Ask YC : Emailing from Amazon EC2 Instance - <AUTHOR>

Emailing from Amazon EC2 Instance
Experiencing long delays between sending email directly from an EC2 instance, using stock Postfix from Amazon FC Core 8 small AMI.
Elastic IP should fix the objection about lack of fixed IP address, and our IP address is not on any spam blacklists.
Any ideas?
Thanks <comment><USER2> Don't send email directly from an EC2 instance. Even if you have a fixed IP address.

It sucks, but if you do send email directly from EC2, you'll run into (a) idiots like godaddy who block all email originating from EC2, and (b) spam filters which check reverse DNS, see that the reverse DNS is basically just the IP address spelled out, and (incorrectly) conclude that it must be a dynamic IP address.

Regardless of what problems you're experiencing right now, if you want to avoid problems in the future I recommend paying for an SMTP relay like authsmtp.com (not a personal recommendation -- I've never used them, but lots of people on the AWS EC2 web forum recommend them).

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks that is extremely helpful, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

this might sound cheesy, but for a temporary kluge what would you think of setting up a mail rely behind a home DSL connection?

<comment><USER3> Even worse. Use an SMTP gateway or just buy a dedicated server somewhere...</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: SQLAlchemy for Java? - <AUTHOR>

I have used SQLAlchemy extensively and love it. Now I find myself a stranger in a strange land and I was wondering if anybody knew of a similarly awesome database abstraction toolkit for Java.<p>Thanks! <comment><USER2> I can recommend carbonado, <http://carbonado.sourceforge.net/> , if you don't want/need a full ORM, and prefer something similar to activerecord. It doesn't hide the relational model, and has just the right level of abstraction with a nice to use API.

<http://jdbi.org/> is an even lighter weight wrapper over JDBC.

If you need a full-featured ORM then <http://www.hibernate.org/>, or another JPA implementation, perhaps <http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/> or <http://www.datanucleus.org/> are worth a look.

</comment><comment><USER3> The best you'll find is hibernate -- <http://www.hibernate.org/> . It's not exactly like SQLAlchemy because Java is statically typed, but it's better than using the Java db layer directly.</comment>


Purism announces PureOS Store - <AUTHOR> https://puri.sm/posts/purism-announces-pureos-store/ <comment><AUTHOR> It's been fun to watch the pieces come together around the Librem 5 (although this is for more than just that). I wish Purism had done a documentary similar to the "Double Fine Adventure" kickstarter. I'd have paid more for that.</comment>


Ask HN: It's 2015 and I still can't program - <AUTHOR> What I'm doing wrong? Where can I learn to program besides codeacademy that site bores me I want something more interactive and engaging. I want to become a Web developer or Software developer I have free time to study and learn. <comment><USER2> OP, I know you've been asking these types of questions for a long time, but there is no magic way to learning development and getting a job right after. From your past posts it sounds like you've went through the school route and can't even complete your courses. There is no quick and easy way to become a developer, it takes hundreds of hours working at it and even then not everyone gets it.

Thankfully the internet is full of resources on how to get started without asking Hacker News every few months. Many people are self taught and have done it without asking for help, usually they just learn to figure out the answers for themselves.

Lastly, if you really are serious, you might just want to look into coding bootcamps that have sprung up all over the place. And please don't give me that crap about not having money, many bootcamps provide financial assistance and if anything, you can take out a loan, which if this is what you really want to do, will be well worth it when you succeed.

<comment><USER3> Good comment, @hitsurume!

OP, I've been browsing your previous HN submissions and I think your biggest problem is a lack of self-discipline to actually get some work done. You've already received tons of really good career advice here, but it won't help you if you don't do anything with it.

What you need to learn is not so much programming, but self-discipline, determination, and the grit to see things through to the end once you've started on them. Unfortunately, we can't really help you with that. The ball is in your court now - go and do something with it!

Good luck.

</comment></comment><comment> T-A I can tell you what works for me (and others, I hear): pick a project. Decide what are you going to create; a site or program which does X. Write it down, in detail.

Then do it.

Of course, you don't know how to do it. That's the point. Your project goal will guide you to learn the things you need to know in order to accomplish it.

When you succeed, pat yourself on the back, then pick a new, harder goal and repeat.

<comment><USER4> The problem with your advice is that when you don't know how to code, you don't understand how big the task is. You have a great idea, you try, it's too complicated, after 1 year (and even that requires a lot of determination) you have not completed anything, and you actually have not mastered the language/technology.

It's as if you tried to acquire fluency in ancient Greek by jumping right into reading Aristotle.

The point of entry is always very difficult, for any skill, and learning curve is most often steep and frustrating.

My advice - find someone who lives near by, someone whom you could call at any moment, and discuss your little project with him/her. Choose language/technology, and start working through some tutorials with your project in mind. Your friend should help you downsize your ambitions and limit the scope of the project to something you can actually execute.

You should be done with the basics in about 3 months (that means - no GUI). After that - try to limit the scope of your project so that you think you can make it in the next 3 months. (We know it will take you at least 6-9 months, but still, try to be on the schedule). Only then you will understand what it actually means to be a software developer.

(please note: software engineering is much more than you think when you're just starting to learn computer programming. Coding is not just giving instructions to computer to perform simple calculations. There are design patterns, team work, efficiency, doing things on time, math, frameworks, keeping up with super-crazy pace is which everything changes, there is network issues, and mobile devices, security, scalability, and much more. In short - it's a really complex trade and only few people will be able to do it).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> At some point in time, there was this guy called 'Euclid'. He was a mathematician, of sorts. So he wrote a book called "Elements". Pretty famous book. There were tons of Geometry. The kind of Geometry you could build temples for kings, find the shortest road or just show-off your math skills by proving that prime numbers are infinite(!).

Since the book was so famous and deemed _important_ , the Farao tried to read the book. But it was a difficult book. He had to go back and forth more than twice. He was struggling to understand the first chapters. Eveything was so complicaed and soon he got bored to death. So being a Farao (a God among humans) summoned Euclid and asked if there was a shorter path to learning geometry than reading the book. Euclid turned to the royalty and replied: "There is no royal road to geometry."

So, that's the problem: There's no royal road to programming. You have to put the in the hours and patience. If you're really going to do this, stop pressing your self to learn _fast_. Just choose a language, buy an introductory book and jump in.

<comment><USER6> Excellent anecdote and encouragement - I think it's spelled "pharaoh" though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Start with HTML and CSS.

Run MAMP or WAMP locally with Sublime Text . . . learn basic html/css

This book is great for getting your feet wet. [http://headfirstlabs.com/books/hfhtml/](http://headfirstlabs.com/books/hfhtml/)

Once you make it through that one move on to PHP/MySQL [http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfphp/](http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfphp/)

Once you have those two completed you'll be ready to create a simple app, maybe a to do list or tracking something you collect.

After a few simple applications, even doing the login/authentication you'll be ready to move to a framework.

I'd recommend Laravel or Rails (laracasts.com/railscasts.com) are great resources. But don't skip laying the framework with the books above.

TeamTreehouse.com is a great resource too, but I think the books are better to get you started.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> Find a book. Seriously. I find books a lot better than the Internet when reading a new language. For one thing, reading on paper is a lot more relaxing than on-screen, secondly, studies indicate that we actually do remember more that way. Find a good book (the Head First series is a great place to start) and get reading. Do the examples and exercises. If you find something that sparks your imagination, give it a shot as a first project. Stay simple, the 3D multiplayer shooter game can wait. If you don't understand a section, read it again. And again. Skim through the whole book, then read in more detail.

Yes, it will take time. You are learning a new language and a whole new way of thinking. Don't think it will be easy. Don't expect to be able to get a job programming after a month's practice. (Peter Norvig wrote a great article on that: [http://norvig.com/21-days.html.](http://norvig.com/21-days.html.)) But keep at it. Practise, read, practise, read more. Start reading open source code. Increase the complexity of your projects - make sure every project contains something new, but avoid projects that are way too advanced. Eventually you'll get capable enough that somebody might even consider hiring you.

Be committed to making it work, but most importantly: don't forget to have fun along the way :-)

</comment><comment><USER8> Edx and Coursera have a variety of software development courses. Classes that run on a schedule offer the benefits of a cohort of peers versus being on your own with a resource like CodeAcademy. Edx's _Engineering Software as a Service_ is beginning now. Edx's _Systematic Programming Design_ series uses Racket and is a sound introductory course.

Another approach is via printed books. I am a big fan of O'Rielly's _Head First_ series. In particular, _Head First Java_ not because Java is the wind beneath my wings but because Kathy Sierra is an excellent author and the series is based to some extent on her work.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER9> Your mind may work differently from the sort of mindset that codeacademy works for. You may have a learning disability or just a different learning style.

It might be worthwhile to get checked out for a possible learning disability. If you have one, once it is identified, you can look for resources on how best to accommodate it. Specific disabilities respond well to specific approaches.

You can also look into learning styles. Your mind can just work differently from the norm without it being a disability per se, but it will impact how you best take in information.

You might try going to Hacker Events or networking or looking for a tutor. Sometimes, someone can explain something in person more effectively than any book. Or you might try going to the library and trying different books to see if different approaches work better for you, etc.

Try things you haven't tried yet, things that are different in some way from what you have been trying.

</comment><comment><USER10> I agree that coding bootcamps are a great source. Most of them are incredibly supportive and have instructors, mentors and TAs that are generous with their time. I've seen a few also have free meetup groups that are open to all, not just students, to learn a quick project in a couple of hours.

