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Airbnb in court over housing laws - edward
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27110660
======
jesusmichael
Wow airbnb @10B valuation.... That's 40x ttm rev.... Sucker born every
minute....
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Achieving full-motion video on the Nintendo 64 (2000) [pdf] - dmitrygr
https://ultra64.ca/files/other/Game-Developer-Magazine/GDM_September_2000_Achieving_Full-Motion_Video_on_the_Nintnedo_64.pdf
======
phoboslab
Lately there has also been an effort by a hobbyist to use an MPEG1 decoder
(PL_MPEG)[1] on the N64[2].
Disclaimer: I wrote PL_MPEG, but not the N64 port.
[1]
[https://github.com/phoboslab/pl_mpeg](https://github.com/phoboslab/pl_mpeg)
[2]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/n64/comments/dr15py/i_just_started_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/n64/comments/dr15py/i_just_started_a_dragons_lair_port_to_n64/)
~~~
giovannibajo1
Hi, I'm the guy working on that.
I've actually since moved to port a H264 implementation to N64. It's been a
long journey and I'm now at around 18 FPS, after nights of manual RSP assembly
optimizations, vectorizing most of the intra-prediction and inter-prediction
algorithms. I want to reach 30FPS so there's still some work to do.
~~~
fulafel
What kind of vector operations does the N64 support for his case?
~~~
giovannibajo1
For H264? Basically everything.
Vector registers are 8 lanes, signed 16-bit, so they map quite well to per-
pixel calculations on each plane (YUV), which is what video codecs do, as you
can process 8 pixels at a time, and you have 16-bit precision to handle
intermediate results.
The most complex hurdle is that RSP only has 4K of RAM so you need to DMA in
and out macroblocks a lot (especially since I can't possibly rewrite a FULL
h264 decoder in RSP assembly, not in this lifetime: I need to write only
specific performance-sensitive algorithms, while the bulk of the decoder stays
in C; this means that the same data ends up going in & out the RSP a lot,
especially since the H264 decoder I'm using is not aware of this problem).
This said, RSP DMA is even rectangle based, so it's another perfect fit: I can
DMA a macroblock by specifying the pointer in RAM, width and height (usually
16x16, but some algos works on sub-partitions of 8x8 or 4x4) and the stride
(screen width), so that a single DMA call will transfer the block from the
middle a frame, skipping the rest of the data.
Vector multiplications in RSP were designed to write DSP-like filters, so they
map quite well to the pixel filters required by H264. There are several
different multiplication instructions for different fixed point precisions,
and there's even one that automatically adds 0.5 (in the correct fixed point
precision) which is also a common pattern in FIR filters, and also used in
H264.
Saturation (VCH/VGE/VLT opcodes) is also supported; this is useful as most
algorithms eventually need to saturate the calculated value in the 0-255
range, so that's another thing which usually require 1 clock cycle for 8
pixels.
When working with 4x4 partitions, half of the vector lanes are ignored; when
writing back to memory, you need to do a read / combine / write sequence (as
you may want to write 4 pixels and keep the existing 4 pixels, but vector
writes will write 8 pixels); in this case, the VMRG instruction is used, which
basically allow to combine two vector registers into one, with a bitmask to
specific where to get each lane frame.
For IDCT, it comes very handy that most RSP opcodes allows to do partial
broadcasts of the lanes of one of the input registers; this allows to keep a
4x4 matrix into 2 consecutive registers and then play some tricks with
broadcast to multiply by rows and by columns (which is required by IDCT where
you need to compute A' x B x A, with A&B being 4x4 matrices, so if you expand
that you will see that you need to rotate vectors a lot).
So well, it's actually a pretty good fit.
PS: in the Gamasutra article, it shows the RSP code used to do colorspace
conversion (YUV->RGB). The article says that it give a big boost (and I can
believe it: especially in MPEG1, CSC is like 30% of decoding time), but I
brought it to basically 0% by letting the RDP do it (RDP is the GPU in N64).
In fact, the RDP supports YUV textures: so in my H264 player, the RSP just
does the interleaving (that is, merges the 3 separate Y, U, V planes into one)
and then asks the RDP to blit a textured rectangle in the correct format. The
RDP even runs in parallel to both RSP and CPU. It might be that, back in 2000,
this wasn't fully documented by Nintendo, though I found several references in
old Nintendo docs. I can't see otherwise why it wasn't used. Once you reverse
engineer how to pass the correct constants, it works really well and brings
the CSC cost to basically zero.
~~~
fulafel
Really fascinating. The dma latency must be pretty small? The 4k of ram and
DMA makes the programming model a lot like the Cell, I wonder if experiences
with game evs using the RSP microcode encouraged the Cell design. I also
wonder how much in common this HW has with the SGI GPUs of the day...
~~~
giovannibajo1
The DMA transfers 64-bit words per each bus clock cycle between the main
shared memory (RDRAM) and the internal RSP 4K DMEM (or IMEM, to transfer
code).
So it's quite fast, but you need to remember that the main RDRAM is shared
among the main CPU and the whole RCP (eg: it's also used as video memory for
textures and frame buffers by the RDP), so contention is really high.
------
derefr
See also, for techniques used on a much earlier console with much tighter
constraints:
• [https://youtu.be/c-aQvP7CUAI](https://youtu.be/c-aQvP7CUAI)
• [https://youtu.be/IehwV2K60r8](https://youtu.be/IehwV2K60r8)
~~~
dleslie
That Sonic 3D hack is damn clever
~~~
nitrogen
Regarding the other hack, people did some really cool stuff with palette
swaps, e.g.
[http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/](http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/)
And also the Windows 95/98 startup screens.
------
porsupah
I rather wish the 3DO version of The 11th Hour had seen release, but the
publisher canned the project quite late in development.
There, we had about an hour of video - on CD, it should be noted, not a
cartridge - at 288x320 (using an interlaced display mode, which virtually
nobody used beyond splash screens), with a perfectly solid 30fps. Left
unregulated, the decoder yielded around 40-70fps. All ARM assembly, and a
_huge_ amount of fun to write. ^_^
No hardware acceleration, needless to say, other than page blitting to copy
the previous frame to the current buffer.
------
corysama
The Gamasutra web article on this is not as pretty. But, it includes the RSP
microcode.
[http://web.archive.org/web/20081221184231/http://www.gamasut...](http://web.archive.org/web/20081221184231/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20001004/meynink_pfv.htm)
(edit, link fixed, thanks!)
If you like this kind of stuff, check out
[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/)
and
[https://www.reddit.com/r/videogamescience/](https://www.reddit.com/r/videogamescience/)
I often post games-related stuff I find here to there. But, this might be the
first time I’ve seen something posted to HN because it was first posted there
:)
~~~
mambodog
Your link seems to be broken, here's a working version:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20040313034855/http://www.gamasut...](http://web.archive.org/web/20040313034855/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20001004/meynink_pfv.htm)
------
STRML
Absolutely fascinating, high-quality, deeply technical article with a healthy
dose of nostalgia. I'd love to see more of this (even though we often have
quite a bit!) on HN.
Does anyone know if this technique was ever used again on the N64?
~~~
CrashOveride95
Not to my knowledge, the only other time _good looking_ FMV was used on N64
was in Pokemon Puzzle League. I am not profiecent enough in RSP to disassemble
that microcode, though I can tell you resident evil 2's fmv codec came after
the HVQM fmv system used in Puzzle League
------
awscherb
It always amazes me reading about the novel techniques N64 devs used to
squeeze every last ounce of performance out of such a hardware / storage
constrained platform. Nowadays I get excited if a Call of Duty patch is under
10gb....
~~~
Causality1
It's incredible to me to see just how much smaller Nintendo Switch versions of
games are than their PC counterparts, even when the visual differences are
minimal.
~~~
Grazester
Note also that the textures on the switch are for a console that does 1080px
max so it would be smaller.
edit://Visual difference minimal you say?
~~~
Causality1
For example, Cuphead at 3.3GB is 1/4 the size on Switch as it is on Xbox One.
Another is Doom 2016, which, while obviously having lower fidelity visuals, is
13.2GB on Switch and 77GB on PC.
------
fghyjsrtyhjsw
I have feeling this is a lost art and wasn't used since xbox one / ps4 release
(and probably way less before that).
~~~
selectodude
Fitting things onto a 32MB cartridge isn’t a constraint anymore. Current
consoles use 50GB discs and next-gen ones are going to use 100GB BD-XL discs.
Makes it less necessary to do stuff like that.
~~~
mattl
Some use 32GB cartridges.
------
kevinventullo
I owned this game as a kid and I remember the cartridge being noticeably
physically heavier than all of my other N64 cartridges. As I remember it, the
FMV sequences looked basically identical to their PS counterparts.
------
mambodog
Interestingly the N64's RSP has some instructions specifically intended for
implementing MPEG decoding (ctrl+f for "MPEG"in
[http://ultra64.ca/files/documentation/silicon-
graphics/SGI_N...](http://ultra64.ca/files/documentation/silicon-
graphics/SGI_Nintendo_64_RSP_Programmers_Guide.pdf))
~~~
giovannibajo1
Yes unfortunately they're _very_ specific of MPEG1, so they're not really
useful for other codecs in the MPEG family. I'm not using them in my H264
implementation (see sibling answer).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Help me on licence pricing of my android app. - dirhemcekirdek
One of the chinese android oem manufacturers wants to license my app and they have asked me about my business model for app licensing. The problem is i have no idea how app licensing works and what would be the proper pricing for license of my app. I would be glad if you can give some insights about it.<p>PS: They have asked business model for both pro and lite version.<p>Here is the app in question.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lyrebirdstudio.colorme
======
dragonbonheur
I'd say 80 cents up to a dollar on every device sold for the pro version. The
lite version should remain free. Both will drive more purchases for your other
pro products. It would be better if you could bill the manufacturer for the
number of devices produced, just like Microsoft did with DOS. Otherwise you
could count only on customers' willingness to upgrade the software to the pro
version. The shareware model of reducing functionality after x number of days
would motivate them to upgrade.
------
dirhemcekirdek
Here is the app in question.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lyrebirdst...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lyrebirdstudio.colorme)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Linux touchpad like a MacBook: April 2020 update - seltzered_
https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-april-2020-update/
======
pcr910303
I personally find the Linux desktop to be never as polished as macOS because
it’s hacks over hacks.
One of the problems in inertia scrolling is that in Linux, it’s implemented in
the driver level — which means that while scrolling by inertia, if I close the
window, the window below will scroll. This is basically a hack because of
backwards compatibility with the legacy APIs that only concern mouse events.
The proper way to do this (which is implemented in macOS) is to do this
inertia scrolling in the GUI toolkit, which in macOS is AppKit. (macOS
implements this in NSScrollView.)
Fixing this in Linux will be hard, since it needs coordinated effort between
at least GTK, Qt, libinput, and the harware vendors — it’s an artifact of the
fragmented ecosystem of Linux.
~~~
mcv
At this moment I'm just generally frustrated with the state of desktop OSs in
general. I used a Mac for a decade, and was generally happy with it, but not
so happy with Apple's direction and recent poorer hardware. I recently
installed Windows on a couple of machines, and that's just a horrific
experience, and below the shinier surface, the OS is still as clunky as ever.
I've been putting my hope on Linux, but what the world really needs, is for
someone to create a unified vision for a Linux/BSD/open source based OS and
hardware that basically takes the Apple approach, or at least the approach
Apple had 15 years ago.
It's amazing how little progress there has been in this field. If I had money
and some expertise in this area, I'd start my own company making better
laptops with a Unix-like OS that's not afraid of breaking compatibility with
old Linux ideas like this that are holding us back. But that's never going to
be more than a dream.
~~~
cassianoleal
> making better laptops with a Unix-like OS that's not afraid of breaking
> compatibility with old Linux ideas
That's what OS X did, only for BSD rather than Linux.
~~~
mcv
That's why I loved OS X 15 years ago. But it's not open source, and it feels
like it's getting less open with every new version. But worse is their
hardware: I can't access it anymore. In a way, I think they peaked with the
2011 unibody design.
------
whatever1
Thanks for the contributions!
Unfortunately the state of Linux as a desktop OS in the past decade has missed
entirely the hardware developments. No proper support for scaling for hidpi
monitors, scrolling with precision mice/touch pads, no touch UI, UI is that
still not deep enough and casually requires the user to spawn a terminal,
graphics drivers that are still not stable and do not support the latest
standards like hdr.
I wish there was a for profit company that would focus on making a polished
desktop linux distro. There is only that much that the oss community can
provide for free, but it is simply not enough.
~~~
Nursie
> No proper support for scaling for hidpi monitors
I'm sitting here with a 4k 32" monitor and a 1920x1200 24 inch side by side,
scaled perfectly so both are pretty and readable, in xfce, and when moving
things between screens nothing changes size, or re-renders weirdly, or can't
be resized due to invisible boundaries, or ...
It's better than windows or MacOS can manage with the same setup.
I'm not sure what you count as 'proper', and yes I had to write a two-line
script with xrandr commands so ease of use isn't massively present. But the
underlying system absolutely has great scaling support.
Graphics drivers are also fine these days, I've not had any problems with my
mouse either. Hardware in general "just works" better than windows these days,
with older devices supported and no drivers to hunt down on the web.
I'm not trying to claim it's better for _you_ , only you can decide that. But
it works great for a lot of people.
~~~
kccqzy
> I'm sitting here with a 4k 32" monitor and a 1920x1200 24 inch
You didn't understand the problem mentioned by GP. Neither of your monitors
requires HiDPI scaling. Your first monitor has approximately 138 dpi and the
second a paltry 94 dpi.
Compare that to a 2012 MacBook Pro that has a 15.4-inch display with a
2880x1800 resolution. That's 221 dpi. The hallmark of a HiDPI is that its DPI
is so high that you need to render UI elements at 2x or more (though sometimes
1.5x also works), so that originally a one-pixel line becomes two pixels wide.
This requires support not just in drivers and the OS, but the application.
ArchLinux has an entire wiki page discussing application support:
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI)
~~~
Nursie
> Neither of your monitors requires HiDPI scaling
I beg to differ, 4k/32 does need scaling to my eyes. I don't want things to be
that tiny.
Not every application needs to support scaling, so long as the GUI framework
they use does, and the window manager does (XFCE has support, which I have
activated) that makes the 4K screen more usable to me (while allowing the full
res to be used for smooth rendering), then I use xrandr to scale the lower-dpi
screen back down so elements are the same size across both. Sure, there are a
few apps that don't behave brilliantly, but they aren't things I use much.
Like I said, it works better for me than MacOS or Windows (I have both, and a
2103 Retina MBP I still use).
~~~
Nursie
Of course I meant a 2013 rMBP, I'm not a time traveller :) I'm still impressed
that it can do its scaling stuff on a 4K screen, using onboard intel iris
graphics. It's been a great investment that little machine.
------
seltzered_
Noticed an update to this project. Here's some of the earlier posts by
wbharding:
Linux touchpad like a Macbook: progress and a call for help (Mar 2019)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485178](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485178)
Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing? (2018)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17547817](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17547817)
NOTE: I should've read the 'WIP' comment at the top before posting this. Sorry
if I shared this early!
------
gitgud
> Are you a developer interested in working for $50/hour to improve life for a
> bunch of Linux touchpad users? Here are the job requirements:
> \- Has access to a modern Linux laptop
> \- At least a couple years experience with C/C++
> \- Proven track record of delivering projects on schedule (please provide
> examples)
> \- Strong English skills
> \- Self-starter, able to make progress toward high level goals with minimal
> oversight
> \- Positive, solution-oriented collaborator
> \- (Preferred) Has personally struggled with Linux touchpads.
These requirements are _much much lower_ than majority of programming job
descriptions out there...
~~~
toohotatopic
You are talking more about the usual job descriptions, but has he missed
something important? Which other requirements should be added?
------
bokchoi
[http://archive.is/9AnoX](http://archive.is/9AnoX)
~~~
cpach
Good old hug o’ death :-p
------
syntaxing
Interesting, does this mean that a macbook's "superior" touchpad is actually
software driven? I always thought it was a hardware issue vs software issue.
~~~
WesolyKubeczek
It pretty much is. Speaking from experience of dual booting macOS and Linux on
a MacBook Pro.
Oh, and also from booting the same Dell XPS laptop in Linux and macOS, guess
which trackpad experience is superior.
~~~
syntaxing
How hard is it to load Hackintosh on a XPS? Do you recommend a certain model?
I hear the 9360 is preferred because something about the graphics card?
~~~
icefo
Somehow I never imagined an xps hackintosh but I want to try with mine now.
If it works reliably you could have great hardware with a good OS and a decent
price.
------
WesolyKubeczek
There’s one thing that’s bothering me about this “project”. How is it supposed
to work with the upstream? Is this supposed to be a rivaling fork? How am I
supposed to have it on my system?
Also, it rubs me the wrong way that the blog author is seeking a person to do
all the dirty work — even for compensation — and then what? Have all the
credit? Basically, act as a glorified Forward button?
If I felt up to the task enough, I’d slap a sponsorship button onto my github
on my own. And here’s the difference: prior to asking for the money, I’d have
something to show to prove I’m not a phony.
The upstream is not without its problem as well. Right now it’s being
maintained by Peter Hutterer from Red Hat, and judging by his LinkedIn, it’s
pretty much his job description. Recently he did a talk about how overloaded
he is with libinput[1], and how someone volunteering to comb through pull
requests and issues would easily become his “number two”. Which also is
striking me as odd.
libinput, given its importance for Linux ecosystem as such in general, and Red
Hat ecosystem in particular (especially since they bet on Wayland as the
future, and there libinput is the only choice), is important enough that Red
Hat better make sure it’s well maintained. It’s Red Hat/IBM, really, who
should be interested in making sure the bus factor of libinput is > 1\. Thus
the problem should be raised within Red Hat’s management, and they should
_hire_ additional people for fair buck to help. Otherwise it looks as if
someone who’s paid for X input stack maintenance is seeking free labor to help
him.
If I asked someone to help me do my paid job for free, open source or not, I
don’t think it would even be ethical.
[1] [http://who-t.blogspot.com/2019/10/libinputs-bus-factor-
is-1....](http://who-t.blogspot.com/2019/10/libinputs-bus-factor-is-1.html)
------
montebicyclelo
Having used a Macbook for the last 10 years, I can confirm that the trackpad
feels better than trackpads on windows laptops, Chromebooks, and Macbooks with
Linux installed (IMO, that I've tried).
However, I think the tracking may change slightly with major MacOs releases.
So which version do we prefer..?
------
wldlyinaccurate
The touchpad on my current gen Dell XPS 13 is superb on a stock Ubuntu
install. I'd love to know how much of the "bad touchpad" reputation that Linux
has is down to low quality hardware versus software support.
~~~
brabel
Have you tried a Mac touchpad? I use both a Dell XPS13 (Ubuntu from factory)
at home, and a MacBook Pro at work. The Mac's touchpad is miles ahead... and
that's even after I spent a couple of days messing with libinput settings to
make the Dell's touchpad more acceptable (it's fine now, just not really close
to the precision of the Mac's touchpad).
~~~
notechback
In what ways is it ahead? I'm quite satisfied with the touchpad on Linux, so
really wondering what I'm missing.
On the other hand _touchscreen_ is really disappointing on Linux (Ubuntu),
just not a smooth experience at all for me.
~~~
pmx
It's really quite difficult to quantify what's actually different. It feels
really precise without being "flicky", using it feels very natural and you
sort of forget about the touchpad and just will the cursor on the screen to do
as you wish.
~~~
filleduchaos
I've always struggled to articulate why I prefer the MacBook's trackpad to
every other trackpad I've used, and I think you've hit on something with that
last sentence. It _feels_ so natural that I really just don't ever think about
it, my brain skips straight to the actual interface I'm using it to
manipulate.
I get the same feeling with high vs low quality touchscreens (e.g. my phone vs
some ATMs), and especially with gaming controllers. With a good, ergonomic
controller I sort of forget about the shape and weight of the controller in my
hands after a while; my entire sense of it narrows down to the
buttons/triggers/joysticks.
------
ht85
Can people who work on both platform comment on the biggest issues for them?
Nowadays I work mostly at my desk, but for several years I've worked 90% of
the time on my laptop keyboard. Synaptics with a bit of customization
(Area*Edge size for palm detection, single and double tap timings) worked
extremely well, and I consider myself very picky.
Edit: this seems to be about libinput, in which case I understand, as the two
times I've used libinput I gave up after a few hours of intense frustration
~~~
riquito
I use a mac at work and a Thinkpad with Linux (Fedora) at home. Personally I
can't notice any difference (on the other hand the Thinkpad keyboard is
glorius). I wonder if people refer to gestures, which I don't use.
~~~
pcr910303
It’s about cursor acceleration — macOS uses an acceleration scheme so that you
can get from one’s end to the other in one swipe if it’s fast enough — if the
swipe is slow, the cursor becomes more precise and slower.
I’m not due how it is in Linux, but last time I tried running Ubuntu on my
2017 MBP, It wasn’t possible to move from edge to edge in one swipe.
~~~
ubercow13
Every OS uses cursor acceleration by default
~~~
pcr910303
It’s just my experience — it might be that Linux’s cursor acceleration isn’t
as sophisticated and comfortable as macOS.
------
josteink
> Since I don't regularly use a Linux laptop and haven't in a couple years
I’m in the opposite camp. I’ve been using a Linux laptop at home (by choice,
obviously) for the last 5-10 years and have finally been able to setup a
Linux-powered workstation at work.
It feels so refreshing and liberating. I can’t imagine ever going back.
------
mikekchar
It's funny... I have never touched a MacBook. I'm actually very happy with the
Linux touchpad drivers. I went to the article hoping to get a clear idea what
the author likes about the MacBook drivers that are absent in the Linux
drivers... But he doesn't say. Instead there was a poll asking _me_ what I
thought was wrong (which is nothing)... The parts about multi-touch were
interesting because I _really_ like the way multi-touch works in the current
driver. So I think I'm missing something.
So for those of you frustrated with the Linux touchpad driver... what is the
problem? Or is it just that it's not the same (which is a completely valid
complaint, IMHO)?
~~~
ancarda
From using Linux on my MacBook, I remember poor palm rejection being one
frustration. Also, I think multi-touch - such as scrolling with two fingers -
didn't work.
Just all round it wasn't very pleasant to work with. Perhaps if you have been
using trackpads on Linux all your life, you are used to moving your hands away
from the trackpad when not in use -- and so accidental presses are maybe never
an issue for you.
~~~
alias_neo
I've only ever used a MB once or twice; usually little more than trolling
someone who's left their machine unlocked in the office, but I did find the
touchpad intuitive.
As an exclusively Linux user, my only real issue with touch pads is palm
rejection, I feel like it has never worked so I end up in all sorts of awkward
hand positions trying not to tap it by accident.
As a 6ft4in male (with the large hands to go with it) it becomes painful when
trying to do this for any period on my XPS 13. On the XPS 15 it's easier
because there are large enough spaces either side of the touchpad to rest my
palms.
~~~
garmaine
I have repetitive strain injuries, so I simply cannot use Linux. The way I
have to twist my wrists so the touchpad doesn’t mistakenly register a palm
print is obnoxious and pain inducing.
------
mstaoru
I was very surprised to find out that XPS 15 touchpad cannot report pressure
on Linux, felt so contrary to everything else I can adjust and tinker with
under Linux. But touchpad tap is just tap / no tap and there is no middle
ground. I'm coming from Linux->Windows->Mac->Linux background, and I can
certainly feel the pain coming back to Linux from Mac (2014 models with the
sane touchpad size). Palm rejection and tap sensitivity are two major issues,
but you learn to live with it. Two-finger browser "back" gesture is something
I also miss direly, and no amount of experiments with funky Ruby (!?) based
gesture libs could fix that.
------
wayneftw
I'm sitting here at my dual 24" 1080p monitor, natural keyboard, vertical
5-button mouse, 32GB/500GB Linux (XFCE) desktop and I couldn't be happier.
