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WebHooks and WebSockets in ASP.NET - nirajs
http://www.entechsolutions.com/hooks-and-sockets-for-web-apps#more-423
======
vyrotek
Good stuff. Has anyone used SignalR before? I imagine it's a lot easier to use
that instead of rolling your own.
<https://github.com/SignalR/SignalR>
~~~
ragesh
Yes, SignalR is awesome. Easy to get started, regular updates and great
support from the devs at jabbr.net.
------
statenjason
[shamelessplug]
If you're in need of a WebSocket library that works on .NET 4.0 or Mono, there
is Fleck[1].
[1]: <https://github.com/statianzo/Fleck>
[/shamelessplug]
~~~
vyrotek
Nice. What sets Fleck apart from the rest?
Edit - Whoa, wait a minute. You're Neumont grad? I'm cohort 9 :)
~~~
statenjason
Cohort 15 ;)
A couple of features:
\- Simple API that requires no inheritance.
\- Mono is a first class citizen in development.
\- Reasonably RFC compliant[1].
\- Proof of concept adapter for SignalR[2].
[1]: <http://statianzo.github.com/Fleck/>
[2]: <https://github.com/davidfowl/SignalR.Fleck>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SCO and Novell square off at oral argument: Groklaw weighs in - grellas
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110120171030983
======
anigbrowl
I can't decide whether SCO's argument is brilliant or awful…
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Obama After Dark: The Precious Hours Alone - applecore
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/obama-after-dark-the-precious-hours-alone.html
======
themartorana
Makes me feel a bit better about my late nights. I'm also a night person,
usually work after the rest of the family has gone to bed. Sometimes I feel
guilty - I know my wife would like me to go to bed with her, I know I'd like
it better if I was able to function better at 6:30 am.
I guess there are a bunch of people like me out there. Wish I could do it in
the White House, though. Sweet study :)
------
doe88
What transpires is that he works a lot. Overall I think he will remain as a
good president. I only wish he had taken more courageous decisions on
whistlebowers and drone policies for instance.
------
overcast
The first image of him reading in his "private" study, accompanied by a
photographer.
~~~
anc84
Well, this is purely a PR piece, what did you expect. ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
iRobot Roomba Serial Command Interface Specification [pdf] - omnibrain
http://www.irobot.com/images/consumer/hacker/roomba_sci_spec_manual.pdf
======
mng2
Having worked with Roomba SCI a while back, a few things come to mind. First
is a lack of integrity checking. The default baud rate of 57600 is too high
(at least for the 6-ft mini-DIN cables we could find), and it's really
annoying when your Roomba goes careening off in a weird direction because your
command got corrupted. Thankfully the baud rate can be reduced, but there
really ought to be something in the next layer to check integrity, as the
Roomba firmware is a black box.
Also, it's kinda obvious in retrospect, but Roombas were not designed to drive
in straight lines. Which can be annoying if you want to use them as a robotics
platform.
------
elstevo
Their competition Neato has, in my opinion, a more interesting platform to
hack on, mostly due to the fact that the device has a LIDAR sensor on top.
[http://www.neatorobotics.com/resources/programmersmanual_201...](http://www.neatorobotics.com/resources/programmersmanual_20140305.pdf)
[http://xv11hacking.wikispaces.com/](http://xv11hacking.wikispaces.com/)
------
dildog
I was going to crack a "Roombaduino in 3..2..1.." joke but it turns out there
is already a library for this:
[http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/Roomba/](http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/Roomba/)
(-:
------
dotjosh
[https://github.com/dotjosh/iRobot.NET](https://github.com/dotjosh/iRobot.NET)
I wrote one a while back as well, if you are using .net
------
mharsch
the cool kids are all using
[https://www.npmjs.org/package/roomba](https://www.npmjs.org/package/roomba)
------
gcb0
this is hackerold not hacker news
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Hard-Luck Texas Town That Bet on Bitcoin–and Lost - realshadow
https://www.wired.com/story/hard-luck-texas-town-bet-bitcoin-lost/
======
anm89
It doesn't appear that this town bet or lost anything minus some
administrative time which is a fairly standard risk for any big development
project.
~~~
jraedisch
Seems also they bet on Bitmain, not on Bitcoin, which is arguably recovering
better.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gizmodo: We're done with Kickstarter - learc83
http://gizmodo.com/5897449/were-done-with-kickstarter
======
jeffool
"I can't trust myself around Kickstarter. Kickstarter, please do quality
control for me."
Conversely... This is the perfect opportunity for someone to buy
IndieKicks.com and start blogging about cool projects that you can help out.
Make it not just funding, but projects like SETI@Home and the likes as new
ones come online.
"IndieKicks.com - Create the world you want."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Forget Bribery – The Real Scam Is Pretending That Degrees Have Value - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-28/admissions-bribery-scandal-pretending-degree-has-value-is-a-scam
======
stirfrykitty
I've come to believe that many degrees are overrated, including my own CS
degree. I could have learned what I did in a much shorter time. While I don't
like bootcamps, there is no reason why there are no IT trade schools. Maybe
two years long. No BS courses like philosophy, social sciences, etc. Not a
degree, but a trade school. Hell, my plumber makes more than my wife and I
together. He specializes in installing tankless water heaters. He makes a
mint.
I've never been impressed with Ivy league or other "rarified air" educational
establishments. I've worked around people from some of these places and almost
to a man, they reeked of one-upmanship, my father knows..., I know..., oh, you
went to <insert no-name university> while glancing down their nose at you.
I worked with a guy like this at UUNet who went to Brown. He thought he was
the cat's pajamas and everyone should defer to him because he went Ivy League.
Oddly enough (sarcasm), his mistakes were often corrected by those who
attended the no-name schools. He never saw the error of his ways. Daddy, after
all, was a prominent attorney in the DC area. Why this guy went IT is a
mystery. He would have been a better fit with the other sharks and scammers in
DC or on Wall Street.
~~~
MaxBarraclough
> I could have learned what I did in a much shorter time.
I sincerely doubt it. For learning the non-practical fundamentals of, say,
computer science, there is no known learning environment that beats a
university.
> Not a degree, but a trade school
So, only directly applicable skills, no theory and nuts-and-bolts
fundamentals? Sounds far inferior to a bachelor's degree.
The software field is known for being open to talented autodidacts, in a way
that, say, bridge engineering is not. That doesn't mean it makes sense to
dismiss the benefits of quality formal education.
Someone with a decent bachelor's degree in computer science will have a depth
and breadth of knowledge _far_ in excess of where they'd be if they'd spent
that time teaching themselves web development on the job.
> No BS courses like philosophy, social sciences, etc
Here in the UK, a STEM degree is quite 'pure', and you aren't expected to
study topics like philosophy. That doesn't mean there's no value in studying
them though. If philosophy struck you as a complete waste of time, then either
it was taught badly, or you failed to make the most of it.
~~~
scarface74
>I sincerely doubt it. For learning the _non-practical_ fundamentals of, say,
computer science, there is no known learning environment that beats a
university.
I think you kind of just made the point. Why would I pay for something that
isn’t practical?
~~~
zbentley
Because what may prove practical over a long term may not do so in the short
or medium term.
And because what counts as “practicality” changes as people progress through
their careers, but the foundations required to meet each new standard of what
counts as practical often remain the same (or change less).
~~~
ghaff
That's perhaps the key point. I have engineering degrees (not CS) yet I work
for a software tech company and do a lot of things that are much more about a
broader liberal arts education and extracurricular activities than they are
about specific technical courses I took. And, even when I did work as an
engineer, it mostly wasn't in an area where I directly applied coursework.
~~~
scarface74
And my business courses have helped a lot more in both undergrad and as an MBA
dropout.
Most of us are working to increase business value for companies - either by
making them money or by saving them money. They could care less about
“Cracking the Code” and LeetCode.
------
yingw787
Today, degrees are a way to communicate and verify to others that you have
generated and currently possess some amount of intellectual and social
capital, which in the right situations can be converted to financial,
political, and other hard forms of capital.
The recent scandals don't necessarily indicate a degree don't verify capital
stocks, but it does clearly demonstrate the divide between those who have
capital and those who do not, and the myriad methods capital perseveres in
self-preservation. And as these loopholes will most likely remain open in one
way or another, it will continue to teach this lesson across generations.
I think this, and numerous other blatant shows of power, underline just how
important it is to federate capital across class boundaries and prevent
capital concentration. The "old boys clubs" care about your pedigree. The SME
CEO cares about putting food on the table for his/her family and his/her
employees, and cares moreso for your merit. Greater capital distribution leads
to stricter capital verification (yes you are smart in practice) due to the
decentralization of trust, greater alignment between merit and success and
exercise of existing talent surpluses, and higher societal cohesion due to
greater class turnover.
------
taylodl
Education has value. Degrees are merely a conveyance of an education. The
educational institution is an indicator of the educational rigor. None of
these are perfect indicators.
If you're interviewing candidates and you have a candidate graduating from
Stanford, one from MIT and one from Middle-of-Nowhere State - which candidates
are you going to prefer? We can argue whether such preferential judgement is
justified. Living near the East Coast I can tell you I've met my share of MIT
grads who are idiots and Middle-of-Nowhere State grads who've been really
good. Yet the perception persists. Why? Because of the handful of truly
outstanding, even legendary, graduates the elite schools have had that Middle-
of-Nowhere State hasn't. Those handful of exceptional graduates skew people's
perception of reality for a really long time.
Who knows? Maybe this scandal will change people's perception of these elite
schools but I doubt it.
~~~
mrspeaker
So it sounds like you're saying the real scam is pretending that degrees have
value?
~~~
hangonhn
It can become a self-fullfilling prophecy: if most people believe that degrees
have value, then the people who compete for those spots at "elite" colleges
will go up, then the pool of high quality candidate goes up. Because the elite
schools have the pick of the litter, the chances that their student body and
thus their graduates will be successful goes up. This reinforces the
perception that the degrees have value and the cycle repeats. I think an
accident of history has started this cycle and it's going to endure for quite
a while. It's akin to Silicon Valley: engineers think that being in SV helps
them be successful and join the next rocketship. Startups get drawn to SV
because they think SV is where the magic happens. Because the pool of talent
and opportunities meet in SV, it reinforces the perception that SV is magic.
~~~
craftinator
I think you hit on the way economists define "value"; value is derived from
people believing something is valuable. Take gold or diamonds for example,
which were highly valued before they even had industrial usages. Yes, both are
pretty and are rare; however, there are many other equally pretty/rare things
that weren't valued as highly. The only value they had was from perception,
and that made the value real.
------
jseliger
If you haven't yet, you should read _The Case Against Education_. Though be
forewarned: if you work in most of the education-industrial complex, the book
may make you want to quit. [https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-
against-educatio...](https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-against-
education-bryan-caplan)
~~~
paganel
I also strongly recommend Ivan Illich's "Deschooling Society" [1]. It's not
mentioned in the wikipedia article but Illich makes a very good case for
looking at Government's support for higher education as basically a regressive
tax on the poor, as they (meaning the poor) attend university at a much lower
percentage compared to the middle and upper classes of society but they still
pay for the government's support of said universities (through direct or
indirect taxes, and nowadays by being financially forced out of residential
areas located close to good schools that are seen as gateways to prestigious
universities attended by the children of middle- and upper-class people).
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deschooling_Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deschooling_Society)
~~~
foolinaround
It can be argued that the percentage of the poor who attend university is high
considering the percentage of taxes that they actually pay ( compared to those
who earn more than them)
~~~
paganel
That's why I added the indirect taxes thing, which generally it's a regressive
and largely unescapable tax on the poor no matter what the Government decides
to do with the money.
Also, if I were to be a marxist (which I'm not, quite the contrary, even
though I do have a genuine admiration for Marx's thought) one could say that
the well-off have myriad other ways of "taxing" the poor which don't
necessarily involve direct monetary transactions, like asking those members of
the poor class (not sure what today's equivalent term would be) to work on top
of their agreed-upon working hours with no monetary compensation (I have a
feeling that the poor are a lot more likely to do over-time without
compensation compared to Silicon Valley people or to big-firm lawyers).
~~~
whiddershins
That last part is obviously untrue. In general, poor people do not work long
hours.
In general, corporate management employees work very long hours.
------
haditab
The Caltech argument in this argument doesn't take into account that Caltech
is a very small school. They enroll around 200 new undergrad students a year
which is about 1/10 the number most Ivy league schools admit. I think this is
the primary factor why you don't see many big name Caltech grads, there aren't
as many of them. Especially when you are comparing Caltech to ALL Ivy league
schools grouped together.
~~~
chabons
This, and the fact that they're a technical school by nature. Politics and
business garners more news cycles than hard science, and hence skews peoples
perception of the prestige of a university or success of their alumni. Look at
the number of Nobel prizes per capita and Caltech blows Harvard out of the
water. 17 Nobel prizes over 22k living alum for Caltech, versus 48 over 371k
for Harvard. Even if you only look at financial success, CalTech still comes
out ahead in both early and mid-career ([https://www.payscale.com/college-
salary-report/bachelors](https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-
report/bachelors)). They should try comparing to a state school with similar
academic focus and ratings.
TL;DR: Small school focusing on low-visibility fields is a poor comparison.
~~~
haditab
Exactly. Seems like the author was not qualified to write this article in any
way.
------
huehehue
It's a shame this piece doesn't function as much more than a Caltech/MIT
endorsement.
I dropped out and hate the system as much as the next guy, but to pretend that
degrees have _literally_ zero value and exist purely as a wealth transfer
mechanism is a bit shortsighted. The author discredits MOOCs in the very same
breath, but forgets to mention that thousands of companies are only using a
degree as a baseline and all it would take is for HR to start accepting a
slightly different piece of paper.
There will always be an Ivy club, fraternities, secret societies, and so on.
Flood the market with Ivy degrees and the social elite will pick something
else. But those are pretty small factions if you think about _everybody else_
, at the University of Nowhere Special.
------
thinkloop
> Despite being an intellectually rigorous institution, Caltech does not
> graduate many future elites
> As long as Ivy League alumni occupy positions of power, academic credentials
> will remain costly and scarce. Ongoing credential inflation is not evidence
> of a bubble about to burst, but a reflection of how successful the elites
> are at convincing the greater populace that degrees are valuable.
The underlying implication of the article doesn't seem to be hit home. If
"good" schools don't produce rich powerful/people, but "name" schools do,
that's because there is heavy corruption by the established elite to favor
their alma mater's to make sure their degrees remain valuable - is I think a
core tenet of the article.
------
crowdpleaser
Degrees themselves may not have much value, but the value of the degree is
that employers can use them to offload discrimination to schools.
Through disparate impact legislation and jurisprudence, employers can only
consider job applicants on narrow grounds. Schools have much more leeway to
admit/deny admission.
An employer would probably get sued for using IQ tests because blacks and
hispanics tend to do poorly on those tests. However, the ACT and SAT are
highly correlated with IQ and schools can and do use those to make admission
decisions. An employer that wants to filter for smart people would be well-
advised to hire from schools that only accept cognitively gifted students.
You can't refuse to hire Jamal because he doesn't speak well, but you can
refuse to hire Jamal because he doesn't hold a degree from an institution that
refused to admit Jamal because he didn't get a high enough score in the
English section of the ACT/SAT.
~~~
carnagii
Harsh but true. Requiring advanced math classes as a gatekeeper for comp Sci
is also massively exclusionary and totally pointless because the vast majority
of programming jobs require no math at all.
------
donquichotte
"When something is both expensive and of no practical value, it’s clearly
intended as a means of wealth transfer."
Interesing, I had the same thought about expensive artwork.
------
bitexploder
A four year degree is now seen as the educational floor by most employers.
Heck, even police departments and many certifications are requiring you have a
four year degree (any degree will do). I think this trend is wrong headed, but
at the same time how do we change organizations to train on the job. It is
just a simple, and lazy, filter.
~~~
rooam-dev
Train on the job. Easier said than done. How would you know if the person is
even trainable? A degree should (not that ti does in many cases), but it
should. Like a driver's license.
~~~
danaris
It used to be the norm. Most people didn't go to college, they got jobs and
trained on the job. Most people were trainable just fine.
I don't think people have changed __that __much in the last few decades. Hell,
in the last few millennia.
Most people who don't appear to be trainable are actually just assholes who
want to make everyone else around them do the work.
------
heyyyouu
Tell that to the many tech and other companies who only want to recruit from
what they see as the "top" schools. If you don't come from that tier, you are
locked out of many, many opportunities -- you can be better at your job than
most but without the ivy league degree you are nothing.
------
B-Con
The face that it _can_ be used as a social signal doesn't mean it is
exclusively used so.
> Online courses (and before that, public libraries) rendered institutions of
> higher learning unnecessary for, you know, learning. But the idea that
> massive open online courses, or MOOCs, will replace colleges is a complete
> misunderstanding of the purpose of a university degree.
I think the author misunderstands as well. Classic "if it's in a book then the
class is worthless".
Information is not the teaching. The idea is that a teacher can instruct
better than a mere textbook. YMMV, but there's no denying that having a pre-
planned curriculum with instruction and 1:1 Q&As inherently supersedes walking
into a store and hoping you can find and understand the right books _in
general_. Never mind that books don't grade or provide feedback on homework,
etc.
The problem is that university became a requisite for people who didn't want
to attend. Standards for what the teaching we expect of universities has
plummeted. That's why they work so hard to keep their brand. For the self-
motivated and good learners, MOOCs and libraries can replace big parts of
university. That's not for everyone.
> Despite being an intellectually rigorous institution, Caltech does not
> graduate many future elites. Alumni go on to be successful in their academic
> fields, but don’t tend to dominate finance, tech or politics.
A school exclusively for technical competence doesn't produce as many social
elite [citation needed] as a school that's not focused on technical
competence? I wonder why. How many of the financial elite came from mechanical
engineering background _at all_? It's a silly comparison.
Side note: Don't forget it's an order of magnitude smaller, CalTech has ~2,200
students in contrast to Harvard's ~22,000.
> Successful parents in the upper middle class can leave money to their
> children, but that doesn’t guarantee entrée into the social elite. The more
> reliable way for powerful parents to buy power for their children is through
> a name-brand, exclusive education.
> Jared Kushner’s father famously secured Harvard acceptance for his son with
> a $2.5 million charitable contribution.
When did people making $2.5m donations become "upper middle class"?
~~~
pmart123
These are all good points. Also, I think another point often missed in the
discussion around social signaling is that certain schools create a higher
opportunity for a reference check. Upon reviewing a candidate early in her
career, if she went to X, I know someone who graduated the same year, I can
ask that friend/co-worker what that person is like. I think this is especially
beneficial when someone doesn't work at a large company their first job out of
school. It is less about the school name on the diploma, and more about
obtaining an additional reference firsthand.
------
lordnacho
The xITs are known for doing math and science courses. Those kinds of things
tend to show quite easily who is putting in the effort, at least in my
experience. For one, you tend to get asked things that require knowledge of a
specific model eg thermodynamics, and very often you're asked to calculate
specific numbersa and mentioned very specific keywords. I've sat in tutorials
with professors where the other student literally did not know anything and it
was embarrassing.
Chances are of you found the number you understood at least something about
the model. And if you showed your working out, which is always a good idea,
you provide more quite specific evidence.
In stuff that's more essay based, the weak can hide and the strong can be
mistaken for middling. Essays can be long but still formulaic: talk about the
question, mention the main things people have suggested about it, pros and
cons. There's a lot of permutations of arguments that are valid, making it
hard to disqualify someone who has mentioned a few relevant things. But also
hard to make someone stand out, because people know the answer required is a
bunch of bullet points, and if you just fire enough bullets some will resemble
a smart answer. I've sat in essay subject tutorials that went perfectly fine
for everyone despite very little prep having gone in.
Back to the article, naturally you don't want to buy your way into a degree
that you have no hope of completing.
------
ksaj
I have a similar but different vantage point. I didn't go to University and
only took a handful of personal interest college courses completely unrelated
to my vocation. However, over the years I have _taught_ courses (most of which
were written by me) at a number of universities and colleges. These students
were _smart_ and driven to get where I was in my career, so I was continually
reminded of the irony.
On the same side of that coin, I also taught technical subjects for a
certification I never bothered to acquire. The students often asked why, and
my tactful response is that it would have been a conflict of interest, and not
at all that I couldn't see the value outside of checking off a box for the
headhunters... Too many highly certified people with zero experience and near-
zero skill, I'm afraid to say. Certs simply do not replace a good technical
interview.
I also employed a PhD for 3 months. He was brilliant but so stubborn and
opinionated I had a hard time justifying the expense of keeping him on board.
He could barely function and kept trying to steer the company. Thankfully he
eventually screwed up bad enough I had a nicer sounding reason to turf him.
------
pseudolus
The author highlights that none of the students attempted admission to Caltech
or MIT. Going further, I would venture that none enrolled in a science program
but opted for a standard liberal arts/communications program. If you tailor
your course choices such programs are pretty hard to flunk out of as opposed
to science programs where the moment of truth hits during the first
calculus/physics/chemistry exam.
~~~
bilbo0s
To be fair, if you ask the average guy on the street which is the better
school, Yale or MIT? They're gonna say Yale. If you ask the average guy which
is better, Stanford or CalTech? They're gonna say Stanford.
We, on HN, might think MIT is better than Stanford, but outside of the bubble,
believe it or not, there is an entire world of people who never even heard of
CalTech. A world of people who have no idea what MIT is.
There is no point in using something for conspicuous consumption, unless that
something is actually conspicuous.
------
thatoneuser
Of coursemodern universities are a scam. Maybe that's not true for a small %
of students (those going into academia, for example), but in reality I'd wager
all my money that the majority of students would not end up better in life
attending university than doing sef learning online.
Most students don't build a big social network in college. Most students don't
take away meaninful thoughts from university. Most students probably don't
even end up using the discipline or domain knowledge they acquired for a
significant part of their career.
If all universities produce for people is a piece of paper that says "this
person MIGHT be able to do the job you want done" (and let's be real - how
many people do you know got a college level job simply by flashing their
degree?) then there's absolutely no reason that degree comes with a 6 figure
debt. That's something we can cut down to low 5 digits easily. The problem of
course is universities only have the incentive to charge more for the same
product because no one's demanding they do anything of value.
------
MaxBarraclough
Much-needed Outline link:
[https://outline.com/WV9say](https://outline.com/WV9say)
------
Svoka
I'm hiring people like for last 10 years or so. Long ago I understood that
degree doesn't mean anything. Be it CalTech, MIT or school I never heard of.
Probably, because I'm not google and can't give away half a million salaries
to the super top notch high achievers.
For me degree is only an indication that person has grit, and dedication to
spend 4+ years on something rather hard and boring. Which is a good thing. I
can expect that person knows that sometimes work is a boring grind, just as
Uni taught. However, learning programming by themselves require quite a
dedication too.
I hire regardless of degree, but I do take a closer look during probation
period how candidate handles slower more boring tasks.
So far, I didn't see much correlation between years spent in academia and long
term productivity.
------
anth_anm
Ahh, a nice anti-education rant for HN to do the usual anti-college back and
forth. Bonus points for focusing on technical schools as good, because you can
actually get a job.
Ban the humanities, right?
I liked school. It was valuable. I have a better job because of it. I didn't
spend absurd amounts of money to go.
~~~
YZF
What about opportunity cost (re: absurd amounts of money)? Do you have a
better job because of all the things you learnt or because you went to school
and got a degree? Do you mean valuable as in it got you a better job or in
what sense?
~~~
reidjs
As someone who is happy they went to college despite it not directly helping
get my current job, I believe it was valuable in that it made me more open to
new things, better at developing relationships, and exposed me to different
points of view. Worth the financial cost? That’s certainly debatable, but it
was ultimately my decision to go and keep going.
------
saagarjha
> As any remaining illusion of a college meritocracy swirls down the drain,
> there remains one school where students are still admitted based on
> unadulterated academic aptitude: Caltech.
[Citation needed]
~~~
apsec112
[https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2010/12/09/why_caltech_is_i...](https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2010/12/09/why_caltech_is_in_a_class_by_i/)
~~~
pseudolus
I'd certainly take issue with the opening paragraph of the article to the
effect that "Older readers know how the leading American universities, which
had risen to world-class status by the 1930s and 1940s, were upended by the
traumatic campus events of the late 1960s and their aftermath." There's no
doubt that US universities had risen in quality during the early part of the
20th century but they were still outclassed by institutions in Europe in most
scientific disciplines. It was the advent of WWII and the destruction it
visited upon Europe as well as the massive spending on R&D during the early
stages of the Cold War that propelled US universities to the heights they
enjoy today.
------
lifeisstillgood
In my grandfathers time, compulsory schooling finished at 12. By my fathers
time it had risen to 14. By my time 16, commonly rising to 18.
I think we are simply seeing another generational rise.
And why not - human beings one big advantage is our brains - and training our
young to use that advantage as best we can is the single best ROI we can make
( _).
Will it cost us? Yes. Will it benefit us. Yes.
(_)there are many others as my socialist soul will tell you)
------
nilskidoo
Ironically, the current US Secretary of Education and her obsession with over-
funding unregulated charter schools seems to be building a future where the
only people in the country who will be allowed a chance at any education are
the ones whose lives are paid for regardless of not even doing the work.
------
pmart123
I think employers and graduate schools have raised the stakes around GPA to be
too high. Here's a thought experiment, should employers just punish
prospective hires who have above a 3.9 GPA without demonstrating exceptionally
difficult coursework?
To me, this is similar to Lebron James trying to go 3/3 from the field with 2
assists and no turnovers. Anyone with that high of a GPA in my mind did not
seek to challenge themselves through taking the most difficult subjects, i.e.
they maximized credentials over learning. Elite schools then become worried
that students won't get the best jobs, so they add easier classes to ensure
GPA averages stay similar to comparable schools. Overall, this produces a
worse "real" educational outcome. Companies should start asking interviewees
with a 4.0 GPA, "Why didn't you challenge yourself?" Medical schools should
add 0.5 points to biomedical engineering degrees, etc. I think these actions
have a much higher correlation to grade inflation than a couple students
getting accepted due to a large donation.
------
pascalxus
Truer words have never been spoken: "Forget Bribery. The Real Scam Is
Pretending That Degrees Have Value".
I particularly like their solution: Increase enrollment to point of where it
inflates away their value. The intrinsic value would still remain, but the
bragging rights will fall away.
------
olliej
Clearly this depends on the degree field, and the job.
Just because some company has now decided minimum wage jobs should require a
degree doesn’t mean a degree is valueless, it simply a stupid requirement
(like requiring 10 years of nosql experience or whatever).
And yes, there are degrees that have much lower economic value - and it’s an
idiosyncrasy of design that leads to identical costs.
But there are real cases where degrees matter. For example large scale
engineering - you want to employ people who know what they’re doing at a very
core level. So they need to have been taught those skills, and they need to
have a way of showing that they have been taught them, and that they actually
did learn: a degree.
For many things apprenticeships would also work, but note that most
apprenticeships do result in pieces of paper (journeyman, etc).
Do I think my CS degrees are necessary in of itself? No. But I learned a lot
while getting it, so it’s nice to have an public record of that.
~~~
A2017U1
> But there are real cases where degrees matter. For example large scale
> engineering - you want to employ people who know what they’re doing at a
> very core level.
There's no other way than a degree to prove competency here? It's not like a
civil engineer gets her professional accreditation and the next day is signing
off on a bridge, all their work is still thoroughly reviewed.
Take for example the bar exam, if a person can pass that why can't they
practice law? I find law perhaps to be the most egregious in gatekeeping.
A degree really doesn't prove much other than memorising topics years prior
and plenty of people come out of University quite clueless about the job they
are expected to do. A lot of the real learning occurs when they actually work.
~~~
olliej
To be clear, when I say degree, I mean any piece of formal paperwork that
indicates mastery of a skillset - in my first post I mentioned
apprenticeships, but there are all sorts of degrees, certifications, and
diplomas which all serve the same purpose.
Yes, but if you're an employer you want some basis for knowledge of
competence. For CS or whatever you can often look at their prior work, for
physical engineering, or chemistry, etc, there isn't an equivalent.
As for Law: there are a number of legal professions that don't require passing
the bar exam, so having a signifier of knowledge is useful. As for pass the
bar but no degree: I don't know enough about law to have a real opinion, but
it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that amount of education require to pass
the bar exam seems exceed that required to get the degree.
And you are right, lots of people come out of university who are completely
clueless, but for any position where it isn't possible to have a prior example
of skill and knowledge, you need to propose an alternative to a "certificate
of knowing stuff" that isn't simply a different form of the same thing.
------
_bxg1
I recently saw it suggested that college admissions should operate on a
lottery basis (beyond baseline academic requirements). That would surely help
with socioeconomic diversity.
------
purplezooey
_When something is both expensive and of no practical value, it’s clearly
intended as a means of wealth transfer._
Now that's an interesting thought, referring to ivy league degrees.
------
vidalaa
Educational institution scam need degrees. Educated degree holder want
recognition and be respected. No matter how he get the degree.
------
CzarnyZiutek
private colleges/schools should be nationalized.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: ShaderGif, like ShaderToy, but with gifs - antoineMoPa
https://shadergif.com/
======
antoineMoPa
Hello HN, I had created a shader editor with gif generation maybe a year ago.
I recently decided to build a rails app to allow users to post gifs. I'd like
to add other social features (likes, comments, etc.) when I have some time.
I used Vue.js, gif.js & rails.
The project is on github:
[https://github.com/antoineMoPa/shadergif](https://github.com/antoineMoPa/shadergif)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facts about the military empire of switzerland - philip1209
https://www.philipithomas.com/switzerland/
======
carsongross
"Facts about the military _exact-opposite-of-the-word-empire_ of Switzerland."
The Swiss have been quietly and patiently demonstrating to the rest of us how
a sane nation-state acts for hundreds of years...
------
hga
_La Place de la Concorde Suisse_ is indeed a fantastic book, but it was
written in 1984 and a number of things have changed since the Cold War ended.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Banking malware in Brazil may be responsible for billions in losses - PaulSec
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/07/brazilian-boleto-bandits-bilk-billions/
======
aylons
So many comments asking why people don't use credit cards. The easy answer,
already told, is that many Brazilian people don't have bank accounts or credit
card.
This is only half truth and probably not relevant to the case here, as the
malware in question will only affect people accessing their bank accounts
through the internet.
The "boleto" system is actually a very nice way to handle payments. The boleto
mostly substitutes mailing checks: the company I owe send me the bill with a
numeric code (and a corresponding bar code for convenience), and I can use
this code to pay the bill at a bank, supermarket, lottery houses or, of
course, directly from my bank account through the internet or ATM.
A boleto is different from a account deposit because each boleto is unique:
the code identifies who that specific boleto was sent to, so payment
processing is done automatically. No out-of-band bank codes or check handling
involved.
Boletos are used in several contexts where a credit card is not appropriate,
such as paying the credit card bill. However, it may substitute credit cards
sometimes: an online commerce outlet will happily generate a boleto for you to
pay instead of paying with credit card. You can then pay for you purchase
without revealing personal information, having a credit card or sending checks
by mail.
Actually, paper checks are very, very rare in Brazil nowadays, even in
business contexts. Most retail business won't accept them anymore.
Also, when you pay a boleto, you get an timestamped authentication code
proving you paid it. The company can't allege the check was incorrect, for
example. The code may also carry the amount to be paid and/or expiration date,
preventing payment of the wrong value of after the due date.
This is actually a very functional system that credit cards cannot completely
substitute, even if everyone had a bank account or credit card.
EDIT: clarity and a bit of extra info
~~~
rahimnathwani
The closest equivalent to boletos in the UK are payment agents:
[https://www.paypoint.com/en-gb](https://www.paypoint.com/en-gb)
[http://www.payzone.co.uk/](http://www.payzone.co.uk/)
I don't believe the numbering is unique to specific bill, but to a specific
account, e.g. I'd use the same identifier each time I paid by gas bill.
~~~
aylons
Having a numbering for a specific account is also possible with Brazilian
boleto system, but it is common only for credit cards, which can be paid at
any time and at a wide range of values.
Gas and phone codes are always bill-specific. However, if you pay a boleto
like this twice, the provider will be informed and generally will give you the
chargeback in the next bill. I have already used this as a trick to pay a bill
when I was travelling and wouldn't get the most recent bill.
------
mercadoviagens
This has been happening in Brazil for years. They use several methods: boletos
for inexistent taxes, internet domain renewals, "social contributions" and
others.
They make them look very legit: one we received even mentioned real
legislation that said that a certain type of contribution(very similar name to
what was on the boleto) was obligatory. We had to take it to our accountant,
and he instantly found the fraud.
They also have access to Brazilian whois data somehow. The official whois is
protected by captcha, but they're able to obtain the whois database via some
other method and then snail-mail boletos to millions of domain owners using
their real personal data. It looks very convincing.
The sheer amount of such fake boletos that arrive in the mail every month
indicates that this may be a successful scam after all.
~~~
soneca
That happens _a lot_ after you incorporate a company here. The day after you
fill the forms to create a company you start to receive these bills pretending
to be something you have to pay. From associations, unions and similars.
The point is that in this particular case it is a "legal scam". There is
nothing illegal to pay to your company be part of an association or union. So
they send you a "boleto" that looks like something official, and if you don't
consult your accountant, you will think you should pay. Even your company's
address is open to the public when you incorporate. You pay because at least
one of these _boletos_ you actually must pay, it is a municipal fee (an
inspection fee, even though the municipality will never actually inspect your
office, unles there is some complaint). Also there is some mandatory payment
to unions, but only when you hire an employee.
Of course these "associations and unions" don't actually do anything for you.
They just exist to get money from entrepreneurs based on all the
misinformation and bureaucracy that exists to open a company in Brazil.
~~~
mercadoviagens
I recall that the association / union boleto we received was meant exactly for
joining a union of some sort.
And you are absolutely correct: the minute you go formal in Brazil, you become
a target for all kinds of scams. I believe all data should be public in a
democracy, but they should be public in a way that the person who queries it
should identify somehow. That way they would know who downloaded the entire
database and would have control of suspicious activity.
------
forinti
Tangentially, in the documentary The Fog of War, Robert McNamara describes how
accounting at Ford was so messed up that they had to weigh the invoices to
estimate expenses. So this got me wondering if crooks don't just mail false
invoices to large firms in case some pay without checking.
~~~
raverbashing
> So this got me wondering if crooks don't just mail false invoices to large
> firms in case some pay without checking.
They do
Example: a company I knew (in Canada) displayed some fake invoices for
"IP/Trademark registering" in Europe, of course the payment was optional, but
if you don't pay attention it gets payed
~~~
Ecio78
In my previous companies in Italy we received multiple times requests to renew
the registration on some kind of internet company registry in Germany.
Fortunately the accounting dept asked us in IT "what's this / should we pay
it?" and we directly sent those letters to the trash.
------
dccarmo
Shameless plug: I recently created a boleto management iOS app called Zebra
([http://zebrapp.co/](http://zebrapp.co/)) If you're brazilian and are looking
for a better way to handle and pay your boletos, I think it can help you.
~~~
lifeisstillgood
How can it help defend against this type of scam?
It seems what is needed seems out of band confirmations?
------
forinti
It seems that the criminals are actually from the USA:
[http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2014/07/1479569-gangue-...](http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2014/07/1479569-gangue-
do-boleto-infectou-192-mil-computadores-detectam-fbi-e-pf.shtml) (Portuguese
only, I'm afraid).
------
sschueller
After getting a trademark in the US I got bombarded with fake Invoices from
companies claiming I have to pay or I will loose the right to defend or even
keep my trademark.
------
gemignani
They say it doesn't happen to mobile, but I'm not sure what happens if you
root your phone and/or install allow apk install from "untrusted" sources in
the Dev Opts.
This kind of scam is old, but there are many, like local DNS redirect,
keylogging / input-logging, maybe even a piracy web-browser.
------
hyperliner
The first comment in the article (from someone who has clearly never left his
hometown or is a five year old in disguise):
"Brian, do you know why Brazilians would choose to use Boletos if they aren’t
subject to chargebacks? It seems like a silly thing to do, especially when
credit cards are acceptable forms of payment practically anywhere."
_sigh_
~~~
raverbashing
This is the payment version of "Let them eat cake"
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake)
for those who don't know)
And of course in Europe Credit Cards are not widespread as well and there are
other popular payment options.
------
ufo
Does anyone know what those bank plugins are supposed to do anyway? I never
managed to get a good answer for that.
~~~
jjviana
I know some of them can be pretty aggressive, going as far as installing a
"root kit" on the machine. At some point one of these plugins conflicted with
a Windows 7 update, and caused the affected machines to crash at boot:
[http://gizmodo.uol.com.br/bug-windows-7-solucao-e-
causa/](http://gizmodo.uol.com.br/bug-windows-7-solucao-e-causa/)
------
vizzah
I only went to read this article because every title letter begins with B.
------
PLenz
Awesomely alliterated amigo
------
erre
I admit I initially upvoted because of the alliteration. Then I read the
article, which was quite interesting (even more so because I'm Brazilian).
Then I wanted to upvote it because of its content, but I no longer could.
Which made me sad :/
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What Is the Alternative to Google Ads? - speeder
I own a company that sell parts for the construction of industrial machinery.<p>Most of our current sales comes from people that found our Google Ads.<p>Problem is... Google keeps removing more and more features we use, and adding features that are detrimental to us.<p>It is clear we need, urgently, an alternative. But I am not finding any.<p>So those that figured out other ways to advertise than using Google, what you do?
======
tboyd47
1) Think about who your customer base is.
2) Figure out where those people would be found.
3) Purchase ads there.
------
PaulHoule
Get email addresses, phone numbers, etc. and keep in touch with customers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The TPP's Attack on Artists' Termination Rights - antiterra
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/tpps-attack-artists-termination-rights
======
antiterra
This portion of existing US copyright law is a bit curious. On the one hand,
letting artists 'have a second bite of the apple' if their work turns out to
be so lucrative that the original terms are inappropriate sounds good. On the
other hand, not letting someone sell all of their rights seems a limitation on
personal freedom and we should recognize that publishers often risk paying an
artist for a work that is a commercial dud.
Further, this means that code that was once GPL or public domain could be
reverted back to private ownership by the author or his heirs after 35 years.
This would likely be a mess, would subsequent revisions be considered
derivative infringement?
~~~
Cushman
It's important to note that it wasn't always like this. The basic concept of
termination rights -- recognizing the wild power imbalance between artist and
publisher, and therefore giving the artist a second crack at selling their
rights -- is quite old, but in practice it hasn't mattered; the upshot was
that the standard publishing deal included an automatic renewal, so the right
may as well not have existed. So in 1976 Congress chose to double down on
termination, making it explicitly an inalienable right that cannot be sold by
any type of contract.
It strikes me as a rather tortured reading of this that makes it a limitation
of the artists' rights, rather than the publishers'; like laws which outlaw
contractual slavery, while it technically bans both parties from
participating, the intended impact is much more on the would-be oppressor than
the oppressed.
Now, the impact that this might have on open source is certainly interesting,
but I doubt it would have far-reaching implications since termination wouldn't
retroactively affect licenses that were in force at the time, so derivative
works would be in the clear. On the other hand, who knows how the case law
will shake out on this over the next few years... software will probably not
be the most affected industry.
~~~
antiterra
> It strikes me as a rather tortured reading of this that makes it a
> limitation of the artists' rights, rather than the publishers'
I'm personally not entirely against the law as it stands, and I agree that
publishers have a great deal of power to define the terms of an agreement they
can force on an artist. That said, I don't think it's so tortured to think
someone really might not want her heirs to meddle with her license grants to a
university or museum.
~~~
Cushman
That's a legit criticism, but it sounds to me like it's more a criticism of
the inheritability of copyright than of termination rights per se. (Is it any
more fair that my heirs could sell my work to Disney?)
------
anigbrowl
_The termination right, of course, is a limit on free transfer. As a result,
instead of a narrow attack on the termination rights of musicians by
reclassifying their works as “works-for-hire,” the text here could eliminate
termination rights for everyone._
But is this bad? Yes, there's definitely a power imbalance, but if the
copyright regime is simpler, with no artificial legal limitations on the
lifetime of the contractual assignment, then artists can negotiate either
higher prices or reversion options at time of assignment.
Speaking as an artist (with experience of starving, being ripped off by
publishers, and sundry other disadvantages), simplicity has value. A 35-year
termination rights period is a nice idea for a corrective but actually limits
my negotiating position as the publisher is going to discount the value of the
copyright assignment appropriately. The flip side of the economic imbalance
between creator and publisher is that the publisher is in a much better
position to realize the benefits of long-tail revenue, since publishers have
expertise in marketing, analytics, revenue collection etc. that are difficult
for an individual to acquire, and whose acquisition has a significant
opportunity cost in terms of creative development/output. If the publisher can
lose all contractual rights after 35 years then it has every economic
incentive to a) maximize up-front economic gain and b) minimize long term
commitment.
Also, as regards the TPP specifically, if this deal were to go through as-is
then artists would be able to argue that overseas publication rights were
worth more money due to the harmony of regulation, in stead of having revenue
siphoned off my the bureaucracy of dealing with multiple differing copyright
regimes in the signatory countries. In my view, a single licensing standard
that extended from the EU (via upcoming TTIP negotiations) to much of the
Pacific Rim (via TPP) would be a distinct plus for artists, since that would
cover something like 70% of the global economy and would massively reduce
transaction costs.
~~~
grandinj
It doesn't really change your current negotiating position because the net
future value after 35 years is zero under all normal business assumptions.
~~~
anigbrowl
You're thinking in terms of a one-off, such as an album or book release. But
things like alternative mixes, remasters, unreleased tracks etc. can have
significant value for famous artists.
Think 'lost Beatles track,' for example. Likewise, Fritz Lang's film classic
'Metropolis' is under copyright until 2023; there have been several reissues
of the film with missing footage restored (after being found in museums and
the like). Film contracts in particular often have structural dependencies on
box-office performance.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building a BitTorrent client from scratch in C# - nxzero
https://cheatdeath.github.io/research-bittorrent-doc/
======
jabstack
Former admin of DC# here (forgive the sourceforge hosting-- it was a long time
ago! [https://sourceforge.net/projects/dc-
sharp/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/dc-sharp/)). Great write-up! This was
a fascinating read- thank you for putting it together.
One issue to be mindful of- the HttpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse method does
not honor timeouts, and you are on your own to timeout the attempt. Consider
using HttpClient, if available in Mono / .NET Core. Otherwise, see MSDN for
how to do this:
"In the case of asynchronous requests, it is the responsibility of the client
application to implement its own time-out mechanism. The following code
example shows how to do it." See: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/system.net.httpwebr...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/system.net.httpwebrequest.begingetresponse\(v=vs.110\).aspx)
I'm not sure if you have access to the ThreadPool class. In a bug that
Microsoft's library had, I used the TPL Task construct to resolve this. See
the pull request here: [https://github.com/Microsoft/ProjectOxford-
ClientSDK/pull/83...](https://github.com/Microsoft/ProjectOxford-
ClientSDK/pull/83/commits/f19b86b74a4841618d7644bcdc249f4c5406d632)
~~~
cheatdeath
Thanks for the pointer!
------
mattcopp
Great work! Quite annoying actually. I finished my own implementation in
Python at about 10pm last night, this would have been most useful. I'm no C#
coder, but it's nicely readable, and this is a much better write up than I'm
sure I could do.
If anyone who hasn't tried doing this before, the "official" BitTorrent spec
docs, namely BEP-3
([http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html](http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html)),
seem little more than a vague blog post turned in to a "spec". However,
somewhat conversely, this has lead to is a wealth of articles describing how
to do it.
The three guides I used were:
\- A 2 part blog post which has a bit of a Python bent
[http://www.kristenwidman.com/blog/33/how-to-write-a-
bittorre...](http://www.kristenwidman.com/blog/33/how-to-write-a-bittorrent-
client-part-1/)
\- The unofficial specs
[https://wiki.theory.org/BitTorrentSpecification](https://wiki.theory.org/BitTorrentSpecification),
and
\- An incomplete Python client [https://github.com/JosephSalisbury/python-
bittorrent](https://github.com/JosephSalisbury/python-bittorrent)
I didn't know of the RFC mentioned in the post, that would have also been
really useful.
