Ask HN: What is your best concentration aid while programming? - <AUTHOR> Concentrating for long hours is hard. What's your trick for keeping your mind focused for long hours while programming ? <comment><USER2> Considering "music" is always one of the most common answers to this question, and undoubtedly something you've tried before, you might also want to consider "no music". Time and time again I've realized how much I get invested in whatever I'm listening to, want to switch tracks, which makes me open up my browser/Spotify, makes me want to research new music, I end up on Facebook... It's best for me to just turn it all off. You may want to try doing the same, if music has been the norm for you.

</comment><comment><USER3> Pair programming. when you keep discussing what you are doing with a collegue, your mind keeps the flow.

<comment><USER4> Never thought of it that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good health (losing it teaches you this).

Ignoring people who want/insist that you be "like everyone else". E.g. living in a noisy dorm, studying in the library at a table full of chatters, working in an open floor of cubicles.

Be yourself. In the long run, you'll gain more acceptance that way, anyway. And you'll be able to effectively work.

And the long hours come naturally, when you're doing something that _interests_ you. Note that, not infrequently, that interest will have more of a social context -- and motivation -- than you might expect. Just, approach that context _on your own terms._

</comment><comment><USER6> Usually several factors go into being focused (not necessarily ranked in order):

* Determination. How much do I care about this feature / bug fix?

* Long blocks of quiet. No distractions. This is usually why late at night works really well for me (no interruptions for meals, no emails, etc).

* Interesting factor. Doing drudge work is highly unmotivating. Using a new technology or building something I consider cool (say, a compiler) is tons of fun and I can't rip myself away from it.

<comment><USER6> Also, forgot to mention sleep. Being well rested always helps - the opposite, being quite tired - leads me to have a hard time focusing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I use the Pomodoro Technique through this website: <http://tomatoi.st/> 25 min of work, 5 min short break, 25 min of work, 5 min short break, 25 min of work, 5 min short break, 25 min of work, 15 min long break. rinse repeat

</comment><comment><USER8> Kashiwa Daisuke's april.#02 track from the april.#02 album. Half an hour of background music to help you accomplish and focus a lot.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEAEmwBbMT8>

</comment><comment><USER9> I like to listen violin music or any other soft slow instrumental music. It keeps me relaxed and focused. For example, this one

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EQ6eHeBrhM>

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://www.simplynoise.com> seems to be doing it for me lately. Sometimes I leave it at a fixed level, sometimes I let it oscillate slowly.

</comment><comment><USER10> Classical music has, in my view, created the most productive 3 weeks I have ever experienced. Check out the Mozart channel on Pandora. Check and mate.

</comment><comment><USER11> Having seen this type discussion before, I'm guessing a top answer will be music (for some people: Music with no lyrics).

<comment><USER12> Im interested in knowing what kind of music? not genre, necessary...but level of familiarity. I learned that I can use a playlist of really otherwise distracting music like pop, but if it's pop that i've heard 100x before, it works as well as background noise. But also with the added benefit of a good beat which helps sometimes to keep me going

<comment><USER13> Same - dance, re-mixes, mashups or rock.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I play a rave song, on repeat. that keeps me in the zone for 3 hrs.

</comment><comment><USER15> A nice sativa and a chill environment.

</comment><comment><USER16> Pair programming and a standing desk.

</comment><comment><USER17> deadmau5 4x4=12 continuous mix

</comment><comment><USER18> Smoking. And, occasionally, drinking red wine.</comment>


Show HN: ShowMeMore, an Archillect-alike taste bot - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/polm/showmemore <comment><AUTHOR> Archillect is a popular Twitter bot that posts a certain kind of image. The code isn't open source, but the developer has described in general terms how it works sometimes.

[https://twitter.com/archillect](https://twitter.com/archillect)

The basic idea is it starts with a list of tags, and then uses Twitter responses (likes/RTs) and source metadata to decide what to post next. Not a complex idea, but I haven't seen anyone else do it.

ShowMeMore started as The Laser Syriacum, a bot I knocked together on similar principles to Archillect, and has been used in a few other bots.

[https://twitter.com/lasersyriacum](https://twitter.com/lasersyriacum) [https://twitter.com/showmepixels](https://twitter.com/showmepixels) [https://twitter.com/notarchillect](https://twitter.com/notarchillect) [https://twitter.com/nicejobgoodwork](https://twitter.com/nicejobgoodwork)

You can read about my motivations here:

[https://www.dampfkraft.com/by-id/2931e31b.html#The-Laser- Syr...](https://www.dampfkraft.com/by-id/2931e31b.html#The-Laser-Syriacum)</comment>


Craig Venter: On the verge of creating synthetic life (video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/227

<comment><USER2> Thanks, would have upvoted this.

nm, Craig Venter's company is private. Celera fired him in 2002.

from the talk: "We think we'll have the first fourth generation fuels in 18 months."

<comment><USER3> Why are they at $13 now?

<comment><USER2> Investors realized Celera wasn't actually going to make money from the sequenced genome and it fell back to reasonable levels.

Craig Venter's company isn't Celera anymore, I have realized, he has a private company. <http://www.syntheticgenomics.com/corporate.htm></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: The biggest telegram channels store - <AUTHOR> http://en.tgchans.com <comment><AUTHOR> The first telegram channels searchengine.

Now we have more than 110 000 channels in our base, and more than 25 000 000 publications in searchindex. And we have telegram bot for search: @tgchans_bot ( [https://telegram.me/tgchans_bot](https://telegram.me/tgchans_bot) )</comment>


Bizarre shape of interstellar asteroid - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42053634 <comment><USER2> Lovely name: 'Oumuamua, means "a messenger from afar arriving first"

Whether by chance or by design, the fact that it has the rough shape of a boat or rocket weakly suggests that to get here it once passed through a thicker medium than empty space. But it got through alone; collisions would have fragmented it.

</comment><comment><USER3> If it were bigger it could have been Rama.

</comment><comment><USER4> I wonder if it passed very close to a star and partially melted and then got stretched out by the gravity?</comment>


64 Bites – Short and Sweet Commodore 64 Programming Screencasts - <AUTHOR> http://64bites.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I m launching new paid screencast series in about a month.

It's for programmers who have always wanted to learn 6502 assembly to create a game or a demo but never had time.

It's going to be a monthly subscription. I'll be releasing one new episode per week. Along with transcript, show notes and source code.

Something like Ruby Tapas, but about Commodore 64.

</comment><comment><USER2> Nice :) Altough there is a lot of text content through the internet I would certainly be interested in buying quality content prepared in a form you mentioned.</comment>


Ask HN: For a Personal Blog in 2020, Medium, GitHub Pages or Dev.to? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Hugo, jekyll or any static gen?

You could host them using zeit, render or netlify

<comment><USER3> I hugo on S3. With CloudFront it has never cost me more than $1.73.

