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Nice Neighbors – A Web Game for Science - vinchuco
http://cstaecker.fairfield.edu/~cstaecker/neighbors/
======
Yen
On chrome on android, the light blue background does not stay in place, but
instead moves with nodes as they are dragged.
------
touristtam
that would be nice to have a bigger work space on desktop. 800*400 is quite
small.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Are We Still So Fat? - JBReefer
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/health/obesity-genetics-surgery-diet.html
======
mcfunk
This article is disturbingly enthusiastic about bariatric surgery, an extreme
procedure with limited success and serious side-effects.
The long and short of it is that we understand far too little about the human
body and what drives weight gain and difficulty losing.
For instance, there are complex health and immune issues (e.g., mast cell
disorders) that can drive weight gain and difficulty losing in spite of
healthy diets and high levels of activity (and researchers think mast cell
disorders alone may affect 10% or more of the population, but was named only 5
years ago and is still poorly understood. What else could be similar that we
just don't understand yet?)
Beyond this, what we put in our bodies (various medicines, antibiotics,
ingredients in processed foods, various pesticides etc, even artificial light)
may have effects on our physiology that we don't yet have a strong
understanding of.
Our microbiomes are still a complete mystery to us, deeply impacting how and
what we absorb from our food. The same food does not impact every body in the
same way, period.
Bariatric surgery is a band-aid over a gaping wound. Until we understand the
complexities of human physiology at a more sophisticated level than a high-
schooler in physics class (calories in, calories out just doesn't cut it) --
we are going to continue seeing public health impacts in the form of fat and
disease -- which may often have underlying causes that the fat is simply the
most visible symptom of.
Edit: Seriously guys, is there any other area of science where people are so
convinced that anecdotal and small-sample (both in terms of n and
longitudinality) observations are valid? There's a huge market for delusion
about fat, we're fighting that as much as we're fighting to learn more about
the human body.
~~~
hallidave
I recently read The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung and in it he states that
bariatric surgery is little more than surgically enforced fasting. Most people
can fast without doing the surgery.
I highly recommend the book. It's more like a science book about dieting than
a diet book. Now that I understand that when I eat is as important as what I
eat, I've been able to lose 20 pounds (and still going). And, yes, sugar
(especially fructose) and refined carbs are bad.
~~~
babyslothzoo
> Most people can fast without doing the surgery.
Very few fat people have that level of self control. That's why they're fat in
the first place.
~~~
qnsi
I think a lot of people can fast, but are never told to try this. Most people
are recommended to eat 5 meals 300kcal each - and this is hard to do. Tell
them to fast for 18h and eat in 6h window without calorie counting (but no
shit food) and I would guess more people can do it.
~~~
RPLong
All that does is attach a ritual to the fasting process. People start to think
that it's the ritual doing the work, but really it's the calorie restriction.
Again and again, study after study proves that restricting calories to 700
calories reverses diabetes in obese people and in fact cures their obesity,
too.
It's no surprise that people who put on 100+ pounds of extra weight once would
tend to put on 100+ pounds of extra weight a second time. But it's silly to
claim that there is an underlying medical reason it's happening.
The body gets used to whatever conditions you face. Human beings have thrived
in the Arctic Circle, the North African deserts, and everywhere in between.
Obese people have accustomed themselves to an obese lifestyle. If they can
make a permanent break and embrace the lifestyle of a person with normal
weight then they can stay skinny forever. In the end, most people just don't
want to exercise 2+ times per day and limit their portion sizes. So they
don't.
------
jayroh
The answer, in a word: "Sugar".
Obviously you can't take the word of one random commenter on HN. There's a lot
of reporting around this in good news sources:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-
in...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-
shifted-blame-to-fat.html)
When I say "the answer" I should, instead, state that that's a large part of
the reason. It's not the SOLE reason. Of course it's more nuanced than that.
~~~
wolco
It's more Grains than any type of sugar
~~~
ynniv
Humans have been eating grains for 10,000 years, and sugar for a hundred.
~~~
dekhn
humans were extracting sugar from sugarcane 8,000 years ago. It was consumed
heavily in india 2000 years ago. BUt of course we've been eating free sugars
in foods for as long as we've been around.
~~~
ynniv
Sugar was a rare luxury until recently. Even fruit was a luxury historically.
Yes people ate sugar more than a hundred years ago, but it was a few pounds
per year. Modern intake is more than fifty times as much.
------
eric_b
People are fat because they eat too much, and they have almost no incentive to
stop it. Sure, they are mostly eating the wrong things too, in the wrong
amounts, but the bottom line is the number of calories going in the front
door.
I lost 40 pounds all while drinking gallons of beer in college. I did it by
eating less and moving more. It was not an optimal way to lose weight, but it
was effective.
These days I keep thin by eating high protein/fat, easy-to-digest carbs, and
vegetables, and keeping sugar to a minimum.
There's a million ways to lose weight, and some are easier than others. But I
promise you, if you eat less than your body needs to survive, you will start
losing weight.
Today it's culturally acceptable to be fat, and there is ready access to so-so
quality food in large cheap quantities. I love sugar. I have a massive sweet
tooth. I have to be disciplined to stop from consuming all the candy in the
world. Some people choose not to be disciplined. Their choice I guess.
~~~
untilHellbanned
> Some people choose not to be disciplined. Their choice I guess.
Empathy goes a long way. I think as a society we will get to the solution
faster with the view that some people might have stronger urges to overeat
then you. Congratulations you worked hard. Don't discount what others face.
~~~
eric_b
Please, why do you think I needed to lose 40 pounds in the first place? Not
because I was the paragon of willpower I can tell you. I still go off the
rails and eat an entire package of Oreos in a single sitting sometimes. It’s a
constant struggle for me, but I don’t make excuses and I keep persevering.
Other people can do that too.
------
t0mbstone
There was a direct up-tick in obesity almost immediately after the
government's Food Guide Pyramid was released.
[https://www.bellybelly.com.au/health-lifestyle/did-the-
food-...](https://www.bellybelly.com.au/health-lifestyle/did-the-food-pyramid-
cause-our-obesity-crisis/)
The Food Pyramid And The Food Industry Contributed To A Massive Increase In
Sugar, Carbohydrate And Calorie Intake.
Humans simply aren't supposed to eat so many carbs and so much sugar.
Whenever you eat carbs and sugar, it triggers insulin production. Insulin
causes your body to store fat instead of burning it as fuel.
I've been doing a ton of research on this topic lately, and the /r/keto forum
on reddit has proven to be a very useful resource.
Another one of my favorite resources has been the Youtube channel, "What I've
Learned", which does some pretty amazing breakdowns on the topic, if you are
interested:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqYPhGiB9tkShZorfgcL2lA/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqYPhGiB9tkShZorfgcL2lA/videos)
------
cm2012
Here's some more evidence for the central conceit of this article:
Every legitimate long term study of major non surgical weight loss shows that
it doesn't happen for the vast, vast majority of people. It's basically
freakish when succesful in the long term.
1) ["In controlled settings, participants who remain in weight loss programs
usually lose approximately 10% of their weight. However, one third to two
thirds of the weight is regained within 1 year, and almost all is regained
within 5 years.
"]([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453))
2) Giant meta study of long term weight loss: ["Five years after completing
structured weight-loss programs, the average individual maintained a weight
loss of >3% of initial body
weight."]([http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full](http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full))
3) Less Scientific: [Weight Watcher's Failure - "about two out of a thousand
Weight Watchers participants who reached goal weight stayed there for more
than five years."]([https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-
watchers/](https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-watchers/))
4) [The reason why it's impossible seems to be that although calories in <
calories out works, the body of a fat person makes it extremely difficult
psychologically to eat
less.]([http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-
pope-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-...))
This is borne out by the above data.
5) [The only thing that does seem to work in the long term is gastric
surgery.]([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/))
Moreover, you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average
person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not even
one.
~~~
yuy910616
so if calories in < calories out does not work, what about increasing
exercise?
~~~
lawn
Exercise is also not the easy answer. Your best bet is still to change what
you eat.
But it's not "calories in < calories out" that you should focus on. It's the
quality of what you eat. For instance it's super easy to overeat calories wise
if you eat candy since it doesn't do anything for your hunger, or if it does
it makes you crave even more. While it's much harder to overeat on steak.
------
mevile
I'm down 83 lbs from 2017 and I'm at a healthy BMI for the first time in 15
years. I know I will not gain the weight back. Why? Because I finally figured
out how to manage a routine, how to exercise regularly, how to plan out what I
eat, and I learned to get enough sleep.
Don't want to be fat anymore? Stop eating at restaurants, cook all your own
food, bring in a lunch to work, count your calories. Also exercise, lots. And
get 7+ hours a sleep a night.
That's it, that's all it takes.
~~~
patejam
> count your calories
That's all it really is. Everything else just makes it easier to eat few
enough calories, including any crazy diets.
~~~
qnsi
I can't see myself counting calories for the rest of my life
~~~
rconti
Don't fall victim to all-or-nothing thinking. I actually did it for almost 8
months straight, and then stopped when I went on vacation. The nice thing is,
unlike some forms of data, if you skip a week or three, it won't hurt you. You
just hop on the scale and you know where you're at, you can start again any
day.
But even if you only do it for a few weeks, you'll learn valuable lessons
about your good and bad habits. You might not ever have to do it again. Or you
might prefer to keep doing it. YMMV.
------
edoo
It is pretty simple. Processed carbs that spike your glycemic index lead to a
situation where your body has met its caloric needs for the day but your
satiety mechanisms get wonked so you feel hungry when you should not be eating
again. This is evidenced by things like white bread spiking your glycemic
index higher than raw sugar.
This can be solved by not eating any foods that appreciably spike your
glycemic index, which basically means no processed carbs. Vegetables for
example are almost entirely carbohydrates but are encased in fiber so they do
not get absorbed as fast into your system.
If you eat 'fast' carbs you have no choice but to starve yourself because
listening to your natural instincts will automatically mean overeating.
~~~
RPLong
_People_ don't have glycemic indices. _Foods_ have glycemic indices.
In a normal person with a functional pancreas, no amount of sugar or high-
glycemic foods will cause hunger. It's just not possible. This is because the
body naturally releases insulin and the hunger goes away (so does the blood
sugar).
The reason people become insulin-resistant is because they eat too much, and
put on weight. High-glycemic-index foods are implicated in weight gain because
they are high-calorie foods. The added insulin means that the body is also
absorbing them more readily. Insulin causes people to gain weight; in fact,
one of the side-effects of insulin injections for diabetics is... weight gain!
That's because insulin's sole purpose in the body is to make it absorb
calories and deliver it to cells.
All that is to say that you're conflating effect for cause. Weight gain causes
diabetes, which causes sugar cravings. Sugar doesn't cause diabetes, and it
only causes weight gain if you eat too much of it. There are whole societies
on earth that eat almost nothing but high glycemic index foods: the rice
farmers of Bangladesh; the mango farmers of Central America; the rural people
of Morocco who mostly eat dates; and so on.
Sugar doesn't cause diabetes or weight gain. Weight gain causes diabetes,
which in turn causes sugar cravings.
~~~
edoo
I misspoke, replace glycemic index with insulin and I'm right.
For example if you eat 200 calories of ice cream vs broccoli. The ice cream
will be absorbed so fast into your system that you will get hungry again
before you actually need more calories. Every insulin spike is a notch towards
metabolic syndrome. It is the crazy insulin spiking that leads to diabetes.
~~~
RPLong
_" Every insulin spike is a notch towards metabolic syndrome."_
Completely disagree with this. The best available evidence suggests that it is
visceral fat, not insulin itself, that causes insulin resistance. There is an
underlying autoimmune malfunction at the heart of it. But because people with
diabetes often crave sugar (because their bodies fail to absorb it), people
have conflated cause and effect.
~~~
edoo
There is a growing body of research in this vein. You can find several recent
studies like this if you are interested enough. This one in particular has 20%
of the subjects no longer needing blood sugar medication after 10 weeks.
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/31/low-carb-diet-
he...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/31/low-carb-diet-helps-
control-diabetes-new-study-suggests/)
------
osdiab
Totally anecdotal, and I wasn't obese but only marginally overweight; but when
I was in the USA, I couldn't seem to get any lighter than 165-170 pounds even
when trying to diet and exercise heavily (like 3-4 times a week of strenuous
exercise for 1-2 hours minimum, and keeping track of all the food I was
eating); but then when I lived in Japan for a few months (probably one of the
skinniest countries in the world), I didn't even try to diet and I lost 15
pounds (now I'm at 150 lbs).
Lifestyle is clearly a big influence here. My understanding is that generally
speaking foods are not sweetened as much there, portions are smaller, and
people walk a hell of a lot more. I've also heard that the quality of
ingredients in general tends to be higher across the board.
The cheap food, which I ate a whole lot of, aren't even something I could
consider "healthy"—lots of fried food like tempura and kara-age, along with
lots of noodles—but even without restraint eating those, I still ended up
losing weight without trying. Interestingly I think my diet got a lot higher
in carbohydrate intake and my protein intake shrank. Probably some amount of
my weight loss involved muscle loss, but my belly shrank considerably as well,
so I don't think it was exclusively that.
I think I just gradually got used to eating less, stimulating myself with
sugar less frequently and intensely (omg, even diet soft drinks and gum are so
powerfully sweet), and being more active, and now that I'm back I realize just
how much of a premium I have to pay to not get huge portions of food
completely saturated with fat and sugar.
------
akurilin
As a 100% sedentary person (I sit for maybe 14-15 hours a day) I've had pretty
good results with a combination of:
* 6 days of gym (4 lifting, 2 HIIT + cardio for 40 min)
* 2-3 days of water fasting every week, sometimes every other week
* reduced calories
* cutting out most foods that have added sugar, sweeteners or refined grains in them
* doing most of the cooking myself with non-processed ingredients (so vegetables and meats you could get at any market)
* 8-9 hours of sleep on a fixed schedule
It takes a significant amount of discipline and lifestyle changes, but it does
lead to also significant results. You generally can't sit in front of a
computer as much as I do and also expect to look a certain way without a
fairly radical approach. 185lbs to about 160ish in ~6 months at 5'11".
I have a ridiculous amount of energy and for once I feel pretty good about how
clothes look on me. Ultimately you have to experiment and see what works for
you, most bodies are different and will react differently in subtle ways to
diet and exercise.
~~~
chrisseaton
You aren’t 100% sedentary if you’re in the gym six days a week!
~~~
vinceguidry
A friend of mine puts it this way. If you don't want to die of a heart attack,
figure out how only sit, sleep, stand or eat for 23 1/2 or fewer hours a day.
~~~
gomox
That's a great way to put it.
------
teekert
FWIW The few times I was in the US I noticed a couple of things different from
my country: 1. We drink water/coffee/tea all day (mostly without sugar), in
the US I see sodas constantly (ok, usually light). Also, US guests here always
ask for the soda machine while we constantly offer black coffee and water. 2.
Portions are huge! One cannot go home with even a trace of hunger. Whereas
here, it's ok if it at least tasted nice. 3. Almost all food was sweet, have
some Asian wok food? Extremely sweet chili sauce on top. 4. Unlimited refills
of soda. It's nice but you drink a lot :) 5. 4 p.m. snack? Out come the
pastries (sugar and flour glued together with butter)! Here we may have a
cookie or some fruit among my colleagues at least. 6. Breakfast? We have
yogurt with muesli or a sandwich (meaning we put a 2 micron thick slice of
cheese on the bread) and perhaps a boiled egg. In the US: The smell of Fried
potatoes fills the room! 7. Pizza: Have a good pizza here and the sauce is
just tomatoes and some garlic. Have a US pizza (sure we also have them here)
it's sugar and salt all the way. Better drink 5 glasses of water 1 hour after
eating over 10 mg of salt or you will get a headache. 8. We usually cook
ourselves, from fresh vegetables and meat or fish. In the US it's much more
common to eat out. It's very unlikely to pile sugar and salt into a home
cooked meal. 9. I haven't seen the situation in schools but one hears these
"pizza is vegetable" stories from the US, here the kids only drink water in
school (at least ours, it's not obligatory but parents provide the drinks and
most of them get water) and a piece of fruit. During lunch they get about 2
slices of bread with meat or cheese or chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag).
At least that was my experience. Of course, I loved the burgers and after a
few days of them you start to get that real craving for them. I love burgers
and I love fries.
------
w323898
I've gone from 255 (BMI 33) down to 185 (BMI 24), back to 205, had an illness
and got up to 225, now back to 210. I resent the article acting like this
long-term weight loss is somehow a freak occurrence.
I just watch what I eat and exercise. Many people with obesity just don't like
to exercise, but I love it. This is a natural advantage I have. But I also go
on days when I don't feel like going, skip office snacks, and so on. It's
neither magical nor impractical.
Ultimately, obesity has been normalized and people don't really care. This is
going to be hard to change, either hard on society in funding education and
support resources, or hard on the obese in cutting them off from health care
and other Draconian measures.
------
arcadeparade
Apparently even animals such as monkeys and rats kept in labs and fed the same
calories under controlled conditions are fatter than the same animals fed the
same decades ago. Xenoestrogens?
~~~
joker3
It might be climate change.
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/07/climate-...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/07/climate-
change-food-crops-nutrition) details how high CO2 levels lead to food crops
with more sugar and less nutrients. As a result, animals fed the same diet
aren't getting the same calories as they used to.
~~~
cwkoss
Soil depletion and optimizing for size has also caused a drop in vitamin and
mineral content
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-
an...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-
nutrition-loss/)
------
WD-42
> “This idea that people should eat less and exercise more — if only it were
> so simple,” Dr. Hall said.
Of course pharma companies and the healthcare system don't want it to be that
simple: better to sell drugs to people to fix the problem. Likewise, consumers
would rather take a pill than do something difficult, like eat properly and
exercise.
When you consider how prevalent this kind of attitude is the obesity levels
stop being a mystery.
------
pkaler
>> “This idea that people should eat less and exercise more — if only it were
so simple,” Dr. Hall said.
Well, actually it is that simple.
The problem is: 1) sugar 2) long commutes 3) sitting all day
And the solution is pretty simple, too. 1) Turn sugar down to 0 2) Do 50
burpees per day
The big meta problem is that people talk about it and complain about it and
hand wring about it rather than doing the simplest thing possible.
~~~
WD-42
This applies to way more than just diet. As I've gotten older I've realized
how many people are totally adverse to doing things that are even marginally
difficult or inconvenient. Eating healthy and exercising definitely fall into
that category.
------
gkfasdfasdf
People in the 70s didn't all have bariatric surgery, or access to miracle
drugs to control hunger hormones. Nor did we all develop some mutation that
caused the current obesity epidemic. Clearly something in our environment has
changed. Seems to me that it would be simpler to figure out what's changed
between now and then, rather than try and invent new drugs. I.e. we need to do
root cause analysis rather than flounder for workarounds.
Some have suggested that the carb-heavy government food guide pyramids are to
blame. That seems to be a good place to start.
------
bkovacev
It's the habits.
In the 1970s - people did not have a habit of eating 3 full blown high calorie
meals. They were working physically intense jobs (agriculture, mines,
metallurgy etc). Nowadays the hardest thing we do is think. They'd spent more
time outdoors. They'd rather do sports and spend time in nature actively
resting than binge watching tv-shows and movies on the weekends. People didn't
have as much food available to them as today. They also had less commodity.
Why do people regain fat they lose? It's the habits.
They'll get the bariatric surgery done, but will never change the habits.
They'll go through the 600 calorie liquid diet and will continue to eat the
same things that made them fat initially.
They'll continue binge watching tv shows on the weekends, without lifting
anything heavier than their spoon or the remote.
They'll continue undergoing the fad diets that don't do anything but make
their metabolism slower and make their bodies over compensate due to starving.
People are lazy and refuse to listen to their bodies, but will gladly listen
to the brainbait titles of famous ads/instagram posts.
Why we're fat? We're fat because we look for immediate gratification that
sugar produces rather than the gratification of being able to climb ten floors
of stairs with ease. My dad recently told me that he wants to do bariatric
surgery which will "jumpstart" his weight loss. He unfortunately can't walk
200 meters right now, without getting tired. Do you think something will
change if he undergoes the surgery or will he continue eating the same :) ? I
bet it's the latter, since he won't have an incentive to change something.
~~~
randomFacts
People regain weight because of the hunger hormone Grehlin, which gets high
and stays high after losing weight.
~~~
bkovacev
I believe you can reduce Ghrelin by fasting - I'm not near a computer to fully
support this claim, but can update later with proper links to studies.
~~~
randomFacts
If you go on a Very Low Calorie Diet(usually in the range of 400-700 calories
or less a day), your body goes into starvation mode, thinks that there must
not be enough food to go around so no need to feel hungry. That might be what
you're referring to as fasting should have the same effect. I haven't heard of
the effect continuing after starting to eat 1000+ calories a day again though,
so I'd need to see some data on that.
------
chris_mc
Compare the serving sizes and caloric intakes at a USA restaurant with those
in Japan, for example, and you'll see why. It's not hard to figure out, we put
HFCS and sugar in everything now and people eat 2x as much as they used to.
I lost 30 pounds over 2 years by being hungry non-stop and walking about 3
miles per day to work, so losing weight isn't just a "pill disease" that we
can solve with a pill, it requires a person to have the self-control to be
hungry and exercise, and (from experience) over-eaters don't tend to have much
self-control in that area.
I think obesity should be treated more as a mental health issue than physical
(for most people, there are exceptions), because there is no better way to
lose weight than diet and exercise and doing it at a slow rate.
Obesity is an example of a problem like climate change. We know how to solve
it (less sugar, better food, less calories, more moving) but no one wants to
take those steps. I feel like this will also fall back onto the food
companies, who will probably be reviled in 50 years like the tobacco companies
are today.
------
eezurr
The body (ie the brain) is amazing at adapting to its environment. One thing
to keep in mind is that as unhealthy food becomes the norm for a person, their
brain sets a new baseline for how much of this food it thinks the body can
handle (side effect: more sweets are needed to release pleasure in the brain).
Speaking from my own experience, I eat pretty healthily, and cook most of my
own meals. The few times I've had anything sweet in the last decade, I could
only handle a small amount of it before my brain and stomach were telling me
I've had enough. If I push myself, I began to feel ill. (Example: 4-5 Sweetish
Fish is enough for me)
My own defense mechanism is because of my parents. They never bought soda and
sweet snacks (e.g. gushers, fruit roll ups) at the grocery store, although a
handful times a year I got to go to a candy store and pick out a couple items.
I would guess (based on anecdotal experience though) that a child's diet is
the number one cause/preventative of obesity. It sets the culinary stage that
they will dance on for the rest of their life.
~~~
pmarreck
> I would guess (based on anecdotal experience though) that a child's diet is
> the number one cause/preventative of obesity. It sets the culinary stage
> that they will dance on for the rest of their life.
While this is only anecdotal data, this is not true for me. I was a skinny kid
because I never got soda, I never got ice cream truck, I never got pizza or
pasta, and if I spent more than an hour on the computer (note: I'm a
programmer now) my mom would yell at me to go outside and bike, or drag me to
the local beach or town pool for the day.
Well, all that forcing me to eat "proper" instead of _teaching_ me to eat
"proper" built up quite a bit of resentment apparently, in my freshman year I
gained 20 lbs and kept going (with swings up and down) and I have not seen 185
lbs since then.
I'm currently 6'3" and ~260lb @ 46 years old. Last week I worked out 4 times
(all Orange Theory, which is no joke). I'm about to work out again in a few
minutes. I'm trying to watch what I eat, considering going back to calorie
tracking but IT IS SUCH A PAIN. The tracking is more of a pain than the eating
less, lol. (I'm also ADHD, which might explain why.)
------
babyslothzoo
Let's not forget that obesity is also socially contagious, and there is
tremendous social pressure to conform to obesity, which is why if you're less
fat than fatter people, they will publicly shame you for your lack of
comparable obesity with comments like "you need to eat a cheese burger" or
'get some meat on those bones' etc.
------
ryanmercer
Because we can spend 1$ and get 400-1200 kcals out of a vending machine (that
takes 10-30 seconds to consume), while we sit at a desk all day and evening,
instead of having to plant/weed/harvest/process our food in a field.
_he says as he eats candy_
We have ridiculously kcal dense food immediately available while we also have,
on average, extremely sedentary lives.
I mean, looking at:
\- Starbucks menu you can get a beverage that comes in at 500 kcals without
even getting fancy.
\- Symphony milk chocolate bar: 149 kcals/ounce.
\- White Castle chicken sandwich (about half the size of a deck of cards) 350
kcals
\- Wendy's Baconator 950 kcals
\- McDonald's double bacon smokehouse burger on artisan roll 1130 kcals (most
of McDonald's value meals can actually easily get into the 1000+ kcal range
without any special modifications)
\- Burger King Whopper 660 kcals
\- 32 ounce Coke 370 kcals
\- Papa Johns sausage pizza 260-410 kcals a slice (depending on the pizza
size)
We can get insane amounts of kcals, with relative ease, in dense little
packages while being largely inactive.
Edit: since this was downvoted to -2, HN is throttling my ability to reply to
the individual that replied to me, in regards to 'first world countries':
[https://obesity.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=0060...](https://obesity.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=006032)
Obesity percentages: US 36.2%, NZ 30.8%, CA 29.4%, AU 29%, UK 27.8% all 'first
world countries' out of the top 10 and if you look at the complete list the
bulk of the 'first world' countries, where convenience foods/fast foods are
readily available, are above 20% obesity.
~~~
twblalock
There aren't very many people in first-world countries who need to farm
anymore, and all first-world countries have desk jobs and vending machines,
yet the rate of obesity varies widely between first-world countries.
~~~
squish78
Likewise, Belize and Qatar have higher obesity rates than the USA, so it's not
necessarily correlated with the development of a nation
------
csours
Because we eat like royalty. I have access to exceedingly tasty food all the
time.
If you look at food we eat every day, they used to be celebration foods: Ice
Cream, Tamales, Cake, etc.
Additionally, if you have a sedentary job, you won't be burning off the carbs.
------
shahbaby
There are so many things wrong with this article, here are some facts.
1\. More insulin causes the body to store fat. Less insulin causes the body to
burn fat.
2\. A low-carb diet lowers insulin levels.
3\. Over the last few decades they started adding sugar (carbs) into almost
every food product while the US government published a food pyramid with a
heavy emphasis on carbs.
4\. As the article states, now we have an obesity problem which was not as
severe in the last few decades.
------
acconrad
> _“This idea that people should eat less and exercise more — if only it were
> so simple,” Dr. Hall said._
For the majority of people, it _is_ that simple. That doesn't mean it's easy.
To give most folks a hall pass on their poor eating habits with bariatric
surgery or a special pill (which are for extreme outliers) is dishonest at
best and harmful or dangerous at worst.
------
annamargot
Counter-acting the factors that made a person fat in the first place seems
very difficult. Especially when compounded by an always-aging body.
Off the top of my head:
- genetic pre-dispositions
- Eating habits during childhood
- Eating habits during early adulthood
- the effects on metabolism and body chemistry of the above
- Many more, I'm sure
------
momentmaker
Mostly it comes from our diet and what we eat.
We've become accustomed to eat for our senses (taste) instead of our survival
(nutrition).
We're addicted to the taste of 'good' food.
Then you have food companies who are engineering that addictive taste for your
senses.
A habit develops and it's hard to shake that off.
------
greenteabee
I've had success getting in shape by tracking what I eat and following a
weight training routine (PPL). Counting macros gives you a flexible diet. Buy
a food scale and eat enough food to hit your macro goals to be at a daily
250-500 calorie deficit.
That means you'll lose 0.5 - 1 pound per week. Once you're lean, eat at a
slight surplus to gain some lean body mass.
Sorry everyone, there's no magic pill that burns all of your fat. There's
steroids, but you'll still have to eat enough and go to the gym.
People want to get fit but don't put in the time nor effort.
------
Rainymood
It takes time, delayed gratification in this era of instant gratification is
tough.
------
sfilargi
> No one really knows why bodies have changed so much
How can one claim this?
------
k__
Eating garbage and sitting aroind all day.
~~~
mmsimanga
Reading HN. Sigh.
------
kzrdude
Health shouldn't have to be hard. It's so simple yet we have a hard time
reaching it in a normal life:
1\. Eat real food (Cook it yourself) 2\. Sleep! 3\. Exercise 4\. Socialise 5\.
Avoid stress
------
randomFacts
I'm currently losing weight with a weight loss specialist. They had an intro
presentation and went over some of the reasons we have such an obesity
epidemic and why it's so hard to keep weight off. Some of the key points they
mentioned:(I'm paraphrasing here because I don't have my notes on me.)
-
There is a hunger hormone called Ghrelin. The amount that your body produces
is based on the highest weight attained that you kept for at least a year.
When you're at that weight, your Ghrelin levels are at about the same as
someone who is 150 pounds lighter that you who is also at their max weight
ever attained. However, once you've lost weight your body starts producing
more Ghrelin which makes you hungrier. This takes decades to reset from
whatever your bodies weight target from 'highest weight held for at least a
year' to your new lower weight so basically your Ghrelin levels will be higher
than average for decades after losing weight(unless you gain it back). There
is also another hormone that was recently discovered to has an effect on
appetite but I can't remember its name and we didn't know much about it yet.
-
Regarding gaining weight, there are three satiety signals that are used to
help you not overeat. One is a feeling of fullness that only lasts for ~15
minutes but kicks in within a bite or two of calories needed to maintain
weight so if you have this signal you may only gain 3 pounds max in a year as
long as you don't wait 20 minutes and then go back for seconds. The second
satiety signal was loss of savor(food just stops tasting good) and lasts for a
couple(~4?) hours. The last was feeling nauseous(not the same as eating so
much you couldn't fit another bite and can't move, we can all get that), and
was triggered by eating a couple bites past the fullness signal level(if you
only have this signal you may gain ~15-20 lbs in a year if I'm remembering
correctly). The problem is that most people only have one or two of these
signals and many don't have any of them. If you've never had to diet to lose
weight and have always had a good weight level then congratulations, you
probably have at least 1 or 2 of these and maybe all three. If you've had
several diets and have lost hundreds of pounds in aggregate over several diets
over a decade plus then chances are you probably don't have any of the 3
signals. Everyone else probably falls in the middle where they only have 1 or
maybe 2 satiety signals.
-
If we were able to determine what gene/set of genes or other processes
determined if you had these signals and were able to give others who don't
have them the ability to receive these same signals we would be able to keep
new people from gaining weight. If we found a way to reset Grehlin levels for
people who have lost weight(hopefully a pill, maybe through gene modification
via crispr) then we'd be able to help people who have lost weight to keep it
off long term. Regarding sugars, etc. yes, it makes it infinitely harder to
diet when there are so many high calorie options out there, but there are
deeper underlying medical reasons out there than just that.
-
Basically, the only people who have been able to be successful at keeping
weight off long term are those who either exercise 2+ hours PER DAY(less time
can help with strength, etc but not with weight loss/maintenance because
you'll just be hungrier and end up eating more calories to make up for the
ones you burned) or those who are perpetually on a diet for the rest of their
lives and work hard to re-lose any pounds gained after a trip, etc. The good
news is we're making some progress in weight loss research(but still have a
long ways to go) and there are decent appetite suppressants, etc. that can
help you lose weight and keep it off if you go to a Dr. that specializes in
this and that this isn't an impossible to solve willpower problem, but a
medical one that can be fixed. The bad news is you'll probably be on a diet
for the rest of your life or until we solve the above questions on satiety
signals and hunger hormones.
-
tldr: it's a medical problem, not a willpower problem, and won't be fully
solved until we treat it like such and invest the resources into finding a
cure. Until then we're just treating the symptoms.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Deploying Decentralized Microservices at Certara with Hedera REST API and Docker - ycombi42
https://medium.com/hashgraph/deploying-decentralized-microservices-at-certara-with-hedera-rest-api-and-docker-bd87eb1b9d39
======
axgodwin
A great post, it's good to see how Hedera is already been applied to important
industry like healthcare. I will keep monitoring the work they're doing with
Open Pharma.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startup Data Trends - pitdesi
http://startupdatatrends.com/
======
joshuaxls
They've open-sourced it: <https://github.com/bocoup/StartupDataTrends>
------
tbranyen
We have a post on it as well on our blog:
<http://weblog.bocoup.com/startup-data-trends/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Major University Dumps Gmail Over Security Concerns - transburgh
http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/uc-davis-gmail/
======
va_coder
Your email may be less secure in the hands of a local sysadmin than with a
company like Google, which has a valuable reputation to defend and
sophisticated systems in place to guard your data.
A legitimate reason to not use Google is their history of less than perfect
customer service; they excel in technology, not in customer service.
~~~
zerokyuu
I completely agree. My university required you to change your password every
90 days. Not such a bad idea, however, they compare your new password against
all previous passwords to make sure they are significantly different (e.g. you
can't change your password from abcdefg to abcdeff). I'm assuming this means
they save your passwords in clear text somewhere. Not exactly the type of
people I'd trust with sensitive information.
EDIT: meastham makes a good point and he/she could definitely be right about
generating hashes of all slight variations of each password. In response to
what fname said, I'm wondering if there are any security concerns about being
able to find similarities in hashes for similar passwords.
~~~
nopassrecover
Why are you assuming that? You can compare hashes ("does the encrypted version
of what they entered as a new password equal any of the encrypted previous
passwords").
~~~
lftl
If by hash you mean a one-way hashing system, then he did say _significantly
different_ and not just different. You couldn't do that with any common one-
way hash.
~~~
nopassrecover
You're correct, I didn't understand what he meant by significantly different
until you pointed out because I have never encountered a system that didn't
allow me to have a "similar password". However, I have encountered ones where
my new password could not contain previous passwords, so unless they are
hashing each component of my password and comparing this probably does
indicate clear-text storage.
------
m0nty
That article is fairly info-lite, even after visiting the source article
(linked from OP). So "members of the faculty were concerned that it wouldn’t
keep their correspondence private enough" but they don't say _why_ they feel
that way or suggest there's any actual _evidence_ of lax security. The Google
Buzz thing is a red herring since UCD weren't using that anyway, and as an
apps administrator you can say which services your users are allowed to use.
I do have an interest in this: I'm about to move a campus to Gmail. I have no
evidence it's less secure than the Exchange/Postfix systems it will be
replacing, and I suspect in many ways it is more secure. I would welcome
evidence to the contrary but the OP doesn't have any. This sounds like a bunch
of people who don't understand "hacking" making loud about how the cloud just
_has_ to be less secure than their in-house systems.
~~~
bmj
Part of it may be the association of Google with web search--people may think
that if Google is processing email, it can become part of search results.
My employer uses a hosted Exchange service, and I've not heard anyone raise a
peep about privacy concerns. I suspect, however, that if we decided to move to
Google Mail, people would raise the same sort of concerns.
~~~
m0nty
Well, my current strategy is to migrate users when we give them new PCs this
summer, then only tell them about the change later. Much later. Initially
they'll be using Outlook to access email; they can use the web interface later
if they want to. Why would they be interested in which email backend we're
using? The trouble with asking them, or informing them in a way which suggest
I want their opinion, is that it very quickly just becomes a beauty contest,
where I have sound technical and financial reasons to make the move.
------
Adaptive
There are privacy issues, certainly, but as with the recent Yale rejection of
Google Apps, I'd suggest we're not getting the full picture in this article.
Keep in mind that, as with any IT department in a large organization, there
are vested interests to protect and outsourcing infrastructure can often be
seen as a threat.
Holding up privacy as the showstopper is bit of a straw man. I could easily
list a bunch of reasons why keeping mail service local has major downsides and
security concerns.
I'm not assuming that the IT dept in question had covert motives in this, just
noting that we certainly aren't getting all the information in this situation.
------
scscsc
Actually the problem is too much privacy. University staff have access to your
email without any problem if you store it on their system. However, on
Google's system, they can't access it at all. They probably don't like this
very much.
------
mambodog
After having to endure my university's switch to Live@Edu (Outlook Webaccess
in cloud) I can only envy those that would be so lucky to have Gmail for their
uni email service.
~~~
SandB0x
Yes! My university uses Live, or whatever it's called this year and it sucks
in a majestic fashion. Different versions open in different browsers, the
mobile site just doesn't work at all, there's an enormous redirection song and
dance when logging in. Loads of _basic usability flaws_. Want to archive an
email and create a new folder at the same time? Not possible. Oh and it's down
far too often.
The only reason I don't pump it through my Gmail account is the level of crap
that gets sent on mailing lists.
------
yesimahuman
I have this thought in my mind that google is looking at and using my email
for it's own purposes. I have a google apps account for my business (free).
While I understand they do use my information for advertising purposes, is
that the extent of it? Am I just misguided? I don't really think there is
anything to worry about, but I don't _trust_ them. Should I?
~~~
rue
Personally, I do not. The data will be there for when (not if) someone -
Google or other - decides to use it for worse purposes.
There are several options, so there is no need to subject yourself to those
concerns.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Is Giving Inbox Invites Out to Anyone Only for the Next Two Hours - alexbash
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/03/google-is-giving-inbox-invites-out-to-anyone-who-asks-but-only-for-the-next-two-hours/
======
dutchbrit
Just sent a random email to [email protected] as mentioned in on TechCrunch,
immediately got a reply:
"Thanks for requesting an invite. We’ll send you one as soon as possible."
Wondering when I'll actually receive the invite.
------
aroch
Sadly Inbox doesn't work with GoogleApps emails
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon AWS Outage Shows Data in the Cloud Is Not Always Safe - turrini
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/amazon-aws-outage-shows-data-in-the-cloud-is-not-always-safe/
======
oxymoron
It seems awfully odd to write a full article about this without mentioning
that S3 has completely different guarantees due to the cross-AZ design. I tend
to think that you probably can trust the cloud from a data integrity
standpoint, but I would never feel safe depending on EBS.
------
skywhopper
This is a terrible article. EBS can fail. The article even has a screenshot
where Amazon is clear about the reliability ratings. If you want durable
storage, S3 is the best option. Replicate it across regions for even more
protection.
EBS is for storage volumes attached to virtual machines. There are many many
use cases in which a slightly higher failure rate is absolutely fine and for
which the lower cost and higher performance of EBS are the more desirable
tradeoff. But again, it’s clearly stated in all the docs that EBS has a 0.1%
annual failure rate. There are trivially easy tools built in to AWS to enable
backups of EBS volumes. If the data on your EBS volumes is critical, then use
those tools!
~~~
chousuke
Is that 0.1% for non-snapshotted data? I'm under the impression that if you
snapshot your data, EBS can recover some failures from the S3-backed snapshot
transparently, increasing durability.
I obviously don't know the technical details, but it seems plausible to me
that with a proper implementation snapshots could provide additional
durability by reducing the amount of low-redundancy data that is "in danger"
during disk failure recovery.
------
SteveNuts
Data on prem is not always safe either. We've had irrecoverable storage
failures from well known storage providers... That's why backups exist.
~~~
booi
Arguably most on prem infrastructure is more susceptible to failure than cloud
data centers
------
johnmarcus
That .1-.2% data loss advertised has to happen to someone, statistics do not
lie.
~~~
borramakot
Is that for S3, or EBS?
~~~
viraptor
EBS. S3 is much better:
> Amazon S3 Standard, S3 Standard–IA, S3 One Zone-IA, and S3 Glacier are all
> designed to provide 99.999999999% durability of objects over a given year.
------
tj-teej
__Data in one geographic region is not always safe, period. __
Cloud aside, if you store data on Baremetal in one location (or boxes of
tapes) and that location burns down, it 's gone.
If you have mission-critical data to store, it should be spread between
regions, if not cloud-providers.
------
david-cako
AWS runs on servers, electricity, and drives like the rest of the internet.
If your application and data are single-AZ it is not fault tolerant. If that
datacenter goes down or the EBS volume fails, at the very least your
application will have downtime.
EBS is replicated within the AZ but that is not guaranteeing you fault
tolerance. You must take snapshots and store them across AZs, like any other
mission critical S3 object.
------
mr_toad
Man runs snowflake server in the cloud, and is surprised when it fails.
To be blunt, if you treat your cloud instances as anything other than
disposable and ephemeral: you’re doing it wrong.
~~~
chousuke
It's a good reminder anyway. There are lots of people involved with tech who
genuinely don't seem to understand that things fail, even in "the cloud".
As for pet servers in the cloud, not having them is the ideal, but it's not
nearly always realistic. It's not "wrong" to run a pet server in the cloud if
it's the only reasonable option you have given all other constraints involved.
A real failure-resistant system is often expensive, and sometimes simply not
worth the investment.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Netflix to raise prices by 13% to 18% - jmsflknr
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/15/netflix-to-raise-prices-by-13percent-to-18percent-its-biggest-increase-ever.html
======
jeffwass
Has anyone felt that Netflix’s UI has deteriorated massively?
I’ve had it on appleTV for several years. It used to be really easy to browse
and find content.
But they’ve completely changed the app and now I feel you either need to know
what to specifically look for, or happen to find something in the random
“suggestions since you’ve watched X” on the main menu which are a fairly
random set of X’s.
They even (as far as I can tell) got rid of the helpful list of alternate
suggestions when you select a specific movie.
I don’t understand the need for insane UI’s, do companies feel they must make
major UI changes so it looks like they’re not stagnating?
Another theory someone said about their complicated UI is that they perhaps
massively reduced the size of the available library, and a convoluted UI hides
this fact.
~~~
maxsilver
Yes.
They're also deteriorating in terms of product quality.
Tried to watch Bandersnatch last night, and it says "your device is not
compatible. Try using a smartphone or a newer laptop"
But I was _on_ a brand new laptop (Windows 10, 7700HQ, Radeon RX480). Netflix
is telling people to use laptops, but they forgot to update their own laptop
app to support their own movies.
I work in multimedia and interactive video, we have teams of just three or
four people who support everything themselves (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac,
Web, etc). I don't understand how Netflix, with it's millions of dollars,
can't do the same. Netflix's marketing claims they "only hire the best of the
best" (and they probably do), but their actual product just feels so _lazy_ ,
it's hard to reconcile the two. Why do you need the best people, if you don't
want to build a good product?
~~~
Udik
> I don't understand how Netflix, with it's millions of dollars...
And I can't understand what's all the fuss about Netflix's hundreds of
microservices. I mean, not that I know it that well, but basically on Netflix
you pay a subscription and then stream whatever you want, right? What are
those services doing, exactly? There's illegal streaming websites that don't
look much different, aside from the payments.
~~~
aaaaaaaaaab
>What are those services doing, exactly?
Probably generating logs about themselves.
------
humantiy
This is the nail for me. Their original content has been lackluster at best
and for them to be pushing that as the reason for the price hike is no good.
It was the reason for the last few hikes as well and nothing has changed.
There have been a few that are interesting to watch (stranger things of
course), but for every one that is good there are at least 20 that are
garbage. If they want to put out original content fine, but they need to go
for quality not quantity like they are. It's like they don't say no to
anything people create under netflix. This on top of the fact that in the last
2 years and into this year they've basically butchered their catalog of
tv/movies from other companies (fox,disney, ect..) to where if those are the
things I want to watch I might as well go else where. I'm not saying that's
their fault, but I'm sure they could strike a deal with these media companies
if they like vs spending the money on originals that are just there to fill
the UI.
~~~
r3bl
Originals can be shown worldwide. They'll have to get a worldwide license for
other content.
A huge chunk of international content are original stand ups because they're
easy to make. The amount of licensed content available in my country is pretty
negligible.
------
oflannabhra
I've been wondering if the last Great Unbundling will be followed by another
Great Rebundling. I'm no expert in any of this, but it seems unlikely that the
new "channels" of Netflix et al. will prevent their programming and delivery
methods from be bundled until it becomes disadvantageous to their growth (ie
monthly subscriptions can't generate enough revenue).
It seems to me there is an explosion of content that will be able to be
monetized far beyond just subscription lock-in. I wonder what the method of
monetization will be after the gold-rush of building subscriber bases?
Netflix's original proposition and value was one of convenience (and price),
but I wonder how long that will last. Will households juggle 4+ subscriptions
of $15/mo? I'm not sure that is why cord-cutters originally cancelled their
cable subscriptions.
My off-the-top-of-my-head list of current and coming soon subscription
services (that also produce content) is: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO,
YouTube, CBS, Disney/Fox, NBC, Apple. Technologically, it seems like there are
some serious hurdles to "bundling" these together.
I wonder if the future "bundle" will actually be a service that manages
subscriptions for you, with things like highlighting newly available shows
since the last time you subscribed.
------
JohnJamesRambo
Interesting, I was just talking about cancelling all our streaming with my
girlfriend last night. I'm tired of just how bad the quality is. Most Netflix
Originals aren't even at Lifetime movie quality when looked at objectively.
~~~
azhenley
Really? I watch them sparingly but I'm consistently shocked at the production
value. They are the quality of movies split in episodes!
~~~
JohnJamesRambo
For me there is just a glossy saccharine feel to them. No substance, all
flash. Or things they have just bought cheaply from overseas and they are
passing off as a "Netflix Original." Of course there are always exceptions. I
found Stranger Things to be really high quality. Things like their Lost in
Space so much less so. I don't want that bare minimum, or "just good enough"
they put into it to become the new norm in filmmaking. To me, films should be
an art form.
------
michaelflux
We have gone a full circle from having cable with a bunch of separate
overpriced packages which you buy for the sake of having access to one or two
shows, to having the internet where you're signing up for equally as expensive
packages and services all for the sake of having access to one or two shows on
their platform.
As long as the content providers continue to make it so difficult, piracy will
win, if nothing else when it comes to convenience.
~~~
bryanlarsen
What's the alternative? IMO Apple's season pass was a great idea. $10 a month
can either buy you two shows you want and a 1000 you don't (Netflix et al) or
it can buy you 4 shows you want. (season pass).
But consumers have spoken and season pass is a failure.
~~~
dexterdog
Maybe that's because $2.50/mo/show is too much. Also, paying by the show
doesn't give you the ability to check out a show on a recommendation that you
may or may not want to really watch.
