A Popular Ad Blocker Also Helps the Ad Industry - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516156/a-popular-ad-blocker-also-helps-the-ad-industry <comment><USER2> NoScript doesn't mess around, it is hardcore and paranoid. I run it with the non-recommended "Temporarily allow top-level sites by default"/"Base 2nd level Domains" option in order to ease the pain a little bit. Still, sometimes I can't figure out how to watch a video, or leave a comment, or some other interaction. But I will suffer the pain, for the web is a brutal, unforgiving no-man's land. I think NoScript has saved me from some spear-phishing attacks. I hope. You just can't let strangers run code on your machine, no matter the sandbox. It's the reality that we live in.

<comment><USER3> Also noscript user. In my case I just disabled JS in Chrome and blocked a few sites in /etc/hosts.

<comment><USER4> Dan Pollock's list of abusive IP addresses is useful for this (updated a bit more often than weekly):

[http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/](http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> the opt-in could be more transparent. I just installed Ghostery and the option says[1]:

> Help Support Ghostery by sending anonymous statistical data back to Ghostery > HQ.

It is only when you click more information that you find out this information can be sent to other companies "Ghostery community..", and then only when you click on the FAQ and read the section about Ghostrank is it clearer how this information is being shared [2] and with whom.

No mention of ad networks as clients. No mention of helping ad networks better target ads, infact their FAQ explicitly states:

> Evidon doesn't work to allow advertisers to be more invasive.

Ghostery market to the privacy community. Their Twitter account[3] has been on top of the recent NSA story and other privacy stories and they promote their product as a solution for the privacy conscious. The way they have co-opted the community, funneling new users into their product via user ad tracking fears, while at the same time selling the data via a vague opt-in feels disingenuous to me.

I think the 'fix' here could be as simple as acknowledging third-party sharing in that initial opt-in screen, and then updating the language in the FAQ to include clarification on how it is shared.

[1] screenshots: [http://imgur.com/a/xuRdj](http://imgur.com/a/xuRdj)

[2] FAQ: [http://www.ghostery.com/faq#q14](http://www.ghostery.com/faq#q14)

[3] [https://twitter.com/ghostery](https://twitter.com/ghostery)

<comment><USER6> I don't remember where I read about it, but I've known about it for a while. I was never particularly upset- I understood it to be aiding ad networks in targeting, which I think is a good thing.

You seem to think this line implies they are not improving targeting:

> Evidon doesn't work to allow advertisers to be more invasive.

But this says to me they don't help advertisers shoehorn ads in more places, not anything about targeting.

<comment><USER5> I'm indifferent to it, I knew they were collecting data, I didn't know where it was going from there.

I have never used or recommended Ghostery because I don't believe blacklisting tracking targets is the solution.

The 'more invasive' line isn't clear - it isn't a term that you find in other privacy policies. It would be difficult to be 'more invasive' than tracking with third-parties on the web the way it is today.

I think they may be forced into expanding and clarifying that line and parts of the FAQ is this becomes a popular issue.

I read that entire section and can't figure out what they do or don't do ..

<comment><USER7> Ghostery claims 8 million users are opted in to "share" their data. From the informal polling I've done of Ghostery users (I work on an anti-tracking alternative called Disconnect), I believe less than 1 in 10 of those users know Ghostery is selling their browsing data to advertisers.

If Ghostery cared about being more transparent than the ad industry, they'd have to do a lot more than fix their FAQs. They should opt out all of the 8 million users who opted in without being told their data would be sold. Then Ghostery should re-onboard these users with accurate messaging. Quite frankly, Ghostery should also send checks to the 8 million users for all the money Ghostery made off their data.

<comment><USER8> Unless I am mistaken, saying that "Ghostery is selling their browsing data to advertisers" is wrong, at least to common understanding of those terms.

I have ghostery installed and I do knowingly opt in to the anonymous data sharing. From their FAQ ([http://www.ghostery.com/faq#q16](http://www.ghostery.com/faq#q16)) my understanding is that there is nothing personally identifiable about this data, they are just using my interaction with the web to say "Tracker X appeared on website Y". I see nothing wrong with this.

I'm happy to let them gather this information and profit from it - they are providing me with a useful service and selling that aggregate, anonymous data lets them stay in business and continue to provide me with their service. If I am misunderstanding something, and this data can be used to identify me as an individual, I would welcome an explanation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Fun little discussion from 3 years ago: [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=9518885&sid=f1...](http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=9518885&sid=f1e3da37067a5f129ee39edb5110afbe#p9518885)

> I am the developer of Firefox Ghostery

> I can assure you that the only way our company gets any information from you > is if you opt-in

> I can also assure you that none of the data we have is ever going to be sold > to anybody.

<comment><USER10> In the article, it says it's opt-in.

The quotes you added say they get info only if you opt-in.

I see nothing wrong with the quotes.

<comment><USER9> > I can also assure you that none of the data we have is ever going to be sold > to anybody [2010]

> Evidon sells two main services based on the data it collects [2013]

<comment><USER11> This doesn't look good for ghostery but hypothetically both of these statements can be true.

They may be referring to the idea that they don't sell an individuals data, only massed results, so no one can be singled out. This is how census data is used, the data itself is never sold but companies can ask for certain queries to be done on the data which are then performed by the census bureau and returned to the client.

<comment><USER12> Precisely. GhostRank collects and repackages tracker information on the web, not individual browsing habits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ad blocking is already beneficial for the ad industry. The sort of people who install ad blocking are also the type who never interact with ads. The net result is an improved CTR/CPA because ad impressions are not being wasted on someone who would not convert in the first place.

<comment><USER13> This makes the deeply flawed assumption that the only time advertisements have value is if someone clicks them.

<comment><USER9> Brand awareness campaigns and media buys would be the sort of exception you're talking about and you're absolutely right. Or if you're a company who buys a ton of fraudulent traffic in order to inflate your Alexa/Quantcast/Hitwise/etc rankings, then every impression counts as well.

