Study at ETH and become a real Master - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOVaGxfJVUA <comment><USER2> Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zürich, one of the top ten computer science universities in the world, home of Pascal, Modula and Oberon programming languages and a major research powerhouse. Always makes me smile when someone re-discovers this often unfairly overlooked gem of an institution.</comment>


Ask HN: Ruby Dev, is moving to PHP a step backward career wise? - <AUTHOR> My previous projects at the company have all been in Ruby on Rails, but they really want me to move to a PHP framework, as I am probably the last remaining Rails developer.  It's not that I can't pick it up, I picked up Ruby and Rails when I joined, after Django and Python, but I worry that in the future, if I am looking to move, people are going to look at my resume, see I'm not using Rails or Node or Golang, and pass. Most of the company is back east and kinda enterprisy, I'm one of a handful of devs in the bay area office.<p>Thoughts? <comment><USER2> I think a resume with Ruby, Python and soon PHP it will see very little resistance on the job market. Like the universe, programming languages burn really hot for a while then, depending how hot it burned, they cool off very slowly. Sometimes even reigniting. God I love metaphors. My thoughts are, don't see it as a step down or back, see it as a widen field of vision. Cultured, season devs are hotter than any language will ever be. Also, never settle.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd wonder why they're pressuring you to move to PHP. I've written PHP in the past, and recently started maintaining a site in PHP through a company acquisition. Normally I prefer Ruby on Rails and have used it since Rails v1.2.3. I consider PHP to be a step backwards technology and tooling wise. Laravel seems like the nicest copy of Rails, but it seems like everything nice in PHP is a crude copy of something from the Ruby/Rails ecosystems.

Frequently in PHP I found myself missing a proper REPL, yes PHP can be run interactively with `$ php -a`, but it doesn't print the last returned value, so spelunking in a running system is slow and awkward, luckily I've found Boris([https://github.com/borisrepl/boris](https://github.com/borisrepl/boris)) which is more like IRB or Pry, but it's still unpleasant when I'm trying to kill a tricky bug. On the package management front Composer is a better solution than previous PHP offerings, but it's got some quirks that make it seem unpolished compared to Bundler.

If I was given a choice PHP I would never willingly pick PHP. I suspect your company is pressuring you to move because they think they can get PHP devs at a lower cost than Ruby devs. If you're in the Bay Area there are plenty of companies that will hire you to write Ruby so you don't really have to switch if you're not comfortable with it.

<comment><USER4> Laravel comes with tinker (`$ php artisan tinker`) which is a pretty great REPL.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I moved from Rails to Laravel (PHP).

If they are moving to Laravel it's a great framework, go for it. Some parts you will like even better than Rails. Hopefully it's Laravel, it's by far the best php framework. (my opinion).

Pay for Laravel projects and jobs are approaching rails work so I wouldn't worry too much about pay or opportunities.

If anything you'll be more valuable because you know both.

I would keep at least one personal rails project going so you keep up with updates, whats new and can roll in to a new rails job in the future if needed.

Keep your Rails skills sharp and you can keep Rails prominently on your resume.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER6> Do you want to work for a company / team that pre-judges based on the acronyms in your technology list?

</comment><comment><USER7> There is nothing wrong with Php, I would think that if your worried about companies looking at your resume I think they would be concerned more about the project you wrote than the language it was written in.

To add to this comment, Solving problems is more important than the language you implement the solution in. You can write good Php code and the same goes for any other language. At the end of the day the result is what matters. I personally think your putting to much emphasis on the language.

<comment> j-pb That sounds like something a PHP developer would say ;)

I actually moved to a different country just to get a full time clojure position and it's awesome. I have so much more fun and less frustration at work .

Granted the team is also great and the product really interesting, but still I wouldn't want to do it in any less functional language.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My thought is that you should aim to do something different from what you are doing now.

Just change language is not a step forward nor backward.

Keep doing the same type of application over and over with always the same set of constrains and problem is not a step forward.

I wouldn't worry about change language... I would be worry about don't change the set of problems you are facing and the kind of tool you are learning.

(with tool I don't mean "git" or "make" but I mean mental tool, paradigms, ideas.)

<comment><USER9> Another way to put this: In the future, after this job, do you want to work with someone who'd see the word "PHP" on a resume and discard you as a result?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you're not _dramatically_ excited to code in PHP, don't do it. I'm not comparing PHP vs Ruby/RoR vs some other tech stack, it's just that there are quite many new exciting technologies that might be a better choice. I've seen it many times developers leaving companies because they didn't find satisfying companies' new technology choices.

</comment><comment><USER11> Anecdotally, I've been applying to a ton of jobs over the past 2 years. PHP compensation is much lower than Ruby by my observations. However, having multiple languages opens you to a wider market. I'll see "senior PHP developer" jobs that are trying to pay $40k-60k. Where those senior roles in a Ruby/RoR shop are almost always six figures.

</comment><comment><USER12> AS LONG AS YOU GET MORE MONEY YOU GOOD SON

</comment><comment><USER13> What are your career goals? (Where are you trying to get to?)

</comment><comment><USER14> I think the kind of php you'll be working on us critical here. Will this be modern php, or are you being asked to switch to an old framework entrenched in the company?

If there's a genuine opportunity for growth and learning with modern skills i think you will always be able to spin that positively

</comment><comment><USER15> Learning, but especially becoming well-versed with an additional language/platform is never a backwards step.

There are places that hire solely on what language you're using right now, but there are also companies that know better, and look at your total experience.

</comment><comment><USER16> Someone told me something 20 years ago, "adapt or get left behind" and I think that applies here.

You need to adapt to the changing technologies, even if they aren't as awesome to you personally. Why pigeon-hole yourself? I'd rather hire someone that is adaptable without stubbornness for technology (and usually an ego).

PHP used to be royal crap, but it has a ton of good stuff in it now-a-days, at least feature and performance-wise.

Being adaptable and open to learning more about programming languages will be much better for a career. Are you a programmer or not? Do you love programming or do you love a specific language only? Overcoming challenges and implementing business needs is one of the best things ever!

</comment><comment><USER17> Career wise, no. Learning wise, yes, its a step backwards. PHP has nothing new to offer.

If you want to stick to api/backend dev, pick up node, its "async everything" mindset is very hard to turn back from once you become accustomed to it. One big benefit of this would be getting good at javascript, which can help you become a proper full stack dev(browser, and mobile with react-native).

If you want to explore systems programming, or high perf computation, golang is a good option.

Or switch to a completely new area of programming, like data science, where python has a stronghold for now.

</comment><comment><USER18> PHP developer here. Highly recommend Laravel if you have a choice. It's basically PHP On Rails.

Also, as someone who has been writing PHP for what many would consider too long, I can safely say that there's always tons of work to be done. Not all of it is pretty, but it pays the bills, and there's a lot of really interesting organizations out there that you can work for.

</comment><comment><USER19> PHP is a perfectly valid language. If your entire team is working in PHP, consider moving to PHP as well. There's nothing making it better or worse than RoR (well, maybe a few things that are slightly nasty), and having experience with another language and it's quirks is going to be quite valuable in the future.

</comment><comment><USER20> What are the other devs backgrounds on the team? We just switched from PHP to Python and the whole team loves it.

</comment><comment><USER21> PHP won't win you any cool points, but there's still a whole lot of it running in production.

</comment><comment><USER22> You have the opportunity to get paid to learn another language. Give it a go, if you don't like it look for something else and by that time you'll have proof that you can pick up new (not 'recent') languages quickly.

But if they ask you to work with PHP 5.3, leave.

<comment><USER19> Or don't be part of the problem, inform them that that version has been deprecated for years, has serious security bugs, and suggest they upgrade as soon as possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> It's fine, just leave it off your resume afterwards (or have it on there as a secondary skill) if you find it embarrassing.

</comment><comment><USER24> If it is Symfony/Laravel it will not be step back. I prefer Symfony myself :)</comment>


Fatal Tesla Crash Raises New Questions About Autopilot System - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/business/tesla-crash-autopilot-musk.html <comment><USER2> How did the car not even apply the brakes? How could it fail that bad?

<comment><USER3> Maybe it's time for people to admit that self-driving is being romanticized by carmakers because they're trying to _sell you their cars_ and therefore they have an incentive to blow their capabilities out of proportion.

I think for one carmakers are misleading about these systems' true capabilities, but second, I don't think they even know how _imperfect_ these systems are because of a potentially unimaginable number of edge cases (which they thought would be much smaller and manageable).

<comment><USER4> There are three narratives I've come into contact with vis a vis SDV's.

1.) Utopian: Any sacrifice is worth getting people out from behind the wheel. That sacrifice never seems to belong to the person espousing this view. I run into this almost exclusively from friends and acquaintances in tech, or online. It's an extension of all utopian thinking, and like all utopian thinking is dangerous.

2.) The future is now: This argument (often yells) that SDV's are _currently_ safer than human drivers, so just shut up, people kill people too. When evidence to the contrary is presented they frequently reveal themselves to be utopian.

3.) Wait, what?: People who have no idea just how widespread this technology is on the roads, and range from uneasy to terrified. I mostly run across this from people I know who aren't in tech, and rarely see this online.

When I show people in group 3 comments from groups 1 and 2, they get really _really_ pissed.

<comment><USER5> This is the best taxonomy I have seen. I'd like to add another, smaller category.

There is a fourth group, people in tech, who are fully aware how widespread this technology is on the roads and follow it like a train wreck in slow motion.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to get feedback? - <AUTHOR>

I posted for the first time here a few days ago hoping for feedback and suggestions about getsnapp.com from the community but received none. Can you please help me understand why? Thank you. <comment><USER2> Try posting at a time when most Americans are awake. Sure, hackers may be a nocturnal species but quite a significant amount of them may still be constrained by the rules of the non-hacker segment of the population. Since HN is an American product focusing on startup culture, it may be safe to assume that a significant amount of its patrons would also be from the USA with only a minority from all other countries.