~~~
bryanlarsen
That's a lot cheaper than cable for most people. People pay > $100/month for
cable, which would pay for 30 - 40 shows from Season Pass. How many people
actively watch more than 30-40 shows?
------
jdc0589
So, this comes at weird time for me. I haven't had an HTPC/Plex setup powered
up for over 3 years because one or two streaming subscriptions got the job
done. But, the streaming services are all, mostly, focusing on their own
content (which is OK, I guess), loosing rights to 3rd party content
frequently, and now apparently raising prices. This means I no longer have
easy access to what I frequently want to watch at a good price.
I fired Plex back up a few days ago, and I suspect I'll kill off at least one
streaming subscription soon (probably hulu). I'm also really enjoying watching
stuff without MASSIVE ARTIFACTS EVERYWHERE in dark scenes (all streaming
services are pretty affected by this, its damn near unavoidable).
This is great and all, but I don't actually want to or enjoy having to run
plex, manage storage space, and spend the time/money acquiring + ripping used
blurays or _otherwise obtaining high quality content_. I want to pay for a
single streaming provider on a subscription model and have access to
everything, and I'd probably pay what it cost, but that's not really an option
anymore....
~~~
xnyan
the part you may be missing are two programs called sonarr and radarr. those
take care of the "otherwise" part more or less automatically.
------
SketchySeaBeast
Well, the golden age of streaming was great until it lasted. With competition
increasing alongside Netflix's prices I'm sure we're going to issues soon. I
bought a new TV last week, and it came with dedicated buttons for Netflix and
Amazon Prime. I should have asked if they will put out a better remote next
year when I want to have Disney, Hulu, and CBS all Access on there too.
~~~
adrianmonk
That's how Roku remotes look.
A current gen remote has dedicated buttons (with logos) for Netflix, Amazon,
Hulu, and CBS All Access.
I saw an older one recently, and it had buttons for Netflix and Blockbuster. I
had forgotten that Blockbuster ever had a streaming service.
~~~
PascLeRasc
I really wish you could remap Roku remotes. I'd love a "random episode of
Frasier" button.
~~~
crooked-v
Don't forget a Doom Button that randomly selects from the worst X% of Star
Trek, Friends, and Simpsons episodes.
------
Phillips126
Am I happy about a price hike? No.. but it still beats the hell out of cable
which I found myself paying $100+/mo to watch mostly commercials. I couldn't
take it anymore.
I agree that the Netflix content can be hit-or-miss.. usually more miss.. but
it does have some movies and shows on there I find myself coming back to and
re-watching. It also keeps my kids entertained with their selection of
cartoons/animated shows so that is a plus.
We don't watch many TV shows, but we do have a Hulu (commercial free
subscription) which again is quite affordable.
All in all, I still feel that I have a better alternative to cable/satellite
TV. If prices continue to climb to the point where they are closer in cost, I
may re-evaluate this again.
------
bryanlarsen
The average cable bill is $107. So we know Americans are willing to pay at
least that much for TV. Streaming currently competes on price, but they know
full well that they can make a lot more money if they can compete on content
rather than on price...
~~~
chooseaname
Part of that $107 is internet access.
~~~
josefresco
If you're lucky. Cut my cable last year, didn't have anything extravagant and
our bill was easily $100 just for TV.
------
akerro
What's the difference now between online streaming providers and cable? Now to
watch what I like, I would have to have AmazonPrime, Netflix, HBO and BBC
Player. Netflix is now no different than cables were 15 years ago. Ads were
replaced with webtracking and profiling. They are constantly removing 3rd
party movies and TV shows, adding their own production which usually is quite
bad (less than 6 stars on IMBD) and now increasing prices?
~~~
wilsonnb3
> What's the difference now between online streaming providers and cable?
Have you ever even used cable? Online streaming is vastly superior.
You get to choose what you want to watch instead of watching whatever is on.
You can watch it on a much wider variety of devices than just your tv.
It’s much cheaper than cable.
There are no ads.
~~~
akerro
>Have you ever even used cable?
It's just modern version of TV with extra steps.
>You get to choose what you want to watch instead of watching whatever is on.
Unless something is no available in your country in any of 10 streaming
providers.
>You can watch it on a much wider variety of devices than just your tv.
In 2001 I had a TV card in my computer and was able to watch forward TV stream
to panasonic digital camera screen by some wired yellow cable.
>It’s much cheaper than cable.
Not in every country, my parents pay ~$4/mth for cable TV. Netflix is almost
4x that.
>There are no ads.
But that's modern version of TV, you have targeted content and user profiling
instead of ads
------
w1nt3rmu4e
It's amazing how many people here -- presumably reasonably successful people
-- are butt hurt about paying a few more dollars a month for unlimited, high
quality (in terms of streaming quality) content.
I fail to see this as a cynical attempt to squeeze more money out of
consumers. Netflix is _cheap_. Really, really _cheap_. They're putting a ton
of money into original content. The streaming quality is fantastic.
No, it's not all amazing content. How much f'n content do you need? Get off
the damn couch, go outside, get some work done, whatever.
~~~
npongratz
Well, Netflix _did_ claim at one time that their goal was to offer the ability
for anyone to stream any movie ever created. So I guess I'm "butt-hurt" (/s,
not really, I rarely believe these people's claimed goals) that some executive
made a promise that they did not keep.
[https://www.wired.com/2009/09/ff-netflix/](https://www.wired.com/2009/09/ff-
netflix/)
~~~
TheLoneAdmin
What's the better option?
~~~
npongratz
Don't make promises you know you can't or won't keep.
Edit: To clarify, the above is advice for execs and marketing types.
Alternatively, as a listener, don't believe any marketing you read.
------
AimForTheBushes
Goodbye Netflix. Going to cancel my acc... Oh wait, I'm using someone else's
account.
------
pwaivers
I will still happily pay for Netflix. I can share an account with my family,
and the quality is still very high IMO.
~~~
choward
I am the only user of my Netflix account and knowing that I'm paying the same
as you makes me want to cancel.
------
swamp40
I'd pay good money for a Rotten Tomatoes score for each Netflix movie. The
Netflix Recommendation Engine is nothing more than an attempt to sell you bad
movies.
------
Polarity
Does someone feel that most netflix (and hollywood) movies are pretty "empty"?
It´s like watching something while watching nothing.
------
iambateman
I think we can expect Netflix to go from ~$13/mo to ~$40/mo over the course of
the next 30 years.
For now they’re content to suck the life out of the networks. But generations
of Americans have shown a willingness to pay $99/mo or more for their
entertainment, which Netflix is pleased to provide.
We are the frogs in their pot, slowly being boiled. But, oh my, is it ever a
nice hot tub.
~~~
velcrovan
I think we can expect that purely because of normal inflation. $40 per year in
2048 would reflect a 4% annual increase. So if your price prediction is
correct, it doesn't really say much about the streaming content market
specifically.
~~~
iambateman
I meant to say inflation adjusted. Going from $13 to $40 in 2019 dollars is a
substantial shift.
------
40acres
I really don't understand some of the pearl clutching in this thread when it
comes to "re-bundling", you can get Netflix, Hulu and HBO for less than half
of any non-promotional cable package out there (not including discounts for
Netflix and Hulu via subscriptions through other platforms). How much TV do
you watch??
~~~
choward
It's not how much you watch. It's being able to watch what you want. Suppose
one of those three don't have the thing I want to watch, now I have to sign up
for another bundle?
~~~
baumandm
Yes, but it likely would still be less than cable packages.
Cable services are not known for being able to watch what you want:
* Basic gives you 10 channels you don't want
* Enhanced gives you 2 channels you want and 38 you don't want
* Deluxe gives you 5 channels you want and 105 you don't want
* Sports gives you ESPN, and 20 other obscure sports channels
Like Netflix, you get a bunch of stuff you don't want and a little bit of
stuff you do want. This makes it broadly desirable to more people.
------
amelius
Hopefully this will increase the number of seeders on bittorrent ...
------
sjg007
I find that bundling is actually taking place. With every major cell phone
provider you can get a plan that bundles in netflix/prime/hulu/directv now
respectively. Also comcast now offers it's own xfinity wireless plan. And
since everyone has a cell phone it starts to make sense to bundle.
------
dazc
Well, at least for the moment, it's easy enough to cancel and pick up again in
a few month's time when there is sufficient new content to justify the price?
If it were not for this option I would be exclusive to amazon by now.
------
Simulacra
As a family we pay for a group of streaming services, and I don't really mind
a pay increase. We're on FiOS now and anything is better than paying comcast
to do anything.
------
sys_64738
It's still less than the cost of a DVD so more power to Netflix's programming!
------
stunt
I might just drop it as I don't use it much.
------
gnulinux
Isn't this just inflation?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stephen Harper sells Canada: China can secretly sue to repeal Canadian laws - rberger
http://boingboing.net/2014/09/13/stephen-harper-sells-canada-c.html
======
walterbell
Previous thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8312411](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8312411)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to distribute wildcard subdomains to different servers - NameNickHN
I have a list of subdomains pointing to one server (1.2.3.4) right now.<p>1001.example.com
1002.example.com
1003.example.com
1004.example.com
1005.example.com
1006.example.com<p>I want to run the next set of subdomains on a different server (9.8.7.6):<p>2001.example.com
2002.example.com
2003.example.com
2004.example.com
2005.example.com
2006.example.com<p>I don't want configure each individual subdomain. I'd rather do configuration for a range, like:<p>[1000-1999].example.com => 1.2.3.4
[2000-2999].example.com => 9.8.7.6
[3000-3999].example.com => 2.4.6.8<p>I tried to search for answers to this problem but I'm not even sure for what to search. Has anyone done this kind of thing?
======
nedrocks
I don't believe DNS supports regex and in fact a comment thread from 2010 on
OpenDNS specifically states they do not support it [1]. A very simple solution
for this is a load balancer. Nginx [2] works quite well and routing is a
breeze. The downside is maintaining the instance on which all of your traffic
flows. You'll likely need a hotswappable fail over hosted in a different data
center to be safe.
[1] -
[https://forums.opendns.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=8440](https://forums.opendns.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=8440)
[2] - [http://wiki.nginx.org/Main](http://wiki.nginx.org/Main)
~~~
NameNickHN
Thanks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Adafruit Learning System (v2.0) - taylorbuley
http://learn.adafruit.com/
======
glennos
Poorly titled post, is this a Flora announcement or just a link to the product
in general? Reading the page, the content fails to clearly address why this is
better than their previous gen "wearable" board, the Lilypad. From what I
could find, this board has greater specs.
Grumbles aside, glad to see the Arduino ecosystem thriving. No doubt this will
surface in some Kickstarter projects in the near future (if it hasn't
already).
~~~
taylorbuley
Look beyond the front page -- it's an entire webapp dedicated to hardware
hacking tutorials.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google to Microsoft: Remove your YouTube App from the Windows Phone Store - Avalaxy
http://www.wpcentral.com/google-microsoft-remove-youtube-windows-phone-store
======
shadowmint
The Microsoft PR machine in full motion again I see.
1) Build app that clearly violates spirit and word of TOS, steals content,
blocks ads.
2) Complain and act surprised like Google is being a bad guy when told to take
it down.
3) ???
4) Profit!
Now they just need to some how spin in some automatic #droidfail hash tags to
all the videos they show in the app and it'll be perfect!
Idiots.
(No, not the developers. I feel an immense sympathy for the people who had to
work on this; their managers are the ones who are idiots)
~~~
cooldeal
You're right, Microsoft PR sucks.
Google PR on the other hand, is extremely good, they have lots of people
believing they're all about "do no evil" and "open" while laughing all the way
to the bank.
~~~
jlgreco
> _laughing all the way to the bank._
I agree, how dare they make money.
------
bryanjclark
"This isn’t the first time Windows Phone users have been shafted by the
Mountain View company not willing to develop for the platform."
Bullshit - this isn't Google screwing over Microsoft, it's Microsoft being
idiots. If MSFT built a YouTube app that didn't blatantly violate Google's
policies, I don't think it'd be a problem.
YouTube wants viewers, regardless of which platform they're coming from.
~~~
CloudNine
>YouTube wants viewers, regardless of which platform they're coming from.
Then why don't they make an Windows Phone YouTube app and show ads on it?
Hell, show double the ads just to annoy WP users. Or are they afraid that it
will hurt Android?
~~~
bishnu
My guess is, [expected revenue per user] * [expected number of Windows Mobile
users] - [cost to build a decent YouTube app] is a negative number.
~~~
nivla
Yet they have an official chrome browser app for Windows 8.
~~~
eddieroger
Yeah, it shares a codebase with the Windows 7 version if it's different at
all. The number of Windows 7 + Windows 8 installs is far greater than Windows
Phone users.
------
cypher543
The comments on that article are atrocious. It's like one big fanboy rage
orgy. I like Microsoft and all, but Google seems to have a legitimate claim
here. All Microsoft needs to do is update the app to comply with the YouTube
TOS, which doesn't seem like that big of a deal.
~~~
cooldeal
How do they update the app if Google doesn't give them access to the API? They
need to kill it and millions of Windows Phone users will be left with no legal
YouTube app.
Also, if you're referring to the comments on WPCentral, of course, it's
"Windows Phone Central" where obviously fans and users of Windows Phone who
got frustrated for years with the lack of a quality YouTube app on their phone
hang out.
~~~
cpncrunch
That's not Google's problem. What law says that Google needs to provide an
API? This is just embarrassing for Microsoft. Basically google doesn't think
it's worth spending the time developing an app for Windows Phone, and
Microsoft then tries to hack it together by themselves, illegally.
I haven't ported any of my own apps to Win Phone either - what's the point
when nobody is using it? Out of 60,000 visits to our site over a given period,
4000 are iOS, 2000 Android, 50 blackberry and 20 Windows Phone. We haven't
bothered with blackberry either (apart from providing an html5 version).
Face it Microsoft: Windows Phone is a dismal failure.
~~~
nivla
>Face it Microsoft: Windows Phone is a dismal failure.
So did a smart guy say once about Apple. I went from being a hardcore Android
fan to just falling in love with my Lumia phone. Everyone I know who has a
windows phone has been happy with it. So no I don't think it is a dismal
failure.
I have found replacements for most Google services but there doesn't exist or
may never exist one for Youtube. I was a user of Youtube before Google was a
buyer, so yes it sucks to be given a second class treatment because you made
the unpopular choice for your phone. Hope this doesn't repeat, you know with
Ubuntu and Firefox phones coming out.
~~~
r00fus
> So did a smart guy say once about Apple.
Who ever did is either eating crow for that, or isn't as smart as he claimed.
Microsoft has been in the mobile business for a _long_ time. They have tried
to re-invent their offerings at least two times, probably more. There are a
lot of OEMs with knives in their backs (e.g.: Sendo, OQO) in the wake.
That they have failed to succeed after blowing such a lead and countless
investment dollars is a real organizational character failure on their part.
That some in Redmond think they're still winning is even sadder.
~~~
CloudNine
Windows Phone is seeing decent numbers, 6 million in the last quarters. The
lack of apps like YouTube and Instagram is hurting the platform and they're
showing they're serious about fixing that issuee by picking a fight with
Google.
~~~
codeka
So 6 million Windows Phones in a whole quarter, compared to 6 million Android
phones in about 10 days... yeah, they're going _great_.
~~~
cmircea
You don't get market share overnight when your platform has 100x less apps. On
the same note devs don't want to write apps for WP because it has no market
share.
See the issue?
------
kailuowang
I wonder how this app got approval from Microsoft's own legal department.
~~~
Avalaxy
I think the wishes of the legal department are of less importance than the
overall need for good apps on the Windows Phone platform. Google didn't have
the time/resources to build a Windows Phone app, so Microsoft did. And they
did it well. But now that the app is in the Store, Google wants it removed.
That's not a matter of 'no time/resources', that's just a matter of bullying.
They've been boycotting the Windows Phone and Windows 8 platforms ever since
the launch...
Quite typical actually. Google is the only tech giant with a slogan like
"don't be evil", yet they are the only evil tech giant at the moment
(Microsoft has gotten a lot better the last few years imho).
~~~
necubi
If you actually read the article, you'd see the issue is not dislike of WP.
The issue is that Microsoft is stripping off the ads that fund Youtube and its
content, in violation of the YouTube terms of service. It also includes a
button that allows people to download videos which is, again, a violation of
the ToS.
~~~
recoiledsnake
>If you actually read the article, you'd see the issue is not dislike of WP.
The issue is that Microsoft is stripping off the ads that fund Youtube and its
content, in violation the YouTube ToS. It also includes a button that allows
people to download videos which is, again, a violation of the ToS.
Crossposting my own comment from another thread.
So, for years, Google's stated reason for lack of a Youtube client was that
Windows Phone didn't have enough marketshare, and now suddenly it has so many
users that it loses so many ad impressions because Microsoft's Youtube that
the content creators are suffering because all the millions of freeloaders
using Windows Phone?
i.e It doesn't care enough for the ad impressions on Windows Phone to itself
make an app , but when MS does, the loss of the same revenue is the reason for
sending the lawyers in and pulling the app?
~~~
pyre
So, when Microsoft's IP is infringed (patents, etc), it's a tragedy. When
Google's (or its partner's) IP is infringed it's something sinister. Gotcha.
~~~
mortehu
Are you suggesting that software patents are as worthwhile as videos and
music?
------
rlpb
Microsoft's statement: "We'd be more than happy to include advertising but
need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs."
What's interesting is what they don't say. They don't say that Google have
refused to provide them this, or even that they asked Google for this.
Assuming that Google's complaint of "Prevents the display of advertisements in
YouTube video playbacks" is a TOS violation, it looks to me that Microsoft
violated their TOS first, and are only now trying to imply that Google are the
bad guys.
------
tagabek
As mentioned above by shadowmint, it seems that Microsoft is looking for some
attention, and they have already succeeded. Well done.
But what are the long-term effects on the growth of what Microsoft really
needs (a thriving third-party mobile development community)? I could be biased
because of Google I/O's hype effect, but things like this only make me lean
towards Android as my next platform to develop for (coming from iOS).
I agree with the definitional meaning of Microsoft's retaliation - large
companies should work together to create amazing content (ie. cross-platform
Youtube app) for their mutual users. As always, it's a shame to see immature
rivalries come between progress.
------
kumarm
Microsoft's single agenda these days to derail Google is hurting Microsoft and
is only benefiting Google.
50% of top windows8 (RT) paid apps are in Gross violation of
Copyright/Trademarks (Mind you including microsoft's own
Copyright/Trademarks).
Instead of cleaning up that mess and providing proper opportunities for
legitimate developers, why is microsoft encouraging doing something by
violating TOS of another major company?
------
krubu
Microsoft to Google: "lol go fuck yourselves".
There's no reason whatsoever Microsoft should comply to those ridiculous
demands.
And it's awesome that Microsoft removed those YouTube antifeatures for users,
they for once deserve to be thanked for the good they are doing.
Google is looking more and more like the evil one (although far less evil than
Apple or Oracle).
~~~
fpgeek
There are lots of reasons for Microsoft to comply with these demands.
At least one reason for each major media company Microsoft currently partners
with (or wants to in the future)... They, after all, are the ones most
invested in these particular YouTube anti-features. And should Microsoft
stymie Google, I'd predict that they won't remain on the sidelines.
------
duncan_bayne
FTA: "Not just remove the app, but also disable existing downloads of the app.
Aka, the “kill switch”, which (as far as we can remember) has only been used
once before."
And this is why app stores - as implemented by Google, Microsoft and Apple -
are evil. 'Bought' an app? Think again.
~~~
itafroma
> And this is why app stores - as implemented by Google, Microsoft and Apple -
> are evil.
Evil involves intent, not capability. For example, a car can hurt or even kill
someone, but it's not evil. Someone who intentionally and willfully runs down
pedestrians with a car would, however, definitely qualify.
Here's how the three companies have used their kill switch:
\- Microsoft has used their kill switch once to disable a pirated app
\- As far as I'm aware, Apple has never used their kill switch, even for
pirated apps or apps that were pulled for various reasons (scams, tethering
apps, etc.)
\- Google routinely uses its kill switch to remove malware and "practically
useless"[1] apps
So the the real questions are: is using the kill switch to combat piracy evil?
What about malware? "Useless" apps? What about not using the kill switch at
all for any reason?
[1]:
[http://readwrite.com/2010/06/25/google_activates_android_kil...](http://readwrite.com/2010/06/25/google_activates_android_kill_switch_zaps_useless_apps)
------
1010011010
Microsoft is a bad actor. No sympathy for them at all
------
jbigelow76
When I saw the original app announcement (also on wpcentral) I quickly
downloaded even though I already purchased metrotube, which is a perfectly
good YouTube app for Windows Phone. I knew it wouldn't end well with the
download of video and ad removal features. Now I play the waiting game to see
if Microsoft nukes the app remotely after they are eventually forced to
acquiesce :)
------
rbanffy
Does anyone seriously believe violating the YT TOS in the app was an honest
mistake?
This is ridiculous. Why would anyone expect a special TOS just for Microsoft?
------
joeblau
I have a Windows Phone so I just tested some of these objections out.
> Allows users to download videos from YouTube
That was pretty cool, but I honestly don't need that. I can already download
any video from anywhere online using Google Chrome and the curl trick.
> Prevents the display of advertisements in YouTube video playbacks
I never saw ads on the mobile web version of YouTube, but this could be a
problem when Google wants to insert them.
> Plays videos that our partners have restricted from playback on certain
> platforms (e.g., mobile devices with limited feature sets)
This was great! I actually remember trying to play a video that worked on my
laptop and failed on my phone. I just went back to that same video and it
worked.
The overall mobile web experience of YouTube is terrible on my Windows phone
(and on my iPhone). Since most of you guys are probably iPhone users here is
an analogy. It's like trying to switch from a native iOS maps (Apple or Google
made) client, to Googles web version of maps. Yeah it works and does
everything, but the performance is crap compared to the native mobile
application.
------
sbuk
Simple solution; screew Google and offer Vimeo instead. In my opinion, the
quality in both sense is better there...
~~~
ben0x539
Vimeo doesn't want a lot of kinds of videos though:
<http://vimeo.com/help/guidelines>
For a lot of people, it's not an option.
------
GhotiFish
Lots of hate on Microsoft "It's a secret ploy to deceive innocent hackers into
thinking Google is anti user. HISSSSSSSS"
The fact is, Microsoft built a user-centric application, focusing on all the
things a user might want to do. An application that treated youtube's servers
exactly for what they were, servers, servers serving content. No different
than browsers that have ad blocking extensions, or extensions to download
videos, or whatever else a computer might want to do with data (did you know a
smartphone is computer? Cool huh? ).
Microsoft made an application that put the user first. Finally. Even if this
is just a PR stunt, even if they have the worst intentions, they did the right
thing. If Google wants to contend this they can go suck on my freedom.
The proper response to this was: "Wow Microsoft, great app!" It doesn't MATTER
what Microsoft's intentions were.
------
wglb
Consider the idea that an article might get flagged due to the level of flame
war generated by a particular topic, and you don't need a conspiracy theory to
explain its downdraft.
------
Ecio78
Interesting compared to how Samsung dealt with this "problem" for a third-
party app that they've just awarded of best app award:
[http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&...](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=it&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chefuturo.it%2F2012%2F11%2Fla-
app-made-in-sicily-piu-scaricata-del-mondo-non-ce-piu%2F)
------
skc
So I'm curious about something.
1\. Do ad blockers remove ads from YouTube? 2\. Do the people in support of
Google's stance use ad blockers?
~~~
CloudNine
Would be interesting to see people's reactions if Google sent a takedown
notice to addons.mozilla.org for AdBlock because it's hurting video creators
and web sites.
~~~
makomk
So far they don't seem to have even taken down YouTube ad blockers from their
own Chrome store, unlike video downloaders that support YouTube.
------
ankitml
They dont publicize "Dont be evil" much these day. True. They shouldnt even.
------
belorn
Why are the article calling it the official YouTube app? It seems a strange
use of the word official, as normally that would imply a Youtube (or google)
made application.
Is the word _native_ the common term here?
------
lucb1e
Oh, the first paragraph explains why Youtube's official app sucks so much (no
offline caching etc.). Piracy and piracy prevention ruins it all (even when it
are laughable prevention methods).
------
cooldeal
Edit: [[[ This story is getting heavily flagged as well.
<http://i.imgur.com/LiUSpCy.png>
Looks like the Google fans, employees and shareholders on HN with good karma
can't let this story break on the day of Google I/O? And people accuse
Microsoft of astroturfing! What is this then?
If PG does not want to stop this blatant and continuous moderator abuse, he
might as well declare HN a Google and Linux fiefdom so that the rest of us
using other platforms and who can think for ourselves and are not Microsoft
haters can stay away. ]]]
Posted this story earlier and it got flagged off the front page.
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5714520>
Reposting my comment here:
This is the latest in a long saga. From a post from Microsoft in 2011:
First, in 2006 Google acquired YouTube—and since then it has put in place a
growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from
properly accessing it for their search results. Without proper access to
YouTube, Bing and other search engines cannot stand with Google on an equal
footing in returning search results with links to YouTube videos and that, of
course, drives more users away from competitors and to Google.
Second, in 2010 and again more recently, Google blocked Microsoft’s new
Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its
own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video
categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user
interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones
offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service.
Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Windows Phones to
access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones
do. As a result, Microsoft’s YouTube “app” on Windows Phones is basically just
a browser displaying YouTube’s mobile Web site, without the rich functionality
offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality
YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in
the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to
provide.
[http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2...](http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2011/03/30/adding-
our-voice-to-concerns-about-search-in-europe.aspx)
~~~
OGinparadise
My bet is on Google employees. I get a good dozen or so downvotes from them
when I post something negative about Google. Usually it happens in a short
period of time, as if someone gave them marching orders.
I have also noticed that Googlers aren't fans of saying "Disclaimer: I work
for Google" but go straight into praising Google's Product A and Feature B as
if they had no bias.
"Google is good and Microsoft is evil" is getting a little tiring and IMO is
no longer true. Google will do almost anything for a quick buck:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-
keny...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-kenyan-rival-
mocality-database)
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190478740457652...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576528332418595052.html)
[http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/05/technology/google_verizon_ne...](http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/05/technology/google_verizon_net_neutrality_rules/index.htm)
Just imagine what may hide in their black box algorithms as Google claims
fairness an unbiased results.
~~~
blhack
>I dislike large corporations of all stripes (especially smooth talking ones)
that are trying to take over the web for their own financial good.
From you profile. You don't think that _maybe_ this bias is showing through in
some of your comments?
~~~
OGinparadise
So what? People have biases, I never claimed to be unbiased and we're just
sharing our opinions. I do not get paid by anyone for what I say. What I said
about Google is heretic to some, only because they have this notion of an
angelic Google. They'd believe it for Apple, most other companies and
especially for Facebook and Microsoft.
Anyway, bed time is almost here.
~~~
burntsushi
> So what?
Unless I missed something, your OP was one big complaint about biases.
~~~
pfortuny
Not bias: abuse of power which is quite a different thing. On HN opinions only
have interest, votes have power.
~~~
burntsushi
Abuse? Votes are influenced by bias. Abuse only happens when there is a large
coordinated effort to snuff something out.
~~~
pfortuny
No: you abuse a vote when you vote not led by reason but by opinion. Downvotes
are not for differences of opinion but for lack of interest, etc...
Downvoting affects directly the visibility of a message and this should not be
based on opinion.
~~~
burntsushi
Since when is reason not influenced by bias?
You seem to be splitting hairs here. The OP complained about the bias of
others but didn't like it when he had his own biases pointed out.
I'm suspicious of any claim that says "votes" somehow have more "power" than
words. Words, opinions and ideas all have power too.
------
recoiledsnake
There's an ongoing discussion in this thread.
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5714639>
------
jonas_maj
I think Vimeo deserves more love. It allows you to download videos too which
is very handy. Windows Phone and Windows 8 users will be better off in the
long run using Vimeo. I think Google has made it pretty clear by now that
Windows users are not welcome in their ecosystem.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I am Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer who does work for YC and startups. AMA - proberts
I am excited and honored to provide (hopefully) helpful advice and information to the community. It can be tough to respond to very fact-specific questions, because relevant information often isn't included, so the best questions are general ones or those with all the pertinent facts. And of course nothing I say should be construed as legal advice. I will be available for the next 2 hours. Thanks!<p>Edit (1:10 PM PST) This has been an amazing experience for me. Thank you all for participating and for asking such pointed and interesting questions. I look forward to doing this again soon, possibly focusing on one or more specific topics. I need to sign off now, unfortunately, but best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy new year.
======
kemitchell
As a fellow (non-immigration) attorney, I'd just like to stress how remarkable
and generous is Peter's willingness to do this via HN, even with the very
obvious disclaimer. It speaks volumes about his confidence in his expertise
and communication, as well as a genuine desire to spread good information
around to those who need it.
Neither the dated, often fuzzy rules about practicing law nor lawyers'
developed risk consciousness encourages this kind of "innovative" altruism.
Instead, they create anxiety that keeps many community-minded attorneys from
doing anything like this.
Bravo, Peter. Inspiring.
~~~
jdoliner
Would you mind explaining a bit more about why the status quo discourages this
type of behavior and what most lawyers perceive as the risks?
I'm not really familiar with how it works and I'd imagine there's others on HN
who aren't as well.
~~~
teachingaway
I think it's 'malpractice' risk. Like, if a lawyer give bad legal advice on a
forum, and someone reads it and follows it and then loses a ton of money
because of it, and then the reader sues the lawyer for malpractice.
The plaintiff would never win the case. But lawyers like to avoid being the
target of malpractice claims, even if they're super-weak / spurious /
whatever.
I think that is the situation.
As a lawyer, I personally don't mind writing about the law or answering
_general_ questions on the internet. I wouldn't answer someone's specific
questions about their personal legal situation though (without an engagement
letter).
~~~
logicallee
right - the status quo would be for Peter to respond to every comment that
about the commenter with, "Talk to a lawyer."
------
mtrpcic
I'm currently on an H-1B in California working at a startup. In my spare time,
I work on side projects that might provide value to somebody somewhere, but
have an operating cost that I would have to cover if I wanted to offer the
project as a free service. I'd like to be able to charge for this (or at least
provide the option of a "Premium" plan) to supplant the money that I will lose
in hosting the platform. I am NOT trying to make this a high revenue
generator, and I am NOT trying to supplant my personal income. I'm more than
happy to have an LLC or corporation (with a bank account), and all revenue
stays within that ecosystem to cover costs. Is this possible?
1\. Can I set up a company with zero employees? Since I am on an H-1B, I am
not allowed to work for this new company that I would create to house the
service.
2\. Is there any legal implications for me of doing this? Most of what I have
read claim that any additional work is illegal, but I am not trying to get
paid. I am just trying to make the service self sufficient so it's not a cost
to me. I will not take a paycheck or salary, and will not remove revenue from
the account of the Corp/LLC.
3\. What other avenues would you recommend for doing something like this? I've
heard from many other engineers in the field that they have similar ideas.
They want to create things to benefit others, but are not willing to do so if
it is a literal cost to them.
~~~
beachstartup
i'm deleting this comment because it was a bunch of practical (as in non-legal
advice) info about running an LLC that could potentially get someone in
trouble if taken as advice.
~~~
angelbob
In California, an employer specifically does _not_ own your side work assuming
you don't use any of their physical assets, protected know-how or paid-for
time.
In other words, if it's genuinely side work.
There's a specific statute to that effect, and they're required to inform you
of same.
(I'm not a lawyer either, but I've worked in CA for a long time.)
~~~
beambot
You're talking about California Labor Code 2870:
[http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=lab&gr...](http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2870-2872)
The gist: Has to be your own time, own resources, and not related to your
company's current or anticipated business.
It's that last clause that's the kicker. For some companies, it's easy to
prove -- e.g. wood working is probably unrelated to Twitter's businesses. For
other companies that literally work on everything (eg. Google/Alphabet)...
it's a pain in the ass. Also: Many companies make _reporting_ the IP or side
work a stipulation of your employment contract -- ostensibly, so they can
claim that it _is_ related to their business in some way. It's right there in
Code 2871. :)
PS: IANAL.
~~~
siberianbear
Yes, this.
I consulted with a business attorney in Silicon Valley on this particular
issue when I was considering getting a startup going on my own after hours.
She basically said that there is enough "gray zone" in what I wanted to do vs.
what I was doing for my employer (although I felt they were really distinct
areas of computer science) that if my former employer wanted to go after me
they could easily bury me in legal BS.
Whoever can spend the most on lawyers wins...
------
billconan
What are the options for an h1b who wants to start up?
we can't lose our jobs to maintain the h1b status. will yc care that we are
not working on the idea fulltime by the time of applying to yc? (will
certainly quit the job if accepted to yc.)
what are the common attitudes of companies, like google, microsoft, apple,
facebook, toward employee moonlighting?
~~~
adrianbg
[http://unshackled.co/](http://unshackled.co/)
You can transfer your H1b to them and work on your thing.
~~~
ameyamk
How are the requirements for salary are taken care of? H1b employee must be
paid market rate salary (not in stocks but actual cash)
~~~
winter_blue
There's investment. From the website: "Unshackled takes 5% common stock +
invests up to $160,000 as a convertible note to help catalyze progress."
~~~
FanaHOVA
With $160k you can get a E2 visa
~~~
adrianbg
E2's have to be financed by citizens of your country of origin.
[http://startupimmigrationattorney.com/e2-visa-for-
startups-p...](http://startupimmigrationattorney.com/e2-visa-for-startups-
principal-investor-route/)
------
tinbad
Not a question but wanted to point out the L1 visa that is often overlooked by
foreign startup founders. It allows for founders/workers of foreign companies
to be transferred to a US subsidiary that is majority owned by the foreign
entity. I found it a fairly simple and straightforward process that got me
from nothing to L1 to Green Card in about 13 months (although with help of
immigration lawyer of course). The main requirements are having worked for at
least 12 months for the foreign entity before transferring and the person must
be in a managerial/executive position. Also the foreign entity must own the
majority of the US subsidiary.
~~~
proberts
Fair statement but USCIS can be really tough on new/small company L-1s so
these need to be done right and supported by extensive documentation of the
U.S. and foreign companies' operations.
~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Does this mean you could:
1\. Open a UK small business with yourself as the director and sole employee.
2\. Set up a pass-through corp in the US for remote work.
3\. Wait a while to establish the pass-through, then send yourself a job offer
from the pass-through to the UK.
4\. Get a visa as an employee of the pass-through - which you also own and
control?
Or will the UCSIS laugh at that?
~~~
sparkzilla
You don't need to do it that way. I followed this pattern.
1\. Set up the UK company. It has to have been running for a certain time, and
you have to be an employee of it for at least a year. The business has to be
actually trading and real, have an office and financial results.
2\. Apply for an L-1A, saying you will transfer yourself to the U.S. to start
a new business. You then have a year to set up the new company and get it
operational. You will need to invest at least $100,000 in the business. It
took me less than a month to get the visa.
3\. Renew the L1 for up to seven years. Before then, if your company grows you
can change to a green card. If, like me, your company fails, you'll have to
head back home :-(
4\. It may be easier just to go for an E2 visa, where you invest $150,000 in a
business. There's no path to a green card though.
[http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/opening-new-
office.html](http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/opening-new-office.html)
------
leroy_masochist
Say for the sake of argument we're a seed-stage startup and we've identified
an engineer with a very specific set of skills -- skills necessary for the
growth of our company -- who would need an H1B to work here legally. All-in,
about how much will it cost us to get that H1B visa processed through the
system in a timely fashion?
~~~
proberts
Legal fees aside, the filing fees are $1575 for a company with less than 25 FT
employees and $2325 for a company with 25 or more FT employees. These are the
fees for regular processing which can take months at present, so premium
processing is required for quick decision and this costs an additional $1125.
~~~
leroy_masochist
Thank you! I know that mileage varies, but could you give a ballpark for what
legal fees might be for a "plain vanilla" case? At the other end of the
spectrum, what are the highest fees you've ever seen from one individual?
~~~
winter_blue
One good thing to remember is that USCIS refunds the entire $2,325 or $1,575
application fee, if you do not win the H-1B lottery. So applying for someone
is fairly low risk, cost-wise.
Attorney fees vary, but some will only charge part of their fee initially, and
the rest is only payable if your engineer wins the H1B visa lottery and their
visa petition is approved.
I just googled, and one[1] attorney ("Zhang and Associates, P.C.") splits
their effective $2400 fee in two: they charge $1200 for the application, and
only charge another $1200 if the the person wins the lottery and their
application is approved. Another[2] charges $895 for the application, and no
more.
With the Zhang & Associates, the total cost of just trying to get your
engineer an H1B visa is $1200. If they win the lottery (odds: 1 out 3) and get
approved, the total cost rises to $4,725. With premium processing, it's
$5,950.
Even though tempting, it might be better to avoid lower cost attorneys (e.g.
that charge below $1000). A good highly knowledgeable (thus, more expensive)
attorney is strongly preferable. Even the slightest error can jeopardize an
application. In addition, USCIS issues various rules and notices from time to
time, and it's good to have an attorney who's on top of all of that.
[1]
[http://www.hooyou.com/h-1b/attorneyfee.html](http://www.hooyou.com/h-1b/attorneyfee.html)
[2] [http://www.usavisanow.com/h-1b-visa/h-1b-visa-attorney-
servi...](http://www.usavisanow.com/h-1b-visa/h-1b-visa-attorney-services/)
~~~
leroy_masochist
This is very helpful, thank you!
------
jeevand
Can founders of a startup who have majority ownership & with appropriate board
having the power to fire them sponsor green card through their startup?
Founders are currently on H1b with approved I-140. Thank you
~~~
semerda
I was in the exact position. H1B founder needed to move to a GC. My 6 year H1B
renew runway was ending. Peter did all the legal/immigration work for me.
Applied for the GC via extraordinary ability (EB1A) context. I must say this
was the smoothest immigration experience ever. And I have gone through 2 x E3s
& 3 x H1Bs using other lawyers. I wish I knew about Peter earlier. Highly
recommend everyone here to work with Peter!!
~~~
thro1237
Do you have a Phd? How did you satisfy the requirements of EB1A otherwise?
~~~
semerda
No Phd. Just Masters & Bachelor. I blogged about my journey as an Aussie
founder in US on a H1B getting a Green Card here:
[http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/visa/green-card-
cofoun...](http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/visa/green-card-cofounder-
startup-journey/) Feel free to reach out if you have more questions.
------
ojbyrne
I am curious about the approach YC takes for foreign founders who are accepted
into YC. How do they come to the US for the initial incubation period? What
happens after demo day?
~~~
atirip
+1 Additionally: i understand EU citizens can be in the US visa free for 3
months. What that exactly means? 3 months per year or 3 months per one visit?
If the latter then how often? Lets assume one gets accepted and decides to
utilize that visa free offer - what should be said at the border if one is
asked.
~~~
mritun
IANL, but here is what I know:
1\. One can't work on the visa under visa-waiver program.
2\. One should not work under the VW, if you get caught, you'll forever
forfeit the benefits of VW.
3\. 90 days is you maximum permissible stay length per visit to US (leaving US
to visit nearby places doesn't count). Note that your ACTUAL permitted stay
length is what the CBP notes in your passport at port of entry. You must leave
by that date.
~~~
gdilla
Work is defined as getting a salary though. If you're accepted into YC, they
are not 1099'ing you or putting you on a payroll. It's like a stipend
(effectively), and legally just an investment in your firm.
~~~
lobster_johnson
A 1099 isn't needed for immigrations to be convinced that you are working. If
you are receiving any kind of remuneration while doing some kind of work, that
counts as working (in violation of the visa waiver program).
------
newuser2016
Hello,
USCIS recently approved my EB1 visa I-140 petition. Since I'm abroad my
process will go thru the NVC and then consular processing. What kind of
questions should I be prepared for at the consular interview? And about how
much time should I have to wait for my green card?
Thanks!!
~~~
klipt
If you qualify for EB1 you almost surely would qualify for O1. If you want to
start working ASAP, you could probably get an O1 visa in a few weeks, enter
the US and work on that, and then file to adjust status to green card based on
your approved EB1 I-140.
------
ancarda
I live in the United Kingdom but I've always wanted to move to America. I
don't know much about the process as I find it very hard to go through the
volume of information online. Do I need to apply for a visa, then find a
company in the U.S. to hire me? Is there a good website for finding green card
jobs?
I'd be grateful for a pointer on doing this or even just an FAQ as a starting
point.
~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Have you looked into US companies that have UK branches? You get hired by the
UK branch, and then ask for a transfer to the US.
London's banking/insurance/etc industry might be a good place to start looking
at that. Getting transfers to New York City is common as heck.
~~~
ancarda
I never thought of doing that! Good idea, thanks
~~~
jfim
Keep in mind that you need to have worked for that given company for a certain
amount of time for the L-1 visa (I believe at least a year).
------
franciscop
I won a NASA contest as a programmer and I'm interested on working in the USA
(also as a programmer). Am I elegible for an O-Visa? My degree is on
Industrial Engineering which I'll finish in January in Spain, my home country.
I also have about 1 year of work experience in two startups as an internship.
PS, thank you so much for the help so far.
~~~
proberts
It's hard to say without seeing your CV but USCIS places a lot of weight on
such awards.
------
shekispeaks
How can people on H1B Visa be founders. What is the best way for them to say
spend 6 months figuring out what the product is without actually having an
actual company?
------
mindvirus
What are the typical visas for a Canadian who gets accepted into YC, and
afterward/during raises seed funding and sets up shop in the USA?
~~~
proberts
There are several options depending on the ownership of the company and the
amount and source of the funding but typically the post-YC options are the TN,
the E-1 or E-2, and the O-1. The H-1B, because of the cap among other things,
is the least utilized.
~~~
throwaway1340
Thanks for doing this AMA. I'm a Canadian who just got his TN visa (Systems
Analyst) but in practice, my salary/responsibilities will be pretty similar to
that of a Software Engineer. As far as the law is concerned, where is the line
drawn between those two occupations?
~~~
PureSin
If you switch jobs you'll have to apply to a new TN visa at the border.
Fellow Canadian that's been in the USA for the past 4 years.
------
mahyarm
How does one with a H1B, TN, H1B1, or E3 visa move from their current US
employer and start their own company legally while living in the USA?
~~~
falsedan
Set up an LLC & extend yourself a job offer. Make sure you have the capital to
pay yourself according to your visa's restrictions, follow the appropriate
procedure for visa transfer, & don't outright own the LLC.
Alternatively, petition to change visa to H-1B & get your employer to start
the greencard application.
~~~
mahyarm
By not owning the LLC, does that mean owning %95 or %4? I often seen %5
requirements in ownership of companies making something invalid.
~~~
falsedan
Don't own it outright, i.e. < 50% ownership.
------
alantrrs
Hi Peter, thanks for taking the time for this AMA. I have a ton of questions,
but here's a summary:
1\. Can I incorporate a company and look for funding under a B1/B2 Visa? 2\.
Once incorporated and funded, what type of Visa could I get for myself to work
for my own company? 3\. Would my two-year home-country presence requirement
"212(e)" affect getting those visas? 4\. If I'm unable to get any other Visa,
could I be living in the US with a B1/B2 Visa working for the company I
founded but without receiving a salary? How long could I stay? How about a TN
or TD Visa?
------
sadok
Hi Peter. There have been several times where YC companies wanted to hire me
(designer) but couldn't because they can't sponsor work visas at the moment.
How hard is it for a YC company to be able to sponsor visas? Have you had
experience with this? And, as an applicant, is there something I could do to
ease the process? Thank you.
~~~
proberts
Unfortunately, it's hard to respond because the facts really matter - the
facts about the company and you - but yes, we have handled work visas for YC
companies and other startups. As a general rule - from a company requirements
standpoint - it's easier to get an O-1 than an H-1B for employment with a
startup.
~~~
rbanffy
How high, exactly, is the bar for an O-1?
------
lfittl
What are your experiences with going from a successfully issued O-1 visa to an
EB-1A?
Any lessons learned / things one should watch out for? (specifically around
required evidence or RFEs that you got issued)
Thanks for your time! :)
------
cagenut
This isn't really an immigration question so much as an avoiding-having-to-
immigrate question:
What are the challenges in having co-founders in other countries and being
able to grant them meaningful chunks of equity. Say example someone with 10%
in Hungary and another with 10% in the Netherlands.
~~~
proberts
Sorry. Outside my area of expertise.
------
RohrerCarlos
Thanks for you time. I'm a chilean entrepreneur developing a startup here in
SF. I'm one of the founders and we have already incorporated as an LLC.
1-What's the easiest path for me to get a visa that will allow me to work and
receive a salary here in the US? 2-Can I do that through the company we just
established?
I'm fully dedicated and focused on our company and growing as fast as we can
and I need to come to a solution to my visa so I can continue working here
with no problems.
Much appreciate your help Peter.
~~~
proberts
You probably have several options but these will depend on the ownership of
the company, the amount and source of funding if any, and your background. The
options that come to mind are the H-1B1, the E-1 and E-2, and the O-1.
~~~
RohrerCarlos
Thanks Peter. I own 30% of the company and we have bootstrapped the company.
We haven't used more than $3,000 on it. My background: I'm an trilingual
Industrial Engineer graduated from Chile with more than 11 years of
experience. Does this information helps to have a more clear focus on what's
the best solution for my case?
Thank you very much Peter.
------
randall
My cofounders are from Finland and Pakistan respectively. We want them to be
able to move them and their families temporarily to the us for a year or two.
Is h1b the best option?
------
disbelief
How would you rate a senior engineer's odds at qualifying for an O-1 visa? Can
they get by on career/work history alone or does it require a level of public
notoriety?
~~~
SeoxyS
3-time O-1 recipient here. Denied for EB-1 once + on appeal.
The O-1, I feel, is pretty dependent on our personal situation, and which side
of the bed the reviewer woke up on when they look at your application. But, it
can be done. Good luck!