However, if the advertiser is like the bulk of online advertising (e.g. one of the many for-profit online-degree-mills or someone pushing the latest weight loss pills) they tend to very aggressively optimize towards a desired CPA and eliminating non-converting traffic is always the goal. A better CVR creates happier advertisers which leads to higher bids & budgets and then higher publisher payouts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Its weird that nobody mentioned Disconnect[1], which is an open source alternative to Ghostery. I've used it in the past, but shifted back to ghostery because it was buggy.

[1]: [https://disconnect.me/](https://disconnect.me/)

<comment><USER7> I just mentioned Disconnect, but I make Disconnect. :-)

You should try the new Disconnect (Disconnect 2) which has a lot more features than Ghostery and is even rated higher by users than Ghostery is. We just launched Safari and Opera versions today (and are also available on Chrome and Firefox).

<comment><USER15> Hello! Love the tool. Dropped ghostery for it a while ago.

One criticism: It's not clear from the popup what the numbers mean. Are they counting scripts loaded, or scripts blocked? The same for the colouring. Are coloured icons blocked, and greyed ones allowed through, or vice-versa? And of course the tickboxes.

<comment><USER7> Thanks! Good feedback.

The numbers indicate requests (as in HTTP requests) attempted by the tracking companies. Green (or checked) indicates the requests were blocked. Gray (or unchecked) indicates they were allowed.

We'll beef up the help doc ([https://disconnect.me/d2/help](https://disconnect.me/d2/help)) to clarify.

<comment><USER16> Ghostery has the option to block all trackers at once in a big list with 1490 trackers. Disconnect 2 doesn't provide this option, does that mean that all the known trackers are blocked by default?

Some pages I visit show 100+ requests but when I enter the add-on it only shows 2 advertising attempts and maybe 1 analytics request. Where do these other hundred requests come from and were they effectively blocked from communicating with its third-party provider?

Disconnect 2 basically replaces HTTPS Everywhere, which I find nice.

<comment><USER7> We saved you a click. :-) Disconnect blocks (2,000+ tracking sites) by default.

The number of requests in the dropdown menu should add up to the number of requests in the toolbar counter (we do group requests by company, which Ghostery doesn't do, so you will see less rows in Disconnect's UI if that's what you mean). Do you have a site where the two aren't equal?

<comment><USER16> The only thing I would like to do is block certain trackers manually. For example "geoplugin.com" is enabled by default in Disconnect while I can block it manually in Ghostery. And I became used to not seeing google +1's and tumblr share buttons etc. Isn't there the possibilty to block them even before I visit a page? Right now I need to disable them via the disconnect UI and the page needs to reload.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> As I understand it, if you turn off "ghostrank" it's not reporting anything?

If that is not true, I definitely would like to know.

The only behavior I've seen that I don't like is after you update the blocklists, sometimes they are not all activated by default.

The current author is around here too, they have replied to my previous posts about it.

<comment><USER18> From the article

> "Anything that gives people more transparency and control is good for the > industry," says Meyer, who says it's fine with him that _most Ghostery users > opt not to share data with Evidon_. Meyer points out that those who want to > block online advertising are unlikely to respond to it, making Ghostery use > good for both sides.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can people really not tell the difference between 'my data is being sold' and 'an aggregate based on my data plus data from a million others is being sold'?

A company that only collects data when the user opts-in and sells innocuous products like market-share information and tracking tag audits for individual sites hardly deserves the ire. It's not like it's the federal government.

<comment><USER20> Apparently not. All tracking of all kinds even when completely anonymized is evil and bad and you should feel ashamed of yourself for even thinking otherwise /s

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm not too surprised to read this story. Ghostery seems to have redone their UI recently and it looks like one of those form-over-function redesigns that happen when a company comes into some money, decides to spend it on looking pretty but forgets to spend any of it on usability analysis. Since it sounds like their revenue does not come from the users, making it look pretty but less useful doesn't really hurt them as long as there are no competitors.

In case anyone cares, when I say less useful I mean that the new layout makes it harder to individually enable/disable specific trackers in the cases where a tracker provides functionality necessary for the website to operate. The new layout is much more mouse intensive for anything but the trivial case of minimal trackers on a page. It's unwieldy to selectively enable trackers on sites with more than roughly 5 trackers on them because of the manual scolling-in-a-tiny-window layout and difficulty reading the list of trackers due to drawing lines through the text of their names.

<comment><USER12> Hi Amadou, you should really post on our support board to get understanding or where Ghostery UI is going.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm absolutely shocked that I don't seem to mind this or think that it's wrong. Turns out that my enemy isn't advertisers, it's being tracked all over the internet.

I wish there was a way to exclusively allow static, non-tracking ads that just rely on the content of the site to target, rather than the content of my life. It'd be just like magazines in ye olden dayes.

<comment><USER23> This is why I added an Adblock exception rule to allow ads from Project Wonderful. From what I can tell, PW's network only "targets" by matching sites to ads by category, which is decided by both the site and the advertiser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> So they found a way to monetize not having ads. What's wrong with that? It's also opt-in as the article notes.

<comment><USER7> Opt in for what? They say to "share" your data with Ghostery, but what they do is sell your data to advertisers. Shouldn't an anti-tracking solution be more transparent than the problem?

<comment><USER12> Brian, I understand that its beneficial to you as a competitor to Ghostery to bash Ghostery at this point, but please, refrain from looking stupid.

Ghostery collects tracker information and not individual users info. Ghostery requires an opt-in before any data is shared. Anyone wishing to dig deeper should read the source code since its not obfuscated unlike some of your disconnect's open sourced code. If you do however have ideas on how we should be more transparent, by all means, please share them.

<comment><USER25> Out of curiosity what part of the Disconnect's source code is obfuscated?

<comment><USER26> [https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/master/firef...](https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/master/firefox/content/services- firefox.js)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ghostery claims that 45% of their users (8 million out of 18 million) are opted in to send Ghostery their browsing data. I wonder if even 1% of those users know their data is being sold to advertisers by Ghostery. I have trouble believing the solution to online tracking is even less transparent than the problem.

