Ask HN: Self Hosting Your Podcast? - <AUTHOR> Do you self host your podcasts (the actual audio files of your podcast episodes and the feed generation) instead of using a free or paid podcast hosting service (like anchor, libsyn, transistor, blubrry)?
If yes, what software do you use for hosting and where do you host the podcast software (like Digital Ocean, Linode, Hetzner, Vultr, AWS, GCP)?
Any further insights and suggestions are also welcome. Most paid podcast services seem to be too low on storage quota for the monthly price that they charge (storage becomes a bigger issue when creating several hours of content every month, with no ads or sponsorship to support the costs). I looked at the "awesome self hosted" list for options, but couldn't get a good grip. [1]
[1]: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted <comment><USER2> Of course you could self host your podcast audio files, but if your podcast is popular you are going to run in to issues with concurrent downloads eventually.

Paid podcast hosting just makes it where you don't have to worry about a CDN, concurrent downloads, submitting to iTunes/Spotify.

If you're just getting started self hosting is probably ok, but I would look at going with paid hosting once you gain a following.

I do not have a podcast but I hear great things about transistor.fm.

You can host unlimited podcasts so there wouldn't be a storage issue.

Tiers are based on downloads per month. (That's expected to pay for bandwidth)

Good luck with your podcast.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wrote a bad Python script that I use to encode WAV files, upload to B2, and generate an RSS feed. I host my MP3 files on Backblaze B2 and the RSS feed on GitHub pages. With my usage, I stay in B2's free tier.

</comment><comment><USER4> Kelsey hightower recently commented on hosting his own on Software Engineering Daily[1]. TLDR; spend $10 instead of spending two days unless you are wanting to understand how Podcasts technically work.

[1] [https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2020/01/06/kubernetes-p...](https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2020/01/06/kubernetes- progress-with-kelsey-hightower/)</comment>


At 30, Game Boys live on in unexpected ways - <AUTHOR> https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-nintendo-game-boy-anniversary-20190421-story.html <comment><USER2> I find it quite fascinating how long tailed single use technologies last. It's been 24 years, but if you encounter a N64, it's still safe to assume that you can flip the switch and be playing.

Whereas the multipurpose OG iPhone isn't even a good paperweight because it has dated styling.

And it's not just electronics. The Browning M2 is still in service. It's one job is to deliver reliable .50cal rounds. Versus the m16/4 or m246, which are constantly under scrutiny because they promised multirole capability.

Aviation, B-52 is projected for 100 years of service.

<comment><USER3> The iPod classics are also wonderful single purpose devices that last a long time, and are quite upgradable. The software is much simpler than an iOS device, and can be changed to the open source Rockbox. You can replace nearly all the older components with cheap Chinese parts eg shiny new outer case, higher capacity battery. Then add a new circuit board so the iPod can use high capacity micro SD cards instead of the original hard drive. The result is all the advantages of the original iPod, with more storage capacity and insanely good battery life.

<comment><USER4> I'm in the middle of a project exactly like this one. I purchased a used 5th generation iPod video from eBay and I'm in the process of replacing every external facing part on it. The hard drive is also getting swapped for an sd card and the battery upgraded to a ridiculous 3000mAh which is supposed to give it 150+ hours of music playback on a charge. The aftermarket parts are so good that you can get a back case with 128/256/512gb engraved on it instead of the original sizes.

<comment><USER5> Can you give me some more info on where to find these parts or more info on what I can mod? I have an iPod Classic 4th gen. I have replaced the hdd with an aftermarket adapter. I also got a new battery from ifixit and it barely holds a charge for 5 hours. Also the case is pretty scuffed up so i'd like to replace that as well. Do you know when I can find a super battery for this as well as replacement case parts? Are there any upgrades I can do to the screen?

<comment><USER3> Check out the resources I posted in another comment. I got all the replacement parts from Aliexpress, takes ages but worked just fine. Message the sellers to make sure you get the correct parts for your 4th gen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I actually just released an open source React/Electron app for making Game Boy games on Windows, Mac and Linux a few days ago!

[https://github.com/chrismaltby/gb-studio](https://github.com/chrismaltby/gb- studio)

Still getting lots of use out of my childhood Game Boy.

<comment><USER7> ... wow, this looks polished as all heck, and it produces real ROMs? That's amazing! Kudos, I'll be checking this out this week for sure.

<comment><USER6> Thanks! Yeah it uses GBDK to make real ROMs. It can only make a very specific kind of game right now but it's early days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is almost a beat-for-beat rip off of MKBHD's well produced Game Boy "Retro Tech" special: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8zSYKkczI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8zSYKkczI)

<comment><USER9> I did not realize just how much nostalgia I have for that original Game Boy start-up sound.

Also, I honestly would love if more modern mobile hardware was built as solidly as the Game Boy was.

The last thing I owned like it that felt kinda similar to it was my netbook, an Asus Eee 1005HA-P. I have an absolute powerhouse of a laptop now (Lenovo P51) and I'm extremely happy with it - it basically feels like I own the power of a desktop PC but in portable form, but I have to say, that little laptop served me really well for many years (especially after I put Lubuntu on it). It had an unbeatable battery life, and trying to squeeze as much performance as possible out of that little machine was weirdly addictive. I'm considering pre-ordering a Dragonbox Pyra to see if it will have a similar feeling, or I'm just being nostalgic but _really_ prefer this big beast of a laptop these days.

[0] [https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/](https://pyra- handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/)

<comment><USER10> One huuuge difficulty is that a lot of computer stuff is dependent on the era you're using it in.

If you take a computer now, you'll end up using modern websites, stuff like Slack, etc, which will not mech well with older form factors or software.

Meanwhile my grandparents had a computer with XP, Diablo 2, and .... codeBlocks? The C/++ IDE.

Many years beyond a lot of this software, the computer experience is still pretty excellent. Especially when i can turn on a radio next to it to close off the last piece (having some music to listen to)

It's been many years since I've used that machine , but it was great because I wasn't trying to use the machine to watch YouTube or use Twitter

<comment><USER11> Long after Apple stopped supporting my 32 bit Core Duo 1.66Ghz circa 2006 Mac Mini with 1.5Gb RAM, I was able to install Windows 7 and my mom still uses it occasionally with the latest version of Chrome, iTunes and Office 2010 as a secondary computer.

Her main computer is my old Sony Vaio 1.66Ghz Core Duo (bought used from Woot in 2007) all in one desktop with 2Gb RAM and a 1600x900 17" monitor. It's running Windows 7.

Neither feels slow.

My Plex server until earlier this year was a 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz Dell business laptop with 8Gb RAM, gigabit Ethernet and one of the last great 1920x1200 displays.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I miss the gameboy. My old Gameboy Color got something like 35 hours on a couple of AAs.[1]

I kept that thing around for a _long_ time, because it was great for flights and road trips.

Nowadays I stick to podcasts (an iPhone can run a long time with wifi off just playing audio) but I wish more manufacturers would focus on battery life instead of folding up phones like a wallet.

