Intel's CIP wants to collect the "categories of websites you visit" - <AUTHOR> https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/topics/idsa-cip.html#CollectedData <comment><USER2> Why on earth would the "category of web sites" be of possible use other than selling the data?

Telemetry is now an attack vector for privacy in general because no one can be trusted with the data.

<comment><USER3> Not trying to defend intel, just trying to offer a (somewhat justified) answer:

If people are using more streaming services, that means Intel should focus more on their Integrated Graphics platforms. If people are downloading significantly more data than ever before, they should probably make sure their networking drivers receive more support.

Knowing how people use their PC's, even by category, can help Intel manage its driver development.

<comment><USER4> That's a very poor excuse for mass collection of personal data. They can easily figure that out from commercial datasets, or even a small-scale research effort.

<comment><USER5> > a small-scale research effort.

Like the Computing Improvement Program, hosted on an obscure web page and systray menu?

<comment><USER6> Typically research is voluntary and involves getting informed consent from involved parties.

<comment><USER7> Is this not voluntary?

> Q: How do I participate in the Intel® Computing Improvement Program?

> A: When you download and install the Intel® Computing Improvement Program, > click Accept on the invitation to join.

<comment><USER8> Ya, I think the key bit of spook that can be derived from the title is that they're using the CPUs to do this, maybe like they're baking it into Intel ME. That's what I first thought until I read the article. It's just intel saying, hey come install our spyware. However it's worth nothing that I bet this will come preinstalled on a ton of devices which is in fact spooky.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Data collected from your system is temporarily stored locally on your system > before being uploaded to a secure cloud environment, which may be physically > located in accordance with Intel's Privacy Notice.

> Intel keeps the data for a maximum of seven years. Intel takes reasonable > steps to reduce the risk that any data kept for over three years can be > traced to a particular computer.

Tied to user for 3 years. From a law enforcement perspective I'm more interested in the 'other devices in your computing environment'. They state they are generating a random UID tied to your system, so I assume if I know the UID from the suspect computer then a warrant could be issued to Intel for this information.

<comment><USER10> If it's kept over three years, you have to believe that there are backups of the data made, and that the backups are retained forever. So ANY persistent mapping from the data to a specific computer is effectively permanent the moment it hits their backend (maybe someone has to load a tape, so it's not instantaneous, but still available to a warrant or subpoena or shenanigans).

If there is _any_ "risk that any data ... can be traced to a particular computer" on day 1 that the stuff is stored, then that risk never goes away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Completely off-topic, but I discovered the existence of the <details> HTML tag [1] with this page.

I was surprised that I could unfold these questions at all with Javascript disabled. Usually, I am stuck with this kind of pages.

Please webmasters, use <details> for your FAQs if you want foldable questions.

[1] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/de...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/details)

<comment><USER12> The issue is that the compatibility and styling (animations etc.) are not fully supported or available. This should have been standardised much earlier, alas here we are with a half-assed solution to a very common pattern.

<comment><USER11> I guess you can always hack something in Javascript if you wish to have animations, which is always better than to go with an implementation in full Javascript.

<comment><USER13> There are pretty straightforward CSS-only solutions too, for example: [https://stackoverflow.com/a/38215801/584552](https://stackoverflow.com/a/38215801/584552)

<comment><USER14> And I bet the CSS animations look a lot less janky than JS equivalents.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> If I'm understanding this right, Intel looks at your _web browsing_ to optimize their _drivers_? Why would you ever willfully share this information with Intel?

<comment><USER16> Well, they state it in the link:

> Intel uses information about your computer's performance to make product > improvements that may benefit you in the future.

I'm sure you'll feel better knowing this. /s

<comment><USER17> i.e. even if they're being completely honest, it doesn't benefit you unless you go back and buy another Intel CPU five years down the line.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Just my two cents...

I think they're using this data to help guide how they should compete with AMD and ARM.

They also say they're saving the RAM used and software applications you use... To me that's about figuring out what's more important to end users; incredibly powerful (multi-core) machines or incredibly efficient (fastest single threaded speed per watt) ones.

Right now Intel is getting hammered on both fronts with ARM chips dangerously fast for single threaded applications (A13) and AMD totally slaughtering their desktop/server market... They have no modem business, and if I was Intel, I'd be pretty fucking scared right now. The weight of the rest of the industry might be large enough now to truly make 'em irrelevant.

As a result, they need to be very, very careful about where they invest resources as the future could be very dim for them...

P.S. I do think: sure they could sell it, but is that data really going to make up for the dip in their actual business? Nah.

<comment><USER19> How can a company like Intel that was top dog for (at least) 10 years in a row get slaughtered on two fronts? Seems like they should have billions in the bank to burn on whatever they need to get back on top.

To me this is like people projecting doom and gloom for Apple after Microsoft makes better products for 2 years, but maybe I'm missing something.

<comment><USER18> The landscape that Intel dominated has changed completely and they have not. They're like Microsoft without Azure, without Office, without Xbox... they have one meaningful product: CPUs and their GPU is a six-months to a year out for a v1 which will probably not be very great.

If either Microsoft or Apple had continued to only have one meaningful product they'd both be shells of who they are now.

<comment><USER20> Would it be fair to say that Google still only has a single product (with meaningful revenue)?

<comment><USER21> Yeah, advertising that can hang off infinitely other digital products.

"Y'all keep innovating, we'll be right here when you run out of monetization ideas."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's an opt-in program. I'd be upset if it were mandatory or opt-out. But opt- in doesn't bother me.

> How do I participate in the Intel® Computing Improvement Program?

>When you download and install the Intel® Computing Improvement Program, click Accept on the invitation to join.

> What if I don't choose to participate?

> System performance information is not collected or sent to Intel. As a > result, performance information from your computer cannot be used to improve > future products.

Usual disclaimers: I don't work for Intel, never have, no plans to, no direct financial interest in them, etc.

<comment><USER23> So is that the only way it gets installed? Is the dialogue clear about what you are agreeing to? Why install that besides to opt in?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> No surprise more and more entities want that delicious browsing history data, it's extremely valuable and profitable.

These days you need to really understand your threat model when it comes to using the internet and who might be able to record every keystroke and website you visit.

We used to call them "keyloggers" but now GBoard and Windows 10 have "clipboard sync" features.

I think there's going to be some genuine business in having scripts make random web searches, copy/paste random things with the cloud sync feature enabled etc to trick algorithms and what data can be harvested from what they collect.

If you poison the data they have on you then what use is it collecting it? Maybe I just am a raging furry, and adore Adolf Hitler and buy Nazi related materials.

<comment><USER25> I tend to agree with you. Though when Intel starts selling your data to the government you might want to limit those Nazi searches, could impact your ability to cross the border without a hassle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Make JavaScript run as fast as possible on your chips.

There, now you don't need to collect any data.

<comment><USER27> Yes, but presumably they want to know what type of JS is being run.

The characteristics (memory access, numeric operations, etc) are complex and simply saying "make all of it fast" isn't helpful - presumably intel is trying to make their chips faster at everything in general, but if they find that there are a few particular bottlenecks maybe they could allocate more resources/surface area to those particular instructions, etc

<comment><USER28> Maybe then they can buy a PC and seat an employee that will spend all the day browsing the web. Instead of spying on everyone.

<comment><USER27> I'm sure that they already do, but how the entire world uses the internet isn't easily testable by any sane number of testers.

Not saying this is a remotely sane way to do the study, just that's probably the rationale

<comment><USER21> There's a middle ground. They could require all of their employees to opt their households in. They have a lot of employees.

If that's not enough, they could also require all their contractors to opt _their_ households in.

<comment><USER29> Incredible. Intel offers a voluntary program that you want to turn into a mandatory program for employees' families.

<comment><USER21> No, I don't want that. I'm just suggesting a way for them to not have to ask the world for this data by eating their own dog food, in the context of this thread, in a consciously unfriendly way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> At some point we're going to have to start using our personal firewalls for outgoing traffic too which is going to be a massive pain. It seems that every company is jumping on the telemetry band wagon.

<comment><USER31> > which is going to be a massive pain

Not at all! [https://tinywall.pados.hu/features.php](https://tinywall.pados.hu/features.php) (it's free)

<comment><USER32> or [https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php](https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php) also free, been using it since 2016

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Let's assume Intel has the best motivations here, and _really_ wants to ensure that Intel devices perform better than competitors. There's a far better way to accomplish this without invading the privacy of end users and becoming yet another attack vector (has anyone coined YAAV yet?):

\- Create a program that allows _developers_ and _other companies_ to upload their code to be stored and executed by Intel to test and store performance improvements and regressions

\- For those who don't trust Intel with their code, allow them to register their site as part of a testing program. Intel can then rank the importance of these sites internally by popularity or whatever kind of metrics they want.

If developers and companies care, they'll participate and work with Intel directly. If they don't, they won't. Stop pushing this crap onto users' machines, building profiles, storing data, and invading everyone's privacy.

We really need an anti-telemetry law in the US.

<comment><USER34> There's an even better way of doing this and they never have to leave the lab. They have all of the CPUs and enough of the hardware configurations themselves to actually _run a test_. Just go by some of the "most popular websites" list that's out there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Don't they already have access to all my infos already, thanks to the Intel Management Engine? /S

<comment><USER36> Why not collect even more

If it is free

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> afaik it is a request for opt-in collecting metrics, while still trying to respect your privacy (as much as possible in this use-case).

I won't do that, but if someone agrees I don't see any ethical issue with it.

Is there anything I'm missing?

<comment><USER38> Well, you're saying metrics and they're saying web browsing data.

You're probably thinking metrics because that's how the program is presented: as a way to help ensure Intel products and drivers are performing well.

