Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn't - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/11/quinoa-should-be-taking-over-the-world-this-is-why-it-isnt/ <comment><USER3> Quinoa, famous for protein and fiber content, still contains less protein and fiber than, say, oatmeal. It's okay - hyperventilating paleo bloggers have raised concerns about saponins -- but the whole "superfood" frenzy about quinoa is just a tad off base. It's okay, not bad for you, probably better than white rice or processed food, but most of what quinoa has going for it is simply that it is real and unmodified. If it "took over the world", it would be sweetened, boiled, extracted, and fried into chips with none of the nutritional benefits people are seeking therefrom anyway.

<comment><USER4> Oatmeal is very dense. Calorie for Calorie Quinoa has more protein and dietary fiber than oatmeal.

100 calories of Quinoa

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=83+g+quinoa](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=83+g+quinoa)

100 calories of Oatmeal

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal)

However if you look at the vitamins, oatmeal wins.

I also wouldn't call Quinoa a super food, but it does fill a gap left by other grains and is definitely a worthy addition to a healthy balanced diet.

<comment><USER5> Side-by-side comparison: [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal+vs+83g+qui...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal+vs+83g+quinoa)

The vitamins is probably missing data-- Vitamin C is biochemically critical, so a plant would have some amount of it.

<comment><USER6> Maybe I'm going cross eyed from a long day, but looking at that result... how can Quaker oatmeal have 2g of protein and be 5% USRDA, while quinoa has 4g of protein yet 7% USRDA? Shouldn't that be 10% USRDA for quinoa?

<comment><USER3> Rounding. The RDA is 50 grams. So oatmeal's 2g is closer to 2.5g and quinoa's 4g is closer to 3.5g. At least that'd be my guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein grain that _tastes great_." (emphasis mine)

I'm a vegetarian, high-mileage distance runner who has every reason to enjoy quinoa. "Tastes great" is not one of the reasons I eat it. I choke it down as best I can because it's good for me.

<comment><USER8> Try this recipe for a Quinoa Burrito Bowl. Even my children love it, which is saying something.

[http://www.makebetterfood.com/recipes/quinoa-burrito- bowl/](http://www.makebetterfood.com/recipes/quinoa-burrito-bowl/)

<comment><USER7> From the recipe alone, I think you have a winner. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A particular concern with quinoa, given its narrow (native) growing area, and the poverty endemic to that area, is that worldwide demand for the crop has out-priced its growers' and their communities' ability to afford it in order to feed _themselves_. A select few brands set aside some of each harvest specifically for that purpose (and also put some of their profits back into improving the farms, sending the farmers' children to college, and that kind of thing), but so far, that's decidedly not the norm.

<comment><USER10> Why is this a problem? If quinoa sprouted literal diamonds we wouldn't be upset that the farmers were selling them instead of making their own jewelry.

Having your crops be too valuable to eat is a good problem to have; these farmers incomes have more than sextupled. That easily lets them sell the crop and buy other food like everyone else.

<comment><USER11> I remember seeing a headline in Thailand "rise in rice prices hits small farmers hard". I've seen similar things in Kenya: "high maize prices devastate small farmers."

It turns out many subsistence farmers (of which there are roughly a billion) are net consumers of their staple crop. In order to survive, the poor diversify across a variety of agricultural products. Large industrial farming operations are growing the rest of the rice/maize ... and I'm guessing quinoa.

So, if the same pattern holds here, farmers consume more quinoa than they sell, and suffer when prices go up.

<comment><USER12> I still don't understand. If a farmer produces 10 units of quinoa and sell 4 every year, they'll still produce 10 units no matter what the price is. They'll still be able to sell 4 units, and still be able to consume 6. The only difference would be that farmers will make more of a profit selling the 4 units.

The only possible explanation would be that the resources (farming equipment, seeds, fertilizer?) required to grow the crop go up in price as the price of the crop does - in which case, blame the suppliers of these resources.

<comment><USER11> More typically, farmers produce 10 units, sell 3, and buy another 10 later in the year. Hence any rise in price is a net loss for them.

<comment><USER13> How did that ever work?

<comment><USER14> From reading the grandparent:

"subsistence farmers are net consumers of their staple crop. In order to survive, the poor diversify across a variety of agricultural products"

I don't understand the downvotes for the parent. They are growing other products, or have cash from other activities, and use this to buy the staple they can't grow. If price of staple rises and price of other products and services does not, they can't afford to do this. The beneficiaries are large industrial farmers of the staple. Did I miss something?

<comment><USER15> The part where even if that is true, there are other, cheaper staples. This should be a classic self-correcting problem. The world as a whole has gotten by on staples other than quinoa. Now that the market price of this particular local staple has skyrocketed, it can be sold in exchange for greater quantities of less-expensive staples used elsewhere.

If there is in fact a problem (and I do question its existence), I believe lukasb is looking for it in the wrong place.

<comment><USER11> They don't have access to other, cheaper staples. These are geographically isolated farmers in countries with poor infrastructure.

<comment><USER15> If the quinoa can get out, other things can get in.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Quinoa is a plant that produces a tremendous amount of seed. So you have > potential, with intensive selection, to identify variants that have unusual > characteristics.

Will it still be as nutritious after all that selection though? There was an article pointing out that when farmers select for bigger, shinier, more marketable fruit, it's often at the cost of actual nutritional value:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding- th...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-the- nutrition-out-of-our-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

<comment><USER17> Unlike vegetable and fruits, how quinoa looks probably doesn't matter to consumers at all. Given this is the case, selection criteria will focus more on nutrition numbers which they can advertise easily (20g OF PROTEIN!!!) than looks.

<comment><USER18> How does that explain white rice vs. brown rice preferences, or glutinous rice vs longgrain, etc.

People have preferences for some characteristics in something which would seem to be very ordinary.

Maybe quinoa is different, but who knows, at this point. Maybe it's like oats. Oats are oats are oats, for most people, I think (except for the cutting vs rolling process)

<comment><USER19> brown rice tastes bad and has anti-nutrients that block absorption of B vitamins and minerals like magnesium

<comment><USER20> Not sure about the anti-nutrients, but the 'tastes bad' part is entirely subjective. I prefer brown rice, and I think it tastes fine.

<comment><USER21> at any rate, it tastes very perceptibly different from white rice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Meh... Cannabis seed is more nutritious, and has more uses, as does the cannabis fibers, that quinoa pales in comparison. Cannabis is easier to grow as well.

If our governments weren't so afraid of people getting stoned the economic benefits of cannabis would make it a major cash crop capable of outperforming quinoa in every aspect.

<comment><USER23> Quinoa plants produce more seeds. Sounds like pothead wishful thinking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Some puzzling stuff in this article. We're apparently to believe that Colorado's transportation infrastructure is far behind that of the Bolivian Andes?

<comment><USER25> Transportation in our mountains doesn't have to be worse than theirs, just bad enough to prevent our farmers from farming the areas. One of the reasons Japan has so much cool electronics is that a successful manufacturing run their is much smaller. A product could sell one tenth what it does in the US and still be seen as a success, but the the US one a failure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> A quick search revealed that quinoa is between £4.50 and £8 a kilo in the UK and brown rice is £1-£4 (depending on quality).

