Man uses 35 cable modems to provide WiFi, sued by Comcast - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/03/comcast-goes-after-illegal-resale-of-its-internet-service.ars <comment><USER2> The headline makes him out to be cleverer than he actually is. He put up a webpage with one-page "white papers" about internet installations for hotels and resorts. He then registered a residential account with Comcast under his name, and hooked it up to provide cheap internet for the hotel. He then did this for 34 other hotels, until a Comcast technician doing maintenance noticed this ad hoc setup.

Despite the residential agreement being very clear that you are not allowed to resell the service, he is pleading non-guilty and that he was "simply being singled out because he was successful."

This isn't a story about a big corporation beating up on an entrepreneur or someone trying to share. This is about someone who was taking Comcast's services, using it commercially, and charging (presumably) a large mark-up. It also points out the importance of reading carefully through agreements when you start a business!

Comcast has a right to cancel his accounts, to pursue litigation in order to find the addresses of all of his other illegal installations and, yes, to use the threat of monetary damages. You don't want a bad precedent forming.

</comment><comment><USER3> Unlike DSL cable modems are registered by mac address, and not by physical location. So you can get an account at one address, but really use it at another.

This can cause big problems for law enforcement.

<comment><USER4> You don't have to pay for service at all.

For starters, you can always use someone else's MAC address, as long as they aren't on the same neighborhood loop. Since you can easily sniff all the MACs on your loop, you can just trade lists with someone elsewhere. Most ISPs have only one global MAC database, so locality doesn't matter.

If that wasn't enough, for all the US ISPs I know of, you don't even have to have a valid subscriber MAC. You just configure your hacked modem to fetch a high-end config file (instead of "walledgarden.cm"), and set your own non- poisoned DNS. Many ISPs in Europe change their config filenames constantly to at least make you _try_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love the trumped-up charges. Fraud? I am sure the average Pirate Bay user costs Comcast more money than this guy.

Either way, he is a $50/month business DSL line away from being back in business.</comment>


A Vegan No More - The Story of a Recovering Vegan - <AUTHOR> http://curezone.org/forums/am.asp?i=1728051

<comment><USER2> As a non-vegan, I can guarantee that there is a lot of wrong information in this article. There is nothing unique about nutrition from animals. It is important to get the full range of nutrients, but food and food-based supplements are available. I have never seen any evidence that some people have a physiology that requires animal nutrients.

Also, the movement from radical veganism to radical local food advocacy is not particularly enlightened. I am a big advocate of local food, and I am involved in developing local food systems, but the author asserts that everyone needs to depend entirely on their local food system. This is simply not possible for people in Seoul or New York. The author also asserts that Earth is incapable of supporting 7 billion people. Trillions of inefficient machines cause the majority of environmental damage, not living people. Poor agricultural practices are also a problem, but they can be corrected.

I am happy that the author recovered her health, but I worry about the quality of lessons learned.

<comment><USER3> > There is nothing unique about nutrition from animals

Indeed, but for some reason there is a real indifference towards fantastic protein sources such as pulses.

Perhaps partly due to their reputation as 'difficult' to cook but also, I think, as a result of the lack of coverage in recipe books and cookery 'infotainment'.

The best investment I ever made in terms of vegetarianism was a pressure cooker; one hour to soak pulses in boiling water and 10 mins in the p/c.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> From the intro:

"Note: This is the story of a former hardcore vegan who quit and went back to eating meat. Veganism, it turned out, was killing her physically, and it led to a epiphany for her – humans are supposed to eat meat. She decided that veganism was a direct contradiction of her being human. It is perhaps a sad commentary on the radicalism in the vegan movement that this person received tons of hate messages as a result of telling her story, including threats against her and her family. For those who may wish to debate the story, I also posted this in the Vegetarian Debate forum."</comment>


Stealing Ur Feelings - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/noahlevenson/stealing-ur-feelings <comment><USER2> There is a case to be made about how good the AI behind emotional detection is. When you take the test, it will be accurate for some, and blissfully wrong for others. More so wrong for most. I took the test (or unknowingly took it) and it was correct for the most part. And it got some things wrong. I love dogs.

The trouble is not that the AI can be wrong, it's that we will rely on its answers to make decisions.

When the facial recognition software combines your facial expression and your name, while you are walking under the bridge late at night, in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and you are black; Your terrorist score is at 52%. A police car is dispatched.

In 2017, my contract was not transferred to the new system. The automated system saw that an ex employee was scanning his key cards multiple times. Security was dispatched to catch the rogue employee. Now a simple questioning should have cleared things up, but the computer had already flagged me as troublesome. Long story short, I was fired.

When the machine calculates your emotions, the results are unquestionable. Or, we don't know how it got to the answer, so we trust that it is right. It is a computer after all.

What scares me is not how fast machine learning is being deployed to every aspect of our lives. My scare is our reaction to it.

<comment><USER3> The problem with all current "AI"-driven systems be it facial recognition, voice recognition, translating, fraud detection, navigation, whatever, is that they are not 100% right, and when they're wrong, they're _hilariously devastatingly super-wrong_ in a way that humans are not wrong.

But since the success modes are good and human-like, we assume that the failures are going to be human-like as well, but the failure-modes of these system are usually bizarre and alien. Take self-driving accidents, for example. Pretty much all of them happen in situations that no human would fail in, and that's obvious to most people, but then we're forgetting about all the other mistakes similar "AI" systems make, and don't realize that they're also failures no human would make.

<comment><USER4> > Take self-driving accidents, for example. Pretty much all of them happen in > situations that no human would fail in, and that's obvious to most people, > but then we're forgetting about all the other mistakes similar "AI" systems > make, and don't realize that they're also failures no human would make.

Amen? I've tried to explain _precisely this_ to many brilliant AI/ML folks in lots of variations, with little success. They look at me funny, as if I'm a crank for believing that that probabilities don't capture the whole story. It seems that, to far too many of them, a computer that has half the accident rate of a human is a strictly better replacement, end of story. The notion of just how _spectacular_ the failure mode might be, or the degree of control that a human might have in the process, or any other human factor you can think of besides the accident rate, just seems like a completely nonsensical notion to many of them. For the life of me I have yet to find a way to convey this thought in a compelling manner.

<comment><USER5> To me, one of the best uses of this generation of AI would be as an aid to decision making. Your personal Skynet learns representations of data that help you make decisions, and watches out for worrying signs that you may be missing (perhaps based on your known mistake patterns, adapting as those change).

Meanwhile, human domain experts still look at the details and are able to add their own understanding of broader context, human nature, etc.

In this world, AI/ML primarily increases quality by augmenting human abilities rather than decreasing cost by automating humans out of the system. It's a smaller market maybe, but there are areas where better work can fetch a premium.

I think part of this is the lack of well understood patterns for the plumbing and UI of a system like this that makes it easy and useful and non-threatening to users. It's nothing that someone couldn't figure out, but not as well paved a road as integrating a caching, search, or image processing subsystem.

<comment><USER6> So I guess we aim for augmentation first before shooting for a complete replacement.

<comment><USER5> It has a reasonable sound to it! Although I think the complete replacement scenario has proven a little harder than it looked on some tasks (driving could be an example).

Yet it seems like there is a lot more all or nothing efforts (or seeing human workers as a level of escalation), I see fewer projects aimed at being helpful in a user directed way without taking control.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> First, this is excellent and very well done (the analysis wasn't great for me, but whatever - point made).

The part that bothers me so much about this all is the sense of hopelessness it leaves. Why? Because 99.9% of people literally, actually, truly, genuinely Just Don't Care.

It's like they're all rats in a Skinner Box -- so long as the feed keeps scrolling and the dopamine keeps getting pumped out, why does it matter if they're being analyzed, bought, and sold? More feed, more likes, more dopamine, more feed, more likes...

Sigh.

<comment><USER8> Facebook/IG are the cigarettes of our age, and no less unhealthy; we should regulate them as such.

<comment><USER9> Smoking gives people cancer and heart disease at a pretty predictable rate. Quite baffling to claim facebook/ig are even close to that unhealthy.

<comment><USER10> It's less baffling if you value mental health and physical health equally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I was interested how are they doing the "IQ estimation", here it is:

       -(dogPos + Math.abs(menPos - womenPos) + Math.abs(whiteNegative - nonWhiteNegative) + kanyePos)

<comment><USER12> After seeing no code in their repo I was interested in the same. The important parts are in [https://stealingurfeelin.gs/js/events.min.js](https://stealingurfeelin.gs/js/events.min.js)

You've left out some important parts of the iq calculation, with the full equation being:

        reactions = dogPos + Math.abs(menPos - womenPos) + Math.abs(whiteNegative - nonWhiteNegative) + kanyePos) / 4;
        iq = Math.floor(15 * -((reactions - 0.0005) / 0.05) + 100);
        if (iq < 100) {
            thatPartBitSFX.play()
        } else {
            thatPartWaySFX.play()
        }

Also amusingly rebulican percentage is calculated as:

        reactions = (dogPos + kanyePos + nonWhiteNegative) / 3;
        republicanPct = 50 + 15 * ((reactions - 0.05) / 0.1),

And income is calculated as:

        reactions = (iq / 100 + republicanPct / 50 + dogPos) / 3
        estimatedIncome = Math.floor(200000 * (reactions - 0.5) + 31099),
        if (estimatedIncome < 31099) {
            isPoorSFX.play()
        } else {
            isNotPoorSFX.play()
        }

<comment><USER13> Oh dear. Lots of magic numbers. The programmers are not educated properly. Just horrible code.

