Why an American went to Cuba for cancer care - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39640165 <comment><USER2> Honestly and pleasently surprised that this wasn't an article where the answer was just "they went to [other country] because it was cheaper".

<comment><USER3> Why? Is to avoid regulations somehow better?

Just curious of the basis of that value judgement.

<comment><USER4> She went to Cuba to get a drug developed in Cuba. That's more interesting than just cheaper.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Let me guess, because America's health care system is a fucking disaster? and only the 1 percent can afford it?

<comment><USER6> That's simply not true. The middle and upper class can largely afford insurance. If you consider how much people (in countries that offer universal healthcare) pay in taxes, the difference diminshes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> [http://www.breitbart.com/national- security/2017/04/06/venezu...](http://www.breitbart.com/national- security/2017/04/06/venezuelan-cancer-patients-protest-painful-side-effects- of-low-quality-cuban-drugs/)

<comment><USER8> Providing sources is great. It would be really helpful if you also provide some context as to why you're including it here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> "I'm basically a very honest person, but if I have to, I will lie."

Very honest indeed.

<comment><USER10> I have never met someone that didn't lie occasionally. Most are just basically honest. And that's ok.

There is no point in telling a 5 year old that their picture sucks, for example. You might not say it is your favorite, sure, but you won't be telling them it is garish in color or that you can't even tell it is a doggy.

In her situation, she's freaking dying. She sees a chance at life, and she has to lie to do it? Yeah, she's still basically a very honest person, much like the person not being mean to the 5 year old.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best practices for Shell script only automation for dev and deployment - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> OP: if you truly want to build it, then you also have to build your own interpreters for the shell language.

And then you have to build your own compilers to run the interpreter code.

Then you have to build your own linkers for the compilers to use.

And your own parsers.

And your own lexers.

And your own libraries.

And your own assemblers.

And your own machine code interpreters.

And your own OSes.

And your own hardware.

And your own everything else.

Once you've done all that, you can then build your own DevOps tooling for developing and deploying your code.

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't use just shell scripts, use something made for the purpose.

"set -eou pipefail"

<comment><AUTHOR> There are always two strategy to approach the problem. Build Vs Buy.

I know most people go with "Buy" approach as there are already frameworks to achieve it. I want help with "Build" approach.

<comment><USER3> What is there to buy?

Ansible, terraform, packer

Or

Docker, orchestration

Would be the route I would take.

Shell only is far too unreliable for DevOps and you will be reinventing capabilities in a less ideal framework.</comment></comment></comment>


Google Chrome integrates display of PDF into browser - <AUTHOR> http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/11/pdf-goodness-in-chrome.html

<comment><USER2> Can be turned off in chrome://plugins - for those who don't like PDF plugins and prefer a proper application like Evince or Skim (or, well, Adobe Reader).

Still no way to disable the annoying download confirmation message, which now also pops up with PDFs.

<comment><USER3> Thanks, it was bugged in my 8.x OSX version of Chrome (can't change page)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Previously: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1440463>

</comment><comment><USER5> Anyone know if they're using the JS-based renderer, or is this C/C++-level code?

<comment><USER6> It's C++. AFAIK it's built on top of the Foxit SDK.

<comment><USER7> I can confirm that there were foxit references in pre-beta source code

edit: i think this was the reference i was thinking of, is it for this feature, or is it unrelated?

[http://www.google.com/codesearch/p#OAMlx_jo- ck/src/third_par...](http://www.google.com/codesearch/p#OAMlx_jo- ck/src/third_party/skia/src/images/fpdfemb.h)</comment></comment></comment>


Any one had any luck bying broken GPUs from eBay? - <AUTHOR> Just asking because I have seen a RX580 on Ebay that said that it works but resets when installing the drivers. This sounds to me like just like a botched install of windows or a heat sink that needs reseting.  I was thinking that it could be a cheep card to try my luck on. So has any one got a gpu and fixed it or had it just work? <comment><USER2> Resetting when installing drivers can very well be a hardware issue. Without drivers the card is working without hardware acceleration, and that part seems to be working. When drivers initialise the card attempts to enable hardware acceleration and the entire machine either crashes or a reboot is initiated in hardware because the card is now causing a short-circuit.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've successfully used a "broken" GPU that just had a broken fan that needed replacing but with these things YMMV.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool wich one was it?

<comment><USER3> Back in the day: HD 5770.</comment></comment></comment>


Abandoned island in the middle of NYC - <AUTHOR> http://backspac.es/r/62JmCbXLb8/abandoned-island-in-the-middle <comment><USER2> This is the island where Typhoid Mary ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary)), the first person in the US detected to carry typhoid without showing symptoms, was quarantined. There's a great Radiolab episode where they take a trip to the island; [http://www.radiolab.org/2011/nov/14/](http://www.radiolab.org/2011/nov/14/), [http://www.radiolab.org/2011/nov/14/typhoid- mary/](http://www.radiolab.org/2011/nov/14/typhoid-mary/)

</comment><comment><USER3> There are actually a couple of uninhabited islands in the East River: North Brother (the one in the article), South Brother, Mill Rock, and U Thant.

If you find this stuff interesting, you may want to check out Forgotten New York[1], a site run by movie location scout Kevin Walsh, who gets access to places few people get to see in the city. Another great blog is Abandoned NYC[2].

[1] [http://forgotten-ny.com/](http://forgotten-ny.com/)

[2] [http://abandonednyc.com/](http://abandonednyc.com/)

<comment><USER4> There's an island named after the 3rd UN Secretary General? I did not know that. Cool!

<comment><USER3> Yup.

"There is a forlorn little spit of land in the middle of the East River by the United Nations, called U Thant Island."

"In 1977, a group of United Nations employees who meditated with Sri Chinmoy, a Queens-based mystic, had the island re-christened in honor of the Burmese diplomat U Thant, who was the third Secretary General of the world body from 1961 to 1971."

[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/06/nyregion/fyi-652520.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/06/nyregion/fyi-652520.html)

<comment><USER5> My uncle was very close friends with Sri Chinmoy, and I met him a few times in my youth. Fascinating man.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you ever do any exploring of old/abandoned buildings like this, you better use a respirator. Asbestos + neglect + vandalism is a nasty combo.

<comment><USER7> I want to emphasize this. Always use appropriate safety equipment when exploring old buildings. Steel-toed boots are also a very good idea, in addition to a respirator. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration#Safety_and_le...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration#Safety_and_legality)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Got one here in the Bay Area: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawbridge,_California](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawbridge,_California)

Fun, though dangerous [active train track; passenger trains pass at 100kph], place to visit. Just walk out the trails from Alviso in the south bay. I've done it about 3 times. Old dead buildings falling into the marsh. Walkways lead from the tracks to the water's edge (for maintenance?).

Note: it's illegal to visit (dangerous + nature sanctuary), so go at night..

<comment><USER9> No, don't go at night. Don't go unless you are part of an organized tour. Drawbridge is along the train tracks used by Amtrak and ACE trains. At night, freight trains also use the tracks, and not on a set schedule. If you are at the wrong spot and a train is coming, there is literally nowhere to go except for a swim in the mud. I went there on a tour, I think through Palo Alto Baylands. I'm not sure if tours are offered anymore, a quick google search didn't come up with anything. It's an interesting spot, especially if there is someone along who knows the history, but there really isn't that much to see anymore, most of the houses have sunk into the mud.

<comment><USER10> IMHO the biggest risk out there is getting caught not the trains. The tracks leading up to that area have clear sight lines for miles. I've been out there 4 or 5 days over the years and have only really had to deal with trains a few times, and you always knew they were coming with many minutes to spare (10+ for a slow moving freighter, to just under 5 probably for an ACE train). Not to say it isn't dangerous, but if you can jump to the left or to the right and are worried about some mud I'm not sure that this is the place for you to explore :)

On the other hand I've had several friends get nasty fines from LEO's while out there, or on there way out there. YMMV

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I love these islands.

Hashima island is one of these [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island) in Japan. Or well the [http://wikitravel.org/en/Shikoku](http://wikitravel.org/en/Shikoku) is another place you can go and see the forgotten life.

Check this one too [http://gakuran.com/gunkanjima-ruins-of-a-forbidden- island/](http://gakuran.com/gunkanjima-ruins-of-a-forbidden-island/)

<comment><USER12> Ha! This picture [1] of Hashima Island instantly reminded me of the James Bond film Skyfall. Apparently it served as an inspiration.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E8%BB%8D%E8%89%A6%E5%B3%B...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E8%BB%8D%E8%89%A6%E5%B3%B6_%284%29.JPG)

<comment><USER13> You're right. From wikipedia "In the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall, the island served as an inspiration for the lair of villain Raoul Silva but filming did not take place on the island itself. One section was recreated at Pinewood Studios in Great Britain and the rest via CGI"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Given real state prices in NYC, if find it hard to believe it's still "too expensive to build everything" now, _if_ it was so in the 60's. Perhaps there is more to the story? Does anyone know why this place doesn't get developed?

<comment><USER15> Because it's an island with no infrastructure. There's still tons of cheap real estate in the Bronx that's pretty close to Manhattan. That'll get gentrified well before a poorly located abandoned island with no transit connections would.

<comment><USER16> Included in "infrastructure," but worth noting separately: NYC real estate prices are very dependent upon transportation time. Without any bridges, tunnels, or public ferry service here, actual distance from Manhattan doesn't really matter -- it's very far away.

<comment> iso8859-1 Speedboat? How long would it take?

<comment><USER16> About as long as a slow boat.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> NYC loves to do all sorts of interesting things with its islands. Another island that most New Yorkers know nothing about is Roosevelt Island:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island)

It has had a very long history including having a prison/small pox hospital/mental hospital.

<comment><USER18> Another interesting island in NYC is Governor's Island, which the city is planning to develop into a recreation and tourism area:

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

<comment><USER19> It already is a recreation and tourism area.

