text
stringlengths 44
776k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Microsoft Unveils AKS, a Fully Managed Kubernetes Service - gabrtv
http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300094356/microsoft-unveils-aks-a-fully-managed-kubernetes-service-thats-looking-to-be-a-cost-leader.htm?itc=refresh
======
johnnycarcin
Just in case you want to see the official announcement:
[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-
con...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-container-
service-aks-managed-kubernetes-and-azure-container-registry-geo-replication/)
------
tracker1
Seems cool, didn't RTFA, but I know a lot of people all over the map have
wanted a more portable system like Kubernetes for container management.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Never Trust a Programmer - iamwil
http://johnnance01.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/never-trust-a-programmer/
======
mwsherman
It's a problem of incentives. When I worked in a corporate environment, I
worked very hard to ensure that people asking for things were the ones who
paid for it -- even internally. A project # to bill against for everything.
In the agency world (where I was), carefully billing time was de rigueur for
client-facing people. I pushed to have it apply for non-billable internal
people too.
So the "idea people" had to do cost-benefit. Requires a cultural change (and
trust), but it brings discipline to both sides. Really helped.
------
hga
" _A programmer has to be quietly focused doing mental gymnastics to produce
clean working code. It’s difficult and takes all your energy. There’s no time
to run around to see whose throwing you under the bus._ "
Indeed; my worse experiences have been exactly of this sort.
------
iamwil
The other thing I'd add is an expectation from sales/non-technicals that you
produce an golden egg the first pass through.
People say they want to be agile, but they rarely realize that it also means
you have to do less.
I often got hammered on not being fast enough, and yet, when cutting corners
and throwing it together with boogers and duct tape to get it to a
demonstrable state, I was told it wasn't presentable to customers because it
didn't have the frills and throw pillows.
Next time, I'm just not working with someone that doesn't understand mvp.
~~~
sophacles
It is better than dealing with the salesmen selling things that just are not
possible. One time I was given a day to implement a magic iPhone detection
algorithm. It had to distinguish from iPod touch, and somehow this was to be
done based on "network characteristics". So during an emergency meeting the
salesman said "It can just be done from the MAC address, quit whining." Well
after a while we managed to get hte customer happy, and the salesman was told
"Next time, if you aren't sure talk to the programmers first". The programming
team was told to expect a new hire that "knew what he was doing".
~~~
gte910h
The neat thing about contract law: Actual impossible contracts rarely are
enforceable.
~~~
sophacles
Yeah, unfortunately there is this other thing called "at will employment"
which means I pretty much had to do what the bosses told me to provided it was
legal (which is different from physically possible).
------
phsr
This story is very close to a place I worked at as a co-op a few years ago.
The sales and PMs would promise the world to the clients, and development
hours were taken away from the developers to support the IAs that were
overbudget. We had a solid dev team and delivered the sites on time, but one
of the projects was all wrong in the client's eyes (due to poor specification,
the whole IA -> Design -> HTML workflow was a very slow, behind schedule
waterfall) and it was blamed on development. We quickly made the changes, that
project ended well.
I ended up leaving after my co-op to accepted an offer from a prior co-op.
Shortly after, most of the dev team quit, and the VP of technology was fired.
A couple of months ago the company closed its doors, owing months of paychecks
to employees, and clients lost project/money.
------
brown9-2
Pro tip for those newly graduated programmers or those in school:
Avoid companies like the one described in this article like the plague.
(Although I suppose it's hard to tell what things are like from the interview
process alone, but a business model based on selling to large enterprises is a
red flag.)
------
weavejester
We've found that detailed sprint burndown records are a useful tool. If you
can say "historically, our estimates are 90% accurate", and then pull up a
bunch of charts and figures to back up that assertion, it lends a lot of
weight to your argument.
------
BobLee
Programming and research are an expectations game. Your manager neither knows
what you do or how long it might take. My manager once had to write my status
report because I was so busy.He was a good manager but revealed himself to be
totally clueless about what I was doing.Thereafter I became extremely serious
and a bit paranoid about my status reports.
Necessarily a manager evaluates you by whether the product works or it doesn't
and is on time or late. You are evaluated against management expectations. The
more that they expect,the worse you do. Because expectations are typically
unrealistic,you can get a fine reputation for perfunctory but consistently on
time work.
Decrease early expectations to do well. During project planning be pessimistic
and extreme humble. Programing and research have very high product and
deadline risk. For each project have a contract with your manager that
identifies the main risks, and accept responsibility for only what you can do
something about. Your professional self management will impress your manager,
but he will hate the uncertainty.
------
jister
I worked on a company just like this 7 or 8 years ago. I remember the project
of the other team that went in flames because of the ridiculous estimates that
the sales people committed to the client and our idiot VP agreed to take.
People literally worked 24x7 for a month or so.
~~~
tomjen3
That is the first problem.
Never work more because somebody else screwed up.
Second, document your estimates and then let the manager write his and in the
end, see who was closest.
------
javajones
Boy isn't this the truth. My last job the project manager was great at getting
everything in writing and a signed contract up front. It made life so much
easier. When they came back with we want this too. He would just point at the
contract and say, once we've completed this contract we can make a new one for
the additional items you would like. Worked like a charm.
------
Ennis
This is a very good article. The message has been written about many times but
it's still important. It's not easy to say no or push back. It can even be
fatal in organizations that don't enforce "ownership." How can you say no if
no one is asking you?
Happens way too often. But it's understandably difficult to solve as an
organizational issue.
------
thyrsus
I'm baffled by the title. Is the author trying to trap non-programmers into
understanding their error by (falsely) promising to provide them a scapegoat?
Or is he using "trust" as in "trust in the omnipotent"?
~~~
chaosmachine
_"Is the author trying to trap non-programmers into understanding their error
by (falsely) promising to provide them a scapegoat?"_
Yes.
------
NEPatriot
More like never trust anyone who says yes too quickly.
------
cema
Wrong title, good post, crucial topic. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Solo app-developer, to incorporate or not incorporate? - iaw
So I'm working on an iOS app that could bring in a fair amount of revenue (compelling product with no direct competitors).<p>What I'm trying to ascertain is whether it makes sense to try to incorporate/start an entity or to publish as an individual. Anyone with some experience on either end care to chime in? I don't ever expect this project to go beyond me and the single app.
======
yurka
A couple years ago I wanted to publish an iPhone app under a business name but
I was a solo developer with no clue about the legal aspects of starting a
business. In the end what worked best for me was registering a DBA /
Fictitious Business Name, which for a modest fee and a trip to downtown
allowed me to pick a business name to use in the app store.
If you go the single member LLC route (which I found in my case was overkill),
note that California has an $800 minimum tax. If you register in Delaware and
want to do business in your local state (e.g. open a bank account), you'll
probably have to register as a foreign corporation and pay any applicable
local taxes in addition to Delaware's fees.
~~~
iaw
Thank you. I think a fictitious business name may be the best route for me, I
don't know if I want to throw the cash at creating an entity if there isn't a
clearly defined benefit.
------
slater
I was always under the assumption that you should incorporate, if only to
avoid (some?) financial risk if Patent Troll Company #981271 comes forward
with a "Method or Apparatus for [whatever your app does]" patent and sues you
for $bajillions$
~~~
iaw
Thanks. That's the impression I'm under as well and there will be a small risk
of litigation that I've already recognized.
The problem with incorporating is that I've heard that the legal shielding
properties of corporate (or llc) status are not that protective for sole-
proprietors and that the company's liability is still the owner's liability.
~~~
thejteam
Depends on how big the potential judgement is. If you are looking at small
numbers, then nobody is going to go through the work to prove you personally
liable unless you really screwed up and made it easy. If you are looking at 10
million dollar judgements... if this is a risk buy liability insurance.
------
nanijoe
I would publish the app first and see what the returns are like, before I
worry about incorporation.."A compelling product with no direct competition" ,
usually means the product is not-quite-so-compelling
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Meritocracy and Discrimination in Tech - marcia
http://bjk5.com/post/43249906199/meritocracy-and-discrimination-in-tech
======
rjknight
One of the commonly-stated reasons for why discrimination persists in a field
is that people making hiring decisions are biased. They might not know that
they're biased, but they have some notions about the kind of people they want
to see working for their company, and they disproportionately hire those
people. This is quite an insidious form of discrimination because it's hard to
prove, but it is possible to catch people out - for instance if they display a
preference for talking to or dealing with male colleagues over female ones, or
give more rewards, perks or encouragement to male colleagues. There doesn't
need to be a "guys only" sign above the door for this to be a discriminatory
environment.
Now, the original "Girls, girls, girls" post talks about how "super exciting"
it is for KA to have hired twice as many female interns as male ones, how the
women at KA network together, how there are exclusive events for female staff
where female leadership is advocated. I know what Jessica was trying to say
there, but damn if it didn't wind up looking somewhat like the stuff I
described in my first paragraph. Now, _I do not believe that KA has done
anything wrong_ , but I don't think it's unreasonable for some people to
question this.
This (as I post every time there's a sexism thread, I really should just get a
blog or something) is all controversial because people are applying different
ethical rules. Some people are applying deontological ethics, which says that
there are rules about how to behave, and we should follow those rules (e.g.
don't discriminate based on gender). They look at the "Girls, girls, girls"
post and see things that look like they might break the rules against doing
the stuff I described in my first paragraph. They're not actually looking at
the "big picture" because they don't believe that, philosophically speaking,
the ends can be used to justify the means. If bias is wrong, being biased in
favour of a minority group is still wrong, in this view.
There's another more pragmatic view, which says that we should care mostly
about outcomes, especially if no particularly great harms are being inflicted
in order to achieve better outcomes. Although I generally lean more towards
the rule-based view, in this case, I think KA is pretty clearly producing a
good outcome and even if there is some bias[1] then it's not really the end of
the world. But I wouldn't condemn or insult someone who thought differently.
[1] A key point about bias and discrimination is that people aren't (and often
can't be!) aware of their own biases. If people from KA want to claim that
they're totally without bias, that's going to make it hard to accuse other
people of bias in the future. This is, sadly, just a Hard Problem and the
various problems inherent in solving it are why we keep having lengthy
discussions like this.
~~~
LockeWatts
"how there are exclusive events for female staff where female leadership is
advocated."
Can someone on HN give me a level headed explanation, for why this is more
appropriate than the opposite (An event exclusive to men)? It's never made
sense to me why one is accepted and the other isn't.
~~~
pmorici
It is a private organization is probably why; so they are allowed to
discriminate. In government if they had a female issues oriented event there
would be a foot note stating that men are welcome to attend.
edit: to respond to the below comment, I don't think it is socially
acceptable. It just isn't something that affects people too adversely yet so
while they may shake their head and fire off a tweet no one really cares
enough to bring significant pressure to bear.
~~~
LockeWatts
I wasn't really thinking about the legality of the issue so much as the social
acceptability.
------
cantastoria
I'm curious to know what aspects of Khan's recruiting/admission policies
resulted in such a large number of female admissions. It would be nice if the
authors' response included some description of their policies.
_As the person who stands at the end of our hiring process’s pipeline, I find
“Mark“‘s idea that we’re sacrificing quality to fill some quota merely very
insulting. If I were one of the women who has successfully navigated our
brutal interview process, I’d be furious._
This is said as if there is no basis for "Mark's" belief. Affirmative action
programs are notorious for establishing two-tier admissions policies for the
sole purpose of fostering "diversity". While official quotas are illegal, it's
well known that minority students are admitted to prestigious universities
with far lower SAT and GPA's that their white/Asian counterparts. What's to
make us think that's not what's at work here? Especially given that increasing
female enrollment was a high priority given that there are so many "big
smiles" when it was achieved. Again, some transparency would be nice.
Edited for spelling and grammar
~~~
kamens
Transparency about our interviewing process:
[http://bjk5.com/post/3340326040/in-any-language-you-want-
kha...](http://bjk5.com/post/3340326040/in-any-language-you-want-khan-academy-
interviews) (which comes from the hiring cultures at Fog Creek and Google, see
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing...](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing3.html)).
Transparency about all past internships, their expectation and
accomplishments: [http://bjk5.com/post/36067210182/khan-academy-internship-
sum...](http://bjk5.com/post/36067210182/khan-academy-internship-summer-12)
[http://bjk5.com/post/8826207372/khan-academy-internship-
summ...](http://bjk5.com/post/8826207372/khan-academy-internship-summer-11)
[http://bjk5.com/post/15500332273/khan-academy-internship-
fal...](http://bjk5.com/post/15500332273/khan-academy-internship-fall-11)
Transparency from previous interns about their work, which I believe speaks
for itself: [http://david-hu.com/2011/11/02/how-khan-academy-is-using-
mac...](http://david-hu.com/2011/11/02/how-khan-academy-is-using-machine-
learning-to-assess-student-mastery.html) [http://dylanv.org/2012/09/14/the-
khan-academy-internship-exp...](http://dylanv.org/2012/09/14/the-khan-academy-
internship-experience/) <http://jamie-wong.com/2012/08/22/what-i-did-at-khan-
academy/>
If any piece of evidence from the above points to an organization that values
quotas over excellence in interns and the work expected of them, well please
raise the alarm.
We need to get past our default response being a knee jerk assumption of
discrimination.
~~~
cantastoria
Fogcreek and Google's interview process both seem to yield a far larger number
of male employees than females yes?
David, Dylan and Jamie are all men yes?
_If any piece of evidence from the above points to an organization that
values quotas over excellence in interns and the work expected of them, well
please raise the alarm._
No one is accusing you of using quotas and no is saying you do not value
excellence in interns. What's being asked is why was there such a steep
increase in the number of female interns accepted? Were there more female
applicants? Were interview questions changed? How did this result come about?
~~~
kamens
And what I'm asking you is: can you come up with any possible explanations for
an increase in women devs over time that should be celebrated, especially at
an organization that values equal education for everyone, without first
wondering if our _interview questions have changed_?
~~~
cantastoria
Can you come up with any possible explanation period? You're dodging my
question.
~~~
kamens
An increase in women in tech majors and a company mission that strongly
appeals to both women and men.
~~~
cantastoria
I'm pretty sure most universities have a company mission that appeals to both
men and women and they haven't suddenly seen a 2:1 f/m ratio in CS majors.
What makes Khan so different?
~~~
Tichy
He might have a point in that a lot of women seem to aspire to be teachers.
For example when I got my maths degree, 99% (estimated) of the women sitting
in the lectures with me were studying to become teachers. Perhaps working for
Khan Academy somehow seems close enough to teaching.
------
abraxasz
I'm from a minority, and I'm currently enrolled in a phd program (well, about
to enroll in september) in a top university. I've been working really, really,
really hard to get there. Like, really hard. So it does piss me off when
people just waive their hands and say: "pfff, must have been affirmative
action or something".
That being said, I understand their reaction. When I put myself in a white
male's shoes and I hear every day that we should remedy this and this instance
of blatant discrimination, and the next day I hear that a company celebrates
the fact that there are more women/blacks/whatever being hired, then it's true
that the connection: they got hired BECAUSE they where women/black is a rather
tempting conclusion.. and is sometimes true.
I think that some companies are at fault here, using anti-discrimination as a
PR move. This can, and I think, does antagonize a lot of people, and is
counter productive.
~~~
rjknight
"Discretion is the better part of valour" springs to mind. If I hired some
great women for development roles and my first thought was to write a blog
post saying "look at these great _women_ I hired", I'd be doing something
wrong. It detracts from the fact that they're actually great _developers_ ,
and if they weren't then I wouldn't have hired them.
------
HeyImAlex
How can people who claim to be meritocratic immediately cry "discrimination!
misandry!" when women outperform men? Yep, must have been discrimination,
because we all know women can _never_ be better candidates unless there's
something else going on.
And _being excited_ about a historically underrepresented group overcoming
adversity isn't the same thing as "we are favoring primarily women
applications". Anyone who's _actually_ meritocratic would be ecstatic that the
walls in tech are slowly dissolving away.
~~~
yummyfajitas
_Yep, must have been discrimination, because we all know women can never be
better candidates unless there's something else going on._
It's not that women can _never_ be better candidates, it is merely that this
is _unlikely_.
Consider a set of applications, 20% of which come from women (fairly typical
numbers, from what I've read). Assume women and men are equally skilled. If 30
interns are selected without bias, the odds of choosing at least 60% women
(18/30) is quite small:
In [1]: from scipy.stats import binom
In [2]: rv = binom(30, 0.2)
In [3]: 1-rv.cdf(0.60*30)
Out[3]: 2.8432472531925157e-07
So unless the applicant pool was extremely unusual, it is unlikely that a pool
of 2/3 women was selected due to merit.
Anyone have more exact numbers to plug into this calculation? Perhaps kamens
can give us some more exact numbers?
(Of course, in a much smaller applicant pool, e.g. 6 students, you might
arrive at results like this due to random chance.)
~~~
khuey
Assuming men and women are equally skilled is a big assumption. Given that few
women enter CS, and many who do leave, it would not be surprising to find that
the remaining women who have not been selected out somehow are in fact _more_
skilled than the average male engineer.
~~~
yummyfajitas
Your reasoning contains no fact specific to women. Thus, it should be valid
for me to substitute any other group which is underrepresented in computing:
Given that few retards enter CS, and many who do leave, it would not be
surprising to find that the remaining retards who have not been selected out
somehow are in fact _more_ skilled than the average non-retard engineer.
It also still doesn't make a >60% women class remotely likely - even if women
make up 40% of the _top_ engineers, the odds of recruiting at least 60% women
in a 30 person class is only only 0.83%.
(PC note: I am only asserting that women are similar to retards in the sense
that khuey's argument applies to both of them. No other similarity is asserted
or implied.)
~~~
raleec
If you want to add a "PC" note, it should include an acknowledgement that the
term "Retard" is highly offensive to many even tangentially associated with
the mentally challenged community.
~~~
shrughes
I think he was referring to people that drive under the speed limit.
------
yummyfajitas
Transparency has been requested by several people, and I think it would be
helpful to flesh out transparency.
Here are a few quantitative questions which would help us get closer to the
truth:
What % of the applicant pool was women?
What % of the potentially qualified applicant pool was women? [1]
How many interns were hired? [2]
Are there any objective numbers (i.e., besides the # hired) to suggest that a
large fraction of the most qualified people were women?
[1] These numbers can allow us to do the same calculation I did here
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5233153>), or even a proper Bayesian
probability update.
[2] I.e., if 3 interns were hired, this is a tempest in a teapot caused by a
statistical fluke.
------
spamizbad
Are tech internships a big enough deal with people to merit this controversy?
Don't tell me you need to participate in one these days to break into the
industry(if so, that's sad).
~~~
LockeWatts
I'm in college presently, and to get into the tech world, it's a requirement
from where I'm sitting. Good candidates have multiple ones with big name
companies\hot start ups.
~~~
spamizbad
Boo, that stinks. Personally, I think internships are bullshit unless they're
having you work on genuinely interesting stuff like Google's Summer of Code. I
must have been pretty lucky as I never had to jump through any credentialing
hoops to break into the industry (That was in '05, pre-bubble no less. Didn't
even finish college). If I were you, I'd pair up with a co-founder, come up
with an idea, and apply to one of the incubators while you're still young.
Don't waste your youth trying to impress HR drones. Or, if you want to look-
before-you-leap, just "intern" at a less sexy startup (You'll learn the same
stuff pretty much)
~~~
spicyj
At Khan Academy, we certainly do our best to have interns work on "genuinely
interesting stuff", and we put huge emphasis on good mentorship, more so than
is probably possible with a remote program like GSoC. Here's a bit more info
about our internship program:
<https://www.khanacademy.org/careers/interns>
Don't miss the stories from past interns linked on the left.
------
JDDunn9
The world doesn't have to be evenly divided. Just because you see a group of
people that are under-represented in a field doesn't mean it needs to be
adjusted. We don't need to push for more white people in the NBA. We don't
need to push for more men to become nurses. We need to push for equality of
opportunity, not outcome.
------
tzs
Maybe I overlooked it, but I didn't see any mention of the size of the intern
class. A 2:1 ratio in a very small class has quite different implications than
a 2:1 ratio in a very large class.
~~~
spicyj
At the time of the post, it was 4 women, 2 men. (Now it's 4 women, 3 men.)
------
namank
Meritocracy is like traditional view of objectivity that knowledge exists
without the knower. Truth of the matter is, knowledge exists without the
knower but it is not independent of the knower.
This is why 14 year olds writing app is a reason for celebration and why
encouraging more females is a good thing. By doing so, we allow our work to
expand to incorporate the values that those group represent, which is
important because our work is user-centric, it doesn't stand by itself. If the
work doesn't stand by itself, how can its creators?
~~~
jfim
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't it the exact opposite of a meritocracy?
If someone makes something awesome, it doesn't really matter if they're 14
year olds, women, men or aliens.
I know at least I'd high five someone who made something cool, regardless of
gender/age/other factors.
~~~
cantastoria
The parent is describing the postmodern definition of Meritocracy where
"merit" is just a point view. In that world all achievements/failures must be
evaluated in light of the person or group's privilege/race/class/gender and
sexuality. People who subscribe to this definition really don't believe in
meritocracy as it's generally viewed as a way to institutionalize white male
advantage. Just a heads up :)
~~~
eshvk
I am not sure whether this is what the parent meant. I mean one way of looking
at it is that the more people from completely different backgrounds do things,
the more interesting the work gets. E.g. it is possible that some people
(teens, women) have a better perspective on solving some problems that affect
them more.
I generally support the success of more people from varied backgrounds in
tech. Mainly because it makes for a wider variance in problems that get
solved. It gets tiring to see every startup out there that solves problems for
20 something people who live in San Francisco (who incidentally might be male,
asian/white...). This does not however mean that I ascribe to the idea that
one should impose quotas or have lower standards for people who don't fit in
these demographics.
~~~
yummyfajitas
_E.g. it is possible that some people (teens, women) have a better perspective
on solving some problems that affect them more._
Is it possible that some people (men, whites, asians) have a better
perspective on solving some problems?
~~~
namank
It is not about the exclusion of some people as much as it about the inclusion
of _all_.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Time travelling RTS (Achron) accepting Pre-orders - gridspy
http://www.achrongame.com/index.html
======
roundsquare
Interesting... a nice stab but I think there is a critical aspect missing.
t = 0 No one is attacking me
t = 1 I attack someone
t = 2 They wish they attacked me
t = 3 They jump back to t = 0 to attack me
t = 4 (0') They attack me, but there is no "me" to defend. The troops will
just do their default actions.
So you have a lot of play against AI.
~~~
gridspy
When they move to T0 and attack you, the changes caused by this attack move
forward to the present in a "time wave" - you see these changes and decide to
intervene by moving to T=1 and ordering your troops to intercept their troops.
The effects of this also move forward in a time wave, which they can see
approaching on a little summary at the bottom of the screen.
As you modify the past you use up "chrono-energy" limiting the amount of
influence you can have.
See
[http://chronofrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36](http://chronofrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36)
for some more time travel strategies.
See
[http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=achron+youtu...](http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=achron+youtube&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=v-xES8-mHs-
LkAXBhMmxDw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=6&ved=0CB0QqwQwBQ#) for
some videos of achron.
~~~
roundsquare
Yeah, I understand. But the problem is that if t = 0 and t = 1 are far apart,
then by the time I jump back to t = 1' and defend, I could have lost a bunch
of troops (for example).
I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I'm trying to think of this from a more
"realistic" (within the scope of a time travel video game) point of view. In
theory, at t = 0' (before I've jumped back) you'd want my troops controlled by
someone with my skill, but not with my future knowledge.
Lets say I'm a great strategist, so good in fact that even when I'm attacked
at t = 0' I would be good enough to fed off the attack. But, if I was asleep
till t = 1' (as is essentially the case in what you are saying) I will get
decimated. Jumping back to t = 1' doesn't help me then.
Obviously I have to accept limitations based on the fact that the players are
in fact temporal beings, so I'm not saying the game mechanic is bad. I'm just
stating a limitation.
~~~
gridspy
You need to watch a couple of their time travel videos. The time travel is
flexible and the time steps are tiny. Because you can move forwards,
backwards, pause and fast forward time you can try several strategies until
you find the best one for a given fight.
Your objection about spending a lot of time fighting AI is a valid one, it was
my main objection too. It seems that it is so easy for the actual player to go
back and tweak the battle if they didn't like the results that the AI
complaint is moot.
Also, you can provide pretty rich standing orders and hierarchies for your
troops. If anything, you will fight AI less than in a typical RTS - since a
normal (not superhuman) opponent cannot manage all their troops at once,
whereas in this game any opponent can slow stuff down until they can manage
everything.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Node.js Application Hosting Service running on Digital Ocean - 0stanislav
http://stackful.io/
======
felipebueno
I have some questions and, please, don't get me wrong, I'm not being
sarcastic. I am really interested in your services.
I got a cheap server on DO I use to deploy some apps just for testing purpose
and, sometimes, I think I waste too many time configuring, breaking stuff and
fine-tunning my servers (I do like it but it's not very productive). The
languages I play with are Python (Django and Flask), PHP (Symfony2 and
Wordpress) and Javascript (Node.js/Express).
My questions are: Why would I choose Stackful.io over Digital Ocean? Will it
help me with that?
~~~
ovi256
I'm amazed something that works like stackful.io or heroku for your own
servers has not been written yet. Like you, many tinkerers have a cheap server
to use as a lab. It would be great if one could install on it some piece of
software that provided heroku-like zero-friction deploy for new apps. Just do
"app create", push a git repo and, bam, the app is deployed, with sensible
defaults. The defaults are not supposed to make everyone happy, but, like a
default heroku deployment, to allow you to start new apps with zero friction,
thus encouraging experimentation and hacking.
~~~
michaelbuckbee
You should check out Cloud66.com they are _almost_ there with what you are
describing. I'm really hoping to be using them in a month or two.
They'll read in your Github repo and then based on that configure VPS's for
you according to your specs (shared db server, standalone, etc.), it's very
slick.
Right now, they're lacking in documentation and don't handle some aspects of
admin (most notably server security updates) very well.
------
trotsky
As a Chef user, what are the honest selling points of cuisine vs. something
like Chef Solo? I'm definitely up for moving to something that isn't as heavy
as Chef but so far nothing has really clicked. Is it just that you preferred
python? Looking at the sample code it doesn't seem more compact or sraight
forward than the ruby equivalents. The excellent knife cloud bootstrap
plugins, good hypervisor metadata coverage and active community makes it hard
to say goodbye.
I'm sure you're not looking to go head to head with opscode or plabs, but
what's the elevator pitch? I'd really love something that ended up being much
more concise for the 90% of the deploys that are dead simple.
(and no, I haven't tried ansible yet)
~~~
hdeshev
Regarding cuisine vs. Chef Solo... I think it mostly depends on what your
scripts do. In my opinion, Fabric/Cuisine make it absurdly easy to execute
commands against a remote server and most of the time that's enough for a
decent deployment. Chef's execution API is, to put it mildly, clumsy. I cringe
every time I have to type something like:
execute "#{virtualenv_dir}/bin/pip install -r #{requirements_file}" do user
deploy_user group deploy_user end
IMO Chef shines when you have to move a lot of config files and generate node-
and role-specific configs. I feel it's a lot simpler to just have recipe-
specific files and templates packaged with the recipe and move them over with
commands like cookbook_file and template.
Right now we are using both the technologies. Our stacks are Chef-based since
we want people to be comfortable with reading (and possibly modifying) its
code. We also reuse a lot of the Opscode recipes which simply do not exist for
Fabric/Cuisine. Fabric and Cuisine have their place when we bootstrap a server
and prepare the Chef environment and at several odd places where they keep
things running together.
------
grayprog
With regards to Digital Ocean. My server there which I installed about a month
ago (Amsterdam location), with 2GB of RAM is not responding for several hours
now. Including not possible to reboot. Support says they're aware of the
issue. But it's been several hours like this now. Never had with with Linode
in my 3 years with them. Guess I'll be moving this server back.
~~~
mitchwainer
Gray - send me an email -> mitch [at] digitalocean
I will take care of it for you.
------
bergie
Ah, cool. I'm already using Digital Ocean for hosting the development Linux
box that I access from my "Android workstation":
<http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android/>
Their service has been working without any hassles until now, and so I
wouldn't mind having them as a Heroku alternative for hosting my Node.js apps.
~~~
0stanislav
Great post, btw.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with DO Amsterdam location.
"The 512MB and 1GB sizes are currently not available in the Amsterdam region
due to RIPE IPv4 restrictions and limited availability of IP space."
------
andy_boot
This is offering a lot more server for your money than Heroku / Gondor.io /
dotcloud.
------
rpledge
Looks nice, price seems right. I'll have to try it when I have some free time.
~~~
0stanislav
Thank you!
Feedback and feature requests are welcome.
~~~
paukiatwee
how about custom domain? Where can see/vote feature request publicly?
~~~
0stanislav
Feature request / voting is now enabled on our site. All ideas and feedback
are more than welcome!
------
nodesocket
Founder of <http://www.nodesocket.com> here, best of luck guys. Are you guys
in the bay area?
~~~
0stanislav
Thank you so much! Good luck with Commando.io!
Our team is located in Europe.
------
Maarten88
Azure Websites also offer Node.js hosting [1], and they have a free plan for
small (development) sites. Paid plans there seem more expensive.
[1] <http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/nodejs/>
~~~
0stanislav
Unfortunately, the problem with freemium is that at the end paying customers
have to sponsor the free accounts.
And in most cases providers do as much as possible to lock you in, so you
don't switch to a cheaper option when you reach certain size.
On the other hand, we want customers to know that they can leave us whenever
they need to. Your apps are completely portable, so there is no reason not to
give it a try.
------
spiri4
Is there a free plan ?
~~~
0stanislav
You can launch your sever and deploy your app for free. You can keep the
server alive later if you need to.
Prices start from $8/mo for 512 ram SSD server.
------
wasd
This is awesome. I love that there is a new one push deploy in town other than
Heroku. Will you guys ever support a Rails stack?
~~~
0stanislav
Thanks! Yes, we will definitely support Rails soon (several weeks). We are
working hard to make all major stacks available.
------
lucian1900
Interesting how much Python they use. Perhaps they'll add Python hosting as
well?
~~~
hdeshev
Most of the backend and frontend is written in Python and we are working on a
Python stack. Stay tuned!
------
kbar13
> PaaS Service
~~~
0stanislav
Fixed. Thanks!
~~~
jaredmcateer
Also the only VCPU that is pluralized on your pricing page is the 1 VCPU under
the 16gb plan.
~~~
0stanislav
Fixed, thanks a bunch!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Enough with the QR Codes - ramisayar
http://ramisayar.com/enough-with-the-qr-codes/
======
veidr
I see people scan QR codes often, and even occasionally do myself; but then, I
live in Japan.
Here, QR codes became popularized well before the 'smartphone', because
everybody's regular phone has been able to scan them for years. (I think from
around the turn of the millennium, at least.) That makes sense, because as as
bad as smartphone on-screen keyboards are, entering URLs on a numeric keypad
was _even worse_.
Two days before the OP's blog entry, I just happened to write a note on my own
blog in _defense_ of QR codes (not exactly Pulitzer-grade material; see my
profile if you're really interested).
That was just because recently it seems to have gotten really trendy in the
USA to hate on QR codes, but I think that's like hating on hammers. ( _"Enough
with the hammers!"_ ) What people are really hating on (I think) is clumsy and
stupid marketing involving QR codes.
Japan went through a similar thing: as QR codes became popular, marketers got
all over-exuberant about them and started inappropriately plastering them all
over the place, thinking they looked cool. That gradually fizzled out; Japan
Inc. has a recent article about it:
<http://www.japaninc.com/node/4018>
But just because advertisers over-use and abuse QR codes, that doesn't mean QR
codes aren't useful. A small barcode that can be scanned with the device that
everybody already has in their pocket is a cool thing, and QR codes are
_nearly_ that. Especially here.
We don't see them as much in ads in Japan anymore (a mock-Google search box
showing what to google for has replaced the QR code in a lot of places). But
we still use them in everyday life, and to good effect. Kids snap shots of QR
codes to get discount coupons for fast food. Shops have a QR code that will
direct you to a Google map of the surrounding area whosing their other
locations in the vicinity. One of my favorites examples is when a friend was
trying to fix his kitchen; one of the pipes underneath had a metal tag stamped
with a part number and QR code, which led to the product spec page from the
vendor that made it (loooong URL).
I have more, but you get the point, and it's miller time.
~~~
rurounijones
Plus the fact that not ALL QR Codes are URLs to marketing sites.
I have seen plenty of "stick in a microwave" type meals that have a QR code
which, when scanned, display nutritional information which would never have
fit on the tiny label.
Mind you this is also in Japan so....
~~~
Jetlag
For a moment I thought you were going to say that your microwave scanned the
QR to automatically set itself.
------
conradev
> Firstly, that’s a huge security risk in my mind, it’s like I am trying to
> open an email attachment from an unknown sender because nobody knows who put
> up these ads.
It's _not_ like opening an email attachment, it's more like opening a URL. The
only documented QR code attack I know of consists of a QR code with a
malicious URL (<http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=12760>). The QR code
only served as a 'mask' to the URL, where the users were too ignorant to look
at the URL before visiting it.
I don't think embedding malicious code in a QR code is practical or possible,
mostly because the amount of data it can hold is very small. The only binary
format I know of that is commonly used on a QR code is vCard; the rest are
plaintext based formats.
~~~
Tooluka
But opening unknown URL IS dangerous. It's like URL shorteners that plague
internet since Twitter - you never know where link will take you and what
scripts etc. will run in your browser.
~~~
dfxm12
On my device (android with bar code scanner device), the experience is that I
scan a QR code with a URL, it tells me that the QR code has a URL & shows me
what the URL is, then gives me the option to visit the link.
Depending on if the URL is a shortened URL, it is just as safe or moreso than
regular browsing.
Is your experience different from this?
------
klinquist
I do believe I've found a decent use for them - I wrote an app that can push
an iOS mobile provisioning wifi profile to an iPhone - this allows your guests
to scan a QR code to have their iOS device connect to your wifi network
(without directly sharing your WPA key with them). You can even geofence the
QR code so that if it is scanned > 1/2 mile from your home, the profile will
not be pushed.
You must use RedLaser to scan the QR code - it is the only that pushes URLs
out to Safari (instead of to an internal web-view) which allows the profile to
be pushed.
<http://www.getonmywifi.com>.
~~~
gala8y
FYI: There is an app for Android doing the same (works great):
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proj.wifij...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proj.wifijoiner)
I printed Marvin the Paranoid Android pointing to a fat QR code with extra
text saying sth like 'internets r here... and ur emailz, too.'
One of the best QR code use cases, I believe.
edit: User must have app installed on her phone.
------
noveltyaccount
Good use case: on a For Sale sign in front of a house or apartment with a deep
link to the listing. Much easier than going to the web site and searching.
~~~
cmelbye
Sure, QR codes are always a "good use case" when it comes to this. They ARE
faster than typing in a link or searching. Doesn't do much good when no one
uses the code, though.
~~~
RandallBrown
Usually they just link to a companies website though and it would have been
faster to type it in instead of scanning it.
------
Reebz
If QR codes were automatically detected with the iPhone camera app, they would
boom.
95 percent of the problem is non-tech people don't know they need an app to
scan or can't be bothered with getting one.
I've literally seen a friend of mine try to take a photo of a QR code and
complain it doesn't work.
It's like having a PC without a web browser -- what the hell do you do with a
URL then?
------
jamesjyu
Context is everything. For example, QR codes are huge in Japan. Witness this
video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myzLAXtqoa8&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myzLAXtqoa8&feature=player_embedded#)!
People literally lining up to take snapshots of QR codes.
~~~
jvm
Playing the Japan card during discussion of a cultural phenomenon is the
equivalent of playing the Hitler card in a political debate.
If there's one thing that's clear, it's that they will do absolutely anything
in Japan.
EDIT: In Japan, this is the kind of thing they watch on TV:
<http://youtu.be/xqoXcLqVemA>
~~~
rhizome
Yeah. Those wacky Orientals, eh?
~~~
jvm
I was just trying to point out cultural differneces in a tongue-in-cheek
manner. I think Japan is the least Europeanized wealthy country (the other
Asian tigers count too but are less renowned for shocking westerners). As a
result, it's often a lot less valid to generalize from Japanese culture to
American culture than, say, Australian or German.
There's a world of difference between pointing out cultural diversity and
racial stereotyping. I guess the fact that I'm actually kind of into
Vermillion Pleasure Night blinded me to the fact that some people might have
interpreted my comments as derogatory.
~~~
rhizome
They're not necessarily derogatory, just ignorant. For instance, "least
Europeanized" is indeed a generalization to Western culture, just a negative
one.
------
corin_
Essentially the biggest reason they are used so much is because of the
argument "why not?"
I was in a meeting with the organisers of a pretty big consumer tech event, a
couple of clever, successful people, and they mentioned that they were going
to be putting QR codes on nearly all branding at the event we were discussing.
I, slightly rudely, chuckled and asked why on earth they would do that; the
answer: "We've found a site where you can make them really, really cheap -
like, almost free - so we might as well!"
~~~
DHowett
The real WTF is... Almost free? Like, they found a company that will, what,
sell you an image of black and white boxes for mere pennies? God, imagine the
money they could make swindling companies with a per-scan advertising fee!
Pixels will be mined like gold!
Apparently nobody in Corporate has heard of a free online barcode generator.
You can even print the barcode _as many times as you want!_ Maybe they just do
not trust free services?
~~~
jarek
I imagine it's the tracking and statistics provided by paid services that is
the really useful point from business point of view. Marketing people _love_
response tracking.
~~~
corin_
Nope, in this case it was the creating of QR codes for printing. Don't worry,
I did laugh pretty hard right in front of them and told them that it's easy to
make them absolutely free - ah well, they'd already paid at this point.
~~~
Scotchy
Well you can still track how many people scan it, right ? e.g. by providing a
proxy link ?
~~~
corin_
Yeah sure - plenty of people do QR codes that go through bit.ly, just as
possible to do it through any other tracking platform.
~~~
crisnoble
bitly provides qr codes for every link generated with their service. Just go
to the info page. ex: <https://bitly.com/FPUVjU+>
------
alphakappa
Like every other piece of technology, QR codes can also be overused and
abused. This isn't worth ranting over though.
There are perfectly good reasons to use QR codes. URLs may be long, confusing
or just awkward enough to be a pain to type. Sometimes there may not be enough
space on the product to put in a full URL. There's no reason to stop the
'madness' as this author puts it - like other pieces of technology, folks will
experiment quite a bit in the early days and then settle on good usage
practices as time goes on.
------
BryanB55
We started using them on the print pages of homes for sale that we provide for
our clients. The QR links to a google map of the property's address. Usually a
buyer would print out the listing and take it with them to see the house. So
far it seems to be a much easier way to get directions to the house without
having to type in an entire address on your smartphone.
Sample: <http://virtualstagingsolutions.com/a/view/1159/print>
------
gadgetdevil
If you have an Android phone, you can create a QR code for a WiFi hotspot with
a WEP/WPA2 encryption key. <https://zxing.appspot.com/generator/>
------
maxmcd
They are free to set up, advertisers and marketers understand them (or at
least they think they do), they feel very "modern".
QR codes aren't going anywhere is because they are a perfectly attractive
novelty for the non-tech world. There is a far better conversion, and ease
from using short URLs or even a 4 digit number that will next you the URL, but
the QR code will still prevail.
I wouldn't expect QR codes to go away until the offline advertising and
marketing world becomes more data driven. Given recent trends, that's unlikely
to happen any time soon.
------
artursapek
I feel like there's a routine anti-QR code thread on HN once a month and it's
always the same argument. They'll die naturally when nobody wants them. For
now it seems like certain people want them.
~~~
RandallBrown
It seems more like people _want_ people to want them so they're sticking
around. Sometimes they're useful, but that's pretty rare.
~~~
ramisayar
> people want people to want them
LOL Nice.
------
av500
my biggest gripe with QR codes is that the built-in camera apps on smartphones
dot not scan for them by default. Instead I have to hunt through my installed
apps to find the "barcode scanner" or whatever.
Why can't the default camera recognize a QR code, either in preview or after
taking the picture?
------
jonmrodriguez
QR codes will be great for users of augmented reality glasses, by having the
QR codes represent embeddable 3D graphics.
Like an iframe for the physical world.
------
ebzlo
My educational startup uses them in our printed assignments. Teachers fax
completed tests to us and we can grade them by identifying the assignment
through QR.
Example: <http://kiteedu.com/assets/print.jpg>
------
joshmlewis
I think in SOME situations it's a good thing to have. But there are some
horrible uses, such as while I was driving down the interstate the other day,
on the complete opposite side to which I was driving, there was a billboard
for the National Guard that had a QR code.
There is no way in hell I am or evan can pull out my phone, open the qr reader
app, point it at that billboard in a steady enough motion WHILE driving 70mph
on the OTHER SIDE of the highway and go to their website. We aren't even
supposed to be using devices while driving and the freaking National Guard
does that. I hope our tax dollars (wishful thinking, I know) didn't go to
this. But it's plain ridiculous.
------
gkoberger
Personally, I've found them to sometimes be useful.
I use an iPhone now, however they were fairly useful on Android -- a lot of
Android forums would show a QR code when you hovered over links to .apk's,
which made attachments easy to download.
------
taybenlor
Reposting my comment from the blog, because it's still "awaiting moderation".
QR Codes do have uses, but everyone uses them wrong. The first and most
obvious use is as a replacement barcode. Add to physical products to expand
scanning use-cases. But not as a marketing stunt.
The next, which I quite like is for device -> device communication. For
example displaying a QR code on your phone and having it automatically scanned
at a ticket collection point for Airplanes/Trains/Events.
~~~
ramisayar
Apologies for the "awaiting moderation", I was sleeping. It's up now.
------
willwagner
I like the QR codes at Best Buy; I use them all the time when I'm just
starting to research electronics and I make a visit to one of their stores.
It's convenient, I can store it on my iphone for later, and I can read user
reviews, etc.
That being said, I'm not sure if they help or hurt sales because when I do
scan a QR code, I typically end up doing comparison shopping and typically
Best Buy's prices don't compete well with online retailers.
~~~
bigiain
I'm on the wrong side of the planet to check, but I'm bet reasonable money
that Best Buy are running privacy-dubious redirection/browser-
fingerprinting/analytics on the urls those QR code send you too.
Or if they're not, does anyone have a contact in marketing at Best Buy?
------
chrislomax
Would a better idea not to have a font that was made for the purpose of
scanning?
That way, if people don't have smartphones then they know the url. Those who
do have smartphones know what the url points to in case there is something
dodgy about the url.
I hate to say it but something like Courier, on a white background and we
improve the OCR techniques in the phones?
~~~
ragmondo
You mean like "OCR Font?" - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-A_font>
~~~
chrislomax
Perfect, I wasn't even aware there was a font for this purpose!
I don't see the point in QR codes, I have never seen an every day use for them
and it makes me slightly angry that they have been adopted so heavily.
I do take into account people have found a use for them in niche situations.
It just seems these ugly black barcodes could have been avoided by legible OCR
fonts with a decent OCR scanner built into the phone. Everyone's happy!
~~~
rhizome
Hardware-wise, OCR is not as simple to process as QR.
------
corin_
When commenting earlier I forgot to mention that I have a personal use-case
for QR codes - an easy way to put a page I'm looking at on the PC onto my
phone, easier than typing in the URL or mailing the link.
<http://code.google.com/p/qrbookmarklet/> (not made by me, just used by me)
------
AzAngel
I used them for a QR code scavenger hunt once and, even in this tech backwards
town, got a couple people involved. This was when they were still new. It
familiarized people with our website and our store layout. It also got them
asking at the counter for help to find things. All in all exactly what I was
hoping for.
------
jamesu
This intense hatred of QR Codes continues to baffle and amaze me. Sure, if you
use them inappropriately it's a disaster but if you can add something which
potentially makes it easier for those with phones to access, then why not?
It's almost like complaining about the over-usage of barcodes on product
packaging.
------
harryf
There's a whole website dedicated to this <http://wtfqrcodes.com/>
~~~
cstuder
Along with this blog: <http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/>
~~~
ramisayar
LIKE!
------
LachlanArthur
Please stop using "I don't know where the QR will take me" as an excuse. Any
decent scanning app shows the QRs content before asking the user to act upon
it. Who would want an app that instantly saves a vcard to their contact list,
or opens a url as soon as they scan it?
------
utopkara
Nobody remembers the google sesame? That one exampled in itself should stop
this thread.
~~~
gaius
CueCat?
~~~
utopkara
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3469692>
------
tallanvor
QR Codes remind me of the CueCat. There are some interesting and perfectly
valid use cases, but I doubt QR Codes will be something that most people ever
start using on a daily basis.
------
DrStalker
So far the best use I have found for QR codes is making up stickers than when
scaned decode to "sorry i wasted your time this qr code does not contain
anything interesting"
------
jdsemrau
It is funny how this topic comes up every month. I guess it's because we
somehow want them to add value, but at this stage they don't.
------
xarien
Why is QR codes prevalent?
Because it's cheap and can digitize analog goods easily.
------
abava
as per use cases: check-ins could be simplified with QR-codes. See
<http://servletsuite.com/qrcode.htm>
------
rhizome
The novelty has worn off, so now they're worthless and companies should just
stop using them. I'm not sure I agree.
------
drivebyacct2
I've made a point to ask people who work in retail stores/shops that have QR
codes if they've ever had people scan the QR codes. The most "positive" answer
I heard was that they weren't sure. Some people stopped in front of the signs,
but they weren't sure if they were scanning the code or following the link or
sending an email/sms to subscribe.
Most of the time, it's a flat out no. I suspect it might be different in other
places where there is greater awareness or density of QR codes though.
BTW, asking for a use case? Entering secure keys. Initializing OTP code
generators. (aka Google Auth, which you SHOULDN'T have to ask about because it
should ALREADY be active. Go do it, right now, mid-sentence, if you haven't)
Potentially initializing 3 keys for use in a two-factor auth tool for phones
and NFC tags. cough.
------
2launchfail
Wasn't there some big conspiracy that bar-codes would be EVERYWHERE one day???
I saw them on some Churches main signs, I see them on pretty much
everything... They are all techinically "linked" to the internet...
Maybe, that "day" the conspirators speak of is upon us?
:-\
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Let's Encrypt Launch Schedule - joshmoz
https://letsencrypt.org/2015/06/16/lets-encrypt-launch-schedule.html
======
diafygi
I'm suuuper excited for this to launch! However, it's worrisome that the ACME
protocol (what Let's Encrypt uses) still has a ton of bugs open[1] and they
are still changing the protocol often. Just search for "TODO" on the spec
markdown[2].
I want this project to proceed, but they should really focus on getting a much
more mature and stable spec before launch. This isn't WebRTC, where you can
just continuously tack on additional stuff or change the API constantly. It's
TLS certs. The certs issued using this API end up telling people it's safe to
input their passwords or credit card numbers.
I really hope the ACME spec gets stable before the launch in July.
[1]: [https://github.com/letsencrypt/acme-
spec/issues](https://github.com/letsencrypt/acme-spec/issues)
[2]: [https://github.com/letsencrypt/acme-
spec/blob/master/draft-b...](https://github.com/letsencrypt/acme-
spec/blob/master/draft-barnes-acme.md)
~~~
cbhl
> _The certs issued using this API end up telling people it 's safe to input
> their passwords or credit card numbers._
I'm pretty sure they _shouldn 't_ tell users it's safe to type in credit card
numbers -- these certs are "domain validation" (DV).
The certs that generate a green chip in the address bar are "extended
validation" (EV) certs that typically cost hundreds and require a human to
manually verify things.