To the rice you could just add some bran (£2/kilo, but you don't need much) and another, cheap source of protein to make it similar to quinoa's nutirtional values.

<comment><USER27> Which is great, as long as you're able to tolerate gluten. I know two people with Celiac disease, and quinoa is a godsend to them.

<comment><USER28> I wonder what the real price of quinoa is, before this "superfood" bollocks got to it?

<comment><USER27> The Wikipedia article on quinoa [0] claims that

      Between 2006 and early 2013 quinoa crop prices have tripled.

That statement cites an article earlier this year in the Guardian [1] which links to another Guardian article [2] which doesn't have anything more specific than $4500/ton in 2013 versus $3115/ton in 2011.

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa#Rising_popularity_and_cr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa#Rising_popularity_and_crop_value)

[1] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-s...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans- stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa)

[2] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/14/quinoa-andes- bol...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/14/quinoa-andes-bolivia-peru- crop)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Quinoa is the perfect rice substitute. I switched over to Quinoa about 3 years ago instead of rice. Even though it's super expensive (especially in Australia) it has health benefits that far outweigh other suitable grains that can be used as a rice substitute. Steam some vegetables, put them into a bowl with Quinoa, cook a nice massive mushroom and sit the Quinoa on-top and then sprinkle some Himalayan Rock Salt over the top and you've got yourself a delicious healthy meal.

<comment><USER30> Citation for, "it has health benefits that far outweigh other suitable grains that can be used as a rice substitute." please.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> _Quinoa should be taking over the world._

Why? It has some nutritional benefits and it tastes OK, but that's all. I wouldn't want to eat it all the time. This is a crap story, with this bolted- on conspiracy near the end that quinoa is losing out because it can't compete with Big Ag. Give it a chance to succeed or fail on its own merits - <USER2> it might well be a fad, like Acai berries were two years ago.

<comment><USER32> Because a huge number of people suffer from malnutrition, and a nutritionally dense plant which provides a complete protein, is special.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Quinoa gives me such gut-wrenching pain that I can no longer convince myself to eat it.

My girlfriend is vegetarian which is why I have such great armchair-scientific experience in describing this potentially-foul food.

I've been told to wash the Quinoa to remove the saponin from it before cooking, which worked on occasion. But when you get that gut-pain from eating Quinoa even once it's an incredibly strong deterrent from ever trying it again.

Having eaten razorblades is a pretty accurate description of how I can feel _for hours_ after having eaten even a small portion of Quinoa.

That could be one reason why it isn't taking over the globe. Because some people can get violently ill after eating it. Last I heard, nobody has a chance of developing horribly painful symptoms after eating rice.

<comment><USER34> I did. I had to take medicatipn and stop eating rice for a year or so. Now, I can eat rice as long as my stomach isnt aleady upset from something else. I love quinoa.

<comment><USER33> Care to elaborate on the name of your condition or what exactly it was in rice that caused it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Gluten Free? Big deal.

Also worth a read: [http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/07/msg_and_gluten_intolerance_is_the_nocebo_effect_to_blame.html)

<comment><USER36> For people who turn into a giant balloon when they eat gluten, yes, it's a Big Deal. The people around them too - it's typically a hazard to even have glutenous foods in the area, so it's much easier for families to just go gluten free. I'm talking about chrone's or celiac's disease people here, not ignorant folks who are basing their diets on some Paleo diet voodoo that's fashionable.

Also, have you had Quinoa? That shit is delicious and easy to cook. Throw it in a rice cooker, add some water, wait 15m - BOOM - tasty nom noms, no additives required.

Rice is generally pretty boring and you need to add something to it (Basmati smells nice, but still tastes pretty bland, short grain / Japanese style rice has at least some taste, but nothing interesting). It really doesn't add much to anything nutritionally either.

Wheat and corn is in fucking everything, so when you finally do eat corn or wheat it tastes like nothing because your goddamn peanut butter is hydrogenated corn syrup anyway.

Personally, I can't wait until quinoa is everywhere. It looks a lot more interesting than trying to invest in making better corn or wheat at this point!

<comment><USER37> >I'm talking about chrone's or celiac's disease people here, not ignorant folks who are basing their diets on some Paleo diet voodoo that's fashionable.

I'd say that's the problem it's trendy to talk about gluten and be on a paleo diet and it turns people off.

It seems a very small percentage of the population has celiac disease or Crohn's from what I can find it's 0.75% and 0.1% respectively of the general population of various countries that track it. Although I do realize you don't have to be born with either disease you they can develop either or both later in life and sometimes not even show symptoms.

<comment><USER38> Side note: Crohn's doesn't really have anything to do with gluten. Some people claim a GF diet helps them, but the disease itself is different to Celiac, and there's not much hard evidence to show that a GF diet helps in any way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Quinoa is very expensive in India.

Indians have been using many millets like Finger Millet, Foxtail Millet, Little Millets, they are rich in proteins, gluten-free and all that.

It is only now that we are using polished white rice and have become highly vulnerable to lifestyle diseases like Diabetes.

</comment><comment><USER40> Quinoa has totally replaced rice in our cooking at home. Just stick it in a rice cooker with water/vegetable broth and it fluffs up just like rice.

<comment><USER41> Same here. Sauté some onions and garlic in the pot. Right as those finish up dump in the water and quinoa and cover. Turn the heat to simmer and wait the few minutes for it to cook down. Using broth or stock of some sort instead of water adds even more flavor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> For anyone looking to add a nutritional grain to their diet at a low cost, I highly recommend millet. It has similar nutritional value to quinoa but because it isn't trendy (and thus doesn't have the same supply issues) it can be 80% cheaper than quinoa in most stores.

<comment><USER42> It is better than oatmeal or wheat?

It looks a lot like white flour to me:

[http://skipthepie.org/cereal-grains-and-pasta/millet- flour/c...](http://skipthepie.org/cereal-grains-and-pasta/millet- flour/compared-to/wheat-flour-white-industrial-protein-bleached-unenriched/)

Some say goitrogens in millet is bad for you (if you eat large quantity)

[http://www.womentowomen.com/hypothyroidism/goitrogenicfoods-...](http://www.womentowomen.com/hypothyroidism/goitrogenicfoods- thyroidhealth.aspx)

[http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/beware-of- millet/](http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/beware-of-millet/)

<comment><USER8> Millet is a grain and can be ground into flour. I'm talking about cooking it as a grain (like most uses of quinoa).

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+millet](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+millet) [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+quinoa](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+quinoa)

Also, having too much of any one food is bad for you. I'm not suggesting that you start baking your own bread with millet flour - just that the next time you would cook up some rice or quinoa, give millet a try. It's a very healthy whole grain and can be a welcome part of a well balanced diet for many people trying to eat healthier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Here's how to explain the graph showing a bump and then a downturn in American consumption. Tastes funky; hard to cook; unfamiliar consistency. Enthusiastic people (my wife) buy it and it sits on the shelf, they don't know what to do with it, lose interest.

</comment><comment><USER44> Isn't quinoa technically a fruit? One problem with it is when you cook it, unlike say rice, it's tough to refrigerate or store it without it turning into a gelatinous mess.