But what does browsing data have to do with that?

E.g. I notice the privacy policy covering this data specifically allows them to use the data they collect for advertising and allows them to let their partners use it for advertising as well.

Is that what you were expecting from the Intel CIP?

<comment><USER37> I dunno why they need it and I personally won't share it, but if they ask honestly, without any manipulation tricks, and people decide to share it, I don't see an issue. Freedom goes both ways.

<comment><USER39> But there's manipulation tricks. And they ought to be making a fair offer that involves paying you a fair rate to be monitored. It should just come naturally. Otherwise they're using manipulation tricks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I don't know if I am getting this right, but this seems to be a program that you can install and they at least ask. So I have not as much a problem with it.

I wouldn't want them to be able to read my CPU SN though and connect it to any browsing data. But there sure are people that wouldn't mind.

If I compare this behavior to MS and their telemetry crap, this is a gigantic improvement. Not saying that collecting usage information should even be further normalized.

<comment><USER41> From doing a quick Google, it looks like Intel have been sneaking this software onto people's computers bundled with stuff like drivers, and some people have been having serious trouble actually uninstalling it: [https://www.tenforums.com/customization/113108-inquiry- about...](https://www.tenforums.com/customization/113108-inquiry-about- removing-hard-find-intel-control-panel-entry.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I support Intel's program here.

But clearly they should reword it to be more explicit.

s/categories of websites you visit/

\- Each month, whether you have or have not visited some streaming video website on this list (click to see list) (i.e. a single "yes" or "no" for the whole list) \- Each month, whether you have or have not visited some shopping website from on this list (click to see list) \- ... /

</comment><comment><USER43> If they care so much about javascript performance why wouldn't they just add opcodes for js specific behavior like how ARM did?

<comment><USER36> They can't do that wo your data man

Don't you understand?

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> How do they extract the site category data from browsers? What side effects on browser behavior, if any, does the methodology have?

</comment><comment><USER45> They might just want to live up to their name.

</comment><comment><USER46> Wouldn't it be better for them just to categorize the javascript that is available in the top million webpages?

</comment><comment><USER21> Does Honda need to know the categories of addresses I drive to?

Does Pentel need to know the categories of ransom notes that I write?

<comment><USER47> What types of ransom notes are you writing? Please come with me, sir.

<comment><USER21> Purely intellectual exercises, I assure you. Performance art.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> There's no incentive to give away your data. A large financial incentive would be nice!

<comment><USER27> But according to the press release you will be empowered by giving them access to this information :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> They have this question in the page:

> If I participate in the program, is there any personal information in the > data collected?

..then they proceed to tell you what they don't collect. You can read between the lines that yes, they do collect PII.

</comment><comment><USER50> Is this tied to installing other Intel software or drivers? The page reads like you specifically decide to download this solely for the purpose of helping Intel. Not sure they will get many takers that way.

</comment><comment><USER51> After the rather recent let downs (Still waiting for my free of charge replacement CPU for the ones vulnerable to meltdown and spectre.), just one more reason not to buy Intel crap.

</comment><comment><USER52> Intel's CIP is a wannabe NSA spook. The websites I visit should be nobody's business but my own.

</comment><comment><USER53> This seem to be optin and not on by default like other popular software.

</comment><comment><USER54> This seems to be genuinely opt-in: You have to explicitly sign up for this program, download and run their software. It's not like they're spying on unsuspecting chip-buyers.

I wish other companies had a real opt-in process.

<comment><USER34> That's how active opt-out starts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> Data is the new oil, they say. Did someone convinced Intel to prepare for pivot as a data company? Well, they are in a good position for it actually.

</comment><comment><USER56> For the time being this appears to be an Opt-in program where one has to choose to participate by downloading and running the CIP program.

</comment><comment><USER57> how long until on-chip user tracking?

</comment><comment><USER58> I get that data collection has become a contentious issue and I'm a vocal opponent of this trend, but this seems rather harmless, no?

It's an offer to purely voluntarily provide telemetry on non-personal data, no strings attached.

<comment><USER59> Surely Intel's engineers can browse the web themselves to find out what kinds of websites and JavaScript exists and use that knowledge to optimize their microcode or whatever.

Or buy a report from one of the hundreds of companies doing this kind of user tracking.

There's no great reason why they would need to begin collecting data on each of their users.

<comment><USER58> > Surely Intel's engineers can browse the web themselves to find out what > kinds of websites and JavaScript exists

They wouldn't have access to the frequency of visits, an important factor.

> There's no great reason why they would need to begin collecting data on each > of their users.

I've given you one above.

Also, it's not "each of their users", it's those voluntarily agreeing to submit this information (as opposed to "you need to install X to unlock feature Y", and installing an executable.</comment></comment></comment>


Netflix Infinite Runner - <AUTHOR> https://flixarcade.netflix.io/ <comment><USER2> Good lord, y'all are crotchety. This just seems like a fun little time waster that was probably developed internally by a very small group of people. I don't see it as a large marketing push or some kind of fancy technical demo. Just something... fun.

<comment><USER3> For real, anyone remember flappy bird? This is pretty similar and flapper bird made a LOT of people happy.

<comment><USER4> > flapp[y] bird made a LOT of people happy.

Dong Nguyen, the creater of Flappy Bird thinks different about this topic - this is also the reason why he took the game down for the app stores:

'"Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed," the developer said "But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever."'

> [http://compethics.samething.net/2014/02/20/flappy-bird- > and-u...](http://compethics.samething.net/2014/02/20/flappy-bird-and- > unhappy-dong/)

> [http://bgr.com/2014/02/11/why-flappy-bird-was- > removed/](http://bgr.com/2014/02/11/why-flappy-bird-was-removed/)

<comment><USER5> He later put it back up though, didn't he?

<comment><USER4> > He later put it back up though, didn't he?

At least it is not on Google Play anymore:

> > [https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Flappy+bird&c=apps](https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Flappy+bird&c=apps)

and by

> > [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flappy_Bird&oldid...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flappy_Bird&oldid=758455938)

it is also not on Apple's app store anymore. What happened is "As Nguyen had promised, August 2014 saw a revised version of Flappy Bird, called Flappy Birds Family, released exclusively through the Amazon Appstore for the Amazon Fire TV platform."

<comment><USER5> You are right, it was _not_ put back up by the original developer. I guess I just conflated it with the subsequent clones because by the time I heard of the game it had already been removed but then later I was able to play "the game" still.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not sure if it's the browser or the game but sometimes clicks and taps don't register. Love the themes though!

One other issue is since you can't seem to jump during a power up if an obstacle comes right as the powerup ends you'll lose with no way to avoid.

<comment><USER7> Seems like they made the jump on mouseup instead of mousedown, and mouseup needs to be within ~1s of mousedown.

<comment><USER8> Yeah seems like 'tap' rather than mouseup/mousedown.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Okay, perhaps I'm out of the loop. Is this created for marketing purposes, technical purposes, or something else? What makes this different from a random Ludum Dare-style submission, other than the Netflix logo?

<comment><USER10> I don't get it. Who are these characters? What is the background patterned after? I feel like I'm missing an inside joke.

<comment><USER11> They are all Netflix shows.

As others have said. Pablo & Marco Polo. Piper Chapman from Orange is the New Black and Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things. (Won't make sense if you haven't seen the shows)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Netflix IPs would make some great worlds for larger games, actually. I can imagine a Telltale-style narrative adventure set in the Womens Prison of 'Orange is the New Black' or an action horror game where you play as Eleven, trapped in the Upside Down. Even their animated properties - Knights of Sidonia, Ajin, and Voltron - would be awesome worlds for players to experience. Netflix, if you're reading, hit up the game studio I design for -- firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER13> Maybe they should branch out into game streaming. Movies and TV anywhere on- demand, how about games?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Seriously? wtf? I thought, this is going to be something cool as it's from them, like an experimental UI or something. Am I missing something or is this just a bit lame and pointless? Maybe I'm dead inside.

<comment><USER15> Each pixel is its own microservice. This is a huge leap forward for the industry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Characters from Netflix-produced series:

Pablo Escobar - "Narcos"

Marco Polo - "Marco Polo"

Piper Chapman - "Orange is the New Black"

Mike Wheeler - "Stranger Things"

</comment><comment><USER17> Fun but kind of odd.. I can't really imagine these games converting people to subscribing to Netflix or suddenly becoming interested in these shows.

<comment><USER18> Perhaps allowing someone who works at Netflix to create and publish this kind of thing makes existing employees happy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Fun. I wonder why they went with a modern-day chinatown backdrop for Marco Polo. I haven't seen season 2 yet; did this somehow become a time travel show? :P

</comment><comment><USER20> For me it shows only the Netflix logo and a spinner (on Safari). From other comments I assume that the spinner is not the "infinite runner"

<comment><USER21> Works fine for me on Version 10.0.2 (12602.3.12.0.1) of Safari. Mobile Safari does not work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Incredible chiptunes

<comment><USER23> Might be the best part.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is a fun idea, but feels weirdly amateur. Like, the way the sprites disappear the moment they touch the side of the screen, or the way the powerups keep scrolling past even when you're dead.

It's like someone at Netflix did an "intro to games programming" tutorial and decided to put the result live.

</comment><comment><USER25> oh, apparently you can double-jump. figured that one out after too long.

</comment><comment> w-ll Dying and pausing the game doesn't stop the pickups. Is this intended?

</comment><comment><USER26> The click to jump is unresponsive, doesn't do anything half the time it feels like.

</comment><comment><USER27> Hit boxes are shit

<comment><USER28> rip

<comment><USER27> Yeah, I was on phone so I did not explain. The characters are made to be leaning forward, so the hitboxes are very wide. When they jump, they remain as is. Hence, when you can clearly make the jump, you still "hit".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Beware of the monster that shows up when you think things are going swimmingly easy.