~~~
vtlynch
Validation has nothing to do with the security of the certificate. There is
nothing preventing you from using a DV, OV, or EV certificate to transmit any
type of data you want.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Validation has nothing to do with the security of the certificate.
It has to do with the security and accountability of the end-to-end process in
which the certificate is used, which is a security concern even if you define
"security of the certificate" so narrowly that it isn't relevant to the
security of the certificate as such. (Though _what_ you have a trusted third-
party vouching for _in_ the certificate -- which is the key distinction in EV
-- is, I would think, by any reasonable standard, a factor in the security
provided by the certificate.)
~~~
vtlynch
Yes, it is true that validation does add accountability and security. However,
suggesting that DV certificates are less suitable than EV certificates for
handling a certain kind of data is nothing more than misinformation.
The cipher being used and the SSL configuration dictate MUCH more about the
security of a site than its level of validation. EV certificates do not
guarantee the site isnt using a insecure cipher. EV certificates do not
guarantee that the private key was not sent via plain text in an email while a
network admin was installing it. So from an encryption standpoint, there is no
advantage.
From a authentication standpoint, an EV MAY provide more security but
remember: An EV primarily validates the name and location of the relying
party. It does not check to see if they are operating ethically or if you are
getting ripped off.
I dont think EV is bad, but clamping down on what type of certificates can be
used gets tricky. There are very few uses where EV (or OV) certificates should
be required.
------
qrmn
I gather they're not launching with ECDSA certificates (and obviously not with
EdDSA or whatever comes out of CFRG, because that's still being discussed by
the IETF/IRTF), but they're going to add it later. Any idea when?
What's the hold up; HSMs that'll do secp256r1?
Because of the huge performance improvement ECDSA brings over RSA, I know I'm
not going to be deploying Let's Encrypt certs until I can get ECDSA ones (as
well as RSA ones, presumably).
------
jtchang
I am really excited about this whole initiative. Mostly because encryption
should really be standard at this point if not for the hurdles one has to face
in deploying it.
What type of help is the Let's Encrypt team still needing?
~~~
joshmoz
Glad you like the project!
Contributing to our software is one way to help:
[https://github.com/letsencrypt/boulder](https://github.com/letsencrypt/boulder)
[https://github.com/letsencrypt/lets-encrypt-
preview](https://github.com/letsencrypt/lets-encrypt-preview)
Also, if you work for a company that might be interested in sponsoring us,
starting that conversation is another great way to help out.
~~~
diafygi
What are the tiers for corporate sponsors?
~~~
garrettr_
The tiers are Platinum, Gold, and Silver. Check out the current sponsors [0]
and info on becoming a sponsor [1].
[0]: [https://letsencrypt.org/sponsors/](https://letsencrypt.org/sponsors/)
[1]: [https://letsencrypt.org/become-a-
sponsor/](https://letsencrypt.org/become-a-sponsor/)
------
tokenizerrr
Very glad to hear there is a launch schedule, have been curious about how this
project has been progressing. It's a fantastic intiative and I almost can't
wait until September 14.
------
EGreg
Can someone summarize why this is better than, say, StartSSL or AlphaSSL?
~~~
aroch
No predatory pricing (StartSSL has $25 revocations), free (AlphaSSL) and user-
friendly (StartSSL is a UX nightmare). PositiveSSL is probably the cheapest,
well supported cert (certs can be had for $3-4/y).
~~~
yellowapple
Are you sure about that $3-4 price point? The cheapest I'm seeing on their
site is $49/yr.
~~~
electroly
Namecheap sells PositiveSSL certs for $9, I'm sure others are in that price
range as well.
------
masida
Very nice initiative.
But for me the biggest problem with adoption of SSL is still that every domain
name needs it's unique IPv4 address, and all problems that come with that, not
registering or paying for the SSL certificate.
At work, I usually use virtual hosting for about 100 domains on one IP
address. I don't see us buying an IPv4 address per domain and adding them to
my NIC configuration one by one. Once we can safely ignore IPv4 and use IPv6
only it will probably become easier and cheaper.
~~~
adisbladis
SNI has been a thing for a long while now.. Do you seriously need to support
older browsers than this?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication#Web_bro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication#Web_browsers.5B6.5D)
~~~
LinuxBender
SNI is fine for web browsing, but for end-points that need to be reachable by
older versions of python, tomcat, ruby and many proprietary apps, this will
not suffice. This becomes a problem on business to business communications,
automation, API's, etc. For the general purpose websites, blogs, etc, SNI
would be fine.
~~~
hobarrera
You're probably talking about _really_ old versions of applications. I've been
using SNI for half a decade without any issues.
Anything so old that does not support SNI probably still uses SSLv3, or maybe
even SSLv2, so you really should be upgrading that ASAP, rather than keep
supporting it.
~~~
LinuxBender
If you take a look at the wiki article, there are some versions listed. Those
are still in use. If our company forced people to use SNI, we would be out of
business. There are TLS 1.0+ enabled apps that can't do SNI. Perhaps you and I
are just in very different business models.
------
general_failure
can someone clarify if revokation is free with letsencrypt?
Also, who pays for all this infrastructure? Mozilla?
~~~
bracewel
All the services provided by Let's Encrypt will be completely free, including
revocation.
------
worklogin
Do Chrome and Mozilla have Let's Encrypt in their Root stores? I don't see
them.
~~~
vtlynch
No. The Let's Encrypt root was recently created and will be submitted to root
inclusion programs. It will probably be quite a while until its suitable to
issue certs solely from the Let's Encrypt Root.
For now, the certs are cross signed by "DST Root CA X3" operated by Identrust.
This root has very strong inclusion.
For specifics, please see:
[https://groups.google.com/a/letsencrypt.org/forum/#!msg/clie...](https://groups.google.com/a/letsencrypt.org/forum/#!msg/client-
dev/I-iFKihZ4Vo/5g9Xb5SroOsJ)
~~~
worklogin
Dangit, I didn't read the second paragraph. For GA, they will have the cross-
sign. It's just for the EA that they don't.
------
jglauche
Damnit, my existing cert expires September 12. Any free alternatives to that?
~~~
teraflop
[https://www.startssl.com/](https://www.startssl.com/) provides free domain-
validated certificates.
~~~
Karunamon
Please don't use startssl. Revocation costs money, and the company's behavior
surrounding heartbleed was at the very least _very unethical_.
~~~
teraflop
Fair enough, but bear in mind that StartSSL's revocation fee is lower than
what most certificate providers charge as a _starting_ price. Personally, I'm
fine with taking the risk and eating the $25 cost if something unexpected
happens.
~~~
clinta
No company should be incentivising companies to not revoke compromised
certificates. Even if the cost is modest. It's more about not patronizing a
company with such a bad business model than it is about the dollar cost.
~~~
currysausage
StartSSL's business model: making things free that don't cost them measurable
money, and charging for transactions that cost them money.
An exception from that rule in the wake of Heartbleed would arguably have been
appropriate, but the business model as such is in no way _bad_. If the whole
SSL industry worked in a way that put price and cost in proportion, there
would be no need for Let's Encrypt.
~~~
Karunamon
How does an automated revocation cost them money?
~~~
currysausage
[https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-hard-costs-of-
heartbleed/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-hard-costs-of-heartbleed/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DASH playback of AV1 video in Firefox - slederer
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/dash-playback-of-av1-video/
======
mmastrac
Very cool. I hope we can start seeing WebAssembly-pluggable codecs in all of
the video/audio paths in the browser. Imagine being able to turn on a brand-
new codec (or select a customized codec for your particular use) in any
browser that supports WebAssembly.
Two ends of a WebRTC connection could even negotiate codecs based on
power/processing needs, with one sending a WebAssembly codec to the other as a
fallback if needed ("hey you don't support this thing that I support in
hardware, but you are plugged in, so burn some more electrons on your end").
WebAssembly SIMD [1] will definitely help with performance here.
[1]
[https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/6533147810332672](https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/6533147810332672)
~~~
mooman219
Although there is much to be desired still on the software end, the molasses
of the situation is hardware support for the new formats. You mentioned it
briefly, but there's only so much you can do with a software decoders. H.264
may not be ideal or technically have the best performance, but most video
cards and cpu's have dedicated hardware decoders.
Completely unrealistic, but it would be interesting to have on the fly
reprogramable FPGAs on die that can be assigned specific tasks on demand. This
of course has tons of risks, but the pace that hardware moves is painful.
~~~
StudentStuff
H.265 support is a patchwork in hardware though, look at all the recent
Allwinner chips, only 8 bit H.265 playback is supported, despite quite a few
H.265 files using 10 bit colors.
Worse yet, most Chromecasts and TVs don't support anything newer than H.264.
It will be years before H.265 or any new competitor sees hardware support in
most homes.
~~~
j1elo
Probably due to H.265 having much more expensive licensing costs than H.264,
given enough volume. That alone might make lots of players in the industry to
just prefer ignoring the new codec (and joining a joint effort for developing
a new codec with more favorable licensing terms...)
~~~
StudentStuff
Yeah, VP9 will probably monopolize the market as the libre, royalty free
codec. With Google and others boosting it, I'd be surprised if it doesn't win
like Opus has in the voice codec arena for any new application.
------
mariusmg
So this AV1 coded will superseed H.265 and will be truly open ? Color me
impressed if this si true.
~~~
Ace17
(AV1 dev here) Yes, this is true.
This codec is developed by the Alliance for Open Media, whose goal is to
provide a patent-free video codec (more acurately, a video codec under a
patent-umbrella protection). Let's not reproduce the HEVC fiasco (see "HEVC
advance licensing terms" for more info).
AV1 is still in development at this time (the bitstream format changes
slightly almost every day). However, the compression performance (VQ) is
already very good ; and lots of huge companies are part of the Alliance (
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Mozilla, ... see [http://aomedia.org/about-
us/](http://aomedia.org/about-us/) )
~~~
jhack
Of course Apple is nowhere to be seen. Bad enough their refusal to support VP9
is locking Safari and Apple TV users out of 4K Youtube, it's only going to
keep getting worse going forward.
~~~
lern_too_spel
There's no reason to use a Mac anymore unless you're targeting iOS. The
performance is better, the tools are better, the battery life is longer (for
laptops), the input devices are better, and the connectivity is better for
Linux development machines. Switch (TM).
~~~
rapsey
The UI experience is however atrocious. Anything is better then the death by a
thousand papercuts on Linux.
~~~
morsch
I use Mac OS, Linux and Windows to roughly the same degree. It's all fine.
I spend most of my time developing (server) software in Mac OS, and I'd rather
do it in Linux, since it seems obviously more suited to it. I'm glad I don't
have to do it in Windows, since it seems obviously less suited to it.
But it's all minor stuff. Overall it's all fine.
------
shmerl
Cool!
_> While Opus was adopted as a mandatory format for the WebRTC wire protocol,
we don’t have a similar mandate for a video codec._
Now if we could play audio in all browsers using Opus. Even Apple started
supporting Opus, but being Apple they messed things up and you can't use Ogg
container there :(
------
markdog12
Very cool to finally see this in a browser. The video continually stops for me
though, although audio is still playing. Looks like it's making use of the GPU
to decode as well. Both CPU and GPU usage were pretty high for me.
Edit: I think the GPU usage was high due to using WebRender
~~~
TD-Linux
That can sometimes happen if the CPU gets too far behind. There is a bunch of
missing SIMD code at the moment - I'd expect it to be at least 4 times faster
by the time it ships.
------
buckminster
AV1 is a silly name when AVI is an existing video format.
~~~
bjoli
avi isn't a video format, it is a container format. The container for av1 will
probably be mkv or MP4 (or whatever comes after)
------
ajobaccount2017
Does it include DRM?
~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
DRM is usually implemented at a completely different layer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Local SIM – find the nearest store of local mobile provider while travelling - lashkhi
I would like to introduce an iOS application that can be useful for every traveler - Local SIM. Before making a trip, or if you are already traveling, you can find on the map nearest store where you can connect to the local network carrier (provider) and get the local sim card. The application will be useful for those who do not want to pay for roaming, and for the provider companies. There's currently available in Appstore second version of application, which already includes 27 countries and more than 50 providers around the whole Europe! In the future it is planned to increase the list of countries and providers, also the ability to select the best voice/data rates and plans for even greater savings.<p>Going abroad and don't want to pay for roaming? Act like the locals - get the Local SIM app, find the nearest store to you, and get connected to local data & network provider.<p>While travelling, we often use wifi in hotel, cafe, or somewhere else, but if you want to stay connected all the time, if you need to check the bus departure time, if you need to build route, use navigator in car or make a call - you have to use 3g/LTE connection. The cheapest way- is to use local providers data plans, so the only one problem is to get know which providers are available and where you can get connected to.
Local SIM helps you to get all this the information you need.<p>https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/local-sim/id906088582
======
darex
can you please provide promos?
~~~
teener
yes please
------
teener
thanks!
------
alexa1
great
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Beta testers wanted for new survey/feedback tool - responster
We are working on the final bits and pieces of our new survey/feedback platform Responster (www.responster.com).<p>We are now in need of more beta users to try out all the new features!<p>Public Beta will be open up to 1000 registrations. we are currently at 487. All beta users are rewarded with a forever-free account.<p>Many thanks for your help and feedback!
/Team Responster
======
iSquirrel
Hi, how can I apply for the beta test? I frequently use survey platforms and I
would like partecipate in the development of a new one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
No, Tesla Is Not the Largest US Automaker Ever – CleanTechnica - djrogers
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/01/08/no-tesla-is-not-the-largest-us-automaker-ever/
======
RugnirViking
Perhaps this is a sign that value in the stock market is largely disconnected
from current value?
it's entirely speculative. On the face of it, all it's saying is that a lot of
people believe that tesla will _someday_ be the largest US carmaker ever.
We can go even further than that though. People don't invest for the fun of
it, they invest to make money. While Ford might have an awful lot of cars,
owning a handful of shares is not going to make much money beyond predictable
dividends and slightly above inflation year-on-year growth. There's not much
room for future growth in Ford, so people are unlikely to ever buy shares at a
high price.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hackerne.ws is registered with godaddy - throwaway64
http://whois.domaintools.com/hackerne.ws
======
volida
Although that this is true for now, it wont be for long as I've initiated the
transfer to name.com 3-4 days ago.
------
mooism2
GoDaddy's whois
[http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=hackerne.ws&pro...](http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=hackerne.ws&prog_id=GoDaddy)
says that it is owned by one Yiannis Volos of Cyprus. Anyone know who this is?
------
Feanim
<http://byedaddy.org/hackerne.ws>
------
zerostar07
Someone had to infiltrate the enemy lines to provide intelligence.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Get your coder stats - kracekumar
http://coderstats.geeksta.net/
======
rg81
Nice work, I made something similar <http://gitcv.com> The Github API is
pretty cool.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The top five lessons Game Of Thrones can teach us about online security - evanjacobs
https://www.getcloak.com/blog/2013/05/06/top-five-lessons-game-thrones-can-teach-us-about-o/
======
momchenr
Also, the fact that Ned Stark has bastard children is an allegory for "Don't
have multiple inferior browsers installed on the same machine." Come on, this
whole thing was a real stretch.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bank of America analysts think there's 50 per cent chance we live in the Matrix - obvio
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bank-of-america-the-matrix-50-per-cent-virtual-reality-elon-musk-nick-bostrom-a7287471.html
======
marmot777
They're likely privy to some inside information on this matter. :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf] - sounddetective
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2016/press.pdf
======
dekhn
I wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology".
Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
~~~
jhbadger
Yes and no. You can argue that genetics of autophagy are fundamental but it is
clear that the prize is being given in recognition of the fact that this led
to better understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and so on. For better
or worse, the Nobel doesn't really go to discoveries that don't have
applications somehow.
~~~
dekhn
It's disappointing that the "prize is being giving in recognization ... better
understanding of neurodegenerative diseases".
My point is that I think the prize itself should honor scientific
achievements, rather than medical ones, and that this discovery, on its own,
stands as a fundamental biological understanding. That it helped understand
neurodegenerative disorders is ancillary, and unecessary to justify the prize.
~~~
zhemao
Alfred Nobel apparently disagreed, and it's still the interest on the money
bequeathed by his will that funds the prize. So it's unlikely that the name
will be changed.
~~~
dekhn
Neither kind of restriction is applied to the physics or chemistry prize (they
do not require some sort of nebulous "medical benefit" to qualify).
~~~
zhemao
I'm not talking about the medical benefit, I'm talking about the name
specifically. His will stated that there should be prizes for chemistry,
physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.
------
nibs
In case anyone is interested in the personal implications of this, this is
part the mechanism by which intermittent fasting gains it's health benefits.
People have fasted for 16-48 hours and gained benefits through history but
what is happening in the body is really ketosis + autophagy. Most people in
the modern world eat too frequently to benefit from autophagy, but men (16
hours of fasting) and women (14 hours of fasting) can both benefit from the
3-4x faster cell recycling and potential life extension properties. More:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy)
~~~
lvs
Please, everyone in the IT/CS world, ridiculous health "benefit" claims are in
fact the origin of the term "snake oil." There is no accepted guidance from
the biomedical community regarding fasting that draws a link to autophagy.
Please keep your completely unscientific and unfounded health "benefit" claims
to yourself.
~~~
nibs
It seems as though many of your historical posts are similarly angry "source-
your-claims" posts. Here is an article entitled "Short-term fasting induces
profound neuronal autophagy":
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20534972/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20534972/)
~~~
lvs
Thank you for stalking. The paper you cite is preclinical work in mice, and
the mechanistic association between starvation conditions and autophagy
induction were already well understood before this paper. (That was, in fact,
the Nobel-winning work on which you commented.) Any consequential claims of
autophagy are unsupported by data in that paper, even in mice. The claim that
autophagy has net "health benefits" or "life extension properties" in humans
is completely unsupported and not something on which there is professional
medical guidance.
HN is replete with medical and health claims that should not be propagated by
responsible people. Face it: IT professionals don't have expertise in this
area, but that doesn't apparently stop you from having opinions and
propagating them authoritatively as truth. If you'd like to do original
research in this area, please do, but don't spread misinformation as if it's
factual.
------
jharohit
Not to CRISPR - again!...
~~~
zhemao
The Nobel Prizes in science are generally awarded a few decades after the
fact. That gives enough time for the impact of the work to become clear.
~~~
jsferrei
Very true. It took 8 years for Craig Mello and Andrew Fire to be awarded for
RNAi (published 1998, awarded 2006 -- and that was considered fast). CRISPR as
a gene engineering tool isn't even that old yet, so we've got a few years.
~~~
apathy
Counter example: yamanaka
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Learning Advanced Javascript - songzme
http://ejohn.org/apps/learn/
======
techrules
"javascript : the good parts " is a very good book to keep handy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
$20 bill, not $10, may now feature a woman in favor of keeping Hamilton - ourmandave
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/04/18/20-bill-not-10-may-now-feature-a-woman-in-favor-of-keeping-Hamilton/3031460976606/
======
tomohawk
With the big banks winning more and more, it was only a matter of time before
they got rid of Jackson.
~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
It's a travesty Jackson was ever on in the first place.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How This Ends. (The Pandemic) - gloriosoc
https://realscience.community/2020/08/26/how-this-ends/
======
legerdemain
I'm a little surprised by the author's tendency of wondering abstractly and
suggesting cataclysmic shoot-from-the-hip solutions.
There still hasn't passed enough time for us to make confident statements
about immunity in patients who recover from acute COVID, not to mention make
grandiose plans, either as a state or as a society of individuals.
A popular blog post or article circulated earlier, plotting very simple
mathematical models of infection numbers based on some assumptions about the
durability of immunity. But even without visual aids, mathematical intuition
suggests that widespread immunity of short duration would lead to a relatively
high constant number of new cases, with relatively frequent small waves. In
contrast, widespread immunity of longer duration, on the order of a year or
two, would lead to lower background level of infection, punctuated by larger,
more severe, less frequent outbreaks, made worse if they are seasonal and
coincide with the flu.
And these are assumptions, things we don't know. Which of these scenarios
should we be making grand, nationwide plans for?
We saw a definitive report about an asymptomatic case of reinfection. That
patient managed to get tested twice, despite being reported as asymptomatic
the second time. Both times, the viral genome was sequenced, which is why we
now believe this is a case of reinfection.
In the US, this patient would likely not have been tested at all. Should we
update our expectations about the incidence of reinfection?
Are there differences in humoral and mucosal immunity to COVID? I don't think
we have consensus yet. Do asymptomatic carriers infect others? We have some
evidence that they do. Other diseases can be spread by asymptomatic carriers.
As an extreme example, Typhoid Mary was a real historical figure who infected
hundreds over a lifetime.
In this context, suggesting that we ship our most elderly and medically
fragile members to some kind of COVID-free zone is... staggeringly whimsical.
~~~
gloriosoc
The case of the person that got reinfected is grossly exaggerated. Don't you
think if this was really occurring frequently there wouldn't be only one or
two reported incidences of this world-wide? Asymptomatic carriers do
definitively infect others. Just because you personally are not sure of
things, doesn't mean that they are not known. And this "do nothing" approach
you are advocating for- which is what happens if you wait until everything is
fully and definitively proven- has resulted in the disastrous results the US
has had so far. Also please explain "suggesting cataclysmic shoot-from-the-hip
solutions"\- I don't think anything I suggested comes close to that. I said
that we shouldn't reopen colleges in places with rising cases. That doesn't
seem cataclysmic to me.
~~~
legerdemain
> Don't you think if this was really occurring frequently there wouldn't be only one or two reported incidences of this world-wide?
No, for reasons I have already mentioned in my first comment.
The patient we think was reinfected was reported to have a mild case in the
spring. The US, at the time, had extremely limited access to tests for anyone
except the grievously ill. It is likely the patient would not have received a
test in the US, and certainly not had the infection genome-sequenced.
The second time the patient tested positive, he was asymptomatic. The CDC
currently recommends against testing asymptomatic individuals. It is likely
that, in the US, the patient would once again not have received a test.
Basically, the US tests sparsely and doesn't seem to test longitudinally on
any scale at all. Does any country in the world with more than a few thousand
cases test longitudinally?
If anything, I think it's more telling that this patient was identified in
Hong Kong, which only has 4.5 thousand cases total. Finding seemingly ironclad
evidence in such a small pool suggests that this isn't a rare phenomenon.
> And this "do nothing" approach you are advocating for- which is what happens if you wait until everything is fully and definitively proven- has resulted in the disastrous results the US has had so far.
If I'm advocating anything at all (and I don't think I'm advocating anything
in my original comment), it's that we hold off on making aggressive policy
decisions based on our Swiss cheese "understanding" of COVID immunity. How
about working toward goals we set months ago and have since kept failing to
meet, such as ubiquitous access to testing and meaningful case tracing?
On the other hand, let's maybe hold off on jokes about sending Grandma to New
Orleans? The photo of the elderly woman wearing sparkly bangles is the joke,
but I think your suggestion right before that, that "we could send the highest
risk people to the places that are the most immune so they could be shielded"
is made seriously, right? Like, even moving an individual, medically fragile,
institutionalized elderly person leads to complicated and often negative
outcomes in the best of times, simply because of the complex and fragile
support systems their well-being relies on. Shipping "the highest risk people"
en masse and organizing care for them seems dramatically more complex than,
again, following through on testing and mitigation strategies that we, as a
state, have been paying lip service to for months now.
~~~
gloriosoc
It literally says "All joking aside" following that comment. I don't know how
much clearer I could have made that. I also advocate wearing masks,
distancing, protecting the vulnerable, and not opening schools. I don't know
how you can possibly be construing me as advocating for any of the extreme
things you are talking about.
~~~
legerdemain
The logical connection between our comments is pretty tenuous. I don't think
there is a need to continue the conversation. Good luck promoting your point
of view!
------
pushcx
The user exists to promote this site. The author of this site admits they have
no expertise. This and previous posts make hyperbolic claims with little to no
evidence.
~~~
gloriosoc
I have an Md, a Phd, and I'm a computational biologist at MIT. I think this
qualifies as expertise.
~~~
pushcx
How does that relate to epidemiology? In a previous discussion here you made
basic errors like referring to a study from a single clinic as if it was
representative of all of New York.
~~~
gloriosoc
That's not an error. Epidemiologists are computational biologists. I don't
want to argue with you because that seems to be what you are solely after.
~~~
pushcx
I apologize, that didn't seem to be the case from the bio you give on the
site. the bio you link to, or your published research. Obviously you know your
background better than I do, but you're not putting your best foot forward to
build credibility.
I'm after pointing out that a self-promoted site on the front page makes
grandiose claims about public health with flimsy support.
------
helen___keller
The only thing I have to contribute to this is a mention that social
connectivity should realistically be considered a function of covid caseload
(or more generally - community confidence). That picture of the big ol' party
in Wuhan is a great example (although china also follows up with massive
mandatory lockdowns whenever new hotspots are developing - a "luxury" we don't
have in the west)
This is the reason there _will_ be second, third, Nth, waves with a mere 20,
30% immunity
~~~
gloriosoc
Call me an optimist but I think the public can handle the nuance of cases have
dropped but still don't throw a crazy party until they are 100% gone or
everyone is vaccinated. Also levels are 20-30% now but will continue to rise
throughout the fall because there still are new cases and transmission even if
RT<1.
~~~
soganess
I really want to believe this. It neatly lines itself up with my worldview and
afford individuals the agency of being smart enough to do what is right 99% of
the time while also allowing for the freedom to make the rare "less than safe
choice" in situations that warrant it. That is the world I want to live in.
-BUT- I think to get there, we are going to need some serious education on this matter that actually penetrates the politics that have grown to dominate the pandemic. I don't think most people see it as "containment vs keep clam and hope everything is okay." Opting instead to see it as r-v-l.
To be clear, I don't blame anyone for thinking in those terms, that is the
narrative being presented. That said, I do ask that any theory hinging on
"people are able to handle nuance" provide some evidence for the claim that
can be directly applied to the now. In a world where individuals leer at each
other for not wearing masks in wide open outdoor spaces, while others yell
inside of Walmart about the constitution, it is hard to have belief in that
claim.
~~~
gloriosoc
I agree with your first two points whole heartedly. But I think we got into a
r-v-l place where the public has lost all trust BY paternalism. Trust means
giving people the truth. And my theory doesn't hinge on people behaving
responsibly at all. If people are irresponsible- this ends sooner with more
death. The theory is the same either way- the timeline and number of deaths
just change a bit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The TPP isn't 'free trade,' it's corruption - walterbell
https://www.fightforthefuture.org/2016/Stop-TPP-corruption/
======
oliwarner
It feels like confirmation bias, but every time I read about TPP, that it's
blatant corruption appears to be fully known and that's why [whoever's
talking] is decrying the whole thing.
I think that's half the problem though. If you're reading this you're probably
informed. But this isn't frontpage stuff in newspapers. People in your local
pub aren't talking about it because it "doesn't affect them".
Politicians are whipped into not talking about it by party and the "rules"
about this thing. I seem to remember a video where there was a reading allowed
for MEPs in the EU but it was closed, no cameras, no computers, no phones, no
verbatim notes allowed. It's suppression.
It really is corruption. And unless somebody high up wakes up and says that
out aloud lots, this rubbish is going to pass.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What trustworthy sources of general news do you use? - JacobEdelman
What trustworthy sources of general news do you use?
======
cubitesystems
I use Reddit's Worldnews subreddit /r/worldnews for a nice crowdsourced news
source. It will often contain breaking news at incredible paces.
The news agency Al Jazeera in English is an amazing news source. They stream
24/7 and it's free to watch. Very daring journalists whom approach the
happenings moreso than most other agencies. Very rarely biased.
Google News, while old, is still quite good.
------
philoserf
I like [http://nytimes.com/](http://nytimes.com/) despite the paywall.
I also use [http://news.google.com/](http://news.google.com/) to lead me to
news general interest.
------
Someone1234
Al Jazeera English and BBC International.
I don't really trust any of the US news channels. Frankly US news to an
outsider sounds like raw propaganda most of the time (and that is aimed at the
so called "non-bias" news channels in the US, not just Fox News and MSNBC).
And the rare times they aren't spreading propaganda, they're seeding fear into
the population.
The only decent source of news coming from the US is a handful of newspapers
and comedians (e.g. Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, etc).
------
JSeymourATL
Fark News an amazing crowd sourced aggregator, wide variety of subjects,
global sources > [http://www.fark.com/](http://www.fark.com/)
------
logn
[http://zerohedge.com](http://zerohedge.com) and
[http://www.reddit.com/r/worldpolitics/](http://www.reddit.com/r/worldpolitics/)
Those two can tend toward overly cynical and conspiratorial but I find it
easier to moderate that in my mind than read the totally sanitized stuff in
major papers.
------
suprjami
The Guardian. You can sign up for emails which arrive every weekday morning,
summarising relevant headlines. If you like a story you can click it to learn
more. This mail arrives just in time for my morning commute so I can read it
on the train, or at my desk before I start work.
------
jordsmi
Really you need to read a bit of everything. Each news source will have its
bias in certain topics, so you can't really stick to one.
------
jpetersonmn
John Stewart is probably the least biased, most accurate 'news' I run across.
------
owenversteeg
Reuters is super-unbiased. It does have one bias though, an anti-climate-
change bias, which doesn't matter to me as I read more than enough science
news to counter that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
5 Things I’ve Learned in Four Years at a Startup - ohjeez
http://emzingo.com/5-things-ive-learned-in-four-years-at-a-startup/
======
joekozPHL
Great advice to "be good to people that helped you, and people in general".
Never hurts to share some goodwill!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The 7 Habits Of Highly Ineffective People - Janteh
http://danariely.com/2010/06/14/the-7-habits-of-highly-ineffective-people/
======
bena
On 5. I'd take the higher $ regardless of what other people make. Even if I
had the choice of taking a job where I'd make half what the lowest paid person
makes in a company where employees are paid $120k on up or where I'd make the
average in a company where they make from $40k - $60k. I'd take the $60k
knowing I'd be the lowest paid in the company. I don't tie my self worth to
how well I do in comparison to other people. I compare what I have now to what
I can get tomorrow.
~~~
awa
Think this way: Most things in the world are priced by how much somebody is
willing to pay for them. So, if you are living someplace with a average salary
of $70k and taking in $60K you might be able to buy less than a guy earning
$55K where average income is $50K.
~~~
anamax
> So, if you are living someplace with a average salary of $70k and taking in
> $60K you might be able to buy less than a guy earning $55K where average
> income is $50K.
On the other hand, you might have more in the place with higher average
income. Remember that buying isn't the only way that you can get things.
Compare NYC with North Dakota. Things cost more in NYC than in ND, which is
bad if you're buying, but there is a lot more free stuff in NYC than ND.
Plus, there's more opportunity to move up in NYC than in ND. In some cases,
that opportunity is worth something.
~~~
gaius
There are some things that you will nearly always pay the "world price" for,
e.g. plane tickets. So tho' in a major metropolitan area food and rent may be
proportionally more, those things are proportionally less. It all depends on
what kind of thing you're into.
~~~
anamax
> It all depends on what kind of thing you're into.
Yup. Great museums are cheaper in NYC than ND but owning a horse is much
cheaper in ND.
Plane tickets between two specific locations are world price, but you also
have to take where you live into account.
For example, going to Singapore from Reno costs more than going from SF or San
Jose.
------
avner
If I may chip in,
0\. _Lack Of Respect For Time_ \- A person who does not respect time will be
limited in what he can accomplish in this world, regardless of talent. Besides
your own, if you don't respect other people's time, your integrity depletes by
the second until there is none left. Almost everything else is a byproduct of
this, positive or negative.
~~~
elblanco
> if you don't respect other people's time, your integrity depletes by the
> second until there is none left.
It's interesting that you hi-lighted this. I just had an extremely annoying
experience the other day with a VP in my company. Long story short, he decided
to question what I was spending my time on and why client engagements took
more than a 45 minute meeting like he experiences when doing a sales pitch(I
perform most of the execution end of business relationships in my company --
things that take dozens of hours).
I decided after a couple meetings of having my time questioned like that that
I had lost quite a bit of respect for him and will probably not suffer that
kind of thing again without there being serious repercussions inside the
company -- like a reorg so that we're no longer in the same management chain.
He absolutely didn't respect the 80 hour weeks I put in to keep the company
afloat. Since that's time out of my personal time, _and_ I could be doing
something at another company for the 40 I'm supposed to be doing, it's a lack
of respect for me.
~~~
loewenskind
If you're putting in 80 hours and getting paid for 40 then it sounds like you
don't respect yourself. Why would he?
~~~
elblanco
Welcome to working in a startup.
~~~
loewenskind
Well, if you have a part of the company that's one thing but if you're an
employee, startup or not, putting in these kind of ours is a waste.
------
rationalbeaver
Good, article, but let's be honest here. We all know this is the real list:
1\. Reddit/HN/Digg/etc.
2\. Facebook (move to #1 if you play Farmville or are female)
3\. Steam/xbox/playstation/WOW/Dwarf Fortress
4\. Checking Email
5\. Watching videos/movies/tv
6\. Doing something pointless on your phone
7\. Etc. Choose your own time-waster
~~~
maukdaddy
Civ IV.
=(
~~~
MaMa
<http://www.civanon.org/>
------
paylesworth
I'm hoping he's trying to be facetious in this article because the only
"ineffective habit" that I see in this article is #1. And, I could argue that
is not always a bad thing because of the quality-of-life benefits you get from
seeing the 'big game' or spending time with your friends.
#2 and #6 are pretty much saying the same thing. Both speak to how people tend
to be over-optimistic with work they're planning to take-on and are unable to
take into account of the possible delays to doing that work. Also with #2,
It's not clear if he's saying that planning itself is a ineffective habit or
if its just the inability to take into account future events.
I'd lump #3 and #4 together as both of these are symptoms of the same problem
as well, seeking constant distraction.
#5 is poorly described as it does not describe a habit. He should call this
the "keeping up with the Jones's." Either way, I don't really agree that this
make people ineffective. Misguided? Maybe.
Edit: fixed some spelling errors.
------
mannicken
Sounds more like "7 habits of highly bored people" :) But in addition to word-
playing with the title, why don't I also say something useful for a change.
Why is everyone so concerned with efficiency? One might say "that machine is
efficient" or "this machine is not efficient". Why is that? Well, machines are
created and owned by humans for a specific purpose -- a coffee-maker makes
coffee; a CPU processes logical operations; a carriage horse drags around a
cart full of spoiled rich humans :)
We can talk about efficiency of things we own but we can no longer own humans.
In a civil society, humans are owners of services that they exchange under
conditions of a free and fair market.
There, I said it. Now stop talking about efficiency of humans. Start creating
efficient things that efficiently do all the things we hate so we can all be a
bunch of lazy fucks :)
------
sev
#1 should not be procrastination. It should be __"Bad Prioritization"
__instead. This is because, procrastination in itself is not a bad thing; not
only that, it's necessary and impossible to get around. We all procrastinate,
because at any given moment we have a ton of tasks that we want/need to do and
that we could do, but since we can't do them all at once, we have to
_prioritize_. If we are bad at that, then we could become ineffective.
------
RevRal
I've been trying something new for the past couple of weeks that seems to be
working pretty well: throughout the day, I disable my internet connection by
hitting the wifi button on my laptop.
------
kadavy
#3 should just be shortened to "driving"
------
mkramlich
Anything that causes you to use time, energy or money less efficiently
generally contributes to one being less effective, successful or productive.
I've built this element into a few of my game designs, where, for example, the
player can acquire assets or skills which reduce the future time/energy/money
cost of doing something worthwhile or necessary. So it's like an investment
where the payoff is an accelerating factor on everything else the player wants
to do.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Thunderstone (folklore) - benbreen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderstone_(folklore)
======
andrewl
This reminds me of the brontotherium ( _thunder beast_ ), a giant prehistoric
mammal similar to a rhinoceros, but much larger. The Sioux sometimes found
fossilized brontotherium bones after heavy rainstorms. They believed them to
be the bones of creatures that ran over the clouds and caused thunder. One of
my children's books about prehistoric creatures said the brontotherium was
named by a paleontologist who was familiar with the Sioux myth.
------
icsllaf
It's amazing that the myth was only "formally" debunked in 1847 did historians
back then not know about the neanderthals or our earlier states and if so,
then ancient history has really come a far ways.
This quote also stuck with me
> Michael Mercati tried to prove that the "thunder-stones" were weapons or
> implements of early races of men
Makes you wonder what other marvels of history that we've simply misidentified
and what information we're still missing.
------
dsr_
I had expected a reference to fulgurite; instead I learned something new.
Thanks!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cool AI guides-you to learn linux on the cloud. Interested? simtry.com/contact - kim0
http://simtry.com/cloudlabs/4e3e64bf9b156e40a3000006
======
kim0
Hey folks,
We're a startup doing AI based online learning. We're currently focused on "IT
training". Since we're all a bunch Linux and open-source geeks, we've started
with Linux so if you click that link you get a cloud based lab where you can
practice installing wordpress
The thing is, not only do you practice, but our patented technology guides
into the steps (you set a wrong password, do this, you didn't install that
package here's an apt-get for you...etc)
We're looking for partners and interested parties to work with. If interested,
please <http://simtry.com/contact>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Categories Were Made for Man, Not Man for the Categories (2014) - gmays
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-made-for-man-not-man-for-the-categories/
======
elsherbini
The article was very interesting, and I know this isn't the main point of the
article, but this is an interesting fact I like to share-
> "Fish generally ... are in a certain part of the phylogenetic tree."
Fish are actually paraphyletic[0], meaning they are in multiple "parts" of the
tree of life. To try to use fish as a phylogenetic term is useless because the
clade that contains everything we call fish also includes reptiles, birds, and
humans. Try explaining that to King Solomon...
[0]
[http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss1/phyly.html](http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss1/phyly.html)
~~~
adrianratnapala
Cheers to you and Scott! "Whales are not fish" annoys me more than a true
statement really should.
I think it's because the characters in Moby Dick sometime whales fish. It's
not as if those guys were ignorant. They knew perfectly well what whales are
-- more viscerally (!) then you or I could. And if they chose to call them
fish, well perhaps they had good reasons.
~~~
dghf
IIRC, Moby Dick has an entire chapter where the narrator debates whether or
not whales are fish, coming down on the "yes they're fish" side for largely
the same reasons as this article's Solomon.
------
rusk
Just on the topic of silliest athiest argument, the silliest _theist_ argument
I've heard is that since Bananas are the perfect size and shape for the human
hand they must have been designed by God for humans. Never mind the fact that
actual natural bananas are nothing like that they're more akin to a small
yellow pomegranite. Or that in some countries (Australia in my experience) you
can get Bananas the size of cucumbers. Or even, that all commercial bananas
are actually cloned (by way of transplanted cuttings) from a single Banana,
which was probably selected "by man" based on various aesthetic, and practical
parameters such as "it fitting perfectly in the hand".
~~~
coldtea
> _Just on the topic of silliest athiest argument, the silliest theist
> argument I 've heard is that since Bananas are the perfect size and shape
> for the human hand they must have been designed by God for humans. Never
> mind the fact that actual natural bananas are nothing like that they're more
> akin to a small yellow pomegranite._
That's not a real counter-argument. God, in all his wisdom, guided humans to
breed the perfect-sized bananas we have today. So what the "natural bananas"
are is irrelevant.
~~~
comex
Well, the original argument wasn't just "according to our beliefs, God was
involved in this"; it's implying that bananas would be unlikely to be the
perfect size and shape for humans by chance, i.e. unless they were designed
for that purpose. Which means there has to be a designer (who cared about
humans), which for natural phenomena would have to be God, or at least some
sort of god. That is, if you exclude evolution and other natural optimization
processes; those are known to be able to simulate the appearance of
intelligent design, but in theory could be excluded if there weren't a
plausible mechanism for something to have evolved in response to humans, e.g.
because they haven't been around for that long in geological terms. (Except
that plenty of other animals with opposable fingers have existed for longer,
but – details. I'm not saying the argument would actually be valid, even if
bananas' current appearance were entirely natural.)
On the other hand, artificial breeding provides an explanation that doesn't
require God in any way, so it does invalidate the argument. The only way to
salvage it is to say that God is responsible for it being _possible_ to breed
bananas into such a form, but that's obviously much weaker.
------
bmm6o
Defining terms is important, but defining sets much less so. Arguments about
"is X a Y?" often have little to no value in the abstract. There are
exceptions, but these are when the definitions are the most precise and can be
evaluated objectively. E.g., a square is a (type of) rectangle and therefore
its area is length * width. As the article shows, "is a whale a fish" has no
value in the abstract. It depends on if you want to hunt it or know about its
evolutionary path.
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? It depends on if you are a chef or a
botanist. The botanists have the more rigorous definition, but I wouldn't call
the chefs wrong. What about a pumpkin? Is a strawberry a berry?
([https://imgur.com/gallery/pfEnXNT](https://imgur.com/gallery/pfEnXNT))
You probably saw the memes go around a while back about what is a sandwich,
according to D&D alignments. Good for a laugh and a debate. But let's say you
settle the question "is a hotdog a sandwich?" Now what? What did you get from
that effort? It doesn't tell you anything about a hotdog that you didn't
already know.
------
golemotron
It's a great essay but you get to the same place from here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation)
------
red_admiral
This was the article that got me hooked on Scott's writings. The other Scott
(Aaronson) has a good blog too and they occasionally reference each other.
There is a response to this article titled "The Categories were made for Man
to make Predictions" which you can find with your favourite search engine. I'm
not saying I agree with everything in the response, but if you're the kind of
person who likes Scott Alexander then you might also enjoy reading opposing
points of view without immediately wanting to pick up a pitchfork.
------
ludston
I believe that this essay is an example of the practical application of the
Principle of Charity[0]. This is laudable as it is practically a prerequisite
that at least one side does this in a useful debate.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity)
~~~
rusk
Perhaps also pertinent on these lines is the principle of _" Unconditional
Positive Regard"_ [0] it is easy to infer the worst possible motives when
somebody does something bad, but it can be helpful to assume that they did in
fact mean well, when attempting to step into their shoes.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditional_positive_regard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditional_positive_regard)
------
rusk
This is an excellent article and has actually helped me to redraw my own
boundaries with regards to the matter of substance that it covers. I have one
nagging boundary issue that remains however and that is with regards to where
the boundary be drawn when applying such an effective therapy to minors.
------
forapurpose
_Theory is a useful servant but a bad master, liable to produce orthodox
defenders of every variety of the faith. We ought always to set light to
theory and be on the look-out for ways of improving it_
\- Harry Guntrip (attributed)
------
_bxg1
This is one of the best articles I've read on here.
~~~
DuskStar
If you enjoyed this article, there's probably quite a few more on Slate Star
Codex you'd find interesting! I personally rather enjoyed (and recommend) "I
Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup" [0] for the insight, "...And I Show
You How Deep The Hole Goes" [1] for the hilarity, and "All In All, Another
Brick In The Motte" [2] as an interesting introduction to a debate style I
think we've all seen at some point but not been able to describe properly.
[0] [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-
anythin...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-
except-the-outgroup/)
[1] [https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/02/and-i-show-you-how-
dee...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/02/and-i-show-you-how-deep-the-
rabbit-hole-goes/)
[2] [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all-in-all-another-
bri...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all-in-all-another-brick-in-the-
motte/)
------
Afforess
This is why I find movements like HBD so disgusting, despite their
"scientific" origins. They start with a conclusion, the justification of race,
and seek evidence to prove it. Of course, they find such evidence. Anyone
looking to prove any conclusion can find evidence - even scientifically strong
evidence. Heck, even psychics and supernaturalists have scientific evidence on
their side! [1]
No matter the evidence though -- Categories aren't facts.
> _“If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?” And the answer:
> “Four – because a tail isn’t a leg regardless of what you call it.”_
Categories are useful _caches_ of information. We define "limbs involved in
the movement of the center of mass of a body" as _legs_ because the concept is
useful as a cached "leg". If the concept stops being valuable, we will
eventually purge it from the cache. The danger lies in mistaking the cached
concept for the original value. [2] Race doesn't predict anything; nowadays,
the cached value, crime/success/happiness, is substituted for race, and the
results are a reinforcing cycle. [3]
More relevant to HN, categories are why "adversarial" effects on many neural
networks are so strong. NNs are training to categorize to exacting strategies
- strategies not at all in mind by their creators. The apocryphal tank NN meme
- that dataset bias led algorithms to detecting sunny skies instead of tanks
-- comes to mind. [4] The story is made up, the moral somewhat muddled in the
telling, but the surprise survives. What we reward and what we desire are
separate things, and in the difference, the whole world lies.
[1]: [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/28/the-control-group-is-
ou...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/28/the-control-group-is-out-of-
control/)
[2]: [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/02/causal-models-at-
work/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/02/causal-models-at-work/)
[3]: [https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2018/3/27/15695060/s...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2018/3/27/15695060/sam-harris-charles-murray-race-iq-forbidden-
knowledge-podcast-bell-curve)
[4]: [https://www.gwern.net/Tanks](https://www.gwern.net/Tanks)
~~~
spacehome
That's a strange argument to make on this article. Sure, races are an attempt
at categorization of something much more complicated than the categories can
encode. As such, there's differing perspectives about how many racial
categories there are, how to draw the boundaries, and no matter what, there
will be people who don't fit into any of your categories. None of this
detracts from the fact that racial categorizations are useful and predictive
for the overwhelming majority of the Earth's population, just as the
questionable status of Pluto doesn't interfere with research on extra-solar
planets.
By HBD, I assume you're referring to differences in intelligence between
races, but please correct me if you're referring to something else. It's
always a bad idea to start with the conclusion you want and work backwards.
However, in the US, amongst the present-day population, there is OVERWHELMING
evidence that there are average IQ differences between races. The open
question is what causes these differences in the averages.
We know IQ is partly genetic, and we know races differ in allele frequency of
many genes. It's possible, though exceedingly unlikely, that genetic
differences between races contribute precisely zero to average IQ differences.
And there seems to be some circumstantial evidence that genetic differences
between races do account for some of the average differences. This is a
question that is at least amenable to study, by correlating genes with IQ, and
matching this against allele frequency in groups.
HBD is not unscientific, and the comparison to psychics is unwarranted. HBD is
an attempt to explain an observation (IQ deltas) with a hypothesis.
~~~
jonnybgood
What races are you referring to? Irish, German, English, Spanish? What’s their
average IQ? And what genes play a factor in IQ?
~~~
spacehome
What I said is true no matter how you split races, because any sufficiently
complex trait will have average group differences. You can read about average
IQ differences at lots of different levels of granularity.
------
asdfjk123456890
The comparison between someone having a hair dryer in the passenger seat of
their car and "giving them cheap natural hormones" is ridiculous. A serious
discussion about taking hormones would consider a metric, perhaps rates of
self-harm before and after treatment. This post is not a serious discussion.
Scott is "... writing ... because [he] just finished accepting a transgender
man to the mental hospital".
~~~
wyattpeak
I don't see that the article says we /should/ give hormones to transgender
people at all. Just that dismissing the idea on the basis of (1) maleness
being trivially categorisable or (2) transgender being a psychological
disorder are baseless.
Whether or not it's the right solution is, obviously, a much more complicated
question (and one that is probably rather better left to experts than armchair
psychiatrists on discussion boards). But it's also an entirely separate
question.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Go Bankrupt - bussetta
http://jacquesmattheij.com/how-to-go-bankrupt
======
gregpilling
There are three accounting reports that every business owner should
understand. Profit-Loss, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows. Most small
business people that I have met only look at the Profit-Loss (P&L) and do not
look at the other two. They are the three legs of a stool. The P&L tells you
how much money you made (or lost), the Balance Sheet tells you what the
balances are on your accounts (bank balances, monies owed to you and monies
you owe to others), and the Statement of Cash Flows tells you where and how
the Balance Sheet changed and where the money moved to.