<comment><USER14> This is minified code, so couldn't the minifier have replaced the constants with their values or something?

<comment><USER15> Those aren't minified or obfuscated variable names... that's obvious.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Outstanding multimedia article. Very cool attempt at multimedia persuasion. However hard to take at face-value (pun intended) when its analysis was so incorrect.

<comment> topher-the-geek Agreed. They concluded I don't like dogs. I love dogs. What I don't like is not being able to find my mouse pointer in that noisey background. Hahaha. Nice try AI

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Creepy proof-of-concept. Are there devices which have been proven to capture image data when not in a camera mode, or is there an assumption that they're somehow doing it covertly?

<comment><USER18> Not on a mobile device, but I read that some company is using OpenCV to judge customers reactions to ads shown to them. that is, ads shown on TVs in stores and recording the reactions with a hidden camera and evaluating right away. Wish I could give more details but I can't find the source any more

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Do any popular mobile apps capture camera info while you are say scrolling the feed?

<comment><USER20> yes, this is what tik tok is most famous for

<comment><USER21> I googled and didn't see anything about this, is this true?

<comment><USER22> [https://www.techinasia.com/bytedance-overseas-expansion- stra...](https://www.techinasia.com/bytedance-overseas-expansion-strategy- break-down)

Scroll down to "dual learning"

<comment><USER23> I don't see any mention of 'camera' or 'face' in this article, interesting tho it is...

<comment><USER22> ah I misread OP, thought we were discussing something else.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I don't know how much this website can improve the general public understanding of how much companies and governments can deduce from a small set of data about an individual, but this concept was presented in an interesting way on the website.

"An AI that knows you better than you know yourself" \- I know SV loves the apocalyptic Noah Harari, but that's exactly what he's been talking about. One of his possible scenarios is that this rapid processing of data by a centralized entity can erode modern individual freedom (including free will and free markets) since it will be more efficient than individuals maximizing their interests. If the centralized processing of data can feed more people, provide security, and in general runs things more smoothly, we collective might accept that route, and gladly give up the power we hold on a democracy (whatever that amount you believe actually exists).

<comment><USER25> If the "smooth" option is feeding into people's biases, that doesn't seem like a good thing. For stuff like dogs or pizzas curating content based on AI is harmless, but once you get into racial and gender biases, with the given example of suggesting dating profiles, the effects on the outside world can be disastrous. Implicit bias is neither a positive or a negative thing assuming you are aware of and combat it when it has a negative impact, but businesses don't care about that and just want more clicks/buys/swipes/etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Everyone says my face shows no emotion and they can never tell what I'm feeling (and when they try to guess they are wrong 9/10). I'd love to know what this would say about me. If this can tell what I'm feeling then that would be awesome. Headline: Computers are better at detecting human emotion than humans.

<comment><USER27> In some parts, the player shows raw scores for emotions, and one of them is "neutral". I was 99.9999% neutral or more for the entire event, never breaking my apparent poker face until it called me possibly brain damaged at the end, which I found funny for some reason. The claims about IQ and left/right leaning are possibly arbitrary and just meant to stir discussion and virality.

For it to be any amount confident in it's claims, I imagine you need to be at least somewhat expressive. However, I don't expect most users of the average NN classifier to pay more than a little attention to how often what they classify something as is less than 80% confident.

<comment><USER28> > The claims about IQ and left/right leaning are possibly arbitrary and just > meant to stir discussion and virality.

Yeah, I found it very amusing that this thing concluded I was highly republican. First, I am not from the USA, second I am strongly for social programs/socialist, and third, current USA republicans amuse me (in that, what they are doing is funny to see from outside).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> What's scary to me is how wildly wrong this was at describing me. If anyone is ever going to be making decisions for me based on this tech, it has a ways to go.

</comment><comment><USER30> A lot of the good stuff seems to be coming from: [https://github.com/justadudewhohacks/face- api.js](https://github.com/justadudewhohacks/face-api.js)

Results are poor, as expected. I think the author intends it as a joke.

But the message is spot on.

</comment><comment><USER31> Really cool demo! Though the part about companies using facial recognition to determine what to show you on your feed /results (presumably Facebook, Youtube, Google) is pure FUD, which is disappointing and probably should be made clearer that it's a hypothetical.

<comment><USER32> Back when Apple first announced Face ID and Animojis, there were vague rumors/fears that companies would use the face-recognition sensors for targeting like that. Did that ever actually happen?

(Come to think of it, is it even possible to know for sure? Do apps need a permission prompt to access the facial-recognition data?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> After watching this I realized that we need to update mobile app permissions model to distinguish between front and back camera access. I can see many cases where I would grant the app back facing camera permissions but would not give it front facing camera access.

</comment><comment><USER34> I thought the content of this was really interesting, although the results were actually way off. I love pizza, for one thing. Although, to be honest, their picture of pizza did not look very tasty.

I also wonder how these results would be affected by being alone vs being in groups. Kind of like laughing (people tend to laugh more when with other people or in social situations rather than alone), emotional reactions can be very different depending on environment / social situation, even when you feel exactly the same about something.

</comment><comment><USER35> >>So our goal was to make an interactive doc that had the silly, sarcastic, collaged aesthetic of a vlogger video — and our central tech trick — using AI to tell you secrets about yourself — was designed to function like one of those viral BuzzFeed personality quizzes.

It definitely hits some kind of addictive pattern. I felt the pull to "try it out". But I didn't. Just imagined what I'd learn from it if I shared my data (likely nothing), and that dampened my enthusiasm.

</comment><comment><USER36> This AI is highly inaccurate: AI predicts I don't like dogs & like men (/r/suddenlygay after I shaved). I hope that's the author's point.

The worst thing about AI is that people believe AI is god that makes unbiased prediction. E.g. Big companies use Pymetrics and HireVue for their "unbiased" hiring practice is a joke.

May be a few years from now, AI will become a classic for software bugs just like Therac-25 (but developed by mostly top programmers)

</comment><comment><USER37> > _reveals how your favorite apps can use facial emotion recognition > technology to make decisions about your life, promote inequalities, and even > destabilize American democracy._

I must have missed the part of this where they show how AI promotes inequalities and destabilizes American democracy. They showed me dogs, pizza and a bunch of pixelated people from the 90s.

What this demonstrated to me was that AI is probably worse than noise. It provided zero insight into who I am or how I feel other than getting it correct when I smiled.

I also think the people that made this are missing a huge piece of the puzzle... For most people the issue isn't that they are being tracked, it's that no one is paying attention to them. People _want_ to be analyzed. They want their existence to be recognized and they want it having an impact on the world. The worst thing that could happen is that no one cares. Even if it's an algorithm scanning their facial features to better sell them pizza, I think most people would desire that.

Case in point: we all just took this test to see what it thought about us.

<comment><USER38> Some weird narcissism you're selling to convince people they shouldn't care about privacy. Immediately refuted by everyone's real world experience with visible privacy violations.

<comment><USER37> I'm not selling anything. I don't think my point was refuted. I think it was verified by how many people (including myself) just gave a random website camera access and let it scan our faces.

<comment><USER39> Your point isn't verified because it can be explained by other reasons (curiosity about its effectiveness seems likely, especially given the nature of this community).

The effect you describe is certainly real, but you only have to look at the present reality to see just how far it extends. In modern society, people are mostly not comfortable sharing their intimate thoughts with random service workers. And that's with individual humans, with faceless machine networks the tolerance might be lower.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Haha, this is awesome! It does showcase a beautiful world, though! Imagine if you walk into a department store and they already know if you're the kind of person who likes to be greeted vs left alone to browse. Or using median commuter feeling to make commutes better. We could find unusual things. For instance, maybe people would like trains coloured brightly on average. Who knows! The positive possibilities are endless. We could engineer general contentment for all without drug usage.

EDIT: Since I'm rate limited, here's my response to below comment

People are always engineering your contentment. Stand-up comics, your wife, the people at your favourite coffee shop, the bookstore you visit. It's a good thing. It's the lubricant of society.

<comment><USER22> What do you mean by rate limited?

<comment><USER40> My account has a rate-limit flag on it that prevents it from posting too often. It's a silent flag and I know why it's there (I'm often downvoted[0]) so I don't know until I send a message whether it will make it. Unfortunately, that often prevents me from replying to people. When I do I receive a message "You are posting too fast".

0: Not complaining about this, just explaining.

<comment><USER41> Disciplined by a technicolor behavior algorithm and not told about it. How appropriate!

