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Ask Hacker News: Cost of living in Silicon Valley - Prrometheus
I’m trying to get a feel for what a single person’s burn rate would be in the valley. I know the cost of living there is supposed to be among the highest in the US. What can someone in Silicon Valley expect to pay each month in rent, food, utilities, car insurance, and gas?
======
joeguilmette
If you're lucky enough to work close to a BART stop, you're going to save
yourself about $1000/month.
Rent a room in a house close to any BART station. Berkeley is nice and cheap
(it's all relative), as is the peninsula Redwood City and up, until you get to
SF. The peninsula isn't actually connected to BART, it only runs south to
Millbrae. You can, however, use Caltrain, which runs from san jose to sf, with
BART connections in Millbrae.
The Bay Area's public transit is pretty bad, but if you're lucky enough to
live and work near BART or Caltrain, you'll be fine and it'll actually work
quite well.
Great tips for affordable, sane living: -Use BART/Caltrain whenever possible
-Know Caltrains somewhat limited schedule (dont get stuck in Millbrae at 9pm)
-GO TO THE FARMER'S MARKET. The food is a bit more expensive, but is
lightyears above local markets (Safeway, etc) in quality. \--The Bay is very
close to one of the world's largest and best agricultural systems, and the
only way to benefit from that relationship is the Farmer's Market. Safeway's
food is nasty in comparison. Every town has a market at least once a week.
\--And it's not just produce. They have a lot of local meats, eggs, and
restaurant booths too. All sorts of great stuff. It is marginally more
expensive, but just do yourself a favor and buy a tomato when they are in
season and compare to Safeway. Yes, they are $1/lb more, but, it doesn't
matter and you'll see why. -Use Yelp to find good cheap restaurants. If you
like ethnic food (asian, indian, etc) you'll eat for cheap and love every
second of it. There is never, ever, a reason to eat at place like the Olive
Garden or Chevy's. EVER. EVVVERRRR. Between the Farmer's Market and cheap
foreign food, you'll eat food better than almost anywhere in the US.
~~~
ardit33
excalty about the food part, and going to the dude going Olive Garden? WTF? I
imagine it is ok to go to Olive Garden when you are in a place in middle
america that has only chain restaurant around, but the bay area offers so much
more in authentic multi-cultural cuisine, most of them family run.
Farmers market are awesome, and to get good deals go there late, around 2pm-
ish, when the farmers are wraping their stuff, they'd rather give a lot of
their food for half the price then bring it back.
If you live in SF, there is a awesome small grocery (only fruit and vegies)
store at 4th and Geary. Very fresh, and very very cheap. Half the price you
get in your local safeway/lucky's/calmart.
Ah, and stay away from wholefoods. Horribly overpriced.
------
kirubakaran
Please poke holes in this idea:
1\. Save up some dollars
2\. Move to a city in India that has good infrastructure (Coimbatore is the
city I have in mind) =$1200
3\. Release and iterate till you get good traction =$200/month/person
4\. Move to Silicon Valley do the mating dance etc =$1200
Personal burn rate while at India would be as low as $200 per month without
compromising on any comfort.
After success, I plan to buy a big house there where visiting hackers can stay
for free :-)
~~~
falsestprophet
I think that is a great idea, but I suspect you can accomplish the same thing
by moving to a Midwestern college town or the ghetto in your hometown. The
expense of moving is only worthwhile if you intend to take a very long time to
build your product. Most web applications should only take a few months,
right?
If you do go to India, consider Goa. I am told it is very beautiful, very
European, and the Goans speak English.
~~~
kirubakaran
I agree that the India plan will be inexpensive only if the projects take more
than 2 months.
Problem with Goa is that it is very expensive due to all the tourists. It is
comparable to the west, I hear. Coimbatore has mild climate, a dozen
engineering colleges, inexpensive housing, great public transport, great food
etc.
~~~
jyu
general rule of thumb: any place in a foreign country where most speak English
will be expensive.
------
veeneck
When we lived out there, we rented a 2 bedroom townhouse for 3 people. Rent
was $2100. Food was ~$500. Public transportation is good out there, so we used
that exclusively for travel. And then another $100 for internet and bills. So
~$2700, but you could probably get that down to $2100 for just one person.
This was in Mountain View.
That's about double what I pay to live in Florida.
~~~
Prrometheus
Finally an advantage to living in DC – $2100 doesn’t sound all that bad to me.
------
thinkcomp
I've lived in Boston, Dallas, Atherton, Mountain View and Palo Alto. Rent is a
lot higher the closer you get to Stanford. I live a block away from Stanford
in Palo Alto, so rent is pretty high--$3,500 per month for a 3-bedroom house.
Utilities vary a lot depending upon where you live; they're typically handled
by the municipality. Gas is $3.69 per gallon around the corner from my house.
Car insurance depends upon your car and your insurance company.
I have to disagree about public transportation, having come from the East
Coast. It's godawful. There are five discrete transit systems (BART, Caltrain,
MUNI, SamTrans, VTA) that are actually more expensive to use than driving. You
really need a car out here.
It's double what I paid in Dallas, but I think it's worth it.
~~~
joeguilmette
While it sucks that the transit systems are disconnected, it is still most
definitely cheaper to take public transit than to drive.
To connect them all, use google transit. The bummer about Bay Area transit
isn't the cost, it is inexpensive in relation to driving. The bummer is
coverage. If you want to get somewhere in San Jose from Berkeley, it'll take
you 3 hours, as opposed to 1.5 hours driving.
But yea, I don't own a car, and Google Transit has changed my life. It's soooo
much easier to get around now!
------
abstractbill
My wife and I pay $1700/month for a two-bedroom house in Mountain View. I pay
$300 each six months to insure an awesome Z3 that I never get to use (I take
the train every day - $150/month for a pass between Mountain View and San
Francisco). Internet is $60/month, Electric is usually about $50/month. I'm
embarrassed to say I don't know how much we spend on food... I would guess
about $400/month, but that could be wrong by quite a bit since I don't do the
food shopping.
~~~
curi
Electric is significantly more if you keep multiple computers on 24/7.
~~~
powerflex
I live in a one bedroom apartment in SF, and have 2 mac mini's, a laptop, and
two servers - all are on 24/7. Electricity is $20 per month.
~~~
curi
2 cpu g5, imac, sometimes an old pc or macbook, don't use electricity for much
else besides light, varies but often 80-100. in berkeley. i wonder what's
causing the large difference.
edit: i'm buying this [http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-Kill-
Electricity-Moni...](http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-Kill-Electricity-
Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/)
~~~
powerflex
update: Im now at about 300Kwh/month for a bill of $35...
------
sgoraya
I would recommend east bay if you do not mind the commute / public
transportation; Rents are definitely cheaper on the east side; Though if you
would like to be near palo alto and do not necessarily mind a tough
neighborhood, try East Palo Alto (The difference crossing over the 101 on
University Ave. is pretty drastic, as are the rents)
I've lived in downtown San Jose and Berkeley - SJ is cheaper, but I prefer
Berkeley because of the weather, college atmosphere and good looking women
(mostly ;)
Cost of lving (I lived alone) SJ rent for 1 bedroom: $1,350 // Berkeley rent
for 2 bedroom: $1,850 (Both included all utilities except electricity)
Food: Dont skimp on food or toilet paper! ;) I like to cook, so I prepared my
own food for the most part to keep costs relatively cheap - ex: cooking a nice
cut of tri-tip with veggies can last a few days, etc. $200-250/mo
Internets: ~$70/mo for static IP
Extracurricular: $250/mo
Gas/Transportation: Variable depending on whether you drive or bus / Bart
------
tachibana
I'm a professional apartment manager in the Silicon Valley area. We currently
(Feb 2008) have 2-bed/1-bath apartments renting for $1500/mo and 1-bed/1-bath
apartments renting for $1100/mo. Water and power typically runs in the
$100/person-month range.
~~~
ssanders82
Can you be more specific on location?
~~~
tachibana
Around Homestead and Stelling (Cupertino/Sunnyvale). Within walking distance
are \- Safeway \- Longs Drugs \- Loehmann's \- McDonalds/Starbucks/Taco
Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut \- near I280 and CA-85.
------
bgutierrez
Living in San Francisco:
$1000 is the starting price for rent on a decent studio and can get as high as
you want, depending on the neighborhood.
Food can be cheap enough if you shop at Trader Joe's and eat out at Tommy's
Joynt. (Say, $300 a month.) I like to eat out more often and spend $600-$700
on food each month for me and my girlfriend. We don't go out drinking very
often, but when we do, it's easily $100 a night for several drinks, pizza, and
a cab ride home.
I don't own a car, but when I did it was $150/month for a spot in a garage and
$40 for parking tickets. Public transportation is great and the city has a
strong bicycle advocacy group, so that's what I choose.
I highly recommend living in the city if you aren't bothered by crowds, and
there are plenty of software companies here. (For anyone that is a PHP and
JavaScript pro, I can pass on a resume to the hiring manager here at Trulia.)
Let me know if you have any questions!
------
iamelgringo
This is something that my wife and I thought a lot about before we moved out
here, and we still work hard to keep costs very lean and mean. So, I'll write
a book for ya.
I've lived in Minneapolis, Chicago, LA, Providence, Fresno and now the Bay
Area. And, it's the most expensive city we've lived in. There is usually a
gentleman's competition ongoing as to what area is more expensive to live in:
Bay Area or New York City. I think that Manhattan generally wins as to a
specific region, but if compared to New York City as a whole, I think that
Silicon Valley probably wins the competition.
It's expensive.
But, you can make it work for you. It just takes work, and a willingness to do
stuff differently than you're used to.
If you're moving here, consider Craigslist to be your Bible for rental
listings. Every one advertises on Craigslist, even the large corporate
apartment complexes. Search around there for a few months. Then use the
neighborhood designations that Craigslist uses to research the specific
neighborhoods that you're interested in.
As to what your burn rate will be in the Valley, it all depends on how you
want to live. If you're going to share an apartment with roommates and eat
ramen noodle/frankfurter surprise 3 meals a day that will cut costs
dramatically. If you want to get your own studio or one bedroom and eat out at
_Chez Snooteee_ 7 days a week, that raises prices a lot.
Also, where you live matters a great deal in how much you pay for rent. San
Francisco and Palo Alto are the two highest rent areas in the Valley. Prices
go down the further out you live from there. East Bay prices tend to be quite
a bit lower, but commutes can be quite nasty because of having to cross the
Bay on one of the bridges. We found San Jose to be a great compromise. It's a
nice city, getting around is pretty easy, has a decent little downtown for
events/entertainment and rents are pretty reasonable considering the area.
And, I commute opposite traffic because I work nights.
Food prices in the grocery stores are about 30% higher than we've paid in
Boston, although there's ways around that. Safeway.com actually lets you order
groceries online, and their prices are exactly the same in store as they are
online. (We've researched it). But if you want to get a feel for what your
grocery bill will be, save your receipt from your next trip to the grocery
store, and create an account and a shopping list at:
<http://shop.safeway.com/register/default.asp?brandid=1> You can then compare
the two and figure out what you'll be spending on groceries at the store.
Gas prices are usually 20-30% higher than the rest of the nation, with gas in
San Fran usually topping the national price charts. Gas is about $3.50 right
now for us in San Jose.
Restaurants are anywhere from %30-50 more expensive in the Bay area. After
you've done your neighborhood research on Craigslist, look at Yelp.com for
restaurants in that area, and look at their menu's. You'll see what I mean. My
wife and I routinely drop $50-80 for dinner with a glass of wine at a mid
priced restaurant like the Olive Garden. Back East, that'd be $30-50 a dinner.
Electric bills are some of the highest in the nation. We rent a 4 bed 2 bath
house in San Jose, and our electric heating bill for Nov-Fev usually runs
between $300-400 a month. If you can rent a place with utilities included,
you're in luck. You only need air conditioning for 2-3 weeks out of the year
in the South Bay. You probably don't need it in San Fran.
Water and trash is $50 a month.
Rents go down about %10-20 during winter and around Christmas, and up an
additional %10-20 during the summer. So, if you move out here, you can get the
cheapest rents in January or early December. It's a terrible time to move, but
it really makes a difference when your paying $1800 for a 3 bed 2 bath house
as opposed to $2400.
Cable and Internet are comparable to %20 higher than elsewhere.
If you can, get a place with utilities included. It's worth the extra money in
rent. Utilities out here are expensive.
Public transportation stinks compared to Boston, New York or Chicago. People
out here are thrilled that they can occasionally ride it to an event down
town. It's rare that people use it to commute every day. However, people in
San Fran can get by without a car. You can't in the rest of the area. A new
perk some of the larger companies (Google, VMware) are offering is shuttle
service to and from work. If you can land a job with a perk like that it'll
save you $100-200 a month in gas depending on your car.
We rent that 4 bed 2 bath house in San Jose for about $2100 a month. It was
more expensive to rent a house, but it gives us a lot more room for stuff,
which ends up making in more economical for us in the long run. Here's what we
did: We've turned our garage in to a mini warehouse lined with shop shelves,
and we shop in bulk at CostCo (www.CostCo.com). I mean ++shop_in_bulk++. We
buy 4-5 months of staples, paper goods, meat, office supplies at CostCo. We
also have 2 freezers to store meat, prepared meals, etc... And, we're able to
rent out a room to family. Yeah, it's a little weird, but it works for us.
There is great shopping in the area. Ikea is for all your furniture and low
end household stuff. You can get great deals at Fry's electronics if you watch
their sales papers. And, for everything else, shop at the Gilroy Outlets. They
are actual outlets that sell overstock and seconds. They really are some of
the best outlets in Northern California, and you can get some amazing deals on
great products. Because of that, we actually pay less for household goods and
clothes than we did living anywhere else.
All that being said, moving here is the hardest part financially. After you
get here, things even out a bit, and salaries are high enough that they
generally compensate for the high cost of living.
Good luck.
~~~
ssanders82
Thanks for the long write-up, I'm thinking of moving out west as well (from
South Carolina of all places), and San Jose is on my radar. I'm a 25yo single
male used to living very cheaply, so those numbers are helpful. I'd be living
out there doing contract work for people in NC, which is probably backwards
from the optimal setup...
~~~
iamelgringo
Once you get out here, you can network pretty easily.
I've been hanging out on the rails business group:
[http://groups.google.com/group/rails-
business?hl=en&lnk=...](http://groups.google.com/group/rails-
business?hl=en&lnk=gschg) and I've gotten an email or two a month looking for
contract developers in the area. Or you can go to some of the Rails meetups or
Bay Piggies (Python users group) in the area and at least you should be able
to meet some people and possibly pick up some contract work out here. You just
have to make an effort to get out and meet people. Jobs don't seem to be a big
problem right now.
~~~
davidw
Any of you guys in SV get a sense that that area is headed south along with
the rest of the economy... or not? I recall moving back to the bay area in
2002, and it was pretty bad. I found work, but it was kind of difficult to
connect to potential employers as there were a lot of .com people still
milling about, looking for something to do.
~~~
iamelgringo
I know that Yahoo just fired 1000 people in the past few weeks, but I hear
that many of them got a 3 months severance. That should be enough time for
them to start a business or find another gig.
Friend was a laser engineer, just got laid off after 25 years, but had 5
offers on the table in two weeks.
GOOG's stock price has taken a tumble, but they still seem to be hiring:
[http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/topic.py?loc_id=1116&...](http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/topic.py?loc_id=1116&dep_id=1173)
Even the "big names" out here that are VC funded web startups, that would be
at risk of taking a one way to the dead pool in the event of a "bubble pop",
don't really have that many employees. Digg has 50 employees, Facebook had 300
at my last count but is still hiring like crazy:
<http://www.facebook.com/jobs/>
It seems like there are a lot of companies that are coming and going, but
there aren't the huge layoffs that hit the place so hard 6-7 years ago,
because web startups have kept it pretty lean and mean. For the most part, the
engineers still seem to be running the valley, not the biz dev guys.
Startups have been built without a lot of money, and are used to running on a
shoe string. If the economy tightens up, I don't think that it will the
startup guys that hard.
Some of the big hardware companies might shed some people if capital
expenditures take a nose dive across the country, so that means that Intel, HP
and Sun might shed some employees. But that's about it.
------
wheels
Similar question I'd been thinking of posting (I'll start a new thread if it
doesn't get enough traction here):
How about Boston / Cambridge?
Potential requirements would be: at least two separate rooms, which can be
tiny (basically a bed and a desk in each), and it'd be fine if they're in a
shared house, plus broadband. Is $1000/month doable for that?
~~~
smopburrito
that is doable near boston/cambridge, exclusive of utilities.
if you are willing to live in somerville (parts of which are effectively
cambridge due to its shape) or even medford, definitely.
compared to SF/SV, there is proportionally a much larger student population in
Boston/Cambridge, so supply/demand/price varies with the academic calendar
more than in other places.
------
lurker
Here's the only answer you need: It doesn't matter.
You can make it work. You're a motivated developer/entrepreneur. You'll be
fine. Work whichever variables (roommates, location, dining, etc.) you want to
meet your budget, but this town is geared to you. You might spend a lot, but
you'll make a lot too.
------
jdavid
So we have been doing some exploring after another investor in the midwest
told us to just move to the valley for the networking alone. he may be right.
after a few visits, i can say that living in SF, and playing in SF is just
fine without a car. SF will be expensive like living in the loop in Chicago,
or in some parts of Manhattan, heck thats what you pay for being in the center
of it. If you are coming from the suburbs you are in for a shock if you move
to SF.
if you live out of SF, you will want a car/ or even better a moped or bike.
public transportation is nice, but it adds up and is time consuming waiting
for stuff. what i love about it is it runs late, so a night out can be had
without driving into SF.
right now in MKE i am paying $770 a month as part of a 2 bedroom that is $1540
a month. For that we have 2 bedrooms, 1800sqft, a backyard, and a garage. In
the valley i expect to have much less, but it still seems like i can get a 2
bedroom for ~1500-~1800 a month, or a 3 bedroom for 2100-3000 a month. i think
rent is actually fairly reasonable considering the average median incomes and
the number of people with degrees.
starbucks internet will cost you $40 a month, where in MKE i get cafe wifi all
over the city for $22 a month. i might have to give in and get Att uverse
internet in the valley so we can roam into a starbucks for free.
As far as food goes, i found that palo alto, and just outside of san jose are
craazy expensive. in MKE a quiznos sandwich and drink might cost you 8$ but in
that area, we paid $12-$13 50% more. I found food in SF cheaper. I do not know
about the grocery stores, but its pretty hard to meet people for lunch and or
coffee in your home, so I think Food may have its larges sticker shock.
as for location, we found that 90% of the events that we want to go to are in
the sunnyvale, palo alto, and north/west san jose area. so it makes more sense
for us to live there, well unless we are going to date...... there seems to be
a lot of lovely ladies in Downtown SF on a daily basis, in fact most of them
will smile back. It's kinda rare for a city to have that quality. So I would
rank SF very high on women being approachable there.
Our plan for our 4 guys (1 of which is married) is to get a 2 bedroom with a
great couch for the 3rd guy, and a when the married guy is in town, he can
have a hidden mattress or an inflatable one. When it makes sense, we will get
1 more apartment come fall 08 or something.
~~~
menloparkbum
The problem with dating in the bay area is there is a 10:1 male to female
ratio. The women are smiling at you because your fly is open.
~~~
jdavid
lol, i don't think that was the reason, because the gay men would have been
smiling too.
------
bps4484
I haven't seen anyone mention taxes in the equation, and if you're from a
state with low state income tax and sales tax, that can really add up. Granted
sales take may be already in people estimates prices, but income tax is
progressive and gets as high as 9.3% past 43k of income.
~~~
curi
Dodge sales tax by buying everything from Amazon.
------
barrkel
All I can say is, people moaning about how expensive the valley is haven't
lived in London, especially at today's exchange rate.
A single-floor flat in a house with 3 general rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen
(allocate rooms as you like to make bedrooms), in somewhere not terribly
appealing (but not nastyville or dangerous either) costs around $2400/m. About
1 hour commute to the city centre via tube. If you want to drive into the city
during business hours, it'll cost you $16 just for congestion charge. If you
drive a big car (i.e. American-style SUV etc., based on emissions), that'll go
up to $50 a day soon enough.
You basically can't get non-fast-food meals for less than $20 a head, to eat
something fairly decent will cost quite a bit more.
Every time I visit the valley, I'm amazed at how cheap everything is.
------
tlrobinson
Living in the Bay Area without a car is fine if all you do is commute between
home and work on public transportation... but if you're trying to start a
company, raise money, etc, I couldn't imagine doing it without a car.
------
yzeli
You may want to compare the COLA (cost of living adjustments) between your
current area of residence and the place you're expecting to move. I've moved a
few times and that numbers seems to make sense in long term.
------
menloparkbum
san francisco
\- rent $1000 (unheard of lofty studio thing. )
\- phone: $50
\- internet connection: $50
\- muni pass: $45
\- food, entertainment, occasional car share: $300
personally about 1500 a month. no car. I'm cheap... you can obviously spend
huge amounts of money on going to expensive restaurants, electronics,
concerts, booze, cocaine, etc.
you will either be sharing for $700-$1100 a month or renting a studio/1BR for
$1200-$2000/m. rent is the largest expense. a car will cost at least $500/m
even if the car is paid for and you hardly drive (parking: $150, insurance
$50, gas $3/gallon, parking violations: $200)
------
tokipin
when i was living in san jose in a... what those artsy-sounding things
called... it was about $1000 a month. rent was $700, everything else like
utilities added up to about $200. starbucks/jamba juice every day added up to
$100 >.<
i lived in the outskirts of SJ i believe. ebay was a couple blocks away. i
miss the bay area :(
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Shaken Beliefs: Seismic Lessons from Japan’s Tohoku Earthquake - Thevet
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/shaken-beliefs-seismic-lessons-from-japans-tohoku-earthquake
======
lovemenot
I wonder what kind of person could have felt _that_ quake, at closer proximity
than I felt it in Tokyo, heard the sirens, been exposed to tsunami risk yet
_still_ ignored warnings because data were underreported. Contrary to the
article, I suspect more accurate on time warnings would not have altered
behaviors significantly.
~~~
mikekchar
I was in Shizuoka prefecture (another 200km away than you). I remember talking
to my colleague and casually asking where the epicenter was. "Tohoku", was the
reply. My jaw dropped because I knew what that meant. You don't feel Tohoku
earthquakes in Shizuoka.
I stayed at work until 2am that day because my supervisor would not let me go
home until the all clear was given for tsunami. Where I lived, I think we got
a 30 cm swell. In contrast, I heard the bad news that one of the people on the
same teaching programme I was in had died. She lived in the affected area and
went home to check on her apartment in the 17 minutes between when the
earthquake hit and the tsunami struck. Had she stayed at work, she would have
survived.
Why was there a difference between the actions of my supervisor and hers? I
live in Shizuoka which is 50 years overdue for the Tokai earthquake. It has
been said that there is an 85% likelihood that it will hit in my lifetime. I
also live in one of the most dangerous areas (on the western coast of Suruga
bay). Everybody knows that a devastating earthquake will hit and there is
constant training. This is key.
I think you are absolutely correct. Warnings are useful to an extent. However,
training is critical. My supervisor had absolutely no qualms about keeping me
at work (which is also the designated evacuation center for the area) simply
because this was obviously a very unusual event. Nobody really expected a
tsunami of any size to hit Suruga bay, but it didn't matter. I could go on for
quite a long time about the training that we get here because of the impending
Tokai earthquake.
On of the good things to come out of the Tohoku disaster is that I have heard
that similar training measures have been taken up by the whole country.
~~~
Gibbon1
> However, training is critical.
After the Great Alaska quake of 1964 two people died in Crescent City. After
the first wave hit they went back to check on things and then got caught by a
second wave.
Crescent City, CA is 2400km from Anchorage AK.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are the best way to learn advanced SQL? - slinger
As a web developer what are the best resources and exercises to learn advanced SQL? How do you choose which open source database best fits an application use-case?
======
lastofus
PostgreSQL is hands down the way to go when you need a relational DB (which is
99% of the time).
Some features to read up on:
* COALESCE, CASE
* Aggregate functions + GROUP BY + HAVING
* Subqueries
* The LEFT/RIGHT/INNER JOINs, and things you can achieve with JOIN conditions
* Different index types and how to use them
* Different constraint types and how they will save your ass
* Using temporary tables
* Views + Materialized Views
* CTEs, including recursive
* Full text search
* Trigger functions
* Window function
* DISTINCT ON vs DISTINCT & GROUP BY (a PG extension - why it's useful)
* Partial/functional indexes
* Schemas - especially useful for multi-tenancy
* COPY to load in datasets fast
* Transaction isolation levels
* Manual locking
* EXPLAIN + EXPLAIN ANALYZE
The above is just scratching the surface, but it's what I've found most useful
doing web dev. The PG manual covers all these things well, along with
supplemental stuff that can be googled. If you read the PG manual cover to
cover, your mind you be blown by what the DB can accomplish.
For learning about performance and what's going on under the hood, check out
"PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance".
Most of the really complex queries I've written consist of writing several
CTEs/sub-queries/views/temp tables which create a number of intermediate
tables containing transformed data, which in turn are available to the final
top level query. There's a lot of overlap with functional programming here:
build small queries, and use them as reusable building blocks.
If you find yourself needing to dynamically generate complicated queries,
instead of trying to construct them w/ string concatenation in your app, try
building temporary views, and then referencing those views in later queries,
as opposed to doing it all in one go. I usually have one function/method per
view in the app, and I can call the needed functions to create the foundation
for a later query.
------
harperlee
Just use postgres.
Read this (covers performance and internals): [https://use-the-index-
luke.com](https://use-the-index-luke.com)
And this (covers "advanced" SQL, more than the usual functions):
[http://www.windowfunctions.com](http://www.windowfunctions.com)
~~~
gigatexal
Can't recommend use-the-index-luke.com more. Wonderful resource.
------
combatentropy
Like any language it takes a mixture of reading and practice. If you just
read, it won't stick, because you have nothing to hang it onto. If you just
practice, you'll adopt hacks that work but aren't the best way to do it. So it
would be nice if you had a job that demands you regularly come up with new
SQL. Try to prepare your data as much as possible in the database, instead of
partly in the database and partly in your middle language (say, Python). So,
for example, try to make web pages that use the Mustache template system (a
very strict and minimal one) and use Python (or whatever) only to pull the
data from the database and stuff it into the template. That will make you
learn the esoteric features of your database.
I agree with others that you should try to use Postgres. It's easy to get
going on Linux, but if for whatever reason you can't right now, SQLite is
good, too. Really, Postgres or SQLite, there is no technical need for any
other database.
Supposing that you can go with Postgres, then your reading assignment is easy:
just read the Postgres documentation from start to finish. Of course you won't
get it the first time, and it might be a multimonth affair, but it's about as
good as any book I've found. For some reason, all books on SQL are really
boring. My very first book was Databases Demystified, which was a fine book
and helped me learn "normalization," which is a fancy word for Don't Repeat
Yourself --- except it's talking about reducing redundancy in data instead of
code.
------
smt88
If you need a relational schema (and you usually do), then you should use
Postgres. Don't make it complicated for no reason. It can also store documents
as JSONB.
If you aren't certain that you need a graph DB, don't use one.
What do you mean by advanced SQL? The language itself is simple once you
understand subqueries. The underlying math can be hard, but modern RDBMS
abstract a lot of the performance considerations away by optimizing your
queries for you.
~~~
slinger
> What do you mean by advanced SQL? I mean, understanding how to write your
> query using the right database features to get the best performance and
> understand query plans so that you can optimize slow queries.
------
zer00eyz
Sql is a bit more "binary" than that - if you can write one query, and read
the manual "advanced" isn't really a thing.
However, it is all going to be for naught if you don't understand what is
underneath the database - for that I highly recommend "database design for
mear mortals" \- I think I have bought about 6-8 copies of the book and every
single one has been "relocated" (stolen, or not returned or given away).
Understanding HOW an RDBMS works is critical to understanding how to make the
best use of one, and then measure the trade offs between any given one.
Unless your starting out with a problem/domain that requires you to do things
that might be feature bound - as an example if your working with geospatial
data, then by all means that should be a driver in your selection. If your
doing basics like sign up, auth, and cms work then pick one and give it a
whirl (they are mostly interchangeable at that level).
EVERY database has idiosyncrasies. Learning those takes time, and experiences
and sometimes running face first into them.
------
JosephHatfield
Check out Joe Celko's book, SQL for Smarties; There are some mind-blowing SQL
techniques in that book.
~~~
edwinnathaniel
Upvote.
Joe Celko has a few books w.r.t to SQL and some of them are more than just SQL
for beginners (covers tree/hierarchy data, thinking in sets, etc)
------
gigatexal
What I do is write the query that gets me the data to answer the question that
I need no matter how crappy. And then using the engine and statistics and
maybe diagramming out the relations between tables and the indexes try to
refactor it to be better. In the end what matters is that the data returned is
right. Optimizing after you have that makes most sense in my head and that's
when you can go off and feel confident in doing so ( because your deliverable
is done, the correct data returned ) and research more "advanced" sql to get
your query better.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tell HN: Cinch, W7-like window management for OSX - pxlpshr
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/
======
ghempton
What a milestone for windows when people on OSX are using 3rd party apps to
emulate its UX.
~~~
boredguy8
Still doesn't handle multiple monitors as elegantly as Win7 though,
unfortunately. The Win7 windows management is so intuitive, most of the
features I discovered accidentally, as I went about the process of manually
doing what windows should have done for ages.
~~~
iamelgringo
I've been using windows 7 since shortly after the first beta went out, and one
of the things that I really love the OS (and why I've stuck with Windows in
general) is how it handles my 3 monitors. Flicking apps and windows across my
large central monitor and two 19" peripheral monitors with just a few
keystrokes is really, really nice.
One of my New Years resolutions this year is to see if Win 7 makes life a
little easier with 5 monitors. :) I hate context switching. I want it all in
front of me at all times.
------
euroclydon
The window management for OSX sort of... sucks. I've been using Windows for
years and just bought a Mac and I was pretty shocked at how much effort it
took to tile two windows.
~~~
GHFigs
Your experience with a new interface will be improved by making use of the
affordances it offers rather than lamenting the ones it does not. To do
otherwise is akin to eating soup with a fork.
~~~
jsankey
Your comment might be more constructive if your offered the OP a solution to
their actual problem of tiling two windows (or perhaps the underlying need to
compare the contents of two windows easily). What affordances does OSX offer
in this respect?
~~~
GHFigs
The problem of tiling two windows is one with many solutions, one of which _is
the submission itself_. As to the _actual problem_ expressed by the OP, my
comment addresses that.
------
pxlpshr
I have no affiliation with this guy whatsoever but I just found this app and
it's so amazing that I had to share it. It lets you 'cinch' windows side-by-
side like in Windows 7, as well as easily maximize a window. I figured I
couldn't be the only one looking for an OSX app like this..
~~~
amoeba
Thanks for the tip! I've been using TwoUp for a while and have found it
useful. This is even better.
------
besologic
Great find!
Here's a keyboard driven alternative that folks might be interested in as
well: <http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/>
~~~
BrianHV
This is exactly what I've been looking for since I switched back to the Mac
from Linux a few years ago. Thanks for the pointer!
~~~
weaksauce
This is quite possibly the best thing I have done to my mac.
Set it up like this and you will never forget the configuration:
[http://zacharypinter.com/2009/06/15/keyboard-driven-
window-m...](http://zacharypinter.com/2009/06/15/keyboard-driven-window-
management-in-osx.html)
The only thing I changed is that I have the center window mapped to
cmd+opt+ctrl+k. This is so you can quickly do a left side keyboard command and
then center the narrower window. I do this because sometimes windows look
funny open all the way on a wide screen monitor and you only want one window
open in the think app.
~~~
BrianHV
I like it. It's actually very close to what I did with sawfish back in the
day. Being a vim guy myself, I bound left/down/up/right to hjkl. I may steal
some of your ideas as I experiment with my SizeUp bindings though.
~~~
weaksauce
I am glad you like the article but alas, I stand on the shoulder of giants as
it is not my article. My only contribution is the addition of the screen
centering method.
------
Irradiated
Ok, using pxlpshr suggestion, I just updated the website and screencast with a
tip on how to better use Cinch with multiple displays:
<http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/>
Thanks pxlpshr!
------
ghshephard
Probably the single greatest flaw of OS X, from my perspective, is how it
renders large monitors so much less effective than two medium size monitors -
nobody I know would prefer a 30" monitor to two (2) 24" Monitors - If someone
could only write a windowing manager that converted a single large monitor to
two simulated physical monitors, that would be a start. Even better would be
to recognize you need to treat a 30" Monitor differently than a 17" Monitor
from a windowing perspective.
That and get Terminal.app to actually _tile_ sanely. If I had a _single_
feature request for 10.7 - it would be a window manager that gave you sane
tiling capability.
~~~
edd
Arguably in the Windows world this is even worse. The default reflex in
Windows is to maximise every window you have. At least with on OSX the default
way of making a window bigger is just to "zoom" it to a better size.
Also regarding tiling terminal.app you should really have a look at GNU
Screen. You can use it to create multiple sessions in one window that are
split in a 'sane' way.
------
amoeba
This is immensely useful. Would love to see support for custom drop-zones with
custom actions. For example, allow the user to change the width from 1/2
screen to 1/3 or 1/4. Or even 1/2 width and 1/2 height instead of 1/2 width
and full height.
~~~
lemming
+1 - I use a 30" monitor at work, half the screen is too much. But I'd love to
be able to split it into thirds, with the top target area being the middle
third.
------
nixme
Cinch is great. I've been using it for a couple days now and it's made
managing windows easier on large screens.
If you're just looking for a proper maximize in OS X, wrongzoom[1] is a great
free alternative. After installing, most apps will maximize and restore
instead of zooming when you click the green button in the titlebar.
[1] <http://github.com/spicyj/wrongzoom>. For Snow Leopard 64-bit support,
build from <http://github.com/nesty/wrongzoom> instead.
~~~
spicyj
Hey, people actually look at what I write! I didn't realize my version isn't
64-bit compatible. I'll see if I can fix it in my fork later today.
------
chappi42
I use the Zooom/2 (<http://coderage-software.com/zooom/>) windows resizer
since long time. Not W7-like but it's great 'anyway'.
------
chow
I've been a SizeUp user for about 8 months, and use it every day. The
Cinch/SizeUp developer has been responsive and open to user feedback and
suggestions. Highly recommended.
------
DannoHung
Since this sort of Window management stuff is clearly possible, why isn't it
also possible to have XMonad or something lime it do DWM on OS X (or Windows,
for that matter)?
------
tlrobinson
This is great, I've been wanting something like this for OS X for awhile.
It would also be nice if you could make windows snap to various edges, as well
as offer a virtual "pane-splitter" to adjust the dimensions of stacked windows
(and maybe group certain windows together, though I suppose Spaces could be
used for that)
------
theschwa
Anything like this that will run in a linux windows manager?
~~~
Locke1689
If you run a tiling window manager like AwesomeWM or Xmonad it's the default.
------
jawngee
Great!
A little difficulty with multiple monitors, but workable.
~~~
pxlpshr
one of the guys I work with had a good suggestion that's working well for me.
Nudge the monitor down just a tad so there's a small 'wall' in the top (or
bottom) corner to catch...
<http://grab.by/1kfI>
~~~
dgallagher
FYI to other readers, Cinch won't trigger itself if you drag a window to the
"seam" between monitors on your desktop if you're using multi-monitors. It
only appears to trigger if you drag to an edge on your desktop.
But pxlpshr's fix above appears to work fine. :)
~~~
pxlpshr
it works with dual monitors but you just have to be very delicate and move the
mouse extremely slow which defeats the purpose.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I Will Never Hire Anyone, Even at $1/Hour - dismal2
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2015/11/why-i-will-never-hire-anyone-even-at.html
======
xlm1717
The author does make many compelling points. I almost want to buy the book he
was pushing now.
------
DougN7
This post leads to the popular idea of a basic income guarantee. I'm against
it on principle, but practically, we can't let large numbers of people become
homeless and stave. Very tough problem...
------
kluck
The problem at the core of the issue might be that whenever something is
bought (be it labour or products) not _all_ its costs are considered. Usually
only the cost on the "price tag" is recognized but follow-up costs are
ignored.
Another example is the cost of storing atomic waste. If those costs would be
added to the equation I am not sure if it would be profitable anymore.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Customize your Facebook Page in minutes - dawie
http://tabtrick.com/
======
pdenya
What are the benefits vs something like pagemodo.com?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bitcoin is an Energy Hog - EdwardIrby
https://medium.com/@adaburrows/bitcoin-is-an-energy-hog-bd0a69e8ae89
======
xg15
I find this thread quite hilarious.
With PoW + self-adjusting difficulty, bitcoin is quite intentionally
_designed_ to encourage ever-higher energy consumption to "secure the
blockchain". Yet HN is trying to "well actually"-away the fact that bitcoin is
an energy hog.
~~~
nlperguiy
Yet our /glutinous/ gluttonous diets, irrational heating-cooling patterns
waste magnitudes more energy.
Let people be wasters, nothing wrong with that. If Bitcoin experiment succeeds
it's going to be better than the Internet. I hear no one complaining that
Internet servers waste magnitudes more energy than Bitcoin, serving porn, FB,
flash games and all other wasters of life.
------
toomim
Preface: I'm a 2.25MW bitcoin miner myself (see
[https://toom.im](https://toom.im)).
This author is getting the causation backwards:
> Is there a correlation between power consumption and the cost of bitcoin.
Yes, of course there is a correlation, but he's getting the causation entirely
backwards.
The profitability of mining is directly proportional to the price of bitcoin,
because you're paid with 12.5 Bitcoins per block. But your costs are fixed in
USD -- you pay for electricity costs, per kilowatt. Therefore as the Bitcoin
price goes up, it's profitable to run that many more miners, to produce that
many more hashes, until you fill up the profit with electricity costs again.
So the price of Bitcoin determines the hashrate, not the other way around,
like he's presuming here:
> If this correlation is strong enough, it means the Bitcoin will always be
> bounded by the cost and availability of electricity.
This guy also assumes that miners are paying the average electricy price in
the US and China. Miners pay nothing like that. California electricity rates
are around 15¢/kW. Central Washington is 2-4¢. That's 6-7x cheaper. The same
is true for China.
~~~
amigoingtodie
Insightful. Thank you.
------
electic
Yes, it is an energy hog. There are a lot of industries that consume more
energy than bitcoin mining.
The reason none of this matters is because the market says it doesn't matter.
The market is finding enough value from Bitcoin to keep running the network.
Going forward, I think energy consumption won't matter because we are now
producing more power than we can consume. For example, Germany had to pay
citizens to consume power because there was a glut. Another example recently
was in California where the state had to pay Arizona to take their excess
capacity.
The same is happening in China. China is heavily investing in alternate forms
of energy and when you boil it down, it is still cheap to mine a 14,000+ USD
bitcoin. In other words, the market says it's ok.
~~~
whowouldathunk
The market is ignoring externalities.
[https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995](https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995)
~~~
another-one-off
None of the things my grandparent mentioned are externalities.
The cost of energy consumed is directly borne by the people mining the
bitcoins. The costs of the power gluts should be being directly borne by the
customers (I'm pretty sure it is in Germany, I don't know about California).
The energy market is distorted by government interference, sure, but the costs
are clear and (unless the regulators are doing something really stupid) being
borne by parties with skin in the game.
~~~
whowouldathunk
The cost of electricity is artificially low because it doesn't include the
cost of the associated pollution.
~~~
baddox
Probably so, but that doesn’t affect Bitcoin mining any more than any other
usage of electricity.
------
zaroth
The latest ASIC miners run at about 100W/TH. That means the entire hashing
capacity of Bitcoin (15 EH/s) on the most efficient hardware would draw
100,000 kW.
That’s about 80,000 US households of power. Or to put it another way, ~$21
million per month in electricity.
Obviously average mining power efficiency is currently much lower, so this
isn’t much more than a thought exercise.
But the point is there are a lot of uses for electricity. The only real
problem is if the price of electricity doesn’t actually cover the cost of the
externalities of generating it.
In many places, you are paying not only for externalities but also
infrastructure upgrades throughout the grid as well as subsidizing low income
use, so in that sense Bitcoin is _funding_ these positive programs and
investments.
If the electricity is being sold below real market cost, don’t blame Bitcoin
(or incandescent bulbs) blame the fucking electrical pricing regulations.
~~~
xg15
> _The only real problem is if the price of electricity doesn’t actually cover
> the cost of the externalities of generating it._
We don't even _know_ all the externalities of generating it, let alone adding
all of them to the price.
E.g, nuclear waste and depleting fossil fuels are two well-known externalities
which we currently consciously choose to ignore. Climate change is an
externality which until about half of a century ago wasn't known at all.
~~~
baddox
Sure, we don’t know all the externalities, but some of those externalities
could be positive. The fact that we don’t know doesn’t mean the true public
cost of electricity is even higher than the market price.
~~~
xg15
Yes, you can say that about everything. "Maybe polluting the air and driving a
mass extinction event has some surprising positive consequences we just don't
know yet. We should go on and see if we discover them!"
There are plenty of hints that we don't correctly account even for the known
negative externalities. There are also incidents of new negative externalities
showing up we hadn't known about before. I don't know about hints for positive
externalities in the same order of magnitude.
------
oli5679
This is an interesting theoretical implication of cryptocurrencies'
decrentralised mining process. The welfare of monopoly vs. competitive markets
are the opposite to traditional micoroeconomics, because a currency's social
value does not increase with mining effort.
Any central bank can use their monopoly over the creation of currency to
increase reserves whilst incurring a cost less than those reserves. For
example, suppose the US economy grows by 50% over 30 years, but that the
country's payment infrastructure doesn't change otherwise, and so the typical
American wishes to have a higher real value of cash in their wallet, to buy
more luxurious office lunches, or spend the cash in other circumstances.
In a situation where everyone uses a traditional fiat currency, minted by a
central bank, the central banks monopoly over the production of these
additional currency reserves will allow them to spend significantly less than
the value of the currency in making it. Today, a $100 bill costs 12.5 cents to
make, plus some additional transport and monitoring costs [1].
However, with the decentralised nature of a crypo-currency, a competitive
market dictates that in order for it to be created, miners must spend the
entire value of the cryptocurrency in energy costs, otherwise they would be
forgoing risk-free profits. Suppose the economy uses cryptocurrency. If the
market allows for miners to spend only $90 of energy, hardware and labour to
mine $100 of currency, then a less efficient entrant can come in with costs
between $90-$100 and make a positive expected profit. This means that even if
there are not technical difficulties preventing a crypocurrency from replacing
a traditional fiat currency, it's adoption reduces the social surplus
generated from the minting of new currency.
[1] [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-100-bill-
costs-60-more...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-100-bill-
costs-60-more-to-produce-2013-10-08)
------
XR0CSWV3h3kZWg
There's quite a few problems with this article.