A lot of BitTorrent stuff for Python is remarkably hard to find in all the
noise of Deluge, the original client, and libtorrent wrappers, but none that
existed were sophisticated (or at least well documented) enough for my
experiments, they have different focuses.
I never went as far as implementing my own BEncoder library, a billion seem to
exist in multiple languages and install any BitTorrent Python library and it
seems to come with their own copy. (I suspect due to the way BEncoder was
bundled in the original client, see:
[https://pypi.python.org/pypi/bencode](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/bencode))
I also found a Rust implementation which seems not to compile, but is useful
as I'm trying to teach myself Rust
[https://github.com/kenpratt/rusty_torrent](https://github.com/kenpratt/rusty_torrent)
I think the work to get it to compile might be minimal.
~~~
jkeler
> I also found a Rust implementation which seems not to compile, but is useful
> as I'm trying to teach myself Rust
> [https://github.com/kenpratt/rusty_torrent](https://github.com/kenpratt/rusty_torrent)
> I think the work to get it to compile might be minimal.
There is also another project in Rust, it looks more active:
[https://github.com/GGist/bip-rs](https://github.com/GGist/bip-rs) It is a
collection of libraries.
> If anyone who hasn't tried doing this before, the "official" BitTorrent spec
> docs, namely BEP-3
> ([http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html](http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html)),
> seem little more than a vague blog post turned in to a "spec".
Doesn't look vague at all. What do you think is missing from it?
~~~
mattcopp
> There is also another project in Rust, it looks more active:
> [https://github.com/GGist/bip-rs](https://github.com/GGist/bip-rs)
Thanks, I had seen that one, but forgot about it. I think it's a great
project, but it's really just a collection of libraries that don't really tell
you how it all fits together, which when I was picking stuff up wasn't very
helpful. Hopefully now I have a better understanding of the client design I
can make something from that.
> Doesn't look vague at all. What do you think is missing from it?
For a comparison I would recommend reading a few (what I would consider) good
protocol docs. Docs that you could read and implement, and probably get
working very quickly, for example:
\- XMPP's XEPs (one picked for similarity in usage to BitTorrent)
[https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0020.html](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0020.html)
\- Lots of examples in there for what messages should look like, which is
always helpful.
\- The BitTorrent RFC doc (linked in the original post)
[http://jonas.nitro.dk/bittorrent/bittorrent-
rfc.html](http://jonas.nitro.dk/bittorrent/bittorrent-rfc.html) \- Sums the
situation up nicely with the layout of messages and value lengths.
I think the main thing that makes the biggest difference is adhering to a
language spec such as RFC 2119 which recommends using "MUST", "SHALL",
"REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", etc. which makes it really
clear what you're meant to do or not to.
Specifically for the vagueness of BEP-3, how about this example that made me
rage on IRC. In the description for the info_hash field in the Tracker
section.
This value will almost certainly have to be escaped.
ALMOST CERTAINLY?? Will it, or won't it? Then, escaped? Escaped how?
What this turned out to mean was that the 20-bit binary sha1 hash MUST be URL
encoded, and not hex encoded.
I would love to see someone try to build a BitTorrent client for the first
time based solely on this doc.
\---
BEP-3 also seems more interested in implementation detail, than describing the
protocol. Take the last paragraph (before Copyright) as an example.
Something else which occurred to me today is that BitTorrent is not a spec,
it's not been developed, it has evolved. Along with being built in a very
modular way, i.e.: DHTs can replace trackers and simply dropped in, magnet
URIs can replace Torrent files. This probably contributes it's success and
longevity, but what this also means is that there is a lot of stuff, like
metainfo, trackers, bencoding, that SHOULD belong in their own spec docs,
which form a collective whole.
------
Const-me
Very good! A few minor performance comments.
1\. In your EncodeDictionary, you sort byte arrays by converting them to
string. Correct but subeffective. See e.g. this:
[http://stackoverflow.com/q/19695629/126995](http://stackoverflow.com/q/19695629/126995)
but add checks for nulls, authors of that code forgot about that.
2\. You don’t need a dedicated thread to wake up every 1-10 seconds and do
something small. Thread are expensive system resources, they own stack, cache
misses are guaranteed then they wake up, etc. If your compiler supports async-
await, use that instead + endless loop + Task.Delay inside the loop. If not,
System.Timers.Timer class will do.
~~~
cheatdeath
Thanks for the tips! I will look into making these modifications when I get a
chance.
~~~
Const-me
You're welcome. Edited for clarity.
------
voltagex_
BEncoding and variants like REncoding are possibly one of my least favourite
things ever. If you deal with the Deluge torrent client API you'll see it
everywhere.
That aside, fantastic work on this, I think previously the only Bittorrent
library for C# was an abandoned Mono project.
~~~
masklinn
> BEncoding and variants like REncoding are possibly one of my least favourite
> things ever.
Can't be worse than ASN.1 can it?
~~~
orbitur
Yes, it can be worse, since ASN.1 is relatively "popular" and there's a decent
pool of knowledge.
------
jdudek
Here’s a similar write-up on building a BitTorrent client in Haskell:
[https://blog.chaps.io/2015/10/05/torrent-client-in-
haskell-1...](https://blog.chaps.io/2015/10/05/torrent-client-in-
haskell-1.html)
------
allenkim6
If anyone is interested in a similar writeup for node.js check out my tutorial
here: [http://allenkim67.github.io/bittorrent/2016/05/04/how-to-
mak...](http://allenkim67.github.io/bittorrent/2016/05/04/how-to-make-your-
own-bittorrent-client.html)
~~~
finnn
HTTPS Everywhere redirects me to the HTTPS version of the page, but you've
hard-coded [http://](http://) links for some/all of the resources, which the
browser refuses to load, so it just looks like some big gray boxes.
~~~
allenkim6
Hey thanks, it looks like the link for the css was the problem so I've just
fixed that for now.
------
nbarbettini
Awesome write-up! I love C# and this was really well-written. Great work.
Pro tip: Use DateTimeOffset instead of DateTime. It's less frustratingly
ambiguous than DateTime, and already has a Unix timestamp helper function if
you're on the latest framework: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/system.datetimeoffs...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/system.datetimeoffset.tounixtimeseconds\(v=vs.110\).aspx)
~~~
cheatdeath
Oh cool, thanks! I wasn't aware of DateTimeOffset.
------
whoisthemachine
Not sure if it's a part of the standard library, but the .Net variant of C#
contains a sorted dictionary: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/f7fta44c(v=vs.110)....](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/f7fta44c\(v=vs.110\).aspx)
~~~
whoisthemachine
Also, _fantastic_ work. The readability of C# really shines through here - I
could grok all of this code instantly :)
~~~
cheatdeath
Thanks.
Actually organising the write up forced me to tidy up the code much more than
I otherwise would have. I definitely find C# to be one of the more readable
languages although I have had to debug and untangle some C# messes before.
Yeah I remember changing it to a SortedDictionary but I changed it back. I
can't remember exactly why, possibly because it's supposed to be sorted by raw
UTF8 bytes rather than a nice neat C# string and I didn't want to start using
byte arrays for dictionary keys. I guess it only needs to be sorted when in
the BEncoding format and it felt better to keep the internal structure as
simple as possible. The tradeoff is it doesn't support incorrectly encoded
torrent files – I'm really not sure how much of an issue that is.
------
blt
It's really nice to see a walkthrough of a non-trivial program all on one page
like this. The clarity of the code and writing makes me want to port it to a
different language because it seems like it would be easy with all the needed
info in one place.
------
th0ma5
Heh, more than a decade ago I created a torrent file format library in .NET
... actually with VB.Net ... anyway, this is GPLv2 licensed.
[http://writtorrent.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/writtorrent/wr...](http://writtorrent.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/writtorrent/writtorrent/torrentclass/torrent.vb?revision=1.1&view=markup)
------
Uptrenda
It's really great work OP. I know this would have taken you a long time to do
but part of me can't help but wonder if programming is becoming even more like
paint by numbers than it already is.
------
vishnuks
For interested people there is a great write up on Tox protocol here
[https://toktok.github.io/spec](https://toktok.github.io/spec)
------
aashu_dwivedi
I wish there's a similar article in python.
~~~
emodendroket
Isn't the original client a python program?
~~~
spaam
yeah, you can still download it from
[http://web.archive.org/web/20110712221649/http://download.bi...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110712221649/http://download.bittorrent.com/dl/archive/)
------
ambicapter
I don't understand this encoding method. If say, a dictionary starts with d
and ends with e, how do you know with "d3:key5:valuee" if the value is "value"
or "valu"?
~~~
sigcode
[http://cr.yp.to/proto/netstrings.txt](http://cr.yp.to/proto/netstrings.txt)
(1997)
------
hackeradam17
I've been considering trying my hand at creating a bittorrent client. This
should prove to be most helpful!
------
ZanyProgrammer
Somewhat disappointing that it's just a console app. I'd love to be able to do
cross platform C# desktop development. There shock be something equivalent to
WinForms/WPF on OSs other than Windows.
~~~
ohitsdom
This is now possible with the new .NET Core.
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/articles/core/index](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/articles/core/index)
~~~
revelation
The one thing they explicitly do not have on the roadmap for .NET Core is any
sort of desktop environment / UI stuff.
There won't be a Forms or WPF port.
~~~
egeozcan
I got the impression that Xamarin was going in that direction?
~~~
nbarbettini
Xamarin is specifically for app and UI on Android/iOS/Windows Phone.
~~~
michaeldwan
They released Mac bindings for Xamarin Forms recently. Not a stretch to
imagine unified UI for desktops.
~~~
egeozcan
Actually that's exactly what I imagined to happen. What would be so
fundamentally different in desktop development compared to mobile UI
development that would exclude it from Xamarin? I don't see it.
------
NKCSS
Fun read, but using automatic properties might lead you down a path that isn't
optimal;
Take this for example:
public byte[] Infohash { get; private set; } = new byte[20];
public string HexStringInfohash { get { return String.Join("", this.Infohash.Select(x => x.ToString("x2"))); } }
public string UrlSafeStringInfohash { get { return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(WebUtility.UrlEncodeToBytes(this.Infohash, 0, 20)); } }
You have an automatic property and two 'properties' that actually perform work
every time you call the getter (might be smarter to make functions of those,
so you know it's not just retrieval of data, but work is done).
If you were to rewrite this a bit, you could make sure the 'work' is done only
when needed, and the properties become actual simple data retrieval properties
like:
public class Hashes
{
byte[] _infohash;
string _hexStringInfohash, _urlSafeStringInfohash;
public byte[] Infohash
{
get { return _infohash; }
private set
{
_infohash = value;
_hexStringInfohash = String.Join("", this.Infohash.Select(x => x.ToString("x2")));
_urlSafeStringInfohash = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(WebUtility.UrlEncodeToBytes(this.Infohash, 0, 20));
}
}
public string HexStringInfohash { get { return _hexStringInfohash; } }
public string UrlSafeStringInfohash { get { return _urlSafeStringInfohash; } }
public Hashes()
{
Infohash = new byte[20];
}
}
Going further through the article, I spot many more items to improve; but
let's not forget your did great work and the code is quite readable.
One thing that might help; is building some indexes to know how files are
fragmented; you have the following code multiple times:
if ((start < Files[i].Offset && end < Files[i].Offset) ||
(start > Files[i].Offset + Files[i].Size && end > Files[i].Offset + Files[i].Size))
continue;
If you'd build an index to know which piece hits which files, you don't have
to enumerate this every time.
Another general remark is to always 'retrieve' an indexed item from the array
and use that instead of keep calling the 'indexed' record.
So; do:
var file = Files[i];
if ((start < file.Offset && end < file.Offset) ||
(start > file.Offset + file.Size && end > file.Offset + file.Size))
continue;
The code becomes more readable and allows you to change the structure later on
more easily since you don't have 100 references tot he same array now and only
use an itermediate.
~~~
cheatdeath
Thanks for the comments! I'm all for improved readability. I definitely wasn't
aiming for much performance wise, at least initially. These were two areas (of
many) that I felt could do with some improvement (especially the file IO). I
will look into making some modifications like those suggested when I get a
chance.
------
mafuy
Is the site down?
~~~
dethi
Here is the text-only version from Google Cache
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://seanjoflynn.com/research/bittorrent.html&num=1&strip=1&vwsrc=0)
------
cheatdeath
If anyone's having issues, I've mirrored it at
[https://cheatdeath.github.io/research-bittorrent-
doc/](https://cheatdeath.github.io/research-bittorrent-doc/)
edit: I'm the author, let me know if you have any questions.
~~~
lossolo
Great work. Does it work under .NET Core ?
~~~
jsingleton
From a quick look at the source [0], it looks like it supports Mono. I can't
see anything stopping it being ported to Core, apart from JonSkeet.MiscUtil
may not support Core.
If you package this up as a NuGet package and support Core then can you please
ping me and I'll add it to [https://anclafs.com](https://anclafs.com).
[0] [https://github.com/cheatdeath/research-
bittorrent](https://github.com/cheatdeath/research-bittorrent)
~~~
nick_
I've been prototyping a .NET Core port. JonSkeet.MiscUtil source code is fine
for Core, but for the BitTorrent code we need to change the HttpWebRequest
objects to HttpClient and rewrite the Begin/End/IAsyncResult/callback-style to
async/await.
~~~
jsingleton
FYI Jon has said to avoid using MiscUtil.
[https://github.com/jpsingleton/ANCLAFS/issues/6#issuecomment...](https://github.com/jpsingleton/ANCLAFS/issues/6#issuecomment-231041947)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Don’t waste your time in crappy startup jobs - Adrock
http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/dont-waste-your-time-in-crappy-startup-jobs/
======
heliodor
Stock options expiry: One important point that was not mentioned by OP is the
typical contract clause most startups use that changes the expiry of your
vested options from something like 10 years while you're employed to 30 days
if you leave the startup. You took a below-market salary in exchange for
equity options and if you leave your job you can't keep those options because
you have to exercise them, otherwise they'll expire worthless. Basically, once
you leave the company, you have to pay the company to buy its stock, otherwise
your options expire and you get nothing in exchange for your sacrifice!
See [http://gigaom.com/2011/06/05/5-mistakes-you-cant-afford-
to-m...](http://gigaom.com/2011/06/05/5-mistakes-you-cant-afford-to-make-with-
stock-options/)
------
Swizec
How isn't this on the frontpage with 42 points?
Everyone reading this coming from r/programming? Am I allowed to say "hello
reddit" on hackernews?
~~~
cbs
An article is critical of something the HN crowd tends to like. Why must the
people giving this points come from reddit?
Is anyone who questions the system not true enough of a Scotsman for you?
~~~
Swizec
Just that I came here from reddit where this was at the top of r/programming
at the time. Full of vibrant discussion and upvotes.
On HN ... it was 22 hours old and all evidence suggesting that it was never
noticed here (no comments), but very popular elsewhere (a lot of
upvotes/submissions)
edit: it still _is_ on top of r/programming with over a 1000 points.
------
etherael
0 comments and 23 points? What's up with this? This seems like very compelling
content to me.
~~~
cbs
>This seems like very compelling content to me.
Very compelling content, everyone knows here isn't the place to talk about it.
You have to keep in mind, YC points to HN as the place to go show off for PG.
It literally says that on the how to apply page. Even if you're not here to
suck up, you can be shadow-banned for being too critical of YC or the startups
they've funded.
edit: And thats just for me as a guy who doesn't post under a name connected
to me or my online identity in any way. People for whom their comments can
follow them around have even more reason to bite their tongue.
~~~
etherael
That thought had certainly crossed my mind, but I thought it was just
paranoia, the continued disparity between /r/programming and here though does
lend credence to the the theory.
------
fecak
I agree with a bit of this but I think this is more about managing
unreallistic expectations than about start-ups. I wrote a rebuttal to this
here - <http://wp.me/s2ikdZ-startups>
~~~
mcguire
An excellent reply, given that you only read about a third of Church's post.
------
ltabb
Don't waste your time reading crappy articles about crappy startup jobs.
Are all startups are the same? Yah Think?
In working startupland, you get one bet at a time. pick a winner, make sure
you have a ride and stop whining.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A "relatively close" alien planet that may be habitable - justinY
http://news.yahoo.com/super-earth-alien-planet-may-habitable-life-000948317.html
======
mooism2
Although not habitable in the sense that a human could just walk around on the
surface. 7 _g_ is a bit much for us.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Tech Talk: Erlang (2007) - coglethorpe
http://sysadmin.adnanwasim.com/2009/05/erlang.html
======
joeyo
Can an admin please fix the title?
~~~
kqr2
The misspelling occurs in the blog title too.
Since the blog doesn't add any more information anyway, here's the direct link
to the google tech talk on erlang:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpYPKBQhSZ4>
------
dforbin
an erlang talk is cool and all, but why do people post links to videos from
2007 here???
~~~
mattyb
If it's intellectually interesting and hasn't been posted before, why not?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PXL: A Better Way to Prioritize Your A/B Tests - sujanpatel
http://conversionxl.com/better-way-prioritize-ab-tests/
======
sujanpatel
TL;DR - ConversionXL developed their own method for prioritizing AB tests. You
can download for free (doesn't even ask for an email address) the excel
spreadsheet to use their method yourself.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Glen Green wall's First Look News Site is down? - secfirstmd
http://www.firstlook.org
======
nodata
Then don't link to it. Flagged.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Comparing C and Rust Network Protocol Exercises - signa11
https://ayende.com/blog/185859-A/comparing-c-and-rust-network-protocol-exercises
======
hyperman1
It's hard to say anything without comparing the source code. I don't see a
github reference, so I don't know if it is available.
I know his pain of rust's type inference gone insane. When things get too
strange, I got in the habit of partially constraining the inferred type - you
don't have to specify the full type BTW, only the part you want to constrain.
Also, I'm playing with intellij which shows the inferred type in the code
while you type, very nice.
OTOH, his workflow seems to demonstrate why C doesn't cut it: He spends an
important amount of time to debug trough it. He is carefull and still valgrind
finds errors. Trying to handle all errors in rust is too much of a burden,
which probably means a lot of C errors go unhandled.
These things indicate incomplete understanding of what the C code is actually
doing (instead of what it is supposed to do). Now I get the impression he is a
more than capable enough developer. And still a simple but not trivial task of
< 1kloc contains these kinds of errors. Do you want to trust the stability and
security of your networking to this C code?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not hacking on the guy. He could be me, as I have
comparable experiences in C and in rust as he describes. But the truth is, I
wrote tons of bugs in C and found even more in other people's C code.
Rust takes more thinking things through. It feels slower writing the code.
You'll spend a lot of time waiting on the compiler while it does it utter best
to hate you and shred your work to pieces. You can't quick and dirty hack
trough a job like you do in C. But in the end, the rust result is a lot more
trustworthy, and that aspect alone gains you a lot of time lost on
troubleshooting all kinds of weird crashes.
~~~
ncmncm
It would help if tutorials would advise you not to lean more heavily than you
must on type inference. They have a second goal of selling you on the
language, and inference is an attractive feature, in simple programs.
You often can't avoid relying on type inference in clever libraries, where the
author can't necessarily spell the annotation. It is on the library author to
keep that from leaking out to users.
Bugs in Rust and modern C++ are fewer and bigger, because they more often
result from misunderstanding the problem or library preconditions than
expressing the solution. There are plenty of such bugs, but you have those in
C, too, on top of the others.
~~~
hyperman1
I still live in Java6 land. I love inference, despite their occasional dark
side.
Map<String,List<Someclass>> x=new HashMap<String,List<Someclass>>();
The problem of modern C++ is all of old C++ comes along for the ride. Even if
you write only modern code, and manage to withstand the 'this once only' siren
song there are all your (ex-)colleagues writing in their own style.
One of the major plusses of rust is that it gives you basic guarantees. C++
can't do that.
~~~
joshdev
Type inference is super handy in a lot of places. The problem I've run into in
the rust book and other intro docs is they almost always use type inference,
which makes it harder to learn what is going on. I'd prefer they used explicit
types to start and then ease into type inference.
------
hsaliak
To the point of having something similar to defer in C. Gnu C has attribute
cleanup[1][2] which is supported by both GCC and Clang.
Sure its not portable in the strictest sense but these two compilers offer
wide enough support that may be sufficient for your use case. systemd uses it,
for example.
glib is also a good general purpose library, you do not need to use GObject or
it's event loop to make use of it.
[1] [http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Common-Variable-
Attributes...](http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Common-Variable-
Attributes.html)
[2][http://echorand.me/site/notes/articles/c_cleanup/cleanup_att...](http://echorand.me/site/notes/articles/c_cleanup/cleanup_attribute_c.html)
~~~
jorangreef
Zig (a modern, safer C) has defer:
[https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#defer](https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#defer)
------
ncmncm
The comments on the article page (not here) show that the commenters are not
reading the article carefully.
This is a scrupulously written article with deeply meaningful conclusions.
Rust is an immature language -- a stage every language goes through! -- and
you can tell. What no one knows, yet, is whether its designers have painted
themselves into a corner that prevents fixing it. The compiler, too, is
immature, and will certainly get better at localizing the causes of problems,
but that is a research project.
C++ is legitimately criticized for complexity that comes from its complicated
history. It inherited all of C's warts, and more from early experiments that
didn't pan out. You can mostly avoid most of them, but promiscuous integer
conversion and overflow always lurk, and you never know when you will
encounter old-school code that revives the old monsters.
Rust claims benefits from not inheriting legacy hacks (except C linking
conventions, which affect function call details), but is rapidly growing its
own legacy of past design choices that constrain future choices. The only
limits on this problem are foresight and mathematical rigor of design
formalisms, and both are limited.
It might be that Rust programmers will need to learn to rely less on type
inference, and state types "unnecessarily", just to get understandable error
messages. Improvements in the compiler might include its identifying choke
points where such a type annotation would help.
Modern C++ coding gives much the same experience of spending extra time
satisfying the compiler, then the program mostly works when you do; but the
error messages don't take hours to figure out. Usually, the most obscure
complaints come out as mismatches between long function-and-template argument
lists, where you have to pick out the one word that doesn't match, but these
take minutes, not hours, and could be automated without a research project.
Much of that will disappear (not all!), with Concepts in C++20.
The difference between the C and C++/Rust experiences is very much like the
difference with interpreted languages -- you depend a great deal more on
exhaustive testing when the compiler does less.
------
jorangreef
I think the author would appreciate Zig
([https://ziglang.org](https://ziglang.org)).
Zig strikes the perfect balance between C and Rust.
The documentation is the best place to start.
It's worth supporting Zig on Patreon:
[https://www.patreon.com/andrewrk](https://www.patreon.com/andrewrk)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The N.S.A. and Your Buddies - Imagage_radio
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/10/the-nsa-and-your-buddies.html
======
a3n
Metadata is data. There is no difference (obviously, because they deem it
worthy of collection), and no excuse.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dreamwidth Banned by PayPal in 2008 for Refusing to Censor Users - CM30
https://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/38065.html
======
dang
The article is from April 2017. The title has been editorialized, which breaks
the HN guidelines
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)).
On HN, submitters don't have special rights over articles and don't get to
frame them for everyone else. Doing the latter, as this thread amply
illustrates, amounts to controlling the discussion.
Worse, the detail that was cherry-picked (presumably because censorship issues
are a hot topic) refers to something which the article makes clear happened
years ago. Making it sound like it happened today ("Dreamwidth Banned by
PayPal for Refusing to Censor Users") was egregiously misleading. We take
story submission privileges away from users who do this kind of thing, so
please don't do it. I've added 2008 to the title above as a fire extinguisher.
Submitters: If you want to say what you think is important about an article,
you're welcome to do so by posting a comment to the thread. Then your view is
on a level field with everyone else's.
------
raziel2p
"About six months after opening, PayPal -- our payment processor at the time
-- demanded that we censor some of our users' content (mostly involving people
talking about sex, usually fictionally, in explicit terms) that was legal and
protected speech but that they felt violated their terms for using PayPal."
Seems reasonable to me.
~~~
SquareWheel
To me, too. Paypal isn't a government institution. They can choose who to
partner with by whatever metrics they want.
~~~
devrandomguy
That argument becomes weaker as responsibilities and power are transferred
from the government to the private sector. How many of the rules that we
follow are currently dictated by a corporation, rather than a government? Do
we not want checks and balances on all rule-makers?
~~~
spaceseaman
Then why shift such responsibilities to the private sector in the first place?
If they must be regulated as stringently as the public sector (especially in
terms of things like free speech) then they should be public goods.
I think it's much more viable to translate some of these privately owned
aspects of the internet to publicly owned institutions. Then you obtain the
free-speech allowances you desire without burdening a private company with
further regulation and restrictions.
This isn't the only solution of course though. But just claiming that these
goods are so important doesn't necessarily mean they _should_ be treated like
government entities. They're not - that's not how the laws here work.
~~~
devrandomguy
I don't believe that government is seriously hindered by free speech, but
rather by it's lack of profit-incentive and by the perverse incentives of our
current implementation of democracy. We should expand the free speech rights,
and other basic human rights, to cover all people in all situations.
Actually, that profit incentive thing is debatable, I take that back. A for-
profit government could be quite horrifying.
------
rdiddly
_" It took us a few months to find a payment processor willing to take money
for us without concern trolling about our users' immortal souls or
whatever..."_
Pretty much the best line ever.
------
lawn
This is a perfect use case for cryptocurrencies.
~~~
rothbardrand
Imagine if they had started taking bitcoin payments in 2009, 2010, 2011 or
2012?
They wouldn't have to be worrying about their seed fund or keeping the doors
open at this point.
------
Overtonwindow
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and take what may be an unpopular position: If
you're a financial services firm, you should be forbidden from refusing
services to anyone who is not committing an illegal act. Services like PayPal
are starting to sound like insurance companies prior to the ACA. If it's not
illegal you should not be allowed to turn customers away.
~~~
yock
Doesn't this open up the door to using legality as a proxy for morality?
Shouldn't a company, regardless of the service they provide, be free to
establish their own conditions under which they will act or not act?
~~~
mars4rp
morality is relevant, rarely people that is doing something that we think
immoral see their acts as immoral too.
"Shouldn't a company, regardless of the service they provide, be free to
establish their own conditions under which they will act or not act?"
like a restaurant in south refusing to serve blacks? with restaurant you have
at least some options, but with businesses with monopoly finding an
alternative is very hard or expensive.
~~~
EpicEng
>like a restaurant in south refusing to serve blacks?
Which would be illegal as race is a legally protected status.
~~~
Danihan
Isn't sexual identity / orientation protected as well? These companies are
banning clients for simply talking about sex.
That seems like a grey area but it's treading pretty close to discrimination
in my mind.
Then again, should Google be forced to put adsense ads on a porn site? Really
murky territory.
~~~
sparky_z
> Isn't sexual identity / orientation protected as well?
Nope. As I understand it, sexual orientation is not officially a protected
class[0]. Seems like it should be, but it isn't.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_class)
------
busterarm
[https://www.manilaprinciples.org/](https://www.manilaprinciples.org/)
------
ryandrake
I'd love to understand the business benefit to PayPal of censoring its
customers, particularly when the content they are trying to censor is not
"criticism of PayPal." Has PayPal actually measured some negative effect on
its bottom line when people who use their service talk about sex?
~~~
bcrescimanno
Disclaimer: I'm a PP employee.
While it's complex (and I don't fully understand it all myself), the simple
answer is risk management / fraud. Adult content tends to be extremely risky
from a fraud and legal compliance perspective and companies like PayPal (and
Stripe, and Google Checkout, among others) choose not to do business in this
arena because the risk / reward model just doesn't justify it.
Specifically, subscriptions to sites that offer digital adult content are not
allowed per ToS:
[https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/faq569](https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/faq569)
~~~
JBReefer
Netflix certainly offers "digital adult content" in shows like Easy, movies
like Below Her Mouth, but PayPal accepts their business. You can buy content
on Amazon with PayPal, which sells a TON of out and out porn.
Is it maybe more fair to say that small sites that offer adult content are not
allowed?
~~~
delinka
Likely it's those selling _predominantly_ adult content. Amazon's offerings
are not predominantly adult in nature. Nor are Netflix's. Presumably, if
there's a higher occurrence of fraud with those merchants whose wares are
predominantly adult in nature, processors consider these types of business
more risky. However, they (processors) already have a tool at their disposal
to combat fraud: the rate that's charged to the merchant for taking payments.
My understanding is that riskier businesses tend to pay a higher rate for
their card processing as kind of an insurance against (inevitable?) fraud. And
then it would be my opinion that an account shouldn't get terminated except
due to actual (excessive?) fraud.
~~~
drunken-serval
> And then it would be my opinion that an account shouldn't get terminated
> except due to actual (excessive?) fraud.
Except VISA won't tolerant a fraud rate that requires 300% fees to cover
costs.
------
petraeus
Good for PayPal, they are a private business and can choose who they will
allow on their platform.
------
guiriduro
People still use Paypal? Abandoned my account 2 years ago, never looked back.
~~~
brink
What do I do if I want to purchase something off of eBay?
~~~
frou_dh
Buy it, but be aware that guiriduro is going to look down on you for not being
hip.
------
quoquoquo
How is this allowed in Paypal policies?
~~~
bcrescimanno
[https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/faq569](https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/faq569)
------
marksellers
Ah yes, the eminent moral authority of PayPal.
------
donquichotte
Time to move to Stripe.
~~~
nsxwolf
And they don't allow things like porn, gambling, and guns. I'm OK with payment
processors setting their own rules based on their own ethics, but its a
problem if all we have is this little oligopoly of choices. We need more
choices.
~~~
winslow
What's the reasoning for not allowing those things? Does it bring additional
legal problems or something? I could see the issue with potential child porn
or something like that but shouldn't a payment processor be siloed from any
legal issues there?
~~~
dradtke
The biggest thing payments processors are concerned about is fraud. Certain
lines of business are risky because they simply result in more fraud, plus
there's a whole other level of restrictions enforced by the banks themselves.
I don't know what the exact reasoning was behind the ban in the article, but
there are entire teams dedicated to developing risk models that attempt to
identify merchants that will end up resulting in a loss before it happens.
Payments processors like PayPal may just be middlemen between banks, but if
the merchant owes the bank money and is suddenly nowhere to be found, the
processor is the one who takes the hit.
~~~
smsm42
> there are entire teams dedicated to developing risk models that attempt to
> identify merchants that will end up resulting in a loss before it happens.
And yet they are unable to distinguish a legitimate and widely popular blog
hosting site which does not intend to defraud anyone but allows people to host
erotic fiction, from a shady porn site. Makes you kinda question what those
teams are doing the whole day, doesn't it?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Painting a better life through side SaaS hustles - sergiomattei
https://getmakerlog.com/stories/micah-iverson-founder-and-ceo-of-retrospect
======
wisemanwillhear
Interesting to hear another story of someone finding space in a crowded market
segment.
> I was working for a company a couple of years ago and we needed a tool to do
> retrospectives and the existing solutions we found were not designed well
> and didn’t work all that great, not to mention the bigger solutions costing
> a lot of money to use for a relatively small need that we had. I set out to
> build a simple, affordable solution that looked good too.
...
> Retrospect has come a long way since the initial launch about two years ago,
> we have provided more permissions, more functionality, and improved the
> experience. The future has a lot of potential for new features and growth.
More features and more integration... Seem like most products work towards
becoming the next complex, do-everything software, only to be replaced by yet
another "simple" solution without the endless bells and whistles. They both
have their place, but sometimes it's hard to find a simple software solution
whose owners don't aspire to be the next big complicated solution. Perhaps I'm
reading too much into interview...
~~~
krazier
Hey, this is Micah the creator of Retrospect.
I 100% agree one "bloat" risk of adding more and more functionality. We have
been very careful not to build anything that is complex or clutters the
experience. One potential area that we need to do better on is the "team"
experience though. Right now every user is siloed into their own area, with
the tool being so "company" focused it makes sense to bring some company based
features. (Shared/Bookmarked Boards, Grouping, Manage Users, etc.) With that
said, we may not either, it might not make sense bloat wise.
We have no interest in trying to "beat" our competitors (Trello essentially)
or match all their features, we simply want to compliment other tools that
people use.
Thanks for the feedback! Micah
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2010 bug hits millions of Germans - jeffreyg
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/06/2010-bug-millions-germans
======
Timothee
Does anyone know what the nature of the bug is? The article lacked on this
aspect unfortunately.
~~~
sp332
I thought this was discussed earlier this week, but I can't find a link
anywhere. The representation of the date is ambiguous about
decimal/hexadecimal. So some devices are reading "10" as equal to 16, yielding
the year 2016 instead of 2010.
------
please
as a workaround one can put a strip of tape over the chip, that way the
magnetic strip on the other side gets used.
------
83457
The dreaded Y2.01K Bug
~~~
zb
Actually, Y2k01. Engineers don't use decimal points - it's too easy for them
to disappear during copying.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple's Role in Japan during the Tohoku Earthquake - sahillavingia
http://kevinrose.com/blogg/2011/3/14/apples-role-in-japan-during-the-tohoku-earthquake.html
======
jaysonelliot
My father-in-law works in Tokyo, but lives in Kamakura. He wrote us a long
email about his journey home. Because trains were not running, the only option
was to walk the 60+ kilometers home. All along the way, he saw people finding
places to sleep in bars, stores, even 7-11s. All of them were full, so he
could only keep on walking. Eventually, he found a bar that had room for him
to come and sleep on the floor, so that he could continue his journey home in
the morning. There was no food on the shelves of any store, so people had to
share what they had with each other.
Allowing people to sleep in the Apple stores must have been incredibly
important to the staff. God knows how they might have fared otherwise.
~~~
nandemo
I live in Tokyo. Many, many people slept at their offices on Friday night.
That wasn't uncommon at all. Indeed, I'm at a loss to understand why would
anyone think that was an exceptional decision by Apple (not saying you're one
of them, but OP seems to be).
Maybe your father-in-law was one of the millions who got stranded halfway
home, or maybe he really wanted to be with his family. But he too could have
probably slept at his office instead.
Edit: for example, " _many of [BofA Merrill Lynch's] bankers even remained in
the office overnight because they couldn't get home. The same thing happened
to Goldman workers. Because of transport disruptions, bankers returned to
their desks at 5.30 pm and then slept in the office._
[http://www.businessinsider.com/what-did-the-banks-do-when-
th...](http://www.businessinsider.com/what-did-the-banks-do-when-the-
earthquake-hit-japan-on-friday-2011-3#ixzz1Gdqu3lGs)
~~~
patio11
Speaking from personal experience, other major events which can result in a
Japanese salaryman sleeping at their office include "the day is Monday", etc.
Apparently moving one's toothbrush is a sign of commitment in romantic
comedies? I had a toothbrush and shaving kit in my desk for three years. My
boss had three changes of clothes.
~~~
aristus
This is very off-topic, but I am curious about this cultural habit of Japan.
Does spending 2X more hours at the office actually get 2X more work done? I
tend to lose focus rapidly after 9 or 10 hours.
~~~
patio11
searchyc.com + [patio11 salaryman] for anecdotes, but the short answer is "No,
it is absolutely not the case that the hours make Japan more productive."
------
redcap
Author mentions nuclear/acid rain, there are no reports of this. I'm following
NHK as well as more lucid western stories and all of them have the Fukushima
reactors as worst case not as bad as Three Mile Island, let alone Chernobyl.
For English information about what's going on, there's:
[http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2530/japan-
earthquake...](http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2530/japan-earthquake-
live-report)
<http://gakuranman.com/great-tohoku-earthquake/#live>
<http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/japan_quake/>
<http://twitter.com/_niten/tokyo-disaster-info/members> (list I made)
~~~
trotsky
Check out this little nugget at the bottom of Timeout Tokyo:
_Suntory vending machines have emergency levers beneath a sticker on the
upper-right corners. Pull the sticker off, pull the lever firmly and you'll
get free drinks._
They built a backdoor into their own vending machines for emergencies and have
followed up and gotten the information out there. Free juice for the weary! It
was sleeping there the whole time, very japanese.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/12163087@N04/4202645718/>
Suntory Holdings Limited サントリーホールディングス株式会社, Established in 1899
That's the definition of cool.
~~~
patio11
There exists a particular Japanese megacorp in Nagoya. Like many megacorps, it
has a long list of acceptance tests for any systems it ships internally or
externally. Two tests on that list:
1) If it would normally exchange money-for-X, we have to be able to tell it to
disburse X-for-nothing.
2) If it would normally exchange money-for-X, failure modes of our ability to
tell it to disburse X-for-nothing must cause the system to _fail into_ X-for-
nothing.
e.g. If it were hypothetically a vending machine, a network connection that
let you send it a message to turn off needing money would meet #1, and a
heartbeat hourly where failure to receive the heartbeat would turn off needing
money would meet #2.
Anyhow, those two rules are in the strictest category in the SOP: if you fudge
one in an acceptance test, the system does not ship. If a system which has
somehow made it into production is discovered to not be in compliance, several
somebodies will not be going home until it is either in compliance or removed
for service.
I agree, Suntory's machines are an excellently engineered. I want to emphasize
that this level of commitment to engineering excellence is not anomalous here.
Japanese megacorps: woe unto thee who has to use our web applications, but for
this sort of consideration, we _seriously_ know our stuff.
------
ihodes
It's a little bizarre how people are either 1) upset at Apple for not doing
more 2) expecting all companies to do something like this, thus this isn't
exceptional.
Addressing point 1 first; there's still time for them to do more. Not only
that, but why should private companies be obligated to fund a nation in times
of crisis? Sure, it's great when they do, but they already DO pay for this in
the form of taxes. Apple is a company; their primary obligation is to their
shareholders: their business is business.
Now for point 2: see point one. This is exceptional, and this is really neat.
This isn't just some donation of funds to another fund; this was a mandated
relief effort in the face of an actual crisis. And it showed (whether or not
you think it sincere) that Apple cares. I can't be anything but happy that I
support such a company.
~~~
greendestiny
See jaysonelliot's comment here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2325377>
This is hard to say without attacking something that is clearly great and
helpful to a lot of people, but I think its fair to say that businesses and
people all over Japan are currently putting in unbelievable efforts and
singling out Apple here just seems to be putting the most bizarre western tech
community lens over the thing.
------
pat2man
The real story here is how valuable and important free internet access points
are. We should all support companies and individuals that provide free network
access.
~~~
orblivion
As long as they're going out of their way, they would certainly waive the
connection fee for internet access if there was one, of all things.
------
dholowiski
This is of course what Apple (and any other company) _should_ have done in
such a situation, but they sure deserve some recognition for actually doing
it.
~~~
Splendorist
What surprises me most is the immediate reactions of the senior managers.
I wonder if that's brilliant sense or even better, part of an 'Apple culture'
I'm not familiar with.
~~~
statictype
I'm sure this has nothing to do with Apple's culture and everything to do with
people acting like normal people and helping others in times of need.
~~~
Stormbringer
How strange then that we don't hear similar stories about other companies in
Japan...
~~~
statictype
Are you serious?
We don't hear stories about other companies because humans going out of their
way to help others in the wake of a natural disaster isn't something
singularly unique that it requires a post to social news sites whenever it's
done. The only reason we're hearing this story is because someone in love with
Apple received an email about employees in an Apple store doing their civic
duty and decided that this was "Apple's role" in the disaster.
Honestly, I bet people at Apple who see this are slightly embarrassed that
their huge company's role in this disaster is letting people charge their iOS
devices in their shop and watch tv.
(Not meant as a slight against Apple.)
Imagine if someone wrote a blog post about how he saw an American guy bringing
a bottle of water to a kid who lost her way during the earthquake and decided
to title it "America's role in Japan"
~~~
Stormbringer
Nobody is denying that humans should help each other in times of crisis. But
hey, enjoy your strawman karma.
However, from the descriptions of not just this source but others, stories of
walking 60km home, sleeping on the floor of a crowded bar, not having anything
to eat etc, it should be clear that Apple _is_ in fact going the extra
distance.
If this was any other company, you would be singing their praises from the
highest rooftop. But because it is Apple, you and others for no good reason
apparently see the need to try to bring them down, cast doubt on their good
works etc.
Are _you_ serious? If so, for God's sake, _what is wrong with you_?
~~~
statictype
You don't have to be actively campaigning against Apple and praying fervently
for their downfall to make the point that what their store employees in Japan
are doing now is no different from what many other store employees in Japan
are also probably doing.
------
maxxxxx
This is just basic human decency and I am sure Apple is not the only company
doing this. I don't think it's a good time for some guy from Silicon Valley to
praise some entity from Silicon Valley for doing great things. Reminds me of
Twitter getting all the praise for revolutions while people were dying. Let's
praise them when they spend some of their billions on earthquake relief.
------
jarek
Is this materially different from how any other company in Japan reacted?
~~~
patio11
Many, many companies have performed admirably: offering shelter, giving away
their products/services for the duration, trying to help affected
customers/employees, etc.
I'm quite a ways away from the earthquake, and have used a regional bank for
the last seven years. The branch manager called me to say that he noticed my
account was nearly empty and, if I or my business was affected by the
earthquake, the bank had my back and we could sort out the numbers later.
(Situation nominal, by the way -- I just happened to have paid taxes on
Friday, which appears to be quite a hit if you only know about savings in
yen.)
~~~
patio11
Another anecdote: I just got off the phone with the apartment service which
ran my old apartment. I moved out on 2/10 and was told to expect my deposit to
be refunded via wire transfer on 3/10. It hasn't arrived yet, so I called
today to ask about it. So far, fairly routine adult-dealing-with-money stuff.
"We're very sorry -- that estimate was incorrect and, since Friday, we've been
overwhelmed. The computer shows this going out tomorrow. Do you need it
immediately? Come to the office or tell me your new address and _our manager
will drive it to you_."
This is, ahem, not the level of enthusiasm with respect to return of deposits
that I would have expected. My bank has treated me with unfailing honesty the
last seven years and never once tried to take advantage of me. The apartment
management company... my, I seem to be having a bout of peculiarly specific
amnesia. Oh yeah, they were really nice today.
------
me_again
Meanwhile, Microsoft donates $2million
([http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/03/14...](http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/03/14/microsoft-
supports-relief-efforts-in-japan.aspx)), and nobody notices. I don't mean "oh,
poor Microsoft" - it's just interesting that certain kinds of generosity are
appreciated more than others.
------
austintaylor
The part about camping out in the Apple Store reminded me of "When Sysadmins
Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow.
[http://baens-
universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_...](http://baens-
universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_earth)
~~~
calloc
Awesome comic! I absolutely loved reading it and suggest it to anyone else!
------
saint-loup
I find this bit really interesting:
"You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around
electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay
informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that's what the Tokyo
Apple stores became."
------
anigbrowl
While doubtless unintentional, this sounds so much like PR as to seem
tasteless.
------
Natsu
It's good to see people helping each other. This sort of thing is happening
all over Japan, though, not just at any one company. I hope that people
encourage each other to do more of this sort of thing.
That said, I was impressed by Google's approach, even though they're not a
Japanese company. They set up a page to give people the latest news on the
disaster, made a widget to help people donate to the Japanese Red Cross,
powered a person finder to help people locate their loved ones and linked
people to all kinds of other official resources so that they know when they're
expected to ration power, etc.
It's linked from their home page. Honestly, I didn't notice it for a long
time, because I always search straight from my browser.
------
dctoedt
Sure, it's just a story of basic human decency, the kind we see in all sorts
of crises.
But stories are a big way that cultural values are transmitted _and
reinforced._ The latter is important.
------
dr_
Well, this is good, but Apple's bigger contribution is allowing donations via
iTunes. They have over 200 million credit card numbers on file - that's
powerful.
