, and the fact that they make some of the best laptops for Linux. Even better than Zareason and system 76 hardware IMO. Making the perfect business computing tools AND at the same time the perfect Linux portable hardware is a big plus in my book. Even more than unibody pieces of aluminum and the retina bs that while commendable to a point, I've found is more of a nuisance than anything else.

Anyways, Lenovo earned a customer by keeping the Thinkpad brand alive and maintaining it's quality standards. Any step to make the brand _better_ is AOK with me.

<comment><USER4> I feel the same way. The ThinkPad is the only computer that could potentially tempt me away from my MacBook. So far I'm stuck to OS X though (dreaming of Arch minimalism).

<comment><USER5> Arch is a maintenance nightmare if you want to be productive.

<comment><USER6> I'm puzzled by this comment. Arch values elegance, code correctness, and minimalism. Initially Arch installs a very minimal base system, and package management is done via rolling release.

Perhaps you should explain exactly how Arch is a "maintenance nightmare."

<comment><USER7> When I used Arch last year, they also regularly break things in ways that require manual fixes every month or so. So don't dare update without first reading the news, lest you end up with a broken system and no way to find out why it broke. Stick with Debian or Ubuntu if its your main laptop OS.

<comment><USER8> Personally Ubuntu's 6 month release update always break things for me. Most people I know usually just reinstall when a new version comes.

<comment><USER9> Considering that they have LTS versions if you have slightly older hardware (12.04 is supported for 5 years), you aren't forced to upgrade.

I've been using Ubuntu since Breezy and every upgrade I haven't had a problem. I use it on many of my machines (apart from my laptop due to Bumblebee) and have had no issues with the 6 month updates, but I usually stay on the LTS versions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great idea.

This will save the following thing happening again and again:

1\. Someone asks me for a laptop recommendation.

2\. I tell them "ThinkPad T-series" and state you can get them online for the price of a mid-range laptop in a retail outfit from <http://www.lenovo.com/> with a direct link to the product page - they say thank you.

3\. Some time passes

4\. I get a call from the person saying they bought a "Lenovo" laptop at their local electrical supplier and it's rubbish and they'll never trust a recommendation from me again. They have inevitably bought a cheap Lenovo close-out machine which has died after 3 months (their cheap machines are crap).

5\. Argument ensues and email is re-sent with "ThinkPad" highlighted. Much "aaaah" is to be had.

4 times so far. People just don't get the difference between good and crap, which is to be honest, where Apple are quite good.

<comment><USER10> > People just don't get the difference between good and crap, which is to be > honest, where Apple are quite good.

Apple's secret is to only built good stuff and don't try to serve the cheap crap market. I hope the new ThinkPad brand will do the same.

<comment><USER11> Right. Most of the laptops at Best Buy are under $600, $400 below Apple's lowest offering.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I hope this doesn't mean further abandoning the Thinkpad design values (centered around excellence in functional design) to compete on the ones that Apple has been so successful on (excellence in visual design). If they do they won't win and will mess up an excellent and unique brand in the process.

They've already started down this road IMO, dropping their near-perfect keyboard for a trendy chiclet one in the x230. To be fair, it's a great chiclet keyboard, but it doesn't have the action of the old ones.

<comment><USER10> I don't know but my Macbook Pro feels pretty functional. Things like the Magsafe power connector or the superb touchpad don't just look pretty.

Only because it looks nice doesn't mean it's useless. And only because it's functional doesn't mean it has to look like a plastic brick from an 80s sci-fi movie.

<comment><USER13> I once spilled some coffee (like 50 milliliters or so) on a top of the line Macbook Pro. The keyboard and the DVD drive simply stopped functioning. I got lucky too, because I shut it down immediately, pulled the battery out and then I let it dry for a whole day.

Right now I own a cheap Asus for instance and it has swallowed tea, coffee and water. Besides the keyboard getting a little sticky, nothing happened. I probably got lucky, since I am talking about a piece of shit low-end laptop.

But Thinkpads are designed for accidents. The T line has to pass military tests. Soldiers used Thinkpads in Irak. That plastic brick from the 80s can take abuse like no other laptop on the market.

And besides, I do not care about how shinny and good looking my laptop is. I do care about functionality. Macbooks are great for their touchpad and their high resolution screens. But thinkpads are great in this regard - <USER2> keyboard, awesome pointing stick, HD+ available on all models, not to mention things I wish Macbooks had, like the Ultrabay, which allows you to easily put something else in place of your DVD drive. Something like an SSD, or maybe an extra battery.

Something else I love about Thinkpads and HP EliteBooks, something which even low-end models have (ThinkPad L series, Thinkpad Edge, HP ProBook), is the easy access to the internals, without voiding the warranty. On Thinkpads, even the low-end ones, it's really easy to change the hard drive or to add an extra memory stick. On ProBook you don't even need a screwdriver. This is useful not just for upgrading it, but also for cleaning the internal fan and other maintenance stuff. This allows businesses to have in-house hardware support, without having issues with the provided warranty.

There's a lot of things I like about MacBooks. But IMHO, if I were operating a business, I would give MacBooks only to developers that know what they are doing and really want one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Think, as a brand, is over 100 years old.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(IBM)>

</comment><comment><USER15> If I had to use a PC, I'd use a ThinkPad. This was true before Lenovo took over the branding from IBM (they were already the manufacturer from what I understand), and it's true now that Lenovo is removing their branding from it. It's a solid machine and a great brand.

