Konstantine Othmer on the Valley Advantage - <AUTHOR> http://techdrawl.com/konstantin-othmer-on-the-valley-advantage/

<comment><USER2> Absolutely love what he says about unions and how they were more focused on their people than getting the job done. There are some times when covering your own ass is just not the right think to do.

<comment><USER3> I found that bit interesting too. A lot of people bring up unions as what killed GM, and the common rebuttal is that labor is a small part of GM's cost. If Konstantin's anecdote is typical of GM, it seems the cost of the union is a lot more than just labor costs.

<comment><USER4> My understanding is that the problem isn't the cost of labor per se. Instead, it's rising health care costs. The medical provisions of GM's pension plan are pretty lavish, and it's been underfunded for years.

GM isn't all that unusual here -- a lot of other firms (and a number of state governments) have underfunded pensions.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/gm-retirees-rush-to-get- dentu...](http://www.businessinsider.com/gm-retirees-rush-to-get-dentures- glasses-and-viagra-2009-6)

<comment><AUTHOR> If you check the video, you'll find that the problem is cultural. Its a union and management problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good job, Russell. Konstantin hits hard with the point that corporate culture in a start-up will reflect the attitude of the original founders - and it will stay dynamic for only as long as the venture works hard to maintain it. I'd venture to say that in 1908 Durant was eager to build a great product. One should ask what changed over the years.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Don't let the wavy camera dissuade you from watching - the audio is the thing. My camera-lady / wife got a bug bite right before the interview... thus the wavy camera, as she scratched it :) The others (which are coming) were more stable.

The part about Apple vs. GM culture is great.</comment>


Relying on plain-text email is a 'barrier to entry' for kernel development - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/25/linux_kernel_email/ <comment><USER2> If your email client can't manage to handle plain text properly, how likely is it that it can handle the complexity of HTML in a secure and consistent way?</comment>


Twenty years, only a few tears (2009) - <AUTHOR> http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/twenty_years_only_a_few_tears/

<comment><USER2> "If I can get a job in the games industry, ANYBODY can. Not at my company of course. I would never hire somebody as unqualified as I was!"

Reads to me like he got ahead because somebody took a chance on him but he refuses to do so for other people now. Isn't that the core reason the younger generation hate baby boomers?

<comment><USER3> Reads more like Tim's sense of humor than a statement of fact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The amazing thing is that people used to send you a letter saying you weren't hired. Now-- for whatever reason-- people never get back to you if you don't get an offer.

Also, I will be at twenty years next year and yeah, anybody can get a job in games. You should apply at lots of places, particularly places you have't heard of. Apply often. Game companies go through booms and busts, and sooner or later you will apply when they are desperate for people.

</comment><comment><USER5> Good stuff.. It just shows how that if you do something with nothing to loose, you always end up doing your best..

</comment><comment><USER6> i found this hilarious. BTW there's another letter superimposed on the atari one?

<comment><USER7> I can't read most of it, but it looks like his application letter to Atari. It's addressed to _someone_ at Atari, and has his name and signature at the bottom.</comment></comment>


Launching Crashlytics for Android Studio - <AUTHOR> http://www.crashlytics.com/blog/launching-crashlytics-for-android-studio/

<comment><USER2> I've been using Crashlytics to monitor an Android app I released very recently. The service and integration are both flawless. It's incredibly easy and intuitive to set up and the staff are very friendly when I had a few queries. I actually got recommended the service by another happy user.

My only concern is about how they will make money. They have an Enterprise version with more interesting features but haven't seen any pricing info.

<comment><USER3> They are owned by Twitter. It's basically a spyware approach - Twitter wants to be able to track users across apps, but there are no cookies or tracking pixels in the mobile app ecosystem.

Instead, they get developers to bundle this SDK into their apps, which subsequently reports back to Twitter, enabling Twitter to track users across the app ecosystem.

I think you're correct to be concerned about how they make money, because the answer is unfortunately by spying on your users.

<comment><USER4> Do you have any proof of this claim or is this conjecture?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So this service is free for everyone thanks to twitter ? What could they gain ?

<comment><USER6> The rumour circulating around is that they have the ability to detect which other applications are running or installed on a mobile device. Certainly for applications that have this service installed, they could correlate the owner of the device to an ID. That might help with targeting ads, but it's just a theory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> How does it compare to Bugsense or Crittercism?</comment>


S3 static site with SSL and automatic deploys using Travis - <AUTHOR> http://laszlo.nu/2016/11/25/s3-static-site.html <comment><USER2> Why is it using Let's Encrypt when AWS offers it's own certificates that are free, auto-renew, take seconds to setup in CloudFront, and as far as I know are just as widely recognized?

<comment><AUTHOR> Just for fun actually, it will probably turn out to be a PITA :)

<comment><USER2> I can appreciate that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Have a look at Netlify, [https://www.netlify.com](https://www.netlify.com), (disclaimer I'm a cofounder).

You can get all of this in 30 seconds on our free plan + instant cache invalidation, deploy previews (we'll give you a unique preview url for every pull request), atomic deploys and no issues with deleting files :)

<comment><USER4> Yep, theyre great. One major problem for me is that their build logs are in pure Black, and don't have any colour output. Also, afaik you can't set up a multi stage build step, like Travis.

<comment><USER3> You can setup multi stage builds like:

        npm run build && npm run test

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Most of the time it's fine to just use Github pages though.

I do something like this for my site [https://oauth2cloud.com](https://oauth2cloud.com) though.

</comment><comment><USER6> Note you'll have to manually create and deploy those Let's Encrypt certificates every 90 days because you didn't automate it (which is what they want/prefer).

[https://letsencrypt.org/2015/11/09/why-90-days.html](https://letsencrypt.org/2015/11/09/why-90-days.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes I should add that to the notes (author here). Thanks for pointing it out. I have been thinking about ways to automate it but haven't come up with anything I like yet. Any ideas? Might switch to ACM otherwise.

<comment><USER7> If you happen to use DNSimple for DNS, they recently released a Let's Encrypt integration that verifies via DNS record. They have web hooks and also make the certs and private keys available via API, so I imagine you could set something up with Lambda.

But in my experience, Amazon's certs are so easy to setup and use there is no reason not to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Now just to set up the redirect so your visitors can only view in https.

<comment><USER9> CloudFront makes adding redirects easy -- set "Viewer Protocol Policy: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS" and it'll return 301s as appropriate. Done.

[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/Developer...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/using- https-viewers-to-cloudfront.html)

Now let's say you want to use HSTS so that browsers automatically rewrite HTTP to HTTPS. HSTS can protect users from agents that manipulate HTTP traffic, and it is therefore complementary to any redirection strategy.

S3 lets you specify headers with your objects, like Cache-Control and Content- Type and such, but it doesn't support Strict-Transport-Security. (You can get S3 to use custom headers, but they must start with x-amz-meta-, which doesn't help here.) If the S3 origin can't return Strict-Transport-Security, that leaves CloudFront -- but CloudFront has no specific mechanism for HSTS nor any general mechanism for adding a response header.

So... it's trivial to set a policy to redirect HTTP to HTTPS, but it's _impossible_ to get S3->CloudFront to articulate that policy with Strict- Transport-Security headers. Sigh.</comment></comment>


Facebook threatens to 'Zuck up' the human race - <AUTHOR> http://cnn.com/2012/05/30/tech/keen-technology-facebook-privacy/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

<comment><USER2>
        Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the
        Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells us there's a "shift" from an analog
        world in which our identities are generated from within, to a digital world in
        which our sense of self is intimately tied to our social media presence.

The way I understand this quote, it's opposed to centuries of sociology/psychology, cf. Aristotle's zoon politikon and Lev Vygotsky's "Through others, we become ourselves."

My point is, the nature of the influence of others on ourselves has not changed, only the medium this influence goes through is different. And needless to say that this new medium is nothing more than a complement to all others through which we already achieve social presence.

<comment><USER3> I don't buy that identities were previously generated from within. I think that pre-internet, the average person assumed a stronger piece of their identity from family, job, nationality, gang etc. than from their inner convictions. The internet boosts the number of identity groups you can join to a size so great that you need a different outlook to grapple with the madness. Maybe it's a good thing because it's kicked us out of a local maximum where we could arbitrarily settle on who we are. Now, the clouds have cleared and there are vast mountains everywhere.</comment></comment>


Why Uber Hires Economists - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63wt3TgGGxI&feature=youtu.be <comment><USER2> To help them make ridiculous claims that are impossible to support?</comment>


Gizmodo: We're done with Kickstarter - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5897449/were-done-with-kickstarter

<comment><USER2> "I can't trust myself around Kickstarter. Kickstarter, please do quality control for me."

Conversely... This is the perfect opportunity for someone to buy IndieKicks.com and start blogging about cool projects that you can help out. Make it not just funding, but projects like SETI@Home and the likes as new ones come online.