[1] going by this source I dug up since memory is fuzzy: [https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/09/ever_wondered_how_...](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/09/ever_wondered_how_your_3ds_battery_life_compares_to_the_original_game_boy)

</comment><comment><USER13> My favourite use of the Gameboy is the album cover of Neil Young's "Silver & Gold". It was a picture shot by his son using a gameboy camera, and reproduced in full pixely goodness on a 12" x 12" sleeve.

</comment><comment><USER14> I still play gameboy on a regular basis. At this point, all the games have "aged" as much as they're ever going to.

Some people enjoy the modern features or graphics of a game above all else. (and so from this perspective, there would be no real reason to return to Borderlands 1 after you have Borderlands 2) But at this point, those people would have left gameboy behind at least 15 to 20 years ago. A gameboy was already incredibly simplistic next to a PS2 in 2001, and was therefor limited to much simpler games, graphics, and music.

<comment><USER15> My favorite Tetris port is the Gameboy version. I haven't played that in a long time!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> My favourite Gameboy fiddler is Look Mum No Computer. He makes modular synth stuff out of random things (Furbys, for example).

[https://www.lookmumnocomputer.com/projects#/gameboy- megamach...](https://www.lookmumnocomputer.com/projects#/gameboy-megamachine)

His youtube channel is good fun. [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw) Top entertainment.

</comment><comment><USER17> I wasn't aware the Sharp CPU was a sort of hybrid 8080/Z80. Interesting series of blog posts here: [https://realboyemulator.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/the- nintend...](https://realboyemulator.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/the-nintendo- game-boy-1/)

</comment><comment><USER18> > Game Boys have infinite lives

Unfortunately not if you store one with poor quality batteries that leak and destroy it :(

<comment><USER19> In my case, the poor quality batteries exploded while I was playing it. The best part is that it keep chugging along even with only 3 working batteries until later that day when I took the battery cover off for some reason and found the gruesome remains.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'd love to teach a university course where the students just build a gameboy or NES emulator as group projects.

</comment><comment><USER21> There have also been some cool Game Boy Zero mods where folks replaced the insides with a Raspberry Pie and a color screen, added more buttons, and installed a bunch of emulators and retro games.

<comment><USER22> I really wish people wouldn't mod old hardware that can never be replaced with new hardware that will have a significantly shorter shelf life. Particularly given how affordable 3D printing has become where you could render your own retro looking case without destroying any existing hardware.

I mean I have no issue with back light mods which takes the original and improves it subtly and without taking any essence away from the original hardware design. But I've seen so many people rip perfectly serviceable innards of retro systems just to shove a Raspberry Pi in its shell. Then 6 months after the mod when the hacker is bored with his or her creation, the bastardised console ends up in the junk heap because nobody wants it anymore. Meanwhile the stockpile for original parts becomes evermore scarce.

</comment></comment><comment> mewse-hn If you're a gameboy color fan, google the freckle shack kit. It's a backlit lcd with a custom pcb that doesn't require any soldering. New design by BennVenn who has been on the scene for a while.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbHfXdoiW-Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbHfXdoiW-Q)

</comment><comment><USER23> I saw a man wearing a Game Boy Advance with Pokemon Yellow as the pendant of a big chain around his neck a few days ago while riding the train.

I couldn't imagine doing that when I got one. It was so precious to me then, but now the GBA is practically worthless except to archivists and the sentimental.

It makes me wonder if someone will be doing wearing a necklace made of an iPhone in a couple of decades.

<comment><USER24> The Pokemon Yellow cartridge is probably more valuable than the GBA.

<comment><USER22> It isn't. At least not unless it's boxed with manual and in mind condition. But then that's not really a fair comparison because if the GBA was boxed then that would be worth more too.

Gameboy games are the one area of retro consoles that hasn't ballooned in price during the last few years plus Pokemon Yellow is a pretty common game too.

That said, GBAs aren't exactly commanding a high price tag either. So there isn't actually that much between the two price wise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> The same number of years passed (15) between the Game Boy (1989) and Nintendo DS (2004) as from the DS until now (2019). That surprised me, as the DS does not feel like the 'half way point'. Probably a lot to do with my age during these time periods, (10 years old is 1989) and how that affects the passage of time.

<comment><USER26> The Game Boy came out around the same time as the Atari Lynx, which was much more advanced graphically but had a terrible battery life. Advances in battery tech are very important for handhelds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Incredible how certain tech seems to live on.

<comment><USER28> Art is ageless. Metaphorically speaking.

<comment><USER29> And there was a tiny amount of beauty in this era. The constraint and spirit of the day was more interesting. Today things have too much ambition in a way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> My friend had a Scooter that could be tuned with a Gameboy (In Norway bikes are capped at 45 km/h for 16 year olds.)

<comment><USER31> Could you tell us more ? [https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox- b-d&q=norway+tu...](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox- b-d&q=norway+tuned+scooter+with+gameboy) first result is your very comment at the moment :).

<comment><USER32> It looks like Aprilia scooters ECU reprogramming through a Gameboy:

[https://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?101978-DI...](https://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?101978-DITECH- gameboy-cartridge)

[https://youtu.be/XXK8NHum4Zw](https://youtu.be/XXK8NHum4Zw)

<comment><USER33> One version of diagnostic system for Ford cars used the same LCD panel as the Gameboy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I was wondering about that as a colleague of mine got a gig with our national broadcast tv for producing a podcast set up i the future and based around geeks looking after a gameboy.

I had a Gameboy as a young boy. It was cool. But we got way better tech and stories now.

This all feels like the 60-70-80 and now 90's marketing cycle to me.

</comment><comment><USER34> Google Trey Frey, incredible chiptune using Gameboys and LSDj (a gameboy DAW)</comment>


What is the single most influential book every programmer should read? - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/q/1711/142240 <comment><USER2> The ranking of this list is extremely suspect.

 _Code Complete_ is a fine book. _The Pragmatic Programmer_ is okay. But neither book holds a candle to _Introduction to Algorithms_ for career-long usefulness. For that matter, neither one holds a candle to _Design Patterns_ for the ability to expand your mind and improve your ability to think about code (I read both at the same time, and _Design Patterns_ is the only one whose lessons I remember distinctly, years later).

I think the main problem here is that the easy, mechanical reads get more votes than books that are harder, but more valuable. It's the technical equivalent of a lolcat photo.

<comment><USER3> _Design Patterns_ needs to be read with the understanding that the patterns are for specific types of languages and are not universally applicable.

Also, it should have a short appendix explaining that you do not get geek brownie points simply by using as many patterns as you can think of.

I realize these are not problems with the book per se, and it's worth reading, but some developers seem to get the wrong message from it.

<comment><USER4> I read Design Patterns and was unimpressed. Maybe it's because I'm used to large codebases that are already well designed, but all I got out of Design Patterns was formal names for patterns that I already used in my code because they're intuitively the correct thing to do.

<comment><USER5> Indeed, that is the only correct use of Design Patterns.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us" by Robert Hare. If only I understood more about how many corporate executives and venture capitalists think about things and regard others earlier in my career, it would have saved a lot of grief. Now that I understand this disorder and how it works, I am able to avoid distasteful and frustrating scenarios and get much more done.