------
PostOnce
I know little of Apple or of Japanese business morals/etc.
I wonder, is this an Apple thing, or a Japanese thing, or an Apple Japan
thing? Does it lean any particular way? Not that it matters. Good people doing
good things. I would be interested in commentary, though.
~~~
asknemo
Japanese thing. It's actually happening to every corporate and stores in
Japan, from our more extensive coverage here in Asia. It's just that they are
too busy continuing to combat the aftermath to think about writing things down
and tell the public in the middle of the disaster.
------
jazzyd
For anyone interested we formed a global group on Facebook called iHope for
Japan
[http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_201249473238509...](http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_201249473238509¬if_t=group_activity)
The idea is to persuade Steve Jobs donate to the relief effort in Japan. The
release of the iPad2 just about coincided with the earthquake/tsunami. What a
great opportunity to donate a portion of each iPad2 to sale to Japan. Very
positive publicity and who knows they may sell more because of it.
------
radicaldreamer
Tokyo's gripped with panic and the markets are essentially experiencing a
flash crash (<http://e.nikkei.com/e/app/fr/market/nikkeiindex.aspx>) and the
French Embassy is warning that radioactivity could reach Tokyo in 10 hours
(<https://twitter.com/#!/reuters/status/47485505813757952>)
------
earino
This story made me feel good.
------
argarg
Funny how every comments from the link are "Wow awesome APPLE is amazing",
talking about the company as a whole when it's only a single store story. Yes,
what this they made is great, even though it's what every other store should
have made in their situation. Just felt like pointing that fun fact out.
~~~
zaidr
If you are stranded, and someone gives you a place to sleep, I think I will
scream in thanking them. So yes, Apple did an amazing job.
------
rb2k_
> with the phone [...] lines down
and
> hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on
> USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email.
Why is the internet at the apple store up when apparently the phonelines are
down?
------
tylerhowarth
Honestly everyone needs to get over themselves and their opinions on "roles"
in this terrible time.
This was an inspiring story coming from a truly frightening and terrible
situation.
------
dami
Pretty awesome stuff!
------
l0nwlf
Apple did far better then Microsoft atleast.
[http://www.geekwire.com/2011/bings-japan-tweet-tasteless-
mar...](http://www.geekwire.com/2011/bings-japan-tweet-tasteless-marketing-
ploy-helping-good)
------
retrogradeorbit
Ycombinator is such a massive Apple fanboy hangout these days.
------
gobongo
I hate being "that guy" but I find it very sad that we've reached a point
where we're expected to praise companies just for being staffed by humans
capable of basic empathy in an unimaginably horrific crisis.
It is nice that they did this and all but is it really especially noteworthy?
Give me an update when Steve Jobs donates a little bit of his money to the
relief effort, (or, really, ANYTHING...) until then I don't really see what
this has to do with Apple as a whole.
~~~
radicaldreamer
A lot of wealthy people donate anonymously so that they aren't harassed or
labeled for whom they donate money to and some just don't like drawing
attention to their personal lives.
~~~
SwellJoe
And a lot more people do not donate at all (the percentage of anonymous
donations to most charities is miniscule). In the absence of evidence that he
has donated, the reasonable assumption is that he has not.
That's not to say I believe he is obligated to do so. But, I seriously doubt
Jobs generosity...he's always been kind of a jerk, especially in matters of
money. I don't understand why anyone would bring up "some people donate
anonymously!" as some sort of evidence that Jobs is a giving human being, when
most evidence points to the contrary.
~~~
radicaldreamer
Okay, let's look at the donations that he has to disclose by law: "while Jobs
gave $254,000. (His wife Laurene Powell Jobs, however, donated more than
$502,915 federally" (Source:
[http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/01/bill_gate...](http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/01/bill_gates_tops_steve_jobs_in.php)).
What's more likely, that this person who intensely guards his personal life
contributes only to politicians and supports no causes on his own or that he
doesn't publicize anything about his personal life other than what he has to?
Everything I've read about Jobs points to him being very uncomfortable with
having his life laid open for everyone to peer at and critique.
~~~
SwellJoe
"Okay, let's look at the donations that he has to disclose by law: "while Jobs
gave $254,000. (His wife Laurene Powell Jobs, however, donated more than
$502,915 federally" (Source:
<http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/01/bill_gate...>)."
_That_ is useful information, if one wanted to determine whether Jobs donates
to anything. Again, I'm not suggesting he is obligated to do so. If he wants
to be the one who dies with the most toys, and it appears that he does based
on the amount of his charitable contributions compared to some of his peers,
that's absolutely fine with me. (I think he's a dick based on the way he
behaved toward Woz and early Apple employees with regard to money, and not so
much based on lack of charitable giving.)
I was just pointing out that saying, "Some people donate anonymously" is not a
meaningful contribution to the discussion. Which people? Is Jobs among them?
How do we know that? It's a no-op statement in the context in which it was
used, and I find that annoying.
------
bluedanieru
He mentions that his free wifi was the only way to get access to the outside
world. I don't know about Softbank (the only provider with iPhones in Japan),
but my 3G with Docomo was not disrupted at any point during the crisis. Making
calls was difficult or (usually) impossible, but network access was always
there. This is in Tokyo.
~~~
nandemo
I had no problems with Softbank's 3G either.
------
edunne
Thats it? really? No pledge of money to help repair?
If thats all Apple does in response its extremely weak.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Desktop application for fast saving anything without losing focus - silencerweb
https://taggy.pro/?ref=news.ycombinator
======
silencerweb
Hi everyboddy!
My name is Maksim and I'm here to present you my second launched project -
Taggy. I was going to do the same with my first one, DailyQ, but
unfortunately, I shut it down right after launching it. But hopefully, I'm not
going to do the same with the current project.
Taggy is a desktop application for fast saving texts, links or images using
only shortcuts. With Taggy you don't need to copy-paste anything or even open
an application. Everything you need to do is copy whatever you want to save
(any text, link or image) and press a special shortcut for saving. That's it,
easy huh?
And after you finish working, reading or whatever you were doing, you can open
an application, open tab 'Unsorted' and sort everything how you want - you
don't have to worry about it while you are focusing on something else.
Let me know what you think about Taggy and how you think I can make it better
:)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Which Is Closer: Local Beer or Local Whiskey? - lelf
http://blog.wolfram.com/2014/08/19/which-is-closer-local-beer-or-local-whiskey/
======
lumpypua
Around "In[115]" I became convinced that the wolfram blogging team has a meth
problem.
I'm always blown away by the wolfram blog visualizations and variety of data
sources, as well as the occasional mathematical gems they drop! But seriously,
don't do meth.
~~~
zzleeper
In[115] is the reason for why Mathematica never clicked with me.. I'm not
smart enough to read that big block and write it, much less debug it.
~~~
Smaug123
It's a lot easier to write Mathematica than it is to read it. I've come up
with some retrospectively-horrific functions that were intuitively easy to
write - just keep piling on the functions, really. It's like the standard
mistake when children learn maths of writing "If x=-1, then x^2+2x+1 = (x+1)^2
+ 5 = 5" when they mean "x^2+2x+1 = (x+1)^2; then (x+1)^2 + 5 = 5":
Mathematica makes it very easy to write in a completely unreadable stream of
consciousness.
~~~
snicker
An ability to switch back and forth to a sort of "graph" view would be
tremendously helpful, as most people tend to have a better ability to process
visual information rather than a stream of text
~~~
cschmidt
You can't use it as an input form, but you can view a nice tree of your
expression automatically.
TreeForm[ x^2 + 2 x + 1 == (x + 1)^2]
------
lutusp
This example may not actually demonstrate what its originators may think. It's
possible they think it shows that Mathematica can solve virtually any problem,
however esoteric. In fact, it shows that Mathematica can be a hacker's dream
world, creating solutions so complex that readers are left in awe of their
sheer irreproducibility.
Concisely, the example says, "See what you can do with Mathematica if you're
us?"
~~~
judk
This is my reqctioe to every Mathematica blog post.
They nerd to write posts that walk through how a beginner could learn to do
this stuff without a 15-year career at Mathematica, or it's all sizzle and no
steak.
------
devilsdounut
I like Mathematica... while their magic functions don't exactly work for much
outside of their demo's, it gives good fodder for open source projects to
eventually borrow from. IPython would not be where it is right now with its
killer notebook interface and interactive plots if it were not for them
borrowing some key ideas from Mathematica.
~~~
lutusp
> while their magic functions don't exactly work for much outside of their
> demo's ...
I write and solve a lot of differential equations, and of the choices
available to me, Mathematica solves more and is easier to use -- compared to
the alternatives Sage and IPython. But it's way expensive compared to Sage and
IPython, the latter two of which are free.
> IPython would not be where it is right now with its killer notebook
> interface and interactive plots if it were not for them borrowing some key
> ideas from Mathematica.
Don't forget Sage. Sage was modeled after Mathematica (but open-source and
collaborative), IPython was modeled after Sage (but much more lightweight).
Sage is huge and getting larger, lots of specialized code for various esoteric
mathematical fields, IPython has a smaller footprint and is in some ways
easier to use.
~~~
rz2k
I believe that Sage was modeled after Magma, which isn't important, but I
highly recommend this long blog post by William Stein[1] talking about his
motivations, the problem of basing academic work on closed source software,
and in the case of Magma, the potential politics of even being _able_ to get
the software.
[1] [http://sagemath.blogspot.com/2009/12/mathematical-
software-a...](http://sagemath.blogspot.com/2009/12/mathematical-software-and-
me-very.html)
~~~
lutusp
I agree, I've read that piece, it's very worthwhile, especially with regard to
the issue of being able to publish the mathematical methods built into common
math environments.
Oh -- my Sage tutorial: [http://arachnoid.com/sage](http://arachnoid.com/sage)
------
bussiere
I am only using wolfram for their api and source of data, i've don't used too
much of their programming langage.
But only the data source is enough for me to give them money and support them
...
And their financials tools looks very interesting.
~~~
thearn4
Have you had any concerns yet about data provenance? Granted, I've only done
queries right on Wolfram Alpha itself (and not with an api), but figuring out
precisely where the original source data came from is sometimes pretty hit-or-
miss.
~~~
bussiere
not really i could ask them an i will.
thks for the comment
------
im3w1l
This is incredibly cool.
------
th0ma5
Must be nice to live in the cognitive dissonance where you think your fragile,
kludgey, application specific solutions are somehow stabile, well designed,
universal tools.
~~~
ctb9
Buried under the shitty attitude, there is actually a useful comment here.
Remember HN is the sum of it's parts. Be a postitive part.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The problem with gmail.co - avian
https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2016/03/the_problem_with_gmail_co/
======
mchahn
I have all my bad email addresses forwarded to me. This is better than a
bounce since I know immediately. The only issue might be that I accidentally
see private email intended for someone else.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gene Editing in Embryos Not Safe or Effective for Clinical Use Yet, Report Says - bookofjoe
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gene-editing-embryos-should-be-only-for-disease-prevention-report-says-11599145913
======
bookofjoe
[https://archive.vn/hVIIT](https://archive.vn/hVIIT)
>Commission charts narrow path for editing human embryos
[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/commission-charts-
na...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/commission-charts-narrow-path-
editing-human-embryos#)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nothing Can Be Fixed Anymore - ableal
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405770,00.asp
======
johnny22
It's just another hallmark of the era of ever increasing minuturization and
not much else.
I'm only against stuff like the macbook air/new mac book pro while they still
come at such a price premium.
Shouldn't we be more concerned about what do with these things after they get
thrown away?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A SaaS Startup’s Journey to $100K a Month - smit
http://www.groovehq.com/blog/100k
======
nikentic
I'm looking forward to the future posts. All luck to you!
------
spencerfry
Best of luck to you guys.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google admits Android 'both open and closed' - barista
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/12/google_says_android_both_open_and_closed/
======
Kylekramer
_Google never had any qualms with releasing phone-centric Android code that
anyone could squeeze onto a tablet. Why not release a tablet-centric version
that anyone could attempt to squeeze onto a phone?_
I am fairly sure they did have qualms [1], and that is exactly why Google is
doing this now.
1: [http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-
communications/mobil...](http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-
communications/mobile-phones/google-android-not-optimised-for-tablets--715550)
~~~
njs12345
To prevent this surely Google could just make the terms under which a 3rd
party can distribute the closed-source bundled Android apps (Maps, Market,
GMail and so on) more restrictive. By doing that they could essentially
prevent anyone from shipping a fully functional build of Android commercially
without their permission while keeping the source for Honeycomb open and not
impacting on hobbyists..
------
ChuckMcM
"OpenVMS the only one word lie in the English language." -- Scott McNealy.
I find the 'heat' over this topic (as measured by column inches of ongoing
debate) fascinating. I used the McNealy quote above because when I joined Sun
in 1986 they had just gone public and they were championing "Open Systems."
As a concept this was pretty easy to explain, basically everything you needed
to know in order to reproduce an equivalently functioning system was
documented and unencumbered so that folks could create 'Sun compatible' Hard
disks (Fujitsu Eagles were very popular) without paying a 'tax' to Sun. It
also meant that as a company considering a significant investment in the
technology, if Sun vanished tomorrow you had enough information to keep all
your Sun gear running and third parties could continue to support it an create
new peripherals for it, Etc. Eric Schmidt's first "real" management job was
when he joined Sun and started heading up the systems group.
The 'open systems' tactic relies on the incumbent player staying 'closed' to
protect their turf for as long as possible, and it makes the alternative
credible for people who are putting investment capital at risk. In Sun's case
it was getting big players to bet on an untested OS (SunOS) and in Google's
case it was getting big players to bet on an untested phone OS (Android).
Had Google abandoned Android 1.6 and walked away, all the players at the time
who were using it would have been able to still fix bugs and keep shipping
handsets based on it without support from the big G.
Now Android is the 'dominant' smartphone OS (in terms of volume) at least, and
there are lots of signs that Google is changing the model to 'closed' to
protect its turf, just as Sun closed ranks around Solaris and its own CPU
architecture (SPARC). But there is a problem, in that the dominant _tablet_ OS
is not Android. So for that market one might want to still be playing the
'open' card, but if its the same as the phone OS then we play the 'closed'
card, and we end up with 'both open and closed.'
Google clearly wants Android to be successful. Whether or not you and I can
get some, all, or none of the source is no doubt measured against that razor.
It is impolitic of them to say to your face, "Look if you're not going to be
making a million units a month we really don't care a whole lot what you think
we should or should not be doing." but I am sure that if lying had not been
invented that is exactly what they would say.
Google makes money, lots of it, and even when these conversations happen
inside the 'plex there is the reality that leaving money on the table is never
a long term strategy. Just like that free toaster for opening a checking
account isn't really free.
I'll predict here today (and where perhaps Google's web crawler will be able
to find it again in 5 years) that by 2016 it will be impossible to reload
software on your phone if the original phone came with Goggle software but
isn't sold by Google, whether they call it 'Android' or something else.
Vendors will pay more to have the ability to limit your choices, Google will
give them that capability to get paid more, the vendors will use that
capability to limit your choices.
------
wvenable
Android is not an open collaborative project like the Linux kernel or many
distributions. Android, is still, however open source in so much as that
Google has released the source under a license that permits derivative works.
It is however, not Free Software, as it is Apache licensed.
One needs to be careful not to mix terms. Android is "open source" but that's
as far as they go. It's not Free Software and the development process is not
collaborative.
~~~
micampe
_> It is however, not Free Software, as it is Apache licensed_
The FSF considers the Apache license to be free software (and GPLv3
compatible) <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html>
~~~
wvenable
You are right, FSF considers it a free software license but it's not a
_copyleft_ license. Google is not required to give out the code. It's
compatible with the GPL because you can re-license Apache code under that
license.
~~~
micampe
I was only replying at your statement that Android is not free software: it
is, by the letter of the law, even if it doesn't feel like it at all, in
spirit.
~~~
wvenable
I don't know if my reply came off as hostile, but I am thankful for your
correction. I'm quite surprised that the FSF is so forgiving about what they
consider a Free Software License. These sorts of Android "shenanigans" seems
like exactly the sort of thing they don't like.
~~~
angusgr
I don't see how GPL would make much difference to Android here.
Even if AOSP (Android Open Source Project) was GPL licensed, Google owns the
copyright. Which means they can still make early releases to vendors (like
Motorola for the Xoom) under a different license, and then make the public
AOSP release under an OSS license later.
This is no different from Trolltech's former model with Qt, or the dozens of
other free software libraries where the developer makes some extra money from
non-GPL Licensing on the side.
The point is that Android 2.3 is Free Software, even if Android 3.0 is not
Free Software _yet_. Google can't do anything to take back 2.3 now, it has
freed it.
<Speculation> I'd be very surprised if Motorola got Android 3.0 for the Xoom
under any OSS license. I imagine it would have been given to them under a
special proprietary NDA-equipped license, or maybe even only licensed as a
binary. </Speculation>
~~~
wvenable
> Even if AOSP (Android Open Source Project) was GPL licensed, Google owns the
> copyright.
Does Google own the copyright to contributed code? I assume the Android
project contains patches from outside developers and they don't require
copyright to be assigned to Google.
~~~
angusgr
That's a very good point, even besides the contributions there are some Apache
licensed components in AOSP that Google have brought in themselves rather than
had donated.
I guess in my hypothetical scenario, they could relicense them as GPL but then
they'd have redistribution requirements via GPL virality - at least for those
bits.
Or they'd need to restructure their parts of the project around them to avoid
the viral aspect, like they have for the Linux kernel.
I guess my point is more that not every part of every Free Software project is
always released to the public under that license. "Android 3.0 is not Free
Software yet, but will be" is not that different to other common OSS project
scenarios.
------
justina1
It seems to me they had two choices with the Honeycomb code: release something
sub par or wait. And it seems like they landed on the side of quality over
speed.
Does that decision benefit their partners and hurt others? Yes. And if you
want to argue holding the code back was a business move and not a quality
issue, that's fair, but it's the one card they can play to ensure high-quality
devices in the market.
As an Android user, I say let them keep it.
~~~
cube13
But Google has released the code to partners. Motorola has shipped the Xoom.
Acer is releasing a tablet in a couple of weeks. HTC and Samsung are also
releasing devices in the next few months.
If the code is good enough to go in production devices, why isn't it good
enough to be released to the public?
~~~
orangecat
_If the code is good enough to go in production devices, why isn't it good
enough to be released to the public?_
It's quite easy to create a code base that mostly works well, but whose
structure and organization is utterly unsuitable for a public release. This is
especially true when you have a marketing-driven deadline (e.g. "ship before
the iPad 2") and have to take shortcuts.
~~~
nathanb
For an open source project the code _is_ the product. If you claim to be open
yet release your bits before the code, you are deluding yourself.
The quote from Savoia and Copeland in the article seems to be saying that
Google won't release the code until the product sees market in order to
maintain their competitive advantage. That's one thing. But when they continue
to sit on the code when the product is out, that's another thing entirely.
~~~
PetrolMan
It hasn't been widely released yet. As far as I know the Xoom is it. Others
are in development or being prepared for release.
~~~
cube13
Asus has shipped a tablet with Honeycomb on it. Also, they have also released
the GPL-covered Linux kernel code as well.
------
michaelpinto
I hate to say it, but if it makes it easier to develop and support apps I
wouldn't mind it if Android is closed. It just strikes me that there is too
much fragmentation in the market, and since Google isn't doing their own phone
they need to control what's out there.
~~~
orangecat
_if it makes it easier to develop and support apps I wouldn't mind it if
Android is closed_
That would only make things worse. Fragmentation is caused by the incompetence
and/or malice of manufacturers and carriers, and they're going to have the
source regardless of whether it's publicly available. All closing the source
would do is shut down projects like CyanogenMod, which reduce fragmentation by
bringing current Android versions to more devices.
------
timtadh
dumb question:
Is Google violating the GPL by not releasing code that is shipping on devices
(eg. Xoom). Didn't Tivo end up having to give up some of there code because it
was based on linux? Is this a similar situation?
~~~
natesm
Google releases the code that they have to (the kernel, anything else GPLed).
Most of Android is not under the GPL (and it was written by Google anyways, so
they can do whatever they want).
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Lice...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_\(operating_system\)#Licensing)
~~~
cube13
Asus has also released the Honeycomb code that is covered by the GPL for their
tablet: [http://www.androidtabletworld.com/android-news/asus-eee-
pad-...](http://www.androidtabletworld.com/android-news/asus-eee-pad-
transformer-source-code-now-available)
------
joshu
do not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both yes and no
------
navs
Often when I hear someone talk about Android, their first argument for the
platform is: "it's open". I don't see that likely to change. "Open" has become
as synonymous with Android as "Apps" are with the iPhone.
~~~
ZeroGravitas
Android has strong claims to be "open", even if it was, or became, closed
source e.g. I can easily install apps I wrote myself, I can set an alternative
browser (and various other apps) to replace the system provided one, I can
install alternative browser engines, it's made by multiple manufacturers etc.
These things are sadly not universally true in mobile devices. GPL kernels and
source code availability is extra "openness" on top of that.
------
mattmanser
I found the last paragraph very strange:
_[Google] has every right to restrict what its Android partners can and can't
do_
Maybe legally they do, but morally. Not at all. I don't think they do have
every right at all. They promised an open source platform and then started
close sourcing the updates to force partners to use their code in a particular
way. Doesn't sounds one bit open source to me.
I bet some manufacturers are starting to feel worried and very, very stupid
right now. They've given up their own development efforts and found out
they've sold their soul and their future to a wolf in sheep's clothing.
At least Nokia did it with eyes open.
------
cparedes
Clopen software?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Steve Ballmer Reboots - kenjackson
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/steve-ballmer-reboots-01122012.html
======
kenjackson
Single page version: [http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/steve-
ballmer-r...](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/steve-ballmer-
reboots-01122012.html)
------
Craiggybear
"In an industry dominated by eccentric introverts, Ballmer is out of place in
that he’s pretty normal."
OK. I don't know where to start.
And we should have been warned about the photographs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Bitcoin Works – Explained Through The Turbulent Life Of Satoshi Nakamoto - CryptoJunky
http://cryptojunky.com/blog/2013/04/04/how-bitcoin-works-explained-through-the-turbulent-life-of-satoshi-nakamoto/
======
CryptoJunky
This is one of the best explanations of Bitcoin that I've found. It manages to
explain a bit of the technical side of Bitcoin, without requiring a complete
understanding of cryptograph, programming, etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to tame comment trolls - jeremyliew
http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/how-to-tame-comment-trolls/
======
russell
The last suggestion from BoingBoing uses "disemvoweling", which gets my vote
for word of the day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A typo that almost crashed a plane - danso
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/FAA-safety-report-reveals-cases-of-pilots-mixing-14436212.php
======
biswaroop
Tangentially related: In 1988, Iran Air flight 655 was shot down by an
American missile cruiser, killing 290 people. It was likely due to a UI
problem with the aircraft tracking system on the cruiser that reused an ID
number from a potential enemy fighter aircraft.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655)
~~~
rhcom2
> The Aegis System software reuses tracking numbers in its display,
> constituting a user interface design flaw. The Aegis software initially
> assigned on-screen identifier TN4474 to Flight 655. Then just seconds before
> the Vincennes fired, the Aegis software switched the Flight 655 tracking
> number to TN4131 and recycled Flight 655's old tracking number of TN4474 to
> label a fighter jet 110 miles away. When the captain asked for a status on
> TN4474, he was told it was a fighter and descending.[42] Scientific American
> rated it as one of the worst user interface disasters.[43]
Ooof that is a boneheaded design decision.
------
kelnos
I can guess why this maybe isn't a thing, but why are there no electronic
guides for this? The plane should be able to figure out via GPS and its
compass orientation which runway it's on. If you enter in 01 but end up on 10,
the plane should be able to figure out it's pointing the wrong way and is in
the wrong place.
~~~
outworlder
> The plane should be able to figure out via GPS
Commercial planes don't do much with GPS. Flight systems are slaved to the
Inertial Navigation System.
> If you enter in 01 but end up on 10, the plane should be able to figure out
> it's pointing the wrong way and is in the wrong place.
Another sibling post already talks about this.
Note that the only thing the plane can do is to warn.
~~~
parsimo2010
This isn't true any more. The vast majority of commercial flights navigate
with GPS, and follow GPS waypoints with the AP. They are so accurate that
international flights across the ocean apply SLOP (strategic lateral offset
procedure) to the route so they don't run into each other.
~~~
outworlder
> The vast majority of commercial flights navigate with GPS
Citation needed. Which planes? Can you even take off without configuring your
INS? Are the instruments slaved to the GPS system now?
~~~
parsimo2010
Citation not needed. I'm a pilot. Inertial systems provide attitude and
heading information, but is only a backup for navigation. INS cannot deliver
the required navigational performance and is only used to cross-check GPS and
to provide a backup in case GPS fails.
------
code4tee
“Aviation experts say airliners need to lift off the ground with enough runway
left to abort a takeoff“
That’s not accurate. While the aircraft shouldn’t be nearly hitting the end of
the runway on takeoff it’s normal for larger jets to hit a point before
takeoff where they couldn’t stop before the end of the runway.
Pilots call that point V1 during the takeoff roll, which means whatever
happens you need to take off. If one of the engines blows up, you still take
off. When V1 is called on takeoff standard procedure is to take your hands off
the throttle controls since a ground abort is no longer available as an
option.
The pre-takeoff briefing usually includes something like the captain saying if
there are any problems after V1 we’ll take the problem into the air with us
and troubleshoot from there.
~~~
ChicagoBoy11
... and for the curious, there is a V2 which is the velocity the plane needs
to reach in which it can safely climb with only one engine!
~~~
outworlder
And for the further curious there are a bunch of 'V' speeds.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds)
------
jaclaz
Interesting, still remaining in a max 3 characters coding, wouldn't it make
sense to renumber/redenominate runways using (say) alpha1-alpha2-alpha3?
Where:
alpha1 is a letter from A to J (10 letters/values 0-9)
alpha2 is a letter excluded R from P to Z (10 letters/values 0-9)
alpha3 is either L or R
So, runway 10L would be BPL and 01L would be AQL.
It still remains the possible error between L and R, though.
I don't know the reason why runways are called "Left" or "Right", I mean, even
without the typo doesn't having two runways # 10 possibly create some
confusion?
More generally "similar" codes should IMHO be avoided, most probably there are
reasons (that I don't know about) why a number of airports have their
taxiways/runways named/numbered as they are (possibly ingenerating confusion).
It seems like the crash at Linate Airport:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linate_Airport_disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linate_Airport_disaster)
ultimately was caused by the poor visibility and the confusion between the R5
and R6 (maybe if they were called - still say - L5 and R6 or 22 and 87 the
Cessna pilots wouldn't have made their error)
~~~
randrews
The numbers have a meaning aside from telling the runways apart: they're the
azimuth of the runway divided by 10 degrees. So runway 10 has you taking off
at a heading of 100 degrees, or a little south of east. This matters because
you hear the runway numbers over the radio and can picture in your head where
the other planes are and where you need to be to line up to land.
------
rflrob
Would a simple solution be to "lie" about the runway direction by a few
degrees: instead of runways 10 and 28, bump it up to 11 and 29 (or down if
that's a smaller lie). DFW is apparently comfortable having numbers slightly
off from the true direction, since it has 5 parallel runways, 17L, 17C, 17R,
18L, and 18R, all of which are at 175.4º.
~~~
ChicagoBoy11
I was confused by the comment saying that they'd "never consider that". There
is precedent for exactly this sort of thing, even in the US -- like the
example you cite!
------
elsonrodriguez
Why not just always take off using the settings for the shortest distance?
Is this all about cost savings?
~~~
ChicagoBoy11
Noise abatement and wear on the engine. I, too, thought that this perhaps was
an extreme measure for such a slight gain... i mean, how long is a plane on
full thrust on take-off? 15 secs? 20?
But then a jet mechanic showed me some graph comparing wear and engine de-
rates (the technical term for this less-than-100%-takeoff) and it has a
CONSIDERABLE effect on the lifetime of the engine, far more than I was
thinking.
~~~
heavenlyblue
Does anyone have a link to a chart with these?
Can’t find anything on Google.
------
gojomo
[angular misinterpretation of supposed-problem-with-renaming runways "10", as
the opposite-direction versions of "28"/282-degrees, deleted]
~~~
petschge
Not sure where you got 77.8 degrees from. THe opposite of 282.2 degrees should
be 282.2 - 180.0 = 102.2 degrees IMHO. Which means the label of 10 L/R is
correct.
~~~
gojomo
Aha, yes, your math is correct & explains the "10"! I was not-fully-awake
figuring the opposite compass-heading as (360-282.2), which is actually just
the opposite-rotation-from-north, not the 180"-opposite direction. Got my
symmetries mixed-up.
------
efrafa
Landing at SFO always scares me a little bit. The way you see runway/land only
few seconds before plane touches the ground is insane.
~~~
taejo
Depends where you're sitting on the plane, I guess. My experience is seeing
land a few seconds _after_ touching the ground.
------
KangLi
Lol all the accidents that never happened blow my mind :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Best Ways to Consume the Web - cjdarnault
http://claytonwrites.com/the-best-ways-to-consume-the-web/
======
cjdarnault
The constant stream of digital content can be overwhelming sometimes and it
can be difficult to keep up with the Internet. As a writer and a power user of
said internet (as many of you probably are), I take a step back and analyze
the most efficient ways (in my opinion) to consume information on the web.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
First Blog Post, “Getting Started with a VPS” - kertof
https://kertof.com/posts/getting-started-vps
======
mtmail
[deleted comment blog posts can't be Show HN]
~~~
kertof
I fixed the title.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why don't we have an API for Experts? - pea
http://blog.talktousers.com/an-api-for-experts/
======
ArekDymalski
I think it might be beneficial for you to reconsider what is the biggest value
of this service - quality or price?
The first part of your post starts with a list of problems with consultants:
costly, unreliable, require "setup".
Your service seems to address the last 2 pain points. Great. You promise the
customer higher quality and time-savings, which is really important.
And than suddenly you mention that "our experts are working on many projects
at once" what in case of many customers will trigger the "low quality" alarm.
And to make it worse, you use it as an explanation for the low price.
If you can offer a high quality and reliable service, why do you want to
charge less than alternative solutions?
~~~
pea
Hey, great questions, and thanks for the feedback. I agree with you re the
'many projects at once' sentiment. Let me see if I can clarify:
We can charge less because because we have standardised the process with
software.
When a user leaves feedback on your website with TalkToUsers, the feedback
comprises a screenshot, the textual content of the feedback, and the
browser/user information.
We run some analysis on your feedback over a period, let's say a month: where
people clicked, certain analytics, sentiment. This includes lots of derived
quantitative information (i.e. 10 other people clicked on this div and left
feedback). This bunch of data is sent to the UX team when your report is due.
The deliverable to the UX team is standardised, which means they can more
quickly consume it. They read the derived data, and go through the
screenshots. They use their experience to make qualitative judgment: 'Hey,
these users aren't happy because of x, y, z. This came up in the analytics,
and now someone is complaining about it'. After digesting this, they make an
argument for what should come next. They enter their thoughts into the
dashboard, and a report is created with the data, and they move onto the next
one.
So, it takes them a lot shorter period of time to digest the data than
alternative solutions, because the process has been streamlined: they are a
part of what is essentially still a system driven by software, not people.
Their input is vital and could not be done by a machine, but the 'operations'
side of things has been automated.
For the reliability, it means that if one of our clients reaches out to us,
someone in the UX team will be there and can offer some on-demand insights.
It's a bit like having lots of smaller Heroku instances, vs. one big AWS one.
Does this answer your question? This is a pretty new service, so I'd love to
get any more thoughts.
Thanks again.
------
pea
I'm the author of the post, and I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone
may have here. Cheers!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Autohook – a single-file Git hook “framework” - nkantar
https://github.com/nkantar/Autohook
======
l4nk332
This is awesome, can't wait to use this (^-_-^)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why 2 Crises May Finally Force NYC Schools to Integrate - japhyr
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/nyregion/coronavirus-nyc-schools-admissions.html
======
ng12
I would have longed for the privilege of testing into a good highschool when I
was young -- let alone some of the best schools in the country. It makes me a
little sad to see the call for the system be dismantled.
------
hakka-nyu-su
"Integrate" here is used in an unusual way; to mean the abolition of
competitive standardized tests that produce majority-Asian schools
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Maybe Go without dependency management can be a good thing - cgarvis
http://mwholt.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/maybe-go-without-dependency-management.html
======
jsegura
or dependency management you can use external tools like godep[1]. [1]
[https://github.com/tools/godep](https://github.com/tools/godep)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Island of Lost Apple Products - nikunjk
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/lost-apple-products/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=twitterclickthru&pid=3956
======
6cxs2hd6
Link that's undecorated and goes to start of story:
<http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/lost-apple-products>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Calling the Oregon Lottery's Bluff After Poker Machine Dealt a Strange Hand - pavel_lishin
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-24178-man_vs_machine.html
======
hristov
Really bad article. Goes to great lengths to glamorize that Curzi person, yet
does not provide some of the most crucial information on the subject. For
example - does oregon law require that the machines have certain winning
percentage? And secondly did the state of oregon make a representation to
gamblers that this machine had certain winning percentage?
And finding documents marked "confidential" that say the machine has a certain
winning percentage means nothing. You cannot say that a confidential document
that was unknown to gamblers before Cruzi obtained it from a public records
request mislead anyone. If people do not know about a document there is no way
it can mislead them.
Since the article is quiet on the two questions listed above it seems very
likely that their answer is "no". In that case that Cruzi person, as glamorous
as the article makes him, probably has no case. If the machine is not required
by law or by previous advertisement to give out a certain percentage, I do not
see how the fact that the advice it gives results in a lesser percentage than
other possible advice is at all relevant.
~~~
harywilke
From the article: 'The lottery’s rules require “a close approximation of the
odds of winning some prize for each game” and say those odds “must be
displayed on a Video Lottery game terminal screen.”'
Curzi discovered that the odds displayed were not correct and the commission
knew about it.
~~~
hristov
That is also very puzzling. It gives the above quote but it does not say
whether these odds were actually displayed on the screen of this particular
game, and it does not say which odds were displayed (the ones with using
autohold or the ones without).
------
URSpider94
This is really disturbing. For all of the sleaziness of Vegas, any time I've
asked a dealer or pit boss about the house advantage in a particular game, or
the correct play for a particular hand, they've told me cheerfully and
correctly. They sell strategy cards in all of the gift shops -- and you can
have them on the table with you while you are playing. There's no need for
them to lie -- they already have the advantage, all they need to do is get you
to play long enough to let the odds do their thing.
~~~
kxo
Except that in the case of live poker, they're getting theirs via the rake.
I assume you're talking about blackjack: unless there is a CSM at the table or
an absurd 6:5 blackjack payout (you shouldn't be there in either event,
period) you can absolutely play to your advantage.
~~~
raverbashing
Well, the basic strategy for Blackjack is still slightly in favour of the
house
But yeah, you might track cards (good luck doing that with 10 decks though)
~~~
jacobkg
Most blackjack card counting strategies are no more difficult with a higher
number of decks. Instead of counting actual 'cards', one instead keeps a
running total of points based on the cards that come out.
In fact a higher number of decks can improve one's advantage when counting
because when the count turns in your favor it can happen with more of the deck
left to come (so a longer period of advantageous play)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting)
~~~
CPLX
This is incorrect, the larger the number of decks, as a general rule, the
smaller the advantage of card counting becomes.
~~~
kxo
If you're counting in a (rare) two-deck game with a full table, time between
shuffles is so low that it isn't worth it from a hand/hour standpoint.
~~~
CPLX
That's nonsensical. The EV of an hour would depend far more on the table limit
than any other factor. If I could find a table that would let me vary the bet
from $1 to $10,000 a hand on a two deck game they could have Parkinson's
patients with oven mitts on shuffling with chopsticks for all I care.
------
jab2014
The practices of the Oregon lottery seem wrong to me. Government should be in
the business of helping people and providing uncorrupted resources and facts,
not marketing dreams and hope to people while taking their money hand over
fist. John Oliver just did a good segment about this too
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-
netuhHA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA)
~~~
shit_parade
Many States deflect criticisms of for profit lotteries by advertising that
some of the proceeds go toward schools and other 'public' goods.
It is well known that lotteries pray upon the poor and uneducated, ironic
really.
Instead of monopolizing gambling, or giving sweet-heart deals to those close
to the government, or trying to outlaw it completely so we can see tragedies
like cops shooting people over playing fantasy sports, the state should get
out of the way, maybe provide counseling and treatment, and _gasp_ let people
do what they want with their property.
It's always about power, and ensuring most people don't have any.
~~~
Gustomaximus
Humans have weaknesses that can be abused. This is clearly the case in
gambling. The government must protect in some areas. For example with
financial advice, there are countless cases of people giving inappropriate
financial advice to the elderly, even getting them to sign away their property
while dying in hospitals. Sure it easy to say 'and gasp let people do what
they want with their property'. But what about this scenario? Would you be OK
if that was your relatives being manipulated on their deathbed to give money
to a previous stranger cause it is what they want to do with their property at
that moment in their life. Or, back to gambling, is it fair on the children of
the father/mother who gamble away their pay check each month leaving the
family destitute?
Above is more extreme but real examples to clarify a point. In my mind saying
people can do what they want with their property is overly simplistic and
assumes a more perfect world than the reality.
~~~
SilasX
>Or, back to gambling, is it fair on the children of the father/mother who
gamble away their pay check each month leaving the family destitute?
However bad it might be to prey on people by trying to trick them into
gambling, it's a trillion times better than just taking their money (the other
way of raising revenues).
~~~
umanwizard
why?
~~~
SilasX
Because in one case you can opt out.
~~~
ceejayoz
Gambling addicts can't opt-out very easily, and it causes them to pay tax
rates frequently higher than 100% of their incomes.
~~~
SilasX
It's easier for addicts to opt out of gambling than me to opt out of taxation,
and you can be treated for addiction but not taxation.
~~~
Domenic_S
Don't know why you're being downvoted, you're right.
------
thedufer
Is anyone else horrified by that demographics chart? The "income" pie chart
has a line that splits it almost perfectly in half, yet one side contains 61%
and the other 39%. The 24% piece is clearly way over 1/4, and the 25% way
under. Are they drawing these by hand?
~~~
fnordfnordfnord
Nice catch.
------
spuz
The conclusion that a lower payout means more money for the lottery and less
for the players is wrong. If a player receives a lower payout than expected
either through bad luck or cheating on the part of the video machine they are
more likely to stop playing. There is an online gambling company here in the
UK who strive to maintain a 95% payout across all their games because it is
deemed the most profitable long term strategy. The chances are that a higher
payout for video poker will result in higher earnings for the lottery company
which means there is a possibility that the auto hold behaviour is as a result
of lazy programming rather than deliberate maliciousness.
~~~
dagw
What if they claimed and displayed 95% payout, but actually only paid out 92%?
Don't you think that would be more profitable? Because that is basically what
they're claiming is happening here. Do you think enough people will keep track
of their winnings for long enough to catch the discrepancy?
~~~
spuz
That's hard to say. In the case in the article, the machine is obviously mis-
leading players by suggesting a less than optimal strategy. At the same time,
if the manufacturer of the machine wanted to lower the payout without
indicating anything to the player, they could simply adjust the probabilities
of the cards as they are dealt (I assume that is how most video poker machines
work anyway). I don't believe that individual players will have any idea
whether or not they are receiving the advertised payout, they can only respond
the the outcome of the game. Gambling companies do often advertise high
payouts but I suspect this is only attracts new players while the real odds
affect how long the players continue to play.
~~~
dagw
_if the manufacturer of the machine wanted to lower the payout without
indicating anything to the player, they could simply adjust the probabilities
of the cards as they are dealt_
Having a different payout than the advertised one is definitely illegal in the
US. What Oregon seems to have done is to find a neat loophole to get around
that law.
_(I assume that is how most video poker machines work anyway)_
At least based on how I understand the law, you cannot tinker with the
randomness of how the cards are dealt. The only thing you can use to alter
payout percentages is alter the actual payout amounts for different events.
------
PeterWhittaker
tl;dr: Oregon poker machines advise players to make moves that favour the
house, and couple those with an autoplay feature that accepts house
recommendations - recommendations that are inherently unfair to the player. At
least, this is what the lawsuit alleges....
~~~
ghostbrainalpha
You don't have to qualify that with "At least, this is what the lawsuit
alleges".
The lottery is not disputing they make recommendations that are not optimal
for the player. The question is are they obligated to give the best advice?
~~~
Navarr
I think no. Video games traditionally give tips - these are designed to help
out players who aren't sure what to do. They are not designed to be the best
possible move.
If the game autoplayed the best possible moves, what would be the point of
learning poker? Where would skill come into the mix?
This lawsuit seems frivolous to me. I would never expect a game to give me the
most optimal hint - only a hint for how to get closer to winning.
~~~
stillsut
The guy's in software but then he acts dumbstruck that the machine wouldn't
tell him the optimal move? Wouldn't you be happy if there was at least some
player skill involved which would contribute over time help you lose less.
~~~
URSpider94
That's not usually the social contract in gambling. The house usually goes out
of its way to make sure you know the technically correct play (i.e. the one
that 9 out of 10 experienced players would make). These are meant to be games
of chance, not games of skill. At least at the level that you would never draw
to an inside straight, if given the option not to -- that's just dumb. As
others have mentioned, there are times you might turn in a winning hand in
hopes of drawing a royal flush, since so much of the return is in the jackpot
-- that's less clear-cut, and I wouldn't expect a video poker machine to make
the jackpot-seeking recommendation, since it's not how you would play in a
5-card draw table game.
------
chernevik
My understanding is that state lotteries were initially justified as means of
putting criminal numbers rackets out of business. People were going to play
one way or the other, so give them an honest game and stop funding hoodlums.
That makes sense.
But there is no justification for state lotteries as revenue raising streams,
nor for behavior maximizing those revenues. They shouldn't advertise and
shouldn't be creating new games to increase their take. These are just taxes
on mathematical illiteracy and risk factors for people with gambling problems.
Of course, the revenues are more important to the politicians than the general
interest, so here we are.
------
jmspring
I avoid most video machines, but an anecdote from some time I spend in
Helsinki in the early 2000s while working for a company there.
Gambling, in a sense, appeared to be legal in Finland. In Helsinki there was
one Vegas style casino (similar odds, $10 minimum -- memory serving me right);
but many bars had 21 tables. The trip in the "bars" was a tie was not a push,
but went to the house.
Given I was a loner in a country known for it's lack of gregariousness (a
stereotype, I had friend's there, but many focused on family and those outside
the city didn't come in during the week), playing the odds was an interesting
gambit.
Giving up the natural odds in a tie is a push for 21 was a hard one to digest.
However, I offset some of it by always taking the #1 position. Not ideal
overall, but a help.
In the end, after 6 months there, tabulating pure gambling stakes, I ended up
a net positive by about 15%.
On my return to the US, my first trip was with friends to Vegas. My skewed
methodology of playing, assume no tie, for 21, permeated my game for the first
few hours. It resulted in unhappy players, but saw a slight uptick in my own
earnings.
I wish I had the time and energy to more fully document this period, but
playing games that expect one skew and then coming into another that expects
something else, at least for me for awhile was a benefit.
------
logfromblammo
I see a lot of comments here about suboptimal play. These are missing an
important point.
The machine is not playing poker. The machine is presenting a game that
superficially resembles poker, to achieve a slot machine payout rate of 90%.
As a slot machine, it is a game of chance, not skill. If the actual payout of
a machine advertised as 90% is 85%, that is fraudulently advertised odds,
period.
So the lottery posts a notice on the machine that user interactivity may
reduce the odds of winning. Relying on that information, everyone just hitting
the "play" button like a robot--treating this particular type of slot machine
like a regular, non-interactive slot machine--should realize the posted odds.
They did not. The owner of the machine was aware of this. The Lottery made
false statements to its customers, harming them by its deception and profiting
in the process. That's fraud.