~~~
n00b101
Why 3-time? How long is O-1 valid before it expires?
~~~
SeoxyS
3 years term per approval. But you have to apply again every time you change
jobs. I started with one company, then was founder of a startup, re-applied
there, and moved it to another company.
Re-applying is easier once you've been approved once.
~~~
ameen
What's the reapplication process like? Do you need to have done something
exceptional from the time of the previous one's expiry to warrant an
extension?
~~~
SeoxyS
I've never done an extension, just a transfer. It was pretty routine; you just
file the application again just like the first time. Not much of a difference;
other than the previous approval making your chances of getting approved once
more significantly higher.
The first time, I had to get a new visa stamp (which required going back to my
home country to get it from the U.S. embassy); the second time I kept the same
visa stamp and a little piece of paper in my passport showing the transfer.
It's mostly useful as a reference of the case number when I get asked about my
employer (which is different than the one shown on the visa stamp) when I
travel back to the US from a trip abroad.
------
disbelief
If someone is on a visa tied to a specific job at a specific company, what is
the legality of working on personal side projects (that may turn a profit)?
~~~
proberts
This is an incredibly complicated and important question and will very much
depend on the facts - that is, the stage and nature of the project - because
of course it's fine to think creative ideas and even execute them but the line
can be crossed when this evolves into a business or a commercial enterprise.
That line can be fuzzy, however.
------
throwaway333349
Questions regarding international companies being able to sponsor H1B visas in
America.
1/ How long does the process take for a company to be eligible to sponsor H1b
visas. 2/ How much does it cost ? 3/ Does the company need any minimum funding
? 4/ Does the company need to hire a certain number of American citizens/Green
card holders before it can hire H1B visa holders ?
~~~
proberts
1\. There is no waiting period. 2. See response to earlier question. 3. Not
really - USCIS will look at a variety of factors to be comfortable that the
company can pay the offered wage including funding. 4. No.
------
pboutros
We hear a lot about the limited # of H1B visas available, about how it
functions as a lottery, etc... What are common issues with the H1B application
process that don't receive as much public attention?
~~~
proberts
Many petitions get rejected - without recourse - because they're not
submitted/prepared properly and it's much easier to deal with the lottery and
resolve issues with premium processing.
~~~
aandrieiev
Does this mean that premium processing circumvents the lottery whatsoever?
~~~
porsupah
No. Premium processing only affects the speed of processing - the lottery odds
remain unchanged.
------
mydpy
As US citizens, how can we help our international friends trying to get H1-B
support? It is really hard to watch friends get denied, and I really wish
policy makers would admit more very talented people from highly competitive
countries.
One of my good friends from China is gay and if he goes back home, he could
actually be in danger.
I feel helpless and I want to do more.
~~~
titomc
H1B was for skilled workers. Note that I used "was". Some of the ways to help
H1B system.
1\. Stop TCS,Infosys,Wipro & Cognizant bringing in unskilled workers for low
salary. They bombard the system every year and eligible skilled workers should
depend on their luck rather than their skills to get H1B.
Solution : Increase the minimum level wages requirements 2x times.
2\. There are lot of Indian bodyshops in US,which will apply visa & initiate
greencard,so that they can hold a lock on the workers for a very long time.
Solution: Make the H1B visa transfer flexible. Job portability should be made
easy.So that body shops or employers cannot abuse H1B workers.
3\. Conduct a very high level technical interview for the candidates which the
consultant companies present. Many consulting companies bring unskilled
workers with fake resume. So triple checking the background & skills will put
a stop to H1B abuse and skilled candidates will get visas.
------
iktl
Hi Peter – as H1B / E3 visa holders are only allowed to work for the company
sponsoring them, are these holders able to provide contract work (separate to
their regular work) to clients either in or out of the US provided the work is
conducted and billed via a registered business entity in their home (or
another non-US) country?
~~~
proberts
The short answer is no - although there can be exceptions when the only
beneficiary of this work is outside the US.
~~~
disbelief
Just to clarify: in this case it _may_ be okay if you're doing work for a
client outside of the US and they are billed by a business entity that is also
outside the US? So the deal-breaker is doing work for US companies?
~~~
semerda
Might not be that easy esp if your o/s entity still has you as a
shareholder/owner. And if that country has a taxation treaty with USA like
Australia does. Then you need to reveal all your foreign activity.
------
haydenlee
When working for your own company (a Delaware C-Corp) on OPT there is some
language in the policy about having to be an employee, but that you can also
work for yourself. Is being a founder enough to stay in status without
technically paying yourself minimum wage and being on the payroll? And does
this apply to the extension too?
------
baristaGeek
1) Is winning an ACM-ICPC national/regional contest enough to be considered a
top programmer and be able to apply for an O-1?
2) If my B1/B2 visa allows me to stay in the US for 6 consecutive months; can
I do programming, sales, fundraising, etc. for my Delaware C Corp in the US?
------
michwill
Hi Peter!
I am a citizen of Australia and I am going to switch on ZeroDB
[[http://www.zerodb.io/](http://www.zerodb.io/)] fulltime pretty much now. For
that, I have to leave my employer with whom I have an E3 visa (and I have a
wife on E3D). Also I need to travel right after that.
Would there be any problem for us to enter back under Visa Waiver? Should we
just fill an ESTA form online and have back out-of-US tickets on hand when we
enter back? Any possible caveats here?
Another thing - my employer could technically terminate my employment very
close to our date of re-entry (due to some corporate stuff). Would it cause
problems in getting ESTA (when you are still technically on E3 visa but in a
couple of days you're not)?
Thank you!
~~~
proberts
If you enter under ESTA, you won't be able to work for the company and you
will need to leave and reenter again in E-3 status to work for the company.
And yes, if you recently have been in E-3 status and then seek to reenter
under ESTA, you could have problems because CBP could conclude that you are
coming to stay and/or work.
~~~
michwill
Ok, actually the situation is following. We have some pilots with banks
emerging in London where we need to work closely with them. I actually will go
there and my wife will go to the US under visa waiver.
Seems like employment is going to be terminated at December 16, re-entry time
- January 3.
Would there be any problems with this?
------
shekispeaks
Can I drive for lyft part time on an H1B?
~~~
proberts
H-1B employment can be part-time but it needs to be professional in nature -
that is, specialized and requiring a bachelor's degree in a specific field of
study.
~~~
tejaswiy
I'm guessing the question was that the OP was already employed on an H1B visa
with a company, and wants to drive for Lyft.
------
d--b
I currently hold a green card, but am temporarily abroad (2 times 6 months).
How long can I stay abroad and retain the green card, if I periodically come
back to the U.S.? And how frequently should I get back to the U.S. ?
~~~
ameen
From when I was detained (those "random checks"), I overheard an official say
that they need to be in the country for atleast once in 6 months, and the
taxes need to be filed (this was for an old couple, not sure about their
fate).
~~~
d--b
Thanks I've heard similar things.
------
jason558
Hi Peter, thanks for doing this session! My question relates to techniques and
probabilities of getting H1B visa for potential hires. We are a 5 year old
profitable start-up with more than $1 million in revenue...how hard would it
be for us to sponsor a potential new engineering hire for the visa process? I
understand that it can cost $4k in the application and X in legal fees ($5k?)
which we would be ok with.
My questions are (a) what are the actual chances of success given the lottery
system process for sponsoring an employee for the H1B visa, and (b) are we
limited in the # of applications?
~~~
Eridrus
Obviously not the OP, but the lottery is meant to be completely random, where
the only thing that helps is being in the advanced degree bucket where you
essentially get a chance in two lotteries.
Last year the success rate for those without advanced degrees was something
like 33%.
I _think_ you get one application per person, so you will hopefully get 1/3 of
the visas you request, essentially 3Xing your costs.
~~~
vickychijwani
The cost wouldn't be 3X, as USCIS refunds the application fees entirely if
you're not picked in the lottery. However the lawyer's fees are still a cost.
Source: [http://www.murthy.com/2015/06/25/uscis-returning-h1b-cap-
pet...](http://www.murthy.com/2015/06/25/uscis-returning-h1b-cap-petitions-
not-selected-in-lottery/)
------
focus986
I was married to a US citizen for some years and recently got divorced over
infidelity/financial issues (have proof). I have since filed an appeal as
"Abandoned Spouse" which has yet to be acknowledged by USCIS so I am yet to
have a new case number at all. My current work permit has run out and I have
received notice to appear for Removal proceedings in Sept 2017. Is there a way
to get my work permit renewed in the interim? I am yet to receive
acknowledgement of receipt from USCIS about my abandoned spouse appeal
------
bobfunk
Hi Peter,
I have a question about E2 VISA's and what to do when you raise enough funding
that you loose majority ownership?
The situation is company with 2 founders on E2 VISAs with majority ownership
of a company, who'll most likely not be able to keep majority ownership after
a series A.
Is there a good way to prepare for this and a good alternative strategy to not
end up with a series A funded company where the founders can't stay in the
country?
And do the E2's stop being valid once the founders loose majority ownership,
or is it just impossible to renew them?
------
erehweb
Is there a good source of information for Presidential candidates' proposed
changes to immigration laws? If you were a betting man, what (if any) changes
would you bet on post-election?
~~~
SeoxyS
I would love an answer to this question! In this current election, it's
unclear what candidates' positions are towards tech sector immigration.
------
kylnew
In your experience, how necessary is it for Canadians and Mexicans applying
for a TN Visa, to be accepted for Software Engineer or Computer Systems
Analyst jobs without a degree in computer science or engineering? For example,
I have a B.Comm degree.
I've heard it's a bit hit and miss and if you don't have a good lawyer working
on your side getting through might be tough. I'm not sure if it's a different
story for H1B Visas though.
~~~
canadiancreed
I'm not a lawyer, but as a Canadian that does not have a degree in Comp Sci
and has been looking for work in the United States since 2006, I'd like to
share my experience.
In a nutshell, I've been told time and again that having a degree will help,
although how much one that isn't related to your discipline may not be worth
much more then the paper it's printed on. To give my experience, I've been
told by multiple companies within the last year that it's basically no Comp
Sci (or equivalent two year college course), no chance. Your degree in an
unrelated field might help a bit, but I wouldn't put much weight in it when it
comes to immigration VISA time.
~~~
kylnew
So have you ever managed to get a TN or H1B Visa opportunity in the US?
Everything I hear sounds so anecdotal it's hard to get a grip on what matters.
Hopefully the more applied years helps too (I have 6). Still, it sounds like
getting in may be a matter of strong-arming through law/lawyers.
------
infocollector
I am currently on F1 (Alien from India, getting my PhD in early 2016, Computer
Science) and am planning to apply for either the EB-1 or NIW. I have one
publication (and multiple submitted), and my work has mostly gone in
supporting Department of Defense. Do you recommend EB-1 or NIW route, or
perhaps something else? I do have strong letter writers both in the DoD and
Academia/Industry.
~~~
proberts
As a general rule, if there is a clear national interest being served, an NIW
green card is a much easier route, although EB-2 so the process is very slow
for Indian nationals. Without seeing your CV it's hard to say but the EB1A is
the only avenue for getting a green card now.
------
OSButler
There was a post here a while ago about s.o. coming to the US on a tourist
visa asking to do volunteer work in return for a place to stay. I'm just
curious if you've ever dealt with similar cases, where people came into the
country with the wrong visa, found a place to live/work, but then had to get
their papers sorted out to be able to stay? Were they actually able to stay or
did they have to go back and apply from outside the country (US) again?
And more of a personal anecdote than a question, but during my own immigration
process I've noticed that there appear to be mostly people who are either
extremely over-prepared (have all the documents filled out in advance with
additional papers/proofs/documents for every single step), or they are not
prepared at all. My fondest memory was a man walking into the embassy asking
to immigrate right now. No papers, documents, nothing. Just walked in, went to
the clerk's window and asked to immigrate today. Even the clerk was a bit
dumbfounded by the demand.
------
erispoe
Could the administration decide to lower the bar for some visas, like O-1,
without the need for congress to approve it?
For instance, could the administration decide that anyone with a PhD, or even
a master's degree, is eligible for a O-1 visa? If that's the case, why is the
focus some much on statutory reform and not on the administration which could
get results much more quickly?
~~~
proberts
No, the requirements are statutory. That being said, the weight that factors
such as education are given is in the end subjective and discretionary, and
the agency could take the position that certain factors, such as a PhD, should
be given substantial weight.
------
jensv
Can you recommend some immigration resources for self-service? I am a Canadian
who is seeking better work opportunities State side, with a Bachelors in
Computer Science and 3 years of experience. I wonder if flying down with the
intent of networking and finding companies to meet is a good and realistic way
of meeting employers and lining up interviews.
~~~
adomanico
I would say start looking from Canada. I did that late 2013 and by January
2014 I was in California working at a startup with TN status.
------
h1b_transfer
Thanks for doing this! I have a question regarding time off between jobs while
on an H1B.
I've been working at a startup for 2 years that sponsored my H1B. I've just
accepted an offer at a big tech company, and they are transferring the H1B in
the coming weeks. In the meantime, is it OK if I take 2-4 weeks off in between
the two jobs without pay?
------
octopus00
Hi Peter, thanks SO much for doing this
\- Is it ok to form a side company while on H1B?
\- Is it ok for me to develop free or paid apps through my own side company
(just me doing everything, without hiring anyone else)? If not, what do I need
to do to not violate my status?
\- What are the minimum criteria for an O visa and is that a viable solution
if the side company is going really well?
~~~
proberts
All work must be authorized, so work for a side company must be work
authorized, although it's possible to hold both full-time and part-time H-1Bs
or O-1 or TNs with multiple companies. The criteria for O-1 classification are
listed on USCIS's web site - too much to note here - but as a general rule, if
a company is doing well, then it's relatively easy to get an O-1.
------
keyblock5
Hi Peter, thanks for your time.
I have job offer to work in US, reliant on immigration.
I haven't completed my bachelor's degree, and my final exams are after the
April 1st 2016 deadline. I do not have more than a year of professional
experience. UK citizen.
Am I right that an H1B won't be applicable? Would any other visa types fit
(Other than work abroad, then L1)?
------
haydenlee
What's the current status of the OPT extension? I'm a co-founder of a startup
that I started during my 12 months of OPT and its about time to apply for the
extension, however I recently realized there'd been some changes to it.
Should I apply now for the extension or do I have to wait until further
policies are put in place?
------
ic10503
I am moving from a big company to startup and I have initiated my h1b visa
transfer. I want to take a break between the two jobs. Is it OK to go outside
US after leaving the current company and come back to start working for the
startup ? Will carrying the approved h1b petition for the startup be enough to
re-enter US ?
------
CAThrowAway
Hi Peter,
Thanks for taking two full hours to do this - I've learned a lot.
I am a US/Canadian dual citizen, my cofounder is Canadian. We're currently
running our business as a Canadian corporation, but would like to set up shop
in San Francisco full time over the next year or two, preferably incorporating
in Delaware.
My cofounder has a BSc and has done some impressive things in her career, but
the O-1 looks difficult from the outside. We're in a position to raise ~1M of
funding from US investors over the next 6m - would that make her eligible for
an E-2? The L-1 looks like a reasonable fallback if we can get nothing else
setup over the next year, but we've been told not reincorporating as a
Delaware corp will make fundraising more difficult.
Is there an obvious standout option here? Are there any that I'm missing?
Thanks!
~~~
proberts
Without knowing more, it appears that the O-1 and the TN might be very good
options.
~~~
CAThrowAway
Does the TN visa limit the holder from participating as an owner of the
company where the holder is employed?
------
hamhamed
Hi Peter, thanks for doing this. I've been applying to YC for the past 4 years
and never gotten an interview, I'm starting to suspect it's because of my
background (hence they never reply to you with the reason of rejection). I'm
born in Canada, meaning I'm Canadian, but I never managed to finish my college
CompSci Degree so I'm not eligible for a TN-1 visa. However I do have around 6
years of professional web dev experience, founded a couple of startups, raised
money and exited. I am 23 now. Any tips?
This might also help, but I did not finish my degree because I was kicked out
of college:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5090007](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5090007)
~~~
proberts
Of course. You might still qualify for a TN without a degree under non-
engineering occupations. I'd need to know more about your education and work
experience, however.
------
Eridrus
Is it possible to transition from an E-3 to a green card directly?
I had a person at the US consulate remark on the fact that I was applying for
a third E-3 visa with the comment "you can't keep doing this indefinitely", I
didn't challenge him, but this by understanding was quite the opposite, that
there was no limit on E-3 visas issues; can you provide any insight into this?
If I obtain a green card by marriage, but then split up before the 2 year
deadline, does that have negative repercussions on your ability to get
employment-related visas? I've already been dating my girlfriend for 2 years
and we've been living together for most of that, so it's something that comes
up as a reason to get married, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea.
~~~
kijeda
I received counsel that I needed to transfer from an E-3 to a H-1B before I
could apply for a green card. That is what I did, and I now have a green card.
I also found that E-3s are sufficiently rare, I got conflicting comments from
border agents, consular officials etc. Most had never heard of it, or applied
understanding they had from other similar visas. (Admittedly, I first obtained
mine the first year that category was created.)
~~~
Eridrus
Yeah, I recieved similar counsel, but I didn't get through the H-1B lottery
last year, so I'm wondering if there are other ways.
------
yranadive
What are the top 3 things required to make a strong case to get EB1 for
startup founders on H4 EAD?
~~~
proberts
That's a tough question because USCIS really looks at the totality of the
evidence but (not surprisingly) awards, press, and original
contributions/patents are important (although not necessarily required).
------
morriswong
How does a startup know if what they are doing is breaking the law or not?
Usually ideas are cool until they realized that there might be legal issues
that aren't intuitive enough or straight forward to those who does not have a
law background.
------
izzosismyfav
I'm graduating senior(F1 visa) in this December. I'm waiting for my OPT card.
Can I work in between that? Once I get my OPT can I apply for H1B on year 2016
or will I have to complete H1B? What other legal things I need to be aware of?
~~~
proberts
You can't start working until you have your OPT work card in hand. There are
circumstances where someone who hasn't yet graduated can be sponsored in the
H-1B lottery, but this essentially requires the student to have completed all
requirements for the degree by the time of filing (in April).
------
fawaz
Canadian starting a startup in the US:
I haven't launched my startup yet, and I reside in Canada. I've never been
employed in the US.
I'd like my startup's HQ to be based in the US. What's the best way for a
Canadian to set up base and launch in the US?
------
anarazel
I think it'd be awesome if somebody with actual clue, and without the primary
intent of getting new clients, would start collecting information about the US
visa situation at some permanent location.
Looking for information about US Visas on your own right now is made very hard
by all the immigration lawyer's homepages. Those mostly seem to contain copied
and low quality content. Often with conflicting or outdated information.
Given the obvious desire, by US companies, of hiring non-residents, it seems
that there'd be a rather big collective interest in providing quality
information.
------
immiques
Hi Peter,
I have a very specific question I think will apply to many people here. Me and
a buddy who is from another country are building a product. We will soon be
done with the product and we are thinking about registering the company here
in the USA just because it is very easy to get funding here. The company will
be a registered in both of our names, (even though he is a foreign national, I
am flat-out assuming this is possible). Eventually, if the company does well
we would want to stand up an office here. At that point, what are his options
to get to USA ?
~~~
proberts
This will depend on a number of factors including the nationality of the
company and your friend, and the amount and source of any investment, but the
options that we typically look at (aside from country-specific options) are
the E-1, E-2, L-1, and O-1.
------
an4rchy
Great topic.. just out of curiosity.. Has YC directly sponsored any H1B visas
(if not for founders but people who actually work for YC)? I tried the usual
h1b websites and couldn't find anything...
------
KAdot
Can I sell my own software as a H1B worker? E.g. my own apps in App Store?
~~~
proberts
Another excellent question. Any compensation for services rendered - for
productive work - must be specifically work authorized, so as a general rule
selling a product created by you - whether it's an application or a widget -
requires work authorization.
~~~
goodcall
How about a H1b holder participates in a hackathon with cash prizes and wins.
Can he claim the money ?
------
patrickddaniel
Let's say you're working toward getting an O-1A, and you fulfill the three
categories out of eight, how broad can you make the scope of work that you can
do? (since the category includes sciences, education, business, or athletics)
For example, if you are not set on one career, and have pursued 3-4, and you
get the O1 for one career (where you can show extraordinary proof), can you
still do work in other areas? In other words, how broad can you define the O1
so that you could do almost any type of work as you could do with a greencard.
------
diogenescynic
How do you feel about companies and law firms gaming job postings to
disqualify qualified workers in the US so they can hire a candidate on a visa
for much less? Employers are posting jobs that don’t really exist, seeking
candidates they don’t want, and paying for bogus non-ads to show there’s an IT
labor shortage in America. Here is the law firm Cohen & Grigsby advising other
employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified
applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most
qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU)
Do you consider this abuse or fraudulent? Also, how much of your firm's work
is done by paralegals using templates and boiler plate support letters?
~~~
dang
I'm sure Peter would have interesting things to say about these issues (though
he has left the thread at this point), but I doubt that it would be a good use
of his time to delve into political controversies when so many founders and
employees have specific questions in this thread.
Also, a matter of community etiquette: we don't invite people here to be
cross-examined, which is what your questions sound like.
------
ameen
Is it possible to start a company on a B1/B2 Visa? This would an extension of
my startup in India. Is any investment required? We're bootstrapped and yet to
launch our product.
------
geoka9
Would you recommend a Canadian wishing to work (remote, from Canada) for a US
employer to get a TN visa. The work may require short (2-3 days) onsite visits
several times a year.
------
throwawayforlaw
Hi Peter! Thanks for doing this AMA.
I had a question about H1Bs. My F1 OPT expired Feb 2015 and I had a grace
period of 180 days to apply for STEM extension. But in the meanwhile (April
2015), I heard that my H1B got picked in the lottery. So I googled it and read
someplace that I wouldn't have to worry about the OPT STEM extension anymore,
so I didn't go forward with my STEM extension application.
Is this something I have to be worried about going into my visa interview in
my home country?
------
graeme
What are the odds of getting an O1 visa in a very small niche. I'm
legitimately one of the top experts in the field of LSAT preparation. I've
published several books, run a popular website, moderate a major forum, and
have written guest articles for most major sites about the LSAT.
However, it's a small field, and not one that attracts much press coverage.
How does this balance out?
I run my own business. All online, mostly US customers, soon will be a
Canadian corporation.
~~~
SeoxyS
I'm not proberts, or an attorney, but, as an O-1 recipient: The requirement is
being at the "top of one's field" and proved through publications etc. I'd say
you have a better shot as a big fish in a small pond (expert of small niche)
than you would as a small fish in a big pond.
------
rdc12
Is getting a visa to work at a U.S at startup something unique to the YC
program? I am/was under the impression that the company had to be accredited
to be able to employ foreign nationals.
Is there any advise you can give for a current undergrad (for me personally
citizen of NZ and UK if that matters) to improve the odds of being able to
accept a job or PHD study in the US (on the visa side of things), both at
application time and now til then (~2 years away).
------
anindyabd
The 17-month OPT extension has recently been terminated by a court. What are
the chances that a new rule will be implemented regarding the OPT extension?
~~~
proberts
My understanding is that it is very likely that the OPT STEM extension will be
reinstated.
------
sul4bh
How does H1B and remote work? Say, can I work in Nashville remotely from home
for a company in San Francisco and have a valid case for getting H1B?
~~~
proberts
Yes.
------
poerkladsfl
L1 related. What should I do if I want to go work for a different company but
am currently on an L1-A visa (been here in the USA for 3 years).
~~~
proberts
You would need to switch to another status such as an O-1 or an H-1B (if
you're not from a country with other visa options).
------
laxinger
Hi Peter. I'm currently preparing for O1 visa. I'm on B1/B2 visa now and
planning to extend 2 months so I can stay total 8months while I prepare for O1
visa. My question is if I ever get denied for extending B1/B2, can I have any
disadvantages when I apply for O1 visa? I met a person who told me this but
I'm not sure whether this is true.
~~~
diogenescynic
If you're here working on a B1/B2 visa, you're already breaking the law.
------
tosseraccount
Critics have charged that H visa guest worker programs are subsidies to the
already rich holders of enough capital to influence inside the beltway
politics. They say that the program is designed to keep wages down and
facilitates outsourcing. Are the current laws also a subsidy to the legal
industry who get to charge for an overly complicated process?
~~~
proberts
I think that that's a fair criticism of every benefit that the government
offers that requires legal assistance to obtain, whether an immigration
benefit or not.
------
n00b101
What is the usual or best process followed by Canadian citizens who get into
YC and then relocate from Canada to Silicon Valley?
------
shpx
If I were to take a year off school right now, can I still get a J1 for an
internship this summer?
Also just wanted to say thanks for doing this.
~~~
proberts
It's possible, yes, but have this conversation with a J-1 sponsor since the
J-1 sponsors make this determination.
------
sn0v
Hi Peter, thanks for doing this.
How would you recommend an H1B holder go about transitioning to
founding/working for their own startup?
~~~
proberts
There are lots of visa options dependent on a variety of factors such as
country of citizenship, amount and source of funding, ownership structure. But
often there is a solution.
------
ojbyrne
I'm curious about gambling while on a work visa. It seems obvious that
spending your vacation in Vegas is acceptable, but what if I think I'm good
enough to become a professional poker player and decide to pursue that part-
time while working full-time. At what point (if at all) does it become an
immigration issue?
------
erispoe
What is the best way to transition from a J1 visa (visiting researcher) to a
visa allowing to work one's startup?
------
roadbeats
The new startup I joined is filing a new H1B instead of transferring (because
it took so long to transfer due to company's registration progress).
Previously, I was filed H1B two times (2011 and 2014). Is third time possible
? Especially now, since visa regulations are getting strict for security
reasons.
------
gemmakbarlow
What process would you recommend for a startup looking to relocate software
developers immediately from the UK to the US?
The H1B process officially kicks off in April, so am interested to hear about
types of contractual agreements that might allow employment from now for the
next twelve months whilst processing is underway.
------
homakov
What's best way to move to US and not work for anyone and not invest much
money? O-2? I work in infosecurity
------
a-zA-Z0-9
Hi Peter,
I'm a Canadian and I had an H-1B several years ago. I used about 2.5 years of
it and left US in summer 2011 before using up the full 3 years.
Am I eligible to come back on H-1B without lottery by claiming the remainder
time? I read something about this online saying that I can come back on H-1B
before 6 years past the date I left US?
Thanks!
~~~
hpagey
I was in similar situation. I think your new petition will not count against
the quota if you were holding H1 within last 6 years.
~~~
proberts
That's right. You have the option of not being counted against the cap.
------
danieltillett
Peter a basic question about the L1 visa. If you are the owner and manager of
an established foreign business can you apply for an L1 to establish the USA
branch? Does the USA branch need to be established for some length of time?
Does being the owner of the foreign business cause problems?
------
PureSin
Hi Peter,
My wife and I are Canadians working in California on TN visas. I'm at a small
startup that doesn't sponsor H1-B but I might start my own business in the
future. Should I look switching to a larger company in order to get H1-B so I
have the freedom start my company?
Thanks for doing this AMA.
------
kur158
Hi Peter,
I want to know how can a founder and a co-founder who are on F-1 and F-2 Visa
respectively start a company. What are the requirements for the company to
sponsor their own Visas at a later date if and when required? Do investors
have a bias against investing in such companies.
Regards, Kris
[email protected] +1(814)321-7651
------
judge
Can you complete an H-1B transfer (moving from one job to another) while
outside the US (traveling for 2 weeks), so that upon your return you can join
the next employer? Or do you have to physically be in the US while the request
by the new employer is filed and accepted?
------
arunbahl
Are there options for a foreign national to move from an E-2 visa (treaty
investor) to permanent resident status? I've heard that it wasn't possible
previously but now may be, making the E-2 a possible "startup visa" for many.
And thank you for doing this!
------
susiemielekim
I'm currently under OPT visa until next August. How would getting a resident
visa work after incorporating the company in my home country work? (the
company has already been incorporated in United States under the other co-
founder). Thank you!
------
throwaway_nj
Can you share some advice on how to build a prototype / proof of concept while
working as an employee? I have read this is not an issue in places like
California as long as you do not use company resources. But what about states
like New York?
------
ulobabacan
In these days, how long does it take for a H1b holding engineer from a "rest
of the world" country to get green card via EB2(or EB3 if faster) from the day
the current company starts the progress?
Also at what stage he/she can change the job?
~~~
hpagey
H1b visa is completely independent from your GC application. Your employer has
to apply for your green card.
According to latest visa bulletin (Jan 2016) EB2-ROW is current and EB3-Row is
01 OCT15. It takes approx a 12-18 months to get your labor/i-140 to be
approved.
------
_fabio
Hi Peter, thank you so much for doing this!
I'm a student on F-1 visa. Am I allowed to form an LLC and sell products /
offer services, while revenue from said products or services will be kept in
the company bank account, without me pulling a salary?
Thank you!
------
msvan
I'm told that it's easier for musicians/artists to get O-1 visas than for
software engineers. Are software engineers disadvantaged from getting the O-1,
simply because the visa wasn't designed for software talent?
------
cpenarrieta
I am from Peru and I have a software engineer degree, I'm currently taking a
Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco and will look a job here after that. I am
currently with my Tourist visa. What are my real chances to get a H1B visa?
------
henkel
As a competent and above average software engineer from Morocco, not holding a
university degree, what are my options for a work visa in the US, assuming I
get a job in a company willing to put every possible effort into this?
~~~
canadiancreed
I'm not a lawyer, but as someone that is in a similar boat degree wise, my
experience has been that the chances are next to none, and have been told more
then once in the last few years that any sort of related degree will help get
over the hump that is immigration over just having experience.
Source: Fellow non-university professional, looking for work in the US off and
on since 2006, with no luck.
------
crorella
Hi, right now I'm processing my perm, in particular, the PERM application was
sent to the DOL last September. I would like to know if there is any problem
if I change jobs now. Will this cause delays in the process?
Thank you
------
miciah
Hello,
Is it possible to do YC, if the founders are initially registered as
'tourists'?
~~~
proberts
Initial admission as a B-2/WT tourist allows the individual also to engage in
B-1/WB business visitor activities, such as participating in a program like
YC, but the facts here do matter, such as what was represented by the person
when he or she initially was admitted.
------
shpx
Canadian, recent high school grad. What are faster ways to working and
eventually living in the US than doing a degree then getting H1-B?
F-1 and OPT then H1-B? O-1? Making some money in Canada then starting a
company and E-2?
~~~
klipt
Canadians can work on TN (treaty NAFTA) visa if your profession is on the
list.
[http://canada.usembassy.gov/visas/doing-business-in-
america/...](http://canada.usembassy.gov/visas/doing-business-in-america/tn-
visas-professionals-under-nafta.html)
~~~
cperciva
TN requires a degree, though.
That said, I don't think there's any good route for a Canadian high school
grad to immigrate to the US. So my advice to shpx would be to spend the four
years to get a degree, and then go for TN.
~~~
canadiancreed
As someone that went down the experience route instead of degree, I'd strongly
second this advice. Without it, you're effectively locked out of the US
barring a radical loosing of their immigration laws.
------
nathanvanfleet
If I come over from Canada and work somewhere, is it easy to change my job to
another company if things don't work out? Do I have to leave and come back? Is
there a deadline in finding a new job?
~~~
woud420
IANAL but having been in that situation, I think I can answer. I'm assuming
you would be under a TN status. It depends partly on the timeline. Finding a
new job is relatively easy (depending on your experience and the market) and
you can file for an I129 (Change of Status I think) to get a new TN status or
change of employer but the main thing to remember is to file this prior to you
receiving your last pay check. It will also require for you to show your last
two pay stubs with your demand to show that you've actually worked at your
first place of employment but it's relatively simple. However, going back to
the border is much quicker and you get a decision on the spot compared to
filing the I129 which takes 15 days and costs ~1500$ (compared to a new status
application at the border, 50$).
If the new job doesn't work out (layoff/fired/quit/etc..) you are supposed to
leave on your last day of work. There's no "grace period". If you want to stay
you need to apply for a change of status to a B-2 in order to wrap up US
affairs which will give you up to 6 months. Let's say you find a new job
within a month, I doubt you will actually have issues but you do need to leave
the country and come back.
~~~
nathanvanfleet
So is this a scenario where you can hope to actually settle in the US? Because
it sounds incredible unstable and temporary.
------
manuelgodoy
I have 5 years of experience and a BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering
from a top school in the US. How easy is for me to get an EB2 visa if a
company is willing to do the process?
------
nathanvanfleet
How does the process work. If I (a Canadian) get a job in the US, what is the
timeline for me to be onsite working? What kind of help settling (finding a
place to live etc) is there?
~~~
jfim
Assuming you qualify for TN status, it's pretty quick (matter of weeks); you
need to get the appropriate paperwork in then show up at the border and say
you're applying for TN status. The immigration lawyers for the company that's
hiring you will explain this in more detail.
As for relocating, that's up to your employer, but many employers offer help
with relocation (eg. temporary housing, relocation stipend).
------
alinspired
What happens with L1 visas of a company that is acquired by another US
company?
and related: How long until you have to leave US if the L1 issuing entity is
acquired (and disappears as an entity)?
------
tty7
1\. What is the best course for an E3 Visa holder to move to a Greencard? (or
something similar).
2\. If an E3 Holder would like to found a startup, how does one go about self
sponsorship?
~~~
proberts
1\. The underlying nonimmigrant status - whether E-3 or H-1B or O-1 - has no
bearing on green card options so it simply will depend on which green card
option one qualifies for - irrespective of underlying status.
2\. The short answer is that self-sponsorship isn't allowed in the E-3
context.
------
raitom
Hello,
Is it possible to apply directly for a green card through employment while
being on J1-Intern visa? How long do you think it takes to receive it if
approved knowing I'm French?
Thanks
~~~
jrm2k6
I think you need to get an H1B first to be at least eligible to the green
card. J1 is a visa with no intent of immigration.
------
edko
I had an H1B visa granted to me in 1998, but have never used it. Would that
have any influence, either positive or negative, on me getting a new H1B?
------
golergka
How important a degree is for H1B? I think given amount of self-taught
engineers in the profession, you have to answer this kind of question a lot
~~~
sjf
It's a requirement. (IANAL)
~~~
SeoxyS
You can get around it by showing a significant amount of professional
experience. But it's not easy. (You still have to go through "labor
certification")
------
shpx
I will need a J-1 visa this summer, but I applied for the diversity visa this
year. Could my J-1 be rejected for having an intent to immigrate?
------
mohamm
[http://www.facebook.com/mohammad123](http://www.facebook.com/mohammad123)
------
throwaway-apg
Hi,
Can you describe in practical terms how the requirements between an O1 and an
EB1 differ? If I got my O1 recently, can I reuse the reference letters
directly?
Thanks
------
BradRuderman
What is the average cost you recommend for a new the H1-B petition? What about
an h1-b transfer? (Legal fees not including filing)
------
erispoe
How hard is it to create an entity that is H1B cap-exempt and can this entity
be related in any way to a for-profit company?
~~~
proberts
The entity can't be related to a for-profit entity but it's not difficult to
create a cap-exempt company if the appropriate affiliation exists - but that's
the challenge of course.
------
susiemielekim
Currently under OPT visa co-founding a startup. How would a resident visa from
my home country work?
------
patrickddaniel
Can you get a J-1 visa even if you have already had 2 OPTs and studied for
undergrad and grad in US?
------
goodcall
If a H1b holder participates in a Hackathon with cash prizes and wins. Can he
claim the money?
------
chill_bro
Is it possible to own stock in a start-up and work on it without getting paid
while on an F1 visa?
Thanks!
------
gobr
What are the most common difficulties for immigrants? Any Brazilian examples?
------
PameVls
Do you need a visa to attend a 3 month program like YC or Techstars?
~~~
proberts
Citizens of certain countries do not require visas to come to the U.S. as
tourists or business visitors for up to 90 days, and business visitor status
can be an appropriate status to attend a training or non-degreed
education/learning program.
~~~
gozo
We all know you de facto can't do YC without working on/for you company
though. So is this legal or not as a tourists or business visitor?
------
franze
Meta question: Do the US immigration laws make sense?
~~~
proberts
Some do and some don't, but this is a very long conversation and probably not
possible at this time. At a minimum I feel that there should some type of
entrepreneurial visa and there isn't, even though the E-2 can sometimes
function like one.
------
tosinaf
How does the J1 to H1B visa work?
------
gozo
Uhm. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I was slightly disappointed by the
result of this. They might want to change the format in the future to promote
fewer longer answers. "You might try X Y Z visa" doesn't really use his
expertise very much. We also didn't really get an answer to the most obvious
questions like if you can actually attend YC legally or if a temporary worker
in the US can also run a company. Still a good thing of course, but a bit more
structure would go a long way.
~~~
dang
Given the whirlwind of questions that came up, Peter wanted to help as many
HNers as possible within the time available. Brief replies were the only
option.
We've already heard back from Peter that the biggest problem was not being
able to go deeper, and are going to explore options for how to do that. The
takeaways from today are (a) there's clear demand in the community and (b) he
would like to do more. That's an exciting combo, so we'll figure something
out.
p.s. Please don't hijack the top comment in a thread by replying to it with
something unrelated. (We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10720155.](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10720155.))
~~~
gozo
My intention was not to "hijack" the top comment, but to post where it was
relevant i.e. the thread talking about the event rather than among the
questions themselves. I don't think pointing out room for improvement is
irrelevant. I didn't expect my questions to be answered, especially since he
had already left the thread, but used them as an example how the outcome
wasn't optimal.
Edit: I, as you, removed a bunch of my comment. Not sure why I should bother.
------
treasuresque
DO NOT WORK WITH HIM. Can't believe he made it to HN!! He somehow became a
thing but I can't stress out enough how much money he had cost me while
providing either no service -even declined to work on my first case- or really
shitty service, where i ended up writing all docs myself. He does not think
out of the box at all or provides any value bigger than digging into Google.
He didn't have any plan B or even replied to my emails asking what we should
try next after we had lost. The only thing he ever did for me was sending the
invoice. Everything else was taken care of by his assistant, sending
information and documents i had drafted to the government, trying things that
i had researched myself. Please feel free to reach out to me for a curated
list of good immigration lawyers. I would have taken my return flight back to
Germany more than a year ago if i listened to his advice, which has been "i
don't see any options here" when there WAS an option for another year.
~~~
kumarski
Everyone should read this comment above^^
EVERYONE.
~~~
sgrove
The parent comment, or the one stating that this is the parent's first post
and asking for more details on the OP's credibility?
~~~
kumarski
I know her, messaged her, and asked her to respond.
~~~
dang
Between your comments and others in this subthread, this is beginning to look
uncomfortably like an organized campaign. That is not a legit use of the
thread.
Obviously there's no direct way for anyone who doesn't know the facts of an
anonymous story to respond to it. It would be difficult even for Peter to
respond specifically; confidentiality issues don't just disappear when someone
posts a comment. But it doesn't feel right to leave this unanswered, either,
so let me add my own simple anecdote: working with Peter, who helped me get a
visa, was hands-down the best experience I've ever had with a lawyer. And you
can see the similar things that other HN users had to say when we announced
the AMA:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10699898](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10699898).
There's a reason why YC uses Peter to help every international startup they
fund. If he didn't deliver the goods, that wouldn't happen.
I don't mean that to denigrate your friend's experience—it's impossible to
evaluate.
------
rorykoehler
In your personal opinion how far away are we from your job becoming obsolete?
------
RjCharm
We're shortly going to be opening an office in a European country and
employing several local employees. Once the organization is established, what
would the process be for inter-organizational transfers of employees between
countries? For example, if someone were to relocate from primarily working in
Europe to primarily working in the USA?
~~~
proberts
There often are lots of options depending on the nationality of the company
and transferring employees, the amount and source of any investment, etc. but
the options typically are the E-1, E-2, and L-1 visas.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: HastyScribe – a CLI tool to generate self-contained HTML documents - h3rald
https://h3rald.com/articles/hastyscribe/
======
h3rald
Couldn't decide on whether to post the article describing the development of
the tool or the actual project page... In the end I went for the article, but
if you don't want to read it and want to go straight to the project page, here
it is:
[https://h3rald.com/hastyscribe/](https://h3rald.com/hastyscribe/)
------
fiatjaf
Good project. For the sake of putting all your data into the web this is
awesome.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
HP printers can be remotely controlled and set on fire, researchers claim - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/hp-printers-can-be-remotely-controlled-and-set-on-fire-researchers-claim.ars
======
famousactress
In a former life I worked at HP testing printer firmware. It was definitely
not unheard of for early builds to have issues where instruction loops would
cause fire hazards, or more commonly... pools of ink to be waiting at my desk
for me when I came in the next morning. Makes perfect sense to me that with
the addition of network availability, vulnerabilities like this would be very
real.. and I'm sure not limited to HP's hardware.
------
dredmorbius
UNIX anticipated this long ago: <http://www.linuxhaxor.net/?p=787>
~~~
shabble
Presumably they thought nobody would ever be foolish enough to actually
_implement_ the HCF[1] instruction.
[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire>
------
lukeschlather
>that most home users have InkJet printers that do not allow remote upgrades;
and that printers behind a firewall are not vulnerable to the flaw.
HP's line on this is pretty dreadful. On the one hand they suggest people
switch to a more expensive product that doesn't have any updates (and this is
supposed to be a feature.) On the other hand, they falsely claim that a
firewall will stop any attacks.
It will be interesting to see if malware authors start finding ways to hack
firmware (aside from the obvious ways this could be used in a targeted
attack.) DD-WRT/OpenWRT capable routers are of course a better target in
general, since coming up with standard payloads that can attack a variety of
routers has some pretty good proof of concept code. There's also an obvious
set of things you can do with a compromised router (create unsecured wireless,
sniff traffic, log passwords.) I'm not entirely sure what one might do with a
compromised printer that wouldn't be obvious.
------
mrsebastian
FWIW, HP has issued an official response now:
<http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111129b.html>
------
kstenerud
Does this mean that HP will be having another fire sale?
Yeah, this is bad form on HN but I couldn't resist ;-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for? - JerryMouse
I've recently been diagnosed with an illness that has left me little to no concentration and a very low level of comprehension,as such I will most likely have to leave my job as a software engineer as it's becoming overwhelming. So my question is, if you have had to leave your IT job, what was/is your new job.
======
walterstucco
When I stopped in 2009, I went tourign Europe with bands for four years, doing
mainly roadie/driver/merch guy stuff.
It's been a relieving experience, I went back to thinking only about today,
what we had to do for today's show and nothing more, eventually planning
tomorrow's trip, but without much stress.
No planning, no meetings, no standups, no due dates, just load/unload the van,
mount the stage, check check check one-two-one-two, waiting for people to show
up at the merch stand, with a glass always filled with something.
I was in charge of checking that the venues were respecting our rider, so my
job ended up being counting beers and having fun with friends while having
party every night.
It has also been cheaper than living in my city, everything was already paid:
meals, sleeping accommodations, booze, even drugs most of the times.
Then the band I was working the most stopped for a couple of years to write
the new album and I went back into programming, learnt Elixir/Erlang, and now
I am consulting for different kind of companies (including banks, video games
and insurance companies) to eradicate Java from this planet :)
p.s.: during this awesome times I also had the pleasure to work at an EOTM
concert with Nick, their merch guy who was brutally killed in Paris at the
Bataclan.
He truly was a great guy, may he rest in peace.
p.p.s.: I think I should add that I left because I had been working home for
too long, I was stressed, almost burnt out, plus I was having big problems
getting paid on time (if paid at all).
It's been one of the economically lowest moments of my life, I barely had
enough money to buy cigarettes, but absolutely one of my greatest and funniest
achievements.
It gave me the boost to rethink my life in terms of working better and do
less, not more.
I was absolutely no kid anymore (I was 30 already) and still doing it from
time to time, when i need to take the steam out.
------
philbarr
> little to no concentration and a very low level of comprehension
This might sound like a flippant response but it's not: could you move into
management? You don't need to know the finer details, but you'd have the
experience required to empathise with the developers in your team.
~~~
yeukhon
I think this may backfire even more. Sure there are stories about how one can
get by as a manager without knowing much or doing much, but that's rare. As a
manager you have to answer to your boss and make sure team delivery is met.
You will need to do budget and stay current with what's happening at work, so
that you don't become clueless in meetings. This can be stressful at work
since politics is inevitable.
~~~
UK-AL
Yes, but all these things are "bigger picture" stuff.
It's not trying to comprehend 1000 little things at the same time using deep
concentration, as a software developer does.
~~~
yeukhon
Not really. If you aren't able to concentrate for a long time, how can you
join a meeting and catch the important stuff? If your mind is wandering and
you appear to ask questions which have been answered you are going to sound
like you didn't pay attention. I have seen people struggle to keep up because
they have so many meetings so many emails and so many questions to take care.
Sure you donmt code anymore, but you have a lot of little things to take care
of. I work in infrastructure/operation so maybe that's different from a
manager working on iOS product. Point is you will get frustrated and that's
bad. It lowers your confidence, maybe.
------
stankot
Sorry to hear that.
Personally, if I ever get to leave IT before retirement, I plan to equip a
workshop and start making electric guitars. It connects various craftsmanship
skills with some engineering and art. And the best part is, end product is a
instrument.
Unfortunately, this is not the best career choice where I live in (Eastern
Europe). Although if you are good, you could make a living out of it. At least
I would have better website then the competition :) Backup plan is to build
modern/minimalistic furniture where there is no guitar orders.
Another direction would be to create a hub for amateur craftsmen. Well
equipped workshop where you can rent a space to make things on your own, or
take a course.
As you can see, I would pursue something related to making things as that's
something I really love, and I'm doing as a hobby (IT takes a lot of time
though). So, my advice would be to find something you love and see if you can
make a living out of it.
Good luck!
~~~
mpfundstein
with your it skills you can easily go global. make a great website with a
customization widget or twitch the making of a guitar. lots of possibilities
to distinguish yourself
~~~
stankot
It is true, and I will try it for sure at some point. Thing is that I
tremendously enjoy software development as well, so this idea is on hold for
now. Going global asks for solving more problems like logistics, but it is
certainly worth the effort.