"IndieKicks.com - Create the world you want."</comment>


Reasons Startup CEOs Fail - <AUTHOR> http://blog.bostonsearchgroup.com/7-reasons-ceos-fail/

<comment><USER3> Interesting point: "At some point, it may be required that the rest of the team that started the company with the CEO may need to be changed out for an executive team with experience at the "growth-stage" versus just the "start- up" stage."

While I've definitely worked with founders who weren't fit to run a big company (lack of focus, lack of common sense, blind to customers' needs - <USER2> name it...), the "experienced executive team" that replaced them seemed to go out of their way to run the company into the ground. I have now seen this happen 3 times (both at companies I've worked at and friends' companies).

<comment><USER4> You don't run a $100M business like you run a $1M business.

In the $100M range (and before), you start obsessing about gross margins, tax issues, renewal business, reduce on-going discount practices, etc.

When you are in the $1M range, you are focusing on gaining your first customers and it doesn't really matter if the deal is profitable or not, each sale makes you grow by leaps and bounds.

If you are detail-oriented, you'll enjoy the $100M business. If you are a born-entrepreneur, you may prefer the 0-to-1 adventure. I know where I stand.

<comment><USER5> _and it doesn't really matter if the deal is profitable or not,_

Um, it matters _more_ , if anything. SV mentality is not the path to success. The faster you get profitable, the better your chances overall.

<comment><USER6> For a tiny business immediate profitably might be an absolute requirement for the survival of a company. For a company that's prepared to spend money to have significant long term success it's a different story.

It may very well be wise to aim for $10 million in revenue with $500k losses rather than a more conservative $1 million revenue with $50k profit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _the founder CEO can become caught up in the initial "vision" and stick to it regardless of external market input that would indicate changes to the initial value proposition are needed to capture broader market adoption_

This bugs me like the idea that public companies are legally obliged to maximise shareholder value.

Aren't you supposed to build something you want? Build something you're passionate about? Isn't the current economic collapse and markets overflowing with a slurry of average products a symptom of companies focused on growth and money and market capture instead of doing a good job?

<comment><USER8> > This bugs me like the idea that public companies are legally obliged to > maximise shareholder value. ... Aren't you supposed to build something you > want?

Yes ... if YOU OWN IT.

If you are the EMPLOYEE of a company OWNED by other people (i.e. "CEO of a publicly traded company"), then you do not get to be a prima donna with other people's money (i.e. their retirement hopes, their investment for their kids' educations, etc.). You buckle down and you do your job. And that job is "trying to grow the investment".

<comment><USER7> And that bugs me.

Check out Engadget.com on and off. See the churn of _shite_ products. See how they "maximise market capture" and "shareholder value" by choosing "everyone" as their target market. See how much missed opportunity to make groundbreaking standout devices or cult niche items there is in the dreary ongoing clone wars.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great post!</comment>


Are You the Next Steve Jobs? A New Reality TV Show Might Be Looking for You - <AUTHOR> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49292252/ns/business-small_business/t/are-you-next-steve-jobs-new-reality-tv-show-might-be-looking-you/#.UHPBqPMnASM

<comment><AUTHOR> Doesn't this sound so wrong? Two celebraties are going to look for the 'new Steve Jobs'. Isn't he one of a kind and should be next visionary just be himself and big? And why would a person like 'Steve Jobs' even participate in a show like this, isn't he / she to busy creating the future?

<comment><USER2> If it sells, it doesn't matter if its wrong. That's how the industry works.

I saw God Bless America the other day and this rant by Frank is relevant

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52EnTtGstKg>

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, great movie. Love the underlying message.</comment></comment></comment>


We're all getting dumber, says science - rising-sky https://www.fastcompany.com/40584777/were-all-getting-dumber-says-science <comment><AUTHOR> I am under the impression that intelligence doesn't have universal standards, and an iq test only really tells you how much you know based on one culture's rating system. I assign iq tests and ratings extremely little value.

<comment><USER2> > an iq test only really tells you how much you know based on one culture's > rating system

Regardless of whether this is true, IQ should be consistent across a culture like Norway, right? Particularly when the results don't show a consistent effect across families.</comment></comment>


Hackbook Elite demo - <AUTHOR> https://hackbook.co/pages/demo <comment><USER2> Not a lot of specs to say whats in it.

Why make me buy it, get it home and then make me upgrade the memory? If it's really an HP Laptop, why not configure it the way they can?</comment>


Federal appeals court strikes death blow to privacy in phone location info case - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/05/graham-enbanc <comment><USER2> If private companies are going to collect and store this information, of course other parties are going to try to get at it. Whether it's law enforcement, some spy organization in an adversarial country, organized crime, or another private company that is willing to buy it.

I can't wait until the time the police decide to start grabbing this sort of data en masse to issue speeding tickets each month or charge road usage fees to out of state drivers.</comment>


Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/29/black-death-not-spread-rat-fleas-london-plague

<comment><USER2> This doesn't sound like anything new. As I understand it, it is well known that there were three distinct forms of plague during the "black death" epidemic: Bubonic, pnuemonic, and septicemic.

Below are quotes from letter sent from the papal court at Avignon in 1348:

 _" It is said that the plague takes three forms. In the first people suffer an infection of the lungs, which leads to breathing difficulties. Whoever has this corruption or contamination to any extent cannot escape but will die within two days. Another form...in which boils erupt under the armpits,...a third form in which people of both sexes are attacked in the groin._

 _..._

 _And this form is the most dangerous of all these terrible things, which is to say that it is the most contagious, for when one infected person dies everyone who saw him during his illness, visited him, had any dealings with him, or carried him to burial, immediately follows him, without any remedy. "_ [1]

[1] Letter from Louis Heyligen of Beeringen (27 April 1348) , via "Horrox, Rosemary (1994). Black Death"

<comment><USER3> As usual, comments on HN are more interesting than the article. Thank you.

</comment></comment><comment> rkuykendall-com Interesting note: This is not sourced from a research paper, but a sound bite to build interest in a documentary airing this weekend.

While the source, Tim Brooks, seems credible [1], I will be interested when more actual information comes out.

[1] [http://apps.who.int/whocc/Detail.aspx?cc_ref=UNK-122&cc_code...](http://apps.who.int/whocc/Detail.aspx?cc_ref=UNK-122&cc_code=unk)

</comment><comment><USER4> Nothing revolutionary here. Wiki black death:

 _" Many modern scholars accept that the lethality of the Black Death stemmed from the combination of bubonic and pneumonic plague with other diseases and warn that every historical mention of 'pest' was not necessarily bubonic plague..."_

</comment><comment><USER5> So the plague doctor costumes that I'd heard were just for show actually served a useful purpose - to restrict the breathing of contaminated air?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor)

<comment><USER6> The actual bad smell of infected people was believed to be unhealthy, so afaik most plague masks were built to provide a "good" smell through herbs or incent, but it seems plausible that some of them helped nonetheless.</comment></comment>


Why @ Is Held in Such High Design Esteem - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/arts/design/22iht-design22.html?hpw <comment><USER2> Right smack in the middle of the article is an unnecessar TV pop-culture reference that just left me confused.

 _(If you're a "Gossip Girl" fan, think of it as Little J. being crowned "queen" of Constance; or, if you prefer "Mad Men," as Peggy after her promotion from secretary to copywriter.)_

What does any of this mean?

<comment><USER3> This is a pure guess, but I think it might be intended to illustrate a situation in which something previously unremarkable is put into a position of importance.

<comment><USER4> In both jobs, she's still typing. @'s job denoting "pricing at" closely resembles @'s job denoting "recipient at," but there's a key difference.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Without the '@' how would we ever play nethack?</comment>


The CIA Is Shuttering a Secretive Climate Research Program - <AUTHOR> http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/05/cia-closing-its-main-climate-research-program <comment><USER2> There are a number of ways that climate change threatens the national security of the United States beyond the mere 'existential threat' of habitat destruction.

The first of these is that boundaries between nations and regions are in large part based on natural geography - difficult to pass geographical features like large bodies of water or rivers, think forests, faultlines, mountain ranges and deserts form natural buffer zones between populations. As these features change on a global scale: as rivers are redirected, water levels displace populations, as deserts expand and forests move these boundaries are shifted and so conflict can bubble between regions regarding their territory.

On a similar tact changes to the resource supply chain also causes territory disputes. In some places (e.g. Yemen), water shortages fuel conflict that can only get worse as water dries up. Resources move and ecological changes shift country's resource supplies. Large changes and migrations to game or fish populations force regions to renegotiate rights to territory for hunting and fishing.

Furthermore climate change makes some previously unavailable resources accessible. The elephant in the room here is the Arctic, which contains roughly 20% of the world's oil and huge amounts of minerals and other resources - as well as it being a natural and valuable geostrategic location for missile deployment and satellite communication.