It is true that the Auto-Hold function does not need to recommend the optimal
Draw Poker play. _IT MUST RECOMMEND THE PLAY THAT ACHIEVES THE ADVERTISED SLOT
MACHINE PAYOUT_.
------
brendanr
If you found this article interesting, check out the book Addiction by Design:
Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, by Natasha Dow Schüll.
It's an incredibly interesting book about building addictive gameplay, the
industry that does it, and the people that use it.
------
fsk
OPTIMAL strategy for video poker is hard. (assuming standard 9/6 JoB paytable)
For example, what do you hold with
(1) AH QH TH JD 3H
vs
(2) AH QH TH 9D 3H
On (1), you hold the 4-flush.
On (2), you go for the 3 card royal. (Reason: Discarding the jack makes it
slightly less likely to draw the straight, tipping the otherwise close
decision to favor the 4-flush.)
In the article, the machine was advising plays anyone with basic competence
would never make.
~~~
fryguy
Optimal strategy for a given hand isn't that hard to calculate, either. There
are 32 choices of how to hold. 5 of them have 46 possible outcomes, 10 have
2070 possible outcomes, and the remaining can be looked up in a table with
less than 13.5k entries.
------
swang
This is completely unacceptable, but the State will probably get away with it.
If the study he found showed the machines paid out _more_ than it should (but
still positive to the State) you bet there would be audits of the machine.
------
lnanek2
Don't even understand how this is an article, they flat out have a disclaimer:
> Auto-hold strategies vary by game, based on the particular features of a
game and do not necessarily result in theoretical payouts
On smart phone games auto is often not the best strategy, just the easiest
(Summoner's War with 30 million downloads, I'm looking at you).
Sounds like the guy was just ignorant and thought auto was something it was
specifically declaimed not to be. If it was labeled "Best" I might feel
something for him.
~~~
mwexler
... Or the guy was just like so many average humans and assumed that the
machine was doing something more than randomly picking cards to hold. If the
machine said it was auto-picking the worst cards, we'd all be mad. If the
machine said it was randomly picking the cards, we'd all be surprised: why
even do that? Who does it help? Therefore, from an implicatures pov, the only
reason for the machine to pick cards (or "suggest" cards) is to recommend a
good hand. Since the computer can often pick the best hand, why would we not
assume that it's doing so, to give us mere humans "a fighting chance", so to
speak? Why should we assume that it's not picking the computably best cards to
hold, other than our belief that the machine "cheats"? And that's what the
article examines.
I don't think it's ignorance on our gambler's part; I think it's the standard
"Black Hat UI" issue mentioned on HN so often: We assume that sw does
somethign to maximize utility for the user, based on the design or experience,
when it's instead doing something to maximize profit for some other entity.
Yes, it's a gambling machine; we all understand that it's designed to take our
money. But offering a feature as part of the experience that appears to help
when it doesn't (or to a lesser degree than would be expected via
presentation), would be deemed misleading by any reasonable person, small
print and disclaimers aside.
------
ck2
I'm waiting for "quick pick" lotto draws to be reviled as not actually random
but the machine picks numbers least likely to win because they recently won.
~~~
ivanche
:) Lotto draws are independent so you have an equal chance of winning with any
numbers.
~~~
VLM
You'd like to think they're independent and fair, but thats kind of the whole
point of the article.
To quote the state director in the article “I don’t think we’ve ever
represented that the auto-hold gives you the optimal result,” he says. “The
idea was that it gives you a good result.”
You'll get a perfectly good result if the lotto balls are loaded. Might not be
optimal, might not be random, but it'll be a good result, as in not some
random negative integer or a float or wrong number of balls.
~~~
ivanche
I agree with you that lottery _might_ make lotto draws unfair. For example,
they see in advance which combination of numbers is NOT played and somehow
they cheat and draw exactely that numbers. Lottery can do that for several
weeks in a row, thus making the prize pool bigger and bigger and atmosphere
between players hotter and hotter. As a side bonus, lottery can use fresh cash
(from stakes) for several weeks at 0% interest rate.
But, can they really do it? Manipulating lotto balls and drum (mechanical
devices really) is much harder than manipulating software behind some video
poker game. I don't say it's impossible, but harder.
------
pbreit
The Oregon commission is clearly in the wrong but I'm not sure determining the
losses is very straightforward. I'm guessing the lower payouts mostly result
in more time spent at the machines with nearly the same losses.
------
ivanche
I was developing online gambling games for 6 years and I'm totally on Justin
Curzi's side here. Oh, and if anyone's interested in how those games are made
feel free to AMA.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Millennials make 6 figure salaries but have no clue how to manage their money - tsrautde
Change my mind! Most people I talk to look at investing as if it's a liberty but growth of your spare income is as fundamental as managing your debt or costs, yet few people look at it like that. What is the biggest hurdle here?
======
gingabriska
Confidence, it just feels much easier and much less risky to do what you know.
It just seems super hard to even make a real estate investment as there is no
algorithm to work out if your investment will even yeild postitive ROI.
Also, it seems that big investments depend heavily on political climate and
some people are just closer and more aware of what's gonna happen next
law/rule/policy wise and it makes us feel like we've no connections so can't
really win in investment world.
There is simply no compatitive advantage.
We've money but not too much money. 1 million is not huge amount saved but if
you invest it and it's tiny.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
App-Powered Car Service Leaves Cabs in the Dust - MikeF
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/app-stars-uber/
======
unwind
This:
_Even if all the world’s fastest supercomputers were put to work, they
couldn’t generate a perfect algorithm to solve this classic puzzle, which
computer scientists call the traveling-salesman problem._
made me a bit sad; it's overcomplicating the description by introducing the
word "algorithm", when just "generate a perfect solution to this classic
puzzle" would have been so much simpler, and also actually correct.
I had read more Wired, this is where I would lament over how it used to be
better, and chase kids off my lawn, I guess.
Sure it's a "popular" text, but when it's _easier_ to be correct, I think it's
a bit saddening. This is a quite central sentence in their description of
Uber's algorithms, so I think they should have gotten it right.
~~~
allwein
I'm actually going to support Wired's wording on this one.
While it's possible to come up with a perfect solution to any specific
instance of the traveling salesman problem, it's the actual process of solving
that instance, the algorithm, that's actually interesting.
Remember, solving the traveling salesman problem is easy/trivial, it's finding
the shortest/optimal path that's hard. And for that you need a good algorithm.
~~~
kragen
There are several errors in your comment (and in Wired's wording).
Computers don't normally come up with algorithms; programmers come up with
algorithms. Using the algorithms we've come up with so far, TSP of the
complete graph of 4000 points, or even Euclidean TSP of 4000 points, is
intractable except in special cases.
We don't have a proof that there's no tractable or efficient algorithm. We
have evidence in the form of an NP-completeness proof, but although unlikely,
it's possible that P=NP and there's an efficient algorithm for TSP.
As far as we know, it's possible that a computer doing some kind of search for
algorithms — genetic programming is the sexiest kind of search, but of course
not the only one — could find such an algorithm. We just don't have any idea.
One of the consequences of the unresolved status of the P=NP conjecture and
the infancy of AGI is that we can make very few statements about the
capabilities of yet-undiscovered algorithms, or how easy or hard they are to
discover.
> Remember, solving the traveling salesman problem is easy/trivial, it's
> finding the shortest/optimal path that's hard.
You're quibbling about technicalities, and you happen to be wrong about them.
Formally, TSP is a decision problem: whether there exists a path shorter than
a given length L. That's not "easy/trivial". As far as we know, it's as hard
as computing the shortest path. Maybe you're talking about finding a path
covering all vertices, which is not "solving the traveling salesman problem".
~~~
9999
I don't understand why they're bringing the traveling salesman problem into
this at all. The core problem Uber has to solve is simply to get one driver
(of many) to the customer as fast as possible, not to determine the most
efficient route between all of the customers.
~~~
kragen
It's not that simple. They need to figure out which assignment of drivers to
customers maximizes some utility function. If they just send the closest
available driver, that may degrade service for some other customer, or leave
an important area of the city uncovered for the next unexpected call.
It's not the same problem as TSP, but it's surely reducible to it, given the
NP-completeness proof.
------
kragen
An interesting thing about this is that they're still basically a taxicab
service; they just have a better user interface and scheduling algorithm.
While the disappearance of taxi stands and radio dispatcher squawks in favor
of network servers and algorithms may highlight how much of our everyday
infrastructure serves an informational rather than a purely logistical
purpose, it's the small story here.
The bigger story is Craigslist ridesharing, and carpooling startups like
Zimride, PickupPal, Carpool to School, and CarBuddy. In countries like the US,
where the average car has something like 5 seats of which 1.2 are full on any
given trip, taxi and bus services are only able to exist _at all_ due to an
market failure of truly mind-boggling proportions.
Any time you drive _anywhere_ in a city, there's probably a reputable,
trustworthy person or two within a couple of blocks who wants to go close to
where you're going, at the same time. If you knew about them, you could go
pick them up (the 80% of the time that you don't mind driving an extra couple
of blocks), and magically your cost of driving would drop by half or two-
thirds.
It's a good deal for the passengers, too, compared to a cab. If your cost is
50¢ per mile, they might pay 25¢ per mile, compared to some 90¢ per mile in a
taxicab; and of course, as with Über, they can just walk outside as the
distance meter on their phone approaches zero.
~~~
OstiaAntica
Transportation inefficiency isn't a market failure-- cab supply is
deliberately limited by most cities, and the price a cab can charge is fixed
by the city as well. Similarly, jitney buses or other forms of efficient
private mass transport are completely outlawed. The government doesn't want
private bus routes competing with its clunky, unionized services.
The empty seat problem in private cars is more of an issue with personal
safety and the broad increase in crime over the past fifty years. Technology
should help here, but the reason low-tech hitchhiking has all but disappeared
is that it is not safe for the rider or the driver. This didn't used to be the
case-- the boomer generation hitchhiked across the country to college, for
example.
~~~
sedachv
"The empty seat problem in private cars is more of an issue with personal
safety and the broad increase in crime over the past fifty years."
It's more of an issue of the American perception of danger, and the anti-
hitchhiking laws passed as a result. Lots of people still hitchhike all across
the US.
~~~
hugh3
I'd say that the danger in picking up a random stranger as a passenger isn't
really about the danger that they're going to try to kill you. There's any
number of other ways it can go wrong. They can smell bad. They can talk loudly
or offensively. They can start going off with their theory about how the Jews
run the country through the freemasons. They can be drunk and throw up. They
can wind down the window and scream obscenities at nearby women. They can...
well, ask any taxi driver for stories about what the worst things random
strangers can do to your car.
If I were going to pick up random strangers to disrupt my otherwise-peaceful
me-time alone in my car, it'd have to have a _big_ incentive, and being able
to split the money I pay for gas just ain't it. Being a taxi driver is a sucky
job, and I don't wanna do it in my spare time for cents per mile.
~~~
kragen
Hmm, you have a good point — aside from people in the US being paranoid about
crime, they're also unbelievably intolerant, to the point that they're not
comfortable around teenagers talking loudly, drunk people, or people with
different political views.
~~~
hugh3
I'm not sure you're in a position to be lecturing others about tolerance after
a comment like that.
"Tolerance" is a noble concept in some sense. It means I respect the right of
others to be stupid and annoying in the abstract, not necessarily in my
passenger seat.
~~~
kragen
I'm a US citizen, and I don't claim to be an exception to our general lack of
tolerance; I mean, I've been unreasonably annoyed at teenagers talking loudly,
or people dropping cigarettes on the sidewalk, or making racist remarks, just
like most people from the US. I'm just observing a fact.
As for "noble concepts", well, there's the kind of tolerance that's a "noble
concept", and then there's the kind of tolerance that's an actual description
of how some people behave toward other people, some of the time. Like, how
Argentinians behave toward children, that people from the US don't. Or, for
that matter, how Argentinians behave toward US tourists.
Turns out that there are real benefits to turning down your annoyance and
smarter-than-thou attitude and digging folks who don't shop at the same
supermarket you do. I can't always do it, but I'm glad when I can.
(By the way, when you complain about how awful it is to have to talk to
someone who's stupid, you should consider how that would sound to someone
who's a lot smarter than you are.)
~~~
hugh3
Well that's great, but are we still talking about how folks don't want random
strangers riding in their cars? Because I _still_ don't want random strangers
riding in my car, and I don't reckon that's in any way unreasonable.
~~~
kragen
I never said people from the US were unreasonable, just unbelievably
intolerant. That's a matter of preference, and I don't think it makes sense to
describe preferences as reasonable or unreasonable. It's like saying that it's
unreasonable to have the flu or be short. Preferences aren't voluntary
choices.
------
jerf
Now, combine this with autonomous cars about ten to twenty years hence, and
you've got a recipe for a major sea change in how we get around. Just another
example of why I think naively projecting 20 years into the future as if there
will be no changes in anything is a foolish waste of time.
------
ianferrel
It seems like the biggest risk with this company is that they're effectively
skirting laws designed to limit the sort of service they're providing.
How long before cities up their rent-seeking and require all hired
transportation to have a medallion?
~~~
allwein
They're not skirting the laws at all. The hiring of privates cars, limos, or
buses is usually not restricted or regulated by cities.
The innovation here, and the reason the cab companies are up in arms about it,
is that it's now on-demand hiring of private cars via phone. The cab companies
used to have a lock on on-demand hiring via handwave or cabstanding.
~~~
ianferrel
"Skirting" was a poor choice of word on my part. I didn't mean to imply they
were doing anything unethical or borderline.
I simply wanted to point out that regulating cab companies and selling
expensive permits is a source of city revenue. If an innovative new business
disrupts that revenue, it may quickly find itself the subject of new
regulation.
Now, if their success is based on efficient routing algorithms and higher-
class service, then they have nothing to worry about. If it's based on the
fact that they don't have one of the cab companies' major expenses, then
they're at significant risk of being regulated out of profitability.
------
stanleydrew
Full, unpaged version: <http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/app-stars-
uber/all/1>
------
hipsterelitist
Perhaps I'm spoiled by living in NYC, but I don't see a way that this could
actually work here.
San Francisco is a notoriously awful place to catch a cab, but I hardly see
how taking advantage of a local policy/market failure represents something
that might be disruptive to a whole industry... particularly at a 40% mark-up.
~~~
dy
As a New Yorker, I'd have to agree. There already seems to be a glut of taxis
for most times of the day (in addition to the higher-end sedans that very few
people use).
~~~
mtalantikite
Even here in Brooklyn, where hailing a cab is more difficult than in the city,
calling a car service is super fast and not much more expensive than a yellow
cab.
Arecibo (car service) almost always arrives within 5 minutes, and on numerous
occasions I've had them say "ok, they're downstairs already" while still on
the phone with them.
Not really a problem in need of solving in NYC, although it certainly will be
interesting to see how it is received here.
~~~
modeless
Are you kidding? Pressing a button is way easier and faster than calling a
person and telling them where you are. Seeing the fare and paying it on your
phone before even reaching the destination is way better than settling with
the driver using cash or credit cards while sitting in the car at your
destination. This is a far better experience than calling a normal cab
service.
~~~
mtalantikite
Yeah, it doesn't make things so much easier that i'd pay more for it. The
process is about 10 seconds right now, and settling up payment is easy if
you're not a tourist in NY. It'd be one thing if it was a frustrating
experience, but to be honest it's pretty easy already.
Plus I'm sure the car services are going to be resistant to the fees
associated with it, changing their work flow, and are thinking about all the
income I'm sure they don't declare. Actually, I just remembered this article
from a while back about the car services:
<http://nymag.com/news/features/54678/>
But sure, maybe someday I'll tap a screen to take care of it once we hit a
quorum of use, I have no opposition to it. It just doesn't seem to be a
problem in my life that needs solving. Yet another third party trying to get
in between the transaction to skim some money off.
------
jrubinovitz
Excellent, the more things we're making more efficient with math, the better.
If the pricing proves to be a huge hurdle I think they should try a
subscription based model as well, and/or selling rides in bulk for cheaper.
------
weaksauce
How uber is the experience if you cannot get the cab on Halloween because it's
$500(or $x) and you cannot afford it?
~~~
OstiaAntica
That's a STRONG price signal that will bring more cabs into the marketplace at
peak times. $500 fares won't happen often or for very long-- I'd fire up my
own ride and pick you up for $250!
~~~
dy
That's a cool idea of crowdsourcing peak times. You sign up to get texts when
people are willing to pay for rides above a certain threshold and then just
drive your car out to pick them up.
I'd use it (and possibly do it, although hard to say and it'd have to be for a
ridiculous amount of money ~100+ range/trip).
~~~
weaksauce
There would need to be a reputation component like airbnb; otherwise, you
would run the risk of shady people picking you up knowing that you have >= $x
dollars on you and steal it.
~~~
skorgu
According to the article payment is handled via credit cards in the backend so
you could have $0 on hand. Your broader point definitely still stands.
------
MikeF
The heat map on page 2 is pretty interesting
------
maukdaddy
Paging tptacket - our resident taxi expert!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask NH: Why aren't you an organ donor? - latch
On average, eighteen people die every day because the organ they required was not available.
======
discard_account
People have festered a general level of hostility in my psyche that is only
overcome by personal attachment. I'd be willing to give my organs to someone I
cared about, but not to just anyone who needs them. I actually plan on being
subjected to sky burial (i.e. fed to vultures) after I die, so that someone
can get some use out of my corpse. I am more comfortable being generous to
vultures I don't know than people I don't know.
------
SageRaven
If I had a guarantee that nobody else would profit due to my donations
(insurance, doctors, hospitals), then I'd donate. If everybody else donates in
conjunction with my donation, then the system would be worth buying into.
Until then, I will not be party to the broken US health care system.
------
RiderOfGiraffes
Just thinking about the question with my nit-picking-bastard hat on,
technically you're not actually a donor until you donate something. Until that
point you're a _potential_ donor, or an _intended_ donor, or somesuch.
From that point of view I am a potential donor.
------
pdelgallego
In Spain, everybody is an Organ Donor. If you want to keep them, them you
should sign up in the non organ donors list.
------
nfnaaron
It's on my DL. You're all (all 6B of you) welcome to all my parts, once I'm
done with them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Design for a developer? - dhaivatpandya
Here's my problem.<p>I'm basically a developer and math type of person (if you read any of abstract algebra posts), and I'm trying to learn design.<p>I can do UI design pretty well, it turns out to be quite usable and friendly and people can get around it, but, I can't get myself to design something that looks <i>good</i>.<p>Something that looks, you know, out of the ordinary.<p>I try colors and shades, and gradients but they all come out looking weird and I can never get them to work well together like some of these pages:<p>http://captaindash.com/
http://mailchimp.com/
http://joshsullivan.me/<p>Where can I learn to do this? I'm not saying how I can learn to make AWESOME websites, but, where can I learn to make websites can people can classify as looking "good"?
======
hbien
For website design, I'd recommend two books: Mark Boulton's "Designing for the
Web" and Jason Beaird's "Principles of Beautiful Web Design".
It really comes down to practice. You could try imitating the websites you
like (implement but not release). It's good practice and will actively show
you what tiny details go into each website such as layout, typography,
gradients, shades, texture, colors, and so much more.
------
rigatoni1
Try out this book: [http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-
Bea...](http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-
Beauty/dp/1119998956)
I went to one his book tour events and it was quite insightful!
------
jashmenn
Regarding colors, shades, gradients, and noise, try spending some time on
bjango. This guy has a lot of bang for a small amount of reading:
<http://bjango.com/articles/noise/>
~~~
dhaivatpandya
Thanks :)
------
computerslol
Practice recreating site designs that you consider to be good, then practice
creating your own.
You'll have to devote a lot of time to this.
------
dhaivatpandya
Oh, I also wanted to mention, I don't have Photoshop, and that makes learning
even harder.
~~~
steventruong
There are lots of cheaper alternatives and some open source solutions. Just
depends on what OS you're running.
~~~
dhaivatpandya
Windows. Which makes everything a bit worse.
~~~
mrmekon
Not that I'm a designer or know what I'm talking about, but a few years ago I
switched from doing all of my graphics work in The Gimp to all scalable vector
graphics in Inkscape, and couldn't be happier.
It's a different method altogether, and skills from one don't pass to the
other, but once you get the SVG tricks down you can do a lot of tremendously
complicated designs with little effort, and the master copy is a breeze to
work with. Modifications and post-processing manipulations become cheap
operations.
It's a little unstable outside of Linux, but does run on OS X and Windows. On
OS X, it crashes pretty often but recovers cleanly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CloudKick.com account takeover. - adam_baldwin
http://www.evilpacket.net/2009/sep/16/cloudkick-account-takeover/
======
polvi
(Alex from Cloudkick) This XSS is no longer valid. Thank you for the bug
report. This was definitely a mistake on our end, and we deeply apologize for
the error. Will post another report shortly...
~~~
polvi
Wanted to give an update explaining what happened and how we fixed it.
The main issue is that we offer the ability for a user to change their email
address. This is a very common feature, and thus something a lot of sites fall
victim to. The basic nature of an XSS is that a malicious site can cause you
to POST or GET arbitrary URLs. Since cookies are always sent along with the
request, if you are authenticated, the attacking site can cause you to hit
traditionally protected URLs. This is normally a non-issue, as only your
browser reads the content -- the attacking site has no visibility into the
data. However, it is an issue when there are side-effects, when the malicious
site can change things to their advantage. In this case, they changed the
email address to their own via a post. From there, all they had to do was hit
the password reset function for their email address.
As soon as we found out about this, we immediately turned off email and
password reset. This prevented the XSS from working, as the urls in the attack
404'd. This was a temporary solution.
Next, we now require you to enter your current password when you reset your
email. This would also prevent the XSS, as the attacker would need to know the
users password. It also prevents against other attacks, such as someone with
physical access to your logged in session from resetting your email address
with out you knowing.
We also implemented the Django CSRF middleware. This protects the rest of our
forms on the site from similar problems.
As for impact, our audit logs show that only the attackers account was
compromised for the sake of his demo. Fortunately, he did not randomize the
email address used to change the password. If anyone _did_ become a victim to
his example, it would not have changed the email to his address (we only allow
unique email addresses in the system). However, it is possible this XSS was in
"the wild" with other addresses, but according to our logs and the nature of
the vulnerability, it is highly unlikely that it impacted any users.
As others mentioned in the comments, it would have been great for the author
to contact us before posting this. As motivation to future security
researchers, we will happily offer a bounty if you report your bug to us
before posting it publicly. In fact, if you're really good -- we'll happily
make the bounty a full time job with benefits! :)
If you have any questions or concerns about this issue, please do not hesitate
to contact me personally! [email protected]
~~~
sunir
I just want to highlight that Cloudkick did the _right_ thing and required
password confirmation to change the email address.
The attacker, EvilPacket, recommended the _wrong_ thing. They wrote, "The best
protection I have seen so far is to use tokens that are time sensitive, tied
to the user session and verified when the request is submitted back to the
server."
The reason that is wrong is because the attacker can request a new token using
the same method it submits a change.
Email and passwords work as challenges as they both cycle through the human
being that owns the account, rather than just the browser. it's important to
have more than one method that is tied to the account owner because if you
want to change one, you need to use the other to confirm.
~~~
tptacek
The attacker _cannot_ get a new challenge, because in a CSRF attack the
attacker never got to see the challenge to begin with. CSRFs are blind drive-
by attacks.
~~~
sunir
Two possible failures:
1\. Attacker makes one request. I read EvilPacket to suggest the time-limited
challenge is a token stuffed into the cookie. Attacker then waits a few
seconds before making the change request with the token safely in the cookie.
You should rather load a challenge in the submit form. I do recommend that for
user-generated content.
http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?EditHash
2\. However, if this page is vulnerable to HTML injection, you can get the
hash back by embedding Javascript that creates another iframe or img back to
yourself on the attacked page.
http://www.codecouch.com/2008/10/cross-site-scripting-xss-using-iframes/
So, I just find it safer to ask for the user's password.
~~~
adam_baldwin
You are absolutely right here. I guess I want to point out that I was not
wrong but simply vague (I guess I need to have a bit more peer review on these
things). I never said to put it in the cookie, I did say session (I meant
server side).
~~~
sunir
Just to be clear to the readers, putting the token in the session has the same
vulnerability. If you're going to use a token, put it in the form.
------
tptacek
Are these guys really dropping zero-day on production web apps to solicit new
business, or are they just not telling us that they've first gotten them
resolved with the vendor?
Brian Mastenbrook was hard on 37signals when he found his (much more
interesting) XSS filter evasion bug, but even he went to 37s before he posted
a website with a video, instructions, and a solicitation for business.
~~~
adam_baldwin
Thomas, I believe in responsible disclosure, but mistakes happen and I have
apologized to CloudKick with a personal email and here in the comments. The
intention of evilpacket.net is to educate on the true impact of low hanging
fruit.
I don't believe that demonstrating to a client or audience using an alert('a')
dialog box shows the true potential impact of these vulns. Sure you and I get
it, but those outside the industry may not. Many businesses are flocking to
the cloud for utility computing and cheap storage and need to be aware that
these complex systems are vulnerable too.
As for the other video's on the site and the advisories I have published the
vendors were notified first. This again was a mistake on my part. There is not
an intention to be purposefully unethical.
~~~
tptacek
Good on you for posting the apology on your own site.
------
tptacek
Hey, let me give you all two quick pieces of advice for your startups, while
security again has your attention.
_1\. Go Fix The Email-Form CSRF On Your Site_
The exploit that just got dropped on Alex at Cloudkick isn't an XSS attack;
it's a CSRF. You're probably CSRF-able if your forms don't include individual
hidden tokens that match form submission up to an actual form render. If you
don't, anonymous web pages can trick your users into GET'ing and POST'ing to
your forms.
What you need to do now is go make sure your email-changing form, in
particular, isn't CSRF'able. Because the email form is the CSRF attack that
videotapes well. Your password-change form is probably not CSRF'able, because
you probably require the user to enter their old password. But the email form
doesn't have that protection, and is password-equivalent.
You will probably not fully scrub your site of CSRFs; empirically, we just
don't see a lot of non-.NET apps that are fully protected from that attack.
But most CSRF attacks are hard to demo effectively, and are low/medium-low
severity. So at least get rid of this one.
_2\. You Need A Security Contact Right Now_
Get everyone who can code into a room and draw straws. The loser is the
security contact. Route [email protected] to her. Then put up a page that
looks like 37signals' security page (maybe with a little less detail for now):
http://37signals.com/security-response
This costs you literally nothing, makes it clear when you're getting douched
over by consultants, and makes it easy for reputable security people (ie, most
of us) to submit vulnerabilities to you.
------
clemesha
"It still makes me chuckle that the cloud is supposed to be this amazing thing
and yet simple XSS and CSRF attacks and pwn the daylights out of it."
A web app that is a GUI for managing cloud computing instances is NOT "the
cloud" - that statement is FUD and/or misinformation.
------
gruseom
This seems dodgy to me on a post of this nature:
_Does your web app need a security audit? YES. Get your security assessment
here_ <\-- links to presumed sales contact form
Can someone who knows the industry comment on this practice? (tptacek?)
~~~
bittersweet
In my opinion this is a bit like finding a exploit in a site and contacting
the company and publishing it later. It certainly is more flashier then
reading a .txt.
He uses a sort of scare tactic to let people see how easy it is to get into
some of the sites, it might work well. I bet Cloudkick has this as their top
priority now.
On the other hand, I don't know how many companies would want to hire him if
he didn't take the time to contact Cloudkick.
~~~
iuguy
I work in the industry and if what has happened is that the site requested a
test from them and was happy for them to publish this then yes I guess it's
appropriate, but I wouldn't really do it as it associates the firm with
hacking live sites.
To put it another way, to demonstrate the exploit you have to actually conduct
the attack. To find the exploit you have to do a PoC. If this was done without
explicit permission from the site owner it's legally shaky ground at best and
certainly (at least as far as I'm concerned) unethical.
------
adam_baldwin
So I need to apologize to CloudKick for dropping this on them without notice.
It was not my intention and it was not my intention to surprise them with
this. I have a laundry list of vulns that I'm trying to get organized and
communication with vendors is probably the hardest part. Many of them don't
respond. Ever. Again this was my mistake.
To try and combat this I will be including vendor communication logs in the
future posts / advisories.
-EvilPacket.
------
colonelxc
I think the submitter himself said it well in his Rackspace XSS hack:
"Web applications are never 100% secure. Also the amount of vulnerabilities
previously found in a product does not directly relate to the current state of
security in a product or service. A better measure of this is how quickly the
company responds and how they care about security related issues." ~
[http://www.evilpacket.net/2009/jul/9/theft-rackspace-
cloud-a...](http://www.evilpacket.net/2009/jul/9/theft-rackspace-cloud-api-
key/)
Responding to security issues has got to be crucial to these SaaS web apps. If
you can't trust a company to at least be diligent in trying to protect your
data, why should you give it to them?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Scratched my own itch. Is one week too soon to pivot? - chrisdew
Hi everyone,<p>I've written a bit of software that I needed. I have packaged it and attempted to market it. http://www.virtsync.com<p>With a few hundred dollars spent on LinkedIn and Google Adwords, there have still been no downloads of the evaluation version.<p>Is the site broken, or did I just have a unique need? (I would have happily spent the $49 that I'm charging, if the software had already existed.)<p>Is there a way to turn this software into a profitable service, perhaps like rsync.net? Or should I just forget it and get on with the next project?<p>Any comments on the site, software or future direction would be very welcome.<p>Thanks,<p>Chris.
======
powatom
$49 per machine is a pretty high cost, particularly for something which is new
and untested.
I'm no expert, but my gut feeling is that for this kind of tool - you need to
offer a more 'enterprisey' offering. The way budgets for the kind of places
that this tool would be useful are allocated, $49 for a single utility for
every machine it might need to be run on is something that sysadmins might
have difficulty explaining.
Bear in mind that the idea of syncing is not novel, and most sysadmins have
built their servers around the current tools and constraints available. They
are likely to look at your utility and think 'that's cool, but it's not worth
the cost: what I have now works even if it takes longer, and I'm not paying
anything for it'.
If you asked me to pay $49 for a faster version of rsync, which I then had to
incorporate into my tool-chain, I'd probably just forget it. The cost of
changing to a new utility is more than just the cost of the utility itself.
~~~
chrisdew
Interesting thoughts. Perhaps I should change the interface so that it is drop
in replacement for scp?
~~~
powatom
Sounds like a good idea to me - if users can try it out simply by installing
it and either aliasing scp or modifying their scripts very quickly, then I'm
sure more would be willing to try it out in a real-world scenario.
------
gspyrou
You may find interesting this presentation from patio11 "Marketing Software,
For People Who Would Rather Be Building It"
[http://www.kalzumeus.com/2013/04/24/marketing-for-people-
who...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2013/04/24/marketing-for-people-who-would-
rather-be-building-stuff/)
------
bjourne
Why not market a Windows version? As a Linux user, I'm accustomed to getting
stuff for free. rsync also isn't as ubiquitous there so you don't have to
complete with a free offering.
------
jgrahamc
I think $49 per machine is a lot. But the software interests me. The one thing
I'd like to see is a speed comparison between rsync and this product. Also, is
the underlying technology something that could be licensed?
For example, at CloudFlare we are generating 20GB of log files per minute and
we need to move these around. Finding a fast way to do that is important.
Clearly, CloudFlare could pay $49 per machine without a problem.
------
binarysoul
It seems to me that being "way faster than rsync" is not worth $49. Also there
is no comparison / explanation on the site of how it is faster than rsync.
------
kintamanimatt
You've conducted a single experiment and found out that the LinkedIn and
AdWords adverts you ran put nobody in your funnel. This is useful data. Come
up with some more ideas for experiments to run and run those. Pivoting after a
single marketing experiment though? Too soon.
------
MDib
Pick up a phone and call 50 offices, push through to SysAdmin. Happy to break
down why, but for now, try this.
Alternatively, but more difficult, track down some local IT integration
specialists, resell through them.
All it costs is your time and possibly phone bills.
------
t0
Split test and try some new pricing models. This seems like something that
should have the core free, with paid upgrades and paid support for large
clients.
------
GuiA
Random idea: but if your service is so good but addressed to technical people,
why not put it out for free (or even open source it) and offer paid support?
~~~
chrisdew
Thanks, do you think the price is a problem? Is everyone conditioned to not
realise that $10/mo for ever is more than $50 one-off.
Yes, sysadmins are the target market.
------
orangethirty
You only pivot when your tests point to it. Go test and make an educated
decision.
------
afics
Doesn't this do the same as $ rsync --inplace?
~~~
chrisdew
No, virtsync creates sparse files
The difference is important when you have many 50GB VM disk images with just
2-3GB occupied (as I have).
Rsync doesn't support --sparse --inplace.
Also the virtsync command line is more similar to scp than rsync. No need for
any configuration files - it uses ssh as its transport.
~~~
caw
I think one of the problems I'm having is figuring out where the product would
fit in my workflow.
Are you looking for people with dedicated backup and recovery?
Are you looking for people without BaR but uses a lot of VMs?
Should I backup anything with this, or just my VMs and DBs? If so, how does it
compare to [existing VM or DB backup system]
How does it compare to using rsync with hpn-ssh? Using hpn-ssh significantly
improves rsync speeds, though I don't know how it works with sparse files
since I use dedicated SAN backups for my VMs.
------
orangethirty
Do some market research before giving up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Silk Road Renaissance - Thevet
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/386-2007/features/8756-a-silk-road-renaissance
======
joveian
That was one of the most interesting things I've read here for a while, thanks
for sharing!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Facebook helps Ad Scammers – “They go out and find the morons for me.” - rvnx
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-27/ad-scammers-need-suckers-and-facebook-helps-find-them?1
======
rvnx
Facebook’s newly installed executive in charge of fighting shady ads, Rob
Leathern, had invited him to the company’s London office to explain the latest
affiliate tricks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hunting the Hidden Dimension - bootload
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/hunting-hidden-dimension.html
======
bootload
click on the "Transcript" link to read the article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
State paid $22K each for Internet routers - Lazare
http://wvgazette.com/News/201205050057
======
ghshephard
To be clear, from the article, the routers themselves cost $7,800. And, if I'm
rolling out a state infrastructure, and wondering what I can put in place for
the next 10 years to serve as a foundation, you could certainly do worse than
the 3945 - it's a very flexible ISR, and, all-things being equal, it's
probably not worth the hassle of putting 2921s in some locations and 3945s in
others. Who knows how much bandwidth you'll want on these high-speed fiber
connections 5+ years from now - the 3945 is rated for 350 megabits/second
(with features), the 2921 tops out at 75 megabits.
Amortized over 10 years, I would have chosen the 3945 everywhere versus
sticking 2921s in some places (the ISR that would have been an alternative)
and 3945s in others. Single Security Policy. Single IOS update Policy. Zero
doubt as to what features will run in a particular location.
I think what most people have difficulty with is that they are comparing this
decision to roll out a state communications infrastructure with the fact that
they can go connect a $60 linksys wrt54G in their house and serve a dozen
people without breaking a sweat. And get wireless as well! The issues involved
in scaling that across the state, while looking to the future, and managing
all that gear is a different challenge though.
I don't see any huge scandal here.
~~~
dclowd9901
This is pure, unadulterated nonsense. There are plenty of ways to manage
everything you mentioned with a tiered approach to the IT needs of the
municipalities of the state without resorting to grossly over accommodating
_every_ location. Hell, they could've even used some of that money for
regional IT management positions, putting people back to work.
Shame on you for justifying this nonsense in any way shape or form. This is
textbook waste ala bureaucratic laziness.
~~~
sliverstorm
Ten years of IT wages seems a bit more costly than some fancy hardware,
particularly when you remember the pension.
~~~
thaumaturgy
Does that in any way change his argument that the money could have been put to
better use?
~~~
readme
I don't think it does. In the example put forth in the article, the library
had only four computers! In the case of just this one library, they could have
had: ipads, kindles, more computers, more books and other media.
I think it's kind of a no-brainer that this is a prime example of incompetence
in government.
~~~
bricestacey
They would also need to hire someone to manage those devices which would cost
maybe 2x the router year after year. It'd suck too (not going to get a
competent person in that position).
~~~
thaumaturgy
My company provides free I.T. services, support, and sometimes equipment to
non-profits and other community organizations. We would be happy to be the on-
call techs for stuff like that.
I would be surprised if there wasn't somebody in their area that does the
same.
------
mikescar
"West Virginia Homeland Security chief Jimmy Gianato, who's leading the state
broadband project, defended the $24 million router purchase last week, saying
the devices "could meet many different needs and be used for multiple
applications."
"Our main concerns were to not have something that would become obsolete in a
couple of years," Gianato said. "Looking at how technology evolves, we wanted
something that was scalable, expandable and viable, five to 10 years out. We
wanted to make sure every place had the same opportunity across the state."
Wow. I've spent some time in West Virginia libraries, and yes the internet
connection was slow, but it's not due to the router. And in most towns,
libraries and schools are not going to be serving anyone outside their walls
with some kind of WAN. Best case will be public wireless near the building.
And how is it that the "West Virginia Homeland Security chief" is "leading the
state broadband project"? Seems like bureaucratic overreach, technical
ignorance, and budget authority all wrapped in.
Why not spend $50 for a router for libraries and something less than $22k per
school?
~~~
dfc
What decent router costs $50? That blue soho router your thinking of is for
your mom's house not a statewide installation.
~~~
mikescar
A router that can handle 5-30 clients at current internet speed standards
within a library setting. Yes, bigger installations could benefit from a $20k
router, but the vast majority of these routers are a complete waste of money
in WV outside of Charleston and Morgantown.
Unless there is some big backbone being built that can service a mostly small-
town and very mountainous state, spending $20k (each!) now so that your
routing infrastructure within schools and libraries won't be too slow in a
couple years is kinda crazy.
~~~
wpietri
I run my office network off of a $50 router quite happily. But that's because
I'm right there to take care of it. Earlier this year, for example, our
network got a fever:
[http://nerdfeed.needfeed.com/blog/2012/02/our-network-
has-a-...](http://nerdfeed.needfeed.com/blog/2012/02/our-network-has-a-fever/)
If I needed to cover 1,000 widely scattered locations for the next decade,
there is no way I would try to do that with a bunch of consumer-grade stuff.
Especially when trying to manage a bunch of existing T1s and a conversion to
fiber.
------
patrickgzill
Am I the only person that is (not really of course!) tempted to put on
official-looking clothing and confidently walk in with a laptop and Cisco
console cable, nonchalantly telling the librarian their "Internet box" "needs
a service upgrade".
And then quietly replace it (after dumping the config and replicating the
configuration) with a $100 half-depth Supermicro server bought off Ebay,
running OpenBSD?
And then walk out, like the Grinch after he artfully puts Cindy Lou Who to
bed, with a nice new 3945 for my own use?
EDIT: forgot to mention, I need a CF card reader also to get the config off
the Cisco flash.
~~~
smithian
If you then sold the router on the second-hand market and gave the money to
the library to spend on materials that they actually needed, your plan could
do some real good.
------
waiwai933
From the article: "I'm not an expert on the technical side," [Gianato] said,
"but these have all kinds of capabilities and applications."
Earlier: "Gianato acknowledged that he didn't heed Dunlap's advice or wait for
an evaluation.
'The routers already had been bid out,' Gianato said. 'I think John was
looking at our needs now, not looking at our needs into the future."
\---
So not only does Gianato admit he doesn't know anything (which means he's not
even suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect), but he also admits that he's
not sure what his IT advisor was thinking about, but, eh, it doesn't really
matter because the people who are the experts obviously don't think about the
long-term and I'm not going to bother asking them about it anyway, because as
we all know, bids are binding contracts. Right.
------
jsz0
I'm surprised this article actually does a decent job covering both sides of
the story. When you look at how flexible the ISRs are, and the likelihood
these devices will be in service for probably the next 10 years or more, it's
not not the worst investment they could make. They're actually well sized for
the high schools and other larger sites. Obviously any 3900 series is going to
be overkill for a little library but you do have to look at support costs,
service contracts, future requirements, future upgrade costs, etc to get the
full picture. This is not a 'bridge to nowhere' situation.
~~~
nknight
You can get an ASA 5505 firewall with all the features you'll ever need for a
small library installation for about $1200 retail (hell of a lot less if
you're buying, say, 50 of them), and any network engineer who can't handle ASA
configuration in his sleep should be fired immediately for gross incompetence.
There is no excuse for this insanity.
------
niels_olson
I have a buddy who sells routing equipment at this level. Doesn't have a
degree in Fahrenheit, but just cleared a mil in his bank account, owns his 6
bedroom Connecticut home outright and keeps a beach house in Mystic. He's 38.
I'm 36, a doc, and still paying off student loans and working for Uncle Sam.
------
dstroot
Private sector FTW. Please, please I hope everyone who reads this begins to
understand that governments are not meant to allocate resources. The idea
(promoted by politicians, mostly democrats) that we should give the government
our money and they will spend it wisely "for the betterment of all" is purely,
simply and fundamentally flawed.
Out government should be small. It should perform a few basic functions like
making sure we are secure, our trading interests are promoted and our banking
and financial markets are healthy. It should educate our children to the best
standards in the world. Finally it should make sure we are energy independent
and our food and water is uncontaminated. That's pretty much it.
~~~
epoxyhockey
Please don't make this a democrat/republican debate. This is the crooked way
that all of our US government is spending our tax money. We need corporate
money out of politics if we want to prevent these outlandish contracts from
being awarded to the corporations that donate enough money to campaigns.
It's not a democrat/republican or big/small government thing. It's about
corruption of the system.
Out of your comment, I agree most with that our government needs to help
educate our children. Without an educated population, things only get worse.
~~~
clarky07
how is this not a big/small government thing? We gave away billions of dollars
in a stimulus program with little to no oversight that is very clearly getting
wasted here.
While the republicans are certainly guilty of lots of spending and many
things, democrats are clearly the party that is guilty of more spending and
even bigger government.
~~~
_delirium
There are plenty of countries whose governments are _far_ to the left of the
Democrats who spend money much more wisely, so I don't see it as inherently
tied. For example, the Scandinavian countries have much larger governments
proportionally, but generally spend more wisely, and have more transparent
bidding/provisioning of their state-funded services, so they get more service
and less waste in return for their money.
~~~
clarky07
They probably do spend more wisely, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are
spending on something they should be. For example in this case buying the
cheaper routers would be spending more wisely, but could pretty easily be
argued that this isn't something we should be spending money on. Certainly not
at the federal level. Why is my tax money in Tennessee being spent on routers
in WV?
There are a few components to this particular screw-up. 1 is big government
spending (with little oversight) and 2 is one idiot in WV with a big budget
who failed miserably at spending it.
~~~
cantankerous
But it could pretty easily be argued that it's something that we _should_ be
spending money on. The existence of an argument against a course of action
doesn't, on its face, preclude taking that course of action. Such a line of
thinking is, well, bizarre.
_"1 is big government spending (with little oversight)"_
The _obvious_ problem here isn't "big government" spending. It's spending
_without oversight_. This problem occurs all the time everywhere, in sectors
both public and private. To claim that private businesses are immune to this
by nature of their ability to fail and thus inherently a better mechanism than
government is an absolute farce.
Take ownership of your government. To view the elimination of government as a
solution to bad governance is both a lazy approach to problem solving and
toxic to proper governing.
~~~
clarky07
Private sector isn't immune, just not as bad.
Nobody said anything about elimination of government, just less of it.
------
sbov
> Gianato said putting the same size router in every school was about "equal
> opportunity."
A little known fact in the tech community is that a $7,800 router provides
exactly 16.016 times more opportunity to a student than a $487 router.
~~~
tatsuke95
All the tubes have to to be the same size. It's only fair.
------
guylhem
Spending other people money is so easy. But $22k apiece instead of the $485
solution quoted in the article - that's madness. It can't be just gross
incompetence.