Super well done!

</comment><comment><USER13> This apparently doesn't use delta time. Is it frame-timed? When the FPS lowers, the game slows down. That's rather sloppy, and it doesn't help the game's playability.

</comment><comment><USER30> We go to the moon not because it is easy but because we are bored!

</comment><comment><USER31> They didn't have to bit-ify the music for Stranger Things :)

<comment><USER32> I thought that's what the music was from. Another of their original TV series, _Travelers_ , has an amazing (if subtle) electronic music score.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Jump needs to happen on touch down, not on touch up :)

</comment><comment><USER34> Strange

</comment><comment><USER35> Now instead of doing this, if they could add more content for Netflix Canada (and other Non-US countries) ... :-)

<comment><USER36> I wish we Netflix Canada here in the US. You have more than we do :/

<comment><USER37> ^ This, not to mention there are several good proxies to get US Netflix working in other countries, but getting Canadian Netflix in the US is a much more arduous process.

<comment><USER38> What proxies? Last I heard, they are giving a hard time to VPN players.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> What's super weird about this to me is how unlike the actual shows these are; OITNB doesn't take place in a cell block prison, and Matthew Modine isn't bald in Stranger Things.

</comment><comment><USER40> I wish I could have heard the internal discussions about whether or not to include Queen Elizabeth II.

</comment><comment><USER41> it would be nice UX if the game can be restarted using the spacebar.

<comment><USER42> This is why I rage quit that game after I died. Like, I gotta use my mouse? Pfft, I'm out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> It takes way to long to load, I measured about 1 minute and 43 seconds before it loaded.

<comment><USER44> Purely anecdotal, but it took less than two seconds for me on both FF and Chrome (Win 10).

<comment><USER43> It would be kind of funny if it turned out my ISP is slowing down Netflix. Thought it's Orthodox Christmas and people are all home and watching OTT or IPTV so probably Internet congestion...

<comment><USER45> You can test that hypothesis using [http://www.fast.com](http://www.fast.com)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> If the music was algorithmically generated, what methods were used?

</comment><comment><USER46> wtf

</comment><comment><USER47> It's an ad.

</comment><comment><USER48> [removed]

<comment> amiga-workbench I thought .io TLD's were for the javascript framework/library of the week?

<comment><USER49> Recent html5 multi-player games have used .io e.g. slither.io

<comment><USER50> Multiplayer games do not have a monopoly on the dot IO tld. I have several for various purposes, none of which are game-related.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Is my computer hacked now? Does netflix.io actually belong to Netflix?

</comment><comment> enahs-sf ...and there goes my productivity for the rest of the day.

</comment><comment><USER52> Trying to read the JavaScript that powers the game made my eyes bleed. Great concept, but the developer should really look into writing cleaner code.

<comment><USER42> Is this a bad joke about minification? Or is this a good joke about how the future will be run on true black boxes?

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> I really hate games that try for an "8-bit" aesthetic but can't be bothered to even approximate a consistent pixel density for their art. It's not that hard.

This is like the lensless glasses of pixel art.</comment>


Community Design: Points as Motivation - <AUTHOR> http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/04/17/community-design-points-as-motivation <comment><USER2> "in a nutshell points systems are an ingenious way of taking something with no tangible value and turning it into a prized virtual currency of sorts"

How is this different than most things we consider most valuable?

<comment><USER2> Just because something is intangible doesn't mean it isn't valuable. Don't take what I wrote as cynicism.

Most things we consider of significant value have no value in a physical sense, i.e. tangibleness.

<comment><USER2> Ok then, Mr. Downmodder, physically quantify friendship, love, beauty, goodness, and truth.</comment></comment></comment>


NASA Tries to Rewrite the Book on Science Fiction - T-A http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304450904579369080192863224

<comment><USER2> Finally! NASA is marketing itself! All my life I've listened to dry announcers say pitiful boring things about the astounding achievements of NASA - <AUTHOR> with Walter Cronkite years ago. Never did we celebrate the cowboy-astronauts risking their lives on top of incredible roman-candle rockets going places no- one thought they could even survive. No, it was all about how science made it all safe and sensible.</comment>


Why stockpiling is not the crazy, selfish behaviour that it seems - <AUTHOR> https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/why-stockpiling-is-not-the-crazy-selfish-behaviour-that-it-seems/3483 <comment><USER2> I will admit, I was one of the people railing against "hoarders" based on some of the imagery I was seeing (and in-person examples - like one person loading their cart with dozens of bottles of ketchup). I'm also happy to admit that I was wrong if it really is a matter of lots of people just buying a little more than they used to and that's what's causing some of the in-store shortages. Based on the article that seems to be the case, so I'll say it now: I was wrong.

> there is a good chance that if the small percentage of crazy buyers does not > increase and the majority of shoppers who have been stocking up, go back > towards a replenishment of their higher stocks, we should see the problem > gradually subside in the coming days and weeks

I'm really hoping that's the case. I've been monitoring a few items online to see whether they're gradually coming back or not. We're pretty well stocked on some staples and other things, but the kid in me who grew up poor in a large family still has some anxiety about the whole food situation.

</comment><comment> saiya-jin Its the power of many folks buying a bit more, when big shops have found a balance during stable times of how much they need to have in store for maximal profit (=minimal waste). Not much mystery there that it doesn't work now.

I also bought a bit more stuff. Why? Well we are 3 stuck at home 24/7 (well newborn doesn't really count, but wife needs good diet and baby seems to have some sort of cow protein alergy), so instead of eating lunch at work, we eat everything at home. Combine this with desire to visit shop as little as possible since its our only human contact indoor. I am really curious when things get back to normal, I guess in couple of weeks.

Just to clarify, I live in city with >1k confirmed infections (so probably 10-50k real ones), quite a few colleagues have it, working from home for second week.

<comment><USER3> I estimate 1in5 meals were prepared out-of-home: schools/restaurants/vacations/fast-food.

So that's a 25% increase on demand for retail sales.

While there's some commonality of sourcing (restaurants buying from Costco), a lot isn't. There's probably a surplus of 10# cans of beans in a warehouse, but a shortage of 1# cans.

But I also believe caloric need is down 5-10% as we all become more sedentary (don't have to go to work, but less unnecessary bullshit in general - e.g. driver's licenses automatically extended another year).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have been saying since the beginning that I thought hoarding was unlikely the issue since clearly there was a massive shift in where people were eating and no spare capacity in the trucks. The UK supermarkets spend 4 months preparing for Christmas and that is just a few days without supermarket access and once it's done they immediately switch that tiny extra capacity to Easter.

Its a supply chain issue with 30% of the calories eaten outside of the home now shifting into the home. It's structural and it thus requires government intervention. When you consider that 8 hours a day people are using company toilet paper and eating lunch from lunch take out places and all that now gets shifted through the supermarkets there is a big problem. When the report was the bread was out consistently it should have become clear this was just everyone working from home needing lunch when previously they would have been doing that at work from a sandwich shop. The hoarding narrative allowed the government to avoid fixing the actual problem.

</comment><comment><USER5> Summary: People are not actually buying, huge, crazy amounts.

Rather that have somewhat increased the buying of what they normally buy, and added a few more things.

But in mass, all that small increase is clearing shelves, amking people thing it's hoarding behavior, when it is not.

<comment><USER6> More specifically, that small increase is clearing shelves of items normally bought less frequently, like toilet paper and other paper goods.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is a difference between stockpiling and panic hoarding. Stockpiling can involve, canning, preserving, dehydrating, bulk purchasing in times of plenty, and setting up gas generators and petro. Panic hoarding is going between one grocer and the next and buying the entire stock of an item, sometimes with the intent of price gouging your neighbors, or just out of a general sense of fear. One is orderly and planned, the other is a dickish move.

<comment><USER8> Did you even read the article though?</comment></comment>


Show HN: Online marketing design tool - <AUTHOR> https://artboard.studio <comment><AUTHOR> Brand new browser based design tool with powerful customization capabilities and ever growing content library. Great for creating unique banner images for your product or service.</comment>


The Future of Smart Tools: The World's First Handheld CNC - <AUTHOR> https://shapertools.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> This CNC also represents what appears to be the best UI in almost any machining tool I've seen. Glad to see good design thinking not just get it done engineering.

</comment><comment><USER2> amazing. its finally here! for real. so many teaser videos, and now i can buy it. its time to start collecting sick pieces of rare wood.

<comment><USER3> So excited to finally order my hand-held CNC!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks amazing! Can't wait to try this out</comment>


Ash HN: Is it worth investing in paid email services hey/superhuman? - <AUTHOR> With a lot of hype around paid email services like hey.com and superhuman - Is it worth all the money or is it just a hype? <comment><USER2> I think it's mostly hype.

I was excited for Hey. I'm disappointed. The interface is colorful but disjointed. Way too much whitespace for my taste. I was hoping for a truly new take on email UI, like an IM-style interface. Hey feels like they took the traditional email UI and split it into different screens with lots of whitespace.

I don't like the screening feature. In Fastmail, I have a separate folder for people not in my contacts. Anyone I respond to is automatically added to my contacts, so I don't have to manually approve them. This functionality is available in any email client. The screening feature seems like more work, with pressure to look at them.

No custom domain is a dealbreaker. I've used the same email for almost 10 years. I'm honestly amazed so many techies are fine with the shared domain. Paying $999 for a two letter user on a shared domain? Nuts.

The newsletter feed view is nice. But I actually prefer my newsletter folder where I click each email, because I know which ones are unread. The feed view gives me a feeling that I don't know what I missed.