Also, to echo @hitsurume the coding bootcamps do have easy ways to pay, most have flexible payment plans. @saluki has a great point as well to start with HTML and CSS. I agree.

Other than that, what works for me is practice, practice, practice. I practice in the programming language and actually writing out code with pencil and paper.

</comment><comment><USER11> I've found the tutorials on Lynda.com to be very engaging. The videos are very thorough, and it's definitely worthwhile coding/making notes as you watch the video. I started with James Williamson's Essential HTML Training, then moved on to Simon Allardice's Essential Javascript. Once you have the basics, try and come up with a little side project of your own and just go for it. If you get stuck, there's lots of help available on places like StackOverflow.

</comment><comment><USER12> I have found teamtreehouse.com and codeschool.com both more engaging than codeacademy, but it can be tough to stay focused unless you really want to build a particular thing, or, you have a group / class that you are working with to keep you focused and motivated.

</comment><comment><USER13> You ask the same question here since years. Maybe web development is not the right thing for you...

</comment><comment><USER14> I certainly wouldn't try to build a website like some of these suggestions.

Build a text adventure game. It shouldn't take more than a few days and you can actually say you finished the project.

</comment><comment><USER15> [http://www.freecodecamp.com/](http://www.freecodecamp.com/)

Also try to find a local support group and/or a mentor.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just wish I had something that goes through me every step of the way to landing a job as a Web developer

<comment><USER16> Here it is:

1\. Build a website using Node.JS. It has login, connects to a postgres database, user can register, receive confirmation emails, login, do something that's persisted (e.g. creating a shopping list and come back and see it's still there.). Hire a graphics designer to give you a minimal design that looks decent, and make your website conform perfectly to his design. Put the site online with a domain name, using AWS EC2. Make it a site someone can legitimately use. Spend $50 on Adwords so some one signs up and uses it to get your first few users, make sure you have analytics installed, later you can tell your clients people really used your site and you can prove it to them. Use Google to find all the information you need, every step of the way.

2\. Once you've done the above, maybe months later, ask yourself, now that you know what you know, would you build it much differently? If yes, then rebuild it to incorporate what you know. Repeat until the answer is "I would do it a little differently but not much more than that."

3\. Months later again, scour upwork.com or freelancer.com or your university's job board. Find jobs with the technologies you learnt with Node.JS & your choice of database. Take whatever job you can get at whatever price offered (even if it's $5 or $10). Do everything you can to make your clients happy. Grab testimonials. Once you finished up job - ask yourself, did you learn a lot with the project? If yes, raise your asking rate by 25 to 50% and find your next one.

4\. When your rate gets up to $100, it's time for you to take your testimonials, and portfolio, and look for a full time job. Optionally you can also take any intern full time positions on the way to $100.

5\. Two or three years later from (1.) if your salary has 6 digits then congratulations you've followed the plan to the tee.

The whole process can take two years or more. I followed these steps, except I used Django instead of Node.JS. Django was new and all the rage in 2010. In 2015 it's Node.JS so I changed the formula to that.

Good luck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I started learning to code in mid-2013 (I knew some HTML, but no real programming language at the time). I have been a professional web developer since mid-2014. While learning, I was working full time and have a wife and young daughter. It takes a lot of perseverance more than anything. If you have gotten bored with CodeAcademy, you should try other resources and find a track that suits your learning style. This is kind of cut-and-pasted from a previous comment I made to another poster, but this is the track I took:

1\. Code Academy - Finish completely the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and Ruby tracks. I like Ruby because there is an incredible support structure (both online and in person) for those new to programming. 2\. Read (and do the exercises in) Chris Pine's "Learn to Program" 3\. Read (and do the exercises in) Command Line Crash Course (easily found via Google Search) 4\. Read (and do the exercises in) Learn Ruby The Hard Way 5\. Go through most, but not necessarily all of the courses on RubyMonk.org 6\. Do all of the exercises from Test First Ruby (testfirst.org/learn_ruby) 7\. Do a lot (but not necessarily all) of the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery (and jQuery AJAX), SQL, and Ruby courses on Team Treehouse. If you're interested in design, go through those courses as well. 8\. Do a lot (but not necessarily all) of the JavaScript, jQuery and Ruby courses on CodeSchool.com 9\. Learn about version control through Git and Github (there are many online tutorials, as well as on CodeSchool and Team Treehouse) 10\. Read (and do the exercises in) The Rails Tutorial (www.railstutorial.org). Do every single thing in this book step by step. Then do the entire book again. Then do it again. 11\. Build stuff using the knowledge you have gained. Use Google and Stack Overflow to help you when you get stuck. 12\. Attend as many local meetups as you can find that are in the topics you are studying.... you'll find lots of nice people willing to help. There are even learning meetups for specific languages and frameworks. 13\. Attend a 10-12 week bootcamp. Research the hell out of them before you decide to go to one. Chances are if the interview to get into them is easy, the bootcamp will probably not provide you with enough ammunition to get a real job afterwards. Most of them that are worth anything will have probably wanted you to have a lot of the knowledge that I've described above before attending.

That was enough (barely) for me to get a job as an entry-level developer. I'm kind of doing it backwards, but I've also gone back to Uni part-time to get my degree in CS. I've now finished courses in C, Java and some semi-advanced mathematics.

After almost a year and a half as a developer, I know 10x as much as I did last year, and I still don't know squat :) I think that's a big part of the reason I love it.</comment>


Show HN: MyTweetAlerts – Like Google Alerts but for Twitter - <AUTHOR> https://www.MyTweetAlerts.com <comment><USER2> Currently I keep a tab active with a twitter search for [company-name], which keeps me apprised of new tweets via about my startup (the "(1)" notification appears in the tab name when there are new search results).

But of course it would be great not to have to keep tabs open for this sort of thing, and to get notifications when I'm away from my computer.

I'll certainly give this a try and see how it compares to my current inelegant solution.

<comment><AUTHOR> Please try it - I am sure it works better as I have tried your version before. :) We offer good offers for startups. Send us a note and we will activate a free account for you as other small startups.

<comment><USER2> Thanks, will do!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very cool! Out of interest, what are you using as the underlying technology to process the Twitter streams and store the data? Just interested how you're planning to scale and provide realtime Tweet data if you miss certain windows due to downtime, for example?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Hosted on Amazon. Using Scala as the programming language. Sprint for payment. For the Enterprise-Plus we are developing we will support "real-time" alerts but those will still be with 5-10 min delay. We can find tweets 7 days back in time - that is the API limits. All good questions - as we are working on Enterprise-Plus we need to think about all those issues and how to scale. Some cool features you might want to know about that are supported in some plans are: \- You can get email alerts for tweets that have more than X likes (discover tweets that might go viral) \- You can get email alerts for tweets that have more than X retweets (discover tweets that might go viral) \- You can get email alerts for tweets where the Twitter user has more than X followers. \- In Enterprise-Plus you can export all Twitter users that are part of that alert and use that list for retargeting for Twitter Ad Campaign.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sometimes I wonder why Twitter doesnt offer this itself as part of their business offerings. Twitter works as a pseudo default customer service digital desk and this is the kind of thing they should offer to aide in that.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree. Advanced search has many of the same features but no email. In our solution we can also create email alerts for some topics where the tweet has more than X likes or Y retweets. So you can discover tweets that might go viral.

<comment><USER4> More power to you. Fortunes can be made in the blindspots of big enterprises. Do you have any sort of in depth product tour? I manage brands online and this might be something clients could benefit from.

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately, we don't have any videos or pdfs with details but we can schedule a meeting and I can share my screen and show you the main features. Send me a note at email@example.com.

<comment><USER4> Great, that would work. My contact info is on my profile. Please save it as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good idea, but instead of free trial perhaps you should have a free tier. More startup-friendly and in the long run you will build mind share.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea - we are currently looking into it. We are adding Enterprice-Plus soon for big companies with a lot of extra features. Perhaps we should add a free tier at the same time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I just use IFTTT for this. Is there a difference?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have never used IFTTT but with MyTweetAlerts.com you can for example: \- Get email alerts if someone tweets about some topic and the tweet has more than X likes. \- Get email alerts if someone tweets about some topic and the tweet has more than X retweets. \- Get email alerts if someone tweets about some keywords and the twitter user has more than X followers. \- You can collect data about some topics and then export the twitter user data and use that for retargeting in the twitter ad platform. \- You can discover tweets that are tweeted at some location. \- Collect or get tweets that include some topic and have links part of the tweet. \- "real-time" alerts (with up to 10 min delay). \- and many more features...as we are constantly adding more features.

How are you using IFTTT?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cool idea and product. Small bug report: The landing page ends with a </html> as a text node.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. We will fix it. Thanks for the feedback. Let us know if you want a free account for your startup.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks like the website is down.. the old HN hug of death.

<comment><AUTHOR> It works for me [https://www.mytweetalerts.com/](https://www.mytweetalerts.com/) \- is it still down?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> awesome product, will give a try! Just curious, what type of revenue numbers do you see for a small saas product like this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - We are just starting so we don't have many subscribers yet. We are from now on going to focus more on the Enterprise customers and add more features for them. I think that could work - we will help them set up the alerts and find new interesting leads/searches that benefit their business. It seems that people don't know how to create alerts that matter. Most people just add in their brand name or add in a phrase that is too generic. When you could: \- add a search for a topic that is related your business - like people asking for help with something that your business needs. \- get alerts for topics that have more than X likes or X retweets. \- get alerts for topics where the Twitter user has more than X followers. \- collect some data and export all those Twitter users and use that list for the retargeting campaign on Twitter.