<comment><USER45> I've never seen the gelatinous mess I use [http://www.naturecrops.com/](http://www.naturecrops.com/) and I can put the precooked one in the refrigerator.

What's your recipe?

<comment><USER44> Add quinoa to water (ratio: 1:2), bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for ~20 mins.

I should have added a time parameter to my storage comment. We typically make a bunch of rice, like 6 cups uncooked and keep it in a big container for the week. With quinoa, by the end of the week it's pretty gross, kind of a big blob.

<comment><USER46> I'd be a little weary of keeping cooked rice for a week, even in a good fridge (my fridge stays at a solid 2C, which keeps most things good to eat for long than you'd think!). Rice is a surprisingly good vector for food poisoning due to it's often carrying Bacillus Cereus spores which are heat resistant and can then germinate and grow in the fridge - most of the sources I've seen suggest that you shouldn't keep cooked rice in the fridge for more than 1 to 3 days.

Anecdote - Of all the times I've had food poisoning, probably half of them have been because I've kept cooked rice around too long. I might just be unlucky though!

<comment><USER44> Jeepers, that's scary. I've never had such bad luck - in truth, we normally don't have rice around for more than five days. But even that sounds like it could be too long.

<comment><USER45> I never eat something in the refrigerator after three days there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Another viewpoint (not just on Quinoa): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGnBkH3fBg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGnBkH3fBg)

</comment><comment><USER47> When I hear of the effect this is having on local farmers and their ability to feed their families, I'm confronted with the question:

Do I stop eating quinoa?

What is my responsibility?

<comment><USER48> Buy quinoa, and find a way to support socialism in Peru.

<comment><USER49> Should we really try to influence their political choices, even if for what we perceive to be "their own good"?

<comment><USER50> It hasn't worked very well in the past... However the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Forced sterilization maybe? [http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/17...](http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/17/peru- sterilisation-compensation)

<comment><USER49> Would that influence come before or after the US compensates its own victims of forced sterilization?

[http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/north-carolina- sen...](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/north-carolina-senate- blocks-compensation-sterilization-victims-eugenics/story?id=16628515)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> I prefer chia. I mix it in with oatmeal and it tastes great (actually its more the gelatinous texture than taste).

</comment><comment><USER52> I eat quinoa because of verity but thats just me.

</comment><comment><USER53> Am I the only one who read that as "Quora" should be taking over the world and ... And went to the Post looking for a really strange article

Quite interesting nonetheless

</comment><comment><USER54> from the article "You don't need a patent to grow a crop, of course."

Monsanto disagrees.

<comment><USER55> Depends on the crop... Also there is a lot of development effort going into breeding or even genetically engineering plants, much more so than "software patents".</comment></comment>


Blade: A Data Center Garbage Collector [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.02578.pdf

<comment><USER2> This closely tracks some of my own recent thinking about garbage collection. Ref counting can be great except for cycles, giving you two choices:

(a) Weak references, which add back all of the pervasive ceremony that good GC should avoid.

(b) Fall back to tracing GC.

Tracing GC is great except for that unpredictable latency. Exposing an API to make the latency predictable/controllable, with the GC interactions nicely isolated in a few functions, seems like a great idea.</comment>


Ask HN: Is this idea worth pursuing? - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
At work we use 3 different web applications - one to manage payrolls and HR, an application to manage inventory and one to manage our client relationships. Each of these applications is standalone, hence when a user wishes to change their details, a person in HR must make the changes 3 times. As you can imagine, this becomes quite tedious and leaves room for entry error.
I wrote an application using Python and Django that allows the HR staff to enter the details once, and update all applications accordingly (and they love it). I have written it in such a way that with some work, it will be easy for an employee of any company (with granted access) to also setup this software for their system.
Do you think it is worth putting the extra effort in to be able to release this to the public, or has this done before and will be pretty redundant?
Thanks <comment><USER2> Well you may not be able to release it. You wrote something for your office, so I'm guessing you did it on company time? Depending on what kind of agreements you signed when you were hired, you may not have the rights to release it. I would definitely make sure you are in the legal clear before releasing anything like this.

</comment><comment><USER3> How common are the three apps? There would be a market if they are pretty common.

<comment><AUTHOR> The apps we are using at common but as to whether they would usually be used in conjunction with one another, I am not sure. I was more planning on aiming this at to so configurable that the system could be used in conjunction with any software (there would of course be limits to this though).</comment></comment>


BBC Radio 2 drops Michael Jackson songs from the airwaves - <AUTHOR> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6765963/BBC-Radio-2-drops-Michael-Jackson-songs-airwaves-child-sex-abuse-claims.html <comment><AUTHOR> Interesting...on one hand it _appears_ that he likely molested children. On the other hand he was very talented. Can we apply the same standard to Edison, Bell, DaVinci, Socrates, Steve Jobs, Einstein etc. Granted molesting kids these days (maybe 2000 years ago wasn't seen as such) is on its own class, but maybe how they treated their wives, slaves, kids etc? Is MJ's music less amazing now...?

</comment><comment><USER2> This is really only the start, after the Doc comes out there will definitely be a lot of people wanting to distance themselves. It's hard to separate the art from the artist sometimes.

<comment><USER3> As long as these works aren't locked away. Feel free to not promote them publicly, but denying access to the works of immoral creatives is akin to burning books. Let the art stand on its own, especially if the creative is no longer alive.</comment></comment>


Cool Program to turn sound into images and back again - <AUTHOR> http://arss.sourceforge.net/index.shtml

<comment><USER2> I had a program like this on my Amiga, but it worked in realtime--in addition to being able to do fourier analysis on songs or generate from imported images, you could draw/erase on the canvas as it processed. It ruled. I had hours and hours of fun with it, and added it (subtly) to almost every recording I made at the time.

I've been meaning to make a tool like that for Linux ever since...but somehow never got around to it. Unfortunately this program doesn't fill the void, either, since it seems to have no realtime drawing mode. The good news is that systems are so fast now that I could do it in Ruby or Perl and it would still be plenty fast (the Amiga version was in something odd like Pascal or Fortran or Forth or something, and had some limitations on first-gen 8MHz Amigas...it spun nicely on my 25MHz Amiga 3000, though).</comment>


Freak storm pushes North Pole 50 degrees above normal to melting point - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/12/30/freak-storm-has-pushed-north-pole-to-freezing-point-50-degrees-above-normal/ <comment><USER2> For an "atmospheric scientist" she sure hides the facts awefully well. I had to scan quite a bit in this piece to find the actual recorded temperature at the North Pole ("between 30 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit").

Was she coached by one of Bezos' traffic optimization minions?</comment>


Is there a better way to evaluate startup accelerators? - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2012/06/is-there-a-better-way-to-evaluate-startup-accelerators.php <comment><USER2> This is a counter post to the earlier post about the "Startup Accelerator Fail"</comment>


Happy New 1984 - <AUTHOR> http://thepiratebay.org/

<comment><USER2> Actually the "First Post!" comments in different languages was the first thing that caught my eye on the blog post.... humanity is so similar across all cultures and languages. A troll by any other name/culture/creed is still a troll :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't know why but as soon as I looked at that page I wanted to search for 1984 the movie.

<comment><USER4> Coincidentally, I'm reading the book at the moment (again). Is the movie any good?