<comment><USER4> I use Hugo with Netlify but feel guilty if I put in too many photos or other large files. I will probably move to S3/CloudFront or something similar soon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm trying out GitBook.com. Not interested so much in custom themes and such-- just want professional style organization. I found it from reading some API docs that were published with it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Im doing a site for my consultancy at the moment on self-hosted wordpress. Its interesting as Ive not set up a WP site in a while, and WP has moved to site builders which strangely makes more work

My view is see how it goes, and if I dont like it I'll move to a static builder. Gatsby seems to be getting the recommendations - but I think themes are better on hugo and jekyll at present

</comment><comment><USER7> If you don't go with a static site generator (like Hugo), make sure you stay on top of security updates.

Even if you go with a static generator, don't forget to harden your droplet and set up automatic system security updates.

When picking a theme, check for maintenance. I've found most to be abandoned, and that can hurt when your website building software updates to a new major version.

</comment><comment><USER8> wordpress.com

Yeah its a non HN answer but that is what the general population uses in 2020 for a personal blog. If your blog gets traction or you want to expand into a full website, then you can think about changing that.

</comment><comment><USER9> Honest advice, roll your own. You can use wordpress or some static site generator as you wish. But host it on your own servers. A 5$ droplet would be more than enough for anything.

</comment><comment><USER10> I would say Medium and Ghost. Based on my research, Medium tends to get quick traction if you post quality content. Many tend to branch off once they build a reasonable readership.

</comment><comment><USER11> VuePress and GitHub Pages. Uses markdown and is pretty fast. [https://vuepress.vuejs.org/](https://vuepress.vuejs.org/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Gatsby with mdxjs on GitHub pages built using GitHub actions is a pretty good.

A simpler mdxjs based alternative to Gatsby would be even better but I haven't seen one yet.

</comment><comment><USER13> Self-hosted WP is what I use for [https://codedirty.com/](https://codedirty.com/)

</comment><comment><USER14> HTML... [http://html.energy](http://html.energy)

</comment><comment><USER15> Open notepad, type <HTML> and keep going. Save and deploy via netlify or whatever.

</comment><comment><USER16> Not even considering Wordpress?

</comment><comment><USER17> Medium or dev.to don't allow you to use your own domain, so neither of them.

</comment><comment><USER18> Not even considering self hosting?

</comment><comment><USER19> Why not considering following :-

\- Wordpress.com

\- Blogspot.com

\- FreelancerCV.com</comment>


Show HN: Track Google and YouTube Ranks of Your Videos in Seconds - <AUTHOR> https://www.regirank.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> If anyone would like to get a live demo, just let me know.</comment>


Warp speed a possibility thanks to Einstein's theory of relativity - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-17/warp-speed-a-possibility,-astrophysicist-says/6702034 <comment><USER2> I'm still skeptical that we know enough to absolutely positively rule out FTL, but I will say this. If you think deeply on it, a universe with FTL is pretty weird. In some respects it would be identical to time or dimensional travel. It would imply that causality is strange or many worlds is literally true or that space time is fragmented or something equally wacky. It would also transform the Fermi paradox from an interesting question into a silently ominous mystery like a minor but devastating early plot point in a good horror flick.

But hey, when we discovered QM the weirdness of the universe went up a notch. As a general principle we can set a hard lower bound for weirdness but not an upper bound.

</comment><comment> T-A Just a popular talk about the old Alcubierre drive [1], judging by the scant details.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive)</comment>


Is it just me? My "downvote" arrows are pointing upwards... - <AUTHOR>

I don't know when this started- I've been off HN for a bit - but my downvote arrows are currently pointing upwards.  As a result I may have just downvoted something by accident.<p>Just wondering - is it just me? <comment><USER2> I use CSS to rotate the upvote arrow into a downvote arrow. Is it possible your browser doesn't support:

      .rotate180 {
        -webkit-transform: rotate(180deg);  /* Chrome and other webkit browsers */
        -moz-transform:    rotate(180deg);  /* FF */
        -o-transform:      rotate(180deg);  /* Opera */
        -ms-transform:     rotate(180deg);  /* IE9 */
        transform:         rotate(180deg);  /* W3C complaint browsers */

        /* IE8 and below */
        filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(M11=-1, M12=0, M21=0, M22=-1, DX=0, DY=0, SizingMethod='auto expand');
      }

<comment><AUTHOR> This will probably explain it. For reasons I won't go into I'm using a machine that can't be upgraded, and is on FireFox 188.8.131.52.

It might also explain why the arrows on a Blackberry Browser are no longer vertically aligned with each other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Since a few weeks, I see the same problem in IE10/Win7.

It's ok in Chrome/Win7

See: [http://imgur.com/Pe2yKe6](http://imgur.com/Pe2yKe6)

</comment><comment><USER4> I saw this last week when reading from a phone, but it hasn't come back.

</comment><comment><USER5> You have downvote arrows?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have more than 500 karma then you can downvote comments, provided they are not replies to you, and not too old.

You cannot downvote submissions, replies to you, really old comments, or at all if you have less than 500 karma.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Review my startup idea - <AUTHOR> Introducing Repairer - An on demand repair service. Website: https://hammadn.wixsite.com/repairer
We get your damaged products repaired for you as fast and as cheap as possible and deliver it back once it is repaired!
We'd be taking watches, clocks, smartphones, lamps, spectacles, laptops, modems and other common household products initially.
We've planned to launch in New Delhi, India initially and would be expending to many other cities all over the world pretty soon.
Would love to have your feedback and suggestions. <comment><USER2> From the top of my head,

1\. Mention what products. I know you'd want to say _everything_ but still mention some of the _everything_ . 2\. Repairing requires trust. Hosting a site on wix doesn't offer trustworthiness. 3\. Add a few more sections, like by when you'd launch and explain the _how_ visually. 4\. Mention an exact location. I am pretty sure you won't be able to start off with the entire world, so mention a state/city or two at the most. You can do it subtly like _" we are starting off with x and x places and would coming to your city soon"_

On the idea - it's pretty generic but requires absolutely efficient execution to have the _wow_ factor.

All the best.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback, subsidd. I have updated the post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very good idea indeed. I see myself using it and recommending it to friends.

But pick a vertical where there is a real pain point and the repair is quantifiable easily by customer without expert advise. This would help you to avoid bad reviews.

May be you already have a solution for this - if so would like to hear the process involved.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your kind feedback and valuable suggestion, navinsylvester.

Yes, we've already thought of the point you've mentioned and we are currently doing surveys and talking to target users in order to make sure we don't end up building something nobody wants.

Could you please highlight some basic features you'd like to see in the app for this service?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: buying your own time. - <AUTHOR>

I've reached the point where I've realized that I need some time to myself to start working on my 'side projects' with the intention that said projects will eventually generate enough income to support me.
To this end I have realized that I need to 'buy' a bunch of my own time. Preferably I would like to buy about 6-12 months of my time which, at my current living standard, would cost about $12-24k to cover my basic living costs.
What I'm wondering is: does anybody have any good suggestions for ways to fund this? I can sell my non-essential possesions etc, but I don't have much in the way of savings. I am very hesitant to go into debt as that will really reduce my future flexibility.
All suggestions welcomed! <comment><USER2> I turn down about 1/2 of consulting offers (two today, which is a record), spending the time on research, general learning, and the non-tech aspects of living.