<comment><USER40> Participation in this forum is not a fundamental right so I'm comfortable with it. I fundamentally support the right of discussion groups to restrict who gets to be present.

HN's place. HN's rules.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I don't see this any more accurate than just taking random numbers and displaying the mapped result back to the user.

</comment><comment><USER43> I'm impressed by how well it got my income. Really cool art project for something running entirely in browser.

</comment><comment><USER44> I hope u guys caught my bathtub video.</comment>


Show HN: Linux Voice magazine shuts down, merges - <AUTHOR> Email just received by Linux Voice subscribers:
<comment></comment><comment>
Hello Linux Voice Subscriber,
Let us start by thanking you for subscribing to Linux Voice and being part of something awesome. Our magazine had a fantastic launch thanks to so many of you helping with the crowdfunding, and we will be forever grateful for the support we've received from our readers.
</comment><comment></comment><comment>-
See comments for the rest - text submissions limited to 2000 characters. </comment><comment><AUTHOR> This message was released on their site, which I've submitted separately[0] - feel free to delete/bury this submission, dang!

[0] - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12805387](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12805387)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Issue 32 was the last issue of Linux Voice as a stand-alone magazine, as we have joined Linux Magazine. This newly merged magazine will bring the best bits of Linux Voice and Linux Magazine together into a single volume. All four of us Linux Voice founders will still be here contributing to the newly merged magazine - you'll find us in the aptly named Linux Voice section. We'll continue to write about the things that excite us in the world of open source software. Now that we're free of the day-to-day work of running the business, we can focus again on great technology. As well as us four, we're working with Linux Magazine to keep bringing great content to the Linux using world, and this includes former contributors to Linux Voice.

All subscriptions will be transferred over to the newly merged magazine. If you're a print subscriber there's no need to do anything and a print copy of the magazine will arrive with you shortly. If you're a digital subscriber, you'll get a separate email with details of how to access the new magazine. Copies of the magazine will also be on sale in newsagents starting 29th October.

We're sure you've got a lot of questions, and we've tried to anticipate the most common ones below:

Q. Linux Voice pledged to share 50% of its profits with free software projects. Will you be doing this in 2016?

A. Despite our best efforts to raise money for open source projects (and ourselves), we've failed to make a profit since the first year. What money there is left in the company Linux Voice Ltd will be used to pay off outstanding bills, so unfortunately, there won't be any left to split with projects.

Q. Will you continue the podcast?

A. The podcast will continue as normal. We'll upload our audio ramblings to www.linuxvoice.com roughly every two weeks.

Q. Will Linux Voice still be released under a creative commons license?

A. All issues of Linux Voice will still flow through to being released under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license nine months after they were published. Linux Magazine releases their issues for free (as in beer) a year after they're published. You can browse past issues and view articles online at [http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues](http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues).

Q. Linux Magazine has subscription options with and without a DVD. Which one will I get?

A. Linux Magazine offers two versions of the magazine, with or without the DVD, known as 'DVD' or 'Standard' subscriptions. As Linux Voice did not regularly include a DVD, your subscription will continue as Standard. However, a free DVD has been included with the first issue so you can see what they are typically like.

If you have any questions about your subscription, please see [http://www.linuxvoice.com/merge](http://www.linuxvoice.com/merge) \- and if you have further questions, please contact email@example.com.

Your Linux Voice team

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>

\- About Linux Voice: [https://www.linuxvoice.com/about-2/](https://www.linuxvoice.com/about-2/)

\- Linux Magazine: [http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues](http://www.linux- magazine.com/Issues)

\- Linux Magazine post/discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12805361](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12805361)</comment>


If We're Going to Break Up Big Tech, We Shouldn't Forget Big Telecom - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbwjvy/if-were-going-to-break-up-big-tech-we-shouldnt-forget-big-telecom <comment><USER2> COMCAST NBC UNIVERSAL ? they are basically a ISP monopoly.</comment>


Brief comparison of Java 7 HotSpot Garbage Collectors - <AUTHOR> http://www.omsn.de/blog/brief-comparison-of-java-7-hotspot-garbage-collectors

<comment><USER2> > CMS: Best for: don't use this, use G1 instead

[Citation needed]

As of a couple months ago, the experts I polled considered G1 bleeding edge.

<comment><USER3> Anecdotally, I've found the CMS is still a bit better (10-15% faster) than the newer G1, but the G1 has some features which make me inclined to use it. The G1 will return memory to the system, which I have never observed the CMS do, despite having tons of unused memory in my Java applications.

<comment><USER4> I also found the CMS collector to be both faster and generating latency numbers with less variance for our application. But, I last checked a good year ago and things might have changed since then.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In my experience, G1 basically doesn't yet work well under high garbage high load scenarios. Its responsiveness was worse than untuned CMS, and significantly worse than tuned CMS.

I'd love for it to work since long pauses are the bane of any garbage collected server :)

<comment><USER6> That has been my experience too. At least it doesn't seg-fault all the time any more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> CMS or G1 for my application are similar in performance. The killer is still a full stop the world pause when the heap is totally filled. Other wise G1 for beta.sparql.uniprot.org performs slightly better. On average lower memory utilisation and faster collection times. This is with a 30-100 GB heap on a 64 core machine.</comment>


Afrostream (YC S15) Is Netflix for African and African-American Movies - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/17/afrostream-is-netflix-for-african-and-african-american-movies/ <comment><USER2> I don't get how Netflix-of-$NICHE can be a long term business. It seems that once $NICHE-stream demonstrates sufficient demand, Netflix can simply license the same content and provide customers with a superset of the content that $NICHE-stream provides.

It's also unclear to me that Netflix is even lacking in this specific niche. My ex-girlfriend loved browsing my netflix over a VPN because it had so much of her african american comedy. (Admittedly, what she - an African woman - considered a good selection might be different from what westerners consider a good selection.)

In a _few_ cases, e.g. Parables ($NICHE=devout christians), I can see how they offer something different - they deliberately _exclude_ content (e.g., movies that offend christian sensibilities) that their members don't want. But that doesn't seem to apply here.

<comment><USER3> Hey, Thank you for the feedback :) I am Ludovic, Cofounder and CTO of Afrostream.

Netflix is big, that's sure, but as said in the thread, Netflix is like the big Three (ABC, NBC, CBS), and target the largest audience possible. And I am an avid client of Netflix too. They have an offer of African-American contents, even some African contents for sure. It's not complete. We have curated for one year some of the best and unseen African or African-descendant contents. Not only the Festival-sanctioned movies and series but also, the contents which are popular in local markets and that we are bringing to our customers. Seems to me that is more a segment than a niche, but I like to play a little with the words :)

Our vision here is double : to propose a large selection of african, african- american movies and tv series, first in France (I am French), and french spoken countries, in Europe and Africa, first. Netflix is not yet in Africa, so we have some technical challenges there, but we will be basically the first.

To propose the new african and african american positive characters to all : on that regards, our customers will not only be black

Do you know Drama Fever : the core of the Drama Fever is Asian contents, they have 3,5 millions active users. 80% of these users are non-Asian.

That's one of our goal : to let know that there is a diversity in movies, and that everybody could watch them with same pleasure

<comment><USER4> Your analogy breaks down though, because the big three channels could only air one show at a time. Netflix can license (or make) as many shows as they want without hurting their popular appeal.

Basically, if you're successful, there's nothing stopping Netflix from licensing the same shows as you. Since they're Netflix, they'll probably negotiate better content deals, have better recommendations, better mobile apps, more supported devices, etc.

Another danger is that Netflix has experience making their own shows. If your target audience looks enticing enough, Netflix can produce exclusive content to woo them over. They've already started doing this with anime (Knights of Sidonia).

All-in-all, this seems like a really tricky business to be in. I wish you luck.

<comment><USER3> I understood your point of view. Netflix is better than us now, that's a fact.

I personally don't think Netflix could be exhaustive in every way because the curation work is very important here, to satisfy every segment in the world. Netflix is not in Africa though,

Drama fever, Crunchyroll, viki.com did well in their segment. And we intend to be the best in ours.

<comment><USER5> I don't know about the others, but the thing that Crunchyroll does differently than Netflix is that it's a lot more like the Steam of Anime. Prior to Crunchyroll, it was _extremely_ common (still is, I think) for fans to simply download fan-subbed versions of content and the license holders wouldn't see any money until they were able to sign a deal with a distribution company that would later sell a series on disc.

Crunchyroll provides the immediacy of fansubs but with legitimacy and sees that license holders get paid something where they weren't getting paid anything.

Additionally, the type of content that Crunchyroll provides isn't necessarily something Netflix would go after, in that it is released on an episode by episode basis (in line with air dates in Japan) rather than all at once (as is the typical Netflix model) and that there is rarely dubbing (which most, though notably not all, Netflix anime has).

That said, Netflix has been seriously expanding their anime efforts. I really do wonder if Crunchyroll is going to be able to keep growing as Netflix expands its presence more and more.