I guess someone involved in the decision got some kind of kickback, gift, or
will have a nice cushy job offer waiting for them at Cisco when they get fired
as they should be.
Remember this article next time some liberal ask to raise taxes and justifies
this by saying how stimulus money is important, and why everyone should have
the same opportunities (quoted in the article - as if a 22k router gave any
kind of opportunity to people browsing the net in a public library in WV).
And cry when they get trashed at the end of their lifecycle without having
ever been connected to optic fiber.
~~~
gjkood
"Remember this article next time some liberal ask to raise taxes..."
Unless I misread, the article is talking about West Virginia. I would hardly
call WV a bastion of liberal thinking.
Never attribute to malice (or political leaning) that which is adequately
explained by stupidity (or incompetence)
~~~
gwright
You're right. This isn't a "liberal" failing. Wasteful government spending is
an affliction that spans the entire political spectrum.
~~~
chmod777
Democrats controlled two of West Virginia's three House seats, both Senate
seats, the Governor's mansion, and the state legislature (which they have held
since 1928).
One of West Virginia's two current Democrat senators, Joe Manchin, was
governor at the time of the stimulus and appointed Mr. Gianato.
The executive branch of the federal government in 2009-2010 was controlled by
the Democrats, along with both houses of congress. The federal stimulus was
passed with no Republican support.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29obama.html>
The entire chain of custody from the grant through request for bids through
the eventual approval was controlled by Democrats. The only people involved in
this fiasco without a (D) after their name are those people who will have
their taxes raised in order to pay for these routers, because of course they
were not paid for with existing revenue.
This is very much a failing of Democrat administrations at a federal, state
and local levels.
~~~
jaredmck
Democrats in West Virginia are hardly liberal - they're sort of a party on
their own compared to the Democratic party elsewhere in the US.
------
franze
why do military closets cost 5000$ a piece? because it costs a sh#tload of
money to sell the military a closet. i don't know where i read this but it is
a great analogy.
i have been - in my time (2000? 2001? 2002? 2003? 2004? ...) - involved into
selling the national austrian television their first video streaming solution
(think: free (as in free beer) windows media streaming server) - it took man-
years. man-years cost money.
~~~
quink
I want to punch you in the face. ORF's IPTV stuff has been 100% unusable until
the Mediathek came along.
I could further elaborate on the reasons why this matters to me, but I'm just
relieved that it works OK now.
~~~
franze
yeah, i felt guilty for years. glad it's gone now.
------
keithpeter
HN-ers
I'm not a programmer or technical person, I'm an end user who uses R, LaTeX
and processing now and again. I hack an awesome spreadsheet. I have a degree
and I do a professional job.
I _could_ be a manager in a public service or an elected representative.
Perhaps in a small rural authority.
Given the lack of consensus in this discussion thread, and evidence in the
article of a similar lack of consensus between the various offices involved,
how am I supposed to reach a decision?
Is there a case for some kind of planning toolkit or requirements estimation
software? Is there an opportunity here?
PS: I and other colleagues did once have to help a senior manager spend out a
£250k capital grant in 10 days. The idiotic spending deadline was due to delay
in award of funds in a competitive funding round. We did ok but could have
done better with another month or two to think through detailed requirements.
~~~
amalag
You use your intelligence. The Cisco person says you can do what you want with
$500. Then do you continue to spend $30k instead? Do you think your small town
library is going to grow into a college campus (as the other pro-mega-router
people are expecting)
~~~
keithpeter
OK, I have to admit that looking at the picture in the article, I personally
would have tried to vire some of the money for the super-router into a less
fancy one and some decent all-in-one lcd desktop pcs for that table. The space
saved by the all-in-ones could have provided a 'quiet table' for someone (and
the PCs could double as DVD players).
I would have to make a spreadsheet (good at those) of all the sites and then
include a rating for current traffic and then expected traffic growth over the
life of the project. Yes, a library with 4 PCs is not going to have a lot of
growth...
------
GreyTheory
> Our main concerns were to not have something that would become obsolete in a
> couple of years
No you fool! These are designed to handle large loads, not protection from
obsolescence!
------
jaredmck
Interestingly, the CEO of Cisco is from West Virginia and went to WVU - I
believe he's one of the largest donors to WVU. (only know this because I'm
also from WV, not suggesting any conspiracy here)
------
Klinky
Sounds like a buffoon was in charge of the operation. Gianato suggesting that
the unused/unneeded T1 interface cards could still be used for "video
conferencing, wireless Internet and "voice over Internet protocol." is just
painful to read. I am not sure how they can be used for such things if you
don't actually stick them in a router!
I would still like to see a breakdown of the costs and what services are
provided with the routers before I call it a total waste though. If it was
just the routers then it was a waste. If it includes other things like a long
term warranty & onsite service, then maybe not so much.
~~~
frankydp
Some one should request a detailed FOIA.
------
ChristianMarks
West Virginia Homeland Security must be planning for a truly unprecedented
expansion of libraries and schools, based on the capacity of the routers and
the number of them allocated to sites with a handful of users. This is
heartening, especially during a period of massive cutbacks to public
education. ;)
------
kirillzubovsky
When a public school/library buys a 22K router with government money, sounds
like an overkill (handout) of massive proportions. Someone's cousin here was
probably on the Cisco + Verizon sales team. This is frustrating.
I remember a few weeks ago PB made a comment that at least social networks and
alike make it easier to spread the news, which eventually will lead to greater
good (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3890543>). At least that's true,
but doesn't feel like it's enough.
------
tylermenezes
Hacker News, you continue to disappoint me. Every time I read an article, I
know the comments are going to be filled with people arguing for the sake of
feeling superior. And once again, they are.
No. This is not okay. No twisted sense of reason that only you have makes it
okay. A $60 consumer router that needs to be upgraded every year is still
cheaper than this. Even with support costs. People have been rolling out
tiered infrastructure for years.
------
8ig8
I describe this as 'funny money'. The government is spending other people's
money.
I imagine the government worker that signed off on this purchase worrying a
lot more about a dollar increase in the local lunch special than millions
spent on equipment.
~~~
cma
It is also funny money because the marginal cost of producing one of these
routers is more like $500, not $20k. It is just a transfer payment to the
company, it isn't the same as if the government burned $20k worth of barrels
of oil. Nothing near that amount in resources was actually wasted.
~~~
msellout
Not quite. Cisco will probably take this purchase as a signal to produce more
unnecessarily large routers. Those people paid to make the unnecessary routers
could have used their valuable skills elsewhere. They may convince more people
to learn how to build unnecessary routers instead of something more valuable.
It's waste all the way down.
~~~
cma
Not exactly, unless you think those people will literally use their salaries
from the activities you described to buy something and go out and burn it. It
might be a mis-distribution, and it might spur misguided investment in an
area, but it isn't all squandered to the tune of exactly $20,000 or anywhere
close to that. The marginal cost is a much more accurate measure.
------
luminaobscura
i live in a developing country. I am thinking what would happen here if a
state offical had 24 million in his hands to spend on the infrastructure? The
official may be corrupt and this thing may never go to proper bidding. So
official and a company would share say 10 million as the profit. But 14
million would still go to something useful.
In this story, at least 20 million of the money seems to be completely wasted.
(Higher capacity router does not mean better internet access for 4-computer
lib.)
Wait, not finished. So our corrupt official has 2 million in his hands. He may
buy a car or a house, but probably he would spend it for something useful. So
much of the value would return to the market. This is also true for the vendor
company. But in the US case, the value is gone. it is like you burned the
cash.
Moral of the story: stupidity is more dangerous than corruption. You may want
to have a corrupt offical than a stupid one.
Finally, that stupid would never have survived in the relatively corrupt but
wild political system of my country.
~~~
doyoulikeworms
Yours is the most bizarre, vaguely chauvinistic straw man rant that I've ever
read.
~~~
luminaobscura
where is the straw man?
------
forgottenpaswrd
Time to connect the entire neighborhood to those machines and share the cost
/administration.
------
sakai
Well... at least they got high-powered routers for $22K apiece. But, it's a
shame there isn't a law on the books that selling the government something at
50X the market price / need is fraud.*
* Yes, I realize this would bankrupt half the military contractors as well.
~~~
clarky07
Can't blame them for selling them something they asked for. Who's to say they
were even told what they were for. This is government waste and incompetence,
nothing more.
You are correct on the military contractors as well though. Lots of government
waste and incompetence there as well.
------
timurlenk
I see a lot of posters argueing about the type of cisco router that should
have been used or if a soho Linksys router should have been used instead.
Assuming that the government has some rules that requires them not to deploy
soho or open source products and they have to spend the money on some big
brand company: how come Juniper was not taken into consideration (or other
known network vendors)?
I would argue that Juniper could provide cheaper equipment of simmilar of
higher spec (let's ignore for a moment if that is oversized or not) - and it
becomes even cheaper if you consider the simpler licensing terms and upgrade
support.
Isn't the government supposed to run open tenders? Is cisco mandatory in the
US?
------
patrickgzill
Verizon has successfully siphoned a bunch of money from the govt and by
extension, taxpayers, yet again.
Anyone familiar with telecom and living in PA, WV, other states that have
Verizon as the ILEC, knows this.
------
mehulkar
What piece of technology will stay relevant `5-10 years out`?!?
------
jeffpersonified
This is why I'm a libertarian.
------
graylights
Most of these places don't know what the box is and when Johnny down the
street comes in to fix their internet it will be replaced by a blue soho
router. There will be theft and waste and probably 20% of these will be
missing within a couple years.
A librarian will notice a computer missing, but an expensive router replaced
with a cheap one won't even be noticed for years.
------
suhastech
Similar story in India would be like "State paid $20k each for Internet
routers worth $20"
------
conformal
wow.
somehow i doubt these sites have multiple uplinks, so they certainly don't
need BGP routers. even if they're doing IPSec between some locations this can
be handled by an old piece-of-junk $100 computer running _BSD or_ nix, e.g.
with isakmpd and pf.
stuff like this is why america's infrastructure is crumbling: dodgy
contractors looking for an excuse to upcharge municipalities for irrelevant
gear and services.
~~~
dfc
You really want to advocate installing "old piece of junk" routers across the
entire state? Have you ever managed a project this large? And if so did you
use old piece of junk equipment?
~~~
sk5t
$500-1k appliances with Atom CPUs running pfSense, please, not $100 clunkers
with spinning drives and dust-laden fans.
Anything more than that for a moderately large library or most schools is an
outlandish, shameful waste of money and equipment.
------
shane_mcd
This is absolutely disgusting to me. The people that run big and small
government in this country are complete idiots.
------
dfc
The price includes maintenance and support correct? It is not 22k for the
metal only?
------
spydum
it's sad, but nothing new. either verizon is lying about who asked for the
specific model, or some inexperienced network "architect" decided not to do
the due diligence to spec out what was required, and just asked for the moon.
------
dfc
The price includes maintenance and support correct? Its 22k for the metal
only?
------
PaulAnunda
Smh, so much waste.
------
georgieporgie
Regarding planning for the future, this seems like someone who was used to
buying machinery was put in charge of buying technology. Sure, in five years
the library might need a gigabit of bandwidth, but by then the Linksys WRT may
well handle it for $100. It's not like you're buying a work truck, which may
well serve the government for 5, 10, or even 15 years (assuming low usage), or
a lathe that might be used intermittently for 35 years.
There's a lot to be said for uniformity in deployment, but that's why you
would define, say, three tiers of supported hardware instead of kitting out
everyone with top-of-the-line.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Kubernetes Best Practices - shifte
https://medium.com/@sachin.arote1/kubernetes-best-practices-9b1435a4cb53
======
thesandlord
This seems to be a straight copy-and-paste of one of my talks. With zero
credit to me :(
[https://speakerdeck.com/thesandlord/kubernetes-best-
practice...](https://speakerdeck.com/thesandlord/kubernetes-best-practices)
WTF...
(BTW I'm creating a full deep dive series to go into each of these bullet
points in much more detail)
~~~
kuschku
And not only is it a copy-paste, it also manages to introduce errors, and
still get thousands of views.
Well, had I known this post actually was based on your talk, I could have
avoided all the effort (see my comments below in this thread)
~~~
thesandlord
I really appreciated your deep dive comments, they were good! People who see
it will actually learn some best practices.
~~~
kuschku
Thanks! I’m also looking forward to your writeup of the talk. Do you know
where you’re going post it, so I could find it once it’s finished? (Maybe even
a platform with notifications, so I can subscribe?)
~~~
thesandlord
Not sure right now, but I'd say follow me on Twitter and Medium and I'll
definetly let you know! (both in my HN profile)
------
orf
Thank you for these 30 bullet points with no description or further detail
other than 'do this'. Some are pretty common-sense, others not, and for these
merely saying it's "best practice" with no extra detail, links or accompanying
reasoning is not enough.
~~~
kuschku
Not OP, but I’ve been running a kubernetes cluster for a few months myself, so
I’ll try to give context.
> Don’t trust arbitrary base images.
Kinda obvious, the equivalent of "don’t trust any random binary from the web",
as it can contain malware at worst.
> Use small base image.
Generally, you should look at using Alpine as base image, to reduce storage
size, and memory consumption of the overlay filesystem that docker uses. But
be aware, Alpine uses musl and busybox instead of GNU libc and utils, so some
software might not work there. Generally, this is also common sense. See more
at [https://alpinelinux.org/about/](https://alpinelinux.org/about/) and
[https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine/](https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine/) – but be
aware, often the projects you want to depend on already have an alpine image
(e.g., openjdk, nodejs or postgres images are all available in an alpine
version, reducing their size from 500M+ to around 10-20M)
> Use the builder pattern.
With containers, many people include all build dependencies in the final
container. Docker has a new syntax to avoid this, by declaring first a builder
container, with its dependencies, then building, and then declaring the final
container, and COPY'ing the build artifacts from the build container. This,
too, keeps container size a lot smaller.
You can find more here: [https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/eng-
image/multistag...](https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/eng-
image/multistage-build/)
> Use non-root user inside container.
This is basically common sense with regards to docker as runtime, and is bad
security practice (especially when combined with problematic filesystem
mounts). Also is recommended by the Docker team:
[https://docs.docker.com/develop/dev-best-
practices/](https://docs.docker.com/develop/dev-best-practices/)
> Make the file system read only.
I’m not sure what OP is referring to here, but if it refers to the container
filesystem, that is because writing to AuFS or OverlayFS is significantly
slower (and more memory intensive) than writing to a PersistentVolumeClaim or
EmptyDir volume in Kubernetes, so you should always mount an EmptyDir volume
for all log folders, temporary data, etc, and a PersistentVolumeClaim for all
persistent data.
Also is recommended by the Docker team: [https://docs.docker.com/develop/dev-
best-practices/](https://docs.docker.com/develop/dev-best-practices/)
> One process per container, Don’t restart on failure, crash cleanly instead,
> Log to stdout & stdderr
This is related to the logging system (which mostly looks at stdout and
stderr), which is a result of the fact that Kubernetes itself was mostly
designed to work with a single process per container. Yes, you can spawn
multiple processes, from a single shell, and print their combined stdout, but
then you also need to ensure that if one crashes, everything restarts
properly.
If you use a single process per container, logging to stdout/stderr, then
scaling is a lot simpler, and restarts are handled automatically (and this is
required for staged rollout).
> Add dumb-init to prevent zombie processes.
If you need multiple processes, and one that isn’t PID1 crashes, you’ll end up
with zombie processes. A single process per container obviously avoids this,
but if you have to use multiple, at least add an init system to reap dead
child processes, potentially restart crashed dependent processes, etc.
Normally, docker supports the --init parameter to do this, but the version
recommended for use with Kubernetes does not support this yet (EDIT:
apparently, since 1.7.0, Kubernetes actually does automatically do this for
you), so you could add e.g. [https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-
init](https://github.com/Yelp/dumb-init) or
[https://github.com/krallin/tini](https://github.com/krallin/tini) (both
officially recommended by the Docker team)
~~~
kuschku
Continuing further:
> Use the “record” option for easier rollbacks.
As explained in the documentation here
[https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/de...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/deployment/#checking-
rollout-history-of-a-deployment) this option records the changes you apply
with each version, allowing you to roll back to any previous version, and see
the changes.
> Use plenty of descriptive labels.
Not just descriptive, but you should also label by version, service, etc. You
can use labels also in selectors for loadbalancers and ingresses, and you can
also query the CLI by label. This not only makes it easier to find things, but
also can be very useful, for example when rolling out a new version – label
each with version=..., and then just change the label selector of the
LoadBalancer.
How to use selectors, and labels, is explained here
[https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-
ob...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-
objects/labels/) (I know that this explanation is very limited, but I don’t
know of a better documentation of this feature)
> Use sidecar containers for proxies , watchers etc. Don’t use sidecar for
> bootstrapping. Use init container instead.
For bootstrapping, Kubernetes will first execute init containers in order,
then start the main container. This ensures that they operate
deterministically. If you try to do this with sidecars, you might end up with
containers running when they aren’t necessary anymore, but also need to build
your own deterministic bootstrapping, and handle errors in one of them
yourself.
Also see [https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-
container/con...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-
container/configure-pod-initialization/) and
[https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/init-
cont...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/init-containers/)
> Don’t Use latest or no tag.
This is basically common sense, as for any dependency – the way projects
update significantly differs, some might never do breaking changes, others
might break their entire API in every minor release, and as result, your
service might end up down. This is the reason why a decade ago every sysadmin
used Debian Stable (no breaking changes ever). On the other hand, if you
specify fixed versions, make sure to check for bugfixes manually (e.g., I
recently saw a container from a major project that was built with an outdated
release of the JVM because they had never updated that version tag).
> Readness & liveness probes are your friends.
Readiness and liveness probes are especially useful for load balancing again –
they determine if a service is ready to serve, and automatically remove them
out of the pool used by the service, so that requests are only routed to
services that are up. You don’t have to use HTTP probes either – for example,
several helm charts for clustered databases use their CLI client as probe.
More about the probes here [https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-
container/con...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-
container/configure-liveness-readiness-probes/) and how they affect the pod
lifecycle here [https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/pod-
lifec...](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/pod-
lifecycle/#container-probes)
________________________
And most of the rest seems pretty obvious.
Generally, for people interested in the topic, /r/kubernetes,
[https://kubernetes.slack.com/](https://kubernetes.slack.com/) and #coreos on
Freenode might be a much better place for a discussion than this HN post of an
article with bullet points, no explanation, and countless typographic errors.
~~~
orf
Thank you both!
------
MBCook
Well this was really disappointing. I imagine the number of the things in here
or really useful but without more details on WHY you should or shouldn’t do
some of these things… I’m not sure why I should follow.
This is essentially a simple bulleted list.
------
camdenlock
This would be interesting (and useful) if any of the assertions came with
explanations.
------
rileytg
anybody have some more detailed advice along these lines?
~~~
shaklee3
Kuschku has good descriptions above
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bill Gates orders £500m hydrogen-powered superyacht - ciconia
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/09/bill-gates-orders-500m-hydrogen-powered-superyacht
======
smn1234
[https://www.inc.com/don-reisinger/no-bill-gates-didnt-buy-
wo...](https://www.inc.com/don-reisinger/no-bill-gates-didnt-buy-worlds-first-
ever-hydrogen-powered-super-yacht-for-644-million.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Village Sin Eater - pepys
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-worst-paid-freelance-gig-in-history-was-being-the-village-sin-eater
======
dghf
IIRC, one of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels (a.k.a the Master and
Commander series) sees a former sin-eater among the crew: ostracised by his
crew-mates, he is taken on as a surgeon's mate by Dr Maturin.
~~~
strictnein
Another occurrence in pop culture: The Order, with Heath Ledger, focused on a
Sin Eater. Not a great movie, but I remember enjoying it enough in the
theater.
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304711/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304711/)
~~~
whybroke
There was also a 'Night Gallery' episode centered sin eaters this with a
typical Rod Serling (or who ever he copied in this case) twist ending.
------
kazinator
Ah, I read about this long ago in a short story called "Eater of Souls" (maybe
the one by Henry Kuttner [1937]?). I didn't read it in English, but a
translation.
The central character is treated like untouchable scum because of his
profession as eater of souls. Yet he is necessary. I seem to remember about
the eater getting a reward of actual food. People would leave the eater of
souls some food and stay the heck out of his way while he does his job not to
have any interaction with him. So by eating souls he actually gets to eat.
A similar theme of discrimination against undertakers is explored in the
Japanese film _Okuribito_ ("Departures").
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenFit:open source bluetooth enabled smart digital scale - pinar747
http://opnfit.blogspot.com
======
pinar747
Bluetooth \- easy to use, no wifi link or router required. \- use anywhere,
work/gym/home... works seamlessly with other scales. data is on your phone,
not on a scale \- simple connection to devices, no wifi router headaches. just
like a bluetooth headset \- smartphone compatible so all your information is
at your fingertips
Open Source \- apps/developer access \- modifications by the community
encouraged \- no third party web host, your data is your property
Affordable \- $59 kickstarter special, $75 retail price \- vs. $150 to $280
for a competitor wifi scale
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Asqway – ask questions and get recommendations - pratim
https://itunes.apple.com/app/asqway/id1039694793?ls=1&mt=8
======
pratim
Any questions on the App? email us [email protected]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook Hit With Lawsuit: Could This Spell The End Of The Social Giant? - Peroni
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140107133638-64875646-facebook-hit-with-lawsuit-could-this-be-the-end-of-the-social-network?trk=tod-home-art-list-large_0
======
dancryer
The link is broken. :(
~~~
ColinWright
I know this isn't very useful for you, but it works for me.
And the answer is "No."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Day of the Tentacle Remastered - doener
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/dayofthetentacle_storefront
======
atemerev
The memories!
Back in 1995, in Russia, where nearly nobody even seen any legal software,
there were countless CDs with titles like "Best 100 adventure games ever",
thoroughly repacked by your friendly Russian pirates, with launchers. On one
of those CDs, I encountered "Day of the Tentacle". I was 12 years old, and I
didn't speak English.
Few months later, when I got to this ending screen with tentacle-shaped US
flag, I understood some English, and knew a thing or two about US founding
fathers, the Constitution (probably not mentioning any vacuum cleaners),
quarter-taking laundry machines and so on. Everyday life in the US seemed no
less strange to me than mad scientist's lab with sapient tentacles and toilets
converted to time machines.
Will definitely play it again.
~~~
tripzilch
A few months ago I ate _kumquats_ for the first time in my life (weird, but
delicious). Before that I only knew the fruit from playing this game when I
was young! (not a very common fruit in the Netherlands).
I had _not_ expected them to be like tiny oranges/tangerines you can eat with
peel and all. From the graphics in the game (IIRC basically yellow circles) I
always assumed they might some kind of small peaches or you know, yellow
cherries ... :)
------
dmit
This is the perfect moment to mention that Ron Gilbert's new game Thimbleweed
Park is coming out this summer.
[https://thimbleweedpark.com/](https://thimbleweedpark.com/)
~~~
pygy_
The dev blog is a treasure trove.
[https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/](https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/)
~~~
Yuioup
Cool! Does it use SCUMMVM?
[Edit] Yes I am aware of the irony.
~~~
pygy_
No, they use a custom engine (Ron Gilbert's pre-existing engine with the
Squirrel language for scripting, augmented with custom sugar around coroutines
to more or less emulate the way SCUMM did threading).
Well, their lead tester is Robert Megone who used to work on ScummVM (and for
Revolution Software), but that's not really using ScummVM.
ScummVM is used by Disney (who bought the copyright of most of Georges Lucas'
stuff) for their GOG re-releases (10 years after LucasArts sent out the
lawyers to try to shut down the project), and by others for non-Scumm games as
well.
Also, the guy who wrote the point and click interface for Grim Fandango on
ResidualVM was hired by DoubleFine as a consultant so that they could adapt
his code for the remastered version.
That's all the ScummVM-related trivia I could remember from the top of my
head.
------
lhl
2PP (the guys that made the Broken Age doc) have also made a "making of"
featurette for the DOTT remaster:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjF4eMrYfG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjF4eMrYfG0)
It's pretty great - showing everything from how all the artwork was redrawn,
to the remastered audio (pulled from the original DAT recordings), to Peter
Chan's remarkable concept art. (which is included in the game!)
I have the original game packed away somewhere, and I'm sure that I could run
a copy on scummvm, but for me, paying $15 to support the kind of care and
attention that went into this remaster is a no-brainer.
------
giblet
Also, Grim Fandango
[http://www.grimremastered.com/](http://www.grimremastered.com/) and Full
Throttle "Coming Soon"
[http://www.doublefine.com/games](http://www.doublefine.com/games)
~~~
the_af
Grim Fandango is deservedly loved, but Full Throttle has a special place in my
heart.
First, because it was one of the first "talkie" adventure games I legally
owned -- I think it came as a demo game with the Soundblaster card? -- and
also because of the cartoon art style and post-apocalyptic biker gangs theme.
And the voice-overs. I really, _really_ would love to see a sequel done in
glorious 2D. 3D would ruin it for me; the style was everything in this game.
~~~
david-given
And the soundtrack!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doP8gF2rais](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doP8gF2rais)
~~~
leonroy
Ah yes, The Gone Jackals. After finishing Full Throttle and being so smitten
by that tune I resolved to find a copy of their album 'Bone to Pick'. As a 12
year old kid it took me some time to figure out where to buy it but definitely
worth the time and pocket money spent!
An underrated album and still very much worth a listen.
------
tyreater
Also DRM-free on GOG(Good Old Games):
[https://www.gog.com/game/day_of_the_tentacle_remastered](https://www.gog.com/game/day_of_the_tentacle_remastered)
~~~
kuschkufan
It's DRM-free in the Humble Store as well. Look for the DRM-free icon on the
right. I'm pretty sure it's also without DRM on Steam.
~~~
slazaro
Including Steam itself?
~~~
HeadlessChild
Steam can be run in offline mode.
~~~
blub
Unless it decides that it can't and then you either go online or can't play.
Friendly DRM systems like the AppStore or Steam might seem a good idea until
one gets burned by them.
I should know, still haven't learned my lesson.
~~~
pjc50
Many old games like this that are _optionally_ available through Steam don't
actually integrate the DRM, so you can run them outside of Steam as well.
The old UFO/XCOM games for example are sold through steam, but ship as a
DOSBOX.
------
Negative1
Fond (but painful) memories of playing through Maniac Mansion and I remember
seeing DOTT for the first time at a CompUSA display showing off this fancy new
CD-ROM thing. That and Tie-Fighter were jaw dropping for the time. It's funny
because VR is supposed to be this incredible new thing but even the most
impressive demos haven't given me that same amazement as seeing games like
this for the first time.
This looks much better than the Monkey Island "Remasters" but looks like they
broke "lipsyncing"? What a step backwards.
I'm surprised this game even needs a remaster. Played it a few years back and
it still holds up -- timeless style more than makes up for a little bit of
pixelation.
~~~
BurningFrog
> even the most impressive demos haven't given me that same amazement as
> seeing games like this for the first time.
You have probably matured out of the easy amazement age.
~~~
ux-app
I wonder if there's any way to get it back as an adult.
~~~
fit2rule
Have kids. Stand back and watch.
------
CalRobert
I realize they can't always control this, but it's a bummer to see no Linux
option.
~~~
doener
"Mac and Linux versions of Day of the Tentacle Remastered will arrive
fashionably late, but they are still coming…"
[https://mobile.twitter.com/DoubleFine/status/707279700972822...](https://mobile.twitter.com/DoubleFine/status/707279700972822528)
~~~
ekianjo
Why didn't they wait to release everything at once instead of making Mac and
Linux look like fourth class citizens?
~~~
cstuder
And artificially delay the release of a finished product? Why should that be a
good idea?
Additionally, according to Steam and GoG the Mac version is available already.
------
Razengan
Now for a Zak McKracken remake or reboot, please. :)
Also a sequel, even if just in spirit, to The Dig would be amazing.
~~~
rosege
it exists - through space and time
------
tjbarbour
relevant: [http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/22/11284908/everybody-
loves-j...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/22/11284908/everybody-loves-jar-
jar-binks)
> "Universally beloved character Jar Jar Binks makes surprise appearance in
> new video game"
[https://twitter.com/TronKnotts/status/712317099092398080?ref...](https://twitter.com/TronKnotts/status/712317099092398080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
------
mmanfrin
It occurs to me that DotT, along with Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Curse of
Monkey Island, The Dig, Sam and Max, and a whole bunch of other IPs are now
owned by Disney.
~~~
saganus
Oh those names bring memories.
Grim Fandango, Curse of MI and Sam and max especially. Also Indiana Jones and
the Fate of Atlantis.
I know a lot of that is pure nostalgia, but I sometimes fire them again and
even finish them up yet again and wow. It's just art. It's like re-reading a
book I guess.
------
dismal2
>Players are able to switch back and forth between classic and remastered
modes, and mix and match audio, graphics and user interface to their heart’s
desire.
NICE!
~~~
MaddoScientisto
There are also some new easter eggs that appear in the new graphics, like a
jar jar binks portrait in the past that was very pixelated in the original and
some other "hidden" graphical stuff in previously unintelligible pixelated
text
------
indiefan
Is there a way for me to play maniac mansion legally on a modern computer?
~~~
david-given
Yes --- there's a copy built in to Day of the Tentacle.
Go to Weird Ed Edison's room and use his computer, and it'll start up. Or,
well, it used to. I've only ever played it on ScummVM, which didn't support
that opcode, but it was trivial to haul out the data files and run them
separately.
I have no idea whether the remastered version still contains this. I hope so
(I've never finished Maniac Mansion).
~~~
balls187
> I have no idea whether the remastered version still contains this.
It does.
Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/day-of-the-tentacle-remastered-the-
kotaku-...](http://kotaku.com/day-of-the-tentacle-remastered-the-kotaku-
review-1766371712).
~~~
david-given
Awesome.
------
fla
I wonder how much of it was automatically processed vs manually
redrawn/corrected.
~~~
mechazawa
I have played the game for about two hours and it looks like most of it was
automated. It's blatantly obvious at some points.
~~~
Tobold
Yeah, when I saw the screenshots I immediately thought that it looked like the
HQx filter.
~~~
fla
It seems to do a pretty good job btw.
------
cja
"Hey, Laverne. How'd you get upstairs?"
"Am I upstairs? I got lost."
------
neves
I loved so much this game that I stopped games! I could see myself spending
days and days playing games like this and doing nothing in my life.
Does it have a version in other languages? I'd love to play it with my kids.
~~~
tluyben2
Serious remark: I am Dutch and when I was very young and computers and games
were rare I played text adventures and they were English only: I do not think
I can imagine a more efficient way of learning reading and writing as a young
child. Why not let them play the games in English? I live in Spain now and the
major complaint the youth makes about learning English is that everything is
available and usually forced (dubbing in movies and tv shows included) in
Spanish so even if they write/speak English I cannot really understand it; too
little real case practice.
Edit: also I see in daily life how my Portuguese colleagues struggle finding
answers because they read docs/learn and have errors/feedback in PT and so
search answers in Google in PT as well which often works but in some cases
does not and usually I have to figure out what the problem is in English which
will usually provide the answer. I see that the better coders in our team and
switch their computers to EN and follow the English tutorials so why not do
that straight away... For maintenance, even in small companies, comments need
to be in English so why use PT/ES in the first place for codoing. Not saying
you should teach your kids programming (although, why not) :)
~~~
the_af
A thousand times this! I learned English by playing games by LucasArts and
Sierra! (Ok, and also taking classes, but you get the point). Text adventures
were particularly good for learning, since the parser encouraged me to find
synonyms for verbs it didn't understand... I still remember I learned the word
"rub" in Space Quest 2, for the part where you need to rub berries over Roger
Wilco's body so that he wouldn't get eaten by a monster.
Games seem like a particularly good way of encouraging young people to learn
other languages.
------
MaddoScientisto
I played it a lot as a child and replaying it now made me realized just how
much I missed. Since I don't live in america I had zero knowledge of their
history so the whole past section was about some vaguely famous guys I didn't
know. Now as an adult Hoagie's dialogue just cracks me up every time and so
much more stuff is funny that I didn't notice back in the day. Basically
growing up made this game 100% better
------
FloNeu
A classic adventures - i miss them, hope someone is doing Toonstruck too :)
Would like to play this again, without my eyes bleeding.
------
dopkew
I've been searching for this game on and off for years and could never find
it! I've always been searching it as DOT or D.O.T. !!
------
omegote
Not enough bang for the buck when you can get a similar enough result with
scummvm and super sampling. I'm sorry, but I'm not giving any money to Mr.
Schafer again, I already made that mistake with Double Fine and oh God how I
regret it.
~~~
ngoldbaum
Are you talking about Broken Age? What was the problem? You got an excellent
documentary about the realities of game development, the full game, and
whatever additional rewards you pledged for.
If the issue is that the game was split into two parts, I have very little
sympathy for that, since you _still_ got the documentary, and got the full
game. You also received both halves of the game for your original pledge
amount. Games take time and effort to develop and sometimes there are delays.
~~~
omegote
The kickstarter campaign was a mess. The product was delayed a lot, it was way
over budget, and this was not the first time Schafer pulled one of this stunts
only to finally produce a game that many backers disliked (myself included).
There are many articles that explain the kickstarter fiasco better than me, if
you need more details.
~~~
rantanplan
Spot on. I was waiting for years for this game. To be honest I didn't back it
on kickstarter, but I bought it when the first chapter got out.
It was soooo bad, that I didn't even bother to play the second chapter.
2nd experience: I bought Grim Fandango remastered version. Oh my god, what a
smart money-grab move from Mr. Schafer. The game still had a _notorious_ bug,
present even in the original version, where you could lose an inventory
item(your scythe basically) and you couldn't move forward. Only solution was
to load from a previous point. I had to replay 1-2 hours work of game, so I
gave up.
As I'm saying all this... I'm gonna buy this remastered game also. Simply
because Tim Schafer knows that he can manipulate me via my childhood memories
and get away with it.
Oh well.
------
kriro
I wonder if the Maniac Mansion you can play inside DoTT is also remastered :D
Great game, one of the best outros in any game (won't spoil it). I think it is
the perfect sweet spot of an adventure game for me.
~~~
lobster_johnson
Sadly, it is not. But there was a fan remake called Maniac Mansion Deluxe
released a few years ago that has upgraded graphics. Not tried it yet, but it
looks great:
[http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/401/](http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/401/).
------
yarrel
I'm not American, so Day Of The Tentacle is how I learnt about the background
to the Declaration of Independence.
I've since met several Americans who claim this is also how they learnt about
it...
------
WorkingClassDev
I love this! Loved this game back in the day, love that Elite has been remade
and frogger as CrossyRoad now I'm just waiting for ChaseHQ to be the next
tablet blockbuster.
------
shmerl
Linux version is delayed. I'll wait for it to come out.
I wish they'd focus on sequels rather than on remakes though. For instance
Full Throttle 2?
~~~
Symbol
It was in the works after Full Throttle's success, but was cancelled. I don't
know the reasons.
~~~
WorldMaker
There was actually more than one attempt at a sequel (Payback, Hell on Wheels)
which were mostly "cash ins" outsourced by LucasArts and focused on more of
the action-y stuff (FPS were just becoming the overriding rage in games)
rather than the story telling. Tim Schafer, of course, moved on to Grim
Fandango was not involved in the sequel attempts.
New rumors are that Tim himself is considering ideas for a Full Throttle 2
once they finishing remastering Full Throttle, but take those rumors with a
giant grain of salt.
One entry way into the giant rabbit hole of old Full Throttle 2 news:
[http://www.bing.com/search?q=full+throttle+2+site%3Amixnmojo...](http://www.bing.com/search?q=full+throttle+2+site%3Amixnmojo.com&src=IE-
SearchBox&FORM=IESR02)
~~~
shmerl
Here is a good article: [https://quarterly.camposanto.com/the-art-of-
fiction-3-tim-sc...](https://quarterly.camposanto.com/the-art-of-
fiction-3-tim-schafer-dd6de299774d#.sou9mj8st)
------
balls187
First PC game I ever owned.
------
bgruber
i love DoTT, and this _looks_ nice, but I'm disappointed that they don't seem
to have given the same attention to the music they did to the visuals.
------
mike_hock
Not sure what I'd get out of this over playing the original in ScummVM.
Why not make a new game in the same style, with a new story?
~~~
HelloMcFly
Not having to play it in ScummVM, for starters. Second, an updated and much
improved UI, better resolution, improved sound, and in general improved
visuals without losing the charm (though _a few_ scenes come off with a little
less life).
~~~
waxpancake
Developer commentary, too.
------
frik
Day of the Tentacle is one of the best adventure games.
On the one side it's great that a slightly improved is now available. On the
otherside, the new "remastered" version uses the SCUMM (open source Lucasarts
game engine virtual machine) that was made by fans and can be used to run the
old games on modern systems. And those "remastered" versions are only very
slightly improved due the lack of original game art graphic files. It was
certainly easy to vectorize the vector-art style of DoT, but the "remastered"
Grim Fandango basically featured blown up background pictures out of
Photoshop. A low point of the "remastered"/"HD" versions is certainly Age of
Empires 2 HD where Microsoft closed their former studio and lost all its game
arts and therefor the HD re-release featured the same graphics and just
provided higher screen resolution as single feature that come from a fan patch
years ago. Or Age of Mythology which hasn't been improved graphical wise at
all, was already used as base for Age of Empire Online and later re-released
as HD edition again. Or the Turok remastered release, which still looks like
the 1998 3D game even with all the fog that was needed with early 3D cards but
not in 2016. Beside all these cheap rehashes, the Monkey Island 2 re-release
was great, one could switch between the old and the new graphics art on the
fly by pressing a key. (Sure the new art wasn't that lovely done and could
have been a lot better.) What I want from HD re-releases are more polished
improved games, not just cheap rip-offs often based on fan patches and mods.
~~~
vernie
SCUMM is actually the name of the original LucasArts engine. ScummVM is the
open source interpreter for SCUMM games.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fairphone 3 - 2muchcoffeeman
https://shop.fairphone.com/en/?ref=header%26amp;
======
squeezingswirls
I really would want to buy a Fairphone 3 but it isn't possible to install a
free OS on it currently, so I'll stick with my Fairphone 2 running Ubuntu
Touch for now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is Node.js recommended in the long term? - applecrazy
I'm developing a side project using Vue, Express, and Mongo. I'm wondering whether this is the best idea, since I want the app to last 5-7 years before needing a rewrite. Is it a good idea to choose NodeJS for the backend or should I go with something more old-fashioned?
======
chatmasta
While others may suggest clojure or elixir or some equally esoteric
development stack, there is one important advantage of nodejs: almost
everybody uses it.
Maybe other languages will allow you to program more efficiently, but they
have a learning curve and a fraction of the developer adoption that nodejs
has.
When you pass your project onto someone else, there's a high chance they are
already familiar with nodejs. Whereas if you pass a project to someone else in
a less-known language, they are likely not familiar with it and will need to
overcome a steep learning curve.
If you want maintainable projects, where a freelancer is always available who
knows how to continue development of your project, then go with nodejs. If you
want to learn a new language or framework, do it for pet projects with no
collaborators.
------
maxharris
Yes, Node is fine. Check out the long-term support schedule:
[https://github.com/nodejs/LTS](https://github.com/nodejs/LTS)
------
deathtrader666
Check out the PEEP Stack - [https://medium.com/peep-
stack](https://medium.com/peep-stack)
Since it is a side project, you can swap out Ember and try Elm.
------
bbcbasic
Is Mongo recommended in the long term?
------
murukesh_s
Yes it's fine..
~~~
h1d
People need to speak up when they want to provide opinion. It's not a vote.
------
rohithv
I would simply say no..
~~~
applecrazy
Could you explain why? What do you recommend instead?
~~~
thefastlane
take a look at python+flask and clojure+ring+compojure (and other tech too)
before throwing your hat in the node ring. going with a more general-purpose
language might serve you better down the road. javascript will limit you to
web dev essentially -- which you want to do now, but what about 5 years from
now, etc
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
‘I Want What My Male Colleague Has, and That Will Cost a Few Million Dollars’ - drugme
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/magazine/salk-institute-discrimination-science.html
======
iron0013
That's a provocative title, so I hope people will actually read this article
before dismissing the scientist who was quoted.
edit: but they didn't. :(
~~~
maxheadroom
I vouched for it and brought it back. (You could have, as well.)
One would think, given it's the NYT, that one would've read it before flagging
but it seems that we no longer seem to live in those times.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
‘Anti-rape’ tech won’t stop violence against women - alexwoodcreates
http://www.thememo.com/2015/11/25/anti-rape-tech-domestic-violence-white-ribbon-day/
======
coldtea
Did any tech ever stopped all violence against everyone?
~~~
hassel
street lighting ?
~~~
coldtea
While they reduced it, they obviously didn't stop all violence in the streets,
far from it. Heck, even in daylight, mid-street, there's plenty of violence!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jim Gray lost at sea, 3 years ago. - eam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Gray_%28computer_scientist%29#Disappearance_at_sea_and_search
======
chaosmachine
_"On February 1, 2007, the DigitalGlobe satellite did a scan of the area,
generating thousands of images. The images were posted to Amazon Mechanical
Turk in order to distribute the work of searching through them, in hopes of
spotting his boat."_
I remember taking part in that. Unfortunately, there were a lot of clouds that
day, so it was hard to see anything in the photos.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Visa Systems Issues - jpatokal
http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/news/technological-systems-issue.html
======
karambahh
Does anyone else think that, all conspiracy theory aside, the information
published is only partly true?
If it's a purely hw issue, say a piece of highly specialized hardware (hw
crypto, piece of old mainframe, etc), it can take a very long time to source
it (although a SPOF is surprising in such a critical infrastructure), but it
does not take 100 people to work on it, 24/7\. It requires a dozen guys making
angry phone calls every 2 hours to some suppliers...
If it really takes 100 people 24/7, mostly likely explanation to me is that
it's software related and they have to rewrite a critical sw in record time.
Causes:
-bugfix (which may be entirely unrelated to secrity)
-emergency migration from one hw vendor to another, for sourcing reason which entails rewrite of a part of the system.
~~~
bigiain
"100 people to work on it, 24/7" sounds like manual data entry to me - who
wants to bet against a loss of a db without usable backups available, and a
bunch of people now hand entering hardcopy forms and data out of emails back
into some critical database?
~~~
eps
... which means that somebody somewhere didn't have backups of some database
server that died.
~~~
pdkl95
I'm guessing a backup _technically_ existed (to satisfy any requirements or
boss's-orders to the "letter of the law"), but nobody bothered giving any
thought to _restoring_ everything from that backup.
Of course, a backup that can't be restored (or nobody knows how to restore) is
more or less equivalent to not having a backup, so this distinction probably
doesn't matter.
// always remember to test your restore plan
~~~
bigiain
Indeed - "usable" backups - they are ones you've tested restoring from
(recently enough to be assured they still work on the latest version of your
system).
I _hope_ they don't have someone saying "we had a backup - it was on a RAID
set!".
It would surprise me less to discover the reported migration from Oracle on
Windows to Oracle on Linux was still partly done, and they were taking solid
reliable useable backups - of the old not-yet-decommissioned windows db
servers...
(For the record, I've made both of those mistakes (and more) in my career...
Fortunately neither represented weeks of 24x7 remedial work by 100s of
people.)
------
jpatokal
Apparently last year's major failure was caused by their Oracle data warehouse
going down hard:
[http://foia.state.gov/_docs/PIA/ConsularConsolidatedDatabase...](http://foia.state.gov/_docs/PIA/ConsularConsolidatedDatabase_CCD.pdf)
_" The Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) is one of the largest Oracle
based data warehouses in the world that holds current and archived data from
the Consular Affairs (CA) domestic and post databases around the world. As of
December 2009, it contains over 100 million visa cases and 75 million
photographs, utilizing billions of rows of data, and has a current growth rate
of approximately 35 thousand visa cases every day"_
Unclear what's gone wrong this time, but the mention of "biometrics" (like
photographs) makes me suspect it's the same system.