For me the trick is: I got an agreement from my wife that it is better to remain on top of new tech than to maximize earning. Also, living in a low cost area helps increase flexibility (Carol and I sold our large house near the beach in San Diego, and bought a small economical house in the mountains in Central Arizona).

The great mythologist Joseph Campbell advised his students to "follow their bliss," and I can agree with that as long as you are supporting yourself and family. In life, try to do what makes you happy as often as possible.

Also, +1 for you for not wanting to go into debt.

</comment><comment><USER3> What are you doing right now? A job? if so, work and save until you make that $24K and then buy your own time.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm working full-time right now. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to bear to stay in my current job much longer, which is the main reason I'm trying to work out alternatives for a quick way out...

<comment><USER3> Can't you find another job in this economy?

Though times always come. What about doing some microISV at night? If done correctly this should make you a living.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> One option is moving to another country for those six months. Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina if you want stay in the Americas. Thailand, Philipines, India, China if you want to go to Asia. If you don't own a house, this is a good option. Sell your car & you'll have the money.

</comment><comment><USER5> Do you have savings you can live off of? Normally, people would save up what they need to live off of or just contract or freelance on the side.

edit: i (and i'm sure many others here) have similar aspirations.

<comment><AUTHOR> I do have some savings, but they're fairly measly at the moment due to complications earlier in the year.

What I'm looking at doing is selling of all of the stuff that I don't really need (that giant TV, part of my vintage guitar collection, etc...). I think of it as trading possessions for freedom.

I'm also looking to see if I can retrieve my past superannuation payments from Australia, which would help quite a lot...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Use mint.com... kidding. Get an extra job freelancing, night shift, whatever - trade your free time now for your 'side projects' time later.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is basically what I'm doing at the moment. The main reason that I feel that it's not working out for me is because I feel like I'm losing momentum.

On the other hand my day-job has been the source of inspiration for a few of my side-projects... It's always achieving the balance that is difficult...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Move somewhere cheap, like detroit and get a dumpy apartment.

</comment><comment><USER8> FWIW:

For personal reasons, I've made drastic lifestyle changes. Part of the result is that my expenses have dropped drastically and my concept of "essential possessions" has been radically altered. Although it wasn't done specifically to help me venture out on my own, it has become increasingly clear that it has better positioned me to do exactly that. I currently live without a car. I currently have a lot less clothes than the typical american. We cook most of our meals from scratch yet own one frying pan, one pot, and one oven pan. I have very little furniture. Etc.

It's been very freeing and the result is I have more time, energy and mental focus for working on personal goals.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's interesting that you say that. I am seriously considering doing something similar.

I've realized recently that I can about halve my rent if I am willing to rent an apartment with other people, and given that rent is my single biggest expense that would have quite an impact...

But to do that I would really have to change how I live. I'm pretty used to having my own space...

<comment><USER8> You might consider picking up a few books (possibly used or from the library) with titles like "How to live without a salary" by Charles Long or "The Tightwad Gazette" series by Amy Dacyczyn or "How to get out of debt, stay out of debt, and live prosperously" (I don't recall the author). I read stuff like that years ago and was a homemaker for many years when most folks in America today think a family cannot live on one income. I had to get divorced to really escape the rat race of conventional life. But in some sense I have been laying the groundwork for my current lifestyle for decades.

Good luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Create a handful of super specific and efficient web apps that have a low monthly fee to use and have a good potential for a user base. Target internet marketing or SEO type apps that help automate things if you want a niche suggestion. Use the income and knowledge gained to step away from whatever obligations you currently have and move onto bigger projects while spending a few hours a week making sure the other smaller projects continue to run smoothly.

EDIT: Spelling mistake in first sentence...

</comment><comment><USER10> Decrease your spending, then save the difference. The more you can decrease your spending, the more you save _and_ the more time you can survive on the saved money.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I'm definitely looking at that. Decreasing my spending has been a big goal over the last year and I think I'm going to make it even more of a priority this year.

<comment><USER10> Ever thought of going homeless? Rent is a bitch.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are the top 3 entrepreneurial resources you read - <AUTHOR>

Other than hacker news, what are the top three entrepreneurial resources you would recommend to someone else? I'm looking for things that you think contain high-quality content. <comment><USER2> <http://ecorner.stanford.edu/>

Stanford has a wonderful Entrepreneurial Archive with hundreds of podcasts, lectures, etc. all related to entrepreneurship. And its sponsored by Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

It's been my #1 resource.

<comment><AUTHOR> awesome, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The Economist... not for 'entrepreneur' kinds of things, but just in general.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://news.ycombinator.com/news>

why not empower us lot to deliver _you_ quality content?

<comment><AUTHOR> because you shouldn't have to do all the work :).I'm really looking for some unique, non-mainstream (read: not Techcrunch), blogs/websites/communities that focus on entrepreneurship.</comment></comment>


FanSnap Is Now Part of SeatGeek - <AUTHOR> http://chairnerd.seatgeek.com/fansnap

<comment><USER2> The (overly) dramatic coverage of this on Forbes: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/12/19/seatge...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/12/19/seatgeek- snuffs-out-competition/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I went to the article imagining the worst, due to the overly ill-spirited title on HN "SeatGeek Acquires Better-Funded Competitor FanSnap".

Fortunately they only mention the funding in regards to them acquired co. having funding before SeatGeek started. Which is a testament to hard work, and not needing to be the first to launch a similar idea to succeed.

The title needs to be changed on HN though.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is awesome. Congrats to the SeatGeek team.

<comment><USER5> Likewise, congrats to Jack, Russ, et al.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> An instance where headline should be corrected (currently: "SeatGeek Acquires Better-Funded Competitor FanSnap").

FanSnap strikes me as a better name.

<comment><USER7> Why?

<comment><USER6> "Geek" doesn't belong in mass market product name, IMO. And FanSnap is a plain ole decent name.

<comment><USER8> Seemed to work out alright for geeksquad.

<comment><USER6> Hard to say. But it makes a lot more sense for that service.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


STEM characters in films reinforce racial and gender stereotypes - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07512-9 <comment><USER2> Nature.com and really, really a clickbaity title :/

<comment><USER3> Is this website frowned-upon? I'd really like to know :-)</comment></comment>


Mozilla To Sell Ads In Firefox Web Browser - <AUTHOR> http://adage.com/article/iab-annual-meeting/mozilla-sell-ads-firefox/291641/

<comment><USER2> Is Mozilla really that hard up for cash where this is necessary?

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of Firefox, Mozilla has been one bright spot on the internet that has been continuously standing up for internet freedom as well as engaging in some interesting technical research projects that few companies engage in.

By adding ads, I'd worry about their emphasis being drawn elsewhere.

</comment><comment><USER3> wonder if microsoft can do that in Internet explorer?</comment>


RealtyHop (YC S09) Helps Investors Find Underappreciated Rental Properties - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/20/realtyhop-helps-investors-find-underappreciated-rental-properties/

<comment><USER2> Should probably put in a default 25% for vacancy and maintenance, although most investors I know analyze investments with an even wider margin. The cap rates generated are meaningless otherwise.</comment>


The International Flag of Planet Earth - <AUTHOR> http://www.flagofplanetearth.com/

<comment><USER2> Interesting idea, though I'm not a huge fan of the result. What else could be done to give Earth a visual identity?