I work on an anti-tracking alternative called Disconnect. We do this crazy thing where we ask our users to pay for our product. Oh, and lots of people also already happen to think Disconnect is better than Ghostery: [http://lifehacker.com/the-best-browser-extensions-that- prote...](http://lifehacker.com/the-best-browser-extensions-that-protect-your- privacy-479408034). :-)

<comment> m-r-a-m I like Disconnect (I only found it a few days ago), but I'm trying to find out more technical information about what it does without having to look through the code on GitHub. Basically, does it provide additional privacy features on top of ABP+Easylist+EasyPrivacy?

Also, why is it not listed on the Mozilla add-ons site? I barely found out about it. I think I was researching privacy extensions for Chrome and happened to click through to your website.

<comment><USER7> Thanks. Disconnect currently has the biggest list of tracking sites of any app (well over 2,000 sites). And our filtering engine is written differently than other apps (no slow regexes). In practice, we benchmarked the 1,000 most popular sites and found they loaded an average of 27% faster with Disconnect than without. I've also done some informal benchmarks of other apps (I should do a more formal study at some point) and can say Disconnect accelerates pages quite a bit more than them.

Mozilla's review process is too sluggish for us right now since we're still making changes to Disconnect 2 quickly. When things are more stable, we'll probably submit to AMO.

<comment><USER27> Is there any reason why Disconnect doesn't block Disqus and OpenX?

<comment><USER7> Disqus is in the Content category, which isn't blocked by default (reason: users seem unhappy when we block content-y things like videos, photos, and comments by default). But you can still check the adjacent box to block Disqus (your settings are remembered on a per-site basis).

OpenX, otoh, should be in the Advertising category and be blocked by default as far as I know. Is there a site where this isn't the case?

<comment><USER27> Ok, thanks. I prefer to block everything by default, so for me per-site basis is not very convenient. In the case of Disqus: on most websites I don't read the comments and I prefer to block all the requests (mostly 100+ if you include the gravatars). With Ghostery I just block everything, but this is also not perfect because, as you mentioned, you sometimes don't see all the content. It would be nice if the add blockers could block content in the way Chrome blocks plugins: everything is disabled, by you have a placeholder which informs you that something was blocked, and when you click on it, it loads the content.

OpenX is indeed blocked (I checked it with the chrome dev tools), but it doesn't show up in the Advertising category, e.g. [http://www.openx.com/](http://www.openx.com/).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> God forbid advertisers, who fund much of the content we consume online, get better at serving ads that are more relevant to the consumer.

</comment><comment><USER29> Not that this really does this, but I would be all for a better adblocking tool that did communicate back to whatever adhosting company presented ads on a page.

If I opt in to allow my browsing behavior to help improve the sites I visit, I am presented the ads.

When I click to disable an ad, I am presented some options: * The content is not relevant to me or the topic * The ad is intrusive or hurts my experience on the site

Then let me decide to block all ads on the site, just this ad, or these types (e.g. popovers) on the site.

The data can then be relayed back (again, I opted in) to the ad company and the site's owners and they might even be allowed to see browsing behavior that shows how much time you spend on the site.

It could be a clear message to advertisers and content providers about the amount of revenue they are missing out on and why.

</comment><comment><USER30> Time for an open source alternative

<comment><USER7> Done :-):

[https://disconnect.me/](https://disconnect.me/) [https://github.com/disconnectme](https://github.com/disconnectme)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> People might also be interested in the Request Policy addon, it acts by blocking all content that does not come from the site you are visiting.

[https://www.requestpolicy.com/](https://www.requestpolicy.com/)

</comment><comment><USER32> With the merger of Easylist and Fanboy's Adblock Plus List, using various combinations of subscriptions (adblock/privacy/social/annoyance) can make the need for something like Ghostery extension a thing of the past.

/Fanboy

</comment><comment><USER17> BTW, user _ghostwords_ participates here and is a coder for Ghostery

[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ghostwords](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ghostwords)

<comment><USER33> In general, I'd suggest you don't "out" people. First, they might not want to be thrust into the spotlight. Second, it doesn't really add anything to the conversation when you do it like this.

I don't think there's any harm done here though, since they have mentioned it themselves in comments.

<comment><USER17> Oh I'd never do it unless they volunteered that info themselves.

They seemed to use that account for outreach so I figured they might show up again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I installed Ghostery just a few days ago, and it is clearly indicated that it is opt-in. I don't see a problem here, looks to me a bit like an attack against Ghostery. But of course, open-source alternative with the same functionality would be better...

I find Ghostery as a good compromise for me; Noscript is too much hassle for a day-to-day use, and I also don't like to use Adblock for "philosophical" reasons. Ghostery does exactly what I think should be done - remove the tracking, since I didn't give permission to anyone to track me.

<comment><USER7> Isn't there a big difference between asking users to opt in to "share" their data with Ghostery (which is what Ghostery says) and asking users to opt in to have their data (what data, btw?) "sold" to advertisers (which is what Ghostery does)?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> This thread like a lot of topics in this space is full of misinformation so let me dispel some common myths:

1\. "I never click on ads"

Irrelevant and, more often than not, a lie. But let's assume it's the truth. Search advertising is an example of intent-based advertising. It's why it works so well. If you're searching for camera then a site that sells cameras (via an ad in the search results) is likely relevant.

Display advertising (which encompasses things like ads on the NY Times etc) on the other hand is not there specifically to drive a particular action. Brand awareness is a common use case.

Search advertising is sold on a CPC basis because it is intent based. Display advertising is by and large sold on a CPM basis. You don't get the impression and the publisher doesn't get paid. Some will label this "theft". Personally I find this like many real world analogies to be inappropriate in the digital world. Pejorative aside, it is taking money from the publisher and users have largely shown an unwillingness to pay for the content they consume directly.

2\. "I don't trust [ad company X]"

The privacy argument. As this post shows, the temptation to resell your information, particularly by small players, is alluring. Frankly I'm more inclined to trust the Googles of the world than I am some guy who writes an extension. Google, for example, give you several options here.

\- You can go to the Ads Preference Manager [1] and tailor your privacy settings.

\- You can simply delete your cookies every hour/day/week/month/whatever.