<comment><USER16> Yeah, the Thinkpad brand is really one of the few in the industry that I feel is confident in its own fundamentals. It knows it is good, and it knows _why_ it is good. Besides Apple, I can't think of any other brand in the market that I can say that about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is a great idea. Allowing for two different brands to evolve with their respective markets.

<comment><USER18> But this also means they will compete in some of the markets. We'll see what happens.

It should be easier to pick a laptop then, as I don't think we will see any Lenovo with a non-glossy screen.

<comment><USER19> > But this also means they will compete in some of the markets. We'll see what > happens.

I see this as an issue now that they are two separate groups, likely with their own KPIs and numbers to meet. As we see so often with other organisations, they tend towards in-fighting rather than (good) cannibalisation because of the "silo" structure they've created.

<comment><USER17> Lenovo have had a pretty good track history though, so hopefully it wont come to that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The best they could do is ditch Thinkpad brand for their consumer grade machines (SL _, R_ ). T and X series _are_ Thinkpads. The rest- not so much.

SL and R series "Thinkpads" are rubbish, imo. Not to mention the cheap Ideapad's- the build quality is on par with pretty much every other cheap notebook manufacturers.

<comment><USER21> Don't forget the W mobile workstations.

<comment><USER22> Yup. I've got a W520 at work and its absolutely amazing. Fast, decent screen and even with a quad core i7 has decent battery life and even when being taxed is cool enough on the underside to use directly on my lap.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> ThinkPad is amazingly solid. I had two so far and both were wonderful machine. Lenovo's service is pretty good as well. My latest laptop's Intel SSD drive went dead after a year. They shipped a replacement right the way with no question asked.

<comment><USER24> And that is one the main reasons why Apple isnt suited for professional users right there. When having a Dell Laptop some technican came the next day to my house and repaired my laptop without any cost. With Apple i can go to the nearest Store and hope that some of the hipsters there want to help me, after which i will have to wait until my repaired hardware comes back from wherever in the world.

<comment><USER5> Yes and as I found, those annoying hipsters actually are quite rude, arrogant and unhelpful (Kingston Upon Thames Apple Store, Surrey, UK).

An hour to get replacement earphones for my daughter's iPod due to the well known problem of the rocker switch which failing after a week! I asked "so what happens when these fail? Do I have to spend an hour a week down here?". The reply was simply "it's not my problem".

She owns a Cowon now.

<comment><USER25> Luckily the Cardiff store has significantly less hip and much more helpful staff. I hate having to book an appointment though; I know what's wrong, I just want to drop it off and for them to call me when they fix it under warranty.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Has someone found out in the meantime whether it's possible to put an W520 replacement keyboard into the new W530? I heart the key mappings in the BIOS would be bad, but it would fit physically at least. But there was no real confirmation.

(I would actually try out the chiclets, but I need all 7 rows and use the pgup, pgdown, del, insert,pos1 and end keys and have them so deep in my muscle memory that I will be miserable when I get a new Thinkpad)

Thinkpads are great otherwise, the W520 is almost perfect.

</comment><comment><USER27> I hope that this succeeds, because I hate not having a good brand to recommend to people who want a Windows laptop, but I am skeptical that refocusing on business needs is the way to build a product that humans will love.

</comment><comment><USER28> I think Lenovo wants to be associated more with machines like the Yoga, even though the dependable ThinkPad workhorses are who brought them to the dance.

<comment><USER29> I think you're reading this backwards, I think this is like Toyota splitting off Lexus into a separate, high-end brand.

<comment><USER30> No, it's more like Chrysler spinning off Mercedes into its own high end brand.</comment></comment></comment>


Book: Rust Programming Concepts Preview - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1712125778/1409335994?token=951963e5

<comment><USER2> Why $3,000? That's clearly not enough to pay for writing a book; is it just to gauge demand?

<comment><AUTHOR> It is based on what other programming books on Kickstarter ask for and from my past experience. Advances from traditional publishers are not that much more than $3000.

The majority of successful programming books on Kickstarter raise anywhere from a few thousand up to around $10k. The lucky few raise $20K to $100K or more.

Since I enjoy writing programming books, I don't need it to replace my income just supplement it.</comment></comment>


App Store Numbers (My Experience) - <AUTHOR> http://yrn.me/4wn

<comment><USER2> Great writeup, thanks - always interesting to see how the other platforms and stores are performing.</comment>


Countries where Americans can study at universities, in English, for free - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/10/29/7-countries-where-americans-can-study-at-universities-in-english-for-free-or-almost-free/ <comment><USER2> Well in my state, Georgia, anyone can go to any public college in the state for free with the Hope Scholarship.

Have a 3.0? Dont have any drug arrests or convictions? Legal resident of Georgia/USA?

Then all of your tuition will be paid by the state unless you drop below a 3.0. The lottery is what funds this scholarship and its really great.

<comment><USER3> I'm glad to hear that Georgia provides the scholarship. It is a pity that the state can't come up with a less regressive tax than the lottery.

<comment><USER4> The demographic that buys lottery tickets is largely die-hard anti-tax red that would never vote to fund education from raised taxes on anyone's income... a bit ironic when you think about it.

<comment><USER5> If that's true, it's not ironic. Buying a lottery ticket is a choice. Paying taxes imposed on the entire population is _not_ a choice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Note that the grading systems in most European countries are very different from the one in USA: We use the whole range. No "B is ok, A is good". Here A is mostly excellent, and C is an acceptable grade to get. It's good to keep in mind when researching our universities. So you don't get put off if the acceptance grades are low or if the average grade is low.