Also, there is a method of finding people who may share common interests on Twitter and reaching out to them to try and make them try your product.

step 0: create a twitter account (obviously).

Step 1: follow some people in the startup scene and people who report on it.

Step 2: use Moz.com's Followerwonk product to learn (1) who follows them (2) who they follow (3) who they interact the most with (4) what is the ideal time to (a) interact with them (b) they interact with others (5) with the list of (1),(2),(3), repeat until you have found a significant and influential audience.

Step 3: Go through all their contact details and build your outreach campaign around that information. Be polite (after you've asked them precisely what you want from them).

Also, there are some subreddits that may be more conductive to providing feedback than HN. Don't place all your eggs in this.basket();

I wish you would provide more information about yourself, your team, what your product does in text and image form rather than in video and a short text. Write a hundred words about it and how it's different from any other service.

Good luck.

Edit: some typos.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wonderful piece of advice. Plus I didn't know about Followerwonk at all. Will try to follow all of your suggestions.

I appreciate that. Thank you.</comment></comment>


Casino insider tells (almost) all about security - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;270726757;pp;1;fp;4194304;fpid;1 <comment><USER2> I might have read the whole thing if the text had more than 25% of the horizontal space.

<comment><USER3> [http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;270726757;fp;41...](http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;270726757;fp;4194304;fpid;1;pf;1)</comment></comment>


Pi Is Encoded in the Patterns of Life - <AUTHOR> https://www.biophysics.org/blog/pi-is-encoded-in-the-patterns-of-life <comment><AUTHOR> Excerpt:

"The appearance of an organism's body plan – a process called morphogenesis – is one of the most striking features of living creatures. In animals, the embryo grows from an almost uniform group of cells into a patterned structure with a brain, backbone, and limbs. In 1952, the mathematician and father of computer science, Alan Turing, proposed a mathematical model describing the simple biophysical principles of pattern formation during morphogenesis. He proposed that an embryo becomes patterned into different anatomical features by chemicals (termed morphogens by Turing), which diffuse through tissues. In the simplest case, the formation of the pattern results from the reaction of two morphogens, _an activator and inhibitor_. The activator self-amplifies and can only diffuse locally. It also stimulates the growth of the inhibitor which, in turn, suppresses the activator, and diffuses long distances. Mathematical analysis and computer simulations of this seemingly simple system reveal that Turing's model produces a bewildering array of patterns, including spots and stripes."

Strange Idea: Perhaps Pi could be expressed as 2..n functions, where one or more functions would simulate the biological activator, and one or more functions would simulate the biological inhibitor...

In other words, Pi might not actually be a single function, but rather a series of overlapping ones... perhaps even such that one (or more) control where/when/how/if -- the other function or functions are expressed... sort of like the activator and inhibitor...

Disclaimer: It is equally possible that I am a crackpot. <g>

Take this idea (and others you find here on HN!) with the proverbial grain of salt...</comment>


Farmer so sick of poor Internet signal he built DIY mast - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3200291/Farmer-sick-poor-internet-signal-built-DIY-mast.html <comment><USER2> I love his determination. But I wonder why the battery is at the top and not the 4G equipment.

<comment><USER3> I was wondering the same. My best guess, he didn't want to spend the extra money for the fiber cabling to the top? Maybe that small of a change in elevation isn't enough to produce a worthwhile increase in signal or speed?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Last mile solution. I need one like that to get FIOS to the house.</comment>


Apple Strategy 2017. Very important change to iPhone coming - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@scobleizer/im-inside-tim-cook-s-head-but-i-really-wonder-what-s-going-on-inside-mark-zuckerberg-s-head-5babf01c5713#.okjltrbe4 <comment><USER2> "The next iPhone will be, I am told, a clear piece of glass with a next- generation OLED screen. You pop it into a headset which has eye sensors on it, which enables the next iPhone to have a higher apparent frame rate and polygon count than a PC with a Nvidia 1080 card in it. The clear iPhone will put holograms on top of the real world like Microsoft HoloLens does."</comment>


Rawson.js - Camera RAW browser/editor lib - <AUTHOR> http://dev.tag.is/rawson.js/

<comment><USER2> In case you are wondering: It seems to be based on a port of dcraw to javascript using emscripten: <https://github.com/fbuchinger/rawson.js>

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks really good. I'm also a photographer. I hate to be the guy, but rawson looks awesome.</comment>


News Corp. Says It's Ready To Sell MySpace - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2011/02/02/news-corp-selling-myspace/

<comment><USER2> I'm sure people are lining up around the block.

<comment><AUTHOR> They should have gotten out while they still had a user base. I wonder if they would even get that much for their domain now? Not saying they're dead yet, just saying.</comment></comment>


Choose your own salary / company loyalty - <AUTHOR> https://logbook.hanno.co/choose-your-own-salary

<comment><USER2> Why not use something like PayScale.com which crowdsources salary data so you know what the market is paying in real-time? It takes into account location, skills, and experience, for example, so it'll tell you the pay for your specific jobs.

Disclaimer: I work at PayScale but this scenario is a reason why we're building this service.

</comment><comment> Some-Random_Guy I quit reading when the suggestion of dependents (children) factoring into the equation was raised. I also believe salary data should be more transparent but feel that arbitrary assigning people skill levels isn't the right approach.</comment>


Choosing a Rhodes Scholarship over the NFL? - <AUTHOR> http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/090115 <comment><USER2> I live in Cleveland, and it was a "controversy" a few years ago when LeBron James entered the NBA instead of going to college first. People said, "He's giving up this great opportunity for an education." Huh? When Nike pays you $90M for endorsing shoes, you can afford to pay the authors of your favorite text books to come to your house and tutor you. Playing basketball in exchange for $50K/year (max) in tuition reimbursement when you could be playing for millions is idiotic. What if you get hurt? And, you're giving up what are literally four of your best earning years.

Even if not via a Rhodes scholarship, wouldn't Oxford still accept this guy a decade from now? What about attending in the off-season? I once met a guy who played football for the Cowboys in the early '80s. He attended a top-tier medical school part-time while playing and went to law school at Stanford when he finally "retired." Was he rational?

I'm all for education (or, more precisely, becoming educated), but if someone had offered me $10M/year to stare at a wall for 2000 hours a year in lieu of college for four years, I think I'd have taken the offer. Think of all the learning I could be doing now if I didn't have to have that day job!

<comment><USER3> It isn't exactly fair to compare opportunities in the NBA and the NFL.

The average NFL career lasts less than 3 years. I would expect that the median lifetime earnings of a Rhodes Scholar to be higher than that of an NFL player. As a bonus a Rhodes scholar doesn't have to deal with the lingering injuries.

<comment><USER4> Not to mention when a lot of those injuries are to the head, I worked for a guy who played on the Jets for 4 seasons, and still had recurring problems due to concussions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are thousands of people who studied what he studied and have made no impact. Most likely, he will also make no impact in the field he studies.

In my opinion, he's making a poor decision - you have many many years to study anything you want, but just a few years where you can be a great athlete.

And this story is not relevant to any other players - they found the thing they love and they became great at it - just because they do not go study public health or some other irrelevant thing to them does not make them any lesser.

The journalist probably studied somewhere where intellectualism is supposed to be good just for itself. So for her, 'good' is defined by intellectualism. One could just as well turn this argument the other way round, and the pro football players could mock her for being so weak at sports.

This person has some passions and he's following them. This does not mean that every other person who has a passion in some field has to also have a passion in some unrelated subject that just happens to be offered at oxford.

<comment><USER6> _Most likely, he will also make no impact in the field he studies._

Opening a free medical clinic in the Bahamas is not something I would describe as "no impact". He might not fundamentally change the world, but even doing something as small as that makes the world a better place.

 _this story is not relevant to any other players_

Sure it is: it's an example of a first-rate athlete who is also a very capable student, which is part of the whole idea behind college sports. That's certainly not the norm, in American college football at least.

<comment><USER7> But he could likely make a greater impact investing his NFL earnings (and time post-retirement) in to such endeavors.

<comment><USER8> Only if you callously assume that the NFL player who gets his spot in the NFL won't do the same.

<comment><USER7> History is a good indicator :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I remember when schools were recruiting this guy and he said academics were very important to him. I chuckled when he went to Florida State (not a knock on FSU, but they're not a top public school). But apparently, he was pretty serious about academics. Great story. Happy for him.

<comment><USER10> Hell, I chuckled when _I_ went to Florida State. But I loved it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm going to completely rewrite my comment:

That was a terrible article. While I applaud and wish this young man the absolute BEST of luck, this journalist did him absolutely NO justice by throwing in such random and completely pointless hyperbole, making knee jerk references to other NFL players who aren't living up to some imaginary line of a standard, and then she follows this up by insulting the readers, saying we are

 _"infatuat[ed] with talented athletes who are hopelessly immature and irresponsible prevents us from fully appreciating someone like Rolle and giving him the attention he deserves."_

Mr. Rolle, I commend what you are doing, good luck thank you for proving this journalist wrong by your actions, not your words.

</comment><comment><USER12> One, he's putting the NFL off for just a year - given his physical gifts, he'll still get drafted.

The man made a decision for his personal happiness - he decided that this would make him happy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are enshrined in our Declaration of Independence as the inalienable rights of man. The founders made a conscious decision to step away from Locke's framework of life, liberty, and property (although Locke used the word estate). They did so for a reason. And if you think the "pursuit of happiness" is meaningless, Loving v. Virginia should disabuse you of this notion.