------
rectang
Here is an inspiring story of a Hacker News contributor who was once in a
similar position (though he has since recovered):
[http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/we-made-it-
our...](http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/we-made-it-ourselves-
scream-sorbet/?_r=0)
“What product could I, in my mentally addled state,
come up with making?” he wondered. That’s when he
remembered his longtime love of ice cream.
~~~
shk88
Inspiring, but it looks like the business failed sometime around 2013 for
violating health code / zoning laws. Disappointing, as someone who likes the
idea of leaving tech to run an ice cream shop.
------
spazziam
I was a power engineer for utilities. I now work on ERP systems for fortune
500 companies. SQL from one bad implementation to another.
------
tylerlarson
Become an artist. Don't make art based on your expression of your feelings or
whatever. Take it on like you would a startup. Create things you think will
sell and based on what works iterate quickly. Make lots of work, sell it at
cost and increase your price as you refine your process.
You can involve computers in the process of creating work. Things like
conceptual art doesn't even have to involve any artistic skill necessarily,
but there are many other areas that do if you want to try it out. Paintings
from unknown artist can sell for $5K and if you have the energy and space to
make sculptures, they can sell for much more.
Always keep in mind who the buyers are, it isn't always directly to customers
(galleries, governments, large corporations). Only make work that sells. In
the process your pitch will need to be refined. It can't be simply that you
want to make money, it has to speak the the audience.
There are many different customers out there looking for different things.
Keep in mind there are very few people who devote themselves to this and few
of these people have any sense of business, branding, marketing, or even
creativity as deep as what is available in technology today. Sure many people
can draw or whatever but this isn't want makes a successful artist.
Success comes from all of the same stuff that every other industry focuses on.
R.Mutt QED
~~~
tedmiston
> Success comes from all of the same stuff that every other industry focuses
> on.
Sure, but a major difference is that art is highly subjective and typically
bought with arbitrary disposable income as opposed to a value-based purchasing
decision. The kind of art that large corporations buy isn't what any artist
actually wants to make.
~~~
_dingus
>The kind of art that large corporations buy isn't what any artist actually
wants to make.
I think that's exactly what they are suggesting. Make art that will sell, not
art that artists want to make. Methodically approach art to appeal to a
specific niche (be it corporate clients, government orgs all the way down to
stay at home moms and anime fans). You could argue that at that point it isn't
really "art", but that's kind of the idea. Take art out of it and sell a
product to appeal to a certain market.
------
snarfy
Honestly, depending on your age you should think about applying for permanent
disability (ssdi).
~~~
emodendroket
That sounds a little more realistic than a jump to management or skilled
trades for someone with the difficulties the OP describes.
~~~
rectang
It's a good idea no matter what other activities the OP decides to pursue.
Having base income could open up many options.
There are lots of meaningful and rewarding ways to participate in society,
including volunteering for charitable organizations, that do not require the
highest levels of skill and competitiveness.
------
erikb
Well, there is another group of jobs that is not yet outsourced to machines
and doesn't use concentration and comprehension as much: detailed, complex
manual work that requires years of training. For instance high quality wood
work, soldering, fine grained painting.
~~~
Arizhel
Soldering? Soldering for electronics is almost all automated now, and with
most electronics being surface-mount it's mostly done by stenciled solder
paste and reflow. The exception is for the few remaining items that can't be
done that way, such as when wires need to be soldered to PCBs (though here for
high-volume stuff they usually use connectors because the wires can be
assembled with connectors elsewhere, and then the wire harnesses simply
plugged in during final assembly).
Are you talking about some other kind of soldering, such as for stained glass
or plumbing? Stained glass with real lead and real glass is pretty rare these
days, much more rare than high-quality woodwork, and mainly for hobbyists.
Plumbing soldering is done with a blowtorch and isn't all that difficult, but
worse, copper in plumbing is being replaced by plastic which doesn't use
soldering, but rather press-fit connectors. So don't count on that as a long-
lived profession either (the soldering part I mean; plumbing itself will be
around as long as humans have biological bodies and need to use water for
cooking, hand-washing, toilets, and bathing, it'll just be easier as new
technologies replace legacy ones).
~~~
erikb
That is mass production you are talking about. But there are a lot of people
who build their own special purpose devices, and all the alpha/beta testing
happens with manually soldered hardware, since prepping a machine for just 10
boards is way too expensive. For that reason even in production many of these
devices are at least partly manually assembled to save money. We are talking
1000+ devices to make machine production profitable. Many devices don't have
that many customers, at least until the next set of hardware is there.
~~~
Arizhel
>But there are a lot of people who build their own special purpose devices,
Those are called "hobbyists".
>and all the alpha/beta testing happens with manually soldered hardware, since
prepping a machine for just 10 boards is way too expensive
This is absolutely wrong. You can't manually place BGAs with any accuracy. I
work in an R&D environment; our electronics are custom-built in-house at very
low volumes, and they do use machines even for a one-off. Some parts can be
fixed manually if they didn't get reflowed right, but BGAs cannot.
Even if you're doing boards with nothing smaller than SOICs, even there it's
simpler and easier to just get a Kapton stencil and use solder paste, though
you can of course pick-and-place with tweezers.
~~~
erikb
I know a few single digit million dollar companies who do that. I wouldn't
call it a hobby if you have 50 employees.
------
yardie
I "left" IT to travel for a year. When I resettled in another country I took
different jobs (waiter, bartender, air traffic controller trainee). Software
development was always my passion so I got involved with a lot of social
causes by building and hosting websites and forums for them. Which eventually
led me back to working in IT.
I'm not sure what your symptoms are but if this is a degenerative brain
disease you may wish to use that time to visit family, friends, and experience
new things.
------
technologia
I hate to say it, but sometimes corporate IT support in mid-size companies
might be the way to go if you are dead set on staying in your lane. Depending
on the company, it could be as simple as going through a binder for answers,
logging in requests into a ticketing system, rinse & repeat.
I am sorry to hear that you are suffering such an illness, it definitely sucks
to lose physical abilities and it takes great personal strength to get through
it. I wish you all the best to still keep your intended career path, but if
not I wish you all the same in finding an ideal worksite for yourself.
~~~
shubb
There are other roles like that in large organisations. Release management,
standards compliance in regulated industries, maybe scrum master jobs.
~~~
technologia
Sure, I just went with the first thing that came to mind
------
hl5
Depending on your location and political views, a marijuana trimming job could
work out.
------
hanxue
Quit my job as a system architect / software engineer and pursuing martial
arts and spiritual cultivation full time in China.
I don't plan to give up IT for good. Having been in the industry for 10 years,
I know I must follow my heart to be happy and be a well-adjusted person.
------
yeukhon
I would take a break and perhaps work in animal cares or something that would
give you a break from human politics. Call it therpay if you want. For me I
might eventually get a master and teach in university but in your condition
this is probably a bad idea. The best thing right now is use up your vacation
days and sick days and quit if you can support for a while before look for a
new job.
Banking teller job is also a good option that makes decent money without
having to work extremely hard all day long. Museum Tour guide is also a good
one but I imagine the pay will be quite low.
------
balabaster
My side project is an organic farm school.
I raise pigs, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and grow organic produce.
It doesn't require much concentration. You might think this is a huge reach
from I.T. but it still requires a lot of problem solving skills and
discipline. It doesn't require the same kind of concentration, but you find
out very quickly that the concentration it does take is engaging. It holds
your attention because like the ocean, if you turn your back on it, it'll get
you.
A lot of people's response to this has been "wow, that's my dream, but I could
never do that because X, Y or Z"
3 years ago, I lived in the city, no land, no first hand experience rearing
animals, could barely keep a tomato plant alive long enough to get tomatoes
off it. I grew up in the country, I had some friends whose parents were
farmers, my Dad had horses and we had 2 cats - that was the extent of my
experience.
Anyone saying "Oh that's my dream but I could never do that because I have no
land, I have no experience, I don't know where I would start." Neither did I.
I found a place I could rent that had enough land to make a start that was
within my means. Enough to learn how to grow fruit and vegetables and raise
chickens, then by the time I ran out of room, I had a pretty good idea that I
could do this and rented a place with more land. The side bonus is that the
kids now have 100 acres to run around on and be kids without having to
micromanage them like I did in the city, they can find themselves and grow
like we used to as kids, learning their own limits and building confidence
with no parents helicoptering over them making sure they don't hurt themselves
- and they love it.
I also don't have to put up with the marketing bullshit that we're bombarded
with about how awesome our manufactured food is, which it may be, but probably
not. I know where my food comes from, from my land to my plate. I know what
they've been fed, I'm happy with how they've been treated. I can see they're
happy before they go to the freezer. I know my produce isn't treated with
harmful pesticides and herbicides.
It's not for the feint of heart though, I knew it was going to be a lot of
work going in, but I had no comprehension of the fact that it's not like a job
you can put down when you're not feeling up to it. There's no "I just don't
have the motivation to get out of bed today" or calling in on your depression
because you just can't face the world. It's there, day in, day out, come rain,
come shine, come mosquitoes, come drought, come blizzard, come flood. It's
there and needs tending to. There's no days off or vacation without arranging
someone to cover for you.
Animals have their own behaviour and their own way of doing things. They have
their own motives and desires. They will show you very quickly that you cannot
control the world around you and that all you can do is learn to harness and
exploit their behaviour against them to keep things working. If you're not
already, you will quickly learn to be adaptable, you will quickly learn to
improvise with the things you have to hand right now, you will quickly learn
to do whatever it takes or you don't have food on the table.
There are many days when I wonder what the fuck I've done and want to go
running back to the safety and convenience of the city where I can be lazy
without any repercussions. But when the sun comes out, the animals are
behaving and happy and you've got a full harvest in front of you, you smile to
yourself and you know why you did it. That's a level of satisfaction you just
don't get anywhere else.
When I finally decide that programming is too much for me - which seems like a
long way off yet, this side project will become my main gig. I have other
ideas that will become side projects to complement this, but for the moment
this is taking a fair portion of my free time and energy.
~~~
PaulRobinson
I have considered farming in the past, quite seriously. I think bringing an
engineering/scientist mindset to it might be a distraction, but it might also
actually help me stay interested in what looks like otherwise very tough work.
Farmers have moderately high suicide rates: isolation, hard work, long hours,
and the inability to just stop, as you state.
I read your account - and have read many others like it - and immediately
start to think of farming more like Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea":
hard work, rewarding, but there's little choice in getting on with the work.
Maybe one day. Maybe.
~~~
balabaster
Bringing an engineering/scientist mindset isn't a distraction - it's often a
godsend. Another tool in your belt. It gives you an ability to research, to
understand, to figure things out. It puts you streets ahead of a lot of
farmers.
You don't need to be isolated nor put in long hours. But it's more work than I
should perhaps have described as "a side project." If I made it my full time
job and quit programming for a living, I'd probably be able to say it was only
a part time job relatively quickly.
The hard work and inability to just stop are inescapable. You need to be aware
of that going in. As the quote about surfing big waves from Point Break goes
"You can't just call time-out and stroll on into the beach if you don't like
the way things are going" much as I sometimes wish I could.
The peace of mind and living in harmony with your surroundings is good for
your soul though. It definitely makes you more aware of living in the moment
and having backup plans.
------
thefhjhdfc
I did not. There is not much work outside IT. Also alimony...
Solution for me was to change a lifestyle and sell myself much better. I work
remotely a few hours a week.
~~~
sirsuki
>change a lifestyle and sell myself much better.
What is this magic?! Please enlighten. I, like many IT folks, loathe sales. As
such I can not sell myself out of a paper bag. Do you have any resources to
help in this matter?
~~~
sageabilly
Check out The Interview Guys- that site was invaluable for me earlier this
year when I pulled myself together and left my horrid horrid horrid OldJob. I
had a lot of good resources for putting together a great resume but up until I
found that site I hadn't found anywhere that laid out exactly what to do in an
interview.
------
angelofthe0dd
Technical writing/Technical Communication. Throughout my IT career, I've
always been "the guy who documents everything". It's actually my favorite part
of my job because I feel like I'm adding a layer of structure and peer
reference to what is otherwise chaos and tribal knowledge.
~~~
srednalfden
Does it pay well? Availability of jobs? :)
------
Jemmeh
My dad left and does Heating and Air work now-- but that still requires being
analytical with the electrical work. He owns his own business.
Others in my family do concrete, which is physically hard but they also seem
to make good money. Again they own it themselves.
Hard to get jobs that compare to IT money though without being management,
sinking time into school, or starting your own business.You'll probably have
to try a few things out to figure out what you can actually do. I know that
might be frustrating, but hang in there. You'll find something that works at
some point.
If you have the ability to do so, maybe you could make some apps at home? You
could pace yourself. You might have to change the way you work, using a lot of
written organization, but it depends on how your mind works.
------
dangle
I left my job to help people quit their jobs. Seriously. Even though I was
writing code and managing teams for big clients (Google, Starbucks, P&G) I
found people's individual careers more exciting.
Really sorry to hear about your illness and struggles. That sounds pretty
tough. Would you say that IT feels like "your calling?"
I've had friends and clients leave tech for more fulfilling, but lower wage
work in cooking, farming, design, music, art, after-school work, and non-
profit work.
There are a lot of good ideas on this thread, but it would be easier to speak
to your situation if I had some more details.
Email me if you're up for sharing more, I'd be happy to help if I can:
[email protected]
------
detnext
Not so many good responses to an evergreen question. I left my best IT job
ever to be FT caregiver for my folks, years longer than I'd intended. If you a
diag of early stage dementia,cardiac, diabetic etc, fix those 1st. Nothing
works if your brain doesn't. Your choice is IT, in or out. You offer the same
skills in lesser potions in law, real estate, or where contracts are written.
If you are truly going out, know that's what will happen. No insurance, no
bennies. If you have a progressive chronic disease, take what stock you can
today. Pre-existing conditions are back. If you have migration route, take it.
------
BorisMelnik
I left my original job (not in IT)so that I could pursue my passion in this
field. I've seen many people leave IT for more pure careers such as teaching,
food service or farming.
the answer lies inside of you, not in HN. what are your passions and interests
other than IT? if its say "farming" you may not be able to go start a farm,
but maybe you can go work for Home Depot in the garden center for 6 months,
and start "farming on the side" (ppl do this) from there.
------
grindal
If I can, to the ranch with the family, breeding plants and apiculture.
If I can't... depend in function of my physical condition. Repairing cars,
welding, industrial agriculture, photography lab or making photos... Or simply
one mill and make pieces.
If you can choose, be yourself, live, one Shabbatical year can be a good
election.
I'm sorry Jerry I hope it is nothing. My best wishes.
------
wyclif
I left a sysadmin role to become a land surveyor and GPS/GIS technician. Loved
the job but then in 2008 the commercial real estate market tanked, and took
surveying down with it. So I went back into "IT", but instead of going back to
sysadmin I started working in web dev.
------
germs12
What illness does this?
~~~
awjr
Tragically things like Dementia and Alzheimers can do this. Also numerous
mental conditions e.g. depression, stress, etc.
I knew one guy that got a degree in Comp Sci and in his first job began
getting severe debilitating headaches. He was diagnosed with a visual problem
and was told to stop using screens in his day to day job. He quit a promising
career as a software engineer and went and joined his dad's gardening
business.
------
SAI_Peregrinus
Left IT to go back to school and get my degree in Computer Engineering. Not a
good choice for someone with little to no concentration / comprehension. Take
all the stuff you do in (embedded/systems) software, then add in hardware
design.
------
MrLeftHand
Do you really need to leave IT just because of these symptoms? There are so
many areas to work in.
Anyway, what illness are you talking about here? Boredom? Got stuck in a place
where the project sucked the life and general interest out of you? OCD?
Depression? Anxiety?
UPDATE: Got good answers about what can cause these symptoms.
If you want to leave IT then try to find jobs that are still challenging your
creativity, but don't need huge amount of concentration in the same time. Like
becoming a carpenter, professional gardener, etc...
These still make you use your creative side, but rely on more physical work
then intellectual.
~~~
nf05papsjfVbc
Being a carpenter might involve handling tools that are potentially dangerous
if handled without one's full attention. So, may I suggest that one avoid such
endeavours unless one is able to fully focus on the job at hand.
~~~
denim_chicken
Being a carpenter also sucks
~~~
MrLeftHand
Ever tried it? You sound someone who has a great deal of experience in the
field.
My father was one and I loved the smell of wood in the workshop.
I would have loved to be a carpenter. It's one of those professions that might
never go away. Even having mass production stuff, there are still people who
prefer the human touch and the originality in the arts and crafts.
~~~
ams6110
There are different kinds of carpenters.
There are construction carpenters (framers) that work outside in the sun,
rain, cold hammering dimensional lumber together to construct the skeleton of
a building. It's physically demanding and chance of injury is significant.
There are finish carpenters who do the detail trim work like window and door
frames, baseboard, wainscotting, etc. You work indoors but still on-site.
There are cabinet makers and furniture builders. You probably work in a fixed
location/shop.
Probably a bunch of others that I haven't thought of.
------
kowdermeister
I would open a bar on beach or become a surf instructor. Or write novels or
something. Becoming an artist is also a good idea.
~~~
emodendroket
How is someone with "little to no concentration and a very low level of
comprehension" supposed to write a novel?
~~~
kowdermeister
> So my question is, if you have had to leave your IT job, what was/is your
> new job.
I think I answered. That's what I would do, maybe it sparked a new idea in
him, maybe it didn't. Maybe he can do something that can be documented and be
turned into a novel by someone else. He's in a stage when he can still perform
and plan ahead.
------
sheepdestroyer
Some years ago, I left my job and country to be a private tour guide in Kyoto.
Did it three years, great times.
------
grecy
Travel Writer / Photographer.
Currently driving around Africa for 2 years.
Leaving my desk was the best decision I have ever made.
~~~
drdoooom
how do support yourself? money from previous job or do you have some passive
income?
~~~
grecy
Bit of both, but primarily savings from previous jobs.
details on how I did that here: [http://theroadchoseme.com/work-less-to-live-
your-dreams](http://theroadchoseme.com/work-less-to-live-your-dreams)
------
Keyframe
I left for storytelling and film/tv. If anything, it's more taxing, so there's
that.
~~~
fsiefken
What factors make storytelling and film more taxing, deliver scripts on time,
shoot the scene, video processing? I'd think that fixing bugs on a tight
schedule and delivering features would be more taxing? It depends on setting
as well I presume.
~~~
Keyframe
Writing scripts itself is the most relaxing part of the job, it takes some
concentration though.
Film and TV production is on a whole other level. Breaking down scripts for
production schedule and framing everything within a budget and then talking to
a lot of people where their job is to take your money and yours is to keep it.
Then keeping track that everything is in order for production to take place
and solving lots of last-minute crises, everything involving a lot of people.
If it's a live TV type of situation or there's an oversight from larger
production, stress gets amped up a lot. It's a busy hive, somewhat like an
organised chaos where most of the work is handling people and being handled by
people. That's production. Pre-production alone is, more or less, stress free
process. That might be a direction to explore if you're art or organization
oriented.
------
wyuenho
Not to derail this thread, but say you are not sick. What do people leave IT
for?
------
fyskij
Writing and directing movies
------
chukye
farmer
------
bbcbasic
If I had such an illness then what I would do would depend on my financial
situation.
E.g. can partner support you for a bit? Do you have children? Do you have
total and permanent disability insurance or temporary sickness insurance.
Assets? Own an expensive home and can downsize or move to cheaper city to
access equity etc. Etc.
Based on this and a target income and number of work hours I'd look for jobs
that don't require much mental agility.
It depends what is meant by no concentration but most jobs require some.
However something with more carpe diem like waitor, cleaner, gardening etc
where you d your days work and that's it. A small fuck up usually doesn't mess
your backlog etc. In these jobs.
If financially able consider doing no work but plan daily activities to keep
from stagnating. E.g. long walk and salsa class every day or whatever. Or
learn Haskell for an hour a day but turn off if concentration becomes an
issue.
------
1S9C8G4
musician
------
myrobostation
Why are you looking for a new position now? This is for employed candidates
considering a job change.
------
martamoreno
Unless you are close to retirement, the new job you should be seeking is "How
do I heal myself". Unless of course you want to go through the rest of your
life with your condition...
If school medicine won't help you, you should start looking for some alternate
approaches, there are enough out there.
~~~
bognition
Wow never thought the top comment on hn would be advocating for non evidence
based medicine.
~~~
TallGuyShort
Why is non-school-medicine inherently non-evidence based? Yeah there's a ton
of garbage out there, but I think it's been abundantly shown that incentives
are screwed up enough that many mainstream healthcare providers will often
ignore potential treatments or even conditions for which there is evidence
(but for which they don't have a pill to sell you) or leading to it not
getting studied enough to be considered evidence-based.
Classic example is fibromyalgia: family member of mine believed they had it
and now has a formal diagnosis, but was told by multiple doctors that it
wasn't a real thing and probably all in her head. Went to a chiropractor who
dabbled in all sorts of stuff who ended up helping her manage it really well
with some diet and lifestyle changes. Now I don't know how well those
recommendations were backed up by evidence, but I was blown away at how a few
months later there was a widely-advertized FDA-approved drug to treat a
condition that according to at least 5 or 6 doctors in our town didn't exist
(and they all suddenly recognized it and had fliers for it in their offices).
It's amazing how suddenly the "evidence" came up the minute it had a
marketable drug.
| {
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Colored Diamonds Are A Superconductor's Best Friend - jcr
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2014/03/06/colored-diamonds-are-a-superconductors-best-friend/
======
jcr
The mentioned paper, "Diamond Magnetometry of Superconducting Thin Films",
published in "Physical Review B" can be found here:
[http://www.bgu.ac.il/atomchip/Papers/WaxmanSCv2.pdf](http://www.bgu.ac.il/atomchip/Papers/WaxmanSCv2.pdf)
[http://arxiv-web3.library.cornell.edu/pdf/1308.2689v2](http://arxiv-
web3.library.cornell.edu/pdf/1308.2689v2)
| {
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Ask HN: I/O Ventures? - JCThoughtscream
Out of curiosity, does anybody know what happened with I/O Ventures? Their program was supposed to kick off at the beginning of this month, but my last correspondence with them indicated that they had postponed it due to a high influx of applications. I haven't heard from them since.
======
bragiel
Hey... this is Paul from the i/o team. We're still getting through all the
applications. :) We shooting for mid april to have people in the door. So
please hang in there.
~~~
lhuang
Hi Paul, I heard about i/o after the deadline. Are you still accepting
applications?
~~~
bragiel
yea we're still squeezing people in. apply away.
------
benologist
I was lucky enough to meet with one of I/Os mentors this last week ... I have
to say there is a really cool bunch of guys on their mentor list.
Although I was a little disappointed I/O didn't get back to me after he
emailed on my behalf. :(
~~~
bragiel
3 out of us 4 partners have been traveling the past 2 weeks. If you tell me
who intro'd you and to which partner I can make sure one of us follows up. If
its me... I'm still plowing through hundreds of emails and just haven't caught
up yet. :)
~~~
benologist
Heh thanks for getting back to me. It's actually really bad timing since I
just got home _from_ San Francisco, but Jameson likes what I'm building at
<http://www.swfstats.com>. He emailed you on the 10th. :)
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Interesting Non-Software "Startup" - Wave Power Generator - davy
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1030/
I'm pretty sure most everyone here is (like me) interested in software startups, but I found this link and thought it would be interesting to those with entrepreneurial bent. What I found so interesting is that the idea is so simple and easy -- why didn't I think of that!?
======
davy
It also figures that the site goes down two seconds after I post this. Dern
you Reddit!! ::shakes fist:: Here's a direct link to the company making the
product: <http://www.swellfuel.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Introduction to Architecting Systems for Scale - fogus
http://lethain.com/introduction-to-architecting-systems-for-scale/
======
3amOpsGuy
Good read. I don't think you were controversial :-)
Spotted a wee typo about 1/2 way down:
>> LRU works by evicting less commonly used data in preference of more
frequently used data
For this question:
>> Does anyone know of recognized tools which solve this problem?
BMC's Control-M product manages this fairly easily, although it is easy to let
the workflow become unweildy with that product in my experience. AutoSys fairs
a little better for this use case.
Open source wise I guess you could use PBS or something of that ilk to
replicate. I think though an ideal architecture for this problem wouldn't be
what's currently available.
I think a hot-hot message queue with deduplication would be a better approach.
You can afford then to have multiple hosts submit an appropriately named job
and the first node on the other side of the queue to successfully lease the
message wins the right to run the task contained within. If it fails to
complete the next node leases the task.
It would require some consideration about ensuring integrity of the message
and authentication requirements for publishers.
------
ChuckMcM
Nicely summarized on the network layer, next you'll want to expand the
'database' box into its components and a storage layer and its components.
There is also an interesting layer of networking services which involve
routability and validation (certificate checking etc) and then there is the
third party API scale so sometimes you're generating traffic back out to
things other than a CDN (like Twitter or Facebook or some Google thing)
Part 4 should be looking at it from the data center side, which is these
things are breaking all the time, building scalable repair systems that give
100% uptime on unreliable hardware.
It goes on and on and on ...
------
kzahel
Thank you for the article. It was well written and an enjoyable read!
| {
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Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations - Pasanpr
http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-q1-earnings-2013-5
======
mikeyouse
A good article to help understand the massive afterhours movement:
[http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/autos-tesla-
idUSL2...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/autos-tesla-
idUSL2N0DO2IH20130508)
High-Level Summary:
There was a ton of short-selling interest on TSLA (due to expectations of a
big earnings miss). Almost 27% of the 115mm shares outstanding are currently
being borrowed by short sellers. TSLA has more short interest by percentage
than 98% of US stocks. Everyone was really expecting the price to go down.
Tesla reported earnings today at $.12/share, and upped their forward guidance.
The consensus earnings estimates were $.04/share, so TSLA greatly surpassed
expectations.
To short a stock, you have to borrow a share from someone else, and then
return that stock to them at a later date. Returning the stock is called
'Covering a short'. All those people who were betting against TSLA are now
forced to pile back into the market to cover, but since so many shares were
short to begin with, the number of people who have stock to sell is much lower
than typical.
This results in a 'short covering rally' where there is a lot of demand to buy
shares and a small supply. Econ. 101 takes over and you see a big spike in the
price.
~~~
ncavig
This might be a stupid question, but as a Tesla stock owner, and (becoming
more apparent ever day) naive investor, how do you find out this information
and/or digest it so well? I'm mainly a google finance guy and had no idea so
much of the stock was being shorted.
~~~
damoncali
Forgive the unsolicited advice, but I think that's the wrong question. First
ask yourself what you'd do with that information. Then think long and hard
about indexing your money.
Read up on portfolio theory and you will see that it's incredibly difficult
(some say impossible) to beat the risk adjusted return of the market (at least
not on purpose). It turns out if you are not in many stocks - 40+ (the exact
number depends on who you ask), then you are taking more risk than you are
being compensated for.
~~~
ncavig
FWIW I do have a strong majority of portfolio dedicated to index funds, and
have automatic investing set up for those funds biweekly. But there do come
times where I see a company, and after some due diligence I do see as a
company I believe in and see prospering in the long. Tesla is one of those
companies so I bought a fair amount 2 months ago.
Regardless of solicited or not, I do agree with your advice and if nothing
else, hopefully readers who fear to ask such questions gain from friendly
advice such as yours
EDIT: grammar
~~~
Shebanator
I do the same thing in my IRA. Right now TSLA is the only individual stock I
own, and it is a bit less than 10% of my account value. I bought it at $29 per
share 9 months ago or so, knowing I might take a bath, but I believed in the
company's long term business model then and I still do. I feel that this kind
of investing minimizes the risk factor.
------
3am
A couple of interesting statistics about stocks that are easily available are
related to how many people are shorting it (ie, someone borrows a share, sells
it, and makes a profit if they can re-buy it at a later date to close the
short position).
In the case of TSLA the stock, as of Apr 15, almost 31 million shares were
lent out to short sellers ("sold short"). That is out of 72 million shares on
the market ("float"). At an average volume of 3 million shares traded per day
(trailing 3 month average) it would take more that 10 trading days of nothing
but short sellers buying shares on the open market to return to the people
they borrowed them from ("cover").
Short trading unhedged is regarded as dangerous for this reason. If you buy a
stock in the traditional way, if it goes to zero you only lose your
investment. If you sell a share short, your losses (amount you have to re-buy
it for minus the price you sold it for) is unbounded. Typically, this isn't
collateralized by cash, but in money that brokers loan to traders ("margin").
If a broker sees that I have a really, really big loss on a short position,
they might make me repay that money ("issue a margin call")... and depending
on the situation, that might force a trader to cover their short position.
Anyway, point is that this can lead to a bunch of short sellers driving up the
price of a heavily short stock all at once because they've either decided to
cut their losses or because of margin calls, called a "short squeeze". This
usually isn't sustainable because it's a temporary supply/demand imbalance.
Could be an tough day for a lot of people investing against Tesla tomorrow,
but I wouldn't bet on the gains in TSLA the stock tomorrow/in after-hours
trading lasting for a long time.
~~~
enraged_camel
The most amazing thing about your post is that 95% of your post went right
over my head. And I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. :P
(There's probably some interesting commentary in there somewhere about the
complexity of financial markets and how it is probably bad for society to have
a vast portion of our economic growth riding on something most people don't
get.)
~~~
count
Here's the gist, in simplified terms. I assume you understand what stock and
stock brokers are...
You can 'short' a stock that you think is going to lose value (e.g. you expect
a major earnings miss to be reported).
Shorting a stock means you borrow a share from (generally) your broker at
todays price. You then sell that share to someone else for market price. At a
determined date, you have to buy another share at market rate and give it back
to your broker (this is called 'covering' your short).
If you bet right, you borrowed a share, and sold it for $N. Then, at a future
date, when the price fell, you bought for $N-X, and gave the share back to
your broker. You just made $X, the price difference from the value of the
stock falling.
If you bet incorrectly, you borrowed a share, and sold it for $N. Then, at the
future date, the price is actually higher, and you have to buy a share at
$N+X, AND give the share back to your broker. You just lost $X, the price
difference from the value of the stock rising.
If you bet REALLY wrong, the $+X factor can get really high - your broker may
'call' and force you to give them cash, pending your future purchase of the
share to return (your 'cover').
Now, to MOST people, shares are effectively unlimited - with tens of millions
or more shares on the market for most traded firms, liquidity isn't an issue.
If you want a share or a few shares in a company, it's pretty easy to get
them. What may or may not be happening here, is that a TON of folks are
currently 'short' on Tesla's stock, meaning millions of folks are going to
HAVE to buy shares of the stock to 'return to their broker' and cover their
short. The problem is that Tesla DIDNT go down.
Normally, lots of folks are short on lots of stocks, and the market just
moves. Occasionally, you get a confluence of events which leads to there being
a high demand for a stock that a large number of shares are shorted on, which
has a self-feeding pain cycle: the stock price is based mostly on demand and
liquidity - as more and more folks HAVE to buy the shares to cover their
shorts, the demand for the stock is going to go up, and thus the price is
going to go up as well. This increase in price increases the pain, and
triggers many brokers to 'call' those margins, requiring MORE people to buy
the stock to cover, driving the demand up even higher. The end result is a big
spike in the price of the stock, and a TON of people losing money on their bad
bets.
~~~
enraged_camel
Thanks, I think I get it now. :)
------
cloudwalking
This is the first of many profitable quarters for Tesla. The Model S is a
better car _in every single regard_ (except for range), than any other car on
the market. It is safer, faster, roomier, more fun to drive, has more storage,
quieter, more convenient, and less polluting.
Electric vehicles will displace combustion vehicles. Everything that makes a
car, the electric car does better.
Right now the electric vehicle market is small, but soon (one decade?) it will
eclipse the combustion market. Tesla is ahead of ALL other vehicle
manufacturers, and that lead will translate into significant market share. As
the electric vehicle market grows, so will Tesla's value.
~~~
lambda
> in every single regard (except for range)
And price, and convenience.
> more convenient
No it's not. The lower range, low number of charging stations, and long
charging times make it quite inconvenient for long trips.
I bought a used car 3 years ago for less than the cost Tesla charges for
replacing the batteries on its car (which you are estimated to need to do
after about 8 years). This car is a station wagon, so has much more storage
space than a Tesla. I go camping every year, about 550 miles from where I
live. I can make that trip in about 10 hours including food and gas stops. For
the same trip, I would need to make at least two hour long charging stops at
Supercharger stations along the way (if I had the highest-end battery option).
But there are no Supercharger stations along my route; so I would need to find
places to charge with ordinary power sources. If I used ordinary 10 kW 240 V
sources, it would charge at a rate of about 30 miles of range per hour,
effectively tripling the length of the trip; now what was a long 10 hour drive
has turned into a 30 hour trip, which means finding places to stop and sleep
overnight (which hopefully can give you a charge).
Furthermore, I live in an apartment, without a dedicated parking space. I need
to park on street. So there's nowhere I could charge my car at home; I can't
exactly run a power cord down and across the sidewalk to my car. Neither is
there anywhere to charge my car at work. There's no way I could even use a
Tesla for commuting right now, let alone longer trips.
With a gasoline powered car, I just fill up at any gas station, my car holds
the gasoline overnight so it doesn't matter where I park, and for the above
describe trip, I need to stop for gas once before leaving and once on the
trip, each a 5 minute stop.
The Tesla Model S is an amazing car. But claiming that it's more convenient,
or is a better car in every way but range, is a vast overstatement. It would
be absolutely awful for me, and many other people with similar needs.
Some of these problems are solvable; there will be more Superchargers
installed, the price will probably come down, there will probably be more
electric vehicle infrastructure. But it's still a gamble to say that they will
completely eliminate all of these advantages that a gas powered car has over
an electric car, at least unless the price of gas spikes dramatically.
~~~
jonknee
> The Tesla Model S is an amazing car. But claiming that it's more convenient,
> or is a better car in every way but range, is a vast overstatement. It would
> be absolutely awful for me, and many other people with similar needs.
Obviously convenience is different for different people. The OP is probably
someone who finds car maintenance very inconvenient and as the owner of a used
station wagon I am guessing you are not. If you don't take frequent road trips
and have the ability to charge at home, the Model S is indeed very convenient
--never have to worry about fuel and hardly ever have to worry about
maintenance.
~~~
lambda
I too find maintenance inconvenient; but my used station wagon doesn't require
much of that either. In the past three years, I've only ever had to have it
inspected, tires replaced, and oil changes. Now, the Tesla doesn't have oil
changes, so that one aspect is removed, but it does have annual maintenance.
So, I'm looking at maybe two oil changes per year, vs. one annual servicing; a
small improvement in maintenance hassle, but not amazing.
But anyhow, I'm not claiming that there are no convenience advantages of a
Tesla; just that there are also a lot of things that are quite inconvenient,
especially if you don't have a driveway or need to take long trips. Claiming
that the Tesla is better in every regard but range is vast hyperbole. For some
use cases, it may be more convenient; for mine, far less.
Beyond that, the price is a major disadvantage; at 4 times the price of a new
economy car for the entry level model, and twice the price of lower-end luxury
brands, it's well outside many people's price range; and you don't even save
that much because you're not buying gasoline, as the combined cost of
electricity plus replacement batteries winds up being pretty close to the cost
of gas you would pay for the same number of miles (depending on exactly how
long the batteries last, and assuming that the relative costs of gasoline vs.
electricity don't diverge too much; of course you could say that gas prices
are likely to go up faster than electricity, but they may go down too).
~~~
ericd
The Model S may not be the best at everything, but it appears to be the best
overall car you can buy right now. It just scored an almost unheard of 99/100
from Consumer Reports (I believe the Civic got in the high 70s to mid 80s this
year)
------
rdl
If you've been in Silicon Valley for the past 6 months, this was obviously
going to happen -- virtually everyone I know who could afford virtually any
production supercar, and cares about cars, has or wants a Tesla. Not an R8,
not a GTR, not a California, not a Panamera, not an M3, but a Tesla. As they
ramp up their production (I think it's down to a few months wait),
The only rich people (who own cars) not getting Teslas seem to be either
totally non-car people (or just cheap on capital costs vs. cost-efficient on
total costs), or those who live in the City without a garage parking spot.
Solving the Tesla street parking charging issue would be the next big win --
you could probably get away with 480v supercharging at work for 2-6h/day and
street parking at home, although weekends might be tough.
~~~
grecy
Does anyone driving any of those super cars you mention park on the street?
~~~
waterlesscloud
It's not a supercar, but a guy in my neighborhood (in Los Angeles) parks his
Bentley on the street.
Me, I'd clean out my garage if I had a Bentley.
~~~
rdl
Back when YC had demo days at YC's office, rather than at a nearby museum with
a parking lot, there were a lot of amazing cars street parked for blocks. And
at least one highly lulzy incident involving an SL65 and an asshole machinist
dragging it with a forklift into the middle of a street.
------
downandout
GAAP profit was $11 million. Zero emission vehicle (ZEV) credits sold to other
automakers amounted to approximately $68 million. In other words, taxpayers
gave $68 million to Tesla this quarter. Without this taxpayer gift, which will
be drastically reduced going forward, they would have posted a loss of $57
million this quarter. Not fantastic.
~~~
jstalin
It seems that their business model is entirely dependent on government
subsidies. So now that wealth is being transferred from general US taxpayers
to the shareholders of Tesla.
~~~
simonh
Considering the $17.4Bn bailout of the conventional US car industry a few
years ago it's small change.
Personally I'd be a little more concerned about the $20Bn per year paid in
farm subsidies, to an industry with median household incomes 17% higher than
the national average, if I were a US citizen. At least the money going into
Tesla is buying the US a lead in the future of automotive technology, instead
of going towards further impoverishing third world farmers.
------
jtlein
I guess it's a California thing. You have to believe in global warming (In the
mid-west we have had 20 degrees below normal now for 3 months and snow of 14
inches in May). My practical side says the Tesla is nice but if fighting CO2
is your aim you could buy a $20K Honda accord and convert it to run on ammonia
( nearest practical gas to hydrogen). Ammonia is already piped all over the
midwest and in contrast to grid power is almost all made from domestic natural
gas. And with a loan of $450 million like Musk got I could build a home
ammonia generator that takes in grid power to generate hydrogen and using
nitrogen from the air. The small ammonia reactor is the only thing that needs
to be developed (the hydrogen generator and nitrogen from air products are
already off the shelf).
~~~
deelowe
I think we'll start seeing very high mpg gasoline cars soon. Supercar makers
are already demoing electronically controlled pneumatic valves and direct
injection and doubly clutch gear boxes are now showing up on family sedans.
Direct injection + independently variably valve timing + double clutch close
ratio gear boxes + regenerative braking and plug-in hybrids should equate to
extremely high mpg for gasoline based vehicles.
I agree with the few here that have stated that tesla is in a SV bubble right
now. It's the just hip thing to do, similar to the prius situation 8 or so
years ago, but with much less volume due to the price point.
------
typicalrunt
I've never seen the fairness of after hours trading. The majority of people
don't have access to it (that I've spoken to), yet that is when you see some
major moves (up or down) in a stock.
Congrats to Tesla for turning their first profit!
~~~
enraged_camel
From Wikipedia:
_Trading outside these regular hours is not a new phenomenon but previously
was limited to high net-worth investors and institutional investors like
mutual funds.[2] The emergence of private trading systems, known as electronic
communication networks or ECNs, has allowed individual investors to
participate in after-hours trading._
In other words, nothing unfair about it.
------
peterhajas
> This is Tesla's first profitable quarter.
I suppose this isn't factoring in the countless enormous government subsidies.
I don't really count this as "profitable".
~~~
matthewaustin
Ah, well if you get to make up your own definitions of profitable, then I
suppose they weren't.
But if you use the actual definition of profitable, meaning they had more
revenue than expenses in this quarter, then they were profitable.
------
codex
Without the cash from selling California ZEV credits gross margin on the Model
S would have actually decreased quarter over quarter. It will be interesting
to see how it gets to 25% without ZEV, and whether Tesla needs to sell more
stock to finance development of the Model X.
------
anateus
The last several months in Silicon Valley I do not remember the last time I
went outside for more than 5 minutes and not seen a Tesla. I noticed about a
week ago I stopped caring, much as I do not especially remark on noticing a
Honda or a Ford. That's a good sign, though likely very geographically
localized.
~~~
dangrossman
> though likely very geographically localized
I live a bit outside Philadelphia (but visit the city proper often), and
haven't seen a Tesla here yet.
~~~
southphillyman
Lower Merion resident here. I see them from time to time in my area and on
476. Have not seen them in Philadelphia proper yet.
------
changdizzle
I refer to Elon Musk's tweet on April 25:
"Seems to be some stormy weather over in Shortville these days"
<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/statuses/327446760219889665>
------
chuhnk
Ask HN: Will anyone be buying Tesla stock when the markets open tomorrow? I'm
wondering whether its a good investment moving forward?
~~~
encoderer
Wait for profit takers to bring it down a little but yes, if you're willing to
hold for the long term -- 5+ years at least -- I believe in it. I think a $100
price target is not absurd. Of coruse, Tesla is so comically far from becoming
a mainstream car company that it's not for the feint of heart. It's not their
products that will challenge them I don't think. It's the difficult of scaling
a car company. No easy task.
~~~
gfodor
I'd add it's also probably a good idea to wait for some bad news since the
market is probably likely to over-react and anybody still skeptical will see
that as an exit point to take profits.
------
cryptoz
TSLA is currently up 21%! Wow, and still climbing...
Edit: Flying past 27% in after hours trading.
~~~
jakebellacera
When a company gets press like this, the amount of volume increases heavily.
------
niggler
Now TSLA is up 21% (67.90 last trade)
------
clientbiller
Don't... Bet... Against... Elon...
------
goggles99
I remember when Geo Metro's were popular. They got 50+ MPG. Then the fad ended
and... Is Geo still around?
------
olefoo
Meh, Teslas are boring status mobiles now. If you like your electric cars to
be interesting and exciting. Order an Arcimoto [1] instead.
1\. <http://www.arcimoto.com/>
~~~
ricardobeat
You could at least have recommended a <http://litmotors.com/c1/>
~~~
MartinCron
Unlike the Arcimoto, the C1 seems to understand that if you're going to be a
motorcycle, you _should be able to lean into turns_.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon closing LoveFiLM - piqufoh
I can't find a press release, but Amazon have just sent me an email announcing the closure of their LOVEFiLM service - inevitable post acquisition I always assumed.<p>> We have very much enjoyed delivering the LOVEFiLM By Post service to you. However, over the last few years we’ve seen a decreasing demand for DVD and Blu-ray rental as customers increasingly move to streaming. Due to this, we will be closing the LOVEFiLM By Post service on 31st October 2017.
======
sgmoore
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202167400&ref_=pe_2203351_202173881)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Multi-touch CAD Controller (New Menu designs for the iPad) - Feedback? - okstr
http://blog.maideinc.com/maide-cad-control-developments-new-menu-for-t
======
viraptor
Please switch the videos around... without reading the text I looked at the
first video and thought "ok, that's pretty basic and seems to be causing
problems because the whole device moves when you apply pressure". The bottom
video gave a _completely_ different idea and actual usage presentation was
awesome.
Otherwise, I like it :) you don't even need full multitouch device for that
kind of stuff sometimes. I had loads of fun with touch screens you can buy
from ebay for ~15£ for a 7" transparent one. Just plug in via usb and treat it
as another pointer device.
~~~
okstr
Done, thanks for the suggestion. Ps, check out the latest one:
[http://blog.maideinc.com/iphoneipod-touch-multi-touch-cad-
re...](http://blog.maideinc.com/iphoneipod-touch-multi-touch-cad-remote)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter moves away from 140 characters, ditches confusing and restrictive rules - hackergirl88
http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/24/twitter-moves-away-from-140-characters-ditches-confusing-and-restrictive-rules/?ncid=tcdaily
======
detaro
official announcement: [https://blog.twitter.com/express-even-more-
in-140-characters](https://blog.twitter.com/express-even-more-
in-140-characters) (running discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11761583](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11761583))
------
donretag
"After all, Twitter is a great big, public conversational platform — the fact
that you could follow chats between other users you cared about was part of
its draw."
Insane. For me it is the complete opposite. Having to read a personal
conversation between two people is perhaps the primary reason I do not use
Twitter. Far too much noise. And they should count hashtags as double (the
other main reason why I cannot stand Twitter).
~~~
giarc
If you think twitter is bad for hashtags, I recommend staying away from
Instagram.
~~~
donretag
Do not use Instagram either, but for other reasons. :)
I tried using Instagram. Downloaded the app and created an account. It
promptly emailed everyone in my address book notifying them that I created an
account. Deleted the app and my account. Never again.
------
t0mbstone
I almost completely ditched Twitter because I got sick of attempting to
condense my thoughts into blurbs a toddler with ADD could understand.
On twitter, I have thousands of followers and I'm lucky to get even one reply
or mention.
On Facebook, however, I have about 300 friends, and I can post an actual
paragraph along with a photo or a video. I often get 30 likes and 20 comments
on the posts.
Facebook does a much better job of facilitating real conversations, and yet it
still allows people to post 140 character blurbs (if they want to).
I get it though. Twitter is what it is, and there are tons of people who love
it. I'm not one of those people.
------
fayimora
The way I understand it, the 140 character limit still holds. They just
stopped counting things like mentions and URLs.
~~~
robmcm
But if they didn't use a misleading title you wouldn't have clicked the
link...
~~~
fayimora
haha I thought about that too. Clever but slightly misleading. Surely they
could have come up with something true and equally attractive but then again
it's the battle of " _who gets the story out first_ "
------
teaneedz
Removing the ".@" syntax is a mistake. I don't always want to broadcast
replies. I still don't understand why URLs are still included within the 140
char limit either. Can someone explain that better than the article?