First if you are going to say something is correlated it'd be nice to provide
an R^2 or something to quantify the correlation. Then given that price of
bitcoin and cost of electricity goes back much further than what is listed.
Has the correlation been consistent? (given the fact that bitcoin has been
growing exponentially I would be surprised)
Second if you are trying to predict what will happen to the price & hashrate
at the next halving it might help to look to previous examples. This has
happened twice to bitcoin alone and many more times on various different
coins. This will also affect other SHA256 PoW coins such as bitcoin cash,
which is ~9000 blocks ahead. Interestingly it's halving will happen ~9 weeks
earlier, not much lead time, but it should give an indication of what will
happen to BTC.
Lastly:
> To compute cost of creating one Bitcoin, I established a correlation between
> the number of TH/day and kWh/day as value conv in TH/kWh. To compute the
> value use: 60 _60_ 24 _TH_s_ conv*energy_cost/1600
Huh?
Where does the 1600 value come from? There are currently 1800 new bitcoins
minted every day, is that what it is supposed to be? If that's the case that
is the cost to get one of the newly minted bitcoins.
Furthermore it's an extremely common misconception that if you spend X
electricity you produce Y bitcoins. Saying that there is a specific
electricity cost for creating a bitcoin could easily reinforce this idea. It
looks like the author understands how it actually works, but the wording used
seems like it could easily reinforce that misconception.
------
defgeneric
I've been a holder and believer since 2012 but this is one thing where I've
always disagreed with the community--not so much the ecological aspect but the
value argument based on production. Bitcoin's overwhelmingly libertarian user
base had no time for this kind of discussion because it was too close to the
labor theory of value.[1] But if you work it out you can actually get a solid
argument for a current "intrinsic" value, taking into account expected future
returns, etc. We're starting to see this with the markets for mining contracts
where the unit is (mega/giga) hashes per second. Seems to be homologous to a
forward contract.
But in any case the production aspect seems to have been totally ignored when
it comes to valuation whereas with every other commodity--oil, corn, cotton,
copper, etc.--it means everything.
[1]
[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Help:FAQ#Where_does_the_value_of_...](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Help:FAQ#Where_does_the_value_of_Bitcoin_stem_from.3F_What_backs_up_Bitcoin.3F)
------
pedrocr
The title of the article is yet another stab at the bitcoin energy usage
calculation but the content is actually much more interesting. There's an
assertion, that I can't validate, that there's a point at which mining becomes
unsustainable because the energy cost becomes too expensive and thus the
network crashes. Anyone have a rebuttal for that?
~~~
alfiedotwtf
If mining becomes too expensive, then people stop mining.
When people stop mining, competition for mining falls, making it easier to
mine.
If it's easier to mine, mining becomes cheaper, so people start mining.
GOTO 1
~~~
felipeko
Does the transaction price go up when fewer people mine?
~~~
AgentME
No. (Well, in the short term as miners leave, the block time increases, which
increases the block pressure and increases fees, but the block time re-
normalizes itself regularly as the mining difficulty adjusts.)
The only thing that the number of people mining directly affects is the cost
for an attacker to perform a 51% attack on the network.
------
ouid
>The next halving could cause a transient effect in the network where the
number of machines mining on the network drops dramatically. This may have the
effect of miners selling off their Bitcoin and the value falling.
This is not how markets work. Anything knowable about the future is reflected
in the _current_ price.
~~~
Tyrek
Only under efficient market hypothesis (EMH), which is not _necessarily_ the
true state of the market. Under EMH, 2008 would never have happened, because
all the (unforeseen) risk would have been priced in as 'knowable' \- the risk
of default was mathematically provable, even if no one ever took the time to
do the math.
~~~
ouid
Risk isn't the same thing as expected value.
~~~
mcguire
Risk also isn't the same thing as uncertainty. Also, markets can have a short
attention span.
------
aphextron
This argument comes up practically every day now with the same lack of
comparison to existing financial systems. Bitcoin is an energy hog; so what?
Lots of things require enormous amounts of energy. The question should be what
_value_ are we deriving from that energy usage, and is it greater than the
status quo? How much energy is expended running bank servers? How much energy
is expended mining gold and keeping reserves secured?
~~~
foepys
Bitcoin is estimated to use about the same energy as the whole country of
Denmark[1]. Denmark has over 790 million cashless transactions with "Dankort",
a local debit card, per year alone[2] - excluding other payment methods.
Bitcoin can handle about 2,000 transactions per block[3]. 2,000 transactions
times 6 blocks per hour times 24 hours in a day times 365 days in a year
equals 105,120,000 transactions per year.
Congratulations, you just used the energy of the whole country of Denmark with
_everything_ in it (housholds, heavy industry, etc.) to process less than a
1/7th of Denmark's cash-less transactions with a _specific_ (albeit widely
used) debit card.
You see, your argument is simply invalid. "Traditional" banking is more energy
efficient by multiple orders of magnitude.
1: [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/bitcoins-
insane-...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/bitcoins-insane-
energy-consumption-explained/)
2:
[https://www.nationalbanken.dk/en/publications/Documents/2011...](https://www.nationalbanken.dk/en/publications/Documents/2011/09/MON3Q_P1_2011_Payment%20Habits%20in%20Denmark.pdf)
(page 125)
3: [https://blockchain.info/en/charts/n-transactions-per-
block](https://blockchain.info/en/charts/n-transactions-per-block)
~~~
baddox
There are some very huge differences between Bitcoin and Denmark’s payment
system. It’s perfectly fine for you to dislike or scoff at those differences,
but some people find Bitcoin’s differences extremely appealing, and it’s
disingenuous to say that the payment systems are accomplishing the same thing
just with different energy costs.
------
carlob
I just saw this "you have to articles" thing for the first time. Is medium
putting up a paywall or am I being A/B tested? Or maybe this was announced
before and I'm out of the loop.
------
mlinksva
Stiff carbon tax long overdue.
------
joering2
OT: A friend of mine is trying to enter into crypto-market with slightly
different idea/project but related to blockchain. I'm not a crypto expert; if
anyone feels like helping with reviewing his basic idea, please feel free to
reach out via email in my profile. This could be somewhat paid small (few-
times) gig. /OT
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Censorship of Health Information - labatbell
https://www.brighteon.com/d5f1c412-7bc9-4904-919c-5061eff324a9?mc_cid=e675310e80&mc_eid=9851493571
======
labatbell
This caught my eye because over the past few months I have felt finding
information on Google has been more difficult. Don't know if recent algorithm
change is the cause, but I am returned more useless results than I was
previously. Frustrating.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Protestors march on Ebola centre in Sierra Leone - archgoon
http://www.trust.org/item/20140726160952-f3p5c/?source=jtTheWire
======
msie
Argh, I say. As if Ebola isn't bad enough, pile on a fearful and uneducated
public making the situation worse. My sympathies and admiration to the people
trying to get a handle on the situation over there. Public education seems to
be half the battle.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Economics of Anime - michaelpinto
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-05
======
patio11
A corollary to this is that resources are eventually going to get diverted to
produce the kinds of things which appeal to hyperconsuming outliers who
actually spend money on anime rather than e.g. a broader demographic which
prefers to steal their anime. That is a large portion of the reason why the
Akihabara crowd gets what they want in Japan -- they actually plunk down $X00
for a boxed set of Young Geek Improbably Surrounded By Beautiful Women Who
Suffer Wardrobe Malfunctions Around Him with some degree of regularity, though
that market appears to be drying up in recent years. (For obvious reasons I
don't follow it, I just hear things on the IP grapevine.)
More mainstream audiences can't get things done for them without e.g. a cross-
subsidy from Nintendo who can afford to treat the anime as a loss leader for
the video game or collectible tie-in.
This is a shame for folks who care about distributional access, by the way.
For example, there exist people who think that shoujo manga is a Good Thing
(TM) for the U.S. comic books industry because it provides young girls with
stories they can relate to and helps counteract the insanely rampant
hypersexualization and misogyny of the US comic industry. Unfortunately,
shoujo manga has fairly few crossover hits and hasn't had a commercialization
success in the US comparable to e.g. Disney's line of princess products, which
means that the industry is largely a) not willing to devote marketing muscle
to promoting it as much as Bleach / Naruto / Pokemon / etc and b) some would
argue that the old guard justify their marginalization of the genre and its
fans by saying that (because of their marginalization!) it failed to sell
well.
n.b. I'm neither a fan of shoujo manga nor a great lover of women's studies
but someone who was both had veto power on my degree, so you can bet I at
least listened for the more credible claims.
~~~
Kuiper
I think that a lot of westerners fail to realize the impact of the "otaku as
superconsumer" effect on the Japanese media industry, in part due to the way
that anime is priced in western territories. In Japan, anime blu-ray volumes
are tremendously expensive; right now the latest volume of Madoka is selling
for over ¥9,000 (>$100), and that's a fairly typical price for a single volume
containing three 25-minute episodes. In the west, $300-400 will get you
several hundred 45-minute episodes of Deep Space 9 on DVD. In Japan, $300-400
is the amount that a hardcore fan can be expected to spend on the blu-rays for
a dozen 25-minute episodes. On top of this, there is merchandising galore; CDs
for OP/ED, insert songs, character CDs, along with physical goods like
figures.
On top of this, sometimes hardcore fans will buy _multiple_ copies of their
favorites to inflate sales numbers. For an extreme example, see this man who
bought 5500 copies of a single AKB48 CD:
<http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/3347822.html>
To put things into perspective, the Bakemonogatari blu-rays sold around 50,000
copies per volume during the release window, which catapulted it to the status
of "most commercially-successful anime since Evangelion." Based on this, it's
not hard to see how a base of several thousand really dedicated fans could be
enough to justify an anime production.
~~~
yardie
I've seen the inside of a typical Tokyo apartment, I gotta ask, honestly,
where do they keep all this stuff?
~~~
w1ntermute
The inside of an otaku's apartment is anything but typical:
[http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E3%82%AA%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AF...](http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E3%82%AA%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AF%E3%81%AE%E9%83%A8%E5%B1%8B&hl=ja&tbm=isch)
Here's a nice example: [http://www.wolfheinrich.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/02/dsc00...](http://www.wolfheinrich.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/02/dsc00307.jpg)
------
marshray
I went to our regional Anime/Manga conference with my kids last month.
One of the more interesting panel discussions was with an American voice
actress. The economics for such a profession are discouraging of course, and
she couldn't hold back the opinion that watching anime from the net was
"stealing".
But you look around the audience and clearly the great majority of the fans
are too young to have real jobs. Still, many of these young people have put
untold hours of work into making these incredible costumes.
Then you go to the vendors (or anywhere) to look at a licensed DVD for a
season or two of a popular anime: $60 !
1\. It's outrageously priced.
And the hardcore fans don't even like the product as much as the "fan subs"
available online. E.g.:
2\. It's usually overdubbed instead of subtitled.
3\. Often it's edited down for more commercial slots for US cable TV.
4\. Where there are subtitles for the opening and ending songs they don't have
phonetic Japanese (romaji) or karaoke effects (words exploding into pink
flowers are hugely important to a certain set of customers).
5\. The translation is often not accurate, all the Japanese idiosyncracies are
ironed out to make completely bland English. (Was said to be usually at the
insistence of the Japanese studio).
EDIT: Of course I forgot the most important parts:
6\. The video quality of the fansubs is often much better at 720p.
7\. The fansubs are often more available, sometimes within hours of something
appearing on TV in .jp. Official DVDs may drag out for years of on-again off-
again rumors.
8\. The fansubs of course have no DRM. They're just files that play on your
computer and can be shared among fans. (Though sometimes they require codec
downloads from sketchy looking sites).
~~~
kalleboo
The way I've had it explained to me is that the pricing is high because the
Japanese market will bear it, and so lowering the prices on the Japanese
market would hurt profits. When they've experimented with selling U.S. DVDs
cheaper, Japanese fans have imported them at the lower price, killing sales of
the more profitable Japanese region version. One way they've attempted to
mitigate this is to make the DVDs unattractive to Japanese buyers using the
methods you describe such as having dubbed audio with no Japanese sound
option, or delaying the release.
edit: the japanese market's willingness to pay high media prices is explained
on page 2 of the article
~~~
ZeroGravitas
This is part of a general pattern where producers actively choose the level of
piracy that maximises their profits, then complain about it in the hope of
further increasing profits via politics and social engineering.
------
michaelpinto
I submitted this story because there's been a great deal of talk from tech
companies on how to disrupt Hollywood — and I think while anime is a niche (my
favorite niche!) that this article gives a very good insight into just how
hard that might be to pull off. It a very expensive and high risk market to
play in — and this article gives the numbers to back it up...
~~~
gwillis13
:D I already have some ideas for this, especially with the current state of
the anime industry and subbing. Bandai Namco closing their U.S. Distribution
for anime was an additional amplifier for a need to disrupt it.
The main issue is licensing, and showing the "old guard" the new ways to
capitalize on the market instead of relying on the current traditions.
Also wanted to add the "current traditions" are similar to the music and movie
industry. More so in the vein of music, with the evolution of how fans can
acquire anime. So they see no real need to pay for something that comes out
months to a year later.
~~~
mikelbring
I came into the development world via anime (years ago). Would you want to
talk about some of your ideas? I have always had a heart in this niche.
mikelbring [at] gmail.com
~~~
xSwag
As a matter of fact, so did I, how interesting! I started web development a
few years back running a little site providing anime, however, I had to close
it down because it got too popular and there were a lot of DMCA complaints and
such, I was one of the main competitors of Crunchyroll, but I guess Shinji
took the legal initiative before I did.
------
jonnathanson
_"The hope is that the remaining 30% that will never make back their budgets
will get paid for by the successes. This is a gamble, but it's the most
essential one of every entertainment industry: a few huge hits that subsidize
tons of losers."_
If this figure is accurate, then it represents a far better hit rate than what
the US movie and TV industries usually achieve. (The rule of thumb in the US
entertainment industry is that less than 25% of TV pilots makes it to the
airwaves, and of those, a very small percentage last a full season; an even
smaller percentage of those last more than a full season; a fraction of those,
still, last enough seasons to become financially successful. I can't recall
the film industry hit rate off the top of my head, but I believe the going
theory is that 4 in 5 films will fail, and the remaining 1 must subsidize
those failures).
In fact, I think the US entertainment businesses will need to learn a lot from
the anime business. As distribution techology becomes more sophisticated,
we're going to enter a world where two things happen: 1) opinion leaders
within a certain genre (superfans, otaku, loyalists, diehards...whatever we
want to call them) will discover new content via collaborative filtering as
seen on Netflix, iTunes via the Genius algo, etc.; and 2) those folks will, in
turn, share their discoveries with linkminded friends via social networks.
These distribution patterns will be less than kind to the mass-market,
"shotgun" approach as it's been practiced by Hollywood firms for nearly a
century. Conversely, they'll be much kinder to niche-portfolio production and
marketing. To patio11's point, this will mean resources being devoted to
product differentiation: basic stuff for the casual fans, and more limited-
edition, souped-up stuff for the _otaku_ (where the real money gets made).
It'll also mean that entertainment firms will need to get _very_ serious about
high-involvement CRM with their otaku bases, as video game companies currently
do. (To some extent, this has already been happening in recent years, i.e.,
with everyone in Hollywood's annually bending knee to the kingmakers at
ComicCon).
------
roryokane
If you finish reading this article and want more, don't forget to go back up
to the top and click on the links to Part 2 and Part 3.
~~~
ginsweater
Especially of interest to HN readers is Part 3, which is about the economics
of streaming anime - the ad-revenue numbers they present are shockingly low.
------
cinquemb
This was a interesting read! Thanks for sharing! I wonder if there is
something like this that speaks to manga.
------
chrischen
How does Anime make money from the US? It seems everyone I know in the US who
watches it does so illegally.
~~~
naner
I always found Anime piracy kind of impressive since they not only have to rip
the material, they have to provide English subtitles, too. Which requires
special expertise and is extremely tedious. And people do this work for free.
~~~
chii
I find them amazing too - the tools (last i looked) weren't all that
impressive, so a lot of manual work is involved.
in my eyes, these fan sub groups aren't classified as pirate (nor are the
peopel downloading them), because as far as i m concerned, the anime is
recorded off free to air tv, and thus is meant to be freely available to
watch. Add to that the fansubbing + cute karaoke, its a product it itself. The
american distributors barely make the mark when it comes to anime
distribution, and so no one i know buys anime dvds, and only ever watch
fansubs.
~~~
rmc
_in my eyes, these fan sub groups aren't classified as pirate (nor are the
peopel downloading them), because as far as i m concerned, the anime is
recorded off free to air tv, and thus is meant to be freely available to
watch_
Most legal systems come to a different decision from you about whether or not
this is copyright infringement.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
App Store Video Preview Is a Gamechanger – See Why - daveciccarelli
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2014/09/apple_app_store_video_preview.html
======
eximius
cue "Android had it first" posts.
~~~
th0br0
While no "Android had it first" post, I just find it interesting that they
don't mention Android in their article at all. Google is their main competitor
after all.
~~~
ecspike
I'd posit that they are blissfully ignorant that it existed somewhere else
first and did no further research.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Electron 5.0 Released - burtonator
https://electronjs.org/blog/electron-5-0
======
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
21 Day No Complaint Experiment - jlthom2113
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/09/18/real-mind-control-the-21-day-no-complaint-experiment/
======
old-gregg
I don't really share everyone's obsession with fighting "negativity". Actually
I find the lack of nonconstructive bitching to be quite annoying: sometimes
that's exactly what's needed.
I bet the public pressure to always appear "positive" makes people feel
oppressed: perhaps that's the underlying emotional background that feeds
audiences to shows like "South Park" and rants like Zed Shaw's. Because force-
fed "positivity" is everywhere: from bloodless CNN reporting of wars to always
happy-ending movies. George Carlin's famous "pussification of English" is like
an entire nation wearing invisible bracelets like these. To me that's
borderline to orwellian doublespeak.
Fake "positiveness" comes at a cost. Both big corporations I worked for were
filled with always-smiling, "outgoing, positive team players" who'd pollute
everything they say with "great, awesome, tremendous" and other positive
reinforcers that lost all their meaning because of overuse, while real
problems tend to be overlooked and forgotten - nobody wants to be _that
asshole_. My experience at startups has been the opposite: no time/money for
fake bullshitting, _"this sucks and needs to be better"_ isn't a taboo, it's
almost a mantra.
~~~
Elepsis
I would argue that "this sucks and needs to be better" is actually not
included in Ferriss's definition of a complaint. By saying that _it needs to
be better_ you are 90 percent of the way to also stating the steps you'll
actually take to improve it.
I like this concept not because of its "negativity-fighting" aspects, but
because it tries to cultivate a problem-solving mindset. That, at least,
should be near and dear to most of us.
~~~
tigerthink
OK, so how about the example at the beginning of the article when the author
was complaining about how difficult it was to resize photos on his Mac? Do you
suppose it's enough that the "this needs to be better" was implied, or do you
think he should have added something else?
Like it or not, a lot of the time the things that suck _can't_ feasibly be
improved by yourself.
------
sketerpot
This sounds a lot like Benjamin Franklin's system for improving his personal
conduct: he made some rules for himself (e.g. "always be punctual") and
recorded infractions in a spreadsheet. He says it was remarkably effective.
Me, I'm just tickled that he tried to solve one of mankind's great problems
through the use of a spreadsheet.
~~~
JoelSutherland
The first rule given in Dale Carnegie's _How to Win Friends and Influence
People_ is:
Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
He makes it clear that by "Don't" he means "Never".
~~~
Confusion
There are many things many people would never learn if no one criticized their
behaviour.
A corollary: there are many startups that would never have gotten of the
ground if friends of the 'owners' hadn't criticised their ideas. Criticism is
informative. It informs you of weak spots you easily overlook, it forces you
to explain your idea and think about it much deeper than you ever would if no
one criticised you.
Don't condemn or complain: maybe. Don't criticize: that would really be very
wasteful.
~~~
JoelSutherland
Agreed, but it is worth clarifying Carnegie's statement:
_When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures
of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with
prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity._
More often than not, a criticism does not have the intended effect. Our
instinct in the face of criticism is to become defensive.
------
Raplh
I have been wearing this bracelet for around 30 days. It is educational to
discover, in my case, that there are certain types of family gatherings where
the default behavior has me moving the bracelet back and forth across wrists
many times.
I got a hold of it through United Centers for Spiritual Living, which talks
about a lot of stuff along the lines of "Change your thinking, change your
life." I've been working with it for a few months. If it turns out to be
great, I'll let you know. So far, so good.
They do trace themselves back to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Franklin, and
generally call themselves the "New Thought" movement.
------
SapphireSun
I don't see why you need to stop complaining. The only step required here is
adding a potential solution at the end of the thought process.
For instance, I could say: "John is such an asshole. Here is plan A for
avoiding or removing this behavior in the future." Using kiddie words like
"Muppet" makes me cringe. At least be honest inside your own head.
------
tigerthink
>that word choice determines thought choice, which determines emotions and
actions
Alright. So what's wrong with thinking that things suck? Sometimes they do,
right? If there really is no way to improve a situation, does it make sense to
feel hopeless about it?
------
gcheong
Interesting that he states only the positive changes he observed as a result
of his "experiment". Not a single drawback? Almost as if they are forgone
conclusions from his (IMO) rather dubious premises. It's enough to make one
wonder if positivity is so "positive" why it would it would require so much
attention to change.
------
christofd
Cool experiment. Dares work well.
OTOH... I recall reading in an online post recently (can't find it) that
healthy people vent their anger openly and that anger is a natural thing. It's
the getting negative that poisons thoughts.
------
michael_dorfman
Surprisingly substantive, coming from Tim Ferriss. Usually, reading his things
makes me feel a bit skeevy, but I actually liked this one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Best Posts of 2008 for Developers - nreece
http://aytemir.com/best-of-2008-for-developers-2008-tips-tricks-scripts-and-sources/
======
comatose_kid
Sadly, the op's definition of 'best' excludes anything that isn't a
compilation of tips.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Making Elm faster and friendlier in 0.16 - jwmerrill
http://elm-lang.org/blog/compilers-as-assistants
======
boubiyeah
I find the Elm language quite fun and I think it has potential.
However, I'm absolutely not convinced about "the Elm architecture" for
anything but the simplest UIs. Is pure functional reactive programming
suitable for ambitious UIs ? I do not think so.
React has its own set of flaws but at least I believe it nailed the state
problem: Encourage the minimization of local state but still make it easy to
have some when necessary. I like functional programming a lot but I think this
is a case where good old object oriented encapsulation provides a more
pragmatic solution.
There are all sorts of transient states that a parent's component shouldn't
have to care about (Whether I currently have focus, a transient list of
changes not yet committed that should be thrown away should I navigate away,
is the calendar drop-down opened?, etc, etc) Elm makes it hard to have truly
rich and reusable components for that reason as all that transient state must
leak to the parent components.
But that's still doable at least, if cumbersome; some other things simply
appear impossible, like coding a ReactTransitionGroup equivalent. This React
component encapsulates the concept of a changing-over-time list of children
and animate in/out the children that changed across two redraws. It needs to
know about the previous list of children to diff it with the new. It needs to
manipulate the actual Virtual nodes passed to it so that it temporarily leaves
the exiting nodes till their animation finished, etc. This thing has tons of
state and it needs it to do its job; and it's fine. How would you do this in
Elm without leaking the abstraction at every call site ? (I'm looking for a
pragmatic, easy-to reuse by everybody solution, not some convoluted sliding
Signal of component lists ;-) )
I'm wondering whether performance tweaks should be the focus right now; Elm
already had good performances. The issue is adoption, and if it's too
convoluted to write (non trivial) reusable components, I don't see how it can
succeed. Right now I would never start a complex project with it in fear of
getting stuck with a medium-complexity task because the architecture didn't
foresee my problem.
Maybe the architecture provide some escape hatches I didn't see, and I would
love to be proven wrong.
~~~
rtfeldman
Local component state is the new two-way data binding.
Three years ago, two-way data binding was the gold standard for niceness. Then
React came out, and there was buzz around unidirectional data flow, and a lot
of (understandable!) skepticism came with it.
If you listen to people who have spent a lot of time with two-way data binding
and unidirectional data flow, what you hear are a lot of unidirectional data
flow converts and not a lot of people saying "yeah it wasn't awesome so I went
back to two-way data binding."
We're watching the same thing play out with local component state versus a
single state atom architectures like The Elm Architecture, Redux, etc. As with
the React transition, there is understandable skepticism around new things
claiming to be nice, but the writing is on the wall.
If you listen to people who have spent a lot of time with both systems, what
you hear are a lot of single state atom converts and not a lot of people
saying "yeah it wasn't awesome so I went back to local component state."
~~~
nwienert
Actually, you do see a lot of questions and problems with the single state
atom. In fact, I'd argue it's inherently a side step towards a future that has
the best of both worlds: encapsulated state within components, but backed by
some global state store invisibly.
This is exactly what Relay is by the way. You component asks for state, and
gets it from a server. The fact that it comes through props is actually just a
downgrade because it means you must now treat it as some special thing, and
not variables.
In the ideal world, we can write simple components that fetch state from
wherever (remote, local, global). They store that state into themselves, and
it "just works". They can write back that state just like how they write
variables. And all of this "local" state would really be backed into a global
state store invisibly.
Local state - Pros: easy to reason about, easy to use. Cons: trapped in one
place, inflexible.
Global state - Pros: can be backed in various ways, easier to share. Cons:
Hard to use, harder to reason about.
Local state backed to global store - Has all the pros and none of the cons.
Unfortunately doesn't exist yet today.
~~~
christianalfoni
Hi there,
I do not quite agree with this. Though I acknowledge your sentiments :-)
1\. Global state is easier to reason about. If you have a single state store
expressed as a single object you only have to read one file to understand the
complete state of your application. If you let local state express the state
and the global state is invisible you have to look into all these local state
files and compose the complete state in your head
2\. When you define it as local state you risk conflicting with some state set
in a different component
3\. You still have to change state. If you define your state in your
components you will also have to include all the state changing logic inside
the component. Your components will become very hard to reason about. And what
if two components uses the same state and both of them needs to update the
state? You will need to put the same logic into two different components
4\. You could say Relay fixes this, but Relay just handles one thing and that
is state related to the server. We build applications that does a lot more
than talking to the server. Changing the state of your application is a huge
problem space and though Relay is cool technology I can not imagine anyone
expressing and changing all their state using Relay. So you need some other
concept(s) to change all the other state and multiple concepts for doing the
same thing is harder to reason about
Personally I think local state is a bad idea and currently I also think Relay
is too limited. When I jump into an application I need to reason about what
state it handles. With a global state store I can do that. Then I need to know
how that state can be changed. Ideally that should be one concept, but we
usually have lots of concepts for changing state. Then I want to see how the
UI is expressed. Components are great for that, except when they are filled up
with state definitions and state changing logic.
So from my perspective I am also trying to contribute with a solution :-)
www.christianalfoni.com/cerebral
~~~
nwienert
Good points. A response:
1\. Global state is easier to see on a high level, but harder to reason about.
Local state is inherently easier to reason about: it's right there. Global
state requires me now looking at actions/signals, global state structure, and
then my component, and resolving the three.
2\. They should definitely be synchronized, this problem is only specific to
local state implementations today. If they aren't synchronized, thats simply
at the lack of the system you're using. I'm not familiar with Om Next, but I'd
guess it handles this for you (as could any system properly organized).
3\. Not true. You could have state changing functions imported and used by
multiple components. This is also easier to understand, in my opinion. I can
see where the state is located, and still keep my shared state changing
functions somewhere.
I do think local state is skewed negatively now because it's very poorly done.
React, angular, all systems today make local state a total pain, opaque, and
hard to work with. Om Next seems to be a step forward (I'm working on
something somewhat related for JS that should make it better as well).
~~~
christianalfoni
This is really interesting, we have very different perspectives on how to
consume how an application works. Not saying you are wrong at all, just have
different perspective :)
1\. When I say "global state" I mean the actual state, actions and signals are
state changers, not state. A global state store looks like this:
{ admin: { users: [], showConfig: false }, home: { isLoadingNotifications:
false, notifications: [] } }
This is one file. If you use local state this example would be split into
maybe 3 different files. I think we both agree it has to do with how many
files you need to look into. And the amount of composition you need to do in
your head.
2\. It would be interesting to see Om Next in JavaScript syntax, too much
brainpower going into trying to read Clojure :) Not because it is bad, just
have not learned it
3\. That is true, but now it is conceptually no different than signals/actions
and for that very reason. You should look into a different file to read the
state change. I think it is a good thing. State changes are often very
complex, surprisingly complex. They should not be inside a component. I think
a component should only be about rendering UI. State changes should be
expressed by a different layer.
So what I think is interesting here is that we seem to look at the app from
two completely opposite sides. I do not care about the components to
understand my app, because they just express its output, the UI. My app is
really the state defined and the way it changes that state. What I do care
about though is having dumb components is that makes me able to do universal
apps, just move my app to a new UI output like react-native etc.
It will be really interesting to see how Om Next affects the JavaScript
community. We are good at getting ideas from other languages and practices,
where Elm is a good example :)
Again, not stating that you are wrong about anything. It is nice to go into a
component and understand how that component works. Its just in my experience
really bad to use a "view" as a container for state and business logic. That
said it is really important to be open minded and I hope to see us grab ideas
from Om Next. Actually trying to inspire creator of Baobab to bring in some
new ideas :-)
------
mdm_
I'm just finishing up a first-year course at McMaster University where we
learned basic CS concepts (divide and conquer, state machines, recursion,
algebraic data types, FRP, etc) using ELM. It's the first time I've ever put
an honest effort into learning a pure functional language, and although it was
initially frustrating to a self-taught programmer with a background in several
procedural languages and SQL, it's growing on me, and I'm probably going to
look for a side project (maybe a small game or a simple CPU simulator) to
build with ELM when the course is over.
I only wish the "Improved error messages" and "Catching more bugs" features
had been introduced about three months ago, probably would have saved me
hours!
------
nathankleyn
Some of these errors remind me of Rust and the attempts in that community to
give every error an exhaustive description [1].
This looks fantastic, and shows a true commitment to reducing friction with
the language - a goal which often goes too long without attention.
[1]: [https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/24407](https://github.com/rust-
lang/rust/issues/24407)
~~~
steveklabnik
Yup, I would strongly agree. Diagnostics are one of those things that's easy
to let slip by the wayside, but we've seen a huge payoff for users with all
the time we've invested in ours. Glad to see other languages like Elm help
raise the bar here too.
------
hellofunk
Elm is a beautiful expression of a language. Alone, it is a work of art. Put
to use, it lets you build works of art. One of the best contributions to
modern languages.
------
Apanatshka
Long anticipated, and now finally here :) I <3 the type diffs, exhaustiveness
checks and TCO. Not completely sure about the removed syntax, but it's not
like I used it a lot, so I guess simpler is better.
------
notacoward
Very nice. I love the "beginner hints" idea, and explicit enumeration of which
cases are missing in incomplete pattern matches. Overall, the "compilers as
assistants" idea seems great.
------
laszlok
Finally TCO! Actually in my UI-heavy Elm programs it isn't that often that I
have to write functions with large recursion depth. But it is really
comforting to know that the compiler is analyzing my code and making it more
efficient. :)
------
bribri
Has anyone tried Reflex? Really interesting concept in Haskell + GHCJS
[https://github.com/ryantrinkle/try-
reflex](https://github.com/ryantrinkle/try-reflex)
I liked Elm but I felt the language was a bit limited coming from Haskell, ex
no type classes so you have List.map, Signal.map, Set.map, etc
Overall Elm is great in terms of tooling, setup, error messages, performance,
js interop though
~~~
ablesearcher
Reflex is great (and its author is a genius) but it's not really useful yet
for non-desktop apps. Because Reflex + GHCJS is impossibly slow on mobile.
As an experiment, try using chrome (iOS) or android to load this:
obsidian.systems/reflex-nyhug/
or this:
[https://obsidian.systems/](https://obsidian.systems/)
They're both reflex apps.
GHCJS is bees-knees. But unfortunately, minimizing-code-size/mobile-
performance has not been a priority. (It's understandable, as Luite can't do
everything himself.) (Aside: the best solution I've seen -- in terms of
generated code size -- in GHCJS-land right now is:
[https://hackage.haskell.org/package/react-
flux](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/react-flux). Anecdotal, though.
YMMV.)
I can't wait for GHCJS to be ready for prime time. I wish all these alt-JS-
haskellish language authors (of Purescript, Elm, Roy, etc.) would just work on
making GHCJS better.
It's a bummer that Clojure and Scala are much newer than Haskell and yet they
both have a mature, production-ready JS compiler. The statically typed ML-
family is too small for multiple JS compilers. The entire community needs to
pick one and let the others die. Otherwise, we end up with several half-baked
solutions and not a single industrial-strength one.
~~~
purescript
> I wish all these alt-JS-haskellish language authors (of PureScript, Elm,
> Roy, etc.) would just work on making GHCJS better.
All three of those have very different goals and trade-offs from GHCJS.
I agree that it would be nice to share more work/knowledge though. One of the
nice things about AltJS is that several languages can coexist in the same
codebase.
~~~
ablesearcher
> "All three of those have very different goals and trade-offs from GHCJS."
And therein lies the problem. In my view, the most important goal is to have
at least _one_ really good AltJS-Haskellish language with a fully-featured
ecosystem of libraries. (I'm fine if that language is PureScript, btw.
PureScript is fantastic.) The problem -- which Clojure and Scala programmers
seem to have sorted -- is that our community is too small to support several
Haskellish-AltJS compilers. Do we really want several perpetually nascent
solutions?
> "One of the nice things about AltJS is that several languages can coexist in
> the same codebase."
Theoretically, you're right. But how many production code bases are there in
AltJS-Haskell (vs. say, Clojurescript)?
~~~
galfarragem
Normally very smart people have an huge ego and hate politics. It's always a
pity to see so much potential wasted.
------
khgvljhkb
I wish the clojure compiler also had the explicit goal of making things easier
like this...
~~~
lemming
There is hopefully some movement in that direction after my talk at the conj:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4haSH2xcs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4haSH2xcs).
I'm continuously inspired by Evan's approach and his dedication to the user
experience, and I hope to be able to bring some of that to Clojure.
------
sotojuan
Elm is such a pleasure to learn. I really need to sit down and write something
non-trivial with it one of these days.
------
methehack
I'm trying to decide between Elm and React/Reflux for the js part of a side
project. I'm concerned about learning curve and awkwardness of adoption if the
project ever turns into something someone else is coding on. I know they are
very different technologies, but I think others must be choosing between them.
Any thoughts from those who have tried both?
~~~
danneu
I personally like React + Immutable.js (for the store) + Redux
([https://github.com/rackt/redux](https://github.com/rackt/redux)) which is
more similar to Om and apparently Elm. It's actually the first Fluxlike
implementation I willingly use.
~~~
mercurial
I'm using the same stack (minus immutable.js, but I'm thinking on it),
combined with redux-simple-router. Apart from the usual problems associated
with Javascript, it works pretty well, and I feel it's easy to understand what
is going on.
On the other hand, there are some pitfalls. Since you may need to trigger
actions based on some transient state (eg, fetching data from the server), you
occasionally need to set flags in your store ("my state is dirty"). Forgetting
to clean up a flag will lead to tears.
------
excitom
My first thought on seeing this post was "Oh wow, people are still using the
elm email client". I guess I'm getting old.
~~~
Apanatshka
hehe, I see this every time on an HN post about a new Elm release. At some
point I'll have to look into that old email client, I'm curious what people
are talking about.
------
e12e
Apparently the web site is having some issues?
Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://elm-
lang.org/blog/compilers-as-assistants)
------
garyclarke27
If Elm had a dedicated library for io with Postgres functions (stored
procedures) would then become very attractive to my company, for a very
ambitious project we are developing. we store all state and logic inside db
safely firewalled by stored procs, so i'm looking for UI focused language/
toolset that is productive, functional and produces atractive ultra reliable,
performant html js. I don't feel good about the Sencha tools, my team
currently uses, so I'm looking around for alternatives. ur/web looks very
interesting aswell but the limited adoption with only 1 albeit genius
developer, is a bit offputing
~~~
ac2u
I don't understand, elm is for your browser based application, which can't
communicate with postgres anyway except through a web server sitting in the
middle.
~~~
aflinik
That's true, although I see no reason Elm couldn't be compiled to server-side
JS running in Node.
I'd love to see some full stack solution that would abstract away separation
between backend and frontend (like Meteor perhaps) using some sane programming
language and architecture.
Having built lots of SPAs and APIs serving as a backend for them I always feel
that what's really relevant is modelling your data and domain logic (which
tends to happen on a server side) and the UI consuming this data on the other
end. Everything in between – endpoints exposing the data on the backend,
frontend machinery to pull that data into client – seems to be totally
arbitrary and implementing it is nothing short of a grind.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Google fearing pg's call on reinventing search startups? - RuggeroAltair
I thought this deserved some attention.<p>In response to pg's essay on ambitious ideas for startups, Matt Cutts said: "Paul's #1 suggestion is reinventing search. I happily welcome competition in search because it keeps us on our toes, but his #2 suggestion resonated with me more: reinventing email."<p>Today, they said that, for first time, they are releasing a video about what they do on a search meeting.
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/03/video-search-quality-meeting-uncut.html?m=1<p>I wonder what pushed them to post this video. It's not even very informative, it talks about searches of N-grams and spell corrections, it seems more like something to show how advanced the changes they make are.<p>I'm sure watchers must have thought that search is so advanced and hard seeing that video that they might give up. It must be so hard to catch up with them ;-)<p>Maybe google is afraid of a plethora of YC (or not) startups trying to reinvent search. One may succeed.
======
AznHisoka
people are already beginning to use other methods to discover, and find what
they need. for instance, the app store. instead of googling, people are
searching the app store instead. another instance is siri, or stackoverflow,
or yelp. in a sense, it won't be 1 thing that will eat into google's market
share but a bunch of other ways to find things.
~~~
RuggeroAltair
I agree. Probably in the future we'll start more and more to have specific
search engines for different things.
I think that will be somewhat wiki, somewhat social, and somewhat search
engine will eventually take off.
But not necessarily in a unique aggregator. I don't go to any scientist to ask
a question about science. I go to the ones who are proficient at what I'm
asking.
Same with search, I'm sure in the future it'll become more and more common to
have completely different search engines based on what I'm trying to find.
They are already out there, maybe just a few steps away since their inception,
or maybe already around for a while, it's just that not too many people are
using them. When it'll become unbearable to use google for everything people
will switch.
Look at Youtube, lately there is so much advertisement that I can't believe
they aren't afraid of losing users massively. I almost don't want to go on it
anymore for how much time I usually have to waste.
And yes, I understand google is a free service paid by the ads. But I don't
care. I'm ok with the ads on a side, on top, at the bottom. But I'm not ok
with wasting time waiting for an ad to play.
------
mapster
Google is less about search than it is about adwords and the network of apps -
but yes, there is much frustration over the search results these days so that
is an opportunity for innovation.
------
webbruce
No
------
wavephorm
I'd say no. Like with Facebook, what replaces Google won't look like a search
engine, or a social media portal, it will be... ?
~~~
dgunn
I'm not sure why people keep saying this. I'm not reinventing either of these
things but I suspect, like the services they each replaced, they too will be
replaced with things that look strikingly similar to themselves.
For an oversimplified example, FB replaced myspace with a service that looked
a lot like myspace did originally. One of the biggest things they had going
was the simplicity of use and the cookie-cutter look of everyone's profile.
Myspace, at the time, was full of 'pimped' profiles that made their experience
suck.
Facebook will continue to add more and more fluff (games, etc..) until it
doesn't work well as a tool to stay connected with people. Once this happens
someone will show up with something that looks a lot like facebook did when it
started. But because they're so dissimilar at the time, people will continue
this adage of, "what ever replaces X won't look much like X". But it probably
just will if you correct for time.
~~~
ariabov
I think you are right in that if there is something that replaces Google for
search, it will probably be like Google in its early days. Since the roll out
of the Social Search feature, I have been finding myself wanting "classic"
Google more and more (I am sure I am not alone here)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Songs in the key of life: What makes music emotional? - wallflower
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18367-songs-in-the-key-of-life-what-makes-music-emotional.html
======
discolemonade
I think the reason music makes us emotional goes beyond language. I think
music also taps into the Amygdala, which is the part of the brain that
regulates fear. There are certain sounds in nature that are scary or ominous.
Low sounds like the sound of thunder or the low bellow of a lion are scary
sounds in nature because they come from dangerous things. Things that make you
disappear. Being afraid of those sounds is an avoidance mechanism, I think.
People who avoided the things that created those sounds survived, therefore
natural selection must have played a role in why we find certain sounds
scary...or happy or whatever. It's possible to mimick those natural sounds
artificially through music. That's probably a a big reason why music is so
emotional. Sound informs us about what to like and what to avoid in our
environment. Music just kind of fools the brain.
------
snitko
I highly recommend everyone, who's interested in music influence on humans
read "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain"
[http://www.amazon.com/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Revised-
Expan...](http://www.amazon.com/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Revised-
Expanded/dp/1400033535/) It's full of great examples of medical cases,
explanations and interesting theories.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Female entrepreneurs - #4 Digital Agency on AdAge A-List wants to help - laklak24
On Sept. 24, Resource will launch RI:30; an opportunity for one female-owned business seeking a robust digital presence to work together with Resource Interactive's digital experts for free for up to one year. The lucky winner will work side-by-side with the same experts who guide the digital strategies of some of the world's most recognizable brands, and Resource will help create a custom digital experience just for her company that will propel her business into the digital stratosphere. RI:30 is Resource's unique way to give back and to say thanks.<p>For three decades, Resource Interactive has created ground-breaking consumer-driven online experiences for Fortune 500 companies like P&G, Limited Brands, and Nestlé. And to celebrate the agency's 30th anniversary, Resource Founder and Chief Culture Officer Nancy Kramer and CEO Kelly Mooney are seeking a new company to add to its 2012 roster.
======
laklak24
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9bKbIwnPbQ&feature=mh_lo...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9bKbIwnPbQ&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1316112402)
<http://www.resource.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 - obilgic
http://www.marco.org/2011/12/19/amazon-kindle-vs-ipad
======
Turing_Machine
Personally I own both, enjoy and use both, and think that comparing the two is
a mug's game. They're aimed at completely different use cases.
Is it really worthy of so much virtual ink (not just in the linked article,
everywhere) to note that a $200 device is slower and less capable than a $500
device? What in the world were you expecting?
That said, Amazon needs to get its act together wrt developers. That process
needs a LOT of improvement.
------
sardonicbryan
All this is is the author reaffirming his normative value judgments. I could
just as easily compare iPad2 unfavorable with my Toshiba netbook...
Price: $230 (with RAM upgrade) vs. $500 Apps: The entire internet and every
piece of Windows software vs. 500K apps Features: A keyboard that lets me type
emails and chat with people and type posts on Hacker News vs. a virtual
keyboard that's good... relative to other virtual keyboards Accessories:
Doesn't require accessories to protect it vs. Often used with an expensive
case Apps part 2: Excel and Exchange vs. no Excel/Exchange, so that I need
another device to respond to work
etc. etc.