All that said, the one thing I'm really not sure of is how long Netflix can continue to do more and more licensing deals and original content without increasing its subscription cost. In that respect, I think the iTunes model is a lot more stable (and I'm perfectly happy paying for close-to-airtime delivery I get for the shows I do watch through it).

My only gripe with paying for that content is that the price premium seems to be pretty high on iTunes given that the content has revocable DRM (then again, Apple is more likely to be around in this space for a long time than any of the other current players).

In summary: I think you _might_ be right, but it's definitely a pretty dynamic situation. Hope it goes well!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I must point out that such a service exist, and it's one of the most successful startups out of Africa. It's called Irokotv, and at best afrosteam is a clone of this service. I was quite surprised the techcrunch article nor anyone else didn't mention them, here's a 2013 article from techcrunch after Irokotv closed $8 million in another round of funding- [http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/17/the-scramble-for-africa- con...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/17/the-scramble-for-africa-continues- irokotv-closes-8m-to-be-the-netflix-of-africa/) Quite frankly, I am tired of the tag, Netflix of "insert region where Netflix doesn't operate" I would like to know if the founders of Afrostream will deny to being a clone of Irokotv

<comment><USER7> You're surprised that TC isn't plugged in to whats going on in Africa?

<comment><USER8> TC wrote about this other product in 2013, and didn't bother looking at their own past articles before writing this one.

<comment><USER9> Probably because nobody paid them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So, there are certainly valid questions about whether one can build a "Netflix-of-$NICHE", but I want to point to a lovely little example named Crunchyroll.

You can definitely succeed in a niche, provided you have some factors in your favor:

1\. An audience that is dedicated to the content you serve

2\. The ability to focus on the niche provides you a greater library than broader competitors have

3\. The ability to market yourself in such a way that you build reputation with the core audience

The end result is you can create a product that other people will pass up competing offerings for that might have broader appeal - or will simply subscribe to both.

Netflix used to be the go-to for Anime for a long period of time. However, Crunchyroll was able to provide a much more massive library of anime on-demand and catered to the dedicated fanbase.

<comment><USER11> I tried to watch an anime on there once. When I clicked play I got a preroll ad, fine. 30 seconds in, the same ad played again. I hope that's not normal because if it is I have no idea how people can stand it.

<comment><USER10> Totally not normal, thankfully.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> BET worked. CrunchyRoll worked. I think the service has a good chance of making it if there's demand in this niche and they focus on delivering where it's strongest. If they stream to U.S., too, we might also see some interesting movies and culture we'd otherwise not be exposed to. Regarding Netflix, they might compete but I doubt it given what the co-founder has said. More likely, a company like Netflix would acquire them to inherit and exploit the market they created. That's just my guess.

Good luck, Ludovic.

<comment><USER3> Thank you for your great feedback,

Seems Netflix is a big concern for a lot of people here. Since I am a subscriber to Netflix too, I think my first action is to unsubscribe soon to help us. Just kidding.

Netflix has some flaws too. And we intend to exploit them :) , let the fight begin

<comment><USER12> Haha. Stay a subscriber to Netflix so you can spot the strengths to copy and problems to avoid. Competitive intelligence for $7 a month is hard to beat. ;)

I think the biggest thing for you company, though, is to just put all your effort into getting operational where demand and connectivity are strongest. Don't worry about the others too much: you'll just get overstretched. Many projects have made that mistake. Just add them gradually over time.

<comment><USER3> Great advice I will keep in mind all the time, thank you :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Hi, I'm Tonjé BAKANG, founder and CEO I would be happy to answer all your questions.

T.

<comment><USER14> Hi! All the best for this!

One small question, why is the website in french? I think this product can have global audience, even better no?

<comment><USER15> French is the _lingua franca_ , after all. :)

<comment><USER3> ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm absolutely certain you're just buried with the existing work of just getting your new startup rolling with its original idea (African centric movies), so put this (somewhat obvious) suggestion on your "possible expansion ideas for maybe someday" list.

Something I find lacking on broadcast TV is news coverage of Africa. In the US, the only place where you'll find regular English language broadcast TV news coverage of Africa is, oddly enough, through CCTV ("China Central Television" via the Chinese government). Though it is already possible to get _some_ African news coverage over the web, news as a content source for your service might be a worthwhile addition.

According to CCTV coverage, African radio broadcasting is (supposedly) extremely popular and far more widespread than TV. The pervasive use of radio is (supposedly) due to radio being less expensive than TV and far more widely adopted by the general populace. The part I found the most interesting is how both pre-recorded and live serial drama, niche, and educational shows are still being broadcast in Africa over radio (along with the expected music, news, and talk shows). Though it's audio rather than video and there a many companies in the "African Internet Radio" business, radio might (eventually) be another appealing content source for you.

Good Luck!

</comment><comment><USER17> I wonder about the African part. African cultures, and languages, vary a lot. There is zero cultural crossover between Zulus, Marsai and Egyptians for example.

(I worked in Africa for a number of years)

<comment><USER3> Hello,

I am Ludovic, cofounder and CTO of Afrostream. You are right the "African culture" in two words, doesn't exist in fact.There are a lot of different cultures in Africa. Do you know that Nigeria is the second or third producers of movies and series (behind India, and sometimes, USA :) ) Ghana is very productive too. West Africa (Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Ivroy Coast...) have some interested movies too. Our goal is to show the difference, and to spread the word about these cultures.

<comment><USER18> How will you deal with language variety ? Original soundtrack in Xhosa ? Wolof with French subtitles ? How would anyone even subtitle Nouchi in English ? Dubbed with more care than your average Nollywood cookie-cutter family drama ? Or dubbed like a cheap telenovella ? Multiple audio & sub options ? You contract the post-production yourself ? Je wanda grave !

<comment><USER3> We are working with some people all over the world for subtitling and dubbing.

We will not dub massively, we prefer people discover contents in their original format, with subtitles in their languages. we will dub in certain cases, though, with the good people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think one great thing about this is exposing non Africans to African content.

It will allow Americans (and others in the world) to learn more about actual modern African cultures. People might be surprised, hopefully not, how middle class Africans are not that different from middle classes of other ethnicities. Sure, there will be some cultural difference and there will be an accusation of Nigerian cultural imperialism, as their programming dominates, but so does Mexican culture on the rest of LatAm.

The programming may even prove to offer more authentic and aspirational programing to blacks everywhere bypassing hollywoods imprimatur --which can only be good.

<comment><USER20> That's optimistic. I don't hear about many non-Latino Americans watching Univision...

<comment><USER19> That's because it's in Spanish....

Lots of African content is in English or french or with subs.

Plus, black Americans might be interested in programming from African countries, there is a historical connection, most non latams in the us have their own native programming from Hollywood, so there is no void to be filled by Univision. They are filling the void for latams in the us, however. Still Univision mostly presents Mexican content while latam is much larger than just Mexico.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I did an Ask HN over 500 days ago wondering why there weren't any specialized Netflix sites. It didn't get a lot of traction though there were a few answers.

I'm still waiting for a foreign film 'Netflix'...one day.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6972071](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6972071)

<comment><USER22> try mubi.com, it has a good selection of foreign films. It 'stocks' 30 films with one being taken up/down everyday, so there anyways something new to watch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> The african channel that does not work in most of africa :-) No, I know it's hard to secure rights everywhere, but no streaming service works in _my_ parts of africa.

<comment><USER3> Hey, I am Ludovic, Cofounder and CTO of Afrostream, You are right, there are some technical challenges here. I don't know where you live exactly. We will not launch in all the continents now, there is no sense here. We are working with some Internet and mobile providers to facilitate access to Afrostream. Mobile is the key word here : people have access to cheap android smartphones, and there will be a lot of deployment of 3G and 4G Networks in the months to come.

Where do you live in Africa exactly ?

<comment><USER23> South Africa. I know the whatever organization is licensing content here is hostile enough that most people just don't bother.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Would pay for Netflix for Asian movies. They have some quite incredible flicks there, but without the language knowledge it's often hard to get access to them.

<comment><USER3> Drama Fever and Viki.com could be your weekend friends

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> isn't it racist to clump Egyptian, south african, etc culture in the same genre just because of a continent or skin colour?

also, will it feature "zulu (1964)"? Or are we going to have random values besides the continent-culture-clumping thing?

<comment><USER26> Why is it racist to showcase African media? The founders readily admit in this thread that they are trying to get more exposure for all African cultures, not some African monoculture.

<comment><USER27> It is not racism. It is (positive) discrimination.

If we keep everything the same, but target a different demographic this service could be called: WhiteStream, a Netflix for whites and white-culture movies.

"The persuit of happiness" is classified as an Afro-American movie. Why is that? Does it portray black culture? Or is it because one or more actors have a black skin? I think it is the latter, because the theme from the movie is universal and transcends race.

James Bond is a hero, not because he is white, but because of his actions. Asking why there is no black James Bond is forcing race on an old fictitious English character (why do you care about the skin color of your heroes?). How to classify Morgan Freeman movies on the Afro-American scale? Add "Driving Miss Daisy" to the catalog, but leave out "Evan Almighty"?