Some months ago a new executive order was published for the purposes of developing a steering committee to unify agencies across the United States government to implement goals it describes as:

"... critical long-term strategic, ecological, cultural, and economic value, and it is imperative that we continue to protect our national interests in the region, which include: national defense; sovereign rights and responsibilities; maritime safety; energy and economic benefits; environmental stewardship; promotion of science and research; and preservation of the rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea as reflected in international law. ..."

The steering committee is responsible for a few things, and first:

"Sec. 3. Responsibilities of the Arctic Executive Steering Committee. The Steering Committee, in coordination with the heads of relevant agencies and under the direction of the Chair, shall:

(a) provide guidance and coordinate efforts to implement the priorities, objectives, activities, and responsibilities identified in National Security Presidential Directive 66/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 25, Arctic Region Policy, the National Strategy for the Arctic Region and its Implementation Plan, and related agency plans;

..."

[https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press- office/2015/01/21/execu...](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press- office/2015/01/21/executive-order-enhancing-coordination-national-efforts- arctic)

In NSPD-66 the national security interests are enumerated as:

"The United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic region and is prepared to operate either independently or in conjunction with other states to safeguard these interests. These interests include such matters as missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sealift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence, and maritime security operations; and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.

The United States also has fundamental homeland security interests in preventing terrorist attacks and mitigating those criminal or hostile acts that could increase the United States vulnerability to terrorism in the Arctic region.

The Arctic region is primarily a maritime domain; as such, existing policies and authorities relating to maritime areas continue to apply, including those relating to law enforcement.[1] Human activity in the Arctic region is increasing and is projected to increase further in coming years. This requires the United States to assert a more active and influential national presence to protect its Arctic interests and to project sea power throughout the region.

The United States exercises authority in accordance with lawful claims of United States sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the Arctic region, including sovereignty within the territorial sea, sovereign rights and jurisdiction within the United States exclusive economic zone and on the continental shelf, and appropriate control in the United States contiguous zone.

Freedom of the seas is a top national priority. The Northwest Passage is a strait used for international navigation, and the Northern Sea Route includes straits used for international navigation; the regime of transit passage applies to passage through those straits. Preserving the rights and duties relating to navigation and overflight in the Arctic region supports our ability to exercise these rights throughout the world, including through strategic straits."

[http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-66.htm](http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-66.htm)

This multinational bid, consisting of over 20 nations claiming parts of the arctic (Russia claiming about half of it) and 170 members on the international Arctic Council is bolstered by espionage, claim staking missions and cutthroat diplomacy:

[http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/11/frozen-assets-arctic- esp...](http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/11/frozen-assets-arctic-espionage- spying-new-cold-war-russia-canada/)

The US and Canada have been increasing defense cooperation in the Arctic in anticipation of claims and challenges:

[http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=118768](http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=118768)

But there have also been disputes with Canada about sovereignty:

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/13/canada-uses- fra...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/13/canada-uses-franklin- expedition-wreck-north-west-passage-claim)

The US just held an emergancy artic council, under the guise of preserving the Artic for the sake of nature, and have been meeting bi- and multi-laterally with other artic nations to create as many national stakes to artic territory as they can (so that there can be political stalemate over the area).

Russia is now claiming approximately half of the arctic and has mobilized troops, drones and ballistic missile systems:

[http://www.newsweek.com/.../what-russia- arctic-308941.html](http://www.newsweek.com/.../what-russia- arctic-308941.html)

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/21/russia- arctic-m...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/21/russia-arctic- military-oil-gas-putin)

[http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-is-militarizing-the- ar...](http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-is-militarizing-the- arctic-2014-12)

[http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-arctic-pivot-is-a- mas...](http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-arctic-pivot-is-a-massive- military-undertaking-2015-3)

[http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-26/russia-deploys- tact...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-26/russia-deploys-tactial- drone-arctic-exposes-rarely-seen-us-spy-satellite-images)

The United State's world order is one where boundaries are not allowed to be changed. It has kept the Middle East, despite its high volatility, mostly static for the majority of a century. The current resource and land distribution of the world benefits the United States - in the sense that it is uniquely able to feel secure from the imperial ambitions of its neighbors (like the Britannica that bore it it is surrounded by weak neighbors and by geographical features that protect it). It is in the US national security interests that boundaries do not shift - both because it is a garunteur of static boundaries so that shifting boundaries undermine its legitimacy, and because it opens the opportunity for nations to become regional hegemons that can 'grow up' to play global power games against the US (I'm channeling the leaked DoD Wolfowitz Doctrine here).

The US does not want power projected or ballistic missile systems on its northern flank. In turn it enumerates 'strategic deterrence' as a national security issue in the Arctic: the US feels the need to deploy its own missile systems aimed at other nations as a retaliatory measure to deter possible future hostility.

Finally, the global ranging security pacts of the US will force it to intervene if conflict arises nearly anywhere over this changing world. If the world erupts into territory dispute caused by geographical changes and resource contention the US is obligated to be a part of that conflict.</comment>


Bayes Theorem and Naive Bayes - <AUTHOR> http://alexhwoods.com/2015/11/08/bayes-theorem-and-naive-bayes/ <comment><USER2> I've heard Naives Bayes described as "nearly good enough" for many uses. Can anyone quantify how much worse it is for various applications?

<comment><USER3> Naive Bayes assumes variable independence, for one thing. If the features aren't independent from each other, then you'd be better off using probabilistic graphical networks.

<comment><USER4> > Naive Bayes assumes variable independence, for one thing

That's true, but every model makes assumptions that are wrong. The puzzling thing about Naive Bayes was how well it performs in practice in spite of its assumptions being so wrong. I believe that there have been papers explaining this. I would look at Russell and Norvig's book for a start.

One thing that Naive Bayes sucks at is providing good probabilistic estimates. It is nearly always overconfident in its predictions (eg. P(rain) = 0.99999999) even though its classification accuracy can be pretty good (relative to its simplicity). Logistic regression fares a lot better for probabilities.

<comment><USER5> > One thing that Naive Bayes sucks at is providing good probabilistic > estimates.

This is true based on how it's described in textbooks, but in practice it should always be combined with a calibration algorithm (which add a trivial O(n) cost to the process). The common choices here are Platt [0] or Isotonic Regression [1] (the latter should, itself, be combined with a regularization algorithm because it can easily overfit for outliers).

Given a calibration algorithm Naive Bayes produces probability estimates every bit as reasonable as any other algorithm.

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

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

<comment><USER6> > but in practice it should always be combined with a calibration algorithm > (which add a trivial O(n) cost to the process).

Why not just use logistic regression at this point? The only benefit of Naive Bayes over logistic regression is that Naive Bayes is simpler to code.

<comment><USER5> The calibration cost is trivial compared to the coefficient learning cost. Very roughly, calibration is O(records) whereas coefficient learning is O(records * features). So the tiny add-on cost of calibration shouldn't affect anyone's evaluation of the relative merits of algorithms. NB still retains its computational advantage.

One thing that is often discounted in theoretical discussions is that NB takes _much_ less I/O than something like LR, typically in the range of 5-100x (depending on how many iterations you want to do updating your LR coefficients). If you're doing, for example, a MapReduce implementation then NB has huge computational advantages. In LR each coefficient update costs you another map/reduce pass across your entire data set (whereas NB is always done in exactly one iteration).

So if NB + calibration gets you something close to LR for vastly less computation and I/O, why _wouldn 't_ you use it?

Having said that, if you're talking about small amounts of data that fit into RAM and you can "just load into R", then sure use LR over NB. For that matter use a Random Forest [0]. The reason NB is still around is because it offers a point in the design space where you spend almost no resources and still get something surprisingly useful (and recalibration narrows the utility gap between NB and better methods even more).

[0] And you should _still_ consider calibrating your random forest's output.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If I understood this correctly Naive Bayes uses "reasoning on the average". I'm assuming this is good for fast rough estimates at best.

<comment><USER6> No, not quite. _All_ classification algorithms use "reasoning on the average". (A.k.a. "statistics".)

Naive Bayes is a poor classifier because it ignores conditional dependency: when having feature A raises the odds, having feature also B raises the odds, but having features A and B together lowers the odds.

<comment><USER8> Known dependencies can be taken into account by treating joint A&B occurrence as another feature. The result can sometimes be significantly improved with this simple hack.

This is an example of why feature engineering is very important, at times more so than the algorithm choice.