~~~
cm2187
A Visa application system doesn't strike me as an obvious candidate for a
relational database. I would rather store all the information related to a
visa application in a document store with a relational database only used as a
sort of index. I wonder if lots of systems are not built using relational just
out of habit. And then bump into these problems.
~~~
eru
Why not? There should only be at most a few billion rows (since you can't have
more visa applications than humans).
~~~
bigiain
Never bumped into the "beautiful flexibility" of ERD databases - where the app
devs assume all responsibility over things that database designers _really_
should be saying "Hell no!" to?
+------------+------------+--------------------------------+
| asset_id | asset_name | asset_data |
+------------+------------+--------------------------------+
| 2147483646 | firstName | Joseph |
| 2147483647 | lastName | Bloggs |
|-2147483647 | phoneNumber| +1 415 555 1234 |
|-2147483646 | email | [email protected] |
+------------+------------+--------------------------------+
(I think I still have brain damage from trying to get "too smart" with a
Magento eCommerce site once...)
~~~
duaneb
The flexibility typically comes from transactions and joins, something
document store proponents typically shy away from. And yes, if you give stupid
devs powerful tools they will shoot themselves.
~~~
eru
It's not only flexibility, but also discipline and taking away choices (for
bad modelling) that comes from following the relational normal forms.
------
kalleboo
Was the State Department _still_ running the whole Oracle database cluster on
a single hardware node since last year's issues?
[http://fcw.com/Articles/2014/10/20/State-Department-
database...](http://fcw.com/Articles/2014/10/20/State-Department-database-
crash-1.aspx?Page=all&p=1)
~~~
needusername
10g on Windows 2003, can't make this shit up.
------
jpatokal
This apparently started on June 10th, so down for _12 days_ and counting!
~~~
f00barbazb00
So they're saying _We 're terrible and we don't care that much_. Wow.
If this where a business, they'd be losing customers... but thankfully,
they're a government apparatus that holds people over a barrel and doesn't
have to provide enough decent service to offer enough visas to meet the
demand, hence 12-30 million undocumented immigrants.
~~~
codecamper
What is government but a bunch of provided services? We could replace it with
well written software. No?
~~~
jacalata
Technically, sure (assuming you also build the robot hardware) but we're quite
far from having software that can negotiate treaties, figure out how to
regulate water rights in California, etc...
~~~
codecamper
Well of course I don't mean to completely replace the government.
But how about making it more lean? How about modernizing with the times? How
about making it all much more transparent and accountable? Couldn't open
source software do all of this?
We could start with systems that are used by smaller, poorer countries & grow
from there.
A visa processing system might be a good start.
~~~
pratnala
I completely agree with this. First, we need to make the lawmakers that such a
system is necessary which is understandably, a bigger challenge.
------
Larrikin
I've been trying to get marriage visa things completed since May.
[http://nvc.state.gov/](http://nvc.state.gov/) The payment system was down for
almost the entire month of May. After finally being able to get through step
2, I've been stopped constantly. The entire social security website was down
one night this month. I currently need my tax transcripts from the IRS. The
online system for printing them out is down indefinitely and even the form to
request they be sent by mail was constantly throwing up a technical error has
occurred message.
~~~
shepbook
I know that pain. Took me and my wife almost 5 years, near $2,000 and three
interviews to get her green card. And that was with her already being in the
states when we met and got married.
Keep at it. The feeling when it's finally over is great.
~~~
kalleboo
These stories always fascinate me. At that point why even bother validating
the grounds for the visa - anyone who would put up with a process like that
deserves it!
I immigrated to Japan - a country often held up as an example of xenophobia
and resistance to immigration, and it only took a week for my spouse visa
paperwork to be examined and approved. The only cost was for translations of
some paperwork from home ($40 at the embassy) and then $20 for the residence
card once I was approved.
------
guard-of-terra
On slightly related note, USA doesn't support airport transfers without visa -
which is taken for granted in the rest of the world. Which basically makes
Latin America an island since most flights there are routed via USA, its
gatekeeper.
------
mikhailfranco
FBI site for background checks also has implementation issues:
[http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/identity-history-summary-
ch...](http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/identity-history-summary-checks)
So they can record all our conversations in real-time, but it takes 3-4 months
to do a simple query of criminal records.
~~~
Shank
Different departments. The NSA and FBI don't talk to each other; NSA has all
of the technological innovations for monitoring wide spreads of internet
bandwidth.
~~~
us0r
"The NSA and FBI don't talk to each other"
You clearly have not read any of the Snowden docs.
[http://cryptome.org/2013/11/snowden-
tally.htm](http://cryptome.org/2013/11/snowden-tally.htm)
~~~
knowaveragejoe
You're both wrong, in a way. They interact, but that doesn't mean they are
cohesive in utilizing each other's technologies/competencies.
~~~
us0r
[http://cryptome.org/2015/06/cyber-spy-
nyt-15-0604.pdf](http://cryptome.org/2015/06/cyber-spy-nyt-15-0604.pdf)
------
narrator
What's funny is they used to do this stuff with much much slower computer
systems back in the 70s and 80s.
~~~
rodgerd
That was before it became a political imperative to drown the government in a
bathtub.
------
processing
I'm waiting for an advanced parole visa (moved to the US in January) and can't
get a visa in time to travel intentionally to my best friends wedding in the
UK. Applied in Feb. Got told last week they need another 2 months to process
it - I wonder if this is why?
~~~
beagle3
Schedule a personal meeting at your closest USCIS (or whatever the immigration
office is called these days) and explain it to the officer. They can give you
a temporary "paper pass" you can use to travel until paperwork completes if
they find your reason sufficient.
Best friend's wedding might not qualify as a good enough reason, but combined
with the long delay it might - definitely worth your time talking to them.
I know someone who got this kind of pass to visit her sick father.
------
davepage
Took 14 months with Congressional intervention just to get my partner a
immigrant visa -- which is presumably the easiest.
America has been so obsessed with thinking of itself as the "best country in
the world!(TM)" for so long, it has meanwhile regressed into a failed state.
~~~
scintill76
American Exceptionalism, etc. bother me too (an American), but it seems a bit
incongruous to call it a failed state while simultaneously relating the story
of someone desiring to immigrate to it so badly that they'd wait 14 months and
get Congress to intervene. If it's so failed, your partner can leave and I'm
sure someone else will be happy to come.
~~~
davepage
Of course I am a hypocrite. My partner wants to visit the US; I would prefer
to live elsewhere. But, sometimes compromise is needed in relationships.
'failed state' is certainly hyperbole here -- there are large elements of
society which continue to function, despite the problems at the national
government level. It would truly be a failed state if, for example, the
national government's performance level were propagated to the whole society.
------
DyslexicAtheist
> There is no evidence the problem is cyber-security related.
have they fixed their data-leak into archive.org yet? (LOL)
[http://blog.valbonne-
consulting.com/2015/05/20/misconfigurat...](http://blog.valbonne-
consulting.com/2015/05/20/misconfiguration-of-state-gov-website-exposes-pdf-
files/)
------
Nano2rad
Government holding biometric data is unsafe for citizens. There will always be
problems, security of data and security of citizens.
~~~
klipt
Every visitor to the US is fingerprinted these days.
~~~
fleitz
When did they start doing this?
I arrived two weeks ago, no finger print required.
~~~
mahyarm
[http://www.immihelp.com/visas/usvisit.html](http://www.immihelp.com/visas/usvisit.html)
If your canadian, probably not.
~~~
liquidmetal
They probably already have you fingerprints.
~~~
mahyarm
No they do not. I've never been fingerprinted as a Canadian until I got a work
visa for the USA. For many Canadians who visit the usa for tourism or similar
will never have their fingerprints in a canadian or us database under current
laws.
------
anindha
US visa processing is back online (same link).
"The Bureau of Consular Affairs reports that the database responsible for
handling biometric clearances has been rebuilt and is being tested. 39 posts,
representing more than two-thirds of our normal capacity, are now online and
issuing visas. We are working to restore full biometric data processing."
------
zuma
Just to add to the conspiracy theory, wonder whether this is related:
[http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/08/us-g7-summit-
obama...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/08/us-g7-summit-obama-
cyberattack-idUSKBN0OO1RA20150608)
------
acyacy
It is natural for issues for happen like this time to time. If it's not
technology, something else. Australia's visa offices (DIBP) are on industrial
action at the moment.
~~~
jpatokal
So, what's the last time a Fortune 500 company's IT systems failed so hard
they couldn't do anything for _two weeks_?
~~~
acyacy
On a technical level, it's possible, on a practical level it's not. You can't
get 100% uptime due to the unforeseen problems that will hit once in a while.
If the downtime was anticipated it can always be averted. Even a Fortune 500
can expect some downtime over a period large enough.
Take Sony earlier this year. The US government itself the year before.
------
friism
I'm glad that they're at least prioritizing H2A agricultural workers.
------
istvan__
Such a muppet show this entire situation there.
~~~
f00barbazb00
Statler and Waldorf are especially hilarious.
~~~
istvan__
I wish others would also appreciate a little bit of humor on HN, but
everything like that gets downvoted all the time.
------
f00barbazb00
Makes me glad that I _accidentally_ put my RFID-enabled passport in the
microwave, typed in 1 second and hit start.
~~~
acyacy
It must fun be waiting in the non-RFID queue at immigration.
------
malkia
On 18 June 2015 the Lufthansa site looked like this
%templateSomethingVar/somethingVar1% and lots of variables like that (not sure
what template system were they using). Now it's okay.
But Polish airlines is down too (unrelated systems I guess)... but could this
be something coordinated?
Ah... probably not :)
~~~
saryant
Lufty's site has always had bugs like that.
------
contingencies
HA-clustered microservices: 1
Dated megaliths: 0
(Edit: Sheesh, what's with all the downvotes? Hardware failures are a route-
aroundable thing that should never cause downtime... as long as you don't
adopt an outdated "here sits the one source of truth, and its name is [fat
server manually configured]" psychology. HA clustering is at the point where
it's a generic, drop-in thing for arbitrary services. If you fail to recognize
the above, go do some learning.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Millennials are sicker than Gen X, which bodes ill for the future economy - freedomben
https://www.deseret.com/2019/12/16/20997339/millennials-are-sicker-than-gen-x-which-bodes-ill-for-the-future-economy
======
adamwong246
Don't the other generations feel the specter of dread hovering over us? Like
you are running on a treadmill as fast as you can and knowing that if you trip
or stumble, even a little, it's over and what progress you've made will be
undone and you'll end up wandering the streets, muttering to yourself?
Or maybe it's just me?
Among the many things that make me feel ill is that byline. We're painfully
aware that we exist to serve "The Economy"\- perhaps _that_ is what is making
us ill, that we must forever justify our existence in terms of the movements
of bits of green paper?
~~~
cbm-vic-20
GenX here: we were raised with the assumption that if we didn't die in the
looming nuclear holocaust, it would be AIDS that gets us.
~~~
ThrowawayR2
Add to that the recessions and stagflation of the '70s and the fear that the
Japanese would overtake the US economically in the '80s.
------
girvo
Working longer hours at more jobs just to make ends meet, while the people at
the top add more 0’s to their bank account, health care costs rising while
income is stagnant or worse. Shouldn’t be that surprising, really, though my
comment is an oversimplification.
The “economic impact” being the focus leaves a bad taste in my mouth; it’s the
economic impact itself thats making it worse, if not outright causing it.
~~~
to11mtm
I can give some more real world observed results.
I once worked in an industry once that wound up forcing long periods of
excessive overtime. Think 60+ hour weeks for months on end. And for peanuts
(16 to 22 an hour.)
The combined stress resulted in the following issues among the team:
\- Employee #1 committed suicide the weekend after valentines day, (work
stress led to alcoholism relapse, then everything else fell apart)
\- Employee #2 wound up completely throwing out his back (i.e. could not move
and had to crawl into his house) because of the bad chair ergonomics.
\- Employee #4 had multiple nervous breakdowns, ruining their marriage and
setting back their life years.
\- Employee #5 relapsed on some bad habits involving opioids.
Of the above 4, 2 were tobacco users and their intake increased substantially
during these time periods. This was true of others on the team that didn't
fall into these more extreme examples.
But even in those other cases, I saw ruined marriages, slow spirals into bad
habits (gambling, drinking, adult clubs, etc.) and overall years taken off
peoples life from stress.
So yeah, long hours are no joke.
Edit: I skipped #3 on the list because the way they responded to stress wasn't
easy to delineate. (They were however also a smoker and would increase intake
under stress)
On the other hand... it's worth noting that #3, when under high workload
stress, would become very judgemental, easily offended and prone to rants that
would, depending on day, either belong on breitbart or buzzfeed.
~~~
grawprog
To speak to this. I've spent the last 5 years working 9-10 hour days 6 days a
week. Over this time i've pretty much been chain smoking cigarettes and weed,
drink every night, spent a couple years doing some...uhhhh interesting
things...while still working....nearly fucked my life up toally. My health's
deteriorated a fair bit. I'm congested constantly and I've had a chronic sinus
infection for years, my back's fairly fucked.
It's kinda caused me to break down a bit, I quit a couple weeks ago and moved.
I've been working a job lately with less hours, but different demands that
haven't really made things much better.
~~~
throwaway8879
Hope you're able to change those habits, friend.
------
Thorentis
> Millennials are sicker due to the state of the economy and their job
> conditions caused by the economy
> This is bad for the economy
Sorry, but anybody who is still measuring things in terms of "the economy"
needs to take a real hard look at themselves in the mirror, and ask why they
care more about how many zeros are in their bank account, and less about
fellow human beings.
I am all for the "free market", innovation, small businesses, careers, making
a profit - but never at the expense of my health, my family's health, or the
health of other people.
~~~
odkamkfn
Your health, your family's health and the health of other people - all of that
is related to the economy.
~~~
chongli
I think the point here is that if we are looking at the economy as the
ultimate end and treating people as the means to that end, then we’re doing it
wrong [1]. I get annoyed every single time I hear people justify the suffering
of others as “good for the economy.”
_Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in
the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the
same time as an end._
— Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative#The_sec...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative#The_second_formulation:_the_formula_of_humanity)
------
alexfromapex
I think the culture of getting a loan for everything is part of what’s
perpetuating the bad economy. You’re giving your money away to the bank to
borrow their money while they sit back and do nothing to collect. A little
patience and you can have that car or house without paying double the cost and
then the banks don’t get your money and it incentivizes other parts of the
economy that don’t involve lining the pockets of the already very rich.
~~~
campee
I think that's true of a car but unless you live in an area that is not
densely populated (and probably won't have much in the way of jobs), then the
house part is not true, unless you're willing to live with your parents until
you're at least 30.
~~~
sixseven
> unless you're willing to live with your parents until you're at least 30.
Which is considered normal in many non-US cultures.
------
octokatt
If only there was a way to distribute the cost of preventative care, so
overall costs would decrease...
~~~
throwaway1777
The most important forms of preventative care (diet and exercise) are
basically free.
~~~
octokatt
In most of the industrialized world, good diet and exercise are engineered out
of lifestyles, especially for the poor. Grocery stores are dying,
neighborhoods are becoming less walkable, and leisure time is increasingly
filled with internet entertainment designed to be addictive.
Your comment makes no sense within a broader, practical framework.
------
helen___keller
> Advances [...] have resulted in an addictive but sedentary lifestyle that
> goes against human design, he said. It disrupts circadian rhythms, lowers
> exposure to sunshine’s vitamin D and alters how we eat.
You can say that again. I've been living a sedentary, indoors lifestyle my
entire life (literally since I got a gameboy pocket at 5 years old) because I
grew up in a place where I hated to be outside, but in the past 5 years or so
I've come to observe that my mood, my alertness, and my general happiness
takes a dive if I don't get enough time outside, even just to take a walk
every now and then.
I moved to a new apartment that requires a solid 25 minute walk each direction
every day as part of my commute, and I think that's helped a lot to help make
things more regular. Winter time sucks because it's almost always dark
outside, but still if I work from home for a day I can feel the difference in
my body from not having my usual walk.
Even with freezing weather and unshoveled slush on the ground, I still
wouldn't give up my daily walk for, say, a car ride. I know I don't have the
discipline to stay healthy outside of what's necessary to get to work.
~~~
nradov
Why do you lack that discipline?
~~~
helen___keller
I don't know, but just speaking empirically I usually don't feel like doing
things that are "productive" (side projects, working out, etc) after work
I'm sure there's ways to improve on motivation, but my point is that
empirically I've struggled with that and on the other hand I get my daily
commute "for free" in terms of motivation
~~~
nradov
Motivation is mostly bunk and tends to fall off quickly. It's more important
to build discipline through good habits. Force yourself to exercise daily for
a few weeks no matter how tired you are or how miserable it makes you. After a
while it just becomes automatic and you stop having to think about it.
You might not feel like brushing your teeth every day but you still do it,
right? Same thing.
~~~
riversflow
At the risk of making myself seem untrainable, this doesn’t work for me. I can
have a habit and break it by accident, but I always manage to say physically
fit. This “motivation is mostly bunk” is about the worst advice you could give
some like me. The _main_ reason I stay fit is philosophical, or at least a
remnant of my philosophy studies. Often the words of Socrates burn in my head;
always a source of motivation. “No man has the right to be an amateur in the
matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without
seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
------
robbywashere_
>hamper the economy.
what a bs bottom line
~~~
danharaj
Try to remember when economic activity served human life instead of the other
way around.
~~~
romski
When
~~~
danharaj
Well, originally economy referred to the maintenance of the household to the
benefit of its members. That was circa Aristotle. Binary search from there?
------
7loopscom
It is really funny, everyone here seems to understand that stress at work is
bad, and everyone is afraid of getting ill and costs of healthcare. But as
soon as someone suggests a similar model that we have here in
Europe(government-provided health care, more worker rights, more holidays),
everybody loses their mind. People you are sacrificing your health for the
owners of the company you are working for, and maybe some top managers.
------
8bitsrule
This piece is less formal, but with more immediacy.
[https://www.boredpanda.com/why-do-millennials-want-to-
die/](https://www.boredpanda.com/why-do-millennials-want-to-die/)
------
Musaab
Working more for less, ending up with more stress, eating genetically modified
food, breathing in pollution, taking in constant radiation from wifi and
cellular signals...the soft kill is working.
------
birdyrooster
If making a persuasive argument to capitalists regarding government
intervention in healthcare, I don’t see how it wouldn’t be advantageous to
sell the programs as a way to improve their bottom line. If healthy people get
the things they need to be productive, then they are productive and the
business benefits. It’s as if these advocates don’t believe in the benefits of
the programs they are selling. Do they not believe it will have appreciable
effects for the greater economy?
~~~
modo_mario
Oh they sure do but i don't think "improve their bottom line" actually affects
that many people comparatively and those who it does affect's wealth is
relative and not that easily budged by the fact that people with more
purchasing power being able to circulate more money, people with better
overall health being more productive, etc is better for the economy. At least
not if it has to come from their pocket in any way.
------
throwawayhhakdl
I would be curious to see these effects normalized to obesity. I suspect all
trends of declining health (like sperm counts) are mostly this.
Not to imply that obesity isn’t driven by mostly the factors described by
others here.
------
mister_hn
I don't know other millennials, but I am sick less than 2 days/year.
I'm vaccinated, no allergies.
Is this maybe related to Gen X Anti-Vaxxers?
~~~
7loopscom
Gen X were born before Millenials, so if it is vaccine related it is most
probably just the opposite.
~~~
mister_hn
Having Anti-Vaxxers parents produces weak children (Millennials, Gen Z)
~~~
7loopscom
[https://www.oatext.com/Pilot-comparative-study-on-the-
health...](https://www.oatext.com/Pilot-comparative-study-on-the-health-of-
vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-6-to-12-year-old-U-S-children.php)
~~~
g8oz
Please don't link to a fake science site.
[http://flakyj.blogspot.com/2017/12/immense-pleasure-from-
ope...](http://flakyj.blogspot.com/2017/12/immense-pleasure-from-open-access-
text.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_publishing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_publishing)
| {
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} |
Against TDD - roman-holovin
http://neopragma.com/index.php/2019/09/29/against-tdd/
======
JMTQp8lwXL
For as much as I've heard about TDD over the years: in my education, articles,
and mentions of it in industry -- I have yet to see anybody I know use it.
You can't design your entire interface up front. Too much handwaving. You'll
start coding, and realize you aren't testing the right things, until after you
write the code, which defeats the purpose of writing the tests first.
The article says many people don't use TDD correctly, or they try to use it in
the wrong situations. If it was more broadly applicable, I think it's safe to
say I would've encountered a situation where it was useful. If it's the case
where there's a limited set of situations where it is applicable, the topic
doesn't deserve as much mindshare as it receives.
~~~
kstenerud
I've used it for almost 2 decades now. The general rule is:
Don't write tests until you're sure about your design and interface. If you're
doing exploratory coding, you write tests later. If you're adding features to
something that already exists, you're more likely to write tests first.
The end target is roughly the same: 80-90% test coverage. But you'll waste a
lot less time throwing test code away.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bill Gates not impressed with the iPad - anderzole
http://blogs.bnet.com/corporate-strategy/?p=101
======
sullrich
And in other news, the Burger King CEO thinks the Big Mac tastes bad.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Best use case writeups of SOA? - tmaly
Can anyone suggest some good use cases / whitepapers on companies that transitioned to SOA / microservices?
======
austingunter
This is a post to my corporate site, but I created a list of case studies /
blog posts of folks discussing how they've moved over:
datawire.io/microservices-stories.
I have a bigger list that I haven't had time to put on the site. If you'd like
them, I'm happy to create an open google sheet for you.
------
theworstshill
Good? Pretty much none.
Try searching on developerWorks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The High Cost of Technical Debt - samullen
http://pixelatedworks.com/articles/the-high-cost-of-technical-debt/
======
mamaniscalco
An excellent article which speaks the obvious but all too often falls on deaf
ears.
My two cents:
1\. Code reviews are to developers what proof reading is to writers. A person
could read and re-read, numerous times, something which they have written and
they might never see some basic grammatical error that they have made. But
another person will spot the error without even trying on the first read. This
is true in code as well. We often will not likely see that which we are
convinced is not present - even when it is.
2\. Everything I have ever learned I have learned through wood working.
Specifically, take the time to plan ahead and invest in your designs before
you even begin working. There are _no_ short cuts in life nor in code. Every
time that you try to take the quick path you will eventually pay it for two
fold down the road. And your results will be imperfect, patched and less
desirable than if you had avoided the problems by investing more thought and
consideration at the start. I often say that the slow path _is_ the quickest
path.
I could go on (and have gone on) for hours on the topic of technical debt. But
in the end the best approach is to invest heavily in good tools and processes
as soon as possible. The investment always pays off and the best investments
typically go entirely unnoticed because they eliminate problems so that you
aren't even aware that they might have otherwise existed.
_edit_ (adding a gripe)
"Universities don’t teach COBOL anymore–they rarely even teach C or C++–and
good developers focus on keeping their skills up-to-date. Ss your technology
infrastructure ages, it becomes increasingly difficult to find workers for the
job."
I would choose a veteran C++ developer over an 'up-to-date' non C++ developer
any day of the week. Also you made a typo in the quote. Code review! (^:
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NASA's Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system - cwan
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/nasas-voyager-spacecraft-nears-exit-of-solar-system/story-fn3dxity-1225971341350
======
DupDetector
Same story:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2003511> \- universetoday.com - 29
comments
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2003546> \- bbc.co.uk - 6 comments
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Boating startup closes $13M Series A round - JSeymourATL
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2016/12/13/boating-startup-closes-13m-series-a-round.html
======
CalChris
$13M for boat timesharing?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlA9bNk3b5Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlA9bNk3b5Q)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The story of the Slovak national top-level domain - thomasdd
https://medium.com/@Oskar456/stolen-sk-domain-717e070f6735
======
dandare
Unfortunately this story is archetypal for a post communist country like
Slovakia. The state is essentially captured by mafia-like groups and oligarchs
and many public services are irreversibly lost to rogue private companies with
ties to politicians.
~~~
TomMarius
It's not as bad as this comment sounds.
~~~
finchisko
no it's shame. btw i'am Slovakian
~~~
TomMarius
I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's not as corrupt as, let's say, Africa, or
even Eastern Europe is. I'm Czech. :-)
------
dep_b
I suddenly felt the urge to visit
[http://astalavista.box.sk](http://astalavista.box.sk) again. Next up:
zombo.com
~~~
Angostura
Just checked. So glad Zombo.com is still there.
~~~
krallja
html5zombo.com also exists, for when your device doesn't support Flash, but
you still need to do anything.
~~~
101km
Don't be limited by browser plugins. The only limit is yourself.
------
woliveirajr
I don't understand why the government got a judicial decision, from it's own
legal system, stating that the original company (non-profit) couldn't have
changed its ICANN records when they changed to be a for-profit company. Have
done that back at that time, and everything would be ok.
~~~
rini17
In 90s, law was totally unprepared to handle this kind of issues or anything
related to data or internet. And Slovak court system is very slow and avoids
dealing with many known corruption cases, even today.
~~~
mianos
Also there is some sort of system here where you can pay for a expert witness
who will confirm your story. As a foreigner living here I can't get anyone to
explain it to me with any sense.
------
soneca
I'm gladly surprised on how well the brazilian TLD registrar works in
comparison of some private players in other countries like Godaddy, although
lacking some features. It is simple, straightforward, just works.
It is managed by a non-profit with a very diverse board:
[http://www.nic.br/pagina/for-an-increasingly-better-
internet...](http://www.nic.br/pagina/for-an-increasingly-better-internet-in-
brazil/)
I would enjoy to learn about the history of its creation
~~~
gcb0
internet in Brazil started early with universities.
the br domain was introduced in 89 and handled by the same organization that
handle out government research grants (FAPESP).
even though most universities only got tcp pipes by 91, domain was used for
things like uucp and such before.
in late 90s, when Brazil got a president who privatized the country, it left
fapesp and become a political thing but still with heavy ties to academia,
which in Brazil is also very political to begin with, given that almost all
the top ones are state run.
Google understood that and now they have a big state university in their
pockets (by hiring top professor and keeping them on campus), which is the
alma mater of the current person in charge of the br domain now.
------
Hasknewbie
This is not limited to Slovakia. Mauritius and South Africa also struggled for
years before getting back control of their TLD (but they eventually did). And
quite a few African countries have the same problem, it seems.
------
zokier
The story sounds so bizarre that I imagine there might be bit more behind it.
Like the fact that it apparently took 5 years from the takeover to the
government to even begin negotiations, during which the .com-bubble both grew
and burst, so I imagine that the matter of a TLD wouldn't have been completely
obscure at the time. Also I'm not sure why the government couldn't have just
unilaterally taken over the TLD and charged the people behind the takeover
with fraud or something?
~~~
throwaway1X2
Well, .com-bubble came and went, but mind the settings.
Yes, nowadays, new buildings in every larger city come with gigabit ethernet
wiring and several ISPs' fiber connected to the basement switches as standard.
Older flats (pre-revolution era, before 1989) have FTTH GPON from two or three
providers. Really historical buildings have at least DOCSIS 3.0 or VDSL.
That's the physical layer. You can get 100 mbps/300 mbps internet (depending
on where you are and how lucky you are) for about 20 eur/month, no data limit.
But that came for the price of very slow starts. After the fall of the
socialist ("communist") government in 1989, there was:
a) chaos everywhere, many large companies (in the "common domain" beforehand)
and employers of many workers were fraudulently privatized to the hands of few
con-masters only to be turned into quick cash through sellouts, or just to be
defrauded primitively (literally: 1. have a political friend, 2. privatize for
one crown, 3. withdraw cash [millions to billions of crowns] from all bank
accounts, 4. let it go bankrupt). You could buy and carry firearms no
questions asked (nowadays we still have more reasonable firearm laws than the
rest of the Europe, even some form of Castle Doctrine - in Europe!! - but now
you at least have to go through psychological and firearm test and you cannot
be a convict -> didn't matter in 1990's and even worse, there were global
amnesties, even applied to serious criminals, because "communist" judges must
be wrong, so let's release everyone from the prisons - and those few not
released revolted so hard, army had to be called in). One day you could be a
common Joe, the next day you are a multimillionaire via privatization through
a friend in politics. Or you may be a common Joe going about your common life
and while returning home from work, a car or phone booth next to you explodes,
because one mafia group was paying debts to another...
b) high demand for foreign goods and low wages relative to foreign currencies.
Imagine buying a 486 computer for 100.000 crowns, whereas your monthly wage is
4000 crowns... Would you pay your two years income for a computer?
c) missing voice/data infrastructure (power, water, gas was fine, it was fine
well enough to be defrauded without any investment for many many years ;) ).
Well into 1990's, you still had to be on a waiting list for... a phone line.
\----
So, in 1999, we had a high school field trip to the offices of telephone
company, to be shown a 56k dial-up internet shared across 10 or so computers
there. A year later, the whole school (20 old computers in one room) was wired
through one 56k and we were loading, line by line, new screenshots from the
upcoming Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge.
Well, you could get dial-up at home, for around 1% of your monthly wage PER
HOUR... Many of us, the luckiest ones, actually got the dial-up after 2000 and
were given the limit (by parents already strapped for cash) of 1 hour internet
a day.
While I cannot comment about the accuracy of the takeovers from the OP's
article (I was in the high school after all and was offline fiddling with the
expensive LPT scanner, not watching politics), and there always are hidden
agendas and components to the story; just to summarize, in those days:
a) nobody cared about the .com-bubble, the internets were a very expensive
gimmick to download as many Pascal tutorials and early-media (game reviews
mostly) content as fast as you can on a time-metered connection, typically not
originating from the .sk TLD,
b) many large companies, say machine industries or water mains, with all their
assets were privatized and brought to insolvency on monthly basis (from that
era, "privatization" is still used as a curse word with negative connotation).
\----
The answer to the question why government didn't take over the TLD by force
unilaterally - simply, the first governments cared about defrauding as much as
they could, and the next governments cared about being viewed as the "right"
alternative to the previous ones, while trying to defraud all what was the
left with less media exposure.
And finally, when some wise heads finally came to the realization what the
internet has become worldwide and will become nation-wide, we were already in
the middle of accession negotiations to become an EU member, implementing
required laws. That may be the final answer to your question:
\- the defraudation was done in the "wild west" years of 1990's after the
revolution,
\- while the "repair" had to be done under the strict international-grade laws
and you simply can't take it unilaterally back...
\----
I don't want this to sound overly negative, it was fun years. For example, I,
being born in the 80's era still experienced in my late 90's teens: 8-bit era,
16-bits and finally 32-bits, as they got to us belatedly in 90's. People,
being fed up with slow, time-metered and monopolised 56k even in 2000s,
started popping up amateur 2.4 GHz networks everywhere, even on remote
villages, and that in turn, with "real" ISPs seeing they would get nowhere
with lesser service offering no advantages over a next-door high school
students' wifis, has lead us to the FTTH/FTTB paradise we have nowadays. We
also skipped the ISDN entirely (although it was available). There was time-
metered 56k, flash, flat-rate 56k and wifis everywhere, flash, ADSL, flash,
fiber. The fast 8-bit/16-bit/32-bit transformation experienced in one's youth
lead us to many world-grade startups and companies for the country with the
population count of one larger capital.
Just wanted to say that 90's were dark in Central Europe and things more life-
important than a TLD had changed hands then...
------
finchisko
I'am from Slovakia and this one of many examples, how greedy guys tooked
opportunity after fallen communist regime and state laws didn't covered this
kind of situation. It's big shame this is not resolved yet. But there is
initiative to change that and give back national registrator back to public
hands. I hope it will happen soon. The only other country that gave it's top
level domain to private hands is Laos. Their .la is mostly used by biznisses
from Los Angeles. But that's Laos, not country in EU.
~~~
KocourMikes
Hey slow down young commie. Do you realize that almost all gTLDs and most of
ccTLDs in the first world are managed by private commercial entities (source:
CENTR stats on ccTLD management)? Even .CZ, coveted by the author is managed
by private association (association members are registrars).
------
jwilk
> Also, the domain is still not open to foreigners.
Why should it be?
~~~
throwaway1X2
Well, with background in the darker parts of the internets, I'm still against
all forms of domain squatting, typosquatting, etc. Others would also describe
me as a heavy EU-skeptic.
But! If you are a company registered in whatever EU country, and, by law, you
can do business in all remaining states and in some cases (taxes, consumer
protection) you are even bound to adhere to their local laws - then, why you
couldn't have a local TLD? And what if you even hold an EU-wide recognized
trademark?
Say I am Spanish company AcmeRoadunnner, with EU-wide trademark on
AcmeRoadrunner, I cannot get acmeroadrunner.sk, because I don't have a Slovak
entity? What for? I am already bound by harmonized EU legislation and when I
sell to Slovakia, I must behave in relation to my customers (when they are
consumers and not business entities) and file VAT according to Slovakia laws.
Say I am Slovak self business AcmeCoyote. Should I really need to create 27
other business entities in 27 other states to register other domains and
prevent domain squatting, when I'm already bound by the 27 states' laws when I
sell there?
Ridiculous! And a nice job for proxy registrars...
PS: In an interesting turn of events, fairly recently, a proxy registrar was
found guilty for breaking gambling laws, where the page hosted on domain
registered by him for his client was showing gambling ads not conforming to
Slovakia legislation... So it is about having a local scapegoat to punish.
PS2: Imagine you cannot send goods to any country, unless you create a
business entity there. In SK-NIC's case, it's the vice versa case, you can
sell here, you MUST charge our VAT here, you MUST obey our consumer laws here,
but hey, sorry, you cannot get ours TLD, f __* you...
~~~
TomMarius
You know there's a thing called organisational unit, right? If the .eu and
.com domains aren't enough for you, you're most likely required to have one
and when you have one, you can register .sk domain. Check the laws.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lastronaut: My first game and why I'm giving it away for free - dhenein
https://medium.com/@darrinhenein/lastronaut-a-love-letter-adec05cdbee6
======
chainsaw10
Nice game! I've played it for a half hour today :)
Not to complain (it's free), but you might want to consider increasing the
interval between asking for ratings. Right now, the game asks after each loss
for a rating, if I click "Remind Me Later". I eventually clicked "No Thanks"
because I got tired of clicking "Remind Me Later". (I'll go leave a rating
now... but I figured I'd point it out.)
edit: My apologies if you already changed it in the update. I just saw it.
------
Mithaldu
Once again i am reminded of why App Store is such a disgusting name. It's like
having a Wheel Store that only offers wheels for Teslas.
That said, even though i'll never be able to experience your game, i wish you
the best of luck as a fellow game developer and hope you get a lot of feedback
with criticism to be used in your next projects.
------
legohead
I think I missed something -- why are you giving it away for free?
------
scihuman
Idealist :^)
Have you considered making it open source, then?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The fault-tolerant Auragen file system from pre-history - vyodaiken
http://www.yodaiken.com/2016/01/25/the-auragen-file-system/
======
strictnein
What's the "pre-history" bit about? I don't think 1989 qualifies as pre-
history, and the linked post is just titled "The Auragen file system".
------
sitkack
Link to mentioned paper
[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15-440/READINGS/borg-1989.pdf](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15-440/READINGS/borg-1989.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Microsoft: “Time for Mozilla to get down from their philosophical ivory tower” - sirwitti
https://twitter.com/auchenberg/status/1088587621721231361
======
msl
The title is wrong: this is not a statement by Microsoft, but by a single
individual, as explicitly pointed out by said individual.
~~~
sirwitti
You're right, HN does not allow enough characters to state this correctly. So
I had to cut it down a bit.
| {
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The Slave Ship That Ran from Kerala to New Orleans - deskamess
https://in.news.yahoo.com/the-slave-ship-that-ran-from-kerala-to-new-orleans-085329807.html
======
jakewalker
I have had the great pleasure of helping represent a group of these workers
(not the folks who just recently went to trial, but another related case in
the Eastern District of Louisiana). One of the most gratifying experiences
I've had as an attorney. Really glad to see this story getting attention here.
If you are interested in the topic, I'd highly recommend taking a look at some
of the SPLC's work on the issues surrounding the H2B program generally:
[http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/close-
to-...](http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/close-to-slavery-
guestworker-programs-in-the-united-states)
~~~
gjkood
One of the greatest things I have come to appreciate in the US is that for all
its warts, it has great institutions to provide relief against injustice to
those who will otherwise be marginalized or helpless.
I have been a supporter of the ACLU and now that I am aware of the work that
the SPLC does, I am a supporter.
I love to see the 'corrective' nature of the general elections and also
understand that sometimes the outcome is not the desirable ones.
Whenever I see people thumping the Constitution or the Bible to support their
twisted heartless positions, I am also in awe of the Founding Fathers of this
country, who were able to craft a document, that actually protects the people
from their basest instincts and the institutions necessary for affording those
protections.
Thank you Mr. Walker for being a part of that corrective process.
~~~
enupten
Indeed, and thankfully, this unlike the Arab countries in Middle east, where
it's more-or-less routine.
I think it is made worse by the fact that no one gives a shit for the people
who don't speak English in India.
------
grej
The executives and "immigration attorney" in this case showed willful
disregard for the law and the individuals they were defrauding, and in my
opinion should be subject to criminal charges. Sadly, many of the times things
like this happen instead - [http://www.law360.com/articles/632144/signal-says-
bankruptcy...](http://www.law360.com/articles/632144/signal-says-bankruptcy-
likely-before-next-trafficking-trial).
TLDR, Signal is claiming they don't have the resources to pay, trying to
declare bankruptcy, and leave the wronged to walk away with nothing (from them
at least). But rest assured, the Signal executives would be fine, financially,
in that outcome.
Even if they are not charged criminally, piecing the corporate veil in the
case of willful and malicious activity is well established, and this is
exactly the type of case where that action should be taken.
------
sremani
This is disturbing but hardly surprising. US is dotted with slave labor camps
from meat-packing towns in mid-west to underground garment factories in Los
Angeles. This is where the perpetrators use the immigration law as a tool of
their exploitation and enforcement, even if the worker involved or should I
say, especially when the worker involved is legally here. On the other hand,
the complete absence of Indian Consular services or the myriad of Indian
cultural organizations in the story is appalling.
~~~
IndianAstronaut
> the complete absence of Indian Consular services or the myriad of Indian
> cultural organizations in the story is appalling.
Amazing considering how many Indians pour millions into temples and such in
the US.
~~~
mavelikara
Compare the silence here with the fuss made in the Devyani Khorbhade case.
~~~
shiven
_Crows always defend fellow crows._
If you have ever seen that in action, you'll totally understand. It's a fact
of nature. Same for cops etc.
------
bruceb
Not sure how this actually shows "America's broken visa system" as the author
claims. It shows a bad company. They broke the rules. They were punished and
now paying 5 men almost 3 million each. (though yes they may weasel out of it)
~~~
girvo
The fact they can weasel out of it shows that at least part of the system is
broken.
~~~
bruceb
That seems more a general failure of legal system not the visa system.
~~~
girvo
It is, yes, but if the checks-and-balances that the visa system relies on and
are implemented by the legal system can be sidestepped so easily, then abuses
are far more likely, wouldn't you agree?
------
gjkood
For anyone interested, Kerala is a small state in the southern tip of India.
It has a huge historical importance to Western Civilization. You could almost
say (I may be exaggerating a little bit) that the America's were discovered by
the Europeans in its effort to find a cheaper route to the produce and wealth
of the Indies. Kerala is home to the Malabar Hills or what is commonly called
the Spice Coast of India.
Kerala is where most of the spices such as Pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves
etc have been grown for centuries. The ports of Kerala, Calicut (Kozhikode)
has been the main gateway of trade all the way back to the Phoenicians.
BTW, as HN visitors, you may be interested in the fact that Kerala is now also
home to a vibrant Startup culture. Just in the last few months, Menlo Park and
Kochi (the city mentioned in the article) has announced that they are going to
be sister cities.
[http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/kochi-to-sign-
sist...](http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/kochi-to-sign-sister-city-
pact-with-menlo-park/article6870633.ece)
[http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-02-10/news...](http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-02-10/news/59005375_1_kerala-
government-student-start-ups-technology-business-incubator)
Now back to the article being discussed. Some of the factors that made this
case possible are the fact that the key players who were being exploited are
from Kerala. This may seem strange but let me explain.
Kerala, along with West Bengal, can be considered as two of the most
intellectually forward states of India. By that I mean, very high literacy
(almost 100%) and as a result of that a very keen awareness of when they are
exploited and have a fierce willingness to fight all forms of injustice.
Communism is a very bad word in America, but it has helped these two states
rise up from the feudal system that was prevalent in these states and is still
prevalent in most of the poorest states in India. The downsides of a Communist
approach (militant labor) is very evident in these States also, as being the
worst states to create a labor based business in. The day after you start a
business there, you can be guaranteed that labor will start an agitation and
bring the business to its knees.
The article also mentions the attempted suicide, which is also one of of the
disturbing aspects of life in Kerala. The state is very affluent compared to
other states, but there is huge social pressure (perceived or otherwise) that
forces people to take extreme measures to avoid failure. Whole family suicides
are not unheard of if something bad happens.
Thanks to the effort of the tragic few who were willing to stand up to the
exploiters and risk everything to bring this to court. Their efforts will have
an impact far beyond their own.
This is one of the reasons that I try and contribute to organizations like the
ACLU whenever I can. Henceforth I shall do the same for the SPLC.
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who will guard the guards themselves).
~~~
somedudethere
> You could almost say (I may be exaggerating a little bit) that the America's
> were discovered by the Europeans in its effort to find a cheaper route to
> the produce and wealth of the Indies.
Isn't that what is normally taught in schools?
~~~
mturmon
This strange history is poetically recalled by Salman Rushdie in the first
pages of _The Moor 's Last Sigh_:
I repeat: the pepper, if you please; for if it had not been for peppercorns,
then what is ending now in East and West might never have begun. Pepper it was
that brought Vasco de Gama's tall ships across the ocean, from Lisbon's Tower
of Belém to the Malabar Coast: first to Calicut and later, for its lagoon
harbor, to Cochin.
English and French sailed in the wake of that first-arrived Portugee, so that
in the period called Discovery-of-India -- but how could we be discovered when
we were not covered before? -- we were 'not so much sub-continent as sub-
condiment', as my distinguished mother had it. 'From the beginning, what the
world wanted from bloody mother India was daylight-clear,' she'd say. 'They
came for the hot stuff, just like any man calling on a tart.'
------
carrotleads
Well I don't know the composition of the management panel of this business. It
is quite likely to be homogeneous and dictatorial.
This is the cost of a lack of diversity in a team and how stereotypes can come
to bite one in the foot. As illustrated by the emails expecting the workers to
be happy with their living conditions given they were assumed to be "pooping
in ditches".
I would wager with better diversity someone is most likely to have challenged
some of these views a lot earlier and helped the company from its blunders.
------
pdevr
The scary part is that if not for the support of the local church/parish and
the lawyers, this may well have been yet another case decided in favor of the
company.
------
injiiinc
man thats horrible... never really hear much about Kerala in the news, its
obscure in comparison to the rest of India. Thats where my parents came from
so I was happy to see Kerala come up on HN, not happy at all after reading the
article. Damn
~~~
kolencherry
The last big piece of Kerala-related news that I remember coming up in America
media was about the Annie George case.
~~~
injiiinc
That Anthony Bourdain no reservations episode was pretty good, not really
news, but worth mentioning because I still haven't saved anything over it on
my dvr.
------
bayesianhorse
Stop all restrictions on immigration in the developed world! Not out of
kindness, or even basic human decency, but because these restrictions don't
work any more.
Look at the US: 18 billion dollars are spent each year for enforcing
immigration laws. The result? anywhere between 7 and 30 Million illegal
immigrants, which are essential to the country's economy, but unable to work,
seek the best medical attention or raise their socioeconomic status.