And of course, don't forget the epic Macintosh ad: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8>

<comment><USER3> I have watched it on google video up to the sex scene. it was pretty faithful to the book. I did read the whole book online . Now that I have revisited it is pretty faithful.</comment></comment></comment>


Better CLI for MySQL with Auto-Completion and Syntax Highlighting - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1839007321/mysql-cli

<comment><USER2> This looks awesome - just did everything in my power to help (backed, shared, upvoted, etc). Hope we make it!

</comment><comment><USER3> I just backed this, would make my life so much easier!

<comment><USER2> I came here by following your tweet - now I really want this to happen. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looking forward to this. Not far off its kickstarter target now. Please fund this if you haven't already.

Nice low risk project given the pgcli implementation is already done.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thank you all for your support. The project has now reached it's goal.

I appreciate everyone's support. I'll start delivering on the promises soon. :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Backed it also. This should make a lot of my job a little faster.

</comment><comment><USER6> When did KickStarter stop using PayPal?</comment>


How Google crawls the deep web - <AUTHOR> http://glinden.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-google-crawls-deep-web.html <comment><USER2> I was at NEDBDay (New England Database Day) on Friday where Alon Halevy from Google was talking about this.

Basically there's a lot of information on the web that are in tables that cab be mined. As the data is already ordered or structured you can use the data to look for or mine information. The problem is trying to figure out what this data is and how it's organised and understanding the types of data in a table. One example he gave of someone doing something like this is www.kosmix.com .

An interesting snippet he pointed out, that kinda unrelated to this, is that "the format of a schema can be classed as intellectual propery".

NEDB link: <http://db.csail.mit.edu/nedbday09/></comment>


Anonymous Analytics: Hubaboa International is a "pump and dump scheme" - <AUTHOR> http://anonanalytics.com/pdf/Huabao.pdf <comment><USER2> See Citron Research (<http://citronresearch.com/>) and Muddy Waters Research (<http://www.muddywatersresearch.com/>).

There's a whole cottage industry of research companies trying to expose frauds in Chinese companies, not always necessarily altruistically (usually a huge short position is accumulated prior to the publishing of their public report).

Interesting to see Anonymous get into the game, wonder what they gonna fund with their profit.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is it possible companies like these or established funds are supplying the Anonymous movement with material support in order to feed off the somewhat outsized publicity Anon gets when they release something like this?

<comment><USER3> If you are referring to the research firms (Muddy Waters & Citron) they are already well established in the investment community and probably would no benefit that much from teaming up with people w/in Anon. Citron has been around for almost a decade now (formerly stocklemon.com.)

It's always possible that some small or mid-sized fund could be involved.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Really good stuff. Can't believe they managed to take a picture of the company's hidden facility in Botswana.

Anon Analytics has potential. Interesting to see bonafide accountants calling themselves "Anon" (the whole thing is dripping with hints of IT competence as well :-)

<comment><USER5> I just read the report and agree that it was pretty thoroughly researched. I enjoyed reading about the acquisition strategy she used to cover up prior fraud. That said, some parts leave me feeling like something is off or maybe the report could have been more professional.

I wish they would just come out and say everything, full disclosure, instead of saying "well we found this but we don't even want to talk about it so we will let management comment".

I also would like to believe that the picture from Botswana is real but it would be just as easy for them to photoshop a picture as it was for management to do.

An "anonymous" short seller could very easily fabricate an entire report, photoshopping pictures and making up numbers then profit from the knee jerk reaction of the market before the report has be debunked.

edit: I also enjoyed the goldman "clients are muppets" reference in the disclaimer.

<comment><USER6> It's pretty clear the Botswana plant produces drugs but they didn't want to detract from the professionalism in the rest of the report by saying that. Their point is well made - the Chinese company has no business having a plant there, in such a remote and hard to reach location.

<comment><USER7> What drugs though? Illegal narcotics or faked pharmaceuticals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is an interesting way to influence a stock for sure. No marketing here, right? Just "Anonymous" striking again...

</comment><comment><USER9> <http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/chart?symbol=0336.HK>

They seem to be going down at the moment. It would be interesting to see whether this report will actually have any impact on the stock.

<comment><USER5> Bloomberg cited the report as the reason for today's decline.

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-24/huabao-shares- plung...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-24/huabao-shares-plunge-after- short-seller-report-hong-kong-mover.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't know this company but now I'm curious - what's in the facility in Botswana?

</comment><comment><USER11> The last page is the best page

</comment><comment><USER12> Anon Analytics? You missed a perfect opportunity for:

Anonalytics

</comment><comment><USER13> wow that's a whole other level of fraud.</comment>


Tesla shares fall on report SEC asks judge to hold Elon Musk in contempt - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/tesla-shares-fall-on-report-sec-asks-judge-to-hold-elon-musk-in-contempt-for-violating-deal.html <comment><AUTHOR> The article references his Feb 19th tweet about production as the catalyst for this. Referenced tweet: [https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1098013283372589056](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1098013283372589056)

</comment><comment><USER2> Not really surprising. Hard to imagine a more cut and dried way he could've violated his settlement than lying about production rates.

At least this time he tweeted outside of market hours.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nothing special, 5% is normal. After the last one, we know they will just hit them with a slap in the wrist.

</comment><comment><USER4> Would be great if we stop shooting our leading tech pioneers in the foot. Yeah, Musk is a bit of an asshole, but he gets stuff done. He makes things that are useful, and drives innovation.

<comment><USER5> _We_ didn't shoot him in the foot, he shot himself in the foot. He knows the rules, but he obviously doesn't care, and it's undermining his ability to get stuff done.

<comment><USER4> Yes, he broke the rules and now he is going to be busy dealing with the fallout instead of continuing to bring the advances of science to the masses. How is this a good thing? Why do we have rules that do this? That is what I mean by shooting him in the foot. This is not an outcome that we want, and our rules got us here.

Following rules != Good for the human race</comment></comment></comment>


Eight Ways to Think About Your Learners - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@logikblok/eight-ways-to-think-about-your-learners-bec3a1ccaa86#.mvkp9hl6p <comment><USER2> The perspectives here are from teachers it would be also interesting to hear from the learners.</comment>


Erle-brain, a Linux-based autopilot for making drones - <AUTHOR> https://erlerobotics.com/blog/erle-brain/

<comment><AUTHOR> Erle-brain is a palm size Linux computer running Debian that includes 25+ sensors and allow you to build drones easily. It's the result of the work performed during BeaglePilot project last summer in porting the APM autopilot to Linux. We include a pre-flashed image with:

\- Linux 3.8 kernel compiled with the PREEMPT option (best results we measured through BeaglePilot) \- Debian Wheezy file system \- ROS Hydromedusa \- mavros ROS package \- APM running natively in Linux (and linked with ROS through mavros) \- preconfigured daemons for launching everything automatically, WiFi dongles support, etc.