Learning to develop features that go together well with an algorithm is essential to practical machine learning.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Good post in terms of content; really wish he had a nice syntax-highlighted code box instead of screenshots of code

</comment><comment><USER10> The last two screen shots are the same</comment>


Ask HN: I'm not good at graphics, where should I search for some help? - <AUTHOR>

hi,
I'm working on a social app, it's almost done but I'm not good at graphics.
I know the basics of gimp, but I can't really make a nice logo, nor a nice photo to use as background. I'm not good at choosing the colors either and stuff like this.
Which resources (maybe on the internet, or books) would you suggest me to look at? <comment><USER2> I have to say, like everything, if you don't have the right tools, or even know how to use them, your life can be difficult. It's why you hire people.

Another aspect is you need to know what it is you're looking at expecially when you look at examples. That means not just knowing how it was placed on the page or what the file type is, but what effort was required to build it.

Those are pretty much the ground rules - take it from someone who studied art and design and spent 7 years as an art director.

if you are looking at a png image for example, was that png image generated from a vector program like Adobe illustrator or Inkscape, or was it a sample from a bigger image or has it been put together pixel-by-pixel in photoshop, or was it sketched out by someone and scanned or is it a photograph? What part do gradients, layers, blending media play in it? What possibilitites does CSS3 give us to reproduce some common effects... I could go on. A good artist will know the answer to that within a few seconds.

The best thing I could recommend is get yourself a friend who does that stuff for a living, then get them excited in what you are doing. Then, drop the question...

<comment><AUTHOR> hi chris and thanks for posting your thoughts

I'm wondering, do you know if there are there "places" on the internet where such a kind of "networking" can happen?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You can find graphic artists at very reasonable rates on elance.com (be sure to check their ratings) I would advise however that you also consider working with a UX designer who has experience with the design of navigation/workflows and who understands usability best practices. Having a well designed and usable (intuitive) product will make your product stand-out and will make users more likely to enjoy the experience and return for more. This is especially true when it comes to social apps. I would also advise that you make it easy and enticing for your users to leave feedback. This feedback will be the key to understanding and identifying their needs. Then you can consider how to best meet those needs (if possible with the help of a UX professional). Here is some great advice from a successful start-up founder: [http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue/the-10-mistakes-ive- made...](http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue/the-10-mistakes-ive-madeso-you- dont-have-to)

</comment><comment><USER4> If you are really on a shoestring (i.e. you cannot afford a graphic designer), then I would really recommend Inkscape - which is to Illustrator as Gimp is to Photoshop. It's a bit foreign if you've never done vector graphics before, but if you're working on logos it really is the way to go. For colors & palletes, go over to colourlovers.com - that's a good place to start anyway. If you are only after the odd pic or two, any of the stock photo sites is good and relatively inexpensive. Also, there are a ton of sites such as deviantart.com where you can find free graphics and fonts, etc. or at the very least you can find some really talented artists that might be able to get it done for you.

<comment><USER5> I second Inkscape. I love it. It's so useful and you can really create a lot with it. It helps to be a bit artistic; however, I think with some practice you could still do it sufficiently well to put a decent logo together. For instance, you could find fonts and designs you like and tweak them to fit what you want using Inkscape.

Also, as long as you aren't spending too much time, I think learning a new skill is always helpful. It never hurts to learn.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The Non-Designer's Design Book: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321534042/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=de...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321534042/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=dedasys-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0321534042&adid=0WSHMTR2N6424MDXWNP0&);

Should give you some basic ideas. For the logo or other important stuff, maybe hire someone to do it.

I think what's really difficult is developing an internal feedback loop so that you can critique your own work, and thus improve it. I simply don't have the sense that some poeple do, for instance, that one design is 'good' and another isn't.

<comment><AUTHOR> hi David,

thanks for the suggestion, I managed to find the preview online and it looks great.

Also, hiring someone is currently out of my possibilities but I'd be happy to share my idea with someone who does have some graphics skills to see if likes the project and would get involved.

Are there "places" on the internet where such a kind of "networking" can happen?

<comment><USER6> Seeing your other comment/submission, another book you might find interesting is "Start Small, Stay Small". Here's a talk I gave about it, in Italian:

[http://www.bettersoftware.it/conference/talks/start-small- st...](http://www.bettersoftware.it/conference/talks/start-small-stay-small)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This article [http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic- user-...](http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user- interfaces.php) specifically and that blog in general have been massively helpful for me in improving my design skills. I highly recommend you give it a read through.

</comment><comment><USER8> Get David Kadavy's Design for hackers book. Also see Paul's blog - <http://paulstamatiou.com/startup-web-design-ux-crash-course>

It will take time to get good. Meanwhile, copy what you like.

</comment><comment><USER9> [www.bing.com/search?q=logo+design]

The logo is a distraction.

Get traction for your app, then hire someone who knows what they are doing.

Or invest a few bucks now in something good enough.

Or learn graphic design and launch in five to seven years.

</comment><comment><USER10> <http://99designs.com/>

<http://prizes.org/>

etc. Crowdsource it out. I've seen some amazing designs on prizes for less than 300 bucks.

</comment><comment><USER11> You can also put requests in at conceptart.org or even throw an ad on craigslist. Just make certain to see examples of their portfolio before negotiating a price.</comment>


Tips for Beating the App Store Blackbox - <AUTHOR> http://blog.playhaven.com/2009/12/top-3-marketing-tips-for-beating-the-app-store-blackbox/

<comment><USER3> That is a _fascinating_ graph of sales versus events. Winners win, indeed.

 _It really blows my mind that the App Store doesn't provide any customer data to developers besides number of downloads by region. In any business, it's critical to build a relationship with your customers. Knowing who your customers are helps you iterate your game quickly to suit your customers' likes, and most importantly, to up-sell your future games._

I think I've mentioned this a couple of times before, but Apple doesn't consider the customer to be _your_ customer. They are _Apple's_ customer. Apple deigns to grant you access to them, temporarily.

Not that I will ever build anything for this platform, but I'd be thinking "How can I build 'participate in permission marketing to enjoy this game even more' into my application?" One trivial example: a Brag To Your Friends feature (high score list, but with Facebook integration), which by necessity gets you from "anonymous Apple customer" to "verified, identifiable person who loves us interacting directly with us via a web page of our choosing." Or, alternatively, a bling widget for the customer's blog or site detailing your in-game accomplishments ("Toby the Vicious Corsair has slain 96 dragons!"). After you get executable code on somebody's site your options are, well, rather wide. (6 months later: "Toby the Vicious Corsair has slain 96 dragons! But can he handle the brain-busting epic tactical puzzlombat of (link)Dragonslaying 2: Now With More Fire(/link)?")

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have been experimenting with various iPhone marketing strategies. In the past few months, I worked with some very talented iPhone game devs and learned some more interesting marketing / promotion tricks they employed. I thought I'd summarized the ones I found most effective and share with you all.

Hopefully this would help some of iPhone game devs in marketing your next game this holiday season. I'd love to hear what you guys think as well. If you have any additional thoughts / tips you'd like to share please let me know!

<comment><USER4> Great article, I'd love to see more data about advertising/sales - <USER2> conversions. How close of a correlation can you make with the banner placements and increase in sales. It seems like once you're in the top 100 listing, there is some natural momentum as well. Also do you know if the geared banners were direct click through to iTunes or if they used landing pages?

<comment><USER5> Judging from his current app up right now on Touch Arcade, it looks like it goes straight to iTunes (probably hits his server first to record where it came from).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Developing for the iPhone is like launching a rocket. Provided your calculations are correct (i.e. you don't do anything to get rejected), you're really trying to get escape velocity, so that your app pops onto the top lists. If you miss that, you'll have a much more difficult time.

</comment><comment><USER7> Uh oh, it's started.. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=951520></comment>


The Vioxx Story  - <AUTHOR> http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/vioxx <comment><USER2> Full disclosure: I'm a surgery intern who was taking a course in drug action and design from an NIH immunologist at the time the Vioxx story was unfolding. The real story is how industry lobbyists and Republicans push for a weak FDA and the Dems push for more stringent regulations, which is just fine by the industry so long as the regulatory funding never keeps up. It's essentially another patent office but every new drug application that makes it to approval comes with literally rooms full of documentation.

As far as loathing big pharma, they're really the only ones who can play the game because the stringency requirements are so insanely high. Genuinely novel discoveries might come out of universities, and small start-ups might get the prototyps developed, but it's rare for them to survive on their own. They usually end up selling to one of the big companies.

From 30,000 feet, the pharma industry looks a lot like the IT industry.

</comment><comment><USER3> And this, folks, is why I loathe Big Pharma.

EDIT: okay, it's only part of it.

<comment><USER4> Although you really have to question the effectiveness of the FDA if their people were duped by such an obvious fabrication. Did no one just bother to run the numbers themselves?

<comment><USER5> I think you're overestimating the resources of the FDA

<comment><USER3> ++

The problem is EVERYONE is doing it. Always. The share holders practically demand it. Also, I think it goes without saying that the original post overly simplifies things a bit. If the pharm industry cooked the books to come up with substantiating evidence that looked highly convincing, it doesn't surprise me that stuff like this slipped by.