So there are so many alerts you can create for your business other than just the brand name.</comment></comment>


GitHub is blocked by Roskomnadzor in Russia - <AUTHOR> https://www.facebook.com/roskomnadzor.official/photos/a.1485309358414507.1073741828.1460928964185880/1509335822678527/?type=1

<comment><USER2> Sincerely hope GitHub won't give up an inch to censorship and handle the situation with "your government is your problems, not ours" altitude.

With all seriousness - I think the whole situation just can't be solved otherwise. All this censorship things went generally unnoticed and went along the "oh, they're blocking evil child molesters' sites, it's alright" line of thought. To raise the awareness, some high-profile sacrifices are necessary. Hope they'd also block Wikipedia.

Disclaimer: yep, I'm Russian. Had some issues accessing GitHub today. Between inconvenience and censorship I'd chose the former any day.

</comment><comment><USER2> Related/duplicate: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8691598](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8691598)</comment>


NDA with contractors - Alex-Galapagos

What's your practice signing NDAs with contractors that do work for your startup as a developer,
1.do you make them notarize the NDA; 2.do you require their state issued ID 3. neither <comment><AUTHOR> I have never notarized an NDA or required anyone to notarize an NDA.

<comment> Alex-Galapagos Did you require state issued ID? I mean if you work with contractors remotely</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is your web "Go to" tech stack? - <AUTHOR> Why is it the go to? And maybe an addition of any API's/SaaSs that help? <comment><USER2> React for frontend Node, express, postgres for backend. Logrocket , Google analytics for tracking.

Im most proud of myself for setting up a little server application that some of my GitHub repos are connected to through webhooks. When I push a commit to master, the webhook fires, my server calls git pull and builds and the code is ready to go. Very little downtime and no need to ssh and scp

</comment><comment><USER3> Haskell / Elixir for the back

VanillaJS for simple interfaces / React for complex ones

PostgreSQL for the RDBMS

ElasticSearch for search features on datasets greater than 1TB

In a FreeBSD jail</comment>


Ask HN: What is that site for seeing comments on various blogs? - <AUTHOR>

There is a website where you can see all the comments someone has posted on blogs, I think based on the URL backlink or the name.  I think the name of it was backsomething.com, but I can't remember it.<p>Can you help me out? <comment><USER2> Cocomment?

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting... although this requires that I install something before I start commenting, when it should be able to be automatic, since I use the same name/URL everywhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> backtype?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's it! Huh... they've changed it so it doesn't really do that anymore, does it?

Thanks, though :)</comment></comment>


Twitter to Launch URL Tracking? - <AUTHOR> http://www.reynoldsftw.com/2009/09/twitter-to-launch-url-tracking/

<comment><USER2> what took them so long? should've done this long ago</comment>


Yahoo launching HortonWorks, Hadoop spinoff company - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/cloud/exclusive-yahoo-launching-hadoop-spinoff-this-week/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=gigaom

<comment><USER2> Hadoop is targeted at BigData.

For instance, if you are a financial institution that generates a lot of transactions, how do you data mine the transactions to find out what type of customers could purchase more services from you?

Another example is Facebook. How does it generates activity streams of your friends and your friends' friends? SQL probably isn't the best choice.

RDBMS's whose forte is in transaction processing, isn't as fast when it comes to answering questions like this. Hadoop and its competitors in this space are hoping to generate revenue from selling software and services for this.

</comment><comment><USER3> Can someone please explain to me what Hadoop is and what the software does? I did some googling and read their page but I wasn't able to follow.

<comment><USER4> Did you read the Wikipedia page <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadoop> ? It's a framework for processing large datasets in a distributed environment using the MapReduce algorithm from Google's paper <http://labs.google.com/papers/mapreduce.html> .

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Who?</comment>


"RE: ACPI Machines and IRQ 9" by Jake Oshins (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://www.osronline.com/showThread.cfm?link=21604 <comment><AUTHOR> I wonder what PCs would be like if Intel bought Compaq in 1991 with people like Rod Canion and Jim Harris staying on. I think they were there when Compaq reverse engineered the IBM PC BIOS for example. Thinking about it, an alternative would be buying AST Research instead, which shut down in 1996 (just before ACPI was created) and was having trouble even beforehand.

Actually, this also reminds me that one of the first machines in which ACPI was tested was a Compaq laptop, back when laptops in general were much more expensive than even in the mid-2000. Of course, this was years after Rod Canion etc left the company. I wonder what they thought of ACPI and UEFI.</comment>


New UX and Pricing for Hashicorp Atlas - <AUTHOR> https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/new-interface-design-user-experience-pricing-atlas.html <comment><USER2> Dear Hashicorp,

$5/month per vagrant hosted box?!!?

i guess we should be thankful you didn't also charge 5/mo per hosted box, per version... so, thanks?

The cost vs value of this tells me to walk. You leave open an opportunity for people to build their own services and compete against you, why? Vagrant is what brought me into Hashicorp, please don't let it be the reason I leave.

"Enterprise", i don't think that word means what you think it means. (charging money != enterprise)

I had a feeling I shouldn't drink the juice, now I need to beg forgiveness from my whole team.

Thanks Hashicorp, for the memories.</comment>


The original jQuery annotated by John Resig - <AUTHOR> http://genius.it/ejohn.org/files/jquery-original.html

<comment><USER2> I think a better link is [http://ejohn.org/blog/annotated-version-of-the- original-jque...](http://ejohn.org/blog/annotated-version-of-the-original- jquery-release/) from John his own self with some background and this link.

</comment><comment><USER2> And in fact, an instance of this with lots of discussion is here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9336297](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9336297)</comment>


Facebook Premium - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/the-biz-stone-collection/47715441d0be?

<comment><USER2> _For $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads. Maybe some special features too. If 10% percent of Facebook signed up, that's $1B a month in revenue. Not too shabby._

Odd to see Biz Stone, out of all people, making this type of argument.

<comment><USER3> Why is that?</comment></comment>


National Archives releases coloring book of 'favorite' patents - <AUTHOR> http://aotus.blogs.archives.gov/2016/02/04/colorourcollections/ <comment><USER2> Url changed from [http://www.popsci.com/color-in-these-patents-from- national-a...](http://www.popsci.com/color-in-these-patents-from-national- archives?src=SOC&dom=fb), which points to this.</comment>


Using GNU Make's 'define' and '$(eval)' to automate rule creation - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jgc.org/2012/01/using-gnu-makes-define-and-eval-to.html

<comment><USER2> Make should really be superceded by a build system that is both faster and more correct.

One of these options today is the tup[1] build system.

It seems to be a relatively modest/new effort, and is already far better than Make.

[1]: <http://gittup.org/tup/>

<comment><USER3> The big advantage of Make of course is that you can assume it is basically everywhere.

I have just looked at tup, and it looks interesting, except I don't really understand why the auto-dependancy only kind-of works. If building X.c uses header.h, and header.h is created by script.sh, why do I have to tell tup about that ordering? Why can't it just see it has to run script.sh to get header.h, before building X.c?

<comment><USER4> The build system can't know beforehand which scripts generate which files (unless you're implying it ought to run everything that looks like it might be a script and observe what outputs it writes).

However, once you've compiled a .c file the first time (or run the script the first time), the build system can remember which inputs and outputs were involved (either because gcc tells it which files it used, or by going lower- level and intercepting the file-opens of the program) and reuse that information in subsequent builds.

<comment><USER3> Looking at: <http://gittup.org/tup/ex_dependencies.html>

I see the following warning about half way down the page. While I understand the first time this happens tup has an issue, I don't understand why it can't automatically remember it for future use (or does it?)

        *** tup errors ***
        tup error: Missing input dependency - a file was read from, and was not
        specified as an input link for the command. This is an issue because the file
        was created from another command, and without the input link the commands may
        execute out of order. You should add this file as an input, since it is
        possible this could randomly break in the future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Oh god, this way lies madness. :) It really does. Once you get beyond a fairly low level of complexity, there will be maintainence problems: It will take you too long to get it right, it will be impossible to figure out when something goes wrong, and you'll drive the next poor developer crazy if he doesn't have a complete knowlege of make (which is most of us). Yes, sometimes it may be neccesary to do this if you want to reuse some rules and functions but modify them under different conditions, AND you are restricted to doing it all in the Makefile (rather than preprocessing, calling out to external scripts, etc.)

<comment><USER6> Using "define" to set up templates for rules is pretty straightforward and very powerful. It allows the set of rules to be augmented at runtime, which can enable new uses of make.

I used this mechanism to automate a pipeline for scientific data. The template (the "define...endef" block) held several rules needed to re-make results for one granule of data. When you ran make, it looked for all source granules, and a foreach() mapping the template across the source granules, just as in the OP, set up rules for each one.

Then you could dump a new source granule in a directory, run make -j 8, and get parallel "builds" of the results for free.

As long as it's documented, it can save a lot of repetition.