<comment><USER7> What sort of situations have you encountered?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Man, still Code Complete? I dunno. Wasn't that big a fan, honestly. I think I got more out of the first three chapters than the sum of the rest of the book.

If we're talking about technical books, Refactoring is easily the most beneficial read I can remember having. I was pleased to see it (barely) trump Design Patterns... a book that I think (through no real fault of it's own) has spoiled more developer-years than it's benefitted.

<comment><USER9> Going through the list:

Code Complete: First ed 1993

Prag Prog: 1999

SICP: 80s?

K&R C: ditto

CLRS: 1990

Refactoring: 1999?

GoF DP: 1994

Mythical Man Month: late 70s, 80s?

TAOCP: Decades ago, and not a serious suggestion

Dragon book: 1986

GEB: 80s was it?

Programming Pearls: 1999

CODE: 1999

Off the top items in that list, only two have them have been published in the last TWELVE years, which in our industry is at least two full generations.

I don't know about you guys but that makes me a little sad. I think somethings have changed a lot in the last 20 years. I refuse to believe that Brooks had the last word on project management several generations ago.

I accept the notion that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" but I can't help but think this Greatest Hits List couldn't be improved somewhat.

<comment><USER10> Given that JavaScript and Python are very mainstream now, we need some sort of text that covers functional techniques for the average programmer in scripting languages. SICP is dated and doesn't really match what modern languages can do.

Mark-Jason Dominus' "Higher-Order Perl" is fantastic, but unfortunately specific to a language that's most programmers are not choosing in 2011. There was an attempt at a JavaScript port. Maybe someone should take that up again.

<comment><USER11> > SICP is dated and doesn't really match what modern languages can do.

I disagree. There's over 200 pages before they even introduce mutation and impure functions. Later they touch on the thorny problems that mutation creates when they touch on concurrent programming. There's sections on building lazy streams which are core parts of Clojure and Haskell. And I don't think there's a more accessible intro compilers and programming languages text than chapters 3 and 4.

While there might be other places to learn about functional programming to apply to working in Python and JavaScript, SICP is a fine place to learn the fundamentals. In some ways, I would say modern programming languages are just starting to catch up to SICP. (yes I know Haskell is pretty old, and disclaimer: I'm a huge fan of SICP)

<comment><USER10> > I disagree. There's over 200 pages before they even introduce mutation and > impure functions.

That's kind of the point. I tend to be the one defending SICP on this board, but only for someone who wants the very particular kind of education SICP brings.

Meanwhile, over in languages people _are_ using, you don't have the option of living without mutation. Time to learn how to protect yourself, or not, with closures.

Recursion has a bigger speed and space penalty. You need to tell people when to use maps and folds and when not to.

SICP doesn't really do combinators, and they are very useful in JS.

Also, a lot of libraries in JS use chaining, so a grounding in their theory (maybe even a discussion of monads à la Haskell) might be very fruitful. SICP has nothing like that.

Callbacks are everywhere in JS programming, so a discussion of how to avoid spaghetti would be good.

Latency is a much bigger deal for JS -- how to balance very fast local resources with potentially never-returning remote resources -- and techniques for beating that are not to be found in SICP, as far as I remember.

And of course there's no discussion at all of UI or media in SICP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wow there were a lot of bad suggestions in that thread. I was just waiting for 'C Programming for Dummies' to pop up posted by E. Trollguy.

If you work in an object oriented language, I think one of the most useful books you could read would be Kent Beck's Smalltalk Best Practise Patterns. The reason being that the lessons and tricks Kent discusses in his book can be applied to Ruby, Python, Java, C#, C++, Delphi, and any other language that I insultingly forgot, where you are working with objects and polymorphism.

But it certainly wouldn't be useful for _every_ programmer to read. Those would be much more abstract like the already listed ones (mythical man month, sicp, code complete, gof, pragmatic programmer)

<comment><USER13> Hey, I know it's a laugh, but "C for Dummies" was my very first introduction to C when I was 13 (I didn't know about K&R yet) and is responsible for teaching this hacker about pointers and math thereupon.

While I still don't usually write C, having that base knowledge before jumping into high-level stuff like Perl and PHP in my middle teens was invaluable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The Mythical Man-Month

As always. Considering we are making great software, but a lot of projects still seem to go over the estimated time....then I guess learning about that is what will bring us ahead.

Also this talk by Greg Wilson: <http://vimeo.com/9270320>

<comment><USER15> I remember hearing about it while I was at uni, and checking it out of my uni library. I read through it, and it was a dusty old tome full of references to long dead systems.

And it was good, while not saying anything I was hugely shocked by, but making clear and sensible points.

And now a few years down the line, I'm out of uni and working, and I find myself toying with buying it for my boss...

<comment><USER16> Do it, I bought Peopleware for a previous boss as a kind of thanks present when I left that project. He really enjoyed it I think.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> A Mathematician's Apology is a good read on why the most abstract of subjects is worthy of study. It is a justification of pure mathematics, without resorting to applied mathematics. Though not directly related to computing, it has some lovely insights, and is a thought provoking read. In computing we talk a lot of "elegant" code, without ever defining what elegance is, and in A Mathematician's Apology, Hardy talks of how the most beautiful mathematics is that which has not applicable to the outside world. It is odd in a way that the foreword to the book (a biography of Hardy, written by his friend C.P. Snow) is by a mathematician who is remembered for his contribution to physics; mathematics that seems to be the opposite of Hardy's definition of beauty.

</comment><comment><USER18> Just to be contraversal, I'm going to suggest 'The Old New Thing', by Raymond Chen.

Not so much for the details of windows (although those are interesting), but it is the only book I have ever seen that attempts to show how a large software project evolves over a long period of time.

</comment><comment><USER19> The funny part is the first page is all development books, my recommendation would be one on the business of software development or on usability design. Developers are naturally going to run across the information in those books if they are interested. Understanding business or users is one of the things that separates a good programmer from a great developer. Unless you are going into some pretty hardcore space, read about the parts of software development that you don't like, because the stuff that should be in a CS classroom will be picked up along the way if you like what you do. Read a book on QA or SCM, you will be the better for it.

</comment><comment><USER20> Recently, I've come to know "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software"[1], and I really enjoyed it. I don't think it's necessarily the first book every programmer should read, but I do think it's a book every programmer should read. It's an easy read, it's fun, and really does provide what it promises. Highly recommended.

1\. [http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware- Softwa...](http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware- Software/dp/0735611319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323207252&sr=1-1)

<comment><USER8> I really enjoyed it. Being self-taught, it provided a really handy primer and computer-architecture fundamentals, logic gates, etc. that I imagine I'd have otherwise gotten in school.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> H. Abelson and J. Sussman "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" aka SICP if I had to chose only one, but Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, Stein: "Introduction to Algorithms" and Sipser: "Introduction To The Theory Of Computation" are other must read ones.

Seriously, asking for one book to read is silly in a profession that is all about lifelong learning and disruption of established assumptions and paradigms. If you want something timeless, then you need to go way low level to the mathematical fundamentals of this profession.