It's weird going the other way (from Europe to USA). They told us we couldn't continue the studies if we got below B-, and we were like "???".

<comment><USER7> I'd like to remark that there's a similar trend that seems to go on in high schools and with college admissions. By all accounts, I've heard that it's not too difficult to attain perfect high-school grades (save for some of the very competitive high schools), whereas that's usually a _serious_ achievement in European schools. There's a similar comparison for the AP vs. IB examinations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Concerning France:

> Public university programs charge only a small tuition fee of about 200 > dollars for most programs.

Public universities are indeed very cheap and they tend to offer more and more English programs to attract foreign students. However, they're usually not prestigious as there is very little selection to get in. The brightest students usually follow a different path.

> Other, more elite institutions have adopted a model that requires students > to pay fees that are based on the income of their parents.

I think they refer to business schools which are mainly private and more expensive. However, the best scientific schools are public (and pretty much free) but there are very specific admission conditions, and teaching is mostly done in French.

<comment><USER9> This comment is very true, but I would like to add that if the public Universities have quite a bad reputation for the first two or three years, the level of the Msc (in France it's 5 years of University) is decent, and still free.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Bear in mind that positions in international rankings mean almost nothing, as most of them are calculated by looking at the number of cross-linked papers from a university to judge its final score. That immediately puts non-English speaking universities at a huge disadvantage, and I would argue that top-level universities of each country are at pretty much same level despite their ranking positions.

<comment><USER11> _That immediately puts non-English speaking universities at a huge disadvantage_

How so? I studied at University of Amsterdam, everyone spoke English at graduate level and everyone published in English. Many faculty where not even Dutch. I would expect the same from any international class university.

<comment><USER10> >>and everyone published in English.

I really doubt that. I am sure we can both provide anecdotal evidence, but there is no way 100% of papers are published in English. And you picked a very specific example, because an overwhelming majority of Dutch people speak English at a very good level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> So a tuition-free Masters in Mathematics in Germany sounds pretty intriguing. Has anyone here studied in the German system as an expat? What was your experience? Is it feasible?

<comment><USER13> I can't speak for myself since I'm German, but e.g. at the university and technical university in Hamburg there are lots of foreign students who seem to enjoy themselves :) I do not have any hard numbers at hand, though.

<comment><USER14> What are the living costs for a student couple in Germany? I'd really like to learn German and want to get a Masters degree soon. I could work while studying if I find a job.

<comment><USER15> I live in a WG (a group rents a flat or a house and everyone gets a room, common kitchen and bathroom) and spend around 600€/month including health insurance (you need that, 70€/month, don't know about foreigners). Depending on the city, it's harder or easier to live on that because rent can differ a lot. (200-400€/room, I pay 250€.)

edit: To clarify - the university requires you to have health insurance, but there is a special tariff for students. Students below 25 are mostly covered by their parent's insurance here, after that you need to cover yourself.

<comment><USER16> As a foreigner in Germany I can confirm the 70€/month is for foreigners as well (on a student visa)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I don't know about the other countries, but the author has left out some important conditions about Brazil's universities. I checked on the two he listed to confirm, but most public universities in Brazil have similar rules.

They are tuition free for students who are accepted based on a standardized test given in Portuguese called the vestibular. This test, similar to the SAT in the US, is the entire basis of admission. Students choose a major, then take the vestibular. Public universities will have X slots available for each major. If T = the total amount of students taking the test who chose the same major, then you would be accepted if you scored better than (T-X) other students of your same major. The article seems to imply you don't need to know the native language to study there tuition free. In this case it's simply not true.

The other way an English speaker could be permitted to study at those universities is through an exchange program from a university where one is likely already paying a tuition. Even then, exchange students are only permitted to study for up to a year.

Last, the tuition may be free, but the dorm conditions in Brazilian universities that have them are pretty dismal to my knowledge. Most students live off campus, so room and board would likely still be a pretty big expense.

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm very sceptical of this.

For example I just picked Lund University in Sweden. No it's not free. It's $15K a year. [1] The University of Helsinki is indeed free though. [2]

In case of Germany, the entry requirements are quite hard. Not impossible but hard enough that many Germans end up studying in neighbouring countries because they cannot get in a German university for some courses were there is competition.

Also If you go on course aggregation websites and filter for English you will get like a hundred courses taught in English, but then you realise that they are mostly humanities. It's much harder to find English taught natural science BSc programmes.

1\. [http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lubas/i-uoh-lu-NGNAT- FYSI/tu...](http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lubas/i-uoh-lu-NGNAT-FYSI/tuition) 2\. [http://www.helsinki.fi/studying/fees_and_costs.shtml](http://www.helsinki.fi/studying/fees_and_costs.shtml)

<comment><USER19> The article explicitly mentions that only PhD studies are free in Sweden (for non-EU citizens).

<comment><USER20> To say that PhD studies in Sweden (and the rest of the Nordics) are free is a bit of a mdisnomer though. PhD students in the Nordics are bona fide paid employees, and the salary is a perfectly de3cent public sector wage (that is, more than enough to live on).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> If people are considering this, let me throw out another option: antwerp, belgium.