Not coincidentally, jgc has a nice article on make debugging ;-)

[http://drdobbs.com/article/print?articleId=197003338&sit...](http://drdobbs.com/article/print?articleId=197003338&siteSectionName=)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> A similar version of this idea is also in the gnu make manual, at:

[http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Eval- Funct...](http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Eval-Function)</comment>


Your Photos Now Featured in Facebook Ads - <AUTHOR> http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2009/07/19/your-photos-now-featured-in-facebook-ads/ <comment><USER2> If you follow his steps and find that the "Facebook Ads" section is missing all of its content, make sure you have AdBlock Plus disabled.</comment>


Explain This, crowdsourcing journalistic questioning and answering - <AUTHOR> http://explainthis.org Will http://explainthis.org prove to be a useful way to crowdsource journalistic questioning and answering? <comment><USER2> Needs more input to be useful, IMHO. Crowdsourcing doesn't work with a small sample size.</comment>


Sander's Book Club: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/sander-gansen/sanders-book-club-the-22-immutable-laws-of-marketing-ab6839959081 <comment><USER2> I'd dispute the law of leadership as being absolute. Plenty of people blaze a trail only for a later competitor to come walk the now relatively easy path and extract the value that the first company was too busy to see.</comment>


HN Community is not immune to Recency Bias - <AUTHOR>

Inspired by links provided by users in "Best HN Thread of 2008" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=417782 I tested out how recent the "favourite" threads of HN Community are, here are the results:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pN6XUWPVqqcQNQNdmpZtVVg&oid=2&output=image
Apart from the fact that I have got too much time on my hands, it also proves that hackers also not immune to cognitive biases that "normal people" are prone to.
Now some disclaimers: 1) Based on the links in the threads as on 3rd Jan, 13:30 GMT 2) Links by some individual users were uniformly spread over the year but collectively it can be seen that it is not the case.
Some arguments against my hypothesis, 1) The test would be itself biased if not quite a lot of commentators joined HN before Jan 1 2008. 2) Same goes if increasingly more stories are being published per day since the start.
More info on recency bias: http://knol.google.com/k/hardik-thakkar/recency-bias/2l6p0gc69rsej/1#
If anyone is curious enough, send me a msg with you email address and I will share the spreadsheet (its on googledocs) <comment><USER2> compare that to this graph:

<http://ycombinator.com/images/traffic-8dec08.png>

i think its worthwhile to mention the fact that there are a lot of people who jumped into HN in the middle of 08, so they weren't around to see threads early in the year. or, another possible effect would be that because the community was smaller, there were fewer threads or fewer quality threads.</comment>


Bought expired domain originally from Google Apps, they won't let me sign up - <AUTHOR>

Any one have any success with getting in contact with Google?
I checked Domain Tools whois records and have the users contact info that originally registered the domain through Google Apps. But I don't want to use it unless absolutely necessary...
Does anyone know how to get Google to look into removing the account from the system so I can register the domain now that I own it?
Tried contacting to no avail. <comment><USER2> If you go here, you should be able to "reset" the admin account via the domain ownership verification process. This involves either uploading a file to the web server or altering its DNS records.

        https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com/VerifyAdminAccountPasswordReset

Replace the "yourdomain.com" part with the appropriate string.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, that was not linked to from any place I could find. Appreciate it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I don't know how to solve this, but I vaguely recall seeing the same problem mentioned on HN in the past. This suggest that you should just search for the problem instead of trying to find a contact at Google (good luck with that!)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Appreciate any help or contact info anyone can share. This is likely a weird edge case!</comment>


Ask HN: What is needed to rapidly build mobile apps? - <AUTHOR>

I am thinking of creating multiple mobile apps using HTML5 using rapid prototyping. In order to bring them to market fast I am trying to use as much outside services as possible but keep the costs as low as possible. My current list is as follows -
Backend - Parse
Visual Design - Outsource using 99 designs
Analyitcs - Flurry
Testing - Device anywhere
HTML5 application development using - Phonegap/Titanium/Sencha
What else would you add to the list? Am I missing something obvious? <comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for all the suggestions. I am adding few more things that I forgot earlier -

Stress Testing - ???

App Distribution - <USER2>

App Marketing - AdMob, AppSurfer, AppBrain

Also, is there some service that can provide initial validation of an idea. I need some service through which I can contact 20 users and ask them if they will use a particular app and if so how much will they pay for it and what features they would like?

</comment><comment><USER3> PhoneGap and Titanium are mutually exclusive.

Sencha would work with PhoneGap, in that you need HTML/CSS/JS to put into PhoneGap.

Be careful with 99 Designs. You're more likely to get a design that will be almost impossible to implement on top of Sencha, unless you give a lot of feedback to the designers. Given the cost of getting a mobile app design there, you'll need to stay on top of the process to avoid wasting money.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://www.codiqa.com/>

This was posted a few days ago. I've been playing with it a bit (after having bookmarked it). It seems pretty cool.

</comment><comment><USER5> Zubhium - for Best distribution</comment>


Linus Torvalds goes off on Linux and Git (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://typicalprogrammer.com/linus-torvalds-goes-off-on-linux-and-git/

<comment><USER2> I love how none of the comments at the bottom of the post realize that it's satire, and that Linus was never actually interviewed for it.

<comment><USER3> To be fair, the only up-front indication this is satirical is the label "satire" at the top. And, frankly, as far as satire goes, it's not particularly clever, either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I use Git for everything nowadays, but I love this: "Git has taken over where Linux left off separating the geeks into know-nothings and know-it-alls. I didn't really expect anyone to use it because it's so hard to use, but that turns out to be its big appeal. No technology can ever be too arcane or complicated for the black t-shirt crowd."</comment>


You Tell Me If This Word Processing App Is Worth $15 Million - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673153/you-tell-me-if-this-word-processing-app-is-worth-15-million

<comment><USER2> F NO</comment>


How I decided to go thru a Huge Pivot with 4 months of funds left - <AUTHOR> http://attictv.tumblr.com/post/17600045480/massivepivot1

<comment><USER2> How do I vote on this? Is it just be clicking on that little arrow? Because it disappeared after it asked me to login.

<comment><AUTHOR> oh.. new account im not sure whether can upvote ernot leh. haha.. it's the up arrow. :)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> thoughts will be very much appreciated guys.</comment>


Ask HN: Why haven't you used Triplebyte, Hired, or the like? - <AUTHOR> 1) If you recently were or are currently on the job hunt and you haven't used a service like Triplebyte or Hired, why not?<p>2) As a company, if you're not using those services or similar to find candidates, why not? <comment><USER2> I actually did use hired.com but I'll note that these platforms only work for jobs in major cities. I had ex-coworkers based in the Connecticut suburbs of NYC and they couldn't find jobs in the area through hired.com or an alternative. Also if you have an old-fashioned tech stack like COBOL or SAP, I suspect it's easier to use traditional recruiters.</comment>


153 Links Every Start Up Should BookMark - <AUTHOR> http://www.edukatr.com/153-links-every-start-up-should-bookmark/

<comment><USER2> "Top Sites to get loyal fans: Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com> FaceBook: <http://www.facebook.com> StumbleUpon: <http://www.stumbleupon.com> Read Write Web: <http://www.readwriteweb.com> Slash Dot: <http://www.slashdot.org> Digg: <http://www.digg.com> Reddit: <http://www.reddit.com>

Where's HN on this list?

<comment><AUTHOR> Updating it right now! Sorry for that!

<comment><AUTHOR> Done! Good catch!!!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Look up someone else's (competitor's) web analytics: <http://www.siteanalytics.com>

?</comment>


GitLab reduced merge conflicts by 90% with changelog placeholders - <AUTHOR> https://about.gitlab.com/2015/02/10/gitlab-reduced-merge-conflicts-by-90-percent-with-changelog-placeholders/

<comment><USER2> Wouldn't a merge strategy for the changelog that knows that it can just append the lines behind each other be a more elegant solution?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, great idea, see the second part of my comment [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9029206](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9029206)

<comment><AUTHOR> I've updated the article to include this suggestion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Wouldn't it be easier to create new change log entries from a combination of closed tickets and/or merge request descriptions?

<comment><AUTHOR> We did this before but it is a lot of work to come up with good descriptions, you really need to go understand each merge. Different people have merged different code and sometimes you already forgot what it was about. Also, the days just before release are already very busy.

There was a great comment on the article itself [https://about.gitlab.com/2015/02/10/gitlab-reduced-merge- con...](https://about.gitlab.com/2015/02/10/gitlab-reduced-merge-conflicts- by-90-percent-with-changelog-placeholders/#comment-1846082669) just using .gitattributes with `CHANGELOG merge=union` might do the trick

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> GitLab B.V. CEO here, happy to answer any questions and comments about how to reduce merge conflicts.

<comment><AUTHOR> Also, I wonder if other people are also maintaining a changelog for their private projects.</comment></comment>


Bullet indicates Lawrence of Arabia was no liar - <AUTHOR> http://phys.org/news/2016-04-bullet-lawrence-arabia-liar.html <comment><USER2> This is one of the roots of the Middle East conflict: the British offered Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca Arab self governance if they would revolt against the Ottomans -- and gave them help in the person of T.E. Lawrence. Then agreed with their French buddies (Sykes-Picot) on how they will split up the region. The Syrian civil war can easily be traced back to this agreement. Then, to crown this all, the British issued the Balfour Declaration where they promised Palestine to the Zionist movement.

<comment><USER3> For anyone interested in learning more, Lawerence in Arabia by Scott Anderson is a pretty good book.

<comment><USER2> And [http://www.amazon.com/The-Balfour-Declaration-Arab- Israeli-C...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Balfour-Declaration-Arab-Israeli- Conflict/dp/0812976037) is even better :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Go read Lawrence's book, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom!

If it were only a travelogue, it would be worth reading. But it's also the personal story of a low ranking man saw the solution to the impossible, and got nations and cultures working together to bring down an empire. The book has more derring-do and adventure than could fit into a summer blockbuster. And everything seen through with, Lawrence's quiet, reflective, selfless, "strange" personality.

I'm going to go read a chapter now...

<comment><USER5> Can I watch Lawrence of Arabia to start?

<comment><USER6> Such an incredible film. Well worth the 3.5hr running time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The headline is a tad hyperbolic. Notably, there was one area where Lawrence proooobably was, uh, stretching the truth (for good reason): he insisted that the Arabs had sneaked some ninja division into taking Damascus "first." This account isn't shared by anyone else and would imply these Arabs took the city, then retreated, then came back later or something.