"I'm going to stop calling you a white man. And, I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace and you know me as Morgan Freeman. You don't say, "Well, ahem! This white guy named Mike Wallace." You don't say it."

<comment><USER3> I love Morgan Freeman by the way. A man who played a president of the USA, and God multiple times, is exactly what you need to show everywhere, not only on Afrostream

Is it positive discrimination ? Since there is a political implication there, I don't think so, but I will try to answer.

Do you know the movie "Ride Along" ? It did more than 100M$ in the American market for a budget of 25M$. This movie has one of the best start of any movie all time in January.

Do you know how we could see this movie outside USA. Not in a movie theater in France, though. Piracy is the first channel to see african-american movies in Europe and Africa.

Some movies are not well distributed and it appears so that a lot of these movies are from or with an African descent castings. That's not fair. We will correct this fact. And if you want to call this positive discrimination, why not.

Afrostream is a service which will permit to show movies which are not shown in a lot of countries in a legal way. That's our political statement.

<comment><USER25> > Afrostream is a service which will permit to show movies which are not shown > in a lot of countries in a legal way. That's our political statement.

this is my gripe with positive discrimination. it is still discrimination.

you could have been embracing everyone. but you did the same that was being done before, and picked the single second largest group. why not call it low- budget-movies-netflix. or hard-to-watch-in-france-netflix? why pick one group/race and leave others out? that is just ...bad business practice :) you could have been streaming iranian movies as well, for example.

<comment><USER3> You give me an idea with iranian movies ;)

you don't understand my point here : We do not do a service for specific people, we do a service with specific contents.

I will try with another argument : Tyler Perry is one the most prominent performer of the USA. He did movies, series, theater. All successful. He is maybe the most complete artist in the USA. These productions were distributed in the USA. You can't find these production in France by example, but either in a lot of countries. Why ?

Afrostream's goal here is to distribute Tyler Perry and other talents all over the world. As I said, I don't know if this is positive dsicrimination, but Afrostream is my political statement to this 'Why'

<comment><USER25> so you think it's valid that the racist movie distribution industry in France only distribute non-African culture (whatever that is) movies? i mean, by your standard, limiting by skin color is doing a service to someone...

<comment><USER3> The problem here is that movies with black people (as we said in France, we need to call a cat a cat, we need to define clearly the skin here), had to be seen everywhere, not only in France, because that's why the movies need to be : to watch by the most. And that's what we are doing, making exposure to underserved movies. And we are doing even in some underserved countries

We don't need to deal with racism, we want to tackle it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why AI will break capitalism - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@HenryInnis/why-ai-will-break-capitalism-14a6ad2f76da#.a0fk31nab <comment><USER3> It depends on human ego who the win - capitalism, socialism or whatever.. But in this days we all servants, aren't we?

</comment><comment><USER4> When he posited the Luddites had a point he lost. AI is not going to endanger capitalism. Maybe someday a better system will be invented to replace it - <USER2> it won't be Socialism.

<comment><USER5> One of my favorite quotes I think is relevant to this whole business of capitalism as good/bad/whatever:

"Capitalism is not a system, it's a word invented by some 19th century hipster to describe a situation where people freely buy and sell things" -abbreviated and author unknown

Point being capitalism is not a system....it is THE natural system. All else is a hinderance to it.

<comment><AUTHOR> If it is the "natural system" why did it emerge only in the 19th century after thousand of years of societies ruled by feudalism and other systems?

<comment><USER6> Capitalism isn't a system of governance. There was capitalism going on during feudalism, and every other sort of government and society.

<comment><AUTHOR> Capitalism was not the dominant form of order, status or distribution of wealth in feudalistic socities. For your well-being it was more important in which status group you were born in than what you abilities were. As a member of nobility you did not work or were productive and lived very good as a rent seeker.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to Smize (Smile with Your Eyes) When You're Wearing a Mask - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/smize-mask-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-tyra-banks-reopen-restaurants-11598463705 <comment><USER2> Even without a mask, looking at the eyes is the best way to tell if a smile is real or fake.

A fake smile will involve only the mouth, whereas a real smile will also involve the cheeks and the corners of the eyes. And the latter part can also be seen when you are wearing a mask.

People who know about fake smiles and who want to project a real smile, won't have any problem "smizing", because they're already doing it.

People who don't care about smiling at all, or who actively hate it, are welcome to look down their nose at "smizing".

</comment><comment><USER3> This makes me sick. I don't want to live in a world where we need to "smize" (barf)</comment>


Ask HN: Friendly Introduction to State Machines? - <AUTHOR>

Do you guys know a good introduction to State Machines.
I need something that starts from the point of view of a practicing programmer and helps me to finally understando the Mathematics.
TIA <comment><USER2> Two interesting beginner posts: [http://www.skorks.com/2011/09/why-developers- never-use-state...](http://www.skorks.com/2011/09/why-developers-never-use- state-machines/) [http://www.shopify.com/technology/3383012-why-developers- sho...](http://www.shopify.com/technology/3383012-why-developers-should-be- force-fed-state-machines)

And a more dense and complete beginner friendly article: <http://ai- depot.com/FiniteStateMachines/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Simple state machines don't really have a lot of math behind them. Just a diagram of states and state transitions. The only time math comes into it is if you need to prove something about them, then your general graph algorithms should be able to take care of it. You can whip up all the code you need for a state machine in less than a page of code, there really isn't much to them.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2950348></comment>


Ask HN: Why is HN Christmas theme using the deprecated font tag? - dan-silver <comment><AUTHOR> ASK OP: is your life significantly improved if they use a proper standards compliant tag for their festive buttons, or did you just think picking a nerd fight on christmas was just an awesome thing to do?

<comment><USER2> Excellent question that gets right to the crux of the issue

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Because it works.

<comment><USER4> I like this response.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Its not deprecated. Its... traditional!

<comment><USER6> And a memorable sunset.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Every day is Christmas when it comes to HN using the font tag.

</comment><comment><USER8> Today is the first day I've looked at the HTML for Hacker News. I feel like I've stepped into a time machine.

<comment> iso8859-1 Goes to show that you can be mobile friendly even with table based layouts! This is one argument against that I heard.

<comment><USER9> I'd hardly call hacker news "mobile friendly". It's almost a cruel joke how unfriendly it is on mobile devices.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I logged in and saw the red and got scared. I thought I was banned for a minute there. But it works.. I like it :)

<comment><USER11> I thought the same thing!</comment></comment>


RethinkDB 1.5: secondary indexes, batched inserts, much more - <AUTHOR> http://rethinkdb.com/blog/1.5-release/

<comment><USER2> "The 1.5 release includes support for relaxed durability (off by default, of course)."

Zing ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> Looking forward to Mongodb vs Rethinkdb (no reply writes) benchmark.

Also the secondary-indexes faq link is partially broken (doesn't scroll to the right part). (firefox is broken, chrome works)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, the faq scrolls correctly for me, but I'll double check.

We're actually really excited now that we're at a point where we can do apples-to-apples benchmarks. I'm really looking forward seeing the results.

<comment><USER3> doesn't scroll on firefox.21.windows7 works on chrome</comment></comment></comment>


How can NodeJS be "non-blocking"? - <AUTHOR> http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/201996/how-can-nodejs-be-non-blocking

<comment><USER2> How does this compare to say, php/apache?</comment>


Egypt: The Next India or the Next Pakistan? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/friedman-egypt-the-next-india-or-the-next-pakista-.html?_r=0

<comment><USER2> I wonder if something else can be said.

Egyptians are almost twice as wealthy as Pakistani's or Indians. Either of these directions would terrify the Egyptian people who are not used to that level poverty. Egypt's own fiscal cliff is worrying many residents. I think the winner will be the person who can promise stability - and stability is not possible without concessions to secular forces within Egypt.

I see something like Mubarak reappearing, it is not unreasonable to say that Egyptians aren't ready for western democracy - especially considering the grievous financial condition of their government.

A successful politician in Egypt will unite stabilizing and not revolutionary forces to solve the economic discontent.

<comment><USER3> Iam afraid,d It is also likely that economic discontent will grow with increased population and similarly competing neighbors. All those countries will find equilibrium at a steady destabilized state.

<comment><USER4> That is an example of delusional thinking aided by poor access to real media. Egypt is and has been almost entirely dependent on foreign aid. India has always been independent. And in per capita terms Egypt is not richer than India. However, like Pakistanis you can continue to dream of the days when your population was much smaller and people lived happily in poverty. Times have changed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well, this is crap.

I live in Tunisia and we have the equivalent political party in power (Renaissance party). It turns out they used religion to attract voters.

It's clear, a year later, that they are here for power and money. For instance, they are putting around $1bn in indemnity for former prisoners. I admit they should be compensated for their losses especially if it's caused by the former regime injustice, but I don't believe the economy can handle that much. So we might end up breaking the whole economy for a bunch of jerks.

What amazes me about the new gov. is how economically illiterate their members are. You can see them driving us straight into the wall. For instance, you can't find milk or potatoes in the stores. And also, there are no available new cars in the market. Next availability is 6 months later.