Tuition isn't free, but affordable. Around 3000 euro per year for non-EU students (subsidized through taxation). Admission requirements are not strict. When i was studying CS we had a few foreign students and accomodations were made for them so they could study in english. Living costs are reasonable, lower than london, amsterdam or paris. The city itself is very international. We have more nationalities living here than live in New York. Most people speak english, and in fact i have a ukrainian coworker who isn't even bothering to learn dutch because english is sufficient. You can be in amsterdam or paris in two hours, and cheap travel to anywhere in europe is available. The city has a rich history and culture. You can drink beer in bars which are half a millenium old, and visit buildings which were centuries old when columbus discovered the americas.

In fact, even if you don't come to study, come anyway, for a vacation :)

<comment><USER22> Coming belgium this Jan. Excited!

<comment><USER23> Sweet. Where will you go?

There is a lot of Universities with a great student life en Belgium (Ghent, Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, Liège...). Price are very low and a lot of programs are starting to be taught in English.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Article is correct in general, though very wrong in details. Yes, you can study (not for free) but cheap (for like 3000 dol. a year). If you want to study for free you need to learn the language. If you learn the language, there will be a special governmental scholarship granted to those American (or any foriegn students).

Brazil has free education if you study in portuguese. There are much more countries not mentioned that also have free education for foriegners.

Germany is very difficult country to study. Very compatative even for Germans. The foriegn students will be accepted only after German. Admission to programs is different from US and difficult.

</comment><comment><USER25> TL;DR: Germany, Finland, France, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, Brazil.

<comment><USER26> When it comes to Norway, be aware that the Government has proposed the introduction of tuition fees for international students outside the EU / EEA despite a unanimous Parliament that said no to this under a year ago. [0]

[0] [http://isu-norway.no/blog/](http://isu-norway.no/blog/)

<comment><USER27> Same goes for Finland, just today the government announced plans to introduce 4,000 €/year tuition fee for non-EU (EEA) citizens starting from 2016: [http://yle.fi/uutiset/tuition_fees_planned_for_non- eea_stude...](http://yle.fi/uutiset/tuition_fees_planned_for_non- eea_students/7573518)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I'm really interested in this. Especially Germany. Do any one of you have a link handy for me to see the good Universities in Germany? Please? Thx

<comment><USER15> Basically, all state universities have a good level of teaching, it doesn't matter where you go on the undergrad level. Later, your field is important; universities have different specializations. Some people prefer smaller universities (more intimate teaching), others bigger universities (more different lectures - more choice). If you only know English, it limits your choices of course.

So start with the subject you want to study, or with the kind of city you want to live in. Do you want to live in a big city or a small city? Do you prefer a big university? What's your level - do you need general teaching or do you want to get into specialities? In the first case, any university that offers the course is fine, in the second, look closer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is very interesting, as I expect my next or next+1 move to be seeking a PhD in computer science. My wife and I are open to the idea of living in Europe.

Does anyone care to comment on Germany or Scandinavia for computer science programs at the PhD level?

</comment><comment><USER30> So what are the requirements for these programs? Are there GPA averages, background, personality requirements? Or can I just fly over there present my GED and register for a semester?

<comment><USER31> German here, studied CS at 4 German universities.

No idea about your visa, but if you are enrolled somewhere that shouldn't be a problem.

Application process: will vary widely, for many human sciences you can just enroll (Sociology, History, Gender Studies, all that stuff). You might even be able to just enroll for Business in some places.

For CS degrees sometimes you have to apply formally and show what projects you have done, submit your grade sheet, sometimes interviews. For my M.Sc. I was allowed to interview via Skype because I was abroad at the time. They gave me proper coding and interview questions and grilled me for 45mins. Some proof of A-Levels will be required.

Living costs: Will vary depending on where you go. Berlin will be dead cheap, so will be many places in the former GDR, while southern cities like Munich or Stuttgart will be more expensive. Hamburg is also fairly expensive. Nothing like the Bay Area or NY though.

A very nice resource for German Universities is: [http://ranking.zeit.de/che2014/en/](http://ranking.zeit.de/che2014/en/)

No idea about the other mentioned countries, but I was surprised that Scotland didn't show up, but they might be only free for non-english EU citizens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Not free but cheap, mostly founded by the USA; Middle East Technical University. One of the best 100 universities in the world.

<comment><USER33> > _Middle East Technical University. One of the best 100 universities in the > world._

According to which ranking?

Does not appear at top 500 in the Shanghai list ranking: [http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html](http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html)

<comment><USER34> #85 on the Times Higher Education ranking [1].

#164 on the new US News international ranking [2].

Around #400 on the QS rankings [3].

[1] [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university- ranki...](http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university- rankings/2014-15/world-ranking)

[2] [http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/us-news- global-t...](http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/us-news-global- top-500-universities/1409/)

[3] [http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world- uni...](http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university- rankings/2014#sorting=rank+region=71+country=134+faculty=+stars=false+search=)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Canada could be a good option for many people. International tuition fees can be competitive with in-state tuition at public US universities. There are also funded masters degrees in some disciplines, which is extremely rare in the US.

<comment><USER36> My program was 22k/y to foreign students. And that was 10 years ago. Don't forget that tuition is 75% subsided.

<comment><USER35> Looks like you're right. My experience in a graduate program doesn't extrapolate to undergrad. Just looked this up: international undergrad tuition at UBC is about $24k and international graduate tuition is about $7.5k.

