The mobile phone superpower you have never heard of - <AUTHOR> http://jacquesmattheij.com/the+mobile+phone+superpower+you+have+never+heard+of

<comment><USER2> 2 problems I see with this market:

1\. It's getting smaller. Maybe not right now - I don't know the numbers, but I could imagine that as more of the developing world gets 'dumb' phones, the proportion of dumb to smart phones will actually increase. However, long term, it's a shrinking market. To be fair, you could say that about nearly anything. Eventually there will be a disruption or a move to a newer technology. In this case, that movement is already happening, however.

2\. Will 'dumb' phone users spend money like 'smartphone' users? If the point is just to make your app/site accessible to those users and gain market share, then it may not matter. But if you want to sell them anything, it very well may.

Regardless, the recommendation to "ensure that your web-based applications are compatible with Myriads [sic] browser" is sound and one we'd all do well to heed, if the market-share numbers make sense for you.

<comment><USER3> I think the argument that dumb phones are a huge growth market in the developing world is flawed. It's staggaring how many people have dumbphones already. I suspect the dumber of dumbphones in use will never double again.

Smartphones still have headroom to grow 10 or 20x.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't really understand - they've got an application that will run android apps on feature phones and possibly dumb phones? It is really hard to understand how that could work very well at all - wouldn't those phones generally lack the ram and cpu needed? Would they be replacing all the UI widgets etc with simpler ones and adjusting how much is shown on the screen at once? Maybe it's actually a porting tool - that would seem to make a bunch more sense to me.

Can anyone find a link explaining the technology more? Going over their website I can't seem to find evidence of the product at all. Maybe I'm not awake enough.

<comment><USER5> If I had to guess, I'd guess that the Android apps in question are implemented via a layer like Wine, and what it really gives you is an ability to target both a feature phone and an Android in one build target, rather than actually running in-the-wild Android apps on a feature phone, which even if it can technically do is probably not a desirable experience. Still, for some set of Android apps out there, what takes the CPU is mostly the graphical geegaws the core framework provides, and one could provide less processor intensive core framework geegaws just as Windows widgets have changed over the decades and you might salvage some useful apps that way, too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think the relevance of technology like this is driven by the price floors of smartphones vs. not-so-smart phones.

A pre-paid phone somewhat similar to the once $300+ Motorola Razr is like $20 at Wal-Mart. If a low-rent Android device is priced similar in a few years, skinnyed down mobile software won't matter.

<comment><USER7> RAZRs were just over $500 when they initially came out in 2004.

I went into an AT&T store for an unrelated issue and there was literally a line out the door for people willing to pay out insane amounts of money for a status statement. I had a Nokia 3620 or something that would stomp circles around the RAZR, & I paid hundreds less.

<comment><USER8> I paid around $50 for my RAZR in 2006 (with a contract). As a _phone_ , it's superior to my iphone 4. Doesn't do the other smartphone stuff nearly so well, though.

<comment><USER7> Yep, they rapidly dropped in price after the initial launch.

Here's an article about it, entitled "The Great RAZR Swindle":

[http://gizmodo.com/#!210353/low-end-theory-the-great-razr- sw...](http://gizmodo.com/#!210353/low-end-theory-the-great-razr-swindle)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was just reading about Hecl (<http://hecl.org/>) yesterday and wondering whether it was an obsolete market due to the advent of the iPhone and Android (and regardless of the fact that _I_ have a dumb phone, because when it comes to money outlay I'm a way late adopter) - and here comes Jacques to tell me it's not.

Interesting.

</comment><comment><USER10> The Myriad Browser on my dumbphone wasn't too good, and it was also slow. Opera Mini (I used version 4) is faster (since it uses compression through Opera's servers) and has an overall nicer browsing experience.

</comment><comment><USER11> The dumb phones of tomorrow are going to be the smart phones of today.

In other words. That superpower is bound to loose it's status unless it's able adopt to that mindset.

</comment><comment><USER12> Interesting, front-page-worthy subject but holy god is that a badly written/"put-together" article.</comment>


Feds: Top e-tailers profit from billion-dollar Web scam - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10399880-93.html?tag=mncol;txt Its a couple paragraphs down, but these are companies that have been found to sell your credit card numbers to 3rd parties. I have used Fandango for a long time, but never will again.<p>"The government says the investigation shows that Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue "trick" consumers into entering their e-mail address just before they complete purchases at sites such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com. A Web ad, which many consumers say appears to be from the retailer, offers them cash back or coupon if they key in their e-mail address." <comment><USER2> This bites shareware developers in the hindquarters every once in a while. Typically, the payment processor that you're paying 8%+ to to represent your interests decides "Why charge $2.50 for this transaction when I can instead charge $2.50 and then get a $40 CPA from Scums R' Us?"

Astonishingly when shareware vendors call them on it, they _defend_ the practice. This is one reason I refuse to do business with any of them. I respect that many folks have a visceral dislike of Paypal, but Paypal has never tried to steal from my customers and tell me its _right_.

Here are some blog posts about it. See, in particular, the comments for the justifications from their PR/CS people.

[http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/07/04/swreg-customers- bew...](http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/07/04/swreg-customers-beware/)

[http://www.kalzumeus.com/2007/07/05/conflict-of-interest- pay...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2007/07/05/conflict-of-interest-payment- processors-vs-uisvs/)

<http://www.kalzumeus.com/2008/03/09/regsoft-scam/>

Every few months I get "reputation management" requests about that post. Apparently its on top of Google for something embarrassing to the company. _Shucks._

<comment><USER3> I've gotten sales emails from TrialPay saying that I should offer it as a form of payment on my site.

I refused, of course, because I'd imagine those people would be the worst customers and I'd probably get a bunch of support emails asking about canceling Netflix. I don't know why any software developer would go with them.

The one company that does I've seen is Smith Micro, but they're kind of scammy anyway: <http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander.html>

<comment><USER2> I know one guy who sells a zip utility who swears by them. That said, I'm with you: it strikes me as highly likely that the increase in my blood pressure will cost me a lot more than the marginal revenue gained. In addition to having confused customers to worry about, I simply do not want moral association with many of things sold via CPA offers, even on TrialPay (which is, by all accounts, an upright and honest company in a pond of scum).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So now we know how Classmates.com stays in business.

<comment><USER2> Classmates.com exec to PM in charge of CPA offers: "I don't know how you sleep at night."

Source:

[http://customerecosystem.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/why- zynga-...](http://customerecosystem.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/why-zynga- couldnt-go-public-soon-enough-customer-ecosystem-weakness/)

<comment> brown9-2 Obviously the company as a whole, and not just the PM, learned to sleep just fine with all that revenue since this happened 7 years ago.

<comment><USER5> Yeah. Poor innocent CEOs have no idea, just no idea, where all those tens of millions of dollars are coming from. And they "are committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct in the workplace and in all business dealings and operations" (Orbitz, one of the named companies, at [http://phx.corporate- ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=212312&p=iro...](http://phx.corporate- ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=212312&p=irol-govConduct)).

Perhaps they can explain how this differs from a shopkeeper that stations a pickpocket at the till, handles him the customer's wallet, and divvies up the loot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Recurring subscription fees are also at the core of the "Free CD of 5 ways to do X better if you pay S&H web sites".

1\. Enter email to see video of "My top tip for doing X better"

2\. Person who enters email gets offer to get CD of all of the tips (for S&H only)

3\. The shady part here is by paying S&H with their credit card they click through on an agreement to be billed monthly for $Y if they do not cancel

4\. A percentage of people do not cancel (possibly because they want new tips on how to do X better). This creates a monthly, recurring revenue stream.

It seems very successful:

<http://www.microcontinuity.com/download/im-myth_micro.pdf>

I recall reading a book once where an AOL exec boasted they could probably put a popup-ad that said "Click here to pay $5 for absolutely nothing" and they would get clicks from their subscriber base.