Fuck touch pads and hidpi monitors. They're honestly dumb. Who wants to work
all day on a laptop? People who optimize their equipment for working in
meetings or working on the move are doing it wrong.
No wonder Silicon Valley is a bubble of Mac users. They're concerned with all
the wrong things, just like the Mac OS UI or any other OS that has been
tainted by its influence.
~~~
Doctor_Fegg
I work 90% of the day on a desktop. That doesn't mean that I want my 10%
laptop time to be an exercise in frustration. Linux touchpads are exactly
that. (It's the main reason I abandoned my short experiment with a Linuxified
Chromebook and reverted to a MacBook.)
~~~
JoeAltmaier
Understandable. I was initially confused - moving from Linux to MacBook? But
'touchpad' explains it.
My frustration with MacOs is, mousing around to all four corners of the screen
constantly. They've separated everything into the corners. But with a
touchpad, less frustrating.
------
gitgud
Does Linux on a MacBook make the touchpad feel worse?
~~~
wavee
yes
------
Brakenshire
Looks like this has been posted before the guy has even got his sponsorship
links ready, seems unfair to leave it up.
~~~
RasmusWL
Yep. I went to sponsor him with a few bucks, but as you say, it wasn't set up.
Think the best we can do for now is to give a star to
[https://github.com/gitclear/libinput](https://github.com/gitclear/libinput)
although it doesn't feel very significant.
> I presume nobody is randomly visiting pages on bill.harding.blog, so you
> aren't seeing this.
FeelsBadMan.
------
londons_explore
From a technical approach, is it even possible?
How many touchpads expose the raw touch data (ie. A bitmap of capacitance
data) necessary to replicate macos gestures? Things like palm detection
absolutely require that.
Is the project worth it if it only works on one model of hardware?
~~~
oaiey
Microsoft "enforces" nowadays a generic touchpad interface they call Precision
Touchpad. When your notebook has one of these, the Windows generic driver
kicks in and the experience is MUCH better. I never owned a MacBook but I
never again will accept a Windows laptop without a precision Touchpad.
So, I have good hope that Linux users will enjoy this experience also one day.
Microsoft forces the vendors in it.
~~~
wtallis
I have an HP laptop that supports the Precision Touchpad drivers, but it takes
considerable effort to use them. By default, Synaptics drivers will be
downloaded by Windows Update and override the Windows built-in drivers. It
doesn't make much difference to the cursor motion that I have noticed, but the
Synaptics configuration UI is just as bad as it was 20+ years ago and doesn't
seem to offer the same range of options as the Windows settings page it
disables.
~~~
oaiey
This download is strange. Because synaptics was the role model for th e
interface. Probably HP messed this up.
------
smacktoward
With big OEMs like Dell and Lenovo finally offering laptops with Linux
preinstalled, is there any chance one of them could put in the investment
required to solve this once and for all?
~~~
ilmiont
My XPS 13 has a wonderful touchpad out-of-the-box, one config line and natural
scroll works (think you can enable it in settings on a stock Ubuntu install
though).
~~~
dsego
Thinkpad is also adequate for me for basic pointing and two-finger scrolling.
But I still miss the pinch to zoom feature. Also, natural scroll is nice, but
it turns on for everything and it shouldn't imho. For example with natural
scrolling enabled the gnome speaker icon requires scrolling up to decrease
volume and down to increase, which doesn't really make sense to me.
------
macintux
Does Linux offer tap to click? Of all the many things I love about trackpads
on the Mac, tap to click is very close to the top. Such a tremendous reduction
of friction.
~~~
spiderfarmer
It's not default behaviour on MacOS. So many people are missing out.
~~~
macintux
Not only not default, but at least pre-Catalina it’s buried in accessibility.
Haven’t run Catalina yet so don’t know whether that’s changed.
~~~
satysin
In Mojave and Catalina it is an option in Trackpad preferences rather than
accessibility.
[https://i.imgur.com/d0EeOG7.png](https://i.imgur.com/d0EeOG7.png)
~~~
LeoNatan25
I think this has been there for a very long time, but my mind could be playing
tricks on me.
~~~
macintux
Actually, I just remembered it’s the 3-finger drag that’s well hidden inside
accessibility. Mea culpa.
~~~
satysin
Ah yes the three-finger drag is still hidden away in accessibility. It is one
of the few options I enable there, such a great option I am kind of surprised
it isn't the default as once you use it it becomes so natural.
------
konschubert
I could not see the sponsor button on the linked github project. Has it been
removed?
------
modzu
the hug of death says it all: we wish!!!
------
ThePowerOfFuet
>so you aren't seeing this.
I beg to differ, Bill.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IMDb orders imdbAPI to shut down or else - bojanbabic
http://imdbapi.com/
======
fileoffset
That is rubbish!
imdbapi.com could refer to, like he said in his response, literally thousands
of different acronyms, such as the new website title: "Integration Manager
Design Baseline Automated Physical Inventory" - amusing ;)
Who's to say it isn't for an Instant Messaging Database API service?
"The disclaimer you have added doesn’t change this result. First, ordinary
consumers don’t read fine print and so the potential for confusion is
unaffected. Second, even a prominent disclaimer doesn’t allow you to adopt a
competing product’s name as your own."
This is also rubbish as he clearly isn't adopting a competing products name as
his own.
IANAL but I think so long as he isn't using the IMDB name or logo, they
haven't got a leg to stand on. Having their trademark somewhere within the
domain name is not enough.
------
jsilence
This hurts regarding the history of IMDB which had large portions contributed
by volunteers in the early days:
"Users were invited to contribute data which they may have collected and
verified, on a volunteer basis, which greatly increased the amount and types
of data to be stored or for which sections needed to be added. As the site
thereby grew in content exponentially,"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imdb#History_before_website>
So IMDB is a community effort that has been commercialized.
Would be nice if the current 'owners' would respect the history of their own
site and play nice with another community effort in the same field.
~~~
mbitca
While I agree they don't particularly play nice with the community, they do
still let people download the raw data for non-commercial use at least. Not
that they promote that fact much. <http://www.imdb.com/interfaces/>
------
tomekEl
We all know that big brand names has early access to new released domain names
to protect their name and avoid domain squatting - they pay premium for that
and this sounds fair. But its nothing illegal in having imdbxxx.com - which
btw is still available. I might be wrong but if this is the case - imdb (in
this case) should make sure that they own all domains , which might be
associated with their brand (like imdbapi.com for example). Not securing them
and requesting free transfer from anyone who dared to buy one isn't anything
else but corporate bulling.
------
recroad
How does this thread not have any comments?
I'm no lawyer, but I hope you get someone to help you out. However, given this
case of giant corporation versus hardworking developer, the former usually
wins.
~~~
bojanbabic
I was hoping same as well
------
nivertech
All following domains should be handed to Amazon too:
I.com
IM.com
IMD.com
IMD.BE
IMDBA.com
IMDBAP.com
AYEMDEEBEE.com
;)
------
nathan_f77
Sorry, I personally don't think you have a case. IMDb is a very strong
trademark in my mind, I don't think you could get away with using it at the
start of your domain name.
~~~
stumacd
Not having used the API, but seeing that does use movie information (using
rotten tomatoes). I think that it's going to be difficult to claim fair use of
quite a distinctive acronym in the same realm.
Paying a lawyer for an hour to confirm this will save the author of the API
time and effort.
Rename it and move on, be your own brand. There's no need to coattail if you
have a great product.
------
enigmabomb
Pick a better acronym if you want to have a shot at winning.
~~~
fileoffset
My suggestion was:
I Must Design Better API
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study - jacques_chester
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/05/414326/alzheimers-disease-double-prion-disorder-study-shows
======
cjbprime
Y'all, please never post _university press releases about single scientific
studies_. They are the worst thing. Every major human problem has been
declared solved by one of them. They are even worse than posting single
scientific study papers themselves at the time of publication, and that's
still pretty bad, because of the overwhelming incentive to create exciting
studies that are wrong, and our current inability to notice the same due to
limitations of peer review in catching results that were created by some form
of chance.
This result looks very exciting and if it replicates and is built upon in five
years' time then we can all talk about it then, you know?
I note that Science Translational Medicine's impact factor is not awesome. But
even that doesn't mean much to me: lately it feels like _Science_ and _Nature_
are in fact _especially_ likely to collect results that are very exciting and
also wrong, because they feel like they're the best journals so their results
should be surprising.
~~~
thaumasiotes
> lately it feels like _Science_ and _Nature_ are in fact especially likely to
> collect results that are very exciting and also wrong, because they feel
> like they're the best journals so their results should be surprising.
I believe this is accurate on all counts.
Slate Star Codex put the issue fairly pithily: there's only one way to get
surprising-if-true results that isn't surprising.
~~~
steve19
Can you explain the joke?
~~~
outlace
The only way to get a surprising-if-true result that is not surprising is if
the result is not true. Hence the joke is that most of these surprising
findings are probably B.S.
------
outlace
Taken out of context, the press release makes this finding look a lot more
ground-breaking than it is after I quickly read through the actual study.
Still a good piece of work though.
It was already known, as pointed out in the actual paper, that Amyloid-beta
(AB) and Tau, the proteins that have long been implicated in Alzheimer's
disease (AD), have prion-like properties which means they exist in an abnormal
3D configuration that causes other AB/tau proteins they interact with to adopt
this abnormal configuration.
But they can also polymerize into large neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs).
Patients who died late, e.g. at age 80 with AD had a lot of these NFTs, so it
seemed reasonable by many to assume that these NFTs are the major cause of
brain deterioration. But there were a number of alternative hypotheses of what
exactly AB and tau were doing in the disease.
This study suggests that AB and tau cause disease primarily through their
prion-like activity and not due to their ability to accumulate into large
trash-balls (NFTs). They noted that patients who died young of AD had very few
NFTs but have a lot of the AB/tau prion-like forms, whereas patients who
survived longer had a lot of NFTs but not a lot of prion activity. This lends
evidence to the idea that the primary pathogenicity of AB/tau is through their
prion activity and not the fact that they accumulate into large protein blobs.
~~~
autokad
could that be interpreted as the ones with trash balls (NFTs) might actually
be the ones handling it 'better'?
~~~
outlace
You mean like the NFTs are somehow protective against the Prion forms? That is
a possible interpretation that this study does not directly disambiguate.
------
netwanderer3
Is it possible that these prions were also acquired by human through meat
consumption? As in the case with PrP prion from Mad Cow Disease which spread
through meat eating as well. Another very similar case is by eating fruit bats
containing toxic BMAA, which has a very similar structure to L-Serine amino
acid causing it to be picked up instead during the protein synthesis process
and resulting in a misfolded version. Studies are being done as BMAA could be
a likely cause for many neurological disorders such as Parkinson's.
Has there ever been any researches in determining the rates of Alzheimer
disease in meat eaters vs. vegetarians?
~~~
stareatgoats
Interesting topic. Here is an anecdote that I found through a simple web
search that somewhat addresses your question:
"Few studies have looked carefully at the risk of dementia in vegetarians
versus other people, and the data is contradictory. One small study of
California residents found that meat eaters were more likely to become
demented than their vegetarian counterparts. Another study in Alzheimer’s
patients, however, found that adhering to a strict vegetarian diet resulted in
lower cognition compared to a pescatarian diet (i.e., a diet that includes
fish)."
[https://www.alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-
vitality/blog/vegetar...](https://www.alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-
vitality/blog/vegetarian-and-vegan-diets-for-brain-health)
~~~
netwanderer3
You're right, I used to know a few vegetarians who often supplement their
diets with Vitamin B-12 which theoretically could help boosting and balance
their cognitive ability vs. meat eaters. I personally did not notice any
cognitive problems in those people at least.
Our DNA contains the sequence of folding steps instruction for each protein to
fold. So for a protein to misfold itself, could this mean it must have
received an incorrect instruction from the source? As we know, damages to DNA
are often a result of foreign agents or coming from external environmental
factors. Prevention is always better than a cure so it is probably a lot
easier to figure out the source and eliminate that rather than trying to
change the structure of these molecules which is extremely difficult.
~~~
fjfaase
As I understand it, the DNA only contains the sequence of amino-acids from
which the protein is built, not their folding instructions. Some proteins are
also modified and/or cut in pieces by other proteins before reaching a
functional state. Discovering how a protein folds, is a very complex problem,
that would have been much easier if it were indeed encoded by the DNA. the
website [https://fold.it/portal/](https://fold.it/portal/) gives a good
introduction to the problem of protein folding.
~~~
achenatx
My biochemistry education is 20 years old.. As you say DNA encodes the
sequence of amino acids. Protein folding is a thermodynamic problem as parts
of the protein stick to other parts and bonds try to achieve a low energy
shape.
There are enzymes, co-enzymes, and other molecules that can help a protein to
achieve its proper shape.
------
breck
A good primer on prions: [http://www.prionalliance.org/2013/11/26/what-are-
prions/](http://www.prionalliance.org/2013/11/26/what-are-prions/)
------
amyloid_tau
Pretty awesome work. Looks like we don’t have obvious ways to avoid these
classes of proteins in the same way we can just avoid tainted meat and abstain
from cannibalism...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyloid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyloid)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_protein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_protein)
~~~
bboygravity
Or do we?
People taking acyclovir regularly (to suppress HSV1 and 2 symptoms) have been
found to have a 10 fold decrease in risk of getting Alzheimer's (Taiwanese
study).
[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322463.php](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322463.php)
Additional studies are currently ongoing to confirm this in the US.
The scientific "journalists" seem to jump to the conclusion that therefor
HSV1,2 must be cuasal for Alzheimer's. But it could be that Acyclovir somehow
prevents or slows the formation of AB tau prion-like forms (and has nothing to
do with the herpes - Alzheimer's causality).
Or. Some Acyclovir prevents Alzheimer's through a completely different
mechanism we don't know about yet.
My point: effective medication may already be there. We just don't know how it
works yet.
~~~
Cosi1125
Or, you know, it might be that Alzheimer's has an autoimmune factor
contributing to it... :-)
~~~
bboygravity
Can you elaborate? As far as I know the immunesystem "has no access" to the
brain?
Also by "factor" do you mean protein?
I'm just an electronics guy, would love to know more.
~~~
Cosi1125
Sure! It'a common misconception that the brain is completely separated from
the immune system. If it were, it would take one evolutionarily successful
pathogen to threaten the existence of our species. The brain is indeed
(usually) impenetrable to immune cells circulating in the blood stream, but
there are "resident" immune cells protecting it from everything that manages
to pass all the other barriers. You can read more about it on Wikipedia [1].
By "factor" I didn't mean a biological entity, but rather... well, a factor
contributing to the development of the disease. (As you might have noticed,
English is not my native tongue, and I couldn't come up with a sophisticated
synonym to "a thing that makes a contribution to sth" ;-))
It's been long postulated that AB/tau proteins are only a symptom of
Alzheimer's and not a causative agent (which would explain why, so far, no
treatment has been successful despite pre-clinical successes). According to
some hypotheses, what we observe is the effect of "strayed" lymphocytes going
postal and attacking brain cells after being activated by a microbial agent –
and HSV is one of the suspects.
Hope that helps. If something is not clear, feel free to ask and I'll try to
explain :-)
[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroinflammation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroinflammation)
------
outlace
The actual study is here: "Aβ and tau prion-like activities decline with
longevity in the Alzheimer’s disease human brain" <
[https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/490/eaat8462](https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/490/eaat8462)
>
------
i_feel_great
I still remember undergraduate biology class where the lecturer mentioned that
crazy idea of proteins being infectious. Most scientist thought the results
were errors and that Prusiner was a fool. Even after kuru was proven to be
cause by infectious proteins.
------
jmpman
How does this mesh with the gingivitis correlation?
~~~
robbiep
There is an inflammatory correlation as well, it may be simply that.
I have been out of the AD literature for about 6 years but back in Med school
read every major paper from the 80s onwards. The flip flop between tau and AB
as the causative agent was very interesting
------
jeffdavis
How does a protein come to be misfolded? Is it a random mutation that happens
to be self-propagating? Is it different between alzheimers and other ones like
mad cow?
~~~
robbiep
Thermodynamics.
Certain proteins have a propensity to Misfold, this is driven by the folding
conformations as well as by Heat Shock Proteins. The underlying genetics that
drive amino acid sequence are the basis for this. In the best known prion
disease, Mad Cow, one misfolded protein drives other similar proteins it runs
into to induce the same conformation. Due to the thermodynamics of folding, it
is now in a very stable structure and won’t revert to its original or desired
biological structure, is difficult or impossible to clear, and will cause
other proteins to fold in the same way.
~~~
jeffdavis
So the first misfolded protein is just a random occurrence?
With mad cow, will uninfected cow populations spontaneously develop mad cow on
their own? Or was the first mad cow protein a rare misfortune not likely to
happen again? Or did the first mad cow protein come from something other than
a cow?
~~~
robbiep
Look up the sheep prion disease scrapie. It’s been around a lot longer than
mad cow (1700s) and likely continues to arise spontaneously.
The protein structure needs to have a mutation which gives it a propensity to
occasionally misfold. That creates a chain reaction. If this happens at a low
enough rate then the underlying protein may become widely distributed in the
population, and then it may only take a chance mutation or misfold to cause
the cascade
The reality is we don’t know what the prime mover in any of these conditions
are. Likely some combination of random occurance and possibly some other
mechanism as well. For example, CJD comes from mad cow - so mad cow is
transmissible, but scrapie seems to both arise spontaneously in flocks and be
transmissible between sheep
------
pretendscholar
Can someone with a better background tell me if this is a game changer? I
thought the consensus was that Alzheimer's probably had a few potential
causes.
~~~
icegreentea2
There's nothing in principle that prevents other mechanisms from inducing the
prion conditions that eventually leads to Alzheimer's symptoms.
This paper is just another piece of evidence that points to the plaques and
tangles being self propagating, instead of being say for example a pure by-
product of some other mechanism. In itself, that doesn't really tell us
anything about the mechanisms at play.
Is it a game changer? Probably not. It's unlikely that Alzheimer's is purely
spread through inter-human prion transmission, so other factors are likely
still at play.
------
viraptor
Are there any curable prion diseases right now? As far as I can tell from
googling, CJD does not have any known cure. If there aren't, does it mean we
need to come up with a completely new class of treatments?
~~~
telchar
Speculatively, in the future we may be able to design proteins that would
target the prions and destroy them or refold them into less harmful shapes. To
do that we would need to 1. know what protein shape would be required and 2.
be able to figure out how to make that shape (what sequence would happen to
fold itself into that shape). I would think we would need to advance quite a
bit more in protein science before that is feasible.
~~~
echelon
Just to provide background, what you describe is nowhere close to feasible.
Designing novel proteins is computationally intractable. It took evolution
billions of years and parallel optimization to figure out how to problem solve
with polypeptides. We're not even at the punch card phase.
~~~
resiros
That is simply not true, we have been making great progress in protein design
in the last years. I recommend you take a look at this Nature review by Baker
one of the biggest names in the field:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19946.pdf?origin=ppub](https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19946.pdf?origin=ppub)
------
dreamcompiler
This is an absolutely astonishing game-changer for Alzheimer's research. The
scientist who discovered prions (and got a Nobel prize for it) now has
convincing evidence that the proteins that cause Alzheimer's are themselves
prions. Amazing, scary, and hopeful all at the same time.
~~~
thanatropism
Well, when you’re an authority on prions everything looks like a prion
disease.
~~~
labster
As a web developer, I'm curious if Alzheimer's is really a cross-site
scripting attack. If so, we could prevent it by encoding the amino entities,
and that would be a game changer.
~~~
JoeSamoa
The encoding would have to be part of our DNA though right? Do you think this
method would work as a treatment or just as a method of prevention?
I like your mindset and I think your metaphor may be correct.
------
josephagoss
Does this mean that inflammation of the brain is to be ruled out as a cause?
~~~
thaumasiotes
cheesymuffin's comment is downvoted, but I think he's on to something. It
would be very odd to consider inflammation of the brain to be a _cause_ of any
problem, because inflammation is a symptom of something else.
~~~
wahern
Inflammation often is directly causative, for example atherosclerosis where
the inflammatory response directly results in the buildup of plaques.
Inflammation is not typically the _root_ cause, however; something else
instigates the inflammation.
The distinction matters because the best treatment (greatest efficacy, most
cost efficient) may target one or more of the links in the causative chain,
but not necessarily the root cause.
~~~
thaumasiotes
Fair enough. Treatment can attack any link in the chain.
Prevention can't, and to me Alzheimer's is something that should be prevented.
But we work with what we have.
------
Jasmine_Hubbard
This makes the disease even worse than expected and it's already a wicked
disease. Has a prion disease ever been treated?
------
Haga
The problem is too little capitalism in science. Hear me out on this one
please. We humans have a natural fear of breaking up into small groups and
parallel execute counterrunning endavours.
------
hansflying
Bad news! Prions are extremely stable and not even boiling, Protease or high
radiation can disrupt them.
~~~
londons_explore
_Some_ prions are extremely stable
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hints on High-Assurance, Cyber-Physical, System Design (2016) [pdf] - nickpsecurity
https://www.cs.indiana.edu/~lepike/pubs/pike-secdev16.pdf
======
nickpsecurity
Galois Inc is an awesome company that does difficult R&D, product development,
and uses/creates cutting-edge tech. Much of what they do gets put in their
GitHub. This paper, which doesn’t have any math or anything, describes general
principles they used in their work on high-assurance security of UAV’s for
DARPA. Some of the tools, like Ivory and Tower languages, are also open-
source.
[https://github.com/GaloisInc/](https://github.com/GaloisInc/)
[https://galois.com/blog/](https://galois.com/blog/)
[http://ivorylang.org/ivory-introduction.html](http://ivorylang.org/ivory-
introduction.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
TED Talk : Pranav Mistry: Blending the digital and real world - solutionyogi
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/685
======
solutionyogi
The original title was 'The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology'.
Even though 'SixthSense' is the perfect name to describe this new technology,
I thought current title may give more details on what the talk is about.
And yes, Pranav has a strong accent, but the technology demo is simply mind
blowing. Definitely worth your 14 minutes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why doesn't the U.S. bury its power lines? - teaman2000
https://theconversation.com/why-doesnt-the-u-s-bury-its-power-lines-104829
======
cimmanom
We do, for the most part, in our most densely populated areas. It’s just not
cost effective elsewhere even taking into account disaster risks and
rebuilding costs.
However, there are probably some areas - especially small towns and the dense
semi-suburban outer shells of major cities - where we don’t but it might be
cost effective.
------
fred_is_fred
They are buried in many cities in Colorado where I live. The prevalent high
winds, dry soils, and abundant snow make it cost effective to do so. In
addition to the snow which everyone knows about, we get 70-80 mph down slope
winds every spring and it's cheaper to not have to fix them annually. As a
side effect, when my kids experienced a power outage at their grandparents
house during a thunderstorm at ages 8 and 11, they were terrified; it had
never happened to them before.
------
m0llusk
Because it is hugely expensive and problematic. These are the same driving
factors that have US homes mostly made of wood while many other places insist
on stone or masonry.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Productivity Techniques Every Founder Should Know - mwarcholinski
https://medium.com/@Brainhubeu/12-productivity-tools-every-entrepreneur-should-be-using-60b19c8df256#.62u8vlxpa
======
zzalpha
Of this list, delegating is hands down one of the most important, and also the
one where technology helps you the least.
Delegation does _not_ come naturally. It's certainly not automatic. It's a
conscious choice that many might, deep down, think of as failure ("I could do
this myself, I'll just stay extra late tonight!"). But a quarterback isn't
failing when they pass the ball to a receiver. It's actually the most
important part of their job.