3\. "My ad blocking improves ads"

I don't know where this sprang from other than ignorance of advertising is bought and sold. No impression, no revenue. The marginal improvement in eCPC based on not showing you an ad is a) irrelevant because display advertising is often not action-based and b) no increase in revenue since it's a smaller pool of impressions.

Just today (still on the front page at the time of this post) is a submission about how people have a warped view of how much time others spend talking or thinking about them [2]. I believe the same distorted view of the world that most of us have also comes into play here.

As much hand-wringing as there is about privacy, when it comes to advertising, advertisers don't really care about you, the individual, as much as money seem to think. What advertisers care about is _groups_ of people with a particular profile ("segment").

So I respect the approach of being paranoid (or at least diligent/skeptical) when it comes to online privacy but, as far as advertising goes anyway, it's largely theater.

I question the ethics of shifting the cost burden of the Internet onto others (ie tragedy of the commons) just because an image of a pair of shoes offends your delicate sensibilities is an interesting choice. I don't really click on ads either but I don't really care that ads for the Westin follow me around after I've gone to their site either (that's called remarketing or retargeting BTW).

Whatever the case I'd rather Google have my browsing history than Ghostery any day of the week.

I should note that I strongly believe in blocking obnoxious advertising. This includes, but is not limited to:

\- popups (actual browser windows or just HTML elements that block content until dismissed)

\- any video on a Web page that auto-plays

\- any sound on a Web page that auto-plays

\- most if not all interstitials

\- anything Flash based just because I don't want anything Flash based running on my computer

It tends to be the sleazier side of the Internet that employ bad advertising practices like this but not entirely. Auto-playing media is particularly bad. Disclaimer: I'm a Google engineer in display advertising.

[1]: [http://www.google.com/ads/preferences](http://www.google.com/ads/preferences)

[2]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5895648](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5895648)

<comment><USER36> You question the ethics of "shifting the cost burden of the Internet"? Oh brother.

If website operators don't like it, they can charge me for their content, like every other business has done since the beginning of time.

<comment><USER37> This right here, this is the argument I simply cannot understand.

A business is offering a service in exchange for advertising to visitors.

You do not like the terms of that deal.

The _only correct_ action after this is: Do Not Use The Service. Don't reward a business practice you view as illegitimate. Just walk away. Boycott advertising-supported business models.

\--

PS: the entitlement in this viewpoint is simply astonishing. "I don't like advertising, so the entire internet should change to accomodate me!"

<comment><USER36> There is no "deal." I'm not signing a contract or agreeing to an EULA to read a website.

My browser is requesting a website and choosing parts of it to display. Where is the problem? Is it a moral issue when people on phones browse with images turned off? It's how the internet was designed to work.

If the content is worthwhile, people will pay for it directly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Can someone tldr this article? I tried to read it on my phone but the "view this on mobile" not only blocked all content but had an unreachable close button

</comment><comment><USER39> I guess now I see why people say "You misspelled ad block plus" when someone recommends ghostery.

</comment><comment><USER40> I use Ghostery to see what is being tracked rather than block it outright. Call me foolish but I never realised that blocking ads was the primary intended purpose of the tool, I've always just used it to check for missing analytics tags and so forth.

</comment><comment><USER41> won't blocking cookies from third party domains stop tracking? Or at least most of it.</comment>


The Waiting Place - <AUTHOR> http://dcurt.is/the-waiting-place <comment><USER3> I love Dr. Seuss... just a quick note to anyone who is a fan of his, the last episode of South Park pays a nice homage.

But the one written work that really gets under my skin, in the vein of being a spectator vs. participant in life... and this might be cliche, but it's Pink Floyd's song Time.

       ...Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
       Waiting for someone or something to show you the way...

       ...And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you
       No one told you when to run you missed the starting gun...

       ...The time is gone the song is over, thought I'd something more to say...

But then it goes on, yet there is a shift in tone. Instead of worry, it is utter resignation.

What I find particularly interesting is this was written when the band felt they were losing relevance - by this point they had a run as long as and were about as old as The Beatles when they had broken up. A rock band back then entering their 30s who hadn't _really_ broken out was doomed, right? What examples to the contrary were there? Yet Dark Side of the Moon is where their life as cultural icons began. Time is the only song on the album credited to all four members of the band.

I'm 36 years old and spent the first 15 years of my professional life working in the enterprise doing C++/C#, with all the wonderful trappings of Office Space. I'm proud of some of the work I did but overall I was pretty unhappy.

5 mos ago I quit my job to become a contractor. I do Rails work for a couple long-term clients based in NYC. This might not be a big deal to most people here... all I can say is I've never been happier. It's like, "I did it. And this is just the beginning."

They say it takes only 21 days to cultivate a habit. They also say major life decisions can happen in an instant, like a flick of the switch. I don't know how much of that is actually true, perhaps it's best to not ponder things like that too much.

<comment><USER4> I have the same age as you. One year ago I was thinking of quitting my job to turn my hobby into a business. I thought of staying in my hometown (cheap but not start-up friendly and family and friends would just see me as 'unemployed'), but I took an offer instead for a more business-oriented role to move abroad. Then one day, as a visitor in a nearby country (cheap and start-up friendly, far away from anyone I know) I saw an advertisement on the street of apartments for sale and it struck me. I now have a plan of moving to this country with cheap cost of living after I finish with my current project.

I always thought of leaving my country as a good way to get me started (leaving next to family would just give me a delusion of security, would make me more complacent and/or I had to deal with discouragement), but cost of living would be a factor for staying anyway.

Why I am saying all this? From just visiting a country as a tourist, a plan came up. And if I hadn't taken that offer maybe I would have quit. Or maybe not. And I am still considering of applying for some jobs abroad in the meantime (more waiting). But at least a more solid long-term plan has formed in the background now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This has always been a problem for me, I'm very huge on waiting and then doing a bunch of shit in the mean time because I'm bored.

The problem is twofold:

1\. I keep creating stuff that I don't care enough about. Thus it doesn't get the love it deserves and after a while starts looking bad on my "permanent record".

2\. Because I keep being busy with things, the thing I'm waiting for keeps getting pushed back.