If you are C level at your company, spend at least an hour a month
understanding these three reports. If you don't understand something ask your
accountant or Google. As the OP says, there are more than just employees jobs
riding on these reports (or what they represent); their families are also
depending on good numbers. Sometimes the reports are not good news - they key
is not to fool yourself, but to understand the truth. If you understand the
truth you can make better decisions. If you do not understand the truth, it is
very hard to make a good decision.
Some days you are making money, but you have to wait for accounts receivable
to get paid. Some days you have a bunch of money in the bank because of new
funding, or a customer pre-paid, or you haven't taken care of all the payables
yet. Just don't lie to yourself, and don't get lied to.
It is not that hard to understand the three reports; they are basic arithmetic
and counting - the key is to just do it. Personally, I look at it every week
after doing payroll. You can choose your own schedule, just choose one and
look at all three reports. Even if you only do it quarterly, you will at least
know what is going on.
~~~
socialist_coder
It blows me away that that C-level staff would either ignore or not have the
smarts to understand these basic reports.
The recent story about the parenting ecommerce store (I forget the name) where
the CEO didn't understand the financial reports was crazy. It's high school
level math!! How can you feel good about making decisions when you can't even
do the basic math to figure out if you're gonna be profitable or not?
How do these people get to their position without being able to do that type
of stuff?
~~~
gregpilling
The audience of HN is programmers. Why would you be amazed that someone could
code up a success, and then have a bunch of employees and an accounting
department before they knew it? I have known Phds that had no experience
reading financial statements of their companies. It is not that they CAN'T do
it; it is that it has never been a priority.
In any small business (tech or not) there are always many, many things to do..
so my advice is simply about which of the hundreds of reports that your
accounting software spits out that you should look at. To be honest, I did not
look at Statements of Cash Flows for the first 10 years I was in business. It
is less essential to watch SoCF if you are doing Cash accounting instead of
Accrual accounting, and if you have positive cash flow it is not as dangerous
to ignore it. But when the crap hits the fan, you should know what is really
happening. The OPs post was about a business in decline.
~~~
hga
If you're starting a business, especially if you're a programmer who's not
afraid of basic math, shouldn't you spend a day or so learning the basics of
accounting?
Granted, that might not tell you to "watch cash flow like a hawk", but ...
say, the moment you either have a paying customer or hire an employee, you
have a minimum duty to not crater your company out of sheer ignorance of the
basics.
------
cperciva
_"A lawyer that you do not pay is not working for you"_
I'm not sure I agree with this. If a lawyer agrees to represent you, they have
a legal and professional responsibility to act in your interest regardless of
who pays the bills. In the common case where they are also representing the
person or company paying their bills, they should be clear on how a conflict
would be resolved -- usually with wording along the lines of "in the event
that a conflict arises, you understand and agree that we would terminate our
representation of you, and we will assist you in finding other counsel".
The most important question to ask is probably "do you _represent_ me, or are
you merely _advising_ me?" -- although a good lawyer will make that clear from
the start in order to avoid any possibility of confusion.
(The above is not legal advice, and I am not a lawyer. I have however been a
party to such joint representation.)
~~~
jacquesm
In this particular instance there was a lawyer involved that clearly did not
understand things the way you do and having an independent lawyer involved
when there are potential conflicts of interest between the various roles is in
my opinion a good thing.
Of course there are lawyers that are capable of riding that fine line and
making sure that everything is perfect but when in doubt it can get expensive
really fast and in the end you are responsible, not your lawyer.
Paying a lawyer out of your own pocket in case of such doubt is a very good
way of securing that there is no conflict of interest.
For obvious reasons I can't go into the details of why in this particular case
this was essential so that's a pretty weak defense but I will stand by my
words.
I agree with the question, still in a fluid situations such as these it is
very easy to have such conflicts enter and be unnoticed long enough for
trouble to arise.
Err on the side of caution.
------
peteforde
One of my mentors taught me that a company that dies has usually been killed
at least six months before it knows it's dead.
He also beat a simple credo into my mind: if you think that there might be a
problem, there's a problem.
------
arethuza
"A lawyer that you do not pay is not working for you"
That's pretty good advice on a personal level - in the early days of a company
it is easy to view your company's lawyer as "your" lawyer. However, as a
company grows and has external investors you may reach a situation where your
own personal interests do not coincide with those of the company - this can
lead to rather unpleasant surprises!
I guess the trick is spotting the point where your own personal interests and
those of "your" company diverge _without_ spending huge amounts of money on
redundant legal advice.
~~~
jacquesm
Rule of thumb: if you feel that your roles as shareholder, executive and the
corporate interests conflict to the point where you would take different
decisions depending on which hat you wear.
After all, the decisions flow from those interests so they're a good
benchmark.
~~~
arethuza
The specific case where it got a bit exciting for me was actually in an IPO
completion meeting - the company's lawyers had prepared some document that
wasn't needed until the next day that had been phrased in a way that would
have been an immediate (and very large) tax liability for the founders. One of
our, extremely smart, non-execs noticed this wording and dragged us three
innocents off to a meeting room where he pointed out what this would mean -
pretty much immediate personal financial doom for the founders.
It all came down to one sentence in a document that wasn't needed until the
next day - we, as individuals, asked for the document to be changed and they
said no. The "company" had no view in the matter.
We had to threaten to pull the whole IPO to get the company lawyers to change
a few words in a document. The _only_ reason they didn't want to change the
document was that they had already prepared it and didn't want to have to edit
it again.
Fun and games!
~~~
jacquesm
Good catch!
~~~
arethuza
I must admit that I wasn't paying attention - I was sitting coding...
------
woodchuck64
> By keeping [the CEO] out of the loop the CFO was able to hide the problems
> (including some irregularities involving private accounts and the corporate
> current account) from his partner.
Seems like you're saying a good way to go bankrupt is to have a criminal CFO.
Aye, that will do 'er.
~~~
jacquesm
That was a minor (if contributing) factor, the bigger problem was the
unprofitable strategy of expansion.
The irregularities were what triggered the review, the actions by the
participants hastened the demise of the company but as far as I can see with
the information I've got this one was unavoidable. Which totally sucks.
Companies have survived with people raiding the till, but no company will
survive basic un-profitability in the longer term.
------
jasonhanley
"Turnover is meaningless if more business decreases your profitability" -- So
basic, yet so frequently overlooked.
You can't just "make it up on volume."
------
sokrates
Oh, I thought this was a wittily-titled article about Golang.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Loyalty is Underrated - lhartwich
http://lhartwich.com/post/33743989767/loyalty-is-underrated
======
craigslistmodel
Good post
~~~
lhartwich
Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chef on steroids - timparker
http://tech.picklive.com/2011/09/02/chef-on-steroids.html
======
teoruiz
What I don't get is why their Chef server has to be publicly reachable at all.
Shouldn't it be available only through their internal, private network?
I might be missing something here.
~~~
semanticist
The chef server is hosted alongside our production platform - due to various
issues maintaining it in our physical offices isn't viable - so we need to be
able to use 'knife' from locations that are considered 'public' to our
production network. Plus we have remote workers (like me!) who need access to
manage the infrastructure using chef.
It's not an ideal situation, but young and growing start-ups work with what we
can get. At least the roof doesn't leak! (My last start-up employer was based
out of a spare room in a heating company, and the roof leaked every time it
rained - and in Edinburgh it rains a lot!)
~~~
teoruiz
I know what you're talking about, really.
My piece of advice: use OpenVPN for remote workers and even for connecting
those "public" servers outside your production network.
It's really worth it.
~~~
semanticist
It's something we considered, but grafting it into the existing set-up didn't
seem like it was worth the time invested, whereas the chef work Ced did not
only made us actually more secure (with SSL), it also ticked a box on our
security audit.
We're making plans for the next stage of our production platform just now, and
will revisit all this stuff then.
------
chopsueyar
Nice step with the port troubleshooting!
~~~
infertux
Yeah, the debugging part is the most interesting - chance to introduce some
nice tools like ngrep.
------
nomdeplume
Am I the only one who came here thinking of a Southpark reference?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
They Called My University a PhD Factory – Now I Understand Why - dpflan
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/mar/23/they-called-my-university-a-phd-factory-now-i-understand-why
======
nwhatt
I'm extremely grateful for having quality advisors and mentors as an
undergrad. I went to SLAC I feel like the lack of grad programs meant that
professors could be more honest with me, without any pressure to get master's
enrollment numbers up, for example.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Discovered a New Band? Find Out Which Songs To Check Out First With GoRankem - thewordpainter
http://mashable.com/2011/07/15/gorankem/
======
mattstech
Love seeing something I've put so much passion into get coverage...something
that people working day jobs will never know.
------
ringingears
a few people are comparing this to last.fm's top tracks - how does it differ?
Why should i use GoRankem over last.fm to find good songs to check out first?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
France Bashing Is So 2012 (Here Is Why) - cyrillevincey
http://insights.qunb.com/france-bashing-is-so-2012
======
Yoric
Oh, also, don't forget that we have a few "minor" companies represented in
France, such as Mozilla, Microsoft R&D, Apple R&D, Google R&D, IBM R&D, Intel
R&D, etc. all of them involved in some extent in the French startup ecosystem.
For instance, Mozilla (where I work) hosts events with startups, has its own
accelerator for startups, and provides some mentorship. Of course, that's for
startups that aim for open source, open web, open government, privacy, or any
other form of greater good.
------
patrickaljord
This sounds better than French government propaganda. Don't listen to this
guy. France has great food, wine and architecture, I know that, I live here in
Paris. But it's a hell hole if you're an entrepreneur, taxes are killing
(+60%), investors get most of their money taken away, the State is bordering
on insanity, social security doesn't reimburse much anymore and yet you're
forced to pay for it+a private insurance and firing people is extremely
costly, you can end up paying someone for years even though he's not doing
anything anymore. And you can get sued for firing someone and the judge will
side by default with the employee, most judges here are communists/far left to
begin with or at least socialist if you wish.
Also, here, 99% of people are statists. Every political debates revolve around
this: "how can the state fix our problems and pay our bills". Depressing.
Recently, many entrepreneurs decided to go on strike and stop paying some of
their unfair taxes, Atlas Shrugged is literally happening here, all the
richest have left, many entrepreneurs have left, many who stayed are going on
strike. You know something is wrong with a country when Ayn Rand's exaggerated
prophecies are becoming a reality. Anyway. Just my two cents.
Edit: Dear fellow French. Please argue, don't just downvote and call BS.
~~~
p4bl0
You want me to argue?
> taxes are killing (+60%)
Taxes are NOT 60% for business, it's 30%. It can go up to a bit less than 60%
on personal incomes. That is if your are extremely rich. In 2012, the average
taxation was less than 6%. The 45% slice of imposition (which to date is the
highest) applies only if you earn more than 500,000€, and only on your incomes
_above_ that threshold.
For instance if you earn 1,000,000€ you will pay 458,140.05€ of taxes on
incomes, which is a bit less than 46%. To get up to 60% of taxes on incomes,
you have to be immensely rich, you won't be suffering from your contribution
to society.
> the State is bordering on insanity
Your personal (and imho, stupid as fuck, even if I don't particularly like our
government) opinion.
> social security doesn't reimburse much anymore and yet you're forced to pay
> for it+a private insurance
This couldn't be more wrong. I don't have a private insurance (nor what we
call a "mutuelle" to be clear), I only have the minimum public social
security. I went to the hospital twice last month, and both time got a small
surgical act in addition to the consultation of a doctor (she's one of the
best in her domain, worldwide, fwiw). This cost me 21€ the first time and 7.5€
the second time. Most of the medicine I had to take after that were reimbursed
almost entirely. _This is not a special case_ , this is the rule.
> firing people is extremely costly, you can end up paying someone for years
> even though he's not doing anything anymore.
Other people responded to that one. But I may add that if you end up paying
people for years after they stop working for you it's either for a non-
competition contract or that you fired people without being able to give a
reason. Too bad for you, workers are a bit protected in this country.
> you can get sued for firing someone and the judge will side by default with
> the employee, most judges here are communists/far left to begin with or at
> least socialist if you wish.
Let me laugh a bit I'll come back when I'm done.
Your next paragraph is pure speculations and is plain wrong. No the richest
didn't leave. A few cunt like Depardieu left and made a lot of noise about it,
but that's all. But if _you_ want to leave, feel free, nobody will stop you.
~~~
patrickaljord
> Taxes are NOT 60% for business, it's 30%.
Oh come on, you know that when you sum up all taxes and regulations, it costs
way more than 30%, it's more like 50% minimum.
> It can go up to a bit less than 60% on personal incomes.That is if your are
> extremely rich
How naive, when you make 2000€, you cost 4000€ to your employer. That means
your real salary is 4000 € minus 50% that goes through taxes that your
employer pays but really he's passing the costs on you unless you think he's
paying you a free meal. So that's 50% already for everyone, then you have to
subtract 20 to 30% on the 2000€. So yeah, my 60% is pretty accurate.
> Your personal (and imho, stupid as fuck, even if I don't particularly like
> our government) opinion.
First of all, no need to be so rude. Second, it is being insane. Their answer
to everything is more tax even though this is killing the economy. It's clear
now that France is governed by a theocracy, a new serfdom where God is Public
spending, the clergé is the public workers that pay no taxes and get to retire
early with big salaries and lots of privileges and the Tiers état is the
people paying for the rest. [http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-
la-france-es...](http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-la-france-
est-gouvernee-par-une-theocratie/)
> a doctor (she's one of the best in her domain, worldwide, fwiw). This cost
> me 21€ the first time and 7.5€
So one of the best doctors is paid 21€ and 7.5€? Wow, that's less than
flipping burgers at your local burger joint. Do you do consulting at this
price too? Anyway, this is an anecdotical evidence of yours. It's a fact that
Securité social does not reimburse much any more and yet you still have to pay
for it and get a private insurance on the side. This is well documented
[http://www.securite-sociale.info/](http://www.securite-sociale.info/)
> it's either for a non-competition contract or that you fired people without
> being able to give a reason. Too bad for you, workers are a bit protected in
> this country.
See, this is where we disagree. It is my company, my private property. I
should be able to do as I please with it as long as don't mess with other's
freedom, this is a constitutional right in the declaration of human rights,
private property is sacred. I should be allowed to employ and stop employing
whoever I want, whenever I want. This is why there is so much unemployment in
France, it's so hard and costly to fire people that we'd rather not employ
them. You think you're helping workers but you're not, you're creating more
unemployment. Countries like Switzerland that don't have such "protection"
have much less unemployment.
> A few cunt like Depardieu left
Are you serious? The richest man in France has left and many of the top
richest famillies have left: LVMH, Lacoste, Peugeot etc. Not only that but
most of our artists and sports men have left. Anyone who creates lots of
wealth has left the country. Don't you see a wrong pattern here? How blind can
one be. [http://www.latribune.fr/vos-
finances/impots/fiscalite/201112...](http://www.latribune.fr/vos-
finances/impots/fiscalite/20111201trib000668201/decouvrez-la-liste-
des-44-plus-grandes-fortunes-francaises-exilees-en-suisse.html)
~~~
abolibibelot
>God is Public spending, the clergé is the public workers that pay no taxes
and get to retire early with big salaries and lots of privileges and the Tiers
état is the people paying for the rest.
[http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-la-france-
es...](http://leblogalupus.com/2013/10/09/charles-gave-la-france-est-
gouvernee-par-une-theocratie/)
Yep, because as any Friedman loving economist (like Charles Gave you're
linking to) will tell you, there's only one God and it's the Market.
>So one of the best doctors is paid 21€ and 7.5€?
No, you see, that's the thing about Social Security (you seem to know so much
about), that's what the OP paid, the rest was paid to the doctor by the Social
Security. This is well documented in [http://www.securite-
sociale.info/](http://www.securite-sociale.info/) you should take a look.
>See, this is where we disagree. It is my company, my private property. I
should be able to do as I please with it as long as don't mess with other's
freedom, this is a constitutional right in the declaration of human rights,
private property is sacred.
"There is just one God, and it's private property". Where did you find
"private property is sacred" anywhere in the declaration of human rights?
>Are you serious? The richest man in France has left and many of the top
richest famillies have left: LVMH, Lacoste, Peugeot etc.
Yep and Apple, Google et al. don't pay any corporate taxes. Surely, the
problem is the taxes.
~~~
patrickaljord
> Yep, because as any Friedman loving economist (like Charles Gave you're
> linking to) will tell you, there's only one God and it's the Market.
Oh but I love Friedman too. And what's wrong with the market? What else is the
market but people freely exchanging goods and services voluntary? What is more
peaceful than two people making a voluntary deal? What are we entrepreneurs
doing if not that? See Friedman's famous pencil example
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlTRau_XgGs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlTRau_XgGs)
> No, you see, that's the thing about Social Security (you seem to know so
> much about), that's what the OP paid, the rest was paid to the doctor by the
> Social Security.
That's my point, 21€ and 7.5€ is what you see, what you don't see is the 60%
income tax we all pay to get this. Not really that cheap anymore.
> Where did you find "private property is sacred" anywhere in the declaration
> of human rights?
omg, really? You haven't even read the first line of the declaration? Here you
go:
"dans une Déclaration solennelle, les droits naturels, inaliénables et
__sacrés __de l’homme "
Article 2:
"Ces droits sont la liberté, la propriété, la sûreté et la résistance à
l’oppression."
Well, that was easy :) [http://www.assemblee-
nationale.fr/histoire/dudh/1789.asp](http://www.assemblee-
nationale.fr/histoire/dudh/1789.asp)
> Surely, the problem is the taxes.
Good, now you get it.
Finally here's another good one from the 1789 act:
"Un peuple libre n'acquitte que des contributions, un peuple esclave paie des
impôts »". A free people pays bills (ie from private companies), a people of
slaves pays taxes. Yep, that's from our founding fathers. Milton Friedman and
Ayn Rand could not have put it better. Have a nice day citoyen :)
~~~
fivethree
Friedman is a hack ignored by anyone with half a brain. Same with Ayn Rand.
They say incredible things, if you don't spend much time thinking about it.
~~~
patrickaljord
Anonymous coward fivethree says Nobel price Friedman and best sellers Ayn Rand
are hacks. Hey people, pay attention, we should ignore these two starting
today!
~~~
fivethree
Also the entirety of respected academics in economic, philosophy, and
literature. Those guys probably aren't important.
------
flexie
"Ok, Paris will never compete with San Francisco"
Not so sure about that. Never is a very long word. I bet Paris can compete
with San Francisco on tech before San Francisco can compete on charm.
~~~
cyrillevincey
You are soooo damn right.
------
rxdazn
> Plus, French engineers compensations are half US engineers compensations in
> average.
Hmm... yeah, how is that a good thing? There's also that common thing where
startups hire interns and ask for the knowledge of a very specific stack, 10
different skills, bachelor's degree level and offer 600e/month (min. is
436.05e which makes it 2.875e per hour -- if your internship is longer than
two months, 0 if shorter) because "oh yeah, you're an intern, you're here to
learn. plus we're a start up, we don't have any money".
I love working at startups but sometimes their offers are a fucking joke
around here.
I know internships shouldn't be done for the money, I've already done some
436.05e/month ones, don't worry about that.
~~~
Yoric
As a former startup CTO, I confirm that "we" (== the start-ups) love interns,
for all the bad reasons.
They are dirt cheap, they often don't have enough experience to say no when
they are handed the crap tasks, and if we decide to hire them, we can offer
very low wages, because they often don't take the time to check out the
competition. Oh, and they can be blamed for just about anything wrong that
happens, too.
Sorry about this, interns, that wasn't my call.
~~~
userulluipeste
I remember my days as intern. So true! It's a dirty game, but it is played
dirty (most of the time) by both sides. The (presumably) naïve intern only
stays until he wakes up, then having now the luxury of time on his side and
the leverage of already being employed, just bids himself to better offers.
------
skrebbel
I really like the point this story is making, but I've really not seen much
"France Bashing" going around lately. Did I miss anything?
Additionally, the points made seem to apply to a large extent to many European
countries. Which is a good thing, of course.
~~~
cyrillevincey
Thanks. The #pigeons did hurt a lot last year, and after a few months in SF
and in Boston I've been amazed how many beliefs foreign observers have about
the French startup ecosystem. You're probably right about France (vs) Europe.
Would be happy to have some comments from European folks here.
~~~
skrebbel
Some links about that "pigeons" thing would strenghten your article. I had to
google the term to understand what it meant - a national political pressure
campaign about taxes that backfired in terms of reputation, am I right?
When reading the article I just skipped that particular point thinking it was
some kind of inside joke I didn't get.
One thing I'd like to know about Paris is how non-French-speaking-friendly the
startup scene there is. I'm Dutch, my French goes as far as "je m'appelle une
baguette". I'm weary of moving to Paris simply because of my experience that
the French are, well, less comfortable communicating in English than the
inhabitants of some other countries around here, even among the higher
educated.
~~~
cyrillevincey
You're right, thanks @skrebbel. "Pigeons" were indeed a group of entrepreneurs
fighting a new tax project of the newly elected socialist government in 2012.
If they were right or wrong, I won't debate, I'm just thinking they did a
terrible job in downgrading the image of France abroad. Non-French-speaking
entrepreneurs are welcome in Paris, I can help putting you in touch with good
accelerators that can host you and provide guidance. The startup scene in
France today is totally fluent in English, you should feel comfortale.
------
lttlrck
What's 2012 got to do with anything? It's a national pastime in some corners
of the world...
------
linux_devil
Way to go !
------
viggity
$5000 to incorporate in the US? I paid $80. Also, they're talking about how it
is "easy" to fire people... if you give them 3 months of notice? Craziness.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How Much Do Devs in Rich Europe (SUI, GER, LUX, MON and Scandinavia) Make? - chirau
I am considering making a move out there. I am also curious to know how tough it is for foreigners to get jobs there and what fields of software development are lucrative.
======
junto
For information regarding hourly rate in Germany, Switzerland (German speaking
part) and Austria, you can search for "Stundensatz Softwareentwickler" on
Google. A good site for this kind of information is gulp.de:
[https://www.gulp.de/cgi-
gulp/trendneu.exe/MONEYFORMDLL?txtPo...](https://www.gulp.de/cgi-
gulp/trendneu.exe/MONEYFORMDLL?txtPosition=IT+Allgemein+&txtFachSchwer=java&lstvAndOr=und&resultsample=10)
[https://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base/stundensaetze/und-er-
stei...](https://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base/stundensaetze/und-er-steigt-
weiter-stundensatz-der-it--engineering-freiberufler-erreicht-neuen-
hoechstwert.html#item-8)
Remember though, the cost of living (and taxes) is also much higher in these
"rich" countries and more than often you'll need to learn the lingo. There are
some exceptions to this. Munich, Luxembourg and Zurich for example have large
multinationals where the lingua-franca inside the company is English. Berlin
has loads of startups where lots of foreigners work. I know a few Brits and
Ozzies working in Berlin who still can't speak any German after years of
living there (I don't think that is a good thing btw).
I have no idea about Scandinavia, but nearly all people have some basic level
of English and the younger generations are often fluent.
Where are you moving from, out of interest?
~~~
chirau
Thanks for the links. I am currently in New York. I was in SF for 4 years then
moved out here. I work for a big tech firm. I am tired the US and quite
possibly my firm too. So I want to try something new.
------
dorfuss
For me the climate and people are more important than the pay strip. I'd
choose something like the south of France, the region of Provance, cities like
Avignon, Manosque or Grenoble (if you are into skiing).
I'd dessuade you from living in the Northern Europe.
I lived in Denmark for a year and I'd not go to Scandinavia but for holidays
ever again.
The taxes are so high it's almost not worthwhile to make any effort or try
harder.
These countries have one of the smallest income gap between those who earn the
least and the rich. On the top of that it's dark, cold, the language is
difficult to pick up, stores close early on the week days and are closed on
Sundays.
Read about "Law of Jante" on Wikipedia.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante)
Everything is damn expensive. Owning a car is a luxury.
People are friendly, but that means just "helpful" kind of friendly, not
necessarily friendly like in "warm, carring and thoughtful". At least that's
my impression.
They drink a lot and drinking is a must if you want to socialise. The
stereotype of drinking Russians should be superseded by the drinking Danish
youth. Perfectly dreadful.
The original Legoland in Billund is closed in winter :(
And trains are often late.
However, the nature is fabulous, and the streets and houses are meticulously
clean. And these countries were not destroyed during the great wars - the last
time Copenhagen was besiged, bombarded and plundered was in the times of
Napoleon in 1807 - unlike Berlin or Dresden. That gives the city a special
ambience.
On the other hand in Provance it is warm most of the year and you can easily
get to Rome or Paris, or pay Spain a visit. And it has Alps and Mediterranean
and palm trees all no further than 70 km drive!
------
pepyn
Statistics for Sweden:
[http://www.lonestatistik.se/loner.asp/yrkeskategori/Data-
IT-...](http://www.lonestatistik.se/loner.asp/yrkeskategori/Data-IT-101) (In
Swedish, check "programmerare" for general programming jobs, "Webbutvecklare"
for web devs)
Depending on skill/education, entry-mid level software jobs usually pay about
25000-30000 SEK/month (~4000 USD), before taxes. Larger companies may have
agreements with unions on salary levels based on level of education/years of
experience.
30k provides a pretty good quality of life, expect to take home ~23k after
tax, depending on where you live you might pay ~7k in rent for a 2 bedroom
apartment and ~3k on food.
Everyone speaks decent to good English and getting a job shouldn't be too
hard, provided you have experience. The tricky part is dealing with the world-
class bureaucracy of Skatteverket, the Swedish tax agency. Even for me, as an
EU citizen, it was quite the paperwork mission.
------
swissRF
I am a mobile developer based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Job pays me CHF 85k
per year.
------
jamesfletcher
Not as much as somebody who knows how to make people feel. It's got a lot
better in recent years, though. Certainly in London anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Every Big Player in Silicon Valley Goes to This Chinese Restaurant - karajamon
http://nextshark.com/chef-chus/
======
joshu
I live a few blocks away. It's alright. Been there three or four times in the
years I have lived nearby.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Invertris (made by a friend of mine) - ltamake
https://market.android.com/details?id=au.com.twosquared
======
GavinB
This is extremely clever. Well done!
Your friend needs to explain what the goal of this game is up front! As soon
as I saw the video I got the mechanic immediately--but had no idea what sort
of scoring system was involved. Normal tetris scoring doesn't seem to apply,
because you can't clear lines. It looks to me like this is a co-op game, which
was not immediately clear. If I'm correct, you want to last as many bricks/as
long a time as possible.
You need to state very clearly that it's co-op and the goal is to stay alive
for as many blocks as possible.
~~~
feral
>You need to state very clearly that it's co-op and the goal is to stay alive
for as many blocks as possible.
I'm pretty sure its non-cooperative. If you look at 1:00, you see an instance
where one player is told 'you lose' and the other 'you win'; so it seems to be
zero sum.
The object seems to be that the player controlling the white blocks must
prevent the white blocks reaching their side of the screen; and vicea-versa.
I find it hard to think through the strategic implications, without an android
handset to play on, but it seems pretty elegant - you'd want to fill in enemy
space where it is least likely to help your enemy.
So, if your enemy had almost reached the top of their screen, with one
'tower', you'd put blocks anywhere but into that tower. But that 'tower' is a
large volume of empty space for you, crying out for you to put your
tetrominoes into.
Game looks like its got some pretty interesting tensions.
------
smoyer
Wow ... that's the best way I've seen of making Tetris truly multi-player.
It's not just competing against each other but actually requires changing
strategies. Bonus points for the fact that the board is almost Escher-esque
(<http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/switz-bmp/LW306.jpg>)
------
angrycoder
You should tell your friend to remove any mention of tetris from the game
description. The Tetris Holding Company is very aggressive with this kind of
stuff.
------
tled
Brilliant! You should do an iOS version and sell it.
------
NeekGerd
It's a really clever concept... and simple too. Though, it's hard to figure
out what the goal is, if it's coop or battle or other? It's really interesting
to see what people are doing with it. Congrats anyway, impressive concept,
love it. Buy me an Android phone, and I'll buy the game.
------
sumukh1
That's really cool. A unique twist on the concept, kind of like a battle.
Anything similar for iOS?
------
redthrowaway
This looks incredibly cool. I love these "new take on an old concept" games
that actually introduce a new gameplay dynamic, rather than simply reskinning.
Pass on my congratulations to your friend.
------
pud
This is brilliant. I guess it would be almost impossible to complete an entire
row. It would be cool if you got points for going "deeper" into the other
side's area.
------
Mizza
This is a really cool concept! Seems frustrating though.
------
trusko
Very nice. Good idea. Good luck, try to sell it.
------
Raphael
What is the object of the game?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Submetrics – Search for your favorite show - fgeorgy
http://www.submetrics.org/
======
alexholehouse
I don't understand;
1) What's the 'top words' which appears when you search for a site? I just get
a bunch of profanities (for basically any show, even those which are PG-13).
Is this meant to be the top words found in the show's subtitles (it's not) or
the most searched for words (in which case why am I'm being shown that).
Further searches seem to show some work (e.g. Homeland, or Game of thrones)
2) Expanding the 'top words' gives (apparently) a top 100, except many words
appear more than once - in my 'top words' for 'The Simpsons', 'MOM' appears 7
times.
3) What are the 'Top topics'? Again, examining The Simpsons, the top topics
are, 'Case/investigation', 'noisey', and 'spooky'.
4) Browser 'back' doesn't work from top topics or top words
Edit: Having read the 'about' I'm feeling _far_ less critical, given this is
part of a Big Data course project. Initially, I wondered if the prevalence of
profanities in speech (generally) are causing a weird biasing effect (i.e. a
single word being said repeatedly) but given there shouldn't be any 'fuck's in
The Simpsons/Modern Family/Friends my guess is something may be off on the
back-end?
~~~
frazras
Right! I saw profanity in the big bang theory too but unless it was bleeped
out I don't believe that has ever happened
~~~
codereflection
Same with Adventure Time
~~~
bvm
and Frasier...?
------
zdmc
Based on the headline, I expected the site to return the name of a TV series
based on a search of subtitles. i.e., "shootin some bball outside of the
school"
For me, "find" implies search, while "discover" implies recommendation.
------
vojant
For example: Breaking bad
([http://www.submetrics.org/#/show/1069](http://www.submetrics.org/#/show/1069))
Top topics: Party, Gossip, Show...
I don't understand how it can help me pick similar shows
Edit: I played a little more for some TV shows it gives better results. For
sure it is interesting but require a lot more work to be actually useful as TV
Shows recommendation tool.
~~~
fla
96.58% Similar to Veronica Mars. Not sure if top words is a good metric here.
------
TillE
Tried it with Buffy, and the similar shows look completely unrelated. Also,
I'm not sure where it's getting "king" and "dynasty" as keywords.
~~~
Ygg2
I'm wondering that too about Farscape.
Also the lack of frell makes me question it :P
------
hias
Top word for all shows these days seems to be 'fuck' oO
------
domfletcher
Yeah, its a nice idea but doesn't seem to work at the moment, give it a few
months and someone may well implement it properly.
As an aside does anyone recognise what they've used for the data vis on
[http://www.submetrics.org/#/about](http://www.submetrics.org/#/about) ?
~~~
dikaiosune
It looks quite similar to a graph visualization method I once used in Gephi
[1].
[1]
[https://gephi.github.io/images/screenshots/preview4.png](https://gephi.github.io/images/screenshots/preview4.png)
~~~
spgenot
Yep, it's Gephi !
------
matthewbauer
Game of Thrones has top words of "rome", "england", and "france"? The only
reason I can think of is if it's also including audio commentary.
~~~
fla
Interesting. Definately seems like there is something wrong with the data.
------
jamesbrownuhh
This seems like a nice idea but all the results seem to be pretty much
indistinguishable from noise. Nearly every show I tried returns the same
genres and keywords (and I think it's reasonable to say that Frasier is NOT a
crime show in space.)
If this is just counting the frequency of individual words, perhaps that's too
simplistic an approach.
------
vkjv
Doing some ad-hoc searches, it appears that recommendations tend to favor
shows with the same writer rather than shows in the same genre. I'm guessing
this is because writers tend to have a similar writing style across genres.
For example, search for a Joss Whedon show and get Joss Whedon shows
recommended.
------
xamdam
Top words for Seinfeld are things you can't say on TV. Data broken?
~~~
JackFr
Based on poking around the site, it looks like there's something seriously
wrong with the data.
------
cheriot
That's really cool, is the raw data available for people to play with? I've
been looking for something interesting for some textual analysis experiments.
------
habosa
Basically every show I tried just gave me a word cloud with a big "Fuck" in
the middle.
------
malkia
Already knowing where "Enhance!" going to lead me! :)
------
zongitsrinzler
Subtitle analysis is a really cool idea!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
5400-line Player class (C#) from Celeste - minimaxir
https://github.com/NoelFB/Celeste/blob/master/Source/Player.cs
======
minimaxir
More detail in original Tweet:
[https://twitter.com/MattThorson/status/969336877663764481](https://twitter.com/MattThorson/status/969336877663764481)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Vandium – a security wrapper for serverless infrastructure - tomtau
https://www.vandium.io/
======
brudgers
Curious regarding how the various algorithms providing security were vetted.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Abolish the CIA and FISA - classicsnoot
https://americanmind.org/essays/abolish-the-cia/
======
bediger4000
From the article: "Intelligence officials abuse their positions to discredit
opposition to the Democratic Party, of which they are part."
Ummm....
~~~
classicsnoot
Can you refute the statement or do you just find it troubling? I know the
trope is that Intel people are all crew cut conservatives, but, like most
Hollywood stereotypes, that is utter codswallop. The American University
Complex churns out left leaning specialists, and the intelligence agencies
hire exclusively from the AUC. It is not a very big leap at all. Stztrok and
Page are very representative of modern IC.
~~~
bediger4000
I find it troubling,in that it indicates that the author believes the FBI are
already politicized just the wrong way, but also I think it's kind of not
true.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO)
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-
COINtelnews/2019/aug/08/fbi-o...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-
COINtelnews/2019/aug/08/fbi-oregon-anti-pipeline-jordan-cove-activists)
[https://theappeal.org/the-fbi-used-a-made-up-category-to-
jus...](https://theappeal.org/the-fbi-used-a-made-up-category-to-justify-
surveillance-of-black-activists-what-else-is-it-doing/)
> Stztrok and Page are very representative of modern IC.
How do you mean? Aren't Strzrok and Page institutionalists at heart? Also, how
do you think you know this?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Sort a List in Python - aogl
https://ao.gl/how-to-sort-a-list-in-python/
======
dalke
Python has a sorting HOWTO at
[https://docs.python.org/3/howto/sorting.html](https://docs.python.org/3/howto/sorting.html)
. I was the original author, back in around 1998 or so. This new article
covers a subset of that HOWTO.
------
babu_bhaiya
What is the time complexity? O(n log n) most probably. And what actual sort
does it use? Quick sort or merge sort or any other?
~~~
dalke
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timsort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timsort)
> In the worst case, Timsort takes O(n logn) comparisons to sort an array of n
> elements. In the best case, which occurs when the input is already sorted,
> it runs in linear time, meaning that it is an adaptive sorting algorithm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What happens when your server is compromised and you get help from the FBI? - imjustsaying
Often when a company announces that its servers have been compromised, the company also states that they have begun working with the FBI or a similar law enforcement agency.<p>What does this actually entail? I'm imagining this means anything from simply beginning contact with the FBI, to sharing server logs with them, to giving them full access to the machine for full forensics and interviewing you and your staff.<p>For minor intrusions, I'd imagine that there are many cases when law enforcement wouldn't get involved at all due to limited resources. On the other end of the spectrum, when millions of users' financial records are compromised I would imagine a more detailed response.<p>Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm curious to know anyone's stories.
======
fbithrowaway
We've had multiple cases where we have had help from the FBI.
I work at one of the larger webhosting companies, so we have a point of
contact with them to start with. We help them out with various things (CALEA,
data preservation, child porn/financial fraud, etc) so they tend to assist for
major problems.
We reach out to our point of contact. We have to prove that the criminal fit
somewhere in
[http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/docs/ccmanual.pdf](http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/docs/ccmanual.pdf)
They then ask for data (our proof). In all the cases we've handled, our proof
has been enough to hand off to a prosecutor. Sometimes the data is enough for
the prosecutor to move forward and score a conviction, sometimes they have
doubts as to whether a jury can be convinced so they either let them take
deferred adjudication, or they try to strike a plea.
We've always known the culprit personally when they commit the crime (name,
address, etc.) so I can't speak for other peoples' investigations where these
things aren't known.
------
mgarfias
My only experience has been with child porn and terrorism stuff found on
servers I worked on. In our case, we burned all the files from the users'
account, html/access logs/etc, to CD, and handed them over to an agent who
appeared in our office.
------
dunsany
I wrote a paper on the NW Hospital case that involved FBI investigation
[http://www.planetheidi.com/Pompon-
VB2010.pdf](http://www.planetheidi.com/Pompon-VB2010.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Mac OS X High Sierra Problem - sahin-boydas
I am getting the following error while installing<p>http://imgur.com/a/n0VoX<p>"MacOS could not be installed on your computer"<p>An error occurred while verifying firmware..."<p>is anything having the same problem?
======
t90fan
Do you have a 3rd party bootloader installed? OR non-apple hardware?
You get that error if you are not using the official apple firmware/UEFI
bootloader - I saw it a few releases ago when trying to do an install on a
machine with an opensource bootloader
You will also get it on hackintoshes (OSX on x86 PCs)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Immunity Passports Could Create a New Category of Privilege - Farbodkhz
https://onezero.medium.com/immunity-passports-could-create-a-new-category-of-privilege-2f70ce1b905
======
vanniv
Do you want people to seek the virus?
Because this will accomplish that.
~~~
Farbodkhz
Off course not. It's one of the worst things that can happen. But these claims
are out there and people and governments are talking about them. My goal is
just conversation and getting inputs and I don't think not talking about bad
things make them go away.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Personal time tracking to aid in becoming more productive - mentationaway
http://www.attainr.com
======
MegaLeon
It's a bit unsettling that, from the pursuit screen, clicking on the logo
sends me back to the landing page (I would want it to stay logged in), and
logging back in from there asks for my details again (doesn't remember the
login data?). Also, no favicon?
Other than that, very well done, looks solid and well designed.
~~~
mentationaway
Thanks, and yeah I agree with everything you said. I will correct these things
soon. Great feedback.
------
not_a_test_user
Is there no way to check out pricing before signing up?
~~~
mentationaway
Attainr is a free app and it will always be free to use. I might however add a
premium plan at a later stage, but it will be a while before I focus on that.
------
RoryOR
This looks very well built. Would love to chat with you.
~~~
mentationaway
Thanks! I sent you an email to the adress you provided on the Intercom chat.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Status Quo Effects Upon Hiring Bias - brudgers
https://hbr.org/2016/04/if-theres-only-one-woman-in-your-candidate-pool-theres-statistically-no-chance-shell-be-hired
======
coffeedan
Wait, so you're saying the odds of a woman being hired increase when there are
more women in the candidate pool? I think my five-year-old could have come up
with that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SpaceX uses powerful rocket technology that NASA says could put lives at risk - fmihaila
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/elon-musks-space-x-is-using-a-powerful-rocket-technology-nasa-advisers-say-it-could-put-lives-at-risk/2018/05/05/f810b182-3cec-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html
======
caio1982
The author is a known soft-skeptic regarding SpaceX and a funny Bezos groupie,
I have never read any trustworthy piece about such safety risk in the past few
years so I tend to believe this is a just another Old Space lobbied article.
See
[https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/85tf3x/crosspost_ch...](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/85tf3x/crosspost_chris_davenport_washington_post/)
for a bit more on how Davenport usually lacks deep info.
------
golem14
Not sure if this is a legitimate concern or a hit piece by Boeing. At least
the nay sayers seem to get a lot of words in and the question on how safe the
crew ejection system is does not get answered well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why does Gmail delay outgoing email? (for up to two days) - feklee
http://sites.inka.de/W1787/Google/2017-01-17+01_delayed.eml
======
Arnt
That message is short and consists of just a link to something, and one of the
addresses may be tainted by recent SPF failures. At a guess, some heuristics
may have decided to wait a little and see if that URL goes away due to abuse
complaints.
~~~
feklee
For the record, I also see delays with messages that primarily contain text,
though many or all of these messages also contain a URL somewhere.
------
Piskvorrr
Welcome to the 1980s: SMTP is a best-effort, store-and-forward protocol - the
fact that 90% of e-mail is delivered, that it's delivered near-instantly and
that it's delivered directly(tm) to the destination server, now these are just
accidental properties. In reality, there's no guarantee on any of these -
there is even no guaranteed upper bound, e-mails can, in some cases, take
_weeks_ to be delivered.
TL;DR: e-mail sucks, do not depend on it.
That said, this seems to be the actual culprit: `softfail (google.com: domain
of transitioning @gmail.com does not designate
2a04:c9c7:0:1073:217:a4ff:fe3b:e77c as permitted sender)`
~~~
feklee
The `Received-SPF: softfail` header is added between mail-oi0-f43.google.com
and mail.inka.de. There is only a delay of one second.
The two day delay, however, happens on the sender's side, between the Google
SMTP servers 10.202.76.146 and mail-oi0-f43.google.com.
In general, email received from Gmail users is delayed, often for one/two
hours, rarely for a day or more.
~~~
Piskvorrr
In that case, that's e-mail working as designed. Adjusting expectations might
be in order - and perhaps adopting an alternate protocol suitable for
reliable+fast message delivery.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Report: For The First Time In Decades, US Is Bleeding High-Skilled Immigrants - saurabhpalan
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/07/report-for-first-time-in-decades-us-is-bleeding-high-skilled-immigrants/
======
tokenadult
See previous HN discussion with links to related documents on the same issue:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4607747>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Laibach Learned in North Korea - Kristine1975
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/cannabis-and-the-sound-of-music-what-laibach-learned-in-north-korea-20150825
======
CurtHagenlocher
Laibach are master trolls.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NYC BigTime CityTime Fraud Charges Ripples On - wglb
http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/nyc-bigtime-citytime-fraud-charges-ripples-on
======
tgflynn
I once developed a web based time card system for $3K.
I'm certainly not comparing that to a system for all of NYC but $60M
ballooning into $700M that's completely insane.
How can anyone imagine that the complexity of a time card system could
approach that of air-traffic control. Is this sort of thing due to the total
technical incompetence of our leadership ?
~~~
elblanco
I did a research case-study on this project and the FBI system as part of a
study on enterprise architecture failures. The principal purpose of the
CityTime system was to prevent city employees from filling out and signing
time cards for their coworkers. In other words, reduce fraud in the time
keeping system and thereby lower city costs (payroll is one of, if not _the_ ,
biggest expense for the city government).
Outside of the fantastic irony of the situation, that requirement was
interpreted to mean a fairly high level of security and auditing over the city
employees' time keeping activities. This meant system integrated biometric
scanners, one-time keys, end-to-end encryption etc...making for a
fantastically complicated architecture.
~~~
tgflynn
Thanks for the information. But I can't see how even those technologies could
begin to justify even the initial price (unless they were trying to develop
their own biometrics systems from scratch, which I don't think is necessary
given today's state-of-the-art).
My guess is that the biggest risk in trying to develop such a system is making
something that's completely impractical for the end user.
~~~
elblanco
Oh, I agree. Even the original bid price seems outrageous to me. However, one
thing to keep in mind is that the city government of NYC is _massive_.
Something like a bit over a quarter of a million employees working in
everything from teaching to subway track maintenance, with a budget of $50
billion/yr. Just stopping the fraud issue with the time and attendance system
would have saved the original cost of the system!
One side-issue that's caused some of the bloat was the various city-employee
unions fighting against biometric scanners for time-in/time-out logging.
Here's some of the sources I used in my study (note the great discussion
_here_ on the same topic a while ago):
[https://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/26/2010-03-26_city_...](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/26/2010-03-26_city_pours_722m_down_consulting_contracts_black_hole.html)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/nyregion/23scanning.html>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1221068>
<http://www.nyc.gov/html/opa/html/about/city_time.shtml>
[http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/juan_gonzalez_ny_pays_...](http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/juan_gonzalez_ny_pays_230_consultants)
[http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.62e273bb0ef1f...](http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.62e273bb0ef1f307a62fa24601c789a0/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Social tagging and voting was invented at Xerox PARC... 15 years ago - nickb
http://datastrategy.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/social-tagging-and-voting-was-invented-at-xerox-parc-15-years-ago/
======
Hexstream
Xerox PARC: The reality of tomorrow, yesterday!
------
KeshRivya
They also invented the mouse and original Mac interface. And they haven't
cashed in on anyone.
~~~
gojomo
Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse -- not Xerox.
And while Xerox PARC originated a lot of the modern windowed/wysiwyg/menued
GUI, to say they 'invented' something as specific as 'the original Mac
interface' is also misleading.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is there any way to ACTUALLY stop biodiversity loss? - rblion
The amount of species disappearing every year is scary to think about, 100 to 1,000 times the natural rate. I'm aware of many of the causes, they have been written about extensively. However, the solutions proposed don't sound too convincing.
======
chris_va
Some loss can be stopped with better enforcement of laws/treaties (e.g.
overfishing, destruction of reefs, poaching). The countries most responsible
(e.g. China) do not really care or do not have the resources to do
enforcement. The US used to be in that boat, though is doing better this
millennia.
Some loss could be stopped by political means (e.g. capping greenhouse
emissions), though honestly that will probably never happen in time for most
species at risk. The human impact (e.g. trillions of dollars in loss, hundreds
of millions displaced) will eventually push those policies, but it hasn't
happened yet.
The rest... we can try to sequence and re-introduce. We are unlikely to get to
the majority of species, though, since somewhere between 1-500 go extinct each
day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Quit Current Job that Involves Work I wasn't hired to do, or Stay? - jrkemerer
I graduated with my BS in Computer Science around a year ago, and have been employed by my school's web development department to do PHP web dev for about a year.<p>The problem is that I haven't been doing much web application development, and have been pushed into doing templating for various blogging/wiki software.<p>The extent of my work has been basically setting up, configuring, and writing templates for the software I've been assigned to. This has been emotionally and mentally draining for me, a person who was hired on to do web application development, and who has previously worked in mobile application development.<p>I've been considering quitting my current job, and focusing on finding a new job and personal projects, and I was wondering what advice the Hacker News community could provide on this situation.<p>Thank you in advance,<p>-ins0mniac
======
patio11
The best advice I've ever received on job content, from my younger brother:
"There is a support group for people who hate their job. It is called Everyone
and we meet at the bars starting at about 5:30."
What is your goal for being at this job? If it is "I'd sort of prefer earning
an honest living on a dependable schedule so that I don't have to return to
living with Mom and Dad", then kiss your paycheck and be happy you're getting
it because something like a tenth of kids your age are not. If you're
prioritizing career growth and feel that this job isn't contributing to it, a)
welcome to almost all employment of young people by universities and b) start
pounding the pavement to find yourself another position, _then_ quit.
If you're a risk-tolerating person, I hear that contract iPhone developers are
still turning down work at $100 an hour. You don't have to land many contracts
to make yourself ramen profitable if you can bill $100 an hour.
------
michael_dorfman
Any particular reason you can't find a new job before quitting the old one?
That's the way it's usually done (unless you've got a big enough nest egg to
take you through the transition.)
~~~
jrkemerer
I'm still looking, and the search hasn't been going on too long. There's no
reason I can't find a job in a relatively short amount of time, the mobile
industry is currently booming. Even if I have to settle for a short term
mobile contract position until I find something long term, I should be able to
find something.
As far as finding something before quitting goes, I'm still looking, and I'm
still living at home being a relatively fresh graduate, and my current job is
both emotionally and mentally draining which is why I want to get out.