So if you're a manager who doesn't habitually delegate, I urge you to fix
that. Now! It's better for you, by freeing you to focus on your most important
duties, and it's critical for helping folks in your organization develop, by
building skills, as well as trust and engagement.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2016 will be the year of conversational commerce - PVS-Studio
https://medium.com/@chrismessina/2016-will-be-the-year-of-conversational-commerce-1586e85e3991
======
pesenti
We at Watson view this as our primary use case. Our #1 goal is to build a
platform (combining our existing cloud services that do intent identification,
dialog, speech, tone & emotion identification, etc) that allow other
businesses to build such conversational experience.
~~~
bayonetz
Hi @presenti. Wondering if I might chat with you about Watson job
opportunities?
~~~
bayonetz
It's for...ahem...a friend.
------
solipsism
_The net result is that you and I will be talking to brands and companies over
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and elsewhere before year’s
end, and will find it normal_
I guess there's enough evidence to say that this is a trend the tech industry
is moving toward. But is there any evidence for the assertion that we'll find
it normal?
I'm reminded of the numerous false starts of virtual reality. We're now in the
beginning of the virtual reality revolution... or.. we're in another false
start. I'm even more skeptical that "conversational commerce" is something
we'll want or like.
------
lkrubner
Obviously, my own focus is on voice interfaces, and I agree with what's
written here, in so far as it goes, though it doesn't mention the existing
barriers.
As far as it goes, I think this is true:
"Before I begin, I want to clarify that conversational commerce (as I see it)
largely pertains to utilizing chat, messaging, or other natural language
interfaces (i.e. voice) to interact with people, brands, or services and bots
that heretofore have had no real place in the bidirectional, asynchronous
messaging context."
But it is very early days for voice interfaces, and there are numerous
problems that need to be overcome. What I wrote in "Amazon has no idea how to
run an app store" amounts to a list of problems that Amazon needs to address
before its Echo platform can take off. We've already discussed that on Hacker
News:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10876409](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10876409)
But those issues are very specific to Echo. There are more general issues
which the article doesn't get into. Although the author does seem to sense the
potential:
"I mentioned this in my post last year, but we can now see that the voice-
controlled hardware trojan horses from the big companies haven’t necessarily
been embraced with open arms. Yet. I don’t have specific numbers, so I may be
wrong, but my sense is that it’s still very early days for devices like
Amazon’s Echo (which is being shrunk) or Google’s onHub."
In this next year, I expect 2 big trends:
1.) The threat of Amazon taking over this space is forcing other companies to
open up -- in particular, Apple is going to do a lot to open up Siri and make
it easier for developers to take advantage of the full power of Siri.
2.) developers will learn a lot about what this style of development actually
requires. I wrote about one of my first insights in "Dialogue designers
replace graphic designers when creating voice interfaces"
[http://www.smashcompany.com/technology/script-designers-
repl...](http://www.smashcompany.com/technology/script-designers-replace-
graphic-designers-when-creating-voice-interfaces) but I suspect there will be
hundreds of similar blog posts, as more and more developers gain experience
and insights regarding the unique demands made by voice interfaces.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Just got hit by layoff – web dev years ago but lately a PM. What to do next? - mxuribe
Ok, so I was a web developer (classic ASP, IIS, Sql Server) and a touch of a sys. admin (you might say almost a precursor to devops) from 2000 ~ 2006 for a large, 100 year old enterprise, then moved to tech lead of the small group (still in same company), then moved to different technical project manager roles (at different, though still large enterprise-type companies), and last few years have been a technical product manager (and project manager) in the digital marketing group of one of the world's largest real estate companies. (I oversaw their back end products of their consumer web platforms, their real-time api, etc.)<p>I haven't touched much (industrial-scale) code for years, except for the occasional personal bash script, Hugo-powered static website, tiny php-powered web application, minuscule flask-powered micro-blog; the sorts of things people do only to play around, or for personal convenience. I've been "lucky" in my almost 20 year professional career to have never before been hit by a layoff...until now. I know I've had a good run compared to many people, but I really have no idea what to do next (professionally speaking)...<p>I figure I have 3 choices:<p>* Do the conventional thing (for me historically anyway) and start looking for the conventional sort of job as a Product/project manager (or something similar) at a typical enterprise/company.<p>* Dive into some hard core code bootcamp, and go back to being what kids used to call "a coder"...and look for jobs as a developer (or devops, or even sys admin).<p>* Go off and start my own one-man internet/web consulting company (at this point my most used skills revolve around digital product management, digital marketing, technical project management, etc.).<p>Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?
======
dutchrapley
I'm going to give some blind advice. I've never been laid off nor have I done
consulting - I'm not speaking from personal experience here.
No matter which route you decide to go, work on some hard skills. Something.
Anything. Whether or not you think you're going to use what you learn, what's
important is that you're learning. If you start interviewing, you're going to
eventually be asked, "What is something new you have learned?" It would be a
great chance to pull out your computer and show them. Even if you land another
role as a PM, it's going to be important to be relevant.
On a related note, someone I know was an IT Director. On the side, he started
tinkering with Android development. I helped him learn how to use git.
Eventually, he was laid off. The skills he learned helped him land a job at a
decent sized company that I'm pretty sure you've heard of.
------
rick_perez
Do you have any savings? If you don't have at least a year of savings in the
bank, it's better to just go the traditional route and look for a job.
~~~
mxuribe
Good point, thx for that!
------
virken2015
I've been through three major restructurings and as a 56 year old PM, I can
tell you it's really tough to get a new PM gig - companies want millenials,
not someone old enough to be their parent
~~~
hbcondo714
Try looking for a job on Oldgeekjobs.com; it was founded due to this very
issue:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12506232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12506232)
------
JKCalhoun
> go back to being what kids used to call "a coder"
Hmmm... Your age is going to be Strike 1. I say that as a 52 year old
programmer that has interviewed recently.
~~~
mxuribe
Yeah, i'm 42 and already have seen what you're referring to.
------
johnmc408
Do #1 ASAP. Don't wait, start now. Once you have a job, get back into coding
(if you want) and investigate consulting in your off hours (if you want).
------
JSeymourATL
> Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?
Odds are highly likely you'll connect with your next opportunity through your
network. Use this time to ping guys you haven't talked to in years.
Linkedin/Facebook of course are good tools for finding these folks. But you
must have an Old School live conversation with them, preferably in person if
you can.
Ask them for ideas and advice. In turn, be sure to ask how you might be
helpful to them. I've found that old colleagues often progress and mature, in
the same way you've grown. Their perspective and insights can prove truly
invaluable.
------
mooneater
Do you have to support dependants? Are you deeply knowledgeable about and
interested in any of the verticals you were involved with (real estate, etc)?
What would you most want to learn? What path sounds most enticing to you? What
sounds the most fun?
------
brianmurphy
Of your choices, I think finding a traditional enterprise job (#1) is going to
be your easiest option.
Starting a consulting company is going to be your most difficult. Unless you
already have good connections looking to hire you as a consultant, doing the
sales of your service will be harder than you think. Why would a company hire
an unknown freelancing digital product guy, of which there are many, when
there are more established companies to choose from? (there are good reasons
but you better be ready to answer that question)
------
sjg007
Consult if you can and have the grit.. or join a consulting company as a
coder. You'll soon find your PM skills will come in handy.
------
brudgers
What do you want to do?
~~~
mxuribe
I'd really like to go back to building and creating things like the way i felt
when i was a developer...though the excessive rust is crazy scary, and makes
me feel it would take too long (for not enough pay) to get back into
development.
~~~
brudgers
My random advice from the internet.
1\. Getting paid to do something you like to do is nice work if you can get
it.
2\. It might be that as you unrust the pay may rise. With the demand for
programmers, it might not even take much of a hit depending on how competitive
your former employer was with the open market for programmers.
3\. Don't sell your programming skills short. You probably know what
production code looks like and understanding that context has value to
experienced business people.
4\. The background in corporate settings may make you attractive to consulting
firms because you can probably be trusted with clients.
Of course all of that is tempered with a lack of knowledge about any family
and financial obligations. But my major advice is to use this time to expand
your pool of options by, if nothing more, contacting people that might have
the job you really want.
Good luck.
------
mxuribe
Thx everyone; appreciate the comments and suggestions!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stop Giving Out Your Phone and Email - JesseHercules
https://medium.com/@jesse.hercules/stop-giving-out-your-phone-number-and-email-de39aed654e3
======
JesseHercules
We Need Apple Pay for Contact Info
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Unlocking New Features in Moz Pro with a Database-Free Architecture (2016) - myth_drannon
https://moz.com/devblog/moz-analytics-db-free
======
boxcarr
I'm the person who did the original prototype in Python/Pandas. The purpose of
the prototype was to prove that with the right data presentation, you could
process more data and cut processing and storage by over two orders of
magnitude. I picked search rankings given the size of the data and the
struggle the legacy system had in terms of showing more than a limited amount
of data.
Previously, the MySQL solution had many rows for each ranking spanning several
tables with all kinds of other data not related to showing the aggregate
statistics that were relevant to Moz's users.
The solution was processing the raw data in batch and applying categorization
to have an integer representation for all values. These changes led to a very
compact representation that could quickly be loaded into memory and then
filtered/aggregated.
Storing the results as a CSV wasn't important. It just turned out that having
the static data allowed me to effortlessly scale-out serving since the data
was only updated once a day or once a week, and it was append-only.
How big of a difference did it make? All of the CSVs individually compressed
was less than 20GB. The production system served all user data off of a ~60
node MySQL cluster, with rankings being the most costly in terms of processing
and 2nd in terms of disk usage (from what I remember).
Also, Pandas was blazing fast at loading several megabytes of CSV data (< 80ms
@ the time). If I had to do it again today, I'd probably use Apache Parquet
instead.
The most important insight that carried through the various solutions was to
pre-process the data so that it was easily consumable for the task at hand.
The languages (Python/Elixir) didn't make a difference, in my opinion. That
said Pandas is fantastic, it made working with that data in-memory very easy,
at least for this prototype.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The End of Native Apps - shapeshed
http://shapeshed.com/the-end-of-native-applications/
======
fabiorogeriosj
I agree with the post!
Today I use TitaniumSDK of Appcelerator and solves all my problems.
Another point is the HTML5. Some systems operacionias already thought of it as
the FirefoxOS.
Good post!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Best alternative to an X1 carbon - gaspoweredcat
For the last 4 years my 1st gen X1 carbon has been my most beloved possession, but time and my miserable treatment of it have taken their toll, thankfully ive come into some cash so its time to retire this old war horse and choose a new machine.<p>Normally id be all too eager to just grab a more up to date X1 and e done with it but a few little things are stopping me doing that, namely that i want 16gb of ram which makes an x1 very expensive and that id rather like to play a few games again so something with a discreet GPU would be ideal.<p>based on current press the word is that the Huawei Matebook X pro would easily meet all my needs as would the dell XPS 15,unfortunately both of those are rare as rocking horse turds here in the UK, not impossible but generally very overpriced<p>the next nearest match ive seen to the matebook pro is the xiaomi notebook pro but it just seems too cheap, so could anyone either reassure me of the xiaomis quality and chance of surviving 4-5 years being carted about like a sack of spuds or suggest another device that can match the incredible durability, battery life and lightness of the X1 carbon with a half decent GPU and 16Gb ram
======
smacktoward
You might be able to find what you want just by looking elsewhere in the
ThinkPad product line.
If you can wait a little while and money is no object, the upcoming ThinkPad
P1 might be ideal:
[https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thi...](https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P1/p/22WS2WPP101?menu-
id=P1)
If you can live with a slightly thicker and heavier machine, a ThinkPad T480
or T580 would otherwise check off all your boxes:
[https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-
ser...](https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-
series/c/thinkpadt)
------
nextos
Xiaomis are very very good build quality. I love their fanless m3 model (with
just 4 GB of RAM, but I don't need more as I ssh to a big server). It's a pure
Intel machine, just like old MacBook Airs. It works really well.
------
bufferoverflow
You can get XPS 15 on eBay. There are 33 brand new ones listed
[https://m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=dell+xps+15&_...](https://m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=dell+xps+15&_sacat=175672&LH_ItemCondition=1000)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Where would I go to learn about automatic printing? - djsamson
I'm pitching in my school's business plan competition next month and my startup idea includes a feature that would require automatic printing for standard (8.5 x 11") paper and envelopes. The text would be submitted by a user through my website. I was wondering if there is preexisting software that can accomplish this?
======
mneumegen
Something like <http://www.peecho.com/> or <http://www.fotomoto.com/> might be
a good fit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We Still Need Howard Zinn - rbanffy
https://lithub.com/we-really-still-need-howard-zinn/
======
tptacek
This critique of Zinn has been cited multiple times on AskHistorians:
[https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/howard-zinns-
history...](https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/howard-zinns-history-
lessons)
~~~
jahaja
Assuming the criticism is true, would an edited version put US history in a
much brighter light?
~~~
tptacek
Probably not, just a different one. The AskHistorians threads about this are
typically accompanied by more credible left/populist histories; Jill Lepore,
as an example.
~~~
jahaja
Exactly, so to focus on dismissing the book/author seem very opportunistic
since the core of the argument is still based on facts, and people should
acknowledge the bad parts of their history.
~~~
tptacek
I'm sorry, I don't understand this response.
~~~
jahaja
That people should discuss the issue even if one account of the issue is only
90% correct. People seem to be deflecting.
~~~
tptacek
The story is _about Zinn_. If anything, the deflection goes the other way.
------
0xB31B1B
I don't really understand the hate for Zinn by some folks. He tells the truth,
a truth not often told. Curious how so many self styled "contrarians" and
"free thinkers" dislike his work without reading it. Anyway, it's a good read.
~~~
rayiner
Because it’s not the truth, and is in fact propaganda. There was a purpose to
it back when it was published, because it was a response to books that were
also propaganda. But there is no place for it today, where better scholarship
exists and the Internet provides ready access to a plethora of view points.
~~~
tmh79
>>> "But there is no place for it today, where better scholarship exists and
the Internet provides ready access to a plethora of view points"
Thats now how history works at all man. Pretty much all writing on history
goes into the metaphorical dust bin maybe 20-40 years after it is created but
the "dust bin" isn't a dead place that no one should ever explore, its the
world of historiography, and understanding how people understood their point
in time at different points in time. No one should read a history book like
its the bible handed down from on high, they should read it knowing the
authors biases, the contemporary views on the authors work from other experts
in the field, and an understanding of their own knowledge level and context.
The reality is that a huge amount of K-12 American history education is
propaganda and for someone with a K-12 American history background this book
is a very compelling read that provides a useful counter narrative to what
they have been taught, the main function of which is not to blindly trust the
words in the book, but to understand the practice of history not as a
recitation of facts but an analysis of past events with a specific point of
view, and how different points of view from authors with different motivations
can give different views of the past. IMO, this really brought the field of
history to life for me.
~~~
elefanten
It seems like the spirit of your comment is in accord with GP. GGP put forth
that Zinn is "the truth."
GP may have phrased it a bit dismissively but I read that comment as making
the same argument you do: no given history book contains the final truth.
As for GP's comment that Zinn has no place today -- you offer a more nuanced
take. But we're in a moment replete with valorizing paeans to Zinn (like TFA)
and calls for using People's History more widely as a _textbook_. Maybe, given
that we are 40 years on from it's writing, that's not the best move.
------
rayiner
[https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/december/wineburg-
histor...](https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/december/wineburg-
historiography-zinn-122012.html)
> Wineburg, one of the world's top researchers in the field of history
> education, raises larger issues about how history should be taught. He says
> that Zinn's desire to cast a light on what he saw as historic injustice was
> a crusade built on secondary sources of questionable provenance, omission of
> exculpatory evidence, leading questions and shaky connections between
> evidence and conclusions.
A similar warning needs to be leveled at the 1619 Project, which likewise
focuses more on rhetoric than careful scholarship:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1619_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1619_Project)
In particular, the lead essay originally stated that protecting slavery was
“one primary reason the colonists fought the American Revolution.”
After extensive criticism from scholars, the Times edited that sentence to
read that protecting slavery was “one primary reason some of the colonists
fought the American Revolution.”
Of course the “one primary ... some of...” construction dilutes they assertion
beyond recognition. The Times defended this as just the addition of “two
words” but it undermines the central thesis of the lead essay. Think of the
evidence required to support the first assertion, compared to the second
assertion. To support the first assertion, you needed evidence that protecting
slavery was a primary reason for the colonists as a whole. To support the
revised assertion, you need only find _some_ colonists, among millions, with
that motivation.
The 1619 articles on the economic importance of slavery, moreover, are not
written by an economist and do not represent the consensus views of
economists. Here, the Zinnesque aspect really comes out. It is an often
overlooked and very important fact that slavery made some politically powerful
people very rich, and those people had a major hand in fashioning America. But
most people can’t trace any wealth back to that time. Politically, it would be
better to convince people that they continue to benefit from slavery having
existed. So the essays are forced to make the far more tenuous claim that
America traces its exceptional wealth to slavery. But of course it defies
basic economics to suggest you can make a society—as opposed to specific
oligarchs—richer through non-free, non-market labor. That’s where it helps to
have an author write the essays who isn’t an economist!
[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1619-project-tells-a-
false-...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1619-project-tells-a-false-story-
about-capitalism-too-11588956387)
~~~
alecb
Damn, a millionaire professor at Stanford has issues with Howard Zinn. Funny
coincidence!
~~~
squidlogic
Argument ad hominem.
~~~
anigbrowl
Actually a genetic fallacy. An ad hominem would be 'an ugly millionaire
professor.'
------
philipkglass
Eric Hobsbawm's account of the "long 19th century," as told in his _The Age of
Revolution_ , _The Age of Capital_ , and _The Age of Extremes_ , is something
that readers who are interested in Zinn may also be interested in. Hobsbawm
appears to have a significantly better reputation among professional
historians than Zinn does.
Hobsbawm still frequently appears on university reading lists for history
majors. I remember the trilogy as engaging and easy to read for an outsider to
the field. He is less polemical than Zinn, even if his political sympathies
are similar.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hobsbawm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hobsbawm)
Favorable mentions of Hobsbawm from AskHistorians:
[https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5bcvbe/i_am_...](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5bcvbe/i_am_reading_eric_hobsbawms_the_age_of_revolution/)
[https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/efznsq/is_er...](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/efznsq/is_eric_hobsbawns_long_19th_century_trilogy_still/)
~~~
sayhar
Can cosign. Hobsbawn was widely regarded as the greatest British historian (as
opposed to historian of Britain) by his death.
No shade to Howard Zinn, but he, like pretty much every other historian,
didn't nearly have that level of respect.
------
anm89
I doubt that many people as truly well intentioned as Zinn have done as much
damage to the world as he has.
I think you could tie a lot of the "the ends justify the means" attitude of
current leftists to Zinn.
~~~
bvrstvr
Can you cite examples of Zinn causing the world damage?
~~~
pessimizer
That would be too easy. Better to make vague accusations.
------
littlemerman
Nice to see an article about a history professor at the top of HN. :)
As a former history major, I can confirm that Zinn's work, while well
intentioned, isn't much respected in academia. He brought a useful new
perspective but didn't back up his arguments with strong evidence.
Poor evidence, however, doesn't discredit Zinn's central thesis about American
history.
For more rigorous approach American history I would recommend Eric Foner:
[http://www.ericfoner.com/books/index.html](http://www.ericfoner.com/books/index.html)
Although his focus is more global, Eric Hobsbawm is one of the most
influential historians of the twentieth century. His "The Age of..." are worth
a read"
[https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/eric-
hobsbawm-t...](https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/eric-hobsbawm-the-
communist-who-explained-history)
The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 The Age of Capital: 1848-1875 The Age of
Empire: 1875-1914 The Age of Extremes: 1914-1991
------
lazugod
Who are his contemporaries?
~~~
jolux
Noam Chomsky and the other elements of the Cantabrigian intelligentsia of his
generation mostly.
~~~
lazugod
Oh, I see, “contemporaries” is the opposite of what I meant to ask.
Who are current writers like him?
------
lehi
This is presumably posted today because Trump announced an executive order to
establish an anti-anti-racist "1776 Commission" for "patriotic education" to
instruct children "to love America with all of their heart and all of their
souls": [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-calls-
pat...](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-calls-patriotic-
eduction-says-anti-racism-teachings-are-child-n1240372)
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/trump-history-
educa...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/trump-history-
education/2020/09/17/f40535ec-ee2c-11ea-ab4e-581edb849379_story.html)
------
hirundo
> Zinn’s approach to history essentially inverted the traditional approach
> that placed the rich and powerful ... To tell history from the perspective
> of the oppressed and marginalized
The mirror image of Ayn Rand. I wonder if there is anyone at the intersection
of their fandoms.
~~~
oivey
Rand wrote fiction, not even anything purporting to be history.
~~~
hirundo
She is best known for fiction but was also a prolific essayist. The essays
expound on her theories of history, economics, and philosophy. See
[https://aynrand.org/novels/](https://aynrand.org/novels/), bottom of the page
for the non-fiction.
------
google234123
Well, if you want a far-left and deeply pessimistic interpretation of history,
he's you guy.
~~~
the_benno
This seems like a kneejerk response to a strawman version of Zinn. He's a
pretty middle-of-the-road academic politically speaking and doesn't get
anywhere near what I would call far-left.
As for "pessimistic", well, I'd just say that the facts don't care about your
feelings. Powerful institutions are (generally speaking) violent and uncaring
towards those without power; ignoring that fact does us all a disservice.
~~~
trentnix
Zinn's own words (which are quoted in the article) confirm the parent's point:
_From that moment on, I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-
correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that
something fundamental was wrong in this country . . . something rotten at the
root. The situation required not just a new president or new laws, but an
uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of
society—cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian._
~~~
jolux
Saying that America has deeply rooted problems is not pessimism, it's realism.
Not believing in people's ability to make it better is pessimism.
~~~
trentnix
And in that quote, Zinn explicitly mentions he doesn’t believe in “people’s
ability to make it better”:
_I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of
American democracy_
~~~
jolux
You're misreading him. He's talking about the ability of an ideology and a
system to correct itself, not that of the people it rules to choose a
different society for themselves.
~~~
trentnix
He is saying a revolution is required because the people can’t change things.
I’m not sure, short of outright nihilism, how one could be more pessimistic
that that.
~~~
jolux
He's casting doubt that the problems can be solved through voting alone.
~~~
trentnix
Yes. That's pessimistic.
~~~
jolux
About voting, sure. Not about the country at large.
------
pnw_hazor
I think we have had quite enough of Zinn.
“Objectivity is impossible,” Zinn once remarked, “and it is also undesirable.
That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any
kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way;
should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way,
then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think
will advance causes of humanity.
[https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1493](https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1493)
~~~
sbilstein
This is true of all history, regardless of political viewpoint. There is no
such thing as objective explanation of history.
~~~
pnw_hazor
Is it undesirable to aim for objectivity? Zinn seemed to believe it was his
job to shape American society not record its history.
Reshaping American society may be a fine goal. And, Zinn certainly has been
successful at that, but it does not sound like history to me.
~~~
pessimizer
> Is it undesirable to aim for objectivity?
It's definitely undesirable to admit the concept is meaningless, then to
strive for it. That's just producing propaganda. You know the standards you're
going to strive for are arbitrary and just made up of a combination of things
you haven't questioned the importance of and things you've decided the
importance of, but not only do you cleave to them anyway, but you criticize
those who deviate from them as dangerous propagandists.
He thought his job was to create a more rational, more just society, and the
narrative he used to connect the events described in his sources was a servant
to that. That's the same thing that people who claim objectivity claim to be
doing, while they write history as the conflicts between the wealthy and
royal.
Claiming "objectivity" is just claiming that someone would be insane or
seditious for daring to question the claimant's premises. Claims that
objectivity is real inevitably ends in journalists and writers having to be
licensed and approved by the government.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Selfie – Tiny self-compiling C compiler, RISC-V emulator and hypervisor - giancarlostoro
http://selfie.cs.uni-salzburg.at/
======
dang
A thread from 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778353](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778353)
(Such links are for the curious. Reposts are ok after about a year:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html))
------
christophkirsch
@all Thanks a lot for your awesome comments and feedback.