</comment><comment><USER7> The article conflates selling marketing info with credit card numbers. Selling my marketing info (name, demographics & email) to companies who want to advertise to me is annoying, but not deeply wrong. Passing on my credit card number so a 3rd party can charge me for stuff I never wanted _is_ deeply wrong. Credit card acquirers used to self-regulate that sort of thing, but clearly many of them are in on the swindle.

Is there software that warns me about devious business practices, similar to anti-Phishing software? I'd install something that highlights & explains fine print or deceptive practices that have burned people in the past. I'd pay for a version that protected my kids. They're cautious about scammy offers, but it sucks that I had to teach them about it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Whoa- I used 1800-Flowers to send flowers to my mom. I didn't fall for the loyalty garbage, but they spam the bejesus out of me. I guess I need to find someone else for these holidays.

<comment><USER9> Yep, same here. I got sick of the spam, and just started using local florists in my parents home town. They were more than happy to set me up over the phone.

<comment><USER10> I always support the local business especially when dealing with something like flowers. If the local shop costs more, I can just send half a dozen instead of a dozen flowers. This is unlike electronics where you can't take home half an HDTV and are forced to shop at the big box stores.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm not a cryptography expert but it seems like it would be possible to come up with a scheme where I don't have to provide my cc number to the merchant so they couldn't turn around and sell it. Maybe the merchant could provide a key that I could hash my cc number with and then Visa/Mastercard would verify it for a one-time or recurring charge.

<comment><USER7> It doesn't work: many companies are already at the bottom of that tar pit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Campusfood.com has this on their site too after you order food from any restaurant.

</comment><comment> brown9-2 Do these marketers actually sell anything? What do they claim that the consumers get out of the $9-12/month they pay for this "loyalty program"?

<comment><USER13> It said that they tempt the customers to enter their email address with a promise of a coupon or discount. Maybe they email the customers with discounts? Or maybe they're even sneakier, and only give the discounts to customers that go to their website and plug in their email address.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm not entirely comfortable with some unknown editor changing my title for this story. Yes, in one manner this title is accurate. However, my original title was simply "Avoid these companies". I had a very specific reason for posting with that title, both in order to catch the reader's eye and to summarize the reason for my posting this link in a succinct manner. Additionally, after I posted the link I added a comment that more thoroughly explained the content of the article. That comment was removed, apparently, as I confirmed that it existed on this posting as soon as I posted it.

<comment><USER14> The upside of a benevolent dictatorship, such as the moderators on HN, is that unsuitable submissions are killed, bad headlines changed, etc. This makes for a much better site, and keeps LOL cats, Ron Paul and politics out.

The downside is that you may not always agree with the moderators.

You're free to argue your case of course, and personally I think that's a good thing. Which is why I upvoted you, even thought I don't personally agree with your arguments.

<comment><AUTHOR> Returned. I love the discussion and environment we have here, which is why I keep returning. A bit more openness would be good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Get your movie tickets - yeah we'll sell your info - Fandango...</comment>


Are NFL officials biased with their ball placement? - <AUTHOR> https://gutterstats.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/are-nfl-officials-biased-with-their-ball-placement/ <comment><USER2> This is actually true. But the numbers don't tell the entire story. Officials are trained to be biased towards a major yard line on change of possessions. Starting at a major line n these instances is insignificant to the drive. The upside being it is one less series where a measurement would ever be required.

It is a trade off of game flow (less measurements) vs a small inaccuracy where it doesn't matter.

Take a notice next game. A punt always gets spotted on a major yardline where possible. A punt inside the 10 of course would not be possible. Rounding from the 2 to the 5 would have a huge impact. Or if it lands and comes to rest directly between two major lines.

</comment><comment><USER3> One item that I did not see discussed is the effect of penalties, which are generally made in 5, 10, and 15 yard increments. This combined with the relatively standard 20 yard start position could have an enhancing effect, or be an alternate explanation for the phenomenon.

ex: The offensive team starts from the standard 20 yard line. Then during the first play, a pass is made, and "block in the back" is called against the defensive team. The penalty would be 10 yards, and would put the offensive team at the 30 yard line for the start of the play.

<comment><USER4> This is discussed in the reddit comments. (It was my first thought to.) The weak consensus was that this is rare enough away from the 20 to not be enough to account for the data, which shows a similar bias toward 5-yard increments the entire length of the field. Further, there was an anecdotal report that NFL referee training specifically advises them to err toward a 5-yard increment in certain situations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is cool!

Couple notes - 1\. If 'normal' plays have a tendency towards a 10/20/30 yard line, what about plays where the ball placement is challenged? Don't know if your dataset has this, but under your framework, we'd expect to see a more even distribution of placements because of increased attention, though probably still with spikes at the 1 yard line and goalline. 2\. Even though it's probably intuitive, the unimodal distribution of ball placements was cool to see.</comment>


CoverPad For The iPad Makes Your Blog Feel Like Flipboard - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/22/coverpad-padpressed-flipboard/ <comment><USER2> The co-founder of Flipboard Tweets: <http://twitter.com/edog1203/status/28446907171#>

_"Lazy, uncreative and pathetic."_

I was pretty shocked by his reaction. I would think that other people copying a new paradigm his company created would be a complement. At least, that's how I would take it.

<comment><USER3> Well, being the sole designer/developer working alone and restless for three+ months I can say it wasn't lazy. The other two things are up to you to decide.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome product, but I was shocked at this line:

 _Baptiste hasn't actually spoken with anyone at Flipboard about this._

Seriously? You basically rip off of their concept and start charging $50 a pop, without asking for their permission. Isn't this idea infringement or something?

I can see why Evan Doll is pissed (see comment by jamesjyu).

<comment><USER5> Are you serious? Any product involves borrowing hundreds if not thousands of ideas from others. And that's how progress is made; you build upon others' ideas.

There's no such thing as idea infringement, unless the idea is turned into a patent of course.

And sorry for repeating the cliche but...

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal" - Steve Jobs

<comment><USER2> I couldnt have said it better. If we had to ask for "permission" for everything we build, there would be no innovation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Congrats, I think it's a great improvement from the first version. I'd love to see a post on your blog about the sales ;)

</comment><comment><USER7> _You know tablets are here to stay when people start offering tablet-specific publishing as a service._

I have no problems with this product -- it seems like an interesting solution to a real problem -- but this is just a ridiculous statement. Whenever a new trend pops up, people try to capitalize on it. It doesn't matter if the current trend is a fad or if it will last, it's about the opportunity __right now __.

I happen to think "tablets" are here to stay, but let's not get carried away based solely on that.

</comment><comment><USER8> I figure I might not be the only one slightly confused by the different names and what each does: PadPressed is the WordPress plugin that makes any WordPress blog into something that looks good for the iPad (including homescreen icon, fullscreen and splashscreen on launch), using Apple's special meta parameters for the "original" web-apps.

CoverPad is a new feature of said product that adds the Flipboard-like page flipping and layout.

Neither is a native iOS app.

<comment><USER3> Technically, PadPressed is a plugin which adds a iPad detection, and a framework to be extended by themes. CoverPad is the second of those themes. We plan to release a lot more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Pulse has a much better UI, in my opinion.

</comment><comment><USER10> Kids, take notes: Slipping in that NYTimes.com $50,000/$50 price-point disruption is what turns an otherwise boring PR reword-reprint into a _killer_ article. Too bad TC buried the lede and too bad they wrote YC-backed.

</comment><comment><USER11> Up voted for Tron. But product looks sweet.

<comment><USER12> I'd pay $50 just for a WordPress plugin that made the new Tron movie music play when anybody read my blog, period.