Edit: to further clarify, it appears that graduate rate is only for "research" graduate programs. "Professional" programs can be much more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> FREE is relative and you need to do the cost benefit analysis. The advantage of professor connections of Columbia U. to Wall Street and consulting vs. Stanford U to Silicon Valley MUST BE EMPHASIZED. However, who knows where your journey will take you. 1 don't have kids, so HN are we 'related like family'? 2 rhetorical question 3 Go to a middle level college, borrow student debt and 4 BE A WAGE SLAVE FOR LIFE. BE A WAGE SLAVE FOR LIFE. 5 YOUR LIFE CHOICES, IMHO

6 1.) middle level college - NO 7 2.) Stanford or Columbia U because they have 8 plenty of scholarships. 9 2b.) avoid Cooper Union, NYC. Although with 10 zero tuition for now, THEY ARE BANKRUPT.

11 3.)low level college, cheap community and 12 learn how to weld. Then, get a job for 13 $200 thousand per year in the fracking 14 oil industry. Boss chooses between a middle 15 level 'state college' and C grade at top college, 16 I PREFER THE top college.

17 [http://www.alternet.org/education/looking- escape-](http://www.alternet.org/education/looking-escape-) 18 high-cost- college-these-7-countries-will-educate-you-free 19 insert the missing countries and the URL for the 20 calculator as to DETERMINE YOUR LIFE COURSE.

21 Oh, me? I chose #2 with very little student debt. 22 Thanks friends for letting me doing the illegal 23 apt roomie thing at Columbia Engineering. 24 Perfect for me, as I was not as 'hard-core geek' 25 as M.I.T.

26 1.) Germany. the problem is that you must think in 27 Math AND GERMAN. No exceptions. Key advantage is 28 the real deal the Chaos Club makes Defcon look like wimps. 27 Math AND GERMAN. No exceptions. Key advantage is 28 the real deal the Chaos Club makes Defcon look like wimps. 29 German practicality places this as a higher choice.

30 2.)Finland. Some of the strangest friends I have ever known. 31 Lack of sun and Vitamin D means most as well as you will be 32 depressed. Cheer up with the better than Poland math skills. 33 Easy to get a job on Wall Street.

34 3.)Why avoid Poland? World War III ring side seat with Russia, 35 Poland, Ukraine, etc.

36 4.)France. Spend most of the time eating and dating. Much more 37 woman friendly and family friendly by MANY MEASURES. 38 Forget about manufacturing expertise, but the cryptography/math 39 seems to rock.

40 5. Norway: We LOVE the freezing cold and time spent on oil rigs. 41 The minature Germany, except for lack of good beer.

42 6. Slovenia: Skype and other software starts in Eastern Europe 43 or the former USSR.

44 7. Sweden: Could be a one way trip to Sweden. Good for learning 45 communitarian and cooperative work process, which is not taught 46 in the USA. 47 this is not in order. mileage will vary greatly.

48 8.) Brazil. Untold wealth and you too can play anthropologist/ 49 miner in the Amazon jungle. Assumes you live to tell the tale. 50 The sugar/ethanol industry means they are an oil wealth producer. 51 More effective chemical engineering than US ethanol 52 relying on 'king corn.' 53 9.)China. Third world poverty country with billionaires. 54 Like Brazil, likely the best way to become a billionaire, 55 unless you are a math genius. Teaching English while doing school 56 could be an exercise in sleep deprivation. 57 Plenty of entrepreneurs, unlike Germany. Due to the 'culture' 58 or German beer vs Chinese 'stinky socks' mao-tai? 59 hey Asians, I am Asian. Please do not flame me.

60 10.)Russia. Included for political incorrectness. Likely a 61 one-way ticket, since Russia is on the present enemies lists. 62 But if you are into nuclear engineering or natural gas pipelines, 63 for they are building the world's largest ...

64 11.) Florida, listed as 'separate country' Do the work program 65 at the yacht club and get a backer for the Donut franchise. 66 Donut franchise creates millionaires (for select few)

82 12.) Gaming the system? Women who got some money apply to Barnard 83 College. Major in basket weaving or physical education. 84 Take all the worthwhile courses like business, egineering at 85 Colubmia University, which cross lists courses.

86 After all you want a great experience and REAL education, 87 not a fake piece of paper, right HN? 88 bon voyage from old man Odysseus.

</comment><comment><USER38> T

</comment><comment><USER39> Is America one of them because if you go to any state school (better than most schools in the rest of the world) and you dont have enough income you pretty much get a full ride + stipend.

<comment><USER40> That's simply not true. I'm the oldest of 6 kids. Plenty of state school attendance between myself and my siblings, and neither us nor our parents were ever able to just pay for school each year.

We've all gotten the best local scholarship from our high school so far (4/4), most of us got additional scholarships, and also some aid from the school.

All of us have had to take out loans.

EDIT: Going a bit further, I went to school in-state, and the semester I spent abroad in a world class city was cheaper than a semester staying in central Illinois.

<comment><USER41> All depends where you are. I know plenty of kids that get paid to go to community college using various programs.

<comment><USER42> You already know this but University and Community College are not the same thing, and they don't offer the same things.

Even throwing that out as a valid alternative simply continues the position of only those who have money are worthy of getting knowledge.

<comment><USER43> You can go to a community college for two years and then transfer to a four- year university, which will generally save substantial amounts of money.

<comment><USER44> This is actually a bit of a boondoggle, because your university will either not recognize your community college credits, or they will have their own requirements likely to be incompatible with the credits you took at community college, leaving those first two years basically wasted. So you get to pay for 2 years at a community college, then 4 years at a university. That's not saving money.