Besides compiler, emulator, and hypervisor, there is a symbolic execution
engine in selfie that we are working on and would love to get feedback from
you. The goal is to teach, eventually, a more formal approach when reasoning
about correctness already in undergraduate classes. But the engine is also a
research vehicle, especially the bounded model checking part.
------
amasad
This is such a cool educational tool! I got it to run on repl.it
[https://repl.it/@amasad/selfie](https://repl.it/@amasad/selfie)
~~~
christophkirsch
Thanks a lot, @amasad
I pulled your PR and even plan to use repl.it in the upcoming compiler class.
------
jng
Beautiful, beautiful project. Containing the deepest twists of computation in
a single file, and not a single #include. I only missed it including a text
editor. Love it!
------
lex0r
I just looked into the project and the slides are incredible. It would be nice
if more professors would put so much effort into creating slides and not just
take over the previous one and present them.
------
Koshkin
I think Oberon would be a better candidate for this than C. You could get a
tiny and extremely fast compiler for a full-featured programming language.
~~~
giancarlostoro
I'm looking into self-hosting compilers, is there a good link for Oberons code
that achieves this? Or you just are mentioning that Oberon would probably be
able to if one were implemented?
~~~
kryptiskt
Oberon is implemented in itself:
[http://www.projectoberon.com](http://www.projectoberon.com)
The implementation includes the hardware too.
Taken together, the system including single-tasking OS, windowing system and
Oberon takes about 9000 lines of code.
~~~
alexisread
Even better, A2/bluebottle is multithreaded with a ZUI and runs faster than
Linux:
[https://www.research-
collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20....](https://www.research-
collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20.500.11850/147091/eth-26082-02.pdf)
Also, following on from A2, Composita introduces a component architecture to
allow managed memory without GC, and contextless switches (IMHO better than
Rust):
[http://concurrency.ch/Content/publications/Blaeser_Component...](http://concurrency.ch/Content/publications/Blaeser_Component_Operating_System_PLOS_2007.pdf)
------
coliveira
In particular, the code for this compiler doesn't use structs. It only works
with offsets to memory blocks.
------
msla
The C subset it compiles is called C* but it appears unrelated to the language
of the same name created for the Connection Machine hardware:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C*)
~~~
topoyiyo
At least it's not mosdef C =P
~~~
microcolonel
Still doesn't shine a candle to Holy C.
------
boomskats
Selfie, hypster, mipster, monster... these names are great.
------
SeekingMeaning
Student here, with a question. How does one maintain a 10,000 line source
file?
~~~
rurban
I maintain several such files with emacs. Jump to definition or open it in two
windows makes it trivial.
------
triptych
Wish there was something like this for WebAssembly
------
CodiePetersen
No boolean operators?! That's an odd choice.
~~~
christophkirsch
We chose not to include support of Boolean operators and instead ask the
students to implement that as part of an assignment. We use a self-grader for
that. There is an assignment for bitwise Boolean operators. The assignment for
logical Boolean operators with lazy evaluation is work in progress.
------
rcgorton
What drivel. Make an artificial language which nobody uses, with a target
architecture=X. Post it pretending that it is relevant. I Call BS on OP
~~~
christophkirsch
The language is a strict subset of C modulo some small semantical differences
that are relevant for bootstrapping, see
[https://github.com/cksystemsteaching/selfie/blob/master/sema...](https://github.com/cksystemsteaching/selfie/blob/master/semantics.md)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trading in Stocks, ETFs Was Halted More Than 1,200 Times Early Monday - brbcoding
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trading-in-stocks-etfs-paused-more-than-1-200-times-early-monday-1440438173
======
bluedevil2k
Look at the ETF RSP yesterday. It's pretty much an S&P 500 index fund. When
the S&P was down about 5% in the morning, RSP was down up to 40%. Didn't make
any sense. Trading was getting halted every few minutes and buy orders were
going unfilled.
[http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=RSP+Interactive#{%22range...](http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=RSP+Interactive#{%22range%22:%221d%22,%22allowChartStacking%22:true})
~~~
jackgavigan
An ETF like RSP won't always track the underlying index value exactly,
especially in fast-moving markets.
Units of an ETF are just like any other share - an imbalance of sellers over
buyers will drive the price down. In an orderly market, that usually isn't a
problem - market makers will typically be there ready to absorb market orders
and smooth out temporary imbalances, and "authorised participants" can
create/redeem units/shares in the ETF if the market price starts to deviate
from the NAV (net asset value - the market value of the underlying assets in
the fund).
In a situation like we had yesterday morning, it's likely that market makers
and authorised participants were staying out the market because it was moving
too fast for them. In that sort of situation, if panic-sellers or forced
sellers (e.g. due to margin calls) are placing market orders, an order book
imbalance could easily develop, temporarily driving the price down to an
unreasonable level before the market stabilises.
Sudden drops trigger trading halts, where trading is suspended for ~5 minutes.
Trading in RSP was halted ten times between 9:30 and 10:30am yesterday - it
didn't actually trade continuously for more than 34 seconds during that time
(you can see this on the chart you linked to - there are only 11 points in the
big V on the chart, then it reverts back to one point every minute from 10:30
onwards.
The same sort of thing happened during the Flash Crash in 2010.
------
jvm
Throughout this thread, commenters are assuming that circuit breakers are
helpful and useful. Yet no evidence in favor of that assumption is presented
in the WSJ article. The CNN article quotes someone named "Dennis Dick"
claiming they are useful without providing evidence.
Under economic theory, interference in markets prevents them from correcting
prices and is therefore never a good thing. Certainly Milton Friedman [1]
thought they were harmful rather than helpful.
Is anybody interested in sharing positive evidence that they are helpful?
Helpful is presumably defined to mean they help prices stay as accurate as
possible.
[1] [https://books.google.com/books?id=5NQvv_Z-
zKcC&pg=PA151&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=5NQvv_Z-
zKcC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=milton+friedman+on+circuit+breakers&source=bl&ots=4aqiH3-Hq4&sig=jpXqaDLdflv76iDbD73rZ4eBSUQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAGoVChMI8NrdzNDExwIVRZ6ACh1F9QGX#v=onepage&q=milton%20friedman%20on%20circuit%20breakers&f=false)
~~~
stouset
Your definition is inherently skewed. After all, what is an "accurate" price
other than what the market is trading? Furthermore, why is an accurate price
the overall goal? Perhaps other goals are more worthy, and would come at the
expense of accuracy.
------
hartator
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQqQIwAGoVChMIlvbAgPTDxwIVxjQ-
Ch15AwDk&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Ftrading-in-stocks-etfs-
paused-more-than-1-200-times-early-monday-1440438173&ei=czPcVdbwCsbp-
AH5hoCgDg&usg=AFQjCNG-2rSF-n3uw7Xub6HFLXJjpDN08g)
~~~
a3n
For quite some time, the google workaround just brings me to the same
truncated WSJ article, with an invite to subscribe or log in. The above link
fails to get me in as well.
Is this working for some, but not for others? I've assumed that WSJ has just
turned this method of entry off.
~~~
asib
There's a neat Chrome plugin that was posted on HN a while ago called Wait,
Google Sent Me
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9531941](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9531941)).
If you go to the article and then click the plugin's icon in Chrome, it shows
you the whole article.
~~~
joshstrange
I use this but it is no longer in the chrome store. I found this bookmarklet
that is supposed to do the same thing:
javascript:location.href%3D%27https://www.google.com/webhp%3F%23q%3D%27%20%2B%20encodeURIComponent(location.href)%20%2B%20%27%26btnI%3DI%27
YMMV
------
a3n
[https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=Trading+in+Stocks%2C+ETFs+Was...](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=Trading+in+Stocks%2C+ETFs+Was+Halted+More+Than+1%2C200+Times+Early+Monday)
[http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/24/investing/stocks-markets-
sel...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/24/investing/stocks-markets-selloff-
circuit-breakers-1200-times/index.html)
------
kaneplusplus
[http://www.barrons.com/articles/SB50001424052702304718904576...](http://www.barrons.com/articles/SB50001424052702304718904576486604254916420)
------
randomname2
Yesterday was similar to the flash crash of 2010, except this time liquidity
was much worse throughout the entire day, with a paralyzed market which was
the direct result of countless distributed, isolated mini flash events, all of
which precipitated the market's failure for the first 30 minutes of trading,
illustrated by these stunning charts from Nanex:
[https://twitter.com/nanexllc](https://twitter.com/nanexllc)
Of note in the WSJ article is the passage noting the extreme discrepancy in
EFT prices and fair value as hedge funds sold off ETFs and market makers such
as high speed traders and Wall Street firms refused to step in.
~~~
lrm242
We did 13 billion shares yesterday, which is nearly 2x the 10 day average. The
market was far from broken. In fact, I'd say it performed remarkably well.
~~~
gchokov
Finally some common sense. +1
------
grecy
I find it amusing that when the market is rapidly going up, everything is left
alone. But when it's rapidly going down, or sporadically doing so, they halt
trading and turn everything off for a while.
Does anyone else not see this as a clear sign the entire setup is broken and
bogus? It's all a big joke.
~~~
thesimpsons1022
what are you talking about? did you even read the article? it clearly says
that anytime a stock goes UP OR DOWN 5 pct they halt trading on it for 5
minutes.
------
lucaspottersky
loved the paywall
------
phelm
The need for these 'circuit breakers' really highlights the fact that Laissez-
faire economic systems are in no way capable of keeping themselves stable.
~~~
miscellaneous
>Laissez-faire economic systems are in no way capable of keeping themselves
stable.
This is the point - Laissez-faire economic systems function well on their own,
it just happens that humans prefer systems that are "stable". Hence,
regulators try to limit the volatility of markets meet their stability
preferences. Whether this is ultimately beneficial is an ongoing debate.
I would point out that in many cases enforcing artificial stability on markets
can have negative outcomes. Recently, the +/-10% limits on daily stock price
movements in China created situations where many stocks increased by 10% every
day for over 100 days [0]. Such illusions of stability likely played a role in
the recent bubble/crash in China. It could be said that attempts to regulate
'stability' into markets merely leads to a masking of tail risk, which can be
very dangerous.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9471858](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9471858)
~~~
ild
Markets cease to exist in unstable environment; "artificial" or not, stability
is a precondition for existence of any social institution;I mean, come on, who
wants to participate in unstable market?
~~~
jerf
If the underlying thing is unstable, a market sitting on top of it will be
unstable. If you try to force the market sitting on top to be stable by fancy
jiggery-pokery, you've forcibly created a market that is no longer connected
to what is below it, which now has all sorts of those arbitrage opportunities
for the connected that people love to hate, and also dangerously hides further
instability where you can't see it, because in a way it's conserved whether
you like it or not.
You may want stability. You may even _need_ stability. But neither of those
two things means you get to have it. The universe and the world is
fundamentally unstable.
You can look at what is happening in China right now in that way. They've
forcibly created stability and reliability. Awesome, right? This worked great,
until the absolutely and utterly inevitable black swan event occurred (to the
point I have a hard time even calling it a black swan, since it was so
predictable) because the conserved instability, instead of getting expressed
in little ways on a day by day basis, is getting expressed as one big event.
Just because you fully dammed the river doesn't mean you've stopped the river
from flowing, and it's time to build a dance platform in the middle of the old
river bed and invite everyone to party all night long. It means you better run
away from the entire river bed and everything even remotely near it before the
dam catastrophically bursts and destroys everything.
You're looking not at a demonstration of why it's important to artificially
stabilize markets... you're looking right at _the consequences of doing so_.
(In fact, the way that people then interpret the destruction of everything as
a consequence of the dam just not being strong enough and we need to put
politicians into power that will create an even BIGGER dam is an important
element of understanding the ratchet of tyranny, and how what happened to the
Soviet Union and Venezuela happened. It wasn't bad luck... it was
misinterpreting overcontrol as too little control, and "correcting" in exactly
the wrong direction. The failure of today becomes the excuse to grab yet
_more_ power, stomping on anyone in the way who objects, and grabbing
centralized control _even harder_ , which creates an even _bigger_ disaster
which requires even _more_ centralized control... repeat until the society is
too weak to even maintain a government anymore. And remember, if your
comfortable Western-raised brain is objecting that this can't happen, it has
happened, in this decade, to real countries that you can find on a globe. It
is not a thing of myth and it is not even a thing of the _past_. It is a path
we humans seem congenitally prone to.)
~~~
ild
Underlying markets _are never stable_. The main stabilizing force in the world
are institutions of power and violence, such as army (especially American),
police, jails etc. Markets already rely heavily on governments for their
existence. You got Black Swan completely wrong, if you think that Taleb is
advocating for laissez-faire, he is actually big fan of slow and dull, tightly
controlled systems ("antifragile").
~~~
miscellaneous
> He [Nassim] is actually big fan of slow and dull, tightly controlled systems
> ("antifragile")
Please watch the first 5 mins of this interview (or all of it) with him:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehXxoUH1AlM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehXxoUH1AlM)
"Antifragile systems like volatility"
He is literally advocating the opposite of what you said. Governments are
centralized and fragile (don't like volatility) hence their propensity to
regulate volatility. He directly blames (large) government for the GFC - see
4:40 in the video.
~~~
ild
> (don't like volatility)
Antifragility is not liking volatility; it is dislike but acceptance of it.
This is what he said:
“(4) Build in redundancy and overcompensation
“Redundancy in systems is a key to antifragility. As Taleb suggests, nature
loves to over-insure itself, whether in the case of providing each of us with
two kidneys or excess capacity in our neural system or arterial apparatus.
Overcompensation is a form of redundancy and it can help systems to
opportunistically respond to unanticipated events. What seems like
inefficiency or wasted resources like extra cash in the bank or stockpiles of
food can actually prove to be enormously helpful, not just to survive
unexpected stress, but to provide the resources required to address windows of
opportunity that often arise in times of turmoil. This perspective helps to
put into context the praise of inefficiency in Bill Janeway’s important new
book, Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy."
Well, to build in redundancy you need market manipulation (FDIC for example),
otherwise markets will tend to overfitness. If you are claiming that
"antifragility" = laissez-faire you are completely wrong; who will enforce the
redundancy?
~~~
miscellaneous
> who will enforce the redundancy?
Who enforced the redundancy of humans possessing two kidneys? If you are a
creationist, then I guess we have different starting assumptions.
Assuming that you aren't, then you would understand that redundancy in humans
literally evolved from randomness and volatility. Evolution is a hill climbing
algorithm - the organisms that survive the best reproduce more and become more
prevalent. For me, nature is perfectly laissez-faire, there are no circuit
breakers in nature, there is no enforced stability.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inside James Dyson's all-or-nothing quest for an electric car - tim333
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/james-dyson-electric-car-interview-2018
======
tim333
"All of nothing" is a bit clickbait but he seems to be having a go at building
one for 2020, the most interesting bit tech wise is he may have a battery with
twice the energy density of normal Li-ion.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Looks like, Reddit is down - pravj
http://www.reddit.com/
======
edwhitesell
Works in the Dallas area on TWC.
~~~
pravj
[http://www.redditstatus.com/](http://www.redditstatus.com/)
Things were wrong momentarily.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ongoing MacKeeper fraud - zdw
http://www.thesafemac.com/ongoing-mackeeper-fraud/
======
lpsz
As a Mac user (and someone who spends most of the day in Xcode), I feel lucky
to have a machine that generally works most of the time and I don't need to
defrag it, virus-scan it, memory-clean it, watch running processes for free
RAM, and so on and so forth. So, I feel really bad for users who feel duped
into downloading things like this -- they get a subpar computer as a result,
and they totally don't have to.
~~~
abalone
The #3 app in the mac app store is "Memory Clean", and apparently it was
featured by Apple as an "invaluable utility" and won a Macworld award.
This is really strange to me because, like you, I thought OSX's native memory
management ought to be optimal and tools like this are just placebos.
~~~
akhatri_aus
I've tried to observe how this app works.
It actually forces OS X's native memory management to kick in.
It does this by using an obscene amount of memory for a very short amount of
time. This forces OS X to clean up the existing RAM in use as the RAM used by
Memory Cleaner builds up dramatically.
In this way its partially cosmetic since your RAM would be cleaned up if you
used more of it anyway.
~~~
kenrikm
There are tricks that iOS Devs (including me) use to make iOS cleanup after
itself, for example iOS can take its sweet time releasing memory from
MKMapViews even after the controller is gone so a trick is to switch the Map
Type just before the controller is released as it forces iOS to drop the cache
for the current map type. So yeah, I've not used that program but I assume
it's using similar tricks in OSX.
~~~
lpsz
But that's talking about memory usage tricks _within_ a process, which is a
totally different beast from what this app claims to do.
------
patcheudor
You can tell a lot about the legitimacy of a company in the "security space"
by their SSL/TLS config on key sites. As of this reply they've still not
patched / disabled SSLv3 to guard against POODLE.
[https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=store.mackeep...](https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=store.mackeeper.com)
~~~
amenghra
You should not blindly believe ssllabs.com without spending time further
digging into the results. For example, some sites have decided to keep sslv3
but only support ciphers which are not prone to Poodle.
I'm not saying it's the case here, but be cautious about blindly believing
everything ssllabs.com reports.
~~~
patcheudor
Where sites have chosen to keep SSLv3 and mitigate via cipher selection
SSLLabs makes note of it without impacting the overall score: "This server
uses SSL 3, with POODLE mitigated. Still, it's recommended that this protocol
is disabled."
~~~
amenghra
I was going to say it's not always the case, but you are right! Thanks for
pointing that out.
------
weinzierl
I'm 100% sure that in the past MacKeeper was recommended on support.apple.com
(not discussions.apple.com).
As far as I remember it was a page with three suggestions, not unlike [1] and
the last one was to install MacKeeper. MacKeeper was just mentioned, but not
linked which appeared odd to me at the time. This was about two years ago.
Unfortunately I couldn't find the page anywhere, not even at archive.org.
[1] [http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht1147](http://support.apple.com/en-
us/ht1147)
------
leeber
I always get mackeeper popups when I'm on porn sites.
~~~
atmosx
Yes like everybody else. A friend of mine, asked me twice, if this _MacKeeper_
will keep his mac safe. I told him it's a simple spyware and he has to avoid
it like the plague.
It's kinda widespread software among mac users, because you can find banners
literally in every website with _disputable_ content like porn, torrents,
subtitles, you-name-it.
~~~
FreeFull
I wonder if anything like that, but targeted at linux, will ever come up.
~~~
slaman
It would have already if there was the market share.
~~~
atmosx
Hm hardly. The average linux user is something like 100 times more skilled,
computer-wise, than your average windows/mac user. That's why IMHO it's highly
unlikely that a Linux Desktop based malware will ever reach big numbers. Those
linux people are mostly geeks, they can tell easily if something is going
wrong...
~~~
slaman
I disagree.. If linux had a larger market share you'd see users that weren't
'100x more skilled' and advertising a cleanup program would be viable.
Permission structure of *nix is the same, and fools can be fools anywhere. A
30% market share for linux doesn't mean 30% of computer users gain 100x the
skill overnight.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why isn't there a super awesome mobile first Node.js shopping cart platform? - qhoc
The world of innovative ecommerce platform is pretty much standing still. The latest born was pretty much Magento and now they are heavy as heck. It is slow and hard to maintain. The Admin UI is cumbersome. I am not counting the SaaS type like Shopify or Wanalo.<p>Why isn't there any kick ass node.js shopping cart that is easy to use like Etsy interface? Or should I take the task of building it??
======
munimkazia
Hmm. I think most of the people who use these readymade platforms aren't
technical people, so PHP works as it is easier to understand, deploy and
manage.
Even for technical people, if I was looking for a readymade solution, I
wouldn't really care if its build on PHP or node. But if I was building
something specialized which needed to scale to huge amounts of traffic, I'd
start from scratch with something like Node.js.
Also, look at Opencart. It isn't too bad.
~~~
qhoc
Maybe it's not the problem with PHP but most shopping cart built on PHP was
dated back 4-5 years. They are too lazy to simplify it. When Magento came out,
I thought that was it. But it's getting bloated like anything else. If someone
wanted to have a simple responsive design site and image zoom capability, it's
multiple steps (install, get add-on, fix templates... ). Anything out of the
box these days are just not needed or lack of latest features. I think with
node.js/sails/mongodb as backend and Bootstrap/AngularJS as frontend, things
could be simplified 100x. I had heck of a time just to find which Magento file
to modify the template for left menu...
------
sciolistse
I know right? I've been working on one for the past year or so, have a few
customers on my lil platform.. But I've had to stuff it in between projects,
so progress has been slow.
~~~
qhoc
If you have a website or github page, please share. What were the main
feedback?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Using Cassandra instead of MySQL from the start? - niktech
Does it make sense to start off a potentially DB-bound project using Cassandra rather than go with a traditional MySQL setup? How is the perf of Cassandra compared to MySQL running on a single machine (512MB Xen VPS)?
======
z8000
You should probably ask this on stackoverflow.com.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is social media toppling Rush Limbaugh? - bdking
http://www.itworld.com/software/258384/social-media-toppling-rush-limbaugh
======
paulhauggis
only the left-leaning media. You never saw the same sort of outrage when left-
wing talk show hosts do the exact same thing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Rate my startup (video) - cte
http://vimeo.com/2231638<p>Would love to know what you guys think.<p>Beware of the discontinuity @ 6:44 :)
Sorry, no public demo available (yet).
======
swombat
"It's a platform for creating widgets for the mobile web". Platforms don't
make money. A platform is not a business.
"We don't really know what widgets are." Following on the point above, you're
creating a platform (a non-specific, generic "thingy") for creating widgets
(non-specific, generic "thingies") for the mobile web (something that's not
even really defined properly yet. Non-specific businesses are almost without
exception failures. Only huge businesses like Sun and Microsoft and Amazon can
afford to release "platforms" without going broke.
Here's the most valuable advice you can get at this point if you want to build
a start-up (that's a _business_ , meaning it needs a path to making money) is:
Find one or two specific customers who have a need that this fills, and fill
it, and get them to pay for it. Specific wins the day.
Since you've built a platform, you may well have to go one step closer to
customers before you can help them. Design an application that people will be
willing to pay for, using your (admittedly very cool) platform. Then, once you
have your app and you have profits, over time you might want to open up the
platform to other people.
Repeat once more: a business is an entity that makes money. A platform is not
a business.
~~~
swombat
That said let me add that this does look extremely cool and promising, and
developers will inevitably be all over this. But also remember that developers
are unlikely to make you any money because a) they don't like to spend money,
b) they are insanely creative about ways to "do it themselves" to avoid having
to pay you money.
~~~
cte
As a developer, I can vouch for that :)
In fact, I ended up building this because I didn't want to pay for the other
mobile services platforms (there are a few of them) when attempting to add
mobile features to another project I'm experimenting with.
But to your original point, I absolutely agree, pitching this as a "mobile"
"platform" for "widgets" is probably hopeless. Quite simply, it must solve
somebody's problem. And I believe that we can get it to do just that. One area
that we think is promising is using email to invoke applications that do
interesting things because (1) everyone knows how to send email, and (2) you
can attach lots of useful things to email.
So, what if we added the ability to recognize a ton of different file formats
and allowed you to query the data within an attached file to invoke other web
services?
For example, lets say you have a site that does group payments, and you want
to let your users send you an Excel spreadsheet with the names of your friends
and how much they owe you for that trip you just took together and
automatically create an invoice on your site, and then notify everyone that
they owe money. That seems interesting, and our product could support that
pretty easily.
Anyways, it is definitely our immediate burden to focus this technology on
solving _real_ problems.
~~~
swombat
_So, what if we added the ability to recognize a ton of different file formats
and allowed you to query the data within an attached file to invoke other web
services?_
You're still talking in terms of solutions. "Hey, we could build this cool
solution! Would that solve any problems?" I've never managed to find a
worthwhile business idea that way (not that I'm an expert at it or anything)..
in my experience the way to do that is to find the problem first and then
figure out what solution you could build (using your technology) to help solve
that problem. Then figure out if there really is a market for that solution,
and then build it incrementally and evolve it to serve that market. Then at
one point flick the switch and start charging.