<comment><AUTHOR> Next version. We've partnered with animoto to make photos sync with the music. Konami code obviously.</comment></comment></comment>


Data Driven Awesomeness - <AUTHOR> https://blog.onliquid.com/data-driven-awesomeness

<comment><AUTHOR> Let me know what you think! Feedback is always welcome, thanks!

<comment><USER2> I like the excitement of the article, but I miss the point.

What am I supposed to learn from this? I didn't really learn anything, besides that you're selling a product.

It'd be great to hear _how_ you make data into awesomeness.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi jobvandervoort,

I understand what you mean. The idea with the series is that we'll pick reviews from the App Store, understand user needs, discuss possible solutions and how one could iterate on those with our platform. Hopefully, the series will show _how_ you make data into awesomeness by example.

I'll let you know when the second post comes out, thanks for your feedback!</comment></comment></comment>


Donald Trump acts to cut prescription drug prices in US - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53534950 <comment><USER2> Trump lowers drug prices with the agreement of pharmaceutical companies, then the media and a group that lobbies on behalf of pharmaceuticals whine and critizie. Insane bias.</comment>


Don't touch me, I'm British - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/db51a45e-4472-11e0-931d-00144feab49a.html <comment><USER2> I flit between the UK and Turkey, and the two are both somewhere close to opposite ends on the social scale.

In the UK, you can walk into a pub and talk to people, providing you're not interrupting a discussion, or forcing yourself on the people in the group. It's easier if you're on your own or with one other person to join an existing group, or talk to an individual, but it's not common. You don't make eye contact on the tube in London, but you can talk to people in general outside of London, and especially up north people are more approachable. Do not touch (beyond a handshake at most), unless you're very familiar and there's a high volume of foreigners in the group.

In Turkey (and these are observations as an Englishman so I might be interpreting this wrong), people are extremely friendly and nosy by comparison. Turks are incredibly physical in social groups and don't really have a concept of personal space. In Istanbul women and men intermingle in some social classes and circumstances but not others. A kiss on each side of the cheek is expected when the opposite sex is involved provided you've met before. Don't be surprised if women put their arms around you, tell them their cold and want you to hug them etc. if you're in a social secular group. In more religious or formal groups, things are more separate - men will still hug each other all the time and put arms round each other but women are never touched (unless they're related or married, and not generally in public). When you go out to the country it really varies from community to community and the local culture. The further east the less intermingling with the sexes, but guys are still generally friendly with each other.

The biggest differences between the UK and Turkey are in going out. Turks... good god, Istanbul Turks... You go out around 8-10pm and don't come in till 5am. Getting drunk is a bit socially inappropriate (in most groups) but the party goes on all night.

In the UK, the party normally goes on till about midnight/2am outside, then occasionally continues back at someone's house, but will start between 5 and 8pm. In the UK, getting drunk is not only socially acceptable but expected. Unsurprisingly as the drinking continues, social rules about touching start to unravel.

TL:DR - It's bloody complicated in England, and changes from group to group in Turkey. Grrrrrrr!!!!

<comment><USER3> In the other cities of Turkey -especially the ones in central anatolia-, young groups have very different culture and their own way to get drunk. My favorite one is to play card games till midnight in a cafe and continue the night in a slowly moving car with a group of people drinking beer, listening anatolian rock&folk music (popular ones; cem karaca, yeni turku, fikret kizilok). We used to have a football match also before starting to drink (then we're parking somewhere far away from the city and drinking outdoor because of heavy amount of perspiration), twice a week. Even though the city I grew up in is a little bit strict&religious, people hugs, kisses each other with no sexual thought. But flirting protocol is not that short/low cost, it requires to do some research FOA, signal revisions, pre-relationship consultancy, tracing, messaging traffic etc

<comment><USER2> This is one of the things I love about Turkey. No matter what rules are put in, even socially, people find a way to route about it.

Also central Anatolia is an incredible place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Generalizations but reasonably accurate ones _in my experience_. I find it far easier to socialize and interact with strangers in the US than in the UK. There's a certain "shock" and disbelief that can appear in the eyes of a Briton if you randomly talk to them in public. I can't blame them though, I act exactly the same way until I leave its borders! Perhaps this is why so many Brits travel and move overseas ;-)

An ancillary point that I've noticed over the years is the relative unpopularity of open social/discussion sites in the UK compared to the US. The UK is Facebook mad, of course, but doesn't really have a locally popular equivalent of Reddit, Hacker News, Digg, MetaFilter, etc. I wonder if the reduced desire to converse with random people has an effect in this scope too.

<comment> DanI-S I'm a Brit living in California and I've definitely noticed this - in myself and others. At first it's almost shocking, but after a while it seems so much healthier.

The odd part is that I've noticed myself feeling suddenly shy and self- conscious upon meeting other British people here.

<comment><USER5> Having lived in London for a year, it was a far cry from Greece. Over here, we almost never talk to strangers, although I think I've developed a self- confidence that does allow me to do that and not sound creepy, nowadays. I've found that, in the UK, you can talk to anyone at the pub and it's natural, and in California even more so, but it's not _that_ big of a difference.

Of course, maybe it's just me talking to everyone regardless of the norms, but people respond very well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> True dat about German nudity. I lived in Germany a few years and sang in a few choirs (one very good way to learn good pronunciation, actually) - after one concert, everybody backstage changed clothing. Together. I was about 19 at the time, and I'm from Indiana - it nearly killed me.

<comment><USER7> Oddly, in Britain this kind of thing happens quite a lot -- most older men certainly aren't shy about showering naked in public after swimming, for example.

Thinking rationally, being shy about our bodies doesn't really make sense -- are there any logical reasons why nudity isn't ok?

<comment><USER8> I personally suspect prudishness about clothing is related to how important clothing was, historically, in a given country. For example, Britain is very cold, very wet, and the British used to sail all over the stormy oceans in wooden boats. Consequentially, clothing would have been extremely valuable for warmth.

<comment><USER9> Same for the Swedes, but they get naked at the drop of a hat.

<comment><USER10> I just heard an echo in my mind of Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation saying "Any. Hat." What is it about colder environments that the colder they are, the less clothing the natives wear? :D And I agree wholeheartedly with many of the assertions in the original post. Particularly the assertion that alcohol was distilled so that we Brits could build up the courage to reproduce. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've had to teach myself to touch everyone I meet (on the bottom of the elbow, or top of the shoulder), and start conversations with strangers in any situation. I've met a good number of friends this way, and if the touching is done properly and subtly enough, it can instantly create a warmth that is hard to achieve any other way.

<comment><USER12> We have a sales/marketing guy that does this. It's clearly a learned/trained pattern of behaviour (maybe you can hide it better!). Nobody ever mentions it, and acts in a friendly manner. However, when he's not there pretty much everyone comments on how creepy it is and how patronised they feel.

Just something to consider - not saying that's the case with you, but this is a classic area where immediate or obvious reactions are often very different from inward feeling.

<comment><USER13> Just noticing the parallels that something social delivered too perfectly polished seems like a computer generated face with perfect symmetry, e.g., totally fake.

<comment><USER14> You probably meant "i.e.". "e.g." means "for example".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Another rather lazy article, playing on boring stereotypes, pedestrian anecdotes and uninteresting conclusions. We're all aware of national stereotypes, and we're used to seeing lame stand up comics riff on them, however it's unusual to see the FT stoop so low.

If Simon Kuper (a Brit, though one with a sheltered upbringing it seems) thinks Brits are reserved and prudish, I suggest he visits Glasgow, Newcastle or indeed any city on a Friday or Saturday night. I dare say he might witness similar revelations if he were to explore other cultures further, rather than drawing on boring clichés.

<comment><USER16> An example of the partying culture in parts of Britain can be seen in these pics of the late-night crowd on a Friday night in Cardiff, Wales: <http://www.pbase.com/maciekda/cardiff_st_mary_street_zone>

Definitely not "reserved" and "prudish", if you ask me... but I've never been there, so I don't know how far this is from the truth.