</comment><comment><USER22> Clean Code wins hands down for me <http://stackoverflow.com/a/317750/261363>

<comment><USER23> I though this was a great book too. It covers a lot of the stuff thats in Code Complete but without being a massive tome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I've seen so many lists like this and they always list the same books... Code Complete, Prag Prog, SICP, Design Patterns, Refactoring, etc...

</comment><comment><USER25> I'm not sure that all those people on Stackexchange have read the question properly.

The question is "What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?" I.e. given the set of books that every programmer should read, which one is the single most influential?

As a programmer, lets consider the answer to the question, as parsed logically (regardless of intent).

Typing 'most influential books' into Google brings me to this list: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Most_Influential_Books_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Most_Influential_Books_Ever_Written_\(book\))

It turns out its just one persons opinion - but pageranked to the top for 'most influential books'; and notable enough for wikipedia - thats good enough crowd-vetting for my purposes.

If I knew which books all programmers should read, it'd now be a simple matter of finding the highest ranked; but here, I have to use my judgement.

So I suggest:

Number 13, Euclid's Elements

Number 32, Machiavelli's The Prince

Number 93, Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

I'm not sure every programmer should read _Elements_ \- maybe, but its a little abstract these days.

I think _The Prince_ would be good reading for the softer skills of the programming profession - and genuinely has really influenced management thinking; its short, so probably worth everyone's time.

Finally, I believe without a doubt, _1984_ should certainly be required reading for all programmers - a single read is worth a great many 'ethics for technologists' courses.

There are other candidates on that list too, but I don't think there's anything that I'm as certain all programmers should read as 1984.

Any differing opinions?

<comment><USER26> If we're assuming an America-centric question and your abstract definition then you can summarize it with just one book:

1\. The Bible.

Closely followed by whatever the first book that people in stackoverflow's demographic read whilst learning to read.

<comment><USER27> Why is this being downvoted?

I'm an atheist, but even I can see the bible's profound impact on the course of western and near-eastern civilisation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Many of those books are great, and I have read shockingly many of them. However, I find all "... every x should know/have done/have read" lists very disturbing, since they seduce my ego into wasting time. Right now, my priority is reduce todo-lists, focus on less stuff that actually gets done, and use lean/just in time in as many areas as possible.

</comment><comment><USER29> Ah, good old karma whoring times on StackOverflow, with inane questions that make people feel warm and fuzzy (and press the plus).

<comment><USER30> Please note this question was asked in 2008, when StackOverflow was considerably more tolerant of subjective questions, and it was locked to prevent any more votes. The notice on the question says "This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on- topic question for this site".

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> For me it's not even a programming book... which is what I felt the people who have answered have artificially limited themselves to.

For me, it's: <http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0195019199>

Pattern Language

It's about architecture, buildings, towns. How to make them work, to serve all the needs of them, and how to allow them to grow.

What is important to me and influenced me heavily is the thinking behind it. All parts of a large system in harmony, well-separated concerns, and working together to achieve a common goal.

In architecture (computer as well as construction), there is also politics. We pour ourselves into these systems, our beliefs come out in their design and implementation.

There was a lot that I learned from that book, and a lot that I still go back and refer to.

GOF took their inspiration here, it's obvious from the structure... perhaps you should see why?

<comment><USER5> What is this sudden feeling? It is like a thousand HN readers cringed simultaneously.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Innovator's Dilemma would be a pretty good option for those who want to get into business with the software they make.

</comment><comment><USER33> Nobody mentioned Programming Language Pragmatics? It's a pretty great text about how programming languages work, knowledge that's imho a prerequisite for any decent programmer.

</comment><comment><USER34> The Elements of Style by Strunk&White.

If it has to be a programming book, then The Unix Programming Environment by Rob Pike and Brian Kernighan.

</comment><comment><USER35> Like others, I wish I had read "The C Programming Language" earlier than when I did (probably did not get to it until my mid-20's or so). However, I am really glad I read "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates while still in high school. That gave me a "vision for the future". So in terms of "what influenced me the most" starting out, it was definitely that.

</comment><comment><USER36> How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, because software development is about a lot more than writing code.

</comment><comment><USER37> Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig <http://www.free-culture.cc/>

</comment><comment><USER26> Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture is one of my all time favourites, though it hasn't been as influential as it should have been.

It's sitting proudly behind me next to The Mythical Man Month, the GOF book, the Dragon book, Refactoring, Code Complete and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

</comment><comment><USER38> No love for Edward Yourdon's Death March?

I think a copy should be given to every CS student upon graduation.

<comment><USER39> Haven't heard of Edward Yourdon, so Google'd. Since you are familiar, can you comment on this:

[http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-07-1997/swol-07-...](http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-07-1997/swol-07-bookshelf.html)

<comment><USER40> It's a good read, but it's nearly 15 years old and there may not be enough context to where Yourdon was coming from. Almost as much time has passed since this essay was written as there was in Yourdon' career up to Death March. Much has happened since then. No one uses heavyweight methodologies, like UML. Processes are light and agile. Languages like Java, Python, and Ruby are way better, as are the associated tools. I consider the 1-week release cycle the biggest contributor to productivity.

It's ancient history. Lessons have been learned.

<comment><USER41> Maybe at the leading edge, but I joined a death-march project in 2004, then left another one in 2008.

And I believe that many young programmers are still being thrown onto late projects.

I'd really love to believe that UML is dead, but can it really be true? cite?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I'm a little surprised by the results. Why would a tome on C be the most influential book that _every_ programmer should read?

I would think that before any of these books I would prefer that someone I was working with or hiring had read something like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" or a book on writing effectively, instead of any of the books on the first two pages.

My reasoning is that the most common problem I find with other programmers is not their programming skills, but their communication of interpersonal skills.

Edit: Aha! "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is on page 5 with 74 points!

<comment><USER43> It's not just a great C book, it's a great book. The writing is extremely clear and concise, and packs an incredible amount of information into a few short pages (short by comparison with the "doorstop" books that seem to be in vogue).

People associated with writing technical documentation of any kind could learn a lot from it.

You won't find many programming books from 1988 that are still relevant and on the market -- the only exception that comes to mind is SICP, which also has a very high rank.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> _The Hacker's Dictionary_ (or Jargon File, if you prefer) introduced me to a wealth of tidbits about the programming field. Either directly or indirectly, it prompted me to learn Emacs, TeX, and Lisp; to study Knuth; to volunteer for the GNU Project... but this was years ago, at a time when much of the contents of the book were somewhat historical, but still relevant. It's more out of date now, and perhaps wouldn't be as useful to novice programmers as it was for me.

</comment><comment><USER45> Great programmers won't learn a lot of things from 'Code complete' but since the question says 'every programmers', I guess it makes sense to have it rank #1.

But talking for me, the most influential book I read is SICP.

But before that, the book that really opened my mind about 'professional programming' was effective C++. I wonder if Scott Meyers read HN.. and what's happening with him. For some reasons, I even remember the name of his dog (Persephone) which one of his book was dedicated!

</comment><comment><USER46> I think that if you had to select just one book, none of the obvious, literal programming or technical books would seem enough... so I would suggest "Fictions" by Borges as a real mind opener.

</comment><comment><USER47> I just think that it will be more helpful if there is a list of books which programmers don't need to read.