Good for Rolle. I wish more people did what made them happy instead of what would make them the most money. It's the real American way.

<comment><USER13> Exactly, I wish people would quit talking about what the "best" decision is and just applaud the guy for doing what he loves and wants to rather than what people tell him he should do. Isn't that what we are all doing here?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Good for him. He'll still do fine financially, and the education will make the experience of his life better.

(I'm exaggerating for effect here:) Would you rather be a rich moron, or a smart upper-middleclasser?</comment>


Why isn't email programmable? - <AUTHOR> http://compphi.com/2012/04/26/why-isnt-email-programmable/

<comment><USER2> That sounds like something the email clients could fix.

</comment><comment><USER3> Because you have to visit <http://techiest.blogspot.com/> more often to know more about technology! Peace out! ;)</comment>


Don't build apps that encrypt customer data - <AUTHOR> https://developer.amazon.com/public/apis/experience/cloud-drive/content/developer-guide <comment><USER2> They're going for user experience, not security.

They want users to pour data into Amazon Drive and for that to be useful to any and all applications that connect to Amazon Drive.

If one app encrypts that data, then no other app can make sense of it.

<comment><USER3> Unless it's convergent encryption or if the user has a way to share the key across apps.

<comment><USER4> Cryptomator solves that problem fine, and incorporates into major storage providers anyways.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm pretty sure this means that you shouldn't encrypt users data without their consent, or encrypt existing data. There are plenty of 3rd party apps which have been approved by Amazon which encrypt your data client side. e.g Arq Backup

I know Stablebit Clouddrive (which does client side encryption) have been struggling to get approval from Amazon, but this is due to excessive API requests, not client side encryption.

<comment><USER6> That's probably correct. But it is still an interpretation of a very ambiguous statement. Too often, when lawyers write ambiguous statements it is because they want to exploit the ambiguity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> from the dev forum:

> What if the customer choses to encrypt their data?

>> Brian@Amazon · Feb 02 at 06:28 PM 0 >> They can do that, and that is fine.

[https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/54909/impact-o...](https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/54909/impact- of-dont-encrypt-customer-data-part-of-drive.html)

<comment><USER8> ... so the EncFS-backup-your-6TB-media-drive trick isn't threatened yet? That's good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> That's a wee bit troubling. There might be an argument for some kind of user experience, but, uh, that's not how it's actually phrased.

Obviously client side encryption is an important part of using any kind of cloud storage, so disallowing it pretty much removes any potential use of Amazon drive for me. I have some photos I don't mind being stored unencrypted, but I have plenty I'd rather _not_ allow any and every app to have access to.

</comment><comment><USER10> Unless they clarify their intent and guidance, I read this as "Don't use Amazon drive".

</comment><comment><USER11> Perhaps it interferes with deduplication/compression of the storage, which would throw off some level of storage efficiency and increase costs for Drive. That said, I don't think I would really want to use a cloud drive service that discouraged client side encryption.

</comment><comment><USER12> > _Don't build apps that support commercial use_

Doesn't make much sense either.

<comment><USER13> That makes sense given that Amazon Drive itself is for non-commercial use: "You may use the Services only to store, retrieve, manage, organize, and access Your Files for personal, non-commercial purposes using the features and functionality we make available." from Amazon Drive and Prime Photos Terms of Use [https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201376540&ref_=cd_tou_fp&?ref_=cd_unlimited_tou)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > (e.g., do not copy the look and feel of Amazo Drive branded apps)

Amazo!

</comment><comment><USER15> At first glance, based on the headline, I thought ARQ backup is screwed.

But, this is only for Amazon Drive storage. Which makes sense.

If you want to store encrypted personal stuff, dont use Amazon Drive. Clients like ARQ are definitely made for such cases (and are probably cheaper in the long run).

</comment><comment><USER16> Well, Facebook definitely knows what I was searching recently on Amazon, as it shows me ads with the same (rare!) products that I browsed (didn't buy) on Amazon.

Clearly, they sell my data to Facebook. Can they sell some aggregates over your Amazon Drive?

</comment><comment><USER17> Don't encrypt your user's data that is stored hardware you do not own. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. This is all in order to improve the user experience of course.

</comment><comment><USER18> > We want to give you some guidelines (...) save you time in building > something that will not be approved during the App Review process. While > this isn't an all-inclusive list (...) don't violate our Terms of Use, Brand > Guidelines and the App Distribution and Services Agreement.

So encrypting data from the customer side could make some app be blocked in the future, making me lose all my customers and perhaps their data? That doesn't sound good, why would I take a chance by using Amazon ?

<comment><USER19> You take that risk, anyway. Amazon can always change their TOS unilaterally, or duplicate the functionality of your app with their own app, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is only for Amazon Drive. As others have said, 3rd party apps won't be able to make use of the data, but there's probably another reason.

I'm assuming Amazon uses fingerprinting to store only one copy of a file across their system, and just link to it if you upload the same file. If the files are encrypted they can't do this.

</comment><comment><USER21> What a clickbait headline. It seems pretty obvious that it is about the user experience. For example, if someone dumps 20GB of encrypted photos on Drive, no other app would be able to use that. Maybe that's what you want. But Photos are the kind of thing that multiple different applications should be able to read/write.

<comment><USER22> Could also be an additional defense against _" Don't build apps that promote illegal peer-to-peer file sharing"_

Unlimited cheap storage is probably a magnet for pirated videos. Encrypting (or just obfuscating) them would be an obvious step to avoid detection.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Only applies to Amazon Drive? So I'm assuming that they don't want ransomware- type third-party apps.

</comment><comment><USER24> They have Arq backup in the gallery, which uses data encryption so maybe they just mean don't encrypt where it's not necessary?

Is this for de-duplication or just to avoid people not being able to access files across other apps on the platform? Or both I guess.

</comment><comment><USER25> It's not in amazons best interests for you to encrypt your customers data - but it's likely in your customers best interests from a privacy perspective.

</comment><comment><USER26> Maybe it's in the context of a malware?

<comment><USER27> No, it's in the context of Amazon Drive applications:

"With our updated RESTful API and SDKs for Android and iOS, Amazon Drive is moving to an invite-only developer offering to ensure we can provide a consistently viable service available for supported use-cases."

Clearly, they want to be able to spy user data.

You can easily summary this list of restrictions to:

          DO NOT WRITE Amazon Drive APPLICATIONS!

(At least if you care for your customer).

Personnaly, I would never write an application that would not encrypt user data, including user credentials. Basically, most services don't even need to know who their users are (unless you implement dumb password recovery scheme that requires you to send an email to the user, you just don't need ever to know anything more than a hash instead of an email in the clear!).

<comment><USER28> what's a not dumb scheme?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The client/server model is great for capitalism but no good for liberty.

</comment><comment><USER30> what is the limit of "Unlimited Storage" in drive? 100gb? 100pb? or even more?

<comment><USER31> Several folks on /r/datahoarder have 100+ TB stored there without issue. You'd have to try pretty hard to run into any soft limits they've set.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Do not encrypt it because then we can steal it.

</comment><comment><USER33> Don't use AWS. There, fixed that for you.

</comment><comment><USER34> _> Don't build apps that encrypt customer data_

Sarcastically interpreting this directive as non-generously as it is worded: don't use SSL?

</comment><comment><USER35> This title is click bait

<comment><USER36> Yeah the title is highlighting one part of the text 70% down the page, but it does seem to be a disconcerting part of the text.

<comment><USER37> Indeed - in fact, the previous paragraph states your app risks not being approved if you don't follow the guidelines!

 _> We want to give you some guidelines for apps not to build on the Amazon Drive platform to save you time in building something that will not be approved during the App Review process_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> These are very vague - could mean anything from "don't build ransomware", through "no Amazo Drive encryption apps, we'll offer that as an option" to "leave your cust data in clear so we can play with it"</comment>


Your (bootstrapped/lean/side project) startup was profitable from day one? - <AUTHOR>

I would love to read about startups which were profitable from day one and gained a lot of traction! Please share your story. <comment><USER2> <http://www.bingocardcreator.com>

I wrote it in eight days with a budget of $60, and recouped that within three sales. It has been profitable since. I don't know if you would call it a lot of traction -- by Twitter accounting I have something like two hundred thousand users. Anyhow, 4 years and 3,500 odd paying customers later, it was paying my full-time salary, and I quit the day job. That was about 7 months ago. BCC (and consulting) gave me enough time, money, and smarts to get my next project ready.

<http://www.appointmentreminder.org>

That launches in 48 hours. Depending on one's optimism in counting promised orders prior to the cash physically being in one's hand, it is already profitable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wish you luck with appointmentremider and i hope to hear about in the level of detail you give us about bingocardcreator all the time! Very nice, you are probably the most motivating person for me on HN! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> In 2007 after few failed attempts with my crazy startup ideas I read lots of articles about how Google Arbitrage is dead. This inspired me to actually tried it out and I got profitable from day 1. This success led me to focus solely on marketing PPC-affiliate arbitrage and eventually building sites and domains. Now 3 years later after lots of hard work I have successful business with over $1 million in revenues that is well diversified across portfolio of sites and software products.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd narrow the question - there's a difference between being profitable and having revenue.

1\. Some companies have the revenue from day one, but never reach profitability

2\. Some don't have revenue at day one but are profitable.

For example, most consulting businesses, when started by people who already have the chops for what they're doing and have clients lined up, tends to be like #1.

A company that needs to scale up it's online presence to be effective (for example, something that works on user network effect like ebay/craigslist/etc.) may not take in money during the product development phase, tend be be like #2.

You can also be a hybrid, like 37 signals that went from consulting and design for others to selling their own apps. I tend to think that this is one of the better methods of bootstrapping - you get exposure to customers and business methods, and can see where needs are, then target them, all the while taking in revenue.