<comment><USER20> That is true. I was recreating there two days ago, and New York's public interactive art festival, Figment NYC is held there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> If abandoned buildings is your thing, then this Russian site is a fantastic way to waste a lot of time.

[http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/](http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/)

Google translate will help with navigation.

<comment><USER3> Also, English Russia: [http://englishrussia.com/category/exclusive/](http://englishrussia.com/category/exclusive/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I like that in the last photograph, the bullet holes are clearly from someone shooting from the inside out. Who was trying to get inside, and where are the bodies?

<comment><USER23> Look again. Someone inside shot a smiley face in the shape of |:-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> If you like stuff like this, you should check out this photographer's flickr. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4019607](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4019607)

He takes photos of abandoned buildings. If you're in SF he's got some good ones of 140 Montgomery, the art deco building that is now being refurbished into new digs for Yelp and other companies. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnelbug/sets/7215761380385022...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnelbug/sets/72157613803850225/)

He's also done Neverland Ranch, and the Jackling House Mansion (home to Steve Jobs and one point) [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnelbug/sets/7215759415352040...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnelbug/sets/72157594153520402/).

</comment><comment><USER25> There is another island in the middle of NYC that has a mass grave where the government has buried over 850,000 people. It's not open to the public though, and apparently they go to great lengths to keep the public and the media away.

<comment><USER26> That would be Hart Island, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island,_New_York](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island,_New_York)

It's the potter's field for the City of New York, where unclaimed remains and the remains of those who can't afford a burial are buried by Riker's inmates.

<comment><USER27> Thank you for that. I found that very sad, but addictive reading. The supposed origin of the term potters field was news to me too, and I didn't previously know what Judas did with his coins.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> It's also the site of the worst NYC disaster prior to 9/11: [http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-brother- island](http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-brother-island)

</comment><comment><USER29> Biggest thing that struck me in this piece wasn't really related to the topic, but was: " _Art still remained from the heroin addicts who had lived in the rehab center_ " \- reading that made me realise what a big disconnect I have in my head between the sort of people who would create "art" on their walls with the sort of people I think of as heroin addicts.

On a conscious level I know that anyone can be a heroin addict, I could become one, my brother/boss/friend might already be one... but I've only just realised what a predisposition I still hold onto.

<comment><USER19> When I think of heroin addicts, I mostly think of artists and musicians. And Sherlock Holmes.

<comment><USER30> Holmes was actually a cocaine addict ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> From the last picture, if the door was closed, the shots were fired from inside the building. Doubt the shots would have came from police at "nearby Riker's Island."

<comment><USER32> I thought the same thing. I believe what they intended to say was that police from Riker's came over and used the island, not that shots were fired from Riker's through the door.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Im surprised billionaires haven't snatched these up and turned them into private islands.

<comment><USER19> You're overestimating the appeal of an island in the middle of the East River.

<comment><USER33> I laughed because you're absolutely right. I just figured that if its near Manhattan, it can't be that bad.

<comment><USER3> Also, if you live there, you can't be called 'bridge and tunnel', because there is neither a bridge nor a tunnel.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_and_tunnel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_and_tunnel)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Another NYC gem is the abandoned Cobble Hill Tunnel on the border of Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights. It is also the oldest cut and cover construction in North America for the subterranean fans out there. [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobble_Hill_Tunnel](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobble_Hill_Tunnel)

</comment><comment><USER35> Another interesting island nearby is Hart Island. See [http://googlesightseeing.com/2006/08/island-of-the- dead/](http://googlesightseeing.com/2006/08/island-of-the-dead/), [http://goo.gl/maps/VplQF](http://goo.gl/maps/VplQF)

</comment><comment><USER36> H.P. Lovecraft used similar imagery and atmosphere:

"The vast huddle of sagging gambrel roofs and peaked gables conveyed with offensive clearness the idea of wormy decay [...] Stretching inland from among them I saw the rusted, grass-grown line of the abandoned railway, with leaning telegraph-poles now devoid of wires, and the half-obscured lines of the old carriage roads to Rowley and Ipswich."

[http://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx](http://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER37> Lived here for 8 years and still learning something new. Got to love NYC! Also throwing it out there that Backspaces has really good, off-beat (in a good way), artistic content like this all the time.

</comment><comment><USER38> Going through those photos, I was on the alert for Clickers...

<comment><USER39> What are Clickers?

<comment><USER38> The recent video game _The Last of Us_ focuses on exploring abandoned and overgrown environments while being on the watch both for hostile humans, and for zombie-type creatures infested with a mutant _Ophiocordyceps_ fungus that attacks humans instead of insects. "Clickers" are one such subtype of infected; their eyes have been overgrown with fungus so they use echolocation to find you and make distinctive screeching and clicking sounds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Awesome photos, and I never would have imagined that anyplace in NYC could be so abandoned, but further reading shows that the island is occasionally patrolled by authorities.

More info & images: [http://www.businessinsider.com/north-brother- island-2012-2?o...](http://www.businessinsider.com/north-brother- island-2012-2?op=1)

</comment><comment><USER41> If you are into that sort of thing - some photos I took of the abandoned Harlem Valley Psych Hospital

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mva/sets/72157618704382364/with...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/mva/sets/72157618704382364/with/3559061664/)

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have any cool stories about those places to go along with the pictures, post them to backspaces and I'll make sure they get seen. I build the app with a friend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> This is for this kind of story that I love Backspaces. Makes the Internet a better place.

</comment><comment><USER43> What is the legal status of a place like this? Is it trespassing to take a look around?

<comment><USER19> Yeah, you're not supposed to go out there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Perfect plot for a cinema verite' horror flick: scene: "hey, I heard about this cool abandoned island off NYC, I double dare you to kayak over there and spend then might". Mayhem ensues... Kickstarter movie anyone?

</comment><comment><USER45> I know someone from jersey who was approached about investing in the island back then. I thought it sounded pretty cool. He said "except that's where all the escapees from Rikers wash up."

I couldn't tell if he was joking.

</comment><comment><USER46> Behold: The future of all civilization once man has left Earth to nature.

</comment><comment><USER47> Why is half the available screen space of this website asking me to download their app? There's an app banner, another banner at the top, and a banner that floats with the text at the bottom.

</comment><comment><USER48> The photo of a fire hydrant drowning under ivy is especially striking. For some reason it communicates "abandonment" to me more clearly than the ruined buildings.

</comment><comment><USER49> Cool pics but this is for reddit, not HN.

</comment><comment><USER50> Looks like something right out of the /r/nosleep subreddit.

</comment><comment><USER51> I believe the "x-ray" machine is actually an iron lung.

</comment><comment><USER52> It's vaguely beautiful ..

</comment><comment><USER53> Nothing but flowers...

</comment><comment><USER54> Dibs.

</comment><comment><USER55> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brother_Island,_East_Riv...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brother_Island,_East_River)

It's now a bird sanctuary, and it looks like it's illegal to be there.</comment>


Ask HN: What are some well designed CLI apps? - <AUTHOR> Please explain why. <comment><USER2> The original /bin/true and /bin/false, if the claim in [http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2016-July/019657....](http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2016-July/019657.html) ( _" the original implementation of /bin/true was a zero-length file, while /bin/false worked by not existing at al"_) is true.

gnu hello, a hello world that, in over 7500 bytes of C, supports --help, --version, a --traditional flag that changes _" Hello, world!"_ to _" hello, world"_, --greeting to completely change the greeting, and localization, and correctly sets its exit code if writing of the message fails.

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_(Unix)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_\(Unix\))

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://brew.sh/](http://brew.sh/)

</comment><comment><USER5> apps? not sure that is the right term. I'd much rather see the word program. apps is a thing of the various phone providers (apple, android)

</comment><comment><USER6> git's design is exceptional.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the worst part of interviewing? - <AUTHOR> I've done 15 interviews this past month. I have 3 offers, and 7 are still ongoing.
The worst part for me, is when you are rejected and aren't given a reason as to why. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Especially when it appears things are going well or you dedicate an entire day at their company doing an interview. <comment><USER2> Time and expectation management. 45-60 mins is very limited time. What does the interviewer really want in 45 mins?

\- Thought process/multiple solutions/tradeoffs (at the expense of writing awesome code in time and talking about what I am really good at)

\- Great code and correct syntax (at the expense of tradeoff discussions and talking about what I'm really good at)

\- Talking about what I am really good at (at the expense of tradeoff discussions and beautiful code)

It's really hard to gauge what the interviewer expects. Sometimes, even when they say what they are looking for, it's not really true and they are deluding themselves. Eg: Claiming that they want to see how I think, but reality is, without an optimal solution with good code, they'll just reject me (despite having given multiple answers, tradeoffs etc.)

<comment><USER3> There is so much truth to this. I interviewed recently with a company I really liked, and had this exact experience. The deciding factor came down to how I approached a specific problem they gave me. The challenge was, I was solving the problem while answering and asking questions, dealing with interruptions, and making sacrifices to code quality due to time constraints.

Super frustrating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Welcome to the job market... It's been like that forever. Are you in the Bay Area? It's worse here companies really don't give a crap and right now, there are a zillion candidates on the market. If you apply via linkedin, you can see how many candidates applied to a position. I see something like 500 people for a single position at a unicorn startup. I can't even imaging the Google's, etc.. we're probably talking about thousands of candidates per position. So I'd feel lucky if I were you that they brought you onsite.

Job hunting and car shopping are very similar. It's all about smiling during the sale, then if you don't buy rudeness takes over. They're already onto the next customer. It's business my friend... just get over it and move on, there are a lot of opportunities out there and the hiring process is extremely subjective. I got rejected at round one from tiny startups while working my but off and landing jobs at the best companies in our field. So, don't get married to a company. They're hurting themselves by acting like that...