<comment><USER17> That's really very typical of every UK city. It's a product of the late night binge drinking culture here, people don't act like this when sober and in day to day situations.

<comment><USER18> In Glasgow it is normal to talk to people in almost any situation, it's the same in Ireland as well.

<comment><USER19> And in Edinburgh, which is an hours drive away, it's not really the done thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Had I been aware of this in my youth, I would have cultivated a French accent and kissed every female within range, little girls, grandmothers, even pretty girls. I am sure I would have been happier.

<comment><USER5> Why? It's just a kiss on the cheek, like you would shake hands. It doesn't mean anything... We do this in Greece too, every time you see someone again (or maybe meet someone for the first time) it's customary to kiss them, usually twice.

<comment><USER21> And it generally isn't a kiss, it's more rubbing cheeks and making a smacking sound, the heads are parallel.

<comment><USER5> Yep.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I live in a small town (Sedona Arizona) with _lots_ of international tourists, many I talk to while hiking two or three days a week on our local wilderness trails. Mostly, everyone seems to want to talk to a local, but perhaps they are just trying to be extra friendly visiting a foreign country.

I consciously try to be helpful with visiting tourists and suggest fun places to visit in our area. Even though I would prefer to carry a sidearm in the wilderness because of mountain lions, etc., I don't because I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable: I think that people from most European countries aren't used to seeing people carry guns.

Here in the USA, we do seem to have interesting behavior regarding hugging friends of the opposite sex vs. same sex. At least in our circle of friends, men almost always hug friends' wives in greeting but we only hug each other on birthdays, after especially good dinner parties, etc. - mostly special occasions.

</comment><comment><USER23> An omission would be the Chinese -- I think we are one the most repressed. Close friends never hug and conversations are always awkward in first encounters. Love is often expressed in terms of gifts and 'formal' attempts at the opposite sex, boys often chasing girls; formal in the sense that flirting doesn't happen often, instead, you 'be nice' to the girl...

<comment><USER24> I agree. As a chinese guy, i've never even hugged my parents.

<comment><USER25> Fix that NOW. Don't waste anytime showing your parents love.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Kissing (an acquaintance) in the UK happens a lot - one cheek, sometimes two. I the fact this guy was surprised says more about him than the population in general.

<comment><USER27> >Kissing (an acquaintance) in the UK happens a lot - one cheek, sometimes two.

The only times I've really seen this is with upper/upper-middle class - ladies-wot-lunch and all that - and at some schools. Generally it's only been women kissing.

The only people I cheek-kiss outside the family are close personal friends and even then only a few and it's not a measure of closeness or strength of friendship (strangely).

I can imagine it's common in some areas of the South?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Yey, different countries/cultures have different traditions. Film at 11. If you want to be useful, set up a site/wiki that can describe the different traditions in different countries. _That_ would be useful.

<comment><USER29> <http://wikitravel.org/> does a reasonable job of this. Obviously it's difficult explaining the culture of a nation in a few dozen paragraphs, and doubly so on a wiki.

For example (<http://wikitravel.org/en/Britain#Respect>):

        Allow some personal space between you and others in queues and elsewhere.
        You will usually find this in such places as cinemas. Generally, unless
        people know each other, you will find they will usually choose to fill up
        every row of seating and keep as much distance of possible until there is
        a requirement to sit directly next to each other. Exceptions are in very
        crowded situations where this is impossible, like on the Tube.

<comment><USER30> That's the case in the US as well. I think it's common courtesy more than anything else. Same reason a man doesn't take the urinal immediately next to another that is being used, unless he has to. It is courteous to give people their personal space so long as it's convenient to do so.

<comment><USER31> I think in some cultures this may be seen as insulting, if personal space isn't as freely given as part of the culture.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> One thing you also have to know about France: the number of kisses on the cheek vary from one place to another. Check out this website: <http://combiendebises.free.fr/> I come from the south (Hérault département) and now live in the suburbs of Paris. I have to remember that in Paris it's two kisses whereas in the south it's generally 3 (sometimes it's only 2). It can be really disorienting, and awkward when you make the move to do the last kiss when really it's already finished. Fun times.

</comment><comment> DanI-S I'm from Britain, live in the US with my American wife, and find it hard to recognise these behaviours in anyone I've met who is younger than middle aged.

<comment><USER33> I'm from Britain, line in Canada with my Canadian wife. Ditto.

People here go from repressed up the wazoo to open and friendly as anything. Being in my early 20's, this is what I've seen all my life.

Claiming Britons don't like to be touched is wholly misleading as I hugged most of my friends, even my guy friends. Girls didn't avoid touching you. Put it this way, for a term of English origin, I had no clue what cooties was nor had I heard it mentioned growing up from anyone. It took me associating with Americans and Canadians to even hear the word.

On this topic, I've noticed that North America is seemingly the only country with a sociopathy over touch. Back in Yorkshire I remember getting served at bars and convenience stores and people would slap change into your hand frivolously. Here in Ontario there's this anal-retentive dance that people try to give you change but refuse to touch you to actually give you the damn change. They'll try to slot the note into your hand and drop the change from like 4 inches, it's psyco-level bizarre.

I guess this is the difference when you grow up in an area with a history of mining, fishing and farming. People aren't afraid of touch.

<comment> DanI-S Ha, definitely. There seems to be some kind of bacteria neurosis embedded in the baby boomer psyche. I'm always astonished by the bottles of alcohol hand- sanitizer EVERYWHERE. And the hands-free paper towel dispensers. And the automatic flush toilets. With disposable toilet seat covers.

Yet somehow, nobody covers their mouth when they cough!

<comment><USER34> That's because of the SARS outbreak.

<comment><USER33> This is a little more deeply engrained than from an outbreak of a single disease. The thing that is bizarre is that Ontarians respond to disease similar to how the Japanese cultural response has been to radiation.

The only thing is Japan had two nuclear bombs dropped on it. Ontario has at most one outbreak of an infectious disease, which didn't really do a god damn thing; 44 Torontonians died from SARS... but by the average incidence of accidents over 5100 Torontonians literally died because 'shit happens'.

It's so completely bizarre to an outsider. I mean if this is a corollary to all North Americans, if I go to New York I expect everyone to duck and cower on the ground whenever they hear the sound of a plane. _But they don't_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Here's another data point. In South Africa, in black African culture (can't be more specific than this, unfortunately), it is considered polite to enquire after someone else's health when greeting: "hello, how are you". Or rather it's considered rude NOT to enquire. The standard response is "I'm fine thanks, and you?".

When I listened to talk radio in South Africa years ago, I remember white people calling in, and wondering why the automatic response to the phrase "hello" was often "I'm fine thanks and you".

</comment><comment><USER36> There's this whole odd thing recently in New York where people in Manhattan want to do the French air kissing on the cheeks thing. You never quite know who is going to do it, and what the proper response is, and being from Texas its all rather awkward. There are no hard and fast rules anymore, people pick things up from movies and travel.

</comment><comment><USER16> The author writes, "Americans hug friends of the opposite sex, but during this hug only their shoulders touch, and participants end by rubbing each other's backs as proof that the hug was nonsexual."

This is so true. There are 3 types of hugs: the sideways hug (as the author mentions), the "A" hug where just the tops of the bodies meet, and the full on bear hug. If you get an "A" hug after a date, that's not a good sign. ;-)

<comment><USER37> Missing research which suggest the type of hug and psychological meaning behind it: pelvic proximity (or touching) and lack thereof.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Men and women in Western cultures routinely[0] shake hands to introduce themselves. That defiantly counts as touching. Somehow the author managed to forget this.

[0] Mike Arrington being an exception. [http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/09/hand- shaking-is-so-medieval...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/09/hand-shaking-is- so-medieval-lets-end-it/)

<comment><USER20> As an American I dont think a handshake = touching. A handshake is such a common ritual that I barely notice it. If someone touches me on the elbow or wrist, I am instantly aware.