Why would Lawrence fudge here? Well, this will seem very quaint to modern eyes, but apparently there was a bias toward "whoever did the work gets the spoils" back then. If the British army took Damascus then it was theirs to distribute as they saw fit, if it was a combined British/Arab force then it'd be a little different. This is ludicrous since there's a unified commander-in- chief who is British who can pick whichever army they like to have the honor of entering the city first. Anyway, Lawrence was exaggerating the date where the Arab troops arrived to try and get them some of the glory & responsibility afterward, since he was considerably more pro-Arab independence than some of the other Brits.

It's a silly issue since the Turks had basically lost regardless and who cares which army enters first, of course.

<comment><USER8> > .. of course.

Its a matter of course that the nature of covert action is that you must lie about it, even after the fact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ninety-nine years later and no-one's rebuilt the railroad? That seems wasteful.

<comment><USER10> Less than you'd think; it was a non-standard gauge railroad that didn't go anywhere the Sa'udis cared about -- they needed railways connecting their ports to the interior, so spending the money on a Madinah to Jordan line didn't make sense. KSA has invested a massive amount of money on rail lines, but the north-south track is a recent development. Plus, Land Rovers don't care if you have to go over a few kilometers of damaged road, and fuel is unsurprisingly cheap. And if you don't want to drive, there's a lot of airports.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> So basically they found one bullet and one railroad sign ... pretty light evidence to prove or disprove anything.

<comment><USER12> Those are just the most obvious evidence they chose to highlight in a brief article.

If they examined dozens of sites and found physical evidence that fully supports Lawrence's accounts, and no evidence that is inconsistent with those accounts, that's pretty persuasive. After all if Lawrence made his accounts up, you'd expect it wouldn't take long to find discrepancies between his inventions and the real geography of the locations and physical evidence.

I watched a documentary about Lawrence and some journalists visiting some of the sites including the Hallat Ammar attack. In the book Lawrence describes the attack being launched from a ridge (IIRC) 100m from the railway line. They found the ridge, but the railway line was 300m away, too far to be in effective rifle range. But then examining the site more carefully, they found that while the modern railway line was 300m away, the old WW1 era line had become buried with sand and was actually about 100m from the ridge.

It's been a very long time since I read SPOW. It's not always an easy read, but full of character and wonderfully evocative. Lawrence clearly loved and appreciated Arab culture. He gave accounts of their camp fire stories and humour for example, but didn't flinch from describing and discussing some of the uncomfortable aspects of the customs and behaviour he encountered.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> _" Professor Nicholas Saunders said: "The bullet we found came from a Colt automatic pistol, the type of gun known to be carried by Lawrence and almost certainly not used by any of the ambush's other participants."_

M1911?

<comment><USER14> Most likely, yes. An excerpt from a letter by his brother Frank:

"The Colt is a lovely pistol. The more I examine it the more I like it. There is a vast gulf between it and the ordinary revolver.

If you want anything in connection with it which you don't want to write for I could get it for you. They keep two weights of bullets, I think 200 and 230 grains. The lighter weight has considerably higher velocity and penetrating power, though I suppose less shock."

>This would indicate that both Frank and T. E. had Colt automatics that used the 200 or 230 grain bullets. In 1914 this would have been the .45 caliber Model 1911. (The British also used the Colt 1911 in .455 caliber, but this chambering was not introduced until 1915.)

[http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/telawrence.htm](http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/telawrence.htm)

<comment><USER13> interesting quotes. what tipped me off was what appears to be .45 ACP HP (flat tip) in the article. cf [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_ACP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_ACP)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> That's a lot of sand sifting to find a bit of lead.

It's some support for Lawrence's version of events, but I think the idea nobody else would be using an automatic is kind of a stretch.

</comment><comment><USER15> Amazing! Forensics after a century.

<comment><USER16> You should see what they've done in Olduvai and Pompeii!</comment></comment>


Austria - There are startups in them there mountains - <AUTHOR> http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/06/19/austria-there-are-startups-in-them-there-mountains/ <comment><USER2> Austria, in some ways, strikes me as being more on the 'Oregon' side of things (as per this comment: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=664710> ) - it's a very pleasant, livable place, where things generally work pretty well, and people mostly lead quiet, happy lives. On the other hand, since things are 'pretty good', I also got a bit of a feeling of "don't rock the boat".

In any case, I always find it difficult to comment on Austria as I never learned the language or felt very connected to things the way I do in Italy.

Oh ,and if you want pictures, here's a nice (live) one of the town I used to do some work in: <http://www1.tirol.gv.at/luft/downloads/KOGLMOOS.JPG>

<comment><USER3> How's Italy in terms of internet startups, geek culture, etc? Never really come across Italian tech startups in the news.

<comment><USER4> I believe Balsamiq is from Italy: <http://www.balsamiq.com/>

<comment><USER2> Another couple that come to mind: <http://www.funambol.com/>

<http://www.sourcesense.com/en/home>

Basically, though, "Italy" is not a great place for startups, do to the poor business environment. On the other hand, both historically, and currently, Italy has produced smart people way out of proportion to its size. Unfortunately, many of them have had to go elsewhere to really do their best work, like this guy:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Faggin>

He went to the University of Padova. Another famous guy who spent a lot of time here was Galileo, who said he spent the happiest years of his life here.

I know plenty of geeks here, too. When I came here in 2000, I really didn't miss San Francisco in terms of having people to talk geek with. On the other hand, I did enjoy the fact that there were plenty of actual girls, that not everyone worked for a tech company, and that there were children and old people, rather than just 20-somethings. I like it here, but I will repeat that Italy is a terrible place to do business because of the bureaucracy.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Lance Armstrong Lost His Tour de France Titles - <AUTHOR> http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/08/24/how-lance-armstrong-lost-his-tour-de-france-titles/

<comment><USER2> Some problems with the headline and the summary. Pretty bad considering it's coming from Time.

>> Headline: How Lance Armstrong Lost His Tour de France Titles

The headline makes it sound like a foregone conclusion. He hasn't lost them yet. While USADA says they can strip him of those titles, the cycling body and the tournament runner haven't agreed to it yet.

>> The cyclist's decision to forfeit his titles and not contest charges by the United States Anti-Doping Agency may be, in a sense, logical

Armstrong's comment to the effect that USADA isn't in the position to strip him of the Tour de France titles, doesn't sound like he decided to forfeit anything.

</comment><comment><USER3> This case is fascinating. I don't know much about cycling, but I tend to side with Armstrong in this case. Will be interesting to see how it continues to play out.</comment>


Can i self-learning computer science phd? - <AUTHOR> Can i self-learning computer science phd? <comment><USER2> The primary function of a PhD is the transfer of status/prestige/signalling power. The institution/university has obtained a certain level of prestige through its professors and the research they publish and by various other means. Obviously, some institutions are more prestigious than others, take MIT and compare it to the average community college.

So you could give yourself a PhD title, but the signalling power of that title would be close to 0. You wouldn't get any more prestige by doing that.

Also note that PhD is a very poor choice if what you're after is acquiring knowledge in a specific field, because in most institutions, you'll be pressured to publish novel research, which optimizes for the popularity/citation count of the work. When learning, what you really need is to put solid fundamentals in place, and expand in a breadth-first fashion. This sometimes takes more time than the deadlines for delivering research allows, so you'll have no choice but to focus on one tiny area that you're actually dealing with, an area that for 99% of the PhD is almost completely irrelevant. (This paragraph is an anecdote, but the point still stands. Of course your adviser has a massive influence, of course there are institutions that will help you thrive, and of course doing a PhD is still very useful, for a lot of reasons.)

</comment><comment><USER3> Your sentence is grammatically incorrect and I don't understand it. [Hi from Argentina! I also make a lot of mistakes. :)]

Can you explain it using a longer sentence? With a longer sentence sometimes it is easier to understand the question in spite of the errors. (An alternative is to post the question here in your native language, so perhaps autotranlation can help.]

</comment><comment><USER4> phd is a degree, you dont learn it. But if you are asking can you do computer science research without pursuing a phd. Well the answer depends on variety of factors.

</comment><comment><USER5> you can learn anything on your own as long as you have a method that works for you and the will to stick at it. Lecturers are not offering you any knowledge which isnt available from plenty of other sources. the only thing you cant get is an actual certificate but the reality is that if you are capable that likely wont matter

<comment><AUTHOR> How do i self-education phd computer science?</comment></comment>


Attacking Crypto Phones: Weaknesses in ZRTPCPP - <AUTHOR> http://blog.azimuthsecurity.com/2013/06/attacking-crypto-phones-weaknesses-in.html

<comment><USER2> I am glad the details are back up. Dowd took them down for a bit to give some vendors extra time for remediation. But the details were available on a ton of other sites so I am curious how much good came from the temporary removal of the writeup from the author's site.</comment>


How does Whatsapp verify your phone number? - <AUTHOR>

I see most of the times whatsapp does not even send you an SMS (I don't see any SMS in the messages app). Then how do they verify the phone number? <comment><USER2> May be the app delete the SMS as soon as it is done with the verification.</comment>


Screwed by UPS & the 2012 Olympics - <AUTHOR> http://batchgeo.com/map/203de17757930cc220870eef1ac25e5b

<comment><USER2> The thing is, it's not true.

UPS only have an exclusive on deliveries to inside the Olympic venues themselves, not the houses or buildings outside them. So if you live in the area, there's no real change (other than traffic causing you all sorts of issues).