</comment><comment><USER6> Author has no clue about what is Democracy and what is secularism. A country can be democratic but not a secularism. Democracy means people chose their own govt(Pakistan is also same). Secularism means religion does not matter for the jobs.

<comment><USER6> "For India to appoint a Muslim to be the chief of the country's intelligence service is a big, big deal." - This is not true. 6 years back Indian president was a Muslim. So in India all it matters is talent not religion.

<comment><USER7> So please explain this <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Mumbai_bombings> ?

<comment><USER6> Indian intelligence failed to stop them. This is nothing to do with being democracy or not. There is 9/11 in USA too.

<comment><USER7> What democracy has to do with that sentence at all? We are speaking about religious tension in countries and how it is handled in India and other countries. As well noting that India is doing better here.

<comment><USER6> Exactly my point. It is nothing to do with democracy or secularism, what is your point in mentioning bomb blasts. Entire world is suffering with islam terrorism, unless they are muslim states.

<comment><USER7> My point is that author is correct pointing that while Muslim has chances to take important positions in government in India that's not common and naturally accepted thing. I found article reasonably weighted and thought out and found strange to see that first comments to be completely not-insightful and not-contributing anything valuable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This article seems calculated to cause maximum distress on HN.

1) Involves both religion and specifically both India and Muslims, and Arabs 2) Written by an abject moron (Thomas Friedman) 3) Speculates vacuously about the future, with no actual facts, inviting arbitrary speculation and axe- grinding. 4) Includes references to both terrorism and politics.

He should have worked in a Python vs. Rails vs. Haskell vs. PHP thing, and a bootstrapped vs. VC funded argument, though.

</comment><comment><USER4> I am an Indian woman and have actually lived in Cairo for 3 years. Lovely people, lovely time. However let us face it, neither Pakistanis nor Egyptians would like to be compared to India because a) belief in their racial superiority (Egyptians"we are white") (Pakistanis -they are darker than us). B. the news about India;s growth has not trickled into these countries, with a very repressed media. Once we take this away, it boils down to the question: will the Egyptian revolutions end up in dictatorship and religious fundamentalism like Pakistan or will it strive towards democracy for the next 100 years and so on...Remember the democratic movement in the UK started 600 years ago. And by the way, the poverty and lack of opportunity I have seen in Egypt was worse than India, because there was practically no mobility. The districts were no go zones. Cairo was a show case as were the tourist areas, other than that, people are trapped economically.

</comment><comment><USER9> Egypt has oil, very thin water supply and enormous population growth rate. Corruption is massive. It is similar to Arab countries not to India and Pakistan. Go and see for yourself.

<comment><USER10> > It is similar to Arab countries

Egypt is an Arab country - the biggest and most influential Arab country, located in the center of the Arab world. Saying Egypt is similar to Arab countries is like saying France is similar to European countries.

<comment><USER6> I think what he meant is, Egypt is going to become muslim state like other arab countries, instead of Pakistan. It does not make sense to compare it with India since India is mix of lot of religions(Hindu, Xstianity, Budhism, Sikh, Islam, Jain) and has high tolerance for religion freedom.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> India has ~0.83 billion Hindus (~1.2 billion total population), the rest of the ~0.4 billion people are Muslims, Christians, Jains, Parsis, etc. As such we have always had people of different faiths (not just Islam) in various positions of power and responsibility. I don't see (from the article) what democracy in India has anything to us electing a person of Hindu/Muslim/any other religion faith into a position of power.

</comment><comment><USER12> Egypt has one of the most educated populations on the planet, thanks to an old and large education system. I'm very optimistic of their future as a country.

This article reads like someone transcribed talk radio.

</comment><comment><USER13> Judgemental comments are not very well received on HN, still there's just one thing I've to say about this article - "the author has no idea wheat he is talking about".

He seems to be ignorant of India[1] has a democracy, a republic and he also seems to be a regular reader at those forums which often churns out hate comments and incorrect and whimsical outbursts.

[1]I cannot say the same about Pakistan as I do not live there.

<comment><USER14> I don't understand, but what exactly is your problem with the article? I couldn't find anything where he so much as indicated that India isn't a democracy or a republic. He speaks very highly of India.

<comment><USER13> I didn't question whether he question that. It's _the way_ he describes India _as a_ "democracy" and a "republic".

Please note italicized phrases. Those are my peeves. You can go through my comments again, of course.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think it is the British who deserve credit for the 1937 The Muslim Personal Law Application Act which simply confirms existing Islamic/Koranic traditions, while they also insisted that the Hindus would finally agree to unambiguously codifying the Dharmasastra. Even though I am definitely not a fan of colonization, I must admit that the British administration did a superb job in preemptively demining the situation well in advance.

<comment><USER16> I think it was because the Hindus preferred "church-state" separation, meaning _not_ to codify Dharmashastra. Muslims didn't want a secular law, so a Muslim- specific law was created for them.

<comment><USER15> Well, the Brits seemed to have been smarter than to create a new law. The Brits just confirmed the existing law. Of course, the Brits were interested in peace, quiet, order, and efficient exploitation, so I understand their motivations too ;-)</comment></comment></comment>


Changing our legal entity from Ltd to GmbH - <AUTHOR> https://transloadit.com/blog/2019/03/changing-our-legal-entity/ <comment><USER2> British limited companies have been tremendously popular across the EU because they are so simple and cheap to setup and manage.

The UK is really hurting itself with Brexit here.

Of course, why other EU countries make it so onerous to setup a company is another issue...

> It would require a far lower initial investment (300 GBP vs. 25,000 EURO)

The minimum capital investment to setup a limited company is £1. Perhaps they are including other fees to get to £300. Effectively the only cash that has to be paid is the fee (about £20) and it can be done in minutes online...

<comment><USER3> Since they founded in 2012, they could also have created a German Unternehmergesellschaft, which starts with 1€ capital too, and "grows" into a GmbH (25% of net income have to be added to the company investment, until the 25k€ threshold is reached, at which point the company can convert). Since those were introduced, Ltd. has become a lot less common for German founders.

<comment><USER2> I still don't understand this complexity.

Be bold. Slash requirements and red tape instead of adding another layer.

<comment><USER3> GmbH is a limited company: it protects the owners legally, in exchange it's required to actually have some assets that can be used to pay claims, and some investment from the owners into it. The UG was added as an easier path into that: you don't need the capital right now, but already gain the protection, in exchange the different label broadcasts that to everyone you're doing business with.

Unlimited companies come without those restrictions on founding them. It's a tradeoff: harder requirements in exchange for protection.

<comment><USER2> That does not explain the reason for making things complicated.

British limited companies are extremely simple and cheap: Minimal capital requirements (£1), protection, and minimal red tape and fees (as said, minutes to create one online and £20).

I fail to find a valid reason to have it differently.

<comment><USER3> The assumption that limited companies without requirements make it to easy to abuse that protection (decreasing trust in companies with that status), and that thus there's value in signaling through the company status that it has at least something backing it up.

Clearly only having GmbHs didn't meet demand, since quite a few people went for british Ltds despite them having a bad reputation, so a native replacement for those was created.

<comment><USER2> In the real world nothing guarantees that a company is solvent.

> went for british Ltds despite them having a bad reputation

Cheap shot there. They don't have a bad reputation, assuming that claiming that companies from one of the main economies in the world have "bad reputation" makes any sense at all.

The reason people go for them is that most other European countries make it onerous to setup a company, while the UK does not see any reason to make it difficult.

Requiring €25k shuts the door to many people who would like to setup their own small business, for example.

<comment><USER3> It's not a cheap shot, it was reality, especially in B2B contexts, that if your new, clearly German, company was a foreign limited instead one of the native ones that was seen as problematic by some customers (obviously depending on the field etc. too)

And again, the rates of German Ltds. have gone down massively with the creation of the UG, so clearly that policy correction is working and not seen as overly onerous. (although lots of small companies also operate as unlimited companies)

<comment><USER2> > And again, the rates of German Ltds. have gone down massively with the > creation of the UG, so clearly it's working and not seen as overly onerous.

My point is that UG create another layer instead of simplifying GmbH, which they refuse to do. From what you said UG still force you into GmbH: "25% of net income have to be added to the company investment, until the 25k€ threshold is reached". That's still quite onerous.

I think this is cultural. In the Anglo-sphere, the culture is much more one of laisser-faire. Other culture are much more fearful of any financial risk.

At the end of the day, though, on this I think the UK has it right: Make it as easy as possible for people to start a business. There is no downside.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Does college GPA matter? - <AUTHOR>

High School students, of course, have college applications to worry about while considering the value of GPA. However, once in college, is there any reason to fret over poor grades? Is employment the only justification?
Personally, I love learning, but hate having my knowledge evaluated without cause. And, as a HS student, I'm at a critical point deciding whether or not university is a good fit for me. From my perspective, it seems that I might as well design my own (free) curriculum with MOOCS, internships, and self-motivated projects. On the other hand, though, if GPA struggles aren't mandatory in college, I could simply ignore material without purpose, replacing the workload with time to pursue my own interests.
FYI: I'll be a life long learner regardless of college. As said by our beloved physicist, "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." <comment><USER2> Depends on your goals. As an autodidact myself who has spent 8/9 years as a software developer and now a couple years as a data analyst/scientist with but a high school education I can tell you either way can lead you to great things. It should be noted that I'm now enrolled in school however and pursuing my bachelors with an eventual goal of getting my master's degree.