~~~
ecesena
Urls where fixed to 22, then 23, lately 24 chars. It's the length of the
actual shortened url.
I've been working with people helping social media for a bit, and one common
issue in preparing a list of tweets to schedule is making sure the length is
ok. So you end up with silly xls files where you have a url column, a text
column, etc. and weird formulas to compute the size.
I think Twitter just wants to simplify the life. You can send 140 chars of
text/comment. Mentions, urls, images, etc. are not counted because normal
people aren't counting like that.
~~~
apetresc
He was asking why URLs ARE still being counted as part of the length – Twitter
seems to have excluded everything except for those. Your reply demonstrates
how arbitrary that distinction is :)
------
tptacek
I don't know if this was the original Techcrunch title, but it is
extraordinarily misleading. The proper title is the current article title:
_Twitter moves away from 140 characters, ditches confusing and restrictive
rules_
~~~
dang
Thanks, we restored the original title.
Submitters: please do not rewrite titles unless they are misleading or
linkbait:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
Please especially don't rewrite them to make them _more_ misleading and
linkbait. (Submitted title was "Twitter ditches 140 character limit".)
~~~
Tomte
Apropos character limits: maybe you could stop counting (2001) etc. towards
the 80 character limit in submissions?
Because a few times I have left out the year since I couldn't find a good
shorter title, and then you added the year afterwards. I would have done that
myself. :-)
~~~
dang
We can't get around that limit any more than you can!
Currently the only thing that's allowed to exceed the limit is "[pdf]" but
yes, it should probably include "(year)" and "[video]".
------
acaloiar
I get why this is news to many people, but when you get down to it, a company
removed its own arbitrary limitation. It's really difficult to give a shit
about such things.
EDIT: I'm aware of the original reasoning for the limitation, so perhaps
"arbitrary" is not the best adjective.
------
AlphaNico
Interesting move toward the end of the 140 character limit. Let's see how it
goes but I'm pretty sure people will still complain about the limitation,
until they really ditch it...
------
mettamage
Silly question perhaps (I'm a Twitterer): but can't you now do hacky things
like @insert_complete_message_you_want_to_tell?
~~~
sumitgt
Maybe not that since that would not be registered username.
[http://but.you.might.be.able.to.do.something.like.this](http://but.you.might.be.able.to.do.something.like.this)
~~~
pilif
no, because URLs are still counted (probably because of this workaround).
------
fayimora
Wow I have been using Twitter since 08/09 and I never knew about the ".@"
reply.
~~~
jug
There was nothing special to them though. Convention was just ".@user" but you
could also have used "Hello @user!" The point was to force Twitter from
treating it as a recipient-only message.
------
rochak
About damn time!
------
id122015
are bots going to be confused because there is no limit now ? or are they
going to step up to the next level and write essays ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Aeroflot Flight from Moscow to Havanna avoided US airspace yesterday - phreeza
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFL150/history/20130711/1005Z/UUEE/MUHA
======
phreeza
Compared to the previous days flights, which all crossed the US. Might just be
turbulence though.
------
jaachan
Also made a landing at L.F. Wade International Airport, Bermuda apparently.
------
lifeguard
Could have been a dry run to test US response.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who is hiring (remotely)? - sabon
There have previously been "Who's hiring" type of posts. Those attracted much attention and many people either found or changed their job thanks to those posts. However almost 100% of offers were for onsite work and most of them were in Silicon Valley.<p>There's world outside of Silicon Valley though. Even outside of US. And it's a big world out there, with many talented people who just happen to live elsewhere.<p>I'm Ruby on Rails freelancer with 3.5+ year experience, living in Poland. In a week or two I'm about to finish my current project and I'm looking for exciting opportunities. I believe <i>many, many</i> people are in similar position to mine so many companies and individuals could benefit from this.<p>So if there are companies (and I know there are many) who hire for remote positions, let's put it here and make good companies and talented people meet and work together.<p>As for me, I'm looking for an opportunity to work where not only coding is required. People too often think that developers should just pump out code. Their creative or strategical input regarding the company is mostly disregarded, if at all taken into consideration.
I don't want to work <i>for</i> somebody. I want to work <i>with</i> somebody and make a difference.<p>So let's see all those opportunities for everybody who just cannot physically be where the most is happening.
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Is this not a duplicate of <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=919111> ??
~~~
sabon
Indeed it is. I checked in new submissions an hour or so after submitting and
when I didn't see it, I resubmitted. Turns out it went through ok, it just was
buried under all the submissions and could not be seen on the first page.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Comprehensive overview of New Tab alternatives - mikelennon
http://newtabalternatives.com
======
J_Darnley
The correct content for a new tab in a browser is a blank page.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon cloud outage takes down Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, & more - amnigos
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/29/amazon-outage-netflix-instagram-pinterest/
======
meiji
From the article - "The outage underscores the vulnerabilities of depending on
the public cloud versus using your own data centers."
No it doesn't. It underscores the vulnerabilities of not understanding your
hosting and accepting the "no outages" slogans of ANY cloud. A single data
centre is always susceptible to outages like this, it doesn't matter who owns
it. If any of those sites had owned a single data centre that was hit by storm
damage, the impact would be the same. I know this is supposed to be the year
of the cloud backlash but even so...
~~~
adrianpike
I thought both Heroku & Netflix had fairly robust multi-AZ deployments, so I'm
hoping they share any of their learnings from this outage.
Either way, that quote is ridiculous.
~~~
datasage
Netflix does, but considering the time, running out of capacity after loosing
a zone might have been more of an issue.
~~~
adrianpike
Definitely a possibility - I was actually watching Netflix when my phone
started rattling with all the alerts.
I was able to finish out the episode, so their CDN was working for the actual
media, but everything else was dead for me.
Another useless anecdote: A coworker was watching on his xbox, and it
apparently cut mid-stream for him.
------
Homunculiheaded
It's funny, the more I think about I think this is actually a good reason to
host on the cloud. From a technical standpoint it's terrifying to see all
these big players down at once. But what the average user likely sees is
"something is wrong with the internet". So rather than seeing that your site X
is down and users being angry with you, users are probably likely to think
"well instagram is also down, oh and so is netflix, something big must be
broken, I'll check back later" the same way users don't blame you if the power
goes out.
~~~
nutjob123
Interesting thought. A couple users may be empathetic because the actual
problem is somewhat visible but I'm not sure if that is an real benefit. It is
of course a negative perception when they see that youtube is up and then
perceive all the down sites as being less technically competent.
------
lubos
It's interesting how AWS outage didn't take down Amazon.com.
~~~
heretohelp
That would be because Amazon.com doesn't use AWS.
~~~
zhoutong
No, it doesn't. Even the name servers of Amazon.com belong to UltraDNS and
Dynect, instead of their own Route 53.
~~~
sandfox
Route53 uses UltraDNS.
~~~
zhoutong
No it's wrong.
> "I also wanted to clarify that Route 53 is an Amazon-built and operated
> service. It is not a re-branding of a third party DNS service. Over time
> you'll see various parts of Amazon move over to use Route 53."
[https://forums.aws.amazon.com/message.jspa?messageID=209251#...](https://forums.aws.amazon.com/message.jspa?messageID=209251#209251)
------
poppysan
If you are hosting on a server(as everyone is) it will, at some point fail.
You have to choose a service that has minimal failure combined with quick
resolution times. I think AWS fits this description...
~~~
dangrossman
AWS has had far more failures than my servers at any data center ever have.
Running in 'the cloud', you're taking all the unavoidable points of failure
(power, network, hardware) and adding in a bunch of proprietary ones (all the
software that manages EC2, EBS, ELBs, internal routing between them, etc) that
have all failed spectacularly at least once already with hours- to days-long
resolution times.
~~~
ibejoeb
Yes, risk still exists, and risk profile shifts a little, but I find it to be
a toward the better. Here's an anecdote:
I run applications on EC2 and RDS. I'm using Oracle. AWS has recently
introduce Multi-AZ Oracle, but I haven't enabled yet. Before it was available,
though, I set up a poor-man's procedure that consists of running data exports
and dropping them on S3.
Now, when everything went to hell in the east, I lost an RDS instance. I
couldn't do point-in-time restore, and I couldn't snapshot (both are still
pending since 7 AM or so).
Luckily, I was able to spin up an RDS instance in the west, pull down the
latest data from S3, and do an import. I repointed my apps at the new
database, and now I'm back up.
The process took about 45 minutes. Setting up the backup scripts took about 20
minutes about 2 years ago. Now I'm just sitting on my hands waiting for the
AWS ops team to fix everything. This is work I'd normally be scrambling to do
myself. I'm quite happy to let those talented folks deal with it. When it's
all back up and running, I'll check integrity and consistency, and I might
have to restore some interim data, but for now I'm operational.
I'm sure there are worse scenarios, but the major outage last year and in the
past 24-hours were quite easily mitigated.
There's something to be said for being part of a giant machine. AWS really is
utility computing, so even the small guys get the benefit by virtue of
standing next to the big guys.
------
cocoflunchy
Instagram is still down! However Netflix & Pinterest seem to be back.
------
azarias
Google, MS, Rackspace etc. ought to give a good look at all the middle layer
libraries like boto, and support them to make it a matter of configuration to
switch cloud service providers.
This already works well for email providers.
------
Nux
Here's to keeping all the eggs in one basket!
------
samuel1604
Just use rackspace already, they hardly have an outage.
------
philip1209
If Pinterest is down, then there may be a net gain for the internet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Compute Engine MPI Latency - gpoort
http://blog.rescale.com/mpi-latency-on-google-compute-engine/
======
montecarl
This isn't that interesting or surprising. 100-200 microseconds is the latency
of all ethernet that I have ever seen. Infiniband or other high performance
networks can achieve about 10-100x lower latency, but are very expensive.
Infiniband switches and cards can be double the cost of a cluster.
~~~
sargun
One of the things that Google is also working on is PCIe switching, and using
that to get rid of having to the ethernet encapsulation and conversion. This
allows for significantly lower latencies <5 μs.
~~~
montecarl
That sounds awesome. Do you have any links to describe this research? I would
be interested in the technology if it stands to lower the cost of low latency
networks.
------
codemac
To me this is where the "software defined networking" type of virtualization
can really make an impact.
The network performance of a known cluster of virtualized instances could be
extremely quick if you just lie, and _say_ your packet went through a network,
when really you just pass a pointer in the hypervisor..
I assume this has already been done, but at almost 200 microseconds, you know
it hasn't been done in these experiments.
~~~
montecarl
That is only the case for networking inside of a single physical machine. Most
HPC MPI use cases span many machines, for which this is typical latency of
ethernet.
~~~
codemac
In cases where I've used OpenMPI it was spanning machines as well as being
multiple processes on the same box. The goal was making that interchangeable
(in my use case).
I imagine google's compute engine isn't all on separate machines, but utilizes
VMs heavily.. although it's probably a bad idea to put one customer's VM's on
all the same box.
That's a long way of saying "of course you're right, I guess my thought
doesn't contribute as much as I thought" :)
~~~
montecarl
You are also right of course. Intra-machine latency is quite important. Many
problems can be decomposed in to smaller parallel parts that can be done per
machine.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Only Working When You Feel Like It? - thecombjelly
http://thintz.com/essays/work-when-you-feel-like-it
======
eavc
The big lesson here that might be more pragmatic is to avoid quasi-working,
the state of half-working that feels like full-bore work without actually
getting much done.
~~~
stretchwithme
I recently came across PJ Eby's work on thinkingthingsdone.com and find his
insights very useful.
He's made a study of what mental habits cause us to be either "naturally
successful" or "naturally struggling".
I personally have not been making headway on my goals for a while now, so I
would say I've been struggling.
One key idea is whether one chooses to focus on what one can gain or on what
one might lose as you pursue a goal.
A focus on potential losses makes one fearful, more likely to be paralyzed and
ultimately fail.
If you ignore the potential losses and focus on what you can gain, you more
naturally just take the actions required to get what you want. Flow is the way
to go.
~~~
angkec
Just watched his video and tried the method, all I know is: now my desk is
finally clean!
Thanks for pointing the blog out :)
~~~
stretchwithme
my pleasure :-) mine too!
------
nitrogen
Personally, when I'm completely unmotivated I do have to step away from my
work for a while. But, the times when I'm on the edge of calling it a day but
not too tired, and push myself to code for another hour or two, I have the
most breakthroughs.
~~~
aaronblohowiak
"know thy self"
------
neonak
Steve Pavlina wrote a post about his one week on, one week off workflow. It's
similar to the post that's discussed here. It doesn't really matter how long
your on and off days are.
He uses his on days to get as much done as is possible and his off days to
just do what he wants. In the off days he gets the inspiration and motivation
for another round of high productive on days.
[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/02/one-week-on-one-
wee...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/02/one-week-on-one-week-off/)
I also noticed similar effects in my own life. It's like creating little
deadlines for yourself where you have to get something done within a couple of
days, and you make everything work to do just that. Within the 9-to-5, monday
through friday mentallity it always seems if there will be another day to get
it done. There's no pressure.
Also, the long days off indeed help to think creativly about your work and
have idea's and solutions just 'pop up' at random.
------
JacobAldridge
I have confidence in this model for certain people who have a drive to achieve
things.
I feel it's mostly incompatible with having a partner / spouse (and would love
any disagreement or contrary evidence). Especially if the partner works 9-5,
working when I feel like it will often eat into relationship time.
~~~
thecombjelly
I would agree on with you on having a drive to achieve things makes it easier.
Then again what model works for someone that doesn't have a drive to achieve
things?
~~~
JacobAldridge
True, there's no model that works. They need to receive very clear
expectations, be held constantly accountable, and appreciate that they will
probably transfer through a lot of jobs (or roles within a government
department or large corporation) and never earn more than an average salary.
For plenty of people, that's actually OK. For others, insert the occasional
'the world owes me' or 'life isn't fair' discussions.
------
mattvanhorn
I pretty much do this myself now, and although I find myself working more than
ever (in terms of both hours and productivity), I also feel better about my
work life than I ever have.
One caveat, though - 'only working when you feel like it' works best for me if
I 'always work when I feel like it'. Which is to say, staying late when I'm in
flow, and picking up my laptop when I get a good idea on the weekend, etc.
------
hooande
On the tv show Mad Men, Don Draper described it as "we let our people be
unproductive until they're productive". I think this applies to any kind of
creative work. If I know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it, I'll
just do it. If I have to come up with a solution to a difficult problem, I do
whatever until I solve it.
------
dotBen
I've actually been able to work "when I feel like it" for the past 1.5 months.
Honestly. I've not really been anywhere near as productive as I should have
been -- because I've had no reason to set goals/objectives/milestones.
Maybe this doesn't work for everyone.
~~~
aaronblohowiak
"should have" ? maybe you needed some time to unwind
------
rosshudgens
This reminds me of 37signals ideology a good bit. It works for them, but not
everyone. But props to you for doing what they don't - not shoving it down our
throats, opening it up for conversation, and accepting potential barriers to
success.
------
djm
I've been starting to do this over the last week or so as an experiment. It's
too short a time span to give me any useful data, but so far my impressions
are positive. I've gotten less work done than usual but feel considerably less
stressed, which is a net win in my view.
If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, read through the articles in
the study hacks blog - <http://www.calnewport.com/blog/>. It's aimed at
students but I've found it interesting and somewhat inspiring nonetheless.
------
greenlblue
I have experienced the same thing. I can't figure out why it is this way
though from a biological/neural perspective. When I'm getting tired of work I
usually just step back for a few days and just do fun stuff like watching
movies, playing video games, and in general just doing stuff completely
unrelated to work. Magically, after a few days of routine that's unrelated to
work, when I get back to it everything just seems more manageable.
------
jaekwon
At happy hour nearby, chatting with a new coworker.
"So, why do _you_ get to come to work so late?"
What do you say to that?
~~~
JacobAldridge
Define "come to work". Am I considered at work if I'm going through that
annoying bug during my morning shower, or spending my weekends networking
online with technical colleagues?
~~~
sirrocco
I doubt this is a good comeback as the other person might very well also be
thinking about some company related stuff and talking to colleagues on
weekends.
------
jister
This work habit won't work if you have an employer otherwise your employer
will also "Pay You When He Feels Like It".
~~~
nostrademons
Depends how enlightened your employer is. We've got a HarborMaster high score
whiteboard in my cube, and one of the guys in the next cube over was showing
us his Starcraft 2 Beta skillz today. Nobody bats an eyelash when I get into
work at 1 PM and leave at 10 PM.
It's an issue if you aren't working _at all_ , but as long as you're getting
your work done and your job function doesn't require client contact, why
should your employer care?
------
kunley
Good strategy, but there's a catch:
when you expect that taking off will boost your productivity afterwards, it
won't work.
This is general rule in life: if you stick to expectations you loose.
------
schammy
I didn't see this so much as "working when I feel it" but more as "wow I sure
am productive after a nice relaxing break".
I agree that a nice break from the daily grind can be very good for you. I as
well find myself quite productive after being away from the grind for a day or
two. But that doesn't mean I despise what I do!
------
jimmyrcom
Sitting in front of the computer sometimes isn't the most productive use of
time. All the greatest ideas have come from people who were thinking while on
the shitter. You can't avoid thinking about the problem whether you're working
on it or not. Forcing yourself to work obviously by definition means you don't
want to think about the problem while you ADHD tab switch between hacker news
reddit, digg,IM and your email anyway. If at any point working entails anxiety
it's not being managed correctly. The sitting in front of the computer part is
reserved for when you know how you're going to implement/structure the
problem. Starting at it while what's next seems fuzzy only leads to
distractions.
Also if you 'try an experiment for a month' hoping to your hypothesis is
correct, you're easily setting yourself up for a logical fallacy.
------
TotlolRon
I read it. But in my head I heard Peter Gibbons saying it. Strange.
Edit: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax2Dpr6r98Q> Sorry. Had to.
------
kahawe
Working long hours on pointless stuff just to cover your 9 to 5 makes you
exhausted, demotivated and brunt out? Spontaneous, fun activities and just
taking some time off for yourself recharges your cells and makes you feel
fresh, focused and energetic the next day? Please do tell more of your crazy,
new ideas!!
In other breaking news, a sack of rice has tipped over in China!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tetris Hack on MIT's Green Building - ilamont
http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2012/tetris/
======
albertzeyer
If you like this, take a look at Blinkenlights: <http://blinkenlights.net/>
Esp. watch the videos from the original Blinkenlights installation in Berlin
and the Arcade one in Paris.
------
lukev
I'd like to play this... sounds like a ton of fun.
However, not sure it qualifies as a hack. Installation of colored lights in
the rooms, and linking them to a PC/microcontroller sounds more like a lot of
electrician grunt work than a hack.
If they tapped into the existing electric infrastructure, on the other hand...
~~~
platz
Agree, and from the pictures it looks like they had plenty of assistance in
setting this up.
------
planckscnst
It reminds me of the event on Brown's campus in 2000.
<http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-239433.html>
------
epenn
I had the exact same idea and have been planning on doing this on a building
in Pittsburgh. Now I feel like I would just be a copy cat if I did. :-/
~~~
jwuphysics
It isn't Hunt Library in CMU campus by any chance, is it?
~~~
epenn
Actually I was considering 5th Avenue Place downtown (the Highmark building)
for Light Up Night later this year, assuming I can get permission for it. Hunt
already has the lighting for it but I'm not sure it's tall enough to be able
to play Tetris effectively. Although if the blocks were to "fall" horizontally
that would actually be pretty interesting. Were you/others planning on doing a
version on Hunt?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Project ideas on Distributed/Cloud Computing - praveenaj
Hi, I am not sure whether it is appropriate to ask this kind of question on HN, but since I couldn't get any favorable response anywhere, I decided to throw this on to my fellow innovative hackers! :)<p>What should be the next big thing for distributed/cloud computing? How it will change our lives?<p>Open for discussion...
======
krat0sprakhar
Hey Praveen, this is out of context, but is there any way I can get in touch
with you. I seem to match most of the things mentioned in your one-line bio on
HN. Thanks
~~~
praveenaj
twitter.com/praveenasara
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Great Fish Market Migration of 2018 - ValentineC
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2018/10/08/the-great-fish-market-migration-of-2018/
======
andrenotgiant
Here are more photos of the new market:
[https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/photos/in-
pictures-t...](https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/photos/in-pictures-
tokyos-tsukiji-market-relocates)
Reminds me of when Hong Kong's crazy dangerous Kai Tak airport closed and in
one night they drove everything to the new airport
[https://www.checkerboardhill.com/2016/12/closure-of-kai-
tak-...](https://www.checkerboardhill.com/2016/12/closure-of-kai-tak-airport-
transfer-to-chek-lap-kok/)
~~~
CaptainZapp
Landing in Kai Tak was immense fun (probably not if flying scares you
shitless).
If the plane would have been a little slower you could have checked out what's
on TV in the living rooms of the high rises during touch-down.
Crazy dangerous is a bit of an exaggeration[1]. That said: Due to the layout
(the runway running directly into the harbour) and it's location in the middle
of the city it was a challenging airport for pilots to operate.
Additional specific training was required for pilots to take off and land in
Kai Tak.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_Airport#Incidents_and_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_Airport#Incidents_and_accidents)
EDIT : Clarification
------
Isamu
(from Toyosu wikipedia page)
> In 1937, the area of Toyosu was created on reclaimed land.
> Toyosu was chosen in 2001 by former Governor of Tokyo Shintarō Ishihara for
> relocating Tsukiji fish market, but there was a longstanding controversy
> over this plan due to the toxic contamination of the chosen relocation area.
> The move to Toyosu Market was planned to have taken place in November 2016,
> in preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Part of the plan was
> to retain a retail market, roughly a quarter of the current operation, in
> Tsukiji.
> On 31 August 2016, the Tsukiji fish market move was indefinitely postponed.
> The Tsukiji fish market was caught in a controversy with the shop owners
> surrounding the former fish market rioting as they would lose their job if
> the fish market transfers its location.
> Opening of the fish market was subsequently rescheduled for 11 October 2018
> despite concerns about pollution.
~~~
tokyodude
my understanding of the pollution issue is that the same or worse was found
and the old market.
------
GolDDranks
Just yesterday I headed to a local (I live in Tokyo) sushi restaurant that has
an "everything's at half price" price day once in a month. Turns out they had
to cancel the event this time because they didn't have enough ingredients. A
bummer, but on the other hand I was slightly amused that this migration event
had an impact to my life too.
~~~
akx
I heard this exact same story from a certain someone on a certain Slack the
other day. :)
------
twic
London's fish market, Billingsgate, moved from its historic site to new digs
in 1982. I couldn't find any footage as remotely as interesting, though:
[https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1982-newsround-
bi...](https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1982-newsround-
billingsgate/511116979261337/)
------
elvinyung
Oh dang, I didn't realize it was happening this soon. I'm visiting Japan next
week and I thought I would have at least a few more days to visit old Tsukiji
again.
~~~
ekianjo
I visited Tsukiji just a few years ago and it was extremely overrated. Just
messy, busy, and the sushi you could eat there was no better than what you
could get in nice sushi restaurants. Japanese themselves dont understand why
foreigners go there.
~~~
ericd
I don't know, I'd never seen a whole tuna being carved up before that, let
alone by someone that skillful.
~~~
Symbiote
If the Japanese / world continues overfishing them, you might never see it.
------
grillvogel
it seems really dumb to me that they are destroying a cultural landmark just
for Olympics that no one will remember or care about a few years after the
fact
~~~
T4NG
It's likely the area could also be used for new housing projects after the
event. I do agree that it seems ridiculous to move the cultural landmark as it
also displaces local restaurants and businesses.
~~~
pochamago
I believe it's slated to be a parking lot
~~~
CaptainZapp
I don't think so.
Tsukiji is basically in Ginza (or very close), which is some of the most
expensive reasl estate in the world.
A parking high-rise, maybe?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nginx 0mq transport layer for communicating with upstream servers - wlll
https://github.com/FRiCKLE/ngx_zeromq
======
alberth
How is this different than Mongrel2?
Wasn't Mongrel2 created solely because NGINX didn't support ZeroMQ.
@ZedShaw, thoughts - comments?
~~~
alexgartrell
I was one of the first committers on Mongrel2 (actually, second behind Zed)
and I still am (though mostly as a historical accident, I haven't contributed
anything of substance since SSL).
In my opinion, this is great. I think Mongrel2 is an excellent proof-of-
concept, and if it provided the impetus for a much more widely used project
like nginx to go down a similar path (though it's just a module right now),
then everyone wins.
That said, this certainly isn't in nginx mainline, and it's very feature poor
as compared to Mongrel2. One could not simply swap in nginx with this module
for an existing Mongrel2 installation.
~~~
piotrSikora
> it's very feature poor as compared to Mongrel2. One could not simply swap in
> nginx with this module for an existing Mongrel2 installation.
That's because this is _transport_module_ and what Zed did with Mongrel2 is
build a level 7 protocol on top of ZeroMQ messages.
Even if this would support PUSH/PULL + PUB/SUB sockets right now, you would
still need an _upstream_module_ that understands Mongrel2's level 7 protocol.
~~~
piotrSikora
Head's up, I've started working on both:
\- PUSH/PULL + PUB/SUB support for ngx_zeromq (transport module),
\- ngx_mongrel2 (upstream module).
Should be ready sometime next week.
------
andrewvc
Cool stuff, but I'm wondering why they went with REP/REQ instead of
ROUTER/DEALER. That would dramatically reduce the number of file descriptors
needed (indeed, a single socket could handle any number of backends /
requests).
Also, the fact that ZMQ is message, not stream, oriented makes it non-ideal
here. You get the whole response in one big chunk. Across an internal network,
this may not be a _huge_ deal, but it's not a desirable property.
It's conceivable that a variant that broke responses up into discrete messages
might be better, but this would have more complication in implementation, and
I wonder how much it'd have to offer over straight HTTP.
Also, I wonder if the true ideal protocol for this is SPDY without SSL. It
just seems like a no-brainer.
~~~
JoshTriplett
> Also, I wonder if the true ideal protocol for this is SPDY without SSL.
SPDY does not exist without SSL, nor will it.
Also, SSL does not add anywhere near enough overhead to matter for this kind
of application, especially when you just leave the connection established.
SPDY would work quite well as a protocol for this purpose.
~~~
re
> SPDY does not exist without SSL, nor will it.
Can you elaborate on this, or provide a link with more context? Almost all
TLS/NPN references are missing from the current SPDY draft spec. (I've found
webpages that repeat the SSL requirement assertion, but none that source it or
explain why.)
~~~
JoshTriplett
The SPDY draft spec doesn't seem to include any of the encryption bits; I
don't know why. I've read documents explaining the details before (as well as
expressing very strong opinions about the (lack of) merit of a modern protocol
supporting a non-encrypted mode), but I can't seem to find them at the moment.
As far as I know, SPDY's protocol always builds on an SSL session, not a raw
socket connection. Opportunistic SPDY connections to HTTP servers rely
entirely on SSL "next protocol negotiation" (NPN); a SPDY server will indicate
that it supports SPDY to an HTTPS client via NPN. SPDY also uses SSL to avoid
interference from proxies that would otherwise break attempts to use SPDY on
what started out looking like an HTTP connection.
------
splitrocket
I've used frickle's ngx_cache_purge in production for over a year: it is rock
solid. I'm looking forward to finding a use for this plugin!
thanks!
------
njharman
Why? Is it faster, more robust, something, anything????
~~~
piotrSikora
Proof-of-concept, nothing else at this point.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: SlickShare - Share links browser to browser and email effortlessly. - redmaverick
https://github.com/karthikkottapalli/SlickShare
======
NirDremer
Looks interesting.
This might be helpful for some:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/slickshare/adhdcbp...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/slickshare/adhdcbpjbahiekgjmgbmjmlggmbldnfm)
~~~
redmaverick
Thanks! :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you come up with ideas for beer money? - napolux
I usually read a lot about "you should solve a problem" for SaaS apps or startups.<p>But how do you come up with ideas for apps/website etc... if you want to just get 2/300$ / month with no other needs?<p>It's all about little problems? Is affiliate marketing the only way or there's something else?<p>Passive income is usually a myth, so I'm willing to invest some of my knowledge/work if it makes me reach this small goal.
======
opendomain
I have a few ideas.
Contact me HN AT opendomain DOT org
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Japanese researchers make brain tissues from stem cells - dhimes
http://www.physorg.com/news145171200.html
======
wensing
At first I found this positively fascinating, but then ...
_Embryonic stem cells are harvested by destroying a viable embryo, a process
that some people find unacceptable._
~~~
lunchbox
This is nothing new -- that's what all the debate on stem cell research is
about. It should be noted that the term "viable" is used in a theoretical
sense; these embryos would never actually become humans. Embryos are usually
obtained from places like in-vitro fertilization clinics, where they would
otherwise be thrown in the trash. I say, why not use them for life-saving
research?
~~~
wensing
_these embryos would never actually become humans_
I think you must mean something else. My son and daughter were embryos once;
what were they if not human?
~~~
lunchbox
"these embryos" means the ones that are used to do stem cell research. As I
said, mainly discarded from IVF clinics.
~~~
wensing
Got that part.
I was just challenging your statement that they "would never actually become
humans" with the fact that anything of the homo sapien species is human, which
of course would include the embryos. Just like dog embryos are very young
dogs, and cat embryos are very young cats. 'Embryo' is just one stage of a
single line of development.
~~~
lunchbox
OK. But this is quickly progressing into heavy moral/philosophical territory
-- we should probably stop here.
~~~
wensing
It is definitely heavy. Can do.
------
jdunck
Article: <http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/abstract/S1934-5909>(08)00455-4
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Former SoundCloud Founders Launch Subscription E-Bike Service - atlasunshrugged
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/21/former-soundcloud-founders-launch-e-bike-subscription-service-backed-by-blueyard/
======
atlasunshrugged
I think this is brilliant, anyone who has been in Berlin knows that having
your bike stolen is not a matter of if but when, now we can offload the costs
of that onto VCs!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Drug 'reverses' ageing in animal tests - abhi3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39354628
======
nabla9
They should test these with old volunteers first.
Life expectancy of 90-year old is 4-5 years depending on gender. If the drug
increases the life quality it's probably worth the risk even if it increases
changes of getting some cancers.
~~~
anotheryou
Or sell it for hamsters and old people will try it anyways...
~~~
tunnuz
Mind blown.
------
henryaj
Original paper:
[http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30246-5](http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674\(17\)30246-5)
------
bmcusick
The SENS Research Foundation ([http://www.sens.org/](http://www.sens.org/))
has identified the seven ways that the elderly are different from the young,
and hypothesizes that the aggregate damage from these seven things is what we
call "aging".
Essentially, aging is just accumulated damage from these seven processes.
One of the seven processes is the accumulation of senescent cells. They clog
up the works and also release chemicals that prevent normal cells from
functioning at full effectiveness. Normally senescent cells kill themselves
and are broken down by the body, but this process gets worse over time and
senescent cells multiply.
The drug in this story targets and kills these senescent cells selectively.
Effectively they are reducing the population of senescent cells in your body
from the number you'd find in an 80 year old person so some lesser number
(perhaps like a 20-, 30-, 40-, or 60-year old, but human studies would be
required to say how effective it is).
But that's what aging reversal is. It's taking the seven biomarkers identified
by SENS and reverting them from 85-year old levels to 25-year old levels. If
all you're biomarkers are the same as a 25-year old, you _are_ 25 in every
sense except calendrical.
EDIT: typo
------
maxander
Seeing the headline I shrugged and thought to myself, "oh, I bet it's
rapamycin again." That and a few other old cancer drugs routinely get studied
for antiaging effects- which is cool, but somewhat less than directly
applicable because of the side-effects associated with what is essentially
chemo.
But here the drug is apparently a peptide, so it's presumably somewhat more
benign (at least relative, mind you, to chemo.) Also easily synthesizable! I
wonder if an amino acid sequence can be patented?
~~~
JPLeRouzic
I am not a biologist but the whole business of senolytics is to mess with the
cell cycle. That is not something benign.
~~~
maxander
Not really the cell cycle per se, but yes, the idea is to poison senescent
cells. But it can be benign to the organism as a whole nonetheless.
------
JPLeRouzic
There are lot of buzz since some months about "senolytics". However I think
aging is a complex phenomena, including having social dimensions. It is
probably not something that you could solve with a pill.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
I would imagine that many of the social dimension are consequences of, rather
than sources of, the physical ones.
If a pill could give someone more energy, less daily pain, a more regular
sleep schedule, and/or increased sex-drive, I suspect we'd see their place in
society nudge towards that of younger persons.
~~~
JPLeRouzic
I am not sure. For example menopause had been linked to social events like
having grand children. It can occur earlier in those who smoke tobacco. Immune
system working depends on your social status and has consequences on aging
diseases. People who are engaged in a relation and that have a strong social
network are aging better. And people are dying around us as we age, one in
four people that were born at the same time than me has already died, and I am
only 60. So being older means more solitude, which means more biological
aging. All in all, there are many indications that aging is something social
as well as biological. (edited)
~~~
anotheryou
Than there should be outliers of those who have younger friends. E.g.
Professors with a good relationship to the students or people that live in
more age-diverse peergroups/communities like in a small village.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ContextFree.js & Algorithm Ink: Making Art with Javascript - raju
http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/contextfreejs-algorithm-ink-making-art-with-javascript/
======
PidGin128
This is poorly related, however: Knowing that I've been to this page ages ago,
but without a sense of how long, I am reminded that pages without a datestamp
are annoying. Even the comments are missing them. Am I alone here? [To justify
the age somewhat, he comments on the release of firefox 3, where I believe 3.6
is current.]
More to the point, I was surprised that you can right-click-save the drawn
output without any overhead on his part.
And [paraphrasing,] I equally miss being able to boot into an interpretor or
programming environment when a machine has no boot devices. I imagine the
overhead is low, so it's likely just licensing + apathy [irrelevance more
likely].
------
pjscott
This is pretty fun. Purely for bragging, my best one:
<http://azarask.in/projects/algorithm-ink/#9c87c13e>
Has anybody else managed to get the tile directive to work? Or paths?
~~~
daeken
This is really quite cool. My best so far:
<http://azarask.in/projects/algorithm-ink/#0e7ff5ea> (Edit: Nope, this is
definitely it: <http://azarask.in/projects/algorithm-ink/#29b97a74> )
I think I may implement a desktop version of this over the weekend -- would be
pretty straightforward with SDL.
~~~
pjscott
Those are really nice! They remind me of the BP logo, but more snazzy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
College or UnCollege? - sbashyal
http://hacksandthoughts.posterous.com/college-or-uncollege
======
kls
_I find it particularly amusing that two of the most vocal advocates of
dropping out of college are Peter Thiel and Mike Arrington—both of whom
completed Stanford Law degrees. College dropouts Bill Gates and Mark
Zuckerberg are strong proponents of finishing your degrees. Even Steve Jobs
talks about the importance of liberal arts education._
The funny part is, I would be more apt to take the advice of those that did
finish. They attained a degree and experienced first hand the lack of
advantage. By completing their degree they are the only ones in the position
to fully evaluate whether it was worth it or not.
As someone who left school and then went back later in life because I fell
prey to the "I need a degree mentality", I can certainly say that only after I
finished school, that I am in a position to evaluate fully whether it was
worth it or not. Only after I finished my degree, was I able to state
unequivocally, that attaining the degree did nothing to further my career.
I achieved the status of CTO 3 times before ever completing it. After that, I
became my own worst enemy and started to convince myself that I needed to
return and seek the completion of a degree. So at the point before the degree,
I most certainly would have been in the you need to finish camp. Only after
completing and the removal of that insecurity, was I able to see that it had
no effect and offered no advantage to where I was before.
Now I am not saying that individuals like Bill Gates are insecure about their
lack of degree. but I do question whether they can truly make an evaluation
the pro's and con's given that they have not completed the experience required
to make a full evaluation.
~~~
sbashyal
I exactly understand your point. It is for that reason that I mention that I
graduated from college. I have a degree but it did not take me to where I
wanted to be. I remain a critic of the education system and I see that
UnCollege addresses some valid issues about traditional colleges.
------
brackin
My main issue with this "Get my Piece of Paper" mentally is it seems that
College is more about vanity than education. Which in my opinion it is. People
go to College to have a degree not learn.
I understand that if you don't go to College in most industries then you won't
get a job. But i'm not so convinced that if you want to start a tech startup
or work for one that College is the most important thing. Most startup jobs
pages are open to College degrees or experience/portfolio. Which UnCollege is
vastly about, building experience and learning. I think those which are savvy
are able to get opportunities to build experience, even early on when building
experience. Such as internships, freelance work, etc.
I don't believe College is in any shape a bad choice, but for many it slows
their progress (or wastes time) rather than accelerating them on their path.
But I see the appeal, it'd be very easy for me to get through those years of
College and apply for a job at one of the big names.
But i'm happy to face the possible risks. This issue is something i'm
contemplating at the moment, as i've experienced education wasting my time and
it's not a very enjoyable situation. I know i've still got a lot to learn but
would rather do so on my own time.
------
Hyena
College was awesome.
Every time I read a critique of college education, my thought is this: you
paid too much to do too little because you were focused on "getting a piece of
paper". A better strategy is to use that time trying to know everything and
probably not going to the most selective--and thus generally most expensive--
school you can find.
~~~
sbashyal
I checked you HN profile and found your about section interesting:
_I am unemployed and possibly unemployable._
~~~
Hyena
It's snark from the earlier debates about structural unemployment.
If I'm unemployable, it's because I really don't have the patience to work for
most employers at this point. They can DIAF for what it's worth.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
File Destructor: Send trashed files and blame your faulty computer - kevinyun
http://www.xnet.se/fd/
======
kup0
While I initially thought this was funny- it's incredibly unethical... not
that ethics really matters to a growing number of people anymore.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
HDCP master key allegedly posted - m0nastic
http://pastebin.com/kqD56TmU
======
js2
Here's a paper discussing how this key could have been derived:
<http://www.cs.rice.edu/~scrosby/pubs/hdcppaper.ps>
<http://www.cypherpunks.ca/~iang/pubs/hdcp-drm01.pdf>
Here's the fun bit:
"We observe that attackers can exploit a well-known cryptographic design
mistake: the shared secret generation is entirely linear. The attack only
needs 40 public/private key pairs such that the public key pairs span M ⊂
(Z/256Z)40, the module generated by all public keys. Since HDCP devices
divulge their public keys freely, one can easily test whether a set of 40
devices have public keys spanning M before expending the effort to extract
their private keys. With these keys, the authority’s secret can be recovered
in only a few seconds on any desktop computer."
Edited to add the next paragraph (paper was published in 2001):
"The consequence of these flaws is that, after recovering the private keys of
40 devices, we can attack every other interoperable HDCP device in existence:
we can decrypt eavesdropped communications, spoof the identity of other
devices, and even forge new device keys as though we were the trusted center.
Note that this allows us to bypass any revocation list or “blacklisting”: such
mechanisms are rendered completely ineffective by these flaws in HDCP.
Therefore we recommend that the current HDCP cryptosystem should be abandoned
and replaced with standard cryptographic primitives."
~~~
nitrogen
_Therefore we recommend that the current HDCP cryptosystem should be abandoned
and replaced with standard cryptographic primitives._
So does this mean that all new equipment will quickly switch to DisplayPort,
necessitating another round of TV/monitor upgrades? Or will the HDMI
organization add DPCP (AES) to the HDMI standard?
[Edit: it was mentioned elsewhere* in the thread that HDCP 2.0 uses AES]
* _<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1691794> _
------
m0nastic
For those curious as to what this entails, the Wikipedia article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdcp#Cryptanalysis> Does a pretty good job
explaining.
For those not quite that curious, if you've ever tried to watch a Blu-Ray
movie on your computer, and gotten an error about it being restricted from
playing back on your display; there's a good chance that is because of HDCP.
If this is true (and there isn't really a good reason to believe that it
isn't), this is pretty bad news for the content industry.
~~~
nimai
You're joking, right? The only people HDCP has been affecting have been
legitimate customers. Pirates have had HD video for years.
~~~
barrkel
<sarcasm>You don't understand. HDCP is _great_ for consumers. It's what lets
them view fantastic content from the creative industry. Without HDCP, that
content wouldn't be available to consumers.</sarcasm>
It was this angle of attack, or one very similar to it, that I remember
reading from an nVidia (or it might have been ATI) powerpoint deck a few years
back.
~~~
prodigal_erik
Makes me wonder whether the author was blissfully ignorant of DeCSS, or hoped
the readers would be. It's not as if they felt the need to pull DVDs off the
market for the last decade.
~~~
m0nastic
To be fair, the release of DeCSS may very well have moved up the timetable for
releasing BD+ and AACS (which isn't an argument against it, but these things
don't exist in a vaccum).
------
seldo
Blu-Ray on Windows is the single most user-hostile computing experience I've
ever had. I stopped buying/renting blu-ray movies because I didn't feel like
rebooting 3 times every time I wanted to play a disc, with the software
treating me like a criminal the whole time.
~~~
thehodge
I bought my first Blue-Ray the other day and the experience was terrible, I
put the disk in and nothing happened.. I tried to play it in windows media
center, no ball.. not in VLC.. there was no player included on the disk.
I had to download a 300meg trial of PowerDVD just to play a film I'd already
paid for (I also had to update my graphics card for some reason, the computer
had been playing HD content for months without needing that).
That will be the last Blue-Ray disk I buy..
~~~
illumin8
The experience on Blu-Ray is terrible. I have to sit through as much as 20
minutes of unskippable commercials before I get to the menu screen. They even
show you commercials about how great movies are on Blu-Ray - even though they
should know you already are a customer because you're watching a Blu-Ray. Not
only that, some of the commercials are streamed over the Internet, which means
they use your bandwidth without asking permission to download an unskippable
commercial.
The experience is getting a bit ridiculous, and I personally hope someone
writes a DeCSS for Blu-Ray so that we can uncripple this format.
Btw, I don't actually buy any Blu-Ray disks, I just have my Netflix account
enabled for Blu-Ray and watch most movies in that format since it looks better
on my HDTV.
~~~
timdorr
To be slightly fair (and only slightly because I still think Blu-Ray sucks),
Netflix does often get separate rental copies of movies that differ from the
store-bought versions. They usually have more extraneous crap in front of the
movie, since they are making less money off them in the long run.
But the load times alone make me want to throw my Blu-Ray player out of the
window. It's a mind-numbingly slow experience in every way.
~~~
msisk6
The load time with my old Sony Blu-Ray player was the same -- horribly slow.
Unusable, IMHO.
Then I got a PlayStation 3. It made the kids happy and is radically faster
playing Blu-Ray discs. If you're not a gamer be sure to get the optional
"normal" bluetooth remote and you'll be all set.
~~~
wwortiz
I have a ps3 as well and most of my experiences with bluray have been pretty
much the same as dvd with the exception of terminator 2 (skynet edition I
think) which took forever to load.
The real problem is that I can't see much of a difference between the dvd
version of a movie and the bluray version, if I have a choice for the same
price I probably will buy bluray but otherwise the dvd upscaling works just as
well for me.
This experience of quality differs greatly than that of a regular xvid rip and
a hidef h264 rip which are actually quite noticeable.
------
flannell
I've had nothing but trouble with HDCP. I've used HDMI matrix switches to
transport a video signal around the house. 40% of the time I get the HD
snowstorm so have to reboot the TV to attempt a second handshake. This gives a
low Wife Approval Factor. I believe they should stop torturing the paying
punters, like me, and just be happy with the majority who pay and not the
minority that don't. Also, before someone mentions the x billion lost per
year, I doubt maybe the 100,000 that downloaded 'The Bounter Hunter' would of
seriously bought it.
~~~
reduxredacted
_Also, before someone mentions the x billion lost per year_
It's bizarre. Imagine a job where my customer complains about how ineffective
my product is yet continues to shovel money at me. Wait, even worse, my
product makes their customers miserable and yet they still shovel money at me.
It sort of sounds like the business model of a crack dealer.
~~~
joeyo
Or a monopolist.
------
js4all
The comments so far are just about HDCP, Blu-Ray and playback difficulties.
The paste however contains the key matrix used to encrypt and decrypt the
digital video signal. If this is valid, every transmission between a HDCP-
secured playback device and the display can be decrypted, thus rendering every
other encryption method, used in the playback chain, useless, including AACS
and BD+.
This is serious, because the keys for AACS can be revoked, if compromised.
HDCP keys however can't be revoked.
~~~
nitrogen
It doesn't completely render BD+ useless, as BD+ can be used to watermark the
video signal according to the player model (and hypothetically other
variables, like location, IP address, or player serial number). So, to avoid
identification, pirates would need to crack BD+, or combine the output from
multiple players to obscure the watermarking.
Another problem with cracking the transport instead of the storage medium, is
that to rip from HDMI you have to play the movie at normal speed, while
ripping straight from disc can be done much faster.
~~~
js4all
I agree with the second point.
Regarding on-the-fly watermarking, I see the hypothetical use, but current
watermarking algorithms are to complex for BD+. An interesting idea though.
------
reduxredacted
Worth noting (again, assuming this is credible): Version 2.0 of HDCP is likely
not affected.
According to their FAQ: <http://www.digital-cp.com/faqs> "HDCP revision 2.0
uses industry-standard public-key RSA authentication and AES 128 encryption.
It also supports protection of compressed content, making it feasible to use
relatively slow 50 to 200 Mbps interfaces."
... and ...
"HDCP 1.x technology offers protection for uncompressed content transmitted
over several common wired interfaces including DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. HDCP
revision 2.0 adds strengthened encryption..."
~~~
wmf
"The wireless interfaces which utilize HDCP revision 2.0 so far include:
Digital Interface for Video and Audio (DiiVA), NetHD, Wireless Home Digital
Interface (WHDI), and Wireless HD (WiHD)."
In other words, no equipment that anyone has.
------
audidude
For some reason I don't think that will make such a good t-shirt this time
around.
~~~
daychilde
Maybe it'd work better for folks like me who shop at big&tall stores... We
have the _perfect_ body for this t-shirt. Finally, all my McDonald's days are
about to pay off!