[http://tamebay.com/2012/05/25-pounds-rip-off-to-deliver- fina...](http://tamebay.com/2012/05/25-pounds-rip-off-to-deliver-final-1-mile- to-olympics.html)</comment>


Introducing the Go Race Detector - <AUTHOR> http://blog.golang.org/race-detector <comment><USER2> "it is only as good as your tests; you must make sure they thoroughly exercise the concurrent properties of your code so that the race detector can do its job." <\-- it's not a magical tool but man it's great to have such a tool, debugging concurrency bugs is a real pain.

</comment><comment><USER3> Go has such a great set of tools, it's definitely one of the reason I love it so much. The Go team did an amazing job on this.

<comment><USER4> Yes, this is pretty freaking cool.

Hopefully it works on Windows too, which is my main OS when I'm working with Go. It seems Windows is a second class citizen when it comes to some of the toolchain (pprof is kinda broken, I can't get addresses to resolve to symbols and just end up profiling on Linux), but fingers crossed!

<comment><AUTHOR> It does work on windows/amd64.

We're trying hard to keep Windows well-supported. The pprof story is a little sad, as it was a very unix-centric tool to begin with.

<comment><USER5> > We're trying hard to keep Windows well-supported

As another Go developer on Win7, thanks, I think a lot of people really do appreciate this.

I've worked for years under Linux and OSX as well, but when I started dabbling in OpenGL via Go last year, I switched to Win7 for better nvidia gpu drivers (and Steam), simple as that. If you keep other MS crap I mean software off a Win7 system, it's a rock-solid developer OS with msys/mingw and Sublime Text and Go. I wouldn't touch Win8 but my 7 setup is absolutely working for me as of now. Ultimately I'll have to head back to a Unix seeing the direction Windows is taking, but I'm really happy to be able to work in Go as a first- class citizen for the time being.

Also given today's prevalence of Unixes in developer circles, Win7 is ironically the only OS giving off that "bad-ass underdog" vibe..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can wholeheartely recommend this tool. With tsan I found a lot of races in parrot threads, which I didn't detect in months before. Those were all real issues. [http://blogs.perl.org/users/rurban/2012/08/threadsanitizer.h...](http://blogs.perl.org/users/rurban/2012/08/threadsanitizer.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> Was coming here to post just that! It's a really terrific tool, I'm really happy to see the Go team providing great default tools with the distribution.

</comment><comment><USER8> The scary part about this is that I had two race conditions in my code, and they never manifested themselves when the code was live. They were just sort of lurking there. Now I'm paranoid about my non-Go code. Turns out I don't understand concurrent programming as well as I thought I did. Even when I thought I was being really disciplined and organized about my concurrency, I actually wasn't.

</comment><comment><USER9> The more I read about it, the more I want to learn Go before C/C++. Is there any reason not to?

<comment><USER10> Unless you're building a database or a game, it's probably fast enough.

<comment><USER11> It's worth noting to joelg236 that you can easily drop C into your Go program using CGO ([http://golang.org/cmd/cgo/](http://golang.org/cmd/cgo/)) for parts that need to be extremely performant. You incur a context switch overhead but it can really boost performance in some use cases.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I feel like I've seen this some time ago, with the release of Go 1.1. Perhaps the article itself is new while what it describes isn't. It just feels very familiar despite the recent date.

<comment><AUTHOR> We discussed the race detector in our Go 1.1 announcement blog post, but only very superficially. If you actually read this article there is an in-depth discussion of two real race conditions that were found by the tool.

<comment><USER12> Makes sense; thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> As a side note the solution to the Discard problem is quite beautiful.

[https://code.google.com/p/go/source/detail?r=4b61f121966b](https://code.google.com/p/go/source/detail?r=4b61f121966b)

As I read it makes a quick-try to acquire a pre-allocated buffer, otherwise makes its own. Then it makes a quick-try to give the buffer it used back (to be used by another goroutine).

That is a very elegant use of channels to create an optimistic buffer. Enjoyed that read :)</comment>


Meet Censored Reddit, anti-NSA story suppression (the latest episode) - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1ywspe/new_snowden_doc_reveals_how_gchqnsa_use_the/cfohbrc

<comment><AUTHOR> UPDATE: The Reddit Techdirt post (3,000+ up votes, the parent to the comment thread I linked to) has just been removed from the #3 spot on Reddit's front page (it was there 30 minutes ago), so make that the 13th removal of related content.

I was floored last night when Greenwald's piece on JTRIG could only be found in niche subreddits such as /r/conspiracy. When I attempted to post to /r/worldnews, it gave me the URL "already submitted" error.

Turns out Glennwald's piece had been submitted and removed twelve times -- each time it had received substantial interest (dozens of upvotes) in short amounts of time. (Check out the link)

It's hard not to don the tin-foil hat here (given the nature of the article itself). This also goes back to the "moving target" of the definition of "hacktivism." JTRIG's "pushing the envelope" of targeting beyond what we'd normally view as terrorists. The question is not "why would the NSA employ moderators with an agenda?" \-- the question is "why wouldn't they?" To steal from Jerry Pournelle's "iron law of bureaucracy" \-- the institution will act to protect itself, and in this case it sees the People's voice as a threat. If the NSA has a presence on Second Life, they have also penetrated HN and Reddit.</comment>


Glowing, crackling fire in CSS and html (no JS) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@chris_82106/a-glowing-crackling-fire-effect-with-css-animations-8724ff691f44#.3b6p90kn1 <comment><AUTHOR> Certainly not revolutionary to any real artist or CSS ninja, but a fun trick for the winter season.</comment>


Apple Beats Powerbeats Pro Review: Throw Away Your AirPods - <AUTHOR> https://www.soundguys.com/apple-beats-powerbeats-pro-review-23562/ <comment><USER2> The same could've been said about Powerbeats 3, but people usually dismiss because of the in-ear design.</comment>


Building Apps In CouchDB By Chris Anderson and Jan Lehnardt at JSConf 2009 - <AUTHOR> http://jsconf2009.com/couch_video.html

<comment><USER2> Well-produced video, worth the wait.</comment>


Ask HN: Where to apply for SF/SV startup jobs? - <AUTHOR> What's the best way to find job openings nowadays without dealing with recruiters? <comment><USER2> Have you, uh, seen the monthly HN Who's Hiring thread's?

<comment><USER3> Here's the most recent "Who is hiring", as an example:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14688684](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14688684)

This thread is automatically posted on the first business day of each month.

Also, Y Combinator runs job ads for companies they fund on the front page of HN. (These are the articles without the upvote arrows, comment links, etc.) Here's an example of one that's currently on the front page:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14801534](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14801534)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> angel.co, filter by location.

There may be a recruiter or 2 in there, but they can be good for a chat.</comment>


A function to sleep a 1000 years: explained - <AUTHOR> https://bowero.nl/blog/2019/12/14/a-function-to-sleep-a-1000-years-explained/ <comment><USER2> I guess I am the only one missing the point (disliking this as a code golf challenge) and cringing that the solution does not sleep for a precise 1000 years and overthinking that various other rules are not being taken into account (e.g. leap years, extra seconds per year, etc.).

<comment><USER3> Given the context of 'code golf' I don't mind the submitted solution being 'close enough', it even seems like the programmer in question was precise in their wording (if they were quoted properly).

Overall the thought of a pinned register being software updated once every 7 seconds for near a thousand years is the worst part.

I stand corrected; I'm so used to seeing these unrolled (which hopefully the hypothetical compiler's done) that I didn't consider the stack implications; that's the most cringy part.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While we're nit-picking, this also doesn't account for a lot of problems which are inevitable on a 1,000 year scale, such as the lifetime of the computer's parts, dealing with power outages, staffing for the long-term upkeep of the system, etc.

<comment><USER5> That line of code is not beautiful, it's obscene.

At the very least, anything that's intended to last a long time should be written in the simplest, clearest, self-explanatory manner so as to at least give reasonable confidence it's correct.

Not to mention, 952 years is a lousy approximation of a millennium.

      const yearSeconds = 31556926

      for i = 1 to 1000
        sleep yearSeconds

Or, use some calendar library to get the exact number needed.

<comment><USER6> Why wait for a tropical year though? Surely most people will assume it waits for a calendar year?

Of course, even without leap seconds, this severely complicates the issue since you'd first need to figure out the number of leap days in the next 1000 years, which is unfortunately not fixed since 1000 is not a multiple of 400.

<comment><USER5> I reconsidered the spirit of the thing, which is obviously to use C and not to use large constants or external libraries. But I still think 95% accurate is terrible, so I posted a 99.99% solution in C.

Edit: I used the tropical year number without thinking about it, but (a) the difference is de minimus compared to being 5% off, and (b) I consider it undefined whether the Gregorian calendar year _really is_ different, because who's to say we won't have an adjustment to the leap year cycle in the very long run to make them converge?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not thread-safe. Also, from Alex in the comments: "Sounds good! Although probably we will run out of stack waay before that".

<comment><USER8> It won't run out of stack space with a high enough optimization level so that it uses tail recursion. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_call](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_call)

You can try this yourself by compiling:

#include <stdio.h>

int i = 0; int x() {--i && x(printf("x"));} int main() {x();}

using gcc with and without '-02'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You want obfuscated, I'll give you obfuscated:

        void
        f (int i, int j)
        {
            int k = j;

            k <<= 2;
            k += j;
            k <<= 3;

            if (--i)
                while (--k)
                    f(i, j);
            else
                sleep(k);
        }

        int
        main ()
        {
          f (3, 'O'); /* Sleep for 1000 years */

          return 0;
        }

...this should solve your stack overflow problems _and_ be 99.9% accurate.