------
ionrock
I agree with most folks that it does really solve a problem, but in an effort
to try and be constructive, one potential problem are forms on mobile devices.
It is very difficult to port web applications or forms to mobile platforms
because the display area is so small. Creating a conversational interface via
chat might be a good angle to creating usable, yet complex, forms on mobile
devices.
One good example might be ordering a pizza at a party. It is loud and you
don't know the address. You can start texting a pizza place your order and let
some other aspect of the application handle the GPS position.
Anyway, it looks like you guys have been doing a good job so if this idea
makes you millions or something feel free to send an email or something ;)
<http://ionrock.org>
------
rgrieselhuber
I think this is actually really cool. I agree with the other commenters that
you're probably a long way from this being a "startup" (at least in the post-
Oct2008 world that would like to see some business model), but you are
certainly doing some interesting things.
How you turn this into a business is another problem but I think you will
probably see people picking up on the ideas here and rapidly creating their
own innovations. That might seem like a bad thing, but I think it's good
because it means you've come up with something very powerful.
Probably the most interesting thing to me is the subset / scripting language
that makes interacting with various services and providing the backend
infrastructure for performing that automation.
Good luck!
------
jacobscott
What's the technical underpinnings of the stateful stuff? Is it more than
multithreading? Ruby specific? Seems neat, but hard to tell if it will really
be useful (in possibly the same vein as javascript-based "OS in a browser"s).
Can you come up with a killer app? Or reproduce a well known mashup with very
few lines of your own code?
On the backend, you'll definitely need sophisticated monitoring/resource
allocation stuff once you have users, right?
~~~
cte
I realize now that we didn't show a stateful app, but basically an application
is run in steps, and the boundaries between steps are the calls for user input
because the app must pause to wait for input. So we store the last instruction
executed and halt the app. Then when input is provided, the app is restored at
the proper point and continues running. It is not ruby specific, but it is
_much_ easier to build this with interpreted languages.
I don't think we have the killer app yet, but we implemented a mobile
interface to google calendar with ~5 lines of code which I've been using for a
little while, and its surprisingly useful. When all is said and done, I think
we might want to simply pitch this as a platform for adding mobile features to
your existing app, so it becomes more of a developer tool than a consumer
facing product.
As for monitoring, yes, it becomes a tricky task to achieve high availability
(and scalability), but its a really fun problem to tackle :)
------
mdolon
Looks very interesting and promising. I'm not sure if I have much use for it
just yet but I think I would be easily convinced after seeing more examples of
useful apps. I also like the domain name and applaud you both on the immense
amount of work I'm sure it took to make the product.
------
wesley
Very nice, but can you skip the first step? You have to send "ping" first?
If I use a service multiple times, I would already know what input the app
needed. For example, "Weather NY".
~~~
wesley
And I guess it would also be nice to have just 1 single bot in jabber.
[email protected] .. instead of having 10 bots for 10 different things..
(would clutter things up pretty fast)
Just send an identifier to the bot when you first ping it to tell it what app
you want to access.
~~~
cte
Definitely agree. And its really easy to do so because you control the code. I
actually have a bot that just executes whatever function name I give it, and I
have a bot that runs arbitrary system commands on my server, which is kind of
like having an IM terminal (_not_ recommended for security purposes :))
------
decadentcactus
I like it, I'd probably at least play around with it or integrate it if I
found a use. Great work!
------
guruz
I like it, it's cool :) Although I can't currently think of a use for it for
myself.
~~~
cte
There were some mobile features that I wanted to implement on an orthogonal
project that I'm toying with, and I noticed that there were no good APIs for
IM-enabling your app, and I wasn't truly satisfied with the existing SMS
solutions, so we built this. However, to your point, we need a killer app to
really show the potential of the platform. Arguably though, it might make the
most sense to simply target my original use case, and build the platform for
developers who want to add mobile features to their products but don't want to
spend huge amounts of time figuring out exactly how to do so in a scalable and
highly-available way.
------
davidw
I don't have time to watch videos, sorry.
Meaning: I'll happily take a look at your site, and have many times in the
past here. What I don't want to do is sit through a video that I can't jump
around, explore, and so on, like I might with a site, or a brief article.
------
mikeyur
Looks pretty sweet, I could probably think of some way to use it :)
~~~
cte
Please do! :)
------
alaskamiller
You've made a kind of Automator software
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automator_>(software)) for the web. This is
pretty nifty! With more integration with services it could actually be pretty
useful.
Don't know how you can make money though :(
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Javascript operating system - Bambo
https://github.com/charliesome/jsos
======
elliottcarlson
Found some screenshots on the creators twitter stream
(<https://twitter.com/#!/charliesome>).
<http://i.imgur.com/oiRZo.png>
<http://i.imgur.com/ISlpA.png>
Very impressive, even more so considering he is (apparently) 17.
------
Produce
Interesting hobby project. Since there's no readme, a brief summary:
* Implements a minimal bootstrap environment (very small kernel and tiny libc implementation) which hands over control to Javascript
* JS code is precompiled to bytecode using TwoStroke, a JS compiler written by the same author
* Drivers are written in JS too
* No graphics support, it's text based
------
hsmyers
Given the wide variety of Javascript add-ons and modules, A brief explanation
of what the product does and what it might be used for placed in the read me
document would have been nice.
------
tferris
When I saw this on HN I directly voted up the post. When I saw the Github
repository without any readme or info I regretted.
------
acoover
How would one go about learning how to do something like this? Books,
websites, blog posts?
~~~
njs12345
Which part troubles you? A project like this encompasses many areas of
computer science from compiler design to kernel programming.
If you want to get started with doing bare metal stuff, I quite like this
article: [http://balau82.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/hello-world-for-
bare...](http://balau82.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/hello-world-for-bare-metal-
arm-using-qemu/)
It uses ARM so you don't have to worry about all the x86 legacy cruft.
------
cleverjake
I thought it was going to be <http://bellard.org/jslinux/> , but I am excited
to see being written with js in mind the wonderful.
------
tallpapab
How does this compare with WebOS?
~~~
kevincennis
WebOS isn't build in JavaScript, it's built on the Linux kernel.
------
NonEUCitizen
How much of this is working? Is there a "Status" document? Thanks!
------
deepuj
Screenshots at the least?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Please tell me you don't write if true equals true - prjseal
http://www.codeshare.co.uk/blog/please-tell-me-you-dont-write-if-true-equals-true/
======
anc84
Please don't spam your site like that (and with multiple accounts...).
~~~
noja
Proof:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=codeshare&sort=byPopularity&pr...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=codeshare&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=pastMonth&type=story)
~~~
piess
I'm sorry. I'm logged in on different devices. Messed up at the beginning when
I first joined. Can't remember password for prjseal one. I'm signed to that
automatically at work. I will continue with this piess account and won't
repost links. Am I allowed to share new posts from my blog that I think you
will find interesting? Please help as I'm new. I'm not a spammer,
intentionally.
------
Piskvorrr
Fair point, but IMNSHO for a different reason: it brings an unnecessary risk
of writing "if (isValid = true)" \- and _now_ you're in trouble ;)
~~~
piess
I just got what you are saying. Yes you would be setting the value in that
case instead of checking it. Very dangerous territory.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dynamic Bézier Curves - based2
https://www.joshwcomeau.com/posts/dynamic-bezier-curves
======
bra-ket
for a great primer on Bézier Curves see
[https://pomax.github.io/bezierinfo/](https://pomax.github.io/bezierinfo/)
~~~
paulddraper
+1 fantastic, github-backed resource
------
jordigh
It reminds me of x-splines. The only implementation I've seen of them is in
Xfig. Each control node has a slider that lets you smoothly change between
approximating the node, exactly smoothly interpolating through the node, or
sharply (i.e. with a corner) interpolate through the node.
It was one of the first papers I ever read:
[https://static.aminer.org/pdf/PDF/000/593/089/x_splines_a_sp...](https://static.aminer.org/pdf/PDF/000/593/089/x_splines_a_spline_model_designed_for_the_end_user.pdf)
------
IvanK_net
It reminds me a 2D water simulation I made a few years ago (click to shake the
water) :)
[http://lib.ivank.net/?p=demos&d=water](http://lib.ivank.net/?p=demos&d=water)
------
santoriv
Only tangentially related, but if anyone wants to generate bezier animation
paths using jquery's animate function, several years ago I wrote a little
utility to help generate the input parameters.
[http://jqbezier.ericlesch.com](http://jqbezier.ericlesch.com)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
If you think something is 80% likely to be true, is it really? Test yourself - robertwiblin
https://80000hours.org/calibration-training/
======
sundayedition
Would be nice if you could do a single session without signing up, even if it
didn't track over time
------
fareed2008
Nice
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MIT 6.901: Inventions and Patents - pius
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-901Fall-2005/Readings/index.htm
======
Maven911
Courses can't teach you how to invent...this is more of a "history of
inventions and patent law class"...
~~~
pius
Courses _can_ teach you how to invent, but this one doesn't. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Robert Louis Stevenson came to live, die, and be buried in Samoa (2018) - drjohnson
https://www.weeklystandard.com/micah-mattix/wide-and-starry-sky
======
trgn
When living there, Stevenson wrote the beach of Falesa, a thriller about the
rivalry between the white protagonist, a newcomer copra trader, and a colonial
of the old guard who has become somewhat of a cult leader on the island.
It's a short read, but exciting, and still feels very modern. There's a
touching love story in the background between the trader and his native wife,
that feels fresh and open-minded and gives the story more color than for
example the oppressive sickness and despair of the more famous Heart of
Darkness, which is also a novella that essentially develops the same themes.
I'd recommend Stevenson. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide is still a great mystery, ideal
for that lazy afternoon on the beach.
~~~
kerng
I also enjoy his books, especially Treasure Island is a book I go back and
read again once in a while.
Funny enough, I just realized I hardly know anything about the author, reading
up about his life now.
~~~
marvindanig
For those who don't know Treasure Island is public domain and you can read it
right now for free on web!
1\. [https://bubblin.io/cover/treasure-island-by-robert-louis-
ste...](https://bubblin.io/cover/treasure-island-by-robert-louis-
stevenson#frontmatter)
2\.
[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/120](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/120)
------
interfixus
Required trivia: In Samoa, Stevenson eventually donated his birthday to
someone with better use for it:
[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/06/i-have-now-no-
further-u...](http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/06/i-have-now-no-further-use-
for-birthday.html)
------
mc32
I found it interesting that many early to mid XX century American English and
Continental authors of renown admired Stevenson (who enjoyed some fame while
alive) but was not a favorite of literary critics by a long shot, so much so
he was basically “delisted” in the 70s from the Oxford Anthology of English
Literature, but has since enjoyed a rebound.
Very interesting life given his bouts with poor health. Made the most of it.
~~~
adfm
He sure did have an interesting life. He came out to California to marry and
ended up staying a while. There’s a state park just north of San Francisco
named after him.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson_State...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson_State_Park)
------
ilamont
Kind of depressing that the book only has one reader review and ranks 1.6
million on the U.S. Amazon store, which means it's barely selling (I'm a
publisher; that number translates to just a few copies per month at most).
That's despite a boatload of editorial reviews like the featured article.
It could be because the retail hardcover and Kindle prices are over $30 (!)
but I am also wondering if the market for biographies is completely saturated,
especially by big books by marquee authors. I've recently read the Da Vinci
and Einstein bios by Walter Isaacson, both of which took ages to get through.
There's just not much time to read other stuff, like the Carreyou bio of
Theranos I've been eyeing at the library.
Incidentally, the Kindle edition of the Stevenson biography is currently on
sale for $3.99 on the U.S. Amazon store. I bought it based on this review.
------
mark_l_watson
My Dad named our first nice sailboat Vailima, named after Stevenson's house. I
means, if I remember correctly, 'house on 5 rivers.'
------
Latteland
The weekly standard is an 'interesting' source. Did you also notice the
featured article, [https://www.weeklystandard.com/holmes-lybrand/fact-check-
was...](https://www.weeklystandard.com/holmes-lybrand/fact-check-was-the-
recent-california-fire-started-by-the-u-s-government-using-space-lasers).
------
pmoriarty
One of the most fascinating things I've read by Stevenson was his description
of his creative process, the success of which he attributed to the "little
people" in his dreams, or what he called his "Brownies".
Referring to himself in the third person, Stevenson writes:
_" This honest fellow had long been in the custom of setting himself to sleep
with tales, and so had his father before him; but these were irresponsible
inventions, told for the teller's pleasure, with no eye to the crass public or
the thwart reviewer: tales where a thread might be dropped, or one adventure
quitted for another, on fancy's least suggestion. So that the little people
who manage man's internal theatre had not as yet received a very rigorous
training; and played upon their stage like children who should have slipped
into the house and found it empty, rather than like drilled actors performing
a set piece to a huge hall of faces._
_" But presently my dreamer began to turn his former amusement of story-
telling to (what is called) account; by which I mean that he began to write
and sell his tales. Here was he, and here were the little people who did that
part of his business, in quite new conditions._
_" The stories must now be trimmed and pared and set upon all fours, they
must run from a beginning to an end and fit (after a manner) with the laws of
life; the pleasure, in one word, had become a business; and that not only for
the dreamer, but for the little people of his theatre. These understood the
change as well as he. When he lay down to prepare himself for sleep, he no
longer sought amusement, but printable and profitable tales; and after he had
dozed off in his box-seat, his little people continued their evolutions with
the same mercantile designs._
_" All other forms of dream deserted him but two: he still occasionally reads
the most delightful books, he still visits at times the most delightful
places; and it is perhaps worthy of note that to these same places, and to one
in particular, he returns at intervals of months and years, finding new field-
paths, visiting new neighbours, beholding that happy valley under new effects
of noon and dawn and sunset. But all the rest of the family of visions is
quite lost to him: the common, mangled version of yesterday's affairs, the
raw-head-and-bloody-bones nightmare, rumoured to be the child of toasted
cheese -- these and their like are gone; and, for the most part, whether awake
or asleep, he is simply occupied -- he or his little people -- in consciously
making stories for the market._
_" This dreamer (like many other persons) has encountered some trifling
vicissitudes of fortune. When the bank begins to send letters and the butcher
to linger at the back gate, he sets to belabouring his brains after a story,
for that is his readiest money-winner; and, behold! at once the little people
begin to bestir themselves in the same quest, and labour all night long, and
all night long set before him truncheons of tales upon their lighted theatre._
_" No fear of his being frightened now; the flying heart and the frozen scalp
are things by-gone; applause, growing applause, growing interest, growing
exultation in his own cleverness (for he takes all the credit), and at last a
jubilant leap to wakefulness, with the cry, "I have it, that'll do!" upon his
lips: with such and similar emotions he sits at these nocturnal dramas, with
such outbreaks, like Claudius in the play, he scatters the performance in the
midst._
_" Often enough the waking is a disappointment: he has been too deep asleep,
as I explain the thing; drowsiness has gained his little people, they have
gone stumbling and maundering through their parts; and the play, to the
awakened mind, is seen to be a tissue of absurdities. And yet how often have
these sleepless Brownies done him honest service, and given him, as he sat
idly taking his pleasure in the boxes, better tales than he could fashion for
himself."_
...
_" Who are they, then? and who is the dreamer?_
_" Well, as regards the dreamer, I can answer that, for he is no less a
person than myself; -- as I might have told you from the beginning, only that
the critics murmur over my consistent egotism; -- and as I am positively
forced to tell you now, or I could advance but little farther with my story._
_" And for the Little People, what shall I say they are but just my Brownies,
God bless them! who do one-half my work for me while I am fast asleep, and in
all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well, when I am wide awake and
fondly suppose I do it for myself. That part which is done while I am sleeping
is the Brownies' part beyond contention; but that which is done when I am up
and about is by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies
have a hand in it even then."_
[http://www.worlddreambank.org/S/STEVBROW.HTM](http://www.worlddreambank.org/S/STEVBROW.HTM)
~~~
mirimir
Although "Brownies" is rather cringe-worthy, I routinely write out problems
just before going to sleep, and often awake with solutions.
~~~
pmoriarty
Why do you think it's cringeworthy?
Stevenson was likely referring to this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_%28folklore%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_%28folklore%29)
_" A brownie or broonie (Scots), also known as a brùnaidh or gruagach
(Scottish Gaelic), is a household spirit from British folklore that is said to
come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep and perform various
chores and farming tasks."_
That appears to be pretty unobjectionable to me.
~~~
mirimir
Thanks. Although I still wonder about the origin.
------
mirimir
FYI: Moore (1943) Defoe, Stevenson, and the Pirates. [https://sci-
hub.tw/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2871539](https://sci-
hub.tw/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2871539)
------
nevster
I just happen to be reading Treasure Island for the first time. Well worth a
read!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SVPT – Next Generation devices for biofeedback in PT(Article 2 in series) - svptteam
https://medium.com/@kalpana.s.mair/svpt-next-generation-devices-for-biofeedback-in-physical-therapy-article-2-in-series-d23f8866c8f6
======
svptteam
Hello HN!
This is the 2nd article in series discussing our companion device platform for
physical therapists. Please take a look and let us know what you think!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to Grow Your Site? - Golddisk
Hey,<p>So I've been running a website since 2014 geared towards tech, science, and entertainment articles. Its a pretty broad category and one which thousands of other sites operate in. But nonetheless, I have given it a go because it is something I enjoy and is interesting (to me).<p>In the 3 years I've had it, we've had some very good days, but the rest are pretty average or even poor. The biggest roadblock to growing it is during the summer months, I am almost completely inactive on it as other commitments take up most of my time to think up, research, and craft articles.<p>I have tried a lot of free advertising options - for example, sharing some (ok, a lot) of articles here but I don't want to spam HN which I practically did when I first found this place. Rarely they are hits, most times not (which is understandable). I am also on some promotion websites. Of course, with little traffic reading the content, it means they never get submitted to places like Reddit or here which can drive lot of traffic. And while I'm on social media with it, there isn't usually much response there either as the accounts only have a couple dozen followers.<p>But basically, I came to ask, especially if you have a website/blog/forum, what you did to grow yours and also how you found some people to help you do it.<p>Getting anyone to help write a few articles here and there has been extraordinarily difficult, even now that I have started offering guest writers the chance for a backlink if it is connected to the article. It would be awesome to pay the staff, but the site generates little revenue and that goes towards paying for hosting.
======
recmend
No silver bullet. I've built a community site to help operators build and grow
their startups
([https://www.joinradium.com/posts/tagged/growth](https://www.joinradium.com/posts/tagged/growth)).
You can check out the growth category and I'm sure you'll find great content
on how to grow your business.
~~~
Golddisk
Definitely a few good resources on there. I will check back and make use of
what I can. Thanks!
------
ceyhunkazel
I advised to change your design first. Try to find a template similar to
[http://www.makeuseof.com](http://www.makeuseof.com) or
[http://thenextweb.com](http://thenextweb.com). Good luck
~~~
Golddisk
That was a change we just recently made within the past week. We went to a
newer, nicer, more modern theme.
------
siquick
Can you post a link to the website?
~~~
Golddisk
I can. It is [http://thesurge.net](http://thesurge.net)
------
FlopV
i'm trying to do the same thing with my site.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Over 500k Zoom accounts sold on hacker forums, the dark web - 1cvmask
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/over-500-000-zoom-accounts-sold-on-hacker-forums-the-dark-web/
======
Twirrim
"These credentials are gathered through credential stuffing attacks where
threat actors attempt to login to Zoom using accounts leaked in older data
breaches. The successful logins are compiled into lists that are sold to other
hackers."
This feels like ridiculous piling on to Zoom. This comes down to the same old
password reuse issue. You could almost certainly replace any other service
provider with Zoom in that article and not reduce its accuracy. Pounds for
pennies, other services have hundreds of thousands of accounts being sold
courtesy of credential stuffing.
~~~
ALittleLight
Can service providers not realize that someone is trying millions of different
accounts with patterns of passwords and throttle or block them?
~~~
judge2020
Cred stuffing can often be done with 5 or less "known" passwords used by the
victim. When the attackers have enough IPs (via proxies or cloud providers -
remember that most cloud providers give out multiple ipv6 /64s no questions
asked), It'll end up looking like any other login attempt from a consumer VPN
where the user forgot their password and is trying 3 or 4 different ones.
~~~
ALittleLight
I would think you alarm when login failure rate spikes. Realize what is going
on, list the probably affected accounts, and lock those accounts until they
change their passwords. Doesn't seem like an impossible to mitigate problem.
------
notechback
So they paid $1000 for 530k accounts. What's the use case of a stolen zoom
account? To impersonate an institution this doesn't seem quite enough, so is
it just lulz?
~~~
vlan0
If those accounts belong to an org with SSO enabled and mediocre security,
that’s a win for the crooks.
~~~
avree
Huh? It's not like Zoom offers an SSO solution. The value of the accounts is
two-fold:
1) Looking for Zoom premium accounts, there is actually a pretty good trade in
stolen accounts on the dark web. Folks will pay a dollar for example for one
of these accounts.
2) This is the more likely one—looking for people who use one shared password
across multiple valuable logins.
~~~
ilikepi
SSO is offered at the "Business" plan level. So I guess the question would be
how many of the stolen accounts were for users at a lower plan level but were
also controlled by espionage-worthy companies.
~~~
robjan
You can authenticate with Zoom using your existing SSO solution, not the other
way around. When using SSO the Zoom account wouldn't have a password at all.
~~~
samcat116
Exactly. I'm surprised there are accounts from large companies that must have
some sort of SSO with MFA solution. Are they not using it with Zoom? That's a
no brainer
------
rshnotsecure
This is particularly concerning for those in China. Keep in mind over 1,000
Chinese hospitals now use Zoom, as detailed in the Feb 26th blog post by CEO
Eric Yuan[1].
If anything, I suspect this has less to do with hacking and more with insiders
abusing their access to the system. Chinese hackers are very often extremely
competent day time programmers, and have been known to sell their internal
access to the highest bidder[2].
[1] - [https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/02/26/zoom-commitment-
us...](https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/02/26/zoom-commitment-user-support-
business-continuity-during-coronavirus-outbreak/)
[2] - [https://intrusiontruth.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/encore-
apt17...](https://intrusiontruth.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/encore-apt17-hacked-
chinese-targets-and-offered-the-data-for-sale/)
------
aaron695
Link to the first linked thread -
[https://www.nulled.to/topic/1049984-x352-zoom-accounts-
with-...](https://www.nulled.to/topic/1049984-x352-zoom-accounts-with-capture-
meeting-idurlhostype/)
------
rodneyg_
Damn, Zoom can't catch a break.
------
omgJustTest
Accounts were exposed in previous hacks, the accounts are now being exploited
if the user didn't change the pw credentials and used the same email address.
Nothing in this suggests this is Zoom's fault (except that they might be able
to check haveibeenpwned and warn users)
------
seibelj
The amount of FUD appearing everywhere around zoom ensures that google,
Facebook, Microsoft, etc. are very very annoyed by their success
~~~
advaita
Genuinely curious, How does this particular report amount to FUD?
~~~
chipperyman573
It's accounts that were found by testing user/passwords that were found in
other hacks to see if people had used same password on zoom. It's nothing zoom
did wrong. And, it's something that happens to basically every company.
~~~
tialaramex
Arguably in 2020 it _is_ something Zoom did wrong in allowing people to re-use
known passwords.
"Reject Pwned Passwords" is a very cheap security improvement during sign-up
processes. Of course the problem for Zoom is that they've focused very hard on
reducing "Bounce" where people decide they'd rather not sign up, which has led
to a lot of the other complaints about Zoom we're also reading.
If you run a service that has an email + password type sign-in, the top TWO
items I'd tell you are must haves for that service today - as in if you aren't
live they need to be requirements for go-live and if you're already live they
should be top of your pile are:
1\. Sign-in-with-X services that out-source authentication entirely to
somebody else, it doesn't much matter if it's Facebook, Google, Apple, almost
anything is better than creating yet another service with yet more
credentials. These services are relatively low friction. Zoom does offer this,
and if you must have Zoom (as many of us must in this period) then this is the
least worst option.