-ins0mniac
~~~
jarsj
If job is what you want to do, please find one before quitting. You may end up
realizing finding a job was not trivial.
If you want to pursue entrepreneurship, I had say start working on your idea
in your free time, unless you save some money and then quit.
my 2 cents.
~~~
anthonyb
The other trick is to take leave and use that time to look for work (depending
on how long you've been there, of course). Job searching and interviewing can
often be hard when you're already in a position, particularly if you're
working long hours, or the work is draining.
------
nis
There's something that nobody has told you yet in this forum: you don't have
to do such a good job to remain employed. I agree with everyone who told you
to find a job first. That is not mutually exclusive with the advice to quit.
If yor job sucks you should quit, but don't underestimate the stress of being
"on the beach." My point is that you can keep your job and paycheck while
commiting 60-70% of your current energy to it and then devote the excess time
and energy to your job search. Good luck.
------
orev
Your post sounds a lot like "I just graduated and I expect to be doing cool
stuff and getting paid the big bucks, but I'm in an entry level position doing
crap work." The good news is that you've finally reached the summit of the
education mountain after a long climb. The bad news is that you've just
reached the base of a new mountain, the "employment" one.
You might be in The Valley where every CS grad has a slightly better chance of
becoming a millionaire, but in general the response to your inquiry would be
this: Welcome to the real world.
That said, however, entry level jobs will start to shape your career, so you
should make sure you are on the path you want to be on. There are certainly
entry-level jobs where you would be doing more than what you are now, and you
should probably seek them out.
One thing that is telling here is that you are working for your university,
which tells me that you went for the easy-to-get job instead of putting
yourself out there. You're going to need to take some more risks if you want
to get the good opportunities and the good payoffs. You're also still living
at home, which gives you the mental cushion that if you fail you won't be hurt
/too/ bad, but it also removes some of the incentive to push yourself towards
self-sufficiency.
As far as the situation you're in right now, update your resume and look for
something _while you still have this job_. Do NOT quit until you have a new
one. The economy is the worst it's been in a long time, and while you may
think "there's no reason I can't find a job in a relatively short amount of
time", you are wrong. That's the hubris of a recent grad who hasn't faced the
real world yet talking. If you really could get a job so easily, why haven't
you? (And if you could, just do it already) You work in a university which is
probably the most relaxed work environment you could have, so performing a job
search while in this job should be extremely easy.
The only action that would be helpful and also counter to this advice is if
you were able to land an internship (paid or unpaid) at a startup in the space
you definitely want to be in. In that case the support of living at home will
help you, as long as you have a plan to work your ass off and get really good
at whatever you want to be doing.
------
matwood
When I was young my dad told me "never quit your job until you have another
one lined up." I think that advice still holds, but I will expand it some. Get
some side work lined up or something, but don't just quit without a plan.
That's going to put you in a pinch and you might have to take another, even
worse job because you need money.
When I've worked jobs or had lulls in jobs where I was working below my level
it always led me to create new projects at home on my own time. These projects
kept me learning, stimulated my desire to solve problems, and some have made
me a bit of side money. Sadly none have yet taken off to the point where I
work on them permanently.
------
acg
Practically your choice may depend on how much money you have. The answer is
probably networking, if you have just graduated you are in a position where
you are probably still in touch with classmates: find out what projects they
are working on and whether you can help. Look through the industry and see
what you would like to do and see if those projects are hiring.
Many top projects are interested in recruiting enthusiastic and motivated
graduates.
With social networking it's increasingly easy to find people who you could
help out/work with.
------
rwhitman
I would quit simply because I would want to break away from the comfort zone
of working for my school.
If you want your focus to be in mobile app development, take as many contracts
as you can until it can replace your work. As a recent graduate you're likely
in a lower-risk position to give up a fulltime job anyhow, take the plunge
now.. you don't want to wake up in 3 years to realize you're still slicing
templates for your school
------
jrkemerer
The problem I am facing is the fact that I am both emotionally and mentally
drained at my current job, but also, I am getting paid wages which are far
below what I should be making if I were working full time doing the same work.
I'm basically making student assistant wages, doing full time work that would
in industry, make much more than I am current' making.
-ins0mniac
~~~
marilyn
You are not your job. Your job pays the rent. I'm sorry you are in an
unsatisfying job, I'm sure the majority of HN'ers have been there before. It
sucks.
Times are tough right now. Getting your next job should be your priority, but
quitting your day job to focus on the job hunt is a silly move when
unemployment is over 10%. Keep your job until you secure the next one.
Until then take some solace in the knowledge that your current situation is
temporary.
~~~
jrkemerer
Thank you marilyn, I must say, that out of most of the replies, your's has
been the most helpful.
I must say that the other replies that I've read have also been helpful, I
cannot disregard the other replies though, and I am still torn between
quitting and keeping my current job which pays student assistant wages yet
still, we do most of the work in the department.
-ins0mniac
~~~
drtse4
If that job is so draining/soul-crushing/useless you should really plan your
quit.
What i get reading the thread is that this job is also draining away the
energy you need to search for another job seriously (and that lead to the
desire to just quit and start searching for something else). As others have
said, i don't see any particular reason to suggest you to "just quit". Why
don't you simply find a temporary job somewhere just to get out of the current
environment, and then start a proper next job search while still receiving a
paycheck,etc...? It should not be that hard to find a temporary web dev job.My
.2$.
------
fierarul
So you got hired straight after finishing school but somehow you see yourself
as a person who's into mobile application development ? I assume you worked on
that mobile stuff while going to school ?
Anyhow, look for a job before quitting. It might be a stupid move to just quit
and then stay unemployed.
------
savant
If you aren't happy, leave. If you aren't learning, leave. Remember that at
the end of your life, you are going to die. There is no sense in spending your
life being miserable.
~~~
gramakri
+1. Just leave. Nobody ever regretted quitting a boring job.
~~~
gte910h
I disagree, I've seen people quit and not find work for 12 months or more.
------
swombat
No-brainer. Quit. You owe no allegiance to your current employer - or to your
next one.
------
gte910h
Find a job first.
------
Mz
I gave up a national merit scholarship when I was a teen and dropped out of
college around the time I turned 20. Then began looking into going back to
college in my early twenties. The scholarship landed in my lap with no effort
on my part to get it and I was wooed by a number of colleges. So I was shocked
by the reality that once gone, going back to college wasn't at all an easy
feat. I have wrapped up an associate's degree and a certificate in GIS that is
the equivalent of graduate level work. I still don't have my bachelor's and I
am 44 years old.
I have no regrets. But it wasn't as easy a path as I had imagined. I really
had not anticipated it would be difficult to go back to school. School had
always been a breeze for me. The idea that there would be barriers to getting
back to school was a completely alien concept for me.
I suggest you look before you leap. If you are okay with doing _anything_ else
(flipping burgers, digging ditches) in order to get away from this job, then
go. But if you have fantasies that it will be easy to land some ideal job,
that you will surely be more appreciated and better paid elsewhere, and so on,
be very careful to ensure that is actually true before you burn your bridges.
Especially with a recession on, a job hunt can take a very long time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook Kills Social Roulette - ireadqrcodes
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/13/social-roulette-deletes-your-facebook-account/
======
ireadqrcodes
" ... the app did allow users to circumvent Facebook’s account deactivation
feature, which is designed to let people turn off their account but turn it
back on later without losing their content and connections. This could be
considered a violation of Facebook Platform Policy... "
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dell's XPS 13 Developer's Edition: My Missed Opportunity - autotravis
http://linuxterm.com/dells-xps-13-developers-edition-my-missed-opportunity.html
======
hapless
It is worth mentioning that Lenovo has a very significant "Certified for
Linux" program. Virtually every laptop model has at least one "Certified" SKU.
<http://lenovo.com/think/linux>
This is the major reason I ended up with a PC instead of an MBA -- I was just
going to install linux on it anyway.
~~~
rogerbinns
Note that it is Ubuntu etc certifying the laptops. You can't buy the laptops
with the certified version of Linux on them, and for the model I own (T430s)
the only version they list (11.10) is end of lifed in ~3 weeks. However Linux
is likely to just work on Lenovo Thinkpads, although binary drivers may be
problem if you pick an Nvidia GPU.
I'm also a member of the Thinkpad faithful. Other than screen resolution
(grrr) and bezel size, they are delightful machines. It is trivial to
change/update much of the hardware - they don't solder memory down, nor SSD
drives. And Linux works perfectly - the only thing it doesn't support is the
fingerprint reader which ironically is made by a company Apple bought not too
long ago.
~~~
acabal
Just as a heads up to those thinking of buying an X1 Carbon, the RAM _is_
soldered in on that model, and the SSD is a non-standard size making it
difficult/impossible to upgrade.
~~~
cjh_
very good point, you literally get what you pay for (and are stuck with it).
I am really liking my x1 carbon and it performs very well with linux.
I do wish I had stretched for the 8gb of ram but the 4gb has never been an
issue (despite me sometimes running windows in a VM), however my general
toolset is quite light (mostly command line based) so YMMV.
------
gambiting
Yeah I don't understand Apple - why still put old and slow 500GB 5400rpm
drives in brand new 15" Pros? Go to an Apple Store and try running anything on
the 15" Pro and on an 11" Air - I guarantee that Air will load it faster. I've
got the 2012 13" Air and it's a perfect tool for a developer, very quick,
completely silent and very portable. I am pretty sure that guy would be very
happy with his Mac,but he really needs to change that HDD for an SSD.
~~~
bdcravens
For casual users, that's probably not as big a deal as you'd think. Besides,
those folks definitely aren't comparing it to machines with Ubuntu.
I prefer the 5400 RPM machines, as I'm replacing machines, not buying new
ones, and my old upgrades (SSD and RAM) always come with me (put "new" hard
drive in old machine and eBay it)
~~~
LordIllidan
They are Macbook Pros - intended for Professionals.
They are extremely pricey laptops - but the hardware can stand to be improved
a lot.
~~~
stock_toaster
> They are extremely pricey laptops - but the hardware can stand to be improved a lot.
You certainly can upgrade (at a cost of course) to a 7200rpm or SDD drive.
~~~
LordIllidan
You certainly can do this - I would have liked the 7200rpm or even a SSD drive
to be included on the base models though.
~~~
stock_toaster
You and me both. ;)
I am hoping future hardware refreshes round out the baseline systems a bit
more nicely, especially on the retina models.
~~~
LordIllidan
I'm also not too satisfied with the 4GB default on the MBP - I needed to
upgrade to 16GB to work properly. Getting a 16GB MBP from Apple, however,
proved to be more exp then getting a 4GB and upgrading it manually to 16GB
vengeance ddr3 ram. (best upgrade I ever did)
------
chadcf
I'm not sure why you'd want to trade, the biggest killer would be the 8 GB non
upgradable ram. Ouch. You can upgrade the macbook pro to 16GB and throw in a
SSD and your complaints will be gone. And yes, this will cost a bit more than
the dell but you'll get a bigger screen out of it at least. My machine is
upgraded to 16GB and a 500GB SSD and it's worth every penny. If you are ok
with a 250GB SSD you can do it even cheaper (last year, I paid about $80 for
the 16GB of ram and $500 for the 500GB SSD, 250GB SSD is significantly
cheaper)
~~~
gfosco
I have the 15" Retina MBP with 16GB RAM and an upgraded CPU... It's incredible
and I love working on it. Ordering a machine with 4GB RAM now is asking for
trouble, no matter the OS.
~~~
wazoox
All my linux desktops do perfectly fine with 2 GB. Mac OS X is a slow memory
hog, face it. That's one of the reasons I've bought the XPS 13 to replace my
old macbook: with similar hardware my linux machines feel just much, much
faster than my mac.
------
tinco
TL;DR: he compares a computer without an SSD to a computer with an SSD, the
computer without an SSD is slower.
Why do stories like this get upvotes?
~~~
autotravis
Real TL;DR: I compared a computer without an SSD, but with an Intel Core i7
clocked at 2 GHZ (quad-core, 8 threads) with a unix-like OS often cited as
comparable to Linux to a 7 year old Core2Duo (2 threads) machine with 7 year
old RAM and an SSD running Ubuntu (an OS not known as efficient).
The older machine with the slower CPU was faster.
It wasn't about the comparison, actually. It was about my surprise at how slow
such an impressively spec'd machine can be -- and my regret that I didn't get
the XPS 13.
~~~
tinco
Even a 10 year old machine with an SSD would be faster than a machine with a
5400rpm disk. Other things just don't matter when comparing operating system
performance.
------
nnutter
The author is promoting a machine he has never used and is comparing a non-SSD
machine to an SSD machine. This would have been semi-interesting if it was
discussing the XPS 13 DE under actual use.
~~~
autotravis
Where do you live? May I bring you some tea and massage your feet while I
rewrite my post to please you?
I linked to an exhaustive review of the XPS, if you read my entire post:
[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/it-just-works-dell-
xp...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/it-just-works-dell-
xps-13-developer-edition-linux-ultrabook-review/)
------
general_failure
Mbp 2012 15" is actually dual purpose. I own one. Apart from computing, it
doubles up as a room heater.
------
henryw
The author could just replace the hard drive with a SSD and add more RAM.
Probably will run $200 to $300 depending on the size of the SSD. I did that
with a 17" MBP, and it's still doing fine after 3 years.
[http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-replace-your-macbook-
pros-h...](http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-replace-your-macbook-pros-hard-
drive-with-an-ssd)
~~~
bluedino
Apple's inflated prices for 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM is 'only' $300. You can
do better from NewEgg but when you have time ordering parts and installing
them and warranty issues it works out.
~~~
chadcf
I've never had warranty issues. I had to send in my macbook pro with a 3rd
party ssd and 3rd party ram for repairs, and they fixed it no problems. Even
better, they swapped out my budget brand ram for OEM.
------
doktrin
The specs on that MBP are bizarre. Why would anyone order a new machine with a
5400rpm drive and 4gb of ram? That was a bad purchasing decision.
I think the article would have been more helpful with some kind of first hand
account about using the device. I'm super curious about it, but am still
leaning towards a think pad x series. The keyboard alone is almost too
attractive to pass up, and they appear to be quite Linux compatible.
Edit : correction, MBP not MBA. Typo.
~~~
bluedino
That's the base config of almost every laptop out there. At least Lenovo has
almost all the T-series coming with a 7200RPM drive now.
~~~
doktrin
I suppose I should have clarified that the specs are bizarre for a developer's
laptop. The cost associated with the upgrades are relatively minor,
considering the life of the machine, and devs are typically customers that
know how to spec out machines.
~~~
autotravis
When they were ordering it, all I knew was it would be MBP 15-inch. I didn't
know they would go to the low end on the HDD and RAM. I was a little hands-off
to be polite with coming into a new job.
~~~
doktrin
Fair. I totally understand that. It's a habit I share myself, although having
been stung by it as well I now try to be as assertive as possible about my
needs.
------
mehrzad
I personally find Mountain Lion more bloated than either Ubuntu or Windows.
~~~
bluedino
If I boot up my Mac and Linux workstation with our environment setup and open
up my day-to-day apps, the Mac is about 1GB ahead in RAM use. But after you
start using them for a few hours they even out.
Firefox, Chrome, terminal windows, some Ruby sessions MySQL Workbench,
FileZilla, a couple LibreOffice documents...
------
niggler
I'm terribly confused here.
"continue to run Ubuntu in a VM on the MacBook with its relaxed HDD"
Did he try with bootcamp on Ubuntu 12.04 (the LTS version)? I just tested on
two macbook pros (mid 2011, early 2013) and both seem fine.
~~~
natermer
Apple hardware sucks at running Linux.
If you are a kernel hacker and the idea of fixing compatibility bugs sounds
like a regular afternoon then Apple hardware isn't so bad.
------
bluedino
Why didn't this guy just buy a 13" MBA in the first place?
------
OrsenPike
Any word on if the SSD it user changeable? I know the RAM is not which is a
shame.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PyBrain: modular Machine Learning Library for Python - rayvega
http://pybrain.org/#
======
djacobs
Python v. Ruby. The eternal question. The languages might not be different,
but the communities definitely are.
This just convinced me I need to switch my efforts from Ruby to Python.
~~~
slpsys
SciPy, OpenCV bindings, PyML, et al. I've worked more with Ruby than Python
(and like the language itself better), but there's no question Python has the
more momentum in this space.
~~~
djacobs
Agreed, I think Ruby > Python, both in syntax and semantics. It's a shame I'm
going to have to learn such a close language to take advantage of Python's
momentum.
------
jgershen
It seems like this would be a reasonable introduction to neural network
programming (while PyBrain contains code for other classifiers, the site also
suggests that this is mainly for comparative purposes). If you were more
concerned about performance, it seems like it might be better to check out
libfann.
I couldn't easily find comparative benchmarks, so this opinion is just based
on the documentation of the two libraries and what they say about themselves.
If I have some free time this week (hah!) I'll throw together a quick and
dirty performance comparison.
------
d0m
I wish I had that 2 years ago in university :) It seems well coded, the
documentation is clear and concise and it's in python! Overall, a cute library
that I will certainly add to my bag.
I have two small concerns thought:
1- "Only forward"
2- Possibility to expend it.. For instance, what if I want to evolve my neural
network with a genetic algorithm, is this possible? And if so, how easy it is?
------
sammcd
I tried this out about a year ago while at college. The dependencies were very
painful and I was never able to install it.
I would love to know if anyone has this running on Mac OS X successfully now.
I'd love to check it out, but had a terrible experience last time I tried it.
------
Luyt
It would be nice to see a neural network learning how to land a plane
safely... even with crosswind. I think it'd be able to pull that off.
------
Tichy
Does it work on Google App Engine?
------
brownleej
One step closer to being able to simply put "import soul" at the top of my
scripts.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Carbon emissions could be halved by not wasting food, clothes, electronics - pmoriarty
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/carbon-emissions-cut-food-waste-clothing-electronics-climate-change-green-alliance-a8345641.html
======
WheelsAtLarge
It's true. We can reduce carbon emissions by reducing consumption but at the
same time, we'll be reducing productivity. The key is to increase services and
the digital economy and also reduce manufacturer of goods. For years now, the
best way to increase buying activity is to make things and to make old items
obsolete. That is Apple's business model and that has been the business of
most manufacturers. But what will happen if production is reduced?
Individual's livelihoods will be decreased. The real key to the problem is to
switch to other types of productivity such as services, and digital goods.
It's nice to say that we can reduce our carbon footprint by reducing
manufactured products. But that doesn't do anything, we also need to suggest
and act on alternatives.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bill Gates on Pharmaceuticals: The System Isn't Working - bootload
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/bill-gates-what.html
======
superchink
I don't think it's fair for him to compare the development models for open-
source software and pharmaceuticals; it's like he's comparing oranges and
apple.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
China to Lift Ban of 400,000 DWT 'Valemax' Mega-Ships - protomyth
http://gcaptain.com/china-to-lift-ban-of-400000-dwt-valemax-mega-ships/
======
t0mas88
This reads like a warning against doing too much business in China? They
basically blackmailed a Brazilian company into setting up a joint venture with
a local Chinese shipping / ore company by forbidding their ships to enter
Chinese ports?
~~~
douche
That's basically the way foreign trade with China has always worked,
particularly sea-trade. The Portuguese were consigned to stay on Macau, and
trade via a guild of registered Chinese merchants in Canton, the Cohong. Later
the English and others got in on the deal. And then, unhappy with the
restrictions of the system, and crack-downs on smuggling opium, from 1840 to
1914 damn near every western merchant power engaged in trade wars and gunboat
diplomacy to wrest free-trade agreements and other concessions.
~~~
rebootthesystem
Is there a good book that covers the history of trade with China? This sounds
interesting.
~~~
douche
Jonathan Spence's The Search for Modern China is fairly decent, although it is
not light-weight.
[http://www.amazon.com/Search-Modern-China-Jonathan-
Spence/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Search-Modern-China-Jonathan-
Spence/dp/0393307808/)
------
protomyth
"Signs of a thaw began appearing last September after Vale signed a deal to
sell and lease back ships from China Ocean Shipping Co (COSCO), the country’s
largest shipping conglomerate."
~~~
mgirdley
Imagine the mafia started a country and then a hundred years later tried to
clean up their image a little.
That's how I think of business and government there.
~~~
fnordfnordfnord
What do you think of Rockefeller and other early US industrialists?
~~~
narrator
...and Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket" testimony.
------
Animats
This issue has been building for a while. See this 2011 article.[1] Shipowners
in China were unhappy with Vale, which is an iron ore producer, using their
own ships.
[1] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-23/china-
shun...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-23/china-shunning-
biggest-ore-ships-shows-2-3-billion-vale-mistake-freight)
------
sxcurry
This is a really interesting site for shipping news. Here's a video about the
largest floating structure in the world being built:
[http://gcaptain.com/prelude-flng-taking-shape-birds-eye-
view...](http://gcaptain.com/prelude-flng-taking-shape-birds-eye-view-of-
largest-floating-structure-ever-built/)
------
hga
In some respects, not all that large; from the Wikipedia page
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valemax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valemax)):
" _Once all 35 Valemax ships are in service and if each ship does four round
trips per year, they will be capable of carrying about 15% of the annual iron
ore exports from Brazil to all destinations._ "
------
jlarocco
Ignoring the political issues, living in a landlocked state, it always boggles
my mind reading about and seeing pictures of these huge ships. I'm not sure
I've ever seen a man made object even coming close to the size of these ships.
~~~
vacri
Skyscrapers? Sporting stadiums? Megamalls? You could also probably consider
large sections of the road network to be single objects.
~~~
jlarocco
From what I've heard, some of the larger cargo ships and oil tankers are big
enough to carry the Empire State Building. And the Empire State Building is a
lot bigger than any building I can think of in Colorado.
And besides, buildings just sit there. These big ships are moving machines
that travel around the world. Much more impressive, IMO.
------
rdlecler1
China keeps overplaying its hand. How many case studies do you need before you
realize that as a non-Chinese company you are not allowed to win. This can't
end well for China.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Encourage your teams on slack with sticker chart - thogg4
https://www.stickerchart.party/
======
android521
At first i thought this is intended as a joke. But then they seem to be
serious.
------
AznHisoka
emojis, badges, whatever dont motivate me. just the intrinsic feeling of
accomplishing something. and occasionally lots of money.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
'Living Drug' That Fights Cancer by Harnessing Immune System Clears Key Hurdle - daegloe
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/12/536812206/living-drug-that-fights-cancer-by-harnessing-the-immune-system-clears-key-hurdle
======
jfarlow
Congratulations! The Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) deployed here is very
much unlike the standard 'small molecule' drug that 'disrupts a bad thing',
and much more like a rationally engineered tool using the body's very own
technologies to overcome a particular limitation. In this case, it gives the
patient's own immune system a notion of what the cancer looks like.
If you want to build your own 'living drugs' we've built a digital
infrastructure to allow you. Though we just made public our generic protein
design software (thanks ShowHN! [1]), we're employing the same underlying
digital infrastructure to build, evaluate, and manage CAR designs in high
throughput [2]. The drug approved here was painstakingly designed by hand,
while we think the technology now exists to permit many more such advances to
be created at a much more rapid pace.
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14446679](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14446679)
[2]
[https://serotiny.bio/notes/applications/car](https://serotiny.bio/notes/applications/car)
Design your own 'living' protein drugs here right now:
[https://serotiny.bio/pinecone/](https://serotiny.bio/pinecone/) (and let us
know what you think, and how we can make it better!)
~~~
skummetmaelk
3...2..1.. Prion disease!
Seriously though, how would you prevent such automated designing from having
unintended side effects?
~~~
e40
_3...2..1.. Prion disease!_
Can you explain that?
~~~
jfarlow
Prions are 'misfolded' proteins [1] that, in their misfolded form actually
cause other proteins to also misfold - a physical viral cascade. A really
crazy concept not too dissimilar from a kind of biological 'grey goo' \- and
in real life actually happens to cause diseases like 'mad cow'. The
implication is that blindly engineering a protein might create such a physical
virus. I would suggest that the likelihood of accidentally creating such a
virus is very much like accidentally creating stuxnet. Possible, but
extraordinarily unlikely. And further, would such a thing be made, we'd like
to know about it while it's still in the lab and can be contained, learned
about, and prevented in the future.
[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion)
------
stillfinite
The significant thing about CAR-T cell therapy is that it's not very specific
to the type of cancer - all cancer cells have damaged DNA that leads to the
productions of antigens. Leukemia is the low-hanging fruit because it's easy
to inject the T-cells back into the body right where the cancers cells are.
It's hard to tell whether you could get enough T-cells to diffuse out of the
bloodstream to have an effect on something like prostate cancer. It would be a
real breakthrough if you could overcome that hurdle, because then you would
have a treatment that works on many different cancers without much
modification.
~~~
hwillis
Real, actual question: would it not work to just inject t-cells deep into my
taint in that case?
~~~
Cerium
What I got out of the article was that the approach here seems to be that you
create a small number of improved t-cells and inject them. Then these improved
t-cells will respond correctly upon contact with cancer cells. At that point
they will multiply to meet the required demand. The initial injection would be
more like a vaccine than a drug.
~~~
inlined
The t-cells would multiply? I thought they were created in the bone marrow. Do
bloodstream t-cells go through meiosis?
------
Young_God
A friend of mine is alive today because he was part of one of the early
trials. He had been told by his doctor, just before he was accepted into the
trial, that he should start putting his affairs in order.
------
eatbitseveryday
NYTimes also covers the story ([https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/health/fda-
novartis-leuke...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/health/fda-novartis-
leukemia-gene-medicine.html)) with more discussion about individual patients.
From the NYT article:
> The panel recommended approving the treatment for B-cell acute lymphoblastic
> leukemia that has resisted treatment, or relapsed, in children and young
> adults aged 3 to 25.
Why so young?
~~~
skadamou
A couple of things really surprised me about this article.
First, I'm sure that there is other evidence the FDA is using to determine
whether or not to grant this drug FDA approval but a 63 person drug trial
seems like an exceedingly small sample size to work with. Perhaps because this
disease is so rare they could not put together a larger trial?
Also, it seemed a little bizarre for an FDA panel to receive comments about a
decision it is trying to reach from the families of those involved in the drug
trial. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that, per se, but shouldn't these
types of decisions be reach on the basis of scientific evidence and strive to
be devoid of any kind of sentimentality?
Either way, it's always excellent to see new cancer treatments on the market,
particularly when they are as groundbreaking as this one.
~~~
epmaybe
It's not that small, if the statistics look good. And they really do look
better than most everything else on the market.
Also, the approval isn't for patients newly diagnosed yet, it's only for
patients that have relapsed or resistant to current therapies. You'll see a
larger phase IV trial later, most likely.
Now, off topic from your comment, I'm worried about cost. I know that the R&D
for this kind of therapy is exceedingly high, but these therapies need to get
cheaper for us to be able to justify using them in a larger population.
~~~
jlg23
> I know that the R&D for this kind of therapy is exceedingly high
Do you have a source for that? I happen to be involved (genetically only - my
family) into medical research and everyone I know agrees that costs are vastly
inflated:
* Marketing for a new drug is not "research".
* Reformulation of trial-targets is not "research", it's re-shaping of the test settings so you can get $drug to market ASAP.
* When the government/"the people" pay for research (through co-operations with universities), it's not your "R&D cost".
* When you do basic research, it's incredibly easy to claim "10k hours". Ok, but can we please claim those 10k hours only once? Not for every variation of the substance you research again and again?
~~~
doctoring
(I'm a physician who used to work with large pharma companies on trial design
and trial innovation.)
I think the cost of R&D in pharma that we hear about is sometimes vastly
inflated and sometimes pretty accurate, but definitely oftentimes misapplied
(especially by pharma).
On the whole, trials are expensive. Sure, there's the pre-clinical stuff --
basic research that you're alluding to. There's the stuff that is R&D but
fails in the pipeline at some point. There's animal studies.
But in most cases, most of the cost comes from human trials (Phase I-III, and
mostly Phase III), which can sometimes span dozens of countries and tens of
thousands of participants. For some drugs, the Phase III trial(s) account for
over 80% of the total R&D cost. Even when they are relatively small trials (as
in this CAR-T therapy trial), the administrative and logistical effort to
implement something like this is immense. The whole point of these trials is
to collect data, and so that data is subject to the highest amount of scrutiny
of any data in any medical enterprise. If you come into my clinic for a pre-op
before surgery and I measure your blood pressure to be 140/85, give or take a
few (oh wait maybe I used the wrong cuff size, lemme try again, oh it's pretty
close), that's fine. But if you come into my clinic because you're a
participant on a trial for drug X, and I measure it to be 140/85... I better
be damn sure that's right (and the study coordinator at my clinic, and the
pharma company, and the FDA), even if drug X isn't a blood pressure drug.
We've seen cases where certain innocuous data discrepancies trigger central
study monitors (study employees) being flown out to remote clinics to manually
verify paper records or equipment logs to confirm/reconcile errors.
Inaccuracies can cause you to miss things, or patients to be harmed, or can
cause a study or a clinic or a hospital to be shut out from performing
research again. And of course it can make the difference between a drug
approval and failure. It's a lot of resources around the idea of data
integrity.
So even small versions of these types of trials can be very expensive.
Now, is it TOO expensive? We often hear about the cost of bringing a drug to
market to be around $1B. (Some studies have put it over $2B when you account
for failed drugs, etc.) This may or may not be right, but let's not forget,
the pharma industry makes more profit than just about any other industry. And
the way CMS and insurers agree to pay for medicines... well, pharma has a lot
of freedom in pricing (upwards).
You've hit on a lot of things that make the release of some new
drugs/devices/therapies _less_ expensive than we are commonly led to believe:
reusing previous data, getting new approval for a specific enantiomer of a
previously approved racemic drug, making cosmetic updates to existing devices,
the tricks go on and on and on. And pharma keeps saying "R&D is so expensive!
This drug should definitely be 2X more expensive than the one we're
replacing." Planned obsolescence is a pain with your smartphone; it's a lot
worse with your insulin pump or even the insulin itself! And one outcome of
the high cost of large trials is that pharma does more of these types of un-
innovation in some cases, which (due to the patent and regulatory and
reimbursement systems) simply give pharma a free pass at making easy money off
of our backs.
The high cost of trials also leads to really high prices of "true" innovation,
such as in CAR-T trials. This type of therapy (like a lot of new oncology
therapy) is highly customized, and no longer simply some chemical compound you
make in a factory and then ship all over the world. You have to take a
patient's own cells/fluid/materials/etc, process them, and then make
modifications (in some cases unique to the patient), and then return the
processed product (to the same patient). This is indeed highly costly on top
of the cost of performing a lengthy trial, where for certain rare and/or
terminal diseases your study endpoints are pretty tough to capture (um, did
the patient die? uh, how long do we wait?).
~~~
jlg23
> most of the cost comes from human trials (Phase I-III, and mostly Phase
> III), which can sometimes span dozens of countries and tens of thousands of
> participants
Uhm. Yes. Again, I'd rather have an actual break down of the costs involved
here. At least in Germany insanely overpaying doctors for conducting phase III
trials replaced the [at least] $3-4k/day budgets pharma companies had to
accommodate relevant practitioners at congresses when it was outlawed.
When the head of a public hospital in a western country can legally triple
his/her income by conducting a study for 4h every Saturday morning, I file the
costs under marketing, not R&D.
~~~
refurb
It's not that hard to estimate clinical trials costs. Last I checked you were
looking at $10-20K per patient per year. It all depends on how much monitoring
you are doing.
Now run the math. For a broadly used drug, you might need a trial of 20,000
people over 3 years (if you're looking for a long-term benefit). That's what a
lot of the statin drugs did. That alone would be $1.2B at the high end, $600M
at the low end.
And you have to run a minimum of two phase 3 trials. Follow on trials are even
more.
------
JoeAltmaier
From the article:
"Scientists use a virus to make the genetic changes in the T cells, raising fears about possible long-term side effects"
Is this a real risk? Is 'using a virus' in this way, still risky at all? or is
it just the word 'virus' that makes writers put this line in every article
about gene therapy?
{edit: real risk}
~~~
nerdponx
Not to be flippant, but isn't a "virus that cures cancer" exactly how the Will
Smith movie _I Am Legend_ starts?
~~~
HillaryBriss
ok, sure, the pessimistic among us can accentuate the negative aspects of this
medical therapy, but it _did_ solve the NYC subway crisis. and don't forget
the wildlife habitat expansion.
these things aren't all bad.
------
aaronbrethorst
"While Novartis will not estimate the price it will ultimately put on the
treatment, some industry analysts project it will cost $500,000 per infusion."
Meanwhile, the latest version of the US Senate's healthcare bill includes the
so-called Cruz Amendment[1], which would allow insurance companies to offer
health insurance plans without essential health benefits, which would allow
lifetime caps on insurance[2], which could mean that your six year old with
recurring leukemia gets pulled off their treatment when they're halfway
through. Not because you did anything wrong, per se, but because maybe your
employer refuses to spring for health care plans with more than an $x dollar
cap. Or you never anticipated something so horrific and catastrophic happening
to your family.
[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/us/politics/senate-
republ...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/us/politics/senate-republican-
health-care-bill.html)
[2] [https://www.brookings.edu/2017/05/02/allowing-states-to-
defi...](https://www.brookings.edu/2017/05/02/allowing-states-to-define-
essential-health-benefits-could-weaken-aca-protections-against-catastrophic-
costs-for-people-with-employer-coverage-nationwide/)
~~~
sloppycee
That sounds horrible.
Although, I do wonder what effects there would be if a cancer cure-all were
discovered.
Since nearly everyone would need the treatment at some point, it wouldn't
really be insurance anymore; more like a mortgage.
~~~
PeterisP
We're already at this stage - we have many life-extending (there's no life
saving, only extending it for smaller or larger amounts) treatments and
procedures, and the amount is growing. For pretty much _every_ patient who
dies currently we _could_ extend their life a bit more (not they'd always want
that, mind you) if we put in more resources in that patient.
It's tautologically clear that it's not possible to do everything for
everyone, i.e. a community 100% composed of doctors and nurses wouldn't be
able to provide all the possible life-extending things (especially late in
life/close to death) to everyone of themselves. So one way or another we need
a process to decide where we stop, i.e. what life-extending things will not be
provided to which people.
Of course, there's a major practical difference between in a process that
takes/costs one day of labor and extends life expectancy by a year, and a
process that takes/costs a year of labor and extends life expectancy by a day
- but there's no _conceptual_ difference, and we have options all along that
scale to find where the tradeoff starts/stops making sense.
------
ceejayoz
> Another big concern is the cost. While Novartis will not estimate the price
> it will ultimately put on the treatment, some industry analysts project it
> will cost $500,000 per infusion.
Welp, guess my insurance premiums aren't stabilizing anytime soon.
~~~
pinaceae
how much is getting cured of cancer at a very young age worth? dying vs.
living another 80-90 years?
less than a Tesla? more than a house?
interesting questions arise around immuno-oncology.
should Apple be the most profitable company - or someone that literally cures
cancer?
~~~
orbitur
> how much is getting cured of cancer at a very young age worth? dying vs.
> living another 80-90 years? > less than a Tesla? more than a house?
It's worth so much that a person shouldn't be required to pay for it. Like a
right.
~~~
phkahler
>> It's worth so much that a person shouldn't be required to pay for it. Like
a right.
It can't be a right. That would mean someone has an obligation to provide it.
I would say it's worth so much that a monopoly on it should not be allowed.
~~~
ceejayoz
> It can't be a right. That would mean someone has an obligation to provide
> it.
By that logic, voting can't be a right, because someone has to register
voters, run the polling booths, count the votes, etc.
~~~
njarboe
If the health care system was mostly staffed by unpaid volunteers, I might
agree. As it stands health care is 17% of US GDP (10% global) and growing.
------
sjbase
Does anyone know: what are the failure rates like for the gene editing
technology being used for this? Thinking like a software engineer, are there
transposition errors (GATC --> GTAC) , atomicity issues (GATC --> GA)?
Mutations afterward?
~~~
jfarlow
In this particular case the therapy is being applied to cells that have been
extracted from a patient. That allows a reasonable error rate where errors can
be filtered out, and success verified before the cells are reimplanted. This
is a strategically nice intermediate before having to run a therapy on a
living organism. The technology in use here is not quite the same kind of 'DNA
editing' as is found with tools like CRISPR, but rather a much more
therapeutically mature (if technologically blunt) form of viral 'insertion of
a block of code'.
With respect to actual code fidelity, errors in DNA come from a number of
different sources. Every time DNA is copied (a cell divides) there is an
inherent fidelity rate of the copy (on the order of a single mistake per
billion writes). The payload here is on the order of a few thousand base pairs
so copies should have a very high fidelity.
In this case a viral protein is 'inserting' its DNA randomly into the genome
of the target cells. Imagine inserting a library of code _randomly_ into a
codebase. Certainly not ideal, and an issue that CRISPR technologies promise
to help improve. However, given that the therapy is only being applied to
immune cells that are only running the 'immune' section of the human codebase,
and no progeny of those cells will ever have to become a brain or skin or run
any of the other programs, the chance that the inserted DNA disrupts the
'immunological' code in the codebase is relatively small. And if there is
disruption to some cells' genomes those cells could be screened out if they
really distort something they should not.
With respect to DNA generally, common errors arise from undesirable but common
chemical modifications to the code itself. The DNA can become damaged (by
reactive oxygen, UV light, and through other chemical reactions), and while
there are significant systems to repair that damage, oftentimes since there is
only a single backup (DNA is 'double-stranded'), it's often impossible for
that machinery to determine whether the error is on strand1 or strand2, so
50/50 chance of 'repairing' into the error.
------
judah
Is this the same CAR-T treatment that Juno Therapeutics tried and scrapped[0]
after 5 trial patients died after receiving the treatment?
[0]: [http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2017/03/01/after-trial-
deaths...](http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2017/03/01/after-trial-deaths-juno-
pivots-and-scraps-lead-car-t-therapy/)
~~~
ksenzee
No. From the article:
> In the past, a handful of patients who were getting similar treatments
> developed by other companies died from serious brain swelling. Although
> those sorts of complications did occur in some patients receiving CTL019,
> the patients recovered and there were no fatalities, the company says.
------
known
it will cost $500,000 per infusion
~~~
dajohnson89
Making the choice between being indebted for your entire life and just dying
is surprisingly hard for me.
------
known
Isn't this how vaccines work?
~~~
jfarlow
Vaccines work by previewing a foreign object, that if seen again, the immune
system will attack. The big difference in treating cancer is that there is
nothing 'foreign' about cancer - it arises from one's own cells. Cancer is an
unproductive or even malicious mashup of material already found in the human
body, very much unlike a viral or bacterial infection. There are no natural
differences in kind that can be detected by an immune system that would not
otherwise attack healthy tissue as well.
In this case there is essentially a synthetic sensor designed and provided to
the immune system that is precisely tuned in the lab to detect the (very
subtle) differences between a cancer cell and a healthy cell.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Apple TV or Mac Mini? - winanga
I'm looking at buying an Apple TV or Mac Mini to use as a home media centre. Which one would you recommend? And have you tried running Linux on either of them?
======
brk
I have several of each running for the same application.
I'd recommend the Mini. It does everything the ATV does, and much more, for
not a lot of extra $$$.
The ATV is a nice little device, but you're fairly limited in what you can
really do with it (no Netflix streaming, for example). One nice this about the
ATV is that you can stream audio TO it from iTunes on another machine, I use
that feature a lot.
~~~
winanga
Thank you @brk
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Actually eat healthily for £1 per day - gabemart
http://supplementsos.com/blog/how-to-actually-eat-healthily-o-1-per-day/
======
king_jester
Eating cheaply is really difficult to do for the folks with the least amount
of money to spend on food, as working is counter to the things that make
eating cheaper: cooking your own meals, shopping or growing cheaper
foodstuffs, having appliances to store items for longer periods or cook dried
items, being able to plan meals out in advance, etc. That is the reason why
convenience foods are popular. A lot of advice stories about eating cheaply
often fail to achieve that goal because it is hard to do and requires a lot of
effort.
~~~
ctdonath
_A lot of advice stories about eating cheaply often fail to achieve that goal
because it is hard to do and requires a lot of effort._
This is a recurring sentiment which speaks volumes about our culture.
Complaints of "hard" and "a lot of effort" belies how incredibly _rich_ this
society is, that the notion of just making pasta or growing vegetables is
somehow prohibitively difficult - not because it's inherently so hard, but
because we're so used to "swipe a card, get a meal" at all levels of society.
Even if you're officially "poor", just be at WalMart at midnight on EBT
recharge day and walk out with convenience foods. For most of humanity through
most of history, what so many today belittle as "hard" was "normal" on a daily
basis.
On my "A Buck A Plate" blog I've addressed various forms of this complaint.
Difficulty? boil some water, open a few cans, spaghetti dinner done. Cost of
cooking system (stove, gas, etc.)? grandma's ancient cast-iron frying pan over
burning wood scraps in the back yard, make a nice veggies-and-shrimp stir fry.
No cooking space indoors or out? $4 crock-pot and an electrical outlet.
Cooking your own meals? c'mon, it's not that hard, really. Shopping for
inexpensive? look at every price tag in the store (Walmart, Aldi) and discount
everything over $1 per pound. Appliances? thrift shops overflow with them dirt
cheap. Dried items? throw 'em in water before going to work, ready to cook
when you return. Planning meals in advance? you _really_ have an issue with
this?
Sure convenience foods are popular. You also _pay_ for that convenience:
instead of doing the work yourself, you work doing other things then exchange
the money earned there. Do more yourself, and there's less need to be out
doing other things.
Don't confuse "you have to _do_ something" with "hard to do and requires a lot
of effort". If you watch TV _at all_ you have no excuse.
~~~
itsybitsycoder
I think as software developers, many of us are very disconnected with the
lives of the very poor in our society. There are people out there working
multiple full time jobs, or working full-time while raising young kids by
themselves. It boggles my mind that you would consider these people lazy
because they're dead on their feet when they arrive home... probably even
software developers can think of days when they're too tired to cook, is it
really so hard to imagine having to work so hard that those days are every
day?
~~~
ctdonath
I know it boggles your mind. I too shared the mindset susceptible to "I
can't". Amazing how being dead for a few hours can change your perspective on
such things.
It must be done. Do it. Eradicate "I can't" from your vocabulary. Cut out all
superfluous activity & costs. Unless you're in fact passing out onto the
floor, you have the energy and time to do it. Yes, every day. I'm so far past
tired and overwhelmed that they're just not excuses any more - it all still
needs doing, and the alternative is being where I've been and I'm not keen on
going back there.
~~~
scarmig
You're relying very heavily on this "well it's physically possible, that means
if someone doesn't do it they don't really want to" trope.
It's pretty lazy, I've got to say. Stop using it like a sledgehammer. No,
don't say "I can't help but use it like a sledgehammer": try to make a new,
novel suggestion beyond "just try harder!"
Evidence that it's pretty damn lazy: you can use it anywhere. A Roman slave,
upset about being worked really hard? "Well, other slaves have worked hard
enough to buy their own freedom. Why don't you?" A poor person in rural India?
"Well, at least one multibillionaire started out in the same position as you,
and that was a couple decades ago in worse conditions. Try harder!"
Defacto it's a crutch to shift responsibility away from the social structures
we live in.
~~~
ctdonath
Again, I'll acknowledge some people truly can't. I've found they're a fairly
small subset of those claiming/imputed "can't".
We're not talking Roman slaves here. "Work 'til you drop or we'll kill you"
isn't at issue.
A poor person in rural India really is poor. Under $2/day income (world
median) is poor. My sympathies and help.
Blaming the social structures _WE_ live in, no. Assistance, tools,
opportunities, etc are prolific; if you're not using them, it's not because
they're not available to you.
Yes I'm leaning on the "if someone doesn't do it they don't really want to"
trope. That's largely the POINT in this thread, as pointed out by others too.
I just see far too much "golly, going to Walmart and buying
beef/beans/sauce/seasoning for $5 and cooking it for 10 minutes to feed 4 is
just too hard", which a poor rural Indian or a Roman slave would look on at
with sheer astonishment.
~~~
msutherl
Required to make your own food everyday are both physical and mental
abilities. Low-income Americans are certainly more than physically capable of
putting together three meals per day, but they may lack the motivation,
inspiration, knowledge, or skill required to do so. I certainly needed my
sous-chef best friend living with me and teaching me the virtues of cooking
for 3 months to really get the skills and habits down.
This is not something to argue about. The best you can do is empower people,
so stop arguing on discussion forums – go forth and empower!
------
weego
I think the main weakness of the diet not listed on their weaknesses is
they've made no attempt to break it down into a realistic 3x7 meal plan,
because it doesn't really make one. Yeah, it's easy to put together a whole
load of things cheaply that conform to predetermined values on a spreadsheet,
but sometimes sum of the parts does not give you a realistic outcome.
Also, I can tell you as someone who grew up with parents that grew lots of our
own fruit and veg, things like onions will survive weeks or months if they are
hand-picked, strung and stored correctly but once they have been through
delivery/storage/shelf stacking for a supermarket those dents a bruises start
going bad quite fast regardless of your best efforts in storage so buying that
far ahead may itself be a false economy.
~~~
lenazegher
> I think the main weakness of the diet not listed on their weaknesses is
> they've made no attempt to break it down into a realistic 3x7 meal plan,
> because it doesn't really make one. Yeah, it's easy to put together a whole
> load of things cheaply that conform to predetermined values on a
> spreadsheet, but sometimes sum of the parts does not give you a realistic
> outcome.
That's a very fair point, but it seemed like premature optimization to try to
nail down a meal plan before all the kinks in the nutrition side of things
were ironed out. I do plan on getting to that stage in a later version.
Perhaps I should have waited before publishing this post, but honestly, I tend
to lose myself in projects like this, and without some indication that other
people are interested I often end up leaving the work in an archive somewhere
to finish later.
I hope that there's enough data there to be useful/interesting in its current
state, but I agree, needs more work
~~~
drharris
No, I think you're right on for a 0.1 version. The basic nutrition (most
important) is there, and you now have a good list of foodstuffs to go by. I
think 0.2 should allow for some diversification (trade these two foods for
these two, at an extra cost of xx). Version 0.3 can then work on some basic
recipes. Also consider things like freeze-dried fruit (easy to rehydrate to
put inside oatmeal) and vegetables (make good salad toppings) to add
diversity.
I think most people would allow sale prices if you can prove they're on a
cycle. For example, sacks of yellow onions go on sale every 3rd week at the
store I frequent, which lines right up with my usage habits.
~~~
drharris
Forgot to mention: I spent 4-5 years in which I ate oatmeal every day (and
some nights) while in the process of eliminating debt. It's highly versatile;
you can change the flavor dramatically with the addition of different fruit,
spices, and nuts/seeds. It stores in bulk for long periods of time. It is very
easy to prepare. It is highly cost effective, is fairly nutritious alone, and
easily keeps you full for hours on end. I really consider it a superfood in
terms of cost vs. nutrition. Add some flax seeds, apples, cinnamon, and a bit
of honey and not much can beat it.
------
Kurtz79
I'm not criticising the article (I love seeing hackers/hacker like mentality
applied to diet and cooking, check : <http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/>) but
I hate when I read something as "healthy food".
Of course there are foods that are good for you and others that aren't, but
somehow this always leads to the conclusion that in order to eat "healtily"
you have to eat only "healthy" foods and avoid like the plague "unhealthy"
ones.
Truth is, you can eat things like bacon, biscuits, jam, white breads, without
any problems if in moderation and in the context of a diet rich in fruit and
vegetables, and doing regular exercise (exercise != half an hour loitering in
the gym).
The diet illustrated in the article, it's indeed healthy, it's cheap, and it's
absolutely depressing.