<comment><USER5> What's the alternative? Maybe starting a startup your friends.

<comment><AUTHOR> At this point it appears being a CTO is actually an easier and more viable option for me, I have many offers to be a CTO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For me it has to be lack of feedback / radio silence. I've applied to places, done the interviews, gotten good feedback, and then communication flatlines for months.

<comment><USER5> How do you expect employers to start giving feedback?

<comment><USER6> Getting back to candidates within 48 hours with either next steps or ending the process.

<comment><USER5> You misunderstood what I wrote: _why_ would employers give feedback?

<comment><USER6> You did write "how" instead of "why":) Anyway, giving feedback about whether a candidate is still under consideration or not is, simply put, the right thing to do, and I think that's reason enough.

Setting aside any moral arguments, it does benefit the company's bottom line too - hiring talented people is an important thing for companies, so it deserves to have some attention paid to the flow from beginning to end.

My operating theory is that companies fail to provide prompt feedback not for any other reason other than apathy or a lack of attention to creating a good process, and not from some strategic deliberation around keeping options open. So failing to provide the feedback is a sign that the company is not putting the proper attention to the overall hiring process.

<comment><USER5> > I think that's reason enough.

That's not what companies think.

And a candidate that thinks of applying to a position knows nothing about the company's willingness to give feedback.

<comment><USER6> Candidates can learn about hiring processes before applying, like with talking with friends or sites like glassdoor.

How the hiring process functions is a factor in where I choose to apply. For example Google has a bad rep on this - supposedly it frequently takes months for them to make a decision. As a result I'd never consider applying there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The shear amount of dumb coding challenges.

I interviewed with a company recently where, after sending links to extensive amounts of open-source code, was asked to three different take-home-style tests of things like calculate the fewest number of steps to sort these things but you have to follow these arbitrary rules, then during the interview they also wanted to do some tests about implementing low level lanugauge/library type features while they're on the other end of a hangout going "ahh", "ooop", "ehhhh", "sssssshhh" every time you make a typo.

</comment><comment><USER8> I find 12 hour exploding offers pretty annoying and disrespectful.

Or the place that refused to give me a written offer until I agreed verbally.

<comment><USER9> These type of companies will never have any good/bright future.

<comment><USER10> 100% in agreement. Red flags, run.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Random stupid algorithm questions from CS 101...

If you think I'm going to reinvent mergesort as part of my job for this company you are utterly mistaken and do not even understand what job you're interviewing me for.

</comment><comment><USER12> Having to go on-site more than once. It ends up taking a huge toll.

<comment><AUTHOR> Had to do this for one interview, had to decline, still got an offer but was a risk.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The inability of the interviewers to have an accurate idea of the candidate's ability after the interview is over is what I think is the worst thing about interviews.

It's especially bad when you have to jump through hoops (coding challenges or whatever) and afterwards, despite the effort, end up with a similarly uninformed opinion of the candidate's ability.

</comment><comment><USER14> I particularly dislike having to make time for on-site interviews (which often requires lying at your current employer) and technical interviewers that fall for HR-esque questions like "From 0 to 10, how do you rate your skills in Django?"

<comment><USER15> I ask those questions, but that's because I'm trying determine the candidate's ability to self-evaluate.

I like to ask them what they think their skill level is with something I'm familiar with, then throw a few questions at them to figure out where I feel like they are. This is especially important when I'm trying to get someone on- board with a skill set my team doesn't have but we really needs some help in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> > you are rejected and aren't given a reason

worse is when you are not even told you were rejected. i consider it a most profound disrespect, specially after all the time and effort you've put

<comment><USER17> How about when you're told you pass and moving on to the next round, then never contacted again?

Or invited to an on-site at a specific time, then no one answers you, and there's no actual interview when you get to their location?

Or passing the interview process, them telling X salary was OK, then when it comes to the actual offer, they offer X/2 salary?

<comment><USER18> Had something similar happen to me and this recruiter will forever be on my blacklist.

I was referred to a company in SF. Received a phone screen from the recruiter and from the start it seemed like she was disinterested. Instead of just ending it early she said she will reach back and set up a technical phone interview with one of the engineers. I looked on glassdoor and it seems that the other candidates got the same experience I received.

If I was sourced through an internal referral and my resume still doesn't meet your company's expectations, please just go ahead and reject me. Don't waste my time. Salesforce and Uber rejected me after an internal referral and I respect 100% them for not wasting my time.

<comment><USER17> Not sending rejections after an internal referral seems to be a common theme. I personally still have about 8 open applications in Amazon's system after getting referred by an AWS architect. I'm guessing HR doesn't pay attention, and it's up to a team to become interested in me or kind enough to send a rejection.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The worst part for me is getting the time off work. I have limited days off so taking a day off to go interview is less than ideal, especially if I don't get the job.

</comment><comment><USER5> Alrighty, let's try this again.

I'm thinking of writing a website that _requires_ the employer to give feedback. Else the site will list the bad employers.

Or it _requires_ the employer to pay upfront per candidate who applies, and they employer gets a full refund if they give full feedback.

If I were HR I'd be running away from this, because of liability, which is probably why employers don't give feedback at interviews. So the site will _require_ candidates to sign away their rights of of suing the employer over the interview process.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13536957](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13536957)

What'd y'all think?

<comment><USER20> why would an employer ever sign up? sign up and non-0% chance of being on the bad list and end up spending some $. don't sign up and have a 0% chance of making the bad list and spend $0.

<comment><USER5> Because feedback is something candidates want. A site that had all candidates on it is where employers would go.

Do you see other ways of getting feedback?</comment></comment></comment>


Fastest Growing New Languages on GitHub are R, Rust and TypeScript (and Swift) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.javascripting.com/2014/07/28/fastest-growing-new-languages-on-github-are-r-rust-and-typescript-and-swift/

<comment><USER2> Running the BigQuery myself:

      SELECT repository_language,
      SUM(IF(PARSE_UTC_USEC(repository_created_at) >= PARSE_UTC_USEC('2014-01-01 00:00:00') AND PARSE_UTC_USEC(repository_created_at) < PARSE_UTC_USEC('2014-08-30 00:00:00'), 1, 0)) / SUM(IF(PARSE_UTC_USEC(repository_created_at) >= PARSE_UTC_USEC('2013-01-01 00:00:00') AND PARSE_UTC_USEC(repository_created_at) < PARSE_UTC_USEC('2013-08-30 00:00:00'), 1, 0)) * 100 as perc_increase
      FROM [githubarchive:github.timeline]
      WHERE repository_fork == "false"
      AND type == "CreateEvent"
      GROUP BY repository_language
      HAVING SUM(IF(PARSE_UTC_USEC(repository_created_at) >= PARSE_UTC_USEC('2014-01-01 00:00:00') AND PARSE_UTC_USEC(repository_created_at) < PARSE_UTC_USEC('2014-08-30 00:00:00'), 1, 0)) > 1000
      ORDER BY perc_increase DESC'

Gives me similar results to the OP.

</comment><comment><USER3>
      What the hell is R?
      The fastest growing newish language is one that was  unfamiliar to me.

Uhm... I think the author should read up on R... R appeared in 1993, S it's "predecessor" in 1973.

<comment><USER4> Keep in mind that S and R were targeted toward Statistics and Finance. Not everybody has a background in the above.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> R sucks</comment>


WebGraphviz: Graphviz in the Browser - <AUTHOR> http://www.webgraphviz.com/ <comment><USER2> I personally find [http://viz-js.com](http://viz-js.com) to be superior.

<comment><USER3> I have used Viz.js since 2012 in Aude [1], a tool to play with Finite State Machines, in order to display results from algorithms like minimization, determinization and other common FSM-related algorithms, and also to provide an automatic redraw feature when drawing FSMs. The user can also input FSMs in a small description language, and they are drawn automatically using the same system.

For people who don't know Viz.js, it is basically GraphViz compiled for the web as ASM.js using emscripten plus a convenient way to call it. Usage is simple: you give the DOT code, and it returns an SVG document as string (other formats are actually supported).

Viz.js is awesome. Thanks Mike Daines! And obviously, thanks Graphviz!

Webgraphiz uses a viz.js file. Is it actually the same Viz.js? (edit: yes, it is)

[1] [https://aude.imag.fr/](https://aude.imag.fr/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I found this project to be easy to use, it produces SVG output with d3:

[https://github.com/magjac/d3-graphviz](https://github.com/magjac/d3-graphviz)

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm the author of d3-graphviz so you probably shouldn't believe a word I say ;-)

d3-graphviz is based on the Viz.js port of Graphviz and does animated transitions between graphs. See e.g. this demo: [https://bl.ocks.org/magjac/4acffdb3afbc4f71b448a210b5060bca](https://bl.ocks.org/magjac/4acffdb3afbc4f71b448a210b5060bca)

Since d3-graphviz is based on Viz.js it can can do everything that Viz.js can do. Also, it adds the following features:

        Animated transition of one graph into another
        Edge path tweening
        Node shape tweening
        Fade-in and fade-out of entering and exiting nodes and edges
        Animated growth of entering edges
        Panning & zooming of the generated graph

Extensive docs at: [https://github.com/magjac/d3-graphviz](https://github.com/magjac/d3-graphviz)

Any feedback is welcome.

</comment><comment><USER6> Plugging my old student project for GraphViz reference/examples: [https://graphs.grevian.org/](https://graphs.grevian.org/)

I wouldn't mind changing it to use a js renderer, currently it's using the (deprecated!) Google image api but I hadn't really found anything as complete/safe/reliable to replace it

</comment><comment><USER7> Does anyone know of a tool that draws graphs that obey angular constraints? I made a tool that drew acyclic graphs this way [1] but for graphs containing cycles it suddenly becomes a nonlinear problem that (I think) needs CAD-style geometric constraint solving. I plan to implement this sort of thing in the tool eventually, but it'd be easier if there was something already available.