In Germany, we have a new kind of "dynamic". Our constitution grants a right
to asylum. Because of that right, every application has to be reviewed, even
though two thirds of them are rejected. The first problem is that the
bureaucracy is completely overwhelmed by the applications. Second problem is
that even the rejected Applicants can't be deported, for sheer impracticality
of scaling the "deportation" machinery by several magnitudes.
Of course, this state of affairs has drawn the attention of even more people
smugglers and potential immigrants, raising the burden on our immigration
enforcement. It didn't have to be Germany, who was stuck in that cycle first.
It could have been France. Italy and Greece aren't stuck because they
essentially tell the immigrants to go to Germany or risk being mistreated.
In Germany, these asylum seekers are not allowed to work ever. Which means
they have to be paid some form of social support. In my belief, paying social
support is cheaper than dealing with the consequences of about a million human
beings prohibited from earning a living in a legal way. But even cheaper would
be to allow them to work, like they actually want to do.
But alas, the majority of citizens in the developed countries have fear of
immigrants, so they will have to learn what I just described the hard way.
~~~
G00d1
>The result? anywhere between 7 and 30 Million illegal >immigrants, which are
essential to the country's economy, >but unable to work, seek the best medical
attention or raise >their socioeconomic status.
The reason is because the gov't doesn't enforce the law. If they did punish
employers for hiring illegal immigrants then there would be a lot less. The
employers skirt the law to increase the bottom line while pushing the cost off
on the taxpayer. Cut of the work then a lot less will come. Wages will rise
for the lowest earning Americans.
You think anyone in the world should be able to come to Germany? Get ready for
a couple million people in the first 6 months. People who don't speak German
and may not share your values.
~~~
bayesianhorse
This is exactly the flawed reasoning I am criticizing. Of course, if you "cut
off the labor", they wouldn't come. But experience has shown, that this is
impossible. Especially not since a large proportion of the US economy
absolutely depends on these workers. And a large part of the $18 billion
dollars every year is spent on trying to police immigrant laborers. And no,
wages will not rise, because wide-scale disruptions would lead to the worst
recession since the 1930s. But that's hard to speculate because, to reiterate,
"cutting off" the labor in any reasonable timescale is completely infeasible.
What I envision for the future is stopping immigration controls in the entire
developed world. Preferably happening all at once. The burden for Germany
would likely even decrease. Because just as it is, Germany has been selected
for the first breaking point, and the situation is such that pretty much
anybody can immigrate to Germany already and not be deported anyway...
------
davidw
Here's a random question for the Indians on HN:
> Andrews Isaac Padavettiyil
_Most_ Indian names I see tend not to mix in bits and pieces that look
western. Is something like this just random chance, or are there some groups
or cultures where this is a done thing?
~~~
gjkood
As mavelikara, above replied, Kerala has a unique mixture of three religions,
Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The Christians in Kerala are also of
different denominations, Catholics (Syrian), Catholics (Latin), Orthodox
Christians (Syrian), Orthodox Christians (Malankara), Protestants of all
denominations etc.
In general, if you are Christian, your name has three parts to it, <First
Name> <Middle Name> <Last Name> where the <First Name > is your given name,
<Middle Name> is your father's given name and <Last Name> 'may' be a family
name. The first and middle names are generally of Biblical origin and will be
recognizable by Westerners, the family name will be a local name in Malayalam,
which denotes many families of the same family tree so to speak.
The names of Malayalis (people of Kerala who speak the native tongue,
Malayalam) are a source of confusion for Westerners. I am often asked is that
you real name?
BTW, the Orthodox Christians of Kerala are 'believed' to be descendants of the
first families, converted by St. Thomas (one of the 12 apostles of Christ) who
is believed to have settled in Kerala (around 50 AD) in a place called
Cranganore, and later is believed to have died/martyred in the neighboring
state of Tamil Nadu. They are also called St. Thomas Christians. I leave it to
more knowledgeable people to argue about authenticity of these beliefs.
~~~
carrotleads
This..
My family belongs somewhere in this group. A few Australians have been
confused by my last name which is biblical. Occasionally I remind them that
India has more Christians than the Australian population and most of us have
biblical names mixed in.
As an aside, I suspect the case was also driven by the fact that Keralite
people are generally more aware of their rights given their high levels of
education, knowledge of worker rights and socilaist exposure( the world first
elected communist govt was here).
Most keralites migrate out to escape the socialist pressure that kills jobs
there. Quite ironical that they get out and put up with such cr@p for so long
but understandable given the obligations they get into.
------
G00d1
The problem is this visa should not exist for this type of work. Benefits of
ending this visa:
1\. Americans workers have jobs and see an increase in pay
2\. Less likely to be abused workers
3\. Less money given to bureaucracy
4\. Less money to lawyers
5\. No exploited foreigners
6\. Money earned by workers stays in US instead of leaving the US economy and
being sent overseas.
7\. Churches have more time to help local population.
This is work that has to be done in the US. This isn't the same as a visa for
a high tech worker creating a company.
There is no reason to have this visa for this type of work. It only helps rich
business owners at the expense of American workers.
~~~
gambiting
To play devil's advocate - so where would the workers come from to help after
disasters like Katrina? If I understand correctly - those people were hired to
keep rebuilding everything, since American workers were too busy taking care
of their own homes and families, so it was hard to find anyone to do the
actual job. If these workers were hired to do one specific job, got paid fair
wage for it, and got out, then I wouldn't have a single problem with this visa
type.
~~~
G00d1
Just pay market rates. This company did not want to do that. They want to pay
cheaper workers who then send that money out of the country. The company would
not make the reported 700k per worker though. Not as good for upper management
but better for America.
------
1971genocide
This is why I sometimes wished that rather than have the largest democracy in
the world <applause> India were ruled by something similar to the Chinese
technocrats who challenged the america-euro global world order. So much of the
brightest Indians is the reason why america is a tech giant. India could have
similar wealth like the Chinese if it wasn't for this brain-drain. And to make
it even worse the american system didn't distribute that generated wealth
fairly among its citizen but made a powerful class even more powerful and made
average americans and indians poorer.
~~~
srean
It is not enough just to produce talent, it is also necessary to have
structure in place to utilize/absorb the talent. India was far from that
position before, it is somewhat better but still far from ideal.
To turn the point on its head, if you have the infrastructure and environment
for talent to be used and valued, they would come, and they did, to USA.
However given the strong anti immigrant rhetoric that is becoming popular in
USA I am interested to see how this is going to play out.
~~~
1971genocide
China also didn't have the infrastructure. In fact India has a lot more
infrastructure than china did due to 200 years of British Rule. The difference
is China forced their brightest citizen to stay and build whatever
infrastructure was needed and also didn't so easily give in to pressure to
open up to trade that didn't benefit them in the guise of "globalization".
~~~
G00d1
Not everyone in China is Han Chinese but it is not as diverse as India. Should
the Indian Gov't suppress all the different religions in India? Crush ethnic
tensions with brute force?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Minecraft developers (Mojang) announce second game - pufuwozu
http://www.scrolls.com/
======
Skywing
The most impressive thing, imo, is that he got scrolls.com. :P
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ex-Google hiring committee member about job interviewing - maayank
http://extroverteddeveloper.com/podcast/2012/8/30/extroverted-developer-18-gayle-laakmann-mcdowell.html
======
rckclmbr
She's spot on. I consider myself a competent developer (6 years experience,
"big fish in a small pond"), and I don't really interview often. I've
interviewed at Google twice, the first time doing 2 phone interviews and a
round of on-site interviews, and the second time not making it past the phone
interview.
I have prepared well for the interviews every time. I understand the
algorithms, the data structures, and can program them on my own time no
problem. But the second I'm in an interview setting, I lock up and can't
think. I stumble across stupid thoughts (How many bits are in a byte? Oh yea,
8. But what about the 0th bit? What to do?!) and just work myself into a
corner. All the while trying to seek approval from the interviewer. After
about 2 minutes, I become a wreck and am hopeless.
I also don't consider myself non-social, and deal with coworkers very well. I
still don't understand what it is about the technical interview setting that
makes me act like this.
~~~
incision
For what it's worth...
I'm no rockstar, but I can honestly claim to be pretty comfortable in
technical interviews. I chalk that comfort up to two main things.
1) A mentality that says something like...
"I'm good, I'm solid. Fuck this guy."
The point isn't the specific words, or expressing this outwardly, it's about
getting into a mental state of calm confidence, pushing out the anxiety and
concerning yourself only with the moment.
2) Talking with and being challenged by smart people on a regular basis.
Ideally people who are smarter and/or more knowledgeable than yourself. I
expect being the big fish in a small pond generally works against this.
~~~
nostrademons
I don't usually think of it as "Fuck this guy", but rather, "I can help this
company." There's a lot implicit in that statement - that I want to help this
company, that this company can be helped, etc. But fundamentally, it's that I
am offering more to my employer than they are offering to me. If they choose
not to take me, that is their loss.
Actually, that seems to be a good mentality to build confidence in general.
I've heard (I haven't managed it yet) that the secret to getting girls is to
think of offering them the chance to be with you - you aren't trying to "get"
the girl, but rather offering your companionship and emotional investment to a
suitable girl who's willing to take it. The secret to networking is to offer
favors to people in need of them. The secret to negotiation is to offer
something of value to the other side and ask for something that they value
less in return.
~~~
Evbn
Bingo. Treat the interviewer like an intelligent student in a class you are
teaching => win.
------
JabavuAdams
If a lot of talented engineers from Microsoft and Amazon are having trouble in
Google interviews, doesn't that indicate that Google is testing the wrong
things?
~~~
proksoup
Agreed.
If writing a binary search tree thingamabob isn't relevant to the job they
have 10 years experience in, why is the answer to that question so important
at the goog?
Why not ask questions that are relevant to the experience the candidate does
have ...
~~~
glaak
It depends on how you look at it.
Google wants people who have a strong understand of CS fundamentals (which
includes knowing core data structures). Google also wants people who are good
coders (which includes being able to translate an idea into code).
A good coder who knows CS fundamentals should be able to do that. Thus, not
knowing how to implement a binary search tree is revealing.
And, really, the question is rarely "implement a binary search tree." It may,
however, be to implement a binary search tree which support a getMedian()
operation.
~~~
Evbn
Of course, not knowing how to write a library quality Java w/generics
implementation of a a search API on a non-search tree, on the whiteboard, as
one of my interviewers once demanded, is something a bit else.
------
curiousDog
Ironically, her book won't get you through the google interview if you are a
new college grad. It may have sufficient coverage for Microsoft/Amazon
interviews but not google.
From my experience the average google interview requires you to be so deeep
into the algo/datastructure space, you should be able to code up the KMP algo
off the top of your head. You have to be a topcoder with atleast 1200 rep or
equivalent algo & coding skills. Coding speed also matters. You should be able
to scribble Floyd warshall.
Why this way? Well that's where google did most of their recruiting from back
in the day. Anyone who says they got hired without this are either lying or
got lucky in the interview process. Same goes for the new wave of startups in
the bay area..facebook/palantir/quora etc.
I was very much into the OS, compiler space in school and that was what I was
interested in. Got an offer from msft, amzn but not google. So kids, read up
on CLRS & the algorith design manual, solve every problem there & also create
your account today on topcoder if you'd like that job at el goog. Any other
book that says otherwise is equivalent to Linux programming for dummies or
Complete C++ in 21 days.
~~~
tlogan
As far as I know this is also true for key divisions (divisions making secret
sauce) of "unsexy" companies (ORCL, MSFT, AMZN, IBM, INTL, etc.).
In other words, if you want to find a good job you need to be good.
------
jamesmiller5
I find the resume length suggestions interesting.
The Microsoft representatives have told me to use a short one page resume. The
Google representatives instead told me the exact opposite and said for me to
put down _everything_ relevant to the position regardless of length.
I now have two resumes, a short one for on the floor career fairs and a multi-
page that I submit online.
[Edit grammar]
------
papaver
i think the best answer to any google interview question i didn't know is.....
"i'd google it"!
but seriously, why do i need to remember information about languages or
algorithms i don't use daily? my memory is limited and i prefer it to be
filled with the most useful information at the time.
~~~
hackinthebochs
This mentality works in general, but there are drawbacks. A large part of your
problem solving ability is unconscious. If you don't have critical pieces of
information committed to memory, you're essentially creating a ceiling on the
types of problems you're capable of solving.
~~~
Natsu
In at least some cases, you can get by with having only the solution metadata
committed to memory. For example, you might remember various data structures
and their time complexity well enough to select the proper one, without
necessarily being able to implement them all from memory.
~~~
Evbn
But you better remember how to verify your memory is correct, at least via
research if not working it out yourself.
~~~
Natsu
In the end, you can either turn the information into a program or you cannot.
------
mkhattab
Perhaps there is too much emphasis on the interview process. Why not use the
contract-to-hire method? It could be a short duration spanning a few weeks.
There are of course multiple drawbacks, but at least this method could help
alleviate the problem of false negatives.
~~~
emmapersky
It takes many months to become a productive Engineer at Google, and in all of
that time you are earning your full salary and being exposed to confidential
information, so it's not realistic to try people out, as it would really only
be valid after ramp up time; The challenge we face is figuring out if people
will be successful here _after_ they have picked up everything they need to
know.
------
hk_kh
Buy a book to get the illusion you'll work on Google. Sounds good!
~~~
usea
Some may buy it for that reason. Are you implying it isn't likely to contain
any useful information or advice on people who are actually interested in
preparing for their interviews? Seems like a very pessimistic view.
~~~
Evbn
CLRS is a better book for preparing for your interviews.
~~~
pgbovine
probably not, unless you're really good at filtering out what you need from
1312 pages. a more tightly-focused programming interview study guide is
probably more beneficial if your only goal is prepping for these sorts of
interviews.
~~~
Evbn
I (re-)ead a dozen chapters and sketched solutions to almost every problem in
my head, over a few weeks of evening and weekends, leading up to my best
interview performances ever. YMMV, but I saw a correlation with obvious
mechanism of causation. For the most coveted jobs, "fake books" don't cut it,
you can't memorize every question you will see.
~~~
pja
CLRS was my Google interview prep book.
Sadly, it didn't prepare me for the questions about unix filesystem data
structures. But I don't think I can blame CLRS for that :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Every Movie Looks Sort of Orange and Blue - vinnyglennon
http://priceonomics.com/why-every-movie-looks-sort-of-orange-and-blue/
======
swalsh
In The Matrix, you could tell which "world" you're in by the general grade of
color. When in the Matrix, everything had a greenish overtone, and when in the
"real world" it was more blue. I really liked that use of color to be a part
of the story telling process.
~~~
scelerat
Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000) made heavy use of this, too, to distinguish
different locales and parts of the story. The Mexico/Benicio Del Toro partions
were heavy on gold/orange, burnt, sepia, while the Washington/Michael Douglas
parts were blue, cool.
~~~
mrec
Yeah, Breaking Bad always painted everything a lurid yellow for scenes in
Mexico.
~~~
ben1040
Which inspired this funny photoshopped image on Reddit, poking fun at the
border:
[http://i.imgur.com/PXMGX.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/PXMGX.jpg)
------
joosters
At least they had the good grace to link to
[http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-
ho...](http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-
please-stop.html) before effectively rewriting his original blogpost (and
copying some of the images directly from it!)
~~~
cake
Those priceonomics guys really care for their SEO. They are one of the few
websites that writes totally unrelated articles to sell a product.
I kind of feel used when I see them pop up.
~~~
rohin
I work at Priceonomics, so maybe I can shed light on our motivations.
We make the kind of content we love and we sell products so that we can afford
to make more of that content. The two products we actually sell (data crawling
for companies and books for people) aren't particularly well-suited toward SEO
(though our original idea, a Price Guide which we killed years ago, was).
Anyhow, we're a content site that's trying to get by without using ads. I
think most of our regular readers appreciate we're trying to pay the bills by
selling things instead using ads. We'd like to avoid jamming our site with
advertising if that's possible.
Happy to answer any questions you have.
~~~
ChuckMcM
I miss the price guide :-)
------
KaiserPro
Ironically, teal and orange reached its peak with tranformers. With the rise
of RED cameras (which have useless colour reproduction) we've gone the
opposite way, low contrast, lots of grain.
[http://emertainmentmonthly.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/in...](http://emertainmentmonthly.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/intothewoods.jpg) (warning, 5k image)
[http://applications.creativeengland.co.uk/assets/public/reda...](http://applications.creativeengland.co.uk/assets/public/redactor_images/e10892d041ac4eaf76778da4c7730d8f.jpg)
note the softness on james corden's face, thats most likely someone painting
out blemishes.
Fun fact, virtually any special effects movie that you've seen since 2000, all
the film grain you see, is faked. So the people who bemoan the loss of grain
with the move to digital need to reassess what they are saying:
[http://conradolson.com/frame-by-frame-painting](http://conradolson.com/frame-
by-frame-painting)
~~~
sandofsky
I'm curious about what the makes the colour reproduction useless. Based on the
low contrast comment, I'm guessing it has to do with the log color space?
~~~
Matsta
It's true to a point, the RED isn't the best camera at reproducing colours.
But then again most of the time you're going to be filming in RAW so it
doesn't really matter as much since you get a flat image in post that you can
grade.
An advantage the RED cameras have say over a Alexa is that they can film in
4k,5k,6k (Alexa only shoots in 2k). So that you can get a sharper image by
editing in 6k, and then exporting in 4k or 1080p.
If you look at video cams for projects that need to be finished quickly, of
course your not going to choose a RED. Canon Cinema Cameras (c100, c300) have
the best colour science out of everyone (Sony and Panasonic are known to have
pretty average colour reproduction). The only downfall with Canon cameras is
that they use crappy codes and compression so when you start pushing to
extreme looks, you'll get alot of noise and loose sharpness in your footage.
I use Blackmagic cameras, which aren't know for their colours either, but they
own the industry standard grading software (DaVinci), so it is quite easy to
get your footage balanced before you do a grade.
------
S_A_P
One movie that seemed to play with color to a fantastic effect is Traffic -
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181865/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181865/) I
noticed when it came out that color played a subtle role in setting the mood
of each scene and aspect. For instance, near the border towns and where where
the "hot zone" of illegal drug traffic occurred, it was more yellow/orange
tinted. Then when you head back to the suburbs and see privileged kids doing
drugs in their large homes, the color was much more blue and lighting was much
softer. I wish that more movies would employ tricks like this without using a
"template"...
edit: looked on IMDB and it looks like 3 different films stocks were used:
To achieve a distinctive look for each different vignette in the story, Steven
Soderbergh used three different film stocks (and post-production techniques),
each with their own color treatment and grain for the print. The "Wakefield"
story features a colder, bluer tone to match the sad, depressive emotion. The
"Ayala" story is bright, shiny, and saturated in primary colors, especially
red, to match the glitzy surface of Helena's life. The "Mexican" story appears
grainy, rough, and hot to go with the rugged Mexican landscape and congested
cities.
~~~
mVChr
Side-note: Soderbergh's editing is absolutely fantastic and original too (see:
The Limey, Out of Sight). Fine, fine film-maker, one of the few to be able to
cross from pure art film to Hollywood blockbuster and back again through
everything in between with ease. It will be interesting to see where his
"retirement" takes him.
~~~
dingaling
Soderbergh recently did a recut of 2001 to make it less 'obvious'...
------
dperfect
> There's no specific colour decision-making process where we sit in a room
> and say, 'We're only going to use complementary colours to try and move the
> audience in a particular direction – and only use those combinations.'
A lot of production designers would strongly disagree with this statement. The
color palette of a film is very much a part of the decision-making process
(pre-production as well as post-production), and it's used primarily to "move
the audience" in one way or another, as per the film's theme and story
elements.
It may just be that the colors within a chosen palette are often classified as
either "warm" or "cool" \- orange and blue being the most obvious
manifestations of those classifications - so we tend to see a lot of them.
Without contrast (literal and figurative), a film simply doesn't _say_
anything. Warm and cool colors go a long way in helping the audience feel
positively or negatively about certain story elements.
~~~
KaiserPro
Having worked in a grading suite, I can say that the quoted statement is
indeed false.
Colour usually is considered right at the start, as dperfet correctly points
out.
~~~
ted5555
Right. There are also those color houses that standardize more or less the
worlds palette for the next few years. It is not an accident that we all had
avocado refrigerators and green minivans. It is a truly big brother industry.
------
circlefavshape
Funny to see Amelie there as a counter-example - it's pretty much my favourite
movie, and one of the things I love about it is the autumnal quality of the
light. Normally I wouldn't notice that kind of thing at all, perhaps it's the
contrast with all the orange-and-blues (or maybe just the exceptional
loveliness of the film itself)
~~~
pkroll
On the director's commentary, at 21:50, he talks about pushing the digital
grading and that "sometimes it's a little bit too much." (But obviously he
didn't tone it back!)
~~~
lobster_johnson
He did, however, go completely overboard with A Very Long Engagement, which is
drenched in yellow/orange:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfo3nt-
O_U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfo3nt-O_U)
It's a fine film, but the grading is rather extreme. It does the opposite for
the war scenes, which are quite desaturated.
------
chton
One of the most interesting exceptions I've seen on this convention was the
2011 movie
Limitless([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/)).
They still used the orange-blue complement, but switched saturation between
them, sometimes every scene. It was used as an indicator of how the
protagonist views the world: bright and with an orange saturation for when he
is on NZT, dull and blue when he isn't. I thought it was a great way of
deconstructing this particular trope.
~~~
HCIdivision17
To join in, I too loved the use of color in Limitless. I personally associate
vibrant autumnal colors with clarity, not sharp blues, so when the characters
go on NZT, it feels _fuller_ , not just sharper. It looks like something a
person would actually _want_ , as opposed to losing one's humanity in a soul-
crushing washed-out green or blue usually seen in sci-fi.
------
nmeofthestate
Recently when watching stuff on Netflix I found myself amazed at how
ridiculously orange and teal movies were getting. Even the pilot episode of
House was ridiculously Orange'n'Teal.
Then I twigged it was because I was running F.Lux.
------
robbrown451
One thing that isn't mentioned is that realism doesn't seem "cinematic." It's
just like people not liking high frame rate because of the "soap opera
effect," or even some people's preference for black and white. Visible grain,
non-subtle bokeh effects and lens flare, etc are other things that aren't
realistic per se, but for some reason they make it seem less "cheap" and bring
more emotional weight than a more perfectly realistic image.
I think these sorts of forced palettes do the same thing. Maybe a different
color combination will become trendy at some point, but for now, orange/blue
is a pretty safe bet that it will achieve the emotional effect, without it
just looking weird.
------
jobu
A few years ago there was a good article on Cracked (of all places) about the
annoying trends for movies:
[http://www.cracked.com/article_18664_5-annoying-trends-
that-...](http://www.cracked.com/article_18664_5-annoying-trends-that-make-
every-movie-look-same.html)
There is the orange and teal trend, but also color trends by genre, and of
course lens flares...
~~~
fivedogit
I was just about to post this link as well. Glad someone else had the same
thought. Cracked, while an absurd humor site on the surface, is one of the
most reliable resources of new-perspective intellectual stimulation on the
web, IMO.
------
jmstout
A fun read, but I'm not convinced the reason for all the orange and blue is
rooted in trendiness, as the article makes it seem. It suggests that this
color combination "might not be naturalistic", but in my experience with
light, color, and art, that statement couldn't be further from the truth.
Look around, in light, orange and blue hues dominante our world. Sunlight,
moonlight, street lights, sky, incandescents, the glow of lcds screens, etc -
blue and orange everywhere. If you take notice, you will realize this is true.
As the article points out, in art, when wanting to create vibrancy and visual
interest, one of the best tools in our arsenal is the use of complementary
colors.
No other compliments are even close to occurring as frequently in the lighting
of our natural world. This, I believe, is the true reason for its abundant use
in cinema.
Of all the compliments, orange and blue is just the most natural.
------
mladenkovacevic
While working at a tv distribution company about 8 years ago, I used to design
these promotional one-pagers for various shows. After a while I noticed all of
my designs were mostly blue and orange (or at least the main components of the
design were). Then I started consciously trying to use other colour
arrangements but orange-blue just always sort of looked best. I celebrated any
time i managed to get a good looking poster/one-pager without relying on the
orange-blue complementary contrast.
I wonder if women might have an advantage here due to many men being red-green
colour blind to some extent.
------
nosuchthing
Here's a visualization summary of entire movies in a "barcode" timeline format
from the start of the film to the end.
[0] [http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/movie-
index](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/movie-index)
[1] 2001: A Space Odyssey
[http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/3432026155/2001-a-space-...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/3432026155/2001-a-space-
odyssey-1968-prints)
[2] Aladdin
[http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/5766889425/aladdin-1992-...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/5766889425/aladdin-1992-prints)
[3] Beyond the Black Rainbow
[http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/39051819960/beyond-
the-b...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/39051819960/beyond-the-black-
rainbow-2010-prints)
[4] Blade Runner [http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/4438993828/blade-
runner-...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/4438993828/blade-
runner-1982-prints)
[5] Star Wars Episode IV
[http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/13255664875/star-wars-
ep...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/13255664875/star-wars-episode-iv-a-
new-hope-1977-prints)
[6] The Wizard of Oz [http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/3512965847/the-
wizard-of...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/3512965847/the-wizard-of-
oz-1939-prints)
------
jhanschoo
One argument in favor of using orange-blue as opposed to other contrasting
colors, is that humans associate blue with darkness and depth. Our eyes and
mind, too, perceive blue at a lower resolution as other colors (We perceive
green with the greatest fidelity).
Colorizing the screen in orange and blue, then, imposes a hierarchy on the
objects in the screen. Whereever the orange-blue scheme is used, the blue
depicts the background and the orange depicts the action.
This adds to the illusion of depth, which is extremely important especially
for Hollywood action films, as they need to feel big and grand amid fast-paced
movement and short takes. Where objects flash across the screen in split
seconds, the orange-blue contrast can provide a natural vocabulary to re-
orient the viewer as to what is happening in the 3D space depicted by the 2D
screen.
I would guess that the blue-green colorscheme is overrepresented in action
films and especially in action sequences, and underrepresented in say, comedy
and romance films.
------
m-i-l
Danny Boyle's Sunshine [0] also made good use of colour - the interior of the
ship had no reference to red, orange or yellow to make the appearance of the
sun more striking.
[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_\(2007_film\))
~~~
devonoel
Sunshine was a criminally under appreciated movie.
------
furyofantares
An interesting persuasive technique here: When they linked to "some
filmmakers" not using this scheme my guess before clicking was it would be to
a scene in The Grand Budapest Hotel. I've never thought about color in film
before so this didn't feel like it should be an easy guess unless the article
is correct about how pervasive orange/blue is, so when it loaded and it was
correct it added a lot of emotional force to the argument. Though I suspect it
is actually a pretty easy guess: they didn't choose a random film, they chose
an extreme, recent, popular counterexample to their argument. I'd bet my mind
was already thinking about that movie in the background while trying to come
up with counterexamples, and they successfully turned this into enforcing
their argument rather than the opposite.
------
ted5555
Color theory is like a fractal. The closer you get the more detail there is.
The Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema by
Alexis Van Hurkman is a great book if you really want to geek out or are
considering working in DI. Two particular topics come to mind. One is memory
colors which describe the ideal colors people within a cultural group tend to
think of when remembering common elements such as grass (greener) or brick
(redder). The other is cultural preferences regarding saturation. Seems UK
audiences like things a bit less saturated which I now understand is why all
my British photography magazines "look washed out". In a the 90's there was a
craze for bleach bypass and other alternative film processes. I'm pretty sure
the 3 Kings dvd says not to adjust your tv.
~~~
TheOtherHobbes
UK light is very different to California light.
Colours here really are washed out. A long time ago I was in Australia. My
then gf bought a bedspread by an artist called Ken Done - lots of bright
primary colours.
It looked great in Sydney.
In UK light - even in sunlight - most of the colour punch disappeared. It
actually looked kind of grey and old. Disappointment...
So if supersaturate movie colours, they look surreal here.
But California really _is_ teal and orange. The light is warm and intense, and
LA gets a lot of clear blue sky. So I wonder if directors like TnO because
it's a variation on natural Hollywood light.
------
bshimmin
Kubrick was always masterful with colour, and while he is probably best known
for his fascination with red [1], it's actually the orange/blue contrast in
"Eyes Wide Shut" that is most memorable for me.
[1]: [http://vimeo.com/112129153](http://vimeo.com/112129153)
------
graedus
Moviebarcode [0] provides some nice visualizations [1][2][3] of the color
palette of movies and other things.
[0] [http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/)
[1]
[http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/104685404787/transformer...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/104685404787/transformers-
age-of-extinction-2014)
[2]
[http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/3432016573/traffic-2000](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/3432016573/traffic-2000)
[3] [http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/8951346287/tron-
legacy-2...](http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/post/8951346287/tron-
legacy-2010-prints)
------
dharma1
If you are interested in colour grading, this is a wonderful piece of software
- [http://3dlutcreator.com](http://3dlutcreator.com)
That and davinci and you'll be fine
~~~
imjk
Can you elaborate a little on how this is different from Photoshop or
Lightroom?
------
tlrobinson
Final Cut Pro X literally has an effect called "Teal and Orange":
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdbub5jctmn4lqh/Screenshot%202015-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdbub5jctmn4lqh/Screenshot%202015-01-29%2011.34.17.png?dl=0)
I applied it to one of my (totally amateur) drone videos
([https://vimeo.com/95716566](https://vimeo.com/95716566)) and thought it
looked kind of "good", now I know why.
------
iLoch
_Drive_ has some great usage of this type of cinematography if I recall
correctly. I think the author may have ruined watching movies for me now
though. :/
------
parenthesis
Overdone computer-enabled post-production colour manipulation is one of the
(many) reasons I find it hard to watch a lot of film and television drama
productions of this century.
I much prefer the result when the manipulation of colour is achieved through
lighting on the set or location.
Two examples of films I think have fantastic use of colour in the lighting are
_Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_ and _Desperately Seeking Susan_.
------
hownottowrite
How do to color grading in Final Cut X
[https://vimeo.com/58051635](https://vimeo.com/58051635)
------
binarymax
I remember this from a while ago -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193657](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193657)
After I read that post it took something away from a lot of films for me,
since it was hard to not notice. In this context, ignorance is bliss I say! I
wish I could go back to not noticing.
~~~
moogleii
I'm not totally opposed to the idea since there's an artistic goal behind it.
Kinda like Instagram filters, which I admittedly used to oppose, but for
Instagram's purpose, which isn't vying for National Geographic awards, they
work well.
------
sosuke
I enjoyed Dead Silence, but some of the blue they do was overkill. For
example:
[http://static.yts.re/attachments/Dead_Silence_2007/Screensho...](http://static.yts.re/attachments/Dead_Silence_2007/Screenshot_006_large.png)
I hope we get a more natural dynamic range of color in the future.
------
steve94103
There's a really good video that illustrates & describes this effect. It's
targeted towards users of the color grading tools, but it's an interesting
watch nonetheless.
The Summer Blockbuster Colour Grading Tutorial:
[https://vimeo.com/65617394](https://vimeo.com/65617394)
------
Breakthrough
Full Metal Jacket had it's moments of blue and orange, but I'd classify most
scenes in the film as 'green'. Then again, Kubrick was known to be obsessive
in regards to attention to detail, especially when it came to lighting and
colour reproduction.
------
dsuth
This is all a little bizarre, as these are my two favourite colours,
especially in combination. As a teenager getting to paint my walls my own
colours for the first time, I chose orange walls with blue trim. I had not
idea it was so prevalent in movie-making!
------
Yhippa
When I shoot portraits of people with a flash I will sometimes use an orange
gel to give people's skin a more human look. White flash tends to take that
out of the final picture but the orange gel makes skin look more natural.
------
trhway
gold and blue, due to the price of the paint components, were hallmark of an
expensive art painting through the history until very recently. Thus using
those colors allows to exploit that association and puts your movie at
perceived level of the old masterpieces.
That also correlates nicely with the fact that cheap or produced in other
countries inferior color film (like in the USSR for example) didn't have good
blue, was reddish-greenish instead, and thus this gold/blue of today also
suggests associations with better quality.
~~~
throwaway2048
Maybe somewhat ironically, this assumed association with quality without an
associated real correlation with quality leads to crap trying to pass itself
off as amazing stuff by using such techniques. This then leads to an
association with crap rather than the quality they intended....
[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tawdry](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tawdry)
------
Grazester
My girlfriend and I noticed this in 2001 with the movies "Sword Fish" and
"Traffic", We made fun of it and called it the cool movie filter. lol.
------
blt
I usually dislike any color grading over an entire movie. I recently re-
watched Snatch and its heavy green cast felt so obnoxious and ugly.
~~~
test1235
That's kinda weird, considering the vividly red cover.
------
peter303
1950s films looked washed out. Little green in outdoors Westerns or indoors
movies.
~~~
blt
Probably a limitation of the color film stock at the time. Technicolor used a
beam splitter and three strips of black-and-white film. It made super-vivid
colors but was expensive. Single-strip color film rose to the top in the 50s
and 60s with worse colors, but much cheaper and easier to shoot.
~~~
pkroll
The Adventures of Robin Hood, the Errol Flynn movie from 1938, is an excellent
example of three-strip Technicolor, and on blu-ray some scenes look like they
were shot last week, not 80 years ago.
------
coin
-1 for disabling zoom on mobile devices
------
3minus1
tl;dr human skin is orange
edit: why the downvotes? it's actually in the article
> Most skin tones fall somewhere between pale peach and dark, dark brown,
> leaving them squarely in the orange segment of any color wheel
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Network Instability in NYC2 on July 29, 2014 - retrodict
https://www.digitalocean.com/company/blog/network-instability-in-nyc2-on-july-29-2014/
======
donavanm
So an RE failed and flipped to the secondary. They run mlag from the agg layer
to their tors. Said mlag had a grey failure. The time to recovery was
predominantly fault detection. After detection they upgraded the os on the
known good switch. Presumably this bounced, affecting remaining traffic. After
upgrade they downed the failed switch, shifting traffic to the known good.
Moderately interesting that they run everything off a single agg pair. Also
that they use mlag instead of routing/mpls/etc for availability.
Key finding is lack of visibility in to the layer 2 availability and
performance. Would be interestin to see if they try to ecmp layer 3 or use
existing lacp frames for fault detection in the future.
~~~
insaneirish
They're probably learning that MLAG should be avoided unless absolutely
necessary. But providing common L2 domains across cabinets is probably
something they "need."
There's much less to go wrong with ECMP at L3. Stateful networking components
frighten me.
~~~
donavanm
Not knowing anything about their infrastructure Id guess that they're using
vlan tags for customer isolation. They'd want customer instances spread among
racks, based on instance type etc. Going to in house/vxlan/nvgre encap
certainly looks better suited, but still has a high bar to entry.
~~~
contingencies
You guys sound like you know a lot about these types of networking protocols.
Can you recommend a decent summary of currently available approaches to
relatively dynamic private link layer network topology provision suitable for
cross-cabinet (or even cross-site) virtualized infrastructures and their
drawbacks? For instance, I've been seeing Open vSwitch gaining popularity.
------
akg_67
The network problems seem to have started earlier. I received a penny for my
NYC2 droplet just before this major incident. Luckily, I decided to shutdown
and move the droplet to SFO before this incident. Over the last couple of
years dealing with cloud providers, I have learned to dust off the contingency
plan as soon there is whiff of issues at a location.
Though the recap is good, there are red flags that show gaps in DO processes
and incident management.
Upgrade of software before the original problem was diagnosed and resolved.
This is a big no-no, never introduce a new variable in an existing problem
even if the service provider or lab testing shows the chances of failure are
minimal. I have worked long enough with technology infrastructure to
experience situations where service provider insisted on upgrading software
during unrelated incident and made situation worse.
A better approach would have been to fail the network to good switch first and
when the bad switch was fixed, upgrade the software on bad switch first then
failover to the upgraded switch and upgrade software on good switch. This time
you guys got lucky but sooner or later your luck will run out.
~~~
imbriaco
Generally speaking I agree with you. However, in this specific case there were
a couple of reasons we chose the path we did:
1\. We had experienced bugs with the currently running release which we were
fairly sure would manifest when we removed the damaged core from the network.
These were primarily around MAC learning.
2\. We had performed testing ourselves in a non-production environment and
were already planning to take a network maintenance to update these switches
in the next few days.
Given those factors, we judged that introducing another variable in the new
version was less risky than proceeding with the defects that we knew about in
the existing version.
------
Donzo
While the outage was upsetting, the response from DO was reassuring. Not only
did they jump right on the problem, they maintained communication during the
affected period. Then, they refunded me $160 (a month of service).
Every host has an occasional problem. It's how they handle the problem that is
important to me. This is a night and day contrast compared to the service I
received with other hosts with which I've dealt.
~~~
pnmahoney
was this other people's experience? e.g. getting a refund?
~~~
nieve
I only keep three machines with them, but two are in NYC2. For the July 24th
outage they issued a combined 4¢ SLA credit for claimed two hours downtime.
For this much worse problem? Nada. I suspect that DO is prioritizing refunds
for more lucrative customers and if you're not spending enough you're not
going to get anything. I may need to look into moving some stuff over to
Ramnode if they've got a NYC location now (Wall Street clients).
------
snewman
A good postmortem... and a clear example of a Type 1 Outage. There are pretty
much only two kinds of outage in a decently-run system:
1\. Two or three things go wrong at once. Some of the problems are
spontaneous, and some were always broken but it took the other problem(s) to
uncover it. (Here, the SSD failure was presumably spontaneous, but the "not
completely successful" routing engine failover sounds like a case of rarely-
used-hence-poorly-tested.)
2\. A systemic failure hits all redundant components at once (DDOS, fat-
fingered global configuration change, calendar bug, etc.)
------
korzun
Good post.
This is essentially the risk you face when dealing with new providers.
I guarantee that other providers had to go thought the same set of issues and
phases prior to achieving a truly redundant infrastructure.
Would love to hear a follow up on the audit.
Edit: Misread a part of the post. Thought they were doing fail-over on a
different network level.
~~~
sard420
Pretty common for router/switch manufacturers to include just 1 storage device
(SSD/CF/whatever). That's one reason why you buy the second router/switch for
redundancy.
~~~
korzun
Thanks.
Corrected my post. For some reason I thought failure point was outside of the
actual switch appliance.
------
bogomipz
I find it alarming that they don't have a competent network engineer of their
own on staff. Note the following:
"We are working very closely with our networking partner to understand the
nature of the failure, assess the chances of a repeat event, and to begin
planning architectural changes for the future."
"Our initial focus was on verifying the configuration so we initiated a line-
by-line configuration review by engineers at our network partner"
Yikes. You get what you pay for.
~~~
imbriaco
We have very competent network engineers, but it never hurts to have a second
opinion. Verifying that there are no subtle interactions that we've missed is
simply prudent.
At our scale, partnering with our vendors is a necessity. We often operate in
areas that, while they are technically within specification, are toward the
higher end of the range.
~~~
jwatte
Which vendor? I have experience with two brands in similar condos, one good,
one not so much...
~~~
imbriaco
I prefer not to publicly name the vendor. This is about problems on our
network, and it's ultimately our responsibility.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to store data for a billion years - robg
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/tm/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13853129&source=hptextfeature
======
trjordan
> To switch spontaneously from a “1” to a “0” would entail the particle moving
> some 200 nanometres along the tube using thermal energy. At room
> temperature, the odds of that happening are once in a billion years.
So, if you stored a GiB of data, that puts the lifetime of that data at ... 1
year? That honestly doesn't seem very good!
~~~
iclelland
That's pretty much what I was thinking, reading this. First off, a frequency
measurement -- "once in a billion years", 3.16887646 × 10^-17 hertz (thank
you, Google calculator) can't really be used as a probability, as they are
trying to do.
Then, even if you assign that nonsense statement some sort of charitable
reading, like "one bit has a 50% chance of spontaneously changing state over a
one billion year period", and infer that every bit has a 1/10^9 chance of
flipping every year, then the odds that 8×10^9 bits do not change at all over
the course of a year are (1-10^-9)^(8×10^9), or about 0.034%.
Granted, it'll still take a long time for that whole gigabyte of data to be
completely scrambled, but I think we'll still be using error correction and
occasional refresh, even with a technology this reliable.
~~~
3pt14159
If you do a Raid 6 Array and manage to keep power to the storage devices you
could fix the lost bits whenever they came up. Or you could just write to 10
drives at once. The odds might be that the whole does not change 0.034% of the
time for one drive, but for 10 it would be > 99%.
------
akie
You also need to build a machine that is able to read it in one billion years
time. Anyone in the room that is still able to read a laserdisc? Didn't think
so.
So, storing the information is one thing - being able to read it is a
completely different beast. If you would really want to store something for a
few thousand years, you're probably better off chiseling it in stone. Then you
only have to make sure people (or aliens?) can read our letters and understand
our words.
~~~
pavel_lishin
Well, so long as you clearly mark something as being a store of data, a
sufficiently advanced civilization would be able to figure things out.
You could even place some dummy data before the main store, with redundant
storage in another format - if you read ("decode") the data and it matches
(like you suggest) something carved in a block of stone surrounding it, you
know you have the process down, and you can go on and decode the main store.
~~~
akie
Agreed. You would probably have to start by explaining that there's important
data, and that it is stored at a nanoscale. Then you would have to proceed to
explain how they might get access to that data.
But that's not the whole of it. Once they can read the 0's and 1's, you need
to tell them how to interpret them. So you need to provide (at least) an ASCII
table in some extremely durable material.
The rest of the information (on how to interpret the data) can then be stored
in the first mega/gigabytes of the binary data. Plain text ASCII only,
ofcourse. No pictures, audio, or video. You could only include such data once
you've told them how to build a computer and all necessary software.
I think you're better off storing a computer and a self-sufficient powersource
in a vacuum, virtually indestructible structure. Has the added benefit that
you can make cool movies about it :)
~~~
tophat02
>The rest of the information (on how to interpret the data) can then be stored
in the first mega/gigabytes of the binary data. Plain text ASCII only,
ofcourse. No pictures, audio, or video. You could only include such data once
you've told them how to build a computer and all necessary software.
That's OK. At these data density scales, a small room full of 10"x10" tablets
would provide space for a LOT.
I'd imagine you'd encode media in some simple lossless RLE format which you
would then describe.
Imagine being an architect in the year 27,000 coming across this stuff. I'm
sure the value would be immeasurable, especially the video and audio! Can you
imagine having HD "documentaries" from Ancient Egypt or Greece? How cool would
that be!
As you can see, this stuff fascinates me.
------
Tichy
Now where to find those nanotubes that previous civilizations left behind for
us?
~~~
bemmu
I think you just figured out what those easter island statues are for.
~~~
psygnisfive
Not to be a dick or anything, but we know precisely what the moai on Easter
Island were for. They were religious figures of the Easter Islanders. They
grew increasing large and numerous as the tribes of Easter Island began
warring with one another, in an attempt to display the "greatness" of each
tribes respective leaders. It is in part due to the obsession with symbolic
greatness and the construction of the moai that led to the eventual downfall
of the Easter Island culture, as can be seen by the eventual grass-roots moai
destruction activity during the proper collapse of the island's society in the
1700s and 1800s. The few Easter Islanders that survived the end of their
civilization described this back when they were first contacted.
Easter Island isn't some big mystery, unless you don't read history books.
</pedantry>
~~~
dhs
Whats pedantry to some is quite an interesting aside for others. Thank you,
and keep it up :-)
------
kqr2
I recall reading a science fiction novel where there were some proposals to
store data for a long time.
Assuming sufficiently advanced technology, you could turn a seismically stable
rocky planet into data storage by encoding data with valleys and mountains.
------
edrtfgdr
Simply encode your data into the the digits of pi and then create your own
universe with this value - that's what I did!
------
TrevorJ
I wonder if you could stored data for that long by encoding it into some junk
DNA?
~~~
lacker
Junk DNA actually changes a whole lot because there's little or no
evolutionary downside to mutations there.