I can't see too many people being able to stick to it for a reasonable time.
Good food is one of life's pleasures and it doesn't have to be in conflict
with "healthy" eating.
It would help a lot speaking about "healthy diet" or better "healthy
lifestyle" rather than "healthy foods".
~~~
shawabawa3
> The diet illustrated in the article, it's indeed healthy, it's cheap, and
> it's absolutely depressing.
Of course it is, but try finding a diet that costs £1 a day that isn't
absolutely depressing.
I think this overemphasis on £1 or $1 a day is way too low.
The real question is how much are people who "can't afford" or "don't have
time" to eat healthily spending on food per day? I would guess at least £5.
With £5 a day you could actually make an enjoyable, healthy and varied diet.
------
venomsnake
Now if only there was consensus what is healthy eating (it changes once a
decade, cyclical fashion). Fat is currently returning with a vengeance, while
sugar is the killer molecule. 10 years ago a spoonful of butter was considered
slightly worse than cyanide.
The amounts of protein per day is also debated as are total calories, and
carb/fat ratios.
And the number of meals per day and the optimal amounts of fasts.
~~~
DanBC
You mention some things that are under debate. Those things are not part of
"healthy" eating, they are important for "optimal" eating.
Fat is _not_ returning with a vengeance.
Common sense advice has not changed particularly much over the past twenty
years.
There are some things - dietary cholesterol isn't seen as evil (but the foods
it's in are).
But other stuff - replacing fat for sugar (replacing a real salad dressing
with a low fat (but high sugar) dressing) has always been seen as bad advice.
Of course, if people pay attention to wing-nuts pumping out crank advice then
yes, everything changes every week. Peas cause cancer one week, red cabbage
causes it the next.
Most people do not need "optimal", they need "good enough". Most people are
not at "good enough", they're at high fat, high sugar, high salt, high poor
quality foods, low exercise. Someone drinking 4 litres of cola a day and
eating a jar of peanut butter on crackers doesn't need to know whether their
total calories should be 2,000 kCalorie per day or 2,500 kCalorie per day.
They just need to eat less than 7,000kCal per day.
~~~
jerf
"Common sense advice has not changed particularly much over the past twenty
years. ...There are some things - dietary cholesterol isn't seen as evil (but
the foods it's in are)."
No, definitely false. Dietary cholesterol has definitely been considered a bad
thing and for the last 30 years people were told to avoid it, by heart
doctors, in the form of avoiding cholesterol in your diet, in that specific
terminology. It wasn't just that cholesterol was in "bad" things, the things
were bad because they had cholesterol.
"But other stuff - replacing fat for sugar (replacing a real salad dressing
with a low fat (but high sugar) dressing) has always been seen as bad advice."
Also complete tripe. Low fat diets have been advocated for decades now without
a word given to what the fat was replaced with, because the fat was considered
So Obviously Bad it didn't matter, anything was better.
The dietary consensus is in fact undergoing significant change (still in the
early phases of penetrating the consensus but I'm pretty sure its inevitable
at this point), but this is _exactly_ how I expect the authorities to wiggle
out from under the fact they were giving fatally-inaccurate advice for
decades... straight-up historical revisionism. We never said cholesterol was
bad for you, we never were universally against salt (just for certain at-risk
people), we always said many fats were good for you, we certainly NEVER EVER
EVER advocated transfats as a healthy alternative to fats how dare you even
suggest that we did such a thing, and we have always been at war with Eurasia.
I will not forget.
~~~
DanBC
Please read my comment again. You rant about cholesterol. Cholesterol is an
example I give of advice that has changed. You appear to misunderstand that
very simple point I made.
> Low fat diets have been advocated for decades now without a word given to
> what the fat was replaced with, because the fat was considered So Obviously
> Bad it didn't matter, anything was better.
No, this is wrong. Calm dieticians have been suggesting that people cut down
fats, but not replace those with weird sugar-foods. You'll be able to point to
very many untrained, unscientific, 'clinical nutritionists' who give weird
advice. But I've already said that cranks exist and have always given weird
advice.
Salt is still harmful, btw.
> The dietary consensus is in fact undergoing significant change
It really really isn't.
"Don't eat too much. Eat less red meat; eat more fruit and vegetables. Reduce
the amount of fats, sugars, and salt that you eat. Reduce the amount of
processed foods (especially some processed meats). Try to eat more fresh
food."
That's been the consistent message for many many years now.
~~~
jerf
Fair enough about your point about the cholesterol.
However, I'd challenge you with this. Go back and look at _how_ the
cholesterol error was made. It's a instructive microcosm of how we got to
having such bad advice about health, where a tiny little sample of the vast
multidimensional space of health was taken because we happened to develop a
test that could see cholesterol, and we radically, radically over-interpreted
the results. (Arguably without even doing the test we could have done _right
then_ , which is to directly ask the question of whether eating cholestThen
ask if you're really, really sure that's the only time that happened, in our
set of health advice that largely was created in the same era (if not a decade
or two before) and hasn't changed since. Because I do agree that consensus
hasn't changed much over the past 50 years; what I am saying is that change is
inevitably coming, and if you know where to look you can already see its
shape.
"Salt is still harmful, btw."
There are significant studies that suggest it's only harmful if you _already
have_ hypertension. There's also some serious question in my mind about how
salt can be harming the population when studies can also show that people
actually maintain a very constant level of salt intake and have historically
maintained that same salt intake for as far back as we have records that can
reasonably answer that question.
"Calm dieticians have been suggesting that people cut down fats, but not
replace those with weird sugar-foods."
And I still think this is revisionism. I've been reading recommendations from
the government and other sources for my entire lifetime and I've only recently
seen anyone making the point that replacing fat with sugar is a bad thing, and
it is usually still people not in the scientific mainstream until _very_
recently. (Sure, Atkins said it in the 1970s, but I'm sure you wouldn't count
that.) The government has been pushing low-fat everything for a long time. If
perhaps the point was being made in some academic journal somewhere, I don't
really care, I'm talking about what the general population was told. The idea
that low-fat itself might be bad can probably be dated to when it finally
broke through that transfats (margarine) was worse than what it was replacing
(butter), which was a relatively recent development (~10 years ago), and
that's when it finally became politically viable to even _ask the question_ of
whether low-fat foods were actually better for you.
And I could quibble further (the badness of red meat is highly dubious from
what I can see, fruit's virtues seem oversold), but it doesn't matter. The
change is coming, because the advice we've been given for decades is
unbelievably awful, "our grandchildren will ask us how we could believe that"
awful. It won't stand, and when the authorities try to rewrite history to
claim nothing has changed I will not forget that it's not what they told us.
------
Nursie
While it is a great article, and potentially useful info for those that fall
on hard times, I don't share some of the other poster's views of this being
aspirational.
Food is not just a mechanical source of fuel, surely? I couldn't abide eating
the same stuff more than a couple of days in a row, let alone every day for
weeks at a time.
~~~
gnaritas
> Food is not just a mechanical source of fuel, surely?
Speak for yourself.
> I couldn't abide eating the same stuff more than a couple of days in a row,
> let alone every day for weeks at a time.
I've eaten the same lunch every day for well over a year or more at times.
Food is fuel; it doesn't have to be a source of entertainment.
~~~
nemof
Speak for yourself.
I love food. I adore it. It's part of my heritage, my family, part of our
lives, our childhoods. Good food is up there with good sex, it's an
overwhelming and amazing experience.
I absolutely understand that some people find food an annoying necessity and
not something to take pleasure in, but many of us, I'd posit an overwhelming
majority in fact, love and enjoy and relish our day to day meals. As such,
living on the bread line can be a deeply depressing and dispiriting
experience.
~~~
gnaritas
I didn't say it can't be a source of entertainment, I said it doesn't have to
be. I take great please in many meals; but food is fuel and I require "just"
fuel most of the time, every meal isn't an experience and doesn't need to be.
Most meals are just fuel. That doesn't mean I don't take pleasure in meals
intended for taking pleasure in; it isn't that black and white.
------
np422
Before we start talking about "eat healthily", please visit <http://nusi.org/>
, apply critical thinking - ask for references to published research papers.
Be aware of the difference between observational and clinical studies and of
course, always remember correlation does not imply causation.
We, as in mankind, don't know very much about what really is healthy food.
~~~
goldmab
It took me a little reading to figure out the agenda, but some key phrases
like "obesity is a growth disorder" tipped me off. This is a Gary Taubes
project. He is a writer of books in favor of low-carbohydrate diets, and he
often badly misinterprets the scientific literature. He has a selection bias
about which studies he thinks are worth talking about, so as to make it appear
that low-carbohydrate diets are the answer to everything. No actual
nutritional scientists think his "alternate hypothesis" is credible.
~~~
mberning
If you think there are literally no legitimate nutritional scientists that
agree with Taubes then you are woefully misinformed.
~~~
goldmab
Thanks. I think a lot of them agree that low-carb approaches work for weight
loss and some other outcomes, since that's what the science shows. But his
"insulin hypothesis" is pure pseudoscience and I'm not aware of any papers
about it.
~~~
frankc
Unvalidated/untested hypothesis are not "pseudoscience".
------
wtvanhest
If you want to save some money, save some time and eat healthy, try this:
Go to the grocery store, buy these 3 items:
1 bag of frozen vegetables.
3 chicken breasts
1 bag of dried lentils.
Sunday night:
Cook lentils in water, don't add anything Slice chicken breasts down the side,
add seasoning, no oil, just seasoning, don't bread it etc. Bake the chicken
breasts
Monday for lunch:
Microwave a bunch of the vegetables, grab your chicken breast, and precooked
lentils mix lentils in with vegetables and throw the chicken breast on top,
cook together.
Repeat that 4-5 days a week. Your energy will be higher, you will start
loosing weight, and you will save money. Its the only meal I have found that
does all three.
[it should go without saying, but there is no dressing added, no butters, oils
etc. once you start adding that stuff you might as well just grab a burger or
some Chinese food]
[ADDED] I am not advocating this be your only meal. Its just a meal that
replaces the normal garbage that I would eat if I didn't have a good, low-
cost, delicious alternative.
If you are fully aware of your diet and are in good shape, then by all means,
add whatever you think you want to make it taste better, but this meal really
doesn't need it.
My comment about not adding butters/oils etc. is aimed at people who think
they are eating healthy by having a salad with blue cheese dressing.
Also, for those of you in your early 20s who think you know how to eat well,
prepare yourself. Once you get to your late 20s, early 30s, it starts getting
much tougher.
~~~
ryeguy
There is nothing wrong with butter, oil, or dressing in moderation. If it
makes a rather boring dish more interesting, it's worth it - none of those
things up the calorie count too much.
~~~
frou_dh
I'd say satiating meals is a better goal than interesting meals. If you're
completely satiated by reasonable portions then your energy levels will be
solid and you'll lose/maintain weight without needing to think about calories
at all.
~~~
dgabriel
We all have different goals, but interesting meals are certainly near the top
of my priority list, especially since I eat with my family and meal times are
more than just a way to fill a hole.
~~~
frou_dh
For most people, I imagine a decent-sized subset of appealing meals can be
very satiating at the same time.
p.s. wtvanhest: Not sure what you have against blue cheese. Hopefully not
"dietary fat makes you fat because it's calorie dense" because that would
again be anomalous 80s thinking that ignores satiety effects and runs with a
1-dimensional model for something as complex as nutrition and aggregate
consumption behaviour.
~~~
DanBC
Calorie dense food "hiding" in salad needs small amount of caution.
So long as you're aware of what you're eating it's fine.
If you can't understand why you're still 17 stone you might want to look at
whether you're having a blue cheese dressing on a salad but counting that
snack as 0 calories, which is something a surprising number of people do. They
have their 3 meals, which come to something like 2,000 kCal per day, but they
don't count all the other snacks they eat.
Satiety is important, but it's still calories in vs calories out.
~~~
frou_dh
Yeah, and that's exactly why "calorie excess" is nowhere near the conversation
ender it's so often used as. At best it's a conversation starter to use on
those dummies to which it is not self-evident. The thorny part of
overconsumption is _WHY_ one is compelled to do so, not simply that one does.
------
fpp
Before even going into the side-effects of such a diet let's just have a look
at the numbers used:
Olive oil (extra virgin)(price per kg quoted) 3.30 (price per kg actual) 6.39
(weekly quoted) 1.96 (weekly actual) 3.80
Yellow split peas (dried)(price per kg quoted) 1.16 (price per kg actual) 0.98
(weekly quoted) 1.62 (weekly actual) 1.37
Bananas (price per kg quoted) 0.68 (price per kg actual) 0.68 (loose /
leftover 2+ BBD) (weekly quoted) 0.38 (weekly actual) 0.50 (1)
Carrots (price per kg quoted) 0.46 (price per kg actual) 0.80 (loose /
leftover 2+ BBD) (weekly quoted) 0.26 (weekly actual) 0.50 (1)
Onions (price per kg quoted) 0.42 (price per kg actual) 0.90 (loose / leftover
5+ BBD) (weekly quoted) 0.23 (weekly actual) 0.50
Red cabbage (price per kg quoted) 0.80 (price per kg actual) 0.96 (loose /
leftover 3+ BBD 1 piece) (weekly quoted) 0.45 (weekly actual) 0.96 (1)
Tomatoes (chopped, tinned) (price per kg quoted) 0.78 (price per kg actual)
0.93 (3 400g cans est. BBD of opened can 4 days) (weekly quoted) 0.87 (weekly
actual) 0.93
(1) this requires you to go to the supermarket twice a week for e.g. 3
bananas, 3 carrots + 1 cabbage - it also assume that the cheapest offers are
always on sale (which is not the case) plus that none of the food goes bad.
weekly total quoted: 5.78
weekly total actual (no transport cost, cheapest goods always on sale) 8.56
at this point you're already far over the proclaimed budget and if I call this
rightly (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woyzeck>) you're on a diet that the
protagonist (Woyzeck) was put on to find out if he will be going crazy by just
eating that kind of food (peas).
_(update)_ sorry forgot the rice and oats
Long Grain Rice (price per kg quoted) 0.40 (price per kg actual) 1.39 (weekly
quoted) 0.25 (weekly actual) 0.88
Oats (price per kg quoted) 0.75 (price per kg actual) 0.75 (weekly quoted)
0.42 (weekly actual) 0.42
weekly total quoted (updated): 6.45
weekly total actual (updated) 9.86
~~~
a_c_s
Did you read the full article or just the data?
1\. The author assumed NO sales.
2\. Aside from bananas everything else will easily last a full week. If you
wanted to say you are only shopping once a week then that means you either are
willing to eat very ripe bananas by the end of the week (some people do this),
or if you are like me then you would have to just eat bananas the first part
of the week and not eat them the end of the week.
3\. Including transportation costs is beyond the scope of a diet - the author
already minimized costs by limiting things to a single supermarket (as opposed
to the original article which would have required multiple trips to multiple
stores to track sales and get deals).
4\. The assumption that there is no waste is explicitly discussed by the
author as a drawback that needs to be addressed in subsequent iterations
(Edit: formatting)
~~~
fpp
I have neither included transport cost nor sales nor waste.
If you live in the UK you might immediately know what including these in that
completely unrealistic article would mean.
(1) You have to go to one of the superstores to get these prices - Tesco
Express, Sainsbury's Local e.a. almost never store the cheapest goods and
normally mark up all other goods by a substantial amount (30%+). Next cheapest
goods on the list are often 100%+ more than the prices used in the article
(that's the superstore price of course) - most extreme (from my own
experience) with rice - the cheapest rice you most likely find in a Tesco
Express is £4+ vs. 40p quoted, that's 1000%.
(2) Getting to a superstore can be rather costly - assuming about £3.2 for bus
tickets (that's £6.4 per week uups just doubled your weekly budget by only
adding the transport cost) - you might alternatively walk about 10-16 miles
each time (both ways, can be more if you live on the countryside) - guess
that's the healthy part of that diet - walking 32 miles each week (you should
than of course also adjust you calories / fat / vitamin intake which gets us
to about e.g. £12 actual vs £7 and 12 hours spent walking).
(3) To use sales most effectively you have to have a budget to vary your diet,
buy larger quantities when available etc - neither of this is possible in the
constraints of this assumption - hence I also did not use sales prices.
------
Isamu
Project for someone: provide better sorting, ranking, visualization etc. for
food nutrition info. You sometimes see these, not all of them are well done.
OP mentions use of the USDA National Nutrient Database. Here is where you can
get a download, plus previous versions and updates from previous versions if
you plan to maintain your own database copy over time:
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=8964>
~~~
lenazegher
That's a really interesting idea. A potential problem is finding a similar,
standardized source of food price data (if you want to include that). Some
data are published by the USDA ERS [1], but it's far from comprehensive.
[1] e.g. [http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/quarterly-food-at-
home...](http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/quarterly-food-at-home-price-
database.aspx)
------
tejay
The same triple constraint nature of the project management triangle exists, I
think, with food intake. Quality, cost, and ease/speed of preparation -- pick
two.
Every two days, I cook up 2 lbs ground beef, boil 4 cups beans, and 4 cups
rice. I let it cool off, and throw it in Tupperware, and into the fridge. I
take from that whenever I'm hungry. It doesn't taste the best, but it fills
you up, is cheap, and is good for you! If you're feeling the need for some
extra veggies/fruit, avocado, frozen blueberries, and frozen kale offer the
most nutritional content at the lowest price and least preparation time.
Like work, I don't think this will ever be 'optimal', but it's good for now,
in that it saves me time, money, and waistline. Can tweak it as I go.
~~~
drharris
You can make that combination taste good. When cooking your beef, add some
garlic, onion, bell pepper (if $$ allows), cumin, oregano, and chili powder.
If they're black beans, add cilantro, onion, and garlic. In the rice, saute
the dry rice in a few teaspoons of olive oil before adding water, and replace
some of the water with lime juice. Now you basically have a simplified
Chipotle burrito bowl. Garnish with avocado, cilantro, pico de gallo, etc.
------
rythie
Actually it's interesting to look at what people in developing countries (who
typically only have £1/day or about that) eat: <http://imgur.com/a/mN8Zs>
~~~
Nursie
I think that British family might be on the run, having escaped (barely) from
the late 80s/early 90s.
They even have a VHS machine!
(Also I like that the german family have put everything in very neat rows)
------
weiran
This article (and many others like it) miss out an incredibly cheap and
healthy source of food, growing your own vegetables.
~~~
ExpiredLink
Given that most people nowadays live in towns or agglomerations ...
~~~
DanBC
A lot of stuff can be grown in tubs or growbags.
Yes, there's the cost of getting it and tending it, but there are advantages
in positive mental health and exercise (with bigger yards) and some hippy
"feeling connected to the world" stuff.
Eatings peas just off the plant is great.
Even herbs and spices can be grown if you just have a window sill.
But, yes, it's not for everyone. Some people just don't like that kind of
thing.
------
ExpiredLink
'Healthy' doesn't mean the same for all people. If you are not so young any
more your cholesterol level becomes high priority. For me food that does not
lead to a high cholesterol level is healthy food.
------
susi22
This can actually be formulated as an interesting (constrainted) optimization
problem.
Given
* an amount of calories
* a distribution of macronutritions (protein,fat,simple carbs, complex carbs)
* a certain variablility (at least 20(?) different foods)
do minimize:
\- Cost
Interesting problem.
A more thorough database with micronutritions would even yield a healthier
result
Edit: Look like it's not new: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler_diet>
------
josephturnip
I think the biggest flaw is the assumption that each day must stand on its
own. I'd say that its generally much cheaper to make one big meal than to try
and make 3 individual meals, but there's no attempt to create large soups or
chilis or something in which you CAN use fractional prices because the final
product will last several days or can be frozen.
------
nobodysfool
Butter is cheaper than olive oil, and it's good for you.
[http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-
products/0...](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/0/2)
Compare that to olive oil.
Also, add milk. Yes, fresh milk is out of the question, but not powdered.
------
frou_dh
Am I the only one unduly annoyed by the ubiquitous slogan "fruits and
vegetables"? Fruit is full of fructose AKA sugar. They are worth eating some
of, but it's bizarre that they've come to occupy this front and centre
position in diet advice.
~~~
mscrivo
There's some evidence to suggest that eating fructose in combination with
fiber (as found naturally in fruits) is far less harmful than just sugar
alone, and way less harmful than refined sugar.
Source: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM>
~~~
ryeguy
You are correct that fructose with fiber is pretty harmless, but that video is
bullshit. See here:
[http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-
ab...](http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-
fructose-alarmism/) [http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-
of-...](http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-
fructose-alarmism-debate/)
------
sandGorgon
There is a subreddit on this, tagged by the CHEAP keyword
[http://www.reddit.com/r/fitmeals/search?q=CHEAP&restrict...](http://www.reddit.com/r/fitmeals/search?q=CHEAP&restrict_sr=on)
------
JoeKM
I eat lots of Amy's low-sodium organic soup. I dunno, it's quick and easy, and
tastes good. Doesn't seem like there are too many canned soup lovers around
here.
------
nkozyra
Ah, the unquantifiable "healthy" designation.
~~~
lenazegher
I don't agree it's unquantifiable in this instance -- the diet is intended to
meet the standards outlined by the UK Food Standards organization [1]. Whether
or not you _agree_ with the standards is a valid point, but a separate issue.
[1] <http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutguideuk.pdf>
~~~
nkozyra
"Healthy" is a subjective descriptor, it cannot be quantified. There's a
reason it differs from person to person, nation to nation, health organization
to health organization.
~~~
papsosouid
It can be quantified, and it was. You are just arguing for the sake of
arguing. You not liking the definition of healthy that she specified does not
mean it can not be specified.
------
Shorel
> Around 50% of food energy from carbohydrate
That's NOT healthy at all.
~~~
ska
> That's NOT healthy at all
This statement assumes facts not in evidence.
There is a lot of argument about what the best distributions are, without any
real resolution at this point. The author reasonable chose to target a
standard without claiming it was the only way to go.
~~~
Shorel
No, the author simply repeated old stuff. If all those 'reasonable' diets
worked, the current obesity epidemic would not be in its worst point, as it
is.
Some evidence about sugar:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRAwgdvhWHw> [http://martin.ankerl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/01/trouble_...](http://martin.ankerl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/01/trouble_with_fructose_slides.pdf)
~~~
ska
This is what "no real resolution yet" means: every few years we get a pet
theory or two.
The reason this so easily devolves into a `religious` argument scenario is
because the basic science is still too weak.
The author did the right thing to stay well shut of all that in this article.
------
tyilo
1 calorie != 1 kcal 1000 calories == 1 kcal
~~~
lenazegher
Any mention of calories in the article refers to large calories, hence the
notation as kcals.
I agree it's confusing, but because almost everyone means a large calorie when
they say "calorie", it seemed like the most readable and simplest solution was
to refer to them as calories and use the kcal notation in the tables.
------
walshemj
SPAM
------
Zenst
Whilst it is nice people try and point out cheap options they ignore the
following:
1) cost of running a fridge and freezer 2) calorie intake and how people are
all different 3) large supermarket nearby and only you hanging around the
reduced counter
With that I'm sure a very short small inactive person could live well on this
amount and intake but we are not all small inactive people.
A few years ago I was in hospital, I eat breakfast, dinner, evening meal and
late night snacks and had seconds on every occasion. I was not overly active
and bordering on totaly inactive. I slept lots as well. In short I eat almost
twice the ` so called` reccomended calorie amount. I had nothing like worms or
the sort and over a 2 week period I lost over a stone in weight. Now I'm large
frame, over 6feet tall and male and a active brain yet was phsicaly inactive,
eating twice the so called daily calorie intake and had no medical issues like
worms or digestive issue at all and I lost weight. In short my my personal
calorie intake is over twice what the so called average is and when I read
articles like this it is hard not to feel persecuted as other read them, take
them as fact and then think you are wrong. Yet the facts show, as well as
common sence that not everybody is the same.
The acticale on the BBC was born out of benifit cuts and was showing how
somebody could eat cheaply, it totaly ignores that a even the `so called`
average daily intake is 2000 for a women and 2500 for a man and that men and
women are paid the same amounts, with that most of the replies and posted
menu's came from small frame short people and females (no offence intended
btw). With that I'm jelous I'm not a small female and able to eat less to lead
the same quality of life. Sadly that is not so and that is te case for many
people. We are all different and there is no cookie-cutter way to say this
will sort everybody as it won't, or shoe shops would have shoes the same size
and that would be it for everybody.
What I find worrying is the mentality that some people have and wil impose
based upon this and what might be good for them is not good for others and
they will not know any better as the `reccomended intake` gets bastardised
from being average to the normal for all.
That said, not everybody has a garden to grow their own vegtables and that
helps hugely, sadly I can't but we all have windows and a small window ledge
herb garden can help loads.
I would also say baking your own bread helps as well on many levels.
Beyond that your down to mapping out what time what supermarkets reduce items,
keeping it to yourself and playing hit and miss that others not in the same
situation as you as there are only so many reduced items.
I have found you can eat cheaply, or you can eat healthy, but as a non
vegan/vegatarian it is extreemly depressing.
~~~
ctdonath
_A few years ago I was in hospital, I eat breakfast, dinner, evening meal and
late night snacks and had seconds on every occasion. I was not overly active
and bordering on totaly inactive. I slept lots as well._
A few years ago I was in hospital, and they didn't let me eat _at all_ for
_two weeks_. No, not even [whatever gotcha you want to insert here]. Lost 10
pounds I didn't need anyway, and otherwise felt fine. Wasn't particularly
hungry during that time. Did watch a ridiculous number of cooking shows
though.
Sufficient calories are easy to come by. A 50 pound sack of rice or bread
flour is $18, enough calories to keep a large male operating a normal schedule
for over a month. Spend your limited money on nutrients.
~~~
Zenst
Not eating for two weeks and watching cooking programs is bordering on
sadistic, though if you have a strong will then I'd call you a hero.
Sadly in the UK such volumes of rice for such prices are not available at the
consumer levels. As for bread flour, thats impossible, least in the UK. But
you are right that rice and bread are the cheapest form of calorie intake. And
yes nutients are extreemly important, though how many people right even when
they have the money is probably another area and seperate issue of concern.
I would be interested in seeing a chart of a typical food shop compared
country by country price wise, certainly would be extreemly interesting. I do
know when I was in America that food was easily half as cheap and twice the
size than what I could get in the UK and I utterly loved it.
But I'll will say it - you are a hero for being able to go two weeks without
eating AND watch cooking programs, but after the first few days I suspect it
was easier to endure as your bodies metabolism adjusts. But not many people
could endure what you endured as it takes some extreeme willpower and not
everybody has that, or even close, there again some people have no choice.
There again everybody is different - even identical twins.
So +1 from me for being able to go that long and watch cooking programs,
certainly something I would not want to entertain as would many others.
[EDIT ADD] I had a look at todays prices of rice, and for the cheapest,
including amazon and ignoring shipping cost aspects and I truely envy you
being able to get rice so cheaply as for the amount you can get 50kg for in
the UK you would just about be able to get 10kg for that price and that is
using a exchange rate of 2:1 $:£ ratio.
------
gbog
Just reading Antifragile, and stumble on this seemingly immortal shitcliché:
one need to eat "At least 55 grams of protein per day", "Around 50% of food
energy from carbohydrate".
I do not even want to know what a carbothing is. This is plain proved
horseshit. Our stomach has been prepared by Mother Evolution to handle a wide
range of variation in the feed. And the risk of stomach boredom is very real.
So the real proper diet is: do not have a diet. Do know what is tasty, eat 1kg
steack some days (rarely), eat stone soup other days. Don't eat things that
have been invented in the last 50 years (from margarine to exctasy). Do never
ever watch TV or other addicting ads carriers.
Amen.
~~~
aghast
On the one hand, you have a point, and it's really tempting to give into this
sort of ethos, as an approach to diet and nutrition, but at some point it
becomes important to acknowledge that a very real and practical biology reigns
over your internal organic processes. These processes can be measured and
understood at a chemical level.
We don't understand them perfectly, and many people (maybe more than half the
world?) don't actually measure out their hunger in grams and milliliters, or
understand the fundamental building blocks of metabolism at the chemical
level, and get buy just fine, purely trusting their guts.
One size doesn't fit all, and sometimes cravings are correct, but not all the
time. Addictive substances and microbes show us that "what you want" isn't
always "what you need."
Opiates have been around for centuries, and demonstrate that just because you
might feel a hunger for something and find it satisfying doesn't mean it's
good for you. You're body's understanding of the world around it can be
distorted. Sometimes the things that distort it's intuition are odorless and
colorless. Natural food does not come with labels (and even labels can be
wrong), and if you're uncertain of the purity of the water you boil your meat
in, well, maybe there could be something in it that is sapping and impurifying
your precious bodily fluids.
Meanwhile, it might be counter-intuitive that bread mold can ward off
infection, but then again we have penicillin which has proven to be a powerful
and valuable anti-biotic.
So, feel free to operate on faith and emotion, but going through life with
your blinders on, you might be caught off guard by things that you could have
avoided if you hadn't chosen to ignore them.
~~~
gbog
> many people (maybe more than half the world?) don't actually measure out
> their hunger in grams and milliliters
You seem serious here, so I have to take it seriously. Then I'll break it to
you: people who measure their hunger in grams are at most 1% of the world.
Nobody does it in France and Europe, neither in China, India, Africa, etc.
What seems a rational and normal behavior to you is a crazy and facepalming
waste of time.
Moreover, despite the down votes (thanks for explaining by the way), I still
think this behavior is harmful and anti natural. The evolution gave us a
stomach that, normally tuned, will react to hunger, good food, bad food, with
sensations of pleasure or displeasure. Bypassing this is risky, increase your
fragility.
Food is not chemistry, it is more ancient, more important in our daily lives,
it is has a direct influence on health and mood, it should be taken with
precautions, and it must be eaten with enjoyment.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Best States for Tech Workers Willing to Relocate - Baustin213
http://www.cio.com/article/2856264/careers-staffing/top-10-states-for-tech-workers-willing-to-relocate.html
======
madcaptenor
This is quite close to just the top ten states in population - compared to
that list it omits Ohio and Michigan (7 and 8) and has New Jersey and Virginia
(11 and 12). More interesting would be a list normalized for state population
- so we'd probably see, for example, Washington and Massachusetts, and maybe
some small-state surprises that I'll admit I can't think of off the top of my
head.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Peter Seibel's talk at Justin.tv (why syntax [does|doesn't] matter). - abstractbill
http://www.justin.tv/hackertv/53433/Peter_Seibel_on_syntax_part_one
======
abstractbill
Part two:
[http://www.justin.tv/hackertv/53442/Peter_Seibel_on_syntax_p...](http://www.justin.tv/hackertv/53442/Peter_Seibel_on_syntax_part_two)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Dark Path, Or, What If I Don't Want to Quit My Job? - crux
http://blog.zdsmith.com/posts/the-dark-path-or-what-if-i-dont-want-to-quit-my-job.html
======
wyldfire
> This is rather absurd and I won’t address it any more than to point out that
> many ordinary programmers intuitively grasp the basic value of safety and
> specificity, which is why in Python it is widely considered extremely bad
> practice to write `except:` or `except Exception:` even though having to
> specify all of the exception classes we are interested in is arguably a
> safety that we could override at no loss of expressiveness.
It takes me a while to unpack this sentence. So I hope I'm misunderstanding. I
think he's saying that we could skip out on specifying the exception classes
we're interested in without losing expressiveness. Expressiveness aside, this
is a huge change in functionality.
IMO Python probably should've put some kind of damper on `except:` because
it's almost never what you want. First off, I'd call this list of classes ones
we're "prepared to handle" rather than "interested in." `except:` states
boldly "nah, don't propagate this up the stack, I know what to do no matter
what happened down there." Using `except:`/`except Exception:` is bad because
it will catch "UnboundLocalError", "IndentationError" and several others that
are very-nearly unhandle-able elements of the code's design. There exists a
sliver of a case for a handler in __main__() or somewhere else that can log
something though.
If he's getting at the point of Bob's article regarding static typing and
testing, then I don't see how Python be anything like how it is today and
still have some kind of static evaluation of Exceptions-that-could-come-from-
this-call.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Crawl Bank Accounts with the Ghost of Wesabe - abraham
http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/02/crawl-your-bank-account-with-w.php
======
there
screen scraping should only really be needed for banks that don't support
direct OFX access (or i suppose if your bank charges extra for direct access
and you don't want to pay it).
OFX is an XML'ish protocol that all of the big banks and major banking
software (MS Money, Quicken, Quickbooks, iBank, etc.) use to communicate when
downloading transactions, posting checks, doing transfers, etc. it's what i'm
using for downloading bank transactions in corduroy
(<http://corduroysite.com/>) and i have hundreds of banks listed in there.
if you know a bank's OFX URL, you can just send it an OFX query and download
transactions. it works the same for every bank and credit card company, and
it's much quicker than the screen-scraping dance of establishing a session,
logging in, clicking around, and then updating your scripts every time the
website updates its interface.
here are some common OFX servers:
[http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/OFX_Direct_Connect_Bank_Setting...](http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/OFX_Direct_Connect_Bank_Settings)
~~~
mattmiller
Does it work for bill paying? Cable, water, gas and electric, mortgage
companies? I think it would be awesome for have a way to pay all my bills from
one interface.
~~~
ryanhuff
Most banks and credit unions have a (free) electronic bill pay integrated into
their online banking that allow you to pay bills to the kinds of companies
that you listed. The bank typically figures out whether to send them a
physical check, or handle it electronically.
------
joezydeco
Man, just a simple twitter bot that hit me when a transaction was over a
certain amount, or perhaps over a certain distance away from home, would be
awesome.
~~~
ryanhuff
This kind of feature is common in most banks that I have seen. Although
instead of Twitter, its email and SMS.
~~~
joezydeco
Sure, my bank does it too. Finer-grained alerting could be useful, or possibly
aggregate tracking ("You've spent more than $50 at Starbucks this month!").
Location awareness would be the most useful fraud prevention tool.
~~~
trotsky
Keep in mind you're only liable for the first $50 in fraud on a credit card.
In practice most US institutions will cover 100% of credit or electronic
banking losses.
On the flip side, any SAAS that monitored your bank transactions would likely
be more interested in developing and selling a profile of you than protecting
you.
~~~
joezydeco
My idea was that the private,non-SAAS tool could track your total purchases on
a particular category (food, gas, restaurants), or even a specific store, and
inform you when you are blowing your budget. ("Hey, that latte put you over
for the month. Better cut back").
------
loveatlonglast
Awesome. I'm at a startup now that could totally leverage this tech. Thanks!
------
6ren
Does anyone know if something like this is available for Australian banks?
I'd love to automate telegraphic transfer payments ("wiring" the money). Just
need to poll for when the money arrives, and send out the receipt. Currently,
you have to check manually.
That said, telegraphic transfer payments often to involve a fair bit of
rigmarole, including negotiating prices, and even contractual terms in some
cases. So maybe automating that bit wouldn't make much difference. Still, it
would be great.
~~~
Joakal
mint.com equivalent in Australia:
<http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1154397>
~~~
6ren
thanks!
------
alanstorm
Half of me says awesome, while the other half is slightly-creeped-out that
scammers no longer need to stop at "nah, writing scraping scripts for bank
websites would be way too much work!".
------
swombat
Any support for UK banks? Specifically, LLoydsTSB, whose online interface is
truly horrible... (and broken to boot)
~~~
patrickk
According to this link, LLoydsTSB is in QIF format:
[http://www.accountz.com/accountz/online-bank-statement-
downl...](http://www.accountz.com/accountz/online-bank-statement-download)
A number of other UK banks there too.
~~~
swombat
Yeah. Their export functionality requires logging out and in between reports
(apparently a "known bug" to be fixed in the "next release" which doesn't have
a set date to it). I was hoping there's a way to just point something at
Lloyds and have it suck out all the data for browsing outside of the
"LloydsTSB experience"...
~~~
patrickk
Well you can try your hand at screen scraping your account using the Wesabe
script. Better than nothing. I've got a Bank of Ireland account and their
online banking is crap also. They don't even _have_ an export function, let
alone a buggy one!
------
troyk
Awesome, was just getting ready to send in the yodlee NDA
~~~
ithayer
you'll still need to send it. depending on the users you're supporting, and
how, yodlee supports the long tail (some better, some worse), which would be
difficult to support in a model like this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Here's how to avoid owning stock in gun companies - umitakcn
http://time.com/money/4366155/gun-companies-stocks-orlando-shooting/
======
waterphone
Why would I want to avoid that? Ridiculous.
------
ATroom4
This is neat idea..I will definitely share this with my friends.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Xkcd/now - jonshariat
http://xkcd.com/now
======
ggchappell
Look at Alaska. In physical reality, it nearly touches the eastern tip of
Asia. And the Aleutians stretch all the way across. But to stay more in tune
with the rest of the U.S., Alaska is almost entirely in the -9 timezone. So I
guess the map is all about timezones, not where the sun is.
I don't see any other obvious mismatches with the physical Earth. Does anyone
else?
EDIT: I suppose the gap between Greenland and Iceland is similar.
(Also, not that it's a major landmass, but Hawaii is missing. There's even
space for it.)
------
oxymoron
I made a version that can be rotated:
[http://c0la.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd1335.html](http://c0la.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd1335.html)
------
ColinWright
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7303361](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7303361)
------
adityar
If it is a gif, how does it make the initial frame (on load of image) equal to
the frame for the current time?
~~~
gelatocar
It isn't a gif, he's got a bunch of images at 15 minute intervals.
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h15m.png](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h15m.png)
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h30m.png](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h30m.png)
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h45m.png](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h45m.png)
The server just loads the right one for the given time.
------
vxNsr
Seems Randall is having fun with gifs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Finding Developers for Your Startup Is Like Dating. And How to Master It - _recurse
https://blog.nontechfounder.co/finding-developers-for-your-startup-is-like-dating-a2335664971a#.pujhxnifh
======
_recurse
Why your opening line might put off your perfect match.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How would you split ownership in this scenario? - Axsuul
My friend, who is the CEO of a company in this industry that this startup will be in, and I came up with a great idea and we're going to pursue it. However, he wants to split it 50/50 but I'm not comfortable with that because<p>* I don't have a job so I have more to risk<p>* I will be the one developing the product (he is non-technical)<p>* He is already running another company, there's only so much time he can invest in this one<p>What he brings to the table is strong connections within the industry. He'll be able to get a lot of customers on board initially. Do you guys think 50/50 is fair in this scenario?
======
tptacek
The problem you have here is not that you're unemployed and your prospective
partner isn't (that actually hurts you, as it decreases your opportunity
cost). Rather, the problem is simply that your partner isn't working for the
company.
The tricky issue here isn't the split. If you think your partner is going to
add significant value to the company (and: you clearly do), stop obsessing
about the split, because how you carve up equity isn't going to change your
outcome _nearly_ as much as how well you two work together. Both negotiating
for a better split, and, worse, executing the company as an unequal
partnership are going to cost relationship capital. Save that capital for
something that really matters.
The tricky issue is vesting. DO NOT ENTER A PARTNERSHIP WITHOUT VESTING.
Anyone who gets equity, YOU INCLUDED, needs to be on 4-year vesting. Since you
can't really "vest" someone who isn't even working for the company, you have a
bigger problem than the split.
My suggestion is, don't offer your prospective partner any equity until they
start. That default starting equity, while significant, won't be equal to
yours; it'll be, as Joel Spolsky puts it, "second stripe" equity. (Joel's
stripe examples are 50/10/10/10/10/10, but you'd obviously change that;
perhaps 30/20/10/10/10/10).
At the same time, offer them an option to purchase equity equivalent to yours
(ie, to buy 5% of the company). The price of that option should capture the
value of the time you spent working on the company PLUS the added risk you
took; think of it as a premium on your salary to prevent the partner from
waiting- and- seeing how well things go before joining up (if the cost of the
option was just your salary, it would be dumb for them to pay it until they
had to, and they'd be disincentivized from joining).
Be aware that your prospective partner is probably going to balk at this, in
which case, oh well; there's lots of ideas out there. If you're not in a
position to amicably walk away, no-harm no-foul, you have no business
negotiating at all.
~~~
hoodwink
These are some creative structuring ideas. In addition, you could keep the
50/50 split and structure some sort of "promote" or disproportionate share of
the company after a return of capital or above a certain value. For instance,
you guys could be 50/50 up to a $10 million valuation. After $10 million, you
could be entitled to an extra X% as an incentive.
------
trueneverland
Different people will have a different of opinion on this. As full disclosure,
I am NOT a fan of 50/50 splits in general and have had my fair share of
businesses and startups.
Here is my take:
1\. Your first bullet point is irrelevant. You not having a job doesn't mean
you couldn't get a job to lower risk if thats the way you think (although
thats not a good way to think at all). Him having a job doesn't mean much.
What matters is what you each bring to the table and what you contribute. If
your argument was more base on time commitment rather than risk, I'd agree.
2\. I HIGHLY disagree with this argument. A lot of HN love to downplay the
non-technical founder (with good reasons) but a valuable non-technical founder
who have the skills (which many who start out don't) is worth their weight in
gold as well. The non-technical argument here is more of a bias use case than
a fair assessment of what each is bringing to the table and how that will
contribute towards the startup.
3\. This one is valid. As someone else noted, check for liabilities regarding
this. The fact that you are going to be putting in more time makes it somewhat
valid that the split should not be 50/50 starting out. Unless he is investing
some money and willing to put in equal time, among other things, it would be
very difficult to justify a 50/50 partnership. That said, if you value and
trust him, and he does bring the goods as you say (not just perceived), then
you will need to figure out fair compensation otherwise.
TL;DR 50/50 probably doesn't make sense in this case but some of the arguments
presented are invalid in my personal opinion.
~~~
tptacek
Equity splits have at least as much to do with risk as they do with
contribution. But it's risk in a more general sense; you don't get compensated
for being so financially insecure that the venture might wipe you out
completely. Instead, it's "risk" that captures opportunity cost.
Unfortunately for the poster, despite the fact that his prospective partner
already has a well-paying job, his risk in starting this company could be
_higher_ , because the opportunity cost to an established CEO of joining on
with an unproven venture is very high. CEO's tend to "trade up" to other CEO
roles at established companies.
~~~
trueneverland
I think doing a startup is risky for a lot of people in general. Comparing
risk in the manner the OP did is poor. I think to succeed you have to have a
certain level of risk tolerance. There are a lot more things to consider and
compare than who risks more financially or in opportunity cost. Getting into a
startup requires more commitment than that in my personal opinion.
Now if you're talking about risk appetite in doing things and jumping into a
startup, then I'd agree risk is a factor worth taking note of.
~~~
tptacek
"Contribution" can actually be measured in terms of risk; the risk is the
opportunity cost of the value of that contribution to any other business you
had the option to be a part of.
Risk is more important than your writing seems to indicate. Equity isn't an
achievement award.
~~~
trueneverland
I think you read my comment wrong then. I never undervalued risk in any way. I
agree its one of the most important factors. But I think the type of risk is
more important than what you lose out on as opposed to the other guy.
------
koopajah
There was a discussion a few days ago about splitting shares :
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4379079>
CodeCube provided a link to Joel Spolsky's answer on how to do this. He speaks
about your specific case where you'd work full time on it while your co-
founder does not : [http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-
new-s...](http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-software-
startup-how-do-i-allocate-ownership-fairly/23326#23326)
------
aauldy
I think you guys should sit down together and write down a list of what you
will be contributing to the company. Im sure it will become very clear as to
how you should break up the company. In my opinion after reading your post it
doesnt look sound like you should be splitting the company 50/50
------
thiagodotfm
Vest his 50% equity but instead of using time, use "customers" he bought on
board(or define a different way to measure his value) and decide an amount of
customers he should bring in order to make it worth those 50%.
Give him them the equity that he deserve based on this performance. :)
------
vladd
If he's CEO but not the owner, be careful about non-compete provisions in his
employment contract which might create legal liability for your company in the
future, especially if he brags about bringing "lot of customers" with "strong
connections within the industry".
------
russtrpkovski
Can you acquire customers on your own? If your product truly solve a problem,
it doesn't need someone with "strong connections"
------
NonEUCitizen
If he also puts in a few million dollars, you might consider it. But
otherwise, no.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Post-YC Startup Numbers - matt1
Just trying to make sense of some numbers...<p>According to the Inc article, 27 out of YC's 145 funded startups have failed, 7 have been acquired, and 2 have merged with other YC startups, meaning that the majority of the startups--a full three-quarters--are still hard at work.<p>PG recently posted that about 200 people are employed by YC-funded startups, which works out to be a little less than 2 per company on average (109/200). Plus, some of the companies employ a dozen or more people, which makes the distribution even worse. If you assume that the majority of the companies were founded by at least 2 people and that not many founders have started more than one company, the stats indicate that a lot of founders have moved on to other endeavors, no?
======
vaksel
those are employees, they aren't counting the founders in those 200 people
~~~
pg
Also, those numbers refer to the 118 startups prior to the current cycle. The
27 this summer haven't had time yet to fail, merge, get acquired, or hire
people.
~~~
matt1
Thank you -- that makes sense.
Do you know how many founders there were in addition to the 200 employees in
that survey?
~~~
pg
You can usually multiply the number of startups by about 2.5.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Are there medical practitioners who understand founders and engineers? - hagmonk
I've seen a lot of threads on HN recently where health issues have come up. Quite often the comments are filled with anecdotes that lead me to believe engineers and startup founders have unique health concerns.<p>Our work leaves little time in the day for many regular administrative tasks, much less more spaced out tasks like health checkups. In males the deferral of health checkups is already a problem, but for founders and engineers who are male I believe it is exacerbated.<p>We work long hours in tense environments, but with little cardiovascular activity. If we do perform regular exercise, many of us gravitate towards very goal oriented intense workouts like spin classes, crossfit, marathons, century bike rides, etc. With such limited time and a drive to "succeed" at anything we do, there are no half measures.<p>I recently skipped on a doctor's visit, despite my company having access to on-site physicians. The problem was a "typical male" problem, but a few hours of research led me to believe I understood the symptoms and the physiology enough to spend the time on some critical stuff that needed to be done. My head was also filled with the drama of the U.S. medical system, where tests would be ordered that left me with a feeling of dread and uncertainty for weeks despite the statistics indicating a serious condition was extremely unlikely.<p>So what to do ... can we use our healthy remuneration packages to visit doctors that can spend the time to keep an eye on us? Can someone build a "Doctor as a Service" that I feel is always available and will spot unusual patterns in my results, rather than the doctor roulette of medical centers? Should I just get an exhaustive imaging scan every two years to find those dark patches that will eventually kill me ten years from now? Has anyone, as a founder or engineer, found a way of integrating a medical check into their lives that seems to make sense?
======
yinjing
>Our work leaves little time in the day for many regular administrative tasks,
much less more spaced out tasks like health checkups. We work long hours in
tense environments, but with little cardiovascular activity.
We bust our asses almost as much as any other working person, and like most
other working people have little free time during the day.
>We work long hours in tense environments, but with little cardiovascular
activity. If we do perform regular exercise, many of us gravitate towards very
goal oriented intense workouts like spin classes, crossfit, marathons, century
bike rides, etc. With such limited time and a drive to "succeed" at anything
we do, there are no half measures.
We're special snowflakes who can do everything! Except take care of ourselves,
because that's boring.
>I recently skipped on a doctor's visit, despite my company having access to
on-site physicians.
I'm too lazy to walk down the hall, and don't have a problem making
appointments I'm not planning to keep.
>The problem was a "typical male" problem, but a few hours of research led me
to believe I understood the symptoms and the physiology enough to spend the
time on some critical stuff that needed to be done.
But it doesn't really matter whether I see a doctor, because I ignore medical
advice on general principle.