After playing with it, I sold my invite for $175 within minutes on Twitter. FOMO is very powerful.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm a paid Fastmail user for these reasons:

* With my own domain, my e-mail address is my own property, which is good because I intend to keep it for another 70 years.

* With proper support for the good old boring standards (IMAP, WebDAV etc.) I can use my mail from almost wherever. I'm not at the mercy of Apple approving an app or not. I'm not depending on others for keeping my mail safe; I can back it up myself.

* As I'm paying for it, there's way less incentive for Fastmail to invade my privacy than for example Google.

* As I'm paying for it, there's way more incentive for Fastmail to improve my experience than for example Google.

</comment><comment><USER4> Hey charges $349/yr for three-letter user names; $999/yr for two letters. Four letters and up: $99yr.

I watched a video walkthrough. I noticed four things:

1\. The cost for potential benefit seems disproportionately high.

2\. I can duplicate most of Hey's features just configuring my own email.

3\. The gimmicky UI seemed way too much for me.

4\. Despite attempting to sign up 72 hours after the invites went out, every possible permutation of my first name, last name, and initials was already taken. I tried them all.

I've been using ProtonMail for a year or so now, and love it. I realize Hey is aiming at a 'premium' market of users who don't blink at prices, and I'm not in that market.

More simply, I haven't lived in email for years, and keep moving away from email, not towards it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Not sure about the hyped email providers (hey etc.), but I switched to Fastmail earlier this year.

Beyond the control part (own domain, not sharing data with Google etc.), I love how snappy it is. Gmail bloat didn't bother me this much until I started using Fastmail (still Gsuite for work).

I've paid for a couple years already, just to lock myself down. I'm happy so far ~3 months in.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been really put off with the number of messages I've seen in the last couple of weeks of the form "Just used X for 2 hours and I'm switching now! Life is so much better!" and "My new email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. Amazing!" (wait until they find out you can buy a custom domain). Are these for real?

Surely it requires you to have received and sent some number of emails over several days first? I don't see how you can evaluate a new workflow that quick unless the workflow is obviously transformational.

I don't have a lot of issues with gmail to be honest. I use archive and snooze to keep at inbox zero most days, get minimal spam, and only get a handful of emails each week I need to reply to. Maybe I don't get enough emails but I do what I can to avoid getting emails too.

</comment><comment><USER7> It depends on your use case and usage patterns.

I like Basecamp's opinionated approach and what they've done with Hey.com

As much as I'd like to use it as my primary email tool I depend on G Suite and Gmail for my business because of the integration and automation those tools afford me.

</comment><comment><USER8> Superhuman paying customer here. For starters, they are not equivalent products because Hey.com is client + server. Superhuman is an app that sits on top of an existing Gmail account.

I have no problem paying for Superhuman. I use it exclusively for my business email and the way I see it, if improving my email management lands me one single customer it more than pays for itself.

As far as paying in general, I enjoy the feeling that this product won't die off in the same way so many clients have before. Hopefully they are able to build a sustainable business and support a reliable product. Superhuman also has outstanding customer support.

<comment><USER9> This is the right way of thinking about it. If it saves time / money / expand capabilties enough (and you can afford it) then make the investment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Unless it's making you money, it's an expense not an investment. Unless you own the domain, your address is not portable.

Everything else in the equation varies case by case.

</comment><comment><USER11> I pay for my email services and receive a VPN service for doing so as well being able to create up to 5 email accounts. Paid email has its benefits for example, the actual email I use is not at all similar to the login email therefore there's improved security in some paid emails.

</comment><comment><USER12> I think it's worth paying to have email on a domain you control. I'm not sure any of the hype email services like hey or superhuman get you that much you won't get with any other email provider.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm 16 years into using gmail, so the thought of converting to a new email address feels harder than trying to change my social security number right now.

Anyone done this successfully?

<comment><USER14> I am just slowly switching to my hey email.

The only problem is that I chose a rather funny hey email addrsss so I still have to use my gmail for job applications. Maybe when hey support custom domains, I will exclusively use it.

<comment><USER15> Does Hey have a way of migrating from gmail? Or do you have to finagle it yourself?

<comment><USER16> You can't import old emails

<comment><USER17> I'm liking Hey so far, but this is frankly a huge bummer

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The hyped services that you mention, probably not.

However, investing into an Office 365, FastMail or even G-Suite subscription and a domain is absolutely worth it.

</comment><comment><USER19> Yes paid emails have high quality and it converts well. Unlike free.

</comment><comment><USER20> I am going to pay for hey. I like the concept and it is one less thing on Google

<comment><USER21> hey mate, I got 3-4 really good names, what about you? If you interested, I can show you.</comment></comment>


Knative – Kubernetes-based platform to manage modern serverless workloads - <AUTHOR> https://cloud.google.com/knative/ <comment><USER2> Joining in, Markus from IBM and OpenWhisk. Been involved with knative for quite some time now as well.

Happy to answer any questions that might arise as well. Answers might be biased and opinions are my own.

See IBM's statement: [https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud- computing/2018/07/24/ibm-clo...](https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud- computing/2018/07/24/ibm-cloud-google-knative-serverless/)

<comment><USER3> Can we see a design document/theory of operations, please? It's difficult to evaluate this effort without understanding exactly what it _is_ \- namely, the constituent components, their respective functions, how they work and relate to one another, etc.

<comment><USER4> The docs repo gives a high level overview and a deeper dive into each of the components with samples:

[https://github.com/knative/docs/blob/master/README.md](https://github.com/knative/docs/blob/master/README.md)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have a few questions.

> Knative provides a set of middleware components that are essential to build > modern, source-centric, and container-based applications that can run > anywhere

Are these middleware components that someone else is supposed to package together into something useful like a platform? The other bits lead me to think it's a platform of sorts in itself. So, why the talk of middleware?

> Knative offers a set of reusable components that focus on solving many > mundane but difficult tasks such as orchestrating source-to-container > workflows, routing and managing traffic during deployment, auto-scaling your > workloads,

PaaS systems already do this. Other serverless things, like kubeless, do this too. Are these reusable components supposed to be packaged in a higher level system? It sounds like that but other parts of the page suggest it's a platform to use now.

> Kubernetes-native APIs

This is found in the docs repo. The examples are long form k8s style objects. Have developers (those being targeted) been interested in these? In my experience they like shorter form ones (there are numerous tools making that possible).

I'm curious of the meat and usefulness behind the hype.

<comment><USER6> > _Are these middleware components that someone else is supposed to package > together into something useful like a platform? The other bits lead me to > think it 's a platform of sorts in itself. So, why the talk of middleware?_

It's intended to be usable as a single installation with the option to install individual parts. The textbook case is Build -- you can get things done with or without it.

> _Are these reusable components supposed to be packaged in a higher level > system? It sounds like that but other parts of the page suggest it 's a > platform to use now._

I think a bit of both. The joke I've made is that if Kubernetes is IaaS++, Knative is PaaS--. It's usable as-is, it aims to provide a common set of primitives for shared concerns, but it can also serve as a base for higher- level systems. The Project riff team, for example, have pushed some of their efforts down into Knative.

> _In my experience they like shorter form ones (there are numerous tools > making that possible)._

Mine too. My personal view is that Build (and before long Pipelines) will be the main entryway to Knative.

<comment><USER5> > Knative is PaaS--

Except it bills itself as serverless. In a PaaS your apps need to have a server (e.g., http server). Serverless (e.g., FaaS or Brigade) elsewhere doesn't need this. Stuff isn't long running.

How is long running software servers like this serverless?

> My personal view is that Build (and before long Pipelines) will be the main > entryway to Knative.

Pipelines? That doesn't appear to be in the docs. What is Pipelines?

<comment><USER6> > _Except it bills itself as serverless. In a PaaS your apps need to have a > server (e.g., http server). Serverless (e.g., FaaS or Brigade) elsewhere > doesn 't need this. Stuff isn't long running._

I think this comes down to the difficulties of terminology. I think of FaaS as a PaaS with some extra features (scale-to-zero being the most-noticeable). "Serverless" is a catch-all term for a variety of workloads, of which FaaS is the most visible.

> _Pipelines? That doesn 't appear to be in the docs. What is Pipelines?_

It's a proposal[0] to evolve Concourse into being a Knative component, picking up from Build for complex workflows. I've been working on parts of this with various folks over the past few months.

I should emphasise that it is a proposal. For what you do with Knative today, use Build. It's a simple abstraction and it works right now.

[0] [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PicF7UhvSBpZLwichuY5hdhT...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PicF7UhvSBpZLwichuY5hdhTX7Sl6aak2OzwDK8G78s/edit) (to view, join the knative-dev group: [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/knative- dev](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/knative-dev))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I kinda have a hard time understanding what it is ... is it kinda a 'glue' layer between Kubernetes and istio ? Can somebody give us a 2 sentences explanation? please and thank you

<comment><USER8> This is a way to deploy and manage a stateless web application ("function") without needing to get into a bunch of low-level details, and get closer to pay-for-what-you-use.

<comment><USER9> > get closer to pay-for-what-you-use.

How though, won't you need a Kubernetes cluster running?

<comment><USER10> On the small scale, no, it's not pay-for-what-you-use. Imagine though you're an enterprise, running a large K8S cluster with lots of workloads inside. By using Knative and scale-to-zero, now you can pack more lightweight workloads into the same cluster resources, because the pods scale down when they're not actively being used. It gives you (as the cluster operator in your company) the ability to run your cluster the same way serverless works in the cloud.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've been around Knative for a few months on behalf of Pivotal (our blogpost here[0] and TheNewStack here[1]). Other leading contributors are IBM, SAP and Red Hat.