Images of the planet itself come to mind.

Earth+Moon

Our location within the solar system, within the universe.

Human beings

Etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> It bothers me that this uses a doctored image of Samantha Cristoforetti. [0]

[0] [http://i1.wp.com/leganerd.com/wp- content/uploads/2014/11/sam...](http://i1.wp.com/leganerd.com/wp- content/uploads/2014/11/sam.jpg?resize=999%2C1248)</comment>


Hospitalized in Split – Intoxication - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/croatia/comments/c7eooa/hospitalized_in_split_intoxication/ <comment><USER2> I'm a big free-market person, and generally skeptical of regulation and government programs.

That being said, I think there are conditions when a free market can fail, and one of those conditions is when you don't have supply and demand working rationally for one reason or another.

I've come to see healthcare as one of those cases.

If a doctor says the cost of your life, or your child's life, is X... who is going to shrug that off and refuse to pay? Thus in an unregulated market, medical practitioners can very nearly charge whatever a patient is _capable_ of paying, and in my experience that's exactly what they do.

Simple reforms that I think could help:

1) Published prices for all medical services offered. You should be able to get an exact price quote and comparison shop.

2) A ban on drug advertisements. Only the US and New Zealand allow this in the first place.

3) A cap on drug prices based on their age and manufacturing cost. I understand that the actual cost of a new drug is much more R&D than manufacturing, but that doesn't justify pharma company. Given a reasonable and predictable price cap formula, pharma will adapt.

There are a lot of other interesting and more radical ideas out there, but these seem to me like relatively straightforward starting points that would help remove some of the worst opacity in the US healthcare system, which should in turn create more accountability.

<comment><USER3> Universal healthcare would be a great boon for employers, as then they would no longer have to worry about providing and paying for it as part of employee compensation.

<comment><USER2> I get that now. I didn't understand it for a long time.

While a government-run universal care program doesn't thrill me, I find the current employer-based system to be borderline immoral.

The more I deal with the system the more it strikes me as a corrupt, crony deal to make workers more dependent on their employer, depress wages, and drive up medical industry profits.

<comment><USER4> My partner and I have, for the last couple months, been going through the medical system hoops over a broken elbow and resulting surgery. We've fiiiiinally started getting the bills in, along with the 'Explanation of Benefits', and so far 100% of the bills have included a patient-oriented error. And then spent many many hours on the phone getting them corrected.

It's goddamn criminal.

[edit: it's also 'fun' to think how much harder it would have been to identify the bad charges prior to the ACA's explanation of benefits requirements.]

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Applying market forces to medical services is another way to spell extortion. What blows my mind is how easy it seems to condition so many people into believing that extortion is a normal way to approach healthcare.

It is not.

<comment><USER6> Market forces apply to every other necessity of life, why would they not apply to healthcare?

<comment><USER5> This is false.

Imagine every street being a toll road, dynamically adjusting price to the maximum people driving to work, or to to their wedding, are willing to pay.

Imagine a fire engine arriving only after establishing the market price the owner of a burning house is willing to pay.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I needed to have a metal plate taken out of my ankle a year after it was broken.

After comparing prices around the world, I realised that the cheapest option would be to fly to Taiwan for ~500 USD and have the surgery done without insurance for ~300 USD. The total is less than what it would cost with insurance in other countries.

There's a recurring meme saying "Don't call an ambulance, get an Uber to take me to hospital instead". Tangentially related, there's plenty of discussion here on HN that led me to conclude that it's best to never talk to police, even if something bad happens.

I have the greatest respect for firefighters, because they seem to be the only emergency service that aren't yet horrifically corrupt.

<comment><USER8> Also broke my ankle, and also had a plate installed via ORIF surgery. My insurance company was billed nearly $80,000 USD, and I was asked to pay $6k of that. And that was just the single procedure, not any of the follow-up visits or physical therapy.

The doctor who performed the initial surgery said that it is not common to remove the plate due to the risk and expense of another surgery procedure, so I still have it. Been nearly 5 years. Would love to get rid of it.

If I may ask, what was your consultation conversation like when you discussed having the plate removed with your doctor /surgeon?

<comment><USER7> The plate was put in by the same doctor in Taiwan a year earlier, who recommended removing it. I can also recommend taking it out - I feel much better without it.

Doctors in Europe/NZ/etc recommended not removing it because of the expense. It was sensitive to temperature changes, so I really wanted it out. When my bone and titanium expanded and contracted at different rates when going from a cold winter outside to a warm house, it was uncomfortable.

If you can take a couple of weeks to fly to Asia and sit around waiting for it to heal, that would be best. Once the stitches are out (surgery + 2 weeks) you're able to fly again and walk without crutches. So I guess that's the shortest time you could do it in. I'm staying for 2 months though, because I'm waiting for a visa to move down under.

<comment><USER8> Thanks for that info. I'm a permanent resident of Australia now, with access to the public (and private) medical care down here. My injury and procedure happened in the US though, and I've moved around quite a bit since then, and haven't really seen anyone about my ankle since my last post-op visit 4+ years ago. I enquired about speaking to a syndesmotic specialist down here but it still seemed to be an expensive visit to be told "yeah nah everyone just keeps the plate in nowadays mate," which is what I was expecting...so I'm always very curious when someone has had the implant removed. Thanks again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> friend of mine does hospital consulting, basically improving whatever metrics the hospitals have in mind i.e.: fast throughput emergency room, more non critical sendhomes, ...

one hospital in denmark purchased an US software solution and everything became much slower, so he was called in.

wherby the most EU patient software are focused on checkin, diagnosis and treatment – at the end you compile an invoice – the US was focused around billing. you need to do the billing first, then you can do the next step, then billing, next step, then billing ...

<comment><USER10> Did he fix without changing the system? The story of how the hospital chose the software would also be interesting. I guess the people who made the decision had close to no input from people that would actually use the system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> So to summarize

1\. He is surprised because he didn't pay the taxes which fund healthcare in Croatia

2\. He's not making Croatian wages

3\. He's accostomed to taking most of the wages he earns back in America to his private bank account.

While I personally feel it's good that people receive the help specially medical help when they need but at the same time I believe it's unfair for the Croat taxpayers to fund treatment of foreigners because it creates a dynamic where people with means (who can fly to and from America) get best of both the world. A low tax environment and a place where government takes away 60% of your earning in return of free healthcare and cheap healthcare cost.

<comment><USER12> 1) To scale, this is about quarter of median Croatian wage. Imagine a $400 bill.

2) Croatian would pay 0 kn, because taxes and it is a routine kind of care. Only extended stay (beyond doctor's recommendation) would be extra paid and not too much. Rehab if any might cost something but still not a lot.

3) Trouble begins when surgery or rare medicine is required, either in form of long queues, high cost or plain unavailability.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's always a middleman in America, and they tend to spend unlimited amounts of money to justify their leeching off of everyone. We've really gone very far away from what humans actually need or want in some areas.