------
rapcal
I don't know if you noticed, but even after calling it garbage, he uses an
affiliate link pointing to the Kindle Fire at Amazon :) Like saying "well, if
you're that stupid I want a piece of your wallet too!"
Oh, those entrepreneurs...
------
phamilton
I've used it, and I didn't mind it.
I'm not an iPad owner nor do I ever plan on shelling out $500 for a
consumption device. $200 on the other hand is low enough for me to seriously
consider it.
------
garrickvanburen
I've had the iPad, and currently have the HP TouchPad and Amazon Fire. Of the
3 I prefer the Fire. By a long shot. I find the 7" size far more portable than
the larger tablet sizes.
------
wildjim
It's easily as useful a comparison between any smartphone and a mainframe.
------
lazugod
The Kindle Fire does have a terrible home screen, but my understanding is that
it is patently illegal to use a grid or any non-cluttered design.
------
davidu
This pretty much nails it. It's so bad. It's my first experience with Android,
and the UI is heinous. I'm not sure how it was ever released.
------
dlsspy
I use my iPad most days. This comparison doesn't make the Fire look less
appealing to me. If it weren't Christmas...
------
b0sk
acting like a butthurt child. I have a Fire.. not a fanbou by any stretch..
its a fun device because of my use cases.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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I'm bored by web dev. Where is the cutting edge of tech and how do I get there? - lint_roller
Hi all. Recent college graduate here.<p>Did a lot of hacking for a couple years back in the early 2000s as a kid in PHP, Perl, etc. before losing interest. Recently graduated with an unrelated non-STEM degree, turned down an investment banking job because I didn't enjoy it much, and thought of recapturing the excitement of my early hacking days. So I taught myself Rails, etc. and am a dev at a web app startup.<p>And I find it pretty boring. I find that it suits the other devs pretty well as they just genuinely enjoy writing code and scaling backends. Me, I'm more of a big picture guy, and all I keep thinking is what we're doing here has been done hundreds if not thousands of times. I'm realizing now that I enjoyed my days hacking as a kid because it was all somewhat new and pretty fucking hard to figure out without all the immense resources at our disposal today.<p>So I'm wondering if it's possible to recapture this experience, and how. I'm pretty unmotivated by money at this point, so I would gladly take a paycut to do it. I keep coming across "deep learning" and "CRISPR." Is this the cutting edge? Do I need to go back to school to get involved? Any input appreciated.<p>Thanks.<p>- tech startup noob
======
saluki
That's why they call it work - (half kidding, half serious, I tell my friends
this all the time when they complain about their day job). The economy/job
market isn't the greatest so be glad you're able to do something you semi-
enjoy in a comfortable environment and make a decent income.
When you're working on your own projects, learning new things, can change
direction at any time, chase new things that is fun and exciting.
I think rails and web application development is a great career and good way
to fund your side projects make a good living for now. I would focus on being
a great developer at work. Volunteer to take on new features/new technologies
that are interesting to you.
Start working on side projects outside of work. Keep in mind what your
employment agreement states as far as IP. Always work on your side projects on
your own hardware and outside of work/the office. You don't need to share
anything about them with co-workers.
Listen to startups for the rest of us (podcast) for inspiration building your
own product/company that would be more exiciting. If you like doing your own
thing then start planning for building your own products and/or SaaS.
Hacking on your own, building side projects sounds like what you enjoy so do
some of that in your own time.
Do some fun side projects and see if that recaptures some excitement.
Good luck.
~~~
shivakaush
> The economy/job market isn't the greatest so be glad you're able to do
> something you semi-enjoy in a comfortable environment and make a decent
> income.
The economy will always be in the shitter and people will keep using it as an
excuse to not find better opportunities. Find projects that you would like to
work on and approach them. Lack experience ? start doing it on your own.
------
cblock811
Frankly the "big picture guy" comment is a bit snobbish. If you have big ideas
and you know how to build them...go build them. Otherwise your ideas never
mattered anyways.
~~~
phlandis
He clearly wants to build something, just in the process of figuring out what
that is exactly. Your comment was a bit snobbish buddy boy.
------
nicholas73
Wait, you call yourself a big picture guy, but are asking how to get even
deeper into the nuts and bolts?
I'm a big picture guy, and I taught myself web dev precisely because you can
big picture easily by making an app as a business.
------
jordanchan
Yes, it is possible to recapture the experience.
1\. There's a lot more than deep learning and genome editing. But yes, you're
right, these are part of the cutting edge. You should look around further. And
beyond pure technology too.
2\. Script hacking is different from things like deep learning or genome
sequencing. The former requires knowledge of a programming language and some
talent. The latter requires a great deal of subject knowledge in addition. So
yes, going back to school is a good way to start learning these things in a
structured manner.
3\. One option, if you are a big picture guy with tech skills, is to build
your own product. You should have the vision and the skills. The other, like I
said before, look beyond pure tech, there's a lot starting to happen. Third,
like you said, go to school and learn machine learning or genetic engineering.
Hope this helps somewhat. All the best!
------
aap_
For me web dev would be completely unattractive as well, I just don't care for
the web. So find out what interests you. Maybe low-level things, reverse
engineering, language design, graphics, game development...there is so much
you can do. If you're unmotivated my money just play around.
------
Jemaclus
I think an interesting direction is figuring out how to leverage web tech (or
just code in general) to interact with the real world. Consider companies like
Uber and AirBNB. They've identified a real-world problem and set out to solve
it using technology. A lot of the "cutting edge" stuff these days is figuring
out how to take a real-world problem (genetics, taxis, mail), and writing some
code to make it accessible, cheap, and easy to do.
The problem with "cutting edge" is that it's often ahead of its time. It takes
a LOT of time and effort to make even a tiny dent in the space of "cutting
edge." If that's something you want to do, you might want to go back to
academia and stay there. The "real world" is a bit more pragmatic -- there's a
reason the space shuttles tended to have tech from 20 years ago and not brand-
new tech from last month.
IMO to find interesting projects, a better idea is to look backward: what
industries are still in the 20th century, and how can you help bring them into
the 21st with modern technological advancements?
What about farmers, truck drivers, construction workers? Why are they still
driving tractors, trucks and bulldozers? Why aren't robots doing those things
more widely?
What about real estate agents and their legalese? Why are real estate agents
still handing me stacks of paperwork? Can't you Zenefits the crap out of that
process?
What about community outreach programs and community centers? Why are
community outreach programs still accosting me on the street and handing out
fliers? Can't they do outreach digitally? Can't we automate scheduling
basketball games and pick-up kickball games?
What about having to fill out paper applications or stand in line at the DMV?
(Shouldn't all that crap be automated by now?)
What about having to actually hand your credit card to the cashier at the
drive-thru at McDonald's? (Can't they just magically detect who I am somehow
and charge me accordingly? Why do I have to hand some punk ass kid my card or
cash?)
What about planning weddings or raising kids? (Haven't enough people gotten
married that planning a wedding should be as simple as browsing Amazon for a
few hours? Haven't enough people had kids that we should have some solid data
about what works and doesn't work?) (These two things aren't really tech-
related, but man, if you could figure those out...)
The best part about this approach is that pretty much _any_ idea you come up
with will be "cutting edge" as far as these areas are concerned. These are the
things we're still doing the same way we did 50 years ago, before computers
were even a thing.
------
1arity
A couple of ideas :
\-- Deep neural networks. For : not so difficult to learn, still mostly
heuristically trained so a lot of room for self-created "gurus", currently
sexy with a lot of applications. Against : existing connections to academia
and researchers may contribute to the kind of applications you are asked to
work on.
\-- Being a programmer for scientific research. For : a whole lot of different
applications, can generally work at universities or institutes anywhere in the
world, an intellectually stimulating environment. Against : the level of your
higher degree will often determine your pay rate, which may be lower than
corporate, credit on papers for programmers is only beginning to gain general
acceptance.
------
ccvannorman
Hi Noob,
I think the most fascinating and lucrative field today is in medical and
biotechnology. I am a game developer moving into that space as well. Making
3-D interactive bio experiences or simulations (think "fantastic voyage" style
stuff) is quite difficult[1], gaining popularity, and no one is really doing
much of it yet.
[1] It is difficult in many ways, the one you'd be most interested in is
probably "simulating systems with trillions of independent actors such as the
bloodstream or a working tissue so you have to cheat/optimize like hell."
------
Obi_Juan_Kenobi
CRISPR? Like CRISPR-CAS? That's molecular biology, and while it's an important
new tool, it's just a means to an end. Getting into biological research is
going to require a degree, basically without exception. There are more biology
PhDs than positions, so employers can be picky. Lots of biotech firms can
demand people with a post-doc or two under their belt.
------
vonnik
co-creator of deeplearning4j here. you can get involved now with open-source
projects, if you're willing learn and chip in. most open-source is built by a
handful of individuals, so there's always lots to do, and the learning comes
with the doing.
[http://deeplearning4j.org](http://deeplearning4j.org)
------
biobiobio
See if this interests you [http://www.covert.io/research-
papers/security/Automatic%20An...](http://www.covert.io/research-
papers/security/Automatic%20Analysis%20of%20Malware%20Behavior%20using%20Machine%20Learning.pdf)
------
melvinram
[http://www.magicleap.com](http://www.magicleap.com), Microsoft HoloLens and
other VR seem like very interesting/difficult/cutting-edge opportunities.
------
cwesleyco
I'm building a personal OS that manages your life. You can view a demo at
www.cwesley.co/#video.
If you are interested in joining the team and want to get in on the ground
floor, shoot me a message at [email protected].
Thanks! - Wesley
------
tmaly
just pick something that may interest you and work on it outside of your day
job. That's how I keep myself away from bordum
------
phlandis
Look into Machine learning and Neural Networks. If you like python start by
checking out pyBrain.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Job hunting tips - MarkPearce
https://www.markpearce.net/single-post/30-quick-and-simple-job-hunting-tips-for-job-seekers
======
karmel
I disagree with many minor points here, but one strongly enough to comment: do
not send your resume as a Word doc. Any modern tracking system parses PDFs,
and Word docs make it look like you don’t know how to use a computer.
~~~
MarkPearce
Sorry, you disagree with many minor points, Karmel. I'd be keen to get some
comms going with you to learn where this needs tightening. Always happy to
listen to people's views. I can be reached on [email protected] (and I
don't bite. Ever).
~~~
karmel
Sorry if I seemed too negative initially-- I was just typing on a phone :) For
the sake of public record, I'll add a few notes here.
"12\. Don't be afraid to ask for the job after your interview..." Only, only
do this if you can pull off suave confidence well, and if you are fairly
certain that you killed the interview(s). It is very rare to have someone ace
all interview segments in the modern tech interview (for better or for worse),
and if someone were on the fence, but seemed to be so totally unaware as to
ask for the job on the spot, I would be concerned about self-awareness. Not to
mention that many companies have a review process anyhow, so it can seem naive
to be over-confident. That said, perfectly fine to exhibit confidence about
how the interview went-- I feel like this went well, I'm really excited, what
are the next steps, etc.
"20... You can type something like this: Project Manager - Actively seeking a
new opportunity..." To each his/her own, but I would go one step further, and
just avoid having "actively seeking" in the title anywhere. There is a lot of
noise in LinkedIn messages, and I tend to ignore those that are too needy at
the first outreach.
"24\. Write your resume in the same font. Write it in the same colour and
sized font." If you don't know anything about type design, this is probably
safe. But after a dozen or more resumes fly by, I don't mind a little pop of
color or finesse :)
"27\. Leave photos or graphs out of your resume. These can confuse an
employer's tracking system...." While I totally agree with the tip, I think
the reason is wrong here. Many tracking systems are fine with photos. The real
problem is that it's very jarring to see a photo on a resume, and feels too
personal. Or heaven forfend, your marital status, which I have also seen.
"30\. Apply for jobs where you only have to upload your resume...." It's
annoying, but some of the best employers in the tech industry still do this,
so, probably a little premature to use this as a hard filter.
Also, +1 to whitespace in resumes.
~~~
MarkPearce
Thanks for your comments. Useful insights. One or two could be subjective, but
I realise the people reading the resumes will see things differently too. It
reads like the ATS you've used / seen can ID resumes and not kick them out. In
Australia, this is rarely the case. Even though it's 2017.
I'll review point 12. Good advice. Thank you.
It's still a work in progress and I'll be trying to reach 100 tips by the end
of this year.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Really appreciated.
Mark
------
dforrestwilson
I sent the writer an email but I'll go ahead and ask it here too: Where and
how does one find a good recruiter?
~~~
rebeccaskinner
I don't think in most cases you can. Even recruiters who are good people and
technically savvy enough to help you find opportunities you want are at the
whims of agencies, very large HR organizations, and the ups and downs of the
market in the city they are focusing on.
As far as I can tell, recruiters work best when you want to work at a large
non-tech company, because smaller companies can rarely afford the finders fee,
and tech companies are starting to move toward having recruiting in-house. You
might luck out and find a mid-size tech company that is using a recruiter
because they haven't built up internal recruiting yet and are growing faster
than they can hire current employee's friends, but that's probably a small
slice of the overall market.
Recruiters also seem to work better for early to early-mid career folks (less
than 5-7 years of experience). A lot of the work that they are doing is in the
space of differentiating individual candidates, and using their personal
relationships with hiring managers to get you an interview. If you're senior,
with a decent github account and a reasonably impressive work history then
there is honestly not much the recruiter is going to do to sell you, beyond
maybe standardizing your resume into a familiar template or something- and
you'd save a lot of money paying a fixed fee to a resume service if you need
that.
The final bit about having luck with recruiters is that it depends a lot on
the technology you're using. There are recruiters who specialize in hard-to-
find skills, but the majority of recruiters are hiring for whatever 3
technologies have the most keywords in their database. This is where the
adverse incentives come in. Recruiters are hiring out of a very large talent
pool, because they are focusing on tech that has the most hiring volume (so
usually something that was popular a few years ago, everyone knows it now, and
it's being used in a lot of existing or legacy applications). They are going
to have mostly undifferentiated early-to-mid career folks out of a very large
pool of people who know a very common technology. In that case, they are
incentivized to maximize their own revenue, which means if they are on a
finders fee they want to get butts into seats as quickly as possible, and if
they are contract-to-hire they want to bring people in with the largest gap
between the candidate and employer rate (they want to pay you as little as
possible and charge the client as much as possible). You're essentially seeing
the same problem that you have in realty
([http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/barwick_confli...](http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/barwick_conflicts_of_interest_and_the_realtor_commission_puzzle.pdf))
As for the firms that specialize in hard-to-find talent, there are a slightly
different set of problems. The specialty recruiters I've worked with have
often worked a much broader set of clients, and have much more shallow insight
into the actual workings of the company. Since companies hiring people for
harder-to-find tech stacks seem to be much more selective about candidates and
hiring fewer candidates, the relationships the recruiters have helps you less.
Because the recruiters are placing fewer people they want higher margins on
you, so you have more to prove as a candidate to ensure the companies think
you are worth the price. I've also found, anecdotally, that when I've worked
with specialty firms, they have a lot less insight into things like company
culture than run-of-the-mill recruiters. Again, if you have specific
experience you can point to of success using the tech that companies are
hiring for, and the ability to actually do the market research to find
companies that are hiring for what you want, I think you're better off going
directly- but recruiters can help if you are trying to pivot into a new
specialty.
~~~
MarkPearce
Thanks for your great insight, Rebecca. Kind of you to answer this. I also
sent Forrest a response last night.
------
bradknowles
This website doesn’t seem to work on iOS.
~~~
oldboyFX
Just message the owner then. Why post this here?
~~~
gus_massa
1) Many times the owner see the peak in the visits and come here to see the
comments to reply.
2) The domain of the site is markpearce.net and the submitter is MarkPearce.
My guess is that the owner submitted it. (It's ok to submit your own stuff
here if it's interesting and you don't [re]submit too much.)
~~~
MarkPearce
I did, Gus. I woke up in shock when I saw the comments and views. Thanks to
everyone. It's most appreciated.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Xerox internal memo about the Alto (1972) - parenthesis
http://research.microsoft.com/lampson/38a-WhyAlto/WebPage.html
======
pg
A Word original? Can't have been the original original...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: simplifying credit card forms. - transmit101
This is 37signal's beautifully simple credit card capture form for Highrise.<p>http://img.ly/2u8H<p>I'd like to know how feasible it is to create a form with so few fields. Presumably there are some fraud checks being skipped? Is this something that many payment gateways will allow? Does anybody know of any hacks to remove extra/unnecessary fields from card capture forms?
======
cd34
CVV isn't required and cannot be retained by anyone doing recurring billing.
It is nice to have it as an additional fraud check for the first transaction.
My discount rate doesn't change for CVV or non-CVV transactions. CVV is
optional, but, if sent is verified. If it is incorrect, the transaction is
declined.
For AVS verification, only the zip code is needed. I do get an additional
discount on my merchant account if I send the numeric part of the street
address, but, designing a form to ask for the street number but not the
suite/apartment number for an extra half percent may drop the conversion ratio
of the form. At best, you could get some people to enter the numeric portion,
at worst, you probably require the two address lines for the billing address
on the card.
The gateway I use allows me to specify the fields as optional, hidden or
visible for every field, billing/shipping address, notes, etc. We can also
submit a form to our gateway that can be used. However, we maintain a secure
certificate and use our own forms to send the data and get back a recurring
billing token from the gateway. That allows us to maintain a bit more control
over the sales process.
------
jeffmould
Besides the CVV they are capturing everything you need. Most gateways will
allow you to process without requiring the CVV (I know authorize.net will at
least). If you start having a high rate of fraud they might force you start
collecting it, but it is not a requirement out right I don't believe.
------
chronomex
Please, please, please support card numbers with punctuation and spaces. I
can't count the number of times I've been irritated that I can't use spaces or
dashes or anything to punctuate the number and make it easier for me to check
over. It's a single function call on your end.
------
bmelton
As already mentioned, CVV isn't required. I believe that it's helpful in the
event of a dispute, in that it's better to have than not have.
Another way to make it easier for the user is to auto-type the card. This
table illustrates which card types match which patterns (e.g., cards starting
with 4 are visas. If the user types in a 4, you can auto-select the card type,
and save the user a step): <http://www.merriampark.com/anatomycc.htm>
Aside from that, if you already have the user's information in a database
(regular info, not credit) -- you can prepopulate some of the fields (first
name, last name, zip), and just give them a button for 'not me'.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla Owner Finds Torn A-Pillar on Freshly Delivered Model S - joatmon-snoo
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2017/04/tesla-owner-finds-torn-pillar-freshly-delivered-model-s/
======
oblib
Those photos don't provide enough info to know for sure, but I'm more than
just a bit suspicious of the claim the car arrived like this.
My hunch, based on my experience and those photos only, is that someone
grabbed that trim piece and tore it, and I'll tell why...
First, let me point out that I am a former professional "Car Builder". My
father was a very talented car builder, so I grew up building cars. I've
worked with some of the most famous car builders on some of the most famous
cars ever made. I've also been there when those cars were delivered, and did
the final prep on many of them myself.
I have seen people intentionally rip and tear pieces like this for no reason
at all. It's an impulse action. They look at it and wonder "What will happen
if I pull on this" and then they do and it tears.
When you're the person who actually made that part it tears off a piece of
your heart with it because you put your heart and soul into your craft right
down to the smallest detail.
And people who do that will lie their asses off about it too. I have seen it
happen with my own eyes more than once. And I have repaired those kinds of
damages myself a few times and the entire time you're working on it you can't
help but think "that lying POS does not deserve my efforts".
This time I get to just chuckle about it a bit...
~~~
Shivetya
well if anything it shows why you fully inspect every inch of a car prior to
signing the papers. I am really leery of suspecting this as happening before
the owner drove off because it is so glaring. The guys doing the final
wash/dust off before the new owner got it would have spotted it. This is what
happened when I took delivery of a new car recently, ended up with a WE OWE
describing what was to be done.
still, if it is not intentional damage then perhaps frame flex over bad roads,
pot hole, or such, revealed a stress point. if truly a factory issue then
anything built with that batch of metal is suspect
~~~
oblib
Agreed.
It looks to me like that is a piece of molded plastic that was ripped and an
attempted repair may have been made.
That piece is probably made with with tabs that fit into slots to align it and
glued into place.
If that's correct than either the tear and repair attempt was made at the
factory and it failed miserably or it was torn after the car was delivered.
Since the car was new I'd have to think that quality control would have
required the part be replaced, not repaired, but if that happened the factory
should have a record of it.
It may not have been the owner who did it. Could've been someone they know, or
their kids. Stuff happens :D
------
oblib
Hmmmm..... There seems to be something a little fishy about the person who
reported this. If you scroll down a bit in the comments you find a comment by
them and a response to it that contains a link...
"Could be your history of filing false reports with pictures of salvaged
Teslas. Wild guess."
[https://electrek.co/2016/06/13/tesla-fale-complaints-
suspens...](https://electrek.co/2016/06/13/tesla-fale-complaints-suspension-
nhtsa-keef-wivaneff/)
~~~
greglindahl
That comment is responding to a short, not the person who reported the torn A
pillar.
The short boasts that he's filed 100 complaints against Tesla, which pretty
much reveals what he's up to without looking at any details.
------
Shivetya
original source [https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/help-a-pillar-
defect...](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/help-a-pillar-defect-
found.88657/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ruby Summer of Code - jeremymcanally
http://rubysoc.org
======
jackowayed
They really need to make the requirements for students a little more clear
(for example, I'm a senior in HS, can I apply?). I'd assume they'll flesh that
out before they open the student app.
Also, from the questions for students they list there, it seems like they
might get some pretty bad outcomes:
> _Why do you use Ruby and/or Rails? How would you like to see them improve?
Outline the specific project you're proposing.
Why is this important to the Ruby and/or Rails communities at large? Why is
this important to you?
List a clear set of goals/milestones you'll hit during the summer, along with
a rough timeline. Be specific about your deliverables.
What are the "unknowns" in this project for you? What kind of pitfalls could
you run into?
How will you measure progress? How will you handle falling behind?_
To liken it to startups/YC, they're asking a lot about the idea, but not at
all about "the team" (the applicant). Anyone can say "I'm going to make
something awesome" even if they aren't very good at writing Ruby and will
almost certainly not do well.
Sure, they don't give you money unless you hit milestones, but they could
experience plenty of projects that technically do what they should but are so
badly written that they're certain to go nowhere.
That said, I'm really excited for this both as a potential participant and as
a Rubyist who would love to see some cool new projects come of it.
Edit: They also should make it a bit more clear what kinds of projects they
want. Just things that are directly useful to ruby programmers (libraries,
Rails plugins, etc)? Cool tools that are useful to developers in general
(something like <http://hurl.it/>)? Any piece of software that's useful to the
world and written in Ruby (like some good website written in Rails)? My guess
is the first 2 only, but that's just a guess.
~~~
spicyj
Apparently it holds the same eligibility requirements as GSoC, so you probably
wouldn't be able to participate. (Me neither! :()
~~~
jackowayed
That's pretty lame. I can get around that restriction because I'm taking a
differential equations class at the University of Delaware, so I'm "a college
student" :) But if I have to be 18 (as with GSoC), I'm out of luck, sadly.
------
petercooper
This project has been created with good intentions and I hope people get some
good out of it. I'm not going to slam this well-meant project, but being
modelled on the Google Summer of Code, I have some reservations. The GSOC FAQ
states some primary "goals" of the program:
_CREATE AND RELEASE OPEN SOURCE CODE FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL_
Paying people to be motivated to bother to work on open source code seems odd.
If someone comes along with a _"I really want to do X but I need $Y to live"_
request (as Gregory Brown did a couple years back -
<http://rubymendicant.wikidot.com/proposal>) that's cool, because the request
has come from an intrinsic motivation and you can choose to donate based on
the utility of the work that will be done (and Greg did a great job on Prawn,
by the way).
With a GSOC-like program, there's a _pitching_ process by students who are
being provided an extrinsic motivation of $5000. Yet, this extrinsic motivator
does _not_ realistically reflect the typical motivations for contributing to
open source projects. The money provides an American Idol-esque motivation of
"try this out to win fame/money" rather than encouraging those who are
_already_ trying hard.
_INSPIRE YOUNG DEVELOPERS TO BEGIN PARTICIPATING IN OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPMENT_
Is offering a (monetary) reward a good way to get someone with no experience
to start doing something? Perhaps, but in something like open source, does it
make sense to wave money at people who aren't already intrinsically attracted
towards the cause? It feels like paying your kids to do housework to me.
Open source is tough enough to _need_ serious intrinsic motivation from its
participants (even if you're ultimately doing it for "fame" or to get a job).
Are these new people going to stick around when there's no easy money? Looking
at past GSOCs, many participants appear to be folks who were _already_
contributing to open source development (if in a small way) but who happened
to get lucky with a nice stipend to do something they were already motivated
to do. That seems against the spirit of the program.
_PROVIDE STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WORK RELATED TO THEIR ACADEMIC
PURSUITS DURING THE SUMMER (THINK "FLIP BITS, NOT BURGERS")_
Limiting the program to the "young" and/or "students" also strikes me as odd.
Google has this educationally elitist air about it at the best of times. Is
the average software engineering student flipping burgers all summer nowadays?
I suspect the people flipping burgers are those who made bad decisions at a
younger age and are now stuck in that world.
Encouraging disadvantaged developers who aren't academically active through a
program like GSOC would be awesome, because some real chances to turn people's
lives around would appear rather than saving some university students from the
real world. Help people who flip burgers for pocket money or help people who
are stuck flipping burgers _all year_ too?
_GIVE STUDENTS MORE EXPOSURE TO REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SCENARIOS
(E.G., DISTRIBUTED DEVELOPMENT, SOFTWARE LICENSING QUESTIONS, MAILING-LIST
ETIQUETTE)_
Again, they need to be _paid_ to learn this stuff? If they're not familiar
with these concepts and they're taking software engineering classes, we need a
campaign to fix the syllabi.
All that said, I know the people behind this campaign and that they mean all
the best, and I hope some students get some good value from it. Good luck.
~~~
jamesbritt
Some seriously good points there, Peter.
I also do not question the motives or integrity of the people behind this, and
like you I don't care for the emphasis on students.
I don't care so much that they get paid; hell, I wish people would pay _me_
for doing open source software. I don't think it will alter any future
motivations of anyone.
But it may be entirely possible to achieve the desired results without the pay
out, and archive other useful goals with that money.
Now, it's easy to harp and suggest all sorts of imagined plans, while RSOC as
it stands is real. So big props for making this happen.
I think, though, that some separation of project acceptance and funding for
expenses would have been useful. E.g., first have people (really should be
open to anyone) pitch their project. Then, if accepted, they can argue for
financial support, if they can show some documented need.
Yeah, it's more work, and maybe the sort of thing that makes the difference
between a nice sounding plan and a real program. But I agree that waving the
$$ up front might be the wrong incentive.
~~~
jackowayed
What's "documented need"? Hosting costs for the project? Room & board for the
summer? College tuition?
I might not be considered to have "need." I'd live in my parents' house if I
were to do this. I have to pay a good portion of my Stanford tuition somehow
or another, but I could see you determing that that's not "need." (And if it
is need, then >95% of your applicants will have at last $5k of tuition to pay
for the year, so everyone will have need.)
Regardless of whether I "need" the money, spending an entire summer hacking
full-time has some serious opportunity cost. I could get a real job (and make
>$5k). I could hang out with my friends every day.
Do you really expect college students, most of whom have little money, to line
up to forgo ~$10k of income (roughly the amount you can make at a programming
internship, varying wildly of course) so they can do an open source project?
Sure, it would probably be more fun; it would be have completely flexible
hours; you might not end up quite having to work full-time on it. But still.
I'm a lot more likely to do it if I at least get a good portion of the
compensation I could get from working.
And even if you do find people to do it, the quality of people will be a lot
worse. For the most part, you'll get the people who _don't_ have an
opportunity cost of $10k because they're not good enough at programming to
land a good job over the summer. So you'd probably just end up wasting a lot
of the mentors' time because you'd have to accept lower-quality people. The
money helps you be selective and hopefully get some truly high quality
projects out of it.
~~~
petercooper
_Do you really expect college students, most of whom have little money, to
line up to forgo ~$10k of income (roughly the amount you can make at a
programming internship, varying wildly of course) so they can do an open
source project?_
People should go where they can get the most overall value. Getting $10K for
an in-the-flesh internship at a development shop is easily better value than
$5K from the GSOC program for most people.
People who are good for open source are attracted to it naturally. They care
about more than money. That's my whole point really.. that the best people in
open source _aren't_ motivated by cash, so why attract people who are?
~~~
jackowayed
Sure. And I'm not saying there are people who love OSS who will give up OSS
altogether because they can't or won't do SOC for free. They'd still hack OSS
on the side, but they wouldn't do SOC.
There's lots of college students that really need to bring in some money over
the summer so they can afford their tuition. Plenty are already taking out
loans as it is.
Think of it like the YC money--it's not all that much, lots of the companies
don't really need it, it generally isn't the main attraction, but some great
people absolutely need it to participate, so giving it ensures that no one
will have to turn the opportunity down because of money
------
blasdel
Doesn't this only exist because the Rails project's Google Summer of Code
application was denied this year?:
<http://twitter.com/rails/status/10685448004>
~~~
halostatue
No.
I'm not inside of the decision loop, but this is because of a perception that
Google's SOC administrators didn't want to work with Ruby Central over the
last two years.
I do not think that this perception is correct, but Ruby Central _was not_
provided a mentorship spot last year and chose not to apply for a mentorship
spot this year.
This is a Ruby Central initiative.
~~~
draegtun
Interesting. Google have accepted other like organisations, for eg. The Perl
Foundation (<http://www.perlfoundation.org/google_summer_of_code_2010>), so
they really should accept Ruby Central.
------
spicyj
Anyone have ideas as to how I might go about thinking of a project that would
sound promising and be helpful to the Ruby community? I'd certainly consider
myself a proficient Ruby developer, but I'm not nearly as familiar with the
development of these project and what they're lacking. Where might I start?
~~~
halostatue
I've applied to be a mentor, and I've suggested that some of my existing
projects could use some love for Ruby 1.9. One, net-ldap, has some Ruby 1.9
support, but needs more overall features and development.
Obviously, this is not just about maintenance, but these are ideas; you can
also look for things that haven't yet been addressed and propose those.
Based on my experience as a GSOC mentor, though, I think that maintenance and
enhancement projects (adding new features to existing projects) are more
successful in the end than greenfield projects.
------
c3
My company is (well be, soon as we get off our asses and send a check) one of
the sponsors of this. Why? We already do a bunch of open source; as well as
the 'giving back' factor, I'm genuinely intrigued with what will be produced.
Last year's outputs were a great benefit to the scene and the community. It's
the kids who are on the outside and _hungry_ who are attracted to this sort of
thing, and in my opinion are more capable of providing fresh genes to the
pool.
Hell, 20-year-old me would've jumped at it, for the money and the fame.
Actually, 20-year-old me was probably getting high in an alley, but that's a
story for another day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Comparing HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 on Aircraft WiFi [video] - velmu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqY1MfgTYmE
======
digi_owl
Tried the test in desktop Firefox, and the HTTP1 gave me a "insecure
connection" error.
Apparently it is an expired certificate.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apply to 50 Schools? Why Not? - edw519
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/09/12/why-are-colleges-so-selective/more-college-applications-means-rising-selectivity
======
akadien
That article is useless.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Next-Generation iPhone Parts Caught on Video? - dave1619
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/05/next-generation-iphone-parts-caught-on-video/
======
dave1619
I think this is the real thing. iPhone 5 is coming.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Developers Leave Big Name Software Companies - fecak
http://techbeacon.com/why-developers-leave-big-name-software-companies?
======
mitchpron
My suspected reasons 1 work/life balance 2 most of the company is not as
amazing as you think 3 managers are still just managers 4 working in silicon
valley with that cost of living 5 developers can be happier and make what they
want working for themselves, doing consulting, freelance, or a startup.
Check out Erik Dietrich's "Developer Hegemony"
------
mgperrow
Great article!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Curated list of Clojure-like programming languages - chr15m
https://github.com/chr15m/awesome-clojure-likes
======
kebolio
You mean Lisps?
------
velkyel
Another one
[https://github.com/candid82/joker](https://github.com/candid82/joker)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Y Combinator Dataset Of Users Version 1.6 - 10,000 Posters - xirium
A 1MB archive of Y Combinator user profiles is available by accessing http://www.rushy.com/ycombinator-news-profile20080821.tar.gz
======
j2d2
Please share any tools created to leverage this!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
analytics - build your own or off-the-shelf? - comatose_kid
======
danielha
Mint (http://www.haveamint.com) is a great application with an exceptional
interface.
If you can design your own system that serves your needs better, then that's
even better.
------
phil
The nice thing about google analytics is you can have it set up and working in
5 minutes. The nice thing about mint, or rolling your own, is that you can get
all of the metrics you want - googalytics isn't really extensible.
One thing is, neither googalytics nor mint (I think? don't use it) can report
on xhr requests, since they run script onload. Anybody out there have a tool
they like for doing that? Like a favorite log analyzer?
------
comatose_kid
Does it make sense to go with something like google analytics, or is it a
better idea to write your own code for the purposes of gathering and analyzing
stats for your web app?
If it makes sense to go with an off-the-shelf package, which one is the best
(and why?)
------
staunch
I think it's a no-brainer to add Google Analytics to any site. I also have my
own set of little analytics instrumentation for monitoring extremely specific
behavior in real-time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Plink (Collaborative Music Generation) - coreyp_1
http://plink.in/
======
sigmaprimus
That is quite fun, might be the highlight of my morning!
Thanks for sharing!
------
p1esk
Wow, this is so good! Loved it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Erlang On Xen is now Open Source - rellik
https://twitter.com/erlang_on_xen/status/462175524870422528
======
rellik
Some interesting use cases: [http://erlangonxen.org/case/thwarting-a-
combinatorial-explos...](http://erlangonxen.org/case/thwarting-a-
combinatorial-explosion)
------
nmcfarl
And a nice blog entry on deploying ling to EC2:
[http://erlangonxen.org/blog/making-amazon-
ami](http://erlangonxen.org/blog/making-amazon-ami)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do I find out what people will pay for my product? - rnochumo
I have spent some time developing a feedback widget for startups to use on their own websites to entice their visitors to record their screens and submit their feedback. It is a free tool right now but that's largely because I have no idea what to charge for it.<p>I know user feedback is something people desire for their startups but finding an affordable solution can be a challenge. That's why I developed this screen recording widget.<p>You can see it here at http://betapunch.com. Any feedback you have for me in terms of pricing and if it's a worthwhile product is appreciated.<p>Thanks
======
livestyle
test it out and do some a/b split testing :)
A recurring model is optimal.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are your struggles as a product manager? - sajthom
A friend and I were discussing lately the struggles of building a product. We both worked at 3 different startups and noticed that most product managers face the same problems. A few problems we identified are:<p>- Prioritizing features<p>- Collecting feedback from clients/other departments like sales<p>- Measuring performance<p>- Measuring the impact of features on customer success<p>- Staying on course (i.e. not deviating from your long-term vision)<p>- Conveying and aligning that vision to the rest of the company<p>Those seem very common for product managers, yet everybody is using its own set of tools to address them (Trello, Excel, email,...), which are usually not meant for that and seem more like a hack than anything else.<p>If you're a product manager, we'd love to know:<p>- Is our train of thought legit? Or are we completely delusional and identified a non-problem?<p>- What are your real struggles? The problems you solve with a tool that feels like a hack and that you have to fight against almost as much as it helps you?
======
simonpolet
Great questions! I'd be curious to know more as well
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Truth does not exist - gioscarab
fact = truth<p>fact = statement proven with evidence<p>evidence = anything presented in support of an assertion<p>so<p>truth = statement proven with anything presented in support of an assertion<p>source wikipedia, just a little condensed
======
dmfdmf
> Truth does not exist
Are you claiming that this is true? If so that is a self contradiction and you
have reached a dead-end. Check your work.
~~~
gioscarab
You are right my mistake, the title should have been: "Does the truth exists?"
thank you :)
~~~
dmfdmf
Changing it to a question with only one possible answer does not solve the
problem.
~~~
gioscarab
This wanted to generate a discussion related to a problem that, I aree with
you, in my opinion seems unsolved. Not only truth, but also at higher level,
looking at the scientific method and its problems and limitations.
~~~
dmfdmf
I think you misunderstood my reply. Your original statement that the truth
does not exist was shown to be self-contradictory. Changing your statement to
a question does not solve the self-contradiction problem, it just masks it.
It is valid to ask "what is the standard for truth?" but it is not valid to
ask "Does truth exist?" Such questions are part of philosophy and in
particular, epistemology.
~~~
gioscarab
Thank you for your answers :)
------
tsegratis
The steps have similarity but not equality
football = air filled balloon
air filled balloon = hot air balloon
But if we assume no truth/equality, then each of your steps becomes in effect
correct, and the final step self-fulfilling
The result would be Nihilism -- nothing is true or false or meaningful
But the evidence against this, for me, would be that 2 == 2 has held
throughout my lifetime
I.e. 'truth does not exist' holds where 'reality does not exist' also holds
~~~
gioscarab
an air filled balloon does not necessarily contains hot air
football = hot hair balloon holds in some cases
a fact is necessarily true
------
kleer001
Doesn't matter, we can know enough to get structural work done. Everything
else is decoration.
To clarify: we may never truly know the value of pi as it is an irrational
number, but we really only need the first 5 digits or so for most things.
Still, you have to be careful of accuracy loss and should wait to use its
numeric representation until the last possible moment.
------
grizzles
Non-Truths certainly exist and can be proven as such. The truth is what
remains. This process is known as Falsification.
~~~
dmfdmf
This is Popper's theory and it is false. You can't define what is false
without some standard of what is true. It is a misapplication or
misrepresentation of Aristotles's law of non-contradiction, i.e. a
contradiction proves something false but not what is true.
~~~
grizzles
So if you had a theory that the moon was entirely made of blue cheese and Buzz
Aldrin gave you a piece of lunar regolith that was obviously not blue cheese.
I'd say he proved your claim wrong without necessarily establishing any
necessary standard of truth. In pure sciences like physics, if you need to use
statistics to make your point then you've probably did the wrong experiment.
Popper's contribution is about finding theories that offer greater explanatory
power than previous theories.
Also it's a misunderstanding of his work to think he rules out establishing a
standard of proof. He does not. Check out the wikipedia page for more about
this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability)
~~~
dmfdmf
A "theory" that the moon was made of blue cheese is complete arbitrary non-
sense which doesn't need refuting. On the other side -- the moon, orbital
mechanics, Newton's laws to design the space craft and get it to the moon,
that there are men who fly such machines and the machines are designed to
support human life are all facts that are being implicitly denied by the blue
cheese "theory". There is nothing to refute it is non-sense on its own terms.
Moreover, theories are just a collection of statements so your distinction is
irrelevant and you contradict your own position by claiming a statement; "that
the moon was entirely made of blue cheese" is a theory.
While your example is fanciful and exaggerated to make your point, it actually
makes mine. You/Popper can't rip the application of the non-contradiction
principle out of the context of the law of identity on which it is based and
gives it meaning. The fundamental principle of existence is that anything that
exists has identity. Non-contradiction is a (very crucial) corollary of
identity and not a primary as Popper holds.
------
croo
Err... Citation needed? I think the definition of _fact_ changes if you ask a
mathematican or a lawyer. Those definitions will both be good in the context
of their work.
------
nvusuvu
Earth orbits the sun. I love my wife and children. Checkmate. :)
~~~
Rainymood
>Earth orbits the sun
This is not true. The earth and sun both rotate around its barycenter. The
point is that the sun is so huge that the barycenter is (really) close to the
center of the sun which makes it seem that the earth orbits the sun.
------
throwaway413
Everything and nothing co-exist as one. Truth is relative to time. Both are
invented paradigms to describe the great state machine that is the universe.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
[UK] Post code data to be free in 2010 - davecardwell
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8402327.stm
======
nailer
At FOWA a few months ago, the Ordanance Survey (a taxpayer funded organization
that handles postcode and general surveying in the UK) had a stand asking
people to pay the typical exhorbitant amount of money (a few hundred pounds a
year) to access the data their taxes already paid for.
Pretty much everyone at the conference doing anything in the geo space was
using the 100MB file that gets uploaded to wikileaks every few weeks instead.
~~~
rlpb
Taxpayers don't pay directly for the Ordnance Survey.
"It is a separate government department that is now financed through data
licensing rather than direct funding from the tax payer"
[http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/media/features/tra...](http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/media/features/tradingfund.html)
Having said that, public sector organisations licence data like everyone else,
and that money does come from the taxpayer. However, if the Ordnance Survey
were a private company then this situation would be the same.
------
robin_reala
This is great news! You could ask ”What’s taken so long?” but that would be
sour grapes. Guess we no longer need <http://freethepostcode.org/> now though.
~~~
ZeroGravitas
Let's not count our chickens before they hatch:
_"Harry Metcalfe, who helped sites get at postcode data, said he was
"cautiously optimistic" about the decision to open up the OS data sets. "The
'how' is terribly important, quite easily the difference between a fantastic
data release and a waste of time," he said. He said it would "possibly" be
enough to help websites that want to use postcode data. "Maybe probably." he
said. "It will be if it's done right."_
~~~
ZeroGravitas
And it looks like the Post Office has already clarified that the PAF data (the
stuff that lets you go quickly from a postcode to a customer's address) will
remain closed:
[http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2009/12/postcodes-to-
be-f...](http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2009/12/postcodes-to-be-free-but-
which-ones/)
------
EnderMB
I've always wondered how forms have managed to get my address through my post
code. It will be great to play with this data once it is available.
------
bdfh42
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=981000
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=985599
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Equity/ Rev Sharing for Startup... Help - ashleys
Hello HN community, I need your advice. I am venturing into my own startup.I dont have a lot of money or the resources to develop the software I need to. I have come across a company that is willing to help me out. Here are the terms, tell me if this makes sense or if im giving to much out and being naive. The software will cost me 25k, im giving 20% equity and 2 years of Rev sharing at 30%. out of that 30% for RS, 30% is coming back to me for future software dev. Also the 25k is to be paid through the Rev Sharing deal, nothing coming out of my pocket. The reason behind the #s are, I dont have the money or the technical knowledge to do this. They were keen on getting into this business, they lowered the price of the software for me, also they will be my IT/Technical department, which I dont have to worry about. I dont minf giving them equity, but I need to know if 20% is too much, this will be vested over 4 years. Are these numbers ok or should I restructure it and lower equity?
======
RiderOfGiraffes
What are your projected revenue numbers for the first, second, third and
fourth years?
Where are you getting your users?
Where are you getting your money?
Who will own the software? The IP?
Make a spreadsheet showing your projected income, followed by the amount of
money ending up in each pocket. Do this as a cash-flow projection. Now divide
your revenue figures by 10 and see what happens. Can you live with that?