Cheers!</comment>


Any way to invest $100/200 in startups ? - <AUTHOR>

Dear Hn,<p>Do you know any website where small investors (around $200) can invest legally into a startup ? <comment><USER2> Short answer, no. The fundamental reason goes back to 1933/1934 when the modern rules of public offerings were enacted. To avoid investors being fleeced by unscrupulous business owners that falsely advertised the merits of their businesses, stringent rules were put in place for any offering of stock to the public. These rules continue to govern the behavior of publicly traded companies today. As a result of these regulations, stocks cannot be offered to a mass audience without those offering falling under the regulation of the SEC. Exceptions are made for small numbers (<99) of Accredited Investors ($250K annual income or > $1M liquid net worth, or something close to that), and others close to the company. In short, a company cannot offer its stock broadly to the public without complying with the fairly onerous SEC provisions regulating public companies.

<comment><USER3> But why can't you create a business that is an accredited investor, which invests in companies based on its LP's choices?

In other words: Let's say I want to invest $100 in SmallCompany.com, for the equivalent 100 shares. I make that bid, and if SmallCompany accepts the bid, then I give Me-VC.com (the accredited VC company) $100 and Me-VC would make an equivalent investment in SmallCompany of that amount, for that number of shares. If SmallCompany exits, I get a return commensurate with the number of shares Me-VC invested for me.

Edit: I developed a site to back this but I've been searching for someone to co-found on the business/legal side, which in this case, is by far the tougher role.

<comment><USER4> In your example, you would need to be an accredited investor to invest in Me- VC.

<comment><USER3> In the U.S. But then this will happen outside of the US.

It makes me mad that in a country that has nearly zero financial regulations from fleecing the poor, there are regulations from keeping the poor from investing in seed stage ventures. The rich can invest in Twitter and the poor are stuck with the lottery (i.e. mathematically constrained odds of 'impossible'). Fuck the rich.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There was a company called Sprowtt at 2009's TC 50 that wants to do this.

They don't seem to be up and running though: <http://www.techcrunch50.com/2009/sprowtt-marketplace/>

</comment><comment><USER6> Sure, send a couple hundred bucks to the folks who hack on the open source software you use the most -- maybe add a request for an enhancement that would do you good, so you can be sure to get a return on your investment.

</comment><comment><USER7> There are microlending sites like kiva.org.

However, if you're talking about investing in terms of buying stock in a typical technology startup sort of scenario, I doubt it. The legal hurdles are one thing, the other is that for each investor a company brings in, there are about $500-$1000 in related overhead costs. Just dealing with the legalities and the requirements for things like sending copies of the board meeting minutes to the investors make $200 investments a losing proposition.

</comment><comment><USER8> You might be able to do this on <http://www.secondmarket.com> depending on how established the startup is.

The site lets you trade all kinds of illiquid assets, including private company stock.

</comment><comment><USER9> I had this idea a while back and wanted to create just that... so I bought <http://ifundedthat.com>

I'll sell it to whomever feels like taking a stab at it :-)

</comment><comment><USER10> What about startups outside US? Two programmers in México could eat (mostly tacos) a whole month for $200.

Maybe regulations for investing in latinamerican startups are looser?

</comment><comment><USER11> No. But your question is good.</comment>


Beautiful plots of roots of polynomials - <AUTHOR> http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week285.html

<comment><USER2> Around the roots of unity are large empty expanses, with a single root in the middle. This sounds like a classic unstable equilibrium to me. But an equilibrium of what?

Craziness like this is why I became a mathematician =).

<comment><USER3> As a mathematician, haven't you abstracted from the what? Isn't that the point of math?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Did anyone else get an intense feeling of dread when looking at the picture of the roots of all degree-24 polynomials with coefficients in {-1, 1} ? (this one: <http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/roots/polynomialrootssmall.png> )

<comment><USER5> Re-posting my comment from the dupe submission:

 _Absolutely gorgeous. I especially like that they're beautiful in a much different way from fractals.

There is a sereneness here that is a fresh of breath air, much different than the imposing fractal figures._

\----

It could be that my reaction is from taking existentialism in stride, these days. Though, fractals are still scary/beautiful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Wow, gorgeous! The structures in this image look like Hilbert curves: [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/roots/polynomialroots05expi02....](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/roots/polynomialroots05expi02.png)

<comment><USER7> Actually, parts of it look frighteningly similar to the Heighway dragon curve: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_curve>

I can't even begin to fathom what kind of connection there might be, but the degree of resemblance seems to go beyond just coincidence.

<comment><USER6> Yes! And the dragon curve can be written as an L-system, of which Hilbert curves are a special (space-filling) subset. Great tie-in, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Yet another way to generate pretty pictures using math.

</comment><comment><USER9> puuuurty

i'd like to know the error involved, and if it has to do with the fractal patterns seen. finding roots of polynomials is difficult to do exactly. typically iterative methods are used that can only converge to the root.

<comment><USER2> Finding exact roots of high-order (>4) polynomials isn't just difficult; it's provably impossible[1].

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel-Ruffini_theorem>

Nonetheless, the iterative approximation algorithms are incredibly efficient and numerically stable. There's one really clever trick that actually uses floating-point imprecision to do something you couldn't do in exact arithmetic (inverting a degenerate matrix), that converges to within machine-epsilon in about three iterations.

[1] In the general case; special cases may be tractable, e.g. x^n-1=0.

<comment><USER10> Impossibility depends on your set of techniques. The Abel-Ruffini theorem only applies if you are trying to solve them in terms of radicals. However exact solutions to any degree polynomial are known in terms of multivariate hypergeometric functions, and also there is another solution in terms of Siegel theta functions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's scary how symmetric everything get's as N approaches one extreme or another.</comment>


Developers Wary Of iPhone  - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/07/03/iphone-developers-gps-tech-wire-cx_ew_0704iphone.html <comment><USER2> _Steve Andler, vice president of marketing at Networks In Motion, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based firm that provides GPS services for Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ) Wireless, Sprint (nyse: S - news - people ) and Alltel (nyse: AT - news - people ), says the problem is that iTunes ties applications to a user's iTunes account, as opposed to a device. For instance, a customer could have "three iPhones synched to the same iTunes account, and thus would only be paying for one copy of the application, but using it on three devices," Andler says._

Regardless of the rest of the article, that is a ridiculous complaint. First of all, the number of users with multiple iPhones is probably very small, and second, even if someone had more than 1 iPhone, _why_ should they have to pay multiple times?

It's this mentality of the wireless carriers (and related companies/services) that they should squeeze every last penny out of their customers that I hate. I can't think of any other industry quite as bad.

<comment><USER3> This mentality is very similar to that of the record industry, and look where it's got them!

Personally speaking, I can't wait to get my hands on one! I want to write an app that helps me record my food & exercise, I find it hard to remember later on, but the iPhone is a perfect device to help do it there and then.

<comment><USER4> Apple + Nike will no doubt provide this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What a biased article. It actually looks like a paid-for piece, paid-for by companies writing turn-by-turn navigation software, obviously. Most software houses are crazy happy about a way to easily sell to millions of users.

</comment><comment><USER6> I disagreed with a significant portion of the article, but I did mod it up. While it's headline was unfortunate, there were a number of good quotes from the traditional GPS industry that the writer managed to track down. If the Editors had change the title to be: "Traditional Geomapping Industry threatened by iPhone", and dove in a bit deeper into which revenue streams would be threatened, then the value of the article would have been somewhat clearer.

Initially I though Andler's comment was silly, but then I though - How much of "Networks in Motions" revenue comes from selling multiple licenses to the same user? If greater than 15% of their revenue stream comes this class, then the iPhone does present a material risk to them.