Previously: Climategate, Madoff, Enron, Sports doping, and so on and so forth basically throughout the entirety of humanity's recorded history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What happened to placebo-controlled studies?</comment>


Ask HN: Why is there no stylus with the iPad? - <AUTHOR>

Shouldn't any tablet have handwriting recognition, or at least let you make freehand notes and drawings?  I think that would be really useful to me, or to edit photos by drawing on them, etc. <comment><USER2> The only thing that is keeping me away from buying an iPad is the lack of some sort of handwriting/stylus feature.

This would open up for you to take it to school and take notes or make notes in meetings.

</comment><comment><USER3> Capacitive touchscreens tend to require electrical contact with the body to activate. This avoids accidental clicks due to non-body objects pressing the screen and provides slightly better accuracy than resistive touchscreen technology, but it also means that a nonconductive stylus will not work. a conductive one would need to distort the electric fieldof the touchscreen in much the same way as a finger, and this is tricky to do with a small point. This is one reason I prefer resistive touchscreens (built one into my Eee).

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd love to be able to jot down quick notes & sketches. Perhaps Apple think this is more of a business user requirement, and the ipad is more a leisure device.

Plus the stylus would need to be a conductor or carry some sort of a charge to work on the capacitive screen.

<comment><AUTHOR> So you could make a thin stylus if you put a charge on it? I guess otherwise using a conductor it would have to be the size of your finger.

Might be a good idea for a third party product?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The size and shape does strongly suggest writing with a stylus.

</comment><comment><USER6> Needs a stylus, no question. Need to be able to take notes at lectures with this thing or I'm not buying it. Need to be able to take notes on the stuff I'm reading on it.</comment>


Javascript AST trickery with burrito - <AUTHOR> http://substack.net/posts/eed898

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh I forgot to mention in the article, but I'm also using burrito for node- detective (<https://github.com/substack/node-detective>) to find all the require()s in a javascript file. Using detective made browserify (<https://github.com/substack/node-browserify>) much easier to use.

<comment><USER2> Cool!

The concatenation in Stitch and Sprockets is generally pretty great and reminds me a lot of Python modules. Unfortunately, I really missed the auto- loading `const_missing` behavior from Rails.

To minimize imports, we export most of our classes to `window` and simply `require` static class dependancies to enforce sequencing. Then we loop over every module & make sure they were all required at least once before instantiating any classes.

In CoffeeScript, exporting to `window` is as easy prepending '@' to the class name. We then `require` base classes and other statically needed modules for sequencing. Example:

      require 'model'
      require 'static_thing'

      class @User extends @Model

        # Explicit requirement needed as the class is being defined
        @foo = StaticThing.bar()

        # But not here, if we `require` everything before kicking off the app
        x: -> new DynamicThing()

I wonder if burrito could be used to automatically add those require statements for Model and StaticThing to the top of the file. Then, it would be nice to wrap DynamicThing in `require('dynamic_thing').DynamicThing`. That would be super awesome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is pretty cool. Are there any other libraries out there that can parse / manipulate js source?

<comment><USER4> Narcissus <https://github.com/mozilla/narcissus/>

It's been used as part of the Narrative JavaScript project to parse the JavaScript-like njs language and compile it back to JavaScript. <http://www.neilmix.com/narrativejs/doc/>

<comment><USER3> Awesome, thank you!</comment></comment></comment>


OldNYC: Mapping historical photos from the NYPL - <AUTHOR> http://www.oldnyc.org/

<comment><USER2> This is absolutely fantastic and fascinating. Always glad to see the continuing transition of libraries from physical to digital. Also, imagine the potential for a mashup between this and the current/historical Street Views available on Google Maps.

</comment><comment><USER3> You can read more about this project on its about page: [http://www.oldnyc.org/about.html](http://www.oldnyc.org/about.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> I love this -- great way to visualize these images.

Also, looks like [http://old.nyc](http://old.nyc) is unregistered :)

<comment><USER2> Judging from here [1], it looks like it's "unavailable"... does that mean it's maybe reserved?

[1] [http://www.ownit.nyc/register](http://www.ownit.nyc/register)

<comment><USER4> Ah, maybe.. ``` $ whois old.nyc Not found: old.nyc

>>>> Whois database was last updated on: 2015-05-21T18:35:09Z <<<< ```</comment></comment></comment>


OpenSSH security advisory - <AUTHOR> http://www.openssh.com/txt/gcmrekey.adv

<comment><USER2> Test against latest version of:

* Arch Linux -- Version match: OpenSSH_6.3p1, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013 (Supports AES-GCM)

CentOS 5.10 -- OpenSSH_4.3p2, OpenSSL 0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 01 Jul 2008 (No AES- GCM support)

CentOS 6.4 -- OpenSSH_5.3p1, OpenSSL 1.0.0-fips 29 Mar 2010 (No AES-GCM support)

Debian 6 (squeeze) -- OpenSSH_5.5p1 Debian-6+squeeze4, OpenSSL 0.9.8o 01 Jun 2010 (No AES-GCM support)

Debian 7 (wheezy) -- OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-4, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013 (Supports AES-GCM)

Fedora 18 (Spherical Cow) -- OpenSSH_6.1p1, OpenSSL 1.0.0-fips 29 Mar 2010 (Supports AES-GCM)

* Fedora 19 (Schrödinger's Cat) -- Version match: OpenSSH_6.2p2, OpenSSL 1.0.0-fips 29 Mar 2010 (Supports AES-GCM)

openSUSE 12.3 (Dartmouth) -- OpenSSH_6.1p1, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013 (Supports AES-GCM)

Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS (Lucid) -- OpenSSH_5.3p1 Debian-3ubuntu7, OpenSSL 0.9.8k 25 Mar 2009 (No AES-GCM support)

Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS (Precise) -- OpenSSH_5.9p1 Debian-5ubuntu1.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1 14 Mar 2012 (Supports AES-GCM)

Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal) -- OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-3ubuntu1, OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012 (Supports AES-GCM)

* Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy) -- Version match: OpenSSH_6.2p2 Ubuntu-6, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013 (Supports AES-GCM)

<comment><USER3> I found your comment somewhat cryptic, the asterisks mean it's affected, right?

[http://bugs.debian.org/cgi- bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=729029](http://bugs.debian.org/cgi- bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=729029)

"AES-GCM support was introduced in 6.2, so oldstable and stable should be fine (from [http://www.openssh.com/txt/release-6.2](http://www.openssh.com/txt/release-6.2)):"

Debian 7 (wheezy) -- OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-4, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013 (Supports AES-GCM)

If AES-GCM was introduced in 6.2, did someone patch 6.0 to support AES-GCM? I can't reconcile your list with the statement in the bug report otherwise. Could you explain?

I can't understand why AES-GCM was introduced in 6.2 and your list has many < 6.2 that support AES-GCM.

<comment><USER4> I _think_ he's talking about whether or not OpenSSL supports AES-GCM.

e.g. Debian 7 has a version of OpenSSL that supports AES-GCM, but OpenSSH isn't one of the affected versions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As side topic, it's quite awesome the level of auditing of this protocol. OpenBSD people deserve full respect.

<comment><USER6> OpenBSD people? OpenSSH people!

<comment><USER7> No. It's developed in-house by the OpenBSD project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> From the diff:

      -	newkey = xmalloc(sizeof(*newkey));
      +	newkey = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*newkey));

The only change is that the allocated memory is zeroed, right? (Just wondering if I'm missing something.)

<comment><USER9> Nope. That's all.

The newkey struct in turn contains a bunch of OpenSSL context structures, and one of these includes a cleanup callback pointer for the MAC (message authentication code) in use. For most ciphers this was being initialised later but AES-GCM provides message integrity without the need for an external MAC and in this case the MAC context was being left uninitialised.

When the newkeys struct was later being cleaned up as part of a rekeying operation, the cleanup callback was called. It's address was whatever happened to be on the heap when this allocation occurred.

It certainly appears exploitable using standard techniques, though it may be complicated somewhat by OpenSSH's privilege separation architecture.

<comment><USER8> Thanks.

Is calloc(1, size) considered idiomatic for zeroing memory? While I haven't used C much lately, back when I did I don't think I realized this, and could see myself at least considering reverting the change during "code cleanup".

<comment><USER10> Yeah, it's fairly common. calloc zeroes, malloc doesn't, and you shouldn't make a significant change like that during code cleanup. I think it's somewhat more common to see malloc followed by memset, as the intent is way more clear to a reader than just calloc by itself.

<comment><USER11> calloc can be faster because it has internal knowledge of whether the memory is already zero.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Debian Stable seems to be unaffected: [https://security- tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2013-4548](https://security- tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2013-4548)

<comment><USER12> Note that testing/jessie and sid _are_ vulnerable. Not that anybody should run a server with testing, but still :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> PoC ? Seriously with all the complex OS memory management access control, isolation and randomization features (like security features implemented by OpenBSD) writing a working exploit for this would be a real state of art ..