This sucks and I often try very hard to avoid this problem. One thing I've started doing is that whenever I get an impulse to say "I have to wait for X", I try to understand _why_ I'm waiting.

if I can't come up with a really good reason (for instance, because the market/tech opportunity for project X isn't there yet, or maybe I simply can't fit another X into my life), then I shelf X for a while.

My biggest X is "move out of country". The reason for waiting is I don't have enough money saved up for a buffer to tie me over possible/probable dips in freelancing income. I think this is a good enough reason for waiting.

<comment><USER6> hey Swizec,

> The reason for waiting is I don't have enough money saved up for a buffer to > tie me over possible/probable dips in freelancing income. I think this is a > good enough reason for waiting.

There are always plenty of reasons for not doing stuff, but life is made up of the stuff that you _do_ , not of the stuff that you postpone.

There is a song (in French) about a guy that his whole life long wants to go see the gulf of Mexico, and on his dying bed his wife tells him 'If you'd have had any guts you would have gone there to see it'. It's a pretty rude ending to an otherwise perfectly sweet song but there is a grain of truth in there.

You're young, fairly talented. You could likely land anywhere and make it, and even if you don't it'd be a fantastic adventure and you'll be smarter and with a broader horizon regardless of the outcome. I've moved countries several times and likely will do so again at some point in the future so this is not me telling you how it could work in theory. It can work. It can work for you too.

One way in which you could finance your move is by working free-lance for companies via the net. I know a few people doing this right now and they can pretty much work from anywhere in the world. Enjoy your freedom while you're still mobile, young and healthy.

<comment><USER5> > One way in which you could finance your move is by working free-lance for > companies via the net. I know a few people doing this right now and they can > pretty much work from anywhere in the world. Enjoy your freedom while you're > still mobile, young and healthy.

That's exactly what I'm going to do! But doing it in a situation where any delayed payment means I can't afford to buy food is just irresponsible and borderline stupid.

So really I'm not so much waiting as I am spinning up a freelancing business and getting it to a point where it's a somewhat reliable income stream and making sure I don't find myself in a situation where I have to take on jobs out of desperation.

<comment><USER7> Desperation builds character and drives innovation, I've learned more in my desperate times than I ever have in my stable times... in fact often those are the times I miss the most. Do what's smart for you of course, but if you don't have any dependents going into a situation beyond your current capacity is a great way to expand that capacity. Also if you've starved due to lack of money to buy food then food tastes sweeter for the rest of your life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I remember reading this or something alarmingly similar (that too was about _Oh, The Places You'll Go!_ ) a while back on HN... But this one was published today! What the hell is going on? Is it deja vu or it's just a happy coincidence?!!

Edit: Good... "Oh, The Places You'll Go! site:news.ycombinator.com" Google search helped me assure myself I'm not crazy. This is the other article: <http://daltoncaldwell.com/oh-the-places-youll-go> and HN discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4061059>

Funny thing is that both are using Svbtle, which helped further confuse me.

 _I won't remove this comment (which is definitely off-topic and non- constructive) because I think others might experience the same shock as mine and it would save them a bit of Googling..._

<comment><USER9> I've quoted it before as well, not at all surprised to see it again. You should buy and read the book.

Unlike most times people tell you to read a book, it'll actually only take 10 minutes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I fell into this trap recently. I had a pretty good PCB design that had been lying around for a month, which I started designing about four months ago. I kept waiting though. I wanted to think of something that would be a problem and solve it before I have to. I want to jump a generation of iterating. And I did this for about a month. I waited a month, when I could have spent $25 and gotten boards by the time I started working on it again. Real world feedback is unparalleled in its ability to let you see what you're doing. I'm still waiting on the boards, but they'll be here soon and then I start making it...

Since I sent it out, I have thought of a couple nice 'features' that would have reduced some of my work load, but only about 3 minutes a board. I waited a month to save three minutes........

I forget what author I was reading (one of the many posts on 'doing something') when I had a moment of clarity - JUST SEND THE DAMN THING OUT. I reviewed it a little bit, said whatever, sent it out. We'll see how it works when I get it.

It's easy to forget how nice it is do develop software. You get instant feedback as to whether something works on the surface level. It would be much worse to code on a system where you wrote 100 lines of code, had to send it out and get the compiled version back in a week. Syntax error on line 4, no feedback given for lines 5-100. Hardware is a much more elusive beast, but having something physical, something that you can bring with you, that isn't created from a plane of RGB lights, that you can hold, touch, and feel.

There's always a double edged sword, for every problem there is an opportunity, you lose a little bit of something for every convenience you take up in your life, the hardware software divide is one with the sense of touch and smell. Software currently doesn't feel or smell like anything. It doesn't weigh anything. It has no value outside of the tubes. A piece of hardware can reach across different boundaries and engage different senses.

<comment><USER11> Besides a generic wish of a pleasant board bring up, I just wanted to pass along this message: the fear of cutting your board is only matched by the joy of seeing it come up for the first time. And even better, that's when the learning starts. Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think my favorite reading of "Oh, the Places You'll Go" is the Burning Man version. :)

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahv_1IS7SiE>

<comment><USER13> Without a doubt!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I meant to start khanacademy after I finish a book on arduino, or a computer science course. But of course, I never really got around to that with an attitude like that.

Then I decided, "---- that shit!" and just go ahead and do khanacademy. The result? I worked weeks after weeks on khanacademy,(spending at least an hour) and now I completed 83% of all of the math exercises and concepts. 316 concepts are mastered out of 379, and 63 more concepts to go.

Combined with a couple of good habits, I have perpetual emotions like "OH YEAH." or "---- YEAH" or "I AM A BADASS" because I keep doing thing that is productive and meaningful to me. Which is kinda odd, because you expect the hedonistic trendmill to catch up with the level you are at.

</comment><comment><USER15> Waiting has its own beauty. If you are waiting for the bus, you are reading HN on phone, or listening music or just observing. In today's world, where you are bombarded with stimulation, you will always have the impulse to do this or that or visit someplace or follow a fashion. Sometimes is just nice to wait or you won't be able to experience life fully.