<comment><USER5> (IMO enterprise grade C code should not have types other than int, use numbers larger than 2^15-1, or constants with more than one digit/character. This is, I'm sure, the best way to avoid undefined behavior and concomitant nasal demons)

<comment><USER5> Here's a more user-friendly version with self-explanatory parameters:

      f(i, j, k, l) { for (j = (j << 2) + j << 3; i + 1 && --j; f(i - 1, k, l, l)); sleep(j); }

      int
      main ()
      {
        f(1, 'O', 'O', 'O'); /* Sleep for 1000 years */
      }

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Another problem is that it makes the assumption that an int is 32 bits. The C89 standard certainly doesn't promise that.

</comment><comment><USER10> > With this, we have proven that this beautiful line of code is correct!

I wouldn't say 'correct', exactly. Not just int size, it depends on undefined behavior and a moderate level of compiler optimizations at the same time. Good luck there.

</comment><comment><USER11> It relies on undefined behavior since signed integer overflow is undefined.

</comment><comment><USER12> Apart from showing off syntax tricks, what exactly was the reason to write f(sleep(7)) instead of e.g. sleep(7);--i&&f()? Just minimizing the character count?

<comment><USER13> The original challenge [0] was submitted as a "code-golf" challenge, which means that the solution needed to solve the problem in the fewest bytes of source code.

There are a lot of tricks to minimize the character count, and replacing a();b() with b(a()) is one of them.

[0]: [https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/q/196917/38454](https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/q/196917/38454)

<comment><USER12> Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.</comment></comment></comment>


Exploring Unseen Open Source Infrastructure - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@teabass/unseen-open-source-infrastructure-f0ba1d3d5964#.a1u1z8fzr <comment><USER2> Along this line, there's an excellent writeup from the Ford Foundation on this topic: [http://www.fordfoundation.org/library/reports-and- studies/ro...](http://www.fordfoundation.org/library/reports-and- studies/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure)

<comment><USER3> This study reminds me that our computer infrastructure (cables, network connections etc) depend also on the physical infrastructure. For example, If there weren't steam tunnels on campus, it would be a LOT harder to pull fiber optic cables to allow for intranet connectivity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It should rather be called "unseen open source dependencies" instead of infrastructure. On that note though, would be interesting to see how open source projects are running their infrastructure.

Speaking about dependencies, I saw something on Github that I have not seeing before, "Dependents" in the "Graphs" section[0]. This says "No packages depend on this repository yet. We'll keep watching to see if any packages add this repository as a dependency." but I have yet come across any repository with dependencies or how to add that a repository is a dependency to another.

Anyone know what that is about?

[0] - [https://github.com/ipfs/js- ipfs/network/dependents](https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/network/dependents) \- [http://i.imgur.com/USSLz3U.png](http://i.imgur.com/USSLz3U.png)

<comment><USER5> Looks like it was added in January[0], but this is the first I'm hearing about/seeing it as well.

Edit: Here's the repo[1] they show in the screenshot.

[0] [https://github.com/blog/2300-visualize-your-project-s- commun...](https://github.com/blog/2300-visualize-your-project-s-community) [1] [https://github.com/rmosolgo/graphql- ruby/network/dependents](https://github.com/rmosolgo/graphql- ruby/network/dependents)</comment></comment>


Is this a good about me page? - <AUTHOR> http://www.markmeloon.com/?page=introduction <comment><USER2> About - part of the text is not easy to read since it is over your face and your blue sweater.

My skills - what is "88% programming" ? Why 88% and not 92% or 84%?

General - takes forever to load.

</comment><comment><USER3> takes way too long to load. if i wasn't visiting to give you feedback i would have clicked away before seeing anything about you, left only with the memory of an albeit pretty loading animation. Also the text of the list in the about section overflows the edge of the page, making it unreadable. Am using Chrome on a Mac.

</comment><comment><USER4> Face on the home page looks too big for me, and on the second page text was all over the face for some reason...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> op here, just wanted to point out, i never said this was _my_ about me page. Just asked if it was a good one.

<comment><USER5> Why are you asking? Are you related to the guy or something? (e.g., "my...friend -- yeah, that's right -- my friend has this website...") And what's with the crack about him being Dr. Evil? Sounds like you've already made up your mind about whether the page is good or not.

<comment><AUTHOR> don't know him. just a random page I found. I thought it was not good. Sorry, I shouldn't make fun of people. I'm sure he's a very nice guy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> or does it have like a Dr. Evil look to it?</comment>


Mastodon and Keybase - <AUTHOR> https://keybase.io/blog/keybase-proofs-for-mastodon-and-everyone <comment><USER2> Just wanted to say that i moved from twitter to mastodon sometime late last year amd couldn't be happier with it. Keybase integration is interesting to me, but not realky useful since i don't want to tie mastodon with my real life identity.

the Fediverse as a whole has a very different 'feel' to it compared to Twitter. Twitter feels significantly more commercialized amd stressful...mastodon / pleroma feel a lot more relaxed and pleasant in comparison.

Maybe i just accidentally joined nicer communities, but i see a lot of small- scale chitchat and genuineness on mastodon than i rarely see on twitter.

I've also had zero issues with the platform from a technical perspective...overall i think Mastodon, etc have done decentralization "right", and have a lot of potential for growth in the future

<comment><USER3> It would be cool to see everyone's Mastodon usernames/domains, I'm on my own self hosted instance where it's a bit more difficult to find other people.

Mine is: [https://toot.jeena.net/@jeena](https://toot.jeena.net/@jeena)

<comment><USER4> What has your experience been with self-hosting?

I'd love to self-host a Mastodon instance that two-way mirrors my Twitter account and acts as a Twitter client (letting me pseudo-follow folks from Twitter). But in any case, I'd want to ensure that no content from people I follow gets mirrored/hosted on my own instance; the only content actually hosted on my own instance should be the content I post.

<comment><USER5> What do you mean? No content other than what your users generate will be hosted on your instance.

<comment><USER6> There is a concept of a federated timeline, which does get synced to your local instance. If you follow someone on a remote instance, that instance feeds content into your instance so it can be loaded.

<comment><USER5> It syncs the people you follow, right? So presumably the only additional content on your instance is content from the people you follow, which should generally be low-risk.

<comment><USER7> You can also block just media if an instance is known to host images that are illegal in your country or your users don't want to see (silencing is a better option for the latter tho).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This seems backward.

They want ActivityPub servers to apply to a central service (keybase) to offer cross server identities.

And they want users to trust that central service to decide who is who.

It's always amazing, how strong the force of centralization is.

Even when the whole value proposition of a technology is that it is decentralized, users will soon flock to centralized services built around it and end up in the mercy of a few organizations again.

Reminds me of all the people who think they hold crypto currency while in reality they "hold" yeah-we-promise-we-owe-you-somethings by some exchange.

Reminds me of how little resistance the Ethereum elite faced when they flushed "code is law" down the toilet and forced all users to switch to a fork with rewritten history.

What makes this attempt of centralization even more tragic is that it does not bring anything to the table. If you want to run a service that let's people claim they are joedoe@host1 and joe_the_doe@host2, just let them publish two messages. "I am joedoe@host1" on joe_the_doe@host2 and "I am joe_the_doe@host2" on joedoe@host1. Neither the integration with the hosts nor the crypto spiel is needed.

<comment><USER9> > It's always amazing, how strong the force of centralization is.

This is because Mastodon is a UX nightmare because of the way they decentralized it. With Twitter you go on and you @ your friends / etc and you're done. With Mastodon you have to figure out where they are and if they're not all in the same place it becomes a nightmare to try and manage.

I get it, decentralization can be great. But so far most of the implementations of decentralized social networks have been a UX nightmare for even the casual user.

<comment><USER10> > With Twitter you go on and you @ your friends / etc and you're done. With > Mastodon you have to figure out where they are and if they're not all in the > same place it becomes a nightmare to try and manage.

Nope, that's actually not the problem with Mastodon UX. On Twitter you still have to ask if your friend is @Johnny or @John1256 or @JDoe or depend on visual cues (avatar).

The problem with Mastodon UX (and Fediverse in general) is the friction of "remote follow" buttons instead of one-click Follow (the same goes for reply/like etc.)

<comment><USER11> I find that remote follow is only an issue this way if you've gone directly to the other party's profile rather than following them from your own instance, or when your instance is being banned for some reason by the other party's instance. It could be smoother, but this is what we get for having to defend against XSS.

The bigger problem with Mastodon is the explicit support for censorship via defederating instances you don't like.

<comment><USER10> > rather than following them from your own instance

This all requires people to explicitly copy user/page URL to clipboard and paste it on their instance. "Follow me" buttons or twitter.com/share-link URLs are just not possible on Mastodon. Copying and pasting stuff doesn't look like good UX to me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is great. But damn:

> Are there sites you won't link to?

> Like a Mastodon instance, we reserve the right to work with whichever > partners we prefer. We specifically will avoid at least these sites:

> sites which encourage or are known for illegal activity

Just what is "illegal activity"? According to whose laws?

Given that Keybase servers are in the US, I suppose that means US law. And frankly, that sucks.

But please do clarify.

</comment><comment><USER13> I wonder if the Mastodon community will pick up Keybase chat as the de facto chat option with this integration in place. Chat or private messaging has always been considered the weak link of the fediverse since it's easy for bad servers to mishandle "private" toots.

<comment><USER14> I wish that Keybase could work with the Signal team on something.

Signal has a lot of experience in UI [1] and security, and Keybase had the identity proofs. I'd love to see them work together rather than compete.