The downside is that bootstrap method is that your consulting could cause contention for time/resources - you have to want to do both and be good at balancing them. If this is an issue, it may make sense to look for investors to put in capital to cover the dev phase.

<comment><USER5> I disagree, I think the definition of profitable requires a company to have (had) revenue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> When people say their bootstrapped business was profitable from day one, they're usually not getting paid any kind of salary from it.

When I started Lighthouse, we were "profitable" right away because of a few strategic deals. Our only monthly bill was to our CC gateway. At the time, my partner and I were both consulting to make ends meet. Essentially, we were working our asses off on two jobs and only getting one real paycheck out of it. I think it was about a year before Lighthouse could sustain us both.

</comment><comment><USER7> <http://store.p212121.com/>

An e-commerce site, I talked with a number of customers before launching (wish I had something more fascinating for you). The site fits under the category of scratching my own itch since I am a scientist. I wouldn't consider the site as having lots of traction nor expected it knowing the customer base. At the moment am focused on customer's problems and am quite dependent on word of mouth.

</comment><comment><USER8> Not really a startup (and has changed quite a bit since selling it), but my site <http://iPadCaseFinder.com/> (Used to be a case finding resource, which aff linked to Amazon) was profitable from day one.

Bought a template of ThemeForest, customised it, and created a filtering plugin, then launched it. Received 50,000 uniques in the first week through blog posts. Earned around $6000 from it in 3 months.

</comment><comment><USER9> Mine was but we lined up customers before really building our product. Customers are coming to us now after our initial customers have been singing our praises. Our customers love us so far and want to see us succeed. That part is awesome. I have no idea where it will go but I feel like if we delight our customers we'll do fine.</comment>


Elegant know the compatibility of HTML5/CSS3(Can I Use offline plugin) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/leecade/caniuse_local ![screen](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/b1fe4e870b932ac67d4a37fa45a204d8d1dc99ec/687474703a2f2f646c2e6f6f78782e6f72672f6f75747075742d6d696e692e676966)
Watch video:
https://vimeo.com/92709999
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpe_R35nvk8
Project url:
https://github.com/leecade/caniuse_local
Installation:
With Sublime Package Control: Run "Package Control: Install Package" command, find and install caniuse_local. Restart Sublime editor (if required)
Manually: Download the lastest releases into your packages folder (find "Browse Packages" menu item to open this folder) Restart Sublime editor (if required) <comment><AUTHOR> ![screen]([https://camo.githubusercontent.com/b1fe4e870b932ac67d4a37fa4...](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/b1fe4e870b932ac67d4a37fa45a204d8d1dc99ec/687474703a2f2f646c2e6f6f78782e6f72672f6f75747075742d6d696e692e676966))

Watch video:

[https://vimeo.com/92709999](https://vimeo.com/92709999)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpe_R35nvk8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpe_R35nvk8)</comment>


Trump's Rebel Yell: How the Tech Revolution Is Setting Up Another Civil War - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/trump-rebel-yell-tech-revolution-setting-civil-war-436212 <comment><USER2> The issue is globalization and economic abuse by certain elites, not technology. While I don't personally think Trump is sincere given his history, people are voting for him because they want to end the trade policies that have been objectively hurting the country in order to enrich a certain small demographic.

Whoever wrote this article just pulled something out of their ass with enough trendy buzzwords and quotes to get readership.

</comment><comment><USER3> >Somebody has to step up and lead us through this transition—rally us and help us all benefit from the great inventions of our time.

It seems here that the author is calling for some sort of Napoleonic figurehead to lead the way into the electric age and does not realize the meaning of "the medium is the message".

Paper-based, literate societies naturally form centralized hierarchies because that is the nature of the paper and printing press technologies. It is a one way flow of centrally controlled information where the end user has highly limited feedback to the source and so this is how rigid bureaucratic hierarchies were formed in the Roman, British, and French empires. They kept mountains of papyrus, parchment, or paper-based documentation in order to manage their militaries and colonies.

The electric medium is the opposite of that in many ways. Electricity is distributed (as opposed to centralized) and allows for feedback. So naturally, electric societies form distributed, flat hierarchies -- like that of many non-literate nomadic tribal cultures. There is no use for the Napoleonic figurehead in the electric age. This tribal design is implemented by terrorist organizations whose most effective tools use the electric medium (i.e. cell phones, remote IEDs, and of course the insatiable coverage they receive on television).

<comment><USER4> I agree with this, but I read that line as meaning that there needs to be a politician that can communicate a technology focused long-term view of the economy.

All of the US candidates are using social media effectively to communicate their message, but none of them actually understand technology (witness how they talk about encryption). It would be good to have a politician that could talk about the vision of where the economy is truly going.

Sanders' projects that he's telling "the truth" but his vision of rolling back the economy to the good old days is naive. But it's not surprising that a 74 year-old would lean that way.

None of this should be surprising because the main way that politicians use technology is to target their voters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think outsourcing of services and production jobs to low-cost countries is the major problem, cheaper labour make people obsolete,not technology.

<comment><USER3> >cheaper labour make people obsolete,not technology.

I never thought of it that way. It would be interesting to see the change in average wages for the entire globe over the past 50 years considering how many relatively good paying industrial age jobs have been outsourced to serf and slave labor in "3rd world" areas

<comment><USER6> It's gone way up. Global standard of living has never been higher.

<comment><USER3> Indeed but I'm curious about the average wage rather than the standard of living. A decreasing average wage and increasing standard of living would indicate the obsolescence of wage labor.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Arguments usually work best when you support them with ample evidence.

</comment><comment><USER8> First Agriculture was automed, then manufacturing was automated, now we are starting to automate services with software/AI.

One has to wonder what jobs would 10 billion people we are going to have in 2050 be doing.

<comment><USER9> Very similar things to today (just with a few of them mundane things removed):

Sports/Prostitution/(non-sexual paid)Companionship/Parenting/Baby sitting/Dog sitting (will never be automated).

Gambling/Consumption (will never be automated). With a large basic income compared to cost of living ratio, these might actually be people's day-day 9-5.

Politics/War (because ofcourse that isn't going anywhere in the next 35 years) - By 2050 we may see the first AI Senators though.

Creative endeavors: Dancing, Stage Performances, Movies, Books, Music (while computers can write, or make art, potentially any of the above, there will always be a higher appreciation for human creativity).

Writing and maintaining all this software (until that is automated - not by 2050 though).

Data-analysis to ensure these ML systems are doing the correct things (until that is automated - not by 2050 though).

Apart from that my bet is on academics. Humans will be full-time students (my personal career of choice). Hopefully more scientific research/advancement. Primarily theoretical endeavors, like philosophy, mathematics, theoretical physics (i.e. abstract thought - things that are not exclusively based on previously aggregated data).

Exploration/colonization. We are still the most adaptable machine/energy efficient machines (it is still unclear if curiosity can be built into a machine's "personality").

Note: I'm sure there will continue to be Amish 19th century societies, alongside the new Amish 20th century societies that will start to pop up.

Note: This is all given that we do not destroy civilization first. Automation / increased productivity isn't all good! It doesn't just mean you need fewer people to make more money. It means you need fewer people to attain your goals. Even if your goal is to hurt other people!

Note: This is also given there is a separation between humans and machines in 2050. Given the adaptability of our brains, it is conceivable to give it new input/output streams. For example, what happens if I were to implant a calculator-chip into my brain? Once I was trained to use that implant, could I multiply/divide arbitrarily sized numbers as quickly as a computer? If so, instead of implants, can we collectively edit the human genome to have these bio-chips grow into our bodies i.e. such that no future generation has to worry about "implants"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Risking to be simplist I would resume the main idea clash to this:

The right to be supported VS the right to work

</comment><comment><USER11> It looks like this story was moderated ... it disappeared from the top 200 shortly after reaching the top five of the front page. While discussing politics can often make sane people fight a flame war, this article is in NewsWeek and offers an interesting historic perspective. I didn't submit it, but thanks to @chatmasta for pointing it out.

 _EDIT_ \- Found it at position 695

<comment><USER12> Users flagged it, which is the most frequent reason why stories drop in rank on HN, especially when the drop is precipitous. That's what happens when flags reach a critical mass relative to upvotes.

We sometimes override the flags when the article is unusually substantive. I'm not seeing that here though.

<comment><USER11> I wasn't blaming this on _The Moderators_ but failed to differentiate between user moderation and official moderation. Sorry I was unclear.

I've seen other cases where stories dropped that fast, and while you didn't find a reason to "resurrect" it, I didn't see a reason for it to drop. It's obviously a community standard and we're (those who liked the history aspect) only a couple of voices, so all is fine. Thanks for answering!

<comment><USER12> In general The Moderators are strongly biased in favor of historical material, so I hope I didn't indicate otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wish all paywalls were like this: a modal I can remove with the developer tools.</comment>


GNU/Linux Is Being Eaten Alive by Large Corporations with Their Agenda - <AUTHOR> http://techrights.org/2019/04/16/soft-coup/ <comment><USER2> There is no doubt something interesting here, but this is rather poorly written.

<comment><USER3> Agree. Extended quote of email rant is hard to appreciate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> No it's not.

<comment><USER5> The Linux Foundation is at this point the Megacorporations LUG. Members are not even required to comply with the GPL. So there is that.

<comment><USER4> The Linux Foundation is a joke. No major established FLOSS projects pay attention to them.

<comment><USER6> [https://js.foundation/](https://js.foundation/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Mac OSX Hacker News Y Combinator Menu Tab - <AUTHOR> http://www.guidefreitas.com/2012/03/hacker-news-menu-tab.html Great Mac OSX Menu tab app to read Hacker News <comment><USER2> I personally find it a bit odd to see the iOS interface on the desktop, but if you want to go with it, you might want to do it properly.