Of course, the greater threat is more likely to be their existing revenue stream being reduced by iPhone/Google Maps, but that's a story for another day. July 11th, to be precise. :-)

</comment><comment><USER7> Turn-by-turn navigation software is going to go away very soon anyway. ATT keeps trying to sell it to me, but I already have Google Maps, which is free. Sure, it doesn't talk... but it does show me where I am on a map and it tells me how to get where I'm going. (OK, actually I don't have a car... but I've tried it while riding in one and it works fine.)

Anyway, one update to Google Maps, and the entire business evaporates. That's what I'd worry about, not iTunes.

</comment><comment><USER8> "Then there's the competition factor. Developers speculate Apple has plans to build its own navigation applications, so they're wary of investing in the iPhone despite the handset's popularity."

Aren't they just referring to no "real-time route guidance" to solidify their Google Maps (hence Tom-Tom & Garmin complaints in the article) or is this something else?</comment>


Efficient Use of Hadoop Cluster with YARN Capacity Scheduler - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cask.co/2015/04/efficient-use-of-yarn-cluster-with-capacity-scheduler/

<comment><USER2> Simple, direct and immediately usable without really needing to change much!</comment>


DropBox attacked by spammers? - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone recently seen odd movie files showing up in their DropBox folder?
I just noticed a Growl notification that indicated the file "CandidCamera.wmv" was removed from my DropBox folder, yet I never initiated any action.
Since WMV movie files are a standard attack vector for many computers, I'm wondering if spammers have somehow hit Dropbox and Dropbox took action to remove those files.
Anyone else seeing this behavior?  Now I am getting concerned about my use of DropBox. <comment><USER2> You should probably change your Dropbox password. It could be compromised.

Or maybe someone just changed a file in a shared folder? You can see a list of your shared folders here: <https://www.dropbox.com/share>

</comment><comment><USER3> Check Events section in your dropbox account. (on dropbox.com)

</comment><comment><USER4> I didn't see anything.</comment>


Project Euler is offline - <AUTHOR> https://projecteuler.net/

<comment><USER2> If I can say anything to the admins, it would only be that I very much appreciate being open and clear about it, and of course confirming that passwords were hashed. It was the only piece of personal information I had on the site.

Project Euler admins, thank you and good luck in resolving the matter.

Edit: Upvotes! Well if I can add to this message: so far 12 other people agree and want to wish you good luck as well it seems :)

<comment><USER3> > Passwords at Project Euler are strongly encrypted using a one-way hash

This does not instill confidence. Hashes are not encryption. Furthermore there is an enormous difference between "we store your password as a single round of MD5" and "We use pbkdf2/scrypt to store your password".

<comment><USER4> My reading of that statement is that "Passwords are strongly encrypted" means that they are stored securly such that the cannot be 'decrypted' even by someone with access to the database. This phrase is intended for people without crypto knowledge who would not know what a one-way hash is. The "using a one-way hash" phrase is intended for people who do have this knowledge and clarifies that they are actually using a hash function, and that the previous statement was just a simplification for lay people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wrote a ruby gem to help manage project euler problems a few months ago.

[https://github.com/yaworsw/euler-manager](https://github.com/yaworsw/euler- manager)

Most of the problem descriptions are in the data/problems directory. You could use the gem to continue to do most of the project euler problems.

</comment><comment><USER6> > strongly encrypted using a one-way hash

That does not make me feel better. I sincerely hope that the writer of that page is not the same person who wrote the backend to the site.

</comment><comment><USER7> If you're looking for your Project Euler fix while the site is down you can checkout [http://www.problemotd.com/](http://www.problemotd.com/) Tons of short programming and logic puzzles on there.

</comment><comment><USER8> [http://projecteuler.co](http://projecteuler.co) wayback machine.

<comment><USER9>
        Logged in as Russell91
        Fri, 16 May 2014, 12:11

I assume this is just a snapshot?

<comment><USER10> It looks like it's just a hard save of the problems page.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Thanks for being open.

The fact that someone has the hash of your password is still cause for concern though.

<comment><USER12> Especially if it is a Euler champion that has the hash :/

<comment><USER2> Well they managed to hack Project Euler, they can't be tech illiterate. That and some extra pocket money usually gets you pretty far in the password cracking business.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you're jonesing for other problems, I keep a list of all sorts of programming (and security) challenges at [http://hackertainment.net](http://hackertainment.net). (Shameless plug but I have no ads or even analytics, it's just a thing I do.)

</comment><comment><USER14> It really saddens me that this happened. And when I wondered why someone would do that, I got reminded of the dialogue from The Dark Knight "Some people just want to watch the world burn." :|

<comment><USER15> Yes - such a great site. There should be no agenda against it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Anything members can do to help get it back up?

</comment><comment><USER17> Thanks PE admins for being open and managing the issue professionally. I really hope you can fix it quickly and be back with you glorious website. If it takes too long I will go cold turkey!! Love</comment>


Lean approach to dating - <AUTHOR> http://truffle.io/

<comment><USER2> I am a girl and I think this is cool. I really don't like to ask guys "what do you do and where do you work?" but at the same time, I really dont want to date guys with no jobs. When are you planning to launch?

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly :) We are launching on September 16th. Sign up for our beta and we will send you the link to download the app

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I hope the first page explain it all as to what we are trying to achieve. I have put lot of thought in designing the launch page and now need some feedback from you guys :)

<comment><USER3> Is there any matching algorithm? As presented, and it may be the case, it just seems like a large match up between companies. Reading the front page, it just says the person will be "new," nothing about the quality of the match.

<comment><AUTHOR> So the biggest problem right now with the dating sites is that they are too many messages flowing from the guys and too many messages coming to the girls. Girls really can't decide between 100 messages send to them. To tackle this issue, for the start we are only going to show people whose name start lets say with 'A' and 'C' on Mondays and 'M' and 'V' on Tuesdays and say on. This way people it will easier for folks to decide

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I hope this means there will be lean hookups. Anything past the first date or few drinks is really a questionable use of investor's funds.

<comment><AUTHOR> So our monetization model is to have the "date" initiator pay for a date once his or her date is accepted. To be honest, we want people to only pay when they get a date. I hate subscription to its core. Generally dating sites makes money on subscription which if you think about is saying "We(match.com, eHarmony etc) hope you dont get a date because then we will stop making money"</comment></comment>


An idea for breaking through Silicon Valley's social network.  It can be viewed as a generalization of Hacker News. - <AUTHOR>

This is actually a more general idea for contacting anyone well known who would probably just ignore your email because you are not near him/her in his/her social network.
You can think of Hacker News as an example of this idea since it allows unknowns to contact PG -- particularly if their submission is voted up to the front page.
More generally, what about using a social news site specifically built for this purpose (and not just for contacting the people who created the site)?
The idea is that if many people agree that you have something interesting to say to someone famous, then he/she would probably be interested in hearing what you have to say.
Moreover, a famous person is more likely to respond to a question if he/she feels the response would be of interest to many people. <comment><USER2> So what do you want to address to these famous people? Anything of a personal nature between yourself and a famous person I don't think would get voted up. Like - You, "I have a great idea and want to show it to you Sergey." The crowd does not care about what you want, unless you are the crowd or you and your friends are! But, if you asked, "How big are your #()! Pamela Anderson," or "Do you feel guilty at night OJ?" then the crowd would be more likely to get involved. Not a bad idea if you take the sensationalism route, but if are interested in trying to contact a famous person for your own good, then I think the site would be challenged in reaching it's goal.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a good point. However, what if you make your idea public and it is an idea that would benefit many people?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You'd have to have quite an ego in order to expect people to use such a thing in order to get in touch with you. I don't think there are very many people in SV who get so much personal (read: not a funding proposal) email that they can't keep up with it. Unknowns don't need news.yc in order to talk to PG, and anyone who sees that as the site's primary application is abusing it. My IMAP server contains a pile of email exchanges with him from long before the site existed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Famous people would have no say in the matter -- it doesn't matter if they register with the service. It's the unknowns who would use the service to get their attention.