<comment><USER39> Isn't that exactly what this article is about? In other cultures "Did you touch each other?" might get a "no" response even after a kiss. In others, people who look at each other longer or more often than is the norm are forced to marry or will be tried for adultery (or be attacked for showing insufficient respect)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> If only the French would respect this. I don't want to go around kissing every acquantance I make. Seems like a guaranteed way to spread germs. Yet when you go to France you're almost forced to do this - last time I was there I really did want to say 'don't touch me, I'm British.' Except I would need to say it in every separate encounter. Only solution would be to stay there long enough to cultivate an effective 'miss me with that shit' demeanor/manner.

<comment><USER41> I think you were not lucky because on my experience kissing is not the majority even in France. I would say it depends on the context. At work peoples only handshakes. In others situations the norm is: men handshakes men, and men kisses women (if it's an acquaintance, otherwise only handshake). In south, if you know well the other guy you may even kiss him (really weird)! And In families, everybody kisses everybody.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I can't really agree with this article. I moved from the Netherlands to the UK, and I was surprised to notice that any Brit who you've met before at least once will give you a hug the next time they meet you. In the Netherlands hugs are reserved for very close friends and family.

Also, I've had people talk to me on the bus, in the queue in Tesco, etc. Quite unusual to me as well.

</comment><comment><USER43> I always found it strange to shake a woman's hand when meeting. In Brazil they kiss on two cheeks, which seems more natural to me. Guys always shake hands.

If she's a gf/wife/friend of a friend, I'm not about to enter into a business negotiation with this woman, so why shake hands.

<comment><USER44> Sometimes a delicate and formal hold of the fingers, slightly raised, is more appropriate than a handshake.

I grew up and was taught this method when shaking a lady's hands, and to have a firm, dry, handshake with men (as a judge of character).

I know it sounds silly, but it's built in to me now and I'll walk away from meetings thinking about the handshakes of the people in the room as much as the content of the discussion.

<comment><USER5> In a related note, I hate limp handshakes. I don't judge the person based on it, but it puts me off and maybe sets the mood a bit.

<comment><USER45> How interesting. I do have a limp handshake, because I feel too strong of a handshake can be off putting. I don't tend to like people with strong handshakes, because it feels like they're too controlling.

<comment><USER5> There's middle ground, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> > In France, a kiss from a pretty acquaintance can generate a frisson

Isn't that true of most places?

</comment><comment><USER47> I'd just like to point out that the phrase "skinny dipping" originated in America. We also shake hands with strangers. So, at the least, the getting naked and touching claims are questionable.

</comment><comment><USER48> I'm surprised by the eye contact comment. As a brit, I definitely rate eye contact.

</comment><comment><USER49> Complete and utter bollocks.</comment>


Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from just his cell number - sneeze-slayer https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/technology/personaltech/i-shared-my-phone-number-i-learned-i-shouldnt-have.html <comment><AUTHOR> > _A hacker could try to reset my password for an online account by answering > security questions like "What is your mother's maiden name?" or "Which of > the previous addresses did you live at?"_

That's why you don't answer those questions honestly. My mother's maiden name is always a random 32 character string living in my KeePass database...

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure that's any safer. It should protect you from the automated prompt-response systems, where an absolute match is required. But call-center workers see those answers in plaintext. Eventually an attacker will probably reach one where answering, "It's a lot of random letters and numbers. I forgot what they were but the real name is Smith!" will be enough to pass.

<comment><USER3> So what's your solution? You have to put in _something_ , and putting in the real maiden name seems like the worse option to me. Social engineering is going to be the weakest point no matter what you do, so I don't see how anything you do could defend against it and why you should account for it if there isn't anything you can do.

<comment><USER4> I use nonsense terms which are easily readable. Mother's maiden name: Lady of Amberly, first maid of countess Blue, inheritor of the golden bull.

<comment><USER5> Putting an actual name in there is probably a lot safer than anything that might be described by a human as "just some gibberish". Pick an uncommon name, maybe from another country, maybe spell it in a different way, as long as it's still recognizable as a plausible name. Most operators wouldn't fall for it if the attacker says "just some random characters". The important part is to not reuse the name between registrations.

Combine this with similar unique answers to other questions and the chances of someone guessing them all become really small.

One thing I never tried is to just put something like _Anyone_trying_to_reset_this_password_is_a_hacker_DQWIqw12E^1 &UTFD@&$_. Might be an inconvenience if you actually need to reset yourself.

<comment><USER6> If you use any kind of name you run the risk of it being guessed. Use a passphrase generator to get something completely random and easy to say over the phone.

<comment><USER7> There are thousands if not millions of possible names you could use. As long as you don't use something very common, you should be okay.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> All of the information the "hacker" found using the reporter's cell number could have been found using just the reporter's name and rough location.

It seems strange to me that peoples names, addresses, and phone numbers used to be freely distributed in a large book to every house in town yet now any one of those details can be used to assume someone's "identity." It seems the only thing stopping this from happening en-masse is that nobody has tried.

<comment><USER9> Times change. When I was an undergrad in the 1980s (in the US) my professors would post the results of exams on their office doors labeled by social security number (for "privacy"). Nobody at the time saw a problem with it, although we would today.

<comment><USER10> As a swede I don't really see a problem with this, SSN is publicly available in Swedden to anyone.

<comment><USER11> As a Swede living in the US, the difference is in Sweden the SSN is your username, in the US it's become the password.

<comment><USER12> In Sweden, the password is BankId, a two-factor authentication app that everybody has on their phones. It's used by all government agencies, banks and insurance companies etc to establish identity. You literally use your ssn as username to login, plus a pin, to generate a one-time passcode (which happens behind the scenes so you don't have type it in).

<comment><USER13> What if you don't have a phone?

<comment><USER14> I know when you make an account with Nordea, they give you a page with several hundred codes printed on it. Each time you authenticate, you have to use the next code in the list. If you use any other code on the page, it's considered invalid. They instruct you not to mark the page so if someone takes your code page they do not know which one is the current code.

<comment><USER15> But then, how does the _account holder_ know which is the current one?

<comment><USER14> In theory, by remembering the last one you used.

In practice, by just marking the damn pages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This type of phone number intelligence is essentially free. In a few seconds, for just ten cents, one could use NextCaller (YC14) and get all of this:

[https://hackernoon.com/nextcaller-what-does-your-phone- numbe...](https://hackernoon.com/nextcaller-what-does-your-phone-number-say- about-you-1bc894d48c66)

Although I think NextCaller no longer has this Twilio integration, there are similar services that provide these details at this price point.

<comment><USER17> Does anyone offer a monitoring service for consumers? I would pay a nominal fee to be able to dip in to the big databases like this to find out what they think they know about me. If it's so cheap on a per-lookup basis, maybe someone could offer a consolidated view. Pay us X dollars and we will go dip into the top 50 databases right now and see what they say.

Of course, they probably contractually cannot do this and would get cut off immediately if they did.

Edit: Didn't know, nextcaller is a YC company. LOL

<comment><USER18> On the surface, this sounds like a great idea (I certainly would pay for such a service)...But wouldn't that create an incentive for the data brokers to double-dip, and sell YOUR data to existing ad/marketing/scammer customers, PLUS sell YOU your OWN data?

(I should caveat, I'm having a "pessimist day" today, so even sunshine and rainbows aren't as pretty today as they normally are.)

<comment><USER17> > PLUS sell YOU your OWN data

Yeah, sounds like credit bureaus :).

With the shear quantity of data analysis that goes on behind the scenes and affects citizens, I think we need a much better handle on transparency. We already have some level [inadequate IMO] of control over the established credit bureaus, I think that should be expanded to all data brokers that sell personal data like this. If I can't keep it from being sold, then I should at least be able to see what it is and make sure it's accurate.