</comment><comment><USER48> there is comprehensive list at <http://www.goodbookson.com/index.php/category/programming/>

</comment><comment><USER49> the answer to this is "It depends on what matters to you". Or maybe the question was asked wrong and it should be "list the most influential books for a programmer".

</comment><comment><USER50> Deitel and Deitel Turbo Pascal, my first programming book.

</comment><comment><USER51> The one that helps you most. I hate questions like this because there's really no answer. If the question were which books would you recommend to _me_ that had a big impact on you then I'd feel differently but as it stands I hate this question.

What's the best widget to help me get a random task done? Let the "definitive" answers be spewed.

</comment><comment><USER52> Don't waste your time reading books. Read code from good programmers and program yourself. You will get way more from this.

</comment><comment><USER53> I'm not much of a butt-licker, but Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age from PG is a classic. [http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters- Big-Ideas-Computer/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas- Computer/dp/1449389554/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1)</comment>


Groove Virtual Office - colin-de-vries http://grv.microsoft.com/default.htm <comment><USER2> Groove actually still exists, though it's gone through a bunch of branding and strategy contortions:

Groove 2006 -> Microsoft Office Groove 2007 -> SharePoint Workspace 2010 -> SkyDrive Pro -> OneDrive for Business (the current product)

<comment><USER3> For another view on this process, see Joel Spolsky: [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/05/01.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/05/01.html)

<comment><USER4> This blog entry is a bad one. Synchronization is a real problem. Dropbox and others are doing it quite well and will benefit from it. Microsoft's solution was subpar, but it is not a problem misidentification issue at all.

<comment><USER5> Cannot agree more with you on this. When I read this, Dropbox is the first thing which came to my mind.

"When did the first sync web sites start coming out? 1999? There were a million versions. xdrive, mydrive, idrive, youdrive, wealldrive for ice cream. Nobody cared then and nobody cares now, because synchronizing files is just not a killer application. I'm sorry. It seems like it should be. But it's not."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To whoever changed the submission title, the whole point of this post has now been lost.

Just cut it out already.

<comment><USER7> I changed the title because it violated the HN guidelines about titles: it editorialized, it was linkbait (Microsoft's forgotten subdomain!), and it was misleading (how do we know what Microsoft forgot? how do we know there aren't many of them?).

HN calls for people to make up their own minds about content. It's not for the submitter to spin "the point" for everybody. Other websites allow that; HN does not. In my view, that is one of the best decisions PG ever put into the design of this site. It's controversial only because people don't notice all the good it does, which is enormous: it's one of the biggest factors in the quality of the front page.

 _the whole point of this post has now been lost_

I disagree. It doesn't take much to see that this is a legacy Microsoft website that is still up. HN's title policy does lead to hard calls sometimes, but this wasn't really one of them.

<comment><USER8> > I changed the title because it violated every HN guideline about titles: > > it editorialized

Only in the sense that the title was both the crucial to the content.

> it was misleading

I really don't understand why you think so.

> and it was linkbait.

Then the whole post should have deleted. Changing the title made it completely pointless.

> It doesn't take much to see that this is a legacy Microsoft website that is > still up.

It really does. I was baffled until I read the comments.

> Please don't be rude to other users on Hacker News, even if they're a > moderator.

I don't feel 'cut it out' could be deemed rude by any reasonable standard.

<comment><USER7> Ok, I'll take out the last bit about rudeness since it was at worst a borderline case and a distraction anyway.

I'm also going to follow your suggestion and bury this post, since there's little if anything of substance here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My current employer has a bunch of sites like that as well - <AUTHOR> projects from years ago that have since been replaced by new things, but the website files are still there and the virtualhost block for it hasn't been removed.

The scary part is that these sites still manage to make a few sales each year.</comment>


A Closer Look at Crankshaft, V8's Optimizing Compiler - <AUTHOR> http://wingolog.org/archives/2011/08/02/a-closer-look-at-crankshaft-v8s-optimizing-compiler

<comment><USER2> Minor style suggestion: it would be helpful to toss in the phrase "Google's JavaScript engine" or something similar in there somewhere, perhaps right after the first mention of V8. I drew a complete blank trying to remember where V8 is from.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the note; fixed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Thanks, Wingo! These posts are really cool, and doing a great job of explicating some complex beasts.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have to read a couple compiler books before reading this.</comment>


Are warning labels effective? - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/warn.html <comment><USER2> Some of them are, I always check the alcohol 'units' on the side of a beer bottle if it's one I haven't tried before, it's a lot quicker than doing what I used to do which is multiply out the Percentage by Volume by Volume in my head.

These days if I go over 5-6 units in a single night I feel like death the next day (I have little tolerance for alcohol).</comment>


Ask HN: What do you think would happen if the Linux kernel had a patents clause? - <AUTHOR> The patents clause being similar to Facebook tools today - React, GraphQL, Flux, ImmutableJS, etc. <comment><AUTHOR> My biggest gripe with these tools is that, because some of them are specifications, they have a viral property.

For example, if most data consumption APIs switch to GraphQL, you become "forced" to use the tool.</comment>


AngularJS + TypeScript = A rich, maintainable webapp plus a few minor headaches - <AUTHOR> http://blog.docmunch.com/blog/2013/angularjs-typescript-a-rich-maintainable-front-end-webapp-plus-a-few-minor-headaches

<comment><USER2> You should consider graduating from VIM and using IntelliJ. This is a cross platform tool, and there is a typescript plugin. I have not tried it, but IntelliJ is a great tool IMO, and well worth a good look.

</comment><comment><USER3> DocMunch looks awesome! Great job Max + team

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't understand why "not being on github" is a problem.

Codeplex has an issue tracker and the Typescript repo is a git repo. What can't you do?</comment>


Recipes with Backbone.js  - <AUTHOR> http://recipeswithbackbone.com/

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure they have the right price point. Many people will impulse buy something of interest for under $10 - psychologically, that's a small amount of money. I bought Louis C.K.'s comedy show for $5, as it's an amount of money I don't mind wasting - it's a small risk.

However at $24, you'll get a number of keen backbone fans - but you won't get all the folks who are interested in backbone, and spine, and ember, and a pile of other frameworks; it's no longer a small enough price for an impulse purchase, so they'll stick to free tutorials.

The same thing applies to lots of other online purchases - I'll buy a vaguely- interesting phone app for $7, but probably not for $15.

The price point where people switch from "cheap as my daily coffee bill" to "the cost of a decent meal" will obviously vary from person to person, and from country to country. But I suspect that $24 is over that point for a lot of people.

(me, I'll probably buy it - but I'll think about it for a lot longer than I would at $5)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey korny,

I totally agree with you that we're outside the impulse-buy price range and we'd sell more copies if we charged less money.

However, our goal from the start was not to make a tutorial for people interested in backbone. Our goal was to make a more in-depth collection of great patterns for intermediate to advanced backbone developers.

Hackers are smart, they can read the docs and figure out the basics. We wanted to share our experiences with working with backbone for an extended period of time.

Our book is a great resource for people who would use backbone professionally and at $24, that's cheap.