[1] [https://github.com/SeanDS/optivis](https://github.com/SeanDS/optivis)

<comment><USER8> i think you could fairly easily encode the layout/constraint solving portion of that as an SMT problem in nonlinear real arithmetic. which dReal should be able to solve [https://dreal.github.io/](https://dreal.github.io/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Graphviz can output to svg and that's all this seems to be doing. I guess it saves you install it.

<comment><USER10> Isn't it the whole point of WebAnything?

<comment><USER11> It is very useful in corporate networks where you are not allowed to install anything locally.

<comment><USER3> There is a market to take here: Javascript as a Service, to bypass CorpNets.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This brings back memories of a similar port of Graphviz to the web I started (then unfortunately abandoned) years ago; it's likely this is way more optimized, but perhaps my project can serve as illustrative of what's needed for an Emscripten port: [https://github.com/bpartridge/graphviz.js](https://github.com/bpartridge/graphviz.js)

EDIT: or rather, what was needed for such a port a few years ago; I think it's been made much simpler since then!

<comment><USER13> For current tools, I was looking into online Graphviz renderers a few months ago. My take on things:

[http://viz-js.com/](http://viz-js.com/) \- Almost live updating. Quite fast, looks good, has lots of flexibility in output format.

[http://www.webgraphviz.com/](http://www.webgraphviz.com/) \- If you don't want any chance of data going to an external server, this can be saved locally and works fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> That's cool. I recently started building a graphical tool as well. Slightly different direction though. Here is a map of uber's public network estate: [https://recon.secapps.com/f/EMaO](https://recon.secapps.com/f/EMaO)

</comment><comment><USER15> Is there any interest in having a IDE-Like experience for graphviz, e.g. having context sensitive auto completion and refactorings?

</comment><comment><USER16> While this is certainly interesting, I've been looking for a JS tikz port using <canvas>

<comment><USER17> visjs.org can render graphs using canvas : [http://visjs.org/network_examples.html](http://visjs.org/network_examples.html)

<comment><USER16> I meant rendering tikz diagrams[1] using js/canvas tag. It's used commonly in math textbooks typeset in LaTeX.

[1]: [https://www.sharelatex.com/blog/2013/05/28/How-to-draw- Vecto...](https://www.sharelatex.com/blog/2013/05/28/How-to-draw-Vector- Graphics-using-TikZ-in-LaTeX.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wait, was this really written in 93?

There's no way, right? Was JS even this functional back in 93?

Hmm, I wonder what the cite at the bottom means then:

 _Object Oriented Graphs

Stephen North, 3/19/93_

Searching Stephen North brings up a very interesting Google Scholar page full of citations about graphs and dot: [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_QJP9-0AAAAJ&hl=en](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_QJP9-0AAAAJ&hl=en)

Neato. (Ha. Cue yakety-yak music.)

Holy moly! Attention HN, we have a delightful _mystery_ on our hands! Sound the alarm: [http://www.webgraphviz.com/viz.js](http://www.webgraphviz.com/viz.js)

So who cares? Well, it's clojure-compiled for one, so all the variables are all Yu Ugy Jagugnug (i.e. Worf would understand).

For two, the js-beautified version is _56,586 lines_! What could this be?

It's all hardcore math/algorithm type code. No comments, no indication of how to pick up the scent. Hmmm.

Welp, there goes my afteroon. See you on the flipside. _tugs feverishly at massive ball of string^Wyarn^WJS_

Here's a beautified gist, if you want to dig. [https://gist.github.com/anonymous/52cd90a1fa9c36b1b3e87a431d...](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/52cd90a1fa9c36b1b3e87a431d20eef2)

(Seriously though, WTF is going on in that file? The last time I saw 55k lines of condensed algorithms, it was when I concatenated together all of emacs' source code from one of its earliest commits.)

Oh.. Is this just emscripten? It looks like compiler output. Yeah, "g | 0" is an asm.js trick.

Man.. This is a _really_ effective way to obfuscate code, holy moly. So I'm guessing that's just graphviz's C code?

EDIT: Yup. At the very bottom, there's a single string, literally the only string in the entire file that gives any clue what the heck is going on: "vizRenderFromString".

And indeed, it leads us to [https://github.com/mdaines/viz.js/blob/a8f5fd9ec41482e31bb0b...](https://github.com/mdaines/viz.js/blob/a8f5fd9ec41482e31bb0b2c8cb75a9abb866692a/src/viz.c#L31) and more generally to the viz.js codebase: [https://github.com/mdaines/viz.js](https://github.com/mdaines/viz.js)

Oh, duh. Graphviz was written back in '93, and that sample code contains a citation back to its author.

What a cool program! And a cool sequence of layers... I love the onion-y nature of modern computing.

<comment><USER18> Some important tools were written after 1993 (stress majorization around 2004 [https://graphviz.gitlab.io/_pages/Documentation/GKN04.pdf](https://graphviz.gitlab.io/_pages/Documentation/GKN04.pdf) ; sfdp around 2007-08 when Yifan Hu joined AT&T Research, edge bundling in mingle and orthogonal routing were done in the last few years) but, yes, basically right.</comment></comment>


A Letter to the Berlin Startup Scene - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@berlinwhatdoyouthink/a-letter-to-the-berlin-startup-scene-4e23e1baec6a <comment><USER2> This doesn't really get to the big issue. Which is that Berlin being a startup hub is all marketing in the first place, it's probably not very popular to say but somebody has to say it.

Berlin has no money, investors don't come here. More than a couple of investors I jumped through hoops for eventually I made it all the way to the top decision maker who was forced to reveal "oh we don't have any money but in exchange for some equity we can hook you up with business connections." No small amount of equity. Double digits every time. And the same is true if you find an incubator willing to take you, expect very little money, a short tenure, and a double digit equity stake. This all is in line with the level of talent which exists here. If you take a look at the Berlin job market it's all about legacy systems, some PHP, maybe Java if you're lucky.

There's no help available from the government. In fact if you own a startup your taxes skyrocket. Your health insurance doubles. If you're trying to sort out a visa at the same time as all that, good luck! The government will subsidise a loan for you, but it has to be a personal loan. Which means banks are willing to give out risky loans. It's the same thing that happened in the housing crash. Which is why it needs to be a personal loan, your company failing means nothing you have to pay it back.

Letters arrive in your mailbox claiming you owe them money, which apparently isn't illegal. All scams. People you meet at networking events promise to hook you up with business connections for equity or money.

This is a market that sells shovels.

You want to buy a shovel and start digging there's a hundred people around selling them. But you better hope that shovel doesn't require Wifi because bars and cafes are held responsible for torrent traffic, which means none of them offer it. Therefore rent a co-working space [shovel] or an office [shovel].

<comment><USER3> Why always the focus on free Wifi? Germany, like most of Europe, has good 3G/4G coverage. Rates are reasonable, so you can provide your own connectivity. Far more cheaper than renting a space just to get free Wifi.

That doesn't mean that the German laws about liability for offering connectivity don't suck.

<comment><USER4> Cellular rates in Germany are pretty high. On a recent trip I was shocked to find out that prepaid mobile data is roughly 10x - 20x more expensive than in neighbouring countries.

<comment><USER5> I pay 15€/month for 4GB LTE with unlimited SMS and minutes and it's prepaid. I know it's not the best in Europe but it has gotten better.

<comment><USER6> Unlimited 4G?

<comment><USER5> No 4GB monthly data cap. winsim.de

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Berlin has had a nasty culture in its labour market for a long time. People working low paying or even unpaid internships to get a foot in the door would get sucked dry by digital and advertising agencies. I knew people in their mid 30s still technically being student and working in their 10th or so internship position, never making it.

Where I worked, the way us junior people were treated was horrible, and I declined a full time position after completing my vocational training because of it. But talking to my mates in the industry back then we all encountered similar shitty exploitative attitudes.

I left in 2004 and have never looked back really.

</comment><comment><USER8> Bad management, basically, that's his complaint. I believe the issues with the Berlin startup scene lie somewhere else, though are related: a lot of the startups are started by former elitarian management students, often from WHU, that started companies because it was the fancy thing to do and a get-a- Porsche/Tesla-quickly scheme. A lot of the founded companies are therefore not original, but e-commerce or local copies of international startups. Rocket is a horrible role-model to follow, yet followed by a lot of people with similar backgrounds - the beforementioned WHU absolvents.

Other cities are different in that respect: Munich has its engineering and IT tradition, hence a lot of founders have a rather technical background; Hamburg has quite a gaming industry, so in a way far more interesting as well.

There is some interesting stuff going on in Berlin, yet what is desperately needed are nerds founding companies instead of MBA graduates doing it because their peers do it as well.

<comment><USER9> Agree, with one minor quibble: In what sense "elitarian" (do you mean elitist)? To my discredit, I went to one of those "elite" institutions before doing something better-suited for me, and I have to say those "elitarians" are _at best_ middle of the barrel in terms of intellect or taste (and that's being generous). Their real strong suit is an above-average greed, strong "goal-orientation" [1] as well as an uncanny ability to think highly of themselves no matter what. I suppose business students/people have _some_ role to play in society, but the best hedge fund (RenTec) has no use for them except in secretarial roles and the best tech companies (Apple, Google, …) seem to also have no use for them except in sales or interfacing to other people of their ilk, so there's that. "Elite" is far from what I would associate with this category of people. They can sell sugar water and they're administrators, really. In a rare flash of truth in advertising, it says it right there in the title: master of business _administration_! :-)

_______________

[1] I am using "goal-orientation" in Alan Kay's sense of not being able to evaluate an idea on its own merit but only in relation to some external goal, usually "career advancement" (here's another one of those made-up, pretentious business words), ego protection, or ego inflation.