</comment><comment><USER14> I had something like this happen to me in Ecuador. One morning I was suddenly struck by intense pain in my torso. It just kept getting worse. I called a taxi and told the driver to take me to a doctor, clinic, hospital etc, whatever was closest. He took me to a clinic, where they told me I had a kidney stone. I spent the day in a bed there, on really strong pain killers, with doctors and nurses checking in on me periodically. Total bill, $18. I was astounded.

</comment><comment><USER15> One of the ways America maintains itself is by maintaining distance. Between cars, sprawl, and ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean, its populace is kept in the dark of what it's neighbors deal with and have or don't have. It's very convenient really.

</comment><comment><USER16> I just got back from Bali, Indonesia where one of my friends crashed a scooter, the total bill for two ambulance rides, urgent care, hospital, and scooter repair was around Rph 10,000,000 which is $700 in round numbers

Some of this can be accounted for by cost of living differences - $3 an hour would be a good income in Bali, you can eat a reasonable meal for $2 even in a touristic area

Some can be accounted for by the rather more minimal service that was received compared to an American ER, and certainly my friend will need further treatment in the US, they stabilized a broken arm, but didn't set it

</comment><comment><USER17> Can you also relate the median wage in Croatia ? And how much taxes are taken by socialistical system on the salary ?

I can understand the surprise of this person to discover that 36$ is not much compared to what she could expect in America for similar treatment.

Most of american i meet are very surprised by the price of healthcare in France too, but they tend to forget that State is taking aroung 60% of income.

As i am my own boss in a IT consultant job, in France, for 4500euros net (4325 euros on my private bank account), i will spend around 9000 euros from my company (4325 transfered on my private bank account, and 4675 on monthly taxes like healthcare, unemployement care, retirement care....).

And on those 4325euros monthly, i will be also taxed at end of year depending on my total yearly income and my family situation (married, single, children or not...).

So basically i should earn 9000x12= 108000 euros per year , but in reality i get 4325x12= 51900 euros per year (minus private taxes like house taxes, and final income taxes which is around 3000/year). So my real earning is around 48900euros yearly.

I also forget that i will have to pay a private supplementary healthcare insurance, cause on those 36$, State will just reimburse me 21$, so private insurance costs more than 100euros/month to sometime get those remaining 15euros back.

So 48900 euros/year for a 40yo IT guy, working in devops (married and father of two )...ask yourself why all young talents in France are going to work in Silicon Valley... This is not even the wage of an internship at google or faceboo

<comment><USER18> Now if you were in the US, you'd get much more money from the start on you bank account. But you'll have to individually pay for health insurance, and individually plan for retirement. In the end it will cost you exactly as much, but instead of collective bargaining you're on your own against big insurance companies. Unsurprisingly, this rarely ends well for the lone individual against corporate behemoths.

<comment><USER17> Well, just to illustrate, there is a private insurance company from Uk called Amariz, very famous in europe. I asked to a proposal for my familly (2 adults/2 children). And where i was asked around 40k euros/year in healthcare taxes, it will cost me around 7k at better level of coverage and service. But even if european law are allowing it, leaving state insurance company in favor of private in France expose individuals to justice harrassment...So most of business owner prefer to stay away from trouble and pay far biggest fee.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> He'll also be surprised at a paycheck that Croatian doctors get compared to US

<comment><USER20> I had a zero cost drunken ambulance ride and anti-nausea shot in Australia and the doctors here seem to be paid reasonably enough - although maybe here they get more people going into medicine interested in helping people over profiting from them.

And I'm sure the cost of a medical degree in America also has something to do with that :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I can add a bit about China — prices here vary by triple digits, and medical profession is largely unregulated in smaller cities besides the most basics (you have to have just any paper of medical qualification, and even that is not always given.)

Quite extensive surgeries are priced in few thousand dollars each, but emergency medicine is an outlier: a hospital in a big city can bill you up to $15k for a trivial appendicitis surgery, but you may be lucky in a small town and have it for just $300-$400.

Price collusions are also real here when it comes to such things.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Relevant discussion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/c7gfxj/american_guy...](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/c7gfxj/american_guy_is_surprised_when_he_gets_a/)

</comment><comment><USER22> How is that surprising though? Medical tourism has always been a thing.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is a quick rant that is going to be obliviated, but is this really worthy of gaining traction on the front page of HN? It's a quick anecdote from Reddit about how health care is affordable outside the US. This is just comment bait for everyone with a relevant gripe who wants to use this as a soapbox for how they would change the US healthcare system or an echo chamber for validating their troubles. There's no tech discussed, no news involved, and it's the same conversations that come up in every healthcare related article's comment section.

I don't really care what people use this site for. I have no authority as a gatekeeper for your discussions or this community. I just think it's really lame that a link like this gets traction

<comment><USER24> On the contrary: stories like these are a constant reminder that certain things need to be changed, in spite of extremely powerful forces that would prefer the status quo.</comment></comment>


Italy expands travel restrictions to entire country, locking down 60M people - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/09/coronavirus-live-updates/ <comment><USER2> [https://archive.md/CHw4G](https://archive.md/CHw4G)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22529670](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22529670)

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a drastic measure that will affect many. From a population standpoint, it would be like shutting down the Boston-to-Washington DC megalopolis.</comment>


Steve Jobs' obsession with secrecy and the "big-bang" - <AUTHOR> http://www.edibleapple.com/steve-jobs-obsession-with-secrecy-and-the-big-bang/

<comment><USER2> Some interesting thoughts.

The iPhone was far from complete when it was released. What they did release was very polished. They are still iterating somewhat when they tacked on 3G, the API, etc. The iPhone was also launching into a mature market, as was the iPod. I think many of us knew our smartphones sucked and had laundry lists of things that sucked about them. Apple's real gamble was that people would spend large amounts of money on their phone. They still gambled, but I think the need to make huge pivots and change everything was less likely.

Also, I think Apple has enough money where they can afford to have an unsuccessful product, unlike startups. AppleTV hasn't taken off, and I think Apple will eventually launch a major dud, and will have spent a lot of money on it, but they can afford it.

Finally, Apple seems be really good at predicting what people will want. This is rare.

</comment><comment><USER3> This certainly highlights the difference between a major corporation and most start-ups.

When you can fund masses of inventory, have access to user-tests and product trials, and already have a profile that can be leveraged through a big-bang, Jobs and Apple have clearly demonstrated the success of that strategy.

When you don't already have a lazy $30M, on top of a customer base and media world who know and love you, then you gotta release-early, release often. Make sure you're building something that will sell, and if that means test sites, low sales, and constant iteration then look around on this site to find the demonstrated success of _that_ strategy.

<comment><USER4> > When you don't already have a lazy $30M

Apple has $30 _B_

( src: [http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/10/20/apple-is- ch...](http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/10/20/apple-is-cheating- you.aspx) )

<comment><USER3> That wasn't intended as a reference to Apple, it was meant as a generic amount of disposable cash that a business might have at hand, and be able to risk building inventory on a product they haven't announced or fully market tested yet.

And I wouldn't describe Apple's $30B as 'lazy'.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not in entire agreement with this. This goes against the very grain of the lean startup methodologies and the idea of being out of "stealth mode" as it were.