Maybe it's time to look into how to pollute the data set instead.

<comment><USER18> Yep, you're right on all points!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> They make such a big deal of getting this from a cell number, but none of what they listed is very difficult from simply a name and general idea of who a person is.

I recently found a lost wallet. The only things in it were cash and some credit cards (and a Kohl's loyalty card). The person had a semi unique name, only 4 in my state, and it was easy to find all of the data listed in this article about them. Whitepages-style sites usually have age, relatives, sometimes phone numbers and addresses, and you can put together the pieces from different sites:

I found the wallet at a Dude Perfect Tour show with my kids, so out of the matches I found, I assumed it was less likely to be the 67 year old. Another came up repeatedly for crimes: Domestic Assault & Battery, and drug crimes. I doubted this was the owner, and wasn't sure I wanted contact with anyone like that. Anyway, that left two people. The first one I called had lost the wallet, and I mailed it to him.

Again, all I needed was a name.

</comment><comment><USER20> I have been living in the park & taking calls at the lottery hotline for 25+ years, according to all but my guv, insurance provider & LEOs. Some others may get a PO Box, but if X doesn't fall under the umbrella of the former mentioned, they get all the mis-info I can feed them. Sadly, today the institutions I must rely on sell all that info to the highest bidders, anyway.

In the list of info gleaned from your phone # the writer forgot your online purchase history, vehicle VIN & plate number and pretty much EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE day-to-day thanks to O/L retailers, your cell provider, your TV/provider, your DMV, your insurance provider, your city/county/state/Fed & everyone else under the sun selling your info. Many ask for your phone # "for security reasons" and then immediately sell it. TFA states it is better than your "full name"... that's nothing, as I have >7 same-names in my metro alone. It is, indeed, better than your social security #(in the States, anyway).

</comment><comment><USER21> Very ironic article on a site that requires you to log in via social media just so you can read it.

</comment><comment><USER22> No mention of the ability to obtain an exact real-time location, which is made possible by phone companies providing your real-time data to advertisers and other third parties.

</comment><comment><USER23> Whenever possible I use the burner app if I need to provide a number to sign up for a service that I'm not particularly worried about losing access to, that sends a confirmation code on login. Especially when its something I only need to use once, like anonymously downloading a file from a website that requires a Google or Facebook login, for example.

</comment><comment> lota-putty Problem is the 'public records' not 'sharing phone#'.

Layers of security-levels to access records and appropriate log trails for audit shouldn't be that difficult to set up in this day & age.

I suppose, it's hard to implement in pure capitalistic economy.

</comment><comment><USER24> How many here have set their LinkedIn profile to not be discovered if someone knows your number?

</comment><comment><USER25> "Twilio, a communications company that works with phone carriers on combating robocalls."

\- The New York Times

</comment><comment><USER26> I can't read this article because the alleged bastion of journalistic integrity requires its readers to be tracked.

<comment><USER27> Does not. You can just read it with disabled javascript.</comment></comment>


GeoFill - find users by IP or lookup and prefill forms for them - <AUTHOR> http://ajaxian.com/archives/geofill-find-users-by-ip-or-lookup-and-prefill-forms-for-them

<comment><USER2> I prefer to just unobstrusively pre-fill the country field based on IP, but this is pretty cool.

Keep in mind it's gonna get it wrong for users on VPNs or web proxies.

<comment><USER3> I agree, the message is a little much, but the idea is right on. All forms should have this behavior.</comment></comment>


Monarch butterfly numbers keep declining - <AUTHOR> https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/03/monarch-butterfly-numbers-keep-declining/ <comment><USER2> As it happens, I just got back from seeing the Monarch grove in Mexico. It's an amazing sight. When the sun comes out from behind the clouds and they all warm up and take off within a couple minutes, the air is so full of them that they darken the sky. And the mountain (in Michoacan province, about 2 hours by car from Mexico City) is beautiful and the people are friendly. If you've seen the Monarch groves on the California coast, Mexico has 2 orders of magnitude more. Well worth the trip.

Our guides, showing WWF slides, told a more optimistic story about numbers. They had declined to very low levels around 2011, but have bounced back substantially. They said the small decline in the last 2 years might be normal variation due to weather. The graphs showed random variation in population by a factor of 2 from year-to-year going back to the 1970s, so it's probably hard to conclude anything from a single year's count.

Still, if you live along the migration corridor, please plant milkweed and don't use glyphosate weed killer.

<comment><USER3> Note that there are multiple species of milkweed. If you find milkweed unappealing, look into other species. In the late 1980s/early 1990s, I found a couple of monarch pupae on some plants in the wetlands in my back yard. The plant stems were more stiff and the leaves less velvety than the milkweed I was familiar with in the local park.

I asked our local nature center if Monarchs only eat milkweed, why they would pupate on this plant. They identified the plant as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias_incarnata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias_incarnata) , a variety of milkweed.

<comment><USER4> A retaining wall in my backyard has a growth of Cynanchum laeve (honeyvine milkweed) and English ivy - it looks rather nice, and every year I find a handful of monarch caterpillars happily munching away at the leaves. While the vines can spread and be very invasive if not controlled, they co-mingle with ivy very well. I greatly appreciate them being part of my garden.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I grew up next to meadows that were rarely if ever cut, in the 1980's (Northeastern US). As a young child I'd often find Monarch caterpillars, and was sometimes allowed to keep them in a small, strange box molded from glass and known as a terrarium. I'd feed them milkweed until they reached the pupal stage, then watch with wonder as the chrysalis changed from a jade-like, gold- rimmed ornament into a transparent capsule of folded orange-black wings. Finally, when the new insect emerged, we watched and waited (with still more patience) for the wings to dry, leading up to release day, when the butterfly was suddenly gone in a dash toward the sky.

Guided by my grandmother, an amateur naturalist, these were my first experiences leading to a knowledge of change, lifecycle, and above all the beauty to be found in the natural world. This simple gestation process of a curious looking caterpillar is impressed on me like no other early childhood memory. A process taking weeks, it was my first consciousness of time.

Today, those meadows are acres and acres of trimmed lawn. The smooth aesthetic of green grass pocked with dandelion has won over the wildness of a milkweed dotted field. But me, I've forsworn all lawn mowing, and should I ever own a meadow, will let it go to seed.

</comment><comment><USER6> The assertion here by this activist group that the decline is due mainly to herbicides used on GMO crops doesn't seem to hold up on closer inspection:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health- science/why-p...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/why- planting-milkweed-wont-halt-monarch-butterfly- decline/2017/03/17/133c4134-0903-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?utm_term=.fe847bed9a08)

[https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/11/04/save- monarch-b...](https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/11/04/save-monarch- butterflies-banning-glyphosate-planting-milkweeds-wont-help/)

<comment><USER7> In fact, herbicides are crucial in the fight against one of the major threats facing monarchs.

The invasive Dog Strangling Vine is related to milkweed and monarchs will mistakenly lay their eggs on it, where they fail to mature. It is a very prolific invasive species, and is significantly outcompeting milkweed in many areas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> We can help the humble Monarch butterfly by planting milkweed seeds:

[https://www.thebutterflyfarm.com/free-milkweed- seeds-0](https://www.thebutterflyfarm.com/free-milkweed-seeds-0)

<comment><USER9> There are many different species of milkweed. Please, only plant the species that are native to where you live. If you are unsure what species are native to your area, contact a local plant society, for example the California Native Plant Society, the Oregon Native Plant Society, etc., and ask them. They would be more than happy to help and can tell you where to buy seeds.

edit: here is what I would consider a better guide from the Xerces Society, with links to regional seed suppliers.

[http://xerces.org/milkweed/](http://xerces.org/milkweed/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Ever notice how about 15-20 years ago while driving on the highway your car would be covered in bugs? And now hardly any.