<comment><USER8> Indeed, I meant "elitist" \- elitarian is the false friend of the German "elitär". And I absolutely agree - very often it is just their self-perception as being part of the elite, nothing based on true intellect or capabilities. Just pretty good at playing the game and knowing the symbols.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Much more lighthearted take on the same issues in Berlin. It's brilliant. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22vY4CWpEI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22vY4CWpEI)

<comment><USER11> This is superb. An excellent and hilarious summary of Berlin's pluses and minuses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It sounds to me like the author would rather work for a big multinational instead of a startup. By definition, a startup is an organization that doesn't even have a clear business model, let alone prospects for its employees' career development 10 years down the line. While it is reasonable to expect civility and common sense from startup managers, their pressing concern is getting the ship afloat before the money runs out, not giving new hires back rubs.

There is a choice to make between experience and hipster points (because that's all you'll get as a junior employee in a Berlin startup) and a solid, stable (at least as much as the economy) job.

<comment><USER13> I disagree. A startup should at least have a draft business model and also a startup should make sane investments in its personal (I rather dislike the word "human capital").

Just burning people like burning money to someday find either a big buyer or a sane business model -- really looks rather insane to me.

<comment><USER14> How many companies have you run?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Working as a freelancer with a couple of startups, I would like to share that they are really, really struggling with their employees ( dev. teams ).

IMHO, they have unrealistic budget & business expectations for most of the developers. Because of that employees' burn-rate is really high and they switch jobs very often ( 6-8 months ).

New talent comes form mostly eastern Europe, but since it's obvious after 2 weeks working and a couple of tech events that you might find a better job ( maybe salary! ), they usually don't stay loyal to their first employer and quit within 6-8 months.

Now I see another flow of startups hiring people from countries that need VISA to work here. Which again sounds like another way to keep the employee ( will have more difficulties fixing papers if he/she quits ), without improving your business strategy. Anyway don't have any insights about this case, since I don't have a lot of friends like that in my network.

Also not every startup is look-a-like, but almost no startup will give you individual salary based on your experience level ( they usually will determine the paycheck by the position that you take +/\- 10% ).

Nevertheless for a freelancer, Berlin is an awesome city to work in!

<comment><USER16> Wouldn't it be easier to move the startups to Eastern Europe?

<comment><USER17> Berlin is in the rare position of being large, cheap and having good institutions. Usually you only get two of those. Moving further east has its own set of problems. The baltics have good institutions (particularly Estonia), but Tallinn has 500k residents. Germany ranks 15th in the Ease of Doing Business ranking, but Poland ranks 25th (it's on a strong upward trend, to its credit). To give you an idea of how many intra-EU differences there are regarding business: Greece ranks below Jamaica and far below Kazakhstan in the Ease of Doing Business ranking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Concerning the manager<\-->employee relationship, the author may be right. I've loathed some people I met. It's often because they're young and insecure after suddenly being thrown in a position of power. Inexperienced people then often feel the need to assert dominance and that's sometimes not pretty to watch.

But the author is wrong concerning the cultural aspects, like "Club Mate" and art exhibitions and friday drinks. That stuff is critically important because it fosters communication across companies. With so many ideas being rapidly tested, some failing, some changing completely – and with mostly young people also changing, it facilitates the "optimal allocation of resources".

People meet at parties, get talking and often start a project together, with many being involved in several projects at the same time. They can easily shift time to where it's most productive and the cost of trying something is kept low. It's also a lot more fun than a cubicle at a bank.

What may be missing is (a) raw engineering talent in the way Stanford or (previously) Bell Labs produce it. You need a few people who are above and beyond everyone to start the really exciting stuff. And (b) possibly the funding infrastructure.

<comment><USER19> >What may be missing is (a) raw engineering talent in the way Stanford or (previously) Bell Labs produce it. You need a few people who are above and beyond everyone to start the really exciting stuff. And (b) possibly the funding infrastructure.

I would challenge that. Some universities in Germany are very strong in Engineerung and natural sciences at the same time. During my studies I have worked with incredibly talented people. However most of these stayed in academia because they found business too boring. Actually that used to be my plan as well, however due to a number of coincidences I didn't pursue a PhD.

One might argue it's a vicious circle: the strong engineers stay to a large proportion in academia, some of them leave into big companies. A tiny rest gets lost in the startup world. So the people who start companies concentrate on Club Mate e-commerce and weird business relationships - not attractive for other strong engineers to join etc etc... ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Ha. This is just the normal process of growing up and understanding how companies work. If you are disillusioned once you have see behind the curtain then it is time to find work that is meaningful to you, not just buying in to the traditional thinking on startups.

</comment><comment><USER21> As much as I agree with the importance of mentoring, listening to, and investing in your employees, I don't think it's fair to expect all this from a startup. Maybe from an established company, yes.

</comment><comment><USER22> The guy/girl is actually not so junior any more if he/she realizes this.

</comment><comment><USER23> amen. i can attest to that. but the entire city is a big shit show.

in startups i've seen it. countless low-pay-workers (students who need money) who do useless shit all day. devops who actually do 2 jobs for one salary. ceo's feeling special drowning in certain circles or think they accomplish sth when one of those useless shithead ministers come and look around, talk lies about how they'll improve investmemt regulation.

this city is one giant tourist multi cultural smoke screen.

there's not even one club playing good music (that is, music of my taste). everywhere it's all just weird electronic or rock/pop crap mixed by dirt cheap dj's who take the word "mix" too literally.

<comment><USER24> Wow, I felt the opposite about Berlin's music scene. (I guess we have differing tastes?) I'd fly across from Australia because Berlin had a goth/rock/metal nightclub with 5 floors that ran multiple nights every week, and in my hometown we were lucky to get a 'club' organized in a bar once a month. (I'll really miss K17.) I also liked Last Cathedral, not much of a club but a great place to relax with a drink & some Rammstein.

There was an excellent jazz bar that opened just off Kurfürstendamm, open every night of the week, and not only was the music excellent, but the bartenders were brilliant and cared about their whiskey. I wish we had a jazz bar like that in my hometown.

And while it's cheesy mainstream pop/rock, I loved seeing Unheilig and Bollmer perform live in Berlin, something I'd never see in Australia. (Totally worth the airfare.) An acquaintance of mine even moved from Australia to Berlin to build his recording studio there.

I'm really sorry you didn't find what you were looking for in Berlin :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Companies calling themself startups after 2 years of trying to find their market or get into one, just to pay you below average, make you work overtime, because if you don't they can't turn the ship around...are just too common. I've been there a couple of times.

It's almost always between bullshit promises of 'we are this close to go through the roof' and asking you to take a 20% cut on your salary, because everybody is, and at the same time bringing in new people every month.

They call themself startups, but they are not. They are businesses hanging on to straws, because of narcissistic people unable to admit they failed.

</comment><comment><USER25> Isn't this the case for startups worldwide? Ok if you are lucky (which is as much being in the right place, as knowing the right people) you can get a good salary, but finding a startup that actually cares about its employees (other than the 'perks' \- which is just marketing to be attractive to potential employees) is like finding a needle in a haystack.

I've been contracting for the last few years, the pay is better and I know up front if things go downhill I'm going to be the first to go (1 week termination period). I would like to find something more stable as my wife and I are looking to start a family, but it seems I'm going to have to give up my free time and take a big pay cut, if I want a permenant job in the startup scene.

</comment><comment><USER26> How is this "letter" has been winning so many "points"? There are no references to the real world, it could be any angry ex employee talking about any city with a relatively young startup ecosystem.

</comment><comment><USER13> I like startups, because they are a way of bringing new thinking into the world, where dinosaur corporations rule.

But there has also settled some notion today, to make making startups like having an assembly line. It is no more about having new ideas or about solving worlds problems -- it is solely about burning more and more cash and making new cash-cows from it. The idea itself, the customers and the people working on it, have become second nature.

All of it is of course hidden by a geeky, hip culture, where everybody can feel fine -- if he does not think to much about it.

</comment><comment><USER27> This doesn't sound unique to Berlin.

</comment><comment><USER28> Startup - low salary and high expectations regardless the place... And if management doesn't care about you just move on.

About the "what_doyouthink" \- why such inconsistent underscores?

</comment><comment><USER29> I like the Berlin culture very much. But here in the south is simply more money...

<comment><USER30> what is the berlin culture? for me, is cheap dreamers, fake expectation.

<comment><USER29> in the business world yes...

But besides that it's nice, many alternative/left people.</comment></comment></comment>


Quickbooks' solution to DPI scaling: Don't. - <AUTHOR> http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/HOW13289

<comment><AUTHOR> Just got myself a beautiful new 2560x1440 27" monitor. Set DPI scaling in Windows to 125% so I can enjoy the full native resolution while still being able to read text on the screen. Tried to use Quickbooks and half the fields are cut off. Their solution? I need to "optimize" my DPI scaling settings - AKA, set it back to 100%.

I mean, if they can't actually support scaling properly, couldn't they at least override it so the interface doesn't completely break itself with scaling turned on? It boggles my mind how they put out a new version of these products every single year, and yet seem to manage to avoid actually improving their most glaring deficiencies.

Edit: Just read the fine print more closely there. Indeed, in the Windows 7 compatibility settings in shortcut properties, you can turn off DPI scaling for individual programs. That helps!</comment>


Usage Share of Internet Browsers 1996 – 2019 - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/cxuah9/usage_share_of_internet_browsers_1996_2019_oc/ <comment><USER2> It will be interesting to see whether Chromium based Edge browser will take some market share away from Chrome.</comment>


Hewlett-Packard Enterprise sells its software business - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/hewlett-packard-enterprise-sells-its-software-business-2016-9 <comment><USER2> I work at HPE. To try and add some clarity here are some insights.

Hewlett-Packard, prior to the spit, was a massive company with hundreds of thousands of employees and a portfolio that ranged from home printers and personal computers to enterprise software and hardware and more. It was huge.