------
Maakuth
Yes, "allegedly". This is definitely good news if it's the real thing. I
wonder how long does it take to confirm it's authenticity.
------
nitrogen
I was a minor participant in the tvtime project years ago. HDMI and HDCP came
around and made that kind of thing highly improbable for HD content. CPUs and
GPUs are now at speeds that make advanced HD video manipulation practical. I
hope this HDCP crack, if verified, makes a tvtime-like application for HDMI
video possible. Better yet, a PC-based realtime compositing and overlay
system, requiring only a $100 GeForce GPU and HDMI capture cards.
------
bcl
Has anyone verified that this actually works?
~~~
wmf
Time to light up the Bunnie signal.
------
andybak
Don't they have a contingency for this? I thought they could update the DRM
code in devices with a new key or some such thing.
~~~
nash
I believe the update of keys relies on the secrecy of the master key, which is
never released in a device.
Hence the master key pretty much kills it all.
~~~
dfox
HDCP key exchange is very weird cryptosystem. Usually you generate some
essentially random private key and trivially derive public key from it. In
HDCP, it works other way around: central authority has ability to convert
(random) public keys to private keys using some secret information (purpotedly
this matrix). Motivation of this design is twofold: (a) actual hardware
implementation is simple and (b) this central authority can impose varios
policies about who gets private keys. On the other hand both these points make
this cryptosystem very weak.
Therefore, this matrix may not even be leaked, but somebody might reconstruct
it from relatively small number (I don't remember exact required number, but i
recollect that it is at most thousands) of keypairs recovered from devices in
circulation.
By the way similar mode of deployment was once recommended for RSA (having
shared modulus whose factorization is known to central authority), but it is
long known to be insecure (for RSA). I don't know of any non-HDCP related
analysis of public key cryptography based on similar approach as HDCP (vector
summing or matrix multiplication, depending on viewpoint), which probably
means that it is very well known to be insecure.
Edit: and for the key update: you would have to update all deployed keys
simultaneously, which is probably impossible. Moreover HDCP does not even
specify any kind of infrastructure to accomplish this.
~~~
tlrobinson
I recall hearing ~50 keypairs would be required to reconstruct this matrix
thing. Certainly there are more than 50 HDCP devices (manufacturers?)
~~~
ams6110
Is this another lesson in why you should not invent your own crypto system?
~~~
logicalmind
They didn't actually invent their own crypto system. They used the scheme
devised by Swedish cryptographer Rolf Blom, know as Blom's Scheme. Which is a
form of "threshold secret sharing". It has been known for quite some time that
the system falls apart once a particular number of keys are known.
------
b3b0p
Comments keep mentioning Blu-ray playback, but it's referring to HDCP. That's
the connection between devices I thought?
I don't think this does anything for Blu-ray as it has it's own encryption
scheme.
Edit: Oops, I see someone mentioned this already. Missed that comment.
------
uuoc
The Cory Doctorow info-graphic is quite appropriate here:
<http://boingboing.net/2010/02/18/infographic-buying-d.html>
------
toodoo
And here come the T-Shirts <http://www.cafepress.com/HDCP>
------
yock
I can't believe people are willing to assign any credibility to an anonymous
dump of hex to pastebin.
~~~
mechanical_fish
That's the wonderful thing about math. You can verify its correctness without
reference to anybody's reputation or personal opinion. Indeed, that's pretty
much the definition of math.
~~~
yock
Of course you can verify if it's valid, but that's remarkably short of what's
being claimed here. Lots of folks here are talking as if this is the end of
HDTV DRM. I'm simply advocating that someone with the means actually test it
before we start singing "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead."
------
ra
And so the DRM Cold War continues.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can't Sleep App – Android Beta - thomasdickson
https://cantsleepapp.com/androidbeta/
======
thomasdickson
Sign up to our Android beta program to get early access to Can't Sleep and a
free one year annual subscription.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Copay, An Open Source Bitcoin Multi-signature Wallet - maraoz
https://copay.io/
======
dang
This looks like it might be interesting, and didn't get much attention. You're
welcome to repost it as a Show HN. If you like, email us ([email protected])
and we'll be happy to explain more.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Make your bootstrapped startup work - Lessons from the trenches - ibagrak
http://codercofounder.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/make-your-bootstrapped-startup-work/
======
fookyong
Sorry to sound confrontational but:
Why should we listen to startup advice from a startup that is still just a
landing page and a mailing list signup?
You talk about MVPs and getting to launch, but you yourself have not
launched... I'm confused.
~~~
ibagrak
Look, I am just reflecting on what things could have been done differently,
and those that would have maximized the delta with our current status. You
don't have to listen to advice, but if you are building something and you are
in those first few months of bootstrapping, I do believe the advice is still
sound.
When we started out I had a notion of what the primary obstacles to launch
would be. I now have a completely different notion of what those obstacles
are, and I think it's perfectly fine for me to share what I've learned myself.
~~~
delano
Reflecting on something while working through it is interesting to me b/c it's
less prone to revisionism. Maybe just refer to it less as advice and more as
an experience.
~~~
ibagrak
Agreed. I should have stayed away from advisory tone.
------
nopassrecover
Off topic, but you're building a like-system (I have a part-time hobby one
I've been sort of working on too) and I just wanted to wonder how you decided
to go ahead?
The biggest concern I had was that the market is saturated with solutions that
don't work because of disinterest, and anything I made could be beaten well-
enough by Facebook in a good week's work. Sure I had a couple of edges but I
couldn't spot _the_ edge that would fix everything, and when I found a local
competitor (I live in a pretty small city with minimal startups) I was
convinced that everyone must be working on this.
So.. long story short I'd love to hear how you decided this was the thing to
work on and how (without giving too much away) you hope to overcome the
problems for your product's sector.
------
edw519
Hard to argue with anything in this post except one thing: the fact that you
made it in the first place. I really don't mean to be negative, but you should
be building when you are blogging.
For the record:
as soon as possible != after you blog about it
a landing page != a MVP
lessons from the trenches != yet-to-be-launched
Please practice what you're preaching and get your MVP out there. Then blog
about it. That's something I would want to read about.
~~~
ibagrak
Admittedly I got a little carried away with this one, so thanks for bringing
me down to earth. I think some of the frustration having to do with our
current status is turning into these long winded tirades on my blog. I'll keep
them more toned down and private in the future.
I do hope to write something that you will enjoy reading about soon.
------
atomical
"We are building an online social app that lets you stay on top of and enjoy
anything that your friends find interesting, good, likable, cool, irresistible
and noteworthy, or things they just liked for no reason. Of course, it's also
a way for you to tell your friends what you like."
This description reminds me of Facebook.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon wins FAA approval for Prime Air drone delivery fleet - heshiebee
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/31/amazon-prime-now-drone-delivery-fleet-gets-faa-approval.html
======
zozin
Drone delivery is going to happen, but most people aren't going to benefit
from it in the immediate future. Drones are too loud and the self-flying
software isn't advanced enough to effortlessly and efficiently deal with the
complications of urban delivery. Rural areas and exurbs are great options for
drones because noise is less impactful and you can more easily drop off a 5lb
box in front of someone's porch and not have to worry about hitting another
building, cable/power lines, being targeted by thieves/the mischievous, etc.
An Amazon van driving 10+ miles to and 10+ miles back to make a single
delivery is also very expensive (gas, maintenance, driver, wear and tear,
etc.), especially compared to an Amazon van in a city which will unload most
of its cargo within a few square blocks.
Between Starlink and fast/cheap Internet in the most remote areas of the
country, working from home becoming more mainstream, and things like drone
delivery, the rural parts of this country are primed to become a far larger
part of the economic and social fabric of this country. Toss in self-driving
cars and cities lose even more of their advantages. It's an interesting time
to be alive.
------
nazca
Anyone else trying to remember what year it was when we all thought this was a
cyber monday stunt? 2013
[https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/12/01/amazon-
bezos-...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/12/01/amazon-bezos-drone-
delivery/3799021/)
[https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/amazon-p...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/amazon-
prime-air-package-drone-delivery)
------
TheMagicHorsey
I'm skeptical that this article is accurately portraying the FAA permission
that Amazon has been granted.
The FAA has been aggressive about forbidding beyond visual line of sight
operation of drones without spotters or radar coverage. I suspect the
permission is not for true BVLOS deliveries, but rather deliveries with a
spotter watching the route, or BVLOS with a radar covering the entire route,
or some other commercially impractical system of monitoring.
The FAA is being hamstrung by the pilots association and various other unions
that are fearful that this kind of automated delivery will reduce the volume
of pilot and union jobs available in America. The Luddites in DC are the most
powerful force in American robot regulation today.
~~~
claviska
Wasn’t it UPS that was prototyping a series of drones that docked on top of
the truck, using it as a hub to deliver packages within a short range? I could
see something like that being a logical next step for this tech.
~~~
TheMagicHorsey
That experiment very publicly failed in a demo in front of journalists.
~~~
paul_f
Link?
------
paul_f
Having a difficult time understanding the logistics of this. Is there a
resource online with more details of what Amazon might do? I live in the
'burbs, but putting a drone-delivered box on my doorstep is quite non-trivial
it seems.
------
riffnote
I'm worried about birds. The sky is the only safe place for them. I don't
think I'm being overly sensitive either.
~~~
hirundo
You only have to worry about deaf birds. Drones are pretty loud.
~~~
NinoScript
I guess all that noise might affect the life of birds in some way or another.
~~~
consumer451
In my personal experience any radio controlled aircraft coming near a bird's
nest will be challenged in the air. It certainly stresses them out in the
mortal danger kind of way. It made me change where I do my “Park Flying”
before I injured a bird.
~~~
chrisjs96
I've flown a lot since the late 90's. A bunch of different areas. My dad was
very into it. I've never had a bird attack an airplane or helicopter. I've
never flown quadcopters/drones much as they require no skill and not fun. The
closest I ever saw was a small foamie where a bird swooped towards it. Never
came that close and moved on.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Modern Java tutorials? - OwlHuntr
I have to, unfortunately, plunge into the world of academic Java development. I am wondering if there are any modern Java tutorials akin to _why's ruby or python the hard way. I just don't want to read oracle docs solely.
======
squidsoup
In my experience most of the best Java learning resources are books - I got
the most out of Joshua Bloch's Effective Java Second Edition which assumes
some familiarity with the language. Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java is an
excellent introductory approach, particularly if you're new to OO, but you
could probably give it a miss.
I don't know if it would apply to your development situation, but also
consider investigating other JVM languages like Clojure and Scala - these two
languages probably represent the future of the platform.
~~~
ashconnor
I own Thinking in Java and it's definitely better than Deitel, Big Java and
Java Java Java.
If fact it's not just a great book on Java but on OO programming in general.
The only negative is, at least in the printed book, the code isn't highlighted
in anyway. I assume this was done to keep printing costs down. Deitel on the
other hand is very nicely printed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Researchers Exploring Social Networking, Possibly for Google Me? - jolie
http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/google-social-slide-deck/
======
GiraffeNecktie
A deck with 216 slides? Yikes. Those guys should come work in my government
department, they'll feel right at home.
I'm not sure that the separation of groups is really a big deal. Most people I
know have solved that problem by using LinkedIn for their professional
contacts and Facebook for everything else. It's the best way to maintain a
clean break between the two and be certain that Facebook isn't going to dork
it up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Halt the use of facial-recognition technology until it is regulated - hardmaru
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02514-7
======
edejong
Regulation proposal: all video data and derivatives (face recognition) of
public areas must be publicly available. Sort of GPL-like. The resulting
effects will force people to rethink and reevaluate current policies.
~~~
notahacker
"To prevent cities being turned into panopticons, we should make sharing data
with people trying to build them mandatory"
~~~
edejong
Quote from?
~~~
notahacker
It was a _reductio ad absurdum_ paraphrase of your own argument.
Imagine this law was passed. Joe of Joe's Garage doesn't read BoingBoing and
has no issues complying with the new law which obliges him to pass the
security tapes he used to delete because they were so uninteresting to an
agency representing SpouseTracker.com, and is not at all interested in
revising his views of the necessity of collecting data of possible crimes
against his business in the unlikely event he reads a paper about aggregating
camera data to track individuals or an article about a stalker who tracked the
target of their obsession using public feeds of nearby CCTV cameras, even if
he makes the connection. The proprietors of SpouseTracker.com and stalkers
everywhere thank the privacy advocates for their support.
~~~
edejong
Ah, I see now. Back to your original comment:
"To prevent cities being turned into panopticons, we should make sharing data
with people trying to build them mandatory"
The reason why panopticons work is because the prisoners don't know what the
guards can see. And due to this asymmetric power relation, it is very hard to
revolt. There are two solutions: either prevent the information gathering, or
make the information publicly available. The former solution is not possible
if you don't know what information is being gathered, so we are left with the
second solution (to start with).
~~~
notahacker
Sure, but I have literally no interest in revolting and there is no possible
world in which a revolt would succeed due to the Evil Dictatorship dutifully
uploading all their information advantages to a public server.
Back in the real world, I don't have any issues with the supermarket videoing
me self-scanning, but would have issues with them being compelled to share
information on my shopping habits in real time with literally anybody that
wanted to know where I was and what I was doing right now and who I was
with...
~~~
edejong
A supermarket is not a public space. All I am saying is that all information
gathered in the public space should be shared publicly. The idea being: anyone
could have been there and recorded that information (since it is public). This
will prevent those with deep pockets to create a panopticon of our public
environment.
------
newsreview1
halt use by whom? Government agencies? Security companies? Ring doorbell
companies?
~~~
AstralStorm
All of the above, preferably. Government agencies for law enforcement may be
exempt anyway. Perhaps the only decent use is a biometric ID or passport and
should be regulated as identification data on those documents, that is
rigorously.
------
nipponese
The fact that we regulate credit card usage via PCI compliance and not
biometrics is bizarre to me.
------
hubert1234
The dislike for facial recognition technology is another one of those hard to
comprehend stances for me. The article is more like a moral call to action, it
doesnt contain any facts or information or even arguments against it. All I
can find is that it claims "costly errors, discrimination and privacy
invasions" are the problem. How can facial recognition software possibly cause
all of that? Software operation basically free, discrimination is ridiculous -
if anything it helps with less discrimination, it scans everybody after all.
and then privacy invasion? You mean you walk around in public spaces and you
think you have a right not to be recorded? How is this different from a police
officer walking by and scanning your face? No, in reality this debate is a
weird sort of antitech sentiment. It's like a symptom of a deep
dissatisfaction with how fast the world is developing and people want to go
back to the good old times. Well sorry, but I actually like the fact that a
criminal can get caught in minutes because his face is scanned.
~~~
groceryheist
This is a very narrow view of potential applications of facial recognition. I
take it for granted that this technology has enormous affordances for social
control. "Criminality" may be an out-of date notion of the kinds of behaviors
that governments and other institutions like those in workplaces (e.g. the
academy, employers, corporations). Surveillance has major political
implications and we should not treat the advancement of technology as
independent from the society and the political economy.
Surveillance is the key concept in a major design of social control, Bentham's
"Panopticon." When anyone may be watched, people must live expecting that they
will be watched, and the will of those with the power to create sanctions will
enacted. This will be a historical novelty if facial recognition systems
become widespread. Historically, only limited public venues were subject to
effective widespread surveillance (except in extreme authoritarian cases like
East Germany). Increasingly, online spaces are subject to surveillance that is
limited by browser instrumentation, with facial recognition it will be
possible to track people offline as well, if you have access to the cameras.
Surveillance is the twin of transparency, which can be thought of as possible
tool for democratic control. I do believe that transparency i.e. through
freedom of information acts has some positive characteristics for democracy
but has a weak empirical record compared to panoptic control. Facial
recognition might have affordances for collective action, such as making it
easy to produce evidence of excesses or corruption.
That said, maybe we should not give the authorities the power to implement
technological changes without the consent of the governed? Technology moves
faster than policies can adapt to them, but old laws and institutions like the
police evolved in times when the tools of day could not have been imagined.
Edit: Regulating technologies like facial recognition popularizes the control
of social systems which counter acts authoritarianism and high concentration
of power and resources.
~~~
hubert1234
Ok so outside of their own home people have to behave as if somebody watches
them 24/7\. No offense, but we already have data on what that kind of belief
produces and that's the belief that God always watches you. Seems to be
beneficial.
~~~
infinitezest
Not sure you have the option of not believing in the government if you find
their policies oppressive. Doesn't really seem like the same thing to me.
------
danielrhodes
Not intending to tow the libertarian line here, but I find it concerning when
regulation is proposed for a technology in a vacuum. We should see how facial
recognition develops and how the powers that be utilize it first. Only then
can we see if it is being used in a way which offends societal values, and
only then should we create laws and regulations to curb such behavior which
are specific in nature and not overly broad. Right now this is somewhat
speculative.
I think much of the fear around facial recognition is that it could be (or is
being) used for mass surveillance. The Supreme Court has already deemed mass
surveillance unconstitutional under the 4th amendment [1]. Perhaps the
solution to curb the misuse of facial recognition is to ban mass surveillance
itself, and not ban the tool.
[1] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-supreme-court-
ju...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-supreme-court-just-struck-
a-blow-against-mass-
surveillance/2018/06/25/1b5ee510-7653-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html)
~~~
hos234
Facebook/Youtube/Twitter et al uses mass surveillance to place ads. Netflix
uses it to decide what movies and shows to make. Google uses it to rank info.
Insurance companies use it to decide prices. The more data we have the more
everything is going to look like mass surveillance. Agree with your first
para. Let it play out. Allow people/orgs to fuck up as they will and then
regulate.
~~~
infinitezest
Meanwhile, they're amassing enough capital and information to make sure the
regulations look exactly the way they want.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
YouTube only needs one spam flag to remove a video - phwd
http://webapps.stackexchange.com/q/37118/40
======
mikecane
I don't think this is true. I've flagged several videos as spam -- they were
re-uploads of other videos to capture ad fees -- and have never seen a single
one of them removed. The speed of this takedown is probably a coincidence.
EDIT: Typo fix.
SECOND EDIT: Go read this, if you missed it here on HN:
The choices are fake and the truth is all made up [http://danshipper.com/the-
choices-are-fake-and-the-truth-is-...](http://danshipper.com/the-choices-are-
fake-and-the-truth-is-all-made-up)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
List of inventors killed by their own inventions - jeremynixon
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_inventions
======
ubersubtle
Inventing can be dangerous work! Those who push the limits can change the
world if things work out - but sometimes things don't, in the worst of ways...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Critical Tor flaw leaks users’ real IP address - sds111
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/critical-tor-flaw-leaks-users-real-ip-address-update-now/
======
mirimir
> TorMoil, as the flaw has been dubbed by its discoverer, is triggered when
> users click on links that begin with file:// rather than the more common
> [https://](https://) and [http://](http://) address prefixes. When the Tor
> browser for macOS and Linux is in the process of opening such an address,
> "the operating system may directly connect to the remote host, bypassing Tor
> Browser," according to a brief blog post published Tuesday by We Are
> Segment, the security firm that privately reported the bug to Tor
> developers.
Oh, well ... This is basically the same vulnerability exploited by the FBI's
NIT. And this is the key aspect ...
> ... "the operating system may directly connect to the remote host, bypassing
> Tor Browser," ...
Well, in any sort of secure Tor implementation, such a thing should be
impossible. The Tor client should be running in a router or gateway VM, and
the machine used for browsing should not even have a public IP address. That's
easy to manage with Whonix.
I've badgered Tor Project about this for years. And they've ignored me. Their
mantra has been about keeping things simple, so more people will use Tor.
Damn.
Edit: They've plugged this leak, but the fundamental weakness remains. Tor
Browser doesn't even block non-Tor connectivity with firewall rules. Even VPN
clients block non-VPN connectivity.
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
I wonder how hard it would be to ship tor as a bundle with qemu and a very
thin Linux image that provided just enough functionality to run it, then when
you click on the start icon, it opens the emulator, which opens up the browser
in a environment that's thin enough you don't even really need to pay
attention to it because you've just got a window containing window containing
your browser. With the right wm inside, you wouldn't even need that; it just
happens that this browser window is actually running inside of the VM that
shows up on your physical system.
~~~
3pt14159
It might be irrational, but I have this vague notion that it's somehow less
secure than Tor on a router. Breaking out of virtualization is certainly not
easy, but it seems easier than hacking a locked down router.
~~~
rbanffy
You can always start two VMs with very thin OSs on them. The Tor proxy could
even be a unikernel with no functionality beyond being a Tor proxy.
~~~
mirimir
I've played some with that. Whonix uses a full Debian install for the gateway,
and that uses lots of disk. I used OpenWRT VMs for a while, but Tor releases
in their repo got way out of data, and I never managed a build.
If someone can point to a distro that works for this, many of us would be very
happy.
~~~
rbanffy
I have some nice experiences running Alpine within VMs. Very small too, but I
did so in order to test things for deployment in containers, not Tor services.
------
saurik
"Critical Tor flaw leaks users’ real IP address"
This is not a problem with Tor: this is a problem with the Tor Browser (and
even then, only on macOS and Linux: users on Windows are not affected)... I'd
recommend changing the title as this otherwise sounds like some extremely
concerning flaw in the platform itself, which this attack is not targeting.
~~~
captainmuon
The Tor project itself muddles the distinction. If you go to their website and
click "download", you get the Tor Browser. They actively encourage people to
only use Tor Browser and not roll their own (because your browser requests
would look different and you would be trackable).
The "only way" (without contortions) to get Tor without the bundle is via
linux package manager.
~~~
saurik
I know a bunch of people who use Tor in various ways that does not in any way
involve a browser at all, and the ramifications of an attack at these two
levels (in the routing stack vs. in the app layer) are very different. I
appreciate why Ars Technica's headline is what it is, but this is Hacker News.
~~~
captainmuon
Yeah, you're right. This would be one of the cases where it makes sense to
change the title.
------
amluto
Ugh. Linux has this shiny feature called network namespaces. Tor Browser
should run in a network namespace such that it has no access to the Internet
and doesn't know it's real IP address in the first place and therefore _can
't_ have this kind of leak barring a code execution attack _and_ a sandbox
break.
~~~
mirimir
What's the advantage over just using iptables?
-A OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner [Tor uid] -j ACCEPT
-A OUTPUT -j DROP
~~~
amluto
So the browser itself doesn't know the IP. Then you don't have to worry about,
say, a WebRTC bug leaking your IP. You also gain a considerable degree of
protection from browser bugs in general.
Also, using network namespaces doesn't require root.
~~~
catern
Using network namespaces does require root. User namespaces can give you
something close enough to root to use network namespaces. But that only helps
you if user namespaces are usable unprivileged, which they usually aren't, due
to distro/sysadmin customization.
------
linkmotif
Just the other day I saw some file://-based exploit. Didn’t read the specifics
of this, but not validating a URL’s scheme must be a very common source of
problems. It’s so easy to overlook the scheme when everything is https?:// all
the time. But alas, file://, it’s real, browsers attempt to work with it.
Another edge to be aware of!!
~~~
stevekemp
Lots of online services are vulnerable to this kind of attack. I've seen
numerous forms that do things like check security headers, scan your HTML, or
do benchmarking. You're supposed to enter a site like:
* [https://example.com/](https://example.com/)
But instead you can access local files via file:////etc/passwd
~~~
lawnchair_larry
The remote site does not get the contents of your /etc/passwd if you do that,
due to same origin policy. And you cannot see the /etc/passwd of the remote
site. If you want to see your own, you can also open your /etc/passwd in vim.
So, there is no vulnerability there.
~~~
singlow
No. You can get the remote server's /etc/passwd in some cases. Most OS's would
block a file that obvious from a non-privileged app but maybe
/tmp/session.32eg3g3.txt is readable. There are sensitive local files that are
readable by your web app so you must take precautions. This is in fact a
common security hole caused by careless developers.
~~~
lawnchair_larry
With a file:// URI? No you can't. That isn't how that works. You're confusing
this with remote file disclosure attacks, which are totally different.
------
sillysaurus3
If anyone is wondering how the attack works, here's a guess:
file://../../dev/tcp/74.125.225.19/80
That would also explain why it works on 'nix but not windows.
(This is probably mistaken, but the attack might be something along those
lines.)
Hmm... Anyone have a link to the hotfix diff? We could just look rather than
guess.
~~~
JoshTriplett
/dev/tcp doesn't exist on the filesystem, only in bash, and only if enabled;
some distributions like Debian disable it.
~~~
sillysaurus3
Yeah, it was a wild guess. I just looked over all the new bug tracker entries
in Tor since Oct 28th, but none of them seem particularly critical.
Our best bet would be to look at Firefox's commit history since the 28th.
One crafty way to determine the exploit would be to bindiff the hotfix'd
firefox binary vs the previous release and examine the diffs in a disassembler
to see what code changed. Non-deterministic builds make that tricky, but it's
a neat technique to be aware of.
~~~
qeternity
Isn't this pretty standard practice?
~~~
sillysaurus3
It is. But no one has posted details of the exploit yet. I was hoping someone
would go find that out.
(I can't right now else I would.)
------
forapurpose
If an attacker learned a Tor Browser user's real IP address yesterday, and the
leak gets fixed today, can the attacker still somehow identify that user's
traffic tomorrow?
Browser fingerprinting comes to mind, but is there another method?
~~~
cjbprime
Depends on the attacker -- if they're able to surveil the network upstream of
the IP address they just learned, they could use timing analysis.
i.e. if the attacker is the FBI and they're trying to unmask visitors to an
onion service, and they learned your IP address (and hence real life name)
through this method, they can also confirm that you're visiting the site
they're surveiling through correlating packet times leaving your interface and
arriving at the surveiled server's.
Maybe there's a less dramatic way to do it too?
~~~
kakarot
It's my understanding that this exploit wouldn't work with a hidden service
because there is no way for your machine to know how to connect to it directly
and the connection must be established through the Tor network, unlike a
regular website. Is this not the case?
------
MR4D
Can someone please explain something to me? I’ve had this question for a long
time, and finally decided to ask it...
Why does anyone rely on TOR for security? Obviously bugs happen, but it seems
pretty easy to hack by any large organization....or government.
For instance, according to this page (
[https://metrics.torproject.org/networksize.html](https://metrics.torproject.org/networksize.html)
), there are less than 7,000 relays in the TOR network. To me, the US,
British, Russian, or Chinese government could easily control most of those
(i.e. running their own nodes) without anyone knowing, and use that to listen
in (or at least infer) what TOR users are doing.
At that small of a scale, I’d bet a large corporation could even run a bunch
of nodes.
How can that be protected against - or can it?
Am I missing something?
------
captainmuon
And this is why I usually run Tor as a transparent proxy, and put the browser
in a VM. All traffic from the VM is forced through Tor via iptables.
One downside is that you no longer look like all the other users that are
using TorBrowser. But I value non-identifiability (that they can't get to my
real identity) more than non-trackability.
~~~
CodesInChaos
You could use whonix. That way you get a similar VM based setup and look like
all the other whonix users.
------
mirimir
This is truly such an obvious exploit, given well-acknowledged risks of
opening files downloaded via Tor browser. I'm quite embarrassed that I didn't
think of it. And I'm pretty sure that others have exploited it.
But on reflection, this is actually excellent news. At least, for those of us
who don't rely on Tor browser. That is, Tor users occasionally get pwned. And
now there's less reason to suspect unreported vulnerabilities in Tor itself.
~~~
kakarot
With an implementation like Whonix, arguably the only safe _and_ (relatively)
easy way to use Tor, this exploit wouldn't have worked. The Tor Project's
insistence on placing ease of use above security is admirable and
understandable, but it provides a very false sense of security for the
majority of users, to the point where it can potentially be detrimental.
We sometimes take for granted our intelligence in this domain and forget that
the average Tor user doesn't know shit about opsec.
Just last week I found out a relative has been exploring Tor behind a VPN, and
try as I may, I couldn't make them understand what a MitM attack was. They
just read from a random page on the internet that it was safer to use a VPN
and didn't bother doing research because frankly, how would they know what to
look for?
~~~
mirimir
Well, I recommend using Tor through VPN services. I worry more about ISPs
doing MitM than VPNs. You have far more choice about VPNs than ISPs.
Governments can pressure local ISPs far more easily than VPN services, which
may do business from uncooperative jurisdictions.
And mostly, it's just that the VPN provides another level of IP obscurity. If
an adversary compromises Tor somehow, and learns your VPN exit IP, there's at
least a chance that they won't get your ISP-assigned IP. And if you use nested
VPN chains, the adversary would need information from multiple VPN providers.
It's the same logic behind three-relay Tor circuits.
~~~
kakarot
Point taken, but your ISP cannot middleman a connection between you and a
hidden service given a proper configuration. Likewise, a VPN provider cannot
theoretically see your encrypted TOR traffic, but there are many caveats to
this and a feeling of real security is only deserved if you pay attention to
your opsec and browsing habits.
For the average, uninformed user, I rest easier at night recommending a direct
connection to TOR. One less party to worry about. Security by obscurity is
more of an afterthought and shouldn't be relied upon. The relative I mentioned
was using a pretty shoddy VPN that I won't name here, but I definitely don't
trust them.
Of course, with a network as diverse as Tor, one user's threat model will vary
significantly from another's. For example one might be chiefly worried about
deanonymization while another might be more concerned with timing attacks. For
some of these use cases, having a VPN layer is pretty reasonable, but for
others, potentially detrimental.
------
Tepix
There is a similar old attack with file URLs: Redirect-to-SMB
([https://blog.cylance.com/redirect-to-smb](https://blog.cylance.com/redirect-
to-smb)). The fix is to block outbound SMB connections in your router.
------
fulafel
Interesting that this has been posted 5 times in the past few days without
receiving votes.
~~~
dang
That's the randomness of what gets attention here. Many good stories fall
through the cracks or need multiple submissions before they catch.
We try to mitigate this by looking through the stories that didn't get
attention and re-upping the good ones (described at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380)
and links back from there) and/or inviting reposts.
------
danjoc
How long has the exploit existed? Did it magically appear after Appelbaum was
run out of town on vague allegations of sexual harrassment?
~~~
dang
Please don't post flamewar comments to HN. We ban accounts that do this
repeatedly (and have had to ask you this before), so would you please re-read
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and follow it from now on?
------
rb666
Let us quickly catch all the pedos on there and then close the leak for good.
Just this once...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend - skynebula
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/13/opinion/sunday/Silicon-Valley-Is-Not-Your-Friend.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur
======
2close4comfort
It just needed you to sell your information and for you to buy its shiny
things. You were never a friend you are the product being sold.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask YC: Friday Morning pre-release testers for my web app. - izak30
I have a hosted CMS, and I would like feedback on the functionality and usability and design.<p>This is in pre-release state.<p>It is an in-line CMS, so your administratin looks like your frontend, and it acts like microsoft word on steroids. It builds web sites, not groups of web pages. Please e-mail issac.kelly at g mail dot com if you're interested in testing, or post here and I'll try to troll for e-mail addresses. Thanks
======
chaostheory
Two things:
It could be just me but I couldn't figure out how to enter an item at first.
It took me a while to figure out that you had to click on the markup button
before you can type.
I don't know if I hit an error or if it was MediaTemple's response time, but
when I tried to submit - nothing happened.
~~~
izak30
Sorry about that. This is the first time that I have used the sandbox, and it
was linked to the testing version instead of the current version, so part of
it was broken, you don't normally have to click the markup button to have
anything show up. I'll quit making edits to this while people are playing with
it, because as is (now) most everything should work.
~~~
chaostheory
works fine on firefox - but not for Safari or it's webkit brethren
yeah javascript/css cross browser compatibility is a pain...
------
davidw
Sounds like a lot of effort to test your app. Maybe a link would be best? Set
up a sandbox of some kind?
------
izak30
<http://issackelly.com.s30201.gridserver.com/admin>
~~~
mynameishere
I saw an odd picture with two children wearing their shorts on their heads. I
then clicked the "X" as quickly as possible.
------
nickb
My email's in my profile. Feel free to contact if you still need help.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are your New Year's resolutions? - justswim
I'm thinking about making some physical ones (getting more flexible, improving fitness) as well as some social ones (focus on building a better relationship / dating life). What are some others?
======
LinuxBender
About 30+ years ago, I made a resolution to never again make a new years
resolution. I have successfully stuck with it.
Poor philosophical humor aside, I instead chose to alter things on any given
day that I believe needs to be changed instead of waiting for the end of the
year, giving me too much time to forget what needs to be changed.
------
elamustrun
At the end of next year I want my average daily number of steps to be no less
than 8 thousand.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
These ads will make you laugh or cry: Digiday Video Awards winners - Kittykn
http://www.thememo.com/2016/01/21/digiday-video-awards-2106-adverts-that-make-you-cry-advertising/
======
rendx
People. Reminder: You are watching ads. In this case, completely voluntary.
Stay away from this stuff. It's highly addictive, manipulatory and sick. Don't
fall for it.
-1
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: I need someone who is 100 times better than me - tootlol
Basically I am a programming novice and I am wondering if I can work with some great programmers. What is the best way to get such opportunity?
======
tsewlliw
1) Open source
2) Got Money?
3) Got passion to work for next to nothing on something that will probably
fail?
4) You don't even need someone "better" than you to learn, just be deliberate
about learning what you can from your peers. If you get stuck, find a new gig.
I struggled with the same thing in the past, and thinking I couldn't learn
from people just because I thought I was smarter than them really held me back
(Also working on municipal tax collection software as a city employee, but I'm
pretty sure being less of a cocky prick would have helped)
~~~
tootlol
Realistically would any programmer want a novice to contribute other than
documentation? Edit: I have already been doing the things you are saying
(learning from everyone) but I feel I am not progressing fast enough.
~~~
stonemetal
On just about any project basic bug fixes would be good. You know the easy
noncritical stuff that tends to get overlooked. Fix up the slapdash UIs open
source apps tend to have. Tests, beat on a library's interface in a way that
someone too close to the code base might not think of. Depending on the app,
data import\export might be a good place to start. It rather depends on one's
area of interest.
~~~
tootlol
I want to focus on deliberate practice by choosing projects that is relevent
to my weakness. Right now I want to master C. Do you know a good projects for
this?
~~~
stonemetal
Open source projects written in C. That is like shooting fish in a barrel made
out of fish, on a floor made out of fish, with a gun made out of fish, with
big fish for bullets.
You might try Redis, MongoDb, the Linux kernel, One of the BSD's kernels,
Python, mongrel 2....
------
illdave
Not to be too self-promotional, but I built a site called HackerBuddy.com that
could help you find a mentor (it's all free).
A lot of the advice here is about learning to code by building something for
yourself, I completely agree with that approach. Pick a small web app that
you'd like to build and try to build it yourself - when you get stuck,
StackOverflow can usually help. I know that I learned much more by building
something than I did being shown how to build something. And good luck!
------
blendergasket
I'm sort of in the same place. I've been working on making my own blogging
system that can house various projects I'm working on and it's been going...
slowly. I'm nearly done with the first iteration of it though. I've rewritten
it maybe 3 times, but I've learned a lot about coding while making it. Its
current iteration is made so that I can extend it in various ways and once I
get a few extensions I plan on open-sourcing it. It's been good to have a pet
project to work on.
I would love to have someone with a lot more programming talent/knowledge than
myself to show me what I'm doing wrong and how to do it better. Is there some
way I could submit it when I get the basic structure finished (should be
within the next week or two) and get someone to look at it? Is this the kind
of thing I could bring to a hackerspace to show off and get ideas from?
------
a3camero
Download Wordpress and try making a plugin. Play around with it and see what
good programmers have done. You can try this for other software too (pick your
language). It's one way of working with great programmers.
~~~
tootlol
Right now my main interest is mastering C or C++. Do you know a good open
source project I could get started with?
~~~
sea6ear
Some thoughts off the top of my head (hopefully accurate):
- Do you use Vim? I believe it's written in C
- Apache web server - written in C (I believe)
- Mozilla Firefox - written in C++
These above would have the advantage that they might be programs you are
already using, and thus somewhat familiar with.
For something smaller:
- Aspell is a clone of ispell that is written in C++
I believe they were looking for a new maintainer of
the Windows port a while back.
- Also, mongrel2 (by Zed Shaw) is a new web server written
in C that seems well thought out. And since it is new,
it may be more understandable than some of the larger
programs above. Also, the ZeroMQ infrastructure that
it uses seems interesting and useful to know about.
~~~
tootlol
How do I go about understanding the internals of Fire fox or GNU emacs? Do I
need to understand the entire thing to contribute? If not what should I do?
------
iambot
Short answer: Contribute to open-source.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bradley Manning: MEPs' open letter to the US government - asto
http://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php/topic,6479.msg25280.html#msg25280
======
asto
It's amazing what the US has turned into. US citizens are subjected to torture
by the government and its agencies, citizens are put through hell and treated
like criminals by the TSA just to fly, the rich and the powerful are bailed
out of their own mistakes while citizens are left with nothing.
To someone looking in from the outside (like me), it looks like the US is
slowly devolving into a third world state going by the shabby treatment of its
own citizens.
Edit: I forgot to mention the atrocious debt!
~~~
click170
I'm not amazed at what the US has turned into, but I am surprised by the
complacency demonstrated by the majority of Americans. As long as nobody tries
to take away TV and our creature comforts, to hell with the people the
government is openly torturing, surely they deserve it, right?
As someone looking in from Canada, it looks to me like America is going the
way of the Soviet Union, and muchly due to the same problem, exessive
corruption and greed sprinkled with some good old homegrown American apathy.
------
mistermustard
Just link to the letter as published by The Guardian:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/bradley-
manning-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/bradley-manning-mep-
open-letter)
~~~
click170
Better than the headline link which takes you to a page with an annoying
floating box telling you how easy it is to join their forum and that you
should join their forum because it's so easy to join.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Shopping: Upload Your Content Without Watermarks or Be Banned - johnnyg
http://pastebin.com/TN2tzRnE
======
millzlane
Let let me explain why one might watermark their photos. I sell aftermarket
car parts for JDM vehicles. Most of these products don't have images from the
manufacturer. Why? Well there lots of reasons but it boils down to different
configurations. It would be too time consuming to take an image of every
product in every configuration for every model they sell. So they may have a
generic picture of an exhaust system, that may or may not be the product
you're paying for.
I know that consumers like to see what they buy. I want to have pictures of
every image I sell. To do that, I need to order 1 of everything I plan to sell
so I can take photos of each item. As you can see it gets pretty costly. I'm
spending time, money and effort, to give the best possible shopping
experience. All while letting the customer know I have a product in my hands
that my competitors don't.
My competitors on the other hand. They just signed up for a new drop shipping
account with the same distributor but guess what? They have no images of the
items they sell and have no capital to order the item in. So where do they get
those images? You guessed it, from everyone else.
When I first started I remember giving discounts to customers who would allow
me to open their package and take showcase photos before sending them. I would
be upset if someone used my photos without my permission. I don't have time or
money to police the internet. So I protect my investment through the use of
the water mark. If not, it'd be like Ebay where you see 40 different sellers
using the same exact product image, atrocious.
~~~
RokStdy
Thanks for the interesting perspective. This doesn't help you since you
already have a catalog of photos, but I wonder if you might get around this
rule if you took pictures of <part> on a backdrop with your logo repeated.
That way, sure, I could try to crop it to get rid of your logo, but if it's an
irregular shape I'd have to Photoshop your stuff out. Or maybe a sticker with
your logo on an unimportant part of the product.
~~~
Pxtl
That does restrain them a bit though - with a watermark, they can batch-change
the nature or obtrusiveness of the watermark, they can resell the unmarked
images, they can update their logo freely.
None of that can be done with the real-world-logo appearing on the product.
~~~
sentenza
It might be possible to use a greenscreen, though.
You do your photoshoot with a greenscreen in the background/part of the
background, then digitally replace the grenscreen with your logo. Since your
logo and the product are mixed at the edge pixels, it will look crappy if
cropped, whereas you yourself have the greenscreen originals and can change
the background whenever and however you like.
~~~
Pxtl
If you wanted to be really super-fancy you could apply some image recognition
decals to the greenscreen that would allow a program to determine the
orientation of the platform below or background behind the object. Then you
can actually do a more sophisticated projection of your logo onto the surface
and keep the shadows provided by your subject. But at this point it's gotten a
little sophisticated for a small seller.
------
jawns
I was curious what size these images are being displayed within Google
Shopping, so I checked it out. They're displayed at a standard thumbnail size
during search and a larger size in the detail view. At thumbnail size, the
watermark is barely noticeable. At the larger size, it's clearly there but
isn't gaudy or anything.
I understand the merchant's motivation for putting it there -- they don't want
their images stolen and reused without attribution (although I wouldn't
imagine there are a ton of people out there trying to steal images of CPAP
masks).
I don't really understand Google's motivation for banning such watermarks. So
long as they're not the type of full-image watermarks that cover the entire
product and make it difficult to tell what you're looking at, I don't think
they significantly degrade the user experience.
I guess what I'm saying is: Not all watermarks are created equal. The kind
that make for a bad user experience should rightfully be banned ... but this
is just a tiny credit line in the bottom right corner and isn't really
covering up the image.
~~~
lazyjones
> _I don 't really understand Google's motivation for banning such
> watermarks._
They want to use the images for other purposes. Shopping merchants are just
there to create content for Google's various venues.
~~~
RexRollman
Winner.
------
jonknee
Google Shopping that is, not Google. Google Shopping is the paid eCommerce
inclusion service. If you break the rules in AdWords you'll also be kicked
out.
This is a sensible rule too--if everyone had watermarks the pages would be
hideous.
~~~
maratd
> This is a sensible rule too--if everyone had watermarks the pages would be
> hideous.
So as a merchant, I have to invest a ton of money into getting quality
photography of my products ... only to have my competitors use those same
images for free?
~~~
jonknee
No one is forcing you to pay for ads on Google Shopping so you're free to do
whatever, but why would you invest a ton of money into quality photography and
then cover it up with a watermark?
If you're selling exactly what everyone else is selling the competitive point
is customer service and price--I'd worry much more about that than someone
copying your image. Such stores generally use the manufacturer's images
anyways.
~~~
maratd
> No one is forcing you to pay for ads on Google Shopping so you're free to do
> whatever
Did I say otherwise?
> why would you invest a ton of money into quality photography and then cover
> it up with a watermark?
To make sure that this quality photography stays as a competitive asset or if
used by others, turns into advertising for my store.
> If you're selling exactly what everyone else is selling the competitive
> point is customer service and price
When you're selling something online, photography is most certainly a
differentiator. It is also a substantial barrier to entry for the competition,
because quality photography is difficult and expensive.
> Such stores generally use the manufacturer's images anyways.
Manufacturer images, when they exist, are almost always terrible. Having good
photos to clearly show off the product and everything included is the
difference between a buyer clicking BUY and having them wander off.
~~~
Spoom
Use a digital watermark. You lose the advertising edge if competitors use it
but you can prove that the copyright belongs to you and force them to take it
down.
~~~
simoncion
> Use a digital watermark.
As opposed to those analog watermarks that we've all be hand-applying to our
JPEGs? :)
~~~
Spoom
Digital watermarks are typically invisible.
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_watermarking](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_watermarking)
~~~
simoncion
The results from this search are at odds with your assertion:
[http://images.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=watermarked+image...](http://images.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=watermarked+images)
Regardless, you seem to have missed the gentle humour in my original post.
------
protomyth
If I understand this correctly, I type something like "hard drive" and then
see a box to the right with a "Shop for hard drive on Google". The box has
pictures and prices. Clicking on that link brings up rows of products. Each
row has a picture, product name, and text saying something like "$59.99 from
25+ stores".
It looks to me like Google is going to use one of the merchants images of the
products to summarize those 25+ stores in a row. If the image Google picks is
watermarked then it is bad for Google.
So, instead of Google getting an image of each product themselves, they get
the merchant to provide them with a generic image to sell everyone's products.
I guess if you use Google's service, you should provide them with the generic
image they want and save the good image with measurements and such for your
website.
This seems to be another algorithmic solution for Google.
~~~
judk
Sounds like Google rebuilding yet another pillar of their business on a
foundation of copyright violation.
~~~
malandrew
Not really. You give them a license to use your image by using their service.
That's not a violation if you voluntarily license the image to them per the
terms of service. If you're not happy with this, go elsewhere with your images
and your products.
~~~
protomyth
Given them a license is necessary so they can display the images, but Google
using the license to help sell competitor's products because Google does not
want the burden of procuring their own photographs is pretty scummy.
------
ig1
Seems perfectly reasonable, if you want to supply an image for a product via a
shop feed it should reflect the product and not be an advertisement for the
shop.
They don't seem to prohibit non-promotional (invisible) watermarks if the
concern is image theft.
~~~
annnnd
Why would invisible watermarks in any way deter the thieves?
Granted, you can catch them if that is your intention, but it more effort for
less gain.
I don't understand the reason for this policy.
~~~
cma
Thieves can already scrub out visible watermarks with content-aware fill etc.
------
gnu8
The real reason may be that Google wants to use the images itself. It sure
would make things easy if they could force their merchants to provide
definitive and reusable images for all products ever, particularly to compete
with Amazon.
------
GrowMap
Everything Google does benefits big brands. This hurts small business and that
has obviously been their goal since their CEO said the Internet is a
"cesspool" and favoring big brands is how we're going to clean it up.
Google has a virtual monopoly on paid and organic search. Nothing converts as
well as search. They are severely damaging small businesses right and left. It
takes dozens of other sources of customers to replace Google.
Allowing Google to take over the Internet as we know it and turn it into their
own personal business is dangerous and unethical. That is why since commerce
began we have been warned about the dangers of monopolies. They became a
monopoly through the media - both owned by the wealthy elite. The media
chooses the winners from the products they built in the first place.