Do the detail disclosure buttons actually any details, or should you have used the disclosure indicator instead?

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3078665/whats-the- differe...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3078665/whats-the-difference- between-an-detail-disclosure-button-and-an-disclosure-indi)

<comment><USER3> The detail disclosure button shows the comments view.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nominee for the procrastination award!

</comment><comment><USER5> I can't quite put my finger on it, but I find it hard to do a quick scan of stories. When I'm on the HN site, I can very quickly skim and find stories on the front page that interest me. Maybe it's the narrow width of the table? Can you make that adjustable by dragging the corner?

Otherwise, it's really slick & works perfectly well. Good stuff.

</comment><comment><USER6> The OS X app looks very nice.

Though I'm having difficulties grabbing the scroll bar thumb on that blog. There's an element hovering it. Am I the only one seeing this: <http://i.imgur.com/GyJ2z.png>

Of course I can use the scroll-wheel or cursor keys...

</comment><comment><USER7> Great idea. I definitely like the use of apple/ios design elements with the tabs/cells.

For me, personally, I'm afraid this kind of thing might go the way of the twitter app. At first really handy, then mostly distracting. =-/ If only I had more will power.

We'll see how long I can keep it up there!

</comment><comment><USER8> Neat idea. Might ruin my entire workday if this came into my desktop. Must. Resist. And. Not. Install.

</comment><comment><USER9> Im trying it out - but share voiced concerns about making the distraction that is HN that much more accessible -- but that's my problem, not yours :)

and the iOS interface does feel a little peculiar..

Either way, great job building a fun app and sharing it with HN!

</comment><comment><USER10> 1\. Get rid of the refresh button and have it auto refresh every 5 minutes.

2\. Clear items that have been visited.

3\. Add a clear all items item.

4\. Show 25 (edit make that 30, same as HN front page) items and make it fit on a Air 11"

<comment><USER11> <https://github.com/guidefreitas/HNewsTab/fork>

<comment><USER12> I actually think the issues page would be a better first-step

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey! Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I'll start to implement some of those as soon as I can and let you know.

</comment><comment><USER13> Great idea! This can be applied to other services as well. I am just afraid my top menu will become full of icons.

<comment><USER14> I'm new to OS X, and in my search of must-have apps I've come across Bartender. With it, one can customize the visibility of these icons.

<http://www.macbartender.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> pretty cool! I wish it had scroll-to-refresh though.</comment>


CRS-6 landing, drone ship perspective - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwosn-iFyAE

<comment><AUTHOR> Side by side with chase plane video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amRPtyhIzkI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amRPtyhIzkI)</comment>


How Bill Gates and Warren Buffett met - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/06/how-bill-gates-and-warren-buffett-met.html <comment><USER2> Was Gates' mom the kind of person who would be going to dinner parties with Buffet even if her son wasn't a billionaire at that point? I know the Gates were kind of big, but I always assumed in a modest regional way, and not the kind of go to dinner with the most influential people in the world kind of way.

<comment><USER3> Apparently. She was on a charity board with the CEO of IBM. That's how Microsoft got it's DOS break.

 _She was the first female president of King County 's United Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way's executive committee where she served most notably with IBM's CEO, John Opel, and the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington's board of directors._

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

<comment><USER4> Yes! And somehow this part is always left out when telling the tale of MS and Bill Gates. While in my opinion, it's one of the biggest reasons of the success.

<comment><AUTHOR> No company can survive and strive so many years because of a single event like this, not even multiple few lucky events.

I don't also think other people have had the gut and attitude to negotiate a non exclusive agreement with IBM at that time.

<comment><USER4> You are absolute correct. And in no way I want to say Bill Gates didn't deserve his success.

But it's hard to argue that this didn't have any effect on the deal that basically made Microsoft.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > _" It's important to associate with people that are better than yourself."_

We hear this repeated often, but how does it really work? It's impossible to do if everyone tries to follow this advice, because if you associate with people who are better than yourself, then they themselves being with you associate themselves with people worse than themselves.

It only works if we consider "better" in multiple dimensions; I associate with people who are better than me in a given dimension, while I'm better than them in some other dimension.

But then isn't it simply trivial / obvious that everyone is better at something and worse at something else?

<comment><USER6> I think they have to be better than you in something you care about (or aspire to be better at) for it to matter to you. Seems like you're overcomplicating this... :-)</comment></comment>


Drafts of Chapters 5–8 from the Rails Tutorial 3rd Ed - <AUTHOR> http://news.railstutorial.org/rails_tutorial_draft_second_launch/?

<comment><AUTHOR> As noted in the announcement, all four of the new draft chapters have been extensively revised, and the last on ("Log in, log out") has been almost completely rewritten. The final four chapters (9–12) are nearly done and just need to be polished up for release. I hope to ship them some time next week.

<comment><USER2> might be just me, but i'm getting a DNS error accessing [http://draft.railstutorial.org/](http://draft.railstutorial.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, it's just a propagation delay:

[https://twitter.com/railstutorial/status/507228319062818816](https://twitter.com/railstutorial/status/507228319062818816)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Previous discussion about this book....

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8238823](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8238823)

</comment><comment><USER4> It's probably something with my browser, but a weird line appears on your page, which I haven't seen anywhere else. [http://awesomescreenshot.com/0753f9w38b](http://awesomescreenshot.com/0753f9w38b)

(I'm on Chrome 37 on Mac 10.9)

<comment><AUTHOR> Weird. I'm not seeing that, even on the same setup (Chrome Version 37.0.2062.94/OS X 10.9.4).

<comment><USER4> I determined it was an issue with an extension I had (ColumnCopy). I think Google should help prevent these weird bugs caused by extensions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Mike, my friend John is quoted in a previous copy of your book and I think it is the coolest thing in the world. Is there any way I can give you a testimonial or something? Being in this book would mean the world for me.

Sorry for the ridiculous request but thought I would give it a shot! You never know unless you try.

</comment><comment><USER6> The links to the tutorials themselves do not appear to be working.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's probably just a DNS propagation issue:

[https://twitter.com/railstutorial/status/507228319062818816](https://twitter.com/railstutorial/status/507228319062818816)</comment></comment>


"Pizza profitable" Airbnb now in 1,000 cities worldwide - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/06/10/from-crash-pad-to-pizza-profitable-entrepreneurs-target-budget-travel-market/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

<comment><USER2> I endorse our new food-based system of rating companies, and expect it will eventually displace Moody's and S&P.

We're not Alinea-profitable yet, but we're definitely comfortably in Chili's territory. =)

<comment><USER3> Does this new rating system imply that you can sell the company once you hit Ruth's Chris profitable? :-)

<comment><USER2> Or you can eat at Ruth's Chris every night. Either way!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Classic internet enabled 'butterfly' market. You have a lot of people who want to crash in a city, a lot of people with spaces and you just need someone to bring them together.

<comment><USER5> Ooh. I've never heard this term "butterfly market" before, and I might like to know more about it :D Any good links? I'd always called these kinds of business "marketplaces," sites like etsy, elance, etc.

<comment><USER4> A butterfly market just means a large fuzzy cloud of potential consumers and a large fuzzy crowd of potential suppliers that come together in a little body in the middle = so the shape looks like a butterfly.

Take used books, there are 1000s of used bookstores and a million readers. the stores can't all separately advertise to all the readers, so you need a common central marketplace, like amazon, to make it possible.

<comment><USER5> Ah, cool. Thanks so much for the "picture," I get it now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's this place near us that sells $6 large pizzas. So by that metric, we are also pizza profitable. Can't afford the supreme, though! ;)

Congrats, gents!

<comment><USER7> totally off-topic, but i just noticed this copy on ticketstumbler--"We couldn't get your location, but you can set your own location by logging in or creating any account!" should that be "...creating an account!"? or am i more tired than i thought...

<comment><USER6> You're right. Though we're getting rid of that registration requirement anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'd rather use couchsurfing.org. Not only is it free, but the host verification seems better.

That being said, Airbnb.com is a MUCH slicker website, and most consumers are more comfortable with a professional-looking site and with services they've paid for.

<comment><USER9> I tried using couchsurfing on a recent trip to Japan - the interface was horrible and I got no responses. I ended up using AirBnB and found a super cheap place in the nicest neighborhood of Tokyo with an awesome host who took the time to show me around (and visit a semi-legit hostess bar.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Congrats! How did you manage to get the WSJ to write you guys up?

</comment><comment><USER11> This site is great. Perfect in todays economy as people look for some extra bucks (by renting out their room) and others look for cheaper places to sleep while travelling. I will probably use this site when I finally decide to go to Europe

</comment><comment><USER12> Nice idea, since they help the renter to bill the room.

I'm always a bit surprised that new segment between B&B, Vacation Rentals and hotels are invented. Is it that people think those existing segments are well served?

<comment><USER13> It's the geographical diversity that gives this kind of thing an advantage. Hotels, B&B's and vacation rentals are highly clustered in either heavily commercial or tourist areas. If you want to just get the feel of how "regular" people live in "regular" parts of town, this kind of segment has a real advantage, especially if you are a social person who likes talking to people first thing in the morning....

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm not seeing dramatically different prices to a hotel or hostel, but it is a good idea. Take Paris for example: [http://airbnb.com/travel/paris/fr?y=0&min_price=&lng...](http://airbnb.com/travel/paris/fr?y=0&min_price=&lng=2.3509871&max_price=&guests=0&precision=city&x=0&sort_by=0&state=Ile- de- France&location=paris&checkin=06/18/2009&country=FR&city=Paris&checkout=06/20/2009&lat=48.8566667)

<comment><USER15> A lot of the value I see in this is visiting places that don't have hostels. Like basically anywhere in the US for example :)

<comment><USER14> really, you don't think there are lots of hostels in the US? I've stayed in quite a few, both in big and small cities.</comment></comment></comment>


Healthy mood spreads through social contact, depression doesn't - <AUTHOR> http://phys.org/news/2015-08-healthy-mood-social-contact-depression.html <comment><USER2> And I always thought, high school students were very good at spreading depression...