Check out the excerpts, and read the reviews, play with backbone, learn it. When you're ready to bet your app on it, pick up the book :-)

xoxo ngauthier

<comment><USER3> I looked at the excerpt. The typesetting is terrible for a book priced at $24. See the side by shot of rails recipes and your book. Also in your book the code is not syntax highlighted making it quite difficult to read.

The code is also formatted such a way that the codeblock splits into two pages for just a closing brace (page 44 - collection view)

For $24 I expect better typesetting. Right now it looks like a pirated OCR book.

The content may be great (I haven't read it) but to me a book is difficult to read if it is typeset like this.

<comment><USER4> I agree that the PDF formatting leaves something to be desired. We are using the OSS git-scribe (<https://github.com/schacon/git-scribe>) toolchain for producing PDF, Mobi, and ePub. I have already put a ton of work into the toolchain to make it better (<http://japhr.blogspot.com/search/label/git- scribe>). Most of that work, however, was to help get the Mobi and ePub versions up to snuff.

I plan to take a week or so in the very near future to again focus on improving the toolchain. Hopefully some, if not all, of your valid criticisms will get addressed.

<comment><USER3> Forgot to link the comparison screenshot - [https://img.skitch.com/20111216-d3fajpw313y3e4f3cgs74einr1.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20111216-d3fajpw313y3e4f3cgs74einr1.jpg)

As an open source user, I appreciate that you have improved the tools. But as a potential reader of your book, I want you to use whatever tools necessary to get it to look good.

Even when compared against a non-professionally converted pro Git PDF, this books does not fare that well. [https://img.skitch.com/20111216-enxfwjcgkgsu2pcndkcaimd3q.jp...](https://img.skitch.com/20111216-enxfwjcgkgsu2pcndkcaimd3q.jpg) The code block has no padding. In general the typography is not pleasant. If you look at the git book, the italics do not stand out as much as in this book.

Backbone documentation is presented beautifully. So when you are aiming to compliment it, the bar is also a bit high :) (Granted it is HTML but I do think a lot can be done to make this book more pleasant to look at)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm a bit scared and skeptical. The page looks extremely amateurish (Even in the source code, div class="one", div class="two", class="three", wtf?!)

Also, nothing about Jashkenas. Did the authors thought about asking Jash what he thought about it?

From the chapter excerpt, it shows how to include view into views.. which is already clearly explained in the todo example from the main backbone page. I mean, I've used backbone a few time, but don't consider myself an advanced or expert with backbone.js, and I've learned nothing from these excerpt chapters.

It seems more like an amateurish marketing splash page looking to test interested readers.

But then.. maybe the authors are really backbone.js experts and just not designers, and didn't one to spend money or ask a friend to design it for them (but why doing that if you're trying to sell something?!). And maybe I've just read an excerpt that I knew all about. And maybe Jash said something in the intro of the book?

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm one of the authors of another Backbone ebook (more Rails integration focus), and I heartily recommend Nick & Chris's book. Great content, well- written, and applicable.

One of my personal principles is that I value educational content and training very highly. It's a worthwhile investment - worth the money at over twice the price.

These guys have been thinking hard about these problems for some time. You can see a lot of what Chris has been thinking/writing about re Backbone and JS practices on his blog <http://japhr.blogspot.com/>

<comment><USER7> If it isn't the Thoughtbot one, could you please provide a link to your book?

<comment><USER4> The thoughbot book is available here: <https://workshops.thoughtbot.com/backbone-js-on-rails>. Great stuff going on there -- heartily recommend it.

<comment><AUTHOR> We wrote our book from the start to be complimentary to the thoughtbot book. They are creating a great introduction through intermediate content and lots of info on rails integration.

My recommendation: buy both, read theirs, then ours :-)

thanks @jayunit

xoxo ngauthier

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Uninformed suggestion:

Offer a money-back guarantee. If you don't feel you got your money's worth within 30/60 days, we'll give you your money back. I know that this encourages me to buy, and I can't recall ever using it. $24 is enough money that I think twice about it, but not enough that I'm concerned about being "scammed."

</comment><comment><USER9> $2 dollars more expensive, 200+ pages and 50+ recipes lighter than my last Pragmatic Programmer ebook purchase of this type; Rails Recipes.

Also, a few of those recipes I wouldn't consider "after the tutorial" material judging off chapter title alone. Like namespacing and view templates which are covered and covered again across material from the likes of the PeepCode or BackboneScreencast tutorials. But again, that's just judging from chapter titles I haven't read it.

That said, it does seem very valuable but I think the price point is off compared to other books of that type, and other Backbone learning material.

<comment><AUTHOR> We included a few intro chapters so that people would be able to fully comprehend our examples. Think of them as pre-requisites.

Keep in mind Rails Recipes was written by the incomparable Chad Fowler and probably had five figures worth of editing over a much longer period of time.

Our focus from the start was to provide incredibly helpful and relevant code. If we had gone through pragprog the release would have been a few months later with less rough edges.

xoxo ngauthier

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm a couple of chapters in and I'm already really glad I bought it. After watching quite a few different Backbone.js screencasts I've been after something on "paper" to really piece it all together.

</comment><comment><USER11> After building a few toy Backbone.js apps and recently a "medium-sized" app I bought the book and was pleasantly surprised. There's similarities to the approach peepcode and other screencasts take in that there's a lot of material that is covered fairly quickly.

This is not a book for beginners, but if you've already got some backbone chops it's worth investigating as there are a number of chapters that have great insight into things you only learn after building a few apps with backbone.

Recommended :)

</comment><comment><USER12> Since we are discussing it here, is there anything in the book or elsewhere that discusses how you handle drag and drop events with Backbone? Specifically ones using jQuery UI? I was playing with it the other day and unable to find this.

If its in the book consider another copy sold.

<comment><USER4> Keep your money then, we do not discuss drag and drop in the book :)

Have you already seen this: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7328265/jquery- draggable-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7328265/jquery-draggable- and-backbone-js-getting-reference-to-backbone-model-from-inside) ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I bought it a couple of months ago while it was half price during the beta. It is not a tutorial. I think it's really nice after you've built at least one small-medium app with backbone. It's at that point where you'll have hit some of the pain points those recipes are meant to solve.

</comment><comment><USER14> I've been following your co-author's blog for a while now and it's great stuff. I'm sure the book is better. But yes, the price will keep me away for now...at least until I read the sample chapters ;).

</comment><comment><USER15> It appears the Google Checkout process it broken. I used it, and it just sat there after the transaction cleared. I've got a receipt but no pdf :S

Edit: Appears to be fixed now

<comment><USER16> Same happened to me... c'est la vie :o

edit: fixed

I appreciate the time the people involved took out of their schedules to get it resolved so painlessly :)

Thanks eee_c & ngauthier!

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry about that! Chris and I are on it and we'll try to fix it as fast as we can.

Nick

<comment><AUTHOR> It seems many people are getting through successfully. If you had trouble, please try again. Thanks! <AUTHOR>
</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you're writing BackboneJS apps, you need to buy this book. There's so much great information in there. It's the book I wanted to write, but they beat me too it. :)

</comment><comment><USER18> you should put one chapter (or even 1/2 of 1 chapter) online - i buy these things in an instant when I can get a taste of what I'm getting ala what Amazon does.