~~~
TrevorJ
That's a good point. I had assumed that since There's no evolutionary pressure
it wouldn't be forced into changing as much as active DNA is. You could encode
it to multiple areas that must be checked against each other.
------
lispm
Now we only need some data that somebody in a billion years wants to read.
------
edw519
This reminds me of the story of the traveller who was required to take all
human knowledge to a distant planet carrying only one steel rod.
His solution?
Take everything ever written and convert in to binary. String it all together
into a very very long string. Put a decimal point in front of this string.
Then put a notch on the steel rod exactly that decimal's distance from the
bottom.
I imagine they'd need some pretty precise measuring equipment on the other
planet.
~~~
anamax
He'd need two marks. The other one is to tell you how to interpret the first,
that is, the definition of 1.0.
Also, unless he was using a very long rod, he'd have to mark somewhere in the
middle of an atom.
I think that issues like this are part of why length is now defined in terms
of wavelengths of light. And even then, the number of digits that we use in
the definition is relatively small.
------
piramida
and I thought platinum pins for 1s and holes for 0s melted into solid granite
bed is the preferred long time storage!
~~~
billswift
Much better for very long term storage. The method described is actually for
extremely dense storage; the time period is pretty much bogus journalistic
stuff.
------
bhousel
basically a nanotube abacus... very cool..
------
a2tech
This is fascinating stuff-I believe if the human race can stop from utterly
destroying itself we're on the brink of coming up with some truly spectacular
advances in the next 50 years.
~~~
ars
We are less likely to destroy ourself now than at any other point of time in
history.
~~~
silentOpen
Why do you say that? After humans spread across the globe in hunter-gatherer
societies, we were pretty unlikely to destroy ourselves.
Today we could easily destroy ourselves with nuclear war. It may not be likely
but it's more likely than in prehistory.
~~~
ars
Life in those days was very precarious. One bad drought and everyone would
have been dead.
A nuclear war is not likely to kill everyone. Plus a nuclear war is not likely
these days anyway.
The chance of a nuclear war today is far far lower than some disease in the
middle ages, or a drought in pre-history.
Everyone focuses on nuclear weapons, but reality is they are very very
unlikely to ever be used, plus illness is a much more severe danger. And the
good thing about today is that we are much better prepared to handle a disease
than at any other time in history.
And that's why we are less likely to destroy ourself now than at any other
time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hey Yahoo, You’re Optimizing the Wrong Thing - ColinWright
http://www.hilarymason.com/blog/hey-yahoo-youre-optimizing-the-wrong-thing/
======
cbsmith
It's unfortunate that the person who wrote this article didn't consult with
someone more informed about the online advertising world.
As someone who has been in the belly of the beast, I'm going to try to
summarize the various ways that this article is getting it wrong.
* Most Yahoo Mail ads generate revenue based on impressions, not clicks. So Yahoo isn't directly making more money by grabbing these "random" clicks.
* Where clicks _do_ matter, major ad platforms including Yahoo throw away a LOT of clicks as fraud, and accidental clicks tend to disproportionately get thrown out along with them.
* In general, random clicks are considered a real PITA for major ad networks, as they confuse the heck out of ad optimization. While small players do tend to soak up that revenue, the big players really, really hate the phenomenon because it makes them far less efficient.
* It turns out what _most_ impacts ad effectiveness online is whether people actually _see_ the ad. An incredibly number of ads are just never seen by the audience. As a consequence, a good publisher will try to find locations for their ads that are highly visible. Highly visible and likely to evoke accidental clicks are, unfortunately, highly correlated.
* Most advertisers who are paying per click are very performance driven. They look at ROI, which means they look at conversion rates. When you charge an accidental click, it's almost certainly not going to convert, so in the end you look worse and they pay less for your clicks.
* One unfortunate bit of truth: advertisers _do_ pay too much attention to clicks and CTR (click through rate). Even advertisers doing brand awareness campaigns, which are not looking for immediate response from their audience, tend to look at CTR.
* Yahoo has actually tried hard to establish other metrics that they should look at, like "Bounce Rate", which attempts to factor in whether visitors immediately exit after clicking. They use those metrics internally for optimizing ad performance, so accidental clicks are likely to discourage showing an ad more than encourage it.
~~~
mattj
I think there's a very non-trivial chance the person who wrote this article
knows much more about advertising than you think:
<http://www.hilarymason.com/about/>
~~~
batista
Really? Because nothing in that bio points to that. Actually the whole thing
is unbelievably vague and opaque.
And these kind of cutesy oneliner descriptions of one's skills make me cringe:
"Simply: I make beautiful things with data".
OK, she works as a "chief scientist" (that's not even a job, for us, old time
folks, but anyway) at bitly (a URL shortening service, i.e as far away from a
real business as you can get, that aspires to be a "bookmarking service" also.
~~~
geofft
"Chief scientist" is absolutely a real job. Why would you think it's not?
~~~
batista
Because it's a non descriptive BS title / buzzword?
Which is very common in modern business, but shouldn't happen when you have
"science" in there. Lives a bad taste.
Science is all about clarity and SPECIFIC fields of study. Nobody does
"science" in general.
~~~
geofft
At a small company with specific goals, there's no implication of doing
"'science' in general". I can buy that the idea of being chief scientist at,
say, IBM or Google or Microsoft is a little fluffy, but if you're a startup
focusing on one goal that is a little beyond what the scientific community
knows how to do in theory, it's entirely reasonable to have a position in
charge of guiding and directing (and performing) research to that goal and
keeping up with the state of the field.
It's largely equivalent to a PI role of a university research project, except
that there are things going on in the company other than pure research and so
there are chief officers of other things too. Nobody thinks that "primary
investigator" is a fluffy title on the grounds that people don't do
investigation in general; it's clear they're investigating specific things.
------
aresant
The ad is well placed to ensure most users will see it - check out the average
horizontal attention graph below to understand the necessity of that placement
in the UI vs further right or lower on the page:
[http://www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/04/test-your-
horiz...](http://www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/04/test-your-horizontal-
layout-to-maximize-conversion-rate-with-our-free-tool/)
That ad unit is available only through Yahoo's CPM program - not self serve
and I know for a fact that ad unit sells out months in advance with huge CPM
volume commitments.
Modern ad platforms optimize media with backend ROI tracking via pixel-fires /
cookies and Yahoo optimizes their inventory to that metric with their
advertisers
Pain for users in this units placement? Maybe yes. Could do better? Always.
But pressing first priority problem for a business that can't afford to screw
with their profit centers, no.
~~~
kreilly
I'm speculating here, but my guess is that part of the reason it sells out is
because the person buying it is measured on CTR. If this placement has a high
CTR it is going to lift the overall media campaign and make the buyer look
good.
------
mistercow
Can someone explain to me what the appeal is of tap-to-click on trackpads?
It's obviously terrible for usability for anyone with less-than-perfect motor
control, but even for someone with ordinary dexterity like myself, it can be
infuriating. I don't want to have to tread lightly around my trackpad just to
keep from accidentally clicking on stuff.
And it's not just me; I watch other people use laptops, and their usage is
generally littered with unintended taps; they just don't seem to care that
they keep randomly misplacing their keyboard focus or switching to other
applications.
I mean, I get that it's _slightly_ easier to tap on the trackpad than it is to
click with your thumb. But how can that possibly make up for all the time lost
to accidental input?
~~~
mike_esspe
I never have this problem with touchpad, did you change the sensitivity
threshold? Have you tried touchpad from another brand?
~~~
dllthomas
I think you're the odd one; I've had this problem and witnessed others having
it, on most computers I've encountered with the feature. I have tap-to-click
disabled on my laptop for precisely that reason.
~~~
yen223
He's not the odd one. I did not experience any issues whatsoever with tapping
on my trackpad. Not even with two-finger tapping for right clicks.
Then again, I'm using a Macbook Air, which has a highly-rated trackpad.
------
webwright
Things get tense when ad-supported companies have to make money. When I ask my
mom or dad to click the first Google search result, they click on an ad. When
I ask them if they realized that it was an ad, the response is "no". A good
portion of the ad business is confused clicks/taps (it's worse on mobile).
~~~
debacle
As someone who has worked on all three sides of the equation (selling ad
space, brokering ad space, and buying ad space), I can tell you wholeheartedly
that ad purchasing companies _do not want_ these clicks. They're paying for
something of no value.
I don't know how companies can be convinced to do ad placements like these, or
if they simply rely on getting enough conversions from accidental clicks from
unknowing users to make out in the end.
Either way, it's a bad practice and something I'd equate with a torrent site
or rapidshare.
~~~
mattmaroon
Ads like this are typically bid on on a CPC basis. Shaky grandpas who click
ads on accident and don't convert drive down the cost of the clicks. If you
assume shaky grandpas account for 50% of the clicks, and 0 convert, then
they'll make the CPC worth half what it would have been without shaky
grandpas. As a result advertisers will bid half as much and pay half as much
as CPCs. Just like click fraud, unless it's an orchestrated attack on one
specific company, it comes out in the wash.
In the end, the advertisers don't really care (at least if they understand the
math, which many don't). They care only about their ROI. If they pay 20 cents
a click and make 40 they're happy, if not they aren't. Sure you could perhaps
get rid of all the shaky grandpas, pay 40 cents a click, and make 80, but it's
the same ROI.
What you really end up with is a cottage industry of people making websites
that can convert shaky grandpas better than real advertisers because just like
spam, some non-zero percentage do convert. That's why you see some stupid ID
fraud ad there. Shaky grandpas are terrified of the evil hacker who wants to
steal their identity.
~~~
debacle
But then you get into the business conundrums - would you rather sell 10k
impressions at .40 cpc or 20k impressions at .20 cpc?
~~~
mattmaroon
Well, from yahoo's perspective it's 10k clicks at 40 cents cpc vs 20k clicks
at 20 cents on the same number of impressions. From the advertiser's it's
which do you buy, and the latter is almost certainly preferable since some
number of shaky grandpas will convert.
I think shaky grandpa should be the internet standard term for worthless
clicks.
------
ceslami
This piece confused me for several reasons.
First, if anything, this seems like an accessibility problem that would be
hard to solve. Shakiness affects many of us as we get older, but it is hard to
design a website around this constraint.
Second, there is an implication that this ad placement is somehow "surely
wrong," and a step further, is likely only successful due to pseudo-fraudulent
interactions. I want to rebut this, but she does not actually substantiate it.
The most I can say is that the top-left corner of the screen is the hottest
hotspot, so placing an ad there is savvy at worst.
I too have been reading her blog for a while, but this piece caught me off-
guard as awkwardly personal and lacking in substance.
~~~
smacktoward
_Shakiness affects many of us as we get older, but it is hard to design a
website around this constraint._
Is it? Large link targets surrounded by empty negative space seem like an easy
way to solve this problem. The issue is only an issue because Yahoo puts the
links in tinytext and crowds the ad link right up next to the "Inbox" link, so
a twitch can send the cursor scooting past the link you want to click on to
the ad you don't.
~~~
talmand
In the example provided the ad link has a decent amount of white space between
it and the inbox link. There's even an intended barrier between the two in the
form of a horizontal rule, granted one pixel. What more do you want?
Are we to ascertain the shakiness level of the user to determine the proper
amount of white space? A CSS media query maybe?
@media min-shakiness: 0.5 and max-shakiness: 1
But then, I'm just being rude here, sorry.
The other case seemingly ignored here is that the clicked link in no way
resembles the intended link. Assuming the user can read the link it seems he
did not read what he's clicking on. Granted, life puts limitations on us as we
get older but I don't understand how one can predict behaviors of people who
do not fully read what they are clicking on.
There's a great deal to be said about examples of bad design causing people to
do things they did not intend, I don't believe this is one of them.
~~~
smacktoward
_In the example provided the ad link has a decent amount of white space
between it and the inbox link_
"Decent" for whom? For you, maybe, because your motor skills are sharp. For
those whose aren't, maybe not so much.
_Are we to ascertain the shakiness level of the user to determine the proper
amount of white space? A CSS media query maybe? ...But then, I'm just being
rude here, sorry._
Yes, you are. Degraded/impaired motor skills aren't just something older
people deal with, they come with a range of illnesses and disabilities too.
Snarking about a media query for "shakiness" is sort of like a retail store
owner snarking about whether he needs to put a camera on his store door to
check if people using the ramp are really in wheelchairs.
_There's even an intended barrier between the two in the form of a horizontal
rule.. I don't understand how one can predict behaviors of people who do not
fully read what they are clicking on._
These comments indicate that you don't really understand the problem we're
talking about here. It's not that the user doesn't know the ad link is a
different link. It's that _she tries to click the link she wants but ends up
clicking the ad link accidentally_ because the close placement of the two
links makes it easy for a bump on a trackpad to send a click intended for link
A skidding over to link B instead.
~~~
talmand
Decent for whom is my point. How far down the path do we go before it's a
losing proposition? You cannot possibly please everyone and yet people are
advocating that we must or be labeled failures.
I admitted I was being rude. The point is that we cannot possibly account for
every kind of limitation that people may have. We do the best that we can
realizing that we cannot account for everything. The only answer to that
question is to remove the ad altogether, which is not a solution.
Ok, good point, the problem being seeing one spot to click on but clicking on
another by accident. Now explain to me exactly how one is supposed to predict
that and account for it? Accidental bump on a trackpad is not a problem
inherent with the design of the site, it's a problem of the hardware and its
usage. It's the same problem with the vertical row of links that belong to the
app in question, despite the ad placement. Are we suggesting that the menu
links on the left should be separated by at least fifty vertical pixels?
So, my original point, what's the optimum distance between two links to avoid
accidental clicking due to physical limitations and hardware problems? There
is no way to determine that.
The example given of Google using low contrast colors to separate search
results from ads is a good example of taking advantage. This Yahoo example is
not because the two links in question do have a noticeable separation and do
not bear any resemblance to each other. People clicking on spot fully
expecting that they are clicking on another is a completely different topic
and is not indicative that Yahoo is taking advantage of anyone. How can one
claim that Yahoo is somehow taking advantage of people by tricking them into
clicking on ads that are "close" to an intended link? What exactly do they
benefit from this?
------
dkarl
Sounds like her grandfather needs a nice heavy mouse. She could disassemble a
modern mouse and add lead weights to the inside until the weight and balance
were right.
~~~
mistercow
Or just, you know, turn off tap-to-click.
~~~
vadman
Touchpads are IMO less ergonomic and less intuitive than mice, sounds like her
grandfather could use an extra bit of both.
~~~
mistercow
A touchpad on a laptop is less ergonomic than a mouse on a properly arranged
desktop. But a touchpad on a laptop is _more_ ergonomic than a mouse on a
laptop _unless_ you set up your laptop like a desktop (place it on a stand on
a big, clear desk with an external keyboard in front and a mouse pad to the
side). Trying to use a mouse with a laptop that is sitting on your lap is, in
my experience, invariably awkward.
------
hooande
Hilary Mason is brilliant. But Yahoo knows what they're doing when it comes to
their advertising. YahooMail is one of the most valuable properties on the web
in terms of CPM. Their ad display makes for a crappy UI experience, but it
also makes them a lot of money.
~~~
wpietri
I'm amazed that you can look at the wreck Yahoo has become by blind
optimization and say they know what they're doing.
In the particular case of Yahoo Mail, their crappiness has driven off large
numbers of high-end users. They also lost a lot of great staff who were tired
of working on crappy things for managers who didn't give a shit about the
users or the workers as long as the numbers were good and their political
power increased.
Yahoo's a classic example of what happens when you know the price of
everything and the value of nothing.
------
j_s
Hey Hilary Mason's grandpa, pay $20/yr for Yahoo mail with no ads!
Yahoo has already solved this problem.
------
ernesth
In yhis case, trackpad clicking is at fault, not yahoo. Whenever I use someone
else's laptop, I find myself clicking things I didn't want to click. I
believe, that the default should be for trackpad to not interpret a tap as a
click.
------
dredmorbius
Yet another reason I:
\- Use a Thinkpad with a trackpoint.
\- Disable the touchpad.
\- Use ad-blocking.
\- Don't use Yahoo.
~~~
yen223
As a guy with tremors, the trackpoint is even worse than a touchpad.
~~~
dredmorbius
What is your preferred pointing device, if any?
Know a few folks who have to deal with Parkinsons, which a lot of computing
devices don't accommodate particularly well.
~~~
yen223
Get a mouse, preferably one with more mass in it. Helps to dampen some of the
shakiness.
My tremors are not that serious though, so I'm perfectly OK with a touchpad
(I'm a huge fan of Apple's glass touchpad). With trackpoints, it's hard to get
a good level of sensitivity.
------
mycodebreaks
All clicks by accidents are unfair to the advertisers. They pay for clicks
which were never intended.
~~~
mistercow
Inasmuch as clicks are a valid metric for advertising performance, it is only
because they prove that an ad is prominent on a page. So in that sense,
there's really nothing wrong with accidental clicks.
~~~
DataJunkie
Companies that I have worked for have developed models (approximate) to remove
accidental clicks to prevent charging the advertiser. Usually, these clicks
are "absorbed" into a CPM though, and detecting accidental clicks is very
difficult and requires many assumptions about user behavior.
------
wpietri
A great example of how user testing is a necessary complement to click data.
~~~
DataJunkie
People that work in "ad operations" usually do that work by performing A/B
tests etc. To me, it is a very unglamorous step child to a data scientist.
~~~
wpietri
In this context, i think A/B tests would generally be the opposite of user
tests.
Typically with an A/B test you'll test something like clicks. With a user test
you'll have people in to try it out to see things that you can't see in the
data. In this case, I think you could look at an A/B test and say, "Ad clicks
are up! Great!" But in the user test you might say, "Oh, these clicks are
accidental, so although it makes more money in the short term, it will
decrease the value of the click and the value of the property.
------
pkeane
Wise comments. If Yahoo was smart, they'd hire Hilary Mason.
------
recoiledsnake
Ads on download pages are far worse, and usually served by Google ads.
<http://wiki.darkpatterns.org/Disguised_Ads>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fans angry over 'missing' iPhone 7 headphone socket - edward
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36606220
======
stephenr
When did summarising twitter opinions about a tech industry rumour become
news??
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Asking for a raise – and getting it - zsolt777
http://devcareermastery.com/asking-for-a-raise-and-getting-it/
======
gragas
This website seems so gimmicky.
>What secret message are interviewers looking for?
>How can you get the perfect resume within a day?
>According to scientific research, which 4 skills help you the most in
building your career?
>Free Session
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Snap to choose NYSE for IPO - t23
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/snap-to-choose-nyse-for-ipo-source.html
======
GFischer
I'm amazed with Snapchat's staying power.
I was utterly bewildered by them turning down a reported 3 billion offer (and
so was most everyone else), but it seems it wasn't so wrong after all.
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/03/12/snapchat_valu...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/03/12/snapchat_valuation_i_mocked_it_for_turning_down_3_billion_now_it_s_worth.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A quick overview of an app I built in 9 hours based on the new Twilio SMS API - cesarsalazar
http://screenr.com/69d
======
progrium
The idea is to delegate responsibility of paying for infrastructure resources
(SMS) from the developer to the user. At $5/mo for 160 messages, that's
roughly what you would be pay using Twilio directly at 3 cents a message. The
unused texts _do_ count as profit, but most of my other services are free so
I'm hoping this might help support them.
------
jjs
N.B. Despite the title, submitter is did not build the app; this guy did:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=progrium>
------
alttab
So developers pay this guy to use an API that wraps the functionality of
another free API and then charge them for it?
~~~
jjs
According to the video, it's not a free API; it's 3 cents per message.
See also: <http://www.twilio.com/pricing-signup>
~~~
alttab
Touche. But if hes charging for a similar service (where there is obviously a
margin), unless his API is easier to use the value added doesn't immediately
jump out at me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hackers can use Snapchat to disable iPhones, researcher says - andrewhillman
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-snapchat-shut-down-iphone-20140207,0,3127301.story#axzz2sgFOyJTd
======
abat
Details don't look as interesting as headline suggest. Snapchat doesn't
throttle messages, so you can "snapchat bomb" a user with 1000's of
messages/sec which will freeze up the phone.
~~~
taternuts
Plus on his page where he describes the attack, he says it's already been
patched. Is this the first vuln they've actually been able to fix?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Markerless Augmented Reality. No app to install. No plugin. No special browser - leohart
https://8thwall.com/products-web.html
======
jabbadabbadooba
That went as fluent as I expected it to go.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PHP-Queue - A unified front-end for different queuing backends. - coderkungfu
https://github.com/miccheng/php-queue
======
arooaroo
"Job Queue is Backend agnostic"
This may be slightly tangental and I really don't want to come across as a
troll but 'agnostic' in its absolute loosest terms could be defined as
'unknowable' (although it specifically relates to whether the existence of a
higher-being/god-figure is provable or not).
I don't know techies have latched on to this word when it's totally unrelated;
words like 'independent' or 'neutral' already existed and do actually mean
what the techies want it to mean!
I know language evolves - trust me, I'm a computational linguist who used to
work for Longman Dictionaries - but if people started using 'mangler' as a
synonym 'compiler' nerds would, quite rightly, wonder wtf is going on!
Other than that, keep up the good work :)
~~~
coderkungfu
Ha ha... guess i picked up that "lingo" in my past life as a proposal writer
for govt funding (read: BS generator). But thanks for the tip. I'll steer
clear of that term in the future. :D
------
laravelphp
Awesome! Thanks for putting it on Composer :)
------
benben772009
very cool & useful
~~~
coderkungfu
Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
RightJS vs jQuery Mano A Mano (clean test comparison) - MadRabbit
http://st-on-it.blogspot.com/2009/12/rightjs-vs-jquery-mano-o-mano.html
======
etherealG
Sorry to say, but at least one of your tests still suffers from a non apples
to apples problem. Specifically the "make" tests. The jquery make test does
parsing of strings into dom elements and various appends. The rightjs make
test is just a wrapper for DOM creation. That's not even close to the same
thing.
~~~
ErrantX
It's arguable that a) if they do the same and thing and b) it is the
_accepted_ way to do that thing in each framework than it is surely a fair
test?
:)
~~~
MadRabbit
It is arguable. For this reason I left the thing in one single test.
So that you have a choice. If you disagree, then you don't count this line, if
you do agree then you count it.
Either way RightJS comes faster
------
IgorPartola
Browsers were desgined from the beginning to parse HTML fast. JavaScript was
added later and optimized much later. Doing e.innerHTML = "some markup" will
be faster than making function calls to do createElement, etc. because these
calls have to go between JS and the underlying C(++) environments and back.
And knowing that I might optimize my code accordingly where it might make a
difference. In other words if I am adding 500 elements to a document I am
going to do it by making the browser parse HTML, which will not involve the JS
lib at all. Doing this kind of a test is useless since it will never happen in
the wild. Instead let's test selector speeds etc. We could also test event
handler assignment but here too i would use jQuery's live() and then binding
takes almost no time for any number of elements.
~~~
MadRabbit
Igor, as I said below, testing elements building is only one test and you can
ignore it if disagree.
> Instead let's test selector speeds etc.
Actually this is what's pointless, both of the frameworks do it by using
native features of the modern browsers and results will about the same for any
framework.
> i would use jQuery's live() and then binding takes almost no time for any
> number of elements.
Are you sure about that?
~~~
IgorPartola
Live binds one event handler to a parent element and then simply watches for
any events of that type to bubble up. bind adds 500 handlers to 500 elements.
live is faster in theory. Will write a test to show in practice.
Yes simple selectors are pointless. How about '.Class
.child:visible:not(.test):eq(1)'?
~~~
MadRabbit
> Live binds one event handler to a parent element and then simply watches for
> any events
It's kinda different story and rather a hack than a standard approach. And
it's not always a cace, because it will handle the callbacks slower than a
direct bind and therefore not always appropriate.
In any case it's not what the test is intended to do. We test standard
operations, that's all. Testing live with bind is like comparing apples with
oranges.
> How about '.Class .child:visible:not(.test):eq(1)'?
Do you mean non-standard css-selectors? There is nothing to test, rightjs
simply doesn't support them
With rightjs you always can do it like that
$$('.class').filter('visible');
~~~
IgorPartola
While event delegation doesn't work 100% of the time (e.g. when another piece
of code that uses capture instead of bubbling such as google maps API), I
wouldn't consider it a hack. Of course event handling will be slower but we
can test how much slower :).
You can do that with jQuery as well and that's an ineresting performance
comparison in itself. E.g. $('.class:visible:not(:eq(1))') vs
$('.class').filter(':visible').not(':eq(1)'). I suspect it heavily depends on
the size of the DOM tree and the number of elements.
~~~
MadRabbit
At the beginning you're kinda was against the "make" test, because there is no
such thing in jQuery, and now you practically offer the same thing, to test
something that does exist in jQuery but doesn't in RighJS.
You should choose already what do you stand for.
But anyway, if you want to test it go ahead, you know where the code is. I
suppose jQuery handles virtual selectors via JavaScript and therefore there
will be no serious difference in performance. I even suspect that a single
additional function in the filter method in RightJS will still work faster
than several internal selectors in jQuery.
------
baha_man
That should be mano-a-mano, surely?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mano-a-mano>
~~~
MadRabbit
fixed. thanks for heads up!
------
IgorPartola
It's interesting that your test shows that insert after is slower on jQuery
1.4 than on 1.3 since the release notes for 1.4a says "append, prepend, etc.
have been heavily optimized." How about adding append and prepend to the test
suite?
~~~
MadRabbit
Okay I've added it to the test.
Insert element bottom 48 131 169
Insert element on top 48 134 167
Don't know about the release notes, my test says 1.4 is slower than 1.3.2
------
Slashed
Can someone explain me, how PureDom can be slower?
~~~
MadRabbit
It's not slower, PureDom is faster in most of the tests, there are just couple
of tests insert/before/after that seems have slower implementation, don't
really now why.
It's not RightJS only, Dojo and YUI win in those tests too.
Generally speaking PureDom is still faster than RightJS. It has to be.
~~~
Slashed
Thanks! P.S. For some reason I can't up-vote.
~~~
MadRabbit
no problem
------
c00p3r
btw, very good self-promotion. I admire your effort, self-esteem and courage!
There are lots of programmers who were afraid to attract such attention to
their products.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Most Corporate Blogs Are Unimaginative Failures - bootload
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/06/30/most-corporate-blogs-are-unimaginative-failures/
======
mnemonicsloth
_Most Corporate X Are Unimaginative Failures_
For what values of X is the above not true? It can't be right to just assume
the empty set, but...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Harvard's debate team loses to New York prison inmates - spking
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/07/harvards-prestigious-debate-team-loses-to-new-york-prison-inmates
======
pavornyoh
A copy of the transcript with both sides arguments would have been nice for us
to read.
------
japadoggg
Yes would love to see transcripts or video!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rosie Redfield: No convincing evidence that As has been incorporated into DNA - bbgm
http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/arsenic-associated-bacteria-nasas.html
======
bhickey
The comments are great too. In particular I like what chemDroid had to say:
Hi. I have posted on many places, they should not be
doing standard DNA preps and the experiment we need
to see is to see a caesium chloride density gradient
ultracentrifugation (not a gel)... If indeed the DNA
has arsenic, it should be getting denser and we would
see that as a band shift. Ethidium bromide's mode of
action would not be affected by arsenic substition.
Gels are used to measure the length of a DNA fragment. Here's how they work:
Ethidium bromide (EtBr) is an intercalating agent -- think of the DNA as a
ladder, it slides between the rungs and gets stuck there. EtBr is also
luminescent under UV. Agarose (purified seaweed extract) is used to make a gel
doped with EtBr. A DNA sample is placed in a well on one end of the gel and an
electric current is applied to the gel. The sample gets dragged through the
gel, the longer it is, the more slowly it progresses.
As chemDroid wrote, there is no reason to believe that arsenic would have any
impact on this process.
~~~
pierrefar
You can extend the density gradient experiemnt and get the DNA out in super
pure form and then run mass spec on it to show that arsenic has indeed been
incorporated.
With a claim this important, we cannot do enough to try to disprove it. Only
after we try everything we know and get consistently convincing evidence that
arsenic is indeed incorporated into the DNA can we start believing it.
------
jacquesm
I'm quite surprised at the amount of work done at NASA to push this paper as
something extraordinary without so much as a critical eye. The claim made in
the paper is extraordinary and that alone should be reason for caution, not
for bringing out the big drums.
The bigger problem is that if it turns out the result is bogus this will be a
net negative, both for NASA and for the scientific community, the public at
large will not see this as proof that 'the system works' but as proof that
they were being duped.
~~~
Estragon
They did the same thing with the "life from Mars" thing a few years ago. It's
a way of attracting attention in order to raise money.
~~~
jacquesm
Judging by how that worked out for them they ought to have known better. You
can only cry wolf so many times before you are labeled the village idiot, too
bad for you if the wolf eventually shows up and nobody believes you due to
'past performance'.
~~~
waterlesscloud
I'm a big NASA supporter, but this whole episode has made me think they
deserve a little less funding.
From the way they handled the whole thing from the start with the "aliens, but
living here" spin to finding out the results aren't all that solid, it seems
they need to clean some house.
~~~
nkassis
I don't know, it won't make a change to the way the place is administered to
reduce the budget, it's mostly going to affect the amount of money scientist
can use to advance their research. Making the quality slowly decline more.
Restructuring NASA is a hard problem maybe even impossible. But I do think
it's still producing good enough stuff that removing it would be a mistake.
I'm a believer in public research. It has produce some incredible benefits to
society in the 20th century and hopefully will continue in the 21st.
------
pierrefar
You gotta love the peer review process working in public. Now (thanks to the
internet) readers correct mistakes so that by the time the paper reaches the
journals, it's already been vetted quite a bit. Before that, the public pre-
publication vetting process would have been a lot slower (e.g. to be done in
conferences) if done at all.
~~~
waterlesscloud
It would be nice if it happened before the press conference too.
~~~
pierrefar
And miss all the publicity? Imagine a story of line of "hey we thought it was
doing this, but turns out not, so oh well". Not as enticing as "arsenic based
life form" is it?
------
MrScience
Rosie Redfield is another eurasian government hack scientist operating through
colonial Canada. She claims to play the atheist card, but is a known eurasian
cheerleader, all those gods be told. Her work is pseudoscience and can never
be trusted or taken seriously. Her principle position in America is to take
American biology for the holey sleigh ride through eurasian political
hierarchy. Fortunately, she has no substantial chance of succeeding.
------
kayhi
Extract the DNA. Do X-ray scattering and crystallographic studies, which would
clear this issue up nicely.
~~~
bhickey
What would you expect to see in crystallography? A different pitch and radius
on the helix?
If that is the case, then assuming there is arsenic in the DNA: how did they
manage to PCR it? I would expect it to wreck havoc with the polymerase.
~~~
shadowpwner
Why would arsenic wreak havoc on the polymerase?
~~~
kayhi
My apologies if my comment implies that As creates an issue with the
polymerase. I would guess that it doesn't since amplifying the sequence was
successful.
~~~
bhickey
My fault -- I implied it.
I would guess that it doesn't since amplifying the sequence was successful.
Or the sequence doesn't contain (enough) arsenate.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why a Better OpenType User Interface Matters - lispython
http://ilovetypography.com/2014/10/25/why-a-better-opentype-user-interface-matters/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ILoveTypography+%28i+love+typography%29
======
Animats
I refuse to take seriously a typography site that looks that awful. Go take a
look. Wince.
~~~
Numberwang
To some degree I agree. The black text on white background look amazing on
that site though, I wonder how they did that.
~~~
Silhouette
_The black text on white background look amazing on that site though, I wonder
how they did that._
Do you mean the main body text? Maybe these details will help if you like it:
The typeface appears to be Ideal Sans from Hoefler & Co, served via their
Cloud.Typography webfont service.
I'm seeing hyphenation due to -moz-hyphen:auto in the CSS as well.
It doesn't look that good to me on this system, and personally I wouldn't go
anywhere near Hoefler & Co without a small army of lawyers on retainer at this
point, but whatever floats your boat I guess.
~~~
Numberwang
Thank you, you have been very helpful!
------
tux1968
I'm all for beautiful and better typography... but for a site that laments the
lack of feature awareness, it sure didn't use the opportunity to teach me
something. I don't know any more about those features than I did before
reading it.
~~~
lispython
Butterick’s Practical Typography might be a good starting point
[http://practicaltypography.com/opentype-
features.html](http://practicaltypography.com/opentype-features.html)
~~~
r12s
Ditto for Hoefler's explanation of Stylistic Sets, using Whitney as an
example:
[http://www.typography.com/fonts/whitney/features/whitney-
sty...](http://www.typography.com/fonts/whitney/features/whitney-stylistic-
sets)
As an aside I agree with the article, esp. the need for "a type interface that
is consistent throughout [Adobe's] apps".
------
microcolonel
While I'm sure begging Adobe to add features to an application you're going to
purchase from them no matter what sounds like it could work to these guys; I
can't help but think they're not going to get anywhere.
Create demand for a system which offers you these features, rather than
begging your ultimate supplier to add them to the supply for what appears to
them to be no reason. If that system turns out not to be offered by Adobe,
embrace it.
------
galago
Adobe owns their product space, at least since they bought Macromedia 10 years
ago. So, customers since have been angry about the lack of features--but its
just a business outcome. Bitter, bitter, customers.
~~~
cwyers
These aren't quite customers, I would guess. They're users. The bulk of
Adobe's customers are the people who requisition the software, not the ones
who use it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Former CEO of Paypal, Intuit: “Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history” - DEFCON28
https://www.recode.net/2018/4/24/17275202/bitcoin-scam-cryptocurrency-mining-pump-dump-fraud-ico-value#
======
DrScump
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16914632](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16914632)
80+ points
------
fragmede
I'd believe Intuit's CEO as I trust him to know about scams - he's running one
of the most successful ones there is! He successfully lobbied Congress and the
IRS to mandate the use of tax preparation software, and hey, _guess what his
company makes_?
~~~
gregjor
Did you read the part that says he's the past CEO of Intuit? Not involved with
Intuit's current lobbying. In any case attacking the author or Intuit about
something that has nothing to do with the topic doesn't make sense.
~~~
adamnemecek
Does he still own stock?
~~~
loceng
How would that make the original comment more or less valid?
~~~
loceng
Someone's downvoted me for asking a question for clarification? I'm regularly
reminded how garbage downvotes are.
------
OscarCunningham
It might not be a good idea, but I don't think it's fair to call it a "scam".
I don't think Satoshi created it with the anticipation that it would fail.
------
admyral
What's so righteous about the status quo that makes skeptics feel so compelled
to defend it so vehemently by degrading Bitcoin?
But it seems we should be far beyond Denial and Anger stage and well into
Bargaining and Guilt at this point. Don't worry, he'll join the chorus of
"blockchain is good, Bitcoin is bad" rhetoric soon enough.
~~~
aitrean
What's so righteous about the status quo? I'll put it to you as succinctly as
possible:
I can hold money in a checking account and have the same amount of money next
week, or next month
Inflation is largely predictable, and pretty much non-existant compared to
crypto volatility
Fraud, phishing, and hacking will not cause me to lose my life savings. My
mother is not technologically savvy at all. I would be terrified to let her
keep any significant portion of her savings in a system where a hash with a
typo will cost you you everything.
For as much as cryptocurrency supporters will harp about the evils of Wall
Street; the explicit scams, pump and dumps, and market manipulation by 0.001%
of crypto holders make Goldman Sachs look like a company of boy scouts. 2008
Financial recession? Ha, wait until you see what happens when Chinese mining
pools decide it's time to weed out the small fish (ie, every other month or
so). Sure, lecture me all you want about how the Federal Reserve is evil - but
at least they don't prey on investors with explicit pump and dumps, useless
ICOs, or that shit circus Tether.
Although there are certainly smart people working in the blockchain space -
most cryptocurrency/blockchain supporters are needlessly confrontational,
smug, have a limited understanding of economics or financial engineering, and
use ad hominems when they're confronted by arguments they can't debate
against.
From an economics and engineering perspective, there are a lot of holes in
blockchain and crypto as a technology. This is reflected in the fact that
there are currently no useful innovations built on blockchain, other than
money laundering, and cryptocurrency (which has no inherent value itself).
~~~
admyral
I find nothing righteous about a system designed for a select few to profit
from maintaining the illusion our money is safe and secure in a vault
somewhere. That illusion has already cost people their life savings without
any attacks or user error required. But the difference is they are deemed "too
big to fail", so when they screw up, they get bailed out while everyone else
loses it all.
More egregious is economists insistence that the continuous debasement of our
currency combined with skyrocketing consumer debt and stagnant wages due to
automation will not end badly. These are the same economists that couldn't
possibly predict what would happen when bankers and creditors were allowed to
produce billions in worthless financial derivatives and sell them as triple-A
investments.
~~~
hndamien
Funnily enough, when people realised they could copy code and sell them off as
triple-A investments that is exactly what they did. (OK, not triple A, but the
scam of money from nothing is happening again and again.) At least with
Bitcoin there is an end.
~~~
admyral
I see little distinction between a shitcoin ICO and a fart app on the App
Store. A fool and their money are easily parted.
------
viraptor
I'm not sure why they needed to add incorrect/unfounded ideas to the otherwise
ok article.
> Because transactions can be anonymous — law enforcement cannot easily trace
> who buys and sells — its use is dominated by illegal endeavors.
That's a no, no, and [citation needed]. Especially since later they write:
> The IRS recently ordered one major exchange to produce records of every
> significant transaction.
~~~
PhilWright
I assume that most mom and pop investors will use the same exchange to buy
their bitcoin and then later sell them. In that case the IRS can see both
transactions in their account and know the capital profit/loss they have not
declared.
If you buy at one exchange and then transfer the coins to another to sell it
would be harder for the IRS to match up and discover your profit/loss.
Especially if you move the coins via several intermediaries and sell in a
different country that is not under the IRS jurisdiction.
~~~
viraptor
You can still track the transactions though - or specifically IRS or LE can
request history from the exchanges. Some exchange in the chain may not be
under the IRS jurisdiction, but if you want to actually withdraw your money,
you'll have to do it either by buying something, via local organisation in
cash, or in another country. I.e. it's not that much harder to track than if
you did it in cash (rather than btc), which has the same pros/cons if you're
in the US.
And I don't think exchanges will ever protect anyone if the LE asks, because
of the know your customer rules
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer))
------
llcoolv
[https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-is-a-scam-claims-
oust...](https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-is-a-scam-claims-ousted-ceo-
of-paypal)
Seems like Harris spent around 20 working days as "PayPal Founding CEO" before
he got figured out. Quite ridiculous.
~~~
aitrean
Not sure what "figured out" means. However, just to deflect another crypto-
fueled ad hominem, I'd like to point out that Elon Musk was also a CEO of
PayPal, and lasted only around a year in the position before he too was forced
out.
------
angersock
I mean, it is though.
Consider the quality of life that could've been achieved with the same energy
cost, material cost, and eventual environmental cost--all so that nerds can
collect Merkle pogs.
~~~
Ryudas
Consider the quality of life that would be gained by having the same energy
all these "gamer" nerds use, with their consoles and graphics power on these
useless. silly games. Or consuming netflix. Or watching movies. Or doing
anything that is not directly used on the survival of the human race. This is
a pedantic argument.
~~~
angersock
There's a big difference between entertainment and bitcoins--your false
equivalence is wrong.
~~~
hndamien
It is. One is the most important economic innovation of our lifetime.
------
hapnin
Reminds me of this piece re: other fields:
President of American Association of Buggy-Whip Manufacturers takes a strong
stand against internal combustion engine, argues that the so-called
“automobile” has “little grounding in theory” and that “results can vary
widely based on the particular fuel that is used” [0]
[0] [http://andrewgelman.com/2014/08/06/president-american-
associ...](http://andrewgelman.com/2014/08/06/president-american-association-
buggy-whip-manufacturers-takes-strong-stand-internal-combustion-engine-argues-
called-automobile-little-grounding-theory/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A 14,000-year-old campsite in Argentina - tambourine_man
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/14000-year-old-campsite-in-argentina-adds-to-an-archaeological-mystery/
======
curtis
_For more than a decade, evidence has been piling up that humans colonized the
Americas thousands of years before the Clovis people._
It's actually been longer than that. The site at Monte Verde [1] in Chile
seems to have been widely accepted as a pre-Clovis site nearly 20 years ago
(1997 according to Wikipedia [2]). Awareness of the site, at least among the
archaeological community predates that (1989 [3]). The first radiocarbon dates
indicating a pre-Clovis origin for the site go back to 1982[4].
The idea that Clovis was not the earliest culture in the Americas, and the
commensurate theory that the earliest colonists must have been traveling by
boat [5] goes back decades. I know I've been reading about it (in the popular
press no less) since the 1990s. It seems like every article I read about it
makes it seem like some new and revolutionary idea. The only conclusion I can
draw is that archaeological science operates on time scales only slightly
shorter than those the archaeologists study.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde#Acceptance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde#Acceptance)
[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde#Diffusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde#Diffusion)
[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde#Discovery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde#Discovery)
(third paragraph)
[5] I'd like to give you a citation for this, but this theory, as far as I can
tell has no official name.
------
r0muald
Adds up very well with almost contemporary evidence from Monte Verde in Chile
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141923)
so "mystery" is a non sequitur. But that's the headline.
The original research paper is worth a read (open access FTW).
~~~
raldi
Yeah, I came here to say the same thing. I think the use of "mystery" in the
headline was clickbait.
~~~
dang
Ok, we took that out of the title above.
------
sandworm101
When I was at university (UBC) "pre-Clovis" was an almost forbidden word in
some classes. I saw a very heated debate in a geology class discussing land
bridges. Many First Nations students took issue with any suggestion that their
nations, their cultures, were not "first". Why that matters I don't know
(politics) but they were adamant supporters of the Clovis First hypothesis. It
has taken many years to etch away at the underlying land bridge assumptions
and properly credit the resourcefulness of ancient peoples.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture#Clovis_First_.2...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture#Clovis_First_.2F_Single_origin_hypothesis)
~~~
mootothemax
>Why that matters I don't know (politics) but they were adamant supporters of
the Clovis First hypothesis.
I imagine that it's less about "being first," and more about not wanting a
history of hideous exploitation to be washed out under the excuse of _you
weren 't first_.
I try to imagine what it must be like to only have had my family's history
recognised in _any_ meaningful way in very modern times - and then to have
people tell me "no no no, actually that's all changed, _this_ is your
narrative now."
Rightly or wrongly, I think I'd be on the defensive as well.
------
Steko
> The Clovis, who are _the_ early ancestors of today's Native Americans,
Emphasis added. One badly chosen word in an otherwise decent article. What we
know of pre-Clovis people clearly supports the idea of them also being 'early
ancestors to today's Native Americans.'
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Airline passengers still concerned about paying extra to sit together - nhkssol
https://www.caa.co.uk/News/Latest-Civil-Aviation-Authority-review-finds-passengers-still-concerned-about-paying-extra-to-sit-together/
======
dazc
Some people are willing to pay less because they don't care where they are
sat. But now it's assumed everyone should pay less but still have a choice of
seating.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Past 2 Weeks in the World of Ruby - llambda
http://www.rubyinside.com/the-past-2-weeks-in-the-world-of-ruby-40-links-to-bring-you-up-to-speed-january-2012-5766.html?utm_source=wordtwit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wordtwit
======
bstar77
Not sure why this was posted to HN, but I think is is a good opportunity for
people to see how much transpires in the Ruby community on a regular basis.
Peter Cooper deserves a ton of praise for aggregating all of the weekly news,
he rarely (if ever) misses anything of value.
------
mnutt
Another big development (it probably happened after the article was published)
:
Ruby 2.0-dev adds copy-on-write support similar to Ruby Enterprise Edition's
<http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/3367884>
------
sciurus
If you'd like to see this sort of news in your inbox once a week, subscribe to
<http://rubyweekly.com/>
------
masterleep
Is there an RSS version?
~~~
petercooper
<http://rubyweekly.com/rss>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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