2\. Blocking known passwords with something like PwnedPasswords. If you must
build your own account authentication either out of hubris or with some
genuine rationale for why it's necessary, use PwnedPasswords or a similar
service to reject these passwords. Don't have stupid "policies" that sounded
good to some idiot who still thinks regular expressions are a pretty neat
idea, just reject these known bad passwords.
There are lots of more expensive things I think companies _should_ do if they
take security seriously, like implementing WebAuthn (ie FIDO security keys)
but the above two are low hanging fruit. If you haven't done them it _is_
something you did wrong.
------
mavsman
Zoom is the Windows XP of video conferencing and the most secure approach to
video is now to get on a different platform.
~~~
odysseus
Competitors to Zoom, for example, WebEx, have even more vulnerabilities than
Zoom. Count the CVEs on cve.mitre.org. The small players haven't been poked as
hard.
~~~
lawnchair_larry
Not disputing that WebEx is worse, but CVE counting should never be a metric
for security.
------
gldev3
Jeez! I hate being forced to use this stupid thing but i hope they can fix
their issues asap.
~~~
AtlasLion
Care to explain how this is "their" issue?
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
They didn't cause it but could have stopped it (via HIBP or such) which I
grant isn't very damning).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FBI Records: Bigfoot (1976) - coloneltcb
https://vault.fbi.gov/bigfoot/bigfoot-part-01-of-01/view
======
delinka
Summary: FBI accepted a sample of tissue and hair, agreed to analyze it
(within FBI policy- that they not only support criminal investigations and
other law enforcement agencies, but also, at their discretion, may perform
analyses for other organizations), and ultimately determined the sample was
related to deer.
~~~
devoply
So you're saying it's a deer hominid hybrid?
~~~
nkozyra
Bighoof
------
IvyMike
Of all the conspiracy theories out there, the one I want to be true the most
is Bigfoot.
My hopes pretty much hang on this:
[https://youtu.be/Fr2RIJ1gCac](https://youtu.be/Fr2RIJ1gCac)
~~~
IvyMike
Revise that: my actual number one hope is the "Jeff Mangum built some kind of
time machine and saved Anne Frank" theory is right, but that's admittedly
harder to believe.
~~~
matthoiland
I like to believe that he succeeded and that Anne is now a little boy in
Spain.
~~~
brianpgordon
Playing pianos filled with flames sounds like a rather significant fire hazard
though. Doesn't sound like a very pleasant existence.
------
dontbenebby
It's not really surprising the FBI would look into it.
(Especially since spreading rumors of a monster in the woods would be a great
way to scare people away from your illegal drug operation)
~~~
buildzr
> Especially since spreading rumors of a monster in the woods would be a great
> way to scare people away from your illegal drug operation
Straight out of Scooby Doo, wonder if there are any real occurrences of this
kind of thing.
~~~
totalthrowaway
Sort of?
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-man-
fine...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-man-
fined-6-000-for-feeding-pot-bears-1.1153288)
~~~
dontbenebby
Bears with mange walking upright are actually a common source of Bigfoot
reports. They look _weird_
------
ryanmercer
Just going to leave this Bigfoot political campaign commercial here, I got a
good laugh out of it when I found it last year
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iU_8wSvSW4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iU_8wSvSW4)
~~~
nydel
This may be the best political advertisement I've seen. Or the only good
one?/s
Yeah it's really funny. But beyond that, there's nothing mean or of substance
in it. Most political ads cannot claim the former and try to hide the latter,
I think ^_^
Thanks for sharing!
------
aphextim
I think Bigfoot just moved to Upper Michigan so he could race Outhouses down a
snow covered road.
[https://www.trenaryouthouseclassic.com/](https://www.trenaryouthouseclassic.com/)
When someone asks, "What do people do where you live?"
I reply, "In the winter they take outhouses and race them down the street
while drinking an exorbitant amount of alcohol."
The response is always golden.
------
sneak
This makes me miss watching the X-Files during its first run. Was TV better
then, or was I just younger and less jaded toward mass media?
~~~
bildung
The latter. I really liked the series as a teenager, but recently rewatched
the first episode out of interest and found it awful...
~~~
lisper
The problem with serialized TV is that sooner or later you realize that it's
all about making you _think_ that there's something cool that's going to
happen in the _next_ episode. Nothing cool ever actually happens, but you
don't realize this except in retrospect, and, occasionally, when there has
been so much hype that the lack of a payoff is impossible to ignore (c.f.
Lost, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones...)
The only exception I can think of is Breaking Bad.
~~~
cm2012
Avatar: The Last Airbender only get better up to and including the end.
------
ohaideredevs
I am really curious if you work for an ABC, and get high enough - do you get
to learn about some "cool" things, or it's all just tedious politics/cartels.
It does seem to me that the number of conspiracy theories went way down lately
(which is surprising, giving the proliferation of tech), whereas there is
clearly stuff that's being kept a secret well, e.g. we never heard about the
stealth Blackhawks until the raid in Pakistan, and only because it failed
badly. Or nobody talks about plasma weapons, yet they got an effective
prototype a decade ago iirc, and the project stopped reporting any news
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARAUDER](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARAUDER)).
~~~
colechristensen
"cool things" which wouldn't surprise me
* Always more stealth planes, likely large drones today
* Whatever that little Air Force space shuttle was doing
* Hypersonic planes/drones/missiles
* Disturbingly "smart" missiles/weapons/drones
* Small fusion reactors already exist in production
* Quantum computing already exists in production
* RSA can be cracked on demand
* Spy satellites can see way more than would make you comfortable
* Power armor
* Novel propulsion methods
~~~
ohaideredevs
* RSA can be cracked on demand
The funny thing is that this is the most disturbing one by far if true.
Some of those are almost a given to me - classified stealth planes, hypersonic
missiles, sats having incredible resolution, power armor, "smart"-er than
known missiles.
------
nydel
My bigfoot dowsing rods keep drawing out the words "idiomotor" and "apophenia"
but I'm not sure which of the myriad languages these concepts could possibly
be a part; must be my subconscious connecting to the bigsfoot and deciphering
their language.
------
chiefalchemist
Not to get too serious too quickly, but I'm not sure why the idea of (so-
called) Bigfoot falls under conspiracy theory.
Long to short, homo sapiens co-existed with other human-esque species. The
idea that primitive HSs were somehow able to entirely extermination these
other species feels like a pretty high expectation to me. Any survivors - and
certainly there would be some - would have been able to do so because the
ability to hide, run, not be found, etc.
Today's Bigfoots could be offspring of the survivers. Unlikely. But certainly,
in theory, possible.
~~~
JKCalhoun
Where is the bigfoot skeleton?
Physical evidence is king when someone proposes something seemingly fantastic.
With (almost) everyone carrying a camera in their pocket these days one would
expect to see new Bigfoot recordings posted weekly.
We have found that indeed blacks do get shot more often in police
confrontations than whites.
But UFOs? Bigfoot?
Not so much.
~~~
40four
We have found the skeletons, and we call them Gigantopithecus, not Bigfoot :)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus)
So we know for sure really huge apes, possibly as tall as 3 meters for sure
used to exist. I'm not saying they still do, they probably don't. But it's not
as big of mental hurdle dor me to clear, to consider if they have lasted, than
for example, to believe in flying saucers from other solar systems.
------
nscalf
TLDR: Cochran sent a hair sample which was deemed to be "from the deer
family".
~~~
idlewords
Twist: the deer was adopted.
------
tj-teej
Obligatory Mitch Hedberg Joke: I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem.
It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary
to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside. Run,
he's fuzzy, get out of here.
~~~
dberg
man do i miss Mitch Hedberg. The Pringles joke is still one of my favorites of
his of all time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Coffman engine starter - zeristor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffman_engine_starter
======
mikejb
Fun fact: A not entirely equivalent, but comparable starter was used on the
Titan II ICBMs and Gemini launchers, specifically the LR87-5 and LR87-7 rocket
engines (which used a hypergolic fuel&oxidizer combination)
A simple (read: I don't understand it better yet) explanation is this: A
starter cartridge was placed in the turbopumps of the engine, that ignited and
spun up the turbopumps (technically, the turbine of the TPA which then turns
the pumps), which then fed fuel and oxidizer into a) the gas generator to
sustain operation, and b) into the combustion chambers. The cartridges burned
for about a second, and you can hear the screeching sound they made in this
launch video [1]
[1] [https://youtu.be/E87deQMLHoQ?t=185](https://youtu.be/E87deQMLHoQ?t=185)
~~~
slededit
Cartridge starters are common on Jet engines too for cases where you need to
get them started ASAP (i.e. military).
Fun fact: most airplanes have a smaller turbine used to start their larger
ones. The ones that don't use a mobile turbine cart for the same purpose. It
takes a lot of energy to get them started.
------
lstodd
And if you're out of cartridges - a rope and a pair of felt boots save the day
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJtDIB-
Ybew](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJtDIB-Ybew)
~~~
Steve44
Some thought or past experience has gone into that I'd say. Using the two
boots in series to give a longer pull is pretty clever.
~~~
lstodd
That was almost-standard in 1920s-1930s.
A rubber cord, a single felt boot (since most propellers were two blade), two-
three men: one holds the propeller, others pull the cord. When they can't pull
it any more, propeller is released.
Main problem was to warm up the engine in winter. For liquid-cooled ones that
was done by repeatedly draining the system and refilling with hot water. I
don't remember what they did with air cooled ones, maybe a blower of some
kind, or just a blowtorch to the cylinders. There aren't many options on a
snow field out somewhere in nowhere.
------
cooper12
Patent:
[https://patents.google.com/patent/US2283184A/](https://patents.google.com/patent/US2283184A/)
------
benj111
These appeared in Flight of the Phoenix I believe.
The original, not the remake.
~~~
mikejb
They sort-of appear in both, but in the original [1] they're explicitly
mentioned and used to build tension, whereas in the remake [2] they're not
mentioned explicitly, but the engine is started with one.
[1] [https://youtu.be/IACjOvyx5hs](https://youtu.be/IACjOvyx5hs)
[2] [https://youtu.be/wIPHWAwPxA0](https://youtu.be/wIPHWAwPxA0)
------
bvxvbxbxb
B-52 jet engines can do cart starts as well.
[https://www.af.mil/News/Article-
Display/Article/121480/cart-...](https://www.af.mil/News/Article-
Display/Article/121480/cart-starts-make-a-quick-launch-for-b-52s/)
------
chiph
The SR-71 didn't use a cartridge starter, but an AG330 cart with two V8
engines mounted in it to get the jet's engines RPMs up high enough to start.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjdyQpEUYzI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjdyQpEUYzI)
------
Theodores
"Some versions of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine used in the British
Supermarine Spitfire used the Coffman system as a starter."
But not all of them.
I wonder how tight the tolerances were on these engines?
When the U.S.A. entered WW2 it was Ford that tackled the problem of making
aero engines en-masse. Ford took Rolls Royce designs that had been used for
the war thus far (the U.S.A. being a late entrant) and realised that the
blueprints provided were not fit for their purposes.
Until then Rolls Royce had been making each and every engine in a fairly
bespoke way with the parts not exactly interchangeable between engines.
Tolerances varied so fettling was always required. Ford fixed this and
delivered precision engineering for a much better product.
Were the Rolls Royce versions of the engine the ones that needed the Coffman
system with the superior Ford versions not requiring it?
That is my guess.
This was not the end of really-difficult-to-start engines though. Motorsport
took it to a whole new level in the post war years.
Aero style supercharging didn't last for very long in the pinnacle of
motorsport - Formula 1 - due to the thirstiness of the engines. Naturally
aspirated engines (with the Ford Cosworth DFV) ruled the roost for many
decades and then Renault came along with the turbo. This changed everything.
However, to get the turbo to work precision engineering had to solve the
problem of extremely high pressure gasses wanting to escape past the piston
rings.
To fix this the pistons were made 'larger' than the cylinders. So at room
temperature, with a cold start, there was no way for mere mortals to hand
crank the engine. A very big starter motor in the garage was needed and only
at operational temperatures with a little bit of thermal expansion could the
engine run freely.
The flywheel was very light on these engines so only true drivers could keep
these things from stalling, and if stalled whilst on the track, that was that,
finito.
BMW made the most legendary turbo era engines, 1400 horsepowers in qualifying
trim, with the engine having to be rebuilt after a handful of laps. The blocks
for these engines came from their 4 cylinder road cars. According to legend
the key ingredient for the strength of these engine blocks was urine and cold
outdoor weather.
~~~
rjsw
US built Merlins were made by Packard not Ford. The Ford factory in Manchester
did make lots of Merlins too but they were to the Rolls-Royce design.
Wikipedia only lists the Merlin 32 as using a Coffman starter, as it went into
naval aircraft maybe there was a requirement to be able to restart an engine
in flight.
~~~
Theodores
Thanks for that. Elsewhere on Wikipedia there is the Merlin XII as having this
feature:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-
Royce_Merlin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin)
...beginning in 1939.
Ford - Manchester UK only got going in 1940.
I didn't realise that Ford in America turned down the job, that must have been
Mr very contrary Ford for you!
I must have gleaned that 'fact' regarding the Rolls Royce blueprints being no
good for Ford from the History Channel. I do wonder though about how much Ford
thinking influenced Rolls Royce and their shadow factories elsewhere in
England, where they did use relatively untrained staff to crank out the
volume.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple gets major patent for a large set of multitouch gestures - nirmal
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,705,830.PN.&OS=PN/7,705,830&RS=PN/7,705,830
======
lazugod
The patent office uses TIFF for the official copies of its documents, rather
than PDF? Curious.
(Quicktime on Vista seems to be unable to open said TIFFs, which is the only
reason I brought it up)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Terminix Stores Passwords in Clear Text - malvagia
I saw the post today about Verizon possibly storing passwords in clear text, and it reminded me that Terminix is still doing so also. I've tried four times to contact Terminix and its parent company, Servicemaster, about the problem and have received no response. I don't think they understand how serious of a security hole it is. If any other HN readers use Terminix or another Servicemaster company, it might be worth trying to contact them so that maybe enough call/email volume will convince them they have an issue that needs to be addressed.
======
paulhauggis
It's safer, because it's something nobody would expect!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
White iPhone - ether
http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20110427/apples-jobs-and-schiller-on-why-making-the-white-iphone-was-so-darn-tough/
======
ether
Color makes all the difference.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Let's build a blockchain – A mini-cryptocurrency in Ruby [video] - seoguru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aJI1ABdjQk
======
1ba9115454
This is probably the best mini implementation I've seen so far. The code is
hosted at [https://github.com/Haseeb-Qureshi/lets-build-a-
blockchain](https://github.com/Haseeb-Qureshi/lets-build-a-blockchain)
He's missed one thing though, which a lot of these small implmentations miss,
its the code for chain re-org.
[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Chain_Reorganization](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Chain_Reorganization)
This is a crucial piece of code that figures out which chain is correct if 1
or more blocks arrive that have a greater proof of work than your current best
chain.
But otherwise, a very good attempt.
~~~
xiphias
As far as I saw the whole blockhain is serialized and sent to the peers, so
taking care of chair reorgs is trivial (and done in the video). What's really
missing is difficulty retargeting.
------
giancarlostoro
I want to see "let's build a blockchain" minus the cryptocurrency. My
understanding was that Medical and Financial institutions were more interested
in the ledger not so much the currencies behind bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies. Or am I looking at this all wrong?
------
jschulenklopper
Here's an earlier example I found, building a tiny blockchain in Python:
[https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-
one-117...](https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-
one-117428612f46).
Long, but accessible introduction. "The fastest way to learn how Blockchains
work is to build one."
------
ariza
wanna learn it
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Steve Jobs says Gizmodo tried to extort Apple - jaybol
http://www.edibleapple.com/steve-jobs-discusses-the-lost-iphone-4g-gizmodo-tried-extort-apple/
======
anigbrowl
In passing, the (Palo Alto) Daily News, which does not put its content online
but is a legit newspaper, reports that Chen's computer gear has been
transferred to the FBI's computer forensics lab in Menlo Park:
[http://sfppc.blogspot.com/2010/06/gizmodo-editors-
computers-...](http://sfppc.blogspot.com/2010/06/gizmodo-editors-computers-
taken-to-fbi.html)
------
jboydyhacker
I love Steve Jobs but sometimes based on his statements he seems to take many
normal things as a personal attack. The Google comments also reminded me of
this. He seems deeply upset Google went into mobile. Google is in the
advertising business and that means they need a huge presence in mobile since
any numnuts can tell that's where the business is going. Google didn't go into
mobile to hurt Apple or Steve Jobs; they went in because that's where the
business was going. Google is not perfect, but in this case if an apology is
owed anywhere it's to Google.
~~~
gizmo
Anybody who's in business knows that business is highly personal. After you
spend too many hours and too much work on something you cannot help but care
about the final results. Take the edge off Job's personality and you'd get a
completely different person.
Given that Schmidt was on Apple's board of directors we can safely assume that
he did not tell Jobs his plans. If he had, he never would have served on
Apple's board. By joining Apple's board of directors Schmidt essentially
promised he wasn't going to invade Apple's territory. Then he decided to do so
anyway. So I think Jobs has every right to be upset with Google.
In my opinion Schmidt should never have posed as an ally and Jobs should never
have accepted Schmidt on the board in the first place.
------
commandar
The biggest thing I took away from his comments on the Gizmodo thing last
night is that Steve Jobs took the whole thing very personally.
~~~
czhiddy
Considering how Gizmodo basically stole the spotlight out of the new iPhone
announcement (the highlight of Steve's keynote) and wrote petulant "we have
your phone, you want it back?" emails to him, I'm not surprised how Jobs has a
vendetta against Gizmodo.
~~~
orangecat
_Considering how Gizmodo basically stole the spotlight out of the new iPhone
announcement_
I don't get this. The sum total of Gizmodo's reports were that there's a new
iPhone coming with a slightly different appearance. Well, duh. The actually
interesting and not utterly predictable details like the 960x640 resolution
were released by "legitimate" sources like John Gruber, but nobody seems to be
outraged about that.
------
whatwhatwhat
"And I thought deeply about this, and I ended up concluding that the worst
thing that could possibly happen as we get big and we get a little bit more
influence in the world is if we change our core values" -Jobs
As they get big?
~~~
andreyf
Apple is still 17% smaller than Exxon:
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=apple+market+cap,+exxon...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=apple+market+cap,+exxon+market+cap)
~~~
esers
Exxon is a special type of company.
It was one of the largest, most-profitable companies in the world 100 years
ago (then known as Standard Oil).
Exxon is still one of the largest and most-profitable companies in the world
today.
And, given that many of their existing oilfields will continue producing for
the next 100 years, Exxon is likely to still be one of the most-profitable and
largest companies in the world long after we are all gone.
The same is true of the oil industry. The oil industry was one of the largest
and most profitable industries in the world long before we were all born. It
is still one of the worlds largest and most profitable industries today. And
it will still be so long after we are all gone.
Interesting fact: many oilfields in the San Joaquin basin of Southern
California have been producing oil since the 1890's. Continuously.
It's hard to think of many industries where the risk-capital that you invest
today will still be paying dividends 100 years from now.
~~~
andreyf
I wasn't being serious. The subtext was precisly that it's a little surreal
that Apple is the second largest American company by market cap, and from the
graph I linked to before, well on their way to top a company like Exxon.
------
jrockway
Steve Jobs tortured my kittens. It's true because I say so!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Eric S. Raymond only gets $20/mo on GitTip - grhmc
https://www.gittip.com/esr/
======
jnbiche
1\. It's per week.
2\. Even well-known, active coders only receive ~$200/week. The creator of
Drupal looks like the highest-paid coder at $420 (I know Chad Whitacre is a
coder but I'm guessing much of his compensation is for his valuable work on
gittip?).
3\. Yes, we've all read Cathedral and the Bazaar -- an influential work in
hacker and open source culture. And we've all read his opinionated guide on
how to be a hacker. But I had never heard or used any of his listed tools:
reposurgeon, deheader, coverity-submit, irkerd, doclifter, and cvs-fast-
export. Also, it's not clear if he wrote those or maintains them. I'm sure the
GPS and gif libraries he maintains are important, but I wasn't personally
familiar with them.
My point is: what is Eric S. Raymond doing these days, other than maintaining
a few interesting repos? And why do we owe him a living?
~~~
fecak
On his site he claims "One way or another, I have a couple meg of code and
documentation in the core toolset of every general-purpose Linux and BSD
distribution in existence." Assuming that is true, would your opinion about
'owing him a living' be different? I'm not suggesting that it should change
your opinion, but it's an interesting concept (to me anyway) to consider if
one's unpaid past work that benefits many others is a legacy worthy of some
compensation.
~~~
pedrocr
> _One way or another, I have a couple meg of code and documentation in the
> core toolset of every general-purpose Linux and BSD distribution in
> existence_
Is this true though? Wikipedia only lists CML2 (the rejected new config system
for the kernel). Grepping through Ubuntu's /usr/share/doc doesn't turn up much
either (libpng, libgif and some minor stuff).
~~~
fecak
I wasn't claiming it was or wasn't (those are ESR's words). My point was that
if it were true, would the poster's opinion be different. I'd be curious as to
how many people would actually pay past open source contributors due to some
personal sense of obligation or perhaps respect.
Some in this thread are asking 'what have you done for me lately?', but would
that feeling change if someone had done substantial (and assume again unpaid)
work that comprises the foundations of today's preferred toolset. Just an
interesting concept to consider.
~~~
kybernetikos
I pay people (not many of them yet, but I like gittip and hope to do more) who
I want to be free to create something interesting in the future. I do not see
it as recompense for their previous work but as a way for me to help them keep
doing the things that make us all great.
------
mherrmann
That's the problem with OS software - it's very hard to make money with it. I
have a startup developing a library for web automation. First question people
asked when I posted it here: "why is this not open source and why the fuck do
I need to pay?".
~~~
jh3
The response you're receiving seems normal if you're targeting developers.
------
chimeracoder
At the risk of getting downvoted, I'm more surprised that he's earning that
much.
Frankly, ESR hasn't contributed that much to the FOSS world, (either as a
coder or as an activist) in the last 5-10 years (ie, since 2009/2004),
compared to the late 90s/early 2000s.
Nowadays, the only times I hear about him are when he actively trolls the GNU
listserv, which is simply counterproductive and only hurts _both_ the free
software and open source movements.
For evidence, look at the search results, ordered by date, for "ESR" and
mentally filter out the ones that are posts of old articles or have too few
points to make the front page:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ESR#!/story/sort_by_date/0/ESR](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ESR#!/story/sort_by_date/0/ESR).
The two biggest recent posts were ones where he tries to get the FSF and/or
GNU projects to "admit" that "open source" is superior. Fortunately, IIRC,
both were flagged off the front page relatively quickly (possibly for setting
off the flamewar detector).
~~~
djur
ESR seems to like to take over maintainership of projects. There's nothing
wrong with that, but I know plenty of people who maintain lots of low-profile
projects who don't make a point of listing just how many projects they're
responsible for.
He also has a long history of turning whatever one-off tool he built for a
particular project into its own project (that nobody but him uses or develops)
and citing that as well.
He's done some decent work but that doesn't seem to satisfy him. He has to be
a leading light and a visionary, and he doesn't seem to know or care that
describing oneself as such is off-putting.
------
gwern
Are you implying he should get more?
~~~
JohnTHaller
I think it's more a matter of that's probably the most anyone is getting
tipped per week and they assumed it would be more. The same way people assume
that flattr and similar services adds up to meaningful amounts of money on a
regular basis for the large projects that use it.
~~~
_delirium
There are people who get considerably more than that on Gittip, though it's
true most people don't. ESR isn't that active a coder anymore, and afaict he
hasn't spent much time advertising his Gittip either, so it's extremely
passive income on his part.