At that point, a famous person can decide whether to reply or not, and if so, whether to do so in private or public on the site/in some other forum.

How would a famous person know someone is trying to contact him/her? If this service becomes well known, then either the person would see it directly or someone close to him/her in his/her social network would probably tell him/her.

Also the idea can be applied beyond Silicon Valley to contact famous film directors, politicians, etc.

<comment><USER3> How is this different from making a post on any other random forum, and how is it better than simply sending an email?

<comment><AUTHOR> Because you need lots of people voting your submission up for it to make the front page. So they agree you have something worthwhile to say to a famous person.

It's better than sending email because a famous person will likely not respond to some random email of unknown quality.

<comment><USER3> It's not of unknown quality once you've read it. Even the biggest stars generally have time to sort through all their fan mail, even if they don't respond to most of it. If you have something insightful to say, getting it noticed by a famous person really isn't that hard. Maybe this doesn't quite extend to heads of state, but it isn't far off. You're solving a non-problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> Even if it only solves the problem with heads of state, that would make it valuable.

Also, if something like this becomes well known, then I would predict many more unknowns would attempt to contact famous people -- way more than famous people would be able to handle in terms of email.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


NASA's Big Hit: LCROSS Impacts Moon - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/10/nasas-big-hit-lcross-impacts-on-the-moon/

<comment><USER2> I drove out to Moffett Field in Mt View to see the show. It was pretty weird driving on to the base at 3:30am and I was impressed to see probably about 4-5000 people there. They had a giant 50ft screen and an excellent sound system, tent area for the kids/families and concession stands for food and drink (coffee was critical at that hour). Kudos to Nasa-Ames for putting on such a great event. As far as the actual impact, I saw nothing and like most people I was a bit disappointed.

</comment><comment><USER3> NASA put up a twitter feed for LCROSS as it was approaching. Check out its last words: <http://twitter.com/LCROSS_NASA> (It's top-posting, so I put a chronological version here: [http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/174096756...](http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/174096756/m/912000971041?r=718000971041#718000971041) )

</comment><comment><USER4> I tried to wake up to watch the impact live, but 4:20am was very early and the alarm got switch off very soon after it went off... Its a pretty zany idea though, i gotta hand it to NASA for a cool experiment.</comment>


Mac OS X v10.6.3 released - <AUTHOR> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4014

<comment><AUTHOR> Good news for all those mac users in Antarctica:

 _"Date and Time fixes provided for: Daylight Saving Time rules to reflect recent changes in areas including Argentina, Fiji, Pakistan, and Antarctica."_</comment>


Julia Language Delivers Petascale HPC Performance - <AUTHOR> https://www.nextplatform.com/2017/11/28/julia-language-delivers-petascale-hpc-performance/amp/ <comment><AUTHOR> The project took advantage of all 9300 Intel Xeon Phi Phase II nodes on the NERSC (National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center) Cori supercomputer.

Even in HPC terms, the Celeste project is big, as it created the first comprehensive catalog of visible objects in our universe by processing 178 terabytes of SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) data[1]. Remarkably, the combination of Cori supercomputer and Julia application was able to load and analyze the SDSS data set in only 15 minutes. Thus the Celeste team demonstrated that the Julia language can support both petascale compute and terascale big data analysis on a leadership HPC system plus scale to handle the seven petabytes of data expected to be produced by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) every year</comment>


Success [pic] - <AUTHOR> http://surreality.info/up/success_large.jpg

<comment><USER2> I do like the picture. I see a lot of traps and temptations that get in peoples' way.

But we should remember that in some sense we must all individually self-define what "success" is. I just don't buy the rat-race-up-the-mountain metaphor. Life is more about tradeoffs and operating near to your potential. And in pursuing idealistic goals.

</comment><comment><USER3> The right system is a train and if you get on you never get off? I think Fred Brooks would differ.

<comment><USER4> Look more carefully: there are many stops along the way with people jumping out on "Laziness" station for instance or taking shortcuts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> What a strange thing to do to the Ascent of Mount Carmel. [http://biblestudy.churches.net/CCEL/J/JOHN_OF_/ASCENT/MOUNT_...](http://biblestudy.churches.net/CCEL/J/JOHN_OF_/ASCENT/MOUNT_CA.HTM)

</comment><comment><USER6> I can't see anyone at success mountain. I think there should be one guy there.

</comment><comment><USER7> What's wrong with Bohemianism?

</comment><comment><USER8> I believe you can buy a printed copy of this pic at Top Dog in Berkeley. For whatever reason.

<comment><USER9> I remember seeing this poster while waiting for my chicken-apples and it struck me as being strangely insightful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I hope that "system" is defined as hard work, passion and faith on your project. Otherwise this poster has no value.

</comment><comment><USER11> where can I catch this right system train?

</comment><comment><USER12> I never realized all you need is a favorable wind and hot air to make it to the top. Makes sense, I guess.

</comment><comment><USER13> Love the vices hand.

</comment><comment><USER14> lol. i like the "lazyness"</comment>


US DHS Compiling Database of Journalists and 'Media Influencers' - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellefabio/2018/04/06/department-of-homeland-security-compiling-database-of-journalists-and-media-influencers/ <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16777237](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16777237)

</comment><comment><USER3> So - I realize this might be an unpopular opinion, and I'm certainly no fan of the current administration, but this is an extremely benign project.

I spent a couple of years running product at a social monitoring company, and these kinds of RFPs are pro forma for industry and especially the government.

Basically, they're looking for a clipping service that includes sentiment analysis and influencer scoring so that they can know who to reach out to and when a negative (or positive!) article is published. They will then collate these reports and hand them up to their management to assess the current state of perceptions of the DHS on projects and initiatives.

The software companies that do this all have a combo of crawlers, RSS readers, and purchased feeds of articles. Those articles get fed through a homegrown or third-party text processing system that extracts the author info, date of publication, and the keywords and sentiment of the article. Then there's a basic visualization system that lets you build reports.

Everyone does this. Every brand, government agency, trade publication, everyone. It's pretty standard. Reading through the RFP I can even guess who's going to compete, though I think no one is going to offer what they're looking for in total.

All this to say, this is a non-event.

<comment><USER4> > "Everyone else is doing it."