>My head was also filled with the drama of the U.S. medical system, where
tests would be ordered that left me with a feeling of dread and uncertainty
for weeks
And really, all I want is simple reassurance,
>despite the statistics indicating a serious condition was extremely unlikely.
so I can sue everybody involved when I develop an unlikely serious condition.
>can we use our healthy remuneration packages to visit doctors that can spend
the time to keep an eye on us?
I'd like a doctor to visit me at my desk, but not the distracting sort of
doctor that palpitates my abdomen and asks me questions when I'm trying to
understand really important code. By "visit" I do not mean anything that
involves traveling.
>build a "Doctor as a Service" that I feel is always available
even more available than my on-site medical center
>and will spot unusual patterns in my results
despite not doing any testing with which to generate results
>Should I just get an exhaustive imaging scan every two years to find those
dark patches that will eventually kill me ten years from now?
ask your doctor/any doctor, who's trained for decades to answer questions like
this
>Has anyone, as a founder or engineer, found a way of integrating a medical
check into their lives that seems to make sense?
Yes: 1\. Find a doctor that works nights and weekends 2\. Leave work during
the day, which isn't difficult for us white-collar types 3\. Make the time to
do it, just like you make the time to do other unpleasant but necessary things
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BrainFuck inspired scheduler successfully replaced the Python GIL - dryicerx
http://bugs.python.org/issue7946#msg101612
======
janzer
To clarify a little, this patch does not eliminate the GIL it just schedules
the next thread to acquire the GIL using the BFS scheduling algorithm.
Also and perhaps more importantly this has not been incorporated into any
version of python. It is just a patch on the bug tracker and realistically I
doubt it has much chance of being accepted.
~~~
kinghajj
If he's fixed the bugs and gotten it to be portable (at least to POSIX), then
why shouldn't it get adopted? Just look at those benchmark results! 259ms per
loop instead of the next best of 1.25s. If a real app gets improvements from
this, it should be a no-brainer.
~~~
sid0
Glancing at the patch, it looks like it should work on both POSIX and Win32.
~~~
JoachimSchipper
At least the patch as first proposed suffered from all-the-world-is-Linux (see
the discussion of CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID)...
~~~
rbanffy
You have to start with one platform. You then make it work on the others.
If I write something that initially only runs on IRIX and then make it work on
other OSs, it would be unfair to attribute it an all-the-world-is-IRIX. It
just happens the guy had a Linux box to refine his idea to the point of
working, unfortunately using stuff other OSs don't offer in the same way.
------
ash
The title is wrong. Brain Fuck scheduler is not related to brainfuck language.
------
mahmud
_The scheduler is a simplified implementation of the recent kernel Brain F_ _k
Scheduler by the Linux hacker Con Kolivas_
Not as fun now is it? Kolivas is a leader on scheduling, he can attribute his
hacks to whatever joke language out there and that wont make them any less
stellar.
~~~
dschobel
I had totally missed Con's return from self-imposed exile. Very exciting. I
loved his previous scheduler work. Glad to see him back at it.
------
viraptor
As far as I understand, it just changes the way thread scheduling works, but
doesn't make Python "properly multithreaded". That means it's still only one
active non-native-extension thread running at any time. Could someone confirm
it?
Edit: I guess janzer confirmed this at posting at the same time.
~~~
jey
No, Python doesn't work like that even with the traditional GIL. The problem
is that even when you have multiple OS threads, they all end up competing for
the same lock which kills throughput (but not as badly as the fully-serialized
scenario you described). By using a scheduler the locking order can at least
be controlled a bit more to improve throughput. [As far as I know; been a few
years since I dug through CPython.]
~~~
viraptor
What do you mean by "not as badly as the fully-serialized scenario"? I thought
that Python threads are fully serialized, apart from extensions code which can
spawn their own threads and release the GIL during operations that don't
affect the python memory (IO mainly). Interpreter still switches Python
threads using GIL, but the Python code itself never runs in parallel.
Are we talking about the same thing, or is there some other non-serialized
scenario?
~~~
jey
I'm pretty sure that there's a good chunk of stuff you can do in Python
without acquiring the GIL -- the problem is that in practice you end up doing
a lot of I/O and stuff that requires at least momentarily acquiring the GIL,
leading to contention. So if you stuck to the operations that didn't require
locking any GIL-protected data, you could run at full throughput. It's at
least not the case that the GIL is held _all_ the time while running a Python
thread -- the problem is instead that your threads end up having to acquire it
_often_.
~~~
JoachimSchipper
Actually, the GIL is needed to execute Python code (well, access Python
objects). It is released by I/O- or computation-heavy C code, so e.g. SciPy or
reading files allows some level of parallelism, but pure-Python code will be
serial.
~~~
jey
I stand corrected. And frightened. fork(), here I come!
~~~
cma
fork() isn't that great for a lot of situations. If you are thinking of taking
advantage of your operating system's copy-on-write paging by loading a large
chunk of data to be used read-only, forking a bunch of processes, processing
the data each processes, and finally, 'reducing' the results of all of the
forks into some sort of output, don't bother.
What happens is when you read an object in one process, python increments the
reference count, thus touching the memory page, thus copying it, thus screwing
you.
(however, compacting garbage collection turns out to have more or less the
same problem)
------
Snark7
This is related to Python 3.2 only. In other words, this is not noteworthy.
~~~
wisty
Python is python. I wouldn't be surprised to see it ported to python 2.7 if it
does work. At the moment I doubt it's production ready - lots of testing and
validation before it goes live. I thing Guido explicitly said that removing
the GIL is the sort of thing he would like to see in Python 2.X.
~~~
apgwoz
Actually, though I'm using 2.X in everything I'm doing, I'd rather see it
_only_ appear in 3.X. There has to be something that drives people to port
stuff to 3.X or it's not going to happen. Dramatic speed improvements such as
what this _potentially_ provides would be extremely helpful in that regard.
The other hope right now, is of course unladen swallow, which hasn't proved to
be very significant yet, as far as I'm concerned.
~~~
sapphirecat
3.X can be pretty awesome, but as long as projects want to maintain
compatibility with 2.5 or earlier, it's going to be difficult to get some
serious porting momentum going. Once 2.6+ becomes a practical development
target, 3.x will be a much easier sell.
At least, that's my perspective after watching PHP 5 slowly catch on amongst
PHPers, even though it had many more improvements (e.g. objects are no longer
value types), and far fewer compatibility breaks.
~~~
jrockway
People are lazy. I still hear people wanting Perl 5.8 compatibility for my
modules, even though 5.10 is 2 years old and has 100% backwards and forwards
compatibility with Perl 5.8. In other words, all your existing code will run
unmodified, and any 5.10-specific features you use will cause 5.8 to die at
compile time.
People confuse me.
~~~
astine
I use a lot of Perl 5.8 at the LoC because it's the only dynamic language that
comes installed by default on Solaris 10. That, and because it is the primary
language of a proprietary product that we have to use. I'd love to use Perl
5.10, but then I'd have to install it on all of the machines on which my code
is expected to run. If I had that kind of control, I'd skip Perl and go
straight to Python or Ruby. (Actually, that was a lie, I'd use Common Lisp if
I could.) As it is, I've standardized on Perl 5.8.
~~~
jrockway
They can install your product, but not if you bundle Perl/Python/Ruby in that
directory?
~~~
astine
The product I am talking about is Signiant:<http://www.signiant.com/>. It's a
file based workflow application that basically that is written in Perl in the
same sense that emacs is written in emacs lisp. The idea is for people to
write workflows in the embedded Perl environment which is the same across of
the machines on which Signiant is installed. I _could_ use another
interpretor, but that would require extra work and I wouldn't be able to use a
lot of the Signiant specific code.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Implementing a Chroma Key Algorithm (Step-by-Step) - leirbagarc
http://marvinproject.sourceforge.net/en/examples/chromaKey.html
======
jararaty
Is there a video of it working?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pwn2own day one: Safari, IE8 fall, Chrome unchallenged - sigzero
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2011/03/pwn2own-day-one-safari-ie8-fall-chrome-unchallenged.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
======
jedsmith
> This is because, in a change to historic competition rules, the system
> configuration was frozen last week, so the last-minute fix hasn't prevented
> exploitation.
then later
> One possible reason for this is that Google published a Chrome update
> yesterday, closing at least 24 security flaws. The would-be Chrome attacker
> may have been depending on one of these flaws to attack the browser.
I thought the configuration was frozen last week. Was that only for Apple? On
first read, this seems like a faulty conclusion based on the earlier
statement.
~~~
blinkingled
AFAIK the contest requires you to exploit an previously unknown vulnerability.
(Contest rules link is down on cansecwest site.)
Which means even though Apple patched the 60 vulnerabilities the researcher
used a one that was not known and thus not patched.
------
JonnieCache
_...Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) are well-known_
Note that unless things have changed (something which I can find no evidence
for,) snow leopard still lags behind windows and linux in its ASLR, in that it
doesnt randomise all the key parts of the kernel. Hopefully this will be fixed
in lion.
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/29/snow_leopard_securit...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/29/snow_leopard_security/)
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Address_space...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Address_space_layout_randomization#Mac_OS_X)
EDIT: although apparently, as ever, the community comes to the rescue. Stefan
Esser presents steps to randomise dyld's address space yourself:
[http://antid0te.com/antid0te-for-snow-leopard-rebasing-
dyld....](http://antid0te.com/antid0te-for-snow-leopard-rebasing-dyld.html)
------
alperakgun
it is sad to see apple mac/osx fail now for the 5th year in pwn2own; that
means apple doesnt take their task seriously,as much as they take ux polishing
and leak-hyping. that explains why on mac os/x safari usage lags behind
others; given a competitive environment apple products can't compete.
~~~
sigzero
Well...the last Safari update patched 50 things. So, I am hoping that some
light is shining into the Apple security brain.
------
keyle
Well I just found out that Google Chrome 10.0 is out. Thanks for that.
~~~
Devilboy
Chrome now beats every other major browser in the version number department.
~~~
lean
trivial, but Opera's at 11
~~~
silversmith
Emphasis on _major_ :)
------
twodayslate
Sound like Google is making their challenge harder than everyone else. That
just isn't fair.
~~~
elliottcarlson
Is that the case? My understanding was that they were offering an additional
bounty however the rules to claim that was a bit more strict than the standard
pwn2own rules. I could be mistaken though...
~~~
billybob
Not sure if the rules were stricter, but Chrome's increased bounty from Google
was the main thing I wanted to hear about in this contest. It's a nice PR move
if Chrome isn't hacked successfully, and probably a nice recruitment move if
it is.
------
adsr
Kind of odd, since the Safari vulnerability was in WebKit.
~~~
Xuzz
Chrome has superior sandboxing of the rendering engine than Safari, so even if
you could crash Chrome with the bug, actually doing something "useful" would
be significantly more difficult.
~~~
adsr
Theoretically that may be, but this time Chrome won only because the
contestant didn't show up.
"The third browser to be tested was scheduled to be Chrome. However, the
contestant registered to attempt the attack did not show up, so the browser
remains unbeaten."
~~~
jamesaguilar
I wonder if there is a reason he didn't show up. For example, perhaps he was
incapable of demonstrating any exploit. It's not as simple as "it would have
been compromised if the contestant showed up."
~~~
adsr
Of course it's not that simple! I did not mean to imply that. By the same
token as it's not as simple as, he/she wasn't able to produce an exploit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Only 31% of California voters want to keep paying for bullet train - gok
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-usc-poll-bullet-train-20180525-story.html
======
rayiner
This is the upper middle class robbing poor people. The projected fare would
be $86 per ticket, about triple the cost of driving for a family of four. The
people who are going to pay that are upper middle class travelers and business
travelers. Which would be fine if the project was paying for itself, but it
won’t be. It’ll be state subsidies for high income professionals. That money
could be doing so much good (schools, public transit for lower income people,
etc.).
For example, the $100+ billion this will eventually cost could create a fund
that would perpetually pay (with inflation increases) about $1,200 to every
low-income K-12 student in the State.
~~~
ebikelaw
No, the upper-middle-class robbing the poor has been the history of our
highway system, which you can't use without owning a car and paying ~
$0.55/mile to operate it. We have shoveled hundreds of billions of dollars of
subsidies down the throat of the automobile culture and we did not get a
functioning transportation system from doing so. We got a massively
regressive, barely functional system and all of its attendant externalities in
the form of health problems for those living near the roads, and end-of-
civilization CO2 pollution problems for people living everywhere.
The cost of HSR suddenly sounds so much more reasonable if you frame it in
terms of the road budget. HSR's all-in cost for right-of-way, tracks,
stations, and trains is about four years worth of California's current road
budget.
~~~
rayiner
That's completely divorced from reality. Even poor people own cars! 80% of
people in poverty have access to a vehicle.[1] $0.55/mile is about $120 for an
LA to SF trip. For a family of four, this train is $350. Which one do you
think a low-income family is going to take to visit relatives for Christmas?
In any case, poor people who don't own cars rely on busses and subways--which
this boondoggle does nothing for.
[1] $77 billion would also create a perpetual fund that would be able to buy a
$10,000 used car for every household in poverty every 5 years.
~~~
ebikelaw
That's cherry-picking a favorable example for the car. It's always better to
take your car when you fill it up with people, compared to other modes that
charge per person. It's true locally - always cheaper to drive from Oakland to
San Francisco vs. four round-trip BART tickets - and it's true regionally -
cheaper to drive the whole family than to fly, if you don't value your time.
Of course both of those assume that you can afford the car and that the car
you can afford will survive the trip.
Anyway, your last sentence is wrong. Much of the money under the HSR project
is going to local transportation projects. So far they have spent or committed
seven billion dollars for Caltrain, BART, Muni, Sacramento RT, Capitol
Corridor, ACE, LA Metro, Metrolink, San Diego Blue Line, and Coaster, among
others.
~~~
rayiner
It's a highly relevant example. What are the reasons a lower-income person
might travel from LA to SF? Traveling to visit family is probably the primary
reason.
You can see this play out with the Acela on the east coast. It's almost all
business travelers or nicely dressed professional looking people. People who
can't afford $100+ per ticket take the bus ($35).
Likewise, even lower income people traveling alone aren't going to spend $86
for a ticket on HSR (if it's not more like $100+ by the time it's finally
open). They'll pay $35 for a Bolt bus.
~~~
ebikelaw
Speaking of disconnected from reality, you seem to be claiming that poor
people travel, which they don't. In yet another example of American
inequality, the bottom income quartile of families are quite stationary; they
can neither afford to move about nor do they have "days off" as such because
an American is not legally entitled to any.
The supermajority of American families cannot even afford an unexpected $500
expense; they sure as hell aren't going to blow hundreds to drive to LA.
~~~
jessaustin
'rayiner seems to have argued you in a circle here. He is the one claiming the
poor aren't going to ride this train; you hardly contradict him when you argue
they aren't going to use cheaper transportation either.
~~~
ebikelaw
Not at all. He hasn't addressed my point which is that for individuals
travelling alone the train will be dramatically cheaper than driving over long
distances.
~~~
tptacek
You haven't come close to establishing that either. Bus fare from SF to LA is
less than half that train ticket price.
------
jhpriestley
I think this is a very misleading headline. 49 percent support the high speed
rail project in this poll, based on a neutrally worded question. The 31%
figure comes from a leading question that starts with "The latest estimates
for California’s high-speed rail project are that it will cost up to $77
billion dollars and will be finished in 2033. This estimate is nearly twice as
much as the original estimated cost."
The full survey is here
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g5uibGxcEuknURkZZvT4Ah4Q9-I...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g5uibGxcEuknURkZZvT4Ah4Q9-IvalVz/view)
~~~
casefields
Totally misleading to be up front about expanding costs. No one has to right
to know what the taxpayer could be on the hook for...
~~~
IshKebab
It's a classic loaded question technique. Emphasise the bad things before
asking the question. This is pretty obvious.
Do you think they would have got the same result if it was worded "A high
speed train will reduce journey times by X%, reduce congestion by Y% on the
roads and reduce CO2 pollution by Z%. Do you think we should build one?"
------
jiggliemon
When you sell voters the sizzle and not the steak; this disillusion is just a
matter of time.
It was sold on an impossible premise; \- Minimum 200 miles per hour (320 km/h)
where conditions permit \- Maximum travel time between SF and LA not to exceed
2 hr 40 min \- Financially self-sustaining (operation and maintenance costs
fully covered by revenue)
A flight to SF is 1.5hrs from LA (take off and landing). And only costs $150
round trip. If you could reduce the hassle of “security” you have a better,
faster, cheaper high speed transit system.
It was supposed to cost $30b. It will cost north of $90b. And it will still
need to be subsidized. And it will be slower than 2hr 40min.
If you could possibly deliver what was sold - I’m sure the polling would
reflect that. But what the people are getting is a shadow of what they
approved.
~~~
gok
The SF/LA route has an even bigger problem: once you get to LA, then what?
There's not really enough transit in the LA area to get where you actually
mean to go, and that's almost certain to be true even if all the current
transit projects finish. The Bay Area frankly isn't much better. You'll very
likely to need to take a car (maybe an autonomous one) from the end points.
And given that, flying seems even better. There are 3 big SFBA airports and 5
in the LA metro area; direct flights between those are more likely to get you
closer to your endpoints.
The more legitimate case for CAHSR is really opening up the middle of the
state. But that could have been done much cheaper.
------
jboles
Killing it would be short-sighted. If it gets killed, there would probably
never be the opportunity to build it ever again. California is flush with tech
money, put some of it to good use.
~~~
Agustus
Killing it would be far sighted. Technology is improving transportation
methods, we have buses and planes that can do the same thing as this train at
much cheaper rates and without tax dollars to construct or maintain.
~~~
ebikelaw
There is no bus or plane that can do anything like what HSR can do. That's the
entire point of the project. It will triple the capacity of our north-south
transportation system at a fraction of the cost of equivalent airport
capacity.
This is something that people don't understand when they haven't travelled
enough to experience good rail systems. Rail has massive capacity, 100k people
per hour per track direction. That's 500 lanes of theoretical freeway
capacity, or 1000 lanes under realistic operating conditions, and it's more
than the total capacity between all Bay Area and all L.A.-area airports, even
if you operated that route solely with widebody jets, which we don't.
~~~
DrScump
100k people per hour per track direction
Your source for this statistic?
~~~
mmt
I don't have any primary sources offhand, but the closest thing I last looked
at was
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail)
which has a number of 25k/h for light rail (pretty low speed, single-deck,
presumably short trains).
I'd say 4x that amount for a full-sized HSR train is credible. It's just that
that's a _maximum_. I don't believe that ridership will _ever_ be high enough
to approach that number, unless air travel is outlawed.
~~~
IshKebab
> I don't believe that ridership will ever be high enough to approach that
> number
Trains in the rush hour in the UK are pretty much always full, with people
standing up. The tube at rush hour looks like this:
[https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-
public/thumbnails/image/2...](https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-
public/thumbnails/image/2016/05/06/15/tube.jpg?w968h681)
If it's not too expensive or infrequent I imagine it will be very popular.
~~~
mmt
> Trains in the rush hour
Especially given the picture you provide, I think you're talking about intra-
urban rail (subway, metro, even suburban commuter).
That's a far cry from a 350-mile, 3-hour inter-city link.
Show me the picture for the London-Edinburgh "rush hour".
~~~
IshKebab
Done:
[https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article158562.ece/ALTE...](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article158562.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/a-busy-
train-carriage-from-southend-to-liverpool-pic-jk-press-781702887.jpg)
Southend to Liverpool is 3-4 hours on the train.
~~~
DrScump
How close does it get to the stated _25,000 passengers per hour_ throughput
metric?
~~~
mmt
Keep in mind that's for light rail, only 1/4 of what the commenter claimed for
HSR.
With 3 occupants per vehicle, 4 freeway lanes could carry 25k, not as
outlandish-sounding as 25.
------
marcell
The cost argument is always interesting to me, when you consider it in
context. We (in America) recently passed a tax cut that will cost around
$150B/year for the next 10 years, and likely more if the temporary parts are
made permanent. Even with cost overruns, that's almost enough to pay for 2
California bullet trains PER YEAR for the next decade.
And yes, I know California is just 1 state out of 50, but even still, it just
seems like people have really bad context on what is / is not an outrageous
cost for government.
~~~
rayiner
The tax cut is at least money back in peoples’ pockets. This is a huge subsidy
that’ll benefit a tiny fraction of people who need to routinely travel between
LA and SF, and can afford to spend $86 doing so (probably over $100 when it
finally opens, its gone up a lot already).
~~~
vvanders
> The tax cut is at least money back in peoples’ pockets.
s/people/corporation
~~~
exclusiv
It's quite nice for small business too.
------
zcbenz
From Wikipedia:
"In July 2014 The World Bank reported that the per kilometer cost of
California's high-speed rail system was $56 million, more than double the
average cost of $17–21 million per km of high speed rail in China and more
than the $25–39 million per km average for similar projects in Europe."
"As of May 2015, both construction packages awarded have come in significantly
under staff estimates."
"In December 2016, an internal-use-only draft risk assessment produced by the
Federal Railroad Administration was delivered to the California Rail Authority
which warned that the ICS (Merced-Bakersfield) segment could cost as much as
$9.5 billion instead of the $6.4 billion originally budgeted"
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-
Speed_Rail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-Speed_Rail)
------
johnbatch
Link to the Methodology and Survey:
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g5uibGxcEuknURkZZvT4Ah4Q9-I...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g5uibGxcEuknURkZZvT4Ah4Q9-IvalVz/view?usp=sharing)
Question 26 is the headline.
Question 25 is In general, do you [oppose] or [support] California’s project
to build a high-speed rail system connecting Los Angeles, the Central Valley,
and San Francisco?
Strongly/somewhat Support =49 Strongly/somewhat Oppose = 43
Cross Tabs break these question down by race, education, political party, age,
region, etc:
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p1sIIQSUED6MwcGxVYcImDAsn7e...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p1sIIQSUED6MwcGxVYcImDAsn7e-nY-E/view?usp=sharing)
------
d4l3k
Key graphic: [https://www.trbimg.com/img-5b0779e9/turbine/la-pol-g-ca-
usc-...](https://www.trbimg.com/img-5b0779e9/turbine/la-pol-g-ca-usc-poll-
bullet-train_web_2/)
31% for, 48% against, 19% undecided for all Californian voters.
~~~
Hydraulix989
Also worth noting the huge disparity between Bay Area voters (overwhelmingly
FOR continuing the project) vs. LA voters (this is an LA Times article).
~~~
jessaustin
Is LA Times against it because LA residents are, or are LA residents against
it because LA Times is?
~~~
ubernostrum
People think of California as one of the bluest blue states, but it's very far
from homogeneous. The LA metro area, for example, contains several affluent
and strongly Republican communities, which means that if you poll
educated/affluent/traditional-news-reading people in that area you're going to
get results that lean more conservative than what people often expect (and
Republicans/conservatives in the US are generally against public transit and
public-works projects).
You can get the same thing in the Bay area if you poll in the right places.
See Atherton's lawsuits to try to stop Caltrain electrification, for example.
~~~
Hydraulix989
Politics aside, is there any more practical reason Bay Area would prefer to
have this train more than LA (e.g. people in Bay Area visit LA more often than
people in LA visit Bay Area)?
~~~
ubernostrum
SFO and LAX send a lot of traffic to each other (each one is the other's top
domestic destination), and there doesn't seem to be a directional preference:
[https://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=LAX&...](https://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=LAX&carrier=FACTS)
[https://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=SFO&...](https://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=SFO&carrier=FACTS)
There may be a practical argument that the HSR would make it easier to commute
to SF from further away, which might relieve housing pressure a bit.
But I really do think it mostly comes down to politics, and to there being
more people in the SF area whose politics lean toward public transit/public
works than in the LA area.
------
melling
How does China build 14,000 miles of high-speed rail, with another 10,000 on
the way, while the United States essentially has zero miles?
Countries are the same size.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
speed_rail_in_China#/me...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
speed_rail_in_China#/media/File%3ARail_map_of_PRC.svg)
Their cheaper and more efficient infrastructure is could to pay dividends over
the next few decades.
~~~
toomuchtodo
Disregard of labor regulations and property rights, as well as cheap labor.
~~~
casefields
tl;dr [https://ibb.co/iEPiao](https://ibb.co/iEPiao)
------
consto
This website is blocked in Europe.
~~~
jdavis703
Ask your representatives in parliament to consider implementing less
internationally expansive laws or use a VPN.
~~~
hadrien01
Ask your newspapers in the U.S. to consider respecting user privacy.
~~~
AndrewGaspar
The easiest and cheapest answer is the status-quo, which is ambiguity on
whether you're compliant with GDPR, so it's completely logical they would just
block access.
------
Apes
Let's call it the monkey defense. If you don't like something the majority
supports, scream and fling as much shit at it for as long as possible until no
one is left that can bear the stench or the spectacle. Then claim you were
right about it being a failure all along.
~~~
AndrewBissell
The people who said this would be a massive boondoggle and voted against the
bond in the first place _were_ right all along.
~~~
jessaustin
_Every_ big public project is a massive boondoggle. Should we just stop doing
things?
~~~
basementcat
The Golden Gate Bridge was finished ahead of schedule and under budget.
~~~
Patrick_Devine
Maybe, but the Bay Bridge wasn't, and they were built around the same time.
[http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/blog/entry/dont-
forget-...](http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/blog/entry/dont-forget-the-
bay-bridge-project-was-a-boondoggle)
~~~
jessaustin
That link discusses the renovation of the eastern section that took place
since 2000? Hardly comparable to the original construction of either bridge...
------
mistrial9
many hidden assumptions and divisions here.. \- Bay Area / Sacramento area
voters versus LA versus who \- the traffic and pollution of cars fits many
individuals just fine, and the ability to think and act in larger groups is
rarer than one might think \- every govt project has cost problems, why is
this different
Trains with modern power sources seem like a really good idea; the rest is
project management.
~~~
DrScump
Trains with modern power sources seem like a really good idea
Tell BART that. Their new Antioch extension will be _diesel powered_.
------
upofadown
Normally the majority will not support a public transportation project simply
because the majority can not use it.
------
clishem
I flagged this article is geoblocked in Europe.
------
nedwin
Can you imagine if you put every public infrastructure project to a vote?
~~~
ebikelaw
We did put this to a vote and it passed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Exercise Tied to Lower Risk for Some Types of Cancer - hvo
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/exercise-tied-to-lower-risk-for-13-types-of-cancer/?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
======
azdle
I don't have access to the actual paper, but my first thought on this is to
wonder if they factored in the idea that people who specifically exercise are
obviously interested in being healthy and may be doing other things that are
"healthy" that would affect whether they get cancer or not.
I wonder if it'd be possible to get data on people who are active, but not for
the reason of being healthy, things like working construction, and compare
that to see if it's the activity itself or just the mentality that comes from
wanting to be healthy.
~~~
mrfusion
Here's the problem with your idea though
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1779251...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17792517)
It suggests people get more benefits from exercise when they expect it.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
~~~
azdle
That's a very interesting experiment, however, at least from how it's
described in that article, I don't think it's anywhere rigiorus enough to draw
any conclusions from.
> One possible explanation is that the process of learning about the amount of
> exercise they were already getting somehow changed the maids' behavior. But
> Langer says that her team surveyed both the women and their managers and
> found no indication that the maids had altered their routines in any way.
> She believes that the change can be explained only by the change in the
> women's mindset.
I think that they're too quick to dismiss a change in behavior. Simply asking
someone (and their managers‽) if they did anything different this month than
they did last month isn't a very reliable way to figure out if there were any
subtle changes in behavior.
I don't know if they were expecting massive conscious changes, but I would be
shocked if suddenly knowing that their daily routine is good for them didn't
change some of the subconscious decisions they were making. Even just simple
things like taking the stairs 10% more than they did before or how they decide
when and how much to eat based on a certain level of hunger. You're still
going to think "I took the stairs sometimes, but took the elevator when I
needed it." or "I ate the same foods that I did before." but maybe you were
taking smaller portions.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that it's very hard to draw hard
quantitative conclusions from vague qualitative assessments.
------
seizethecheese
Results from the source study abstract[1]:
" A total of 1.44 million participants (median [range] age, 59 [19-98] years;
57% female) and 186 932 cancers were included. High vs low levels of leisure-
time physical activity were associated with lower risks of 13 cancers:
esophageal adenocarcinoma (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.37-0.89), liver (HR 0.73, 95% CI
0.55-0.98), lung (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.71-0.77), kidney (HR 0.77, 95% CI
0.70-0.85), gastric cardia (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.95), endometrial (HR 0.79,
95% CI 0.68-0.92), myeloid leukemia (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.70-0.92), myeloma (HR
0.83, 95% CI 0.72-0.95), colon (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.77-0.91), head and neck (HR
0.85, 95% CI 0.78-0.93), rectal (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.95), bladder (HR 0.87,
95% CI 0.82-0.92), and breast (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.87-0.93). Body mass index
adjustment modestly attenuated associations for several cancers, but 10 of 13
inverse associations remained statistically significant after this adjustment.
Leisure-time physical activity was associated with higher risks of malignant
melanoma (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.16-1.40) and prostate cancer (HR 1.05, 95% CI
1.03-1.08). Associations were generally similar between overweight/obese and
normal-weight individuals. Smoking status modified the association for lung
cancer but not other smoking-related cancers."
[1]:
[http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=25218...](http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2521826)
~~~
methodover
Phew, 186 thousand cancers included out of 1.4 million participants? I knew
cancer was not entirely uncommon but... man. That's a lot of unhappy news.
Feels bad to think about.
If it is true that exercising regularly reduces the risk of cancer, I wonder
what the mechanism is? Exercise builds muscle mass, improves lung capacity...
Why would that have anything to do with cancer?
~~~
trhway
>Phew, 186 thousand cancers included out of 1.4 million participants? I knew
cancer was not entirely uncommon but... man. That's a lot of unhappy news.
Feels bad to think about.
2 out of 5 will get cancer during their lifetime.
[http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/what-is-
cancer/statistics](http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/what-is-
cancer/statistics)
~~~
ekianjo
And close to 50 percent once uou cross the 80s. The biggest factor for cancer
is aging.
------
jimrandomh
No. This study is confounded and provides no evidence of anything.
The problem is that people's willingness to exercise depends on their health
as much as or more than their health is affected by exercise. Because this
study did not involve an intervention (it just pooled a bunch of surveys), it
can't distinguish between exercise causing reduced cancer risk, or a third
variable affecting both.
~~~
Someone1234
The same could be said of almost any study that tried to show this. It is
unethical to design the study in the way you're suggesting (i.e. stop people
exercising to see if they get cancer).
They did however:
> Body mass index adjustment modestly attenuated associations for several
> cancers, but 10 of 13 inverse associations remained statistically
> significant after this adjustment.
So even for two thin people, exercise seems to have helped. I legitimately
don't see how you could design a study that you'd be satisfied with.
~~~
jimrandomh
The correct study is one where some participants get an intervention to make
them exercise more, and some are left alone. There's no ethical issue, but
running such a study would be difficult and expensive.
Adjusting for BMI does not solve the problem, because there are many things
besides BMI (unmeasured confounders) which affect both cancer risk and
willingness to exercise.
~~~
ekianjo
And BMI is a pseudo science measure anyway. Its been proven to be a poor
indicator in about every disease many times before.
------
aortega
I think it's pretty obvious. I believe that it is not that exercise helps, but
sedentarism is poisonous. A sedentary 40 year old looks and feels 20 years
older than a 40 year old athlete.
~~~
ousta
actually a 40yr old athlete that has already more than 20 year of athlete life
behind will have a body in a much more bad shape than a guy who had regular
walks and healthy diet.
~~~
aortega
I'm talking about a healthy athlete, not one that it's into professional
sports and actually destroys his body or hearth with substance abuse.
------
WaBlueKey
Risks are often affected by your genetic makeup, eating and exercising habits,
where you live, what type of work you do, and childhood exposure to harmful
materials. There are other things that influence the risk level.
Personally, staying informed and listening to my body has been my best
medicine, but I'm also aware of my family history with different diseases,
which helps shape my choices.
------
cJ0th
It would be interesting to see whether or not one could show that exercise is
tied to higher risk for some types of cancer if they would use the same
methodology analogously.
------
ekianjo
This article is poorly written. The term 'tied' is correct in the title since
its an observational study, but then it jumps directly into implying a causal
relationship based on the correlation. Correlation is not causation.
------
known
Drink hot water and go for one hour early morning walk;
~~~
fsiefken
why hot water, I read that cold water burns some calories as well?
~~~
ars
> I read that cold water burns some calories as well?
Not very many. An 8oz cup of water at 40F burns 2.1 calories to warm up to
body temperature.
------
ekianjo
20 percent less between super active folks and non active ones is not super
convincing. If it diminished the risk by 80 percent instead it would make for
a much better story
~~~
enraged_camel
>>20 percent less between super active folks and non active ones is not super
convincing.
Do you mean "compelling"? Because it should definitely be convincing: it's
well outside the margin of error.
~~~
ekianjo
Yeah, compelling is what I meant.
------
birdDadCawww
Not even going to read this but cancer is pure environmental and can be
avoided. some people get exposed to things and it sucks. yeah eat healthy and
move spontaneously.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Art of Madness - antigizmo
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/02/06/the-art-of-madness/
======
Jun8
No discussion of Outside Art would be complete without mentioning Henry Darger
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger))
and his uber-epic _In the Realms of the Unreal_ , a "15,145-page, single-
spaced fantasy manuscript". He lived almost all his life on 851 W. Webster
Avenue in Chicago. If you're in Chicago you can also visit the INtuit Center
of Outsider Art
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuit:_The_Center_for_Intuiti...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuit:_The_Center_for_Intuitive_and_Outsider_Art))
to see his work, in NYC the American Folk Art Museum has a center dedicated to
him.
Or you can watch the documentary
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRlvDKcDvsI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRlvDKcDvsI),
although I didn't find it do too much justice to him or his work.
~~~
aklemm
Indeed. I saw his work at an exhibit in Seattle years ago. It is a mind-
bender, for sure.
------
knewuser
The collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne Switzerland is still one of the most
breathtaking exhibits I've ever seen. Features the works of Darger, Wolfi,
Josome and many more.
[https://www.artbrut.ch/en_GB/authors/the-collection-de-l-
art...](https://www.artbrut.ch/en_GB/authors/the-collection-de-l-art-brut)
~~~
perl4ever
Thank you for the link.
------
perl4ever
I clicked on this link thinking of Louis Wain and his cats. I was surprised to
see most of the images looking generally similar to each other and unlike
Wain's work. It makes me think maybe people looking for "outsider art" are
looking for art that fits a narrow stereotype.
~~~
PhasmaFelis
This collection, and "outsider art" in general, seem to be about untrained,
self-taught artists. Louis Wain was schizophrenic, but he studied at the West
London School of Art and made a living as an artist for years.
------
stevedekorte
This article reminded me of Nick Blinko's cover art for Coil's Unnatural
History III.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unnatural_History_III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unnatural_History_III)
I seem to remember reading that he suffered from schizophrenia, and had a
habit of burying is art in his backyard so it would grow.
[http://www.outsiderart.co.uk/blinko.htm](http://www.outsiderart.co.uk/blinko.htm)
------
empath75
The American visionary art museum in Baltimore is worth a visit if you like
this sort of thing:
[http://www.avam.org](http://www.avam.org)
------
the-dude
TempleOS
~~~
vog
Fomerly, I viewed TempleOS as some kind of useless exercise.
But now I think this should be considered a piece of art.
------
scandox
Artistry of the mentally ill by Hans Prinzhorn is an incredible work of
narrative art criticism. It changed my whole idea of what Art is.
The collection itself can be viewed in Heidelberg and is worth a visit if one
is nearby.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the Twitter Grinch Stole April Fool’s Day - shawndumas
http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/how-the-twitter-grinch-stole-april-fools-day/
======
mindcrime
I liked AFD just fine, pre-Internet. The problem is, this kind of humor is
tolerable in _limited doses._ But now - on AFD - everybody in the frickin'
world is trying to gag everybody else in the world, and the non-stop stream of
stupidity gets old pretty quick.
I had hoped that the HN readership was above posting all of this garbage here,
and would leave it to Reddit and Slashdot - but sadly that appears not to be
the case.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple will invest $100 million to bring Mac production back to the US next year - alinzainescu
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/12/06/apple-will-invest-100-million-to-bring-mac-production-back-to-the-us-next-year-says-tim-cook/
======
rohansingh
This really reminds me of The Alantic article this month entitled "The
Insourcing Boom": [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-
inso...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-insourcing-
boom/309166/)
The idea being that manufacturing was pushed abroad due to the appeal of
cheaper labor, without a deep consideration of hidden costs or the overall
context of such a transition.
GE, which is featured extensively in the article, actually managed to reduce
manufacturing costs by bringing the fabrication of a water heater and other
appliances back to American shores — largely due to the faster loop and better
communication between designers, engineers, and laborers who all speak the
same language and are in the same factory.
~~~
thedaveoflife
Also due perhaps to real wages in the US declining to the point where
cost/benefit calculations of US based production facilities are finally
starting to add up for some manufacturers.
~~~
matwood
Manufacturing leaving the US in mass was always a myth. The jobs went away
because of automation. In some cases the cheap labor offshore was still
cheaper than automation, but like most technology automation continues to get
cheaper every year while cost of labor goes up.
As automation gets cheaper I expect more and more manufacturing that really
did move to not just come back to the US, but also new manufacturing to set up
shop. Shipping costs are expensive and it only makes sense to be as close to
your customers as possible. The one exception to this trend will be
manufacturing that is inherently 'dirty.' Those will continue to be overseas
until countries like China decide that destroying their environment for a
short term gain isn't a very good long term strategy.
~~~
joe_the_user
_Manufacturing leaving the US in mass was always a myth._
Uh, figures?
It is one thing to say the US remained a manufacturer but to say the US didn't
offshore a significant portion of its manufacturing capacity would seem to be
an extraordinary claim which requires evidence, right?
The proportion of consumer goods I see which are marked "made in China" today
approaches something like a hundred percent. Sure, there are other significant
USA industries that produce a lot (and naturally have increased their output
via automation) but it seems badly-spoken to say claim manufacturing leaving
the US is myth. Some industries have left, "in mass", even.
~~~
ars
It is a myth. America is still the top manufacturer in the world.
The difference is that China makes tons of duplicate copies of cheap goods,
while America makes high value, lower run, complicated goods.
Which is why if you look only at consumer good you get the mistaken assumption
that manufacturing is leaving the US. Try sourcing $100,000 machines and all
of them are made in the US.
~~~
flyinRyan
What on earth are you talking about? China makes more actual things, Germany
makes more money making things. In what way is the US "top"?
~~~
DeadJim
GDP from the manufacturing sector has increased fourfold since 1950. All the
while, jobs have decreased eightfold.
-Not exact figures.
~~~
flyinRyan
So what are you saying then? That the US is "top" in growth of GDP from the
manufacturing sector? Because I suspect that's not true either.
~~~
matwood
I'm not sure if top in growth, but the US manufacturing sector is at the
forefront of GDP growth.
[http://seekingalpha.com/article/602691-u-s-manufacturing-
lea...](http://seekingalpha.com/article/602691-u-s-manufacturing-leads-
current-economic-growth-as-it-has-for-15-years)
------
brudgers
In terms of investment in manufacturing, $100 million is chump change. Fabs
are an order of magnitude or more greater. The amount is approximately that
required for a middling "power center" shopping development. Or constructing a
handful of Apple stores.
Not to be cynical, but I suspect that local, state and federal tax subsidies
will yield a positive ROI on the $100 million. This looks like pure PR.
~~~
eitally
You're only partially correct. Apple doesn't need a fab. Apple needs a systems
integrator like Foxconn and it's MUCH cheaper (order of magnitude max) to
setup an assembly plant than a fab. But yes, I suspect subsidies would make
even a $100m investment profitable.
~~~
brudgers
I was using chip fabs as a point of comparison in regards to the scale of
Apple's investment. It was chosen because HN readers are more likely to be
familiar with the cost of such manufacturing plants than, for example, those
associated with automotive manufacturing.
I agree that Apple doesn't need a fab. It doesn't need a manufacturing
facility in the U.S. either.
~~~
hkmurakami
They might eventually need one (or a non-Samsung partner) considering their
increasingly contentious relationship. Intel would definitely fit into the
overall progression of events[1].
[1][http://www.phonearena.com/news/Intel-wants-to-take-Apples-
ch...](http://www.phonearena.com/news/Intel-wants-to-take-Apples-chips-off-of-
Samsungs-hands-make-one-for-the-iPad_id37245)
------
felipe
I suspect Apple will replicate what they are already doing in Brazil, where
Foxconn locally built a factory to manufacture specific Apple products to the
local market.
Note two things: 1. I suspect this would be a Foxconn factory, not Apple (note
how Tim Cook says "we'll be working with people"); 2. The total investment of
the Foxconn factory in Brazil was 5 times bigger, so I suspect that Apple's
$100m would cover only a fraction of the total investment required to build a
factory in the US.
Regardless, that's good news for the American worker.
~~~
janesvilleseo
I guess then this story from April 1st turns out to be true after all.
[http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/01/foxconn-plans-new-iowa-
plan...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/01/foxconn-plans-new-iowa-plant-will-
hire-10-of-states-population/)
------
tpatke
I assume this is because Tim Cook is bowing to political pressure where Steve
Jobs refused. Remember when Steve Jobs said, "Those jobs aren’t coming back"
[1]? The question is - why now?
Hacker News discussion [2].
[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-
and...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-
squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3494389>
~~~
alaskamiller
Steve thought on 10 year timeframes.
Tim thinks in 1 year timeframes.
~~~
hnriot
Can we stop this hero worship please. We're all adults here and while Steve
Jobs was clearly a great leader of Apple, we don't need the constant Steve-
was-god rhetoric.
~~~
alaskamiller
I was pointing out perspective might be why decisions are made.
Perhaps you're internalizing and projecting too much.
~~~
Karunamon
I agree; there was nothing "hero worship"ey about your post, and you're being
downvoted by knee-jerk reacton.
------
robomartin
The only way I can see this making sense is if it is an assembly plant rather
than a real chips-to-finished-product factory.
Why?
The advantage you have in these cities (almost literally) in China dedicated
to manufacturing is that almost the entire supply chain is local and very
finely tuned. This is particularly true for operations that might do work for
companies like Apple.
The PCB manufacturers, assemblers, chip makers, connector manufacturers, LED
manufacturers, display manufactures, plastics and sheet-metal manufacturers
and more, are all centrally located. If not, they are within the proximal
geographic regions.
The same is true of qualified workers. Need 100,000 assemblers in a hurry? No
problem. Technicians, engineers, managers, etc. Lots of them and easy to hire
within days of your requirement.
In sharp contrast to this, the supply chain anywhere in the US is most-
definitely not localized and highly fragmented. Virtually nothing you are
going to use in electronics manufacturing is made in the US. That means that
rather than your LEDs being a few hours away by truck they are three weeks
away by boat --from China.
In terms of mechanical components, such as screws, well, yes, they are
available in the US, of course. The problem is that they will cost more. No
question about it. Because our industry, due to the need to survive, has had
to focus on market segments that can pay a premium (military, medical, etc.)
you can pay through your teeth to get anything made here. That's just the
truth.
In terms of machining and bending metal or injecting plastics, well, it
depends. If you are dealing with a unionized operation, forget it. Costs will
be ridiculous. Plastics, in very large quantities, can be reasonable here.
Punching and bending metal or machining metal could be plausible at a very
large scale and with a very finely tuned factory.
Let's not add regulatory and tax issues to the pile.
Because of all of this and a few more data points from first-hand experience
manufacturing in the US, my guess is that Apple is going to simply import pre-
fabricated modules assemblies and parts. They'll have US workers bolt them
together and test the finished product. You can slap a "Assembled in the US"
(and maybe even "Made in the US" sticker on it and feel good about it.
Remember what Steve Jobs told Obama about manufacturing jobs coming back to
the US. I don't think anything significant enough has changed since then to
invalidate his statement.
~~~
Shivetya
I am in the camp that it is a product like the Mac Pro. A product which has a
large number of user customizations combined with low sales volumes that
effectively removes it from common mass production methods.
Oh I am quite sure you can bound up the chassis, power supply, and perhaps the
main board, and ship it off for final assembly here and still be labeled as
made here.
~~~
rdl
Yeah, Mac Pro is ideal for this. It has low enough sales volumes that Apple
could even make it in Cupertino.
I wonder if having a high end American made machine would win them specific
contracts (vs other vendors, or vs a Chinese made iMac) -- either Buy American
or security considerations.
I'd be happy paying 5-10% premium on the Mac Pro for US production from the
motherboard up. I trust Intel. Knowing the provenance of the other chips would
be nice too.
------
CrLf
Mac desktops or also laptops? If it's only about the desktops, I suspect that
they are preparing to lower the volumes below what's economical to build in
China.
~~~
mikereedell
Or the the rising wages in China means that building a fully automated line
isn't as cost-prohibitive as it was in the past. And with states/cities
throwing tax incentives at companies it doesn't matter where the automated
line is so long as it can be integrated into the supply chain easily.
It's likely a combination of lower volume, like you state, cheaper automation,
rising wages and some political incentives like tax breaks, etc.
~~~
axx
I bet it'll be the next Mac Pro. Low quantity, highly priced.
~~~
goatforce5
...and, i'd guess, a higher than average percentage of built-to-order
machines.
------
forgotAgain
Probably caused by a number of factors:
\- upcoming changes in tax laws that remove the incentive to move jobs
overseas
\- IP protection. Its finally sunk in that their Chinese suppliers feed any
engineering info straight to the local government.
\- increasing jingoism in the United States
\- realization that their current line of creating "good American jobs"
through their retail chain is falling apart.
\- the shine from all of the "good jobs" they created with their NC data
center is wearing off.
$100 million is really chump change for this kind of investment for a company
like Apple. It's about what Cook made from his first year as Apple CEO.
------
RyanMcGreal
Direct link to the Bloomberg interview:
[http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/85170-tim-
cooks...](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/85170-tim-cooks-
freshman-year-the-apple-ceo-speaks)
------
chrisdevereux
> We decided being more transparent about some things is great—not that we
> were not transparent at all before, but we’ve stepped it up in places where
> we think we can make a bigger difference, where we want people to copy us
I'm willing to bet that the reason they're doing this is exactly the opposite.
Integrating their last-stage manufacturing would be a great way of squashing
those pesky product leaks from contractors.
Wonder if this is the first step towards a move across all products. It'd make
sense to start with a relatively low-volume, high-margin product like the Mac.
~~~
blinkingled
>great way of squashing those pesky product leaks from contractors
They will still not be doing the manufacturing themselves - so there will
still be contractors just that they will be a new set of US based contractors
that can be better controlled because they are based in US vs China.
------
rdl
I wonder if Apple could build a factory somewhere touristy in the US
(California, or maybe near Disney World, or something), designed specifically
for tours (like the BMW factory and European Delivery center), and make enough
from tourism (either cash or "brand value") to overcome the costs of
production in the US.
I'd pay $20 to see the modern equivalent of the NeXT factory for 30 minutes,
from an overhead viewing gallery.
Obviously Apple wouldn't want to reveal trade secrets, but I don't think
there's much secret about how Apple produces the desktop and laptop products.
~~~
djisjke
A factory/museum would be awesome
------
Maascamp
> _“We decided being more transparent about some things is great..."_
Ironically the rest of his statements and the article as a whole are extremely
vague. $100MM at Apple scale doesn't seem like very much and since (from the
article) they won't be doing it themselves I'd love to hear more about where
that money is going.
~~~
TheCondor
And yet that is a pile of money..
There are a handful of companies that do this work, they will partner with
them, my bet is Foxconn as they already work with them. Build a facility and
Foxconn will do what it does, with Americans in America. As an American, I
think this is good, I wonder how successful it will be but I hope it works out
well.