I think both Apple, and Google have the luxury of a huge in-house user test base which other companies do not, which means they cannot afford to create something in-house and launch it and expect it to be an instant market fit.

Just my 2 cents.

</comment><comment><USER6> The principle of setting expectations low or not setting them at all (officially) can apply to startups as well as large corporations. Startups that fail often try to please too many people (web developer opens biz to build more websites and applications only to realize that different markets need different expertise, only to let people down, etc.).</comment>


How Iran fell out with the West - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33552911 <comment><USER2> Iran was targeted by British and U.S. imperialism to rip off their oil. When they elected Mossadegh, he put a stop to it. The CIA was sent in to overthrow him with the plan being hatched at the U.S. embassy. Twenty years of oppression under the pro-US Shah led to a revolution led by Khomeni and they unsurprisingly hit the embassy where it all started. From there, it was decades of U.S. and partners getting back at them for their intolerance of oil-stealing dictatorships with sanctions that hurt civilians, media BS, funding for Iraq's side of their war, Stuxnet, etc.

CIA didn't admit what they did for decades. Just recently admitted it and the real reason why ("resources"). Not crazy Arabs and their religious agenda: just a result of America doing horrible stuff to innocent people for decades for evil reasons. Admitted it, but no apologies or end to sanctions. Most Americans still read lies in history books. Politicians still screwing with them.

And that's just Iran. I'm sure you can only imagine that the truth behind situation in other Middle Eastern countries is similarly dark and with Western influence. phaedryx's link at least will get you started on this one. Next look up all that funding Bush Sr and CIA gave Saddam and bin Laden while docs warned that it could have "blowback." Can't blame them for later wars or terrorist attacks involving same names, though, can we?

<comment><USER3> > Not crazy Arabs and their religious agenda.

I may be misremembering, but weren't the Americans supporting the crazy religious? At the time, they were considered less scary than the godless communists.

<comment><USER4> Different group and location, but yes, we backed the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the soviets.

The enemy of my enemy etc...

<comment><USER2> Exactly. Tools to be used in a proxy-war with little thought on long-term consequences.

<comment><USER4> Eh, not really. There is a whole group within the Pentagon that evaluates long term strategy, J5. The problem is, it's impossible to tell what will happen in the years after a particular conflict subsides on either side.

<comment><USER2> I could've told you whether a coup was likely to increase or worsen stability: always default on the latter if imperialism is the motive. Likewise, financing dictators' wars or religious nutjob's training in beating superpowers. Either this group you mentioned is incompetent or nobody listened to them. I'm going with the latter since many of the documents warn of high risk of blowback.

<comment><USER4> Except you would probably be wrong. I know the crowd here likes to think they can solve all problems better than the status quo but the reality is that for these kinds of things data doesn't help much. See: COIN

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are three defining occurrences in Iran-US relationship:

1\. The US organized a coup, removing liberal elected prime minister of Iran to bring back the king Iranians despised and have effectively overthrown. This would change the course of Iranian history forever:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)

2\. Iran hostage crisis:

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

3\. US support of Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. Even when he started using chemical weapons against both Iran and his own people:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war)

For an article which wants to find why Iran fell out with the west, it is not merely ignorant to remove the first and most important cause of the current mistrust. It looks very much like propaganda.

<comment><USER6> It covers #1 and #2, eg -

"The same shah whom Washington was now trying to shun had been lifted to power in a 1953 coup engineered by the CIA and the British, displacing the elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, who had had the temerity to nationalise the Iranian oil industry. "

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The U.S. had a chance to do things right if they had left Mohammad Mossadegh alone. Can you blame the Persians for being pissed? We are the authors of our own misfortune.

Your average American has never heard of Mossadegh.

<comment><USER8> It's not possible to know what would have happened if Mossadegh was left alone by the US. It seems to me that the article hinted at conservative elements taking over regardless, and there could have been many other events troubling Iran's relationship with the west.

<comment><USER9> > It's not possible to know what would have happened if Mossadegh was left > alone by the US. It seems to me that the article hinted at conservative > elements taking over regardless

Sure, but there's a difference for the US between "conservative elements taking over" in Iran and "conservative elements taking over buoyed on a wave of anti-US feeling directly resulting from the US imposition of an unpopular, brutal regime" in Iran.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think it all goes back to this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)

</comment><comment><USER11> Is it wrong that a comic book is actually the best insight into this whole ordeal?

[http://www.amazon.com/Persepolis-Story-Childhood-Marjane- Sat...](http://www.amazon.com/Persepolis-Story-Childhood-Marjane- Satrapi/dp/037571457X)

[http://www.amazon.com/Persepolis-2-The-Story- Return/dp/03757...](http://www.amazon.com/Persepolis-2-The-Story- Return/dp/0375714669)

</comment><comment><USER12> The author is a nearly 70 year old Cambridge-educated staunch BBC journo. The Arabic world is his thing. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Muir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Muir) .. Iran isn't.

He claims government policies bankrupted the country, and they may have contributed heavily, but he neglects to mention the oh-so-subtle truth that Israel and the US pressured Europe to rubber-stamp disconnecting the entire country from the international interbank financial transfer monopoly SWIFT through a slapdash front entity known as 'United Against a Nuclear Iran', billing itself as a "non-partisan, non-profit advocacy organization" whose members included the former director of Mossad, Council on Foreign Relations fellows and Bush's homeland security advisor. SWIFT had previously carefully cultivated a nominally apolitical image, and its director described the move as "unprecedented".

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Adam Curtis' blog makes for good reading on the subject:

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/83a85833-1769-...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/83a85833-1769-377f-b716-06c488f5c1d4)

</comment><comment><USER13> Sort of on-topic, and about the Iran deal: It basically green-lights Iran's continuing atomic weapons program. I have read the agreement, and there is nothing in there that actually will impede Iran's progress towards creating nuclear weapons. Also, it lets them keep their centrifuges (!) and ballistic missiles (!). I really am at a complete loss to explain what the purpose of the "deal" was, considering it does absolutely nothing towards our goal of stopping Iranian atomic weapons development.

<comment><USER14> > I have read the agreement

You must not have read it very carefully. On page 3 it says:

"Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons."

<comment><USER15> Indeed. Here's a copy of the deal:

[http://eeas.europa.eu/statements- eeas/docs/iran_agreement/ir...](http://eeas.europa.eu/statements- eeas/docs/iran_agreement/iran_joint-comprehensive-plan-of-action_en.pdf)

Plus the entire agreement talks extensively about scaling back their enrichment, areas of research, and international monitoring.

Here's a nice easy to consume summary:

[http://www.bustle.com/articles/97038-what-does-the-iran- deal...](http://www.bustle.com/articles/97038-what-does-the-iran-deal-say-the- big-plan-blocks-these-4-pathways-to-nuclear-weapons)

The OP is either being untruthful about having read the agreement, or has some type of agenda and is intending to mislead. Hard to argue that they're making claims in good faith giving out inconsistent their claims are with facts.

<comment><USER13> You don't use centrifuges for anything but refining weapons-grade nuclear fuel. The fact that they have them -- and are _allowed to keep them_ \-- flies in the face of any paperwork claiming that it wants to dismantle a nuclear weapons development programme.