<comment><USER3> _They looked at over 2,000 adolescents in a network of US high school students to see how their mood influenced each other [...]

The team found that while depression does not 'spread'_</comment></comment>


Openspf.org Website has been down for a couple of weeks - <AUTHOR> http://www.openspf.org/ <comment><USER2> I was just investigating this when I stumbled upon your post. It seems that the DNS server for the domain has issues.

The maintainer of the site is (was?) Julian Mehnle, his personal website is also down. I've tried emailing him, but his email server seems also unreachable.

Julian has a linkedin profile, but Linkedin won't let me send a message to Julian unless I pay them :(</comment>


Mary Sue Test - <AUTHOR> http://www.unc.edu/~jemarti/marysuetest/

<comment> T-A Imagine what might have happened if JK Rowling had run Harry Potter through this test...</comment>


Steve Jobs' custom Apple I and other historic machines are on display in Seattle - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/17/steve-jobs-custom-apple-i-and-other-historic-machines-are-on-display-at-seattle-museum/ <comment><USER2> The most interesting part of the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, for those of whom have not visited, is not the Apple I or any of the 1970s/1980s PCs. What's more interesting is the big room in the back full of supercomputers, the CDC6500 - the amount of work to bring that back to life far, far outweighs the amount of work to bring the Apple 1 back to life. So they connected a new power converter to the Apple 1? Big whoop. The CDC6500 weighs more than 10,000 lbs, has liquid coolant, custom cabling that they had to set up new manufacturing lines for, everything is wired by hand, etc.

In my opinion, supercomputing is a more relevant metaphor for the type of age we're living in, involving neural networks, brute force type machine learning on a big server that we all share, in a sense...the 60's are alive again man!

<comment><USER3> Definitely! Also, what I was told is the worlds only functioning PDP-7 was a highlight... and the Parc Alto.

It's not a particularly big museum, but man, what a great collection.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, was just coming here to mention the Alto. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing one of those in-person and running. So much came from such a small machine.

If you're in Seattle the Living Computer Museum is a must-visit.

<comment><USER5> I'm a member and have visited a few times with my 5 year old son--it's a good rainy day activity for kids. The downstairs area is beautiful space for kids to run around and tinker with robots, and it never seems to be crowded (not even on weekends).

The museum is shockingly liberal with what they let kids touch, so when I take him upstairs to the historic collection I'm always terrified that he'll break something. Fortunately a lot of that gear from the 60's was built to last and is intimidating to little kids... for example, their punch card reader is bigger than a copy machine, and volunteers hand out earplugs before running it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If any of the Living Computers folks are paying attention to this thread: you guys should set up an exhibit on phone phreaking. Blue boxes (and other boxen) should be easy to build, and it'd probably be easy to obtain historical boxes too. You could dial into Project MF [0] or set up your own vulnerable phone network to tinker with.

[0] [http://projectmf.org/](http://projectmf.org/)

<comment><USER7> Check out the Communications Museum sometime - no phreaking exhibit per se, but much more in that direction. It's closely to Living Computers, in Georgetown. [http://museumofcommunications.org](http://museumofcommunications.org)

<comment><USER8> I did ask one of the great docents there to explain blue boxing to me. He pulled out an blue suitcase-like box and showed me how it all worked.

For what it is worth, they can't do the 2600 line seize there, but they could patch directly into a trunk and send tones from there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > _The team at the museum read the contents of this EPROM and used it to set > up a second, less historic Apple I. That one, which has had its power > components modified to be a little less prone to catching fire or warping > the circuit board, will now be available in this primed state for anyone to > play with. Yes, anyone — the only operational Apple I on the planet right > now, and your kid can type "butts" on it with fingers still greasy from the > sandwich they got across the street._

While the Apple I is rare, I'm pretty sure the one described above isn't the _only_ operational Apple I on the planet. I say that because I've seen a few differently housed ones on YouTube.

That all said, it's still amazing that this museum allows anyone to play on one of theirs. That article made me want to visit America just to visit that museum.

<comment><USER10> Visiting this museum was the highlight of my SF trip. When it closed, I had only explored half of it, and decided to spend another day of my stay in there.

<comment><USER11> The museum described in the Tech Crunch article is located in Seattle.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of the Computer History museum? The CHM is much larger although much less interactive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That clear perspex case Apple I is beautiful. Amazing how already it resembled what he wanted in the 90s iMac.

Not as beautiful but there were clear Macintosh SEs for smoke testing. [http://www.cultofmac.com/165784/another-rare-vintage-mac- sur...](http://www.cultofmac.com/165784/another-rare-vintage-mac-surfaces- macintosh-se-with-clear-plastic-case/)

<comment> gm-conspiracy I always wanted a Keurig with a translucent case.

<comment><USER12> Yes it would be great if a high-pressure glass line and group head could be made so that the water, steam and extraction could all be seen happening through clear walls.

The "low fi" alternative is a glass teapot. :)

<comment> gm-conspiracy Not sure if you missed the part where I said "case".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I have quite a large collection of pre-PC 8 bit computers including an Apple II and and Apple IIc both signed by Woz.

I don't even really know exactly what I have any more because I buy them and then I don't open the boxes that arrive, I just put em in storage. I once thought "ooohh, I'd like to get a (some old 8 bit machine)" only to find later that I already have one in the boxes out the back.

<comment><USER14> I also have a large 8-bit and pre-PC collection of machines, also sitting in boxes, and I also have the desire to .. one day .. have a room big enough to set them all up, turn them on .. and .. hmm .. what .. exactly ..

Oh, I know! Run some of the new software thats being written for these old machines, even still, in the 21st Century! :)

(In my case, its the Oric machines that keep on ticking .. and new stuff pops up every year for this obscure, odd little system .. [http://oric.org/](http://oric.org/) in case anyone is interested..)

<comment><USER15> I have 2 Amiga 2000s, 2 Amiga 1200s, 1 Amiga 500 and a Commodore 64.

I have 2 machines hooked up at all times attached to C= CRTs. I sometimes need to rotate the Amigas due to software buggery.

The C64 is always ready to go. > turn them on .. and .. hmm .. what .. exactly ..

Believe it or not, the BBS scene is quite large and healthy. It's run by (mostly) 40-somethings on 8-bit and 16-bit machines. Hackers have made (and sell) fantastic WiFi options that essentially let your 8-bit machines (Apple, Commodore, TRS-80, etc.) telnet into the BBS. I use it for social more than Facebook. Yes, they are technically strangers, but like-minded and into the same thing.

There's no reason these old machines need to stay in boxes like some scene from Indiana Jones. They can be used, and enjoyed, daily. My Amiga is used for gaming/productivity. My C64 is (mostly) used for social interaction. And a little gaming. :)

<comment><USER14> Preach! Totally with you, brother .. now I just have to finish that assembly- language terminal emulator for the Orics' so I can join you fancy lunchbox users ..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Steve Wosniak and Paul Allen met — for the first time, amazingly — and > chatted over an Apple II.

That's crazy to me. All this time and they just now meet!

<comment><USER17> Surprised techcrunch missed that typo of Wozniak. They got it right higher up in the article.

<comment><USER18> I love how the tools we praise are also the very tools that trip us up. That spelling of Woz's name is more common so I imagine the spellcheck 'corrected' it, essentially getting the name wrong of its creator. There's a level of irony here that's hard to miss.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Steve Jobs, thinking about his passing still makes me emotional. Damn, I miss that guy.

<comment><USER20> Yes, I too really miss how he talked police into raiding peoples homes, humiliated Apple staff, screwed over his friends, refused to acknowledge his daughter, downplayed the suicides in Apple factories, commited fraud, refused to get himself treated for his cancer and lied about it, routinely parked in the spot meant for handicapped...

I could go on but I think you get the picture. That he was worshipped is an absolute shame, he was not an asshole, but way worse. He was evil. He was the dark side of capitalism.

<comment><USER19> All pretty trivial stuff compared to the massive positive impact the products he oversaw and introduced to the world have had. Mac and iPhone literally changed the world as we know it.

Without him, home computing would be very different today. His insistence on focusing on usability and bringing in the best of the liberal arts into a very science-centric domain was his genius.

<comment><USER18> I'd rather live in a world where 'poaching' agreements between employers didn't exist and factory jobs were better but we had to use a phone with buttons. I think if we had to choose, the corrupt baby boomer CEO stuff Jobs represented would be eliminated even if that meant a slightly less optimal computing experience. I won't even go into how Apple is less a computer company than a media consumption machine company, but that's an argument for another day.

I also will argue that Jobs gets credited for a non-sensical 'he's the liberal arts genius who showed us usability' argument, when in reality usability is an ancient field and, arguably, the most usable desktop was unsexy Microsoft's NT desktop which is still very usable and refined today. You can put a random grandparent in front of an NT4 machine today and have then be productive near instantly. Meanwhile, the very same grandparent is overwhelmed with apps, pop- ups, swipes, privacy agreements, notifications, etc on the more 'usable' mobile device.

Jobs deserves credit for his achievements, but if you let me trade Jobs for a better world for the actual working stiffs who bust their ass 50-70 hours a week in this industry, absolutely, I would make that trade in a heartbeat. I don't care about the cost to quarterly projections or other CEO chest- thumping. Jobs, regardless of his intentions, represents the classic heartless CEO in many respects and made almost no effort to fix these things. I hope today's SV leaders have more progressive views about work/life balance. I'd love to bury the baby boomer workaholic nonsense and factories full of suicidal people with Jobs. I hope society can progress past the 'worship our CEOs' stage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I saw the blue cased Apple I and I'd hoped it was the long lost "Bob Roth" Apple I[0] that - according to legend - Steve Jobs personally purchased for Woz from a user at a Riverside, CA store opening back in '81.