There are a lot of negative comments. From what Tim said it sounds like it is
motivated by a desire to do some good, not just more profit. Maybe that is BS,
if you can successfully do this, it knocks a few days off the time from order
to delivery and that's also a huge edge. I can also see wanting to not give
China so much control. I don't see it being devious though.
~~~
eitally
[http://americawhatwentwrong.org/story/as-apple-grew-
american...](http://americawhatwentwrong.org/story/as-apple-grew-american-
workers-left-behind/)
[http://news.cnet.com/Apple-may-outsource-
iMacs/2100-1001_3-2...](http://news.cnet.com/Apple-may-outsource-
iMacs/2100-1001_3-215529.html)
Sanmina (recently dropped the SCI from its name) still owns that plant in
Fountain, CO. I could imagine it might be a big PR win for Apple if they
revived what used to be their flagship factory in the US.
------
sodomizer
The thing that no one's mentioning in these press releases that should be
discussed: robotics.
Moving a plant here doesn't equate to moving manufacturing jobs here. The
traditional fear of manufacturing in the USA has been high cost of labor
including possible strikes.
If plants are able to replace bulk labor with robots, and have the rest of
their labor be engineering-type roles, they'll have no problem moving here.
But it won't bring thousands of jobs, maybe hundreds, although they will be
better paid.
------
joe-mccann
Also to be read as, "Apple to invest 0.38% of 2011's total profit to bring Mac
production to the US next year"
~~~
tribeofone
OR, you could read it as "Apple to invest 0.1% of its total cash in reserve to
bring Mac production to the US next year"
~~~
DannyBee
As a slight sidetrack, Apple doesn't have that much _cash_ in reserve. They
have short term investments and long term investments.
Articles you read that claim they have 100 billion (or whatever) in cash are
seriously confused about how cash and cash equivalents work.
From their latest 10k:
Cash and cash equivalents $ 10,746
Short-term marketable securities $ 18,383
Long-term marketable securities $ 92,122
(this is in millions)
Long term marketable securities are basically those things that they would
likely take a significant hit on if they had to actually convert to cash in a
reasonable period of time.
So how does this really compare to other companies?
Let's look at google.
As of September 30, 2012, Google had:
Cash and cash equivalents: $ 16,260
Short term marketable securities:$ 29,464
Whoops. It turns out google has more actual cash than apple, and more combined
short term securities + cash. Just not as much in long term investment
securities.
In short: Apple doesn't really have some amazing amount of cash.
~~~
tatsuke95
> _Articles you read that claim they have 100 billion (or whatever) in cash
> are seriously confused about how cash and cash equivalents work._
It's semantics. It's cash. Not in the literal sense that they are wallpapering
the headquarters with it. But it's cash from profits they've earned, that are
invested in bonds and securities, just like you are I would.
> _Long term marketable securities are basically those things that they would
> likely take a significant hit on if they had to actually convert to cash in
> a reasonable period of time._
Not necessarily true. Apple holds something like $15BB in Treasuries under
their LTMS holdings. These are liquid (hence the label marketable). They also
own a bunch on municipal bonds and corporate debt, most of which are also
extremely liquid.
~~~
DannyBee
It's not semantics to call it "not cash". If i own a million shares of apple
stock, I don't own cash or a cash equivalent, i own a marketable security.
They are valued quite differently.
The long term/short term is the maturity, and as you point out, some billions
are probably treasuries, which are easy to trade (They don't break it down
that I saw, Google does break it down into treasury bonds, etc).
However, some of it could be (and certainly is) instruments that they could
transform into cash (hence marketable), but would take a significant loss on
if they needed to do so quickly (< 90 days).
Calling that cash is simply false. Let's stick with the simple fact: If they
needed to transform that 92 billion in long term marketable securities into
cash tomorrow, the percent chance they will get 92 billion for it is quite
low.
If they need to transform it into 92 billion in cash in the next 6 months, the
percent chance they will get 92 billion for it is quite high.
~~~
tatsuke95
> _"It's not semantics to call it "not cash""_
Yes, it is.
I take offense to stating that people who use the term "cash" don't know what
they're talking about. They, in fact, _do_ know that "cash" doesn't imply
Apple has a Scrooge-McDuck-type vault loaded with hundred dollar bills.
> _"If i own a million shares of apple stock, I don't own cash or a cash
> equivalent"_
Commercial paper, short-term debt, preferred stock, T-bills, option contracts
are all cash equivalents. This is where Apple is putting its money (they
aren't buying tens of billions worth of common stock). It's "cash".
~~~
DannyBee
I completely and totally understand what cash and cash equivalents mean.
Nobody believes Apple has a scrooge-mcduck like vault, and I have never
claimed otherwise.
I have very simply claimed that Apple's cash and cash equivalents are not 100
billion, and that long term marketable securities are not cash.
You vehemently disagree, seemingly because they are liquid enough you may be
able to get some money for them.
Let's start simple: Can you explain why if you think they are 'cash' or 'cash
equivalents', they're explicitly _not_ listed in the 10-k as "cash
equivalents"?
I mean, you keep claiming up and down they are the same as cash, or "cash
equivalent", and yet apple doesn't believe so. Nor does Google on their 10-q.
Given the _companies_ don't believe they are cash or cash equivalents, or at
least their auditors don't, can you explain why you do?
I'll also point out while it's theoretically at the discretion of the auditor
whether the marketable securities can be included in "net cash", a lot don't,
simply because the risk is not 0, where the risk on cash is ~0.
The risk on long term marketable securities is not 0 either, and in fact, can
be _quite_ high.
~~~
tatsuke95
> _"You vehemently disagree, seemingly because they are liquid enough you may
> be able to get some money for them."_
No, I disagree because I know what a substantial portion of Apple's
investments are (this information is public), and they are, by definition,
cash or cash equivalents.
> _"Let's start simple: Can you explain why if you think they are 'cash' or
> 'cash equivalents', they're explicitly not listed in the 10-k as "cash
> equivalents"?"_
Because they don't have to list them as such? There's a lot of deception in
SEC filings; that's half the game. It's only me speculating, but I believe
Apple is utilizing many tricks to help them retain all those earnings, rather
than paying taxes on all those profits. Would that surprise you?
> _"Given the companies don't believe they are cash or cash equivalents, or at
> least their auditors don't, can you explain why you do?"_
Taxes.
I mean, this side-discussion started because you made the claim:
_"In short: Apple doesn't really have some amazing amount of cash."_
Which is only true in the strictest definition of "cash". When "cash" is used
how most investors understand it --those people you accused of being
"seriously confused"-- Apple has a bunch. You don't have to take my word for
it, it's out there.
------
cllns
Interesting considering that less than 2 years ago Mr. Jobs said: "those jobs
aren't coming back" to Mr. Obama.
[1]
[http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120123/ARTICLE/301239...](http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120123/ARTICLE/301239999)
~~~
sterna
Maybe less than two years ago, otherwise he would need to have superhuman
powers :)
~~~
cllns
Good catch :)
------
htf
I wonder how much this move was precipitated by Google's purchase of Motorola.
Google produced each generation of nexus phone with a different manufacturer.
This allows Google to learn the best practices of each of them. But eventually
Google will produce the nexus devices themselves through their Motorola
facilities, allowing them to iterate fast and produce cheaply. Apple sees this
coming and figures out they also need to produce their devices in-house.
~~~
RobAtticus
There's been 4 generations of Nexus phones with 3 manufacturers (HTC, 2x
Samsung, LG). It seems like a bit of a leap to say that Google is learning the
best practices of each and then will eventually use Motorola.
Not saying it can't or won't happen, just that you seem to be passing off your
conjecture as something that's inevitable.
------
Steko
I'm sure there are multiple reasons for this move and labor costs are almost
certainly the biggest factor. But one aspect that I haven't seen discussed but
which may be relevant is that companies increasingly turn to the ITC as a
patent enforcement lever. The ITC is a US agency which can effect import bans
of products found to infringe. Obviously a great workaround to an otherwise
crippling import ban decision would be having a US based assembly network.
Now the big arena is mobile and this announcement is about Mac lines but it's
not hard to believe that this is a tip of the iceberg investment and that
Apple might increasingly move to a system of using Foxconn's non-China
factories around the world. Apple is partly financing the Brazil plant for
Foxconn IIRC.
Another aspect that hasn't been discussed is the opening around the world of
rare earth mines (reopening in the case of the California mine). Part of the
reason "those jobs [weren't] coming back" was because China's rare earth's
monopoly increasingly was reserved for Chinese made products.
------
programminggeek
Well, once robotics takes over a large portion of Foxconn, it won't make as
much sense to hire low wage employees overseas, thus why not have the robots
building/assembling the products as close to the consumer as possible?
Apple spends a lot of shipping too, so I'm sure it's a balancing act between
cost of labor/automation/shipping.
~~~
astrodust
Apple's original Macintosh line was extremely automated. This wouldn't be a
first for Apple, much as everyone would presume.
([http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/10/02/steve-jobs-
designed-a...](http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/10/02/steve-jobs-designed-
apple-factory-the-birthplace-of-the-macintosh-considered-for-historic-
status/))
~~~
protomyth
NeXT was know for robotic plants also
[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/...](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/02/26/73121/index.htm)
[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/24/business/all-next-inc-s-
pl...](http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/24/business/all-next-inc-s-plant-lacks-
is-orders.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
------
esalazar
What American Macintosh Factories Looked Like Last Time Apple Built Them Here
[http://gizmodo.com/5966278/what-american-macintosh-
factories...](http://gizmodo.com/5966278/what-american-macintosh-factories-
used-to-look-like-last-time-they-were-built-here)
------
anilali
Apple _might_ be doing this to get contracts from US
gov't(local/national/military). One of the requirements for doing business
with US gov't is to manufacture these device in US.
------
dbul
The "working with people" comment makes me wonder if they are working with
Rethink Robotics.[1] That would be an even more interesting take on this
shift.
[1] [http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/industrial-
robots/rethink-...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/industrial-
robots/rethink-robotics-baxter-robot-factory-worker)
------
tobylane
Possible side effect: Change in business privacy? Say Foxconn are the
contractor, a product leak in the factory's first year might be a lot more
chase-able than one in China, but also a lot more inevitable. Will there be
robot-only zones for the private parts, or more lawsuits?
------
specialp
I think they will be making product chasis and frames in the USA. Think about
it.. If suddenly there was another uprising at some contractor in China they
would not be making _Apple_ products, they would be making commodity parts
like motherboards and memory that are simply components. People would identify
their Mac mini or iMac as being made in the USA and some parts from China in
it.
Also there probably is not much savings going on by making these parts in
China. The expensive part would be if you were making your own motherboards
and chips in the USA. Apple does not need to do it, and gets good PR in the
process.
~~~
pinwale
> The expensive part would be if you were making your own motherboards and
> chips in the USA
Apple already sources the A5, A5X, & A6 chips from a Samsung factory in
Austin, Texas.
------
padseeker
This is good news - Now if we could just get Apple to pay taxes. I hope the
comment from brudgers saying it is a PR move is wrong, but my cynical side
things he is right.
------
jrockway
This success of this move will come down to how good the US is at
manufacturing proprietary screws with weird heads and battery adhesive that's
really sticky.
------
jjcm
What extent of the production will be here though? Are they just assembling
motherboards, chassis, and displays all together that have came from overseas?
I don't think Apple would be so willing to give up the advantage of having all
of the tightly knit infrastructure available in China just for political
reasons.
------
mathattack
Sounds like a break from Steve Jobs.
[http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/obama-spars-
with-...](http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/obama-spars-with-steve-
jobs-over-apple-outsourcing-111751.html)
I suspect this is to combat negative PR from their overseas subcontractors.
------
hayksaakian
Just an attempt to distract from the daily horrors at Apple's Chinese
production line.
------
mjpa
"where we want people to copy us" - presumably so they have more people to
sue?
~~~
ianshward
Yes, very interesting. This was my first thought, unfortunately.
~~~
ianshward
Well, sue, but more generally, have better legal control over supply
relationships.
------
robbfitzsimmons
The most interesting part to me here is the MSN butterfly on the video.
Microsoft has a YouTube competitor - who knew?
------
Raz0rblade
this is a very small amount of money for a company like apple so is it
seriously, or just some strange tax jump ?
------
DonnyV
Does this mean that the US is going to be the dumping ground for
manufacturing? Waste? Low slave wages?
------
mhd
Any plans for Ireland? They used to assemble Macs there, too. I'm sure Cork
could use the work.
------
ck2
I am going to guess those shifts will be 29 hours or less per person.
------
ssapkota
Certainly the mainstream - design focus of apple is switching.
------
Raz0rblade
this is a small amount of money for a company as Apple. might likely be a tax
evasion maneuver
------
Mordor
Just one word: inward-looking
------
conradholmes
my mac pro was assembled in the usa
------
notdrunkatall
It's happening. Wages are rising elsewhere, while US wages remain stagnant,
thus making domestic manufacturing for high-end goods more profitable than
manufacturing elsewhere again. I've been predicting an eventual return of
manufacturing to the USA for years now. It'll be a slow process, but it will
inevitably happen - the only questions are when and how long.
------
rymith
This is what I want to see. I really think the reliance on Asia as a centre
for manufacturing is a mistake in the long run.
~~~
camus
better than nothing, but most of the components will still be produced in
China, Mac will be merely assembled in US factories.
~~~
icebraining
That's not what Cook said; he said they want to do something "more
substantial" than assembly.
------
pebb
So this is the reason Apple stock plunged 7% yesterday...
------
ivanb
Theory: they want to do it to be bailed out when bad times come, Just like
Ford or GE,
~~~
freehunter
Fun fact: Ford didn't receive money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program
bailout. They restructured rather than take te money.
~~~
patmcguire
Yeah, and they took out a loan on their logo. Unfortunately, Ford is in worse
shape now than GM and Chrysler because they didn't get a reset button to fix
every problem - the lost by winning.
------
joering2
Its TL;DR for me. Could anyone enlighten me if this means their profit margin
will drop and price will remain, or that their profit margin will remain
intact and price will raise?
It has to be one OR another...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hidden Away for 28 Years, Tiananmen Protest Pictures See Light of Day - tysone
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/world/asia/china-tiananmen-1989-photographs.html
======
SurrealSoul
Kind of a personal story, but my fiancé is from Beijing. She found out about
Tiananmen square about a year ago. She only knew that she shouldn't ask about
the Tiananmen incident growing up and that it was a bad thing that happened.
She has been in the states for several years now and when she found out what
really happened with our even blurry images and stories we have now it really
changed her perspective on things.
Even though its 28 years old, many of the younger generations don't know a
thing about what happened, regardless if it's censored in their country or
not.
History should not be censored like this. You should not have to move out of
country to know what your country has done. I am extremely grateful for the
brave photographer preserving his images for the world.
~~~
vtange
And the worst part about having to move out of country to find out things that
were censored/hidden? You'll be inclined to believe foreign nations have a
negative bias towards China.
At least, that's China's (and Russia's) narrative.
~~~
SurrealSoul
To be fair, USA hardly ever reports positive articles about China. We didn't
report on their moon landing until a year after it happened and many people
don't even know it happened at all.
Same goes with their space station. The only coverage went to their previous
one that is leaving orbit into earth.
I know that this is a small sample size and only related to their space
program as well as my personal observations, but its really hard (for me at
least) to say that the USA media does not have a negative bias towards China
~~~
vtange
For the past couple months the media has pointed out China's successes in tech
in Shenzhen, how they have a much better stance on climate change than Trump,
and how they have the most prudent position (that doesn't involve all-out war)
on North Korea. That's pretty positive if you ask me.
~~~
srett
Yes, it is getting better. But even then I can't help but feel like it's said
in this "See, even the Chinese do better than trump" manner. Just like 10
years ago the only good news about China was about how well their economy is
doing, but not without some "they took our jobs" vibe.
------
blackbagboys
An inspiring collection of photos, but I'd bet it attracts little interest
outside a few select, irrelevant circles. One of the most heartbreaking thing
about the massacre is not just that the mass murderers who ordered it were
never held responsible but that today it barely even tarnishes their
reputations, while the memory of their victims has been thoroughly suppressed.
~~~
JabavuAdams
I'm going to take a kind of despicable position. We don't know what would have
happened had the protests been allowed to continue.
China is a vast country with mostly poor, uneducated people -- especially so
in 1989.
Look at what happened in Syria. Look at the Arab spring. Is it just to kill
hundreds, to prevent the slaughter of hundreds of thousands?
If the answer is no, never, I don't see how we can have states at all.
~~~
k-mcgrady
What you're saying is that it is better for people to live under authoritarian
governments of dictatorships than die fighting for their freedom. It's not a
despicable position but it's incredibly short-sighted.
~~~
ant6n
Is it? In the long term, it's better to be alive than to be dead. Some would
prefer a peaceful, long term transition compared to quick, violent civil war
-- which may result in a worse overall state. Wars destroy civilizations,
sometimes for generations.
This is something that Americans generally won't agree with, because their
foundational myth is closely tied to the revolutionary war. Conveniently this
war was a very long time ago, so one doesn't have to feel the personal
consequences of it when using aphorisms like "you need to fight for your
freedom".
Btw, the Canadians eventually got their independence without a war.
~~~
k-mcgrady
NB: I'm not American and I'm also very anti-war and anti-military in general.
>> In the long term, it's better to be alive than to be dead.
That's short term in my opinion. Long term could be hundreds of years.
Generally these things don't happen in a generation. There is often some civil
rights violations, followed be peaceful protesting which turns violent,
followed by war, and then when it's in both sides interest, peace talks.
As someone from a country effected in this way I can assure you 'you need to
fight for your freedom' is not an aphorism. In some cases it's necessary - to
a degree. Unfortunately once violence begins it's very difficult to stop again
before much more damage than was ever necessary is done. However in the long
term (hundreds of years potentially) it can put an end to an evil which may
have only gained in strength and oppression otherwise.
------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
Yet another example of "nothing matters like success." Since 1989, China has
gone on to have great success - both economic and diplomatic, and is on the
verge (if not already achieved) super-power status.
Because of that success, there is not much anybody can do about human rights
abuses, so most people don't pay much attention to it.
~~~
nickbauman
A variation of Churchill's "History is written by the victors."
~~~
droopyEyelids
And Churchill knew what he was talking about.
[https://crimesofbritain.com/2016/09/13/the-trial-of-
winston-...](https://crimesofbritain.com/2016/09/13/the-trial-of-winston-
churchill/)
------
wonderous
Interesting how even after all this time that no one knows who "Tank Man" was
and within China, few even know he existed at all:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man)
------
qwertyegg
Glad to see many reasonable comments here.
I have a vague memory of CCTV(official media, not your backyard CCTV) footage
that depicting students and other people as mobs and killing soliders and
burning the dead soldiers body.
Over the years, I got more and more piece of information about what happened
at the time. clearly Chinese government is still trying to cover up what they
did, and many exiles is still making up fake stories.
Nowadays in China people don't really care that much as you thought they
would. The general consensus is that they are willing to forget about what
happened and move on since it's full of opportunities right now and most
people are more focused on getting a better life.
Not saying Chinese government was right they knew what happened was shameful
and still forbids open news covfefe or discussion about it. In a booming
economy it's just hard to mass up enough momentum to really get into a
discussion about what happens in 1989, people just don't care anymore.
~~~
erikpukinskis
> they knew what happened was shameful
Do they? Are pro-democrasy protests allowed today? Or would people be shot
again?
------
clort
Its interesting that they used his english name, to protect his identity (and
his family) but then go on to state his approximate age, that he runs
restaurants, comes from Dalian, has an uncle in taiwan and migrated to the USA
in 2012. Now then, I'm sure many people here could construct a database query
to find the guy based on this information; the question is, does China have
such a database? I know, they have a billion people but I hope some of this
other information is obfuscated..
~~~
greedo
Yup. Mentioned his college, and posted a picture of him. It would be trivial
for any intelligence agency to dox this guy from the information in the
article.
------
vtange
There's inevitably going to be people trying to justify the tragedy here by
suggesting America is no better, pointing to instances such as the Kent State
Shootings (Vietnam War protest).
For those people I'd like to point out that unlike China, America doesn't
actively try to hide the negative sides of its history to the extent China
does. I can read about the Kent State shootings all I want, along with the My
Lai Massacre, the Trail of Tears, American involvement in Central America or
the Middle East, etc..
It is in fact sad that China depends on the West to expose the darker sides of
its past, and then claims Western negative bias whenever we do.
~~~
marnett
So the west is superior because their citizens, although having access to
damning documents of the actions of their nation, both domestic and abroad,
choose not to care?
~~~
burkaman
Yes, all other things being equal, open information is better than censorship.
But you are obviously exaggerating, lots of people care.
------
throw2016
Without wishing away the massacre or diminishing the kind of despotic
environment that allows this to happen shouldn't the same kind of moral
reprehension be expressed for the massive loss of life in the middle east from
Libya, Iraq to Syria?
Yet we rarely see this in the same context as these actions continue to be
pursued aggressively with little resistance from citizens in the west.
This seems to a very selective form of morality in practice more at ease
judging others than examining our own actions.
Tiananmen is past and beyond but the loss of life and destruction of entire
countries that puts millions of lives in disarray in the middle east is here
and now and continues unabated yet there is little pressure on our leaders to
cease these actions from citizens. No western leader is tainted with the kind
of moral reprehension directed at the Chinese inspite of far more serious
crimes against humanity. There is a definite dissonance here.
~~~
Angostura
The same kind of moral reprehension absolutely were expressed during the
period of the 'Arab Spring'
------
hohohmm
Read some real opinions please:
[https://www.quora.com/Why-are-todays-young-adults-in-
China-s...](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-todays-young-adults-in-China-so-
poorly-informed-about-the-Tiananmen-Square-massacre-despite-the-ability-to-
use-VPN)
~~~
abecedarius
I wouldn't assume any particular post is a 'real opinion'. The CCP employs
many shills posting noise to domestic social media, so it wouldn't surprise me
to see chaff on Quora as well.
~~~
hohohmm
You can write off anything with that, to be honest. It's like the nuclear
weapon of arguments that ensures mutual destruction
~~~
abecedarius
Yeah, it sucks. But we do need to keep in mind now that social media psy-ops
(or whatever the spooks are calling it) have become significant -- just as
Amazon user reviews have gotten way more polluted, but without the direct
personal feedback you get from buying the wrong item.
There was a recent story about an academic study of the methods of in-China
Party shills (I forget the link). By my skim they were more about distraction
and noise than obvious pushing of the party line.
------
fludlight
Student protests really scare older Chinese because they remember the reign of
terror that the Red Guard kids perpetuated during the Cultural Revolution in
the 1960s.
~~~
Sacho
Wouldn't the "Red Guard kids" in the 1960s and the "older Chinese people" at
Tiananmen have a large overlap?
~~~
ZeroGravitas
That would only mean they remember even better what those kids were capable
of.
------
srcmap
I remember watched a fascinate behind the scene documentary on the down fall
of Gorbachev by the old USSR conservative leadership which actually caused the
rise of Yeltsin in Youtube recently.
Likely in China during that period of time, the high level struggle for power
also happened in BeiJing. In China the reformers of the time didn't win.
------
justicezyx
The rich and powerful (note I did not separate government & individuals,
increasing these 2 groups are merging together, and seriously, the censorship
in this area is way better than things happen in the past) in China have to
maintain a great public image. Even if a significant fraction of the
population are fully aware of that being superficial, there are definitely
larger fraction of people who does believe in the camouflage. Not that such
people are ignorant, their life is hard enough to really have the spare time
for these stuff.
The reason such history is heavily censored, is precisely for this cause. Such
thing will never be freely available, as long as the social structure and
political system works in the same way.
------
bluetwo
English Wikipedia still calls it the "Tiananmen Square protests of 1989"
instead of the "Tiananmen Square Massacre" which is what pretty much everyone
outside China calls it.
Maybe someday we'll stop China from censoring Wikipedia.
~~~
boomboomsubban
The article is about the protests as a whole, they ended in the "Tiananmen
Square Massacre" like the first paragraph of the article says.
~~~
arthur2e5
It may be a good idea to try blending some massacre (um, because
WP:COMMONNAME, a.k.a. "everyone mentions the massacre"?) in and call it some
"protest and massacre" though.
------
pilom
I'm a 30 year old in the US. Unfortunately all I know is that there was a
protest and some of the protesters got shot and there was a person standing in
front of a tank. It's not like wikipedia tells accurate information about the
event. Rather than alluding to what happened, can someone just spell out
exactly what happened? Or give a non-propagandized link to what happened?
------
perlpimp
really wealth legitimized power of the communists and paved they way to
insidious regime. had it been not for globalization china could've been the
freest country in the world. alas we have this.
------
Markoff
not sure what has this to do with hacking/IT, but
Tiananmen square massacre is mislabeled event, more people died in other parts
of Beijing than average in the square, so more appropriate name would be
Beijing massacre or what Chinese use 6/4.
People who died in square were pretty much suicidal since they were warned to
leave and were told to leave even by their own protester leaders.
It should be always mentioned that wife of current hard liner president Mao
2.0 She Gin Pimp was singing at that time to murderers in square.
Overall not sure why are media so obsessed with this event were few thousand
people died instead or mentioning millions who died thanks to glorified Mao.
It's pretty good trade-off with DXP for most of the Chinese compared to trade-
off gained with Mao.
------
racl101
Still, I gots to know what happened to tank dude. I gots to know.
~~~
mtmail
"Numerous theories have sprung up as to the man's identity and current
whereabouts."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man)
------
hohohmm
read some real opinions please:
[https://www.quora.com/Why-are-todays-young-adults-in-
China-s...](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-todays-young-adults-in-China-so-
poorly-informed-about-the-Tiananmen-Square-massacre-despite-the-ability-to-
use-VPN)
------
pololee
Surprised that the article showed up on HackerNews
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Groove Deletes Their Facebook Page - micah63
http://www.groovehq.com/blog/focus
======
snowwrestler
So is Hacker News on the list of marketing tactics that work, or don't work?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NewtGingrich.com Redirects to Tiffany.com - benackles
http://newtgingrich.com
======
arkitaip
Here's the source code <http://pastebin.com/83N6j2FK> The redirects are:
arLinks[0] = "[http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/12/gingrichs-
ca...](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/12/gingrichs-campaign-
still-looks-awful-lot-book-tour/45977/);
arLinks[1] = "<http://www.greektravel.com/>;
arLinks[2] = "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/gingrich-
se...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/gingrich-senior-aides-
resign/2011/06/09/AGN77VNH_blog.html);
arLinks[3] = "<http://www.tiffany.com/?siteid=1>;
arLinks[4] = "<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaZFfQKWX54>;
arLinks[5] = "<http://www.freddiemac.com/>;
arLinks[6] =
"[http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/09/11/60353/gingrich-...](http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/09/11/60353/gingrich-
porn/);
arLinks[7] =
"[http://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=65483...](http://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=654836);
------
jfruh
If you needed more proof that Gingrich isn't the foreward-thinking futurist he
always claimed to be, it's that he didn't buy newtgingrich.com years ago.
~~~
benackles
Maybe he secretly owns it and collects affiliate fees. I wouldn't put that
past him.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Agile is Poisonous - tablet
http://mdubakov.com/post/46844381610/agile-is-poisonous
======
api
"We tried 1 week and 2 weeks iterations. Neither worked out. With short
iterations there was a constant pressure to get shit done and technical debt
accumulated like a huge garbage heap. It is impossible to squeeze a good
solution into a short timeframe."
This is the most common Agile failure mode I've seen. You have to finish by
the end of the iteration, so you're very heavily biased toward ugly hacks and
Rube Goldberg machine coding. Elegance never fits in a sprint.
The last total Agile Kool-Aid drinker company I worked for also coincidentally
had the most massive shit heap of code I have ever seen in production. It was
a heterogenous mix of VB.NET, Ruby, Java, shell scripts, and Python running on
Linux and Windows (and a bit of Mono on Linux), all glued together with duct
tape and chewing gum. The Scrum Master was really proud of it, called it a
Service Oriented Architecture. He could make pretty charts of it that made it
look good, but if you lifted the hood it looked like garbage and required at
least 10X the Amazon EC2 footprint it should have required. It was probably
also a security nightmare, and was definitely hell to maintain.
That experience really destroyed my interest in Agile, since I could see very
clearly how the problem was emergent from Agile's short sprint and exclusively
deliverable-focused structure. The programmers were actually decent coders,
and it wasn't really their fault. (Except maybe the heterogeneity...)
~~~
tablet
I believe the resulting situation is not what you should blame agile for.
Shitty code created by shitty developers. No exceptions.
~~~
api
Good developers can only write good code if they can think and plan. Neither
of these is ever a sprint objective. The objective of a sprint -- in practice
-- is always to bang out the absolutely minimal quality hack required to
complete the sprint's objectives.
~~~
tablet
Nothing distracts good developers to write good code. There is NO excuses. Bad
management? Bad mood? Fuck it. Find another job if management can't live with
good solutions. Again. No excuses.
------
philwelch
Folks, this post is an April Fool, and not even a very funny one at that.
------
jph
+1 Funny. Congrats on walking the fine line of parody and realism!
------
USNetizen
In all honesty, the shortcomings written about here are not a defect in the
process(es), but appear to me to be simply weak project management. Especially
since your ScrumMaster just up and quit. That is unheard of in a strong
project-oriented culture.
You need a strong leader to get the team to buy-in to these processes. Of
course nothing will work if you don't do that - people are generally averse to
change and will do anything to prove "new ways" will never work.
------
Killah911
Nicely done, at first I was in disbelief, but then realized that it's satire.
It's unfortunate that I know of companies that have implemented so-called
"agile" and basically didn't even get what the heck it was supposed to be.
1-2 week sprints, Mini-waterfall, bringing back deadlines. I've actually been
thru this kind of "fr-aglie" implementation by bone headed leaders who were
aware of the buzzwords and hadn't carefully examined what the process(es)
entailed.
~~~
tablet
Thanks, I've tried my best :)
------
ChuckMcM
I thought this was hilarious, especially that on 'blame day' you couldn't
defend yourself in Nerf battles. It left me wondering "Ok, what are these
folks trying to do?" and then "Oh, he's one of the founders of
<http://www.targetprocess.com/> , I get it."
------
irukavina
This is obviously an April Fools joke :-)))
~~~
emarutian
yep
------
nonamegiven
I'm always leery when the process gets more attention than the work. If your
process has a name it's in great danger of getting too much attention.
~~~
myke_cameron
I generally agree, but I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be a parody...if
not then this is truly absurd.
~~~
dasil003
It's definitely a parody, but it's disturbing how many seeds of truth are in
there.
~~~
tablet
I think every good parody has some truth.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tradeoffs in Innovative Careers - mhunter
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/blog/2011/11/28/tradeoffs-in-innovative-careers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thisisgoingtobebig+%28%3A%3AThis+is+going+to+be+BIG%3A%3A%29
======
tptacek
This post engages with three questions:
* Should I go to work for a "name" startup or should I take a risk on a no-name company? (Its answer: take the risk).
* Should I accept a lesser or orthogonal role to get my foot in the door, or hold out for my dream role? (Its answer: either is fine, but be very careful about getting typecast and don't expect your foot-in-the-door role to change).
* Should I start my own company or go work at a startup? (Its answer: start once but don't feel bad about giving up).
These feel like pretty important questions, in the sense that they are THE
MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS PEOPLE LOOKING FOR STARTUP JOBS HAVE TO ANSWER.
Instead, we spent the day this was submitted arguing (ignorantly) about
"bailouts", and I found this post with zero upvotes.
Good job, HN.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
UK government proposes fine or block if website fails to tackle “online harms” - pmlnr
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47826946
======
chatmasta
Jeremy Wright, "Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in
the UK" penned an op-ed in CNN about this. [0] The closing line is
particularly infuriating to me: "That is an objective on which the British
Government, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Mark Zuckerberg would all agree."
No, I don't think TBL would agree on this. The cited organization started by
him explicitly calls for the opposite [1]:
\- Ensure everyone can connect to the internet so that anyone, no matter who
they are or where they live, can participate actively online.
\- Keep all of the internet available, all of the time so that no one is
denied their right to full internet access.
\- Respect people’s fundamental right to privacy so everyone can use the
internet freely, safely and without fear.
[0] [https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/07/opinions/uk-government-
online-...](https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/07/opinions/uk-government-online-
regulation-wright/index.html)
[1]
[https://fortheweb.webfoundation.org/principles/](https://fortheweb.webfoundation.org/principles/)
~~~
jquery
>without fear.
Do they mean fear on the consumer end or the content creator end? There is a
natural tension there which must be resolved. A fearless internet for content
creators means lots of ungood content out there (sometimes doubleplus
ungood!). A fearless internet for passive consumers means they won’t run
across this ungood content, unless they go through great efforts to seek it
out.
~~~
gnode
> A fearless internet for passive consumers means they won’t run across this
> ungood content
That's one way to generally interpret "fear" but not in its context of a right
to privacy. "Without fear" in this context must mean fear of what happens when
you don't have privacy, that is chiefly: embarrassment and persecution.
~~~
jquery
Thanks for the clarification, that makes a huge difference in meaning.
Appreciated.
------
hugh4life
I find it baffling how western nations can't understand how they're now
providing ideological justification to the same stances Russia and China are
taking towards the internet.
~~~
timomax
Not really. It's not the same ideology. It's the same tool.
~~~
rayvd
Leads to the same place.
------
jatsign
This looks like negative news for the Facebooks & Youtubes, but I think it's
the opposite. Whenever the law, Facebook & Youtube will adapt - they have the
resources to do so. Smaller players, and potential future competitors, will
not be able to adapt.
This just draws a moat around existing behemoths that will protect them
against future disruption.
~~~
malvosenior
Yes, it's called regulatory capture and it's the reason big players push for
regulation and government involvement.
~~~
matrixmultiply
This is indeed favors FB and YT. They will censor and blame it on the
government, and they won’t take any responsibility.
------
luiscleto
> But it also covers harmful behaviour that has a less clear legal definition
> such as cyber-bullying, trolling and the spread of fake news and
> disinformation.
So, basically any site with user content can be fined/blocked at any time at
the official's discretion.
~~~
zyxzevn
This child-porn and terrorism is the propaganda catch-phrase to make people
agree with it. Like the UK porn-filter.
While it never will happen, this rule would mean that the BBC should be banned
too. It published fake news that started the Iraq war, and one of the famous
hosts was a child molester.
Instead they will ban sites that disclose the military propaganda that is
published by the government media. Will they now try to block wikileaks and
other similar journalism?
My greatest fear is that these waves of censorship are there to remove
resistance against a 3rd world war. The US, Israel and UK are currently very
aggressive.
Just as an example: Propaganda on Iraq and Venezuela
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7eW4ASIo3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7eW4ASIo3I)
~~~
rgbrenner
Iraq is an interesting example because we only found out it was false after
the fact. In the run up to the war, perhaps questioning the sources and
information provided by the government would have been labeled fake news.
~~~
Someone1234
> Iraq is an interesting example because we only found out it was false after
> the fact.
What? 100,000+ people marched in the street against it[0]. We knew the UK
Government stole a student's essay for their "Dodgy Dossier" and tried to re-
package it as intelligence before too[1].
We knew full well it was false before invasion. It didn't stop them.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Dossier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Dossier)
~~~
okmokmz
>100,000+ people marched in the street against it[0]
>[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War)
These just seem to be anti-war protests. I'm not seeing anything that suggests
they knew it was false, or that that was the reason for the protests
~~~
Someone1234
I was part of the protests. It was widely reported in the media that WMDs
weren't found, that Iraq was cooperating with the UN, and that the
government's evidence was debunked.
The "anti-war" thing was just a big-tent message that most of those against
the war could agree to (with each group having their own reason for being
against it).
------
Bantros
Fuck this country.
They will implement it without any trouble. No one cares because they don't
realise what they already have.
Most media outlets will report on it as a "good thing" of course which doesn't
help either
------
bamboozled
I hate to say it, but large online social platforms are really giving
governments way too much ammunition to start regulating and censoring the now
largely centralized Internet.
Very, very scary but interesting times ahead.
~~~
wallace_f
Because of the internet, a lot of people are becoming aware of stories like
how the CIA watched over the "get Gary Webb team" of industry experts who said
"we're going to take away his Pulitzer," before Webb died by "suicide" by two
gunshot wounds to the head.(1) Just one of thousands of outrageous stories
questioning where global power lies and what those who have it are doing with
it.
Iraq lies were territory of "fake news" and conspiracy theories, same as a lot
of what Tulsi Gabbard is saying about the US military industrial complex.
Every group of individuals will always have psychopaths whom try to cheat to
exert control over others. Obviously many powerful people in the world dont
want a democracy of individuals sharing ideas freely.
[https://theintercept.com/2014/09/25/managing-nightmare-
cia-m...](https://theintercept.com/2014/09/25/managing-nightmare-cia-media-
destruction-gary-webb/)
------
coldcode
OK lets say this article harmed me in some way. If I don't need to prove it
then this law lets me shut down the BBC? How do you deal with thousands of
"online harms"? If I do need to prove it, given the law is so vague on what
that is, I can never succeed since big sites have fancy lawyers, and small
sites will just go out of business, and the law is a waste of time.
~~~
CJefferson
I think you are over stretching. The lae has dealt for hundreds of years with
idea that one person might harm another. Such laws tend to be a little vague,
then build up case law, at least in the UK.
~~~
pavel_lishin
A lot of commenters tend to think of the law as an API, and frame all
discussions about it as such.
"So what, I just have to POST
[https://law.uk/onlineharm](https://law.uk/onlineharm), and I get to take down
the BBC? That's ridiculous!"
Any given strawman is ridiculous.
------
speeq
Here's the white-paper (pdf):
[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/793360/Online_Harms_White_Paper.pdf)
Also, the published code of practice:
[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/793324/Code_of_Practice_for_providers_of_online_social_media_platforms.d.pdf)
Statement and parliamentary discussion:
[https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/4576d30e-52ad-42d9-b5c...](https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/4576d30e-52ad-42d9-b5c4-22e1723c47de?in=17:21:02)
------
ilovecaching
America is founded on the idea that personal determination and defending
individual liberties are paramount to a moral society. But now it seems we’re
taking our new digital plane of existence and giving up a lot of that self
determination for convienience and protection from exposure to things we don’t
like.
I’m not sure how this will shake out in America versus Europe, but this seems
as paradigm shifting as the civil war or the new deal. The next decade will be
critical for Internet freedom.
~~~
Throwway32
_America is founded on the idea that personal determination and defending
individual liberators are paramount to a moral society_
I wonder what US citizen Anwar Al Awlaki would have said to that argument. The
truth is that political free speech has limits, even for the United States.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/the-lessons-
of-a...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/the-lessons-of-anwar-al-
awlaki.html)
~~~
FakeComments
This seems a strange response, since the extra-judicial killing of an American
by the Obama administration was widely regarded as a serious breakdown in
American norms — precisely by the same crowd who says things like GP.
Your link then would be support for their point, not a refutation.
Generally speaking, point out something in the past few years that’s an
example of what the person is talking about isn’t a way to refute that things
are changed — that you can only point to recent ones is evidence that things
_have_ changed.
Of course, Obama has no respect for American traditions, broadly: he’s the
first president in history not to leave the capital and to continue to be
politically active during his successor’s term.
His actions certainly aren’t what I’d put forward to someone claiming that
American values used to be something, but have recently changed — Obama in
general is an example of that collapse in principles.
~~~
Throwway32
I never bought into Obama’s hype machine, but the drone strike was carried out
by the United States armed forces, who are required to not follow illegal
orders; via a chain of command. There is a different party in power now: have
there been any prosecutions?Presumably there was a lot of legal advice that
sanctioned the hit on a US citizen exercising his ostensible free speech
rights,[1] otherwise it would not have happened.
[1] My personal opinion is that praising terror and “inspiring” others is not
free speech, but I don’t pretend otherwise
~~~
FakeComments
There was a lot of pseudo-legal justification and lack of prosecutions for the
Bush torture program as well, which was another violation of American norms.
You have a very idyllic view that people can’t break the rules and get away
with it: Obama murdered an American in violation of the law, but there is a
tradition of not holding presidents accountable for their crimes.
Personally, that lack of accountability seems to have led to a ratcheting
level of presidential misbehavior and a collapse in societal norms — precisely
what this thread is about.
------
iicc
Theresa May did an Op Ed[0] in the metro[1][2].
[0] [https://www.metro.news/exclusive-by-theresa-may-we-are-
leadi...](https://www.metro.news/exclusive-by-theresa-may-we-are-leading-the-
way-on-making-the-internet-safer/1510510/)
[1] pdf about audience - [https://d212k0qo5yzg53.cloudfront.net/wp-
content/uploads/201...](https://d212k0qo5yzg53.cloudfront.net/wp-
content/uploads/20190107104636/audience-metro-2019-01.pdf)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_(British_newspaper)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_\(British_newspaper\))
------
calewis
The issue here will be securing a conviction or affecting actual change. I
suspect the cost to conviction/prosecution (for the Uk taxpayer) will be so
high, and the fines/action so small for the respective platforms, it will
hardly be worth the effort. Most likely companies will be fined
retrospectively for a bit of government PR.
------
bArray
Assuming all the best intentions in the world, this will most certainly be
abused. Where do they think all of the people they want to silence will go?
They will no doubt go to the darker web and concentrate there.
~~~
gnode
I find this argument similar to: regulating the construction of buildings will
just lead to seasteading.
The issue isn't really about silencing people, but removing their access to a
mainstream audience.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
> The issue isn't really about silencing people, but removing their access to
> a mainstream audience.
Those sound approximately like the same thing to me. What about the difference
do you see as relevant?
~~~
gnode
In the scenario of forcing speakers underground, those speakers have not been
silenced (they may still speak to a large audience) but they will not speak to
an audience which has not elected to listen to them.
Conversely, if you're popular on Youtube, you will be suggested to people who
are not looking for your speech.
The difference is subtle, and that was my original point. Such acts of
government will indeed not silence speakers, but it may as well do, because it
stifles their ability to reach a greater audience.
------
C1sc0cat
Would that include the Daily mails website :-)
~~~
ohiovr
The UK should delegate which media gets banned to the Queen so therefore it
never happens.
~~~
dragonwriter
> The UK should delegate which media gets banned to the Queen so therefore it
> never happens.
The UK already does that with some decisions (which is technically the Queen-
in-Parliament delegating to the Queen with the advice of the Privy Council),
but that doesn't stop action (Orders in Council) on those matters from
occurring. Of course, in practice this is almost exactly delegation from the
Parliament to the government.
------
return0
Or Vices as the Victorians would call them.
------
ptah
a bit late but could be extremely helpful
------
usub98
It's funny how this is such a popular topic on sites like HN who heavily
censor users themselves based on their political opinion.
HN put shadow bans on hundreds of users for non-conforming posts. It seems
like anyone who had a wrong stance on the whole "NPC meme" is affected, even
if they only found it mildly amusing.
Source: I found it amusing, openly said so and I'm shadow banned on this IP.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
My impression is that HN moderators mostly focus on civility. IME stance-
related silencing occurs only via downvotes by regular users.
~~~
FakeComments
There’s a strong, intentional skew in their enforcement:
dang has previously said that they’re more critical of people who perturb the
groupthink, and take action against them for things people supporting popular
opinions would be excused for.
That’s what it means when they say they censor to keep “civility”: if the
groupthink finds you disruptive, you will be silenced by arbitrary application
of rules others (who subscribe to groupthink) are excused for — and in this
way, an insistence on civility always favors groupthink.
The pretense of censoring for civility here is merely dishonest gaslighting
about their ideological policing, in favor of groupthink.
It’s precisely the same kind of dishonesty you see in YouTube, Twitter, and
Facebook’s censoring of conservative voices: hyperpartisans screech, and
complicit moderates use that as a pretense to enact their biases.
~~~
dang
I've not said that. If you're going to make such a claim, you should provide a
link so readers can make up their own minds.
The other claims you make aren't really falsifiable, though I can tell you we
go out of our way not to moderate HN based on ideology, and I can also tell
you that for whatever ideological position you'd care to name, people loudly
complain that we're biased against it.
~~~
FakeComments
You have, to me, in reply to contentious things I’ve said.
Repeatedly.
~~~
dang
All my replies to your comments can be found in this subthread, and plainly do
not match your description.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19345439](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19345439)
~~~
FakeComments
> Especially: "Comments should get more civil and substantive, not less, as a
> topic gets more divisive."
> dang has previously said that they’re more critical of people who perturb
> the groupthink, and take action against them for things people supporting
> popular opinions would be excused for.
Your entire moderation policy is based around precisely what I claimed, as you
yourself stated: the arbitrary application of increased standards for comments
which disrupt groupthink, or to use a euphemism, are “divisive”.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
@FakeComments: I'd like to share an idea you may find helpful.
I too am sometimes frustrated by how HN conversations go. There are numerous
times where I know I'm taking a contrary position on HN, and despite my best
efforts to present my argument politely and succinctly, the audience seems
unable or unwilling to honestly engage with my logic. It's doubly vexing when
my comments are downvoted without clear justification. (To be clear: I'm
talking only about downvoting, not thwacking from the site admins.)
But I also think there's plenty of evidence that taking a harsh tone in the
discussion is unproductive in such conversations, and is ineffective at
curbing the behavior of (what I perceive as) unjustified penalization of my
comments.
So here's my idea: How about treating this as an intellectual challenge? The
goal is to study the form and substance of these contentious discussions, and
identify trends regarding successful vs. failed presentations of contrary
viewpoints. And then see if adopting those forms results in more satisfying
discussions of the points you're trying to raise?
If you're able to nail that skill, especially with a sometimes-fickle
audience, you may find it benefits other areas of life as well.
~~~
FakeComments
You admit your comment is non-responsive to my point, which is that dang
ideologically censors posts.
Do you believe a non-sequitur ad hominem was a constructive comment?
I’d prefer not to learn that style of social skill.
Your comment is also factually wrong: the reason that censorship for civility
developed as a strategy is that it’s maximally effective suppressing
ideological conversion for the amount of speech it suppresses. Your comment
then becomes nothing more than “working under adverse conditions teaches
resiliency”, which is true — but not a reason to stop questioning the
censorship policy.
People do not rationally switch positions — they switch positions during an
emotional cascade after a sufficient number of rational reasons have
accumulated. That “avalanche” where an emotional spark triggers the awareness
of a substantial shift in your beliefs.
These criticality events necessarily require an emotional trigger such a
failing to be able to substantively reply to provocatively phrased arguments
or the inability to factually correct mocking humor.
Civility suppresses precisely that: the emotional barbs in arguments and the
mockery which might provoke a person to change their stance, in a substantive
manner.
Rationality alone is all powder, no spark.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
I'm _assuming_ that we all want roughly the same thing: we each want to
believe all true facts, disbelieve all false facts, and hopefully help others
achieve that as well.
I think your point about cascades is interesting, and it seems to jive with my
experience. And I can see how censoring for civility would, as a result, be an
impediment to changing minds.
I also believe @dang's point that _not_ stifling incivility leads to
unproductive flame wars. Which, I'm guessing, _also_ results in conversations
that fail to change minds.
So where does that leave us regarding HN discussions? Can you think of an
approach that addresses both your _and_ @dang's points? Are we stuck with
having HN admins try to find the optimal censorship policy that somehow
balances the issues you and @dang have raised?
Please also consider the possibility that you may have a greater appetite for
(hopefully productive) acrimony than the majority of HN's target community. In
terms of your theory of changing minds, the HN owners may wish for this site
to be where people can discuss the logical / empirical aspects of issue in a
calm and pleasant manner, and leave the mind-chaning, emotional stages of the
discussions for other forums.