The Gittip front page lists the top recipients, who are in the $150-650/wk
range. The top few recipients are actually making the equivalent of a modest
salary solely from Gittip contributions ($500/wk = $26k/yr).
------
IvyMike
It seems relevant to recall Raymond's VA Linux windfall post from back in the
day, if for no other reason than it illuminates his position on wealth.
[https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html](https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-
rich.html)
~~~
fecak
He also wrote this
[http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001022100120OPBZCY](http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001022100120OPBZCY)
------
scottydelta
This is because everyone in developer's community is asking for tips and
donations even if they can afford a standard living without it. I remember
reading an article which conveyed, ask for tips and donations only if your
livelihood depends on it and it sounds very reasonable.
------
akx
Per week.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rock 0.9.0, an ooc compiler written in ooc, is now self-hosting. - nddrylliog
https://lists.launchpad.net/ooc-dev/msg00101.html
======
rarestblog
Good to see the project developing. Now it's quite pleasant to work with,
instead of Java's version.
Have you ever considered TinyCC for backend instead of gcc? It's quite slow to
compile. "Hello, World" takes 4+ seconds to compile.
~~~
nddrylliog
Two excellent points. A quick look at the manpage will make obvious that we
routinely use gcc, tcc, clang and icc as C compiler backends =)
Also, -O2 is used by default, try compiling with "+-O0", it's a bit faster.
For big projects, it would simply not be possible to use the combine driver
all the time. In that case, simply use the options "-driver=sequence
-noclean", which will only recompile changed files. We intend to fix the
fragile base class problem soon enough, by dumping the class hierarchy in the
rock_tmp/ directory
One last point: it's slow to compile because 8-9 classes are pulled in almost
by default, some of which are big, like ArrayList. In the near future, we
intend to compile the sdk to a dynamic library so that compiles will be much
faster for everyone.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What job categories will be next to go? - sgt101
Jaron Lanier has commented on this in a recent interview, but I would like to ask people here for their opinion on what is next. As JL says we've seen translation, sectors of the music industry and journalism eaten up by the internet, what's next?<p>Teaching seems to be in everyone's crosshairs, IBM think customer service can be automated with Watson... what is your opinion?
======
nekopa
As a teacher (14+ years) and a tech guy (20+ years)I have researched for a
long time the idea that teachers could go away. But students always seem to
need the 'human' touch. It's irrational and against all logic, but I feel
there will always be a teacher. Sometimes that teacher may reach a million
students (udacity et al) or just one pupil (Yoda/mentor). I am now trying to
find the best way to augment teachers...
~~~
onlyup
Agreed, we will always need teachers in some form. Also governments have so
much invested in teachers that it will be a long process before the category
is eroded.
------
byoung2
When self driving cars become ubiquitous over the next decade, we will see the
end of taxi, bus, truck, and limo drivers, parking lot attendants, and valets.
~~~
dear
"Self-flying planes" have become ubiquitous for a long time and we are still
seeing pilots in every plane!
~~~
byoung2
Autopilot is still limited, and pilots still have to takeoff and land
manually, and intervene in the event of turbulence, etc. As AI improves, we'll
see a completely automated flight eventually.
_One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took
off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base
in search of an orange, green and blue tarp.
The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance,
no hand on any control._
[http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-09-19/national/35273...](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-09-19/national/35273383_1_drones-
human-target-military-base)
~~~
Someone
_"pilots still have to takeoff and land manually"_
Do they? I remember a landing 15 years ago or so where the pilot announced
"there's fog, so we had to land on automatic" (that was fog as in 'looking
down onto a cloud deck, while taxiing')
------
onlyup
The entertainment industry (music, games and movies) still does 2/3rds of it's
business from physical media so I'd say it will be okay in the shortterm
future.
------
shail
VCs? Angels?
~~~
onlyup
How come?
------
dkisit
Retail sales people
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Podesta Emails - aestetix
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/
======
vfulco
Yea so which is going to win out to the top of HN? Some reprehensible frat
party talk by one candidate or corrupt and treasonous acts by the other one
taking money on the side from our on again/off again frenemies the Russians.
Man, US citizens truly deserve the government they get (and I am one of them
facing another terrible set of choices for the election).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
YouTube Demonetizes Videos with Titles Containing LGBTQ-Related Words - ulucs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll8zGaWhofU
======
zeta0134
For those who don't feel like watching the video (it's long and a bit
dramatic), the group has put together a spreadsheet for viewing. Note that
this is ALL banned words, not just the ones this author has issues with, so
the content is decidedly NSFW. Proceed with caution.
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ozg1Cnm6SdtM4M5rATkA...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ozg1Cnm6SdtM4M5rATkANAi07xAzYWaKL7HKxyvoHzk/edit#gid=1380702445)
Honestly most of that list looks like a standard blacklist, but there are a
few items in the list that have become more socially acceptable recently. But
I'll refrain from calling out anything specific; form your own conclusions.
------
h2odragon
When wrongthink is defined as anything that isnt rightthink, rightthink can
change from moment to moment, and the consequences of deviationism are
unthinakble: we'll have the perfect consumer culture. NoThink. (TM) all rights
reserved and ask your doctor for a prescription.
------
StudentStuff
This is really awful behavior by Google. We need to eject Google from LGBTQ+
organizations so long as Google chooses to actively hurt us.
Don't let Google wrap itself in our flags while stabbing us in the back!
------
chrisco255
The internet has become too centralized.
------
ulucs
This just fell off from the main page, and is nowhere to be seen in the second
or third or anywhere else but "new". Is this normal behavior or did it get
soft-flagged or something?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Computer Worm Hits Iran Power Plant - jedwhite
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704082104575515581009698978.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLETopStories
======
jedwhite
Sorry, didn't realise it was behind the paywall.
Here's the open link for the story:
[http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142405274870408210...](http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704082104575515581009698978-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html)
~~~
mindviews
Thanks - this one works for me.
------
jsean
"The U.S. would be a less likely suspect because it uses offensive
cyberoperations infrequently and usually only under specific circumstances
when officials are confident the operation will affect only its target,
current and former U.S. officials said."
I wonder what a "current or former [any country] officials" would have said
other than a paraphrase of above...
Really I'm not being conspiratorial here, just thinking out aloud whether
quoted statement is meaningless or not.
------
Groxx
"Hits" implies the worm _did something_. All this article mentions is that a
few personal computers at the plant are infected (implying possibly more).
But, then again, shock-and-awe that WSJ would sink to linkbait titles.
------
mindviews
Does HN have guidelines for submitting links that are behind a paywall? I ask
because I don't have a WSJ account and couldn't read the linked article - then
realized I can't remember the last time I got stuck at a paywall dead end on
HN. I checked the guidelines and didn't see anything. Are we supposed to flag
these or just leave them alone? Thanks.
~~~
carbocation
You should be able to "Google+I'm Feeling Lucky" (GIFL) that and get it with
one click for free, if you would like:
[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Computer+Worm+Hits+Iran+Power+Plant&btnI=1)
(Note--not positive that the above link will work. If you google the title of
the article, the WSJ story is the first result, and clicking through should
give it to you for free from there.)
------
jedwhite
Makes you wonder if the creators of Stuxnet were spooked into trying to
trigger its payload by all the coverage of it, or if it's just a coincidence
that the Iranians admitted they were infected after info about it started to
get out.
------
tommynazareth
Yeah, right...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How many of you play music? - bart
I think that most of people have the common passion - music.<p>Many people just listen and enjoy. But I would like to know, how many of hackers actually play the music and which music style?
======
adrianh
Acoustic guitar, mostly gypsy-jazz style (Django Reinhardt) and a lot of
fingerstyle.
I play with some gypsy-jazz bands in Chicago and post YouTube videos here:
<http://youtube.com/adrianholovaty> \-- more than 12,000 subscribers! :-)
~~~
eguanlao
Co-creator of Django here, everyone. "Mad props" to you, Mr. Holovaty, for
Django. Oh, and your guitar playing is great.
------
ntoll
I'm a classically trained musician (Royal College of Music) and played
professionally for a couple of years before getting into software development.
My brother is also a musician turned developer and this seems to be a common
career path among former college friends.
_I_ play all sorts of music (not just classical) and will listen to most
things.
A life without music is truly empty.
------
colomon
I play bassoon in orchestra and piano on my own (though I'm very rusty at the
latter).
My main musical outlet these days is traditional dance music, primarily from
Ireland (with a strong focus on South Sligo) and Newfoundland. I play whistle
reasonably well and I'm working on learning wooden flute and one-row button
accordion. I write tunes in this style as well.
------
joshsharp
This has been asked before: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428776>
and my comment from that thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428969>
~~~
Retric
Thanks for the link I found: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=429043> to
be an interesting take.
I have zero intrest in Music and don't link CS with Math. While I was well
above average in math, relative to the average person, I am a far better
programmer and consider it a compleatly seperate toppic.
PS: My college DiffEQ teacher got annoyed when I said I had little intrest in
getting a masters in Math. I wonder how many programmers have the talent, but
lack the intrest.
~~~
menloparkbum
The Knuth comment was very interesting. I majored in Math and everyone in the
math department played some sort of instrument, even if it was the
stereotypical "nerdy kid forced to play the violin". Since I left school and
been in industry I'd say maybe 1 in 50 I meet play an instrument. However,
probably 4/5 of programmers I meet are bicyclists, or at least at own an
overpriced bike.
------
ewiethoff
I sing in a couple opera companies in New York City.
------
sofal
I'm a drummer and I'm saving up for this bad boy:
[http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=568...](http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=568160)
Oh, and I would rather stab myself with a fork than play punk.
~~~
turkishrevenge
"Oh, and I would rather stab myself with a fork than play punk." good for you,
but music should be emotive and a 20-minute Neil Pert drum solo is hardly
emotive. If you equate technical mastery of an (needlessly expensive)
instrument as the sole determining factor of musical enjoyment, I feel sorry
for you. I cannot see the appeal of some technical wizard like Yngwie
Malsteen. It's really, boring music at its core. Instrumental competence does
not mean good song writing.
~~~
gruseom
I agree, but this is a harder problem than it sounds. What's satisfying to the
musician and what's satisfying to the listener are often different. Many
musicians are interested in things that are hard or unusual to play. But most
great music is simple or at least has an emotionally accessible, simple core.
To have both an intellectual/technical engagement with the instrument and an
emotional engagement with the listener is not always easy. The intellectual
side is seductive, especially for the hacker type of musician.
The greatness of punk rock was that it swept aside (or more precisely pissed
all over) bombastic competence in favor of immediate vitality, which is much
closer to what music is all about. But something like that inevitably becomes
a formula and then you have the worst of both worlds: stupid and boring.
------
gamache
I play primarily drums, though often I putz around on whatever gut-harp is
within arm's reach. When I was playing in a band, we were a two-piece
grind/death band; we were also another two-piece doing instrumental rock. I
also play in a roughly annual Halloween Misfits cover band with some other
rock dudes from the area. _(Confidential to sofal: if punk is easy to play,
you're playing too slow. :)_
Gear: I have a Mapex Saturn 3pc (24x22 kick, 15x15 mounted tom, 18x16 floor
tom) with a 14x7 Ludwig Black Beauty snare. More of less is more. :D Also,
whatever cymbals I haven't killed yet -- right now it's Sabian crashes and
hats, 24" Paiste ride, 18" Wuhan china.
------
sidmitra
I play my desk, the hand rest on the chair... i even play with my laptop
keyboard when i'm on a role coding.
And i'm proud of it too :-)
------
haseman
In our software office of 14, 4 do not play a musical instrument
------
j2d2
I currently play guitar in a rock band called Shipyards
(www.myspace.com/shipyards). We're based in NYC.
I used to play in a band called First Aid Kit (before the swedes used the
name) and before we broke up we had the amazing experience of spending a month
opening for Finch (punk rock from California) playing to between 300 and 1000
kids.
I've played guitar since I was 12 and start with Metallica and Nirvana. I also
play drums.
------
bwanab
Tenor and Soprano Sax, Electric and Acoustic Guitar, Flute, plus lots of
synths, sampling, electronic production. Style is mostly rock in a broad
interpretation of the meaning of the word. This is a before work in the
morning, after kids go to sleep at night activity, though. If I could just
give up on that sleeping part in between....
------
Maciek416
I don't play but I compose quite a bit (mostly random electronic styles) for
my own personal listening.
~~~
tamas
I've been an amateur composer for a decade, and picked up guitar recently.
On a side note, coding VSI instruments and then utilizing them in my music can
be really gratifying. (And sometimes annoying too, when after dozens of man-
hours it still sounds like aliased hell.)
------
stcredzero
I've played Irish Traditional music on the tinwhistle for over 20 years. I've
taught it in schools that are part of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and
qualified to compete in the All-Ireland. (And never stood a chance. I'm agog
at how much musical talent there is in Ireland.)
------
GavinB
Not in a band presently, but do some recording for fun. Sample:
<http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/379399/So%20Far%20Beyond.mp3>
------
danielzarick
I am not a hacker by any means, but I do have a band. If you want to check us
out I would love to hear your thoughts: www.myspace.com/augustmoonis or you
can download our whole EP for free here:
<http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/album/august-moon/strategy-truck/>
Unfortunately we never play shows (tonight is the first in 6 months) since I
have moved off to Chicago from Louisville, KY where we originate. But it is
always fun when we get a chance.
------
flooha
I play guitar and drums. I did the band thing 15 years ago and had some local
success with a band called Uncle Knucklefunk. Our high point was opening up
for Ace Frehley (who had no desire to even say hi to us by the way, which was
devastating for our other guitar player whose idol was Ace.)
Now I play drums more than guitar, just because I enjoy it more. I have two
boys who are both amazing on drums. The funny part is that I didn't teach them
much. They learned by playing Rock Band and they're both better than me now.
------
tricky
I play guitar. I'm always in a band or two. Mostly synth-rock bands. Lately,
I've been trying to put together a cuddlecore-twee-grindcore thing with a lot
of moog. We'll see how that goes.
------
eguanlao
I sing. I took voice lessons for many years, and was "president" of my high
school choir for two consecutive years. I love jazz and adult contemporary. I
sang two songs at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago: "Come Fly with Me" and
"Summer Wind." I can also play guitar; I took lessons when I was a teenager. I
also taught myself the electric bass, including the slap-and-pop technique.
And, I taught myself the piano, which I love but don't play as much as I would
like.
------
jasongullickson
These days the instrument I play most is acoustic guitar, primarily out of
convenience.
In the past (and when time allows) I've made almost anything into an
instrument, and recorded styles that range from classical to noise.
For me the music I make has more to do with the context in which it is made
than a purposeful selection of style, instruments and genre.
------
spencerfry
Does Rock Band count? I'm Expert on guitar and bass. ;)
More seriously, I do sing some and I took a few years of African drums.
------
phugoid
Guitar, electric and acoustic. I'm very much out of practice these days - my
two year old son is the priority. He already has musical taste - he comes over
and mutes my strings whenever I play!
I love playing some of those old Celtic tunes I grew up listening to in Cape
Breton, meant for violin but nice on guitar as well.
------
pie
I play drums, trumpet, accordion, guitar, bass, keyboard, banjo, and whatever
else I get my hands on.
Putting together a complex song with audio software -- wiring together effects
and virtual instruments and tweaking MIDI programs and settings -- feels
remarkably similar to working through a medium-sized software project.
------
humbledrone
I play music in many different styles; from electronica to folk. When I
recently bought a banjo, my girlfriend forced me to count how many musical
instruments I had. I lost track around 14... The only problem is that with my
time divided between them I never have a chance to get very good at any of
them.
------
spooneybarger
guitar. punk rock. krylls.com.
there, i got the url in. sweet.
------
Gibbon
I play keyboards, guitar and just started learning the drums. Plus I'm typing
this from my studio full of equipment. Synths, samplers, drum machines etc,
mostly used for house and breaks tracks.
Also played the trombone in school until I was kicked out for improvising all
the time.
------
flashgordon
play carnatic violin and sing (south indian classical)... used to hate it in
school.. what an idiot!!!
------
TallGuyShort
I play piano, and I kind of have my own style. I can read music, but I
generally take a melody, syncopate it, and add my own harmonies and nuances as
I play it, by ear. Lately I've been taking guitar tabs, transferring them to
the piano, and then tinkering with those.
------
newy
Tangential question - can any of you recommend the best way of going about
learning how to play the piano. Is the only way a tutor? I've picked up
playing guitar for following tabs and YouTube videos, but don't seem to be
having the same luck with piano.
------
maggie
Organ, piano, bassoon; used to play the first two at
weddings/funerals/receptions and substitute-play at various churches. I'm not
so good at the bassoon.
My favorite is chamber music, but I haven't even had time for jam sessions the
past year or so...
------
zkz
I tried and I'm horrible. I'd really like to be a good musician but I spend my
time programming and reading and drawing and writing and not doing music, so
I'm not good at that (also I'm naturally awful). I'm a good programmer, but
very bad at music.
------
mitechka
Acoustic guitar, recorder, ukulele, djembe. I have a small collection of folk
instruments and try to learn to play each one of them at least a little bit,
so I can play (or at least produce semi-musical sounds from) things like duduk
and rababah :)
------
john_marsch
I try to play a guitar, but rarely have I the time lately trying to find the
time to learn scheme and tcl/tk at the same time during some occasional
readings of tao/zen/scifi literature. I try to keep myself busy, it wears off
the time :)
------
surgesg
I consider myself a composer first, but I code my own laptop instruments and
have experimented with networked performance as well.
<http://www.uwm.edu/~gssurges/>
------
Gertm
I play guitar in a band. Mostly pop/blues/soul/rock, and a tiny bit of jazz.
------
abyssknight
I'm a percussionist with a miniscule amount of guitar knowledge. :) As far as
style, I've played everything from big band music and hymns through scream-o.
I prefer not to lock into a style of anything.
------
maryrosecook
Have a solo band: <http://werenotthecoolkids.com>
Kind of pop/noise/experimental; to put it another way: a noise band playing
pretty melodies.
------
dkasper
Trumpet player, played lead in jazz and principal in orchestra when i was in
college. Also done some random shows with local rock bands looking for a horn
player and church cantatas at the holidays.
------
s-phi-nl
I have studied classical violin for almost 11 years, and am in an orchestra. I
also like to sing (some mix between songs from musicals, hymns, and classical
music, in about that order).
------
runningskull
I play 5-string banjo, 3-finger style. It grabbed hold of me and now it just
sucks up my time.
But it's worth it. I'm getting pretty good, so who cares about doing actual
work. :D
------
robbiecanuck
I played trombone through college (jazz band). Now I play bass and sing in a
rock/blues band that gigs once or twice per month. I also hack around on
guitar.
------
seertaak
I play guitar, sing, and compose for the Signals.
(<http://www.myspace.com/thesignalsuk>)
~~~
bart
Do you think that bands like Signals would like to auction their unique things
(guitar, signed tshirt, special call ... like NIN drummer) to get some
revenue?
~~~
access_denied
The standard is to do that to rise some funds for charity. I don't think you
can change that into a business, becuase a band who would change from charity
to profit would come of too greedy and self-important. You won't be able to
sell that to the cool-kids.
~~~
bart
I think that you ha ve a good point of view. But I think that it is normal for
bands to sell their own stuff on the concerts, etc.
<http://mashable.com/2009/02/20/josh-freese-album-promotion> took it step
further and he is selling package for USD 75K. Do you see it too greedy? I
think that fans are ok with it, but there is a problem, that similar package
can be bought just by few guys.
------
dc2k08
piano/keyboards - have my eyes on one of these:
[http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Products&clpm=Nord_Stag...](http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Products&clpm=Nord_Stage_EX&clnsm=Information)
by the way, 4 part series on music theory that's worth a watch:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbOWi6f_IM>
------
paul9290
Piano, guitar and sing the songs I write. I had the urge to start learning to
play when I started hearing songs in my head Id never heard before.
------
TrevorJ
I play the guitar and from time-to-time I lay down some random midi tracks and
generally just mess around with various sequencer software.
------
mullr
Electric guitar at the moment. Blues, jazz lately.
------
xcombinator
I play the computer, using my own programs to make-create music. Playing a
standard instrument bores me(too much repetition).
------
Oompa
I played Violin for 5 years, but quit two years ago. I just don't have the
time to practice anymore, going to GATech.
------
d3vvnull
Vocals, guitar, and keyboards. I semi-frequently record tracks in GarageBand.
I ping-pong between rock and trip hop.
------
cousin_it
I'm an amateur with no formal training; play fingerstyle guitar, sing and
beatbox. Love jamming in the street.
------
grnknight
Acoustic guitar - mostly folk and alternative rock. And typically it's just
for myself or my family. :)
------
adw
Guitar, bass, keys/electronics (laptop, Tenori-On), and I sort of sing a bit.
Used to play violin.
------
wfarr
Single reeds and a bit of piano and percussion.
Classically trained, but I do a lot of jazz too.
------
noahlt
Classically trained violinist, though my forte is in improvisation (classical,
rock, and jazz).
------
thebryce
Guitar, bass guitar, double bass, and most low brass. Progressive rock, blues,
and jazz, baby.
------
mildavw
Jazz Bass - <http://duoroyale.com>
------
pshc
Violin, saxophone, learning the bass. Mostly jazzy style, but all-around.
------
nickfox
Hard rock with red left-handed stratocaster... Crank it up, baybee!! :o)
------
ilivewithian
I'm learning the piano at the moment, I'm learning classical music.
------
tjr
I play piano/B3 organ and bass guitar, mostly jazz/gospel.
------
vollmond
Classical violin, as well as acoustic and rock guitar.
------
antirez
I play guitar and bongos for fun with my friends.
------
gintas
Piano (classical/jazz). A little djembe too.
------
ken
I'm in the middle of a taiko apprenticeship.
------
ssharp
drums, guitar, piano/keyboards in that order.
i write melodic alt rock songs and produce hip hop as well.
------
neuromanta
I play on harmonica, blues mostly
------
evilneanderthal
drummer, gothenburg-style metal
------
tamersalama
Piano. Classical. Used To.
------
TheSOB88
I am an ex-trombone, bass singer, and arranger of the Gamer Symphony
Orchestra, an 80-person student orchestra at UMD College Park that plays
exclusively video game music. Check us out here:
<http://umd.gamersymphony.org/>
We've done a wide range of songs. Stuff from Mother 3, Zelda, Kirby, Halo,
Tetris, the works. We've got recordings on the site. Our last concert
attracted 1100 people. I'm very proud to be a part of it.
| {
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Mathematical explanation of music and white/black notes in a piano - tpinto
http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/11669/mathematical-difference-between-white-and-black-notes-in-a-piano
======
gjm11
The short answer is: the diatonic scale in a given key consists of notes whose
frequencies are those of the keynote times certain simple rational numbers;
the white notes on the piano are those that belong to the diatonic scale based
on C.
What's special about those simple rational-number ratios? Answer: on most
musical instruments, notes whose frequencies are in simple rational ratios
sound nice together. This turns out (surprisingly, at least to me) to be a
fact about the instrument and not merely about the notes; when you play a
given note on a given instrument, you get (kinda) sine waves whose frequencies
are those of the given note, plus some higher frequencies; exactly what the
higher frequencies are and how much of each you get depends on the instrument.
For most instruments, the higher frequencies are integer multiples of the
fundamental frequency, and that turns out to mean that the good-sounding
combinations of notes are ones with simple rational frequency ratios; but
there are instruments that behave differently (e.g., a tuned circular drum; or
you can make a synthesized instrument that does anything you like) and
_different chords will sound good on them_.
For much more on this, see William Sethares's book "Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum,
Scale" and his web pages at <http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/ttss.html>
where you can find, e.g., some music in unorthodox scales performed on
(synthetic) instruments designed to make the harmony sound good.