Now compare with borrowing 25k at 10%pa. You end up with all the revenues, but
you might not cover your loan. Where does that interest percentage break even
with the deal you are getting?
What do you bring to this deal? Why should you get any money at all? Why not
sell them the idea for $X and then move on to your next idea?
That's your homework - no doubt other HNers will have more to add.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Cool It! - moog
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10795585
======
cawel
I just found my first typo ever in an article from The Economist! That's a
once in a lifetime :) Notice the missing second 't' in "petabytes"?
"Project Kittyhawk, as it is called, would link several thousand Blue Gene
computers together to form a system with more than 60m processing cores and
room to store 32 petabyes of data."
Candy to my eyes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Rip-offs and Making Our Original Game - jmduke
http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/
======
eigenbom
"It's a mix of feelings, we're still thrilled by all the love for Threes. But
it has me wanting to never make a small beautiful thing again." \- Threes dev
Greg Wohlwend on Twitter (@aeiowu)
I liked 2048 and its offspring, but it's a shame that this sort of rapid
cloning can discourage talented game designers from working on great little
games like this.
------
JohnTHaller
This is a great article. And it does highlight some of the reasons why I enjoy
both 2048 and Threes. I bought Threes on Android the day it was released and
started playing with 2048 a few days later. Threes is great when you want to
really sit and plan out a game, thinking a few moves ahead. 2048 is more for
quick semi-brainless fun with the patterns and numbers. It requires less
mental focus, which is why people keep making one-offs to keep it fresh. I
packaged up the original 2048 as a portable app over at PortableApps.com using
node-webkit and am doing an update to it tomorrow. I wish I could package and
sell a portable version of Threes on PortableApps.com as well so more people
could enjoy it.
------
conception
This is a great article. Thanks for the post. I'll be sharing it around.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why did Kickstarter ban GMOs? - protomyth
http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/02/why-did-kickstarter-ban-gmos/
======
sumit_psp
Kickstarter is still a relatively new company and as the company matures, I am
sure they will come up with better ways of dealing with these things.
------
jrkelly
Surprising since it was a very popular kickstarter. Was really hoping this was
opening the door to GMOs designed to delight consumers. Sad.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Drive Enroute API Gateway (Docker Container) Using OpenAPI Spec - chintant
https://getenroute.io/blog/can-your-api-gateway-tango-to-openapi-swagger-spec/
======
chintant
Drive automation in API delivery in addition to generating client and server
using OpenAPI Spec.
Automating API Delivery reduces error and simplifies programming the Gateway
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How To Get Top Engineers To Open Your Email Then Join Your Company - iProject
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/23/recruiting-elite-engineers-in-the-new-ultra-competitive-talent-market/
======
JoeAltmaier
Interesting about A/B testing subject headers for recruiting emails - which
ones got opened/discarded.
Has anybody done A/B testing on HN headlines? Same article, different title?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Pick Your Next Gig: Evaluating Startups - QuanticoIsLove
http://www.samvitjain.com/blog/evaluating-startups/
======
dvt
Using Zuckerberg/Jobs/Bezos/Gates as archetypal examples of founders is a
terrible idea as they are _extreme_ \-- and I mean EXTREME -- outliers.
I also don't get how Jennifer Lawrence fits in any of this. As a counter-
example, Chris Pratt, an equally-successful actor, was discovered by a stroke
of luck when he was waiting tables in Hawaii.
Listen, I get it. It's cute to come up with pseudo-mathematical models that
justify one opinion over another and that might help us make decision-making
easier (Startup A vs. Startup B), but allow me to make a controversial point:
if you're thinking about working for a startup, _don 't_. Starups
traditionally underpay (due to offering equity), often have brogrammer
cultures (and no real HR departments), will fire/lay you off at the drop of a
hat, and working late hours with little recognition will be expected. The only
exception to this rule is if you're one of the first ten-ish employees -- and,
obviously, if you're a founder.
For obvious reasons, cap tables _highly_ favor early investors and owners. If
you have a high-risk/high-reward type A personality, start a company! If you
just want to have a career for a few dozen years and then more-or-less
comfortably retire, join Google, or Facebook, or whatever. It makes absolutely
no sense to join a startup if you're not even getting one point of equity.
Further, vesting will absolutely screw employees -- with either inflated share
costs (if you leave the company) or with unfair lockout schedules (if you ever
IPO). Not only that, but equity is utterly opaque: you literally have no idea
how much it's _actually_ worth. It's important to understand that startups are
a gamble for founders and for investors -- which is exactly why I _love_
startups: it's a perfect mix of skill and luck. With that said, in my opinion,
for mid-to-late stage employees, the opportunity cost no longer makes sense.
Unless you need a job to pay rent -- I've been there :)
~~~
rdtsc
I remember a CTO who idolized Jobs. And to make his company successful like
Apple he proceeded to act like an asshole, apparently out of all the qualities
and personality traits he deemed that to be the most important one. If someone
accused him of that behavior he always justified it with "That's what Steve
Jobs and look at Apple!". Everyone rolled their eyes but didn't say anything.
They just quit and the projects were failed. The CTO was baffled and blamed
others not realizing he was the problem.
~~~
swrobel
Unfortunately everyone who worked at a handful startups has probably worked
with someone like that.
------
avip
Perhaps more perspective is needed before composing such blog post (undergrad,
had single intern). Seems the norm now is once you've walked 100m, stop and
write about your amazing journey.
My selfish considerations for a startup:
Can I remote
Does it matter
If you're working on something that matters, and you need help, and you're
accidentally reading this... please drop me a line.
~~~
RussianCow
You may have just been trying to make a point, but in case you were actually
hoping to get contacted via this comment, it would help if you had your
contact information in your profile. :)
------
andrewstuart
My advice to junior software developers has always been that the things that
matter are:
1: "will I get the chance to work on technology that I really want to work
on?"
2: "will I get mentoring from great senior developers?"
I advise them to spend the first five years of their career honing their
skills in the craft of software development, I advise them to pay no attention
to money - I say "it will come later if you have become a great software
engineer".
Interestingly, I feel alot more is to be learned from working at a
disorganised and chaotic company, at least in the early stages of your career.
When you later see things done right then you'll truly understand why things
are done in the way they are, because you know how it can be done badly. Which
is to say, it doesn't matter if the company you work at is well run or not.
It always makes me feel that a junior developer is off track if their primary
selection criteria is anything but the opportunity to learn how to become a
great developer.
I guess maybe its different in Silicon Valley.
~~~
durgiston
How can you learn anything in a chaotic and disorganized environment? Either
nobody has time to teach you anything, because everything is chaotic and
disorganized and they need to fix it, or they are the reason everything is
messed and you don't want to learn from that.
I feel that you would be much better off learning the right way to do things
first, then going somewhere that is chaotic and seeing why best practices are
in fact best. Much harder to unlearn the wrong way than just learn the right
way in the first place if you ask me.
------
horsecaptin
Never ever compromise salary for equity.
The equity is what you get in exchange for the risk that the company will not
be successful; and for all the extra hours you'll probably be working.
The salary is what you get because that is how much your position pays in the
market.
Things to compromise salary for:
\- You need a job badly. You're already planning your own exit.
\- If you were to get a higher salary somewhere else, you'd still prefer to
work here.
\- You don't need the money.
~~~
brianwawok
If you go by this, no one would bootstrap. By definition you give up salary
for 100% equity.
Dont sacrifice salary for not enough equity is a better rule.
~~~
joshvm
Arguably that falls into the last category. If you can work for nothing but
equity, then somehow or other you don't need the money (right now).
------
ScottBurson
Part II contains this Dustin Moskovitz quote: _A lot of graduating students
think I just want to work on the hardest problems. If you are one of these
people, I predict that you 're going to change your perspective over time. I
think that's kind of like a student mentality, of challenging yourself, and
proving that you're capable of it. But as you get older, other things start to
become important, like personal fulfillment, what are you going to be proud
of, what are you going to want to tell your kids about, or your grandkids
about, one day._
I guess I never grew up, then. I still want to work on the hardest problems.
That's what I would want to tell my kids about :-)
------
marinman
This is a great hard analysis of evaluating opportunities but I am struck that
there's not even a crack at evaluating the human interaction element of
personal fit. Working for shitty people sucks, even if it leads to a boatload
of money. You wind up spending more time with people you work with than your
family, so try to price that accordingly.
~~~
dvt
There is in part 2: [http://www.samvitjain.com/blog/evaluating-
startups-2/](http://www.samvitjain.com/blog/evaluating-startups-2/)
------
gmarx
Must be nice to get to pick. My whole career I've only managed to have two
choices on the hook once.
~~~
maxaf
I agree with you. I always wonder who these engineers are who have tons of
offers. I always wonder how come everyone's competing for talent, yet landing
a job is so damn difficult.
~~~
mud_dauber
This. Anytime I see a blog post with somebody humblebragging about
simultaneous offers, I mentally call BS.
~~~
Bahamut
The people are out there.
I could add my own story as a data point, but I doubt people want to hear
another one if they’re in such denial.
~~~
subrat_rout
I would like to know your story. And also I would like to know what are the
resources you followed/used to become a great front end developer. Any
suggestions or tips will be highly appreciated.
------
lubujackson
Let's first of all recognize that if you could pick likely winners (especially
with limited financial and business info) you would be an all-star VC and not
an employee. It isn't something you should even think about because you will
never have enough info to judge accurately.
What you CAN do is figure out what stage the business is in. Are they pursuing
series A funding? Series B? Looking to be acquired? Minting money?
Are they growing staff and offices as fast as possible? That could be good or
bad. Companies that grow suddenly end suddenly, too.
How much runway does the company have? You can probably get away with asking
this. What you probably want to hear is "we are self-sufficient and growing",
what you will probably hear is "we have a vaguely long runway". What you don't
want to hear is "don't worry about it" or "I have no idea". Healthy businesses
have an idea. Startups should want people who are invested in growing the
whole business, not just employees and they should like that you ask
(otherwise, you are accepting risk for no day-to-day benefit. Stock options
aren't the real benefit. Working a job where you can more fully contribute is
the real perk).
Last, do you like and understand the product? If not, is the team awesome and
has much to teach you? If not, don't join, no matter how shiny they make the
future sound.
------
john_moscow
Essentially picking a good startup to work for is as hard as making a good
investment. Except as an investor you can hedge between 100 startups hoping
that one will give you a stellar return, but as an employee you are forced to
put all your eggs into one basket.
------
_m19m
It might be wise to also consider the community and values of a company before
you commit to it. For most people, and particularly for people at startups or
in demanding technical roles, you'll spend more time with your co-workers than
almost anyone else. You'll be relying on them in crises, supporting them when
they fall, and looking to them for a lot more than a check. In some ways a job
is like an investment, but in others it's like a marriage.
Years ago, I picked a small startup (with a great CEO, a great team, a great
product - all the things mentioned in the article), but when I think about the
best part of the decision to join them, it was how the whole company came
together to support me when I suffered a personal tragedy. I'm happy about
that startup's success, but I'm even happier that I was able to make (and
keep) the friends I made there.
------
vadym909
Did I miss something? It lists 6 super successful founders with no startup
experience - and then recommends to look for founders with past experience at
a Rocketship or Serial Entrepreneurs as the best bet for how to evaluate
startups.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Share what you own - TimLeland
https://iownit.co
======
RaDoubleD
Startup website where users add categories of products or services they use in
their online presence. iOwnIt condenses links into one page and pulls directly
from Amazon by URL with real-time price updating.
------
drt
Interesting idea...
~~~
TimLeland
Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Your Timeline: Revisiting the world that you’ve explored - sagivo
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2015/07/your-timeline-revisiting-world-that.html
======
notcub
Easily remember all the places I've been, eh? Sounds familiar. Is it like
Google Latitude, which I used to easily remember all the places I had been
until it was retired in 2013?
------
andybak
I'm interested to see if this prompts privacy concerns as I feel it should
actually appease them.
The problem with location tracking previously was that it was too easy to not
notice it. Click through a few confirmations during app setup and fail to dig
into menus and you might never know about it.
The more it's front and center (and useful) as a feature the more likely
people with legitimate concerns are to be aware of it and the ability to
disable or selectively remove data.
I was pleased to see 'delete day' was so prominent in the UI.
------
sdrothrock
If you're into this kind of tracking but don't necessarily want to go with
Google, check out the Moves app (available on both iOS and Android). It's
pretty no-nonsense and has an API. It guesses at locations based on things
that FourSquare has, which would be its main weakness compared to this, I
think.
Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that one of the things that I love
that uses the Moves API is Gyroscope
([http://www.gyrosco.pe](http://www.gyrosco.pe)). Development seems to have
stagnated a bit, but it's still a really neat site.
~~~
zachlatta
One thing to note, Moves was acquired by Facebook a while back. I believe they
changed their privacy policy after the acquisition to something a bit more
fishy.
~~~
sdrothrock
Thanks for the heads-up! I had no idea.
------
imgabe
Google Now is becoming increasingly impressive to me. For instance, last time
I rented a car when it was time for me to return it, it showed me locations of
gas near the airport. That's incredibly useful.
~~~
coldtea
Or, you know, one can open their GPS/Maps app and with 1 or 2 clicks (or even
a voice command) ask for gas stations near the airport.
Google Now sounds paper-clippy and diminishing returns to me...
~~~
kaishiro
I think the point imgabe is trying to make - and I've had a similar experience
- is that you occasionally receive information that _you don't even know you
need to know_. For example, if I'm familiar with an area, I may have a
particular gas station (or whatever) in mind, only to suddenly be given
information that shows there is, in fact, a better option available to me.
It's not (just) a question of saving clicks, it's the idea of giving you
information off the cuff that is contextual to your situation.
Just my two cents.
~~~
amelius
Usually, the information is just noise though. And the information is never
essential. That combination makes it something I'd rather not use.
~~~
icebraining
Well, it's not exactly hard to disable:
[https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2824784?hl=en](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2824784?hl=en)
~~~
amelius
I'm getting tired of disabling stuff. I want my services to stay unchanged,
unless I tell them otherwise.
------
flarg
Not like Google and the (in the UK) the coppers don't already track our
movements - so it's nice to see what they can see.
------
omarforgotpwd
"Show this ad to people who walk past my coffee shop on the way to work, at a
date and time when they are walking to work, and haven't already stopped at a
coffee shop." \-- Future Google Ads Feature in 2016
~~~
akx
To be honest, I'd be alright with that as a consumer.
------
mistermann
It's a bit surprising they didn't implement this long ago. I quit like this
google tracking feature, I can see how some people might have privacy concerns
but I don't personally care at all.
~~~
magnusss
Location history has been available for at least two years on Android, but
without many of the bells and whistles described here such as location-delete
and photo location-marking. But recording where I am at every waking -- and
sleeping, for that matter -- moment and storing it in google's cloud for it to
be analyzed, correlated with my search history, sold to advertisers, and
possibly hacked or subpoenaed seems shamelessly intrusive and voyeuristic. So
no, I am not signing up for this. If I forget where I parked I'll just walk
around in concentric circles of increasing radius while repeatedly activating
my remote until my car chirps its presence. Small price to pay for maintaining
the last vestige of privacy I think I have.
------
nadavw
super interesting...Google's really digging into mapping, first with the
revamped MyMaps and now with this...I'm just wondering if a timeline is the
best way to see places...If I had a great date with my girlfriend a few months
ago, I don't remember the day or even month...there's gotta be a better UX,
no?
------
UserRights
They write:
"Your Timeline is private and visible only to you"
I would like to challenge Google to provide proof for this: make it work
without needing to login anywhere and without sending data to any place.
This will be great marketing and it is heavily needed to restore trust into a
US based company after it has been destroyed completely by authoritarian
lunatics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What personal finance tools do you use? - xupybd
I've been using YNAB(6 months) after having used HLedger(2 years). HLedger was beautiful, I really loved budgeting that way. There were fantastic tutorials on how to do envelop budgeting. The lead developer helped fix bugs instantly. There was a tool that let me import my OXF files from the bank. It was a dream.<p>However I got married and merged finances, so I needed something a bit more user friendly to give my wife access to our budget. YNAB is well it's slow and dogmatic. I don't mind dogmatic but the way it rolls months annoys me. Couple that with a clunky slow interface and I'm done with YNAB.<p>What do you use to for your personal budget?
======
yrezgui
I've been using LunchMoney for more than six months now and couldn't be
happier: [https://lunchmoney.app](https://lunchmoney.app)
It's a simple yet powerful budgeting tool. YNAB always look overcomplicated
and unfriendly to me
~~~
jnfr
Thanks for the mention!
Jen here- founder of Lunch Money. Definitely give us a try if you're looking
for something more modern and user-friendly. Lunch Money is less rigid than
YNAB so much easier to get started on and build habits with.
If you (or anyone else reading this) decide to try it out, let me know you're
from HN and I'll hook you up with a free month on top of the 14 day trial :)
~~~
xupybd
Can you do envelope style budgeting with lunch money? I think I'll give it a
shot regardless.
~~~
jnfr
We don't adhere to any one budgeting philosophy. While we won't walk you
through the envelope style budgeting the way YNAB does, you can certainly
mimic it with the platform!
~~~
xupybd
I had a checklist of requirements:
* OXF import so that duplicate transactions are not an issue.
* An iPhone app so my wife can see the state of the budget.
* Envelop budgeting by default.
Lunch Money meets none of these. I don't think I am the target market, but the
UI has won me over. I'm totally going to do everything I can to make this
work. I suspect the API will make that possible.
Amazing job on the interface, clean fast and appealing while showing loads of
information all at once.
------
palencharizard
I recently simplified and starting using Google Forms.
I created a form with name (text), amount (number) and category (dropdown),
then opened it in my iPhone's browser and added it to my homescreen. Whenever
I make a purchase, I tap the icon and up pops a blank form. Takes me no more
than 10 seconds to fill out.
You can link the form responses to a spreadsheet, and from there I can
categorize and aggregate with this raw data any way I want. Next step is to
create some graphs on the spreadsheet and add that view to my homescreen, so I
can see how much budget is remaining in a month.
I've grown tired of budgeting tools that try to link your credit cards, etc--
authentication maintenance is never the smoothest, and things are more
detailed than I need them to be. Best thing about this method is that I have
the raw data to work on, and I can adjust my data visuals easily as my needs
change (it might also be cool to one day do large aggregates over, say, 10
years of personal spending)
------
gkbrk
I use a plaintext double-entry system now. Wrote a small Python script to
parse it as well. I put the code up here [1].
Before that, I was using SQLite with a shell script for a while to keep track
of my expenses, code here [2].
[1]:
[https://github.com/gkbrk/scripts/blob/master/ledger.py](https://github.com/gkbrk/scripts/blob/master/ledger.py)
[2]: [https://www.gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-
budgeting/](https://www.gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-budgeting/)
------
triyambakam
Google Sheets but I've been wanting to move to a plain text solution, however
my Google Sheet is now nearly 7 years old, so there is so much good data there
and I feel more and more locked in
~~~
elamje
I wouldn’t worry about lock in since you can export to excel, convert to csv,
and boom, you have plain text.
------
sanjeetsuhag
While it's only available for iOS/iPadOS/macOS, I can't recommend Debit and
Credit enough: [https://debitandcredit.app/](https://debitandcredit.app/)
It's a very straightforward application for logging, categorizing your
transactions. The UI is clean and simple, the features like
Budgets/Plans/Scheduled Transactions are great, the visualization features are
meh, but I don't use them that much. Another great thing is how easy it is to
reach out to the developer. I've personally asked for a feature through
Twitter and had that patched in within a week.
------
sloaken
I have always been good with my money. When I married I merged our accounts.
Finances became a disaster.
A few years ago we had some major life changes. At that point I set up more
accounts. My wife is on all accounts, but she has a PRIMARY spending account,
which although I am on the account I never use. We put money into it
regularly. Since she does most of the shopping that is where she spends from.
I have a separate account for the mortgage. Another account for charge cards,
cash and utilities.
By physically separating the money I have not had a late mortgage payment. My
wife has freedom to spend without guilt. And we are finally saving money.
Your mileage might be different.
------
2rsf
What exactly do you need out of your tool ?
Do you want want to track daily expenses ? only big expenses ? check balances
across multiple accounts ?
Personally I get along fine with a spreadsheet and a wife who is into finance
professionally.
~~~
giantg2
I also use a spreadsheet.
I only budget for my own finances. I can't make a combined budget because my
wife's income is somewhat variable and she doesn't want to make a budget. I
guess that's ok since I pay all the bills except for her hobbies, gas, and
tires (and when she needs to buy a new car). I tried to get her to chip in for
utilities but she doesn't want to, even though she makes roughly 30% of our
combined income. She spends as much on her hobbies every month as I do on our
mortgage. I also hate my job but can't quit since she won't help with the
finances.
Sorry, I guess that turned into a bit of a rant.
~~~
2rsf
Actually we had a corridor chat in my team about that yesterday, I was
surprised that even people from conservative countries like India and Pakistan
still had some variant of putting all salaries in one pot.
On the other hand I know a few people with his and hers accounts that are
happily married so YMMV
~~~
giantg2
We have separate accounts, mostly because we were lazy and didn't want set up
joint accounts. I think it should be fine either way. I just wish she would
contribute to our financial wellness. $1200 per month on hobbies is insane in
my opinion.
------
senjindarashiva
I've been using buckets:
[https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/](https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/) for a
couple of years after moving away from YNAB. I find that it's fairly similar
to YNAB with better handling of rolling over data from month-to-month and the
fact that it's not a subscription is very comforting.
------
Maha-pudma
Libre office Calc, and pivot tables.
I have set everything up so I can just copy and paste my banks export straight
into a sheet, pivot tables on the next sheet.
------
jcp2fa
Rolled my own system using email purchase notifications, zapier, and Google
sheets: [https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-control-of-my-spending-
wit...](https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-control-of-my-spending-with-a-
couple-no-code-services-and-only-100-lines-of-python-code-36c8ac75f670)
------
yulaow
I just use two excel (or to be more precise, Libre Office Calc) pages. In one
I put all the expenses divided by month, than type. Each one has a short
description
In the other I plot graph of the data in the first page, In particular graphs
covering each month, each year and last 5 years.
Never needed anything else
~~~
hyperman1
seconded, even libreoffice. I have 12 sheets, one for each month. Each year I
copy it. There is a second spreadsheet for big long term things, like loans
and different phases of contractor work on our house
------
rocketpastsix
YNAB is my main tool for the job.
------
fiftyacorn
I gave up on budgeting apps as I felt I knew roughly how much was coming in.
as long as I kept on top of prices on insurance, electricity,... Then that's
about as good as I needed
I did use buckets when trying to budget. It's the same as ynab but not online
------
cpach
I’m in the same boat, would love a convenient tool for a married couple with
shared economy. I’ve heard that YNAB is good but that it’s not so convenient
for the use-case of a household.
------
ztc
Mint for tracking spending and M1 for investments
------
4d66ba06
Goodbudget for personal spending
Neobudget for shared stuff
------
mijndert
An Excel spreadsheet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you know if an idea is worth running with? - alexbanks
I'm currently developing a SaaS product in my spare time. It's a tool that I want/I will use that doesn't seem to exist in the market already in any decent fashion. In my own bubble it seems like a great, potentially profitable idea, but I have no idea if that means it's worth trying to make into a real thing? Also, I don't even know how I'd make it a full blown SaaS product by myself.<p>If the right answer is to just read Hackers and Painters, I'll totally do that. I just can't tell if I'm clouded by my own bias.
======
ninadmhatre
I am in the same phase, i have 1 idea which "I" think is good one but not sure
if there is really need for that. So i am basically putting my efforts without
keeping much expectations from it but giving my 100%. You have to try it to
find out if its successful, idea may be great but implementation of it will
decide the success. Keep on looking for inspirations, i came across site where
they are selling tickets to marriages, i mean really? i visited the site and
there were listing available.
So try it and find out yourself, worst case it wont be hit/successful but by
that time you would have learned so many things.
------
kespindler
Do your sales before building it. Who would buy it? Make a powerpoint or
pen&paper mockup, get feedback from potential customers. Build a landing page,
track conversion to a 'Buy Now' button.
For more info, check out 4H work week, Lean Startup, or
[http://firstround.com/review/90-of-feedback-is-crap-how-
to-f...](http://firstround.com/review/90-of-feedback-is-crap-how-to-find-the-
next-big-startup-idea/)
------
JSeymourATL
Road test your new business idea >
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1194905.The_new_business...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1194905.The_new_business_road_test)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In Norway, a Prison Built on Second Chances - user_235711
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/31/410532066/in-norway-a-prison-built-on-second-chances
======
bsenftner
The US prison system is actually an industrialized slavery system for US
corporations. The prison system here has a "work program" for inmates where
they earn pennies per hour to manufacture products for US corporations.
Investigate how institutionalized this practice has become. We need to stop
this immediately, as it can and will spread unless we do. This is evil
unmasked.
[http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-
unit...](http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-
states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289)
[http://www.alternet.org/story/151732/21st-
century_slaves%3A_...](http://www.alternet.org/story/151732/21st-
century_slaves%3A_how_corporations_exploit_prison_labor)
[http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/18/prison-small-business-
ent-m...](http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/18/prison-small-business-ent-manage-
cx_mf_0818prisonlabor.html)
~~~
notdanariely
I agree that this trend is disturbing, but am unable to reconcile your
alarmist language with the numbers in the links you provided.
I do not support private corporations (or even public good -- yes, I think the
chain gang days of old are similarly awful) making money off of prisoners.
However, from the articles you linked, some data:
* 2 million (2,000,000) inmates in federal/state/local prisons.
* 100 private prisons, 62,000 inmates in them (6.2%)
* 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states (unsure how this relates to previous point, the article isn't very well written and doesn't connect these numbers)
* Forbes.com article says there are 6,000 prisoners in the US serving time while working for a private enterprise.
So on the one extreme, we're looking at 6% of the prison population being
affected by this. At the other extreme, there are only 6k prisoners affected.
I believe there are a huge number of ethical and moral violations surrounding
the prison side of the US criminal justice system. Private prisons are one of
them, but hyperbole and extreme language do not serve any of the population.
~~~
themartorana
I think "hyperbole" is unfair. Waiting to be "alarmist" until after an "alarm"
has the capacity to halt a terrible situation is rather pointless. It's so
much easier to stop a bad practice than walk it back from significant
implementation.
This may be small, but it's growing rapidly, and if it's 6.2% now, it's 15% by
2020, and so on.
~~~
rayiner
The problem with the argument is not that it's not worth raising alarm about
6%. It's alarming--that number was basically 0% 20 years ago. However, the
argument doesn't explain how our justice system got to be the way it is.
Private prison corporations didn't create extreme minimum sentences. They came
along after the fact to profit from them. The core problem is a lack of virtue
in the American people. We're unsympathetic, unforgiving, and unmerciful. our
lack of virtue created the system that opportunists are now profiting from.
~~~
kevinnk
Ironically, painting broad swaths of people with labels like "non-virtuous" is
how we got extreme sentences In the first place.
------
kristofferR
Cool that this appeared here right now, as I'm in the middle of rewatching The
House I Live In, a fantastic documentary about the US drug war/justice system.
Go watch it now.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0atL1HSwi8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0atL1HSwi8)
The current US system is mindblowingly stupid. People who are treated like
animals tend to act like it, especially if they're encouraged to.
~~~
kw71
What's amazing is that the US penal system acts the way it does even when
these examples have been on the planet for decades and the benefits clearly
visible. It also seems that the general consensus among psychologists and
psychiatrists is that the current system damages people and does nothing to
achieve its alleged aims. Running a third world penal system only burdens our
society in so many ways, and it's even officially named in the third-
world/soviet/despotic style of calling it something it's not: a "correctional"
system.
~~~
vidarh
I've said many times that if I was ever on a US jury (which would never
happen; I'm Norwegian, living in the UK, and even if I at some point where to
be resident in the US, this attitude would get me out of jury duty very
quickly:),
I would have a hard time voting for a guilty plea except in the most
exceptionally horrible cases, because I would find it exceptionally hard to
justify making anyone suffer through the US prison system. That would include
if it was a murder trial or similar.
Not only do I find the US prison system immoral for its treatment of inmates,
I find it immoral for the violence it is indirectly responsible for inflicting
on wider society by actively treating people in a way known to at best be
ineffective, and at worst having a massively negative effect on re-offending
rates.
Anyone worried about violent crime in the US should start by demanding reform
of the prison system.
~~~
themartorana
This is partially why the innocence and sentencing portions are separated.
~~~
vidarh
And that separation is a substantial part of why I'd find it hard to morally
justify giving a "guilty" vote given the penal system in question.
------
kristofferR
This is on the front page of one of the largest newspapers in Norway right
now: [http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/usa/fengselsdoemt-
nordmann...](http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/usa/fengselsdoemt-nordmann-i-
soeknad-ber-om-aa-bli-henrettet/a/23461936/)
A Norwegian guy in the US, convicted to 7 years in prison for driving the
wrong way down a one way street (and not injuring anyone btw), asks to be
executed because the prison he is in is so horrible since he doesn't receive
enough pain medication (he broke his neck in prison). He spends most of the
time in isolation.
~~~
hnarn
1) He was not convicted merely for "driving the wrong way down a one way
street", he was convicted for driving recklessly down a road with a lot of
people on it.
2) He is not asking to be executed because the prison is horrible, but because
they have taken away his pain meds -- which they did because he (allegedly)
tried not swallowing them in order to sell them.
There's definitely more to this story, I wouldn't be so sure that he's
completely innocent (regardless of how reasonable the sentence is).
The link posted by twoodfin says this:
"He has a history of aggressive behavior," said Navajo County Attorney
Carlyon, whose investigators unearthed police reports relating to John in
Alabama, Illinois and California.
Those incidents included threats, an alleged stalking of a young girl, an
attempted suicide and a run-in with a Los Angeles bicyclist in which John was
accused of running over the man's bicycle in a fit of anger. Not all the
incidents resulted in charges, and none resulted in a conviction."
~~~
tptacek
Just to add a bit: according to witnesses, he was driving the wrong way down a
one-way street on which there was a street festival, vocalizing threats to
pedestrians who wouldn't get out of his way, actually grazing one of them,
with his car periodically leaving the street and jumping onto the sidewalk, at
one point menacing a food stand on the sidewalk.
His mother, in the car with him at the time, indicates that they were driving
the wrong way down the street on purpose: frustrated by the street closures
from the ongoing festival, they got to within visual range of their
destination (a garage where their belongings were) and opted to ignore the
street signs to get there.
Photos of him post-arrest show visible injuries to his face. That wasn't the
police: his driving menaced some young children (apparently near the food
stand) so frightening their father that he ran after the car and decked the
driver. It was at that point that the driver fled the scene.
Seven year is a crazy high sentence; much too long. But using a moving car to
forcibly coerce people out of your way isn't a simple moving violation: it is,
and should be, a felony.
------
aarmenante
What if someone opened a for-profit prison in the US that focused on
rehabilitation? The prison could start by bidding on incarceration contracts
for non-violent drug offenders. The prison could take notes from the
Scandinavian system:
* Humane housing
* Counseling
* Family visits
* Emphasis on self-reliance
To help reduce the costs of the prison, the inmates could produce something
that is very labor intensive and hard to create without cheap labor. Farming?
Food production? Laundering uniforms? QA testing for large software companies?
(Only half joking.)
Without the political clout that the Corrections Corp of America has, I bet it
would be difficult to bid for contracts, but it's a more realistic way of
making a change than political pressure.
------
buro9
It's fine building a prison on the premise of second chances, but it will fail
if the society it belongs to isn't build on the premise of offering a second
(or third, etc) chance.
Either you believe in the ability of every human to change their behaviour,
and you give them a chance to... every time... or you don't.
This, I feel, is tied to the death penalty too. Societies that give no second
chance do not seem to worry too much about killing people.
------
dataker
It's a good idea for Americans to get elements from the article, but it's
impossible to completely emulate it.
Norway has a smaller and more homogeneous population, making these programs
easier to be managed and funded.
~~~
vidarh
This line of thinking never ceases to amaze me.
The US consists of 50 states, a substantial majority of which have fewer
people than Norway. In other words there already is a convenient delineation
to use for separate systems; and there already are state-level penal systems.
For the handful of states where the population is more than twice as big or
so, there are easy regional separations you could make.
These kind of problems are easy to scale because they partition trivially if
there are aspects of the system that does not benefit from scale.
Now you also make the argument it makes it easier to fund these programs in a
smaller more homogeneous population. If you mean that getting political
agreement to funding is easier, that may be a point. But then the problem is
not emulating it, but lack of will to emulate it.
~~~
andreyf
Could it be a prisoner's dilemma of sorts between states? If one state
introduces prisons along the lines of those described in the article, then
criminals will flock to that state because it'll be known as the one that has
nice prisons.
~~~
vidarh
If criminals picked jurisdictions based on criminal justice systems,
presumably there would have been pretty much no crime in places like Maricopa
County, Arizona under "Sherrif Joe", but as it happens criminals rarely appear
to weigh the impact of getting caught very much.
~~~
andreyf
I'm not saying all criminals do, but enough might, especially if there is a
drastic difference in punishment / rehabilitation.
------
BjoernKW
There's a non-profit organization in Germany called Leonhard, which educates
and coaches inmates to become entrepreneurs when they're released from prison:
[http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://ww...](http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.leonhard.eu/&prev=search)
I think that's a wonderful example of how to both treat prisoners respectfully
and at the same time provide a benefit to society.
------
paulpauper
_The 250 inmates here are locked in their cells for 12 hours a day. But those
cells are private rooms, with wood furniture, a shower, a fridge and a flat-
screen TV._
hmmm...Private rooms could be part of the problem. Isolation can create
psychosis. Maybe 12 hours a day is good enough, but I think total isolation
should be avoided whenever possible, or let prisoners choose whether or not to
be isolated. Integrating prisoners saves money and makes then happier. But
these are probably among worst offenders given that there are only 250.
~~~
masklinn
> But these are probably among worst offenders given that there are only 250.
While Halden is a maximum security prison, it's also highly focused on
rehabilitation, so it's not necessarily where the worst offenders are (Breivik
is at Ila for instance, which can hold 124 people).
Halden is actually a fairly big prison by norwegian standard I think, the
capacity of the whole Norwegian prison system is a bit below 4000 (77 per
100000 citizens, the current incarceration rate is 72 per 100000 according to
wikipedia).
~~~
ceejayoz
72/100,000 versus Louisiana's 867/100,000 is a pretty shocking difference.
Wow. The lowest in the US (Maine) is still 148/100,000.
~~~
drpgq
I'm surprised Maine is only twice times Norway.
------
mediascreen
Sweden has a similar system. And the Swedish Prison and Probation Service even
has a "an average day in prison"-page about everyday life at a Swedish medium
security prison:
[https://www.kriminalvarden.se/fangelse-frivard-och-
hakte/fan...](https://www.kriminalvarden.se/fangelse-frivard-och-
hakte/fangelse/en-dag-pa-fangelset)
~~~
masklinn
Halden is high/maximum security though.
------
tomjen3
Too bad there are no second chances for the victims though.
~~~
linuxhansl
So you want revenge? Because one life it ruined (assuming irreparable crimes
like rape or murder) you need to ruin another one?
The goal of penal system should not be punishment, but rather prevention of
crime. Punishment is only one aspect of crime prevention.
IMHO, imprisonment has two goals:
1. deterrence, to prevent _another_ person to commit the same crime in the future
2. get really dangerous people away from the general population (this would be rare)
Every crime is a failure of society already. There is no place for revenge or
intentionally bad treatment of offenders.
~~~
tomjen3
>Every crime is a failure of society already. There is no place for revenge or
intentionally bad treatment of offenders.
That is, at the very best, an extremely simplified extreme opinion.
Victims have every right to hate their offenders and a just society should do
everything they can to help the victims, including punishing the offender. I
don't get why this is an extreme pov but apparently it is.
~~~
narrowingorbits
> Victims have every right to hate their offenders and a just society should
> do everything they can to help the victims...
Yes, society should do everything it can to help the victims---to help the
victims to heal. Society has no imperative to help the victims to hate.
~~~
tomjen3
Ah but healing requires pain be inflicted on your transgressor.
~~~
vidarh
I feel sad for you if that is genuinely how you feel.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Don't Make Me Code, a New Podcast about Developer Experience (DX) Design - tedcarstensen
http://blog.heavybit.com/blog/dont-make-me-code-1
======
kafkaesq
_Don 't Make Me Code_
There's a lot packed into that saying.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Kansas Experiment - lfowles
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/magazine/the-kansas-experiment.html?_r=0
======
Artistry121
Kansas is a beautiful state but like most of the middle of the country its
population spread, lack of "entrepreneurship-role-models" in most communities
and talent flight hurt its chances of developing strong business culture even
in an easy-to-do business environment.
I grew up in KC, MO and went to school on the state line. Many of the most
promising students from my school and other schools would go out of state for
college - and most that left haven't come back yet.
The fact that Denver, Kansas City, MO and Omaha all flank the state and
contain more developed business centers also makes company development
unlikely.
Looking at this shows how little concentration there is of companies in the
whole mid-to-upper Midwest section.
[http://www.geolounge.com/fortune-500-list-by-state-
for-2015/](http://www.geolounge.com/fortune-500-list-by-state-for-2015/)
I wonder what has made Minnesota so successful.
~~~
kcmarshall
Here's a nice example of a regional success story from MN. The area around
Winona (a town on the Mississippi river between the Twin Cities and Rochester)
has a growing cluster of businesses that work with composites.
[http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/08/07/composites-
winona](http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/08/07/composites-winona)
Kansas wants this kind of development but doesn't want to put priority on
environmental protection, outdoor recreation or the arts. All are important to
the Winona story - as is the presence of a state university in the town.
I'm an 'expat' Kansan who now lives in MN so I have a deep appreciation for
the difference between the two.
------
rrmm
The legislators' assumption was that lowering the tax rate (eventually to
zero) would bring business to the state. Ignoring arguments about the validity
and applicability of the Laffer curve, what made them think businesses would
want to set up shop there when several other states have the same benefit?
Businesses have to attract talent, and underfunding services and schools
doesn't make for an attractive state. It is painful to watch how easily the
people in charge slide into believing that one simple solution will fix
everything. Even the best of ideas and intentions end badly when taken to an
idealogical extreme.
~~~
Lavery
Without going into whether this belief is well founded (personally I don't
think it is), its a combination of two factors: an assumption that there is a
pool of potential business owners already in the state who are deterred by
higher taxes, and a desire to be like Delaware (or internationally, Ireland),
where low taxes and favorable regulatory structure are such that many large,
inter-state or multinational corporations headquarter themselves there.
The first point, as you suggested, is pretty questionable. As you pointed out,
it's worth noting that the current wave of entrepreneurship has headquartered
itself in California, New York, and Massachusetts, some of the highest tax
areas in the country.
~~~
WalterBright
There's a tech boom going on in the Seattle area (Microsoft, Amazon, Google,
Adobe, Boeing, etc.), which has no income tax.
~~~
rrmm
It seems like it's going on there more because it is conducive to
talented/idea people being there in a big group rather than about tax
structure.
Boeing though just built a new facility in another state because of union
issues (apparently).
Bottom line is that it's a part of the business decision, but not the only
part and maybe not even the biggest part.
~~~
kcmarshall
Boeing has a new assembly site in South Carolina opened in 2011.
This is especially ironic (and painful) for Kansas since Boeing had been a
major employer in the Wichita area for decades. It sold its Wichita Commercial
Airplanes division to Spirit AeroSystems in the mid-2000s.
------
knieveltech
Would someone in tune with the fiscally conservative mindset be willing to
offer an explanation for the apparent fascination with cutting taxes and
downsizing government? Specifically, what are the proposed benefits for the
average citizen?
~~~
Artistry121
When I took a job in Dallas my hourly rate was less than that of my job in
Kansas City, MO. But my take home pay was higher for working the same amount
of hours. Why? MO took 7% out of my salary for state taxes.
For a family making $50,000 (simplified) that's worth $3,500/year and
everything else in Texas provided by the government seemed equal - the roads
were nice, schools were good, crime wasn't noticable... So $3,500 a year for
no noted improvement in life? That can help pay for college for children, buy
a car or nice new technology, or increase retirement savings or charitable
expenditures.
~~~
Nicholas_C
What about cost of living? And Dallas has much higher property taxes from what
I've heard.
~~~
Artistry121
I'm not familiar with property taxes. Dallas is a collection of cities and
counties all around one center - its sprawling so I bet taxes vary.
My anecdotal experience between the two cities is that Dallas is more
expensive in the downtown area than KC but once you get into the suburbs the
massive amount of development in Dallas brings prices down quickly so suburban
living costs are similar.
~~~
TheCoelacanth
Localities in the Dallas area charge 2-3% of the market value of the
property[1]. KC charges ~%0.3 of the market value (1.59% of the "assessed
value" which is defined as 19% of the market value for residential
properties)[2]. So, yeah, the property taxes are much higher in Dallas.
[1] [http://www.davedowns.com/dallas-property-
tax.htm](http://www.davedowns.com/dallas-property-tax.htm) [2]
[http://kcmo.gov/finance/property-taxes-2/](http://kcmo.gov/finance/property-
taxes-2/)
------
roneesh
The single minded focus on taxes to recruit businesses strikes me as severely
misguided. Sure, found a business here in Kansas where you save on paying high
taxes on your business. Pay it all back when your child makes the mistake of
enrolling in the University of Kansas system. Perhaps this isn't the specific
case in Kansas, maybe the Kansas system has lowered costs, but I have a
feeling you pay it back in some form when you finally, in some way start to
imbibe on a now underfunded public entity.
~~~
success_hawk
The University of Kansas has one of the lowest tuition prices in the country
for a state uni. The problem is the overall education you get from the public
schools and that there are very few locations to get job, when comparing pay
nationally, with decent pay.
------
norea-armozel
I gave up on my home state barely a year ago. When I graduated from Wichita
State there wasn't much in the way of actual software developer jobs in the
city or even up north near Topeka. It was fairly depressing to have to accept
a job out of state since despite all its flaws it's my home. But since I can't
find real work back home and the fact it seems the state Republican party is
hell bent to run out any business that doesn't follow its status quo
(especially companies who are LGBT friendly/inclusive) I won't be coming back
other than to bury my parents.
Maybe someday I'll come back to my home state but only when the madness in the
state capital has ran its course and actual competent politicians are at the
helm. Until then I'll be working up here in Minneapolis Minnesota (even though
I hate the traffic and the winter weather... BLEH!).
------
cromulent
I listened to the Planet Money episode last week (of the same title and
subject from last year).
[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/22/358105415/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/22/358105415/episode-577-sam-
brownback-s-kansas-experiment)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences - BerislavLopac
https://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-mathematics-in-the-natural-sciences#email-newsletter
======
nsajko
Dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20452008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20452008)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the NSA scandal hurts the economy - richtr
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/how-the-nsa-scandal-hurts-the-economy/
======
bigiain
For what it's worth - I've got clients and colleagues asking hard questions
about data jurisdiction and data sovereignty in the last 6 weeks. The old
"obvious answers" to cloud storage and computing are no longer considered
quite so straightforward. Can an Australian company be considered to be doing
"due diligence" if storing customer data on Amazon's cloud? Or Azure? Or
AppEngine/Heroku/Rackspace/Force.com? I've even got clients asking if there
are MessageLabs equivalents that're solely under Australian law instead of US
law?