------
mtgx
Since David Cameron days, the UK government has had every intention of turning
UK into another China, at least as far as surveillance and censorship goes.
They just can't do it so obviously, so they do it in a round-about way like
arguing for "porn filters" and later for other "serious crimes". And then you
wake up one day that they use the filters for whatever they want.
------
jquery
Once people accept that it's fine for social media to censor political speech,
it's only a small mental leap to hand over that same control to the
government. This development should come as no surprise as government
officials see the thunderous applause heaped on media companies when they ban
"problem people".
------
sparkling
What is it with the obsession about "hate speech" in some random internet
comment section? Report that user, ignore it, turn off the screen, whatever.
How in the world is it worth spending actual policing resources on this
nonsense?
~~~
commandlinefan
Well, the justification - mind you, I don't agree, I'm just answering your
(rhetorical?) question - is that speech can sway opinions, opinions can shape
behavior, and (the wrong sort of) behavior can lead to chaos, so it's best to
nip the wrong sort of speech in the bud before it cascades into genocide. The
problem with that sort of "slippery slope" thinking is that it always ends up
slippery-slope-ing in the other direction: hate speech regulations designed to
silence nazis calling for genocide are almost immediately applied to reasoned,
principled, thoughtful people like Jordan Peterson whose conclusions are
outside the mainstream.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intellij downgrades Gradle support from version 12 to 13 - pdeva1
http://movingfulcrum.tumblr.com/post/76371418630/intellij-downgrades-gradle-support-from-version-12-to
======
kclay
I guess Android studio is on v12 code because it has recent tasks, not to sure
about the other
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Extraordinary SVD - platz
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1103.2338.pdf
======
jdale27
Link to abstract: <http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.2338>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“Adds iOS build support to gomobile command” - ConceitedCode
https://go-review.googlesource.com/#/c/11587/8
======
wiremine
So, let me get this straight:
* You can write part of your app in Go
* You can share that code across your Android and iOS apps?
Is that right? If so, seems like a solid use case for Go. Until Swift compiles
to Android...
~~~
akhilcacharya
Is it really that beneficial to do this? Your system API's are still in
Java/Obj-C/Swift, so all you can really share is business logic.
Has anybody had any real benefit from doing this in the past? I know Facebook
did it with moments, but the image processing code could at least be shared
here.
~~~
sandGorgon
is that still correct after the Dalvik -> ART move ? I always thought a long
term strategy around ART was to move away from the jvm dependency.
Just in time for all the Oracle lawsuits confirming that Java apis are patent
encumbered.
~~~
on_and_off
Nothing official but after all these efforts with ART and jack&Jill both of
which are not tied to java, it seems likely that Google is at least
experimenting with another language.
~~~
akhilcacharya
What else would Google use? Android dev is pretty reliant on the OO model.
~~~
on_and_off
Well, that's an open question...
IMO, moving to another language should be taken as an opportunity to fix the
oversights of the Framework. Things like the atrocious Activity lifecycle or
the backstack handling.
There are several contenders :
-Dart : Google controls this language and the Dart Team is openly experimenting with their own Android fralewirj. The results are extremely underwhelming so far though.
-Kotlin : A better Java. I doubt that it would solve Android legal troubles though.
-Rust : the language has so many interesting ideas. I don't know if its complexity is warranted in Android's context though.
-a new language inspired by Kotlin, Rust, Go, Swift,... . Why not ? It would need a serious value proposition in order to be interesting though.
-insert your pet language here : everyone seems to want to develop Android apps in their most familiar language ...
Again, the official word from the Android team is that Java is the language of
the platform for the time being. I just hope that if they are indeed planning
a switch to another language, it will be discussed in the open beforehand.
Such a debate is not always constructive, but it could be very important in
Android's context.
------
avinassh
OT: Does Gerrit provide any extra features helping in code review, compared to
Github? We use Github and it does fine.
~~~
uxp
Gerrit and GitHub provide two different paradigms. If you want a
straightforward answer, then yes Gerrit provides a number of extra features,
but it isn't a replacement for GitHub.
------
Gys
So this make something similar as Cordova possible ? Running a local webserver
with all logic, serving html5/css/js as GUI ? Would still need bindings for
accelerator and such (just as Cordova) but maybe its possible to use the ones
Cordova already has ?
------
eva1984
Which part of the application can be shared between iOS and Android apps that
is most suitable to write in Go? Data layer, like communication protocol?
~~~
hobarrera
go has issues on IPv6 clients, so not communication.
Probably the business logic, which is what least needs to interact with the OS
APIs.
------
pbreit
What exactly does this enable?
~~~
zaroth
Here's some good examples: [https://medium.com/using-go-in-mobile-
apps](https://medium.com/using-go-in-mobile-apps)
Judging from the popping a dialog example, I think the main use case is
reusing a Go library inside an iOS app, not any kind of standalone app
development entirely with Go. At least, not without a lot of helper libraries
which don't exist yet!
------
aaronbrethorst
Dear mods: _please_ stop 'de-editorializing' headlines when the alternative
won't make any sense. The new title for this link is nigh-unintelligible.
(the previous title was something like "Go 1.5 will add support for building
iOS apps")
~~~
dang
Take the sample bias out of your request and generalize it to all of HN, and
what you're asking will no longer sound so trivial.
Submitters make up titles all the time that are (to use the sibling comment's
words) "clear, descriptive", and wrong. Set aside the fact that HN's rules
explicitly ask people not to do that. What would you have us do?
If you say "never change them", that would flood HN with false and
manipulative titles forever. (Not that this one was false and manipulative—I
wouldn't know. But I do know that that would be the consequence of never
changing titles.) If you say "change the ones that are false and keep the ones
that are true", you're asking us to be experts on everything.
The submitted title was "Go 1.5 will have iOS support". The submitted web page
says nothing of the sort. What should we do? Being an expert on the Go
project's internal progress—that is, being an expert on everything in the
general case—is not an option. So we look for language in the article itself
that is representative of what it says. That has two merits: (1) it preserves
the neutral quality of HN's front page and (2) it's doable.
If you'd like to propose a change that doesn't demand superhuman powers of us
and wouldn't destroy the character of HN, please do. But getting upset over a
single suboptimal example doesn't seem serious to me. HN sees a thousand
stories a day. Not every example is going to come out optimal no matter what
we do.
~~~
aaronbrethorst
Hi Dan - fair point. To be pedantic, though, the title of this article should
then be
Change Ibc23b6d3: cmd/gomobile: enable target=ios
builds | go-review.googlesource Code Review
which a) doesn't fit, and b) doesn't make any sense. A potential technical fix
would be to allow both titles and descriptions on posts with URLs.
~~~
dang
Even pedantically, that's not true: the HN guidelines have never said you must
always use the original title. Pedantry aside, the important thing above is
_language in the article itself that is representative of what it says_.
That's both why we changed the title and what we changed it to.
> allow both titles and descriptions on posts with URLs.
I appreciate the suggestion, but we're unlikely to do that. On HN, submitting
a story conveys no special rights, and submitters do not get to frame the
story for everybody else. Framing it for everybody else effectively means
controlling the discussion. We want discussion to be driven by the article
itself, not a single user's spin. If a submitter wishes to offer a description
or say what they think is important about a story, they're welcome to do so by
adding a comment to the thread on the same footing as everybody else.
------
crazychrome
I don't think the fruit company will approve apps programmed other than objc
or swift.
~~~
matthewmacleod
They've been doing that for ages already.
Please do at least a cursory bit of research before commenting about an area
you're clearly not familiar with! It will save a lot of time, and prevent FUD
like this from continuing to spread.
~~~
hughw
Well, I'm glad he asked, because I didn't know all these languages mentioned
in the responses, were supported on iOS and the App Store.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Detect logical fallacies in text using Haskell - amsa
https://github.com/amsa/fallacy-hunter
======
mskobe
Cool Project~
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to become a better coder without guidance from my company? - cebeve
I graduated a year ago and have been working in consulting as a full stack dev since. On many projects I found myself to be the only developer, architect and sys admin. It’s been a decent learning opportunity but the long hours and high degree of responsibility almost made me burnout.<p>I’ve been trying to jump ship to a tech company, where I hope I can learn from more experienced developers and be in a better work environment. This task has been tremendously hard.<p>Specifically, companies have told me that my code does not follow best coding practices or, more in general, that I’m not knowledgeable enough. I’ve hit a wall since I feel I can’t just learn “best practices“ on my own. From what I’m reading, best practices vary a lot between companies, teams and industries. Am I supposed to just start reading Code Complete, Elements of Programming Style and O’Reilly Books?<p>As a newcomer to the industry this is incredibly discouraging. Does anyone have any good advice for someone in my position?
======
hans1729
Write less code, and read more (code by others) instead.
Learn different languages (especially functional ones, I can recommend
Elixir). It'll inspire you to see different paradigms.
Think about well defined functions, modularity, simplicity. Check out the zen
of python. Watch talks by Rich Hickey and other knowledgable+smart people.
Look at well-regarded code-bases, try to understand why others write things
the way they do. Chromium is widely considered an amazing piece of code.
Post your code online and ask for advice. When you're told off because your
code doesn't follow best practices, ask which best practices are meant, and
start following them once you understood the reasoning behind them. [...]
------
streetcat1
So, you might want to look at the open source projects from the said tech
companies and adopt your coding habits to their style.
Also, you may ask for code review at your current place.
I would actually say that you should write as much code as possible. I would
also try to automate your sys admin work with infra-as-code tools like
terraform or kuberentes.
The key to becoming better developer is to practice as much as you can. You
should not look at the long hours as a chore but as opportunity to code more.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Iran Escalates Campaign Against Online Expression - zoowar
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/iran-escalates-campaign-against-online-expression
======
srl
> Vahid Asghari, a 24-year-old student in India, was arrested on May 11, 2008
> at Tehran Airport and accused of hosting websites with “pornographic”
> content critical of the government.
Wait, what? That's gotta be a new genre.
Or, the Iranian government decided that "critical of the government" didn't
sound bad enough, and prepended "porn" to shore up the charges.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Sideline resources? - p0d
Hi,<p>I'm very happy with my life working for the man and also myself. I'm a part-time company sysadmin (3 days a week) and run my own web business (2 days). I guess I'm wondering if there are any websites, forums or resources for those with sidelines? I think it would be interesting to learn and share with others in the same situation.<p>Thanks
======
DoreenMichele
[https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/business-
bootstrap...](https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/business-
bootstrappers)
It's quiet, but you are welcome to join and try to liven things up. It is
aimed at folks not specifically looking for VC money. Sidelines are perfectly
welcome.
~~~
p0d
Thanks
------
justboxing
You mean sidegigs / side jobs / side projects?
Here's one where you can buy / sell Side projects.
[https://www.sideprojectors.com](https://www.sideprojectors.com)
~~~
p0d
My bad, I wasn’t clear in my question. I’m not looking for gigs, more for
resources for those working a job and having a gig. I think being in this
position has its own challenges. I was curious to know if there were books or
forums on the topic folk would recommend?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Syria Internet Down As Egypt Blackout Catches On In Middle East - chailatte
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/82156/Reports%3A-Syria-Internet-Down-As-Egypt-Blackout-Catches-On-In-Middle-East.html
======
jacquesm
Interesting, are the Syrians afraid that the Egyptians will find ways to
communicate or are they afraid that the flames of revolution will spread and
spoil their plans for dynasty?
If Mubarak is successfully ousted a lot of people might wake up to the
possibility of throwing out their abusive leaders, I'll bet that plenty of
middle east despots are not sleeping well tonight, if at all and that one or
two of them might check the contents of their 'bug-out-bags'.
~~~
euroclydon
Is conservative let-suicide-bomb-westerners style Islam a populist movement
that might take hold, or is it viewed by he protestors as just as undesirable
as the current regime?
~~~
jacquesm
Would you call the IRA a style of Catholicism? Would you call the abortion
clinic bombers a style of Christianity?
Individuals transgressing the law are no reason to paint a large group of
people with the same brush.
~~~
iujyhgftrgh
What about a country where the head of the church is also the head of the
armed forces? Where nuclear missile submarines are launched with "god bless
her and all who sail in her"?
Where belief in God, the head of state and the superiority over foreigners are
pretty much the same creed
~~~
cryptoz
> Where nuclear missile submarines are launched with "god bless her and all
> who sail in her"?
Are you referring to the United States? Officially speaking, by the word of
the President of the United States, the USA invaded Iraq because God spoke to
George W. Bush and God told him to invade Iraq.
Source:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/06/bush.shtml)
~~~
jacquesm
I think the GP is referring to England.
The English head of state (the Queen) is also the head of the church of
England.
see: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_England>
------
duke_sam
This doesn't seem to be the case:
<http://twitter.com/#!/olaonline/status/31020613325819904>
Also seems to be backed up by others:
<http://twitter.com/#!/olaonline/status/31020613325819904>
<http://twitter.com/Firas_Atraqchi/status/31010020443299840>
<http://twitter.com/#!/beshr/status/31037492174004225>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The "$15 Billion" Nonsense - razorburn
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/10/the_15_billion.php
======
byrneseyeview
That's true enough. Of course, it applies to every other stock, too: Google's
~$200 billion market cap is based on the price of the last trade, which for
all we know was a 100-share buy that mostly constituted an investment in
smugness. Since there are so many small investors, and since large investors
have lower turnover, the vast majority of investment transactions are non-
representative, but they're still the best information we have.
It wouldn't be especially surprising if MS overpaid -- but I don't think
that's what Facebook wants. Companies usually like to IPO at their peak
valuation. Investors very rarely want to buy discounted goods during the IPO
(which is why many startups would _under_ value their early venture capital
investments: if they were funded at $.25/share in January, got another round
at $5/share in July, and were going public at $20/share in December, they give
new investors a comfortable trendline to look at. Swap the last two
valuations, and you start scaring people).
~~~
Goladus
The whole point is that microsoft is not really an 'investor' in terms of a
general market. Microsoft would have competitive reasons for buying a stake in
Facebook that go beyond a direct return on investment, which is all a normal
investor is looking for.
If Microsoft has a 98% of a map to buried treasure, but a critical 2% is
missing, that 2% is worth a lot to Microsoft, but nothing to anyone else.
Unless MS is willing to buy it from you, that is. If 1.6% is all they really
need of Facebook, the rest could be worthless.
~~~
byrneseyeview
That's true, but that's irrelevant. Is an investor really going to be snooty
enough to turn Microsoft down, if the most valuable thing that can happen to
Facebook is a sale to MS?
~~~
Goladus
I'm not saying that MS might buy all of Facebook.
Some of the fine print in the 240 million dollar deal might be all they were
ever looking for to begin with.
------
wschroter
Why aren't people looking at this deal and saying "$240m is the price to
secure their ad revenue deal?" If they paid the same amount and didn't get the
equity, would FB still we worth $15b?
Paying $240m to secure their ad relationship may have been a good deal in and
of itself.
------
neilc
Well, I think the point is that Microsoft gave Facebook $240 million in
exchange for a few things. A "strategic alliance", 1.6% equity stake, an
advertising deal for Facebook ads outside the US, etc. Now, it's not correct
to just multiply those numbers to arrive at Facebook's book value, but the
deal certainly values Facebook very highly: as a company that Microsoft is
willing to essentially _give_ $240 million to at a very generous valuation. So
while Facebook aren't a $15 billion company, they're a company that can raise
$240 million in exchange for a small equity slice and an ad deal -- which is a
very highly-valued (overvalued?) company indeed.
------
DocSavage
I agree with the blogger's reasoning, only now there's a rumor of a $500
million investment from two NYC hedge funds
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=72562>). The hedge funds would be making
a financial, not strategic, investment so the straight-line extrapolation
approach would be supported.
------
Readmore
The point is this post is nonsense. Facebook's current valuation IS $15
Billion. Because of Microsoft's stupid investment we now have to live in a
world where Facebook has a $15 Billion valuation. Thanks M$!
------
aaroniba
Does this mean new engineers who join facebook will get stock options with a
strike price reflecting the $15B valuation? Won't that make it harder to
recruit people?
~~~
far33d
Yes. Which is why this deal might end up being much worse for the facebookers
than they might think it is right now.
They've basically created a 2-tier employee system.
~~~
nkohari
If they can legally do it, I'm sure they'll re-issue options to avoid that
very problem. Not sure what the restrictions are for private companies.
~~~
nkohari
On second thought, it might not be that simple... :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chess grandmasters: Intelligent machines are about to revolutionize the world - edw519
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10017/1028615-109.stm?cmpid=newspanel
======
Quarrelsome
Surely the whole Deep Blue thing is just a false dawn for AI. Beating a human
player through brute force isn't _that_ impressive. If anything its obvious.
What would be more impressive is a capped AI that can only look so many moves
ahead and uses principles (such as say Nimzovich's opinionated twaddle) to
win.
~~~
patio11
In quite possibly my only point of agreement with Noam Chomsky, I think our
discussions of AI are impoverished because they turn on a distinction of
language not of fact. Machines that can "think" are AI, machines that can do
impressive calculations but not "think" are just impressive calculators. This
is not a statement about AI, this is a statement about the English word
"think". It sheds about as much light as asking whether an aircraft carrier
can swim. (I am informed that aircraft carriers do indeed swim... in Russian.)
A lot of the other "Oh, that's just a cheap trick" non-AI things are a) much
more useful to humans than the sci-fi notions people think of when they think
AI and b) actually exist in the status quo. For example, if I told you that
there exists a program which can make evidence-based judgments of a human's
character to tell you whether they are likely to be trustworthy or not in
their future business dealings, you would probably say "Egads! That is clearly
AI! Holy cow, that is lightyears ahead of passing the Turing Test, and we're
nowhere near passing the Turing Test!"
But if I told you "The program is called a FICO score" then, pfft, that isn't
AI, that's just clever math and good selection of data sources.
This is one of the reasons why academic AI is, ahem, pretty dead as a field:
after you actually get something working we drum you out of the field. Telling
the topic of a document by reading it and understanding what it is about? AI!
Leveraging anchor text on the link graph to do the work for you? Boooooooring.
Granted, billion dollar business boring but still boooooooooring.
~~~
camccann
_It sheds about as much light as asking whether an aircraft carrier can swim.
(I am informed that aircraft carriers do indeed swim... in Russian.)_
"The question of whether machines can think... is about as relevant as the
question of whether submarines can swim." \-- Edsger W. Dijkstra
_This is one of the reasons why academic AI is, ahem, pretty dead as a field:
after you actually get something working we drum you out of the field._
Even if you're really just using techniques originally developed by AI
researchers. It's kind of silly.
~~~
a-priori
_Even if you're really just using techniques originally developed by AI
researchers. It's kind of silly._
... in retrospect.
------
grellas
When I graduated from an ultra-liberal California university in the mid-70s,
computing technology was consistently reviled as soulless, cold, and
dangerous.
It is interesting to have watched this attitude transmute over the years into
a belief, typified in this piece, that such technology will so revolutionize
the world as to work some great deliverance in the human condition.
Back in the day, those who criticized the "Machine" would glorify the artisans
and revel in the idea of human creativity in its pure form (unaided by
advanced tools of any kind). The attitude was almost anti-science and was in
any event highly "humanistic."
Now creativity and technology appear to be closely coupled in the eyes of
young people in academic settings, to the point where information technology,
at least, is seen as having almost redemptive qualities.
Not saying any of this is profound - just wondering if others have observed
this changed perception as well or have thoughts on how it might have come
about. Is it because technology became "personal" as opposed to "corporate"?
By the way, don't play Fritz as a chess adversary - it is like playing a demon
from hell!
~~~
DanielBMarkham
Not only that, but people's relationships with each other have been changed by
machines.
It used to be that the FBI keeping a file open on somebody famous was
considered scandal-worthy. Now FaceBook keeps much more personal information
on all of us and people don't bat an eye about it. Younger people today seem
to have completely abandoned the idea that they might have a private life and
that privacy might have great value to themselves and others.
The noble savage and artisan view of humanity has changed into a view that
we're all mostly just interchangeable nodes on the world network.
We have become the very machines that we once so hated.
~~~
tokenadult
_It used to be that the FBI keeping a file open on somebody famous was
considered scandal-worthy. Now FaceBook keeps much more personal information
on all of us and people don't bat an eye about it._
That's a really good observation. People who are below a certain age don't
have much perspective on
a) how mundane most information in FBI files always has been,
and
b) how much more pervasively personal information about most people is now
shared by computerized networks than it was shared by small town gossip.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
Is it not that in (a) _the FBI_ have the file that is the issue. Just as now
we'd be concerned if the FBI was keeping particularly close tabs on our FB
details (I mean closer than the standard trawl-net approach).
------
abdulhaq
Once I had some (considerable, 3 months) spare time and decided to fulfill my
ambition of writing a chess program. This one would be special - it would work
to a strategy, rather than brute force. 3 months later, and having written it
first in Java, then C++, then C, I realised that it could never compete with
the brute-force millions-of-nodes-per-second crunching machines. This actually
made me become disillusioned with chess as a whole, although the emergence of
Rybka has restimulated my interest somewhat. The idea that strong chess
programs mean that AI is on the march is, sorry, laughable.
~~~
ehsanul
Chess is not where the action's at in AI anyways, so you're right, that idea
is indeed laughable. These days, poker is hot new(ish) thing for AI research,
with it's stochastic gameplay and psychological twist (bluffing and calling
bluffs), and wide range of strategies. See, for example:
<http://poker.cs.ualberta.ca/>
------
systemtrigger
The author is an international grand master, the highest title in chess.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rogoff#Chess_career>
~~~
jvdh
That doesn't make him plural though ;)
(The article appears to show only his personal view, not that of others)
------
rubyrescue
Well at least we still have Go <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Go>
~~~
ugh
Sure, but does it matter? Being the best human chess player on the planet is
still impressive, even if millions of machines can beat you. Not even only
‘still’ impressive – just as impressive as it ever was. It’s probably
(theoretically) possible to build machines that are better at anything a human
might attempt.
------
raghus
_Perhaps if Turing were alive today, he would define artificial intelligence
as the inability of a computer to tell whether another machine is human!_
------
socratees
MIT recently started a general AI project
<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/ai-overview-1207.html>
------
mark_l_watson
I am surprised Kenneth Rogoff equates chess AI with "real AI."
"Real AI" is a long way off; my definition: ability for systems to learn from
their environment (physical or Internet), change their internal models, and
generally evolve their own abilities without requiring external help.
Off topic: I have never met grandmaster Rogoff, but I watched my friend Carl
Wagner play him in a telephone San Diego vs. Boston match in 1975. My company
SAIC hosted the San Diego end of the match, and I was very surprised to see my
friend Carl playing number 1 board: Carl had been clobbering me at chess
during lunch time for months and I was just about ready to give up the game
since I had a long loosing streak, and I am a poor loser. So, Carl was an
international master, and never mentioned it :-)
~~~
tinker
I was also quite surprised to see Ken Rogoff's comment on AI. He is very smart
and I think very highly of his work, but I think his comment on AI is far off
the mark.
------
teeja
Yet another article on superior machines that then rattle on and on about
chess programs. Not news for chess, and _no change_ for the rest of us.
------
greenlblue
Fluffy article with absolutely nothing to add to anything other than a
recollection of a small part of history in computer science.
------
estrabd
I hate articles like this. And he gets the Turing Test wrong.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Most Successful workplaces of the Future… - cwan
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/08/mba-mondays-guest-post-from-dr-dana-ardi.html
======
potatolicious
Most of this advice can already be seen in the "top" software employers,
except this one:
> _"Don't buy resume or credentials. Buy competence, track record, character
> and culture fit."_
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and other "tier-1" companies are
notorious for this. Early-stage Google was even notorious for being a strict
Stanford-only shop.
And this is IMO a large part of the talent shortage - the shortage is real,
but is not anywhere as acute as we've made it out to be, though I am a
beneficiary of this, having gone to a reasonably prestigious school. Software
engineering salaries are climbing through the roof while competent programmers
get passed over all the time for not having the right credentials. Employers
complain constantly about the difficulty of hiring, while giving only cursory
glances (if that!) at resumes from non-top schools.
This annoys me to no end - many of the best coders I know never went to MIT,
Stanford, CMU, or Berkeley, and many of them never got their "break" until
much later. _Eventually_ , after years of treading water, a name brand company
will give them a shot, and once they've covered themselves in magical
recognized-employer pixie dust, the offers start flying in.
It's all incredibly inefficient and awful.
~~~
tptacek
I know this sounds true, but I somewhat doubt that it is. Google, for
instance, has a reputation for preferring candidates from top schools. But it
is also hiring out of many of the subfields where the talent shortage is most
acute. I'm pretty familiar with one of those (appsec), and my perspective is
that Google is (a) absolutely not passing on people because of credentials,
and (b) having as hard a time as anyone staffing.
Similarly: it is very hard for us to hire (in particular, it's very hard to
fill the top of the recruiting funnel) --- and we could obviously give a shit
where anyone went to school. Again: same prickly subfield. But I've got reason
to believe this is true of mobile development, Rails, customer
acquisition/marketing, and high-end UI as well.
I'm sure there are people who know Java and C++ and went to SIU instead of
UIUC who are having a hard time, and that they'd have had an easier time if
they went to a different school. But they'd also have an easier time if they
watched the market and made sure to cultivate aptitude in the subfields with
the most demand.
------
Peroni
_Hire competencies but remember: hire with your heart. Make sure new workers
fit into the preexisting culture, while also importing their expertise. Become
their sponsor – onboarding is essential. Spend time listening. Give them what
they need to succeed._
Absolutely fantastic advice. Too many employers bring in someone new, help
them get up to speed and then abandon them to assimilate themselves into the
workplace.
The best leaders listen to their employees and give them the tools to help
them play to their strengths. It's also frustrating how few people realise
that the simplest things can make the world of difference to an employee such
as a better chair or fresh fruit deliveries.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Palantir Buyback Plan Shows Need for New Silicon Valley Pay System - mathattack
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/dealbook/palantir-buyback-plan-shows-need-for-new-silicon-valley-pay-system.html
======
birken
Boy this article is a very friendly interpretation of Scott Kupor's blog post.
From NYTimes:
> He [Scott Kupor] also suggests a longer period for employees to exercise
> options after they leave, up to 10 years. That figure is endorsed by Y
> Combinator in an argument that any lesser period is unfair to employees.
Makes it seem like Scott Kupor is on the leading edge of caring about
employees, in agreement with YC (which has actually been employee friendly in
words and actions in regard to stock options).
However, read Scott's actual blog post and he refers to the 10 year exercise
idea incredulously:
> The 10-year “solution” thus takes money/option value out of the pockets of
> the current (and growing) employee base to line the pockets of former
> employees who are no longer contributing to the business.
> Talk about disenfranchising your remaining employees and not being able to
> attract new ones.
Good reminder to always read your primary sources.
~~~
sverige
Indeed it is. I particularly like the 'no longer contributing to the business'
part, as if the work done by the original employees isn't what the current
business was built on, at a discounted rate if their stock options are
worthless. And as if the stock options were the only reason they're having
trouble attracting quality talent.
Stock options seem attractive as a form of compensation, since the hope is
that you're working for a unicorn and one day you'll be fabulously rich, but
the cash equivalent is better more often than not. It's just a form of risk
transfer from those who have plenty to those who hope to have plenty by dint
of talent and hard work. Having been burnt, I won't do it again.
~~~
jegutman
I actually disagree with the 10yr time frame (although will admit it has its
merits), but also agree with some of your logic. I just think that the 10yr
"fix" solves some problems and creates others. I think this issue is that you
should: A) not rob former employees of accrued stock value B) probably try to
somewhat reduce incentives to leave if the company is going to continue to do
well
There are a few problems I see here: 1) stock option grants are completely
arbitrary and sometimes end up very wrong 2) it's hard to fix that in the
future because you'll end up at a higher strike price 3) end up being
expensive and tax inefficient to exercise
The closest I've seen to people who seem to get this and have sensible
solutions are Andrew Mason at Detour (progressive equity) and Dustin Moskovitz
at Asana (larger grants, but back loaded into years 4-6).
I have great respect for Adam D'Angelo at Quora for suggesting a solution to
the problem, have known him in school he's certainly smarter than me on almost
every axis of intelligence, but I think there are other potentially creative
solutions that might be better (although I don't know tax compliance).
For example I think you could keep the status quo, but offer the option for
employees to exchange their options for shares (white meat) at the time they
can exercise. Example you have options for 100 shares at a strike price of
$50, at the time you leave the shares are worth $100, instead of having to
come up with $5000, you just get $50 shares free and clear. I think there's
still a tax hit issue, but at least it's not doubled with paying for the
shares.
~~~
argonaut
There's a huge tax hit. Giving shares is taxed as ordinary income.
~~~
lmm
All of these things should be taxed as ordinary income. Companies shouldn't be
able to do an end-run around taxation by giving you valuable stuff instead of
giving you money directly.
~~~
rplst8
> Companies shouldn't be able to do an end-run around taxation by giving you
> valuable stuff
They already do in the form of health and retirement benefits.
~~~
humanrebar
And tying an individual's future (health insurance, retirement, immigration
status) to an employer is a bad thing.
~~~
chimeracoder
> And tying an individual's future (health insurance, retirement, immigration
> status) to an employer is a bad thing.
Retirement isn't really 'tied to an employer', in that you can still open an
IRA without an employer[0], or use a non-tax-advantaged account for retirement
savings (most people outside the military or government service use non-tax-
advantaged accounts for at least a portion of their retirement, since the IRA
and 401(k) contribution limits are too low for most people to survive on
during retirement).
This might have been different 50 years ago, where employer-driven pensions
were more common, but today, the only real way your employer impacts your
retirement is the 401(k).
The purpose of both the IRA and the 401(k) is to provide people with an extra
incentive to plan for retirement. Putting away $450/month towards your
retirement[1] can be unpleasant, but if you're getting, say, $90 that back (in
the form of lower tax withholdings/taxes due), it makes it a bit easier,
because that's effectively only $360 out-of-pocket.
The incentives work similarly for the 401(k), except the tax savings work out
for the _employer_ as well, meaning that they are incentivized to give you
some portion of your compensation in the form of 401(k) matching (ie, they
have an extra incentive to nudge you towards saving more of your _own_ money
for retirement).
Personally, I do believe that, if you do not have access to a 401(k) through
an employer, your IRA contribution limit should be raised by $17,000 (which is
the 401(k) contribution limit for individual contributions). But without
employer contributions, at most that's saving you less than $6,000 - and
that's if you're already at the very top marginal tax brackets (even making
$100K gross in NYC, the most heavily taxed jurisdiction in the country, won't
be taxed at 35%).
[0] Well, you can't contribute more than your total annual income to an IRA,
but if you're making less than $450/month and living in the US, retirement
planning is not your most immediate problem.
[1] ie, enough to max out your IRA contribution limit
------
bane
This sounds like a company in big trouble and trying desperately to stem
attrition and improve tanking morale.
According to crunchbase they're basically owned by a private equity firm now
(which is rarely a fun place to be) and are raising something like a billion
dollars a year -- which basically appears to be around what their operating
costs are (employee count of that year * $250k/yr).
They're either not bringing in any real revenue, or growing at the rate of
revenue. Multiple raises per year (of weirdly different values) indicate
frequent requests for more money.
Are they growing or are they dying? Either way they aren't doing it through
revenue, and they're not going public so the financials stay very hidden.
~~~
pmiller2
Anybody who thinks this offer is meant to benefit employees isn't looking much
beyond the surface. The fact that it includes a release of claims, a
noncompete clause, and an NDA is a solid clue that this move is intended to
benefit Palantir and not employees.
Edit: forgot noncompete clause.
~~~
mifreewil
That's all standard stuff. If I was at a company for 11 years, I'd sure as
hell want to cash out. Whether their offer is a good price or not, who knows.
~~~
soup10
You can only cash out 12.5%. 12 month non-compete for a small cash out is a
pretty double edged deal.
~~~
daemin
But if you are still working there and do not plan to move then being able to
liquidate up to $500,000 worth of shares seems like a very good offer.
~~~
mrep
If you can liquidate $500,000 worth of shares, that means you still have at
least $3,500,000 worth of shares in a company that has no plans to ever go
public.
------
fossuser
Comments on this thread are not very interesting and generally off topic. This
article points out an issue in SV which is that it's hard for employees to get
value out of options held in companies that do not go public.
One reason for this not mentioned in the article is that in the US the tax
burden is extreme - partially because when it was implemented it expected
companies to go public.
If you hold options in a private company you get taxed on the exercise of
those options based on the fair market spread which is the difference in price
between your original strike price (the price of the options when they were
granted to you) and the current fair market valuation. This is taxed as
income.
This is problematic since once exercised you're holding shares of an illiquid
asset (since the company is not public) and they're difficult to sell. This
means even if you save up enough money to exercise your options you'll get hit
with a potentially enormous tax bill due that year that you can't easily sell
your newly exercised options to pay for. Additionally when you sell the actual
shares after you've exercised them you get taxed _again_ on the sale.
The one exception to this is if your options are ISOs (incentive stock
options) then the delta between the strike price and the fair market value
isn't taxed immediately, but it does count towards AMT (Alternative Minimum
Tax) and it's fairly easy to hit the AMT while exercising options (meaning you
could only exercise a tiny amount per year tax free).
All of these things make it extremely difficult to realize any value in a
private company without enormous amounts of upfront cash and also losing
roughly half to taxes. It also makes it extremely difficult to exercise
options outside of a liquidity event. This can also make it hard to leave a
company since the agreements are often 90 days to exercise after leaving or
you lose your options (there's also usually a ten year expiration date).
If companies in SV intend to stay private and don't want their employees to
view the options as impossible to liquidate we'll probably see an uptick in
liquidity events like this one. The companies that value their employees will
probably figure out a way to make this work.
~~~
jonathankoren
Yeah, the ISO spread with the AMT is bullshit that basically keeps the plebes
in their place by not actually letting them get any windfall. However it seems
like the real problem is exercising post-IPO. In the post-IPO world, you're
dealing with say a 5x to 10x spread, possibly even more. In the pre-IPO world,
your spread is probably 2x at most, which is much more manageable.
One clarification with what you said, is that with the AMT ISO exercise is
that you're not _actually_ taxed on both the exercise and the sell. What's
actually going on is that you're prepaying your taxes when you sell the stock.
When you sell the shares, you'll only have to pay the taxes (either regular
income or capital gains) based on the difference of the fair market value of
the stock when exercised and when sold. If it went up, and you sold in less
than year from exercise or less than 2 years from ISO grant, then it's regular
income, otherwise it's capital gains. So you could actually get a tax refund
when you sell. (Same is true if the market price actually declined between
exercise and sell.)
The argument is that when you exercise, you received something of value for
less than market and so you made money, but in reality you actually haven't
realized any gains, and actually are at cash loss. I understand the argument,
but I don't agree with it, because you did not actually realize any gain.
FWIW, San Jose's congresswoman Zoe Lofgren has repeatedly tried to fix the AMT
and ISO taxation, but hasn't had much success.[0]
Where I disagree with you is thinking that private companies are going to
"figure out a way to make this work" in a way that's beneficial for workers.
I'm sorry, but I've _never_ seen high finance work out for workers. It's
basically a play for the financially desperate. It's no better than selling
you shares on sharespost or something. If it's illiquid market, you're never
going to get full value, and you know damn well those that are buying are
going to expect a few multiples in gain. They can just wait a bit longer.
Workers on the other hand, are busy trying to scrape together a down payment
on a $2,000,000 shack in the valley.
[0]
[https://lofgren.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentI...](https://lofgren.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=365511)
~~~
lmm
The notion of "realizing" seems like nonsense to me. You get given a piece of
paper worth $100, you should get taxed for $100. Whether that piece of paper
is a federal reserve note or a stock certificate should be an irrelevance, no?
~~~
chrisbennet
Can you buy anything with that piece of paper?
Can you sell it?
If not, it's not really "worth" $100. That's the difference.
------
codys
Palantir's official reason of "improving employee moral" doesn't seem to
really mesh with the conditions they are imposing on the buy-back:
> [...] employees who sell their shares agree agree that they will not compete
> with Palantir for 12 months or solicit any Palantir employees during that
> time [...] [and] agree to a nondisclosure arrangement that forbids them from
> even talking about the repurchase and waive any claims they might have
> against the company.
The nyt put forwards a reasonable idea that this is a mechanism to increase
their perceived value, and I'm inclined to agree.
EDIT: the buzzfeed article [1] paints an even worse picture:
> If they [employees] get any inquiries about Palantir from reporters, the
> contract says, they must immediately notify Palantir and then email the
> company a copy of the inquiry within three business days.
[1]: [https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/palantir-seeks-to-
muzz...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/palantir-seeks-to-muzzle-
former-employees)
~~~
ridgeguy
If Palantir is a CA business entity (I didn't check, maybe it's a DE corp),
its noncompete should be per se invalid (= automatically void) in CA. There
are only a few circumstances in which noncompetition agreements are valid in
CA, and this doesn't seem to be one of them. See section 2.1.2 in:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
compete_clause#Exceptions_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
compete_clause#Exceptions_-_valid_non-compete_agreements_in_California)
Palantir's attorneys surely can't have missed this, but I don't see an
alternative.
~~~
argonaut
This is one of the exceptions to noncompetes in California - when you sell
your interest in a company. They are a Delaware corp. They have tons of
employees outside of California (New York?).
~~~
Steeeve
Actually, I think you have to be selling the whole business - but from my
comment above - it's not part of the employment agreement, so ... it's
_possibly_ enforceable. Maybe not, but I wouldn't count on it either way.
------
jasonthevillain
> It also makes them agree to a nondisclosure arrangement that forbids them
> from even talking about the repurchase and waive any claims they might have
> against the company. And the offer extends to some but not all former
> employees.
That smells funny and oddly specific.
~~~
codys
Indeed. I'd be curious which employees (if any) were included, and why.
------
abalone
This is called a PLP (Private Liquidity Plan). The comments here are kind of
vaguely negative but it's actually not a bad deal for employees. The main
problem is that most pre-IPO companies can't afford it. It uses up capital
that would otherwise go into operations.[1]
Where it _may_ make sense is in so-called "private IPOs", i.e. those 9 or 10
digit dollar rounds. There's enough money there to hand out. In olden days,
companies would have been public by then and employees would have had
liquidity. Planatir raised $880M last year so, yeah, they can afford it.[2]
[1] [http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/30/need-to-cash-out-a-bit-
pre...](http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/30/need-to-cash-out-a-bit-pre-ipo-
consider-a-private-liquidity-program/)
[2] [https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/palantir-has-
raised-880-mi...](https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/palantir-has-
raised-880-million-at-a-20-billion-valuation/)
------
BWStearns
Wouldnt it be nice to have coworkers (ish, they both have positions at
Berkeley) who can write willfully ignorant reinterpretations of your terrible
ideas in the Times?
Edit: I don't know for a fact that they are coworkers in a meaningful sense,
of course a university is a large place, but I would expect a professor of law
to have better reading comprehension than was on display here.
------
ChuckMcM
I could easily see the situation evolving that "unicorns" would either have to
provide liquidity for options or pay over market rates. An engineer at FB or
Google that getting paid in Restricted Stock units in addition to their salary
sees it as "extra pay" and an employee who sees a company that will never let
them sell options as not a smart place to work.
It does open up some creative financing though. Imagine a "common only"
startup, one where every share bought by investors or earned as an option had
the same rights and liquidation preference. Or my favorite[1] starting a
company with a fixed 5 billion shares all at a par value of $1 each. Then only
pay your employee in shares, only get investments by selling shares to
investors.
[1] I call it a favorite since we joked at a party once that if you did this,
and convinced a friend to buy a hundred shares for $100 you could call
yourself a self made billionaire! And be completely truthful.
------
solidsnack9000
> Mr. Kupor notes that extending the exercise time for former employees makes
> their options more valuable at the expense of employees and investors. (It
> does so because former employees have a longer time to exercise their
> options and dilute the other shareholders.)
This is simply a falsehood. Exercises of options of do not dilute shareholders
-- new issuances do. Former employees do not issue new shares.
~~~
argonaut
It's not an outright falsehood. He's referring to the (correct, but also
insidious) fact that compared to a 90-day exercise window, more people will
end up exercising under a more extended window - and this will dilute. In
other words, extended windows reduce the number of options returned to the
pool, and are thus slightly dilutive.
~~~
mavelikara
So the dilution does not come from the exercise period; it comes from rank and
file employees being unable to raise the required capital to exercise. So
imagine if Kupor had said "We should not be paying employees any salaries;
that puts cash in their pockets which enables them to exercise their options
when they vest which leads to dilution for every investor" \- that would have
been an obviously ridiculous position. So is the statement OP is commenting
on.
On a side note, you have been defending Kupor in the other thread too with
such nitpicks. Why?
------
swingbridge
This sounds like a move made out of desperation, not benevolence. Word on the
street is that all is not well at Palantir.
------
stanfordkid
My hunch is that the majority of revenue was forward looking with foreign
governments and large clients. This revenue was used as the basis for raising
at extremely high valuations. Investor diligence was weak and the exact terms
of these contracts was likely not understood in detail. When shit hit the fan
with the software/consulting services and the value was not realized (and or
budgets were cut, key champions retired etc.) ... contracts got cancelled.
When contracts got cancelled the house of cards started to fall. The issue
with huge contracts is that it's very easy to lose them. This is why a broad
revenue base is crucial.
Now they know that hundreds of employees are going to go blow the whistle so
they have to pay them off with buybacks while they figure out an exit
strategy.
My 2 cents.
------
francoisLabonte
What nobody talks about is the very good reason why employers give only 90
days after leaving a company to exercise options is that there is also a tax
liability to the company for an employee exercising an option. Usually
employer has to pay employment tax, now if you have a lot of options still
unexercised from former employees and your stock has appreciated a lot the
company can be on the hook for a lot of taxes. The company prefers only being
on the hook for current employees.
The true solution is to give stock options that can be exercised early as long
as the value of the stock is very low such that an employee's hiring bonus
after tax could cover the cost. There is no tax owed by the employee since he
purchased shares with no gain and then you vest outright stock. Once the stock
value goes up it would be best to grant RSUs of convertible notes that convert
into stock.
~~~
harryh
I'm pretty sure you are wrong about having to pay taxes if their are ex-
employees with unexercised options.
Citation?
------
vonklaus
I can't find the source so this is from memory; but Karp or Theil said they
wouldn't ever go public and essentially can't because they are essentially a
DoD contractor. While other companies notably do similar things and other
contractors are public, Palantir provides a unique platform to some extent and
their customer base, much of their technology and operations are secret.
It is known they will not likely go public as it would be detrimental to their
business and in-Q-tel (cia vc arm) is a major shareholder. While Silicon
Valley does need to rethink some of the ways they compensate employees;
especially at late stage private ones, I would not consider Palantir
indiicative of a typical SV unicorn
~~~
bane
All is not friendly in the shire, remember this post from a few years ago?
[https://www.quora.com/When-will-Palantir-go-
public](https://www.quora.com/When-will-Palantir-go-public)
~~~
vonklaus
In his response on quora he said he:
* left palantir in 09
* is a major shareholder
* left after he "had successfully replaced myself in both parts of the company we'd created and had fully vested".
So I am not going to speculate whether he was pushed out, but it sounds like
he has much less latitude for steering the company. Especially when you
consider the power of the other founders and the initial VC capital that was
put in. So this (claims of palantir going public) are what I would expect a
major shareholder without control of the company to say. It is effectively the
only way to put pressure on them.
Even if this is wildly incorrect, and it quite possibly is, that comment was
made several years after he had little more than an advisory role at palantir.
[https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Joe-Lonsdale-leave-
Palantir](https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Joe-Lonsdale-leave-Palantir)
------
zxcvvcxz
>Palantir's repurchase offer
Yes, it's an offer. I don't see why everyone is so up-in-arms over an offer.
People can reject offers just like they can make them. Other similar offers
include employment offers. I'm going to comment more generally on this issue
between founder and employee deals:
Here's what I think. HN is mostly of the employee class and so there's a
politicized negative sentiment about companies not leaning the way of the
employees.
Or maybe people think these offers and deals are bad for both the company
founders and the employees. So here is my proposition if you believe that.
Start your own company and enact whichever agreements you think are best. Do
what Palantir does, or what YC advises, or whatever you make up. Give a 20
year exercise period if you want. Your call.
But you have to actually found a company.
I find it hard to believe in a moral "good and bad" on this issue. We're just
talking about deals and contracts between people. And if people act with
agency with regards to accepting and declining offers, and inventive
individuals can come up with new systems and agreements that work better for
everyone, then it will be fine. A moral bad would be something like Google and
Apple and Facebook colluding behind closed doors to keep engineer pay below a
certain threshold.
For the employees who will have to negotiate: you can't get a deal that's good
for you if you aren't prepared to walk.
------
kriro
How does the non compete and soliciting work for ex-employees. Is it 12 month
after they left (likely void/expired for some already) or 12 month after
signing in which case some ex-employees probably can't even sign this.
Either way I'm very skeptical of anything involving NDAs or non competes. I
can understand a non poaching clause (but am also opposed to that on
ideological grounds). If I could afford it I wouldn't sign anything that has
NDAs or non disclosure.
I also doubt that many of the ex-employees need liquidity as they are likely
to hold well paying jobs. I suppose some could need it but those are probably
exactly the people least likely to compete with Palantir.
------
coldcode
Exercising options in a non-public company should not be taxed or valued in
any way until the stock can be sold in a public market or to a purchasing
entity. Of course what are the odds Congress would ever do that? Nil.
~~~
Mtinie
Can't this be mitigated to a large degree by setting the value per share to an
tiny fraction of a dollar? Sure, you'll have a tax to pay when the shares are
granted, but it should be reasonable.
I could get behind the scheme you commented with, but I'm unsure of generally
why we have the system we currently do, so I would want to understand the
rationale for the status quo.
~~~
hx87
It probably has something to do with preventing creative ways of liquidating
illiquid assets, such as borrowing against the assets and promptly defaulting.
------
krschultz
There is an easier solution. Go public. I've gotten options in a private
company, RSUs in a private company that got acquired, options in a public
company, and RSUs in a public company.
The only thing that I would count on an offer in the future are RSUs in a
public company.
------
nefitty
Peter Thiel is a cofounder of Palantir. He is also on the board of directors
of Facebook.
------
stromatew
This puts them closer for an IPO for sure, buying stock today!
------
curiouscat321
Does anybody think that this puts them closer to an IPO?
------
ihsw
Just pay people more.
------
curiousDog
They should still get props for the rate at which they were able to recruit
from Stanf/MIT/Princeton etc.
~~~
honkhonkpants
Why should they "get props" for duping graduates into wasting time joining
their flailing business? That sounds like a trick, not a benefit.
~~~
stale2002
Yeah, CMU grad here. My impression of Palantir is that they hire the top 1% of
developers and pay them what a 50 percentile developer would make.
If you ever get a palantir job offer, you'd be better off just forwarding it
to Uber, or Google or FB, and waiting for them to give you a 50% increased
counteroffer on the spot.
~~~
freditup
Curious what your estimate of a 50th and a 99th percentile developer salary is
for a new grad? And do you mean a 50th percentile CMU grad, or a 50th
percentile CMU grad developer, or just overall?
~~~
stale2002
Perhaps I exaggerate with the 99 percentile number, but the people I know who
work at a top(high paying) company like Uber or Jane Street will get something
like 150k easy (and maybe a signing bonus), and Palantir is more middle of the
road with 100k base salary or less, and stock options of dubious value.
~~~
dreaminvm
Are you saying 150k salaries for new grads or total comp?
ASAIK, Goog/Uber/FB starting salaries are closer to 110k base with $40-50k
RSUs vesting per year (refreshes each year), performance bonus 10-15% salary
and sometimes a generous signing bonus.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.