Hell, it might not even work to transfer from one university to another! I transferred after 2 years at a satellite campus of Penn State (where the curriculum is identical to the main campus) to a state school, stayed in Computer Science, and had to cram 4 years of CS at that school into 3 years just to be able to cut some of my losses because apparently taking intro to CS at a school that does it in C means you have to take it over again in a school that does it in Java.

<comment><USER43> > This is actually a bit of a boondoggle, because your university will either > not recognize your community college credits, or they will have their own > requirements likely to be incompatible with the credits you took at > community college, leaving those first two years basically wasted.

Well, you certainly can't do it willy-nilly - you need to have a idea of where you're going after community college and what your major is. Generally, most community colleges work with local universities to ensure that their programs will transfer wholesale _if you take the prescribed courses_ , which do not necessarily match up with what the community college recommends for other students.

I have indeed heard a lot of horror stories about transferring credits in general between universities or colleges - if the institutions don't have a relationship that keeps transfer students in mind it seems you're pretty much boned.

I did this, following community college direction, and all my courses transferred and I wasn't set back at all, though I was highly front-loaded on general education rather than CS-specific courses. At the time community college tuition and fees was $800/semester, while university tuition and fees was $5000/semester. That would have been a substantial savings! As it was, I really lost money, because I would have qualified for a full scholarship to my university academically anyway, but I lost it since transferred in and ended up paying the next three years (one year of grad school) out of my minimum- wage-earning pocket.

<comment><USER45> Another way to work it is CLEP tests. If they don't accept a transfer credit for ... american history or whatever, but you took the class, and they do accept CLEP tests and those aren't terribly hard... Note there are exam fees and transfer fees to consider, usually nominal.

My personal experience at a couple schools is the smaller the school the more often exceptions will be granted. Or maybe rephrased across all sizes of school the (someone) will grant 10 exceptions per year and maybe 1% of students will try to get an exception, which is awesome odds if its a 500 person private college, not so awesome odds at a larger 5K person school. So even if on paper, calculus won't transfer, if you make a bit of a pest of yourself the dean or dept chair will eventually sign off. Also you can game the system, OK you won't accept my calculus transfer credits, very well, I will get instructor permission to take diffeqs without pre-reqs and when I pass diffeqs I will petition the dept head yet again for calc credit.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Axum - A new parallel programming language from Microsoft - <AUTHOR> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/dd795202.aspx

<comment><USER2> A .NET language with asynchronous, message-passing concurrency based on actors. Neither the website nor the programmer's guide mentions Erlang at all. Interesting.

From the programmer's guide, it looks like it has a loosely C++-like syntax, rather than the Prolog-descended syntax that Erlang uses; while I can't say I'm a fan of Erlang's syntax, I don't see any syntax for pattern matching. That would be a big loss.

<comment><USER3> I'd bet this originated from MS Research, who have plenty of people who have worked on/invented actor systems predating Erlang.

<comment><USER2> I don't want to be come across as knee-jerky anti-Microsoft (I haven't used .NET; I admit ignorance there), I'm just surprised that it didn't acknowledge the one example of an actor system that programmers are likely to have heard about. It seems like it would be useful for comparison.

Besides, Microsoft employs Simon Peyton-Jones, among others, and they fund serious programming language research in various ways. I'm not implying it's dishonest on their part, I just found it a bit odd.

<comment><USER3> Sure, having used (and appreciated) Erlang I agree it would be interesting (I'm not a .NET user either or likely to become one.) I'm not surprised they omitted it, though I won't speculate why.

I just think it's worth reinforcing that there are interesting actor systems other than Erlang, and that some of the people at MSR deserve some credit in the area.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't use .NET myself, but what I like about it is the availability of multiple languages for the CLR. I find very alluring the possibility of mixing and matching languages according to the task at hand without having to deal with IPC.

I could really find usages for actor-based concurrency, but using Erlang seems to me like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

<comment><USER5> You are aware of the fact that there are also multiple languages for the JVM? For instance Scala has actors and can leverage any existing Java library.

<comment><USER4> Yes. That's true.

Axum is different because it is designed for a specific domain by the same people that are designing .NET. This means changes to the CLR may be pushed forward to accommodate features in Axum. I don't know if the tail call instruction in the CLR was added because of F#, or because of the research they did while trying to compile Haskell on top of .NET, but it's there.

The problem with the JVM is that there isn't a centralized effort for those multiple languages. You can slap any interpreter on top of any other interpreter and then say that "multiple languages are available", but that won't make it useful.

Although new features are pushed in the OpenJDK to make dynamic invocation of methods lighter, more infrastructure is needed ... like a common MOP used for communication between these languages (like the DLR). There's a strong lack of leadership between the language implementors working with the JVM, because SUN couldn't care less about it and everybody is scared of new features in Java- land.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I like the way it allows you to specify protocols directly as state machines...

</comment><comment><USER7> Having a own language only for COP (Concurrency Orientated Programming) is fine. Heck I'm a polyglot fan. Though I wonder if the way of STM (State Transactional Memory) wouldn't have been a better choice to boost the already existing languages for the Multi-Core problem. (See e.g. Haskell)

As far as I know all STM implementation on .NET are experimental, right?

Erlang as a true COP language has its advantages, and so will "Axum" but Erlang is already quite a long time around. Wonder if they can catch up. Especially due to OTP and CEAN.