[1] Signal UI used to be horrible but as of the past few months it's improved a ton! It's now my preferred SMS client.

<comment><USER15> >Signal UI used to be horrible but as of the past few months it's improved a ton!

That's funny, I've had the opposite experience. Once I got everyone I know to start using it and was completely locked-in, I started having all kinds of weird issues.

My favorite is when my phone has been off awhile. After I turn it back on, I get a notification for every message I sent/received on another device while it was off. Usually takes about 30 minutes for it to fully sync, buzzing and/or producing popups for every message along the way. I have about a dozen equally frustrating issues I could, if I had the time, enumerate.

And of course because it's free, there's no real support. Signal has been a huge disappointment for me. I'm preparing to move back to regular SMS, but now I have to untangle all of the users like my mother that I convinced to use Signal. Caveat emptor!

<comment><USER16> You'd rather opt in to global passive surveillance than deal with an inconvenient UX?

<comment><USER15> It's not inconvenient, it's broken. The issue I described above is not the only misbehavior to which I'm frequently subjected. Another example: messages are delayed, often.

Recently I failed to reply to an urgent text about a medical diagnosis from my fiance due to Signal failing to push the message to my phone. This is unacceptable behavior from a critical application.

Do I get on a soapbox about how surveillance is terrible and miss being there for her by insisting on using Signal? No! I want her to be able to get in contact with me if there's an emergency, and that's the #1 priority.

<comment><USER17> (note: not trying to say the medical diagnosis scenario you describe is less important than your contribution to getting the world off SMS, just spitballing how we can work towards timely updates in our current world _and_ wean off SMS)

in the situation you describe, or any urgent situation where speed of communication is paramount, what about bombardment through multiple channels? like, i'll often leave my phone out of my pocket, and not pay super close attention to it. and if it lights up with one text message, or one signal message, or whatever, i might not look at it. but if it's buzzing like crazy, or someone starts calling, i'd pick it up.

i guess what i'm saying is, "urgent" to me means signal/text/call/call someone that might be around the person/whatever, until the message gets through. if something is urgent, i would not send it solely by text. i've certainly had SMS messages get dropped or delayed many many times over the years.

can you really only use one messaging app at a time? signal is my primary messaging app, but i don't really find it bothersome to use whatsapp and regular SMS also. different people i communicate with prefer different channels, and often the same person will use different channels with me depending on the purpose (e.g., my dad mostly chats with me by SMS, and most of my immediate family's group chat is on SMS, but when my dad is texting with me about some sensitive personal financial info, it's over signal).

also, i hope that whatever the urgent issue was, it was resolved in an ok way. like i said, not trying to shortchange the urgency of a medical emergency or second guess your decision making or frustration at the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This sucks -- not all Mastodon instances will be able to use this. It's subject to approval by keybase, ensuring only big instances can use this. A step backwards a proper decentralized network…

<comment><USER19> Keybase team member here. We have more than 30 so far, and they range from some of the largest down to single-user instances.

<comment><USER12> OK, but what about "sex workers and such" that wut42 mentions in a subthread?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> From: [https://keybase.io/docs/proof_integration_guide](https://keybase.io/docs/proof_integration_guide)

> To send us the config, you can send us the public URL for your config file > or attach it directly in a Keybase chat message to @mlsteele or email > firstname.lastname@example.com. In our example the file is hosted at > [https://keybase.io/.well-known/example-proof- > config.json](https://keybase.io/.well-known/example-proof-config.json).

Will this always require manual step (sending config by e-mail) or is there some automation planned?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good q - this step will likely be automated soon. Still, there will always be one final step of our _approving_ any integration, otherwise there would be 10,000 pr0n sites or ad sites. (We mention this in the FAQ.) But we can automate everything up to turning it on.

For now, we want to talk to everyone working on integrations, so we can see what steps are working and what are confusing, what could be improved, etc. So we're talking to everyone doing an integration.

<comment><USER20> I still don't get it. You have always been able to get a keybase proof for ANY website/domain without being approved first. Why do you need to whitelist mastodon instances? Why not just let people type in the domain name for their instance and get rolling?

<comment><USER21> But now they're showing every integration possible (as in, every mastodon instance they approve of) on their UI

<comment><USER20> Again…why? who cares? Why is picking from a pre-approved list better than just letting people type in their instance domain name and allowing every instance by default?

<comment><USER10> Agreed. Not to mention Mastodon could've a linkback to Keybase with all data pre-filled (username + instance name). For example in Settings a link "Connect with Keybase".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I never understood keybase as a useful product. What do you use keybase for?

<comment><USER23> Task: Send me a tweet on Twitter. Careful not to send it to any imposters.

Challenge: Finding me on Twitter. For example, I am not @Nadya

Extra Credit Challenge: Let's say I'm e-famous enough to have imposter accounts but not have a Twitter "verified" badge. Which Twitter account is the real me? And how do you know?

Where Keybase comes in: On my HN profile itself you can find my signatures on Keybase. Keybase is not necessary for these signatures but becomes a convenient place to look. You also _do not need to trust Keybase_ ; although in practice many people will. Don't lie to me and tell me you'd verify the keys. :)

Now you can go directly from my HN profile to my Twitter profile and tweet at me knowing that I am who I say I am. Or at least the individual posing as me has access to three of my accounts (HN, Keybase, and Twitter) and that you'd at least be talking to the same person.

The social proof and web of trust bit is where Keybase falls down but that's an inherit flaw of the web of trust (key exchange parties aren't as popular as they used to be and people will sign/trust keys of people they've never met IRL). Ultimately you'll have to trust that the people who follow me on Keybase are certain beyond a reasonable doubt that I am who I say I am. From there, you can trust the social proofs.

I personally use it so that people can find me on other services more easily and know that they are speaking to me.

<comment><USER24> > On my HN profile itself you can find my signatures on Keybase.

… or your HN account could just link straight to your Twitter account. I don't get what Keybase adds here.

<comment><USER25> If you have an account on N different sites, and you want to let people identify you between each of those, linking directly requires (N-1) links per profile, or N*(N-1) links total. When you create a new profile elsewhere, you need to update your profile on each of the N original sites, plus add N links in your profile at the new site.

Or you could collect all of your identities into a Keybase profile, which all of your other profiles link to. That's a lot less to manage. Plus, proving your identity at some site (usually) has the byproduct of pointing back at your Keybase profile, so even if you come at this just from a "less work for me" angle, you're getting verifiability for free.

<comment><USER26> Or you could collect all of your identities in one other central place (say your website or HN) and link to the central place from all other profiles. Because that is exactly the scenario you just mentioned. Having direct links to all other profiles isn't solved by keybase. The only thing it provides is a central place for profile links – and there are obviously other ways to achieve this.

<comment><USER27> Sure, but if you look at how Keybase is verifying the information and how it is presenting that trust to external users, I feel that the value they are providing has increased greatly over a static page listing social network IDs.

Take a look at [https://keybase.io/anthonyclarka2/sigchain](https://keybase.io/anthonyclarka2/sigchain)

You can see a whole bunch of extra crypto is being used to verify the information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Keybase is certainly interesting. Is it possible to link up to your stackoverflow identity yet?

How are people using Keybase right now? I added several of my accounts but I'm especially interested in the GPG encryption/signing.

<comment><USER28> StackOverflow integration sounds really cool. Wish they added Discourse support as well - hard to prove I'm me on all of these Discourse instances.

<comment><USER29> Tracking the Discourse implementation here: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-keybase- proof/115239?...](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-keybase- proof/115239?u=falco)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Can someone explain Mastodon to me? Because I'm not really sure I "get" it.

As I understand it, I need to register for Mastodon at some server ``foo``, and with this one single registration I can also access other servers ``bar`` and ``baz`` and read what their members post, but I'm not able to post on those servers myself, only on my original ``foo`` server.

So what happens when ``foo`` goes under for whatever reason? Or what if the admins at ``foo`` decided to ban me from their server for whatever reason? Am I just shit out of luck now?

And what if my friends decide to join Mastodon some time later, but they all agree to join ``bar`` leaving me the odd person out? I think I've read somewhere that it's not possible to relocate my 'home server'?

<comment><USER31> Yes, you are right.

The entire ActivityPub concept is flawed, but not because you would be left alone in your server, it's the opposite: since you're interacting with your friends, your friends' server would then fetch all posts from your server and vice-versa, it will be as if there was just one server, but maintenance costs are now duplicated and the discovery process is not great also.

These problems are less problematic the smaller the servers are, which makes me think the best structure would be one in which each user is its own server and just syncs to temporary syncing hubs when possible -- or maybe sync directly to other online peers they know.

Oh, wait, that's what [https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/](https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/) does!

(Disclaimer: I don't use Scuttlebutt nor Mastodon nor anything like that, and I really thought about Scuttlebutt in the middle of my comment, not before.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Bug report: I just connected my Mastodon.social and Keybase profiles. On my Keybase profile, the "post" link next to my Mastodon.social profile link doesn't go directly to the proof post, but instead just links to my profile again.

</comment><comment><USER33> I'm working on a web-based system that uses PGP key as identity.

How do I integrate with Keybase?

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm not entirely sold on keybase.

Why would I want my online presence 100% identifiable and traceable back to me?

What is the appeal of this service exactly?</comment>


Major telco carriers to launch database to prevent reuse of stolen phones - <AUTHOR> http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232900070

<comment><USER2> This may be a good thing however I can't help but get nervous when I hear the major cell phone companies will be working together on anything. I can easily see this becoming a tool to use against consumers while telling us its fir our own good.</comment>