Why? Three things:

One is credibility. I notice myself referencing that different people have their masters in a topic and it means something to me.

Two is that college has forced me to learn things I don't care about.

Three is that building a curriculum around topics I don't know is extremely hard as is spending a budgeted amount of time on it and objectively measuring whether or not I learned anything.

The quote you posted is nonsense. The only thing that interferes with your learning is your pride.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not as much as many would have you believe, though aiming for A/B grades in your core curricula would be a good thing generally. In many colleges with grade inflation (and this particularly includes more selective schools), anything less than a 'B' is pretty much the mark of death. In engineering or STEM programs, it's not unusual for the median grade in and early "weeder" course to be a D or F.

In many cases, what a high GPA shows is that you've got a highly developed ability to get along with the system. For positions in which that's important, you'll get higher consideration than someone with a lower GPA.

There are a lot of observations about how grades don't correlate well with innate ability. There are several well-known cases of highly successful tech entrepreneurs who'd dropped out of college (Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg). Though I can also think of many who've completed undergrad or advanced-degree programs as well. Robert Pirsig in _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ notes that his best students (he was a college professor for a time) got the worst grades. Of course, the _worst_ students did as well, so don't be guided by false equivalence. My experience is that if you're actively and directly questioning material, you may well find your nominal academic performance suffers for it.

For tech in particular, execution matters far more than GPA, and having a solid project or projects under your belt will amount for far more than a high GPA. I know and have worked with many people who lack a formal college degree but who were absolutely brilliant in their work. Sadly, the lack of degree _can_ limit opportunities and/or upward mobility in many firms, though this may change, particularly with recent trends in college costs and financing.

</comment><comment><USER4> Myself and some of my friends fretted over grades in college a lot more than we should have.

You should aim for a 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale. If you're going for a particularly tough job, maybe 3.8. Less than a 3.5 cuts out a lot of more competitive companies, and less than a 3.0 is pretty much death unless you have a very good reason (this assumes you can get past the HR filters).

What will a 4.0/4.0 get you? Basically nothing, except for some extra bragging rights. My graduating CS semester only had about 5 or 7 people who had a 4.0, but most of us had job offers prior to leaving college. GPA will count for your first or second job out of college, then not matter as much.

Note, I went to a top 10 school for computer science. You may have to scale this somewhat if your school isn't as "rigorous" according to the biases of your interviewers.

</comment><comment><USER5> I had a near perfect undergrad GPA and did well ... but so did many friends with B averages. It makes getting into grad school easy. But grad school probably hurt my career than helping it. Google supposedly cares about GPA but I've never managed to get an offer from them. So GPA isn't everything.

</comment><comment><USER6> I cared about my GPA in college because I was relying on scholarships to help me get through. I think generally, your first job out of college probably cares about your GPA, but after the first one, you can take it off the resume.

</comment><comment><USER7> The answer is the following:

Yes, such that you should probably try hard enough that it doesn't accidentally hurt your chances in the future, but not as much that it should despair you from always improving yourself.</comment>


A Call For Web Developers To Deprecate Their CSS - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/cool-code-pal/1f6430781393

<comment><USER2> I honestly cannot tell if this is a trolling post.

^ _Are you a web developer? Of course you are, this is Medium._

From what I understand, most web developers don't use Medium. They make their own blog/website.

^ _California Style Sheets are a standard..._

California? Really?

^ _This Node code takes up only 2 lines and there are 0 spaces. Essentially, we are saving lines, spaces, and files (delete your .css documents!)._

CSS can be minified to be one line and no spaces.

<comment><USER3> Man, it's a troll post, but it might be a little too meta for even the biggest HN fiend with potential shot at Gulp vs Grunt?

document.getElementById('gulp').style.color='#00f'; document.getElementById('gulp').style.padding='10px';

I have no idea, I thought I hated the post, but now I seem to like it for its absolute strangeness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice troll :D</comment>


False Start's sad demise: Google abandons noble attempt to make SSL less painful - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/04/google-abandons-noble-experiment-to-make-ssl-less-painful.ars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+Featured+Content%29 <comment><USER2> False Start is conceptually somewhat similar to T/TCP, in that it allows data to be pipelined with control traffic.

Specifically: False Start instructs clients to release data to the server before both sides of a TLS connection exchange FINISHED messages. Those FINISHED messages authenticate the control messages in the handshake, so the client is giving up some data without being sure that all the handshake messages were authentic.

A MITM attacker can in theory exploit this to get a client to cough up data under the rules & assumptions of earlier versions of the protocol or less secure / different ciphersuites. For instance, there was some question as to whether False Start would enable an attacker to knock a TLS session down to TLS 1.0 long enough for an attacker to get cookies with the BEAST CBC IV reuse problem.

As I understand it, there's no smoking-gun problem with False Start. I also don't think the security tradeoffs have anything to do with its market failure! But the performance win also might not have been worth the disruption. False Start gets TLS down to 1 RTT before data, but TLS resumed sessions are already 1 RTT before data.

<comment><USER3> I explained some of these security issues in a recent talk on False Start and Snap Start (which was withdrawn from IETF for other reasons).

[http://rdist.root.org/2012/02/27/ssl-optimization-and- securi...](http://rdist.root.org/2012/02/27/ssl-optimization-and-security- talk/)

What's interesting to me about Adam's post is how fragile protocol implementations are in appliance-type devices. Of course, having seen the internals of other similar devices, I'm not surprised, but the parallels to consumer electronics are surprising, given the critical nature of these network appliances.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Langley went on to say he has experienced similar problems getting manufacturers of SSL products to make changes that protect against an exploit demonstrated in September known as BEAST..."

Not sure who he is referring to when he says "manufacturers of SSL products," but it seems damn near impossible to get everyone deploying SSL to fix mixed content vulnerabilities.

Maybe diverse markets with lots of players just can't do security.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why not accept a special header similar to "Strict-Transport-Security"? Let it be X-False-Start and for following requests False Start would be enabled for that site.

<comment><USER6> As far as opt-in solutions go, the NPN TLS option is simpler. Though large sites might prefer to go all the way and deploy SPDY.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> compatible "with well over 99 percent" and Google is bailing because of the remaining incompatible sites????

<comment><USER2> A10 Networks, Brocade, and F5 (in some configurations) all had problems with False Start.

On the other hand, these terminators also have problems with the split-first- record fix to the TLS 1.0 BEAST vulnerability, and that problem has to get fixed.

<comment><USER8> _On the other hand, these terminators also have problems with the split-first- record fix to the TLS 1.0 BEAST vulnerability, and that problem has to get fixed._

Do you know if Google is going back on that as well? Can't tell from the article.

<comment><USER2> Not sure how you'd "go back on that". It's a vulnerability; it needs to be addressed.

<comment><USER8> If it breaks websites that your users _require_ to work, like their bank, of course you can and must go back, security issues be damned.

Google postponed BEAST mitigation several times because of this issue. I'm asking if they're reigning back on that or only on false start.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why not a DNS TXT record to enable? The TLS method seems so much more complicated.

<comment><USER2> If your goal is to cut RTTs out of a transaction, does moving an RTT from TLS to DNS help?

<comment><USER10> To be fair to herf, ANY queries might produce this information in one query. (Then again, they might silently omit all or part of the answer. Also, querying "bare" domains like example.org will produce unneeded records like SOA/NS/MX.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> oh they found it hard so gave up - as some one who used to work with OSI protocols ad having looked at some the google proposed standards it doesn't surprise me.</comment>


Show HN: Demo Remote – a live coding demos snippet manager - <AUTHOR> https://patmurray.co/projects/demo-remote/ <comment><USER2> not available on Android..</comment>


My Name is E releases iPhone app to kill the business card - <AUTHOR> http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/07/30/my-name-is-e-releases-iphone-app-to-kill-the-business-card/ <comment><USER2> Before I even read this article, how can you "kill the business card" with an iPhone App when the percentage of business iPhone users is less than overwhelming?

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't know enough about the internals of the iPhone, but can it actually tell which recipient phone the sending phone was flicked towards?