<comment><USER14> Linux by default doesnt do randomization features, at least not ArchLinux - the most security aware distro (sarcasm). Ubuntu doesnt do that either.

What do you mean by memory management access control?

As ssh contains or references code to open/read/write sockets, thats what I would do - return oriented programming or whatever its called - to use the functions already defined/within scope and memory, to open a reverse shell.

<comment><USER13> "This vulnerability is mitigated by the difficulty of pre-loading the heap with a useful callback address and by any platform address-space layout randomisation applied to sshd and the shared libraries it depends upon."

Right. But in order for RoP explotation (say chain some libc function calls) to work you'd still have to manipulate the stack arguments in some fancy way, also it's not really sure how trivial is "pre-loading the heap" since it's a post-authentication stage bug as the advisory mentions. Of course these are just speculation, digging into the source code might change perspective :)

<comment><USER14> Yes it is quite comforting this is post-authentication, so in most cases no big deal. Just tough luck for shared accounts.

I guess most people dont run sshd as root and capabilities either so that minimizes damage too. Another reason to not run ssh on port 22, no root, no special caps needed.

<comment><USER15> All my servers run sshd as root, including the FreeBSD ones. Is that ok? Or do you mean that sshd drops privileges for the child after forking?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> In the past I've had this in my sshd_config files:

      Ciphers aes256-ctr
      MACs hmac-sha2-512

This is one recommended way for forward secrecy [https://github.com/ioerror/duraconf/blob/master/configs/sshd...](https://github.com/ioerror/duraconf/blob/master/configs/sshd/sshd- pfs_config)

Unfortunately my favored Android SSH client (juiceSSH) couldn't handle that so I had to change to:

      Ciphers aes256-ctr,aes256-cbc
      MACs hmac-sha1

which is rather unfortunate, but still turned out to have been a good thing in light of this vulnerability (I'm running 6.2 on all my machines because of the DoS vulnerability in earlier versions).

</comment><comment><USER17>
        2. Affected configurations

        OpenSSH 6.2 and OpenSSH 6.3 when built against an OpenSSL that supports AES-GCM.

What would be a good/simple way to test if your system is one of these? How can I check which ciphers my build of OpenSSL supports?

Edit: The following command returns nada on all my systems. I guess that puts me in the clear?

        $ openssl --version 2>&1 | grep gcm

<comment><USER18> What I did is try to use the cipher : ssh -c firstname.lastname@example.com (host)

If you get "no cipher found", you're clear, if you can connect you can disable the cipher (while keeping others) with this line in you sshd_config:

Ciphers aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish- cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc

Source: [http://www.openssh.com/txt/gcmrekey.adv](http://www.openssh.com/txt/gcmrekey.adv)

<comment><USER19> "Unknown cipher type" for me, but close enough that it seems to mean the same thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> spiped, problem solved.

[http://www.tarsnap.com/spiped.html](http://www.tarsnap.com/spiped.html)

[http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2012-08-30-protecting- sshd-u...](http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2012-08-30-protecting-sshd-using- spiped.html)

<comment><USER21> Uh. No.

Spiped just 'pipes' an SSH connection from one point to another. It's essentially a very thin VPN.

But this bug is exploited via authenticated users. If you're using ssh keys (...you are, aren't you?) you would basically already need a valid SSH login to use this vuln; if nobody but you has an ssh key login, you're safe. This vulnerability may still affect you - even with spiped - depending on who has an ssh key login to your box.

(And this thinking that you can just 'wrap another layer of encryption/abstraction' around a problem, is why we can't have nice things)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> > _this vulnerability might permit code execution with the privileges of the > authenticated user_

Yet another vote for secure authentication, which typically means requiring use of a private key and disabling root login.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure what you're thinking about here, since the vulnerability is post- authentication?

A bug like this could be pretty devastating for github and bitbucket type setups where everyone in the world is using a shared, restricted "git" UNIX user authenticating with a private key, for git ssh push and pull.

<comment><USER5> This bug is problematic for all those situations where the ssh protocol is not used for telnet-style command line, but as a transport.

e.g. Git uses ssh as transport protocol, but github (and similar platforms) don't support direct user login.

<comment><USER5> > What about git-shell over ssh ?

I guess that gives the same problem. The exploitation allows to execute arbitrary code, as you would do by launching commands from, say, bash.

I don't know git-shell, but I guess (from the manpage) it restricts the allowed commands. The exploitation of the bug would allow a malicious user to execute a command instead of git-shell. A good example of command could be /bin/bash.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Is OpenBSD unaffected? [http://www.openbsd.org/security.html#53](http://www.openbsd.org/security.html#53)

<comment><USER20> That's for previous release. Look at the current errata:

[http://www.openbsd.org/errata54.html](http://www.openbsd.org/errata54.html)

In places where - _current_ is not an option, look into M:Tier binpatches and their `openup` utility:

[https://stable.mtier.org/](https://stable.mtier.org/)

[http://www.mtier.org/index.php/solutions/apps/openup/](http://www.mtier.org/index.php/solutions/apps/openup/)

<comment><USER23> SO that page isn't updated for the affected versions? Is that because they only "support" (release patches for) the newest release? I was under the impression they "supported" the two latest releases..

<comment><USER20> [http://www.openbsd.org/errata53.html](http://www.openbsd.org/errata53.html)

The page you linked to is not updated as often or as thoroughly. Errata ('Patches' link on the main page) is the page you want. Sorry for the confusion.

<comment><USER23> Thanks, I thought it looked kind of empty. It's a little confusing though..

Also, maybe a warning the unsupported version could be on order?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I had never heard of this GCM mode for block ciphers, do any distro package OpenSSL with this mode activated by default?

<comment><USER25> Quoting Matthew Green

"the only people who hate GCM are those who've had to implement it. You see, GCM is CTR mode encryption with the addition of a Carter-Wegman MAC set in a Galois field. If you just went 'sfjshhuh?', you now understand what I'm talking about. Implementing GCM is a hassle in a way that most other AEADs are not. But if you have someone else's implementation -- say OpenSSL's -- it's a perfectly lovely mode."

From an interesting read

[http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2012/05/how-to- choos...](http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2012/05/how-to-choose- authenticated-encryption.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5647](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5647)</comment>


Show HN: Hacker News Classics - <AUTHOR> http://jsomers.net/hn <comment><AUTHOR> Occasionally you see articles on HN with a date in the title, like "(1998)" — and over the years I've noticed that these tend to be some of the best posts.

It makes sense: on a site devoted to _news_ , an article posted so long after it was published has to be especially good.

So I hacked together this page, which links to every HN post with a date in its title earning more than 40 votes. It's sorted in chronological order to encourage wandering.

<comment><USER2> For links that are now defunct/gone (such as #2 on the chronological list), can you pull the web archive at the closest date to the submission?

(dead) [http://yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm](http://yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm) ===> [https://web.archive.org/web/20100108205037/http://yorktownhi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20100108205037/http://yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm) (archive from 6 days later)

I don't think this can be done programmatically though... thanks for putting this together. I enjoy the old posts a lot, too.

<comment><USER3> The url can be found via the archive's API, and you can specify a timestamp.

[http://archive.org/wayback/available?url=http://yorktownhist...](http://archive.org/wayback/available?url=http://yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm&timestamp=20010203)

It returns a json with, notably, the closest archived page given the timestamp.

[https://archive.org/help/wayback_api.php](https://archive.org/help/wayback_api.php)

<comment><USER2> That's way more fantastic than I thought their API would be! Thanks. Hope OP sees it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So in case I'm not spending enough time on the front page of _this_ HN, good to know there's a nearly infinite depth to plumb.

And now I'm reading Arnold Bennett's 'How to Live on 24 Hours a Day' originally published in 1908. Good to know tongue-in-cheek self-help books will never go out of style!

[1] - [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2274/2274-h/2274-h.htm](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2274/2274-h/2274-h.htm)

<comment><USER5> I actually enjoyed reading this today. One highlight was the below on "reading the news every morning"

" The idea of devoting to them thirty or forty consecutive minutes of wonderful solitude (for nowhere can one more perfectly immerse one's self in one's self than in a compartment full of silent, withdrawn, smoking males) is to me repugnant "

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You can also to go [https://news.ycombinator.com/front](https://news.ycombinator.com/front) to bounce around how HN's front page looked on past days, like [https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2016-06-20](https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2016-06-20).

Or click on the date in an account's profile to see what HN looked like on its birthday.

<comment><USER7> Note that [https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2007-02-18](https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2007-02-18) doesn't let you navigate backwards, but [https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2006-10-09](https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2006-10-09) is the first day.