I personally have friends living in Iran who tell me that the people of that nation widely believe their government is developing nuclear weapons, and are terrified that this deal will allow them to continue, and I can't say I blame them one bit.

This deal is _not_ going to stop the mullahs from making the bomb. Mark my words.

<comment><USER14> > You don't use centrifuges for anything but refining weapons-grade nuclear > fuel

Not true. Centrifuges are used to make reactor fuel too.

> allowed to keep them

They are being phased out over the next ten years. Under close IAEA scrutiny.

> This deal is not going to stop the mullahs from making the bomb. Mark my > words.

You know, it's not just Obama and Kerry who signed off on this, it's China, France, Russia, the UK, and Germany too. The only ones who don't like this deal are the Republicans, Benjamin Netanyahu, and you. And the Republicans reflexively oppose _anything_ Barack Obama supports, so their opinion can pretty much be discounted.

Just out of curiosity, though, what exactly do you suggest we do?

<comment><USER13> Draft up a document that doesn't let Iran keep centrifuges and missiles and schedule their own inspector visits at their leisure? "They are being phased out" but the thing you're not mentioning is that they're only phasing out _a portion_ of those. If Iran abides by the entire agreement, they will come out the other end with working centrifuges (and therefore the ability to enrich uranium to weapons-grade).

Elsewhere in your response, ad hominem, appeal to authority, appeal to popularity. Come on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> You really have to take the long view to understand Iran. For 500 years, Iran had a monarchy, until after WW2 when the "Shah of Iran" took over. In order to modernize his country, he formed a parliament like England, which appointed Mossadegh as PM. Unfortunately, Mossadegh exiled the Shah, nationalized the oil industry, and suspended elections. The British were the main oil industry, there, so they fought back with the help of the US. The US gave opposition groups money since we were fighting the cold war and Mossadegh was pro- communist. The money was to be used in a campaign for democratic elections. However, the Iranians could not agree on the rules for the elections. There as a large bloc that wanted to return to a monarchy who brought back the Shah. The Shah then took control of the country. Later, the Islamist took over the country by revolution, much as ISIS is doing today. They have been in power ever since enforcing radical Sharia law. The narrative that America overthrew a democratically elected government in a coup is just false.

<comment><USER17> " The narrative that America overthrew a democratically elected government in a coup is just false."

Glad to know that your knowledge is more than CIA even (sarcasm), as they already admitted that:

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/cia-admits- role...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/cia-admits- role-1953-iranian-coup)

<comment><USER16> This is consistent with my statement above. The CIA admitted it had a role, which I acknowledge. They gave them money and assisted the local faction in the return of the monarch. And, since elections had been suspended, the depose was not democratically elected. The newspaper sensationalizes the actions of the CIA, and that has become the new narrative.</comment></comment></comment>


To boldly go: Ars explores 45 years of Star Trek - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/09/to-boldly-go-ars-explores-45-years-of-star-trek.ars

<comment><USER2> The most notorious split infinitive.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you want to see built? - <AUTHOR>

I'd really like a service that allowed me to pay my recurring bills (rent, utilities, etc.) with my credit card. What about you guys? <comment><USER2> A email service that would make others pay to mail me. It would definitely be my default one.

<comment><USER3> I'm curious. Who would you expect to actually pay? I'm sure your personal friends and coworkers would never be expected to. Are you just trying to reduce spam? Or are you someone famous who is contacted often for advice of some sort?

<comment><USER2> Spammers precisely. I'm not famous but with that nobody would be afraid of putting his email address on the net. The idea was already proposed in Bill Gates' The road ahead and nowadays Zuckerberg is making people pay to send him email.

With a small financial incentive people would be motivated to reply to your mail too. You could ask anyone no matter how rich, some questions and be sure to get an answer if when he/she has agreed to get only paid messages he/she can only collect money if he/she actually answers.</comment></comment></comment>


Flux7 and Auto.com to Co-Present at First Annual DockerCon - <AUTHOR> http://flux7.com/blogs/press-release/flux7-auto-com-to-co-present-at-first-annual-dockercon/

<comment><USER2> DockerCon was over a week ago.</comment>


Announcing Duo's two-factor authentication for Unix - <AUTHOR> http://blog.duosecurity.com/2011/04/announcing-duos-two-factor-authentication-for-unix/ <comment><USER2> This is awesome. Truly a modern-day way of securing boxes.

Of course, it makes it more of a hassle to maintain a machine, and you might get temporarily locked out if their VOIP line or whatever goes down, but the same could be said about fingerprint readers. I personally try to avoid those mechanisms if at all possible, but it's great that someone is offering this as a simple service. Really cool!

<comment><USER3> You actually don't get locked out if their service goes down (I happened to have asked them this the other day), it fails the other way by default.

Edit: See jonoberheide's explanation below for more info.

<comment><USER4> That's a rather bad default. If you need two-factor authentication for a system, you probably want it to remain locked.

<comment><USER3> I disagree. Having a 2FA that sometimes (i.e. very rarely, but not never) goes down is still safer than no 2FA, and I can never afford to be locked out of my server.

However, I could also see the opposite case being made. And I assume this is precisely why they made it an easy config change, to make it behave however you prefer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is more than just 2-factor auth, it's out-of-band auth, which means that a MITM can't compromise without having your 2nd factor.

This is definitely awesome, but my remaining concern is, what happens if/when duosecurity.com is DOS'd or is otherwise down?

<comment><USER6> Check out the login_duo(8) man page. You can specify a failmode configuration option to fail safe (allow access) or fail secure (deny access) if there is a connectivity loss between your servers and Duo's service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Google's doing it too: <http://code.google.com/p/google-authenticator/>

Howto: [http://www.mnxsolutions.com/security/two-factor-ssh-with- goo...](http://www.mnxsolutions.com/security/two-factor-ssh-with-google- authenticator.html)

EDIT: per my post in a sibling thread, Dug Song points out in the comments at the Howto that Google Authenticator can't be used as a second factor alongside SSH public key authentication.

<comment><USER8> I haven't looked very hard at the Google stuff (thanks for pointing it out because now it's on my radar) but if it's open source I'm hoping it's designed in such a way that one could make a login_google that works similarly to login_duo, which looks to me from the blog post to require authentication and then exec your login shell upon success.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Implementing two factor auth on linux is actually fairly easy. We use a 15-odd line pam_script script that for ssh logins:

\- checks to see if there is a authentication code in a hidden file in your homedir

\- if not it validates the password you gave

\- if that succeeds generate a 6 digit random number and stores a hash of the number in a hidden file in your homedir and sends it as an SMS to your mobile phone (phone number comes from ldap)

\- rejects your login

\- you login again, now using the pincode send to your mobile as a password

\- the hidden file now exists and the pincode you entered is hashed and compared to the hash stored in the file before

\- if they match, your allowed to login.

Simple to implement, fairly strong security wise, logical extension to password-only authentication, no additional account management overhead over standard ldap, reasonable user friendly and very cheap.

We use it also in combination with nomachines nx for remote desktop access.

[edit: formatting]

</comment><comment><USER10> We have been testing this over at MNX Solutions, and really like the implementation.