<comment><USER4> Yes, that just seemed like a PR gimmick. Given the current hardware, if I have two other iPhone users near me, and I flick at one of them, how does that work? Doesn't seem like the compass would be accurate enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I haven't got an iPhone. Instant fail.</comment>


Why I Hate Instagram - <AUTHOR> http://uk.queryclick.com/en/seo-news/why-i-hate-instagram/

<comment><USER2> There are a lot of people who take great pictures and upload them to Instagram. Yes there are people who think the filter makes the picture. No, you are not compelled to follow them.</comment>


Ask HN: what are the most promising startups in e-commerce? - <AUTHOR>

Hi,<p>I have a simple question: what are the most promising startups in e-commerce? What do you think? <comment><USER2> two different kids of startups:

1\. Ones that empower ecomerce, by building the infratructure for it 2\. Ones that are actual ecommerce websites and sell directly to the consumer

If you are talking about commerce in general: stripe, gumroad,

Etsy, Fab, are doing well selling directly to consumers.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm not sure I'd call them a startup, but the first company that sprang to mind was Shopify.

</comment><comment><USER4> Although I can't use it myself (I am European), Stripe.com, an API to accept payments.

</comment><comment><USER5> square shopify</comment>


NH judge orders Amazon to give Echo recordings in murder case - <AUTHOR> https://www.wmur.com/article/nh-judge-orders-amazon-to-give-echo-recordings-in-double-homicide-case/24893714 <comment><AUTHOR> I know that this article itself doesn't have much content but I'm interested in what the police are actually requesting, and what they end up getting. Do they assume/suspect that Echo/Amazon continuously records and logs audio, akin to a security camera? Or do they have evidence that Echo was actually activated around the time of the murders, or afterwards by the suspect himself?

I was also interested in this quote:

> _" I think most people probably don't even realize that Alexa is taking > account of what's going on in your house, in addition to responding to your > demands and commands," said Albert Scherr, a professor at the University of > New Hampshire School of Law._

What is it that users don't realize? Anecdotally, just about everyone I know who has refused to have an Echo do so because they believe Echo is doing far more surreptitious surveillance and analysis, i.e. not just listening for the trigger word. Though I'm sure most users don't realize that when Alexa does trigger, she sends the audio to the Amazon mothership, which are then stored/analyzed for an indefinite time. Though most people don't realize the most basic things about data, like how when you friend someone on FB, FB actually stores a log of your friends, and any other kind of stated interaction, such as the users you've blocked

<comment><USER2> I sincerely doubt people don't realise that anything after the trigger is sent home, since a "feature" of alexa is that the app let you see each request you made, how alexa answered, and let them know if she got it wrong.

I think it's more a case of "don't care" / "don't realize the risks"

<comment><USER3> People perhaps assume all audio is processed locally and/or isn't stored except ephemerally.

I'd imagine there's a default "we store your data for AI training purposes" that would allow them to keep all audio.

<comment><USER4> > People perhaps assume all audio is processed locally and/or isn't stored > except ephemerally.

Is there info on this from Amazon? I'd assume they do what you mention, have the speech recognition in the Alexa and just send up the words, not the entire audio stream.

Interesting implication of that in this case: if the actual audio is gone and you just have the transcription, is that valid as evidence? Or is it something closer to hearsay

<comment><USER5> It's cloud based. The device recognizes the wake-word offline and starts streaming to the recognition service. You can access a log of recordings through the app, so they are kept at least for a while.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I still don't understand why this is possible.

I've frequently seen the claim that an Echo only records brief snippets, looking for the wake word.

If that's so, there's next to nothing for Amazon to hand over.

<comment><USER7> It's not possible. This is a classic example of the legal system confusing reality with science fiction.

You can monitor Echo itself over your network and quickly realize that it's not sending a constant stream of voice data. For the most part the device is off until it hears its name.

<comment><USER8> Maybe they're hoping one of the parties involved yelled "Alexa!" as the crime was taking place. /s

<comment><USER9> Alexa, call the police! #### is here, and he's trying to hurt me!

Seems like a pretty good use for a voice-activated service.

"Alexa, lock the doors!" also sounds useful in this context.

<comment><USER10> Attacker: Alexa unlock the door for me.

<comment><USER11> I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> My company responds to subpoenas with a wiki article on how client side encryption works

<comment><USER13> This is a glib and unhelpful response. Does your company potentially have access to data that may be useful in a legal investigation? Do you provide server side voice recognition services as accurate as Alexa/Google?

My company would respond to a similar subpoena by explaining that we make archery bows from wood. That also doesn't add anything to the HN discussion.

<comment><USER14> > My company would respond to a similar subpoena by explaining that we make > archery bows from wood. That also doesn't add anything to the HN discussion.

I believe your parent's comment is relevant to this HN discussion, quite unlike your company's occupation. Your parent's comment suggests their company's users upload data (albeit encrypted client-side) to the company, so a judge could — without an understanding of client-side encryption — reasonably subpoena the company for user data. Compared to that, it is quite unlikely a judge would mistake a company that makes wooden archery bows for a company that collects much user data, or believe that the former fact has much to do with the latter supposition.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Can you replace the link with this one? [https://apnews.com/ebe802c103d64412aaef707e8719e946](https://apnews.com/ebe802c103d64412aaef707e8719e946)

The existing link is a spamfest.

<comment><USER16> The existing link is also blocked in Germany. Your link, however, functions.

<comment> em-bee rather i guess the site is blocking access from europe because of the GDPR

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I don't see what the problem is here. Amazon is required to just send some files to the court which is fine.

It's not like the iphone case where FBI wanted a sort of permanent backdoor that could be used for everyone.

If a murder happened in your house, the police should receive your echo logs from amazon.

</comment><comment><USER18> Somebody or other's rule of action/expectation: If they can, they will.

The only brake is significant enough fear of repercussions to themselves.

I guess now I should RTFA. But seriously, put a monitoring device in your home ("Smart TV's, too; whatever), and it will be monitored.

P.S. I hope I don't sound callous about the particular circumstance. Just, from an HN perspective, I think of more and ubiquitous technological oversight. And when I think e.g. of insurance companies measuring every last thing I do...

</comment><comment><USER19> Where is the limit between the right to privacy and the need to help justice? Is the right to privacy immutable?

</comment><comment><USER20> > Sorry, this content is not available in your region.

</comment><comment><USER21> In a surprise to no one, recording devices installed in users' homes have recordings used in a court of law against the homeowner.

In a surprise to no one, the third party doctrine means a warrant isn't even required to demand these recordings from the cloud provider.

In a surprise to no one, the NSA can intercept these recordings (and associated speech to text transcripts), load all the associated data into their monster correlation engine, mine the shit out of it, and say they didn't "collect" anything because they haven't actually put a bag over your head, driven you to a black site, and waterboarded you. Yet.

<comment><USER22> And people looked at you like you were an absolute raving loon if you tried to explain the architecture of the ECHELON program, 15 years ago. Now who's laughing...

I encourage everyone who is not familiar with them to read all of James Bamford's books on the NSA. And Robert Baer's books on the CIA.

<comment><USER21> But why make the government pay for it, when users will go on Amazon.com and pay to install their very own personal cloud home listening devices all by themselves?!

<comment><USER23> They're insignificant in all of this compared to smartphones.

<comment><USER24> This is what I was thinking as well. Slowly creep until they have to power to turn on a persons phone at will to look and listen.

<comment><USER25> I once drew the ire of a large private security company and could have sworn they had the ability to listen to my cell phone microphone

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> > Sorry, this content is not available in your region.

Aka: "We're not gonna adhere to privacy shit."

<comment><USER27> Or "we're not interested in being regulated by a foreign government".

<comment><USER28> Is there such thing as foreign in the internet? Can you choose to just not adhere to a law that protects the users? If the law was unfair it would be fair to resist, though.

<comment><USER29> Yes, there is such a thing as "foreign" on the Internet, a fact that has been dramatically demonstrated by China and North Korea, and also less dramatically by America (copyrights) and Europe (copyrights and privacy regulations). It is easy to forget that the Internet is only as international as governments are willing to allow, and that a government can (and some have) disconnect the domestic network in some country from the global Internet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This isn't really a shocker. They have been known since 2006[0] that the police(+TLA's) can use your cellphone as a eavesdropping tool.

The biggest problem I fear is that this will become socially acceptable in US as it has with the authoritarian gov't in China.

[0]:[https://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as- eavesdr...](https://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as- eavesdropping-tool/)

<comment><USER31> Why it may be not socially acceptable yet, it is already socially accepted :).

Between smartphone, car computer, video cameras everywhere, license plates readers, credit card records, etc. government has pretty much all the details of my life (in some fusion center by Palantir). Adding smart home, drones and whatever else just incrementally improves the quality of that collection while not changing the already established situation in principle.

<comment><USER30> I guess it's known in very certain circles on what goes in the 'establishment' but to say that it is now socially acceptable? I doubt it.

Actually, after the Snowden revelations, there was a big political uproar and they almost got enough votes to completely defund the NSA[0]. Unfortunately our constitutional lawyer in charge(obama) was able to defeat the bill.

While they are collecting everything on everyone pretty much(xkeyscore, prism, turbine etc), there's a good chance that things will change when people are aware of it. As we have the right to choose who leads us.

[0]: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post- politics/wp/2013/07...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post- politics/wp/2013/07/24/plan-to-defund-nsa-phone-collection-program-has-broad- support-sponsor-says/?utm_term=.d17b142b5efb)</comment></comment></comment>