<comment><USER4> We can do you one better than that -- two entire chapters are online. Viewable from the table of contents page: <http://recipeswithbackbone.com/toc.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> My eyes are still seeing lime green when I blink...

<comment><USER20> It's not that bad! (Django's site has lots of lime green, for instance.)

<comment><USER21> It isn't the color that is the problem. It's the relationship of the lime green to the other colors on the page that makes it jarring. The Django site uses a harmonious color scheme with the lime green as a highlight.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm probably going to buy this but the site needs a few revisions.

For example, in the TOC (errors underscored): <http://recipeswithbackbone.com/toc.html>

> _Here is our _planned_ table of contents. Since this book has _not yet been > released_ the order and topics may _changed_ in the future._

Not being nitpicky here. If I hadn't read the HN thread I wouldn't have understood what the state of the book that I'm being asked to pay $24 is.

One of the chapters that should be made available is the introduction so that we can get a grasp of your philosophy of instruction and what gap you hope this book fills. I know there aren't really any backbone.js books, but hopefully there's a more specific mission statement than "There isn't yet a book about backbone" yet

<comment><USER4> Dang. Fixed the TOC. Thanks for pointing that out. Nick and I will discuss making the intro available.

We are targeting intermediate / advanced Backbone.js developers. That is, you should read this after you've read the tutorials and after your first Backbone app.

The recipes are real life lessons learned from a highly traffic'd Backbone site. These recipes comprise what we have learned as we made the leap to the next level of Backbone coding. We hope they will help others do the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Am I the only one to think that is nothing but free advertising?

Come on, a link to 'click here to buy' page? I don't understand how this got to the first page. This is not so honest because the title is totally misleading. The link does not point to recipes with backbone.js. A more honest title would be "buy recipes to backbone.js", which is what the link actually point to.

Might be a great book, but this kind of marketing totally puts me off, I will not buy a product that is advertised with such techniques.</comment>


1956 Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi: Detroit's First In-Car Record Player (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/1956-chrysler-highway-hi-fi-detroits-first-in-car-record-player <comment><USER2> If you'd like to own one, here is a 1957 Chrysler 300C, with record player:

"You'll find a factory 392 cid, 375 horsepower V-8 engine under the hood with a Torqueflite 3-speed automatic transmission, factory dual arm torsion bar front suspension, power steering, power brakes, a power convertible top and an _ultra-rare factory installed Hiway Hi-Fi entertainment system, which plays 16 2 /3 RPM records_."

[https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1226380/1957-chrysler-...](https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1226380/1957-chrysler-300c-for- sale-in-fairfield-california-94533)

$189,990

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting peak at a potential tech-tree that went unrealized. The site as a whole has a lot of interesting content, I'm glad you posted a link as I've never heard of it.</comment>


EFF to Verizon: Etisalat Certificate Authority Threatens Web Security - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/open-letter-verizon

<comment><USER2> Way to go, EFF!

Long story short: Verizon bought GTE CyberTrust. GTE CyberTrust signed a CA=TRUE for Etisalat, the UAE's biggest telco. Even if you didn't know the rest, you wouldn't be happy, but: Etisalat has already MITM'd and backdoored a zillion Blackberries. Now they can turn off _your_ encryption, too.

You can't easily disable Etisalat's "Comtrust" certificate (you can see it for yourself; go to <http://j.mp/a11K0t> and click the lock icon in your browser; note that the GTE CyberTrust root is also an MD5 cert --- classy), but you can disable the root CyberTrust cert easily:

* For OS X Safari, pull up Keychain Access, click "Certificates", search for "Cybertrust", and _baleet_.

* For Firefox, go to Security -> Certificates, browse to CyberTrust, and click delete.

This will probably break a bunch of other random sites validation. Oh well.

The really disturbing thing about this, and the part that's unique to the EFF/iSEC SSL observatory ("you know it's great research when I talk up my competitors"), is the prevalence of CA=TRUE certificates signed by root CAs. There's no easy way to find out how many of these exist! It's the closest thing there is to a fundamental flaw in the SSL/TLS certificate model.

<comment><USER3> The thing this highlights is the way that CA certificates are all-or-nothing. You can't say "This is a CA, but they should only be trusted for certificates where the CN matches this pattern".

Separate CAs were always a bogus idea. They should have just issued certificates in parallel with domain names - so if I registered "google.com", I also got a certificate from the domain registrar which allowed me to sign certificates for "<anything>.google.com".

<comment><USER4> ... and if the owner of somerandomdomain.net lets his domain expire, you're faced with the choice of (a) put his SSL key (along with a couple thousand others) on the global CRL, which then grows to monstruous proportions or (b) let the old somerandomdomain owner play man-in-the-middle games with the new somerandomdomain customers?

Also, would that mean that VeriSign (.com registrar) would be your only option for a .com SSL certificate?

(I'm not saying it's a bad idea to limit CA authority to a certain top-level or second-level domain, it's just that I see certain problems with doing it wholesale and in parallel).

<comment><USER3> It would only have to go onto the CRL until it expired. The CRL would become large, but it would still be a couple of orders of magnitude smaller than the global DNS itself, and we manage to deal with _that_ OK.

The idea would be that the certificate comes with the domain name, as the whole ball of wax. Verisign aren't the only _registrar_ though - GoDaddy, MelbourneIT etc. are all registrars - VeriSign's claim to fame is that they manage the .com _registry_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> How would revoking a CA's certificate work? In particular:

* The certificates that they already issued would keep working, right? Their customers would just need to find another CA when they need to renew their certificates? I'm pretty sure that that's correct, because they're not talking about having browsers remove a CA from the trusted list. (They couldn't really. The one on the trusted list is Cybertrust, not Etisalat.)

* In that case, how do they even revoke the certificate? If they keep a copy of the certificate, wouldn't it still be able to generate valid certificates? Or is it somehow setup such that Cybertrust can easily revoke the certificate? I can't really think of a great way to do that given how I think the certificates work in general. I guess it could require a temporary key, say for the month. But I don't see how that would stop them from signing things with the temporary key that they have for August and just saying that the date it was issued is sometime in August 2010.

* Even if I'm wrong about that, if I'm right that certificates that they've issued would keep working, couldn't they generate a bunch of wildcard certificates for google.com, facebook.com, etc. right now and keep those in case they want to use them for spying?

<comment><USER2> There are protocols (like OCSP) for doing online/realtime revokation, so that Verizon can announce that the Comtrust cert is invalid. They're kind of a mess, and they're often off by default.

Mozilla should just shitcan the GTE root cert (Apple probably won't, because of the iPhone relationship, but Mozilla would be enough).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting. I'm going to be traveling to the UAE soon. If I assume that Etilsalat has in fact issued itself HTTPS certs for secure sites that I visit, and is doing some sort of MITM attack, is there any way for me to detect and/or prevent it?