Beautifully explained Elizabeth Jennings in Delay:

      The radiance of the star that leans on me
      Was shining years ago. The light that now
      Glitters up there my eyes may never see,
      And so the time lag teases me with how

      Love that loves now may not reach me until
      Its first desire is spent. The star's impulse
      Must wait for eyes to claim it beautiful
      And love arrived may find us somewhere else.

</comment><comment><USER16> Related poem I wrote a year and some ago: <http://mehulkar.com/posts/15>

</comment><comment><USER17> Loved that book. Agree on the advice. If only I'd read it 25 years ago.

For the young'uns: don't wait till it all makes sense to you. Every word in it is true.

</comment><comment><USER18> On the other hand, the trap of always "doing" something or "going" somewhere is equally harmful. You can trick yourself into thinking you are achieving something when you are just spinning your wheels. Like anything, balance is the key.

"If you can wait and not be tired by waiting" - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER19> Geisel also did propaganda cartoons during WWII <http://libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/>

</comment><comment><USER20> I used to come up with, never implement, and completely forget about good ideas. So I decided to make a rainy day ideas list. Somehow I've managed to populate a text file with at least twenty ideas that I find at least somewhat valuable, so those ideas are what I try to write to life whenever I have some downtime, and it's been really rewarding to build some of them. My advice? Go out and make your ideas.txt (or bucketlist.txt) file today!

</comment><comment><USER21> Theodore Geisel _did_ start writing under his real name, for his college's humor magazine. But then he and his friends got caught drinking gin and the dean banned them from extracurricular activities, including writing for the magazine. That's when he started writing under a pen name: his middle name... Seuss.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss#College>

</comment><comment><USER22>
      Again It seems we meet
      In the spaces In between
      We always say, "Won't be long"
      Oh but something's always wrong

</comment><comment><USER23> If Theodore Geisel felt he was stuck in the waiting place for too long (and therefore missed his chance to write the great American novel), his work does not reflect it and is obviously immensely important. So was he really right about how bad the "waiting place" is, given the work he actually created while there?

</comment><comment><USER24> A good reminder that we are often waiting for things that are within our power to change. There might be a temptation on HN to read this as "you should quit everything and do a startup!", but hopefully it will be read to apply to other aspects of life too.

</comment><comment><USER25> For anyone interested in further development of the idea presented in the article, I recommend books 'Power of Now' and 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle. Life changing books.</comment>


Transaction Costs Table: PayPal Micropayments vs. Standard Fees - <AUTHOR> http://pressbin.com/tools/paypal_micropayments

<comment><USER2> Obviously micro payment is better for small purchase. But I can't imagine how paypal make money with this new micro payment table...</comment>


Strategy or not? Netflix gives life membership to Brazilian TV Program host - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OvZjfMPhS8

<comment><AUTHOR> Silvio Santos is a famous Brazilian TV Host (and owner of a TV Channel). While presenting LIVE he said he loves to watch Netflix, that he "hates" television and that Netflix should give him a free month.

After becoming a viral topic, Reed Hastings from Netflix decided to answer Silvio giving him not only a month, but a lifetime membership.

Do you think this could possible be all setup and just a Netflix strategy the day they release the new season of "House of Cards"?</comment>


Use Vim Inside a Unix Pipe Like Sed or AWK - <AUTHOR> http://blog.robertelder.org/use-vim-inside-a-unix-pipe-like-sed-or-awk/ <comment><USER2> This post hints toward vim's history: the ed family of editors.

[http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using- ed/](http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using-ed/) [http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/using-more-of- ex/](http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/using-more-of-ex/)

A big use case for them was using them as scriptable editors in pipelines, and a lot of vim's commands are inherited from them. The diff(1) utility actually has an option to emit ed script, allowing files to be patched in ed pipelines: [http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/ed- Sc...](http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/ed-Scripts.html)

<comment><USER3> It's common for people today to think of ancient Greeks as being very unsophisticated and primitive, but then when you start to read what ancient philosophers wrote you think "Wow, these guys really had things figured out, maybe better than we do now." I kind of feel the same way comparing modern GUI applications to ancient editors like ed.

<comment><USER4> I find learning this lesson often enough made me realize that it's difficult to remember that people in the past were every bit as intelligent as people are now. They simply had fewer, older tools.

There's another related lesson there that progress, like evolution, is progress in a certain direction. No one said that direction is whatever you call "good" at the moment.

<comment><USER5> > people in the past were every bit as intelligent as people are now.

... and some evidence supports they were smarter...

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting- dumb...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human- intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html)

<comment><USER4> Good point.This argument that domestication lowers intelligence (among other powerful abilities) and that we are unquestionably domesticating ourselves is pretty damn solid. The only argument against it seems to be "... but my ego!".

Obviously there is some interplay with the fact that we develop new mental models and thinking tools to augment intelligence.

Also immersion as children in highly abstract ways of thinking further augments/multiplies raw intelligence (most convincing explanation to the Flynn effect imo).

I've lost the link, but there was an excellent article I read related to the amazing Otzi discovery ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi)) describing how adults of that era (modern humans, primitive societies) would likely have been terrifying to us now in just how much they outclassed us in raw strength, intelligence and stamina. We would be relying a lot on the benefits of childhood nutrition and education to feel superior. This isn't completely convincing, there are a lot of factors in play, but those levels of brutal competition and danger would have a profound effect, especially epigenetically.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Vim is actually a relatively bad filter (some reasons are mentioned in the caveats section of the article). I explicitly designed my vis editor[1] in such a way that it can be used as an interactive filter. The following works as expected, use :wq to write to stdout:

        printf "foo\nbar\nbaz\n"  | vis - | sort

dvtm uses this mechanism to implement its copy mode.

I also recently integrated sam's structural regular expression based command language into the editor. This might be useful for people who want the power of stream editors but with instant visual feedback.

However keep in mind that this feature is relatively new thus likely still contains some bugs ...

[1] [https://github.com/martanne/vis](https://github.com/martanne/vis)

<comment><USER7> Thanks for your efforts with the Vis editor...