Personally, I don't trust the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to
be any less morally corrupt that the NSA - though I hold some small comfort
from the fact that they're significantly less well funded and almost certainly
don't have the small country sized staff of Math PhDs that the NSA have…
Even though I don't assume we (here in Australia) have any better protection
against government snooping - everyone I talk to seems to understand that
acknowledging and accepting the risk of local government snooping is something
easily explained to customers/shareholders/judges than having to explain why
you stored confidential information on cloud services that you knew were under
foreign surveillance.
My response has been to (bring forward the implementation of) "encrypt all the
things". I suspect this is already costing US businesses - I wonder if
Dropbox/GDrive/SkyDrive are noticing reduced de-dupe rates? I'm now using
encfs for most of the free storage they're giving me.
------
mark_l_watson
I tried this argument (hurting USA's economy) as an argument to several
friends on how harmfull the NSA sweep everything up surveillance will probably
hurt our economy. They don't buy my argument because the US news media tells
one side of the story only (mostly). It only takes a few seconds to find
relevant foreign news stories, but there seems to be a hysterical blindness
happening.
I enjoy playing Chess and Go, and it is very important to accept what is on
the board as reality, and play the game accordingly.
I listened to Richard Stallman earlier today, saying that now is the time when
perhaps the fight for freedom could work. I think Richard is perhaps overly
optimistic, but we can hope. I have increased donations to EFF, FSF, and the
ACLU - that seems the best I can do. I used to write frequently to my elected
representatives but most of them seem to have their own agendas that are not
aligned with what I think are public interests.
------
gonvaled
I've said this before, but I'll repeat it here. There is zero chance that
anybody will believe what the US government / US companies will say from now
on. Their credibility has been fatally damaged, for years to come.
The fact that we are not yet seeing any exodus from the current cloud
offerings is because there are no easy-to-use alternatives which, _at the same
time_ , offer a better degree of trust. But I am confident they will emerge,
since a huge market for these kind of services has opened up - before the
Snowden relevations we were just suspicious, now we are certain.
And an important selling point of these services will be to not be US-based,
and better yet, not run by any american company. Trust can not be regained,
and _whatever_ will be said won't be believed: so you say that you are not
spying on me? Yeah, sure! So you say you have no backdoors? Yeah, sure! So you
say you can guarantee under oath that you will not spy on me, under any
circumstances, and you can prove this with court documents, contracts, laws
passed by the US congress, and the clear and concise statements of the US
president and the CIA boss? Yeah, sure!
------
haimez
It's sad that this is our best chance for changing US policy at this point,
but I'll take it. I would have hoped that the ideals of freedom were something
that the American people embraced for their own sake, but you play the hand
you're dealt.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This supercomputer is a supersleuth for insurers - hackuser
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-supercomputer-is-a-supersleuth-for-insurers/
======
hackuser
_You 're just starting work on a major home improvement project when your
insurance agent calls. "You need more coverage," he says. But the real
question is: How did he even know you were building an addition? Did he smell
the sawdust or hear the hammer?
Neither. Thanks to a supercomputer owned by LexisNexis, the data analytics
subsidiary of London-based RELX Group (RELX), your insurance company knows so
much more than that.
"Very little in your life isn't known," said Victor Bayus, who runs the new
Active Insights program at LexisNexis. It enables other companies to "predict,
assess and manage risk." ...
In a world where every keystroke is often recorded, don't think for a second
you can remain anonymous._
------
privong
A better title for this might be "How Insurers are using public and private
data".
~~~
hackuser
Agreed. I tried to find a quote in the article that was more descriptive than
the title, but ran out of time and went with the HN standard of using the
actual title. Your idea would have been better.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Burger Burger – Order Burgers via SMS in London - reddavis
https://burgerburger.lol
======
autonomy77
£51 for four burgers and fries in London is a tad excessive :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why you should contribute to open source - shalinmangar
http://shalinsays.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-you-should-contribute-to-open.html
Sharing notes I put together for a talk I gave to some students
======
erikb85
it would be so nice, if open source contribution could bring u a job in a cool
software company. but I guess, that only works for the star-google
combination...
~~~
shalinmangar
Really? What about Red Hat, Canonical, SpringSource, Xen, Cloudera, Github
etc.?
~~~
erikb85
Argument accepted. US and Germany are a totally different world, as I learn
from HN every day. Here in Germany U don't get anything out of Open Source
contributions. Not even web startups are looking for that attribute.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bold move: BlackBerry Dakota photo, specs leaked - alphadoggs
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/011311-blackberry-dakota.html
======
st3fan
Underwhelming
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The macho sperm myth - kawera
https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-that-sperm-race-to-the-egg-is-just-another-macho-myth
======
Footkerchief
The author seems confused:
> Sperm passage up the female tract is more like an extremely challenging
> military obstacle course than a standard sprint-style swimming race. Sperm
> numbers are progressively whittled down as they migrate up the female tract,
> so that less than one in a million from the original ejaculate will surround
> the egg at the time of fertilisation. Any sperm with physical abnormalities
> are progressively eliminated along the way, but survivors surrounding the
> egg are a random sample of intact sperm.
> The entrenched idea that ‘the best sperm wins’ has elicited various
> suggestions that some kind of selection occurs, but it is difficult to
> imagine how this could possibly happen. The DNA in a sperm head is tightly
> bound and virtually crystalline, so how could its properties be detected
> from outside?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It May Not Feel Like Anything to Be an Alien - dnetesn
http://cosmos.nautil.us/feature/72/it-may-not-feel-like-anything-to-be-an-alien
======
probably_wrong
Holy browser hijack, Batman! On Firefox for Android, this link opens 10+ times
the same link, hijacking the "back" button.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook's ad algorithm is race & gender stereotyping, new study suggests - sapski
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/03/facebook-ad-algorithm-race-gender/
======
m0zg
It would be "stereotyping" if it was sentient and had an ulterior motive. As
of 2019 sentient algorithms do not exist, not even at Facebook. So the
algorithm just fits a model over actual observed data to minimize the cost
function (which in turn, hopefully maximizes click-through, and therefore FBs
profit).
If you truly want to be "inclusive", show your lumberjack ads to women only,
you have demographic targeting tools for that. Just don't be surprised by the
abysmally low click through rate and astronomical bid which would be required
for your ads to win the auction (which is a prerequisite for them to be shown
at all).
The way these auctions work is the probability of a click is multiplied by the
bid and then whichever ad gets the best score wins the auction. If probability
is low, the price has to be high to win the auction.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Is ok if I have a few subscribers in the waitlist but a 29% week growth? - IsraCV
Hi everyone!<p>Three weeks ago I put online a landing page for my app and start looking for early traction, I'm testing different traction channels to see which one performs better, organically.<p>Right now I have 58 subscribers in the waitlist, it isn't much but it started with 31 subscribers on the first week, the next week it growth at 29% and the week after that it growth 45%.<p>Is this ok or do I have a problem?, How could I get better results?
======
bbcbasic
There are so many factors in play here, it is hard to answer your question.
What are you expecting, what are your goals? Paid or free app? Who signed up
for the list. Are they targeted? What % of them do you think will download? Do
you have other ways to get people to download your app instead of the waiting
list? What are you doing to build a relationship with the list to entice them
to download. Is the app any good? Is it exciting? Does it solve a new problem?
Do you need a wait list at all?
As a quick answer I suggest forget about the wait list and make your app
awesome! Then drive people to download the app, not join the list.
Build a list once you have the app, to remind people how great/useful it is
with helpful articles etc. So they keep using it.
P.S. the percentages you mention are meaningless on such small numbers. Forget
about % growth until you have a few 1000 in the list.
~~~
IsraCV
Wow, Your answer made me question a lot of things and I realized others.
Thanks!
------
byoung2
It depends on the app...if it is a game for teens, a dating app, or a social
network you need much bigger numbers. If it is a financial planning app for
billionaires under 30, you have the whole market already on your waiting list.
~~~
IsraCV
It's this app [http://sellow.me](http://sellow.me) so, what you think?
~~~
shortoncash
Where did you post the link such that you were getting people to sign up on
your landing page?
~~~
IsraCV
I post it here, reddit, quora and warriorforum.
~~~
byoung2
You should try betali.st as well
~~~
IsraCV
Yes, I submit a few weeks ago the site, is pending to approval. I think I
should pay for the approval and see how things go.
~~~
byoung2
I paid to expedite ($79 or so) and it was worth it. Also did startuplister for
$25 and got a total of 450 sign ups for MorphMail.
~~~
IsraCV
Thanks for sharing this information , it looks that sites like Betalist are
the best choice for my app right now.
------
FlopV
Looks a lot like [https://offerupnow.com/](https://offerupnow.com/)
~~~
IsraCV
It doesn't, we do things very different.
~~~
FlopV
On a quick once over it did for me anyway ;). I'll have to take a closer look
later. Goodluck regardless and hope you didn't take offense to that.
~~~
IsraCV
No offense at all :)
------
JacobAldridge
byoung2 makes an important point about the product and therefore the market.
My additional question is how long you can sustain your growth - ie, will you
keep growing at 29% or just keep adding 20 new people per week. One is good
traction, the other incremental.
~~~
IsraCV
Right now I'm focus on getting organic growth our analytics show us that the
landing isn't converting well and the feedback from visitors indicate us that
our message is neither clear nor persuasive. Whit this indicators we are now
working on some changes that could get as a result, a higher conversion on the
landing. That, I think is the first of our problem, then wi'll focus again in
the strategy to keep growing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Stop exporting N95 masks to Canada, Trump administration tells U.S. manufacturer - fudged71
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2020/04/03/stop-exporting-n95-masks-to-canada-trump-administration-tells-us-manufacturer.html
======
fudged71
3M's response: [https://news.3m.com/press-release/company-
english/3m-respons...](https://news.3m.com/press-release/company-
english/3m-response-defense-production-act-order)
Trudeau's response: [https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/3m-warns-of-
white-h...](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/3m-warns-of-white-house-
order-to-stop-exporting-masks-to-canada-163060)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Team Combat Identification:Effects of Gender, Spatial Visualization Disagreement - GoRudy
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0018720820902286
======
gshdg
Armored vehicles. Yup, totally unbiased study. Try it with birds or something.
| {
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} |
I'm not sure it's Mou against the world - ismiseted
http://larryhynes.net/2014/09/mou-against-the-world.html
======
dewey
I got my Mou licence the same way the author of the blog post got his and I'm
still very happy with Mou for my casual markdown need.
I don't blame him for selling a few things on the side. It's not like they'll
take up a lot of time once you organized the manufacturing etc. They just sit
there and you ship them once someone orders. I don't think that's a problem to
do on the side. Can't say I'm a big fan of the fundraising idea. I'd rather
just buy it once it's finished, I don't even expect upgrade pricing.
Just to add to the article, he's also selling MouStand.
[0] [http://moustand.com/](http://moustand.com/)
------
zz1
I'd like to suggest haroopad[1], similar to Mou, more powerful and available
on Lin/Mac/Win. Based on node.js
[1] [http://pad.haroopress.com/](http://pad.haroopress.com/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Cisco: The anti-Nokia - narkee
http://www.economist.com/node/18114914?story_id=18114914&fsrc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economist%2Ffull_print_edition+%28The+Economist%3A+Full+print+edition%29
======
pvdm
Cisco is the next Nokia.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's a CPU to do when it has nothing to do? - reddotX
https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/767630/594421f913c3d00a/
======
IcePic
I have no idea on how many other OSes do this, but at least OpenBSD will use
idle time to pre-clear memory pages that have been returned to the OS, so that
when the next process has them mapped, it doesn't have to zero-fill-on-demand
at the very latest moment. It has to be done at some point, but if you keep a
queue of pages needing to be cleared and dealing with as many as you can while
any core is idle, a non-100% busy system can be seen as to "improve"
performance a bit by timeshifting the task to not-directly-after-former
process but also not when the new process is calling for memory to be mapped
in.
But when that list is empty, doing the right kind of CPU sleep is totally
worthwhile of course.
~~~
masklinn
I expect most BSDs do this.
Dragonfly actually _removed_ it two years ago:
[http://lists.dragonflybsd.org/pipermail/commits/2016-August/...](http://lists.dragonflybsd.org/pipermail/commits/2016-August/624202.html)
- Pre-zeroing a page only takes 80ns on a modern cpu. vm_fault overhead
in general is ~at least 1 microscond.
- Pre-zeroing a page leads to a cold-cache case on-use, forcing the fault
source (e.g. a userland program) to actually get the data from main
memory in its likely immediate use of the faulted page, reducing
performance.
- Zeroing the page at fault-time is actually more optimal because it does
not require any reading of dynamic ram and leaves the cache hot.
- Multiple synth and build tests show that active idle-time zeroing of
pages actually reduces performance somewhat and incidental allocations
of already-zerod pages (from page-table tear-downs) do not affect
performance in any meaningful way.
~~~
bluGill
I expect openBSD to continue to do this anyway though because there is the
possibility that someone can reboot the system to a new OS (presumably
designed just for this purpose) and read whatever was in RAM. Of course
programs that deal with encryption zero memory before returning it (It is hard
to make sure the compiler doesn't optimize this otherwise useless work out),
but most other programs that deal with secrets are not so well written and
will live sensitive information around.
~~~
sigstoat
> the possibility that someone can reboot the system to a new OS and read
> whatever was in RAM
or physically pull the RAM out, keeping it cold with LN2, and stick it into
devices designed for reading it all out.
~~~
hultner
Canned air upside down works reasonably well and is easier to handle
------
AstroJetson
This is when I miss the days of big iron. The Burroughs B5500, 6500 and 6700
all had massive light displays of registers. The idle process loaded the
registers with a bit pattern that showed the Burroughs logo, a circle with a B
in it. You could watch the panel and see how busy the system was by how often
you could see the logo flash in the lights.
~~~
karambahh
Your comment got me curious: apparently Linux controls LEDs activity through
/sys/class/led [0]
A cursory search led me to this project[1] that blinks the power led according
to the disk activity, which is not far from your idea (replacing the disk
activity by a composite of system load for instance?)
[0][https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/leds/leds-
class.txt](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/leds/leds-class.txt)
[1][https://github.com/fabio-d/block-led-
trigger](https://github.com/fabio-d/block-led-trigger)
~~~
Sharlin
Isn’t there already a disk activity led? Well, on desktop boxes anyway.
Eons ago I had a small program on Linux that blinked the otherwise-almost-
useless scroll/numlock leds based on network i/o activity. It was fairly cool.
~~~
kungtotte
Reminds me of the book Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, where the character
writes some code to redirect stdout to blink the num/scroll/capslock status
LEDs in Morse code.
------
samcheng
This is really impactful work. Data centers are 2% of US electricity
consumption, and a 20% improvement in idle energy usage will cut that by a
sizable fraction. (Even if virtualization is intended to reduce idle hardware
capacity.)
~~~
deepsun
Well, if your goal is to reduce electricity consumption, the proper way would
be to increase prices for it. It's just there might be easier and faster ways,
not only improving idle CPU states.
~~~
laumars
I hate that approach so much. By increasing prices you're not reducing demand,
you're just making it less affordable for people who might need it equally
than those who are in better paid jobs etc.
I prefer the approach of improving energy efficiency (short to mid term time
scale) and investing in greener energy sources (mid to long term) to bide us
time until nuclear fusion becomes viable and thus electricity consumption no
longer becomes a harmful process.
We shouldn't punish people less fortunate than ourselves for our own gluttony
- which is all that raising prices would do.
~~~
fnord123
>I prefer the approach of improving energy efficiency (short to mid term time
scale) and investing in greener energy sources (mid to long term) to bide us
time until nuclear fusion becomes viable and thus electricity consumption no
longer becomes a harmful process.
Raising efficiency probably won't help at all due to Jevon's paradox:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox)
"""
In economics, the Jevons paradox (/ˈdʒɛvənz/; sometimes Jevons effect) occurs
when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is
used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of
consumption of that resource rises due to increasing demand.[1] The Jevons
paradox is perhaps the most widely known paradox in environmental
economics.[2] However, governments and environmentalists generally assume that
efficiency gains will lower resource consumption, ignoring the possibility of
the paradox arising.[3]
In 1865, the English economist William Stanley Jevons observed that
technological improvements that increased the efficiency of coal-use led to
the increased consumption of coal in a wide range of industries. He argued
that, contrary to common intuition, technological progress could not be relied
upon to reduce fuel consumption.
"""
~~~
gmac
The Jevons Paradox is an extreme form of the rebound effect[0]. More normally,
we expect efficiency gains to be only partly offset by changes in behaviour.
As an anecdotal example, we replaced one 60w incandescent bulb in our bathroom
with 4 x 5w LED spotlight bulbs. This is both an increase in light, and a
reduction in energy usage, even though it doesn't reflect the full efficiency
gains of the LEDs.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_effect_(conservation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_effect_\(conservation\))
~~~
fnord123
It doesnt have to be behaviour of the consumer. It can mean that the value
proposition of application development can move to more less-efficient
programs. e.g. we have more and more memory in computers so developers often
say "meh, memory is cheap" when developing Electron apps that take hundreds of
GB. This can definitely result in "meh, CPUs are efficient" (even if it's a
non-sequitor in this case).
~~~
laumars
Fair point. We've definitely seen that trend happen where software will often
be written to take advantage of the resources available rather than written to
be efficient. Not just in recent times with Electron but throughout the
evolution of GUI-driven operating systems (eg compositing desktops, themeing,
pre-compositing animations, etc).
The gaming industry demonstrates this the most clearly but it's definitely
present in general purpose computing as well. eg when Windows XP was first
released (pre-service packs) it required twice the hardware specifications of
Windows 2000 yet offered little functional difference (read: actual real world
stuff that could be done on it) aside themeing.
Thankfully that trend with Windows has reversed somewhat but it's still ever-
present with desktop software and their movement towards using web-based
technologies.
~~~
scrollaway
> _The gaming industry demonstrates this the most clearly_
I think the gaming industry actually also demonstrates _the opposite_ the most
clearly.
I'm often blown away by how efficient some games are, and how well they take
advantage of advances in hardware.
I look at something like World of Warcraft, a 14 year old game that has
trouble running on my desktop computer despite its graphics being... _limited_
to say the least. And then I look at Breath of the Wild. A patently stunning
game.
And then I remember which one of the two is a mobile game.
------
Dunedan
Now we just need to iron out bugs which prevent CPU's to reach certain low-
power states. Turns out in modern CPU's that's surprisingly difficult to
achieve, as not only the CPU is considered for such power states, but attached
components, like the NVMe controller, as well. Matthew Garrett explains pretty
good what's happening there:
[https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/41713.html](https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/41713.html)
------
samat
This reminds me of what apple did with scheduler in macOS Mavericks
[https://www.apple.com/media/us/osx/2013/docs/OSX_Power_Effic...](https://www.apple.com/media/us/osx/2013/docs/OSX_Power_Efficiency_Technology_Overview.pdf)
------
kahlonel
I once increased coin-cell run-time of a client’s hardware (ARM) platform from
1 month to 1.5 years simply by replacing almost all sleep() functions with
low-power-mode-enter.
~~~
ddalex
I'd argue that, in this context, sleep() itself is buggy
~~~
kahlonel
That was a no-OS situation. sleep() is usually implemented as a calculated
number of cycles of `nop`s in those SDKs.
------
aportnoy
Why does a CPU _have_ to run?
EDIT:
> If the hardware doesn't make allowance for this, then the CPU will have to
> run useless instructions until it is needed for real work.
Do any consumer processors (think Intel iBlah) not support turning off the CPU
when it's not needed?
~~~
zaarn
Some cheap microprocessors do that, usually in devices where power consumption
matters they have a small companion microprocessor (a micromicroprocessor so
to speak) that will power down the big one if necessary and enter a sleep
state itself to severely cut down on power consumption (some devices can go as
low as microamps).
Generally, most modern CPUs support turning off when not needed, however, this
is generally referred to as power-on-standby (S3, IIRC). The CPU is off, most
things are off, RAM is on.
The CPU itself has to continue to run because there is almost no timeperiod
larger than a few seconds in which there is truly nothing to do and shutting
down CPU cores and clocking the remaining one is efficient enough.
~~~
tomfanning
A good example of this: [http://www.home-automation-community.com/arduino-low-
power-h...](http://www.home-automation-community.com/arduino-low-power-how-to-
run-atmega328p-for-a-year-on-coin-cell-battery/)
~~~
Already__Taken
Another good example are the javascript microcontroller boards. Because of the
event-loop model of the Js engine, they can simply see there's no code to run
and shift into power saving modes without the dev having to do anything
special.
example:
[https://www.espruino.com/Power+Consumption](https://www.espruino.com/Power+Consumption)
~~~
brokenmachine
That's great, I didn't realize there were micros that could do that
automatically. Much simpler than the usual mucking around with registers.
------
bogomipz
The article states makes numerous mentions of the "the governor":
>"In this loop, the CPU scheduler notices that a CPU is idle because it has no
work for the CPU to do. The scheduler then calls the governor, which does its
best to predict the appropriate idle state to enter. There are currently two
governors in the kernel, called "menu" and "ladder". They are used in
different cases, but they both try to do roughly the same thing: keep track of
system state when a CPU idles and how long it ended up idling for."
Could someone say exactly what "the governor" is? Its a code path in the
scheduler? It wasn't clear to me from reading the article.
~~~
mjg59
The kernel subsystem that handles this is called cpuidle:
[https://lwn.net/Articles/384146/](https://lwn.net/Articles/384146/) . It has
two different governors, ladder (which chooses an idle state adjacent to the
existing state) and menu (which can choose any idle state)
~~~
bogomipz
Thanks this is really helpful. Cheers.
------
malydok
I appreciate the article being written in a language a person without much CPU
knowledge, like myself, can understand. Fascinating.
------
vagab0nd
This reminds me of a story I read from some operating system book: Guys
working on an early OS profiled the system and found that one particular
routine is taking a lot of CPU time. They worked hard optimizing it but found
it didn't improve the overall performance at all. Turned out that routine was
the idle loop of the OS.
I don't remember if it was a true story or just a joke.
------
PhasmaFelis
> _Idle states are not free to enter or exit. Entry and exit both require some
> time, and moreover power consumption briefly rises slightly above normal for
> the current state on entry to idle and above normal for the destination
> state on exit from idle. Although increasingly deep idle states consume
> decreasing amounts of power, they have increasingly large costs to enter and
> exit._
What causes this? I would have thought that "stop computing for a bit" would
be a simple thing to do, but I clearly don't know much about processor design.
~~~
scriptdevil
I work in CPU design. It all comes down to saving power given how frequent
idle-state entries are (especially C1 enters with almost most wait-for-
interrupt operations) Stop-computing isn't well defined. As long as the clock
ticks, the frontend will keep fetching instructions. Sure you can keep feeding
it NOPs, but instead, we save power by entering idle states.
The quickest to enter and exit (C1) simply clock-gates the core. Caches are
preserved. The next c-state might turn off caches too (and thus incurs the
penalty of flushing caches on entry and starting with a cold cache on c-state
exit). Further C-states might require even more work to enter and exit but
consume much lesser power when in that state.
The cpuidle governor decides which C-state to enter since a deep C-state entry
and exit may end up consuming even more power than keeping the system running
or in C1.
------
wyldfire
> but ARM CPUs, for example, will also benefit.
IIRC the majority of phones out there use tickless config, so the ARM CPUs
that benefit here are the server-class ones. But good show, indeed!
------
retSava
An interesting thing regarding the NOP (no operation) instruction many CPUs
have, is that it many times is implemented as a pseudo-instruction. Ie, what
actually runs is something that has no effect, eg move contents from a
register onto the same register.
It has also given name to the human activity of "NOPping", similar to zoning
out.
------
userbinator
Note that this seems to be about not waking up the CPU (by timer ticks) more
frequently, to allow it to go into a deeper sleep --- AFAIK the actual "idle
loop" just executes the HLT instruction, which puts the CPU in a "wait for
interrupt" state, and for newer CPUs they go into successively lower power
states the longer they're halted.
This reminds me that earlier operating systems like DOS and Win9x kept the CPU
in a busy polling loop when idle --- which was great for responsiveness, but
not power consumption nor heat; applications like
[http://www.benchtest.com/rain.html](http://www.benchtest.com/rain.html) soon
appeared, which replaced the idle loop with an actual HLT loop and actually
had a noticeable effect. The DOS version is at
[https://maribu.home.xs4all.nl/zeurkous/download/mirror/dosid...](https://maribu.home.xs4all.nl/zeurkous/download/mirror/dosidle.html)
~~~
mjg59
It's more complicated than that these days. Rather than HLT, you call MWAIT
with an argument that corresponds to the C state that you want to enter - the
OS has a better idea than the CPU of how long it's going to be asleep
(basically what this article is about), so it can tell the CPU to enter a
deeper state. The CPU may make an executive decision based on its own needs to
enter a different state (potentially even a deeper one), but it's largely
still up to the OS to choose rather than the CPU entering progressively deeper
states.
------
e3b0c
Does it also imply that a non-blocking event loop in the userspace application
is energy-inefficient?
Likewise, given that some OSes APIs (syscalls) provide both non-blocking and
blocking modes, should we prefer the blocking ones concerning energy
efficiency?
~~~
imtringued
They are pretty much equivalent. The kernel will only schedule your program
when an event happens. The difference is that by using a blocking syscall you
will need more threads which indirectly decreases energy efficiency through
increased context switching and RAM usage. If you only have a single thread
then blocking or non-blocking is going to consume the same amount of energy.
------
vectorEQ
20% is much win, very interesting and nice progress on the kernel there! very
useful!
------
cobbzilla
How does this work on a single-CPU system? Wouldn’t the various idle checks
and governor calls keep the CPU always busy? Or is there some way to turn off
something so these instructions don’t mark the CPU as “active”?
~~~
fermienrico
FreeRTOS or most RTOS use idle time to go into low power or sleep mode. It
makes sense in an embedded system which is often powered on batteries.
------
leed25d
Blinken dem lights.
------
guico
Hangs out on reddit?
------
jhabdas
>> What's a CPU to do when it has nothing to do? > Mine Bitcoin!
This would be great for CryptoNote Webminers running WASM in the browser to
help users understand you don't have to juice every thread/cpu in order to
effectively mine at scale using a proxy like the one provided in Webminerpool.
~~~
TheDong
> effectively mine at scale
You mean "in order to spend an extra $2 in power to make 3c for someone else"?
Very effective.
As long as there are more price-efficient mining pools which are an
appreciable fraction of mining power, it will not be cost effective to mine
anywhere less efficient since margins will naturally approach what those
larger pools can support.
A consumer desktop will never be able to compete with a centrally cooled data-
centre which likely gets special power rates and was intentionally built in a
location power is cheaper in. Especially not if it's having to go through
wasm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Middle East Dictators Buy Spy Tech from Company Linked to IBM and Google - notlukesky
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/12/semptian-surveillance-mena-openpower/
======
jsty
> The Chinese firm is a member of an American organization called the
> OpenPower Foundation, which was founded by Google and IBM executives with
> the aim of trying to “drive innovation.”
So the link is all three happen to be members of an open consortium? That has
to be one of the most tenuous 'links' imaginable, on par with "have employees
who attended the same conference once".
~~~
yorwba
OpenPower is such a nice ominous name that the writer conveniently avoided
explaining that it refers to the instruction set architecture descended from
PowerPC (although that means they missed a chance to also "link" them to
Apple).
I doubt that the particular instruction set architecture used by those chips
has a large influence on their use for surveillance applications. In a few
years, we'll probably get to read similar articles about RISC-V, complete with
"risky" puns.
------
vuln
The Falcon tool sounds very similar to the stingray device manufactured by
Harris Corporation. The same company that strong armed law enforcement with
NDAs on the tools itself and releasing any information about how the law
enforcement officers actually gathered the evidence.
[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180120/06352239048/harri...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180120/06352239048/harris-
stingray-nondisclosure-agreement-forbids-cops-telling-legislators-about-
surveillance-tech.shtml)
------
quaquaqua1
Saudi Interior Ministry (secret police) buy a ton of Oracle/SUN as well.
The Saudis have deep pockets and Oracle us very happy to aid them in human
rights violations
------
badrabbit
Would be nice if default apps and settings in purism's phone use end to end
encryption for reasons like this.
------
resters
This is not unusual behavior for firms that are defense contractors.
------
buboard
They wanted tried and tested solutions.
------
sverige
>Aegis, Semptian’s flagship system, is designed to be installed inside phone
and internet networks, where it is used to secretly collect people’s email
records, phone calls, text messages, cellphone locations, and web browsing
histories.
Other than government involvement, how is this different than the capabilities
deployed by Google and the permissions granted various apps in their store?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
August Engelhardt - Thevet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Engelhardt
======
drongoking
"He developed a philosophy that assumed that the sun was the venerable source
of all life, and since the coconut was the fruit that grows nearest the sun,
it must be the most perfect food for people."
That may sound comical, but I think the reasoning behind some modern diets
(e.g. Paleo Diet) isn't too different.
~~~
tasty_freeze
If he really believed that which grew closest to the sun must be the most
perfect, he should have eaten plants growing on some mountain top, not low-
altitude coconuts.
~~~
econcon
What grow on the mountain top? Only things I've seen are flowers, maybe apple
or apricot and wallnuts.
------
totetsu
Is this where the term "nudist colony" came from?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LHC results put supersymmetry theory on the spot - sbt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14680570
======
Jach
Excuse some potential ignorance of the terms here (I'm not a physicist), and
possibly misremembering my history, but is this really incredibly surprising?
BBC mentions supersymmetry seeming "old hat" with younger physicists, is it
going the way of the Copenhagen Interpretation? My knowledge is that,
historically, physicists have expected symmetry and love it when it seems to
be there, but have been let down because reality shows itself to not be quite
fully symmetrical in ways they hoped. They supposed there was reflection
symmetry, but nope. Then the combination of charge and parity, but CP-symmetry
is also broken. CPT-symmetry has held up but there has been some recent
evidence in the past few years suggesting even that is wrong, which is
somewhat disturbing to me. From my armchair I'm beginning to wonder if grand-
symmetry-searchers are going to end up like the people who expect to go a
level beneath quantum and find reality is really classical after all.
~~~
partagas
Incorporating as much symmetry as possible and worry about a possible
symmetry-breaking at a later stage has been a hugely successful path in high-
energy theoretical physics. Hidden variable theories, on the other hand, do
not have such an impressive track record.
As for the article, I think it is terrible and only manages to confuse the
reader. To finish it off with ill-advised sound-bite that makes even a Nobel
laureate sound like a dumbass is in poor taste too.
~~~
jackfoxy
The always outspoken Lubos Motl doesn't think much of the BBC article either
[http://motls.blogspot.com/2011/08/supersymmetry-and-
irration...](http://motls.blogspot.com/2011/08/supersymmetry-and-
irrationality-of-bbc.html)
------
pdelgallego
Any idea on the software stack that they are using to handle the huge amount
of data?
~~~
mctavjb9
The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid: <http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/public/>
It's designed to handle up to 15 petabytes of data per year. Data transfers
from 11 data centers around the world are handled via 10 Gbps point-to-point
optical links.
------
maeon3
To finally get a good picture of what matter is, we have to put our egos aside
and realize that matter is not the primary component of the universe, matter
is a waste byproduct of the violent action going on at the subatomic level
that is moving so quickly that none of our primitive sensors can even observe
it coming and going. Where is it going to? Somewhere else.
The analogy goes like this. When we observe matter, it is like querying a bank
balance and finding $100 in the account. Now if we were to query it thousands
of times a second, we would always find $100 in the account. However, if you
could query the account a million times a second, sometimes you would find the
bank balance as $-1000 or $1000. And even rarer still you find it at
$-1million +1million. Empty space is not empty at all, it is just where the
violent coming-and-going of whatever makes up matter simply averaging out as a
$0 bank balance.
So the energy in our sun, sending out photons is only a waste byproduct of the
mysterious processes that make the universe run.
I have a little pet theory that the universe itself, and the humans are just
bacteria that are hanging out on the exhaust port of some super sentient
being. Our entire universe, the matter we are made up of is simply echos and
ripples of some vast mechanism.
Here's the BBC documentary on antimatter where they explain the notion of
matter and antimatter being a positive and negative bank balance (on average):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHzbKrg2HIw#t=7m00s>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's your favorite web template company? - 9ec4c12949a4f3
I'm presently looking for some template companies to replace the face of our site, I'm just interested in picking up a $50 one or something in that general range. I want a nice clean face before we put up anything, as the domain is already live. Does anyone have a company they really like? I was just browsing through some of the templates on freelancer but only saw a few I might like, but they look like I've seen them everywhere already.
======
byoung2
themeforest.net is pretty good.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Aidem Network – Launch your product on 150 websites with one click - juhaszhenderson
https://www.aidem.network/?ref=hackernews
======
juhaszhenderson
Hey everyone!
My Co-founder and I have completed dozens of growth hacking projects like
Rumblr (featured by 200+ media outlets in 4 days:
[https://goo.gl/Xbp7R2](https://goo.gl/Xbp7R2)) and Hacbook Elite (six figures
in sales through press and forum marketing:
[https://goo.gl/LFNVc5](https://goo.gl/LFNVc5)).
In our experience, launching is the most annoying, tedious part of building
something new. Spending months pouring your heart and soul into a completely
new product––only to have it seen by 100 people––is exhausting.
Aidem is a simple tool to get your product in front of thousands of people
with a single click.We hand-craft custom pitches for every product, then
manually submit them to hundreds of journalists, communities (like Indie
Hackers), and directories (like the Startup Button).
Aidem is the tool we’ve always dreamt of to take care of shitty launch days
where we’d imagine spending our time––instead of filling out hundreds of forms
and sending hopeless press outreach emails––talking to users, fixing bugs, and
getting upvotes.
“What if we could just, like, pay someone to do this for us?”
That’s what Aidem’s for. It’s a completely manual solution: no bots and no
spam. Daniel and I write all of the pitches ourselves, then manually send them
to our own network of writers and journalists. We don’t copy/paste/spam “open
databases of reporter emails.” That doesn’t work.
Our process takes 5 days, submission takes 30 seconds, and it starts at just
$49!
We’ll be here all day answering questions! We’re going to continue refining
this system, so we'd appreciate any and all feedback.
P.S. Bonus points if you can figure out where our name comes from.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Soccer Con Man Who Couldn't Play the Game - dluan
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soccers-ultimate-con-man-was-a-superstar-who-couldnt-play-the-game
======
lordnacho
How many of you have not worked with someone whom you suspected of not being
able to program, despite being paid to do so?
Here's a description of an ex colleague of mine:
\- Asked me after 7 years about whether a system existed that could tell you
the state of the code at a given time. You know, because it's inconvenient
saving different versions in separate files.
\- Can't do anything other than changing literals without breaking it.
\- Can't tell you what the difference between an object and a class is.
\- Pretends his job is higher level than coding.
\- Since he can't do anything, goes to meetings explaining how he's the
architect behind it all. And gets credit for it.
~~~
rdtsc
Yap saw it. A large company someone new hired. Hung around for about a year,
managed to write 100 lines of code. Only 10 were ever accepted after peer
review.
However come meeting time, would be very vocal about random technologies --
we'd talk about spawning a process and he'd chime in how you can do this
complicated kernel trick with signals, or shared memory and whatnot. At first
everyone was impressed. Heck, I was.
After a while nobody saw any results from him though. When came time to show
his results he started to claim to have health issues. So was gone for a
while.
After a couple of months the manager caught on and kept assigning him
different tasks hoping they'd finally find something he's good at. Would get
as simple task, yet instead of just doing it, he would re-frame as some
complicated theoretical problem, which needed research and the solution needed
something like P vs NP solved in order to deliver it. Not sure if someone in
the end explicitly told him that "Look Pete, it is a test function, just write
the test function. You don't have to solve P vs NP to do it". (Pete is not his
real name)
But yeah he was invited to depart, after collected a nice salary for about a
year. He's probably at another company now doing the same thing.
~~~
Radim
Oh man, this brings back memories...
There was this company (shall remain nameless) where the product was always
"around the corner". Just one more week or two! Yes it doesn't work right now,
but these are minor things, let us iron out the final bugs!
This went on for almost _two years_.
Leadership being non-technical, they didn't know whether what the "technical
team" was telling them is true or not. They couldn't check, but were not
idiots, so eventually suspected bullshit. So they hired us as "crisis
consultants", to do an audit and put things back on track.
Needless to say, we had to scrap everything. Which, it turns out, was about
half a dozen unfinished PHP scripts and some apache configs... the result of
~4 man-years of work!
The main employee squirmed and lied and lashed back during meetings. Not a
pleasant experience at all. For anyone involved. When the true horror of the
situation became apparent, they had to be let go.
Of course, this "worked out" only because we had the leadership's full backing
(they really felt more shameful than angry, on account of their
mismanagement), and because we could stand our ground technically. Now what to
do if you're a grunt employee, without good access to leadership, observing
such bullshit unfold... difficult. Chances are, the bullshitters are better at
politics & smooth talking than you are, so confrontations are risky.
------
rdtsc
This applies to the startup scene.
I have seen it first hand, someone managed to convince a few investors who
were old and not very quick thinking that they should invest in his company.
The product idea was just awkward and made up. It was as if someone is given a
5 minute task to quickly think of a startup idea.
But he was a good smooth talker, so millions of dollars later down the drain,
with a private office in the Valley, he can now claim he was a serial
entrepreneur, CEO, mentor. He'd go to all meetups and give talks. Would
publish a blog post here and there so he was also an "author".
Every time he was asked to present his product or asked when it was going to
be shipped, he'd claim he saw this trendy technology at a meetup (last was
some container thing) and claimed he needed to rewrite his stack using that to
go "faster". That lasted for close to 5 years.
People claim it was a failure. I claim it was a major success for him. He's
probably off to the next adventure. Not bad overall. Ride the hype and you'll
make it!
~~~
betolink
I totally see this not only in the startup scene but life in general! in every
trade there is a charlatan that will fake mastery of the skills needed to
succeed.
~~~
rrecuero
I have definitely seen this happening as well. Being the hype and cool factor
of startups, wantrepreneurs are sprouting everywhere. It is usually easy to
spot them, all talk and nothing to show.
------
jjnoakes
It's hard to believe that no rumors were circulated among the players or
coaches of different teams, or at least, they were never strong enough for a
single person to investigate seriously. Especially with the amount of money
they must have been paying for nothing.
Although I guess if the fans are happy, the money is well spent...?
~~~
notahacker
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he earned little or no money from most
of his clubs, posing as an injured player desperately hoping to resurrect his
career who was willing to train with them on a contract structured mostly on a
pay-as-you-play basis. I suspect his limitations as a footballer were slightly
exaggerated too: Brazilian Wikipedia records him as having made 15 appearances
for Fluminense, one of Brazil's bigger clubs, at one stage of his career. As
for the fans, I doubt many of them cared about or even knew the name of a free
transfer signing in the reserve squad.
That theory doesn't fit with the narrative that well, but if there's one thing
we know for sure about him it's that he knows how to spin a good story to the
media.
~~~
icebraining
Not sure if the Wikipedia page is true; it has no reference for the 15
appearances, as far as I can tell. Globo[1] says he only lasted a week in
Fluminense.
[1]
[http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/noticia/2011/05/briga-...](http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/noticia/2011/05/briga-
com-torcedor-bolas-na-galera-celular-falso-aventuras-de-kaizer.html)
~~~
notahacker
Globo seems to credit Ronaldo Torres with unmasking him as a fraud at both
Botafogo and Fluminense...
Separating the reality from the fantasy is difficult when the sources from the
period can't be relied upon: the Globo article also includes an clipping from
a Brazilian newspaper - presumably written by one of his journalist friends -
discussing him being the top scorer in the French third tier in 86/7! Which
I'm pretty sure he wasn't. Various accounts of him as a footballing charlatan
have this stint in France as a brief year in the middle of his career or an
extended stint in its twilight; have his career begin as a promising teenager
or as a 23 year old socialite. Attempts to total up his career appearances
seem to agree he played in around 30 first team matches for professional clubs
but disagree about whether these were only overseas or mostly in Brazil
Above all, even in the internet age you can see why some of his taller stories
might have been believed...
------
djhworld
Reminds me a little of Ali Dia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dia)
Might not have been a con as such, but amusing none the less.
~~~
mzs
Reminds me of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Keane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Keane)
~~~
rexreed
Wow - in reading about Walter Keane, I came across this old Life magazine
article about his wife... but then I noticed all the OTHER articles in this
magazine and I can't believe all the amazing stuff being written about here: a
new AI bot from MIT and Stanford, the World Trade Center being built in NYC,
computerization of India, Korea starting to manufacture semiconductors, and
more... WOW:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=2FMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56-IA1#v...](https://books.google.com/books?id=2FMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56-IA1#v=onepage&q&f=false)
------
billforsternz
At the lower tiers of the professional game, Brazilian footballers have an
advantage in foreign markets because their nationality has a kind of soccer
mystique. I can't find the exact quote, it was from an agent, saying it was
easier to place a mediocre Brazilian than a brilliant Mexican (Somewhere in
the book "Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life" by Alex Bellos). I know my local
(second, third, maybe nth) tier professional team were very proud of three
Brazilians, apparently obtained as a job lot. They came complete with single
word names etc. After watching them play I was pretty sure the aquisition
strategy was to pick three random twenty something dudes off the street of Sao
Paulo or similar! These guys are sure to be good enough to play professionally
in New Zealand right! To be fair one of the three could play and he made a
decent career in Wellington. Daniel was his name if I remember correctly.
It looks like this guy took some advantage of this "Brazilian factor",
although it hardly explains his stints at huge clubs like Botafogo etc. in
Brazil itself!
------
tedmiston
Interesting that the article is almost a section by section copy of his
Wikipedia page.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Kaiser_(footballer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Kaiser_\(footballer\))
~~~
zumu
Somehow fitting...
------
NTDF9
You see this everywhere. I saw this in school. Some kids got good grades but
really knew jack shit. The grades were a result of memorizing, cheating,
plagiarizing assignments, great rapport with professor and TA, great
recommendations.
All this and now, working at top tech company.
------
dmoy
Wow that's wild.
I guess it's nice to learn that despite technology opening up the doors to so
many other cons, it also closes the doors to some older avenues. I'd venture a
guess that the former significantly outweighs the latter, which is too bad,
but oh well.
~~~
kazinator
It's surprising that he wasn't uncovered through player stats. If a newspaper
headline hints about someone's scoring ability, wouldn't a few people get
curious and look up the actual stats in some soccer almanac to see how good it
is. Maybe that data wasn't easy to come by. In any sport that supports a
national stats-gathering bureaucracy, that would be hard to get away with.