HP, Inc - which went out in the split - does PCs and Printers. These are used by both home users and in companies. Did you know some printers get their ink from tanker trucks or are the size of a semi trailer?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise took the other parts which were targeted at big business (sometimes referred to as the global 2000).

HPE is now spinning out the Enterprise Services (ES) division and merging it with CSC. This was previously announced. ES is IT outsourcing. As part of that they write a lot of software. They are IT (bodies) for hire rather than product builders.

This latest announcement is the Software division. Software is written all over HPE. The Software division focuses on software for enterprises, such as Vertica, that is typically divorced from infrastructure.

The remaining part that's HPE is still pretty large and has servers, storage, networking, and a lot more wrapped up in it. All of which has massive amounts of software.

Hope this helps folks who are trying to navigate all the names and their meanings. I'll let others speculate on what all of this means and the motivations behind it.

<comment><USER3> What are some examples of software that are getting spun out?

I would assume stuff like HP-UX will stay at HPE?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the gem in all of this is HavenOnDemand but absolutely NO ONE has even heard of it ... [https://www.havenondemand.com](https://www.havenondemand.com) ... it can clearly compete w/ Bluemix ...

<comment><USER4> With the Watson stuff, yes.

With the Cloud Foundry stuff, maybe not. HP have _two_ Cloud Foundry distributions, if I am counting correctly -- HP Helion and Stackato (which was a an early fork).

Disclosure: I work for Pivotal, we are the majority donor of engineering to Cloud Foundry.

<comment><USER5> HPE Helion == Suite of cloud products HPE Helion Stackato == Cloud Foundry

There has been some branding changes, but things are settling down.

Afaik Stackato is not too much of a fork anymore - but we have always had a single CF distros.

<comment><USER4> Thanks. Branding is hard.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I work there and today's been utter chaos. Lots of meetings with upper management and people wandering around confused. I came in to work in a new position in a new team with a new manager. They probably shifted all the people they didn't care about into roles where they would be unhappy and eventually quit, as opposed to outright laying people off. Meg's mentality is that basically any unit of HPE has a pricetag. I'm probably going to stick around for a few months and quit if I can't transfer back to my old team.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm curious why they choose this method of majority owned spinoffs. What's the rationale behind this financial engineering? Is it that the parts have better multiples than the parent? That they can claim better optics by consolidating the Earnings Per Share?

<comment><USER8> I think this is a way to consolidate the whole Autonomy mess they started when they overpaid for and tried to integrate the company.

It seems HP, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Box, etc. are all trying to build the future of business computing. Good luck with that!

<comment><USER9> We're trying to integrate with some of the Autonomy stuff at the moment, talking to HP you realize they know about as much as we do about the products - I assume they got the products, but forgot to hire the developers who created them?

Wasn't it over $1 billion for Autonomy?

<comment><USER10> More like $11 billion :)

<comment><USER9> Yeah wow I was an order of magnitude off... I can't wrap my head around how this is good business but I'm sure someone knows what they're doing.

<comment><USER11> It wasn't good business. HP are suing for fraud. However no they did not know what they were doing. Probably still don't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > a spin-off and merger of its non-core software assets

Does anyone know HP well enough to summarize what the "core" business is?

<comment><USER13> Oscilloscopes, as I recall.

<comment><USER14> Calculators I think

<comment><USER15> Radios, but I still have two hp48 calcs, and they are as amazing as ever (the reverse polish Lisp even had arrow syntax for lambdas.. How cute is that). I miss this HP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The right way to think about HP is as a conglomerate : a company of companies.

Looks like they are trying to create separate focussed companies out of it. This enables different companies to succeed or fail on their own merit. For example, the software company does not have to eat up the losses from the hardware company and vice-versa. This also enables the companies to partner with outsiders. For example, if HPE servers are terrible, the software company can now buy better servers from Dell or Lenovo. This would be hard to do before, as questions would be raised if a product company was unwilling to use it's own products. It can also integrate with products from other companies eliminating the so-called 'strategy tax'.

Disclaimer : I used to work at HP/HPE, but this is pure speculation.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've never heard of any Hewlett-Packard software other than BIOSes in HP PC's, and firmware in HP printers, and of course HP-UX plus surrounding paraphernalia.

Micro Focus is involved in the merge, a name synonymous with COBOL.

<comment><USER18> I worked for a few years on storage at HP. They had the EVA, 3PAR, and Lefthand product lines when I was there. Though HP sold them as storage array hardware, the primary expense was engineering the software, not the hardware. The EVA was a storage array that originally came from DEC and ran a custom RTOS. 3PAR and Lefthand both ran Linux. These were large, reliable software products with big install bases. The EVA was over 100k units. I think there were 60-80 developers working on the EVA across 4 sites at the peak.

They would also have lots of software engineers working on their networking products.

Other operating system software than HP-UX would be VMS and NonStop.

<comment><USER19> I would guess a lot of the Hacker News crowd has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Enterprise software utilization. A lot of the stuff, you only see if you're in the IT department at an older company larger than a certain size.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm genuinely curious what endgame Meg Whitman is planning for HPE, she seems to be divesting most of the 'E' in HPE. So just commodity servers/bladecenters, storage and networking (half of which is already rebranded Aruba)?

<comment><USER21> Keep selling stuff to keep investors happy...when nothing of value is left, declare victory and leave

<comment><USER22> Many well-known CS researchers have left (the then) HP over the past 10 years to other companies (e.g., John Wilkes, Hans Boehm, etc.). So, some people saw early there were problems (though perhaps not due strictly to the recent years).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Poor brainwashed idiots who have been hooked on these piles of unmaintainable Java EE crap (impossible to replace), written by a legion of amateurs coders from outsourcing sweatshops, which everyone is now trying to get rid of. "Java - write once, run away!" is not just a meme - it could be seen.

It is not a coincidence that Oracle "lost interest" in Java EE - the whole ecosystems is a total disaster, the monument of bureaucracy, packer's mindset and human stupidity.

But it seems that NodeJS ecosystem is on track to outperform even this.)

</comment><comment><USER24> A lot of this seems to relate to their UK business - with the timing and all I have to ask is this anything to do with Brexit?

</comment><comment><USER25> Newsflash: when you make computer hardware, you're still going to make software, because it doesn't work without firmware for those 10 different processors and SoC's on current mainboards...

<comment><USER26> This is talking about Hewlett Packard Enterprise. You are thinking of HP Inc.

<comment><USER27> ... HPE makes hardware too...</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why is Amazon's HTML crazy? - <AUTHOR>

If you view the source on any product page you have around 100 lines of whitespace and the <title> isn't found until line 3,500-ish
Not to mention all of their CSS is inline
Why is it like this? It seems to me it is far more complex than it needs to be <comment><USER2> How is this crazy?

* Newlines seperating HTML tags (check)

* Semi-semantic class and id names (check)

* Can read it with raw view-source (check)

You wanna see something really crazy? View-source on this one:

<https://plus.google.com/101139676677179148632/about?hl=en>

</comment><comment><USER3> For some reason they have the following comment towards the bottom of the homepage:

<comment><AUTHOR> That is definitely a forgotten debug point

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would suppose when you see a page from Amazon, there are numbers of the system that contributes to the page. Some with HTML, some with API. And as other commenter mentions, these are all generated by some backend system. Probably no one has to full control on how to format HTML at the front. Or they probably can, but with a lot of meetings.

The store front probably just gather all this stuff to produce the final page that you see.

</comment><comment><USER5> Because they are all legacy code. No one wants to do the cleaning work.

<comment><USER6> More importantly, no one needs to do it.

And most importantly, no one is allowed to do it because it does not need to be done.

White space is free as in beer (when all the bandwidth available for AWS is a sunk cost).

<comment><USER7> Exactly. Don't expect your HTML to be perfectly indented unless you're writing that HTML yourself, but most people don't, an Amazon surely doesn't. The HTML is generated server side.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Just took a quick look. I'm guessing they separated it into 20+ linebreaks between chunks to delineate which section of code produced which HTML.

</comment><comment><USER9> html is for the browser to read not people.</comment>


Ask HN: What are they doing there? - <AUTHOR> According to LinkedIn, Shazam has around 400 employees! [1] Why does an app like that need that many employees? What do they do all day?
Or some other tech companies: MongoDB had 820 employees as of July 31st [2]. StitchFix had 5,800 employees as of July 31st [3]. Facebook had 17,048 employees as of December, 2016 [4]. Oracle has 136,000 employees [5]!
And many other tech companies are like that. For many of them (although of course not all), their product could be built by a small team in a matter of months. Even counting for things like scaling to larger user counts, having 10 or 100 times the number of employees hardly makes sense to me.
Meanwhile, SpaceX, which is making rockets to send people to Mars, has only around 5,500 employees [6]. It's hard to see that rocket engineering is simpler than a clothing app.
So what are all of those employees working on all day?
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15900109 [2] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1441816/000104746917006014/a2233365zs-1.htm [3] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1576942/000119312517313629/d400510ds1.htm [4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273563/number-of-facebook-employees/ [5] https://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/ORCL--Number_of_Employees [6] https://www.linkedin.com/company/spacex/ <comment><USER2> Big companies play in many markets (read: countries). Just to deal with financing, taxes, regulations, legal, and everything you can imagine that is related to "doing business", not even considering resources to deal with Marketing/Sales/Support, and definitely not to "building products" (engineering), it can take hundreds of employees. To make things more interesting, the bigger the portfolio of a company, even higher is the number of employees.

Regarding the cost of "doing business", consider this: [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.TAX.DURS?year_high_d...](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.TAX.DURS?year_high_desc=false)

And here's a story about it: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/joeharpaz/2013/12/17/brazil- ran...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/joeharpaz/2013/12/17/brazil-ranked-most- time-consuming-tax-regime-in-the-world/#18b3b3694c2d)

TL;DR on both links above: in Brazil, a company may spend as well as 2,600 hours a year to comply with taxes.