Out of curiosity, for the date rendering, did you xdef racket's date libraries or implement your own date algorithms in arc?

I guess you could've also shelled out to `date -r <timestamp>` which would get the feature done in about ten seconds.

<comment><USER6> > 2007-02-18 doesn't let you navigate backwards

Yes, and we specifically left it as an exercise for the pokey reader to figure out why.

Arc does its own date stuff. We extended it a bit to be able to print things like "x months ago". Edit: and "Feb 31, 2017".

<comment><USER8> Just curious: do you (as in Y combinator) use Arc for anything else or is it a "hobby language" for HN?

<comment><USER6> All of YC's original investment software was written in Arc, though it has been gradually factored out into other systems.

We use it for a browser extension that helps a lot with moderation work. And for general experiments. If I do something more ambitiously new it will probably be in Arc.

<comment><USER7> _We use it for a browser extension that helps a lot with moderation work._

Oho, so Arc does compile to JS now.

You gonna release the compiler or what? (Sometime this decade.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> With regards to Classics, the "You're probably using the wrong dictionary" blog post at [http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary](http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary) was probably the most interesting pieces I've read on HN.

<comment><USER10> Very nice indeed. Immediately ran downstairs to verify a Websters encyclopedia dictionary I bought in the UK around 1997 only to find it wasn't the version with all the prose. It's still a very nice illustrated (and heavy!) dictionary, but not quite like what jsomers describes.

So downloaded the version he offers for download and am now installing the dictionary using the steps he provides.

Thank You, really looking forward to using it.

edit: and his install steps still work, using it in the dictionary app right now. Super!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is very cool! Based on the title "HN Classics," I thought it might be an implementation of another idea I've had. I had this idea to search for stand- out articles that get reposted every so often and always get a lot of good attention and discussion: so-called classics of HN.

I think that data could be very interesting, and would also serve as a sort of "hall of fame" of articles the HN community loves (moreso than just a list of the most upvoted articles of all time).

Of course, you could also figure out the optimal duration between successive posts, and figure out when to repost yourself, if anyone wants a karma-grab. ;)

<comment><USER12> I thought reposts (and therefore scattered discussions) were discouraged on HN.

<comment><USER11> From what I've seen, it's perfectly acceptable for older articles that are reposted after a considerable amount of time.

The best example I can find on short notice is this hexagonal grids article:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Hexagonal%20Grids&sort=byDate&...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Hexagonal%20Grids&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

You could likely find more by searching HN comments for the phrase "previous discussion," because people tend to post links to the previous HN submissions.

It doesn't bother me, since there are likely always new HN readers who haven't seen great "classic" articles.

The HN FAQ says:

> If a story has had significant attention in the last year or so, we kill > reposts as duplicates. If not, a small number of reposts is ok.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'd prefer to sort them by points. By age is interesting, by the way.

Do you do some deduplication. Some classics are resubmitted a few times successfully. Perhaps add a third sort criteria, that is sorted by the number of big reposts.

<comment><USER14> Problem with by points is that over time as more people come to HN the number of points are worth less, unless HN does like Reddit does and weighs them but even then such a system tends to change over time and so it's still not comparable.

For example say that several years ago a post might hit front page and 500 people would vote on it. If 300 people voted up and 200 down then it gets 100 points.

Fast forward and now there are more people on the site. That means greater confidence in the percentage but because only points and not percentage of up/down is revealed, a post with similar percentage up- vs downvotes appears to be better. 600 up and 400 down is still 60% up vs 40% down but it results in 200 points total.

Like I said though maybe HN does account for this and 100 points today means the same percentage of people upvoted it, I don't know.

<comment><USER15> You can't downvote posts on HN, you can flag them but you can't downvote them. On HN, downvoting is only possible on comments.

<comment><USER14> You are right I forgot that, heh. Anyway, the problem remains that over time there will be more people to upvote so a post is likely to get more points if it was posted in the future than in the past.

<comment><USER16> Not really. Just tried to upvote an old post from 10 years ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=243417](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=243417)

As a result, its score did not increase, although upvoting "worked".

<comment><USER14> No I mean that a front page post five years ago had fewer people to vote on it so it would get fewer points simply for that reason compared to a front page post today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Since the first post is 1900 and it appears to be sorted by date, I wanted to verify: there were no posts from the 1800s worth showing?

<comment><USER18> \- [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10374436](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10374436)

\- [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11320169](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11320169)

probably more

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Any way this could be done without requiring javascript?

For security, ad-blocking, and privacy reasons I have javascript blocked in my browser, and really don't like to turn it on except for sites like my bank.

<comment><USER20> "Any way this could be done without requiring Javascript?"

Could be done _many_ ways.

Lets imagine you like text, you dont mind reading something somewhat structured and regular like json and you dont need all the html, css, etc. tags and window dressing.

5-minute quick and dirty solution

1\. curl -4o 1.htm [http://jsomers.net/hn/stories.json](http://jsomers.net/hn/stories.json)

        tr , '\12' < 1.htm \
        |exec sed '
        1i\

        /./{
        /{\"/,/}/!d;
        }
        /\"url\":[^{]/{s/\"url\":/&<\/pre>[FETCH]<\/a>
/;};
        /\"objectID\":/{s//&<\/pre>[FETCH COMMENTS]<\/a>
/;s/\"//3;s/\"//3;};
        s/{\"created_at\":/\
        \
        &/g;
        /}}}/s/$/\
        \
        </comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-----/g;
        $a\
        <\/pre>

       ' > 2.htm

2\. Navigate to file:///2.htm

</comment><comment><USER21> Wow, this is great.

Were there no pre 1900 refrences or is that just were you chose to start?

<comment><AUTHOR> I started it somewhat arbitrarily in 1900.

<comment><USER22> ahh was about to publish something in BC just to see what happens ;)

<comment><USER23> The Wheel: A More Efficient Method for the Production of Round Ceramic Wares (3500 B.C.)

<comment><USER23> But more seriously, I remembered the complaint tablet to Ea-nasir[1], which was on HN a few months ago[2]. Written in 1750 BCE.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea- nasir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-nasir)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15669759](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15669759)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> ah i was thinking of making something like this but never did anything. i would have called it Hacker Olds :)

well done!

</comment><comment><USER25> It may need some broken link tools. I clicked on the 4th link and the site no longer exists, Wayback Machine has it though - [https://web.archive.org/web/20170606131659/http://www.lhup.e...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170606131659/http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/hollow/tamarack.htm)

Perhaps Hacker Classics could automatically ensure all remaining live links get archived?

<comment><USER26> > Perhaps Hacker Classics could automatically ensure all remaining live links > get archived?

Done. I'm going to run through every URL ever cited on HN at some point when time permits.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> There's something odd about the file checked in to Github; it's cut off on line 50:

[https://github.com/jsomers/hacker- classics/blob/master/index...](https://github.com/jsomers/hacker- classics/blob/master/index.html)

</comment><comment><USER28> Suggested title: Hacker Olds

</comment><comment><USER29> Interesting how both now and 'then' Tesla is still in the top stories.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is pretty nice. I also think a browse by year feature would be neat. By that I mean in the same fashion as OP, so I could for example look at posts that had (2011) in the title by going to 2011, etc.

</comment><comment><USER30> wow, this is really interesting..

and I just reliazed one of the reason why classic writings are special -- especially for another writing material purpose is because it has passed the the test of time..

</comment><comment><USER31> Thanks for this. Can't upvote this enough. Still going through lots of gems that I would never have read without this. p.s thanks for ruining lot of my work hours. but thanks!

</comment><comment><USER32> Anyone fancy putting all of these into a Kindle/PDF? :)

<comment><USER33> Weekend project challenge! I do lots of scrape-to-ebook projects, so this is fun for me.

Check back a few hours later.

<comment><USER33> Progress so far: [https://git.captnemo.in/nemo/hn- classics](https://git.captnemo.in/nemo/hn-classics)

(Scraped content to markdown, simple Jekyll website in progress)

<comment><USER32> Let me know...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I'm not sure how I feel about having three items on this list (including the current #1). I might need to take my buggy out for a long trot to contemplate.

</comment><comment><USER35> Hmmm... lovely idea, but in practice what I'm getting is a bunch of 404s. The internet is a library with a bunch of books missing...

</comment><comment><USER36> Interesting how as we approach from 1903 to 2010 we ultimately go from more general and deep to more specialized and disconnected.

</comment><comment><USER37> There are some great comment threads there that had me itching to chime in, 5 years too late. What an excellent project.

</comment><comment><USER27> Why the cutoff at 2012? (line 71 of index.html)

> if (data.hasOwnProperty(yr) && parseInt(yr) < 2012)

</comment><comment><USER38> this is fantastic. Great snapshot of the past. Thank you jsomers for sharing this.