Subject to my biases, what would people like to know?

[0] [https://content.pivotal.io/blog/knative-powerful-building- bl...](https://content.pivotal.io/blog/knative-powerful-building-blocks-for-a- portable-function-platform)

[1] [https://thenewstack.io/knative-enables-portable- serverless-p...](https://thenewstack.io/knative-enables-portable-serverless- platforms-on-kubernetes-for-any-cloud/)

<comment><USER8> See also:

[https://medium.com/@mchmarny/build-deploy-manage-modern- serv...](https://medium.com/@mchmarny/build-deploy-manage-modern-serverless- workloads-using-knative-on-kubernetes-180c1a55e1b5)

[https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2018/07/24/ibm- clo...](https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2018/07/24/ibm-cloud-google- knative-serverless/)

and one by this "Google" thing:

[https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2018/07/bringing-the- be...](https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2018/07/bringing-the-best-of- serverless-to-you.html)

<comment><USER6> Our colleagues at SAP: [https://blogs.sap.com/2018/07/24/sap-cloud-platform- an-open-...](https://blogs.sap.com/2018/07/24/sap-cloud-platform-an-open- enterprise-platform-with-a-cloud-native-core/)

Edit - and Red Hat: [https://blog.openshift.com/state-of-serverless-in- kubernetes...](https://blog.openshift.com/state-of-serverless-in-kubernetes- knative-and-openshift-cloud-functions/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Thanks to everyone who played a part of this! The Google team is also watching this thread. Happy to answer any questions people have.

<comment><USER12> This looks really cool, I'll definitely be looking into it more closely when I get a chance.

Obviously this is a conflict of interest for Google, but just curious if you know of any plans in the works for being able to run this on AWS EKS? It's the obvious omission from the list of supported clouds on the installation page[0].

[0] [https://github.com/knative/docs/tree/master/install](https://github.com/knative/docs/tree/master/install)

<comment><USER2> If AWS EKS gives you access to kubectl or similar, it is probably trivial to setup. There shouldn't be any obvious roadblocks. Will be a great contribution to add to the guides!

<comment><USER13> AWS EKS definitely does support kubectl, but requires the aws-iam- authenticator (formerly Heptio) to integrate with AWS IAM. Docs here: [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/configure-k...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/configure- kubectl.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wrote a little post to explain why Knative is important from the developer perspective [https://medium.com/@mchmarny/build-deploy-manage-modern- serv...](https://medium.com/@mchmarny/build-deploy-manage-modern-serverless- workloads-using-knative-on-kubernetes-180c1a55e1b5)

<comment><USER15> Great post, really cleared up the value proposition of this project for me!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Just a quick reminder from the installation documents (emphasis mine):

"If you already have a Kubernetes cluster you're comfortable installing _alpha software_ on, use the following instructions"

This looks cool, and will likely be useful in the future, but this is still alpha quality software. Don't bet your business on it by installing it to your production clusters. Don't let your development cycle by driven by the latest shiny thing, no matter whose logo is on it.

</comment><comment><USER17> They say Red Hat is involved.

How does this relate to OpenShift?

I really hope that, for instance, Knative's builder will be merged with Red Hat's source-to-image (S2I) builder.

<comment><USER6> The current Build design allows for a relatively straightforward extension to use S2I as a BuildTemplate. You can see other examples here: [https://github.com/knative/build-templates](https://github.com/knative/build- templates)

As and when Builds becomes Pipelines, I anticipate that it will remain relatively trivial to integrate existing build infrastructure without too much fuss.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The github page is now public. If you want to see the actual code you can find it at [https://github.com/knative](https://github.com/knative)

</comment><comment><USER19> I'm a bit confused about the "eventing" application. Is it a message bus like NATS? a persistent event log like Kafka? or is it an adapter that allows applications to interact with both?

<comment><USER8> "eventing" is building an ecosystem to make it easy to connect events to event consumers (whether they are Knative Services, k8s services, VMs, or even a SaaS).

In order to do this, we've broken the problem down into 3 parts:

Buses provide a k8s-native abstraction over message buses like NATS or Kafka. At this level, the abstraction is basically publish-subscribe; events are published to a Channel, and Subscriptions route that Channel to interested parties.

Sources provide a similar abstraction layer for _provisioning_ data sources from outside Kubernetes and routing them to the cluster, expressed as a Feed (typically, to a Channel on a Bus, but could also be directly to another endpoint). Right now, we only have a few generic Sources, but we plan to add more interesting and specific Sources over time.

Lastly, we have a higher-level abstraction called a Flow which bundles up the specification from the Source to the endpoint, optionally allowing you to choose the Channel and Bus which the event is routed over. (Otherwise, there is a default Bus used to provision a Channel.)

All of this is also very much work-in-progress. You're seeing the workshop as we put down our tools yesterday, not as cleaned up for a tour. :-)

<comment><USER3> Can you point us to the design document so we can further study it?

<comment><USER6> This one is harder to point to, eventing is still under fairly active discussion. The Eventing Glossary doc[0] and the working group notes are probably the best references right now.

[0] [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JSPgieg0DiP4uIfo_zDoojo6...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JSPgieg0DiP4uIfo_zDoojo65U5G64zbTgXwgQoeaWg/edit#heading=h.4bitbo4ik33t)

[1] [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uGDehQu493N_XCAT5H4XEw5T...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uGDehQu493N_XCAT5H4XEw5T9IWlPN1o19ULOWKuPnY/edit#)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> So Kunernetes by itself is not high-level enough, we need a layer on top of it? Turtles all the way up.

<comment><USER21> Have you ever used Kubernetes? The abstraction it focuses on is running container images; building them and getting them to a registry is a whole separate abstraction.

<comment><USER22> This is a great answer. Kubernetes is missing (or said another way, OpenShift has...) buildconfig and imagestream primitives to make building containers a natural extension of your Kubernetes deployments/daemonsets/whatever.

OpenShift has done a really good job of being there, wherever Kubernetes is lagging behind. They may not provide the new canonical implementation of the solution to the forseen problem, but they are expert at predicting where the gaps will need to be filled (and preemptively making an effort to fill them.)

I see Helm project has a specific advice for multi-tenant usage now, too, in their best-practices advice! That was one of the criticisms of helm from OpenShift, and now it's evidently solved(-ish) with the advancements in modern k8s rbac and some documentation.

<comment><USER23> Thanks for that - we definitely think there are many great ideas floating around in the Kube ecosystem, and projects like knative bring together a critical mass of perspectives and people to take "good ideas" and make them "things we all can depend on".

knative is a mashup of good ideas and patterns from app engine, openshift, cloud foundry, FaaS, and public cloud providers. I think it will fill the missing space between containerized apps and true FaaS on top of Kube, while still making it easy to break the abstraction glass as necessary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Are serverless applications used internally at Google, or this is just for their cloud hosting platform?

</comment><comment><USER25> I am glad to see attempts at making a high-level platform. However, I feel like it will be too opinionated for many to pick Istio and solve build and FaaS all at once. Will there be some push-down of some of the functionality into Kubernetes? Will any of this turn into specification with alternative implementations?

<comment><USER11> One of the goals is to make the components loosely coupled at the top (so a product can choose among them as needed), and also pluggable at the bottom (so you can swap out implementations as needed, for example logging and monitoring).

I expect that some of this will end up upstreamed into Kubernetes proper if it's broadly useful (autoscaler work, to pick an example), but this is still super early so let's see what people want.

And yes, we're documenting the control plane APIs, the data plane requirements, and the contract for serverless container environments, with the hope that they can be reimplemented consistently wherever needed.

One of the explicit goals is workload portability, so separating spec from implementation is critical.

<comment><USER23> Re: upstreaming - Kubernetes has tried really hard to make it easy to be extended, and knative also tries to use those mechanisms and be nice, clean, reusable APIs that can be used on any Kubernetes cluster. I think it's increasingly likely that "upstreaming" an API pattern means "everyone installs it to their cluster", but we'll need to see how that plays out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> The Google Next keynote is happening now: they announced Istio 1.0, but not this. Interesting.

<comment><USER11> We have several days of keynotes at GCP Next and way more to share throughout the week. But for the curious, there's a serverless spotlight session at 1:55 today that will cover this, as well as a Knative-specific talk at 4:35.

We decided to announce this first thing with the blog posts just to get the word out as soon as possible and give our amazing partners (Pivotal, SAP, RedHat, IBM, and more) a chance to share their news as well.

And frankly, it's just more fun to run an open source project out in the open, so we were pretty keen to flip the git repo bits to public as early as we could. : )

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> How is this different than Kubeless on Kubernetes?

<comment><USER28> knative has "distributed tracing" and supports scaling to zero, and aims to be loosely coupled. that said I have no idea how kubeless works, but I like that they have a CLI for quickly deploying functions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> It strikes me as highly significant that a large portion of the questions here are along the lines of "what the heck is this thing?" I'm certainly in that boat: as far as I can tell Knative is some kubernetes based cloud something something that maybe let's you host your own FaaS? Like Openwhisk? Or maybe it helps you deploy or something (isn't that already what k8s does?)?

This is hopefully received by Knative devs (or marketers) that the homepage needs a major overhaul, as it's not at all clear what the product is to the average visitor.

</comment><comment><USER30> 1) It is mentioned that KNative "deliver a serverless experience to developers on any cloud". How does it work with any cloud? Are you referring to fact that all clouds has k8s? Is it already supported in any cloud or will be supported?

2) If any cloud is supported, does it virtualize services such as storage, queues, API management and Identity

3) Does Knative can seamlessly switch monitoring to what is provided by each cloud.