<comment><USER2> Yes, mostly; you can always click the "lock" icon in your browser. You shouldn't see an Etisalat/Comtrust certificate anywhere for the sites you normally use. This is probably not bulletproof, but, probably, neither are Etisalat's snooping tools.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm glad EFF is starting this project, because I read one of the paragraphs in the article slightly differently, see:

 _[any authority] could use [their] key to issue itself valid HTTPS certificates for verizon.com, eff.org, google.com, microsoft.com, or indeed any other website. [any authority] could use those certificates to conduct virtually undetectable surveillance and attacks against those sites. [any authoritiy's] keys could also possibly be used to obtain access to some corporate VPNs._

[EDIT] Are there any monitoring tools I can install to question the validity or motive of a certificate? It sounds absolutely silly even saying it, since I can't even keep up with other web browsing security measures: white-listing off-domain cookies my banks insist on issuing, deleting flash cookies, running no-script, etc...

<comment><USER3> There's a Firefox plugin called Certificate Patrol that remembers the certificate for a site and tells you if there's a suspicious change on a subsequent visit (eg certificate being replaced long before the old one expired).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Did GTE CyberTrust issue certificates for money? If its customers' secure web sites stop working because browsers revoke the GTE CyberTrust certificate, can those customers sue Verizon for malfeasance?</comment>


A new weekly email newsletter about devops  - <AUTHOR> http://devopsweekly.com/

<comment><USER2> Firstly, your landing page is beautifully designed. It's simple, minimal, and gets the job done.

I am intrigued by this devops thing, but your landing page doesn't mention anything about it. You might consider adding a new <div> above your email signup <div> containing the 'elevator pitch'. Something like: "Expertly Curated Devops News Delivered Straight To The Inbox, Weekly"

With a couple of tiny tweaks this landing page will be much stronger.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice. Good idea, the original aim was for a newsletter aimed at an existing community but from some mentions on Twitter it looks like other people are interested too.

I can also claim very little credit for the design, that goes to peterc who writes Ruby Weekly. I spoke to him first about launching a devops variant and he very kindly said I could borrow his design from <http://rubyweekly.com/>.

<comment><USER2> You're welcome Gareth. Striking a balance between enough information yet enough filtering/curation could prove to be one of your biggest challenges. Nothing that a few rounds of iteration and lots of feedback wouldn't fix.

Best of luck with the newsletter!</comment></comment></comment>


Mini Museum: Spinosaurus, Steve Jobs Turtleneck, SR-71, 14th Cent. Samurai Sword - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hansfex/mini-museum-3-the-third-edition?ref=f1jioe <comment><USER2> The execution is neat, but I really object to destroying these unique historical items, by chopping them up into tiny pieces for profit.

<comment><USER3> This has been a big problem with illuminated manuscripts such as books of hours (which represent massive amounts of beautiful medieval art and calligraphy). For centuries, some bookdealers have been willing to disbind a complete or nearly complete volume and sell individual leaves, because of course people love to be able to display a beautiful page on their wall.

I just went to an antiquarian book fair and there was a dealer selling medieval illuminated manuscript leaves (who's been there for many, many years), with a sign specifically addressing the concern, and basically saying "we didn't do it!". But it's hard to verify and the incentive is still strong, because you can get more from selling a hundred-page illuminated prayerbook as 100 $1000 leaves than as a $40,000 whole.

Overall I think people who care about the past in certain ways would prefer for artifacts to remain whole, even if that means we don't get to own them ourselves, much as with King Solomon proposing to cut the baby in half.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Weird. I wouldn't care to see most artifacts if admission was free, but I have a problem with someone cutting them into pieces.

<comment><USER5> Agreed, but I assume most of these were in terrible condition to start with. I'm surprised they don't mention it in their FAQ so I could be wrong.

As an example they have this to say about the 14th century samurai sword:

      While lovely, the blade has a number of micro-fractures that made it unsuitable,
      and potentially dangerous, as a collectible.

<comment><USER6> The critical issue here is not something's value as a "collectible." We're not caddisfly larvae.

<comment><USER5> Sorry, I might be stupid, but I'm not sure what you're saying. What _is_ the critical issue? Generally destroying objects?

There is some spectrum between a usable item and complete refuse, it feels like most of the stuff being cut up is closer to refuse, but I could be very wrong.

<comment><USER7> Destroying objects that have historical value (which is distinct from _collectible_ value).

As an exaggerated example, you wouldn't chop up a Dead Sea Scroll into tiny fragments just because it's useless as bedtime reading. The fact that collectors would be willing to buy very tiny pieces of dead sea scroll (perhaps collectively netting more than the sale of a single intact scroll) doesn't make it okay.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If this thing takes off will all art be shredded one day?

<comment><USER9> Pixelcaso. Someone will do it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> So I guess we've finally reached Ferengi levels of consumerism? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUvARUC9k9Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUvARUC9k9Q)

</comment><comment><USER11> I do not agree with destroying unique/rare artifacts, especially fossils.

<comment><USER12> You can buy fossils including Dinosaur ones for fairly cheap in many places in the world.

[http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Fossil+Collection+Spin...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Fossil+Collection+Spinosaurus+Triceratops+Tooth+Oviraptor+Dinosaur+Bone)

Most fossils are "trash" and often end up in aggregate especially marine fossils.

<comment><USER13> How does one know these are genuine?

<comment><USER12> Many usually come with some sort of certification, and if you buy from a reputable source there is very little reason to worry.

These are so common and cheap that it would be more expensive to create a passable replica.

So in many cases even the "fake" ones are not fake they are just shark, alligator or any other more recent reptile rather than a dinosaur when it comes to teeth.

Morocco isn't a good place to buy teeth if you don't know what you are looking for simply because the local peddles don't know better. And shark teeth and crocodile teeth are also very common.

<comment><USER14> why did you bring up Morocco and not any other country? Are they known for selling teeth?

<comment><USER15> "The specimen in the Mini Museum comes from the center of a crinoid stem, also known as a "columnal". It was recovered near Talsint, Morocco."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Very clever and a pleasing way to have some conversations. Much like a brightly painted Pet Rock. Good for the Inventor, I hope he enjoys much success! It actually kind of inspires me to make a tongue-in-cheek version as a gift for people in my close circle that would get a kick out of a cutting from "First Shiner Bock Can of Summer 2017" and "Blood splotched tissue sample from getting poked while changing guitar string" pressed between glass. Too fun.

<comment><USER17> The profit margin on this has to be _bonkers_. Maybe not on the first one, but now that they've got the process down? Yikes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I read about an enterprising person in the 1960s who swiped the dirty bedsheets from a hotel room that Beatles had slept on. The sheet was cut up into 1 inch square pieces and sold for a buck each.

<comment><USER19> The practice somewhat predates the 1960s.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I thought Steve wanted to put a "dent" in the universe. Not a "ding".

</comment><comment><USER21> Good art makes you feel something. I may not agree, but I accept it as good art. Hopefully backdoor funding for actual preservation.

</comment><comment><USER22> Looks like a slick way of preserving cultural artifacts that would have otherwise been discarded.

</comment><comment><USER23> It belongs in a museum!

<comment><USER14> what if they put mini museums in museums? better yet, what if future mini museums included pieces of old mini museums?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> New from the Franklin Mint. Order now and we'll include the Obama Half dollar!

</comment><comment><USER6> This is an atrocity.</comment>