[0]: [http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-originals.htm#Roth](http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-originals.htm#Roth)

</comment><comment><USER22> My uncle sent me some photos from this event (he's in the back row of the large group photo). I also have photos from the event four years ago... it's sad how this crowd is thinning out over time. Hope they accelerate the oral history effort! There are so many great stories of those early days.

</comment><comment><USER23> The article mentions a custom EPROM that was used on Jobs' personal Apple I. I wonder if the contents of that EPROM are available, so someone with a replica computer could use it?

</comment><comment><USER24> If you like tinkering with computers, and happen to be in or visiting Seattle, the Living Computer Museum is really fun. Anyone can pound away on any of the computers they have set up.

</comment><comment><USER25> In the video, why does Lath Carlson, Executive Director of the Seattle Living Computers Museum euphemize history by saying Steve Jobs "quit" in 1985?

</comment><comment><USER20> Correction: Steve Jobs didn't build the Apple I. Steve Wozniak did. Steve Jobs couldn't program or design hardware. He was a design/marketing guy.

<comment><USER13> >> He was a design/marketing guy.

That's wrong - he could both program and he was also extremely hardware technical, but not by a long shot to the capabilities of Woz.

<comment><USER20> Wozniak disagrees: [http://tech.co/steve-wozniak-steve-jobs-did-not-know- technol...](http://tech.co/steve-wozniak-steve-jobs-did-not-know- technology-2015-09). In Jobs' biography the same thing is described.

He liked to _claim_ that he built the Apple, or played some vital role. He probably talked some hardware guys into making what he wanted, and in that sense he played a technical role, but he didn't bother with technology himself.

<comment><USER26> Pretty sure the other claim is true. He wrote software for Atari, no?

<comment><USER27> No, he got Woz to write software for Atari claiming that he did it and pocketed the largest chunk of the pay.

[http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/steve-wozniak-cried-jobs-kept- atari...](http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/steve-wozniak-cried-jobs-kept-atari- bonus-267711)

<comment><USER26> Welp... Goddamnit Steve you poser. And what a shitty thing to do. Fuck.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Heavily Armed Millennials of Instagram - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/03/04/feature/the-heavily-armed-millennials-of-instagram/ <comment><USER2> Asking for a friend... how does one get around the paywall without shelling out $1 a week?

<comment><USER3> A technically correct best correct answer: if you're American or can otherwise take a job with the US federal government, your work email address will get you free WaPo access.

Your sanity may be worth more to you than $1/week, however.</comment></comment>


How close is machine learning to artificial intelligence? - <AUTHOR> http://trendspot.it/de0p <comment><USER2> Broken link. This is where it should redirect to: [http://www.geektime.com/2015/09/15/how-close-is-machine- lear...](http://www.geektime.com/2015/09/15/how-close-is-machine-learning-to- artificial-intelligence-talking-machines-provides-clear-answers/)</comment>


Ask HN: Why is it legal to privately register a domain? - <AUTHOR>

What is the legal basis for this? When someone builds a building or trademark's a name, their information is public domain. Why are domain's allowed to be privately registered and hidden from the public domain? <comment><USER2> EDIT: for everyone reading, see also [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10113303](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10113303) for context of OPs question

The legal basis is that there are no stronger requirements as "there has to be somebody listed" made by the registry for the TLD, which is a (more-or-less, depending on the case) private entity and can set those rules, within the ICANN guidelines.

more theoretical: Why shouldn't it be allowed?

Building ownership or IP can also be done "privately" through companies. I bet many people owning domains are thankful that their personal information is NOT so easily accessible, and if there is a strong public need (legal case, prosecution) the intermediaries will hand out the information. Where required they'll also forward messages they are sent.

FWIW, here in Germany it is harder to do so and I don't like it, because it connects my website to myself a bit too easily, and I don't even publish particularly critical stuff.

What need do you have that is more important than the rights of the owner?

<comment><AUTHOR> Why it shouldn't be allowed is it lets people sit on domains and not use them for an indefinite period of time. Being able to sit on it for a short period of time seems reasonable but for years and years to sit on a domain and not use it seems like it hurts the industry.

Additionally as you pointed out by linking my previous post, I find it very questionable that the same company that charges people to hide their domain (and host them), can then also charge people to backdoor communicate with those same sellers. This seems like a shady business practice.

<comment><USER2> What does people owning domains and not using them for a long time have to do with them hiding who they are? What would you gain from knowing who they are? If you are in a position where you can force them to release the domain (e.g. because of trademarks) you can be quite sure that the registrar will either reveal the client or hand over the domain.

I didn't comment on the other point because I don't know enough about how both involved offers look like exactly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I don't understand the basis of your question. If it's not specifically required then it's legal.

Building permits and trademarks are required to be public. Other records are not required.

Consider corporate ownership. Some US states allows anonymous corporate ownership. (See [http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/10/09/its-time- to...](http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/10/09/its-time-to-eliminate- anonymous-shell-companies/) complaining about such companies.) If it's okay to own a company without that information being public, then why not a domain?

Such companies are used as shell companies. If you want to trademark a name but not have others know that it's you, then start a Nevada LLC, owned by a Delaware LLC, owned by a company registered in the Cayman Islands, owned by you, and have the Nevada company take out the trademark.

Also, the term you want is 'hidden from the public' not 'hidden from the public domain.' "Public domain" applies to, for example, works that were under copyright but are no longer so.

<comment><AUTHOR> > If it's okay to own a company without that information being public, then > why not a domain?

Because domains are finite and hold more importance to a business than an actual business name does and by allowing private registration it encourages various entities to sit on the domain indefinitely and prevent others from creating value with it.

<comment><USER3> I see several limitations in your analysis.

The fundamental one is your insistence on "value." Where is that requirement? How do you define value? If I want 'dalke-email.com' as an email for me and my friends, without a web server or any attached business, then is that sufficient value? What about 'dalke-cat.com', a memorial site in memory of my cat - if a business wants the name, does it get priority over a site that no one else visits?

Assume I have a new-born child named 'Kelly', and buy the domain name 'kellydalke.com', so that I can transfer it a a birthday present in 18 years. Is that value? To you, no, but to me, absolutely yes.

How should the arbitration organization determine things? If your stealth-mode company takes too long to be public, can your domain name be taken away because it hasn't yet contributed value?

<comment><AUTHOR> You have valid points... I think it sucks that people can sit on domains without using them but you can always make the argument for why they should be allowed to.

So now I have to decide between a .tv or .io domain (or hey I can use .rocks, .world, .xyz!!!)

Do you think it is too risky to keep a name for a social startup (that has big potential) when the .com is taken? if it gets funded and gains traction, is there more of a chance of acquiring the domain down the line?

<comment><USER2> Have you checked if you have legal means to get the domain? Here in Germany a trademark holder would have reasonable chances of getting control of a domain for the trademark if it isn't used.

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't checked but it's a valid point. I think we're going to register the trademark anyways just in case it helps the cause.

One of my co-founders says he thinks that registering it after the fact won't have much affect but who knows. Also, the defunct public relations company that had the same name appears to not be in business and hasnt been for at least ~4-5 years...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Domains aren't generally "privately registered", but instead the WHOIS info is replaced with a forwarding service. Similar arrangements are fairly common with companies and trademarks.

</comment><comment><USER5> my understanding is the private ones are actually assigning ownership to this private holding company. They show their info instead of yours. There is a small risk you could lose your domain if they decided to run with it.</comment>


FuturePundit: Depressed People Cannot Control Emotional Responses To Negative Images - <AUTHOR> http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004485.html

<comment> daniel-cussen Totally agree. I am pretty sure I would test positive for bipolarity, and distractions are about the only things that can make me happy when I'm depressed.</comment>


Scientists Estimate At Least 17 Billion Earth-Size Planets Inhabit Milky Way - <AUTHOR> http://www.space.com/19157-billions-earth-size-alien-planets-aas221.html

<comment><USER2> This is sort of terrifying, given that we haven't observed any space-faring species from any of those other Earth-sized planets yet.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter>

<comment><USER3> I don't worry about that too much.

Consider a community of people with little technology that live away from any major trade routes, and thus don't see ships or planes. They would be oblivious to all the internet, TV, radio and postal traffic going on around them despite its huge volume. Now, I can't think of any such islands that are totally out of contact in 2013, but there are still uncontacted tribes in the Amazon basic (that we know about) and probably a few in other places (that we don't know about).

Since interstellar travel would require something like a warp drive to be any way practical, and we have yet to crack that problem, it seems quite likely to me that we're also incapable of observing traffic of that kind going on in our (galactic) vicinity. I don't see any particular reason that more advanced civilizations would go out of their way to reveal themselves to us; indeed, it bothers me that most alien invasion movies/novels tend to skip over the question of what is so special about Earth that aliens should cross vast distances to plunder our resources in particular when it would be so much easier to just grab a passing asteroid or comet.

<comment><USER4> "Now, I can't think of any such islands that are totally out of contact in 2013"

We can always count on Cracked to point the way. ;-)

[http://www.cracked.com/article_19976_6-isolated-groups- who-h...](http://www.cracked.com/article_19976_6-isolated-groups-who-had-no- idea-that-civilization-existed.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm in awe of how much we've discovered about the universe in the last decade of science exploration.

The space programs Cassini, Kepler and Curiosity, as well as earth bound programs like VLT and LHC really have expanded our understanding of the laws of nature to levels I didn't think I'd see in my lifetime.