E.g. baseball in the USA: you know everyone's "batting average" and so on.
(Not to mention that when players are traded, the teams or clubs have access
to this info!)
~~~
galuggus
Player stats are a really American thing.
------
raverbashing
Replace Soccer with pretty much anything and you can find similar examples.
Yes, even in the IT field
~~~
yuncun
Hard to fake injury tho
~~~
greedo
With HIPAA, employers really can't ask too many questions, and with the
ability to "work from home" you can hide easily. Eventually they catch on, but
it takes awhile. I've worked with a network "engineer" who pulled in six
figures, while doing basically nothing.
------
advertising
My favorite of all is the story of Elmyr de Hory who was the greatest art
forger of all time. Something like $60million or more worth of fake art sold
in his lifetime? Some of his Picasso's and others they say still hang in
museums too afriad to admit they are fakes.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmyr_de_Hory](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmyr_de_Hory)
Orsen Welles did a great movie on him and fakery in general -
[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gIVgUjj6RxU](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gIVgUjj6RxU)
The question of who are the real fakers in the art world, the forger or the
critics who are duped and swear that a painting is authentic.
The tragedy of Elymr was that he was a great painter but no one cared for his
original works and he was much more successful as a forger. The same for
Clifford Irving, ironically, who wrote Elymr's biography.
Irving wrote a fake biography of Howard Hues or something along those lines.
------
fauria
There are some stories where reality surpass fiction. In addition to this, I
found the story of Frédéric Bourdin to be hard to beleive yet real. The 2012
documentary _The Imposter_ tells the story in an astounding way:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1966604/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1966604/)
------
rublev
This reminds me of Elmyr de Hory. I watched him one of Orson Wells last movies
"F for Fake" and I have no idea what to make of it.
------
B1FF_PSUVM
Any chance this piece itself is a fake?
(Asking for a friend, as they say.)
------
dajohnson89
At risk of being called overly-PC, I must point out that the opening sentence
is could be seen as objectifying women:
>Brazilian soccer star Carlos Kaiser had it all: exclusive contracts with
popular teams, money, fame, and women.
I normally don't point out things like this, because hyper-sensitivity to
things that are often considered "offensive" when they really aren't can be
annoying. But I can't see how to interpret this other than "women" being a
possession.
To be fair, the author isn't likely being malicious, and I think he just means
that he's receiving the attention of lots of women. Such attention is,
arguably, an "object" in the sense of a commodity in the social marketplace
("that guy has a lot of women" is often seen as a compliment whether you like
it or not). But still, I'm surprised at how much the author's choice of words
bothered me. I don't even identify as a feminist in the traditional sense....
_shrug_.
~~~
Normal_gaussian
Whilst I have friends I don't own them. I endeavour to obtain more friends,
and I judge people as to whether they would be the kind of friend that I want
- short or long term.
To describe somebody as 'having' women is often accurate and useful - I do not
see why this should be penalised.
Now what does confuse and upset me is the way in which we rarely describe
women as being able to have lots of men - the _slut_ problem.
Enjoying regular sex and really exploring it, like any other hobby, seems
incredibly reasonable. Hoping to enjoy lots of sex sounds like something
anybody should want, and I don't see why this is limited as a descriptor for
men only.
In short, pretty much everybody likes a good fucking - why are we afraid to
say it?
~~~
kajecounterhack
To describe somebody as 'having' women is often accurate
and useful - I do not see why this should be penalised.
Can you also see that someone might find this language offensive? That 'having
a woman' is somehow vernacular but you don't really see women being described
as having 'money, fame, men' ?
The language makes women sound like they are possessions.
~~~
Normal_gaussian
I argue that it is correct to do so.
Firstly I show how being grammatically in possession of something is not
derogatory:
> I _have_ friends
I then argue that this usage is in fact desirable
> To describe somebody as 'having' women is often accurate and useful
Which is followed by stating that I also consider the language to be one sided
> Now what does confuse and upset me is the way in which we rarely describe
> women as being able to have lots of men
So when you ask whether I can see that someone might find this language
offensive I can only say "evidently". And when you state that we don't see
women being described as having men I refer you to my earlier dismay. And when
you state that the syntax of the language makes it look like women are
possessions I wholeheartedly agree.
Can you see that removing reference to "a persons ability to access sexual
gratification" is detrimental to the expressiveness of the language?
~~~
kajecounterhack
Firstly I show how being grammatically in possession of
something is not derogatory:
"Grammatically not being derogatory" is not the same as understanding how
something is actually being received. Language is only as useful as it
communicates messages, and I think you can believe what you do and still see
how someone could find this offensive, given the landscape which you recognize
is one-sided.
That is just what I meant. Justifying the usage as accurate and useful and
grammatically correct doesn't take away from the point that someone can
conceivably, justly, take offense to the language. It's valid for someone to
feel the one-sidedness and inequality inherent to the statement.
Can you see that removing reference to "a persons ability
to access sexual gratification" is detrimental to the
expressiveness of the language?
If I'm reading this correctly, then I disagree. I think there may be a better
way to say what the author was trying to say that is sensitive to the
objectification women face.
~~~
Normal_gaussian
I understand how people take offense at this. However I am saying that their
offense is misplaced and the call for action validates the censorship of
womens sexual desires.
I think you understand this, we just sit wanting different things. To my mind
you are calling for the censorship of mens sexual desires to match.
In regards to finding a better way for the author to have said it, I imagine
simply replacing 'women' with sex would be both more explicit and absent of
trigger words.
~~~
kajecounterhack
the call for action validates the censorship of womens
sexual desires
How does asking people to be more sensitive validate the censorship of women's
sexual desires? I think that's overthinking it.
Women are an underprivileged group right now, and nobody's "calling for
censorship." I'm just asking for kindness. Is there anything wrong in hoping
that people can be more kind?
There are many offensive things we avoid saying in general. It's not new, and
it's not different to ask that people respect one another.
------
BoozerDoozer
I find this story very hard to believe or grossly exaggerated. I mean this is
soccer we're talking about, not brain surgery. If you plucked a random
reasonably healthy person who had never seen a soccer ball in his/her life off
any street in America say, and put them in a pro club with a contract and
daily training with other pros, that person would probably become a reasonably
good soccer player. Was it really harder for him to just, well you know, play
than to fake it for 20 something odd years?
~~~
flukus
Apparently you are completely unaware of just how highly skilled they players
are at this level. If anyone could do it they would, it's a highly desirable
career.
~~~
jwdunne
This is correct. Football is "our thing" in the UK. Even in high school, some
kids just had a knack for it and could run rings around everyone. There was no
amount of training you could do to catch up to them. None of these kids went
on to play professional football - they weren't good enough.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
When Haskell is Faster than C - metajack
http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com/2013/01/when-haskell-is-faster-than-c.html
======
haberman
These "faster than C" claims are almost always embarrassing (usually involving
C code that would easily win if it were as aggressively optimized as the high-
level language) but that's almost not the point.
The real point is the larger narrative. The subtext of these posts is what we
are really arguing about. So let's just duke that out directly.
High-level language fans have a point, which is that high-level languages are
sometimes an better overall "bang for the buck" in developer time, and that
sometimes they can be pretty fast (possibly even out-performing an un-
optimized C program). Reasonable C guys aren't arguing against this. We're
certainly not arguing that people should use C for everything.
But here's what high-level language fans have to understand. First of all, you
depend on us. Your language runtime is (very likely) implemented in our
language (possibly with a little assembly thrown in). So as much as you may
like your language, it certainly does not _obsolete_ C. C guys like me get
cranky when high-level language fans imply that it does.
Second of all, a C+ASM approach will _always_ win eventually, given enough
time invested. That is because a C+ASM programmer has at his/her disposal
literally every possible optimization technique that is implementable on that
CPU, with no language-imposed overhead. What this means is that a higher-level
language being "faster than C" is just a local maximum; the global maximum is
that C is faster.
Yes, it's absolutely true that in limited development timeframes a higher-
level language might still be the right choice, and in rare cases might even
have better performance. But for long-term projects that want the absolute
best performance, C (or C++) are still the only choice. (But maybe Rust
someday).
~~~
Xurinos
I guess I will be your essay-writing dissenter.
C is a high-level language with fewer features than many other languages, is
not necessarily the engine behind other languages, has the problem of its
programs poorly implementing a percentage of what other high level languages
are capable of doing quickly and securely, and provides slow and troublesome
memory allocation out-of-the-box. When comparing the speed of operations,
people are rarely comparing apples to apples. And contrary to what is
spattered on the boards, C is not an understandable, close-to-the-metal
wrapper around assembly instructions (compilers have advanced quite a bit).
I love C. It does feel fast, and I get the illusion of being close to the
metal. It was one of my first languages, holding a sentimental place in my
heart. Very important things are written in it. It is a high-level language
with some okay abstractions.
Is it underneath other high level languages? Maybe, if you mean that the
compiler might be written in C in order to bootstrap the language. Of course,
one could write the compiler in any language; it's all about translating
programmer-friendly symbols into assembly or VM bytecode, right? And speed of
compile is a different subject from speed of the compiled program.
But here is the gotcha on raw performance: Your large C program poorly
implements a percentage of what other high level languages are capable of
doing quickly and securely.
I once foolishly argued in favor of C's performance, saying that one could
write a layer that supports all these nice features speedily, such as the data
structures I will mention below as well as GC; by the time you do that, you
might as well be using a different language. You probably implemented that
layer poorly, compared to other languages with large communities pounding at
and optimizing that layer. For example, when you implemented your "fast" list
with the basic struct and next pointer, did you also implement the new-node
creation in such a way as it still uses raw malloc(), as opposed to managing
previously-malloced memory efficiently?
How many implementations of a basic list do we need in C? Super large
integers? Fixed-point integers? Growable arrays? Lazy/infinite lists? Trees?
Hash maps? Surely you don't think these other language designers said to
themselves, "Let's support hash maps and make them slow." No, they came up
with a fast standard, supported by their language, sometimes complete with
various configuration options to make all the tradeoff decisions on making
those data structures speed-efficient or memory-efficient for reads or writes.
Others, of course, subscribe to a religion, er, a specific tradeoff, such as
perl's approach to {}s ("There's more than one way to do it" ... unless you
are dealing with hash tables).
What about all the wonderful memory management you can do in C? Aren't you
closer to the metal that way, able to make basic memory allocation super
speedy? Not really. This is part of the illusion. malloc() is slow enough that
developers have rewritten versions of it several times. ROM-based MUDs, for
example, manage their own memory, using an initial malloc, of course, but
regularly using their own set of allocators and deallocators (free_string,
str_dup, etc) on top of that allocation. There are these tricks and more in
high level languages, including the sharing of partial structures (kinda like
union but with more pointers and fewer bugs associated with those pointers),
allowing for resource allocation strategies that can be "faster than C".
If the argument in favor of C's speed at the end of the day is, "When we write
crappy programs with buffer overrun holes, memory leaks, and no error
handling, it's super fast!", we are (1) not comparing apples to apples and (2)
doing ourselves and our customers a grave disservice.
Let's be honest: C is no "closer to the metal" than other high level languages
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3753530> and
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-
level_programming_language...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-
level_programming_language#Relative%20meaning)). The days of manually XORing
to assign 0 to a variable are well behind us.
Note... I don't mean all high-level languages. There are many very slow
implementations of these languages. Programmers are getting better at this
stuff in modern implementations, gcc included. And it is fair to say that
there are many things other languages can do that are, when you compare apples
to apples, faster than C, especially when you factor in modern JIT
compilation; and they also do some things slower than a similar function in C.
No, C isn't and won't be obsolete, not until people write popular OSes in
other human-readable languages, complete with a body of excellent libraries.
We operate in a world of legacy, working code.
Edit: Looks like we both must have not read the article before replying. The
author goes over many of these points.
~~~
haberman
> Let's be honest: C is no "closer to the metal" than other high level
> languages
This is dead wrong, and your links do not support it. This is exactly the kind
of statement that gets me grumpy.
Your link illustrates that an aggressive C optimizer can collapse a chunk of C
code down to something smaller and simpler than the original code. This is
true.
But what you said is that C is "no closer to the metal" than other high-level
languages. Let's examine this assumption.
Take this C function:
int plus2(int x) { return x + 2; }
You can compile this down into the following machine code on x86-64, which
fully implements the function for all possible inputs and needs no supporting
runtime of any kind:
lea eax,[rdi+0x2]
ret
Now take the equivalent function in Python:
def plus2(x):
return x + 2
In CPython this compiles down to the following byte code:
3 0 LOAD_FAST 0 (x)
3 LOAD_CONST 1 (2)
6 BINARY_ADD
7 RETURN_VALUE
Notice this is byte code and not machine code. Now suppose we wanted to
compile this into machine code, could we get something out of it that looks
like the assembly from our C function above? After all, you are claiming that
C is "no closer to the metal" than other languages, so surely this must be
possible?
The tricky part here is that BINARY_ADD opcode. BINARY_ADD has to handle the
case where "x" is an object that implements an overloaded operator __add__().
And if it does, what then? Surely just a very few instructions of machine code
will handle this case, if C is "no closer to the metal" than Python?
Well __add__() can be arbitrary Python code, so the only way you can implement
this BINARY_ADD opcode is to implement an _entire Python interpreter_ that
runs __add__() in the overloaded operator case. And the Python interpreter is
tens of thousands of lines of code in... C.
The end result is that writing the same function in C and Python is the
difference between two machine code instructions and implementing an entire
interpreter.
This is why I get grumpy when people deny that C is any different than other
high-level languages. While this is a somewhat extreme case, you could make a
similar argument about most operations that happen in other high-level
languages; similar constructs will very frequently have less inherent cost in
C.
~~~
gnuvince
The equivalent `plus2` OCaml function compiles to:
camlAdd__plus2_1030:
.L100:
addq $4, %rax
ret
(It's using 4 instead of 2, because ints are boxed; a 0 in the last bit
denotes an int, a 1 denotes an address).
~~~
PaulAJ
Part of the point of the original article is that not even assembler is "close
to the metal" any more. How long does that fragment of assembly code take to
execute? Depends on whether the instructions are in the I-cache, whether some
previous branch prediction has failed, and whether the data are in the cache.
All this adds up to a couple of orders of magnitude.
------
jlarocco
I don't think his example is helping his argument at all.
He cherry picks optimizations for the Haskell, such as using
Data.Vector.Unboxed instead of the regular lists and removing calls to
isLetter, but then he rolls his own linked list and uses getc in the C
version. He doesn't even have the correct return type for main.
Haskell written by decent Haskell programmers is faster than C written by poor
C programmers. Not very surprising.
~~~
ozataman
I'm no C expert - too bad to hear that about his C code. However I can tell
people here that Vector.Unboxed is a very common optimization as soon as you
start thinking about performance in Haskell. Nothing "expertly" about it,
really. I, for one, use it in all of my computational Haskell code.
~~~
jlarocco
Fair enough.
My complaint is that the C code isn't given the same chance. He even calls out
that reading data with getc is a known performance problem, but then does it
anyway. Any book on learning C will point out that getc is slow for reading
lots of data, and fscanf or fread should be used instead.
~~~
gnuvince
From what I understood from his post, using a buffered input function would a)
make the code differ from the specification, b) require more refactoring than
the Haskell code needed. b) seems particularly important when the program is
not <100LOC, but tens or hundreds of lines of code.
~~~
cube13
The problem is that his implementation is essentially a test of how he's using
libc versus how Haskell is using it.
The pointer arithmetic he's using shouldn't need to be optimized, since the
page sizes he's malloc'ing and pulling from memory are small enough that they
should stay in the L1/L2 cache for the entire run(he's using 1k blocks of
data, most processors use 4k pages). There's almost no optimization to be done
there.
The biggest performance hit is actually the single character puts versus a
block read or write.
Haskell is probably implemented to read a large block of the file(or perhaps
the entire file) into memory, then parse after. That would be a minimal number
of system fread calls over the entire run. Versus the C code, where 1 block's
parse could be 1024 getc and putc calls.
~~~
dllthomas
It's not about system calls, it's about locks. The getc function _is_ buffered
(by default) - that's what's going on behind the scenes in that FILE
structure. What is slow about calling getc over and over is synchronization
around that FILE object (hence the existence of functions getc_unlocked, &c).
------
jacquesm
I'm in no position to judge the quality of the Haskell code (I couldn't
program my way out of a wet paper bag in Haskell) but after half a lifetime of
writing C for a living I can say with confidence that the C code is horribly
written and horribly inefficient.
It is tempting to pull the code and fix it.
If you want to compare two languages make sure that you are proficient in
both.
~~~
CountSessine
I agree - if you're comparing runtime implementations.
I think this is actually a useful comparison, though. I would argue it's a lot
easier to become a proficient, performance-conscious programmer in python,
java, or even Haskell, than C. And you're more likely to shoot yourself in the
foot with C.
From the point of view of someone who hasn't learned either language (maybe a
scientist or engineer looking to do some simulation work), the message here
is, "with the same time and effort, not only is Haskell as fast as C in many
cases, but in some cases it will actually be faster than the C code that you,
a beginner, can write."
------
metajack
A similar anecdote from my own experience:
Chesspark had a web and a win32 native client. It kept track of your friends
with a roster (the underlying stack was based on XMPP). As a way to make new
users feel welcome, I and a few coworkers were added to all new user's roster
(like MySpace Tom). It wasn't long before this overwhelmed our clients.
Each client was written by a different developer. One was in JavaScript, and
one in C. Due to some poor design choices on the C side, the JavaScript client
was substantially faster. I don't remember the exact benchmarks, but I think
it was close to 50x faster.
The JavaScript code took less time to develop and less time to fix. The C code
did eventually get fixed and outpace the JavaScript on raw speed, but if I
were doing it again, I never would have made a native client to begin with.
~~~
tedunangst
Good design choices are better than bad design choices?
~~~
PaulAJ
More like: good design choices are vastly more important than micro-
optimisation, and Haskell is a good design choice.
------
raphaelj
I want to point something nobody ever talk about :
Efficient data containers.
For instance, Haskell and C++ come in standard with a lot of these (maps,
sets, various linked lists, ...) whereas the C standard doesn't come with
anything like this. Moreover, type parameters and templates from these
languages make usage of such structures easier and safer.
I've seen some C codes where programmers has used sub-effective containers to
answer the problem (like arrays or simple linked lists) as they were lazy to
use a non-standardized or to implement a faster but also more complex
container. In C++ or Haskell, these efficient structures come for free.
Also, we can say the same for algorithms and concurrency. Haskell awesome
safety and expressiveness made it really easy for me to implement such complex
yet efficient systems.
These two features of high level languages tend to build ofter faster programs
in those languages.
~~~
Snoptic
Haskell maps, being persistent, aren't anywhere close to efficient for mutable
maps.
------
taylodl
The paragraph beginning with "To put it another way, C is no longer close to
the real machine" really drove the point home. The further C gets away from
the real machine then the less useful C will become. Higher-level languages
have the advantage that a compiler can more easily determine what the program
is attempting to accomplish and optimize the result for a specified
architecture. This will be very difficult to do for C. As a result I would
expect the performance of higher-level languages to start exceeding the
performance of C. I guess we're just going to have to change our conventional
wisdom when that time comes.
~~~
ajg1977
Well that point is complete nonsense so you should undrive it.
Just because a piece of code incurs hardware related performance issues does
not mean it's "no longer close to the real machine". Cache misses? Reorder
your data, or start inserting prefetch statements. Mispredicted branches?
Issue a hint, or structure your code better.
Both of these are profile-guided optimizations. It's very difficult for
compilers to optimize for access patterns that will only become clear in the
context of execution, and often depend on your target spec machine.
~~~
graue
But a JIT can perform such optimizations. Which doesn't help Haskell, but may
help JavaScript or Lua beat C in some cases.
~~~
ajg1977
I'm doubtful that a JIT could realistically adapt its output based on runtime
performance metrics, but if you have links I'd love to read more.
~~~
vsync
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_just-in-
time_compilatio...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_just-in-
time_compilation)
------
nemo1618
As many advocates of functional programming point out, in many cases the speed
of _development_ is more valuable than the running time of the code. The great
strength of Haskell and other FPs is their readability and modularity. Trying
to win people over with benchmarks is the wrong approach IMO.
~~~
PaulAJ
Its more a matter of trying to nix the "Haskell would be nice, but its too
slow to be practical" line that many see as a killer.
~~~
chc
Does Haskell really have a reputation for being slow? In a world where Ruby is
the de facto standard for startups, I wouldn't think Haskell would have
anything to worry about.
~~~
chongli
It does. A lot of people have written ignorant blog posts whereby they show
their first "real" Haskell program is extremely slow compared to their heavily
optimized C version (with years of experience behind it).
A cursory glance at the code, however, reveals that their Haskell program is
using linked lists of linked lists of boxed arbitrary precision integers while
the C version uses a 2D array of ints.
Okay, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea.
------
TheNewAndy
Before you go and rewrite everything in Haskell for speed, it might be worth
trying to reproduce the results from here. I tried to and C was much faster
than Haskell:
[http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/when-
hask...](http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/when-haskell-is-
faster-than-c.html?showComment=1358558313945#c3252681956440975671)
~~~
vilhelm_s
When I try it, the Haskell version is faster (1.3s versus 2.6s on a 98MB input
file). GHC 7.0.4 with -O3, GCC 4.6.2 with -O3. Not sure why these results are
different...
------
Xcelerate
Hmm... it seems to me that whenever any article is posted that claims "X is
faster than C", there are immediately 40 replies saying "Well, the author's C
is horrible. If I wrote that, it would be much different."
Okay, as someone who has NOT been programming in C 8 hours a day for years on
end, I would actually like to see somebody do this -- to show me what GOOD C
looks like.
So if someone wouldn't mind, could you take his C code and show me the
improved version? This would really help me understand. (And I don't just mean
an example where one line could be improved; I'm talking abou the whole
thing.)
~~~
jacquesm
Ok, I pledge to re-write this properly and to benchmark the current
implementation vs a nice one. I'll post the results. I need something to get
my mind off things and this is as good as any. It will take at least until
Monday (it is my sons birthday tomorrow).
~~~
ay
Hey Jacques, may ask for a code review ? :-)
<http://stdio.be/revseq.c>
Compiled with "gcc -pipe -Wall -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -std=c99 -pthread" on
my Mac, it's about twice as fast at the blog author's version.
Time spent: coding: 30 minutes bugfixing: 30 minutes
I have a feeling there is some kind of catch in the description of the
algorithm in terms of implementing the output, but I for the life of me could
not grok whether they wanted me to parse the entry into these three pieces or
not...
EDIT to add: The only optimization I made was inlining the tightly-called
"subst" function, did it without any profiling (so the optimization process
literally took about 30 seconds:). Before inlining this version was still
about 15% faster than the blog author's one.
~~~
jacquesm
Sure, I'll pick it up in the post. Neat little project this. I won't peek at
your code until I'm done.
~~~
ay
Thank you! It was indeed a nice little fun exercise. It is interesting the
bugs that I made by being tired and not reading the task carefully/not
thinking clearly (yesterday was a bit of a long and stressy day):
1) My initial understanding was that I do need to reverse the order, yet
somehow after re-reading the article I understood the order does not need to
change, and the "reverse" in the name is some kind of jargon. This is quite
stupid, and probably not worth mentioning, if only to prove I was tired :)
2) missing that the first iteration of the "business logic" code in my case
happens before anything is filled in. Crash.
3) forgetting about the "\n"s - with rather funny "partially correct" output
effect.
Very much looking forward to see your code !
~~~
jacquesm
Hey Andrew,
Ok, I looked at your code. What you really should do (before coding up the
solution) is to look at the problem specification. Other than that I like the
'direct' approach, it isn't quite as fast as what I cooked up but yours is a
lot shorter.
~~~
ay
Thanks! yes, this goes to show the perils of coding after a 12h work day on
Friday :-). This affected the use of fgets() I/O (I understood you _have_ to
call the line-buffered routines based on their description)
Enjoyed reading your code. Beautiful. Thanks!
------
confluence
I want an article that says "Why it doesn't matter what's faster than what -
just ship product people use". I code everything I create using the language
that gives me the least amount of friction between me and the working product.
On Android that's Java/C/C++, for my servers it's Python/Ruby/Java/C++/C
(everything is service oriented consumable APIs), for the browser it's
Javascript. Any time I want something faster - I recode and bind it in C/C++
if at all possible.
I feel like a lot of these language comparison posts are just a massive
pissing contest. All that matters is that people use the thing that you made.
Billions of lines of code have been written in the past. Make sure your code
isn't part of the billion that nobody cares about.
------
Yttrill
I'm afraid the argument that C+ASM is always faster is flawed in reality. Pure
ASM, with a bit of C thrown in, maybe, but this is just as impractical for
complex codes as C itself is.
It is well known that for numerical codes Fortran beats the pants off C. Why
is this? Because the structure of C programs proves difficult to optimise
automatically. Indeed the C committee attempted to address one of the main
problems by introducing the restrict keyword (the problem of course is
aliasing).
For complex codes, ASM isn't an option. For large functions, high levels of
optimisation aren't an option for C because C compilers are incapable of
optimisation in a reasonable time frame: I have short code that cannot be
compiled in less than 2 minutes on either gcc or clang. Full alias analysis
requires data flow which is cubic order on function size and C compilers are
incapable of partitioning functions to keep the cost down.
Furthermore, C has an weak set of control operations and an object model which
is generally inappropriate for modern software. K&R C compilers were hopeless
because of the ABI required the caller push and pop arguments to support
varargs, preventing tail rec optimisation of C function calls.
Subroutine calling is useful, but it is not the only control structure.
Continuation passing, control exchange, and other fundamentals are missing
from C. These things can always be emulated by turning your program into one
large function, but then, it isn't C and it cannot be compiled because the
best C compilers available cannot optimise large functions.
Similarly, complex data structures which involve general graph shapes require
garbage collection for memory management. With C that's not built in so you
have no choice but to roll your own (there is no other way to manage a graph).
It's clear that modern copying collectors will beat the pants of C in this
case.
C++ pushes the boundaries. It can trash C easily because it has more powerful
constructions. It had real inlining before C, and whole program compilation
via templates. It is high enough level for lazy evaluators to perform high
level optimisations (expression templates) C programmers could never dream of.
And C++ virtual dispatch is bound to be more effective than roll your own OO
in C, once the program gets complex because the C programmer will never get it
right: the type system is too weak.
Many other languages generate C and have an FFI, some, like Felix, go much
further and allow embedding. Indeed, any C++ program you care to write is a
Felix program by embedding, so Felix is necessarily faster than C by the OP's
argument: C++ is Felix's assembler.
As the compiler writer I have to tell you that the restriction to the weak
C/C++ object model is a serious constraint. I really wish I could generate
machine code to get around the C language. Its slow. Its hard to express
useful control structures in. It tends to generate bad code. With separate
compilation bad performance is assured.
I am sorry but the OP is just plain wrong. C is not assured to be faster, on
the contrary, its probably the worst language you could dream up in terms of
performance. The evidence is in the C compilers themselves. They're usually
written in C, and they're incapable of generating reasonable code in many
cases and impossible to improve because C is such a poor language that all the
brain power of hundreds of contributors cannot do it.
Compare with the Ocaml compiler, written in Ocaml, which is lightning fast and
generates reasonable code, all the time: not as fast as C for micro-benchmarks
but don't even think about solving complex graph problems in C, the Ocaml GC
(written in C), will easily trash a home brew collection algorithm.
Compare with ATS(2) compiler, written in Ocaml(ATS), which by using dependent
typing eliminates the need for run time checks that plague C programs given
the great difficulty reasoning about the correctness of C codes. AST generates
C, but you would never be able to hand write that same C and also be confident
your code was correct.
Compare with Felix, compiler written in Ocaml, which generates C++, can do
very high level optimisations, which can embed C++ in a more flexible way than
a mere FFI, and which provides some novel control structures (fibres,
generators) which you'd never get right hand coding in C.
The bottom line is that OP's claim is valid only in a limited context. C is
good for small functions where correctness is relatively easy to verify
manually and optimisation is easy to do automatically, and any decent C code
generating compiler for a high level language will probably generate C code
with comparable performance.
So the converse of the argument is true: good high level languages will trash
C in all contexts other than micro tests where they will do roughly the same.
~~~
DannyBee
It's not actually the structure of C programs, it's the guarantees the
language offers. So only about the first paragraph of your rant is right.
Fortran had almost no memory aliasing, explicit global accesses, and offered
almost unbridled implementor freedom. As long as the operations got done, it
didn't care what happened behind the scenes.
None of the rest of the things you talk about matter when it comes to
optimizing C, to be honest. If you gave me no aliasing by default and explicit
globals, I probably could do near as well as fortran (though it would take
significantly more analysis) in terms of loop transformations.
Note that "full alias analysis" is statically undecidable. When you say cubic
order, you are thinking of Andersen's subtyping based algorithm. There are
unification based algorithms that are almost linear time (inverse ackermann).
At this point, we have scaled these algorithms almost as far as you can on a
single computer. You can do context insensitive andersens on many million LOC
without too much trouble.
Context-insensitive unification points-to can scale to whatever size you like.
Context sensitive unification based algorithms do quite well in practice with
10 million LOC + codebases.
The main reason you don't see unification based algorithms used often in free
compilers is because the entire set of algorithms are covered by patents owned
by MS Research.
As a final note, note that C++ does not really help optimization in practice,
it often hurts it.
It is very hard to teach a pointer analysis algorithm about virtual calling.
Most compilers treat them like function pointers that get type-filtered, and
do some form of class hierarchy analysis to limit the number of call graph
targets, or try to incrementally discover the call graph. It's a bit of a
mess.
On the other hand, straight function pointers get resolved either context-
sensitively or insensitively.
In fact, C++ makes type based aliasing a _lot_ worse due to placement new
being able to legally change the type of a piece of memory, which is very hard
to track over a program.
Even outside the realm of alias analysis, C++ involves a lot more structures,
which means a lot more time has to be spent trying to get pieces back into
scalars, or struct splitting, or something, so that you don't end up having to
fuck around with memory every time you touch a piece of the structure.
I could go on and on.
In short: Any of C++'s lower level optimization advantages come from less
pointer usage by programmers, not language guarantees.
At the high level, it's from better standard implementations and common usage
idioms.
In any case, high level languages, particularly those with memory objects (not
real pointers, just memory objects, like Java) usually solve none of the
pointer/alias analysis related problems. You are still stuck with the same
pointer analysis algorithms.
For example: The only nice thing about java's memory system is that doing
structure-field sensitive pointer analysis can only help, whereas in C it can
hurt, due to some weirdness.
It's just nobody usually gets around to doing pointer analysis on the higher
level languages (because it's harder and offers no particular benefit), they
lower their language to an IR that already has a good algorithm in it.
Just in case you were wondering, i'm not talking out of my ass. I wrote GCC's
first set of high level loop optimizations, and also, it's pointer analysis.
~~~
srean
Lots of interesting information. However, I think you over-reacted about
Fortran. After reading the parent comment and your comment it seems both of
you are saying the same thing: Fortran has the advantage of having no pointer
aliasing.
Regarding unification based algorithms, do microsoft use any of it in their F#
compiler. I ask because they have time to time tried to say we wont sue you
for F# technology. Dont know how much of those sweet nothings are binding.
Given your knowledge about compilers and legal systems I am very curious to
hear your opinion.
~~~
DannyBee
I don't know off hand if they use it. I know they do in static analysis tools.
As nice as MS is, they seem to consider compilers solely a cost center. Their
compilers produce "relatively good code", but have never really been state of
the art.
------
pekk
The contradiction of "C is always faster than everything" (apparently shown
untrue by comparison on the reverse-complement problem) is not "Haskell is
faster than C".
~~~
threedaymonk
Indeed not. The useful point this article makes, I think, is that if you're a
good Haskell programmer and a competent C programmer, you can produce working
code in both, but you can still produce better-performing code in Haskell.
Essentially, the lesson is that there's little point writing code in C for
performance unless you're good at it. If you can write good-enough code in a
higher-level language that you're happy with, you might already have reached
an optimum.
------
sampo
> The winningest programs are always written in highly optimised C
Actually, for example looking at the winningest programs for x64 single core
(<http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/>):
Ada: 1, C: 5, C++: 2, Fortran: 1, Haskell: 1, Java: 2, Javascript: 1
So plain C is only winningest in 5/12 = 38%, and C/C++ in 7/13 = 54%.
------
zxcdw
As always talking about performance differences and optimization without
thoroughly profiling and pointing out bottlenecks should be frowned upon big
time.
I would really love to see the generated assembly code and see _what_ makes
the difference in performance. Anyone up to analyzing?
------
chj
Another monthly claim of XXX is faster than C. Please improve your C
experience first.
------
martinced
I've got an honest question: it's not sarcasm...
How do you write fast multithreaded C-code? The article mentions that the C
code is too disconnected from the real hardware which, in this case, has
multiple cores.
Do you need to call (non portable?) code setting mutexes manually? (not that
it would be a problem)
How do you use the CPU's underlying CAS operation? (by inline assembly?)
As an example: the guys who wrote the very fast LMAX disruptor pattern in Java
relied on the fact that Java does provide methods inside the AtomicXXX classes
calling CAS operations under the hood. But sadly they couldn't "pick" the one
operation they'd like, which would have been faster than the one Java decided
to use (it's a RFE if I recall correctly: they'd like Oracle to modify Java so
that it uses the faster version when it makes sense).
I take it that in C you can inline assembly and do as you want!?
------
DannoHung
The program in question copies data from stdin, does the barest minimum of
preprocessing, statically remaps all characters, and writes to stdout...
Why on earth is this a demonstration of what Haskell can do effectively?
There's no room to exploit anything interesting about type level reasoning.
------
pretoriusB
> _Conventional wisdom says that no programming language is faster than C, and
> all higher level languages (such as Haskell) are doomed to be much slower
> because of their distance from the real machine._
No: conventional wisdom just says that no higher level programming language is
consistently faster than C AND/OR better to reason about with regards to
memory consumption and runtime behaviour.
(Conventional wisdom also adds fortran, forth, Ada and C++ in the same
"speedy" category).
Conventional wisdom adds that micro-benchmarks of some BS outlier examples
(Java where the JIT can take advantage of some known condition to do something
clever, etc) do not matter in real life programs, which are far more complex.
Conventional wisdom also adds that C to be speedier it doesn't even have to be
highly optimized or carefully crafted by some C programming wizard or
anything. Merely avoiding gross mistakes (like using an algorithm of the wrong
complexity for the job) will do.
Conventional wisdom concludes that writing in your high level language in an
unconventional (non idiomatic) way to get to "as fast a C" speeds is bullshit
too, because it doesn't represent idiomatic (and far more common) high level
language use.
------
dakimov
1) There is the C++ language. Will you ever remember it? Stop comparing
everything to C — it is an oversimplified outdated language with specific uses
for low-level system programming where you don't need complex data structures
or high-level application logic.
2) If you summarize all the benchmarks comparing C to other languages, it
turns out that the C language is one of the slowest. Of course, that's hardly
the case. It's just the dudes who did the benchmarks suck in C/C++ and suck in
programming in general.
3) Haskell makes you 10 times more productive without microoptimizing? ORLY?
Try doing some big enough data manipulation with C++ 11 & boost vs Haskell. In
C++ you're done with the task as long as you get decent performance with the
simplest naive very high-level code, whereas in Haskell you're in the
beginning of your optimization journey as the simplest code is not good
enough, and after optimization you end up with much more complex, cluttered
and hard to understand code than in C++ and its performance is still
comparable to the naive C++ version if you're lucky.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Historical Knowledge Philosophically Interesting? - diodorus
https://newramblerreview.com/book-reviews/philosophy/is-historical-knowledge-philosophically-interesting
======
epberry
This is the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. Attempting to write
about a historical event disturbs it. Even so, the metaphysics of history is
extremely philosophically interesting. I don't think it matters so much on
what day a given event happened or even who was responsible for it. But the
economic, cultural, and scientific conditions surrounding the event are
critical to understand and relate to our current world.
------
davy_jones
This may be interesting to philosophers, but this discussion is already 40
years old in the philosophy of history. We keep running in circles when new
books keep setting themselves off against 80 year old analytical philosophies
of history.
------
posterboy
shared history makes up a huge part of the social consciousness, so yes,
definitely philosophicly interesting.
But then, what isn't?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Copyright Directive: how the mob was told to save the dragon and slay the knight - mqus
https://medium.com/@EuropeanCommission/the-copyright-directive-how-the-mob-was-told-to-save-the-dragon-and-slay-the-knight-b35876008f16
======
apsec112
The claim: "Journalists and online publications will have more money to keep
on financing quality research and news. Despite what you might read, the
Copyright directive supports a free press and could enable journalists to get
some money when their articles are shared online. Good journalism costs money
and without a free press there is no democracy."
The reality: "New copyright directive makes a mockery of journalists' authors'
rights" (International Federation of Journalists, [https://www.ifj.org/media-
centre/news/detail/category/author...](https://www.ifj.org/media-
centre/news/detail/category/authors-rights/article/new-copyright-directive-
makes-a-mockery-of-journalists-authors-rights.html))
------
jib
When someone writes an article about how the other side is doing something
wrong, without presenting any content of why your side is right other than
vague hand-wavy stuff, that’s a red flag to me. “Bringing it into the 21st
century...”
If the thing you’re supporting is good enough to stand on its own, then
present why that is, don’t spend the time talking about how the other sides
techniques are wrong.
------
factsaresacred
It's been removed. Cache here:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:h7i1Ks...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:h7i1KsrhACwJ:https://medium.com/%40EuropeanCommission/the-
copyright-directive-how-the-mob-was-told-to-save-the-dragon-and-slay-the-
knight-b35876008f16)
~~~
bassman9000
_Just like everyone else, the EU loves culture, cinema, art and music. We have
no intention in restricting young people’s access to all these wonderful
things on- or offline. Oh and by the way, no matter what some people (and
paid-for campaigns) may tell you, you will never be prevented from having a
laugh online. WE ARE NOT BANNING MEMES. On the contrary, there will be a
guarantee that platforms respect your right to self-expression. That includes
pastiche, critique and parody._
Because a well intentioned bill has never been abused to the point of the
actual results being a parody of the intended ones.
------
mips_avatar
“We have removed this article as it has been understood in a way that doesn’t
reflect the Commission’s position.” If the commission can’t even author a memo
explaining their position, why are they rewriting the way the internet works
for a continent?
------
rflrob
As an American, I’m not particularly aware of the details of the Copyright
Directive, but this article didn’t go into much _detail_ on why it is good or
why arguments that it is bad are wrong. Sure, it briefly mentioned that it
helps journalists get paid and says that memes aren’t being criminalized, but
it seemed to spend most of its time arguing that FAANG are going to benefit
the most, and so the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Having seen American copyright law be made more and more restrictive by giant
media companies, I tend to be pretty skeptical of any new laws.
------
rini17
From the linked FAQ:
Oh we don't talk about upload filters, only: "The Commission proposal requires
platforms which store and provide access to large amounts of copyright-
protected content uploaded by their users to put in place effective and
proportionate measures."
Oh and no we don't propose snippets tax except when it's understandable
sentence: "The rules on snippets will not change. They can be used and shared
under the same copyright rules as today i.e. without requiring an
authorisation if the snippet is not considered a self-standing original work
(in practice at least an understandable sentence)."
------
MistahKoala
The self-portrayal of the EC as a wholesome and pure knight with a blue-and-
yellow shield was particularly cringe-inducing, preceded by its dog-whistle
anti-American policy message.
------
mindcrash
"We have removed this article as it has been understood in a way that doesn’t
reflect the Commission’s position."
Interesting development, especially because the article was most likely NOT
misunderstood. Also, gaslighting is a pretty common technique to confuse
ordinary citizens these days (gaslighting as in "you people completely
misunderstood what we are trying to say!").
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dyslexie: the chubby-ankled font that makes reading easier for dyslexics - jcater
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/nov/12/dyslexie-new-font-that-makes-reading-easier-with-dyslexia
======
Someone1234
> Watching letters float and twist across a page, flipping and jumbling with
> gymnastic abandon, can be a daily frustration for readers with dyslexia.
It can? I supposedly have severe dyslexia but if I ever witnessed words
"flipping, jumping, with gymnastic abandon across the page" I'd go to the ER
immediately, either I was having a stroke or had got very late term
schizophrenia. Where do people get this stuff..?
This "Dyslexie" font gets rolled out every few months, and has no credible
scientific research backup up its effectiveness, and the little research that
has been done more or less says it is a wash (improvement in some places,
regression in other)[0].
It should be noted that this font is for sale. It is $89-99. So people have a
motivation to advertise it beyond just the betterment of the world (and the
author has an ulterior motivation for claiming it works).
Ultimately until there is legitimate third party research into it that shows
it works, then I'll regard it the same way I do alternative medicine.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexie#Research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexie#Research)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction - hownottowrite
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0784ZL96K/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
======
hownottowrite
Kindle/Google Play versions are out now. Print book comes in April. Highly
recommended by some Geomorphology friends.
Oxford Press Description:
The proposal that the impact of humanity on the planet has left a distinct
footprint, even on the scale of geological time, has recently gained much
ground. Global climate change, shifting global cycles of the weather,
widespread pollution, radioactive fallout, plastic accumulation, species
invasions, the mass extinction of species - these are just some of the many
indicators that we will leave a lasting record in rock, the scientific basis
for recognizing new time intervals in Earth's history. The "Anthropocene," as
the proposed new epoch has been named, is regularly in the news.
Even with such robust evidence, the proposal to formally recognize our current
time as the Anthropocene remains controversial both inside and outside the
scholarly world, kindling intense debates. The reason is clear. The
Anthropocene represents far more than just another interval of geologic time.
Instead, the Anthropocene has emerged as a powerful new narrative, a concept
through which age-old questions about the meaning of nature and even the
nature of humanity are being revisited and radically revised.
This Very Short Introduction explains the science behind the Anthropocene and
the many proposals about when to mark its beginning: The nuclear tests of the
1950s? The beginnings of agriculture? The origins of humans as a species? Erle
Ellis considers the many ways that the Anthropocene's "evolving paradigm" is
reshaping the sciences, stimulating the humanities, and foregrounding the
politics of life on a planet transformed by humans. The Anthropocene remains a
work in progress. Is this the story of an unprecedented planetary disaster? Or
of newfound wisdom and redemption? Ellis offers an insightful discussion of
our role in shaping the planet, and how this will influence our future on many
fronts.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Voice Controlled Lights with a Raspberry Pi - albi_lander
https://adrienball.fr/2018/06/17/voice-controlled-lights/
======
xchip
We have seen lots of projects doing this, you should make more clear in what
way yours is better/different.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Hacker Who Cracked the Code in Iron Man and The Social Network - jgrahamc
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/01/movie-fake-code/
======
ChuckMcM
Well if nothing else this suggests there is a lifestyle level business in the
Entertainment industry doing "code" inserts. The article lays out all of the
things that are challenging (copyright issues, continuity issues, and cost) so
building a small consulting firm around providing "code" for these situations
cost effectively and reliably solves a need.