Now imagine a company with hundreds, if not thousands of contracts, customers, multiple invoices, and so on. Even if they outsourced this, it'd still require a lot of employees, distributed worldwide in every market/country that company wants to do business in to deal with local regulations.

Oracle has over 136,000 employees, but also has offices in almost every country - definitely in every continent. Based on the latest Fact Sheet [1], here's an idea:

More than 138,000 employees, including: \- - 40,000 developers and engineers \- - 16,000 support and services specialists, who speak 29 languages \- - 19,000 implementation consultants

[1] [http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/oracle-fact- sheet-079219....](http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/oracle-fact- sheet-079219.pdf)

 __disclaimer: I work for Oracle.

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/](https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/)

</comment><comment><USER4> It's the VC money at work for you...</comment>


Internet by Satellite Is a Space Race with No Winners - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/06/elon-musk-space-x-satellite-internet/

<comment><USER2> One would think that SpaceX thought through these questions before embarking on the project.</comment>


How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating - <AUTHOR> http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/09/29/how-races-and-religions-match-in-online-dating/ <comment><USER3> I liked this on a few different levels:

-Hacking data to reveal the answers to important difficult questions.

-Exploring contentious issues in a neutral & intelligent way.

-Great example of how to attract potential customers by providing valuable information that also gently demonstrates competence related to your service & differentiates your offering from competitors.

I enjoyed reading this, I learnt something, and I thought favourably of the website based on this. No idea how good they are, but that post was a good marketing lesson.

<comment><USER4> okcupid is pretty much considered the hip version of plenty of fish.

<comment><USER3> I don't know what that means, but I did think this was a brilliant marketing post from a company, and an interesting read.

<comment><USER4> it means that plentyoffish has nothing but fat chicks(everyone calls it Plenty of Fat), while okcupid has the hipster girls

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One possible explanation for the low Hindu-Hindu match is that there are many websites dedicated to specifically Hindu dating which means that the Hindus using OkCupid are those who are specifically not looking for a Hindu date.

For other religions, such sites aren't nearly as prevalent.

<comment><USER6> Not really.

The matches are based on answers users give to questions (both site designed and user designed).

When the blogger says they don't match, it means:

      - Person A: I like X

      - Person B: I don't like people who like X

Where X could mean ice cream, god or tooth-brushing. It has nothing to do with people selecting the race or religion of the people they _think_ they want to date.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, but if Hindu men like ice cream, and I don't want Hindu men, I might not like men who like ice cream either because a) it's what Hindu men do, or b) I don't like people who like ice cream to begin with, and I don't like Hindu men for that reason.

So it's not totally unrelated.

<comment><USER8> But is there anything you can replace "ice cream" with to make it a workable example? What _real_ questions are you likely to see this kind of Hindu-Hindu antimatching behaviour on?

<comment><USER9> Arranged-marriage.

<comment><USER10> Sorry are you serious? Why would a Hindu that is pro-arranged marriage be on a dating website? Arranged marriages were a severe form of keeping the caste system in tact but that's not applicable now. But then again your type of logic can probably explain why Islamic people aren't liked since everyone is anti-terrorism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> They left out the axis on the "message reply rate" diagram as a teaser for the next blog post.

I just copy and pasted the image onto the axis. It shows that white and native American males are more likely to get responses than the other races.

<http://www.codexon.com/temp/mrr.png>

And I wrote a small analysis here if you can be bothered to take a look.

[http://www.codexon.com/posts/okcupid-dating-statistics- shows...](http://www.codexon.com/posts/okcupid-dating-statistics-shows-racism- very-much-alive)

<comment><USER12> Assuming they didn't deliberately shuffle the ordering just to confound people like you.

Your results look depressingly plausible, though, so I'm guessing not.

<comment><USER13> As a single male Asian I am praying that the first row isn't me. But odds are it is anyway :( It certainly conforms with stereotypes about Asian girls...

<comment><USER14> You're lucky to be an Asian male... look at the black male line. It's the only one that doesn't have a single green square.

EDIT: Also, look at the response line from black females; they're _all green_ except for the yellow square in response to black males.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Am I the only one who had a good chuckle at the zodiac grid?

<comment><USER16> Nope, hilarious.

And that's the first really solid evidence that I've seen shared that zodiac signs are utter BS, which makes me doubly grateful to them. Something to point to when someone says it can't be proved otherwise...

<comment><USER17> The best evidence against astrology I've heard came from my college astronomy professor. Basically, due to the precession of the earth on its axis, the constellations are visible at completely different times than they were when astrology was invented. So even if it wasn't BS back then, it sure is now.

[http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/your-astronomical- sig...](http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/your-astronomical-sign.html)

<comment><USER16> Ooh, even more portable, no computer needed. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Favorite line of the article: _"If religion is a minefield, then race is a field that's just one giant mine"_

The article was not quite as statistically sound as it could be, but at least they aren't trying to pass it off as statistical data.

</comment><comment><USER19> It seems like recently immigrated groups who are not established and similar disadvantaged groups of people do worse than the established.

</comment><comment><USER20> I can only imagine what else OkCupid's data would reveal in adept hands. I could probably write a book if they sent me a spreadsheet.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm loving this blog. Have we seen match percent vs reply rate anywhere?

<comment><USER22> I think this is probably too biased, as messages from users with a close match percentage are highlighted in your "inbox". The data might not be good enough to discern between "replied to message because it was highlighted" and "replied to message becuase match % was high".

(Personally, I have a feeling that "pretty profile picture" is more influential than "high match %". But of course, it's very hard to measure what one considers physically attractive.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is hilariously interesting. Data mining can always bring good insights if you have good data.

I wonder, though, (a) if most people search for similar people or for different people, (b) how well does the matching percentage really reflect a "liking probability" (ie, there is always some wishful thinking when designing date profiles, and some of that might be counter-productive, ruling out good matches).

</comment><comment><USER24> Endogamous marriages in Ashkenazi Jews have resulted in serious genetic disorders and hereditary diseases.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews#Specific_disease...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews#Specific_diseases_and_disorders)

<comment><USER25> Could you elaborate on how this relates to the article? I'm sure you have an interesting point to make, but I find it difficult to extrapolate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The article fails to mention statistical significance of race versus religion?

Because this data makes sense, I hesitate to protest. Nevertheless, I'd be interested to see if race is statistically significant versus religion.

</comment><comment><USER27> So many statistics.

So little statistical significance testing.

This tells me much about this service.

<comment><USER28> I'm not sure it's valid to infer that their entire service is poor from these series of rather niche blog posts.

(Although saying that, I wonder if this series of theirs is to attract press attention? If so, then it would be nice to see some significance data.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Brilliant.

Free publicity. Great lesson in PR. Thank you.

</comment><comment><USER30> While I love the number crunching ethos, and think these guys are giving it one hell of a go - I will go on the record and say that they will ultimately fail because they are operating under many false premises, a few being:

1\. People do not change their minds.

By algorithmically matching based on answers to questions, you must assume that those answers are meaningful. And meaningful means CONSISTENT. And people are NOT consistent. Especially on complex issues; in fact there are whole professions (sales (insurance, real estate, car, etc) comes immediately to mind) where success is based on one's ability to get people to change their minds. (That example is offered as evidence, not proof - but proof probably isnt a complicated exercise)

2\. Like Thinkers make Great Daters

Assuming you are even GETTING like thinkers, (which is tenuous at best) where is it written that like thinkers make great companions? You don't want to have absolutely nothing in common, (at least a common language is necessary) but it isn't linear and i would be surprised if there were any correlation let alone one that was non-asymptotic. Simply - more like thoughts does not entail more compatibility.

3\. Looks aren't EVERYTHING

Just based on sheer observation - this is not the case. It is unfortunate, and it speaks badly about human nature, but most human beings make judgments based on appearances. And this "appearance crutch" is only exacerbated when it comes to looking for someone to lay with. How many single, male, bleeding heart liberals would take a swing at Sarah Palin if given an iota of an opportunity? Again - offered as evidence, not proof.

<comment><USER13> _"where is it written that like thinkers make great companions?"_

OKCupid does not judge match percentage based on similar answers. For every question on the system it will ask for _your_ answer and your _ideal mate's_ answer. The system knows that some things are important to some people - <USER2> maybe not in reverse.

<comment><USER30> 4\. People Know what they want

Clearly they don't - otherwise they wouldn't be on okcupid in the first place.

<comment><USER31> What do you mean by this?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Really-really interesting.

I'm curious why asian females scored worst of all when asian males scored descent.

<comment><USER8> The differences on the race graph are so small as to be insignificant.

<comment><USER33> Keep in mind that the 'Match %' is based on OKCupid.com's algorithms that number crunch against quiz answers that the users answer. This has nothing to do with 'success rate' of users on the site hooking up with other users.

<comment><USER13> Right, so compare that with the message reply rate chart at the bottom of the article. Assuming the axes haven't changed from other charts on the page (which IMHO is a pretty good assumption)...

It suggests that certain races have good _matches_ with other races, but horrible _reply rates_. Reply rate may be the best metric okcupid has as to "success rate". It also suggests strong racial biases on the part of its users.

<comment><USER11> To elaborate more on your point:

Many people claim they aren't racist when they refuse to date other races. They always say they haven't found the right <insert minority race here> guy/girl.

What I've found from personal experience, is that the bar is set much higher for those minority races.

<comment><USER33> You can't attribute lack of attraction to racism.

While it's possible for people to not date anyone of a certain race because they are bigoted against that race, I think that it's more common for people to just not feel a strong physical attraction towards certain races. My theory on this is that people that haven't grown up (at least during their childhood and/or teenage years) with many people of a certain race won't end up finding most of the 'feature' characteristics of that race to be attractive (i.e. if you grow up in a mostly white neighborhood you might not find black women attractive).