</comment><comment><USER39> It's fascinating to dig into HN literature from 1900!

</comment><comment><USER40> this is really brilliant. But is there a reason you sort the list from the oldest to the newest ? I think it would make sense to have it the other way around.

best

</comment><comment><USER41> Nice.

You could say they are… evergreen (title bar color)

</comment><comment><USER42> Second link is dead. So is the fourth.

</comment><comment><USER43> Very cool! how will you maintain it?

</comment><comment><USER44> This is glorious. Thank you.

</comment><comment><USER45> Paywall on article from 1930. That's a sad state of affairs.

</comment><comment><USER46> hacker news is awsome

</comment><comment><USER47> test

<comment><USER48> It's working.

<comment><USER49> Really slow for me on chrome 64 for android.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> I found this page of undocumented HN tips [1], finds Hacker News Classic [2] and the top post there was Hacker News Classics [3].

[1] [https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news- undocumented](https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/classic](https://news.ycombinator.com/classic)

[3] [http://jsomers.net/hn/](http://jsomers.net/hn/)

Quite a cool coincidence!

</comment><comment><USER51> Nice to see E.M. Forster's _The Machine Stops_ there near the top of the list when clicking the link. Thanks for sharing.</comment>


Great Firewall rising: How China wages its war on the Internet - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/25/asia/china-war-internet-great-firewall/ <comment><USER2> Says the BBC, from a country that silently introduced a country-wide firewall of it's own for protecting people from porn, extremists and pedophiles.

[https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaigns/censorship](https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaigns/censorship)

"Whoever is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her."

I know there are issues in China, but maybe fix our own problems first.

P.S.: I've been to China, and I've seen people using tech even in remote places with a much higher causality for solving language barriers for example, compared to Western nations. Also, they don't give a bit about copyright ideas, so no, internet censorship is definitely not killing innovation there. Slowing it down a littlebit, maybe, but not killing it.

<comment><USER3> There's a pretty big difference between blocking porn and blocking popular services used for communication by much of the rest of the world.

I don't see a problem with one journalist or media outlet criticizing another country's policies. Given free access to information, people should be able to decide for themselves.

The question is, when will Chinese citizens earn the right to openly criticize their government without fear of being locked up?

<comment><USER2> "blocking popular services used for communication by much of the rest of the world"

Uhm... Google and Facebook shares more or less the same userbase and that in numbers ( I mean real users, real people ) is comparable to the people in China alone, so 'popular services used for communication by much of the rest of the world' might be a bit of an overstatement.

(We also might just all be much happier without Facebook and less locked-in without Google but that's a private opinion.)

Github is indeed an issue, that really should not be blocked.

EDIT

As for criticizing the government... the Chinese government had made truly significant changes starting from the 90s. It's a slow progress, yes, and they do sacrifice certain rights of free speech in order to prevent chaos and wars. I believe this change is slowly on it's way, but this takes a really, really long time.

Let me tell a small story here. The company I work for is trying to establish some business in China but so far, they've failed. One of the reasons is that people there doesn't seem to trust reviews online, if it's from unknown origin. Known origin is someone they actually know, and they do trust the word and recommendation of those. This is exactly the environment I was raised in, in Eastern Europe - you don't trust what you don't know.

Believe it or not, this is a certain kind of criticism; questioning everything coming from the authorities. Yes, it is very different from the usual Western approach, and requires a different mindset; a mindset that is trying to avoid conflict and make the best out of the situation without upsetting anyone.

Criticism can happen on various levels, from drawing instigating pictures to a gentle smile, and I would not underestimate the power of the latter either.

<comment><USER3> I disagree. Granting free speech does not mean war. It means a better economy. China's economy is plateauing. It will not get a major boost from, for example, buying US patents en masse. China needs more homemade innovation. As you say, they will get the best innovation from people they trust. They can get even more of that from people who feel free to think, communicate and express themselves. It's currently easier to do all that outside China than it is within. Therefore the brightest leave and other countries benefit from China's cream of the crop.

There are plenty of examples of other Asian countries which have the same trust issues you mention and also have free speech. They have not descended into war. Their economies have improved. Are there disputes that play out on TV and in newspapers? Yes. Are people embarrassed? Yes. Is it the end of the world? No.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the same China whose central government, officially an atheist state, claims authority on deciding who the next Dalai Lama will be reincarnated as - [http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation- tibet...](http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation-tibet- buddhism/)

I'd love to hear perspective on this matter from people closer to the source.

<comment><USER5> This is simple, Dalai Lama by definition, since the beginning of all Dalai Lamas, is appointed by a central government.

Fun fact: The Tibetan monk system is a grand scheme to reduce minority people fertility so ethics population is not a threat to central empire. Search for 黄教 减丁 if you are interested.

<comment><USER6> So we have two of them: one "appointed" by US, and one by China. For further enlightenment, meditate about the half zero ༳ in Tibetan unicode.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Most of my friends here in China just do good without the open internet. Like the article says, for every major blocked application or website, there is a home-grown substitute. People can get the information or the service they need from these substitutes.

I personally find that that the Chinese version of Wikipedia is blocked is annoying.

If the Great Firewall must exist, I'd like it to be more advanced. This way, it can block in a finer granularity. Instead of blocking a whole website, it can block an individual webpage that annoys it.

<comment><USER8> So where does your friend go to get information about

1.) a list of corrupt officials and what activities they're involved in

2.) the richest 70 members of China's NPC have a larger combined wealth ($89.8bn in 2011) than that of all 535 members of the US congress?

3.) Tiananmen square

4.) Great Famine

5.) China is insolvent?

?

<comment><USER7> People in my village get corrupt information from watching TV, browsing the web, and most importantly from chatting with others, from rumors. They talked about rumors about 100+ billion yuan involved in Zhou Yongkang's corruption. They talked the affairs between previous President Jiang Zemin and singer Song Zuying. They talked about the former propaganda head Li Changchun directed the murder of a policewoman. You see, we can get many knowlege from chattng with each other.

From the daily newspapers,we can get the impression that people in NPC are super riches. But members of NPC are puppet, we don't care that much of their wealth than the wealth of the officials of real powers.

People also get information from blogs and BBS.

Our grandparents went through the great famine, the cultural revolution. If we are curious, they have many stories to tell us. I get many information about that period from grandpa.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Honest question: what is it that Chinese officials fear would happen, if they let their citizens have free access to the internet?

<comment><USER10> In the west, the thing we value (or should value) above everything else is freedom of political speech and freedom to assemble into political groups. These things allow a country to adapt over time by changing who is in power.

For that reason, the Chinese cannot have those things. The whole point is that the same people must stay in power. So you can chat online all you want about hobbies or celebrities, but nothing about how the system is broken. And forget assembling in small groups in an effort to change things.

The issue here is feedback loops. In the west, closely-knit political groups can "own" the government for periods of time. Once they screw up -- and they all do -- the voters can have new groups come peacefully into power. There's a way to be wrong. The Chinese have a feedback system where change happens inside the party, but it's much more creaky and brittle. Open net access would expose all of that by getting people talking and comparing political systems.

<comment><USER11> Our Chinese history is full of loops driven by the rise and fall of dynasty,this model hasn't changed for thousands of years.I don't think our party have the will and courage to break this cursed loops. SO PITY.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> 1\. Activists and developers are two totally different group of people. CNN is totally wrong in this point.

2\. Facebook vs Renren NOT Facebook vs Wechat. Wechat is shit!

3\. Most evidences are true.

</comment><comment><USER13> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10101469](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10101469)

</comment><comment><USER14> Is CNN trying to get itself blocked too? They are like the last one (besides Fox News) that aren't.

<comment><USER15> I'm gonna guess that this article isn't accessible from inside China.

<comment><USER14> It most definitely is accessible. I'm not running a VPN.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Trust me CNN, it is hardly different from how we wage a war on the Internet (CISA, CISPA, TPP and what not). Do you not use that ton of cruft on your site with similar designs?

<comment><USER17> It is different - US is chasing monetarily goals mostly and NSA want to read everything. Chinese are trying to prevent thought crimes and political discourse.

Although there are few isolated cases where DMCA was abused to stifle discourse, they are far and between.

<comment><USER16> > "Want to read everything"?

How is NSA wanting to read everything (if they don't already) any different from Chinese authorities reading everything?

Different my foot.

Looking at the quality of discussion here it seems we're living in that dumbfuck's paradise. For they say: when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It's only painful and difficult for others. The same applies when you are stupid.

There is little difference in intent, monetary pursuit, lust of power, size of investment and scale of techniques used by either centre of powers. For _exactly_ the same purpose.

<comment><USER18> The Chinese authorities are preventing their citizens from reading things they find counter to their aims. You don't have to create this false equivalence to find both actions undesirable.</comment></comment></comment></comment>