<comment><USER11> It's very disturbing. I used to drive across the country on a yearly basis (i80) and would have to clean my windshield of bugs at many of the gas stops, by the time I arrived the nose of the car would completely covered. Last year I made the same trip, similar time of year as previous trips, and didn't clean the windshield once.

Things are getting really out of wack, and I'm not looking forward to being around for what might become the collapse of our ecosystem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> If it helps, milkweed is also known as "swan plant" due to the shape and colour of the flowers. Can help convince some gardeners to invest, if the word "milkweed" puts them off as it sounds unpleasant.

<comment><USER13> The native milkweed where we live is beautiful, and smells wonderful. It's also gorgeous in winter. I'm surprised it doesn't get planted more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> it was worse before - we have at least 1 year [http://monarchwatch.org/blog/uploads/2018/03/monarch- populat...](http://monarchwatch.org/blog/uploads/2018/03/monarch-population- figure-monarchwatch-2018.png)

</comment><comment><USER15> Iowa plans to plant milkweed state wide to help the Monarch recover. All part of a national effort.

[http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Planting-a-billion- milkweed...](http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Planting-a-billion-milkweeds- for-monarchs-476789743.html)

Almost sounds touchy-feeling, until you get to this part (of the link above)...

"... The Endangered Species Act has tremendous impact on private land ownership. And so we don't want to get at a point as a partner with DNR with our other partners out there, we don't want to get to the point where there is no choice but to do this then it becomes mandated under the endangered species act. We'd rather have voluntary participation."

tl;dr; If the DNR shows up, we'll finally have to do something about our water quality.

<comment><USER16> My mom used to raise Monarch caterpillars for her elementary school class. I remember that it was always difficult to find milkweed even back then. We had to walk a certain hiking trail to find some and then search the plants for a few caterpillars. I don't ever remember seeing large patches of milkweed, only a few scattered plants with perhaps a dozen or so plants over a roughly one mile hike.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I was in Monterrey and San Luis Obispo last December and ran into the Monarchs on their way migrating down south. It was quite a sight catching them randomly on forest hikes: [https://i.imgur.com/315pC3y.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/315pC3y.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER18> Has anyone ever bothered to ask themselves that the ridiculous propagation of the idiotic ritual killing of every terrestrial arthropod by suburbanites throughout every municipality east of the Mississippi might actually be a major contribution to this outcome?

<comment><USER19> I don't have a clue what you're talking about, but then again I'm from west of that river. Mind elaborating?

<comment><USER18> Monsanto sells products to annihilate most insects to ensure monoculture lawns. Have you not seen that throughout America?

<comment><USER20> In California I haven't seen much advertised in this regard. You're saying it's common elsewhere?

<comment><USER21> California has less bugs... In the midwest in most cities/suburbs you have to maintain your lawn for the purpose of keeping the bugs and noxious weeds down. If you don't, it's a code violation. I think the real reason is that mosquitos like to hide in them... Find a way to keep the mosquitos at bay and maybe we can have more natural lawns.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Anecdata. I live in the same place I grew up. As a kid, the monarchs passing through was a fun part of the season. Thousands and thousands of butterflies over a few weeks or so. Now, we are lucky to spot a single monarch.

</comment><comment><USER23> We planted milkweed at our home, 9 years ago in Colorado, but never saw any visiting Monarch.

<comment><USER24> Some milkweed came up next to my garage a few years ago. I let it go and it spread. This last summer I saw Monarchs around it a couple times. Once I thought I saw one lay an egg and later when I checked the plant, I saw what looked like an egg in that spot. I never saw any caterpillars. There are other insects that also like milkweed and I saw plenty of those.</comment></comment>


How To Land A Job At A Startup (Resource Page) - <AUTHOR> http://williamgriggs.populr.me/how-to-land-a-job-at-a-start-up

<comment><USER2> I'd say its very important to do research on the company you are trying to get a job with. I got a job at a start up, but there wasn't any information available online. I had to work there for a month to realize they were probably going nowhere.</comment>


Ask HN: Feedback on A Map of the Cat? - <AUTHOR> http://amapofthecat.com

<comment><USER2> The font shadow makes the text appear blurry. Font sizes need consistency. Do not use the same size for headlines and starts of paragraphs. The single big letters are just silly. Serif font does not fit technology/coding environment. The huge quote is so huge and long that I do not read it. Feynman name- dropping is lame, put your own quality in that space where the visitor looks first.

<comment><AUTHOR> Round #3: I've dropped the Feynman quote, cleaned up the explanation, moved things out to other pages, and got rid of the redundant headlines. The sizing of the headline/drop caps is an issue on other pages that I'll be addressing shortly.

Thank you for your comments, I really appreciate them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> What am I looking at here? Like, is this a demonstrator for some content management tool?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a tongue-in-cheek personal portfolio I'm putting together. I haven't done an illustration for a logo yet--not exactly my strongest skill, although I like drawing. I'm looking to see what areas people think are in need of work.

(EDIT: Tweaked the About blurb; perhaps it will be clearer now?)

<comment><USER3> Cool.

Renders beautifully in Safari on my Mac but the font is horrible on Firefox on Windows.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll have to check it out on Windows... Just let me boot it up here.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Starbucks To Sell Square Readers In Store - <AUTHOR> http://www.macgasm.net/2013/01/07/starbucks-to-sell-square-readers-in-store/

<comment><USER2> My local produce market has a box of $10 Square readers near the checkout, right next to the blow-pops and M&Ms my kids constantly claw at. What is special about the Starbucks deal?</comment>


The Everything Disease: A Forensic Analysis of the Popularity of Pokemon - <AUTHOR> http://kotaku.com/5331307/the-everything-disease-a-forensic-analysis-of-the-popularity-of-pokemon <comment><USER2> That guy needs a copy editor. I couldn't make it through.

<comment><USER3> I accidentally the whole article! You are in luck.

a) The folks that produce Pokemon do some sort of game where you have to go to 95 train stations and get a book stamped with a symbolic Pokemon representing that train station. All 95 stamps get you a small chance at a plush Pokemon, or the opportunity to buy a commemorative plastic Pokemon cup.

b) [He claims that] Japanese companies do not isolate successful and unsuccessful aspects of a successful enterprise, and instead think that "everything" was part of the success. So they can't cancel the stamp hunt.

c) There's nothing about the games. Aside from the utility of having the number of collected pokemon be a point of competition between children.

d) I can't believe I wasted those minutes and now I want them back.

e) I want a firefox extension that lets me suggest alternate or additional meanings to chunks of text. In this particular case, entire paragraphs could have been condensed to a zero-byte string. Someone get cracking.

<comment><USER4> a) This is called a stamp rally, and they're fairly common in Japan, not just for Pokemon. They're extraordinarily popular because they combine tourism, the ability to demonstrate that you've been somewhere (if you go somewhere you have to bring photos and gifts back to the people who didn't get to go -- that is just how it is done), and completionism. You can also get a stamp for visiting every town in Mie Prefecture. (Think Kansas, with rather less tornadoes and white people.) And people do.

b) Based on how many people were lined up at the Pokemon stamp rally stations during my last business trip to Tokyo 2 weeks ago, I don't think any rational marketing manager would cancel them.

<comment><USER3> Sure. I was just summarizing the article. And complaining about it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Closing the Loopholes in Europe's Net Neutrality Compromise - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/closing-loopholes-europes-net-neutrality-compromise <comment><USER2> The only sensible prioritization you can do is to shift connections on the axis between (high latency, high throughput) and (low latency, low throughput). This basically reduces down to a scheduling problem: ISPs might be able to deduce the type of traffic by just examining the patterns in the amount of traffic. This would constitute a "natural law" of networking that application writers could expect to rely on.