If you use Google Shopping to display your products I encourage you to log out
of Google and go see what they actually display. You are likely to find that
your products never show up for the money keyword phrases even when you
specify you only want to see the products in your store. But search on
something general and you'll confirm all your products are in their feed. That
is an even larger issue than watermarks. Both are symptoms of Google being far
too powerful. I first wrote about that in [http://growmap.com/farmer-update-
google-competitors/](http://growmap.com/farmer-update-google-competitors/)
Each major "Borg" site first hands small business a way to make money more
easily and then starts taking it away. That is how AdWords worked, and now
organic, Google Shopping, Facebook, etc. Expect it with Twitter, Pinterest,
Snapchat - any entity that is "Borg".
Users handed Google all this power and they can take it away, but first
businesses and bloggers must offer them alternatives and make it clear why we
need to use something else.
I know that sounds unlikely, but the tide does eventually turn. Wal-mart
killed small towns across America - but they are making a comeback now that
people realize what it cost them to be obsessed with cheap. We can do the same
online, but it won't happen overnight.
~~~
simoncion
> since their CEO said the Internet is a "cesspool" and favoring big brands is
> how we're going to clean it up.
When did he say this? Can you provide a citation?
~~~
cypher543
[http://www.wired.com/business/2008/10/google-ceo-
call/](http://www.wired.com/business/2008/10/google-ceo-call/)
~~~
simoncion
Thanks for the link!
The quote is:
'"Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how
you sort out the cesspool."'
Notice the absence of the word "big". His statement isn't wrong.
In this new world that worships advertising lingo, Wikipedia is a brand.
Archive.org is a brand. Slashdot, HN, iFixit, LWN are all brands. I understand
that this is a disgusting thing to say, but do you disagree with the substance
of the statement?
~~~
cypher543
I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. I was just posting the
link. :)
~~~
simoncion
No worries. I was talking to the GP with those comments. I should learn to use
more words to make my intended audience clear. :)
Sorry about that.
------
xiphias
I was working on Google Shopping. Lots of images are checked by a combination
of machine learning and humans (still, errors happen, as it's lots of data to
deal with).
The main problem with the watermarking is that the images can be shown in
product listings where an image like this wouldn't look nice and also the
image can be used for a product that is sold by multiple merchants.
~~~
msy
So in short Google wants to use merchant's product images, which they've
worked to produce or paid for as generic product images without compensation
and if merchants don't like it their account is banned.
~~~
icebraining
Google wants to use them according to the agreement that the merchant signed.
~~~
sentenza
And that's why I'll be cheering the EU regulators that will sue Google into
the ground should their shoppy-thingy ever gain the marketshare of Amazon or
Google search.
~~~
icebraining
They will sue them for preventing merchants from putting watermarks on their
images? I find that hard to believe.
~~~
sentenza
No. They would be sued for forcing merchants to let Google and others use
their copyrighted material using the threat of banning them from the store.
But that is only relevant if they are one of the dominant players.
The reasoning is that they would then be using their market dominance to force
merchants to forego their (IP) rights, which is in conflict with EU anti-trust
regulations.
~~~
icebraining
But why do say they force the merchants to give up their IP rights?
------
velco
Just create a practically invisible watermark of your photos by, for example,
subtly altering only one of the RGB channels
[http://www.psdbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/4-blue-
chan...](http://www.psdbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/4-blue-channel-
outer-glow.jpg)
------
chrisfarms
Not sure why this gaining traction?. The rule seems fair, and someone broke
the rule? Am I missing something.
~~~
protomyth
Because it looks like Google is using one merchant's carefully photographed
image of a product for all the merchants selling that product. This seems a
bit unfair.
~~~
daemin
They should probably compensate the merchant who's photos they use with
adwords or shopping credit for each photo that they use. Otherwise it seems
too scummy.
------
webdude
We got hit with the same issue just a month ago, and were actually completely
kicked out of the Shopping Feeds. We were finally able to talk to the right
person at Google and get reactivated for a two week extension to give us a
little more time to become compliant...at which point we then just removed all
but the newly unwatermarked images from the feed and for the past 4 weeks have
been doing nothing but recreating non-watermarked images for all of our
products and slowly building up our feed again.
I understand all the arguments...but when you're a company who IS trying to
protect hard work in shooting great high def images in-house, it is very
personal.
------
lnanek2
I would prefer my images not have watermarks, but I'd also prefer the best
images. This seems counter to that goal. I know some merchants like Newegg
invest money into having their own photos done and it is very valuable for
making it clear what connector components have and the like, but this makes it
not quite so valuable to them since others could pretty easily reuse the
images without being caught and without quality loss of watermark removal.
------
moocowduckquack
Include a flyer with a logo in the image and include the printed flyer in
every delivery.
------
joshuaheard
Photographs have a copyright automatically attached to them when created. You
could use a copyright enforcement action against your competitors. Look at the
DMCA.
------
mschuster91
Is this a message initiated by a human, or is it just some algorithm sending
it?
Is the reply-address one of those "smart" robots or can a real human be
reached there?
~~~
johnnyg
I'm a human and I'm really going to lose business over this policy.
~~~
jonknee
How so? If you make money through Google Shopping you should follow the rules.
If you don't, well then no loss to you.
~~~
commentzorro
Like the OP said, because of the photos.
In business a photo can often make the difference between a sale or no sale,
or more important, which shop the sale goes to. Some businesses, like fashion,
are almost entirely "photo" based. Others, like food, cars, etc. rely on it
extensively.
Here's an example in which, for arguments sake, we state that all non-photo
factors are equal and the best they can be.
Your business spends $100,000 a year to have top quality photos taken for the
products you sell and you find the photos lead to a five to ten fold
improvement in sales vs. stock or no photos. Now say all your competitors just
steal your images and use them for their sites. Your sales drop back to where
they were and your advantage is gone. And now you've got to make up the
$100,000 to top it all off.
Having a watermark won't stop lesser competitors from sealing your image, but
other "on par" competitors will likely not due to potential litigation. If you
don't have a watermark everyone steals it with the line, "I didn't know it was
something I couldn't use ... my web guys just found it on the internet. I'll
talk with them." (or whatever) So now you have to constantly police the
internet for competitors using your images, deal with take-downs, and lawyers.
Hope I've cleared things up a bit.
~~~
jonknee
... Then don't use advertising services like Google Shopping.
It's a pretty easy equation--do you make enough money through Google Shopping
that it makes up for any potential losses from others stealing your image
(which you can of course still go after legally)?
~~~
scrollbar
Don't like one of your professors this semester? It's a pretty easy equation.
Drop out of college.
Not happy with NSA collecting dragnet surveillance on you? It's a pretty easy
equation. Renounce your citizenship.
Neighbor making too much noise at night? It's a pretty easy equation. Move out
(or kill them?)
Why can't someone that's party to a relationship make a complaint about an
aspect of that relationship?
------
adamsrog
Google Shopping: Obey the TOS You Accepted or Be Banned
Seems reasonable.
------
mark-r
Would it be possible to have two images, a thumbnail submitted to Google and a
full-size one with watermark to display on your web site?
~~~
johnnyg
We looked at that, but the thumbnail would not be used as google displays both
thumbnail and full sized (on mouse over) versions.
------
ivanca
Link-bait; It should say "Google Adwords" not "Google".
~~~
johnnyg
I've edited the title to specify Google Shopping.
------
adrow
I think the reasoning would be that by putting your URL in the image, you are
potentially encouraging people to enter it manually instead of clicking Google
Shopping's link to the product.
~~~
emilv
No, most people would not do that. They would click the links on the page.
~~~
adrow
It doesn't have to be most people, with the traffic levels that Google
probably deal with, even a small percentage doing that could add up to a lot
of 'lost' click revenue.
------
raldi
Could someone paste the image links below? Pastebin appears to be overriding
my phone's ability to select and copy text.
~~~
mbrutsch
[http://www.cpap.com/productpage/disposable-white-filters-
res...](http://www.cpap.com/productpage/disposable-white-filters-respironics-
duet-lx-1-pack.html)
[http://www.cpap.com/productpage/probasics-zzz-mask-sg-
full-f...](http://www.cpap.com/productpage/probasics-zzz-mask-sg-full-face-
mask-cushion.html)
------
j2kun
Why not Fourier watermarks?
~~~
dudus
If you take a screenshot of an image with a Fourier Watermark does it retain
the watermark?
If it does it's a better solution than using a metadata watermark.
~~~
j2kun
That's an excellent question! Something I should explore on my blog... :)
------
lelf
Did you accept their TOS?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Back to school bill: pencil case, pens, rubber … and a £785 iPad - edward
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/09/back-to-school-bill-ipad-technology-parents
======
shams93
Android must be lacking professional curricula software. You would think
Amazon would get more aggressive in the education arena, they make the $50
tablet that works just fine for education purposes, sure it is not top of the
line, but kids don't need top of the line when whole communities are in
poverty. You would think Amazon would be pushing to unseat Apple in the
educational tablet arena.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Primer on Bezier Curves: finding y, given x - TheRealPomax
https://pomax.github.io/bezierinfo/#yforx
======
TheRealPomax
A small but important update to the Primer: after seven years there is now
finally a section that explains how you can find a y coordinate, given an x
coordinate, for functions that "look like they should just be normal
functions".
As parametric curves, Bezier curves are notorious for being loopy (heck, it's
_the_ reasons we use them in all manner of graphic design) but there's plenty
of cases where they're not: CSS transitions, audio EQ, image leveling, etc.
can all use Bezier curves as their control function, but that frickin control
variable means you can't just get y, if you know x.
This new section explains exactly how to get around that. I should have
written it years ago =)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ColourPop – Match the Colour, Pop the Bubble - danmunchie
My first published game. Free on Android and iPhone.<p>The goal is to pop bubbles only when they match the colour of the falling bubble on the left.<p>Seeking critical feedback and advice for future game releases. Don't hold back :)
======
danmunchie
Download here
[http://unpredictablecliche.wixsite.com/colourpop](http://unpredictablecliche.wixsite.com/colourpop)
Thanks for your time, hope you enjoy!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mathematician Measures the Repulsive Force Within Polynomials - sandwall
https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-math-measures-the-repulsive-force-within-polynomials-20200514/
======
jefftk
The title reads like a joke, but apparently it's not
------
LolWolf
Wow, this is an absolutely lovely presentation of that result. Huge props to
Hartnett for writing this piece! It's a perfect mix of intuitive and well-
explained without being too hand-wavy and it's quite an interesting subject,
too.
Again, big props to Hartnett (and Dimitrov, of course)!
------
syockit
Off-topic but can someone recommend me a software for drawing diagrams as
shown in this article? Something easier to use than matplotlib, TikZ?
~~~
fxj
Use R:
> plot(polyroot(c(1,-1,1,-1,1,-1)))
------
aDfbrtVt
Does anyone know how this idea of repulsive forces in root spacing might
relate to filter analysis?
~~~
LolWolf
What do you mean by filter analysis? As in classical linear filtering? (as in,
you're finding the roots of the transfer function?)
------
danharaj
Not to shit on all of your middlebrow dismissals but mathematicians are known
to steal language from other fields as metaphors for mathematical phenomena.
Sometimes these metaphors are very rigorous and precise and sometimes they're
fast and loose. Here, look, I found all these papers which use "repulsion" as
a mathematical metaphor for distances between zeroes, eigenvalues, and other
special values of a geometric object:
Random matrices: tail bounds for gaps between eigenvalues
Gaps (or spacings) between consecutive eigenvalues are a central topic in
random matrix theory. The goal of this paper is to study the tail distribution
of these gaps in various random matrix models. We give the first repulsion
bound for random matrices with discrete entries and the first super-polynomial
bound on the probability that a random graph has simple spectrum, along with
several applications."
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.00396](https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.00396)
Real roots of random polynomials: expectation and repulsion
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.4128](https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.4128)
Zero repulsion in families of elliptic curve L-functions and an observation of
Miller
[https://academic.oup.com/blms/article-
abstract/45/1/80/29767...](https://academic.oup.com/blms/article-
abstract/45/1/80/297678)
Integral Points on Elliptic Curves and the Bombieri-Pila Bounds
Let C be an affine, plane, algebraic curve of degree d with integer
coefficients. In 1989, Bombieri and Pila showed that if one takes a box with
sides of length N then C can obtain no more than
O_{d,\epsilon}(N^{1/d+\epsilon}) integer points within the box. Importantly,
the implied constant makes no reference to the coefficients of the curve.
Examples of certain rational curves show that this bound is tight but it has
long been thought that when restricted to non-rational curves an improvement
should be possible whilst maintaining the uniformity of the bound. In this
paper we consider this problem restricted to elliptic curves and show that for
a large family of these curves the Bombieri-Pila bounds can be improved. The
techniques involved include repulsion of integer points, the theory of heights
and the large sieve. As an application we prove a uniform bound for the number
of rational points of bounded height on a general del Pezzo surface of degree
1.
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.4116](https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.4116)
~~~
LolWolf
Absolutely agreed—it's a little funny to see dismissals of the article (which,
as I mentioned elsewhere in the thread is actually quite good), even though,
as a mathematician [0] we use these analogies (and sometimes really the whole
idea) all the time.
To add to your list (for less number-theory specific topics):
\- Lyapunov functions? Energy in physics (just a mathematical surrogate)
\- Exponential families? Canonical ensemble in physics
\- Convex duality? Lagrange duality in classical mechanics
and the list continues.
\-----
[0] And, admittedly, a member of a physics lab, even though I don't really do
any physics.
~~~
danharaj
Yea! And here's a metaphor to... baking!! The moment this metaphor clicked for
me reading a musty textbook with yellowing pages was delightful, I can go back
to that moment just by thinking about it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milnor%E2%80%93Thurston_kneadi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milnor%E2%80%93Thurston_kneading_theory)
~~~
LolWolf
I love it! I had heard of some of these results in relation to Persi
Diaconis's work ( _e.g._ , [0]). I'm curious, what is the textbook? Would love
to take a quick glance at it at least! :)
EDIT: I also really like the fact that even the original paper mentioned in
the quanta article references other (quite pictorially fun) things, such as
the aptly named Hedgehog spaces [1] (see Theorem 3, for example).
Perhaps it's violating the prime directive to be mentioning this, but it's a
little bit of a shame to see what I think is a good article so quickly
dismissed by what is essentially just bikeshedding (that isn't even
justified!).
\----
[0]
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10955-011-0284-x](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10955-011-0284-x)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_space)
~~~
danharaj
Thought about it, and it was definitely the original paper in some journal
volume. I remember the pictures, and the ones I drew myself :) Found it here:
[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kochsc/MilnorThurston.pdf](http://www-
personal.umich.edu/~kochsc/MilnorThurston.pdf)
~~~
LolWolf
Awesome, thank you!
~~~
danharaj
the paper by Persi Diaconis you linked to was so fun that I want to learn
about markov chain mixing now.
~~~
LolWolf
Oh it’s an absolutely lovely overview. Honestly I would highly recommend most
stuff from Diaconis, he’s got a fantastic expository style (and all of his
papers are quite readable!)
------
lisper
This is an interesting and important result, but framing it in terms of a
"repulsive force" is beyond ridiculous. In fact, it's actively harmful. Forces
are physical things and this result has nothing to do with anything physical.
It's pure number theory.
~~~
Gollapalli
This is silly, and I wish I had enough points to downvote you.
Mathematicians borrow the terminology that is most helpful for explaining an
idea. such a thing cannot be seen as harmful. Readers are not infants, and
should not be treated like infants. They are responsible for the conclusions
they come to, especially in mathematics.
~~~
jfkebwjsbx
> especially in mathematics
What do you mean?
~~~
Gollapalli
Mathematics is one of those fields where you can actually, really verify the
truth or falseness of a statement, if you're willing to do the work involved.
~~~
jfkebwjsbx
That does not make sense within the context of the discussion.
In any science, engineering, etc. field you are responsible for the
conclusions you come in your papers/projects/etc.
Even in sub-fields of those with an empirical component (if that is your
angle) there are standards you have to reach to claim a discovery/success.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Android-phones will never be at par with the iPhone (but still win) - mvip
http://viktorpetersson.com/2010/11/06/why-android-phones-will-never-be-at-par-with-the-iphone-but-still-win/
======
AndrewDucker
Odd. He claims that almost no phones are running 2.2, when it was 28% back in
September:
[http://www.androidcentral.com/android-22-froyo-
already-28-pe...](http://www.androidcentral.com/android-22-froyo-
already-28-percent-android-phones)
~~~
DjDarkman
My Phone(HTC Tattoo) still has 1.6, and it may never get an official update.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tor On the Mac: Not as Hard as It Looks - twampss
http://theappleblog.com/2009/02/03/tor-on-the-mac-not-as-hard-as-it-looks/
======
smoody
"Due to the large number of relays, the original source of the traffic (you)
is virtually invisible."
You gotta love the word 'virtually.' It almost always means "take out the word
virtually and this sentence is false."
I'm not knocking Tor or the article. I'm impressed by both, but I think
virtually everyone skips over the word 'virtually' as if it were virtually
invisible.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ReactiveMongo Roadmap: The Non-Blocking Scala Driver for Mongo on its way to 1.0 - sgodbillon
http://stephane.godbillon.com/2013/01/17/announcing-reactivemongo-roadmap-reactivemongo-0.8.html
======
dkhenry
There is way to little in the way of Examples and Documentation to really make
this a useful announcement. Why do I even want this ? Where is the real world
use case. ?
~~~
sgodbillon
The initial announcement shows typical use cases:
[http://stephane.godbillon.com/2012/08/30/reactivemongo-
for-s...](http://stephane.godbillon.com/2012/08/30/reactivemongo-for-scala-
unleashing-mongodb-streaming-capabilities-for-realtime-web)
ReactiveMongo is a pure non-blocking Scala driver for MongoDB. But more than
that, it enables you to consume data from MongoDB in a reactive way. For
example you can stream documents from and into MongoDB, without blocking at
all, without filling up the memory.
Here are some good examples: <https://github.com/sgodbillon/reactivemongo-
demo-app> (A complete app with CRUD and GridFS)
[https://github.com/sgodbillon/reactivemongo-
tailablecursor-d...](https://github.com/sgodbillon/reactivemongo-
tailablecursor-demo) (a simple app streaming documents from a capped
collection through websockets)
~~~
alexjarvis
The examples were extremely helpful for me actually. Thanks Stephane! Looking
forward to the next release to make reading/writing BSON easier. Reckon we
could steal some of the awesome JSON macros stuff from Play for simple cases?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Have You Ever Hired Developers to Work on Your Personal Projects? - marktangotango
I've always had this idea in the back of my mind that I could find some talent on vworker or whatever to work on the miriad of personal projects I've wanted to do. I've never actually done it though. Have you done this? What was your experience like? Was it successful or a complete failure? What was the project?
======
Eridrus
Hired a developer on UpWork to build a basic dashboard for a startup idea I
was working on. Dashboard got completed, code was fine, but took far longer
than I expected. I guess you get what you pay for. Startup idea flopped for
other reasons. Will try and write it off on my taxes this year.
~~~
ashnyc
tried that on upwork and as you said it take a lot longer than what you
planned for ..
------
drKarl
That depends on what kind of resources do you have in more abundance or are
more willing to invest in those projects... You might have lots of ideas and
some spare time but not much money, in that case you'd be better off working
on some of those ideas yourself (obviously time is a very limited resource so
if it's only you, what you can accomplish is limited by the amount of time you
can put into it). Or you might have lots of money and very limited spare time
(or maybe you want to use the time for something else, or maybe you want to
tackle several projects at once and just managing them all would take all of
your time), in that case, if you can spare the money, it would make sense to
pursue some of your personal projects with some external help...
------
franciscop
From my personal point of view, I've done many small-medium projects. I'd say
on average 3-5 experiments per week (trying ideas out on JSFiddle, drawing pad
or just an .html) and 2-3 finished projects per month. My main motivation is
to keep learning and trying new things so it wouldn't make much sense for me
to hire someone for this.
I've thought about it though for documentation and testing, but then again
doing it myself and because I was a student (so no $) I also learned a lot.
BTW, What kind of projects are we talking about? I'm freelancing now :)
~~~
ashnyc
Franciscop, i have an idea that i am willing to fund. do you have a link of
your work
~~~
franciscop
Sure, you can see some projects here (all pinned projects are mine):
[http://github.com/franciscop/](http://github.com/franciscop/) or in my needs-
to-be-updated website [http://francisco.io/](http://francisco.io/)
But it highly depends on the kind of project, I will start in Toptal soon so
money is not such a big motivator as it is the kind of project/things to
learn/tech.
------
le-mark
I hired a freelancer once, i had a program static analysis project and I paid
some one to pull the parser out of an open source project and package it up
independently. The project didn't get much further than that. The money was
wasted unfortunately.
------
NetStrikeForce
Yes. So far it worked nicely for me and got to establish professional
relationships with a couple of them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Tulip Indicators – Library of Technical Analysis Functions - codeplea
https://tulipindicators.org
======
codeplea
I have been working on this for some time (as part of a larger project), and
published it as open-sourced a couple days ago. I'm wondering if there is any
interest, and I'm hoping for some feedback (good or bad).
Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amber, a new tool to prevent linkrot on websites, is out in beta - cllns
http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/02/amber-a-new-tool-to-prevent-linkrot-on-websites-is-out-in-beta/
======
cllns
Link to the project homepage: [http://amberlink.org/](http://amberlink.org/)
GitHub repos:
[https://github.com/berkmancenter?query=amber](https://github.com/berkmancenter?query=amber)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You can't parse [X]HTML with regex. - alexbosworth
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454
======
nailer
You could shorten this to 'regexs are for strings, xml is tree shaped'.
This is the reason etree is now a standard type in Python.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hacking Hacker News Headlines - pcr910303
https://metamarkets.com/2011/hacking-hacker-news-headlines/
======
throwGuardian
Another variable to consider: I don't be this for a fact, but I believe HN has
some sort of weighing parameter that might affect your submission: like if
your past submissions and comments are upvoted more than average, they might
fast track you into the top 90(??). Again, I don't know this for a fact, maybe
the mods can clarify
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
GitHub for Windows (official) - dchristiansen
http://windows.github.com/
======
dchristiansen
And the Github.com blog post - <https://github.com/blog/1127-github-for-
windows>
------
dchristiansen
Here's an introduction from Phil Haack -
[http://haacked.com/archive/2012/05/21/introducing-github-
for...](http://haacked.com/archive/2012/05/21/introducing-github-for-
windows.aspx)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to set up your own Certification Authority (CA) (2013) - Karunamon
https://jamielinux.com/articles/2013/08/act-as-your-own-certificate-authority/
======
vruiz
certified[1] has been a great for me so far in this matter.
[1][https://github.com/rcrowley/certified](https://github.com/rcrowley/certified)
------
Karunamon
A cursory reading didn't turn up anything obviously wrong or insecure with
this setup, with the possible exception of there being insecure defaults in
openssl.cnf which is minimally edited. Would love if anyone else could confirm
that!
Other instructions on this site include setting up an intermediate CA using a
similar process and details of the signing process. Great info, anyways.
~~~
e28eta
I was having a really hard time last week trying to figure out good settings
to pass to OpenSSL in 2014. There are quite a few tutorials over years, and as
an outsider it's really hard to evaluate the relative benefits.
I'd really love to see a continually updated set of best practices for using
OpenSSL for a variety of tasks, like creating a CA, intermediate cert, cert
for ssl/tls, etc
~~~
iancarroll
I'm working on a PKI "manual" which will be up soon. I kind of forgot about it
but it details a lot of things about PKI in 2015 and current security best
practices. Still has omissions though hence why it's not up yet.
------
moe
I'd suggest to rather use easy-rsa[1] because wrestling bare OpenSSL is not
something you want to do unless you absolutely have to.
[1] [https://github.com/OpenVPN/easy-
rsa/blob/master/doc/EasyRSA-...](https://github.com/OpenVPN/easy-
rsa/blob/master/doc/EasyRSA-Readme.md)
------
jpgvm
If you are a Ruby user I would recommend looking at the r509 project. [1]
It includes a HTTP interface for issuing certs and an OCSP responder.
[1][https://github.com/r509](https://github.com/r509)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Remote Working Niche-YouTubers Traveling Together - hoppingaround
http://www.createabroad.org
======
hoppingaround
There's quite a few startups popping up in the remote working/co-living
community. However, they all cater to a certain crowd. Why not expand to other
niches?
Create Abroad is for YouTubers, actors, filmmakers, and other video lovers.
Opinions?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lilliputian Nectar - USB 55000mWh fuel cell - baq
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/01/08/lilliputian-systems-makes-a-fuel-cell-on-silicon-wafers/
======
stephengillie
7.5w of heat output -- too bad we can't use a peltier/seebeck device[1], or a
stirling engine[2], to generate additional electricity from this.
[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect>
[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Uber Used Secret Greyball Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide - alphonsegaston
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
======
joantune
The question is, did they really have to engage in these tactics to "win"?
This just makes Uber sound another notch less moral and legal to everyone
further making it look like the evil corp. It's like their motto is the
opposite of Google's 'Do no Evil'.
And I guess the other question here is: does this matter for people (i.e.
consumers)? I would argue that given two equivalent choices, one would vote
for the one with better reputation, so yes, it matters
~~~
metheus
Given #deleteuber, it clearly matters to _some_ consumers. I suspect that it
matters enough to give competitors another few % of the market per major
fiasco, but not enough to alter the overall trajectory of the market.
~~~
joantune
Yeah, but I guess that they could also be winning even without shady tactics
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Supreme Court has fundamentally changed software patents - creamyhorror
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2014/09/07/the-software-patent-problem-not-emphasizing-the-technological-contribution-of-the-innovation/id=51028/
======
creamyhorror
What I find interesting in the comments section is the assertion by some of
the pro-patent people that the reality of computer programming does not align
with the Supreme Court's decision. The crux of the issue seems to essentially
be:
Lemley: _" We shouldn't allow patents on pure functionality; only on the means
of achieving that functionality."_ He also phrases this as _patenting the
solution and not the problem_. [http://www.wired.com/2012/10/mark-lemley-
functional-claiming...](http://www.wired.com/2012/10/mark-lemley-functional-
claiming/)
Pro-patent people: _" Specifying functionality is the way software is
developed - just look at any software outsourcing site. And that specified
functionality is what should be patentable."_
I wonder what experienced software developers would say to this. At what
point, if ever, should functionality (alone) be patentable? The Supreme Court
seems to have gone with "nope, it isn't patentable without some new inventive
step or hardware". But that means there's no clear line.
======
A nice hypothetical, quoted from elsewhere, that cuts to the center of the
issues:
_Assume that a person has no knowledge of computers or programming at all,
but they believe that certain functionality would be profitable, for example –
a function that analyzes your food eating habits and work schedule and
automatically orders and pays for delivery, so your favorite dish is waiting
for you when you get home. Can this person receive a patent? And I want to be
very clear here – This person knows nothing about computers, he only knows
what function he wants to see them achieve. His specification will read with
the same level of expertise as my exposition here does. Why or why not?_
This is quite analogous to much of what's been happening in the industry.
Should it be patentable or not?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
After 20 Years, Maryland Man’s Mac IIci Finally Dies - _pius
http://cultofmac.com/after-20-years-maryland-mans-mac-iici-finally-dies/12420
======
mahmud
My condolences to the man and his family. We all know how it feels to lose a
beloved machine. An evil conspiracy of an ex-girlfriend and, hopefully soon,
ex-mother, have sent my collection of Apple IIe's to the dumpster. All that
scaped were the manuals.
~~~
kirubakaran
Of course what is lost is lost, but can't you buy one? I bought an Apple //c
for $10 off eBay, as a "temporary replacement" for the one that I grew up with
but had to leave at home in India.
~~~
bockris
Did you get a chance to play with the Apple archive I sent you?
~~~
kirubakaran
I am still procrastinating it to death for no reason whatsoever! :) Thanks for
the nudge dude.
------
JacobAldridge
The problem with 2.2Mb of data to back-up?
Can't fit it all on a single floppy disk. No wonder he didn't back up for 20
years.
------
sown
You know, given that this is 1980's tech, a quick refresher in circuits, a
steady hand with iron and multimeter could probably identify the faulty
component since he can physically see it with his eyes and even replace!
Never give up!
~~~
ars
My Laser 128 can't read floppies ever since the magic smoke came out of it.
Wonder if I could fix it.
~~~
Luc
In the eighties I bought a C64 for the price of a beer from a guy who said it
was a total loss - there had been smoke coming out of it! Turned out it was
just a blown fuse. The same thing happened again a few years back with a
pinball machine, which also worked fine once I replaced the fuse. So check for
fuses :)
------
Shooter
"Finally"? He must have abused it somehow...mine is still running fine. So are
my SE and SE/30. I just wish new equipment had the same lifespan.
~~~
bockris
I have a //c that was purchased in 1985 that still works but it is rarely
booted these days (not even once a year). I also would expect it to last
basically forever because it doesn't have a hard disk. My floppy disks might
demagnetize but I've got them all backed up so the data will never be lost.
~~~
dhughes
Is the battery still on the motherboard? It will lose its charge or worse,
corrode, and damage the motherboard.
~~~
bockris
I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a battery. No need since it doesn't have a
clock.
------
teuobk
The only computer I've ever worn out was my first "real" box, a Mac Plus that
I acquired in 1993. After a few years of faithful service, a design flaw
reared its head (no fan => hot computer) and killed the power supply.
Fortunately, replacement power supplies were easy to come by back then, so a
quick swap made everything good as new. That computer continues to function
even today, albeit more as a curiosity than a workhorse.
------
pstinnett
Anyone know what software was on this computer that couldn't run in a newer
OS? Anytime I hear that I just feel baffled. Couldn't a newer machine at least
emulate the older OS?
------
forinti
My BBC B+128 is still alive. My father bought it in 1985. Just last week I
managed to hook up a brand new 3.5" drive and format a disc in single density
(FM).
------
cdibona
My wife had a mac from that era and it was toast. I got it running again with
a logic board from the same model which I found in the back room of weird
stuff for $20. I love that back room. We got the data off and now I have the
data backed up like crazy.
Weird stuff is -the- place to find old hardware.
------
stuff4ben
I'm feeling nostalgic now. I think I might go get my Amiga 500 out from under
the house and see if it still works. Anyone got a spare 1084 monitor? I went
"PC" when it broke back in 93.
------
Mentat_Enki
condolences, man...
bummer.
My Apple ][c is still kicking!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Clever ways to run a media-heavy website on a budget? - wild_preference
I've been taking a break from working to relax and visit some friends in a few countries. So I don't have a lot of money, but with my newfound free time, I've been inspired to take a shot at a few ideas I've always wanted to build.<p>One idea is particularly media heavy. I have 5+ TB of media that I'd like to build something around.<p>Services like S3 are pretty expensive, especially bandwidth. Backblaze has been trying to market their storage solution (https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html) against S3.<p>But I can get even cheaper by using low quality hardware and bandwidth like Kimsufi's 2TB machines for $10/mo (https://www.kimsufi.com/en/servers.xml).<p>Does anyone have another ideas for stretching a dollar?
======
heipei
Can also recommend Hetzner. You've got different options.
Go for a regular (or even Cloud) server and get a Storage Box on top. 5TB
Storage Box would be €26/mo.
You can also get a server with 2x3TB or 2x4TB for around €40-€50, either a new
one or a used one from their bidding page. Good thing about Hetzner is that
you don't pay extra for bandwidth, so the pricing is very easy and
predictable.
online.net has similar offers in a similar price-range.
~~~
teamhappy
I recommend Hetzner too, but I want to point out that traffic is _not_ free.
When you exceed the included traffic (something like 20-50TB IIRC) your
connection gets throttled unless you pay 1,2-1,4€/TB.
That's a good thing though. Traffic does cost money and all those providers
offering unlimited traffic will start emailing you once you generate
significant amounts of traffic anyway.
Edit: Just to put that into perspective (since most people here are talking
about the price of the server). If you buy a affordable server for
30-40€/month and you saturate the 1gbit/s NIC 24/7 you end up paying over
450€/month. If you buy a more expensive server (75€/month, 50TB traffic
included, 1,19€/TB extra traffic) you save at least 100€/month. I guess what
I'm saying is worry about the price of the traffic not the price of the
server.
Edit2: My math is all wrong. Anyway if you need lots of traffic buy their
regular servers instead of the auctioned ones, you will save money (more like
50+€/month, but still).
~~~
xstartup
Which block storage solution do you use on those Herzners servers? Or are you
directly using file system?
~~~
teamhappy
File system. The prices for Hetzner's cloud seem to be the same: 20TB traffic
included and 1,19€/TB on top of that. (That's super cheap by the way.)
------
zawerf
I don't recommend this, but if your media are images, some really large manga
sites (kissmanga.com, a top 500 site in the US according to alexa) have been
using blogger.com to host from Google Album Archive for years now and still
haven't been shut down. They are probably pushing hundreds of terabytes in
bandwidth per month for free.
~~~
wild_preference
That's probably exactly what I should do.
~~~
3stripe
Does that mean your ‘media’ is image-based?
Please tell us some more about your idea.. cos if it’s video, much of the
below is moot.
~~~
3stripe
PS. [http://silversuit.net/blog/2016/04/how-to-set-up-a-
practical...](http://silversuit.net/blog/2016/04/how-to-set-up-a-practically-
free-cdn/) ... 5tb on Backblaze B2 = $25/month
------
SXX
One of cheapest options with 20TB+ of free bandwidth would be Hetzner auction.
These servers might be not super reliable, but they don't have setup fee and
still capable of serving your files:
[https://robot.your-server.de/order/market](https://robot.your-
server.de/order/market)
~~~
tudorconstantin
I am using hetzner for about 5 years and had absolutely no problem with them.
I am paying 30 EUR/month for a machine with an older generation i7 CPU, 24 GB
of RAM, 2x750 GB HDD and 20TB of monthly traffic. The price is close to the
electricity cost if I were to host the machine in my home. During these 5
years the machine had not a single downtime.
I've read stories that they had lousy tech support, but can't confirm, since I
never needed it.
Overall I had a great experience with them so far, so I also recommend them
whenever I can.
~~~
zorked
Another data point: I used to buy servers in Hetzner's auction by the dozens
per month. It's very common that the servers will crash and need new HDDs or
RAM. I never had a problem with support, but soon learned to treat those
servers like cattle: if one is broken, return it and grab a new one.
They are worth it even if you have trouble, though. Just make sure you have a
backup plan.
~~~
imhoguy
Agree with that. I also advise to avoid machines with i7-3770 there. I had a
problem with this CPU and some mobo combination which ended up in random
crashes under network/disk load. More evidence here:
[https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1200617](https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1200617)
------
indigodaddy
Check out BuyVM.net's Storage VPS offerings. Unlimited transfer apparently.
Ultra competitive pricing and they don't overprovision. They're well
established and quite reputable in the hosting community. Largest disk space
offering appears to be 2TB, however if you contact them they might be able to
work something up for you.
Note: No affillation, but I've had a few small VPS'es with the. Very reliable
shop.
~~~
pnutjam
That looks way more expensive then time4vps.eu. I have a storage server with
them. THis is my affiliate link,
[https://billing.time4vps.eu/?affid=1881](https://billing.time4vps.eu/?affid=1881)
------
DDR0
How about using something like Websockets to reduce outbound cost? It'll have
anyone on the page viewing the media also host the media for their fellow web
surfers. If I recall, there is a socket-based bittorrent library floating
around somewhere -
[https://github.com/webtorrent](https://github.com/webtorrent) might be a good
start. :)
Serve the static web-page files from a decent host. Seed the 5tb of content
from the cheap host.
~~~
voltagex_
And what if your users are charged for upstream bandwidth?
~~~
solarkraft
That's
a. Unlikely, where have you seen this before?
b. A reasonable price to view the page.
~~~
AzMoo_
Uploads are metered on loads of Internet plans in Australia.
~~~
voltagex_
I was thinking more of phone data plans - they're even more limited (although
strangely Australia's got some of the best plans at the moment outside of
Europe)
------
mappu
Wasabi (S3-compatible) recently released an "Unlimited Egress" plan with
unmetered bandwidth:
[https://wasabi.com/pricing/](https://wasabi.com/pricing/)
That puts 5TB storage at $24/mo.
~~~
jazoom
Do you have any idea where their datacentres are?
They claim they're 6x faster than S3 but I'll bet it's 20 times slower with
latency unless they have a Sydney datacentre.
You'd think this is info they'd put somewhere findable on their website.
~~~
voltagex_
"Wasabi is deployed in fully secure and redundant data centers that are
certified for SOC-2, ISO 27001, and PCI-DSS. Our primary production data
center is in the us-east region and additional data centers in other regions
will be activated soon. Please contact us if you have specific questions in
this area."
~~~
jazoom
Thank you
------
ahofmann
Hetzner has already been mentioned, I just want to add that traffic is
effectively free with most German providers. Good German providers are
Hosteurope, Manitu, strato, 1und1. server4you, 1blu and others are
particularly cheap German providers, but I have no experience with them.
~~~
Svenstaro
My experience from a few years ago shows that one should stay away from strato
and server4you. They only seem cheap on the surface. Goo luck if you need
actual support.
------
hunvreus
Cloudflare is free: CDN the heck out of it.
~~~
scrollaway
This very much. You can also save all your media with content hashes in their
filename, then tell cloudflare to "always permanently cache" everything behind
a certain path using a page rule.
I have a site set up like that which serves over 1TB monthly and <5GB of it
actually goes through to S3. (And obviously you don't have to use s3 to back
it, you can use anything)
Bonus points: If you do it this way you can also use immutable caching for
clientside savings. More info: [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/01/using-
immutable-caching-to...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/01/using-immutable-
caching-to-speed-up-the-web/)
This may be dependent on how large your media is however. 5TB sounds like it
could be large videos, so some of this may not apply to you. I don't know how
well Cloudflare caches videos.
~~~
SXX
Any evidence that Cloudflare will cache even fraction of his 5TB on free plan?
While I personally have sites where like 20GB of images were cached on free
tier I truly don't expect them to cache as much as even 1TB.
> I don't know how well Cloudflare caches videos.
It's cache files only under 512MB:
[https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200394750-W...](https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200394750-What-s-the-maximum-file-size-CloudFlare-will-cache-)
------
merkaloid
Get Cloudflare and aggressively cache your data. I've seem them eat dozens of
TBs of data on the free plan without complaining that you're using too much
bandwidth on a free plan.
------
phasecode
Store your files in backblaze then proxy them through some cheap vps (to cover
bandwidth) and add local cache through something like nginx so you're not
going to the source frequently.
~~~
joshribakoff
Can make byte range requests a bit complicated and slows down your site when
there's cache misses
~~~
fleitz
Use the slice command in nginx and $slice_range your cache key ;)
~~~
joshribakoff
I'm not asking for advice I'm stating it does technically complicate your
setup. What if two people request overlapping ranges concurrently etc... it is
more moving parts to setup, test and administer
------
krewast
How about Contabo?
[https://contabo.com/?show=vps](https://contabo.com/?show=vps)
VPS XL: \- Six cores \- 30 GB RAM \- 2000 GB Storage \- 1 Gbit/s port \-
Unlimited traffic \- 19.99 EUR/month
VPS XL SSD: \- Ten cores \- 50 GB RAM \- 1200 GB Storage \- 1 Gbit/s port \-
Unlimited traffic \- 26.99 EUR/month
I'm running some personal projects on a VPS M SSD for a few years now and
never had a problems. They are based in Munich, Germany.
Side note: I probably wouldn't recommend them for high availability, "hard
core" production stuff but if you are on a budget and just want to try
something out, why not?
~~~
nwellnhof
From the footnotes: "Unlimited traffic: No additional costs due to traffic,
you can use 100 Mbit/s without any bandwidth restrictions or throttling. (Only
in case your server has a 1 Gbit/s uplink: If average traffic consumption
continuously exceeds 100 Mbit/s over a timespan of at least 9 days the
connection is switched to 100 Mbit/s)."
An average of 100 Mbit/s means ~32 TB/month.
------
vbezhenar
I have home connection with 300 Mb/s and server for a few hundreds of bucks. I
can easily host terabytes of things. You could do the same. It's not scalable
in terms of bandwidth (I could buy 1 Gb/s for few more bucks, but that's
limit) or not the most reliable service (though I had 0 unexpected downtime
for the last months), but might do the trick while you don't have much money
and if your idea will be profitable, you could move to the cloud.
------
simonpure
I'd also consider serving the files from your broadband connection and use
various caching techniques to limit hitting your home server such as IPFS,
Cloudflair, browser caching and other p2p approaches.
Alternatively, if it's video, you could also upload it to YouTube as unlisted
and serve it embedded in your page.
We could provide better recommendations if you share more details what the
type of data is and how it's intended to be used.
------
seeekr
Hetzner for storage and traffic, Scaleway for serving additional traffic for
free, to stretch the dollar further. At 5TB you probably don't need anything
but the raw file system yet, but if you do want some redundancy you could add
something like Gluster on top. I'm building out a video + image processing +
CDN-like aspects solution on top of such a setup and plan to offer it as SaaS
in the not too distant future. Idea is to make something a lot cheaper (order
of magnitude?) than currently exists on the market -- for a lot of ideas and
opportunities I come across using any of the non-budget clouds/hosting
providers is just not feasible financially.
~~~
scottybowl
Sounds similar to fly.io
~~~
seeekr
fly.io is aimed at very different use cases. It is essentially a programmable
CDN, and priced like a CDN, too ($0.10/GB traffic). You would not enjoy the
bill for trying to serve all of your video content through it, and you also
don't get disk-based storage from them, as far as I can tell. They only have
memory-based caching, which could be fine for caching the hottest of the
hottest of your video (or images), but for anything else paying $6 for 100MB
of cache, or $60 per GB per month, would make for insane costs.
------
joshribakoff
Digital ocean has super cheap block storage and currently has no way to track
bandwidth usage (currently overages are not billed). GlusterFS is also useful.
I cut latency in half switching from s3 to glusterFS
~~~
CodeWriter23
I believe you mean super cheap Object storage. Their block storage is
$0.10/GB/Mo. which is pretty much the going rate.
------
Geee
What kind of media? You might be able to avoid hosting them on your own
servers. If it's video, you can use Youtube. If it's images, use Flickr or
something else.
------
dawnerd
I have a server from here:
[https://www.nocix.net/dedicated/](https://www.nocix.net/dedicated/)
Not necessarily the most reliable provider but hard to beat the prices,
especially for their larger servers.
Since you said you were working with media, a vps will probably have pretty
poor performance if you're doing any transcoding or the such.
------
xstartup
Wasabi (s3 API) + Cheap VPS caches + Cloudflare. I would switch to cloudflare
paid tiers, if they still don't like you then simply remove Cloudflare from
this setup. It should infact be possible to offer this as SaaS where you just
need to upload api keys of wasabi, cloudflare, cloud vps providers and your
media servers are ready for webscale.
------
kondro
Cloudflare question: when would they start to get mad at you using potentially
PBs of bandwidth per month on a free plan?
~~~
jgrahamc
It depends what you're doing. If you use us as some kind of file host then
that's a ToS violation.
~~~
kondro
Those TOS are both very restrictive and vague at the same time though.
On one hand specifying that literally only HTML can be hosed through the
platform whilst simulataneously suggesting that caching other content is fine,
as long as it’s not “disproportionate” (but disproportionate to what?).
“SECTION 10: LIMITATION ON NON-HTML CACHING You acknowledge that Cloudflare’s
Service is offered as a platform to cache and serve web pages and websites and
is not offered for other purposes, such as remote storage. Accordingly, you
understand and agree to use the Service solely for the purpose of hosting and
serving web pages as viewed through a web browser or other application and the
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) protocol or other equivalent technology.
Cloudflare’s Service is also a shared web caching service, which means a
number of customers’ websites are cached from the same server. To ensure that
Cloudflare’s Service is reliable and available for the greatest number of
users, a customer’s usage cannot adversely affect the performance of other
customers’ sites. Additionally, the purpose of Cloudflare’s Service is to
proxy web content, not store data. Using an account primarily as an online
storage space, including the storage or caching of a disproportionate
percentage of pictures, movies, audio files, or other non-HTML content, is
prohibited. You further agree that if, at Cloudflare’s sole discretion, you
are deemed to have violated this section, or if Cloudflare, in its sole
discretion, deems it necessary due to excessive burden or potential adverse
impact on Cloudflare’s systems, potential adverse impact on other users,
server processing power, server memory, abuse controls, or other reasons,
Cloudflare may suspend or terminate your account without notice to or
liability to you
------
megamindbrian2
You could transcode with VLC/Elastic Transcoder and store that in the cloud
until an individual file is requested.
------
rocky1138
Your description doesn't include enough information. My first thoughts were to
create a torrent.
------
mozumder
I use my home ISP with a home server on a static IP address.
My server is something I built myself, and contains about 30TB of media
storage (FreeBSD ZFS setup), plus NVMe SSDs for database.
Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and super fast.
Holy crap is it fast.
~~~
icebraining
What's your upload bandwidth? Around here they're 1/10 of the download, so
you'd need a pretty expensive plan to serve a heavy website.
~~~
mozumder
Same upload & download. This is on Verizon Business FIOS.
------
LifeLiverTransp
[https://www.quora.com/Can-P2P-real-time-streaming-video-
be-s...](https://www.quora.com/Can-P2P-real-time-streaming-video-be-
successful)
Make your users your servers..
------
chx
Write up more precisely of how much bandwidth, storage and CPU you need and
post to [https://www.lowendtalk.com/](https://www.lowendtalk.com/)
~~~
voltagex_
Has anyone successfully run a business from an OpenVZ VPS? I thought those
ones, especially the ones on LowEndTalk were massively oversubscribed.
~~~
chx
1\. You get what you pay for 2\. Lowendtalk has a wide spectrum of offers,
OpenVZ, KVM, dedis and more.
------
squid3
Nodechef provides a lot more for startups and budgets of any size.
[https://nodechef.com/](https://nodechef.com/)
------
z3t4
Bittorrent. Or since you got lots of free time, build your own bittorrent-like
client like Spotify did, so that bandwidth is spread out between clients.
~~~
cascada
How will Bittrorent help here?