Around the world, there are many "smart" people making autonomous weapons systems, "anti-fraud systems" that are really psychometric profiles, trading systems that front-run their customers, fraudulent advertising and fraudulent ad metrics, etc. It's pretty standard.

Believe whatever it takes to help you sleep at night. No one can persuade you otherwise.

<comment><USER3> Well, I think you're missing the point. It's used by PR people to keep an eye out for news stories before they go viral, for spokespeople to read about themselves, and for market researchers to look smart by identifying trend pieces.

None of this software is smart enough to enable the sort of surveillance and oppression you are implying from your other examples. It's really 101-level stuff.

> Believe whatever it takes to help you sleep at night. No one can persuade > you otherwise.

I don't even understand what this means. It's a searchable index of news, with some text analytics that you can get for dirt cheap from google or amazon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > One aspect of the media coverage to be gathered is its "sentiment."

In other words, "here's a list of media sources that like us, and here's the ones that don't." Make of this what you will.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm a little surprised that the proposal would have to be operational within five days of being awarded. That means that there are companies that already have something like this operational. There is no way that you could create something like this from scratch within five days.

Hopefully this won't be abused to silence anyone that does not toe the party line. Whichever party that is. Now excuse me while I put on my tin-foil hat.

</comment><comment><USER7> So, what literally every social media manager does</comment>


UrtheCast – First Light - <AUTHOR> http://www.urthecast.com/firstlight

<comment><USER2> Interesting project, exciting news -- but! to me, using Chrome, the supposedly "scrolling" and "3200 x 8000 pixels" image is neither. Nor the second one, "an impressive 3000 x 5000 pixel view of the urban area surrounding Santa Cruz de Mara, Venezuela", which looks like 1000x800 and doesn't scroll or click through to anything bigger.</comment>


Caterina Fake launches Hunch - <AUTHOR> http://www.caterina.net/archive/001169.html <comment><USER2> I like this quote in the article: "...if you launch something you're not at all embarrassed by, then you've waited too long."</comment>


Show HN: My "November Startup Sprint" Project - Create and Share Lists - <AUTHOR> http://www.rankoro.us

<comment><USER2> There are two thoughts I had as I browsed the site, and perhaps I missed something, so feel free to correct me.

1) The biggest question I had as a potential user was "why should I care what x had to say about y"? I'd most likely not care about what some random user had to say about their top 5 Chick Flicks, but I would like to see the general statistics for all users who had the same list. That part confused me as well.. There seems to be a "top list" for chick flicks: [http://www.rankoro.us/top-chick-flicks/?&t=28](http://www.rankoro.us/top- chick-flicks/?&t=28), but I don't how how that list came to be: the other users who had the same list didn't share several movies in common, for example, so I'm left to believe it was arbitrarily picked!

Along these same lines, if I was interested in what a user had to say about their ranking of chick flicks, I'd want to know why, and none of these lists seem to let you give a reason why you thought "Sweet Home Alabama" was better than "Blue Crush". Even if it was basic, like a user being able to select a checklist of features for a movie (it was "thrilling", "funny","tropical") might give me a good idea if I might like it as well.

2) It looks like you add Amazon links as a potential revenue model, but you need to be smart about where to put the links . I probably will not be able to find a "Swiss and Mushroom Hamburger" on Amazon.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Item #1 is definitely the biggest problem I faced (am facing).

Your view is really limited to those lists and comments provided by your network so you won't really have to worry about what total strangers say about things. (When you log in, you have a "Feed" of your networks recent lists and comments). This raises problem problem #1 tho - there isn't instant utility for 'pioneers'.

There is a "Top List" which is an aggregate of all of the lists, in the case of "Top 5 Chick Flicks" there just isn't enough data to be of use (it's the average of 2 lists). This will change in time and will lead to pretty good data.

You said "I'd want to know why, and none of these lists seem to let you give a reason". This is very high on the feature list. Just a short blurb or justification on a per-item basis.

2) I recently added a "What is this list about?" pop up (you specify Movies, Music, Food, People, etc from a select. This meta data is going to allow me to target affiliate links better (and omit them in the case of hamburgers, etc).

Thanks for the feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think it's a great idea, and the site looks very refined. Just some quick things off the top of my head:

I used the inviting big text box on top of the page right away, only to get a "please register" message. That was disappointing. I believe you should show that box only when it's actually working for a user. Better yet, allow people to create some content before they have to register. Get them invested through a little bit of interaction, then ask them to register. For example, allow them to make a complete top 5 entry first. Then, when the time comes for the "share" part of the process, ask for their account.

The account registration process itself is pretty standard, I believe this will hamper your adoption rate. Provide an OpenID, Facebook, Google and/or Twitter login option instead of or in addition to the traditional email- password combo. Having to choose a username is tedious, so I would suggest either getting rid of this (which may not be feasible) or at least putting this part off until the user has opened their account. In a word: make signing up easier, if possible, reduce it to one click.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are not the first person to bring up the desire to create a list before you register. Looks like I have my next programming task.

Would like to add in Facebook/Twitter as log in options but I'll definitely need a username and really want the email address and I dislike granting email rights on Facebook to other apps. My thought was just to make a super short signup form and avoid it. Whatever reduces friction tho so I'll definitely look into it again.

Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Founder here. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have on www.rankoro.us -- my nights and weekends project that started as a "November Startup Sprint" project and is just now (atleast nearly) ready to show. The idea is to cultivate conversations around Top 5 lists (evenually polls, etc.) Sort of a "Quora for the rest of us" that isn't as intellectual and doesn't rely on such a smart pool of people "answering" to be of use. Hopefully it'll be a bit of fun for people.

Any thoughts on what would make it more engaging, problems, or bugs would really be really helpful.

</comment><comment><USER4> Pretty cool! At first I found myself wandering aimlessly looking for a "browse lists" link to get a better idea of what kind of lists people were posting. The only one I found was all the way in the footer. Also I would maybe give some examples of lists under the main input box where it says "My top 5 ___________ are". Maybe under it put (ex. beers, movies, etc..) just to make it clear.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good ideas. Getting new visitors involved is definitely the challege (but have got some feedback today that has given me some ideas). I think that the shared lists/tweets/invites are going to be the most effective way it'll spread (ex. Your friend John made his Top Albums of 2011 list, what are yours). Some of those features are in place some aren't.

Like the idea of some example lists close to the actual list form.

Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How do you combine different lists for the same category?

<comment><AUTHOR> Can you explain? Categories are going to evolve. If two people make 'my top 5 action movies' (and the category is 'movies') then they in a way grouped together. If you go to any list page you see comments for those people in your network about that 'top 5'. You can also click on a friends picture to see what their list is.

<comment><USER5> Sorry, I cannot view the site right now, because it is blocked. But, I was wondering how you combine several users' lists. For example, say there are action movies labeled A,B, ..., Z. Suppose 3 users have ranked action movies. Their lists are A-B-C-D-E, Z-A-B-C-D, and F-A-B-C-D. How do you combine those 3 lists to form a master list? I've looked into this before and was just curious what method you decided to use and why.

<comment><AUTHOR> Gotcha. For now a simple COUNT of the items, GROUPED by top 5 ORDERED DESC. that works well if there are several lists. I think i'll eventually weight #1's higher then #5's to make it more accurate.</comment></comment></comment></comment>