</comment><comment><USER8> what do you think about this project? (extend and embrace all over again?)

why would someone use axum over hypertable and thrift?

what is the performance trade off between axum, hypertable, and hadoop(hbase).

<comment><USER9> Err, Axum has nothing to do with anything you mentioned. Axum is a programming language for parallel processing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Given how Axum looks very much like C# with added keywords and constructs, and how most of the functional aspects of F# either got into or is getting into C#, my guess would be C# is getting some neat concurrency-addons in upcoming revisions.

Either that, or it will simply get dumped. I can't see how it would make sense to maintain these two branches separately.</comment>


Free alternatives to Google Wave - <AUTHOR> http://webapps.stackexchange.com/q/409/40

<comment><USER2> You mean Google Wage? :)</comment>


Sephardic Jews get dual nationality from Spain - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/sephardic-jews-get-dual-nationality-spain/

<comment><USER2> I wonder how many people are able to trace back their ancestry more than a few hundred years?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it is a little bit tricky.

One way is to show that you or your grandmother can speak in Ladino, it is difficult to fake that but tracing ancestry more than a few generations can be an impossible task for the major part of the people.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Buckets for Mac - <AUTHOR> http://bucketsapp.net?hn

<comment><USER2> I can finally stop using that darn Flex panel...

</comment><comment><USER3> Awesome. A truly simple interface to S3.</comment>


Nginx 1.15.9 - <AUTHOR> http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx-announce/2019/000231.html <comment><USER2> Oh. So _that 's_ what they meant by "variables support" in the ssl directives. I didn't realize the significance of that change when I read the changelog earlier today.

<comment><USER3> What is? Looks like the link goes to a changelog and nothing else.

<comment><USER4> The original title for this item was _" Nginx 1.15.9 adds support for dynamic certificate loading"_ which explains why this is interesting, but then someone edited it to the current less useful version ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Noticed via [https://hackernewstitles.netlify.com/](https://hackernewstitles.netlify.com/)

<comment><USER5> > Noticed via > [https://hackernewstitles.netlify.com/](https://hackernewstitles.netlify.com/)

Of course that's a thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Bear in mind: [http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#ssl_c...](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#ssl_certificate)

        Note that using variables implies that a certificate will be loaded for each SSL handshake, and this may have a negative impact on performance.

Still a great feature. About to significantly simplify a few complex deployments I'm running.

<comment><USER7> That's a strange disclaimer. There should've been a cache there.

<comment><USER8> Strange and potentially busted, if that interpretation is correct.

What if your ACME client is updating the certificate and private key when an nginx connection comes in?

You can't atomically update both files, right? So nginx will potentially see a mismatched key and certificate?

:\

I hope it's guarded by SIGHUP, like sibling comment suggests.

<comment><USER9> You don't need to atomically replace 2 files. Renewing the certificate does not entail changing the private key, so unless you toss away the private key yourself you won't get a mismatched key and certificate situation.

It only needs to update the certificate, a single operation, which can be done atomically. Certificates are also renewed ahead of time so a previous connection still having the old cert is not an issue.

<comment><USER10> Is it still best practice to create a new key on cert renewal? It was just a few years ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I cannot find any any information on how this data is sanitized.

       /safe/path/$hostname.key
       $hostname = ../../etc/some/secret
       /safe/path/../../etc/some/secret.key

<comment><USER12> Host headers are transmitted _after_ the ssl handshake.

<comment><USER13> SNI?

<comment><USER12> I read through the codebase and can't assert that _couldn 't_ happen... wasn't sure if the ngx_http_ssl_certificate callback could be executed after a point where any of the client-controlled variables from [1] are defined.

[1] - [https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#vari...](https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#variables)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nifty. I've been using ssl_certificate_by_lua_block from the openresty nginx lua module to accomplish this.

</comment><comment><USER15> So with poll() now available on Windows is nginx ready to drop the beta label for Windows?

[http://nginx.org/en/docs/windows.html](http://nginx.org/en/docs/windows.html)

</comment><comment><USER16> Why are they still supporting Windows Vista?!

<comment><USER17> Most likely because of Windows Server 2008: they are almost the same.</comment></comment>


Replicant developers find and close Samsung Galaxy backdoor  - <AUTHOR> https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/replicant-developers-find-and-close-samsung-galaxy-backdoor <comment><USER2> from [http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/209h4d/samsung_galax...](http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/209h4d/samsung_galaxy_backdoor/cg1gy3l) : This is not a backdoor. It's a feature, and a reasonably common one for Qualcomm based devices. It's an interface to allow the modem access to a persistent data store (ie. eMMC modem partitions) even though only the application processor may access the MMC controller. Have a look at the rmt_storage client documentation found in a Qualcomm kernel tree. It used to be pretty common to ship a rmt_storage daemon to do the very same thing Samsung is being accused of here (hint: Nexus 5 still uses it), I don't know about other recent devices, but I'd imagine they'd employ something similar. Also, there are many more ways for the baseband to compromise the application processor, without an explicit interface.

<comment><USER3> > This is not a backdoor. It's a feature, and a reasonably common one for > Qualcomm based devices

Are these really mutually exclusive? I don't doubt that qualcomm had good reasons to add this interface, but clearly it can be used as a backdoor, and since the user is not made aware of it, I'd say this meets all the qualifications of a backdoor.

They could have easily designed this in a way that allowed the baseband processor to only write to a designated area instead of giving it full access.