</comment><comment><USER31> What is the limitation on this? AWS lambda has 250M code size limit, 3G memory limit, 512M temp storage limit, how about this?

<comment><USER8> How big is your Kubernetes cluster?

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Can I run functions written on any platform on Knative? Java? .net core? Js?

What about startup times? How do they compare to other solutions?

<comment><USER6> > _Can I run functions written on any platform on Knative? Java? .net core? > Js?_

Anything that meets the Container Runtime Contract[0] should work.

> _What about startup times? How do they compare to other solutions?_

Startup times need a lot more work. Knative has a number of moving pieces which are contributing delay to startup time and they're being discussed or attacked by various groups. Some of this work will probably require changes to be contributed upstream to Kubernetes and Istio.

[0] [https://github.com/knative/serving/blob/5b8542fb58044834d50f...](https://github.com/knative/serving/blob/5b8542fb58044834d50f71a40d36b936e372a9ec/docs/runtime- contract.md)

<comment><USER23> Startup time is the hardest (and most valuable) piece for everyone to work together on. By improving startup time of Kube containers, we can benefit (and draw from) a lot of people who are using Kube today, not just knative. This is a great example of trying to find an "everyone wins" scenario in open source and succeeding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Why would you use something like this over, say, Google App Engine Flex?

<comment><USER18> I'm the engineering manager at Google responsible for both Knative and App Engine Flex. What we heard from a lot of customers is that they want a serverless / App Engine Flex-like experience but one that works multi-cloud or in hybrid/on-prem setups. The goal for Knative is to fill that need, especially for people that already use kubernetes. That being said, App Engine Flex is a solid GA service that provides a fully managed experience and runs huge services today. Knative is not there yet but is getting better by the day.

<comment><USER34> I want to love AppEngine Flex, but it consistently takes 10+ minutes to deploy. Is this something that we can ever expect a fix for?

<comment><USER18> Network/Load-balancer programming is embarrassingly slow on Flex. We have long term projects in place that will improve it but I can't give any dates here.

Short term we have a few tactical features in the pipeline. In the next few weeks we are rolling our "parallel build and deploy" which moved the docker build to run parallel with LB programming. Depending on your build that saves a few minutes.

When doing development I usually just replace an existing version by deploying with:

gcloud app deploy --version <my-dev-version>

This keeps the same LB and VMs as before and does a gradual container swap. It is not safe for production but definitely helps when iterating.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> How do you pronounce it?

Native with a silent K? (like "knave" or "knee")

Kay-Native?

Kuh-Native?

<comment><USER35> From [https://github.com/knative/docs](https://github.com/knative/docs): "Knative (pronounced kay-nay-tiv)"

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Whats the difference between this and KOPS?

[https://github.com/kubernetes/kops](https://github.com/kubernetes/kops)

<comment><USER6> Knative is on top of Kubernetes and Istio.

Kops addresses the bits below Kubernetes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Why would I choose this over kubeless?

</comment><comment><USER38> Cold startup time and mitigation strategies like those on AWS?

<comment><USER2> Even better! Knative will allow you to even scale your containers out-of-band if you know that something BIG will happen. See [https://github.com/knative/serving/issues/1656](https://github.com/knative/serving/issues/1656) for the discussion.

<comment><USER38> That tells me not much....is it pinging to keep instances warm?

<comment><USER6> No. The intention is that the autoscaler will support both floor and ceiling values for its work. So while scale-to-zero is the default, you can make an economic decision that you want scale-to-1, scale-to-10, whatever makes sense for your case. Pinging won't be necessary to artificially create this behaviour.

This is an example of nesting reactive control (the autoscaler) with predictive control (the min/max values).

<comment><USER38> interesting...by floor and ceiling is that like the minimum and maximum threshold for latency?

here's my pain point. I built a serverless REST API with token authentication on Lambda. However, if many people aren't using it _all the time_ it will sleep and then the next sucker who calls the endpoint is stuck with waiting for the serverless instance to wake up.

In some cases even getting a token from a simple POST request would take an awful long time. This was a few years ago and I stopped using serverless since then.

But now I'm interested in serverless because I've been hearing that the cold startup problem is being reduced.

I wonder if in the future developers will be just taking core logics from serverless repository and wiring up the components, sort of like how wordpress does it without the crazy layers of PHP and bloat.

<comment><USER6> There are two aspects here: engineering and economic.

Our engineering view is that we want startup to be as fast as possible, which is a surprisingly nuanced problem with lots of moving parts that need to collectively do something smart, even before you get to the startup time of your own code. This will show a lot of improvement as we go, but right now it's early days.

The economic question is about trading off the risk of hitting a slow start vs the cost of maintaining idle instances. It is _impossible_ for Knative's contributors to solve that problem with a black box solution. What we _can_ do is to provide you with some knobs and dials to express your preferences.

Edit: I didn't answer this question --

> _interesting...by floor and ceiling is that like the minimum and maximum > threshold for latency?_

Not for now, this would be bounds on what scale the autoscaler can choose. Latency is an example of an output setpoint that an autoscaler could attempt to control, as opposed to a process input. We have in mind to make autoscaling somewhat pluggable because different people want to target different signals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I recently tweeted about these abstractions over abstractions here: [https://twitter.com/sahrizv/status/1018184792611827712](https://twitter.com/sahrizv/status/1018184792611827712)

Not downplaying the team's effort and the immense utility of this to many companies.

<comment><USER40> Rather than linking to your own tweet, perhaps you could post the comment here and save us all a click?

<comment><USER39> Fair point, but the medium changes the message sometimes. :-)

The tweet resonated with a sizeable part of the developer community hence linked here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Digital Ocean is about to ship similar product.

[https://www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/](https://www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/)

<comment><USER42> No, Digital Ocean's Kubernetes product will be similar to the existing Google Kubernetes Engine... this is much more high-level.

<comment><USER41> Yeah, you are right. My bad.</comment></comment></comment>


Bigger brains are smarter, but not by much - <AUTHOR> https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-11-bigger-brains-smarter.html <comment><USER2> > Yet the connection has remained hazy and fraught, with many studies failing > to account for confounding variables, such as height and socioeconomic > status.

> Height is correlated with higher better cognitive performance, for example, > but also with bigger brain size, so their study attempted to zero in on the > contribution of brain size by itself.

Interesting. I couldn't initially think of any plausible explanation for why height would _cause_ intelligence. Perhaps taller people on average are considered more attractive or given higher social status, which could provide developmental advantages. Or perhaps there is another confounding variable here, like health/nutrition or nationality.

I can't seem to find any studies on height and intelligence. Anyone have any ideas or links?

<comment><USER3> Being taller may mean they had better nutrition as a child. Which I imagine would also lead to increased intelligence.

<comment><USER4> This would only apply in certain contexts. Height is 80% genetic in the developed world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> > Their analyses also systematically controlled for sex, age, height, > socioeconomic status, and population structure, measured using the > participant's genetics.

I'm a woefully unqualified armchair researcher/statistician, but I always enjoy speculating on potential confounding variables that _weren't_ controlled for.

As the article mentions, there is an obvious naive candidate explanation for why people with larger brains would be smarter (more computing hardware). But I find it fun to guess at reasons there might _not_ be a causal relationship.

It's nice to see the researcher doing the same exercise:

> "However, things could be much more complex in reality. For example, > consider the possibility that a bigger brain, which is highly heritable, is > associated with being a better parent. In this case, the association between > a bigger brain and test performance may simply reflect the influence of > parenting on cognition. We won't be able to get to the bottom of this > without more research."

I wonder what exactly is meant there. Is he speculating that a larger brain directly provides better parenting ability? Or that perhaps generations ago a family with a useless gene that causes large brains also happened to have another unrelated gene that gave them better parenting abilities, and thus both genes ended up being reproduced a lot? How would you even control for this? Maybe adopted children?

<comment><USER5> > I wonder what exactly is meant there. Is he speculating that a larger brain > directly provides better parenting ability? Or that perhaps generations ago > a family with a useless gene that causes large brains also happened to have > another unrelated gene that gave them better parenting abilities, and thus > both genes ended up being reproduced a lot?

My guess is something closer to the former, that the two sets of genes are linked [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_linkage](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_linkage) and there's a direct causal relationship between the two. Therefore, it's actually the "better parental ability" trait is the one that produces the positive result and not the "bigger brain" trait. So yes, adopted children could help falsify this hypothesis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> We evolved to have big brains so it must be important. I don't think 2% improvement would be worth extra energy needed for bigger brain.

<comment><USER7> From what I've heard, we've run into the (semi-literal) bottleneck of infants having heads that just barely, or that don't, fit through a birth canal.

<comment><USER8> If infants can develop brain mass in the womb, why can't they once born?

<comment><USER9> Brain actually does develop until you're adult, but bones need to calcify and that limits how much it can grow

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "The authors underscore that the overarching correlation between brain volume and "braininess" was a weak one; no one should be measuring job candidates' head sizes during the hiring process, Nave jokes. Indeed, what stands out from the analysis is how little brain volume seems to explain. Factors such as parenting style, education, nutrition, stress, and others are likely major contributors that were not specifically tested in the study"

The tl;dr is their research found that 2% of cognitive differences can be attributed to brain volume, indicating intelligence is influenced primarily by other factors.

They also found that though male and female brains differed in size that didn't produce a statistically significant difference in outcomes, but the study didn't tackle this specific issue so they couldn't say much else definitive about it (the cortex construction speculation notwithstanding).

I applaud them for pre-publishing their methodology and their commitment to publish regardless of the results.

<comment><USER11> I've read previously that it's not absolute brain size that matters, but rather brain size relative to body size, hence the lack of difference in intelligence between genders. This makes sense as well since we don't see hyper intelligent whales or elephants building space ships.