You can do this with any other editor using "vipe" from "moreutils" package. It just opens $EDITOR with stdin input (put to a tempfile) and then reads the tempfile and dumps it in stdout.

        printf "foo\nbar\nbaz\n"  | vipe - | sort  # invokes $EDITOR

<comment><USER6> Yes vipe is indeed useful for editors which do not support it by themselves. Personally I find a solution solely based on pipes without temporary files more elegant.

I should probably let dvtm fall back to vipe if it is installed. Also I will have to check whether there is an easy fix to make vipe+vis work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hi, I'm the author. While I've got your attention, I would be interested in hearing feedback about how I can improve the reading experience (text colour/fonts/sizes/wording etc.) of my blog posts.

I used to have blinking text for the email signups at the bottom, but I got rid of it since it didn't have a huge effect (I think it only doubled the conversion rate). I have learned that some people _really_ hate blinking text.

<comment><USER8> Hey Robert! I've had your virtual memory article open in a tab since it made the HN homepage recently - but I had to close it because every day it would cause a massive memory leak in Safari for some really odd reason. I'd repeatedly kill the process hosting the webpage (it'll respawn 3 times then surrender) but every time I visited that tab by accident it would happen again.

Just an FYI :)

<comment><USER3> Yes that's not surprising, the code for that implementation is quite scary and in order to make the page not lag terribly I realized at the end that I would effectively have to re-invent some of what react.js does (because it would have taken too long to completely re-write). I've considered re-writing an open source version with react that people could fork and incorporate into course material, but all that stuff takes time.

I can think of a few places where there would probably be circular object references, so that's probably where the memory leaks come from.

Thanks for the feedback :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yikes, we can shorten that a bit. :-)

        function vimify() {
          (vim - -esbnN -c $@ -c 'w!/dev/fd/3|q!' >/dev/null) 3>&1
        }

        $ echo '
Change Me
' | vimify 'norm vitxiOK I Will'

(Don't forget '-c' if you have more than one transform.)

<comment><USER10> And further shorten that to

echo '
Change Me
' | vimify 'norm vitcOK I Will'

<comment><USER11> And further shorten that to

echo '
Change Me
' | vimify 'norm citOK I Will'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why is this article talking about idempotence? I don't see why that matters in the slightest for a unix pipe. Idempotence only matters if you're going to take the output of the pipe and run it back through the pipe again.

There's a bit later on about idempotence and newlines, but I don't see what that has to do with idempotence. Vim will append a trailing newline if the file doesn't have one, sure, but if I pass the output back through Vim again, it won't append another trailing newline, it'll just preserve the existing one, so if the vim command you run is idempotent then the whole thing will still be idempotent.

I'm guessing here that the author is simply confused about what idempotence means. Because of the newline bit, I'm going to guess that what the author means by "idempotence" is "any text that the vim filter isn't supposed to modify will be left exactly as found in the input", but that's not what idempotence is, and I'd also say that that property is pretty much a given for any kind of text transformation used in a pipe, because if it doesn't hold then why are you even using that tool?

<comment><USER13> That bugged me too, although it was such a fun article I didn't want to complain. :-)

What he really means is that his first snippet is the identity function. Like x*1=x or x+0=x. Whatever it gets, it passes along unmodified. I think it's actually kind of nice that he started with that. Sometimes it is not easy to figure out how to do, for instance with XLST.....

<comment><USER3> Yeah, an identity function is probably what I should be calling it instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Why type vitxi (visual inner tag delete insert), when cit (change inner tag) will do?

Indeed, why use visual anything in a pipe :D?

<comment><USER3> That's a good point. For some reason, I never use 'change' in vim, and I was just following muscle memory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have to say the only time I ever pipe directly to vim in a real world scenario is when I want to see a diff in color:

        diff file1 file2 | vim -

Gives you the diff but colorized with Vim. Handy little trick.

<comment><USER14> Or just:

        vim -d file1 file2.

<comment><USER15> This brings up a side by side comparison of the documents. This is different than the pure diff.

<comment><USER14> Sure, for that there is also colordiff.

<comment><USER15> Yeah, there are many other external tools that can accomplish this. Piping directly to Vim just allows us install one less.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why did I read this.

This is far from practical to use on a day to day basis. It'd make my eyes bleed if some coworker used this anywhere.

Why not just pickup a scripting language like perk or Python. Use awk or sed. They're available everywhere.

</comment><comment><USER17> Would non-ASCII data and escape codes have the effect of vim-injection[1]?

 _[1]: Think SQL injection but with vim commands._

</comment><comment><USER18> How does this compare to piping through Elisp?

<comment><USER19> This isn't supported at all in emacs by default - or, if it is, I never figured out how.

You can try my pmacs script to get something sort-of-like: [https://github.com/tom- seddon/bin/blob/master/pmacs.py](https://github.com/tom- seddon/bin/blob/master/pmacs.py) (not productized, and some self-assembly may be required - should work out of the box on Linux, though, and probably OS X too)

Works pretty well, though only at the end of a pipeline. (It could probably be extended to work mid-pipeline though; you can get emacsclient to block until the file's buffer is closed in emacs - this is what the "-n" switch inhibits - giving the script a chance to wait, load the (presumably modified) file and print it to stdout.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The title is missing the word "inside" from the original title, i.e. "Use Vim _Inside_ A Unix Pipe Like Sed Or AWK". Made me wonder for a bit...

<comment><USER21> We put it back.</comment></comment>


How This Bear Market Compares - Interactive Graphic - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/11/business/20081011_BEAR_MARKETS.html?hp <comment><USER2> The start and end dates on those graphs is somewhat arbitrary. If you compare the long one with a graph starting in 2000 and ending now it's going to look vary similar. But as they say past performance is no indicator of future performance.

If because of the credit crunch people pay down their debts then we are going to look at a few boom years but that's going to take a while.

</comment><comment><USER3> That graph is rather confusing. The lines are all grey initially with no easy way to follow them without trying to hover on the one you want. Then the interpretation also becomes a hassle. Ugh.

</comment><comment><USER4> 1929-bear-32-BULL-37-bear-42

BTW: they don't seem to use reinvested dividends - though this wouldn't change the underlying trend much.