You are right that that the baseband in phones _usually_ has many other ways to directly access sensitive data from the main processor (DMA is the obvious one). But this differs from phone to phone, depending on the hardware design. There are phones where the baseband talks to the main processor through a serial interface with no access to DMA.

<comment><USER4> Any security bug or potential security bug _could_ be a backdoor. I don't think it's fair to say you "closed a backdoor" every time you fix one.

<comment><USER5> "Bug" implies a mistake/oversight where the additional functionality was known to noone, and then discovered. This functionality was deliberately created, thus it's a "backdoor".

Based on what seemingly passes for "accepted practice" in the mobile world (download QPST for tons of fun!), the only sane way to have a trustable mobile device is with a separate cell-modem and a well-defined interface.

<comment><USER4> I mean, maybe I'm confused, but this sounds like they closed one method (among others) that could potentially be used to create a backdoor by, I guess, a carrier or OEM.

There's no evidence that anyone's phone was open to remote exploit at any time.

<comment><USER5> It seems as if you're using a weird definition - "backdoor" just implies that the functionality exists, not that it has necessarily been utilized.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nope: [http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/virtually-no- evidenc...](http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/virtually-no-evidence-for- claim-of-remote-backdoor-in-samsung-galaxy-phones/)

<comment><USER7> >1) There is virtually no evidence for the ability to remotely execute this functionality. The write-up states, "As the modem is running proprietary software, it is likely that it offers over-the-air remote control that could then be used to issue the incriminated RFS messages and access the phone's file system."

summary: there's no evidence of how it can be used, because it's all closed source.

>2) The amount of data that can be read or written to by this functionality is very limited. On all affected models except the original Galaxy S, which was released 4 years ago, the affected radio software is running under the "radio" user. As a result, this can only be used to access data specifically related to radio functionality, plus information stored on the SD card (because this is also readable by every application on the phone).

summary: it can read and write to all that the radio user is allowed to access, and your entire SD card.

>3) The specifics of the vulnerability suggest that it was poorly programmed legitimate functionality rather than a secret backdoor. The authors had to leverage a directory traversal flaw in the handling of modem commands in order to cause the radio software to write outside of the /efs/root directory, which contains radio-related files. This suggests that the intended purpose of this functionality was rather mundane and not at all malicious, and that it was simply poorly implemented.

summary: the backdoor was poorly written, and allowed _complete_ access when combined with a known exploit.

 _Nope?_

<comment><USER4> I think the "Nope" refers to headline, which is not supported by facts.

If there's no evidence that it was intentional then you can't call it a backdoor. Otherwise every security flaw (or potential security flaw) is a backdoor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 2 months old, previously: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7389258](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7389258)

<comment> vezzy-fnord /r/netsec thread is also of interest: [http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/209h4d/samsung_galax...](http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/209h4d/samsung_galaxy_backdoor/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> For a split second I thought the developers were replicants.

</comment><comment><USER10> They say it so it must be true.

<comment><USER10> Not sure why I'm getting downvoted.

See [http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/virtually-no- evidenc...](http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/virtually-no-evidence-for- claim-of-remote-backdoor-in-samsung-galaxy-phones/)

<comment><USER4> Without the link in the original comment, it came off as flippant sniping.</comment></comment></comment>


Chernobyl clean-up expert slams Japan, IAEA - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-nuclear-chernobyl-idUSTRE72E5MV20110315

<comment><USER2> I think it is good that this opinion is out there, and that Reuters felt the need to publish it. However, I want to propose an antithesis to simply more public transparency, but rather that transparency can be achieved through some of the means posited in the film The Corporation. Specifically, we should have more corporations involved in nuclear energy information, research, safety, etc. We should hold the industry (which arguably already has most of the resources needed) to greater transparency through existing means, like for instance, threatening to revoke their charter if they can't push forward in resolving these issues. I know that isn't profit oriented as a company should be, but ultimately the public allows them to operate for profit, and the knowledge marketplace needs profit as well, and also having more competing corporations I would think would allow for a healthier market.</comment>


An agnostic's view of the democracy cult - <AUTHOR> http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/383718/an-agnostic-view-of-the-democracy-cult

<comment><USER2> The problem is that Congress doesn't represent the people. It's biased toward the older, wealthy, white, Christian male. Everyone else gets marginalized. Voting =/= representation.

Math gave us the solution on how to get a representative sample. It's called random sampling. If we replaced Congress with 1 house made up of 1,000 randomly selected citizens it would solve almost all of our problems. No more corruption; lobbyists, corporations, and special interest groups would have no power, since they have nothing to offer. Greater equality; everyone would have truly equal representation. Currently men have more power than women, white people have more power than minorities, citizens of Wyoming have over 60x more power than citizens of California (in the Senate).

Most of the problems with government have come from mis-representation. The people are slow to get into wars, quick to get out of them. The people favor helping the poor, Congress favors the rich. Fix representation, and you fix Democracy.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Any fool can sprout eloquent malarkey and think himself smart."

Maybe don't misuse cliches while calling other people fools for doing what you are currently doing.</comment>


How to design websites in Photoshop like a pro - <AUTHOR> http://greig.cc/photoshop-webdesign/

<comment><USER2> Do pros design websites in Photoshop? :) The best I know jump straight into HTML / CSS after sketching wireframes per hand.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, that is a different kind of designer/developer hybrid.

I gave it this title to make it clear that I was not entering into this discussion: it is for people who design websites in Photoshop, whether by choice or because it is the industry standard tool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Should be entitled 3/4 Photoshop tips.</comment>