~~~
z3t4
He will be able to distribute all 5+ TB of media basically for free, and it
will scale infinitely. For example with Spotify, music was streaming peeer to
peer instead from a central server. Spotify has however gone away from that
model, probably because their bandwidth costs are dwarfed by all other
expenses like fancy new offices.
------
fratlas
1TB for $5/month on digitalocean ain't bad
~~~
wolco
That's only 25g of storage
------
rajacombinator
If you’re hosting something with enough bandwidth costs to be expensive, you
should probably find a business model and monetize it.
------
codegeek
Look at DigitalOcean spaces. 250 GB storage, 5TB bandwidth for $5/Month. Works
with most S3 compatible sdks already
------
alex621101
Linode $5 server + cloudflare for free
~~~
icebraining
A Linode $5 server only has 20GB of storage. OP has 5TB.
------
postit
I know a guy who once used one flickr pro account as a high res photo storage.
He wrote a middleware to upload the photos there and used nginx as a proxy to
keep links under his domain.
It was clever until it lasted.
~~~
ValentineC
That sounds like a fine idea. What happened to it?
------
mkj
Could you use better compression?
------
tehlike
What is your bw requirement?
------
berbec
GSuite + rclone mount for storage + unlimited bandwidth vps. Check out
lowendbox.com
------
senatorobama
Illegal streaming?
~~~
lev99
I was thinking porn.
------
pnutjam
That's 9.99 Euro's. I use Time4vps.eu. Their prices are the same, but I have
an older plan that was cheaper. They do offer specials occasional as well. I
have their 1TB plan for about $15 /quarter.
------
loganekz
s3 with cloudfront
[https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/Develope...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/MigrateS3ToCloudFront.html)
~~~
wild_preference
I've actually used that combination before and I would hate for the person
that DDoSed me to know how much they cost me.
~~~
CodeWriter23
Definitely hide whatever you implement behind CloudFlare.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Delivery to Mr Assange - follow a package to Julian Assange in real-time - gori
http://bitnik.org/assange/
======
kfullert
I'm sure sending parcels to an embassy which has an X-Ray representation that
could potentially by the same as a bomb or similar is a really good idea, and
isn't any kind of risk at all ...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You've Built a Great Technology, Now What? (A Dilemma) - dpapathanasiou
http://thecodist.com/fiche/thecodist/article/youve-built-a-great-technology-now-what-my-dilemma
======
gibsonf1
I think he meant to say Quandry as he has multiple options instead of dilemma
------
dpapathanasiou
I can empathize with this quote: _"I'm not Ycombinator material"_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The top 10 lies of entrepreneurs - brlittle
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html
======
xirium
From the article: "All we have to do is get 1% of the market."
There's two fallacies in this argument. The first is that getting 1% is
sufficient. The second that getting 1% is possible. I've seen the first
technique working but it isn't sustainable. In the UK, there was an early
cable channel and I believe its strategy was to be visually arresting and
therefore catch 1% of channel flippers. This is viable when you have 30
channels, but it isn't viable when you have 500 channels.
The second fallacy is the Chinese Sock Syndrome. If you could get 1% of the
Chinese sock market then you'd have a huge turnover. Unfortunately, it ignores
the possibility that the natives can service their own market at less cost.
This is probably how Pets.Com failed.
------
eusman
All these will look shiny to the eyes of a newcomer, and will probably accept
your lies.
Phrases determine people as much people determine phrases. So, if someone has
the power to act instead of talking, then even accusing that someone of using
those phrases will be a shot in the water, because this kind of persons are
untouchable, as much if you want to hurt them with a blog post!
"No one can do what we're doing"
“Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.”
Oracle or any other big company is a threat if you have a poor idea and
execution. All the rest are useless.
Patents
you can say whatever you want about patents, but for a startup is not about
suing others as it's about gaining IP, which makes it an easier target for an
exit.
1% of the market
define market first, then define what you mean by 1%
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is it better to burn out or to fade away? - pclark
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/194694/is-it-better-to-burn-out-or-to-fade-away-kurt-cobain-vs-billy-corgan/
======
rdl
I feel horrible for thinking this, and it sets up a lot of bad incentives, but
it's probably the case that Aaron Swartz will be ultimately more
famous/influential having killed himself than he would have been otherwise.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Books for Product Managers - craigkerstiens
https://www.kennorton.com/essays/books-for-product-managers.html
======
vewnew
Thanks for sharing this! I would also recommend reading "The Startup Owner's
Manual" by Steve Blank.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
XSV – A fast CSV toolkit in Rust - mseri
https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv
======
burntsushi
Author here. I was really hoping to get binaries for Windows/Mac/Linux
available before sharing it with others, but clearly I snoozed. I do have them
available for Linux though, so you don't have to install Rust in order to try
xsv:
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv/releases](https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv/releases)
Otherwise, you could try using rustle[1], which should install `xsv` in one
command (but it downloads Rust and compiles everything for you).
While I have your attention, if I had to pick one of the cooler features of
xsv, I'd tell you about `xsv index`. Its a command that creates a very simple
index that permits random access to your CSV data. This makes a lot of
operations pretty fast. For example:
xsv index worldcitiespop.csv # ~1.5s for 145MB
xsv slice -i 500000 worldcitiespop.csv | xsv table # instant, plus elastic tab stops for good measure
That second command doesn't have to chug through the first 499,999 records to
get the 500,000th record.
This can make other commands faster too, like random sampling and statistic
gathering. (Parallelism is used when possible!)
Finally, have you ever seen a CLI app QuickCheck'd? Yes. It's awesome! :-)
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv/blob/master/tests/test_sor...](https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv/blob/master/tests/test_sort.rs)
[1] - [https://github.com/brson/rustle](https://github.com/brson/rustle)
~~~
simi_
I'm looking forward to playing with _cool_ languages like Rust, Nim, and Elm.
But when I read stuff like this I remember why I love using Go every day.
Generating binaries for multiple platforms is braindead easy, as is building
from source on any system with Go installed.
That aside, really great work OP! I quite like the CSV format and had 2 ideas
based on my experience with it that I'd love to get an opinion on:
1\. markdown compiler plugin to expand 
2\. barebones, imgur-like website for quick CSV file[s] upload, maybe also a
public gallery to showcase interesting data (obviously all uploads marked
public/unlisted/private)
~~~
burntsushi
> But when I read stuff like this I remember why I love using Go every day.
Me too! I wrote a window manager in Go[1] that I've been using for years now.
I love that it takes <30 seconds to download and compile the whole thing. No C
dependencies (compile or runtime) at all.
With that said, doing it with Rust should be almost as easy. There's no `cargo
install` command, but I think it's only a matter of time. :-)
Your ideas seem cool, by the way! Sharing CSV data would be especially nice.
[1] -
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo](https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo)
~~~
simi_
Thanks for your support, I'll start working on the idea then. I just checked
your Gh repos, your productivity is astonishing. Chapeaux! Also, cute handle.
I suspect the problem with CSV will be working around the myriad of broken
implementations and making sense of malformed data.
~~~
burntsushi
> I suspect the problem with CSV will be working around the myriad of broken
> implementations and making sense of malformed data.
Indeed. My CSV parser (and Python's) is pretty interesting in that regard.
There are very few things that actually cause a parse error. You can see
here[1] that the only two errors occur if there are unequal length records
(which can be disabled by enabling the "flexible" option) and invalid UTF-8
data (which can be avoiding by reading everything into plain byte strings).
That means that _any_ arbitrary data gets parsed into _something_. There are
various mechanisms in the CSV parser's state machine that make decisions for
you. Mostly, I used the same types of decisions that Python makes. For
example:
>>> import csv
>>> from StringIO import StringIO
>>> list(csv.reader(StringIO('a, "b,c')))
[['a', ' "b', 'c']]
>>> list(csv.reader(StringIO('a,"b,c')))
[['a', 'b,c']]
Whaaaa? Yeah, if our CSV parsers were conformant with the spec, then both of
these examples should fail. But they succeed and result in slightly different
interpretations based on whether a space character precedes the quote.
Therefore, "good" CSV parsers tend to implement a superset of RFC 4180 when
parsing, but usually implement it strictly when writing.
(My CSV parser ends up with the same parse as Python here, because it seemed
like a good decision to follow its lead since it is used _ubiquitously_.)
[1] -
[http://burntsushi.net/rustdoc/csv/enum.ParseErrorKind.html](http://burntsushi.net/rustdoc/csv/enum.ParseErrorKind.html)
------
dbro
Here's another suggestion for the criticism section (which is a good idea for
any open-minded project to include):
Instead of using a separate set of tools to work with CSV data, use an adapter
to allow existing tools to work around CSV's quirky quoting methods.
csvquote
([https://github.com/dbro/csvquote](https://github.com/dbro/csvquote)) enables
the regular UNIX command line text toolset (like cut, wc, awk, etc.) to work
properly with CSV data.
~~~
burntsushi
That's a wicked cool tool! Thank you for sharing.
I do think there is room for both tools though. One of the cooler things I did
with `xsv` was implement a very basic form of indexing. It's just a sequence
of byte offsets where records start in some CSV data. Once you have that, you
can do things like process the data in parallel or slice records in CSV
instantly regardless of where those records occur.
It helps when the CSV parser has support for this:
[http://burntsushi.net/rustdoc/csv/struct.Reader.html#method....](http://burntsushi.net/rustdoc/csv/struct.Reader.html#method.byte_offset)
------
tbrownaw
From the "criticisms" section: _You shouldn 't be working with CSV data
because CSV is a terrible format._
Er, what's wrong with it? Or is this a case of, people using it for things
other than what it's meant for? Is there a better format for sending data
between different companies using different enterprisey database systems?
My complaint about csv is that people frequently generate it manually and
don't understand how to quote text fields, so they don't double any quote
characters that are part of the data. Which means I have to spend time
cleaning up malformed files.
~~~
steveklabnik
"CSV" is bad because it's not well-formed. There are tons of "CSV" parsers in
the wild, and they all make reasonable, but different, choices when it comes
to some behaviors. INI is the same way.
~~~
valevk
CSV RFC:
[http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180)
~~~
tomjakubowski
Existence of an RFC doesn't mean that people or tooling conform to it.
The CSV RFC doesn't specify an IETF standard, by the way.
------
101914
Did you try benchmarking against kdb+?
Seems like there are always HN commenters lambasting CSV. I am sure they have
very good reasons.
But, as for me, CSV is one of my favorite formats. (Sort of like how people
like XML or JSON I guess.) I like the limitations of CSV because I like
simple, raw data.
I wish the de facto format that www servers delivered was CSV instead of HTML
(for reason why, see below). Or at least I wish there was an option to receive
pages in CSV in addition to HTML.
Users could create their own markup, client side. Users could effectively use
their "spreadsheet software" to read the information on the www. Or they could
create infinitely creative presentations of data for themselves or others
using HTML5 or some other tool of personal expression.
It is easy to create HTML from CSV but I find it is a nuisance creating CSV
from HTML.
Because I have a need for CSV I write scanners with flex to convert HTML to
CSV.
I often wonder why I cannot access all the data I need from the www in CSV
format. Many have agreed over the years that the www needs more structure to
be more valuable as a data source. If data is first created in CSV, then you
have some inherent structure to build on; you can _use it_ to create markup
and add infinite creativity without destroying the underlying structure.
If data (cf. art or forms of personal expression) cannot be presented in CSV
then is it really raw data or is it something else, more subjective and
unwieldy?
Whatever. Back to reality. Pay no mind.
~~~
burntsushi
> Did you try benchmarking against kdb+?
xsv is never ever never going to compete with a real database. Full stop.
It's just a command line tool that tries to make some things faster when
slicing and dicing CSV data.
------
btown
If you need to do an indexing step anyways, why not simply import the data
into a SQL database, or build this as a wrapper that introspects the CSV file,
builds a database schema, and does the import for you? Is the issue limited
scratch space?
~~~
burntsushi
See the "Motivation" section:
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv#motivation](https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv#motivation)
There's a line somewhere between "conveniently play with large CSV data on the
CLI" and "the full power of a RDBMS." It's blurry and we won't all agree on
where it lays, but it certainly exists for me. (And based on feedback, it
exists for lots of others too.)
Also, there are already tools that look at a CSV file and figure out a schema.
No need to replicate that.
Finally, the indexing step is blindingly fast and only uses `N * 8` bytes,
where `N` is the number of records.
------
userbinator
Looks like it's based on this CSV parser:
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/rust-csv](https://github.com/BurntSushi/rust-
csv)
and it claims to be RFC4180-compliant, which is a good thing.
------
brazzledazzle
This is one of the things I really love about PowerShell. Import, manipulation
and export of formatted raw data like CSV is dead simple.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startup School 2013 - Facebook's Group - ChrisCinelli
https://www.facebook.com/groups/705664592796188/
======
seiji
How do we get around the signup wall? The site looks pretty shady and I don't
want to give it my personal information.
~~~
alex1
Facebook looks shady?
~~~
ChrisCinelli
It's a trolling comment ;-)
------
ChrisCinelli
There are already 200+ people on the group that are coordinate rides from
airport to the venue, submitting their twitter handles, sharing Linkedin's
profiles etc.
~~~
disgruntledphd2
I thought that this comment:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/705664592796188/permalink/70...](https://www.facebook.com/groups/705664592796188/permalink/709659365730044/)
was most enlightening as to why this item was here.
Amusingly self-referential.
~~~
ChrisCinelli
Yes, "upvote so other people can become aware of the group and join". Isn't
having a place where people can coordinate rides, get to know each other
before Startup School a useful thing for everybody?
I did not create the group but I really think that it can actually add value.
If you think that is unfair that I get karma points because I posted this,
feel free to create your own link to the group and I will upvote it. I am not
interested in points, I am interested in creating value for the participants
to Startup School.
Unfortunately HN ranking algorithm makes difficult to create a place like a
group or a forum that stick otherwise the initial post here about Startup
School would have been enough.
~~~
disgruntledphd2
Sorry, my tone my not have across very well over the internet.
I have no objection to this submission (and if it is useful for others, more
the better). I merely thought it was amusing to read a detailed description of
how to get something to the front page on HN, after following a link to a FB
group from HN.
Best of luck with the group, everyone!
------
austenallred
And the Twitter list of attendees for anyone interested:
[https://twitter.com/AustenjAllred/lists/startup-
school-2013](https://twitter.com/AustenjAllred/lists/startup-school-2013)
~~~
borski
How do I get added to the list / where are you pulling the data from? Can you
add me? @borski
~~~
austenallred
I'm adding from 1. the facebook group 2. anyone that tweets that they're going
to startup school 3. from here (now). You're both added.
------
pacifi30
Does anyone know if there is a pre-reception party this year as well?
~~~
ChrisCinelli
Last year, I met a girl at the after party that was invited to the pre-
reception thinking that everybody was invited. She did not have an idea and
she was not a technical person. I am not sure what is the criteria for being
invited to this pre-reception...
~~~
pacifi30
I was invited last time and I don't know on what basis I got the invitation. I
was just curious if anyone got the invitation for that reception party as of
yet
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google+ invites friends without asking - mittermayr
Google+ just let me know I can open an account now with my Gmail/domain e-mail, and I did. It started recommending people, which I thought was interesting, since I didn't give permission to use my address book. I added them to circles anyway, only to learn (and again, Google+ doesn't tell you this upfront) that most friends actually weren't on Google+ but rather were in my e-mail address book and everytime I added them to a circle, they were invited through e-mail, to join Google+. This shocks me, wouldn't fly in Germany, at all. Why Google? Why all the evil?<p>Here is proof:
http://imgur.com/Hck8O
======
corin_
You were actively asking Google to add those people, it was the polar opposite
of "without asking".
~~~
struppi
This is true, he asked google to add those people. Anyway, I sometimes wish it
would be easier to see who already is a Google+ user and who is not. Also, I
don't think this feature would be a problem in Germany (or here in Austria for
that matter). I don't think google needs your permission to use _their_
address book in one of _their_ services that is tightly coupled with gmail.
~~~
mittermayr
well, unfortunately, legally they need that permission. they probably informed
me throughout the process somewhere in the terms, which, i of course skipped.
I am just trying to make the point that this is less about legal implications
but merely a call for better user guidance and being nice to your customers. i
consider myself an advanced user (i make websites, i run a company, i've
worked for it corporations) and yet even I 'accidentally' spam a lot of my
friends because they showed up in a nicely prepared circle on Google+ that
says here are your friends, add them to your circles.
~~~
ramblerman
how can u share something with someone if they are not on google plus?
The fact that adding them would result in an invite seemed like basic logical
deduction to me. They could _always_ be clearer, but where does it end...
~~~
mittermayr
well, as i said, further down, there is a clear "invite friends" section,
right underneath the friend suggestions. this pretty much indicates that one
thing will suggest friends who are on the network and the other allows me to
invite them by e-mail. this is where my confusion came from... and that's
where google decided it's cool to show me full names and no (not on the
network) indications so i get the impression i can easily move them to a
circle and friend them, when in fact, this just helps to spam more people who
didn't want to be on the network (and I obviously can't know about this).
think business contacts.
~~~
Random_Person
Yeah, if you look at your circles, the friends that aren't on G+ show up with
an email icon in their bubble indicating that you are sharing with them via
email only. I've suggested multiple times that the same icon be shown in the
suggestions list. It really sucks that it is not on by default.
~~~
mittermayr
that's what I meant. exactly.
------
pasbesoin
Sounds like a dark pattern (deliberately misleading design).
P.S. Every time I think about joining Plus, another issue like this one makes
me put on the brakes.
At this point, I can say simply that "something doesn't smell right".
------
mittermayr
EDIT: I've added two screenshots of what I'm pissed about.
<http://imgur.com/Hck8O>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
5 Useful Tricks You Didn't Know for Git - tonatiuh
https://densitylabs.io/blog/5-useful-tricks-you-didn%27t-know-for-git
======
blakesterz
Those are pretty handy! I use git every single day, and have for about 6 or 7
years now. I still don't feel like I understand it well. I'm no expert,
there's a million things it does I don't use, I screw something up and can't
figure out how to undue (Why can't I just command-z?), but somehow it's one of
the most important parts of my job. I can't imagine going back to CVS.
Docker's the same way, but I feel even more ignorant when I start digging in
there. I mean I get it, but it still seems mostly like magic most of the time.
------
Zren
Hmm, don't really need the date. Git has `--oneline` to print things condense,
though I guess you wanted an example of custom formatting.
* acfb7b0 (HEAD -> master) local commit not pushed
* e79a979 (origin/master) Merge pull request #1 from OtherDude/master
|\
| * 38c5e19 Updated translation status
|/
* 014d564 (tag: v65) tabify
I use `lg` for this, and `lga` to print all branches. `ff` to pull the latest
stuff.
[alias]
lg = log --oneline --graph
lga = log --oneline --graph --all
ff = pull --ff-only origin master
------
jsight
That last tip is really fantastic. I've often sort-of improvised it with git
blame, but this is really what I've been looking for.
~~~
tonatiuh
Glad it helped you!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Katib – A Markdown Editor for Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and Hebrew - aiaf
http://katibapp.com/
======
baltcode
How do you put in diacritics (tashkil)? Can you use a regular English keyboard
and do phonetic transliteration?
~~~
aiaf
That is possible under Mac if you use the "Arabic QWERTY" keyboard. See this
link for instructions [http://katibapp.com/help/arabic-on-
mac/#learnersofarabicwill...](http://katibapp.com/help/arabic-on-
mac/#learnersofarabicwilllikethis)
Additionally, you can use the "Keyboard Viewer" when Arabic is selected as a
keyboard layout and hold shift. This will show you which keys render
diacritics.
------
hagope
This looks very nice, well done. Too expensive for me, but still nice.
------
mahmud
Very cool! Downloading now.
------
steedsofwar
Great, thanks for this!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Today, I am announcing an announement - the_unknown
It is time for an end to the "I am writing to you today to announce...." or the "Today, I am announcing..." intro. Please make your announcement, tell us how great it is and how our lives will be better now that your product/service/idea is out there.<p>With every company CEO, gov't official, and home-based scientist announcing something on a daily basis this starter has run its course.<p>Your announcement is (hopefully) important and worthwhile - don't hide behind a tired trope.
======
asplake
Today I announce the end of typos in headlines
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to be an Indispensable Programmer - kennethchu
http://www.farbeyondprogramming.com/2010/07/41-how-to-be-an-indispensable-programmer
======
frossie
Weird, weird list. Smile? Be a friend? Eh? Is this a social club?
My list is a lot shorter: (a) write lots of good code out of personal
inclination (rather than being forced by code reviews or because you are being
nagged or whatever) and (b) be able to troubleshoot your way out of a paper
bag.
I really don't care if you smile at me or not.
~~~
tkahn6
_Is this a social club?_
No, but I would prefer not to work with a douche-bag.
However, if you're only referring to the strict subset of traits that make you
a good programmer (and nothing else), then yes I agree.
~~~
frossie
A person who doesn't smile, or isn't overly friendly is a douche-bag? I think
you have your definitions mixed up. Introverts, reserved people, naturally
taciturn people, super-shy people, people from cultures that don't show their
teeth at every opportunity - they are perfectly fine people and can be a joy,
a _joy_ to work with.
People are great to work with when the work just "flows" around them. Their
personalities are (mostly) orthogonal with that. It doesn't make them
assholes. Come to think of it, the assholes are more likely to smile. YMMV.
~~~
palish
_A person who doesn't smile, or isn't overly friendly is a douche-bag?_
Generally, yes.
It's human nature to be judgmental. You can disagree with it all you'd like,
but ignoring it will directly impact you in a negative way.
It's why I try to go out of my way to smile and ask someone about themselves
every time they come by to ask me a question / chat / whatever, even if I
don't feel like it.
Such positioning may seem fake, but I feel it's "fake" in the same way wearing
clothes is "fake". You can disagree with wearing clothes, but running around
without pants won't win you much respect.
~~~
frossie
Yeah sure, it might affect how much people like you. Unfortunately, when you
have to sit around a table and decide who has to be laid off, I am sorry to
say I have never known likeability to be a consideration. If someone is nice
you will feel worse about having to let them go, but you are never going to
get rid of your grumpy hero programmer to keep the slow-coding nice guy. I can
say this from experience.
The OP was about being indispensable; and as I said, the person who is
indispensable is the one the business can least afford to lose. There are
occasionally other considerations, but they are all done without reference to
most of the items on that list, at least from what I have seen.
~~~
palish
Good point.
------
jorangreef
Better to be a dispensable programmer. Teach others and share knowledge and
understanding and make the team as a whole "Built To Last"
([http://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-
Compan...](http://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-
Companies/dp/0887307396)).
------
k7d
You only have people you "can't lose" when the whole team is mediocre. If you
have at least couple great programmers they will usually have enough drive to
learn every aspect of the project. And they will be able to pick up anything
in days even without much knowledge sharing.
~~~
prodigal_erik
I've found it doesn't always work that way. For instance, we have a legacy
homebrew billing system that's a Lovecraftian nightmare of procedural PHP
batch pipelines. We're all eagerly looking forward to just replacing it
wholesale, but in the meantime nobody delves into it, partly to preserve our
sanity and partly because nobody wants to be marked as "the guy who knows it
best" and condemned to maintaining it. All the original developers on that
part of the system quit months or years ago, but we have the last of them on
retainer to recover it from its failures. _That's_ the guy we couldn't lose.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Safe Browsing Works in Firefox - ashitlerferad
http://feeding.cloud.geek.nz/posts/how-safe-browsing-works-in-firefox/
======
hugefaggot
Cookies set by the Safe Browsing servers to
protect the service from abuse are stored in
a separate cookie jar so that they are not
mixed with regular browsing/session cookies.
And how are these cookies cleared? Seems like as soon as some sort of ID
appears in one of these cookies, XKeyScore will track your every (physical)
move with it even if you take care to delete all your regular cookies and
don't browse the same sites on different networks. Why does this protocol even
allow for cookies to be set at all in the first place?
~~~
derf_
Since Firefox 41 [1] Safe Browsing traffic all uses https, so it should not be
vulnerable to passive collection techniques like XKeyScore.
[1]
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1109475](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1109475)
------
mrswag
By default, doesn't firefox query OCSP responder for every TLS connection
(unless the server offers OCSP stapling [1]) ? The privacy implications are
pretty similar to Safe Browsing.
[1] [https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2013/07/29/ocsp-
stapling-i...](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2013/07/29/ocsp-stapling-in-
firefox/)
~~~
aawc
Not quite. In the case of OCSP, in the absence of OCSP stapling, all TLS
connections are verified with an external server(s).
In that case of SafeBrowsing however, as noted in the article, for those URLs
whose hash prefix doesn't match one of the hashes on one of the blacklists,
the browser doesn't contact any other server. Only when there's a partial
match does the browser ask for a full hash from the SafeBrowsing server.
Source: I'm a Chrome SafeBrowsing engineer.
------
haddr
How does it compare to other browsers? Does Chrome, Opera or IE/Edge use
similar (or better) techniques?
~~~
aawc
Chrome SafeBrowsing engineer here.
Google has published the protocol that clients need to follow to fetch updates
from the SafeBrowsing servers here: [https://developers.google.com/safe-
browsing/developers_guide...](https://developers.google.com/safe-
browsing/developers_guide_v3#ProtocolBasics)
Both Chrome and Firefox implement that protocol. I believe Edge uses
Microsoft's own service. Not sure about Opera.
------
mcherm
Why doesn't this use a bloom filter? It seems like an ideal application for
that data structure.
~~~
mccr8
A Quora answer to this question linked to this Google Chrome commit:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=71832](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=71832)
In short, it says that the prefix set uses less memory than a bloom filter.
~~~
ape4
It seems to be saying that they first used bloom then switched to save space.
------
lemonade
"Safe browsing" is one of the first things I turn off when installing a new
profile in a browser. I personally dislike any commercial service turned on by
default in my software that continually and without my consent pings back to
some place on the net - using my real IP address and leaking anything remotely
related to destination addresses. And cookies?
I think there should be better ways of protection than trusting such a service
anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I won't be applying for Y Combinator - kd5bjo
http://haleret.posterous.com/why-i-wont-be-applying-for-ycombinator
======
towndrunk
The title makes it sound like there is a problem with Y Combinator when in
fact, he is just not ready to apply. Not much of a post really.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Zealand reinstates coronavirus restrictions - SpicyLemonZest
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/11/world/new-zealand-restrictions-intl-scli/index.html
======
blaser-waffle
Yeah was wondering why they were so self-congratulatory when they were
trumpeting their 0-cases. Either they're missing them (not testing, etc), or
they're on hold for more. Pandemic ain't anywhere near being over.
Additionally, the NZ is like 5 million people in a highly isolated island;
they have it on easy-mode compared to NYC, which is centrally located and has
north of 20 million souls in the greater NYC area.
~~~
socalnate1
Did you read this article? There are now 4 cases (all in one family), after
102 days without any. They are reinstating restrictions for 3 days so
authorities can properly do contact tracing.
Of course pandemic isn't over, but I think some level of self congratulation
is appropriate.
~~~
makomk
There are a total of four _detected_ cases, with no known ties to any obvious
potential source of infection like overseas travel, border enforcement,
isolation facilities or anything like that, after 102 days without any.
Covid-19 cases don't just spontaneously generate - they had to catch it from
someone. Which implies there is some unknown number of undetected infections
out there spreading for an as-yet-undetermined amount of time during the
102-day period where no cases were detected. This is not a good sign and
definitely calls into question the self-congratulation. I suspect their PM
knows this.
(I've also heard claims that their testing numbers were quite low during the
period when zero cases were reported. Didn't get any mainstream media
coverage, but stuff which doesn't fit the narrative generally doesn't.)
~~~
heisenzombie
Yeah the message was always to get tested if you had any symptoms but that may
not have always happened in practice. There was sentinel testing of border
workers, but not widespread testing of the asymptomatic public.
If they can’t definitively contact-trace the origin of this family’s
infection, then we’re probably going to have to lock down for two transmission
cycles, ~4 weeks. That would be disappointing and difficult. We’re in the
middle of an election campaign cycle right now, so I hope that doesn’t strain
our unity.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
1099 workers and the sharing economy - aml183
http://www.arilewis.com/1099-workers-and-the-sharing-economy
======
paulhauggis
All of these restrictions on businesses will only make it that much more
difficult for a small business owner to survive. The big businesses love it
because it means that much less competition and it will continue to
concentrate everything at the top.
This is a community about startups. We shouldn't be happy when there are more
and more restrictions on businesses added by the government. The end result
will be a society of large companies and employees..and that's it. This also
reduces socioeconomic mobility.
~~~
aml183
I completely agree. I think that is the hypocrisy of Uber. They are modeling
their business and getting politicians to create carve outs specifically for
them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dear Reddit Employees: No Desire to Move? Let’s Talk - zvanness
https://www.odesk.com/blog/2014/10/dear-reddit-employees-desire-move-lets-talk/
======
carlosdp
This article misses a big point on remote vs local: culture. After reading all
of the articles about remote work on HN, I thought it was awesome.
But I interned at a company for which most employees are remote this summer,
and I found that not having the people in the same place really dampened the
experience for me and makes you miss out on the social component of
office/company culture (which helps a lot management/idea-wise often).
Maybe Reddit management decided they wanted to try something different. Maybe
the culture wasn't working for them. As long as they are offering severance
and understanding if someone doesn't want to move, I don't see why we anyone
is raising their pitchforks because Reddit is changing strategies.
Some of those tweets suggest Reddit thinks only SF has good talent, but then
why are they trying to move their existing remoters? I don't think that's what
they are saying, I think they just literally want to be under the same roof
while working. I think if Reddit's founders were living in Portland, they
would have asked everyone to move there, and it has nothing to do with SF.
(Note: not saying remoting doesn't work, it does, it's just not necessarily
for everyone)
------
rebelidealist
We haven't heard much from Reddit employees on this situation. DHH has been
the vocal one. Before we jump to any conclusions we should ask how Reddit's
remote employees really feel.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene - sarosh
http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/videoEnhancement.htm
======
marclar
Wow. Amazing work -- congratulations :)
------
keefe
I wonder how long rendering time was
~~~
chrisbroadfoot
5 minutes per frame
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A whirlwind tour of object-oriented code in F# (2012) - adgasf
https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/posts/completeness-anything-csharp-can-do/
======
danite
I used to be a big Haskell programmer. While I still love the language, I've
really come around to the idea that strictly evaluated functional languages
like F# or OCaml are the best for programming in. You get the nice functional
features but don't have the straightjacket of laziness forcing you into
certain design decisions. It's really nice sometimes to be able to mix in
impure, side effectful code without having to thread it through a monad. The
OCaml family feels like a nice blend of good sound functional features with
enough escape hatches to be productive in real world programs that might
occasionally need arrays or mutable state or IO. Laziness by default also
makes things like debugging or reasoning about performance frustratingly
difficult. I do miss Haskell's typeclasses in these languages, though. My
ideal language is basically Ocaml/F# but with Haskell's syntax and
typeclasses.
~~~
jlturner
I use F# daily, and to get around this limitation I use hacky custom code
generation an F# script (fsx) to generated specific types.
Additionally, on cases where you’re not specifying the data of the type
itself, you can use static type constraints on members. This doesn’t give you
a default implementation like Haskell but you can always provide one as a
function.
Btw the monadic threading is still very useful, especially when mixing impure
code and mutation (when appropriate). The async and result monads, in F#
computation expression form, are particularly useful.
For a good example of async + impure code, check out MailboxProcessor, which
is part of the standard F# lib. Works similar to CSP/goroutine +
channels/actor models; makes parallelized concurrency and message passing
easy. You can also make pure mailboxes easily by recursively passing data
forward, but sometimes you don’t want to for memory / gc & alloc reasons.
~~~
danite
Oh, for sure I still love monads. I miss Haskell's do syntax in every other
language. I think it's a great design pattern that starts popping up
constantly once you know where to look. My objection is being forced to use
monads due to the language's lazy by default semantics. You get this problem
with haskell where the IO monad eventually just pollutes a huge chunk of your
code because you can't safely sequence side effects without it. Sometimes I
just wanted an escape hatch that would let me do side effects that I knew to
be safe/harmless. Haskell has unsafePerformIO but it truly is unsafe because
you can't guarantee the execution order of your side effects, which makes it
useless as an escape hatch for a lot of purposes.
~~~
dean177
Ocaml is getting something similar to ‘do’ syntax very soon (but for
applicatives too!):
[http://jobjo.github.io//2019/04/24/ocaml-has-some-new-
shiny-...](http://jobjo.github.io//2019/04/24/ocaml-has-some-new-shiny-
syntax.html)
------
sleibrock
Years ago I was working a miserable job writing boilerplate template code
where I had to sub in variables based on certain conditions, it was using a
very bland language to look up data from our database and format the output. I
wasn't allowed to download any software onto my work computer despite having a
technical background.
So what I did instead to make my life easier was write F# to create a kind of
DSL and create the template lookup scripts for me. I did it all from the
browser with repl.it, and I generated dozens of scripts and saved myself a lot
of time in the process.
Now I mostly use Racket, but F# is where I kind of started out. It's a fun
dialect.
~~~
nhlx2
Reads like an opening of a dystopian novel!
~~~
oblio
Heh. I was doing manual deployments because of dumb bank policies so after a
lot of maneuvering I used Powershell and plink.exe to write a small, dumb
version of Python's Fabric to be able to automate deployments.
I was writing Powershell in Vim while trying to keep my skunkworks project out
of sight because of crappy management policies.
Sometimes you gotta make lemonade...
------
adgasf
F# is a joy to use. After a certain time, many C# developers find themselves
writing in a functional style. F# makes this the default, but lets you
continue using all of your existing code.
Better yet, Linux and macOS support via .Net Core is excellent. F# on .Net
Core is now a powerful alternative to Node.js.
~~~
louthy
> After a certain time, many C# developers find themselves writing in a
> functional style
If you can't move to F# or find its tooling abysmal and slow then I have a
library [1] that makes the inertia flow positively in the functional direction
in C#
[https://github.com/louthy/language-ext/](https://github.com/louthy/language-
ext/)
~~~
Scramblejams
Would love to use F# with Unity, but the typical high allocation rates that
come with the functional language territory scare me. Looked at your library,
it's very interesting. I saw your docs note about the allocation efficiency of
Map, would like to hear more. Could you characterize the library's general
allocation story?
~~~
louthy
I've done a short write-up about this:
[https://github.com/louthy/language-
ext/wiki/Performance](https://github.com/louthy/language-ext/wiki/Performance)
~~~
Scramblejams
Terrific info, thanks! Looking forward to using it.
------
rygxqpbsngav
Been using F# on personal projects and C# at work. I noticed my C# coding gone
high quality once I got into functional thinking. It is highly recommended for
anyone to check/learn F#. F# is my goto lang. now to competitive programming
too. I believe F# and ML will make a great combo, but python is still leading.
------
rishav_sharan
Unlike most commentors my experience with F# hasn't been stellar. I feel the
language itself is well designed and the community is great but there is just
so much of it.
Any source code that i try to go through is sprinkled with so many new
keywords, so many different way of combining stuff, that there seems to be so
many syntactical stuff going on. It is really making me struggle.
It just feels like a language where the maintainers are going overboard with.
And I am sure that once I understand it, I would love it, but the path to get
there is so hard.
Pretty much no tutorials or articles are out there and reading sources for
small projects is not viable for me either due to the keyword noise and too
many ways to do something.
I did not feel anything like this when I taught myself python, ES6, lua,
Crystal etc. F# just feels too big.
~~~
hoelle
I agree, F# is hard to learn. It took me a few months of tinkering to be able
to express myself in it.
Good entry points: Don Syme - his "F# Code I Love" talk has been recorded a
few times:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw2BAxG3bdM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw2BAxG3bdM).
I recommend catching a few versions.
Scott Wlaschin - His talks are also great:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srQt1NAHYC0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srQt1NAHYC0).
He also runs
[https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/](https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/) which
is a treasure trove.
And I found Isaac Abraham's book excellent and breezy to read:
[https://www.manning.com/books/get-programming-with-f-
sharp](https://www.manning.com/books/get-programming-with-f-sharp)
Now that I'm over the hump, I think F# code is far more readable than other
languages I'm well versed in (C++/C#). Probably my favorite thing about F# is
the strict top-down dependencies. You can open a project and read it in order,
and understand it without having to hop around a bunch.
And since most programs can be written in far fewer lines in F#, code written
in it ends up feeling very small and economical.
------
GiorgioG
The problem is F# doesn't get enough resources internally at Microsoft. How
many times has VS shipped missing the latest version of F# tools? In terms of
community, it's tiny. If I want to do functional programming, F#/.NET isn't
the strongest option. I have several books on F# and as much as I'd like to
learn/use it beyond toying around, I can't help but feel like all it's worth
using for is tinkering (outside of the few shops that use F# extensively.)
~~~
bunderbunder
I find this to be an interesting cultural phenomenon, this thing where people
in .NET-land are skittish about F# because it's not so tightly controlled by
Microsoft.
Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure nobody even _wants_ Oracle to be getting involved
in Kotlin or Scala or Clojure.
~~~
GiorgioG
> this thing where people in .NET-land are skittish about F# because it's not
> so tightly controlled by Microsoft.
Microsoft's great tooling is what has made (traditionally) it sticky for a lot
of developers. F#'s tooling from Microsoft has been a half-hearted effort
(organizationally, not speaking of the effort that the F# guys have put in.)
~~~
Rapzid
The irony is that F#s releases are in lock-step with the Visual tools team
releases and schedule.
~~~
GiorgioG
I must vehemently disagree.
From:
[https://github.com/dotnet/fsharp/issues/2400](https://github.com/dotnet/fsharp/issues/2400)
"GiorgioG commented on Oct 19, 2017 @masaeedu - Not to beat a dead horse, but
we've been waiting for an RTM release of this since May when VS2017 first
RTM'd. We were then told it would likely come in the July release of VS, we're
now nearing the tail end of October with no clear idea when we'll get it. It's
not @cartermp 's fault, just the reality that MS has not made it a high
priority (judging by their actions, not their words.) In summary, if you want
to use F#, use VSCode, it has excellent support for F#, as long as you realize
it's not Visual Studio, it's a souped up text editor."
~~~
Rapzid
Perhaps it's not the case anymore, but I meant more that F# language releases
used to be delayed until the Visual Tools team was ready to release a new
Version for Visual Studio. So essentially, the F# releases seemed to be held
up. Perhaps I'm remembering wrong and/or this has changed since the .Net core
support came in.
------
melling
Here’s a Tour of F# by Microsoft:
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/fsharp/tour](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fsharp/tour)
------
new4thaccount
I just bought Scott's book on Railway Oriented Domain Driven Design. So far so
good. I am the domain expert though, so no revelation there.
The modeling of state machines using types and functions is pretty
revolutionary to me for where I'm currently at development skill wise.
Everything just seems so clean and elegant.
~~~
arunix
The book is "Domain Modeling Made Functional"
[https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/books/](https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/books/)
------
mikece
While there's nothing you can do in C# that cannot be done in F#, the reverse
is not true. The biggest thing that comes to mind is to influence the
direction of the other language (C#). I've heard it said many times that if
you want to see what features will be in C# in the future, look at F#. Too
many features to cite (though Linq is the biggest that comes to mind) were in
production use in F# long before they arrived in C#.
~~~
svick
> While there's nothing you can do in C# that cannot be done in F#
Really? When did F# start supporting pointers?
> to influence the direction of the other language (C#)
Lately, it seems it's the other way around: C# is introducing features like
Span<T> or default interface members and F# is (quickly) catching up.
~~~
runevault
To your last point, with the freedom they seem to feel after the Core breakage
(like Span/Memory) C# might start innovating on its own again instead of just
taking awesome pieces from f# and making them part of C#.
------
nlawalker
_> Anything C# can do..._
Yes, yes, you _can_ do anything in F#, but what _should_ you do?
My opinion is that that what F# is missing is a good set of idioms and a
strongly opinionated set of guidelines. To my beginner's eyes, every F#
codebase I've seen feels like it's written in a completely different language;
it's like the opposite of Python's "one right way to do everything".
I've heard that F# is great for domain-specific languages, but in most cases a
DSL is the cardinal opposite of what I want. I want a _common_ language that I
can use to express a multitude of different concepts. It seems like all of the
guidance out there about F# is about showing off features, being extremely
clever, or using F# to teach functional concepts, not actually about _writing
useful applications_.
~~~
GordonS
As a long time C# dev who has dabbled with F#, I kind of feel the same.
I always find myself structuring appa like an OO app, which invariably results
in something that feels _wrong_.
For someone for which OO is so entrenched, it's really difficult to think
differently - and there doesn't seem to be an idiomatic way to write F# code
(not that I've found, anyway); every code base seems to take a different
approach.
------
joshsyn
I started F# lately and found it absolutely amazing. I come from heavy C#
programming, and always find myself reaching out to have sane default like
immutable types.
But unfortunately there are still lot of libraries out there for F# which
don't support .net core fully. Especially db access ones.
------
macca321
... and exhaustive matching:
[https://github.com/mcintyre321/OneOf](https://github.com/mcintyre321/OneOf)
I'm not saying it's as good as writing F#, or that C# shouldn't include these
features of course.
------
Nelkins
If you want to try F#, here's the full F# compiler in the browser run using
WebAssembly. Very fun to play with:
[https://tryfsharp.fsbolero.io/](https://tryfsharp.fsbolero.io/)
~~~
Nelkins
And it also compiles to Javascript:
[https://fable.io/repl/](https://fable.io/repl/)
You can browse through some sample apps using the side bar on the left.
~~~
onemoresoop
Thanks for posting that. Fable is fantastic
------
bob1029
I think several interesting points were brought up in this thread regarding
the assumption of functional aspects presented in F# by C#. LINQ being the
most popular example. I am currently lead to believe that a purely functional
application development domain is potentially an overreach of theory in terms
of building things that can interact with the real world in very complex and
'functionally-leaky' ways.
My biased perspective as someone who hasn't really used F# very much is this:
Perhaps an imperative language such as C# 8.0, with a few high-value
functional features sprinkled in, is actually the best of both worlds when
viewed through the lens of someone who has to interface with really weird
business systems. I use imperative techniques for handling remote calls,
exception handling, etc. Then, when I need to work with my internal business
logic or models, I can use more functional techniques.
Based on my own understanding and other comments presented here, C# does not
seem to preclude the usage of functional approaches to solving problems if you
have the discipline and experience to do so. C# also brings with it a host of
other benefits in terms of tooling support and simply being able to find other
developers who can understand your codebase.
~~~
McWobbleston
I really encourage you to use F#, as someone who's done C# for a long time I
find F# (while not perfect) does strike near to that ideal balance of FP /
imperative you speak of. Writing functional code naturally is a breeze, while
the language isn't going to punish you or feel awkward if you need to drop in
some mutable state or OO programming
------
dmitryminkovsky
For all the love Microsoft has been getting these days, I still don’t get how
I’m supposed to write C# or F# without Visual Studio and Windows. Am I missing
something? VSCode doesn’t support these languages, right? I’m a person who
spent a long time trying to write Java in Vim, but switched to IntelliJ and
wouldn’t want to write C#/F# without some comparable IDE.
~~~
yulaow
You can use Rider which is a very good crossplatform JetBrains IDE. I found it
very fast too (I use it on Fedora in my laptop)
~~~
thrower123
Rider is in some ways better than VS. If you have moderately large solutions
and a powerful desktop, you will frequently be butting up against the 32-bit
memory limit of VS, especially if you tear off any editor windows to put on
another monitor (I don't know why this exacerbates the problem so badly, but
I've been seeing it steady since VS 2013). Once you get around 2GB of memory
in use, things drag to a crawl.
------
macca321
One line data types
[https://github.com/mcintyre321/ValueOf](https://github.com/mcintyre321/ValueOf)
------
holtalanm
this is really interesting.
I've been meaning to dig my teeth into F# sometime soon because of its highly
functional base.
------
pjmlp
I missed the examples with EF, WPF, Windows Forms, UWP, WCF.
------
shitgoose
OO in F#. there goes the language...
~~~
adgasf
OOP is not idiomatic F#. It is mostly for interop with C#.
~~~
exyi
I would not say that, sometimes it's quite powerful to combine these
paradigms. I think they would not design a language for CLR only to force them
to create a huge interop subsystem.
You are right, however, that OOP should not be the default way to write things
in F#.
~~~
McWobbleston
I definitely appreciate being able to drop into an OOP style when I find it's
necessary. In a talk Don Syme (F#'s original designer) goes into aspects of OO
he enjoys, those understands the usefulness of, and those he does not enjoy. I
believe it was F# Code I Love, which gives some good insight into the thinking
behind the language.
------
lol768
It's a pity the tooling is comparatively immature, with F# (or at least that
was my experience last time I tried to develop with it). I think Rider is
getting there, though.
To go into more detail, the initial implementation in Rider was limited to not
much more than syntax highlighting. Inspections were fairly limited, ASP.NET
MVC integration was not as featureful.
On the C# side, it's much more developed and refined. Within Rider, it's
obviously been the main focus so I suppose it's only natural it's received
more polish.
~~~
asp_net
I've been developing F# in Rider for the last 4 weeks, and especially the last
update made a huge step forward. It's stable, fast, the test-runner works
perfectly, etc. It's definitely not at the same level as the C# tooling yet,
but it's good enough to be productive. (I'm on macOS by the way, building
Xamarin apps).
~~~
lol768
Glad to hear it's improved!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask PG: Can't flag or downvote anymore - bhavin
Just realized I am unable to downvote a comment or flag a post anymore. Is there a change in threshold/policy for that?
======
GFischer
I'm not PG but I remember reading that it was a sliding scale based on the
average karma... so if your karma grows slower than the total karma, you might
have lost the ability.
I can't find the interesting link with the analysis I read it from (it was
from around the time PG removed the points), but there's some confirmation
here:
[http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#cantdownvot...](http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#cantdownvote)
~~~
chc
Yeah, the thresholds are constantly creeping upward. I don't know what they
are now, but I'm pretty sure they're somewhere above 600.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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