We live in fascinating times.

</comment><comment><USER6> There's always the problem of when.

While it's becoming more likely that a life supporting planet exists outside our solar system, we have the problem that mankind's recorded history is measured in thousands of years (and more than likely will only be measured in thousands of years) while the universe is a tale of billions of years.

I'd still say we are likely to see artificial satellites at some point, as our own would likely survive for millions of years in some capacity (even as junk), but the possibility of direct communication is probably never going to happen.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm curious how many Earth-sized planets have a twin planet like our moon. Without the moon we'd be tidally locked, and despite all our water we wouldn't be nearly as life-friendly.

<comment><USER8> Mercury and Venus aren't tidally locked.

<comment><USER9> They're quite close to it. Mercury takes two of its own years to have one day, and Venus's year is less than two of its days.

<comment><USER10> This is generally suspected to be because of large primordial impacts, much like the one which it is proposed created our moon. I don't think there's anything intrinsic about Goldilocks zone orbiting rocky planets which would lend to tidal-locking with the star.

<comment><USER7> It's not their distance from the sun, it's the presence of liquid being affected by gravity and creating a tidal bulge. The bulge slows down the planet's rotation via friction, and eventually the planet stops rotating.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fascinating. Our little rock could be "one in a billion" and we would still have 16 other civilizations to meet. Just in our galaxy.

<comment><USER12> Actually we would expect to have 17 other civilizations to meet. The events are independent, so observing our own civilization doesn't affect the odds for the rest of the galaxy.

<comment><USER13> But we're not interested in Earth, so we'd expect to see 16.999999999 _other_ civilizations.

<comment><USER12> Yes, but I think you may have a few too many sig figs there.

<comment><USER13> So does 17 :-)

<comment><USER12> I guess the number of sig figs when you write out "a billion" is ambiguous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Regarding the existence of life...

Seems all that's really required to kickstart life and evolution is any self- replicating structure.

Chemicals are well suited for creating complex structures, but it doesn't rule out self-replicating forms embedded in other kinds of matter held together with other kinds of force.

</comment><comment><USER15> This is interesting, but I think an estimate of the number of planets with lots of liquid water on the surface would be more exciting. Liquid water is key to life as we know it, so knowing how common it is in the galaxy might give us some idea how likely we are to find extraterrestrial life.

<comment><USER16> There's a lot more to life than just liquid water. In fact there are a huge array of requirements including distance from the sun, right arrangement of planets, tidal systems, plate tectonics...

<comment><USER17> Why there are so many constraints on life listed? Is it to make more us special? Some people follow a different approach and say the purpose of life is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide.

[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/03/10/...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/03/10/free- energy-and-the-meaning-of-life/)

I very much like the idea that life might be a consequence of entropy and emerges everywhere where energy is in flux and matter poses a threshold against the arrow of time.

<comment><USER16> It's a nice idea, but I find the 'Rare Earth' hypothesis convincing: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis#Rare_Eart...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis#Rare_Earth.27s_requirements_for_complex_life)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I didn't think there was anything special about the size of the earth (and apparently I'm right). Can anybody explain why this is important, I don't think the article did a very good job of that.

<comment><USER19> Too small, and the planet won't be able to retain an atmosphere (e.g. Mars). Too large, and it'll probably retain too much.

<comment> mansoor-s I have always been under the impression that the lack of atmosphere on mars was due to its magnetic field weakening and allowing solar winds to carry away the atmosphere over the billions of years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Regarding the Fermi paradox: one of the civilization has to be the most advanced and has to be so intelligent that it obviously knows the Fermi paradox ("probably" under another "name" ; ) all too well.

Must s*ck to be that one civilization: being right about the universe actually holding several carbon-based lifeforms and yet scratching their heads thinking "We can't be the most advanced, we can't be the most advanced".

: )

<comment><USER21> The universe _is_ relatively young in the sense that metal-rich solar systems are probably a requirement for advanced lifeforms and we haven't had that many generations of stars yet. Our sun is a "Population I" star (counter- intuitively, astrophysicists are counting backwards here) that has taken heavy elements as building material for the whole solar system from the remnants of earlier stars.

However, the Milky Way is at the same time certainly old enough to suggest we shouldn't be the first. Evolutionary timescales probably depend a lot on the environment, but even if we're taking the development of our biosphere as one of the fast examples, there should still be other comparable planets billions of years younger than ours lending credibility to the assumption that there should have been civilizations before us.

One of the big questions is also how long civilizations stay in the "compatible" phase on average. If they disappear (either going extinct or transcending into another stage) fast enough, finding and communicating with them in time will be very difficult. Like I said, extinction isn't necessarily the driving force. For example, our own sci-fi stories are absolutely rife with slightly advanced civilizations that very likely would never communicate with us.

Another favorite explanation of mine is that there could be some unknown local issue in our stellar neighborhood. Candidates scenarios for this are myriad, and they fall into two categories: there isn't anyone nearby, or we are artificially isolated somehow.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, it's not like some alien benefactors would have placed a geodesic array of transmitters in the Oort cloud that would cancel out all our inane radio spectrum emissions.

Or could they? Hmmm...</comment></comment></comment>


Slide Reveals Big Stats (150 million daily views etc) - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/11/more-news-on-photo-widget-startups-slide-flektor/ <comment><USER2> Slide's stated goal is be the pointcast of web 2.0 ie push content. The "slide shows" are what people pick up on however - its just a vehicle to a) understand the relationships between people you share content with b) register those preferences to push you new content.

They are NOT just a slideshow company - they now have a distribution network you can't match and the key to Consumer Internet success is in building your distribution and then leverage/monetise that later with services on top of that.

Slide is a legendary company going places. Don;t write them off.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wow. This news really made me question how out of the loop I am with popular online culture. $20 million financing for a flash slide-show service? And 150 million daily views and 200K new slide shows created every day? This is definitely an opportunity I would have missed had I been a VC.

Of course, my ignorance may be due to the fact that I've only ever been on MySpace maybe twice and Facebook never so far. Guess I better get out more ;)

<comment><USER3> They've been getting a lot of press ever since they launched their flash version. Slide has been featured in every business magazine, more than any other I can think of. As well, Max seems to participate in a lot of panels and speeches because of PayPal. I am not sure how much of it is because of Slide, and how much the PayPal - eBay connection.

As a result, when you get that much press and users, you're GOING to succeed if you just keep adjusting the product to the users wants. Which, is exactly what he says he's doing. In every interview, he mentions that he doesn't know what's going to happen, but if you get as many users as you can, you'll get a large base of users to track statistically, and figure out what else to add or improve.</comment></comment>


David Cameron's Panama Papers Show How Little Offshore Tax Dodging Is Going On - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/04/10/david-camerons-panama-papers-show-how-little-offshore-tax-dodging-is-going-on/#24ea90c2a0de <comment><USER2> This is article is based around an offensively disingenuous straw man.

 _" Mossack Fonseca kept its clients largely on the right side of the law. Indeed, that's entirely the point."_

[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/panama-p...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/panama- papers-crimes/477156/)

<comment><AUTHOR> No, the article is based entirely around the _fact_ that Cameron did pay all the tax he should have paid.

That single paragraph you mention is just an opinion of the author (and one I would also disagree with). I don't think the leak shows one way or the other whether anything illegal was happening. It looks like the Icelandic PM might have been doing something dubious.</comment></comment>


MPAA: If Megaupload Gets Data Back They'll Relaunch - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-if-megaupload-gets-data-back-theyll-relaunch-120403/ <comment><USER2> Of course it's the MPAA's job to tell tales of the unspeakable damage that will occur if Megaupload springs back to life.

You then get in to an interesting argument over whether the content that Megaupload has that the MPAA represents is worth more than non-MPAA content on Megaupload's servers. Should efforts be made protect that data, or is the collateral damage to other people's data an acceptable loss?

If the MPAA forces all of Megaupload's data to be destroyed, can a case be made against the MPAA for destroying the valuable data of others? If a single copy of an MPAA film is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, how much value is lost by destroying the hypothetical sole copy of someone's video of their trip to Hawaii?

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the news there is that MegaUpload may get its data back. Of course they will relaunch.

</comment><comment><USER4> Actual source is [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/mpaa-megaupload- kim...](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/mpaa-megaupload-kim-dotcom- launch-servers-306914)

Torrentfreak added nothing of interest.

Please submit the actual source next time.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm going to to off on a limb here and say that MU would not dare relaunch until after Kimble is released. If he is convicted I have a hard time believing they would/could relaunch even if they had the data.

So what the MPAA is basically arguing is that MU should not get their data back because in the event that they are unable to secure a conviction, they still want him punished.

Despicable, as usual. Also curious, that they think this might happen.

</comment><comment><USER6> They'll re-launch servers, returned or not. They don't need them though . All the data on those servers was uploaded by users, anyway. All the uploaded user content was put there because its replaceable and easy to re-upload.

Confiscate the servers if you want, just don't fool yourself into thinking it will stop a thing.

</comment><comment><USER7> Even if Megaupload doesn't relaunch the MPAA wouldn't want people to get their data back. Right now they have this huge intimidation factor where they can shut down a web site and make people's data disappear forever. Without that threat, enforcement actions don't really have consequences to consumers beyond the annoyance of finding a new site.

</comment><comment><USER8> It will be interesting to see, whether MU will actually get data back and relaunch. That would be a rather severe blow to the MPAA in many ways.</comment>


Uber Is the New Amazon? - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/90520293/exclusive-inside-ubers-billion-dollar-bet-to-deliver-food-people-and-everything-else <comment> 1-6 With the new CEO hedging the company by acquiring shares in Postmates, they're taking a step in the right direction.</comment>