Central account management, logging, etc. is one area that is quite nice.

Of course jonoberheide mentions some others that are pretty compelling -- authentication methods, integration points and supported platforms.

</comment><comment><USER11> This looks really cool, but does anyone else have a hard time handing over any authentication responsibilities to a third party? What if they are compromised or DDOSed, are you locked out of your box?

<comment><USER12> The service was designed to isolate trust to only secondary login verification via a user-enrolled device. If any part of the system (including the user's phone) were to be compromised or disabled, an attacker would still need to have stolen your primary credentials to log in.

The choice of being locked out or not on Duo failure is a configuration option ("failmode"), with a fail-safe default.

In any usable system, security is never absolute, but a calculated abatement of risk (you still use HTTPS anyway, right? ;-). Two-factor auth protects against the most common path to account takeover today (credential theft), and Duo's approach intends to make it actually usable and deployable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Looks neat. Can anyone think of a reason to prefer this over Google Authenticator (which also has nice PAM plugins)? The risk of a outage with duosecurity.com concerns me.

<comment><USER6> Duo offers a number of features above and beyond Google Authenticator:

\- more flexibility in choice of authentication method (voice, SMS, soft token, hard token, Duo Push)

\- more supported mobile platforms (Android, iPhone, Blackberry, WinMo, Palm WebOS, Symbian, J2ME)

\- more integrations (VPNs, UNIX logins, web apps, etc)

Not to mention all the features that come along with being a fully-fledged authentication service such as account management, fraud alerting, logging, etc. Feel free to give it a shot and decide for yourself. :-)

Disclaimer: if it's not obvious from my gushing, I'm affiliated with Duo. ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> "This also works for user-local installations (e.g. $HOME/bin) without root access in shared web hosting environments just specify the location of login_duo.conf with -c."

Sounds interesting. Does this mean that users can setup Duo by themselves? What happens if many (>10) users use their own Duo accounts on the same host?

edit: One more question: if users use the mobile app for generating passcodes, is the system still dependent on Duo's servers?

<comment><USER12> Yes, users can set up Duo by themselves. If 10 users use their own Duo accounts on the same host, they're replicating the work to manage their own Duo configurations, is all (and there's no centralized management of those users' credentials by the system administrator).

Currently, duo_unix does not have a non-service option to use manually- configured local secrets. It's something that could be added easily, but at the expense of centralized management, logging, audit, enrollment, etc.

Folks who only want to use one-time credentials they need to manually provision for each account are probably better off using OPIE or Google Authenticator for now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I use Duo to harden ssh connections from work to my box at home since I don't like leaving my home network unsecured. When people hear my iPhone buzz with the Duo authenticator callback when I open an ssh connection, they pretty much freak out at how cool it is.

</comment><comment><USER16> Duo's offering is much better than anything else (Yubikey, Google Authenticator, etc.) I've tried. The management of accounts, easy SSH integration, and multiple-method authentication allow me to actually _use_ two-factor rather than fight with it.

</comment><comment><USER17> really interesting how cloud and managed services are slowly making their way to enterprise security

<comment><USER18> Interesting, and a bit scary, wouldn't you say? Not with Duo necessarily, but I've always been wary of someone else having physical control over my data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Will be testing it soon I think</comment>


Hacking society and a proposal for beta towns - <AUTHOR> http://www.appropedia.org/TheFWD_andybroomfield_hacking_society

<comment><USER2> I enjoy this sort of thinking. My masters work was in urban planning and I've been involved with helping advance the idea of dynamic democracies. Las Vegas was built as a "city of sin", I would be interested in building a "city of virtue". Perhaps it could be done by running analysis on property values and town populations and seeing where you could take over a local government by emigration of a group of hackers.

<comment><USER3> City of virtue? Wasn't that the premise of Bioshock's Rapture?</comment></comment>


Styling HTML elements based on locale - <AUTHOR> http://sergeylukin.com/2013/styling-html-elements-based-on-locale/ <comment><USER2> > While there most likely isn't much of need in styling elements based on > their locale

It might be useful for languages that go right to left, etc. since speakers of those languages also like their nav elements (and everything, really) in that order.

<comment><AUTHOR> I would only use :lang pseudo class to style direction-specific documents/elements if I'd be certain that no other language of same direction will be added in the future (and I can never be certain in something like that).

Actually direction-specific styling is a different topic I think and I wish we had a :dir pseudo class or something for documents with multiple directions.

Usually RTL languages expect the whole layout (with few exceptions) to be in opposite direction and not just nav elements. So, if a document exists in LTR and RTL (or even TTB) languages I'd recommend having separate stylesheet for each direction instead (btw it can be achieved and maintained easily with CSS pre-processors).

If, however, multiple directions are mixed in one document, I'd probably use descendant selector instead:

body [dir="rtl"] p {} or body [dir="ttb"] p {} etc.

I have yet to see such combinations however..

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Neat! If we didn't have this feature, we could still apply the style to lang=ca elements and reset it in lang!=ca elements, but this is more readable and avoids cases in which resetting is nasty.

<comment><AUTHOR> We could, but then we'd need to know specifically what to reset now, and maintain the resetting styles each time we introduce new language which sounds like something we'd want to avoid.</comment></comment>


Why, if p=.04, we can't say the study has a 4% chance of being false positive - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/methodsmanmd/status/997482408973922305 <comment><USER2> [https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/997482408973922305.html](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/997482408973922305.html)

for increased readability.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't know any stats. I want to understand how to interpret p-values and it seems like according to this post I also need to know how to estimate the "Proportion of True Hypotheses"?

He starts off with "Imagine a world of scientific hypotheses" but isn't that world infinite? I could ask whether 1 is a number, 2 is a number, 3.14 is a chicken, etc. Aside: I would argue that the cardinality of those infinites are actually the same since you can form a bijection between true and false hypotheses just by negating the statement (1 is a giraffe, 1 is not a giraffe).

So I assume he means the finite world of all hypothesis that scientists(which are finite since the universe will eventually end) would consider interesting enough to test? Even then it doesn't seem narrow enough. The pool of hypotheses has a shifting distribution based on time period (e.g. 1800s vs modern science). And you can further slice them down field, journal, affiliation, exact subject, etc.

If that's being pedantic, ignore defining what the world of hypotheses looks like for now. Even given a fixed world, how can you estimate the true number of "True Hypotheses"? You only really see the end result of your study (positive or negative) and you probably don't even know about the existence of most of the negative studies.

In short, still super confused! Links to intro to p-values/stats appreciated.

<comment><USER4> From what I understood in my recent statistics course, the p-value is the probability of receiving a specific result considering the null hypothesis is true. It's usually compared by using some distribution model (binomial, etc.) over the actual study results.

Short version; the p-value is only sufficient to disprove a hypothesis, not to prove it. If your p-value is 1% than that means you make experiments until the probability that you are wrong is less than 1%. (for example, you throw coins 100 times, 90 times is head, the probability of that result is below 0.04 so the coin is not fair)

That still doesn't mean you are right. Just that at the moment you have not been prove wrong or the data is not sufficient to prove you wrong.</comment></comment>