The go to market strategy is to get writers in the screenwriters guild aware
of your offering, and let the lswyers know you provide guarantees, both that
your "set" code will not conflict with anyone else's copyright, but also that
copyright can be asserted on it so that the film has greater protection out
there. Which gets the lawyers insisting the writers use your stuff.
You'll need a good design asthetic and some markov-chain like software which
can generate plausible looking code on demand.
~~~
bazzargh
Did you see the article by the guy who did the effects for Tron: Legacy?
Brilliant stuff.
[http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178](http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178)
Not a markov chain, he just recorded himself at the shell. It made me grin
when I saw that bit in the movie and the commands actually made sense (the
rest of the film... not so much)
~~~
sorahn
Wow, that is obnoxious to read the whole thing in that font.
------
trekky1700
My biggest surprise is that nobody did something like this sooner. Especially
how distracting it is when someone in a movie is controlling a weapons system
or saving the world with code written in ActionScript.
Unless ActionScript somehow becomes the dominant programming language of the
future, in which case the future looks darker than I thought.
~~~
phn
I know it is a little off-topic. But what is so bad about ActionScript?
~~~
trekky1700
Nothing in particular, it is very similar to other languages like Java, I just
wouldn't recommend it for saving the world. Unless the world is being attacked
by Flash game loving aliens.
~~~
ben0x539
At the point where I'm fighting aliens in a metal suit with a super compact
free energy source strapped to my chest, I think the runtime performance
characteristics of the software involved is the least of my concerns.
------
bazzargh
Be a movie hacker: [http://hackertyper.net/](http://hackertyper.net/)
the code it's using - [http://lxr.free-
electrons.com/source/kernel/groups.c](http://lxr.free-
electrons.com/source/kernel/groups.c) \- is GPL so hollywood may choke on the
copyright issue. Press alt x 3, caps lock x 3 or esc for special stuff
------
Jun8
I don't get it: If you're some bored (and/or clueless) computer consultant for
a movie, isn't it _much_ easier to randomly google "C++ code" or grab from
github, or, even better, grab the source code from the Linux kernel than
pasting from an obscure Intel Architecture Manual?
Do you think this manual was just sitting on the guy's desk when his manager
came with the request "Create an authentic looking code snippet, you've got 5
minutes"? Who are these people who create these "code" snippets anyway? If
anyone with knowledge enlightens me I'd be much obliged.
~~~
mathattack
Maybe it was decided by a non-technical person. "Code? I have no idea, grab an
Intel manual!" This sounds plausible from someone who would have never heard
of github.
------
disputin
"The 'quality' of the code really comes down to deadlines".
------
Already__Taken
Fairly sure I remember the Archer guys pointing out some of the code they
wanted to put up on the show needed quite a bit of checking to make sure
there's no IP fowl ups. Including the output from the program, it can still
need correct licencing.
------
matsur
The Social Network paid particular attention to this, to the point that they
tracked down[0] the actual slides[1] Zuckerberg would have seen in his Harvard
OS class for the scene in the classroom.
[0] [http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-defense-of-mark-
zu...](http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-defense-of-mark-
zuckerberg.html) [1]
[http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/course/cs161/notes/vm.pdf](http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/course/cs161/notes/vm.pdf)
------
frik
Nothing new, we had similar articles and discussion on HN:
[https://www.google.com/#q=site:news.ycombinator.com+movie+co...](https://www.google.com/#q=site:news.ycombinator.com+movie+code)
Movie director David Fincher uses computer monitors with a green/blue Screen,
the computer graphic is added in post production. Check out the behind the
scene footage of "Social Network" (2 disc DVD ed)!
------
merak136
Am I the only one thinking " Who cares "?
------
maaaats
Hmm, ctrl+clicking the links in the article does nothing.
~~~
JasonFruit
Check your popup blocker. I was surprised by that, too.
------
ape4
So movies are superficial?!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Tragedy of the New Coronavirus Spikes - fortran77
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/06/the-tragedy-of-the-new-coronavirus-spikes
======
zaroth
RealClearPolitics links to TFA, and just below links to this story as well,
“Where are all the deaths?”
[https://spectator.us/where-deaths-coronavirus-
wave/](https://spectator.us/where-deaths-coronavirus-wave/)
They both overstate their respective cases.
I also would toss this one into the mix, “CDC Now Estimates there have been
over 20 million Coronavirus cases”;
[https://outkick.com/cdc-now-estimates-there-have-been-
over-2...](https://outkick.com/cdc-now-estimates-there-have-been-
over-20-million-coronavirus-cases/)
The upshot is that this article could more accurately be titled _Where’s the
tragedy of the new Coronavirus spikes?_. Strip away the politics and we have a
huge uptick in case with in some cases the lowest death rates we’ve seen since
March.
The media keeps loosing the message in the midst of the disaster porn and
political finger-pointing. We need the economy to be open to the absolute
greatest extent possible while hospital capacity remains near maximum. The
long-term damage (in dollars and lives) in over-regulating the extent of the
lockdown could exceed the damage of COVID by an order magnitude.
Needless to say, the more cases we can shift forward into summer and fall,
versus having to deal with those cases in winter concomitant with flu season
is how we prevent the disaster of a second wave. Hospitals in winter can be
overwhelmed by a bad flu season alone, and COVID didn’t go exponential until
after flu had tapered this year. We do not want to see them peaking together
in vulnerable populations.
This drumbeat of articles like this just totally miss the point entirely, as
if we could just keep handing out trillions of dollars a month indefinitely
until a half billion doses of vaccine are ready to go, and as if even if we
did that we’re not inadvertently causing hundreds of thousands of death due to
side effects of quarantine and things like canceled elective procedures.
A lot has changed over the last couple months, but the media is still
“reporting” like it’s February.
~~~
klipt
Is it possible that Covid has already evolved to be less virulent?
Many a new (to humans) disease has started off unusually deadly, only to
evolve to keep its host alive longer to help further its spread.
~~~
zaroth
I doubt it? I think changing demographics of the people being infected is a
more obvious culprit. Hundreds of thousands of young adults (20-30) went out
in very large groups over the last month. At the same time we've finally
gotten better at actually protecting the elderly. This is the result;
[https://img.apmcdn.org/6b486323329122674a9b5fbfdcf2e51f9ad83...](https://img.apmcdn.org/6b486323329122674a9b5fbfdcf2e51f9ad83f8d/uncropped/8e1875-20200626-covid-
cases-age.png)
The younger demographic happens to be vanishingly unlikely to die, and highly
unlikely to even be hospitalized, from a case of SARS-CoV-2.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My NASA Friend Found a Box of Film from Apollo 15 in His Desk Drawer - mxfh
https://petapixel.com/2017/04/25/nasa-friend-found-box-film-apollo-15-desk-drawer/
======
mxfh
No original moon films though:
[http://disq.us/p/1i59278](http://disq.us/p/1i59278)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Fix Tests - markazevedo
http://engineering.bookrenter.com/actually-upgrading-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-w
======
abc_lisper
I had the exact same revelation two weeks ago, and surprisingly that is almost
the same phrase I tell myself :).
~~~
markazevedo
You know, after 2 failed upgrade attempts to Rails 3... we eventually came to
the understanding that we shouldn't attempt to simultaneously make
"improvements". Because without a green test suite, we had no idea if the
failures were new or upgrade related. That was the cause of 99% of worry until
we said "fuck it, let's just fix everything first."
~~~
abc_lisper
My revelation came from more simpler stuff. I was programming some service at
work, and as usual there were a lot of bugs. I tend to worry a lot during
programming about corner cases etc. I analyzed myself analyzing, and thought
may be this is what a computer should do, which is inline with an earlier
epiphany that "It is cardinal sin of a developer to do himself what a computer
can do".
Now I tend not to worry about corner cases etc while programming. I just write
all the stuff I can, and write tests for all the stuff that could possibly go
wrong. And let the computer figure out the bugs for me :). It somewhat reminds
me of Prolog.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Official Patron Saint of the Internet - vinutheraj
http://www.scborromeo.org/saints/isidores.htm
======
patio11
A quick note for non-Catholics: there aren't "official" patron saints of the
Internet or anything else. Sainthood is an official designation. Status as a
patron saint, on the other hand, is bestowed by popular acclamation and use
among the laity: if enough people involved with the Internet ask St. Isidore
for intercession regarding it, then he is the patron saint of the Internet,
but it could just as easily be St. Patrick (or the two of them simultaneously,
for that matter).
(St. Patrick is popularly held to be the patron of a few dozen things of
things, including -- totally not making this up -- engineers, expatriates, and
the Irish, so I hit the trifecta there.)
------
pg
This is a better choice than they realize. As a writer, Isidore of Seville is
known for large and unreliable compilations.
------
jacquesm
Everybody knows that the Patron Saint of the Internet is St. Postel.
~~~
mahmud
Heathen! You preach to us in your archaic ABNF, and give us RFC edicts. The
poor have bought you Suns and SGIs in alms and tributes, and they see nothing
from you in God's graces but more requests for payment.
Father Stevens has given us sight, and the wisdom to speak in the Unix tongue.
With Linus, Becker and McKusick's help, God has breathed in my little endian
heart.
~~~
jacquesm
Never _ever_ do that again while I'm drinking sparkly lemon juice. You owe me
a new keyboard and some tissues.
An SGI keyboard no less.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Avoid a Common Software Bug by Using Perl 6 - bane
http://blogs.perl.org/users/ovid/2015/02/avoid-a-common-software-bug-by-using-perl-6.html
======
raiph
A comment on Ovid's blog post says:
> Perl 6 does some compile time type checking but it only works in some very
> simple cases.
I was thinking that all P6 code had static types that were checked at compile-
time and some code, not much, also had dynamic types that were checked at run-
time.
In the form of a question/answer series, here's how I thought things worked:
> When are types checked?
Static types are checked at compile-time.
> What's a "static type"?
Class types like Any, Int, Str, and users' classes.
Additionally, static subsets.
> What's a "static subset"?
Subsets are the subsets introduced by Ovid in the OP.
A _static_ subset is one that the compiler has decided to reduce to and treat
as a finite set.
The compiler may treat Wday in the following code as a static subset and thus
a static type:
my enum Day <Su M Tu W Th F Sa>;
subset Wday of Day where M .. F;
Currently Rakudo does not treat any subsets as static types.
> So what are dynamic types?
Subsets that aren't (treated as) static are (treated as) dynamic subsets and
are thus treated as dynamic types. These are the _only_ dynamic types.
> Which code avoids dynamic types and hence is fully type-checked at compile
> time?
All "untyped" code. Scalar containers ($foo, @bar[1], @bar[2] etc.) and values
are assigned the static type Any. Of course this is pretty trivial but it is
type checking and it does happen at compile-time. :)
Most if not all the code in the core libraries.
Most of the code in the ecosystem.
\----
I'd appreciate correction or wholesale destruction of any wrong ideas in the
above. I'm particularly suspicious about methods. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Hire Checklist - antiform
http://startupcfo.ca/2008/06/new-hire-checklist.html
======
Alex3917
I can't remember if this has come up before, but what is the best resource for
learning how to hire people?
~~~
sharpshoot
pmarca has some great articles on the topic for startup hiring. We at
Snaptalent love his stuff - maybe this is something we should compile...
------
spydez
So a naturally laid back dude whose only experience is in a big company has no
chance in a startup?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yes, Determinists, There Is Free Will - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/72/quandary/yes-determinists-there-is-free-will
======
c3534l
So the argument is basically "there appears to be free will so long as you
don't look at the details, so free will is not an illusion, so long as you
ignore the details." Even if you accept the argument that unpredictability
implies free will (which I don't, a mindless algorithm which behaves according
to a pseudorandom number generator no more has free will than one that uses
quantum noise for it's RNG), is basically equivalent to saying "I don't
understand how free will could arise from simple atoms, so I'm just going to
ignore the atomic nature of the universe."
~~~
atemerev
From the outside point of view, free will is indistinguishable from the
stochastic algorithm. As a functionalist, I believe that free will is not some
mystical property of living organism -- it is an emergent property of
sufficiently complex stochastic systems with feedback loops and reflectivity;
someday, we'll create machines capable of free will.
~~~
sametmax
This assume there is such a thing as chaos, and not just a state with so many
variables it seems chaotic to our limited eyes. I'm open to it, but let's not
pretend we have certitudes.
~~~
chr1
The chaos is not related to the number of variables, it is sensitivity to
initial conditions. Even system with one variable, and the simplest evaluation
rule can be chaotic
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_map).
The only requirement is that after some time all the points in the phase space
are mixed so heavily that to find one you need to do exactly the same
calculations the system itself had to do.
And btw this gives a plausible explanation of free will, it is not that the
future behavior of the system is not completely predictable from the past, but
the fact that to predict it you need to simulate the system faithfully, which
is equivalent to that system living and making its own choice.
~~~
sametmax
If you want to make the case that complexity => free will, you need to
demonstrate it, not just say it is.
~~~
chr1
My hypothesis is: computational irreducibility => free will. Unfortunately i
don't see any way to prove it other than creating a simulation that contains a
real human that can pass turing test. But perhaps arguments in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19944362](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19944362)
can convince you that the hypothesis is not a total bs)
------
YjSe2GMQ
How is this defensible? I'm out of words.
_> Indeterminism at the level of psychology is required for free will and
alternative possibilities. That is entirely compatible with determinism at the
fundamental physical level._
~~~
chr1
This sentence indeed doesn't make much sense, but it has a grain of truth in
it.
Indeterminism at the physical level can't be translated to free will, it could
be translated only to randomness, because if say your choice is affected by
the way the wave function collapses, it is as much your choice as tossing a
coin would be.
But there is one property of complex systems that looks very much like free
will:
For simple systems like planets rotating around sun, it is easy to accurately
predict the future behavior thousands of years forward by using a formula.
For more complicated systems like weather there is no analytical formula, but
a simplified numerical simulation can give predictions for several days.
For truly complicated systems (like brain) accurate predictions are impossible
for even short time spans. The only way to make accurate predictions is to
have 100% exact simulation.
But since the simulations is exactly the same as the real thing, that means
you are not predicting anything, you are simply waiting for the brain to make
its choice and tell you about it!
~~~
zaat
>For truly complicated systems (like brain) accurate predictions are
impossible for even short time spans. The only way to make accurate
predictions is to have 100% exact simulation.
>But since the simulations is exactly the same as the real thing, that means
you are not predicting anything, you are simply waiting for the brain to make
its choice and tell you about it!
If rerunning the simulation will always give result the same outcome, wouldn't
that mean that there is no free will, that the system is deterministic?
And how could any of the reruns possibly give different outcome?
~~~
chr1
If you put a person into exactly same situation, with same memories, why would
he make different choices? Making different choices would not be free will but
absence of will/random choice.
After running the simulation once you know the outcome, but it is simply
equivalent to knowing the history. And if even a tiny thing is changed in the
initial conditions, you again won't know what choice the system will make.
Basically the system is deterministic, but you do not have any way to know how
it will behave based on initial conditions other than letting it live and
observing the result.
~~~
zaat
If the system is deterministic I have no idea what the free in Free Will refer
to. If we don't assume that the current situation is the product of the
person's free will, his determined reaction to it isn't freely decided either.
Me having or lacking means to predict behavior entails nothing about the
freedom of will, is is only outcome of my limited knowledge and technical
ability. If the system is deterministic it is possible in principal to
perfectly predict person's behavior and if that is the case, he has no freedom
but to act in the way he does.
> Making different choices would not be free will but absence of will/random
> choice.
Perhaps I'm not understanding what you mean by free will.
~~~
chr1
I don't know of any good definition of free will, intuitively it should be
something that would allow to say "this person made a choice and that choice
wasn't something that i could predict simply with some machine or equation".
Say the system is deterministic, and we have the technical ability to
perfectly predict its future. There are several ways to predict that future,
for instance for a dropped stone, we simply put a number into a simple formula
and get the position, for water flow we have to compute some integrals. In
both cases what we do, is not exactly equivalent to the process we are trying
to simulate, and we omit all the things that happen during the process. My
conjecture is that for a system containing a person, the computation is
irreducible, and the only way to predict the future is to simulate it with
100% faithfulness which makes the process of prediction equivalent to that
person living an making a choice.
This explains the paradox of god knowing everything, but people making their
own choices, because even though all the information about the future exists
at current time, the only way to extract that information is to let people
live and see what they do.
The system being indeterministic doesn't seem to give a more useful
interpretation to the vague definition above. It either doesn't fully describe
the person (something from outside the system makes the choice like in games),
or adds some randomness to the choice.
Do you know a better definition of free will?
~~~
zaat
I don't find any definition of free will as coherent, so I don't have any
favorite one, but I don't see how the definition you proposed carries the
common properties associated with free will, for an instance the list of
properties mentioned at the beginning of the original article.
------
percentcer
I think his counterpoint with the weather/meteorology undermines his whole
argument and gives the determinism side much more weight. Just because you're
modeling something probabilistically doesn't mean that its outcome is truly
uncertain. It's merely a means of managing complexity for beings that don't
have the processing power to deal with the raw data.
~~~
zaat
like you say, from the article:
>That is not driven by ignorance on our part, but by the explanatory need to
focus on the most salient regularities.
Isn't the need for explanation is driven by our ignorance?
------
Barrin92
I think the point that the author makes it sensible, but I think the defence
of free will itself isn't really addressed.
What I agree with is that intentionality and free will are useful concepts to
describe how agents behave. There is no need to 'physicalise' things, when
description at a higher level is useful for understanding or conduct, and he
draws from Dennett who has described the concept of a "useful fiction" like
money, which is not physically real, but it makes sense to believe in it
nonetheless.
In the beginning of the article the author says that "the practical need for
assuming free will is not an argument in itself.", but then every argument
that follows draws precisely on the subjective need of humans to assert free
will to make sense of something at a high level of abstraction.
------
yorwba
Discussed to death yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19927911](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19927911)
------
hugh4life
I disagree... our will is bound by the will of others... consciously and
unconsciously. Our selfhoods are fictions that emerge in dialogical
relationships and every significant relationship in a way changes both your
selfhood and your will. Our wills are neither free nor determined but
negotiated.
------
atemerev
> "if the universe is deterministic, as at least some of our best physical
> theories suggest"
But the universe is most certainly _not_ deterministic. Indeterminism is
required at the fundamental quantum level. Why it is even a line of argument?
------
yhoneycomb
Not a fan of article titles that take a controversial topic and boil it down
to "I'm right, you're wrong"
Incredibly obnoxious
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Unexpectedly Good Things VR Will Probably Cause (2016) - thenomad
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/05/three-unexpectedly-good-things.html
======
corysama
4: Many people have reported that slowly conditioning themselves to be
resistant to motion sickness inside VR has also helped them become more
resistant to motion sickness outside of VR. As in, some VR users are saying "I
can read in the car for the first time!"
I emphasize _slowly_ because trying to muscle through motion sickness has the
opposite effect and can even lead to giving yourself an aversion to VR that
resembles having an aversion to tequila after a "bad tequila night". Some
people who have done this to themselves get sick from just the smell of a
headset.
~~~
thenomad
Having muscled through VR sickness exactly once back in the DK1 days, I
heartily agree with the second half of this statement. In the language of my
people, dinnae dae that.
Incidentally, if you're thinking of becoming a VR dev, that's one thing to
bear in mind. You will, by definition, spend a lot of time in an unoptimised
and buggy VR environment that sometimes has _really interesting_ things go
wrong.
Feeling queasy and having to take a lie-down occasionally very much comes with
the territory. Ask me about the dodgy fog shader that had flipped its eye
outputs some time...
~~~
vhold
Yeah I dabbled super briefly with VR development and what I actually struggled
with is how annoying it is to have to keep taking off and putting on the HMD
to do iterative development. I really want something I can keep on my head and
flip it down into view.
The weirdest psychological effect of going in and out of VR like that for me
was a couple of times I turned to look at my scene while _not_ in VR expecting
the item I was editing to be there. A little like that split second after
waking up from a dream and expecting something from the dream to have actually
happened.
~~~
icebraining
Maybe the resolution isn't good enough yet but I really think the solution is
to have a virtual screen inside the VR environment so that you never have to
take off the HMD.
Reminds me of the scene in The Explorers wherein the kid would type in his
computer and control that sphere in 3D space.
~~~
postscapes1
Some guy spent a day at work in VR desktop setting
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/05/i-tried-t...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/05/i-tried-
to-work-all-day-in-a-vr-headset-so-you-never-have-to)
TLDR verdict: Not yet.
~~~
ghusbands
That article is a waste of time and only serves to muddy the waters, much like
what happened to tilting trains. There are plenty of ways the mentioned issues
could be ameliorated, though there's no way past the resolution issue, right
now.
------
truncheon
PR snake oil.
Fitness didn't come true with the Wii. Better be prepared to still go outside
and have a life. Your body will produce vitamins as your reward.
Eyestrain is subjective, and this is far from an optometrist's prescription to
treat any disease or disorder. Doctors recommend tooth brushes, but which is
THE ONE TRUE toothbrush?
Psychology is not hard science. This technology can either harm or help, with
no guarantee of either. Use as directed.
~~~
KirinDave
There is no evidence this is funded by anyone, so please, keep the allegations
to yourself.
> Better be prepared to still go outside and have a life. Your body will
> produce vitamins as your reward.
Many people don't have good fitness options outside a controlled environment,
for a variety of reasons.
> Eyestrain is subjective
No, it's measurable externally!
> but which is THE ONE TRUE toothbrush?
Dentists generally don't give a shit about brands, but ask 20 what the right
toothbrush to get if budget is not a factor and they'll all quickly converge
on one answer that has a fair sum of science backing it.
------
new299
Seems like one potential interesting application should be the treatment of
Phantom limb syndrome [1]. This is the sensation that a amputated limb is
still attached, and sufferers often experience pain.
One treatment is the use of a mirror box. I guess this somehow lets them feel
like they can move the limb, and in some cases results in reduced pain.
A VR "mirror" box or other therapy, might be even better.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb)
------
Pfhreak
Another side effect that might not be immediately obvious to many cis people
-- VR provides a safe place to explore your gender identity without fear. Want
to swap out for a female/male body when you look down? It's as easy as
toggling a switch in many games.
~~~
dromen
I recently tried the PlayStation VR in a store; it was a really strange
experience to look down at myself when playing the EVE demo, to find out I a)
had a body and b) it was of the other gender.
I thought that was the most interesting part of the experience; the spaceships
looked pretty flat in the distance and I was sad that my hands in-game didn't
move along with my controller (as they do in some games).
------
arethuza
I wonder if skiing might be good for VR based exercise - you already wear
goggles, hold poles (controllers) and have your feet clamped into restrictive
boots.
Would need some kind of machine to attach the boots and provide some motion &
feedback...
~~~
TheGRS
If you used it on one of those older ski simulator arcade games it'd be
perfect!
~~~
pimlottc
Eh, the motions you perform machines are only vaguely like actual skiing.
There are, however, exercise machines like Skier's Edge [0] which are much
closer.
0: [http://www.skiersedge.com/](http://www.skiersedge.com/)
------
RichardHeart
And progress on: Strobing and low pixel persistance to remove blur
(blurbusters.com) And reduced latency to prevent motion sickness.
------
cr0sh
I'm skeptical of #2 - because regardless of the optics, while the focus may be
"at infinity" \- your eyes are still actually focused on a screen mere inches
from your face. This was a problem back in the 1990s - and it will always be a
problem - because optics. It can't be good for the eyes (mainly eyestrain if
anything).
~~~
tedsanders
Could you elaborate? Although your eyes are receiving light from a source that
is centimeters away, they are not focusing on an image centimeters away.
~~~
meheleventyone
Not the OP but the problem is the fixed focal depth so if you are looking at
objects closer or further away your eye focus remains the same but you have to
change the vergence of your eyes. You go wall-eyed or cross-eyed. This is
generally what gives you eye strain and the pause for thought in letting kids
use too much VR. Solutions include using several different overlapped displays
to render objects at different focal depths.
------
omilu
If VR goggles reduce eye strain, I can't wait to start using them them for
work, side benefit is during breaks you can browse reddit in complete privacy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is There a Google-Free Future for Firefox? - kiyanwang
https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2020/09/03/is-there-a-google-free-future-for-firefox/
======
eitland
The saddest thing I see in these comments are always people hating on some
minor thing like Pocket or something and who has decided to go with Chrome
instead :-/
I mean I get the frustration but this is "cutting off the nose to spite the
face"-level logic IMO.
BTW: There was always something. Back in the day I think people hated on
awesombar and used that as an excuse to stay with IE6 ;-)
~~~
chrisseaton
> The saddest thing I see in these comments are always people hating on some
> minor thing like Pocket or something and who has decided to go with Chrome
> instead :-/
What should people do? Quietly put up with Firefox being hostile to them
simply because it's Firefox?
Firefox has to pay its own way by being good. It can't just assume user blind
loyalty because they think they're the good guys.
~~~
hamlsandwich
I think I’ve missed something here: how is Pocket user-hostile?
~~~
hipsterstal1n
Hostile is way too strong a word. Maybe user unfriendly since it is is built-
in to the browser instead of an extension?
But again, if you don't like it, don't use it. You don't have to go to Chrome
where you have much worse user-hostile crap hidden under the hood.
------
Y_Y
> “Subscriptions are – I sometimes joke – like trading money for services, an
> idea whose time has come, rather than getting spied on and hoping everything
> works out.”
I laughed in a sad way.
I would actually pay for Firefox now, but I think charging for it isn't going
to work out. (See also: Opera)
~~~
afterburner
But then how long until I'm paying subscriptions _and_ being spied on?
It's kinda like how cable TV started with no commercials as a contrast to
over-the-air TV, and then quickly introduced them...
~~~
srtjstjsj
"no ads" was never a selling point of cable. it's always been a balance of
fees and ads.
~~~
pessimizer
This is not true.
[https://youtu.be/ZcDUttzlKLU?t=110](https://youtu.be/ZcDUttzlKLU?t=110)
[http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/talking-pay-
tv.ht...](http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/talking-pay-tv.html)
------
flerchin
Firefox is great. I use it as my primary browser on both my android and linux
workstations. I do have to drop to Chrome occasionally for some aspects of web
development, not because the tools are better, but expose things differently.
I... should probably send Mozilla some money.
~~~
surround
Money donated to the Mozilla Foundation doesn’t actually go towards browser
development, does it?
~~~
bzb5
The time has come for Mozilla to offer a way of donating that guarantees that
100% of the cash goes to Firefox.
~~~
srtjstjsj
Mozilla has 20 years of evidence showing that people "who would donate but
only on my terms" aren't a serious revenue source.
~~~
luckylion
Have they? My impression was that you were never able to donate to Firefox
directly. You could only buy the whole package, that is: Firefox + some stuff
you don't care about and some stuff you might disagree with.
~~~
eitland
Actually it seems to be worse:
\- Donations goes to the foundation
\- Profits from the corporation (after engineers are paid for) goes to the
foundation
Net money never goes from the foundation to the browser it seems.
(Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong. Also, I'm not necessarily saying their
projects are bad, only that when they go at the expense of Firefox something
is seriously wrong.)
~~~
fsflover
Was there ever net money to give to Firefox?
------
butz
There should be a "Firefoxium" version of Firefox with all base functionality,
but without any commercial additions, like Pocket or upcoming VPN. Would there
be a way to sponsor such Firefox development directly with monthly
subscription like OpenCollective or Patreon? Would EU be interested to sponsor
development of free browser to keep browser market competitive?
~~~
worldmerge
I like Firefox but the forced bloatware of Pocket, and the inability to remove
it turns me off of Firefox. I don't see why Pocket isn't installed as a
standard extension that could be easily removed.
~~~
Rogach
Just in case: you can turn it off by setting "extensions.pocket.enabled" to
"false" in about:config.
------
sn
I think I would like to see mozilla do is act as a micropayments service
provider to websites based on aggregated browsing history, and take a small
service fee for it.
I already use firefox. There's no other company right now I would trust more
with some knowledge of my browsing history. I believe I would pay for a
subscription service to support both mozilla and the news websites I visit.
And they're already working on something like that it seems:
[https://www.fastcompany.com/90403645/mozilla-and-creative-
co...](https://www.fastcompany.com/90403645/mozilla-and-creative-commons-want-
to-reimagine-the-internet-without-ads-and-they-have-100m-to-do-it)
There's a question of "what extra do you get for that payment" \- maybe an NPR
or PBS style pledge drive gift is a possible answer, not sure.
~~~
carlosdp
This is exactly what Brave [1] does already, founded by one of the original
cofounders of Mozilla.
[1] [https://brave.com/](https://brave.com/)
~~~
sn
Brave appears to be currently ad based, so no not the same.
I guess the micropayment model failed, maybe because it used bitcoin?
[https://brave.com/introducing-brave-payments/](https://brave.com/introducing-
brave-payments/)
------
3gg
The TOR browser is based on Firefox, so this also affects them, right? A
chrome-based TOR browser would be the biggest joke in the history of online
rights. I have the impression that Mozilla, and all of us, are at a crossroads
here. I really hope they find a way to continue the development of Firefox and
their other products without having to resort to prostituting people's
identities.
~~~
dvlat
Out of curiosity, what problems do you see with potential Chromium (not
Chrome)-based TOR browser?
~~~
3gg
Exactly what ffpip said. The TOR browser does much more than just run your
traffic through TOR to counter website fingerpriting, and Google being an
advertising company, I see a conflict of interest to provide you with the
anonymity that the Firefox-based TOR browser currently provides.
------
sorenjan
I tried to buy a subscription to Firefox VPN to support Firefox, but it's not
available in my country even though their partner, Mullvad VPN, had no issue
doing business with me.
I also just now noticed that Firefox VPN has changed name to Mozilla VPN, and
I'm not really interested in funding all of Mozilla since I don't agree with
how they spend their money.
[https://vpn.mozilla.org/](https://vpn.mozilla.org/)
[https://mullvad.net/](https://mullvad.net/)
------
aleppe7766
Even non users should donate to Firefox: the presence of a independent browser
in a market dominated by browsers following the agenda of this le that huge
tech company benefits the whole market. Of course using it (or any other
independent browser, but only FF has a chance to stay in the double digits)
and contributing to its market share would be even more beneficial. Apple’s
Safari will never effectively stop Facebook’s sneaky spyops as Facebook is a
core partner for Apple’s richest platform. And Chrome, well...
~~~
martin_a
As far as I know I can not donate to or for Firefox development but only to
Mozilla. And we all have seen and heard and read what they will use the money
for (hint: massive paychecks for the C-level) and how their priorities are
set.
So: While I love the product, I very much dislike the company. And that's why
they won't get any money from me.
~~~
passthejoe
Mozilla is definitely NOT equal to your average open-source project like
Debian or LibreOffice. The development on those projects is done entirely by
volunteers. Maybe some of those "volunteers" are paid by companies to be
contributors, which is the case with the Linux kernel.
But Mozilla is a large company. It may be a nonprofit, but there are HUNDREDS
of millions in Google money funding the company and paying salaries for the
1,000 (??) or so employees, including, as mentioned above, a very well-
compensated C-suite.
Firefox and whatever else Mozilla produces is funded with this very, very
large pot of money. Could they run the Mozilla operation on $10 million (or
$20 million) a year and invest the rest ($90 million to $390 million) a year
in an endowment that could ensure Mozilla's independence in perpetuity? They
could do that, but like many nonprofits, the "profit" goes to a large number
of well-paid people. I can't think of another open-source project with such
enormous funding that isn't part of a for-profit company.
Red Hat isn't asking individuals for money to fund Fedora or RHEL development.
I don't know what crazy universe a company -- even one hiding behind the
framework of a "foundation" \-- gets $100 million to $400 million a YEAR from
Google -- and still has the chutzpah to ask individual users to make a
contribution.
I love Firefox, and I absolutely agree that browser diversity is important. I
use Firefox daily. But Mozilla is a huge outlier -- a "nonprofit" dragging in
hundreds of millions and spending it. Do you think Debian collected more than
$1 million last year? I'm not sure it did. It sure didn't get $100M or $400M.
Mozilla is a huge company. It just doesn't have shareholders.
~~~
kovac
C-suites and layers and layers of managers are a cancer in this industry. All
they do is talk, virtue signal and "strategise". Firefox needs to part from
Mozilla. You put 6-10 engineers and a good technical lead together, they'll
fix this madness in 6-12 months.
Like mentioned in "bullshit jobs", most of these managers (not all), are there
to create bullshit and deal with bullshit created by those like themselves.
It's the tech leads, engineers, DBAs, sys admins (and teachers, nurses,
doctors, garbage collectors, etc) who should be driving Rolls Royces.
I used to use Firefox. After I learnt about Mozilla and their corporate
structure, I changed to Brave. Now I use Brave and Vivaldi mostly.
------
surround
How do other companies that develop free/open source software make money?
(Other than the professional support/training model that Canonical and Redhat
use - it probably doesn’t apply to Firefox)
~~~
Vinnl
Interestingly Igalia seems to be making money off of contributing to browsers,
among which Firefox. On quite a smaller scale than Mozilla though, I imagine.
~~~
gsnedders
Igalia's model almost certainly couldn't cover maintenance of the entire
browser engine and the desktop/mobile browsers, yet alone any ongoing
improvement. It gets specific platform ports supported on an ongoing basis
(typically for embedded platforms) and new features of interest to their
paying customers supported (which are, inevitably, mostly major corporations),
but that's largely it.
As far as I'm aware, Firefox is the browser engine they contribute least to:
they have many more clients who have much more interest in WebKit or Chromium
based browsers and that's where the majority of work goes.
------
cadence-
With more than 30% of employees laid off this year, it is going to be
extremely difficult for Mozilla to get back market share from other browsers.
If they were not able to do it before, how can they do it now with fewer
people? And without market share, there will not be enough alternative revenue
streams to have a google-free future. Firefox will continue to slowly lose
users, at around the current 10% a year, until it becomes too small for google
to even pay them anything anymore. Sad but that’s the reality. Trying to
compete in extremely competitive areas like VPN services is not going to work.
~~~
bad_user
They did not fire employees working on Firefox. The questionable layoffs were
the Servo devs, which were arguably working on next-gen stuff. But the Gecko
team remained intact.
It’s actually not bad for orgs to trim expenses. Given Mozilla still has solid
revenue, we could view these layoffs as refocusing on stuff that matters
(Firefox, plus revenue diversification via services), while ensuring they stay
in business for years to come.
Everyone knows that they are too reliant on Google’s revenue stream. Now that
they are taking steps to diversify and to be leaner, everyone jumps on them.
Well I for one am optimistic about Mozilla and Firefox’s future.
~~~
DocTomoe
They also laid off the Rust guys, and the mozdev folks. Both of which were
pretty essential for the mission.
I now consider Firefox to be a failed, and quickly sinking project. It's time
to give up on them.
~~~
kungato
They strayed too far from the core product and had to be cut. I consider it a
sensible decision from a budget perspective? How much does it make sense for a
nonprofit to fund a growing language? Now corps can spend their money on Rush
instead directly
~~~
wyclif
Wait, Mozilla gives money to Rush? I thought they retired the band after the
death of Neil Peart.
------
zodzedzi
Is it possible to fork and develop Firefox with organization similar to how
the Linux kernel is developed?
~~~
johannes1234321
In theory: Yes. In practical terms: Hardly.
Getting a large enough group of contributors is hard. For Linux this works
since it was built over decades and contributors come from variety of
backgrounds (students who want to learn, hardware companies who want to have
support of their hardware, users who want it to be fast, companies which want
to make it sort of a product (distributors etc.))
For "end user" software like firefox this is harder. In the kernel a
contributor can start by providing a self contained device driver. Such a
concept doesn't exist in a browser in similar form. From such a driver the
kernel contributor can grow into neighboring subsystems.
Google decided to go with Chrome. Microsoft jump on their ship and is unlikely
to switch, again.
Who else could push this? Facebook (would we like that!?), Twitter, Amazon?
~~~
martin_a
I'm most probably somewhat naive here, but if you could fork the latest
release, remove all Pocket, VPN, whatnot stuff and just give me that as a
build, I would be totally fine with it.
I love the core product, I really don't need any of the fluff around it.
~~~
jasode
_> , but if you could fork the latest release, remove all Pocket, VPN, whatnot
stuff and just give me that as a build, I would be totally fine with it._
You've overlooked the main idea of the parent post. Let me try to restate it
another way...
You can't just fork a web browser's source code _and be done with it_. A web
browser needs _constant ongoing new programming coding_ to keep up with the
_ongoing changes_ in the web ecosystem.
Already, we've seen the complexity of new web standards make Opera give up on
their Presto web rendering engine and Microsoft abandon their Trident engine
for Internet Explorer. Both companies switched to Chromium source as a base to
save money and resources.
So no, you eventually would _" not be totally fine with it"_ \-- because your
forked browser would eventually be useless without a big team of programmers
to maintain it.
As examples of web browsers quickly becoming obsolete, I tried Opera 12.18
(last old 2016 version with Presto engine) and here are many problems I
encountered:
\- Google Maps -- Zooming in and out makes everything blurry. Street View
hangs the browser. Opera is missing WebGL acceleration that today's browsers
have
\- godbolt.org -- compiler explorer online C++ website is broken with a blank
screen and doesn't show any code panels
\- chase.com -- that bank doesn't allow sign in with old Opera browser
\- reuters.com -- images on news stories are blurry and don't load correctly
\- various websites with newer TLS encryption protocols break because they
don't exist in Opera
Nobody wants to take a fork of the Presto engine and expend 1000 man-hours to
fix all those problems. Same would happen with a hypothetical fork of Mozilla
Firefox. You still need an _active programming community_ to keep up with
evolving web technologies. Again, if Opera and Microsoft (with its billions)
gave up, it should give an idea of how daunting it is.
~~~
martin_a
You're right. I was thinking that "add-ons" like Pocket might be modularized
enough so that removing those parts would be easy with every release, maybe
even (semi-)automated. Like a "Firefox Light" version.
Maybe this could even be maintained by Mozilla, I would not care in that case.
Just the bare core browser. You can always choose to install "the normal"
Firefox if you want the "full experience", but for me a browser is just
another tool, I don't need pocket and alike.
~~~
neurostimulant
Is pocket integration really that obstructive? On my laptop, it just a
persistent icon on the address bar that I can right click and remove.
~~~
martin_a
Yeah, maybe it's a little piece and nothing to worry about. But what will they
come up with next? Maybe at one point they`ll integrate the "Mozilla VPN"
functionality directly into Firefox. Or any other fancy thing they thought the
world would need... So I guess it's more about software simplicity, but I find
that helpful. I think it also helps developers if they have a clear goal
("build a great browser!") and don't need to take care about integrating side-
projects and stuff.
------
swatson741
The unfortunate reality is that there probably isn't a google-free future for
Mozilla. I don't see any way they can generate the same amount of capital that
they get by partnering with Google, etc. But, that doesn't have to be a bad
thing. As far as I know, Google doesn't pull Mozilla's strings and, the 2
companies can exist as competitors and partners.
~~~
hu3
For Mozilla there's probably no Google-free future.
But for an independent Firefox foundation? Perhaps. We were never allowed to
directly donate to Firefox to know the answer.
------
ve55
I'm not sure there is a Google-free future for any major part of the Internet,
so likely no
~~~
yepthatsreality
As long as devs keep drinking the Chrome kool-aid it won’t. Developers
actually have a lot of pull but do not exercise it. As the job market shifts
to more blue collar workers. There is less expertise required and those
workers are responsible for running tools they don’t understand rather than
coding and making ideas. Google’s best interest is to keep development behind
closed doors until they’re ready for the public to use their tech, rather than
having new tech developed by other companies or via open source.
~~~
oscargrouch
I think this is a case where "It's the economy, stupid" gets right.
We need to build a economy for open-source projects or else the tech titans
will eat the world.
People need to wake up that its not the nineties anymore, and without a better
ecosystem for independent projects to thrive, we are doomed to depend on the
scraps of what the titans left to us (mostly their open-source collaterals)
Some independent project might pop here and there, but keep them going without
structure will lead them to a slow burn to death.
------
0xdky
I wouldn’t mind buying a bundle subscription for VPN, curated news, email and
chat from Mozilla.
Those are are most important for me and I do not want any tracking and false
biased news.
Keep it clean and play fair, I will be happy to pay.
------
wolftune
If we didn't have our own issues with zero-funding and all-volunteer efforts,
we'd have gotten Snowdrift.coop launched by now (we're still working on it,
hope to show some real public updates soon). Our focus on 'crowdmatching' is
aiming specifically to address this type of dilemma, and we'd be thrilled to
see it work for Firefox. We just need to get the whole thing functioning (and
proven with more likely first adopter projects, tweaking and solidifying the
platform) before Firefox dies.
The basic point: we all (the users and general public) do need to be donating.
But I do _not_ donate myself to Firefox. After all, I'm underemployed, low-
income, and volunteering thousands of hours for related software-freedom and
anti-ad etc. efforts. For me to donate won't change the overall situation. We
need a _critical mass_ of donors, hundreds of thousands, millions of donors.
We cannot get there by just asking each person to unilaterally sacrifice. I
want to pledge to the world that I'm willing to be part of that critical mass.
I'll donate more of what I can for each of you others who join me in such a
pledge.
This is about the best we can do short of funding these sorts of public goods
with taxes. As long as it's open to the public and not paywalled (and that's
fundamentally important), we're stuck with the freerider dilemmas and need to
resolve the challenges of collective-action and coordination.
------
Hnrobert42
I read (probably on HN) that Google keeps paying FF, so Google can point to FF
as a viable competitor during anti-trust investigations. Since it seems those
investigations are able to launch in the US, it will be interesting to see
what happens to the relationship afterwards.
~~~
boomboomsubban
These conspiracy theories ignore how from ~2013-2018 Yahoo was the main source
of income for Firefox. How is Google convincing their competitor to help them
in an antitrust case?
~~~
Hnrobert42
It may be a rumor or speculation, but it is not a conspiracy theory. That is,
it is not a group secretly conspiring to do something.
~~~
boomboomsubban
You were suggesting that Mozilla's deal with Google was secretly for the
purpose of protecting itself from antitrust regulations. Two groups, secretly
planning something.
------
modzu
just came here to say brave rewards. its the only idea ive seen that seems
viable, and ironically where firefox might be without the eich fiasco :/
------
throwarayoiu5
Firefox is hardly at the forefront of 'thwarting advertisers'. Apple & Safari
have been far more aggressive at this; Firefox is merely mimicking the
policies that Apple applied ~3 years past.
We really need to have a way to talk about things without making it into yet
another Good vs Evil fight.
~~~
claudeganon
Whoever it is that allows UBlock Origin/UMatrix on their platform, without
making moves against them, is at the forefront of thwarting advertisers. Apple
doesn’t allow it on iOS, so I’d still put Firefox ahead of them.
------
ffpip
There is no Google-free future for anyone. They are more powerful than all
governments.
------
dehrmann
Mozilla would be smart to build up and endowment while Firefox still has a
user base and is still paid for searches by Google.