If you want your application to communicate something that needs to be fast, like VoIP or network gaming datagrams, the amount of data needs to be small. And if your application is downloading large files, it can expect to be prioritized below everything else in the network. Building a video service? Let the user choose whether he wants to wait for some time till the high-res video is being buffered or start watching immediately but at a lower quality.

Any other kind of throttling or prioritization is going to skew the internet experience in a fundamental way.

<comment><USER3> Yeah that's the only thing that actually makes sense. If QoS is just a matter of asking "How fast do you want your traffic to be?" of course everyone is going to say "As fast as possible!" which means the ISP is then forced into deciding the QoS itself, badly.

If you make it a trade-off then end-users can decide.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I hope that the fix to the QoS language gets through, since it has large consequences for fair competition. A few years ago a top 3 ISP in Sweden used QoS software that incorrectly identified League of Legends as P2P, making the game practically unplayable for almost half a year. The resulting effect was that a 40ms connection turned into a 3-10s delayed one, costing Riot revenue and unnecessary costs in support and developer time. The only thing Riot should be happy about is that this happened during that time when the MOBA market was limited with few competing titles (It was before DotA 2), as this ISP would have a created an distorted market within their customer base.

This ISP was of course not the only customer of the QoS software, but I am rather sure it was the single biggest one.

</comment><comment><USER5> we are also struggling with net neutrality in India, What are opinions from Europe on Internet.org ?

<comment><USER6> [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=internet.org&sort=byPopularity...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=internet.org&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=pastYear&type=story)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is it stupid to add In-App Purchasing now? - <AUTHOR>

I've built a web app and iOS app that will soon be integrated ( http://inthatbox.com ). I'm planning to make the web app a freemium service, and was thinking that I'd move the iOS app to a free with In-App Purchasing model to match up with the web app. I also think that IAP would be beneficial to marketing of the app.
The question is, is it a bad idea to add IAP now, with all of the patent legal issues still undecided? I tend to think (/hope) that Apple will prevail in the long-run, but on the other hand I'd rather avoid being sued.
So basically the question is - Is it stupid to add IAP right now?
Also, if I shouldn't do it now, at what point should I begin to think about jumping in? <comment><USER2> If you think it's good for the app and your business, just do it.

In what's most likely the worst case scenario, you wind up having to pay Lodsys the 0.575% of revenue from the app -- which is a lot less than you'd lose by not including IAP in the app. In many far more likely scenarios, you never have to pay anything because Apple succeeds in fighting off Lodsys on behalf of its developers.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link (if you want to see the app in question): <http://inthatbox.com>

</comment><comment><USER3> Ever thought of letting users print QR codes on each box, and then scan the QR code to find out what's inside?

<comment><USER3> Ok, while my post was loading on this thread i read at the bottom of your homepage some info about QR codes. You should make this feature more prominent on the site, even a single sample image of a QR code, or a diagram showing how this works would help.</comment></comment>


Flappy Bird: What I Did for the Pandora Version - <AUTHOR> http://pandoralive.info/?p=3973

<comment><USER2> is there someone i can give money to yet to reserve a pyra?

<comment><AUTHOR> No, not yet :) Preorders should be available later this year, i guess.</comment></comment>


Tracking events in analytics systems - <AUTHOR> http://goshakkk.name/tracking-events-in-analytics-systems/

<comment><USER2> anxious to read the next one. Always. Save. Raw. Event. Data</comment>


So you want to manage a product? What no one tells you about the role - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/managing-digital-products/so-you-want-to-manage-a-product-c664ba7e5138#.bc5ag6x7a <comment><USER2> The pm does care more than everyone, its a fitting definitiom but once you learn all the things you say you're not you'll increase your earning potential.

Also, it should be abundantly clear for anyone who spent a day working in high tech that the CEO decides absolutely everything.</comment>


In 'Ready Player One' Spielberg Regrets the Pop Culture He Created - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxv75/ready-player-one-review <comment><USER2> It sounds like the movie might actually be bringing in some of the critique I had been hoping for from the book but never was satisfied with. I wanted something, anything that would address the big question as to why the players in the VR world were just living in past pop culture rather than creating their own new culture. Here's a bit I wrote several years ago about this:

>It seems like, despite the protagonist's fears about IOI turning the OASIS into a soul-less amusement park, that's kind of what the OASIS already was in the story. There wasn't much talk about players generating new worlds and new experiences -- most of the time characters were enjoying the pre-packaged "Lord of the Rings", "Star Trek", or "Dungeons and Dragons" VR worlds, reliving existing ideas again and again. The gunter protagonists weren't off creating fantastic new landscapes or generating culture, they were poring through the ruins of the old trying to find some arcane clue -- and I didn't get the sense that they would be doing that if they didn't have the Hunt to focus on.

>These are interesting things to think about -- and definitely a worrisome part of dystopian visions of VR that turn the ultimate communication/creation tool into a trough full of pre-packaged feed for consumers -- but I don't think that RPO's author was attempting to focus on that. Rather, the sterile emptiness I felt from the OASIS seemed more a result of the author just not describing much that wasn't necessarily "just so" for the plot.</comment>


A Lisp interpreter in TypeScript - <AUTHOR> http://www.oki-osk.jp/esc/typescript/lisp-en.html <comment><AUTHOR> The Lisp in 1,200 lines of Dart, which has macros, quasi-quotation and tail- call optimization ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903332](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903332)), was translated into 1,390 lines of TypeScript. It runs on browsers.

</comment><comment><USER2> If you are interested in the future of Lisp in the context of browsers or Nodejs, take a look at this: [http://lispblog.xach.com/post/138667931963/lisp- and-webassem...](http://lispblog.xach.com/post/138667931963/lisp-and- webassembly)

</comment><comment><USER3> Why does the foldl function use a while loop?

<comment><USER4> Why not? map, fold/reduce are not necessarily implemented as the textbook says.

<comment><AUTHOR> Certainly not. The foldl is a part of the TypeScript program that implements the Lisp.

By the way, as for "while" in the implemented Lisp, it is defined with recursion and will be executed with tail-call optimization. See

      (defmacro while (test &rest body)
        (let ((loop (gensym)))
          `(letrec ((,loop (lambda () (cond (,test ,@body (,loop))))))
             (,loop))))

in the const prelude of lisp.ts ([http://www.oki- osk.jp/esc/typescript/lisp/lisp.ts.html](http://www.oki- osk.jp/esc/typescript/lisp/lisp.ts.html)).

<comment><USER4> Thanks for this information.

My point was more that map and reduce do not inherently _require_ a recursive implementation and can be implemented directly as loops.

I don't follow closely TypeScript: is tail-call merging done when compiling to Javascript or is the Javascript runtime responsible for this behavior?

<comment><AUTHOR> No, neither. That behavior is implemented in the same way as in the Lisp in Dart ([http://www.oki-osk.jp/esc/dart/lisp-en.html#4](http://www.oki- osk.jp/esc/dart/lisp-en.html#4)).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I will now write all my comment in Kanjis. It's too beautiful.

</comment><comment><USER6> Thus, yet again, sort-of-validating Greenspun's 10th Rule.

I'm not _complaining_... just _observing_ :).

<comment><USER7> As much as I love a good Greenspun invocation, I don't think this really counts:

> Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, > informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common > Lisp.

isn't about the inevitability of literally implementing a Lisp interpreter.

It's about something more abstract. see: [http://c2.com/cgi- bin/wiki?LevelsOfGreenspunning](http://c2.com/cgi- bin/wiki?LevelsOfGreenspunning)

<comment><USER8> It's still got a good shot at validating Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment.

> Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs > which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.</comment></comment></comment>


The Secret History of Thoughts - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/375927143/the-secret-history-of-thoughts?showDate=2015-01-09

<comment><AUTHOR> A great primer in various schools of psychotherapy. Locked-In man is one of the most moving podcasts I've heard in a very long time. Fantastic production from npr.</comment>