I could be completely off-base here. I have no idea how the development of attraction in the brain works (and I'm sure there's probably much research into this area of psychology). But I tend to find that a lot of people (whether they admit to it or not) have a preference for certain races and not others. Sometimes people don't have a preference for their own race. I know Asian women that are not attracted at all to Asian men, but that doesn't stop them from having Asian men as friends and interacting with them. I would hardly think that they are bigoted against Asians (seeing as they _are_ Asian themselves).

> _What I've found from personal experience, is that the bar is set much > higher for those minority races._

It's not necessarily minority races. There are plenty of people that are not attracted to others of their own race. 'Yellow-fever,' 'jungle-fever,' etc weren't created for 'one-off' instances (i.e. the person accused of having 'the fever' only dated a person of that race once, and doesn't have an affinity to dating persons of that race) of inter-racial dating/mating/marriage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Bullshit, us pastaferians are not represented in the religious statistics! This is heracy!

On the other hand I am glad I'm not Aquarius because statistically speaking they are insignificantly less compatible with an Aquarius. His noodelieness has blessed me well!

RAmen!

</comment><comment><USER35> go jews!

<comment><USER22> The atheists and agnostics beat the jews, however.

<comment><USER35> actually because of the response of muslim women to jews being more positive than to ath/agn, I think Jewish men overall come out on top.

Combine that with Jewish men who ARE atheists, which is a good number of em, and you've got a super-match. Which all goes to prove what my mother always told me; "I love you."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Non-hacking, race & religion in one article, that's got to be a record for flamebait.

<comment><USER37> I'd argue that it's quite a hack -- Trying to discern an algorithmic approach to attraction via a large data set, and create a recommendation engine to a very fuzzy problem. =)

<comment><USER13> I'd argue that it's not at all a "hack" (I really dislike HN's tendency to equate everything to a hack), but nonetheless of significant interest to those of us interested in statistical trends in large web systems and social networks.

This kind of statistical kung-fu is well worth a look even if your own interests do not lie in dating sites.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> They need to make it a little more clear that they're not trying to say anything bad about a particular group.</comment>


China's awful internet speed has spread malware to millions of smartphones - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/506582/chinas-awful-internet-speed-has-spread-malware-to-millions-of-smartphones <comment><USER2> Most of the links to non-Apple downloads of XCode from [https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=xcode%206.4%20%E4%B8%8B%E8%BD%BD](https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=xcode%206.4%20%E4%B8%8B%E8%BD%BD) seem to have been taken down.

If anyone else is interested, the SHA256 of XCode_6.4.dmg is fc25d75f23d82084dd740d7e29d0e5adea96dd600d1e19bc86408c133d1edf66 but you should verify that yourself as Apple don't seem to publish it (!).

This is one of those cases where a torrent + webseed would absolutely shine. Many torrent clients will try to prioritise peers that are closer geographically to speed up downloads.

</comment><comment><USER2> I'm not sure that graph will be entirely accurate - it says the data comes from Akamai - at least for my ISP in Australia they have an Akamai node about 15km away from me (not sure of cable length). Australia definitely shouldn't be third on any graph of Internet speed.</comment>


Javascript on iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://www.akitaonrails.com/2008/1/4/javascript-on-iphone Learn how to develop native apps in Javascript for the iPhone using Jiggy. <comment><USER2> "Jigglins" has to be the worst name applied to a product ever.</comment>


Chasing an active Social Engineering Fraud at Amazon Kindle - <AUTHOR> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ChasingAnActiveSocialEngineeringFraudAtAmazonKindle.aspx

<comment><USER2> Although the person used the colloquialism "No worries", there are distinct elements of non-native speaking. The sentences using the word may are particularly stilted, and the grammar is quite awkward at times.

I wonder if the goal here was for the 3G SIM.</comment>


Our Coming Food Crisis - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/opinion/our-coming-food-crisis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

<comment><USER2> "roughly 40 percent of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states"

I thought this stat was kind of weird. Those 17 Western states would be huge, so the net farm income per square mile wouldn't be that impressive.</comment>


The Lean Startup - a Review of Eric Ries' New Book - <AUTHOR> http://blog.launchbit.com/the-book-you-dont-want-to-miss

<comment><USER2> Looks like the URL might have changed. See here instead: [http://blog.launchbit.com/the-lean-startup-a-review-of- eric-...](http://blog.launchbit.com/the-lean-startup-a-review-of-eric-ries- new-bo)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hate it when that happens. Maybe Posterous should redirect to the new location once a post has been published and the URL changes, or is updated? Can't believe it doesn't already.</comment></comment>


Why Micro-Location iBeacons May Be Apple's Biggest New Feature For iOS 7 - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/08/29/why-micro-location-ibeacons-may-be-apples-biggest-new-feature-for-ios-7/

<comment><AUTHOR> This is Jakub, co-founder of Estimote (YC S13).

I will add to this article that few weeks ago we have released iOS app called "Estimote Virtual Beacon" people can use to experience the micro-location and proximity iBeacon-style by turning one iOS device into a virtual beacon and use the other to test it.

Enjoy! [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/estimote-virtual- beacon/id68...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/estimote-virtual- beacon/id686915066)

I will be more than happy to answer any questions. Will be here for some time.</comment>


Western Digital My Cloud drives have a built-in backdoor - <AUTHOR> https://www.techspot.com/amp/news/72612-western-digital-cloud-drives-have-built-backdoor.html <comment><USER2> Previous discussion (2 days ago): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16083337](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16083337)

</comment><comment><USER3> Per the comments on the article (User Anubhav K):

This is real, or at least it was until November last year. Western Digital released a firmware update fixing all exploits and vulnerabilities.

It was an SMB exploit that enabled unauthorised access to shares.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is patched in the firmware released in November.</comment>


Ask HN: An Autodidact Asks, "What's Your Favorite Wikipedia Article?" - <AUTHOR>

Being that I barely made it out of high school, and am a person who is self-taught, I need to fill in the gaps myself. But knowing what you don't know is tough. Reading interesting mathematical, historical, philosophical, grammatical, political, or scientific Wikipedia articles has been a great way to explore and fill gaps. Can you suggest some starting points?<p>Please and thanks. <comment><USER2> My personnal favorite article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy_in_Somalia>

Ever since reading that one, I have been following Somalia news much more closely.

</comment><comment><USER3> Read every day Today's featured article on <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> That is a good starting point

<comment><AUTHOR> Is that a random article? I kind of wanted human selected ones...

<comment><USER3> Try this <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence> Is as good as any other article ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this a joke?

Autodidacts are self-directed, by definition. They don't ask others what to study.

<comment><AUTHOR> See! I learned something already!

Kidding aside: An _autodidact_ is a person who is self-taught. They can also be an _autonomous learner_ but the two terms are not strictly equivalent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> a strange article for a strange question: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death></comment>


Show HN: CodeQL-Like Analyzer for Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/quasilyte/go-ruleguard <comment><USER2> "ruleguard parses gorules (e.g. rules.go) during the start to load the rule set. Loaded rules are then used to check the specified targets (Go files, packages). The rules.go file itself is never compiled, nor executed."

I understand why it's doing this (in terms of being able to use the ast parser), but it's a bit weird. I'm "writing in Go", but I (assume I) can't use loops, conditionals, actually run code, etc. That's a weird affordance [1].

I'd suggest looking at the data structures coming out of the parse of the file, and considering whether or not you can offer a JSON/YAML (de)serialization of that instead, and whether or not that might be an acceptable enough format. We still get "tooling" that can deal with it, but JSON/YAML files don't contain the promise of being Go code, so the affordances line up with expectations better. (That's cleanly true of JSON. YAML nominally has some extensions that make that a bit less clear. Then again, you may find it helpful to let the extensions do their thing; I haven't checked but go-yaml says it supports map merging [3], which may give you a nice little bit of abstraction for the users that costs you zero to implement.)

In the complete other direction, I also would be fine with mynegation's suggestion of actually running it, and letting it be defined by a data structure the code returns. Then I do really have full Go power, and the affordances match capabilities again.

(I think I may actually have a slight preference for the JSON/YAML case; it just _feels_ more like something that can be integrated into CI better, even though there's nothing technically stopping you from executing Go code. Still, it's definitely easy both technically and conceptually to say "I'm running this executable with this input configuration file across my code", where as "I'm going to compile this specially for the CI process" is just... cognitively larger.)

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#As_perceived_action...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#As_perceived_action_possibilities)

[2]: [https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml](https://github.com/go-yaml/yaml)

[3]: [https://yaml.org/type/merge.html](https://yaml.org/type/merge.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> You might be interested in [https://github.com/mvdan/gogrep/issues/32#issuecomment-56866...](https://github.com/mvdan/gogrep/issues/32#issuecomment-568662418)

When gogrep becomes more usable as a library, it would be easier to write such Go programs easier.

As for the alternative formats, I experimented with JSON, TOML and some custom format that is even terser. It wasn't an easy choice, but I'm pretty comfortable with the result. That being said, there could be a several input formats in the future.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Features:

* Custom linting rules without re-compilation.

* Diagnostics are written in a declarative way.

* Quickfix action support.

* Powerful match filtering features, like expression type pattern matching.

Uses gogrep for AST pattern matching.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like the idea of using the language (golang) itself to write the rules, instead of DSL or specialized language like Datalog. But why go for a restricted ad hoc interpretation instead of just executing this code as a plugin?

<comment><AUTHOR> Mostly because plugins support in Go is not ideal and it still requires compilation (in plugin mode).

I believe Daniel Martí plans to make gogrep usable as a library, so it will be possible to write such Go programs in the future.</comment></comment>