I'd be really hesitant to subscribe to Firefox because looking at other things
the company has done (Pocket, for one, and I feel mixed about dropping
Thunderbird) and how Firefox was left to languish as Chrome gained a user
base, I'm not sure this is something I want to directly support.
------
syshum
Given the Mozilla is turning on the developer network, discontinuing RD in to
the browser space, and focusing on "other products" like VPN, Pocket, and
other services I am left to wonder if there is a future for Firefox at all
Dev Tools is dead, Servo is Dead, MDN is dead, what is left.
The current administration of Mozilla seems to want to turn it into a
"consumer services" company focused instead of a browser developer. I am
wonder how much longer before they drop the pretense, shut down the
foundation, and change their mission statement
hell I would not be surprised that with in 5 years they do not fall in line
with what Microsoft called for [1] a little over a year ago and just make
Firefox another Chromium based browser...
[1] [https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-guy-mozilla-
should-g...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-guy-mozilla-should-give-
up-on-firefox-and-go-with-chromium-too/)
~~~
giancarlostoro
I wonder if the alternative is for the Rust foundation to one day buy out
Firefox and pull it out of the claws of Mozilla if they are just going to have
a nonprofit receiving donations not even going towards Firefox. Has anyone
figured out what jacked up reason this is? My best guess is that if Mozilla is
seen as selling adspace services (default browser search engine in this case)
it is somehow seen as a for profit venture and would not allow them to have a
non profit status, but at that point why not just have Firefox be like
Chromium vs Google Chrome? Firefox Libre and Mozilla Firefox.
I fail to understand why we cant directly donate to Firefox and only Firefox.
Most people really dont care for anything else Mozilla is doing outside of
Rust and Thunderbird and tbe latter two seem to have a solid future as far as
I can tell.
~~~
syshum
The complex legal structure of Mozilla has always been some what sketchy to me
anyway, The Foundation at this point I believe hardly has anything anyway,
most of the employees I believe work for the Mozilla Corporation, which is
owned by the foundation, but the Mozilla Corporation is for-profit, and is
where most of the assets (IP, Pocket, etc) for Mozilla is owned.
At this point I see the Foundation has simply being a Marketing ploy for the
corporation as they abandoned the core mission of the foundation long ago, it
is just another for profit company at this point
~~~
giancarlostoro
Which is a damn shame. I'm okay with them building real products to subsidize
the cost of developing Firefox, but they acquired Pocket which isn't really
going to rake in much money from what I can tell anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What happened to Dart? - kentf
I remember their being a lot of hype around Dart given that it was Google and Chrome and all that jazz, but I don't hear much about it lately.<p>Their website has been refreshed: https://www.dartlang.org/<p>Looks like there is a conference coming up too. Just wondering what the general feeling is? Is this the replacement to JS or just another language that some will chose to learn?
======
spankalee
Dart's around. It's great :)
The developer summit was a couple of months ago, but there will be more.
~~~
mezoni
What exactly is great in Dart in comparison with other languages?
~~~
devsquid
It compiles to JS and allows for seamless JS interop and its a highly usable
language.
~~~
mezoni
Other languages also compiles to JS (even better than Dart) and don't require
JS interop and they also highly usable languages.
What exactly is great in Dart in comparison with these languages?
------
adrianlmm
The only way Dart will survive it is if Google start using it as a lenguaje
for creating Android apps, because for the server or web applications is
practicatly dead, not becuase nobody is using it, because is doomed to be in
the shadow of JavaScript.
------
mezoni
Just another language which compiles to Javascript. Till now with their own
virtual machine. But already without their own Editor. And, as always, without
any programming language roadmap.
~~~
monknomo
Dart also lacks the ability to use the "pub" command if you're behind a proxy
or your organization uses IronPort or some other ssl sniffer that breaks your
certs.
[https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/5454](https://github.com/dart-
lang/sdk/issues/5454) [https://github.com/dart-
lang/sdk/issues/18929](https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/18929)
~~~
spankalee
That issue is closed as fixed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WeWork: The ‘hypothetical’ company at the heart of the property market - hhs
https://www.ft.com/content/0e426c90-8c45-11e9-a1c1-51bf8f989972
======
pseingatl
Paywall.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla is suing oil industry exec for impersonating Elon Musk - traxmaxx
https://electrek.co/2016/09/14/tesla-is-suing-oil-industry-exec-for-impersonating-elon-musk-to-get-delivery-numbers/
======
gerfficiency
For impersonating Elon Musk... to get confidential information.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Users report losing Bitcoin in clever hack of Electrum wallets - bubblehack3r
https://www.zdnet.com/article/users-report-losing-bitcoin-in-clever-hack-of-electrum-wallets/
======
Meekro
This is actually super-clever, let me try to explain. Electrum is unique in
that it's not a "real" bitcoin wallet. To save time and computer resources, it
doesn't download the entire blockchain but rather connects to an Electrum
Server which will do the blockchain stuff on your behalf.
The Electrum Servers (anyone can run one) can check your balance and send
bitcoin on your behalf. Thanks to the magic of cryptography, this is all
perfectly safe. If you send bitcoin through them, they couldn't redirect it to
themselves. The worst they could do is refuse to send it.
Turns out Electrum Servers are allowed to return custom error messages to the
client, though. So this guy set up a bunch of these servers and had them
always return a message saying "Please update your electrum here:
[http://github.com/my-hostile-electrum/steal-yo-
coins.git"](http://github.com/my-hostile-electrum/steal-yo-coins.git"). What's
worse, because Electrum is using the QT QMessageBox, these errors are
displayed with full HTML rendering, making them look even more convincing.
So, crap. Bitcoin is, as they say, a bug bounty on the entire world.
~~~
21
Even better, the fake link looks more legit than the legit link.
FAKE link: hxxxs://github.com/electrum-wallet
LEGIT link:
[https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum)
~~~
Scoundreller
A redditor reported that the source posted contained the malware. Ie:
compiling from source would not have saved you (unless you did the diff
yourself and inspected the changes).
------
ErikAugust
I decided to stay far away from Electrum after Tavis from Project Zero
reported a big time bug in Electrum's JSON-RPC back in January.
I remember him claiming his dealings with the team were frustrating as well
(gist: they didn't understand the problem).
Source: [https://blockexplorer.com/news/electrum-releases-update-
goog...](https://blockexplorer.com/news/electrum-releases-update-google-
project-zero-researcher-discovers-2-year-old-vulnerability-wallet-client/)
------
pera
[https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968)
This bug is absolutely atrocious: who decided that displaying error messages
(with rendered HTML!) from untrusted third-party servers was a good idea?
It's a shame since SPV wallets are a great solution for most users, and
Electrum has a relatively nice UI, but after this bug and the JSON-RPC one who
will keep using this software?
------
Tehnix
Incredible to read how dismissive people in the thread are about the
shortcomings of decentralization, up to the point where it feels like people
are just praising gospel without ever having given it a critical thought.
There is still quite a valley between feasibility of crypto currencies in real
world settings, and the current state of affairs.
~~~
hanniabu
Yes, there is a gap, but that will be closing quickly. What I hate to see is
people using this gap as a reason against crypto/ blockchain as if every new
technology is ideally perfect and meets every demand. This is the type of
mindset that would have prevented us from having computers, laptops, and cell
phones because computers the size of record courts don't make sense, computers
take too much energy to be portable, and nobody wants to carry around a
suitcase all day to make a phone call.
It's all part of technological maturation.
~~~
spookthesunset
> Yes, there is a gap, but that will be closing quickly.
Bitcoin is more than 10 years old. That is almost as old as 1st generation
iPhones. How much longer do we have to wait to fix these deeply fundamental
flaws in the stack?
> It's all part of technological maturation.
An alternative interpretation might be that Bitcoin is fundamentally broken
and isn't a useable technology.
~~~
hanniabu
Bitcoin is 10 years old and may or may not be broken depending on the end use
case, but that isn't the only crypto/ blockchain project. For you to center
the conversation around those arguments shows you're not very informed on the
topic.
A lot of developmental progress in the ecosystem with models/architectures,
tools, and infrastructure hasn't happened until recently (past year, give or
take).
~~~
spookthesunset
> For you to center the conversation around those arguments shows you're not
> very informed on the topic.
I've been following Bitcoin for almost its entire life and am probably vastly
more informed than most of the shysters who show up on sites like HN to shill
their coin.
> A lot of developmental progress in the ecosystem with models/architectures,
> tools, and infrastructure hasn't happened until recently (past year, give or
> take).
I've heard this line forever. Lightning network, for example, has been "just
around around the corner" since forever. So far, it is still just as "just
around the corner" as it was 5 or 6 years ago and ranks among the top all-time
vaporware software projects out there.
The attempt to refocus on "The Blockchain" is only done to distract from the
fact that Bitcoin, poster child of "The Blockchain" has no lawful use. It
doesn't scale, it isn't free, it isn't trustless, it isn't censorship
resistant, it isn't a good store of value, it isn't instant and it isn't
anonymous. It isn't even deflationary (as if that is a good thing) because it
has been forked and cloned thousands of times. Oh yeah, it also requires more
energy than small nations to secure. (And don't feed me the line about it
being "green energy" or "less than conventional banking"–we both know that is
a laugably horseshit argument)
The whole space is a joke. Aside from self-driving cars, Bitcoin will be the
biggest overhyped pile of complete nonsense this decade.
~~~
RustyRussell
> So far, it is still just as "just around the corner" as it was 5 or 6 years
> ago and ranks among the top all-time vaporware software projects out there.
The paper was released April 2015. Progress is definitely slower than I'd
like, but wanted to correct this claim.
[ Disclaimer: lightning developer and specification guide ]
~~~
bduerst
Lightning was talked about before the release of the whitepaper, along with a
number of other side-chains, off-chains, etc. None of have really been the
magic bullet they claimed to be.
------
fabian2k
If I understand this correctly, this is quite a flaw in the design of the
client. The message is shown in the client, but is simply the response of an
essentially random server in the network. That response is displayed with full
formatting in the client as if it were an error message by the client itself.
I never used any of this, but it really doesn't look to me like it is
unreasonable to assume that error messages like this are created by the
client, not an untrusted server. Untrusted servers should not be able to
inject content like this.
------
shiado
Looking at the commit, I am wondering if there is still a vulnerability in
sending error messages. What if the malicious server DOS'd the client by
sending an extremely long error message crashing the client when it tries to
render it. This also doesn't stop a simple plaintext message that has a
phishing message like "Your machine has been hacked and your keys have been
compromised, please transfer x BTC to y address within 5 minutes to prevent
your private keys from being immediately drained".
~~~
leppr
Yea, only allowing servers to send a naked error code matched against a list
of preloaded human-readable strings on the clients seems to be the only option
that's actually social-engineering proof.
If custom error messages are really needed, you could allow them as a special
option while making it obvious through the client UI that this is sent from an
untrusted source (field hidden by default, warning displayed when full error
message is expanded).
The safest option now is just to consider Electrum as insecure by default.
Same with Ethereum's Parity desktop and Metamask. They're convenient for day
to day use but don't trust them with big amounts.
EDIT: Seems that's already been discussed in the issue:
[https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968#issuecommen...](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968#issuecomment-450169512)
------
tdons
The related GitHub issue:
[https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968](https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4968)
------
yqh
Just by looking at the screenshot I already knew the "Electrum" client was
written using Qt. :P
QMessageBox displays text as HTML (formatting, links and all) by default,
which I've always thought is a terrible choice.
------
yongjik
Wow the mod comment on the reddit thread is golden:
[https://old.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/a9yji3/elec...](https://old.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/a9yji3/electrum_wallet_hacked_200_btc_stolen_so_far/)
> Just to clarify the "hacked" part of the title:
> Technically speaking, even though the term 'hacked' is broad, what happened
> was an attacker utilized the server response/messaging capability to phish
> users (it was more convincing because rich text was allowed to display in
> the electrum client). The message provided a link to "upgrade electrum", but
> was actually installing a malicious clone.
> The attacker amplified their reach by spinning up more malicious servers
> which could loosely be considered a sybil attack.
> People using the correct wallet software and not clicking any links are
> unaffected. Electrum was no more "hacked" than gmail is hacked every time
> one of their users is sent a phishing email
~~~
thisacctforreal
People expect to be phished when opening emails in Gmail, they don't expect to
have to distrust native app dialogs.
------
zuck9
This is another reminder of why people should be using hardware wallets.
It is relatively super cheap compared to the value of 1 BTC.
~~~
dcosson
It all depends what you calculate to be the biggest risks that you're
protecting against. If it's collapse of world civilization, or at least your
own country's institutions, then storing your own coins makes sense, and yeah
a hardware wallet is a better way to store it than on your computer.
On the other hand, if you're more worried about getting hacked or simply
losing your private keys, having your house broken into and the wallet stolen,
etc. you're probably better off putting it in Coinbase with a strong password
and 2FA enabled. The same way you protect other things you care about like
your bank account and 401k.
It's odd to me that this is so highly frowned upon in the cryptocurrency
communities though. People with very little knowledge about computers or
infosec are constantly pressured into storing their own coins, which is
fundamentally pretty user-unfriendly just due to the irreversible nature of it
where you can't make a single mistake.
~~~
root_axis
Cryptocurrencies are the worst possible store of value against the collapse of
civilization. Did you forget that you need a functioning internet and
electrical grid to use cryptocurrencies? This type of thinking does not
reflect a realistic perspective of how the world works.
~~~
nostrademons
They're a hedge against a particular _kind_ of collapse of society - one in
which the currency collapses (hyperinflation) or the nation-state backing the
currency collapses (revolution/coup/regime change/tyranny, followed by asset
seizures). If everybody is shooting each other and there's no food in the
stores, you're fucked regardless of how many Bitcoin you own. If there's a
nuclear attack and the electrical grid is knocked out, your Bitcoin isn't
going to be accessible. But if the hard assets & businesses are mostly
functional but just don't know how much they're going to get paid tomorrow
because the value of a dollar is 1/4 what it was today, Bitcoin is pretty
handy. And if the government decrees that the bank accounts of certain persons
who are politically opposed to it are now property of the government, Bitcoin
is pretty handy.
While I think a number of Bitcoin maximalists have the former couple scenarios
in mind, and agree that their beliefs are illogical, the latter two scenarios
are actually much, much more common in recent history. Think of Zimbabwe or
Venezuela in the present day, Greece in the financial crisis, Russia after the
fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, East Germany after the fall of the
Berlin Wall, Latin America seemingly every decade since the 1950s, or China
during the Cultural Revolution. Bitcoin could've saved lives and fortunes for
many of the people affected by these. Indeed, it's held up fairly well for
people in Venezuela and Zimbabwe, the two countries to face major currency
crises since Bitcoin's invention.
~~~
root_axis
> _They 're a hedge against a particular kind of collapse of society_
I'm sorry, but do you not see how absurd that sounds? It's a hedge against a
particular kind of societal collapse? This is just totally impractical. The
reality is that bitcoin traffic in Zimbabwe and Venezuela is extremely
miniscule; that's because you can't actually buy much of anything with
cryptocurrencies, especially useful goods like food, water, medicine and guns,
and trying to convert cryptocurrency into real money is fraught with obstacles
and risks (i.e. if you try to do an in-person conversion). Cryptocurrency is
not a realistic hedge against any kind of societal disruption.
------
mxscho
This reminds me of the countless malicious TeamSpeak servers who send out fake
"TeamSpeak needs an update: [evil-url]" messages with the server message or
poke feature. (The second one displays an arbitrary text in a simple message
box, e.g. sent by a bot when joining the server).
------
ziont
if this was a bank, he wouldve gotten it all back.
decentralize for the sake of it is foolish.
~~~
46456hfgfg
Yes, and we would all pay for this persons mistakes through increased
insurance premiums. What if I don't want to have to pay for someone elses
mistakes? What if there was a world in which one had to take responsibility
for their money? No do overs. This is cryptocurrency.
~~~
giornogiovanna
Okay, but you realize that most people _want_ insurance, right? In this case,
it wasn't even the guy's fault that Electrum displayed the hacker's message as
something official. Do you really want a society where some other person's
stupid mistakes can destroy your life?
~~~
wallacoloo
> most people
I’m pretty sure GP isn’t trying to say that _everyone_ should use Bitcoin. The
thing that gets annoying is that there _is_ a crowd that campaigns this, and
then other people (particularly in this comment section) fight back saying
_nobody_ should use Bitcoin.
The obvious fact which I feel is somehow being overlooked here is that
different people have different needs and there is no one-size-fits-all
solution to banking today.
~~~
Nursie
And those people will be perfectly happy until it affects them.
As a society, we tend to protect people from themselves because the other
option is to let them die on the streets when they lose it all. Making people
have insurance and using banks and payment systems that have built-in
protection, is far cheaper than providing welfare for those that would
otherwise be scammed out of every penny, irreversibly.
You can be a self-serving ubermensch the same day you opt out of all social
help.
~~~
feanaro
Opting out of all social help usually doesn't exist as an option at all.
~~~
Nursie
Indeed, and for good reason.
~~~
feanaro
Is it? It sounds like an unnecessary application of force. It also seems
disingenuous to phrase it as a choice but then admit there is no choice at
all.
~~~
Nursie
The point is that in this area people are terrible at making financial
choices, and only ever think in the short term. This is why we have (for
instance) laws about withdrawing funds from pension accounts etc. Because
otherwise people raid their own retirement funds and end up reliant on the
state.
There absolutely is a choice - you can politically campaign for the right to
opt out, or you can go and live in a country that doesn't have the protections
you don't want. Most of them are pretty damn awful because they don't look
after their citizens at all.
What you don't get to do is live in a society with such protections and social
measures and then not play by its rules.
~~~
feanaro
> The point is that in this area people are terrible at making financial
> choices, and only ever think in the short term.
It is hard for me to fully internalize this point when I have a counterexample
readily available, albeit one that will do nothing to convince you. I consider
myself capable of making sound financial decisions for myself and would never
raid my own pension account, unless faced with immediate existential danger
(in which case "raiding" it would be a rational decision).
I disagree that the solution to that is to centralize funds in order to let a
centralized body inefficiently misallocate (or sometimes outright steal) them
and would appreciate the freedom to do this myself. I think the state has too
much power and this is detrimental in the long run, as it is detrimental when
any single entity has too much power.
> There absolutely is a choice - you can politically campaign for the right to
> opt out, or you can go and live in a country that doesn't have the
> protections you don't want.
> What you don't get to do is live in a society with such protections and
> social measures and then not play by its rules.
I can certainly campaign politically, but that also includes respectfully
disagreeing with your conclusion above. This does not make your position right
and mine automatically wrong (nor vice versa).
The rest of the quoted part of your post sounds like another non-choice (in
that the it is highly impractical), followed by a moral judgement.
~~~
Nursie
> It is hard for me to fully internalize this point when I have a
> counterexample readily available, albeit one that will do nothing to
> convince you. I consider myself capable of making sound financial decisions
Many people do, many of these very same people are not actually competent when
it comes down to it, just overconfident, or just have a run of bad luck.
> I disagree that the solution to that is to centralize funds...
Who said anything about centralising or the state? You can invest in pension
funds all over the place, with many financial bodies, but you'll find access
to these funds restricted in various ways.
> The rest of the quoted part of your post sounds like another non-choice (in
> that the it is highly impractical)
It's perfectly practical, you can move to all sorts of other nations, take
your pick. It's a massive coincidence that the ones that are worth living in
have restrictions and protections like these, no?
------
21
I wonder how long it will take until people understand why nobody is "their
own bank" with their cash.
Getting hacked is one worry, I would worry even more about someone with a
wrench in my apartment.
------
lkdjjdjjjdskjd
Seems to me at least using Electrum for cold wallets as you should would not
have been susceptible to the attack.
------
magma17
This justify my paranoia about choosing 'random server'
------
ccnafr
Well-explained ZDNet article about it: [https://www.zdnet.com/article/users-
report-losing-bitcoin-in...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/users-report-
losing-bitcoin-in-clever-hack-of-electrum-wallets/)
You should have shared this link instead of that Reddit thread.
~~~
dang
Ok, we've changed to that from
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/a9yji3/elec...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/a9yji3/electrum_wallet_hacked_200_btc_stolen_so_far/).
Thanks!
Please don't break the site guidelines by calling names or being personally
rude though:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
It's enough to offer a better link.
~~~
ccnafr
Thanks. Will do.
------
chabes
Another reminder to run your own full node.
If you use SPV wallets, you have to trust the nodes you connect to. Electrum
lets you connect to your own node.
~~~
lawn
This has nothing to do with SPV wallets. A full node client could suffer from
the same vulnerability.
~~~
chabes
No. The malicious links were from malicious nodes. You can run your own node,
and connect only to your node.
[https://github.com/chris-belcher/electrum-personal-
server](https://github.com/chris-belcher/electrum-personal-server)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yet Another Librem 5 and PinePhone Comparison - cunidev
https://tuxphones.com/yet-another-librem-5-and-pinephone-linux-smartphone-comparison/
======
aritmo
They cost $150 and $700 respectively.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Minimal Vagrant base-box images for various Linuxen - lwhalen
I've been frustrated dealing with other Vagrant boxes that come pre-loaded with a bunch of cruft - old versions of Puppet, Chef, Ansible, and other software that just plain ships broken. To address that, I've created some Minimal Vagrant boxes at https://atlas.hashicorp.com/minimal/ 64-bit base installs of CentOS, Ubuntu, and Debian that have very little installed beyond what the base system needs. I threw on Git, Vim, and sshd just because those happen to be fairly key pieces of my personal toolchain, as well as some additional software needed to comply with Vagrant's Base Box Creation Guide (lots of stuff is needed to install and run the VirtualBox tools, for instance). I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only do the 'minimized' installs use significantly less disk space (particularly the Debian-based ones), but they also use less RAM. Feel free to check them out. I am particularly interested in ways I can make the images even more streamlined, so if others have any ideas along those lines I'd love to hear them!
======
lstamour
Do you have packer templates for these? :)
------
macarthy12
add them to vagrantbox.es
~~~
lwhalen
Will do, thanks for the heads up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenELEC 4.0 released - bloody0815
http://openelec.tv/news/22-releases/125-openelec-4-0-released
======
cultureulterior
Apparently an XBMC distro.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facial Recognition’s Threat to Privacy Is Worse Than Anyone Thought - CapitalistCartr
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/10/memo-doj-facial-recognitions-threat-privacy-worse-anyone-thought
======
Animats
A facial recognition database of politicians would be easy to construct. There
are plenty of pictures of them. We could have tracking sites for elected
officials. Surveillance cameras around Washington could report their
locations, and who is meeting with whom.
That might provoke something like the Bork Video Privacy Protection Act.
~~~
krapp
As long as this technology exists, and will eventually become ubiquitous, I
see no reason why we shouldn't be doing exactly that. And for police as well.
I should have an app that tells me the name, badge number and location of
every officer on duty within ten miles of me, updated in real time, with
constant video and audio surveillance. If a cop so much as sneezes it should
be posted on the internet before they wipe their nose.
That would put the "civil" back into "civil servant" real quick.
~~~
gozur88
>I should have an app that tells me the name, badge number and location of
every officer on duty within ten miles of me, updated in real time, with
constant video and audio surveillance.
That's a great idea. If you're a bank robber.
~~~
abandonliberty
You're right, we should put video trackers on all civilians so we can know
what they're doing at all times.
Consider how effective it has been at reducing police complains when they wore
cameras. Imagine if everyone did.
Certainly your concerns about bank robbery could be easily proven false with
recent crime rates, but you left out pedophiles, terrorists, and murderers.
Let's track everyone and end all crime.
~~~
gozur88
>You're right, we should put video trackers on all civilians so we can know
what they're doing at all times.
Oh yes, I can see how you got that from what I wrote.
------
notliketherest
I haven't had a Facebook for years, yet I'm absolutely convinced that Facebook
has maintained my social graph through pictures my friends and others have
posted with me in them. This is the real unprecedented threat: crowdsourced
surveillance by a private company. We need strong laws and leaders to prevent
this sort of thing from happening in the first place. And should the
government be allowed to "tap in" to this graph to monitor people with a
warrant? Scary times.
~~~
pdkl95
For a look at a disturbingly plausible future, see Tom Scott's ~2min sci-fi
short "Oversight".
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIuf1V1FhpY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIuf1V1FhpY)
~~~
Mathnerd314
It's plausible only in spirit. An actual listing of terrorists does not have 3
terrorists within a 1-mile radius, and does not need volunteers; the FBI
already has such a database. But as recent terrorism has shown, the databases
are not be sufficient to prove or disprove terrorism. It's just more security
theater.
If the FBI started extending its database to more trivial crimes, like say
speeding tickets, then it might start being useful. A law that isn't enforced
evenly isn't really a law; it's an excuse for the police to harm people they
don't like. Computerized enforcement seems like a good goal to aim for.
------
FullMtlAlcoholc
One way to counter facial recognition is by applying makeup in a certain
pattern that resembles David Bowie or 80's style cyberpunks. [1]
That 80's vision of the future really is here.
1\. [http://cvdazzle.com](http://cvdazzle.com)
~~~
BurningFrog
[https://xkcd.com/1105/](https://xkcd.com/1105/)
~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
Hence the whole David Bowie/Lady Gaga look of it. We'd just need to make glam
rock/punk popular again!
~~~
tpeo
Just (adverb):
1\. Exactly.
2\. (ironic, oblivious) Used to imply that an otherwise impossible task is
just the opposite.
_Time travelling is possible. We just need to get our hands on some of that
negative energy._
------
oceanswave
Seems like a lot of folks get 'privacy' and 'anonymity' confused. Should I
have a right to keep information I create about me private? Sure. Should I be
able to keep private or at least know the data that others collect about who
they think is me? Muddier. Yes, perhaps when that information is used to make
a tangible decision about me - think credit scores.
However, if I poop on a casino's lawn and it's truly me, and they bar me from
their premises, and the casino uses some sort of digital, always on mechanism
to ensure that I don't return, do I have a right to that data about me?
~~~
pdkl95
> get 'privacy' and 'anonymity' confused
When it isn't possible to avoid being observed, privacy _depends upon_ the
anonymity gained from misrepresentation.
Dan Geer's recommended[1] definition for 'privacy' in the age of ubiquitous
surveillance:
> Privacy used to be proportional to that which it is impossible to observe or
> that which can be observed but not identified. No more -- what is today
> observable and identifiable kills both privacy as impossible-to-observe and
> privacy as impossible-to-identify, so what might be an alternative? If you
> are an optimist or an apparatchik, then your answer will tend toward rules
> of data procedure administered by a government you trust or control. If you
> are a pessimist or a hacker/maker, then your answer will tend towards the
> operational, and your definition of a state of privacy will be my
> definition: the effective capacity to misrepresent yourself.
[1]
[http://geer.tinho.net/geer.blackhat.6viii14.txt](http://geer.tinho.net/geer.blackhat.6viii14.txt)
~~~
dimino
I _hate_ how "hacker" has always been synonymous with anti-establishment.
~~~
krapp
I hate how "hacker" has been co-opted by the establishment.
~~~
dimino
I hate how a hobby/profession must be a lifestyle or worldview.
I'm interested in breaking things, so now I have to hate my dad? He's the one
who got me interested in breaking things!
~~~
krapp
But "breaking things" is kind of an anti-establishment act by definition.
You may not agree with it, but anarchist ideology was a fundamental part of
hacker culture long before computer literacy became mainstream. The modern
usage is a corruption of an ideal.
~~~
dimino
I get that, but I hate it.
~~~
contravariant
Now I'm not sure if that is anti-establishment or not.
~~~
krapp
Yuppies were the children of hippies who rebelled against their parents by
embracing conservatism, so it wouldn't be without precedent. How do you
counter the counterculture when it wins and just becomes culture?
------
aluminussoma
I updated my Google Photos app and was amazed to see that it could search all
of my photos by clicking on an icon of a person's face. It even found faces of
people in multiple photos whom I don't know. I couldn't find any mis-labeled
photos. When I showed this to a family member, they were not amazed but
creeped out.
If there were a way to hook this up with my Nest Cam, I would be speechless.
The article focuses on its impact to people of color. Will this specific issue
go away if accuracy becomes near perfect? We'll still have to deal with its
impact on everyone - and that could invite broader regulation.
~~~
paavokoya
my Nest Cam
People buying literal spyware to spy on themselves is definitely part of the
problem.
[http://www.computerworld.com/article/2476599/cybercrime-
hack...](http://www.computerworld.com/article/2476599/cybercrime-
hacking/black-hat-nest-thermostat-turned-into-a-smart-spy-in-15-seconds.html)
EDIT: I knew this would get downvotes from a crowd that simultaneously abhors
surveillance yet trumpets spyware like Nest as innovative. Cognitive
dissonance is strong here.
~~~
strictnein
Nothing to do with cognitive dissonance. Some of us just aren't impressed by
"hacks" that require the "hacker" to gain physical access to your home and the
hardware.
> "Once an attacker has physical access"
Also, strangely the article isn't about the the Nest Cam, so it's really just
the billionth in a series of articles that reinforce that if an attacker has
physical access you're screwed.
~~~
paavokoya
Does Nest ping to any companies servers?
------
carapace
I don't think we are going to be able to NOT have ubiquitous surveillance. The
tech won't go away and only gets better.
The question is not how to prevent it, because we can't (my premise.) The
question is, who gets to use it and for what?
We're going to have to learn to live without hypocrisy.
~~~
dredmorbius
That is why laws constrain the technically attainable.
We don't pass laws against things which cannot be done (at least not as a
normal course of action).
~~~
carapace
Let's say we make laws that proscribe that no one shall use the tech "the
wrong way", how do we ensure that _everyone_ is adhering to those laws without
using the tech "the wrong way"?
My point is that we can't constrain the technology by passing a law, because
you have to enforce it, and to do that we have to use the technology.
In the limit we're going to have either hypocrisy and have a system like North
Korea, or we're going to sort our shit out and have a system like Star Trek.
(I'm hopeful, despite being well aware of which of my examples is fictional.)
~~~
dredmorbius
I'll give you a specific example. David Simon of _The Wire_ talked about the
longshoreman's union in Baltimore in a UC Berkeley lecture titled "The
Audacity of Despair", available on YouTube. It's long but excellent. At 36m30s
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nRt46W3k-qw](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nRt46W3k-qw)
In it, Simon mentions that the union was so corrupt that every day it had to
forward a copy of documents -- possibly _every_ document produced or received
-- mail, memos, publications, P.O.s and receipts -- to either the DoJ or the
state's AG office, under a consent decree. Basically, _because of a long
history of abuse of power_ the union had to run open books to law enforcement.
The financial world operates similarly: companies are subject to audits (by
private companies, not even government agencies, though _those_ companies are
themselves audited) for compliance with accounting practices and such. That
is, again, _you open your books_.
Regulation of other organisations operates on similar grounds. Pharmaceutical
companies are regulated as to their drugs produced, food processors to their
own practices, especially in beef, dairy, pork, and poultry. Some industries
gain exceptions to anti-trust regulations in return for more regulation and
oversight of other elements: major league sports, insurance (underwriting
boards), telecoms, and transportation (rail, truck, air, sea). An item which
popped up following Trump's request for followers to patrol polling places
_was a specific injunction on the GOP for doing just that_ dating to the early
1980s (and set to expire Real Soon Now, though Trump may just have fouled that
up). Southern states in the US have operated under injunctions dating to the
Voting Rights Act for violations of its provisions (some of which may have
expired or been reduced by recent SCOTUS rulings, I've not kept close track).
Google itself _is already operating under a consent decree running for 20
years until 2031_ as a result of "deceptive privacy practices" (that's the
FTC's language, not mine) in rolling out its Buzz social network:
"FTC Charges Deceptive Privacy Practices in Googles Rollout of Its Buzz Social
Network"
The mechanism for enforcement:
_The settlement requires the company to obtain users’ consent before sharing
their information with third parties if Google changes its products or
services in a way that results in information sharing that is contrary to any
privacy promises made when the user’s information was collected. The
settlement further requires Google to establish and maintain a comprehensive
privacy program, and it requires that for the next 20 years, the company have
audits conducted by independent third parties every two years to assess its
privacy and data protection practices._
[https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-
releases/2011/03/ftc-c...](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-
releases/2011/03/ftc-charges-deceptive-privacy-practices-googles-rollout-its-
buzz)
It turns out that people have faced the questions of trust, verification,
audit, and compliance for a long time. Trust, third parties, bounties, and
similar mechanisms are typical modes for ensuring compliance. There are ways
of determining if personal or private information has leaked (look up
"fictitious entries" or "honeytraps" \-- I've made a recent HN submission on
the topic though it didn't go far). And yes, there are times that the auditors
themselves are corrupt: Arthur Anderson and Enron, Ernst & Young HK and the
Mozilla v. WoSign and StartCom CA backdating scandal. Mozilla will refuse to
accept further audits from E&YHK, meaning that E&Y effectively mined its own
credibility to generate present business at a cost of any future trust (I'd
really like to see what the future fall-out of this is).
_Yes, passing effective laws is PRECISELY how you constrain technology._
~~~
sesqu
> The settlement requires the company to obtain users’ consent before sharing
> their information with third parties if Google changes its products or
> services in a way that results in information sharing that is contrary to
> any privacy promises made when the user’s information was collected.
This seems like an awfully convenient explanation for why Google has started
to demand affirmation of their terms of use every few weeks, if not for the
date of 2011. I don't remember when they started with the demands, but it was
2014 or 2015.
------
notduncansmith
I'm all for privacy tools for now, but the privacy-surveillance arms race
feels like a hack compared to actually fixing the culture that creates a need
for privacy. Is anyone discussing what it would take to solve the problem from
that level?
~~~
astrobe_
Privacy is a lie by omission. Lies are a necessary feature for societies (even
non-human animals can lie). Therefore, privacy is a necessary feature for
societies.
~~~
notduncansmith
> Lies are a necessary feature for societies
Could you defend this assertion, please?
------
ageitgey
If you are curious _how_ these facial recognition systems actually work, check
out [https://medium.com/@ageitgey/machine-learning-is-fun-
part-4-...](https://medium.com/@ageitgey/machine-learning-is-fun-
part-4-modern-face-recognition-with-deep-learning-c3cffc121d78)
------
Theodores
I wonder if we will dispense with the need for ID. Imagine borders where no
passport is needed or ATM machines that just take a quick iris scan instead of
a physical card. Or other emergency services such as hospitals able to check
if you can pay the bills or have the required citizenship. I don't think that
the crowd that have store loyalty cards would complain if CCTV rather than the
card applied the perks.
In such a brave new world identity theft would be a thing of the past and
everyone would have less theft to worry about. So there could be upsides for
law abiding consumers and not just fascist government police forces.
~~~
rfrank
From my understanding, one of the tricky bits of biometrics as passwords in
general is that you can't really change them. What happens when the future's
equivalent of an ATM skimmer scans your iris?
Could also lead to increased violence in muggings/robberies, etc. If
fingerprints or eyes become necessary to access what it is they want to take,
they'll just add those to the list of things to take from you.
~~~
screaminghawk
>one of the tricky bits of biometrics as passwords
Serious question, would a passport be considered a password in this context?
>ATM skimmer scans your iris
Your credit card is authentication but your PIN is authorization. I imagine
your iris will replace your card, not your PIN.
The difference between authentication and authorization can be confusing in
some real world examples.
~~~
rfrank
Interesting point re: authentication vs. authorization. In the situation of an
iris scan as authentication, what then becomes the authorization? Multi-factor
biometrics, some sort of 2/3/4fa scan?
Broadly speaking, solutions to that problem which involve more biometric data
make me uncomfortable, in no small part because I just don't trust the people
who operate the systems.
Don't know on the passport thing, although my gut says no. Do you mean people
just having a passport in general, so say an iris scan pulls your passport
data & cross references it against a camera at the ATM? Or having it
physically on you so its RFID chip is read?
I've just started thinking/learning about these sorts of problems, so as of
now I don't have many opinions on how things should be done haha.
------
wickedlogic
The problem with mass surveillance, is mostly that masses aren't using it to
benefit/protect themselves.
------
kalys
Just wondering if piercings or earrings with infrared LED can prevent facial
recognition.
~~~
leesalminen
I would also like to know the answer to this question.
------
GoToRO
As technology gets better, the world gets smaller. In the end Earth will be as
big as a small village: everybody will know everybody.
~~~
prodigal_erik
This is a disaster, because the brutal conformism of villages is the reason
they lag behind cities where freaks are allowed to exist in anonymity.
~~~
GoToRO
Well...
1\. At least it is a disaster that we experienced before.
2\. At some point conformism will mean "you have to be like everybody else:
unique".
~~~
pixl97
Oh, you want to challenge the status quo. Burn him at the stake.
Just because we did something in the past, doesn't mean we should start doing
it again in the future.
~~~
GoToRO
I don't propose to do it again in the future. I think it will come anyway no
matter what.
------
pmyjavec
Where losing control of our technology and privacy, when people start saying
things like _we 'll get the government to fix surveillance_, we are introuble.
------
vorotato
Worse than anyone thought? I doubt it.
~~~
WalterBright
You'd be right. I thought it was obvious. I wonder if wearing things that
partially obscure the face will become popular.
------
kazagistar
Facial recognition + augmented reality = read reviews by exes at bars.
------
LargeCompanies
What's the best facial recognition app (native or web) out there now for
consumer use?
Does one exist yet that's works as reliably or almost as reliably as what the
cops at using?
------
BurningFrog
Like it or not, this is an inevitable consequence of advancing technology.
Since it can't be stopped, the thing to think about is how to adapt to it.
------
zk00006
So what is the message? Honestly, I didn't get any information form the
article.
~~~
mcguire
" _We knew the threat was looming. But a brand new report[1] from the
Georgetown Law Center for Privacy and Technology indicates the problem is far
worse than we could’ve imagined._
" _In response to the report, EFF has joined a large coalition of privacy
advocates[2] to demand the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
take two major steps to keep facial recognition in check:_
" _1\. Expand ongoing investigations of police practices and include in future
investigations an examination of whether the use of surveillance technologies,
including face recognition technology, has had a disparate impact on
communities of color; and_
" _2\. Consult with and advise the FBI to examine whether the use of face
recognition has had a disparate impact on communities of color._ "
[1] [https://www.perpetuallineup.org/](https://www.perpetuallineup.org/)
[2] [https://www.aclu.org/letter/coalition-letter-department-
just...](https://www.aclu.org/letter/coalition-letter-department-justice-
civil-rights-division-calling-investigation-disparate)
------
joshuaheard
The loss of privacy should be balanced against the aid it provides to law
enforcement to catch criminals. So, even though the loss of privacy is more
extensive, the capability of the cops to catch the bad guys is also better.
~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
We're in the safest era in human history. How many more rights would you like
to give up for more security?
~~~
joshuaheard
AFAIK you don't have a right to privacy while in a public space.
~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
If someone followed you constantly while you were in public, that can be
considered stalking and you could get a restraining order against them.
~~~
joshuaheard
Only if they threatened violence.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How did you meet your cofounder? - mezod
======
philippz
2013 there was a big flood in Germany. I was a victim and lost a lot of my
stuff. I instantly wrote a simple and fast HTML-app to coordinate all those
thousands of volunteering flood-helpers. The city and the university who tried
to organize all volunteering citizens officially communicated the tool in
press releases and on their websites. Max, my todays co-founder wrote an
e-mail and asked if he could help...
------
Jeaye
For me, AngelList was what allowed us to find each other.
[https://angel.co/](https://angel.co/)
~~~
pbiggar
How did angelist help?
------
wayn3
I worked a contract at a company. Met my cofounder there. My contract ended.
We began working on a thing.
------
rodrigocoelho
I met a cofounder while interviewing potential customers during the early
validation, pre MVP. His questions were smart, he knew the market and has been
a founder before. Right after the meeting, I called my other cofounder and
told her we should setup a meeting and get him onboard.
------
zznik
I met my cofounder Alexander in university hostel. We lived in the same block
but different rooms =) Now we are building service for ecommerce
[http://mydataprovider.com/](http://mydataprovider.com/)
------
fapi1974
This is extremely timely for me. I met my co-founder 10 years ago, and we got
on super well and made a great match. She had to bail for personal reasons,
and now I face the decision of whether to continue solo, find another
cofounder, or fold up shop.
------
id122015
It is known thay many startup guys are single. And me and my cofounder, for
our no longer existing startup, met in a place whith a group of other guys.
All of us were going to meet one woman. For private affairs. Its a strange
situation but it happens.
------
waqasaday
She was my teacher’s sister, we became friends in 2004. Stayed in touch,
started first startup in 2010, later started working again on a small project
in 2011, which eventually became our current startup Markhor. Got married
together in 2015!
------
agibsonccc
Slept 20 ft away from each other at a hacker hostel in SF.
------
mnbbrown
Startup Catalyst in 2014.
[http://www.startupcatalyst.com.au/](http://www.startupcatalyst.com.au/)
------
vram22
There was and maybe still is this site called TechCofounder that was started
some years ago, by a Korean guy (maybe in the States).
------
chester195
My cofounder's wife hired me to tutor their kids in maths during my PhD.
Got talking about some ideas after a lesson and hit it off.
------
omarforgotpwd
He was my my college professor teaching calulus: my first class of my first
day of freshman year.
------
crystalPalace
I was a cofounder and became acquainted with the founder through a mutual
friend.
------
ralmidani
Taking CS50 at Harvard Extension School; we chatted during the TF-led section.
------
Exuma
One through a forum, one through this previous cofounder
------
skraelingjar
My cofounder is an old friend from high school.
------
gkop
Through a friend of a friend.
------
thirdreplicator
Craigslist
~~~
joshmn
More details please. This sounds like a good story.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Clinical Reasoning - DanBC
https://drohanlon.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/clinical-reasoning/
======
DanBC
Submitting this because there are lots of medical threads on HN. This post
talks about some of the cognitive biases that affect doctors.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple won’t allow iPhones to downgrade from iOS 13.5.1 to iOS 13.5 - vvpvijay
https://androidrookies.com/apple-wont-allow-its-users-to-downgrade-their-iphones-from-ios-13-5-1-to-ios-13-5/
======
devenblake
That's unfortunate for the jailbreaking community (as mentioned in the
article, 13.5.1 patches out the kernel exploit used by unc0ver to jailbreak).
It's a shame Apple has to be so hostile to its users. I got my SE1 for the
express purpose of jailbreaking when it was no longer supported by updates; I
get the perks of having a customizable media player with a headphone jack with
none of the downsides (cheap build quality) that plague the MP3 players on
Amazon, plus I can use it as a smartphone too. I guess until the community
manages to crack 13.5.1 - or, even better, whatever iOS version formally marks
the end of the iPhone SE1 and 6S's support - users will just have to wait.
I jailbroke on 13.5 with unc0ver and it really is worth it, even nowadays. It
opens up a world of customization and lower-level system utilities. It's a
shame the tools to do so don't work with Linux - in order to keep the apps on
your phone you need to "refresh" them using AltStore, which only works on
macOS and Windows - but I believe the jailbreak patches your phone so that it
no longer automatically updates iOS, so you don't just end up with a brick
when Apple pushes a new one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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