</comment><comment><USER5> a good effort at the chart, although comparisons are still a but tough..</comment>


Netflix website and ability to instantly watch movies both unavailable. - <AUTHOR> http://www.netflix.com/

<comment><USER2> I am sure whatever capacity or technical problems they're experiencing are being exacerbated by millions and millions of emails from angry assholes wondering why the hell their $8 a month isn't buying them immediate and perpetual access to a catalog of human creativity and knowledge that would have brought even the most advanced intellectual from 1980 to his knees, weeping tears of joy at the wond'rous advances man has made.

"Surely," he would say between sobs, "surely if man can accomplish this with something as relatively trivial as movies, a hundred years hence will see us spreading our race to the stars."

Unfortunately all most people know or give a damn about is that they shove $8 into the magic box on their desk and it shits American Pie movies. Pan- galactic empire will have to wait, I guess. TV's busted!

<comment> brown9-2 Sorry, what? You don't think customers have a right to be annoyed when the service they pay for is unavailable?

I'm sure there are a lot of Netflix customers that fall somewhere between the range of not caring right now and the huge extreme you describe.

Not sure what your point here is.

<comment><USER2> I am saying that I am sure the level of vitriol being directed at Netflix right now via email or other anonymous/private communications channels is disproportionate relative to the otherwise high value that is derived from an $8/mo luxury purchase.

With tongue firmly in cheek I am urging calm in this moment of national crisis. In other words, it was a joke.

<comment><USER3> Brevity is the soul of wit.

<comment><USER2> A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Considering this seems to be working at the moment (2 hours later) does this really qualify as news? Sure, significant downtime might be of interest, but are we really going to link the URL of every web-service that is down for an hour or two here or there?

A post about the causes or effects of said outage, or general related social commentary might be worthy of a HN submission - but to simply throw the URL of any service showing a 404 for some small amount of time seems a bit pointless (exceptions perhaps being Google/Facebook being down worldwide for a couple of hours).

<comment><USER5> I suppose this became newsworthy on the heels of such posts as [http://perfcap.blogspot.com/2011/03/understanding-and- using-...](http://perfcap.blogspot.com/2011/03/understanding-and-using-amazon- ebs.html) and much corporate blogging over the past few months about their migration to AWS.

<comment><USER4> I guess my point is, a post highlighting this relevance as your comment did makes it newsworthy, whereas "look some site is down" is mostly context-less for a lot of us.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The chaos monkey strikes again!

[http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/12/chaos-monkey- how-n...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/12/chaos-monkey-how-netflix- uses.php)

<comment><USER7> Dang! Beat me to it.

It's evolving, adapting and spawning other chaos monkeys.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My daughter is streaming Netflix through our Blu-Ray player just fine ...

<comment><USER9> Works from the iPad too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wonder if Netflix folks will follow up with a new blog post explaining what happened. Was the problem with a new code released to production or was it an AWS/infrastructure outside their control.

</comment><comment><USER11> Updates apparently coming via their facebook page: [http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6275848869&topic=1...](http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6275848869&topic=16956)

[Edit]... course, not super complete ones..

 _We are aware that some customers may have trouble logging in to the website or streaming to their Television. We're working on getting this fixed as quickly as we can. Thank you everyone for your patience!_

</comment><comment><USER12> 10:41 EDT and it's not working on my PS3. I'd love to know what the real problem is, because I've been building everything on AWS as of late.

</comment><comment><USER13> Can't stream here. Oh well I'll just go old school and watch one of the shows clogging up my DVR. Don't sweat it Netflixers

</comment><comment><USER14> Been down since at least 7pm eastern time.

<comment><USER15> I checked Twitter for 'netflix down' at 6.30pm EDT after restarting my home router (thinking it could be DNS/routing issues). It has been down since.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> hmm I wonder if they ran into issues with ISPs

</comment><comment><USER17> Or is this AWS again? I know they run a lot of infrastructure from AWS.

<comment><USER18> I don't see any AWS outages today on the dashboard:

<http://status.aws.amazon.com/>

<comment><USER19> That was also all greens a couple of days ago when reddit was down.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Amazon cloud raining again?</comment>


Show HN: Quickjson.com – Quick and easy way to generate a fake JSON API - <AUTHOR> http://quickjson.com
Quick and easy way to generate a fake JSON API <comment><USER2> This is very useful to prototype the frontend of applications. Thanks man!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> [http://quickjson.com](http://quickjson.com)</comment>


Former Twitter Employees Charged with Spying for Saudi Arabia - <AUTHOR> https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Former-Twitter-employees-charged-with-spying-for-14815126.php <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21467921](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21467921).</comment>


Preliminary evidence supporting the existence of the Higgs boson - <AUTHOR> http://blog.vixra.org/2011/08/13/has-the-lhc-seen-the-higgs-boson-at-144-gev/

<comment><USER2> Interesting to see this 24 hours after "RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)" was posted here (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2943950>) yesterday.

Even more interesting to see that this article was posted on the 13th, and the RIP article was posted on the 23rd.

The current submission states:

> From reliable sources I am expecting CERN to issue a press release about the > status of the search for the Higgs Boson next week in advance of the LP2011 > conference. If the official Higgs combination is similar to my version (the > leak shows that it is) then they have the right to claim an observation (but > not a discovery) of a strong signal consistent with a Higgs boson at 144 GeV > (or soewhere else nearby). They cannot excluded other BSM signals including > MSSM. I don't know exactly how they will spin it but they will want the > media to take notice.

The RIP article was posted after CERN issued the statement, and reads:

> And yesterday, August 22, at the Biennial International Symposium on Lepton- > Photon Interactions at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, > India, the bombshell was dropped: CERN scientists declared that over the > entire range of energy the Collider had explored—from 145 to 466 billion > electron volts—the Higgs boson is excluded as a possibility with a 95% > probability.

Is the 145 GeV number intentional, and CERN is now looking at the region just under the excluded power level to firm up their evidence? Is the author of this article confused? I'm not enough of a physicist to answer, but I'm inclined to trust CERN over a blog post based on preliminary, leaked data.</comment>