<comment><USER12> Does this explain why short, skinny people are smarter then overweight, tall people? /s

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > They pre-registered the study, meaning they published their methods and > committed to publishing ahead of time so they couldn't simply bury the > results if the findings appeared to be insignificant.

Am I crazy for thinking that this should be mandatory for all peer-reviewed research?

</comment><comment><USER14> Once upon a time I had half an idea to leaverage this fact for a story involving genetically engineered pygmy marmosets. They were modified to have human brain structure but retaining their size. Ideal crew for space missions. Fast forward to a time when they dominate space and seek independence.</comment>


Telix clone - <AUTHOR> http://www.ath0.net/ <comment><USER2> Well, as good a time as any to remember an old exploit.

Back in the old days, to put the modem back in command mode, you had to send it +++ and wait one second without sending anything.

Hayes, a modem manufacturer, owned a patent on this "and wait one second" idea. Some manufacturers had to implement this idea without that one second.

Then came the Internet, and with it the ICMP protocol, which is a neat way to make a remote connection repeat stuff back to you. And lo and behold, you could send a ICMP packet with data that contained "+++ATH0" and when echoing back the packet your modem would pick it up as a command and disconnect. Same goes for IRC /ctcp ping commands, and many other protocols.

<comment><USER3> You might enjoy [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18664979](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18664979) .

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> My first computer was a 386 SX, which came with a modem, but I didn't know what that was at the time. I was 12 or so, and didn't know computers could talk to each other over the phone line. I discovered Telix while dorking around in DOS, but it made no sense to me.

Some time later, I was talking to the guy at Radio Shack (!) and I mentioned this mysterious program. He knowingly nodded, said "plug one end of this cord into your wall jack, the other into the back of your PC, then type the following command..."

Cut to a year later, I'm running a BBS out of my bedroom, learning to write door games, and scripting for MUDs. I can draw a pretty straight line between Telix and my future career (even though Terminate was cooler).

</comment><comment><USER5> I saw the title and thought, "This is probably some other product named Telix, not the one I know about." And then I clicked on the link and it all came back to me. So. many. hours. using Telix back in the day.

I eventually switched from Telix to Telemate because of its limited multitasking. I LOVED the BBS scene. Good times. Good times.

<comment><USER6> Can't remember which, but I think Telemate also had programmable macros that I used to jump in and out of hyperspace in one of the multiplayer door games..

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Back in India, we had a (somewhat cheap) shell internet plan offered for students. You dial into a phone number that dropped you in a ISP shell from where you could use lynx or email. The problem was that our state-owned phone provider had a "courtesy" beep every 3 minutes to let us know we're being charged another unit, which would cause the modem to hang up.

I remember setting up Telix to record the session, log into my Hotmail, open each email and scroll all the way down all in 3 minutes, and then read the emails from the session log.

</comment><comment><USER8> atdt8675309

OK

In the 90s, my modem terminal of choice was Terminate. It's still available! [http://www.terminate.com](http://www.terminate.com)

<comment><USER9> I used telix until I was able to download Terminate. Nostalgia overload going on over here. Do you remember HS/Link? Being able to chat with the sysop while downloading blew my mind at the time.

<comment><USER10> Nice, I will check this out on my Tandy 1000HX BBS machine. I haven't found an ideal terminal program for that config. I actually thought you typed "Terminus," which is the terminal program I used on the Amiga 1200 back in '92\. Today, I use Radigan's predecessor to Terminus, JR-Comm on the Amiga 1000, which is the system I use most frequently for BBSing.

Some of these systems can be seen on my BBSing page: [https://bytecellar.com/bbsing/](https://bytecellar.com/bbsing/)

<comment><USER11> Yes! I remember JRComm! I used that up until 1994, on my A500 then A3000. Not sure why I never bothered to upgrade to Terminus.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hey guys, this is Colin, the author of Telix. A friend of mine sent me a link to this thread.

I just wanted to send a shoutout to everybody here. It's pretty cool and gratifying after all these years to see people still remembering and talking about Telix!

<comment><USER13> Thank you for all the memories !!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Minicom which is available for most posix systems including Linux and macOS is modeled on Telix.

My personal favorite DOS terminal program was Commo. It was totally customizable using macros. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commo)

<comment><USER15> I used the heck out of Minicom when I finally made Linux my "daily driver" back in the early 90s.

When I finally did get dialup Internet service I ended up using "dip"[1] to script the logon to the ISP's terminal server (a Xyplex, if I remember correctly). I remember that the terminal server answered for finger and showed you the usernames of the logged-on users, their logon and idle time, and their serial port numbers. I remember complaining to the ISP when I was getting busy signals dialing into the modem pool and, when I finally did get on, seeing users logged-on two or three times with multi-hour idle times.

[1] [http://ibiblio.org/gferg/ldp/man/man8/dip.8.html](http://ibiblio.org/gferg/ldp/man/man8/dip.8.html)

<comment><USER11> The good old days.. I remember using dip! I helped to build a few ISPs. We used Xylogic Annex terminal servers at one place. The second ISP used USR digital modems (I forget what they were called?) By the time I set up the third one, we'd outsourced all dialup to a third party network.

<comment><USER15> I knew a guy who ran a small ISP in the Dayton, OH area. He went from having banks of external modems on POTS lines connected to multi-port serial cards attached to a Windows NT Server 3.51 machine to an Ascend router with a PRI and "digital modems" (CODECs in DSPs, no doubt) to finally using an outsourced dial provider, all in the space of about 18 - 24 months. I wish I'd been a little older and a little more business savvy at the time. It was clearly a wild time, and was probably lots of fun.

<comment><USER11> I remember working in the "server room" of one of the early ISPs. There were about 100 individual phone lines coming off the wall, each going into a modem. It was like a river of phone cable. Each modem also had its own serial cable and power brick, too, of course. The bricks were pretty large, so there were power strips chained 3 layers deep. It felt about 100 degrees in there (no AC or cooling of any kind.) Thinking about it now, I'm surprised the whole place didn't melt down.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I loved the BBS era. Commo by Fred Brucker was my modem progam of choice. Hook in Zmodem for downloads and you had a hot setup.

</comment><comment><USER17> [38,38,40,40,37,39,37,39,66,65].forEach(key => document.dispatchEvent(new KeyboardEvent("keydown", {keyCode: key})))

</comment><comment><USER11> I miss the BBS days... sometimes.

I used to use JRComm on the Amiga. Before that, it was Apple Access II on an Apple IIc.

<comment><USER15> A friend of mine hosted a BBS on an Amiga in the early 90s. I was amazed by the machine's multitasking. He could actually use his computer while simultaneously hosting the BBS. (Eventually I think I got DESQview for my PC and could pull off a kinda-sorta approximation.)

The BBS software he ran was Dungeons and Dragons themed, and as I recall it mixed exploring and combat along with the mundane BBS activities-- messages, downloads, etc. I think that your experience points in the game-side ended up translating to BBS-side privileges, too. I should do some searching to see if I can dig up some details. It was unique across the various BBS's I called.

<comment><USER11> Yes, I also ran a BBS from my Amiga! I wrote it myself in C when I was a teen. The Amiga was amazing for the time, and learning about the OS was so much fun. I still play around with emulators now and then to take me back to that time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I recently found a bunch of Procomm Plus logs where I had typed back and forth with some local friends.

</comment><comment><USER19> alt-z for help

 _Cries in MacOS_

<comment><USER20> In some regions, the option key on Mac keyboards is labeled as "alt". E.g. [https://www.macworld.co.uk/cmsdata/features/3504584/Mac- Keyb...](https://www.macworld.co.uk/cmsdata/features/3504584/Mac- Keyboard_thumb1200_16-9.jpg)

<comment><USER21> If you press Alt+Z on the Mac, you get this: Ω. Fn doesn't override it either.

<comment><USER22> What happens if you pick Unicode Hex Input from System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input sources?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Remember Telix played C-E-G on the PC speaker when it connected?

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't know but if you go into the input box and type on your keyboard...

UUDDLRLRBA

It pops up a cute little rainbow

<comment><USER25> Hold down Return after typing it for a very blinged-out window!

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Does anyone remember RoboComms to get mail off FidoNet?

</comment><comment><USER27> what is this?

<comment><USER28> The Telix terminal interface. I spent so, so much time on it in the 80s, discovering BBSes, other people and later exploring the worldwide X25 network.

Also, from the page's source code:

// UUDDLRLRBA! var kkeys = [], konami = "38,38,40,40,37,39,37,39,66,65";

:)

<comment><USER29> I have a hard time finding information about Telix. How did this work, e.g. how would one "discover" other people?

<comment><USER9> Usually you'd find one BBS through word of mouth, and that one would have listings of systems which were hopefully a local number.

There usually had just the one line so users were limited to a certain number of minutes a day before they were no longer permitted to sign on. Sometimes a shareware game or new "Demo" would make to to a BBS and it might take you a week or two to download the entire thing because of time limits.

Some systems gave you extra time if you uploaded new content to encourage sharing. It was kind of a neat system, and I miss how small it was.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> ha that's some fantastic nostalgia

but ATV and ATI commands not working to my disappointment

</comment><comment><USER31> whoa that takes me back.

</comment><comment><USER32> I clicked expecting an open source clone that I could run on the same hardware.

How disappointing.</comment>


Show HN: A screen shot sharing utility for Mac - <AUTHOR> http://caputo.io/picshare.html <comment><USER2> How is it in comparison with upshot? [http://howlingmoonsoftware.com/upshot.php](http://howlingmoonsoftware.com/upshot.php)

Other than being on github?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have not used upshot before, but they do look similar. The idea behind PicShare is to be extremely simple, so you do not need to setup any kind of configuration like which service to upload the screen shot to (PicShare uses [http://cloudmine.io](http://cloudmine.io) for the image hosting service). PicShare is also a more "temporary" type of solution. You can view your last 10 images, but after 10 they begin to fall off of the UI, as the idea behind it was for quick, simple sharing of images via slack or some such service.

Really PicShare was a good excuse to play around with Electron and build an actual app. I've never released anything before, so I decided to go outside of my comfort zone and get some feedback on this one :)

<comment><USER2> It wasn't a criticism, not in any way.

Props to you releasing stuff. Releasing stuff is good :-)</comment></comment></comment>


Security Flaw in OS X displays all keychain passwords in plain text - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@brentonhenry/security-flaw-in-os-x-displays-all-keychain-passwords-in-plain-text-a530b246e960#.jvolr6hek <comment><USER2> This has been around for a while...just lock the keychain, or change the autolock timeout. Nothing to see here, but the user preferences of someone leaning towards convenience instead of security...

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/717095/is-there-a- quick-a...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/717095/is-there-a-quick-and- easy-way-to-dump-the-contents-of-a-macos-x-keychain)

<comment><USER3> I'm not so sure - AppleScript being able to click a SecurityAgent dialog box seems like a bug.</comment></comment>


Code on the Road: Two Weeks Vacation is only a Recommendation, not a Rule - <AUTHOR> http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/02/two-weeks-vacation-is-only.html

<comment><USER2> I can attest that this works, provided you pay attention to all his caveats. I walked into my boss's office at my last job and told him I was going to Spain for six months, and that I'd be willing to work half time from there, but if that didn't work out, that was ok too. To my surprise, not only did he agree, but I got a special allowance to have benefits while abroad as well. I did my work out of internet cafes the whole time, and had a blast.

The trick is to be willing (as the OP points out) to carry out the bluff. This generalizes to all negotiating. You have to be willing to walk away, and the other party has to know you actually _will_ walk away, before you get a deal.

In about 15 days I am taking seven months off to work on a startup + half a dozen smaller ideas. I talked to my boss about it six weeks ago, and he came by the other day to "make sure I wanted to come back in January." If that doesn't turn out (my startup takes off or they don't have a spot open by then), it's ok because I can always find another job elsewhere.

<comment><USER3> You are my hero. I'd like to go to Latin America for 3 months to study Spanish but I'm starting to settle for getting tutored in Spanish. Reading your account (7 months!) and great why-not-do-it articles like this makes me start thinking, however, that upper management might negotiate something nice if I do really walk away...

<comment><USER2> I have been to Spain twice (to study Spanish both times), and I can say for certain that learning it here is not even remotely the same as being immersed in it. If you are serious about learning it and learning about the culture, I'd heavily recommend you go live there for a while.

There are tons of great intensive Spanish programs both in Spain and Latin America that are cheap (mine was $3000 for four months, including an apartment and 20 hours of class a week). I have maybe eight months total of language education and I already speak better than people I know in their senior year of a Spanish major.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've done this too. I had tickets for a 6 week trip to India. The week (!!) before leaving, I was pulled into the CEOs office and asked not to go.

I remember being really pissed.

And then the VP of Engineering came to the rescue and said "I don't think you understand. He's going. The only thing you're doing is helping him decide to come back."</comment>


Permian-Triassic Mayhem: Earth's Largest Mass Extinction - <AUTHOR> https://youtu.be/VnUq33HCLzU <comment><USER2> This is an amazing talk, most of the Royal Tyrell lecture series talks are good, but this one stands out.

I'm not sure how much confirmation the theory this geologist expounds has, but it seems like a large volcanic episode burned up enormous coal deposits, running up the CO2 content of the atmosphere, causing rapid climate change. The coal and the vulcanism unleashed really large quantities of mercury, which is pretty toxic. Absolutely fascinating.</comment>


Be better at math: Running causes neurogenesis in spatial reasoning region. - <AUTHOR> http://www.highiqpro.com/iq-mindware/running-improves-fluid-intelligence

<comment><USER2> As mentioned below, BrainWorkshop(<http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/>) is an open source version of the software, and they offer usage statistics if anyone's interested: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoDHizcNs2tWdDd...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoDHizcNs2tWdDdYbzhnOUFPTUd1ZERES1Q5TjJZd3c&authkey=CPn --0Y#gid=0)

</comment><comment><USER3> Sidenote 1: Turing was a world-class runner. Not data, just interesting.

Sidenote 2: This page appears to be as much a product advertisement as news/research.

</comment><comment><USER4> Spatial reasoning is indeed correlated to mathematical talent, but from this study you cannot really conclude that running == better math. In any case, one more datum to the tons of evidence showing that exercise is good for you :-)

</comment><comment><USER5> I see some combination involving running, a double-n-back program, a GPS receiver and goggles with a head up display yielding some iteractive think- while-you-run training regime.

Achievement unlocked: used the program for 100 hours without being run over by a car.

</comment><comment><USER6> TIL people will fork out good money to play the n-back tasks we torture people with in the scanner.

<comment><USER7> Makes me wonder what other tasks could be monetised this way. I guess anything designed to generate cognitive load would be a candidate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The researchers behind this have pretty solid backgrounds: <http://www.highiqpro.com/high-iq-pro/high-iq-pro-expertise>

Here's a study on improving fluid intellience from Jaeggi and Buschkuehl (two of the people on their team): [http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.full...](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.full.pdf)

Does anyone here have any experience actually using this?

<comment><USER4> You can experiment yourself. There is an open source implementation of the tool, written in Python: <http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/>

At least it will definitely help you with short term memory and focus.

<comment><USER9> Is brain workshop open source alternative to High IQ Pro? Or are they unrelated?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I like their quotes at the bottom about the cognitive benefits of running.

One from a Nobel prize winning phsyicist... the other from Alanis Morissette.

<comment><USER11> You could say that it's ironic.

<comment><USER12> Ever think of running for office? You're quite the pun-dit.

;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> So it's not clear from the article if it's specifically running or any sort of spatial exercise like playing a sport or even swimming.

</comment><comment> buff-a Running on a treadmill (i.e. exertion) or running out in the open (i.e. actively using spatial reasoning not to hit things)?

<comment><USER9> Rats for sure were running indoor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> _The running mice clocked up an average of 15 miles (24km) a day!_

I like the idea of this study but that's an awful lot of running. What if a human had to run a marathon every day to see this benefit?

Maybe someone will find that running in Call of Duty has the same effect.

</comment><comment><USER15> See the companion article: [http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/02/mismeasure- of...](http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/02/mismeasure-of- neuroscience.html)

</comment><comment><USER16> The software claims to replicate the physiological effects of running. If a person combined a consistent exercise regime with this software training, will he/she turn into a genius?

</comment><comment><USER17> This means I'm not going to get better at math, doesn't it?

</comment><comment><USER18> Couldn't it just be because you have to do some spatial reasoning to navigate terrain at speed?

That is to say, where is the link to math?

<comment><USER19> If that were true, shouldn't we see even more dramatic boosts to Gf from playing FPS video games or something?

(Or it could be that this is consistent with the long line of research showing benefits to aerobic training...)

<comment><USER18> I would argue that it takes a lot more spatial reasoning to balance over uneven terrain by manipulating many-jointed arms and legs then to wasd your way around a map that's mostly smooth.

<comment><USER19> And yet, there's plenty of research showing spatial memory improvements through video games. Funny how that works out - high level navigational skills can be improved by deliberate practice and tasks of adaptive difficulty, whereas engaging in ordinary tasks honed by eons of evolution don't much affect it?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Resume opinion needed - <AUTHOR> I would really appreciate if I can get some of your opinion on this. Thanks in advance!<p>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08jIt6qOcQhalc0bXZfUGhJcGM/view?usp=sharing <comment><USER2> A lot of of HR people might be acclimated to filling roles by looking at the key points titled in those gray boxes first then if needed, moving down the roles list seeing where you built your experience in those fields e.g. operations, logistics, etc. They may be more accustomed to asking those details about responsibilities held in an interview God knows. Icons maybe half size or less too God willing

</comment><comment><USER2> Hi there,

It's creative and looks cool You might need a better association between your roles and responsibilities God knows

<comment><AUTHOR> The challenging part of about military career is that your responsibilities changes very frequently. My current role Director of equipment maintenance and logistics, I can get tasked to be the operations officer for a mission the next day or be a course administrator for 2 months.

Thanks for the feedback :)</comment></comment>


Peter Thiel's Hyper-Libertarian Cartesianism - <AUTHOR> http://bigthink.com/rightly-understood/peter-thiels-hyper-libertarian-cartesianism <comment><USER2> Cartesianism is of the philosophy of Descartes (I just discovered).

Descartes was a fascinating individual. Something I recently read (but couldn't easily corroborate through the web) was that when he was a young man he had three dreams in one night. He interpreted the content of the dreams as a divine signal that he should pursue wisdom.

La Vie de M. Descartes - Adrein Baillet quoted in 'What Galileo Saw' by Lawrence Lipking</comment>


The Internet is Fucked - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/25/5431382/the-internet-is-fucked

<comment><USER2> I love the "How to unfuck the internet" graphic at the end: "This is the main FCC switchboard. At the prompt, press 1 and then 5 to be connected to an agent and file a complaint."</comment>


Japan to Keep Windows XP on 200,000 Government PCs After Support Ends - <AUTHOR> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Japan-to-Keep-Windows-XP-on-200-000-Government-PCs-after-Support-Ends-388862.shtml

<comment><USER2> Spammy, parasitic website submitted by (another) spammy account.</comment>