For instance: listen to
<http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/tenfingersX.mp3> and hear how
out-of-tune it sounds. Now try
<http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/Ten_Fingers.mp3> which has
exactly the same notes but played on a synthetic instrument designed to make
the harmonies work.
------
extension
The top answer on stackexchange is a _superb_ explanation of musical science
that most of the finest musicians in history could not give you. They just
don't teach you these things in music class.
Musical culture seems to resist illumination, perhaps fearing that the "magic"
will somehow be broken. The irony is that music _is_ , in a sense, a
mathematical illusion, but revealing the trick only makes it more fascinating.
I will add one important point that hasn't really been made: The purpose of
equal temperament may have _originally_ been to "change keys without
retuning", but it also essentially allows you to play in 12 different keys _at
the same time_. This has been exploited to great lengths as source of musical
novelty and is absolutely fundamental to modern music.
~~~
alextgordon
_Musical culture seems to resist illumination, perhaps fearing that the
"magic" will somehow be broken. The irony is that music is, in a sense, a
mathematical illusion, but revealing the trick only makes it more
fascinating._
This is true, but I think the answer is far more mundane. Musicians operate at
a couple of levels of abstraction above that SO answer, so such details become
irrelevant to them.
Imagine if the standard introduction to programming was a course on Java or
PHP. Pretty soon you'd have a plethora of programmers who didn't know a thing
about pointers or any of the old tricks programmers used to do with assembly.
Wait... that's already happened :)
~~~
JeremyBanks
I'm not sure I understand. Your argument for why musicians _should_ start at a
higher level of abstraction is that starting programmers at a higher level of
abstract works out poorly?
------
kainhighwind
I'm glad folks are finding this interesting. However, this is pretty much
common knowledge to anyone who has taken music theory. It's usually not given
a great deal of attention as most musicians using the standard 12 tone don't
care much about what's going on under the hood. They're a bit like programmers
who use a high level language and an IDE and don't know how a compiler or
assembly works.
Just a bit funny to come across it here, it'd be a bit like finding out
musicians were talking on a forum going 'wow, computer programs are written
using structured text files!' or something of the like. Not trying to be
rude..
------
hasenj
The piano to me feels like an iPhone, it does a lot of things well, and it
hides many details from you. I don't know if real pianos are
tunable/adjustable, but the electronic one we have at home certainly isn't
(except in its ability to sounds as different instruments).
I recently bought a Oud[1], a classical stringed middle eastern instrument,
it's not fretted, it's portable, and adjustable. To me, when I compare it to
the piano, the Oud feels like the Unix of musical instruments. It's a bit hard
to get used to at first, but it's designed to be lite-weight (portable) and
adjustable, allowing power users to be very creative and expressive. Most
other users will stick to a standard tuning and placement of fingers.
I'm not super-bothered by the way the piano is layed out, to me it's just a
simplified instrument that works for 95% of the cases.
What I don't understand is why do all the middle eastern scales (maqam[2])
have 7 tones. The fact the western C major scale also has 7 tones is just
another example of yet another scale with 7 tones (and it happens to
correspond to the Ajam maqam[3]).
There are some middle eastern scales not really playable on a piano, like the
Rast[4], unless the piano is somehow adjustable.
[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oud>
[2]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_maqam>
[3]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajam_(maqam)>
[4]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rast_(maqam)>
~~~
wazoox
> _I don't know if real pianos are tunable/adjustable, but the electronic one
> we have at home certainly isn't (except in its ability to sounds as
> different instruments)._
An acoustic piano cannot be easily tuned (it takes a couple of hours to a
trained specialist, because there are more than 200 strings to adjust).
However "serious" electronic keyboards have been fine-tunable for more than 20
years. Many of them can play any microtonal scale you may imagine, and many
different classic temperaments are pre-programmed.
~~~
hasenj
Yea I've seen a Youtube video of someone adjusting a Yamaha keyboard to play
notes on middle eastern scales.
------
cletus
Years ago I watched a British documentary called _Howard Goodall's Big Bangs_.
It's well worth watching. It explains how music theory developed from
Pythagoras's (matching the 12 keys on the piano). It's an interesting exercise
to "prove" these 12 steps based on this simple ratio.
What came much later was equal temperament. The 12 steps don't match up
exactly. Equal temperament changes the notes slightly by changing the ratio
slightly (to factors of the 12th root of 2). I believe it was Bach who first
discovered this.
Not all cultures use equal temperament but it is overwhelmingly dominant in
the West.
The series also explains chords, keys and so on. For someone like me who is
more mathematically inclined it was fascinating. Give it a look if you can.
Oh also it wasn't the BBC as you might expect. It was Channel 4.
------
fxj
12 tones is not the only possibility. there is also a 19 tone scale:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_equal_temperament>
there are also some mp3 files using 19 tone scale: e.g.
[http://www.harrington.lunarpages.com/mp3/Jeff-
Harrington_Pre...](http://www.harrington.lunarpages.com/mp3/Jeff-
Harrington_Prelude_3_for_19ET_Piano.mp3)
~~~
wazoox
Sounds great, thanks for the music link :)
------
hugh3
I think there are different answers at different levels.
On one level, the white notes are the notes of the C major scale, and the
black notes are the semitones which are left over. Why not put all the
semitones in one row? That would be much harder to play. Why split it into "C
major" and "leftovers"? A bunch of semi-arbitrary decisions made by early
harpsichord manufacturers, I guess, which happen to make the instrument easier
to play than most alternatives.
If you're looking for an explanation of why the notes of the major scale sound
good together whereas most alternative modes sound weird, that's a more
difficult question.
~~~
nix
Supposedly there is a mathematical reason for the 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 spacing of the
major scale. If you take all possible pairs of notes in the diatonic scale,
you get a richer distribution of intervals than you can produce with any other
seven-note selection from the twelve note scale. Similarly, the classic
pentatonic scale provides the best set of intervals for any five-note
selection from the twelve. A better set of intervals might lead to a better
choice of chords too.
This is my somewhat fuzzy recollection from a paper I read a long time ago.
Someone out there can check with three lines of R, right?
~~~
manlon
If you start with the 12 chromatic tones and start addding notes to a scale
going up a circle of fifths, there are two natural stopping points where you
have spanned the octave with a complete-sounding set of notes with relatively
equal spacing and no gaps: five notes, which gives whole-step and minor-third
intervals; and seven notes, which gives whole-step and half-step intervals.
These two scales correspond to the spacing of the black notes and the white
notes, which are mirror images of each other around the circle of fifths. Any
other choice of scale size would have gaps, I believe.
~~~
nix
The drawback to this explanation is that the diatonic scale is 10,000 years
older than the "circle of fifths". So it presumably had some appeal to
musicians as well as to music theorists.
~~~
dmoney
Where do you find 10,000 year old music?
~~~
nix
You infer it from the existence of 10,000 year old musical instruments.
See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatonic_scale#Prehistory> \- which also
says that the circle of fifths was described much earlier than I thought.
------
cturner
I've recently read _How Music Works_.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Music-Works-listener%C2%92s-harmony/dp/1846143152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290710570&sr=8-1
Covers the physics of sound and harmonics as well. Recommend.
------
JonnieCache
I can highly recommend this lecture, Notes and Neurons, from the 2009 World
Science Festival. It features a panel of neuroscientists discussing the
possible physiological encodings of the various mathematical structures
discussed here. It also includes some amazing participative musical
performances from Bobby McFerrin.
<http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/video/notes-neurons-full>
------
edanm
If you missed it, there's a link to a _free_ ebook called "Music: a
Mathematical Offering" -<http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-
music.html>
Haven't read it, but it looks good.
------
wzdd
If you're just after a listen, there are lots of examples of alternative
systems on youtube. Here's 19-tone, equal temperament (as opposed to the usual
12 TET): <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EP0KvbxW8o>
I like the above example because it always starts by sounding "off" to me but
seems okay by the end of the piece. It's a matter of what you're used to.
------
stupidsignup
For anyone interested in that kind of stuff: read "Musimathics", volume I
especially.
------
MrJagil
kinda-off-topic: I am very often baffled by the sheer mathematical and general
complexity of music. Each music-related wikipedia article is the stub of a
link-tree that quickly ends up in confounding complexity.
The highly emotional associations I get of rock musicians and metal concerts
when thinking about music could not be further from the science of music.
------
jacquesm
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths>
| {
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My Startup Manifesto - Maro
http://bytepawn.com/2009/01/25/my-startup-manifesto/
======
jacobscott
"make sure the architecture and code is examplary"
If you have time to write beautiful code at a startup, I might be suspicious.
If something is ugly but not broken, why spend the time to fix it (versus
releasing a new feature)? If you do everything right the first time, more
power to you, but I think the prior suggests otherwise.
"Look for fundamental problems and propose fundamental solutions. Shoot as
deep into the software stack as plausible/possible."
Not that I explicitly disagree, but the deeper you go, I suspect the higher
your implementation risk.
~~~
rw
The payoff for reducing code complexity, and thereby improving your intuition
for the system, can be very high in the medium- and long-term.
~~~
moe
I'd also add that if your project happens to be a "me-too" (which most
projects probably are) then technical excellence might even be the deciding
factor to establish and justify a presence in the marketplace.
I wonder why these advisory articles always assume that the common startup is
built around some truly novel idea. In my expirience the opposite is true; 1%
inspiration, 99% perspiration...
~~~
anamax
> technical excellence might even be the deciding factor to establish and
> justify a presence [for a "me-too" project] in the marketplace.
How often does technical excellence have a significant role in establishing
presence in the marketplace? (I don't understand "justify". Justify to whom?)
~~~
Maro
I think you're thinking in terms of end-user products, like a website. In this
case, technical excellence may be less relevant as long as it works. However,
if you're selling technology, like in the example given at the end of article,
technical excellence may carry a higher payoff. Another example: id software
selling their engines to other game developers.
------
point
Haha, top down approach that will fail as surely as I wipe my ass after going
to the toilet. You think you have discovered something new and hidden and
sweet - well, hundreds of people have found it before you, and they have
silently failed. That's why you cannot study them.
There is only one way to get rich if you are not one of the elite - get off
your high horse and get dirty. Start quick, test quickly, poll users and don't
charge at first. Evolve, evolve, and evolve. Then get slimy. Studiously ignore
techcrunch and focus on the smaller people. All these people who speak about
'buzz', they are part of a social network you are not a part of. They don't
tell you this, so you do the same things and you wonder why yours does not
work. Observe this eco-system, but do not ever believe you are a part of it,
otherwise you will be blocked by their constraints but have none of their
advantages.
There is no design for making money that works. There is no grand plan,
because if there were, someone who have tried it and executed it successfully.
There is just having a product, then modeling it in ways that sell it. Then
reaching a huge amount of people. Use tricks like network effect, auto
spreading, etc. Don't just drop it and expect anything to happen.
Most important rule: Don't let the constraints that tie the minds here tie you
down.
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Angry customer files class action suit against Theranos - dbcooper
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/25/11776186/theranos-edison-blood-test-results-class-action-lawsuit
======
dbcooper
Link to the complaint:
[https://www.scribd.com/doc/313828583/Theranos-
Complaint](https://www.scribd.com/doc/313828583/Theranos-Complaint)
| {
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Is Google Making Us Stupid? (2008) - winanga
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
======
Gompers
At 4,220 words, he proves Google isn't making his writing more terse or
staccato. And, with 22 links scattered throughout, are we expected to make it
all the way through in one go without being distracted?
I'm tired of articles like this one. It's nothing more than people used to an
old medium bemoaning the new one. To his credit, Mr. Carr draws the apt
comparison with Plato:
_In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared
that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the
knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of
one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become
forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of
information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very
knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” They would be
“filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.”_
Obviously, the development of writing changed the world (I contend for the
better, but that may be debateable). The crux of the article is that people
will rely on the internet (Google) for information, instead of knowing it. I
propose this scenario as a counter-example (originally from somewhere else,
but I can't remember the source):
Suppose you have two people, Alice and Bob. Alice is your typical human being,
and knows quite a bit about a range of topics. Bob has some kind of dementia
that keeps him from being able to remember things, so he jots everything down
in a notebook. If you ask him something, he'll consult his notebook. He has an
equivalent amount of information as Alice. Who is smarter?
| {
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When Polymorphism Fails - yarapavan
http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/when-polymorphism-fails
======
thwarted
_You get the easy part: you need to decide what classes Willie is to construct
the tree with._ ... _I won't give away the answer, but a Standard Bad Solution
involves the use of a switch or case statment (or just good old-fashioned
cascaded-ifs). A Slightly Better Solution involves using a table of function
pointers, and the Probably Best Solution involves using polymorphism._
If the requirement was to show which _classes_ should be used and the result
is a series of conditionals or function pointers (even if they are wrapped in
a single "operator" class), I'd say the requirements _have not_ been met. To
me, "classes" implies doing it with a class hierarchy or polymorphism.
------
jsteele
That example of coding an elfLikesMe attribute for 150 monster types, why to
code it at all? My first hunch would be to use SQL table for monster
attributes, then adding new attribute would be equivalent to adding a new SQL
field, or table?
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Life is Short Get a Mac | SaveDelete - yogeshmankani
http://savedelete.com/life-is-short-get-a-mac.html
======
salami_sam
Worthless writeup
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Great "About Us" page design..Bobbleheads - neovive
http://www.atlassian.com/company/about
======
sixtofour
Times out in a normal browser at the moment.
If you use a text browser like elinks it looks like any other normal page.
Although in text mode it would have looked better if everything was lined up
left with minimal spacing between lines.
Ah, it just loaded, but only one of the heads showed up. Cute.
------
arc_of_descent
Funny and different. Click on the heads to make them bobble even harder.
------
jcpmmx
sweet!
------
jsavimbi
Cool approach, but if I were a prospective employee or client I'd be weary of
a large executive committee that is willing to spend that kind of money on
what amounts to a vanity gag.
~~~
Pewpewarrows
Injecting a little humor and character into your corporation via some creative
pages on your website will make me _more_ likely to do business with you. It
humanizes the company.
~~~
jsavimbi
Sorry to be a downer, but it all depends depends on how you look at it. To me
it looks like this group of executives has decided to celebrate itself under
the guise of humor. I'm more of an egalitarian than that.
~~~
mrgoldenbrown
Would you react the same way if they had boring but equally expensive
professional photos instead of bobbleheads?
| {
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FTC Announces Winners of “Zapping Rachel” Robocall Contest - klous
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/08/ftc-announces-winners-zapping-rachel-robocall-contest
======
bkruse
I work in the telecom space. I was previously over the carrier network at
MagicJack and oversaw about 600 million minutes a month of telecom "traffic".
I can say that the awareness is a step in the right direction, but these
"solutions" are anything but a solution.
I don't think it's as simple as people think - for example, simply make sure
the person owns the CallerID. At what point in the call stream would that be
validated? You have to think that, when a call is made through a typical VoIP
provider, it is most likely passed through 10 carriers (through arbitrage
long-distance, then IXCs, then tandem/CLLI/POI CLLI).
I believe a good step would be to simply let the FTC trace using the CIC code
that all carriers send over the PSTN/traditional telecom network. That way,
the FTC could track a particular call or number through all the carriers until
it reaches the originating information. The FTC has the capability to do that
now, and based on the number of subpoena requests I've received (about
10/day), they actively do it.
The problem is that the companies doing the "illegal" robocalling (business to
consumer/DNC or TSR violations) are overseas. There is no way, IMHO, that it
can be stopped as long as long-distance providers exist.
~~~
MichaelGG
Yeah, if these were real solutions, I'd pay a lot more than $3K to get the
details on them. I've spent far more than that on the problem.
At one point we were doing around a billion calls a day by a customer that
swore they had nothing to do with dialer. They mixed the traffic very
skillfully, so they always kept their overall statistics just at the
contractual limit.
Blocking repeated source numbers just means people start making up numbers. At
that point, you can't really block things. You could perhaps get a score of
the likelihood of a call being legit, and perhaps retroactively you could
determine a bunch of calls had a high amount of dialer. But I don't think it's
possible to find an algorithm that has a good-enough accuracy rate to do real-
time blocking.
Of course, from a telecom perspective, I don't really care about the content
of the call. I just want the avg duration to not be so low that other carriers
get upset. To that end, simply making sure dialer customers don't hangup
immediately seems to suffice.
~~~
bkruse
Michael,
You are exactly right. All the traditional means (like blocking a callerID) is
far past it's useful time. The dialer companies are getting smarter as well.
It's BIG business for them, so it's worth the money to figure out solutions.
Also, it's very difficult to error on the side of caution - you do not want to
block a normal phone call, or your upstream will stop sending you calls and
you lose money.
Typically, a dialer customer will hangup once an answering machine is detected
(usually around 2 seconds into the call) - causing lots of short duration
calls. What the dialer customer's are doing now, is simply holding the call
open for longer, to raise their overall ACD. It's a tough game. The moment
telecom carriers start caring about what the call is (call types, information
in the call, etc) - they become liable.
~~~
MichaelGG
That's the thing I don't get - if a dialer customer doesn't immediately hangup
on answering machines, and gets past the 6-second mark, "magically", everyone
stops considering it dialer. Their rates then drop dramatically. That is, the
dialer people are literally costing themselves more money by aggressively
hanging up.
OTOH, it seems like a lot of people in telecom can't do simple math. For
instance, the desire of customers wanting to buy flat rate for a very non-flat
area. It's trivial to show that they'll never end up paying less on a flat
rate, but they still insist.
If the stats are good, then why would any carrier care about the content? A
lot of dialer is legal (like political dialer).
~~~
bkruse
You got it! Political surveys as well as B2B. It makes no sense that it's
magically non-dialer since 75% of the calls are now 12 seconds instead of 6
seconds :P
People don't understand that flat-rate in this day in age means "I will send
you all of my calls that are above the flat-rate, to your flat-rate" \- aka
LCR'ing the flat-rate. The whole industry has changed so much in the last 4
years. I am excited to see if the $0.0007 flat intercarrier FTC ruling will
ever go through.
You are right - if the stats are good, the carrier doesn't care. The stats are
the ONLY thing the carrier can control, and should control, imo.
------
js2
My home phone routes callers not on a white list to a message to "press 1 to
ring the line", then drops them into voice mail if they don't do so. A
blacklist requires callers to "press 1 to leave a message." Voice mails are
transcribed and e-mailed to both me and my wife.
Since implementing this about a year ago, I've had zero robocalls actually
ring my home line. Previously I was getting 7-10 per week.
Implemented using Anveo call flow.
------
akeck
I personally find the following low tech method effective for me:
o All home calls go to voicemail without exception. We pick up if we recognize
the voice or the caller. No one seems to mind except my mother-in-law. She's
gotten used to it though. I've also noticed everyone below a certain age
rarely uses voice.
o I've added every number with which I regularly interact to my cell address
book. If a call comes in from an unknown number, it goes to voicemail without
exception.
YMMV.
Being both a math and a tech person, I would like to do a cost and
effectiveness study comparing the purely technical solutions from the contest
with solutions like the above.
------
aetch
Interesting prize money amount of $3,133.70. I assume this is supposed to
reference leet?
------
mey
The ease at which caller id is spoofed could be solved by the carriers. If
sent called id information doesn't match line termination information (geo
location and owned phone numbers) block the call.
~~~
devicenull
This, just like IP spoofing is something that should be straightforward to
correct. However, the carrier in both cases has incentives to continue
allowing it (getting to charge for minutes, or bandwidth).
~~~
bkruse
I wouldn't say that carrier's have a large incentive. Dialer or robocall
traffic is normally frowned upon in the telecom community. We charge per
minute, and dialer traffic is the worst offender or taking up large amounts of
resources, while providing very little minutes. To give you an idea, a typical
robodialer user may have 30% of their calls answered, and an average call
length of 16 seconds. Whereas a "retail" or normal long-distance customer has
an 85% answer ratio (ASR) and a 2+ minute average call length/duration (ACD).
All of the tier-1 telecom carriers have strict rules AGAINST this type of
traffic. From a business perspective, a single T1 (23/24 channels), I can get
~200-300k minutes/month worth of usage. With a dialer customer, I can expect
about 40k minutes/month
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Is a .co domain worth it? - nestlequ1k
I'm thinking about buying .co domain for about a thousand dollars for a consumer targeted product I'm building.<p>In your experience, do end users understand .co or do you think they'll try to type in the .com version instead.
======
mjs00
If you are convinced that .com is parked domain mega-corp that you won't have
to compete with, .co is OK if you can also get .net/.org, so can 'own' the
brand.
Assuming you are startup where company name is product name, I think the
_more_ important thing is to be able to get the matching twitter and facebook
ID, if you can get same same as what you are targeting .co for.
------
mmaryni
those guys here have no idea about .co so do not listen to them. Many top
brands are using .co`s and every day you can find more. Twitter, Aspen.co (
2.08 billion revenue), Rolls-Royce.co, Sra.co, JCO.co, DuiLawyers.co,
Reeves.co and many more.
.Co can rank better than .com. Just go to google.com and type in " Charlotte
Church" or "bmr" or "i3DTV" My advice to you do not listen people whose mind
is not flexible. If people like this govern this world we would have one brand
of shoes, car, computer etc. Apart from that they never successful as success
require seeing things before they come. if you want you cant contact me at
mmaryni at yahoo.com
Good luck
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k0sCnzzVtNs)
------
narad
.co is a failure. They sell very less than a .com Only typo traffic you might
get. Since google eliminates typos, chances of getting traffic intended for
.com is very slim. Also, .co domains are columbia specific, have not come to
mainstream, except a few rare cases.
~~~
nestlequ1k
Well, there's no .com domain (it's just parked) for the company name I've
chosen. So the options are getXXXX.com (which i know own) or XXXX.co (which
I'm thinking of purchasing). Thanks for your thoughts on the matter
~~~
albertogh
As someone who bought his first domain from someone else some weeks ago, I'd
suggest you to contact the current owner and ask them if they might be
interested in selling it. After a few days of negotiation, I was able to get
the domain for a very reasonable price.
------
md1515
Not sure if .co domain names get indexed properly for SEO either so be careful
of that.
------
CyrusL
Absolutely not. I always recommend the weaker .com over the stronger .net or
ccTLD
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter Has the "Now Syndrome" - dshipper
http://danshipper.com/the-now-syndrome
======
natrius
_"And so in their effort to make billions now, Twitter is slashing and burning
the same 3rd party developers that helped to make it the behemoth it is
today."_
Third-party Twitter _clients_ (that is, replacements for Twitter's site and
official apps) had little impact on Twitter's success. It's a story that
sounds good, but I don't see any evidence for it. Those are the only
developers that are materially hurt by Twitter's new policies.
_"They spend the 6 months they could have used learning to code, trying to
find a cofounder instead."_
Someone who thinks they might want to start a software business in the future
should definitely learn how to program. Someone who's starting a software
business _right now_ should pay someone else in dollars or equity to get it
done. It takes more than six months to become a competent programmer, let
alone become familiar with the tools and practices needed to build a modern
web application or mobile app. This just isn't very good advice at all.
~~~
danenania
While it definitely would take a novice programmer much longer than 6 months
to learn to build a production caliber web app, it's plenty of time to make a
functioning prototype and get some perspective on the craft. This can focus
and clarify the concept, get you taken more seriously, and make you about
1000% more effective at hiring and managing developers down the line.
Unless you have piles of money or friends in high places, learning some
programming is a great place to start if you want to build a tech startup and
aren't already a developer. It isn't the be-all end-all, but I'd definitely
agree that spending 6 months educating yourself and getting something created,
even if it's sloppy, is better use of time than cruising around meetups and
networking events trying to find someone to implement your idea for you. Ditto
for hiring contractors who you can afford and won't leave you with a lemon
when you have no basis for judging whether someone knows wtf they're talking
about.
~~~
natrius
If you don't have money _and_ you don't know how to program, don't quit your
day job.
------
graiz
Twitter is just being stupid. They could easily offer a "pro" version of
twitter that would give end-users verified accounts, added stats, better
photos, wide open use of the API for 3rd party apps, etc.
Some calculations... \- 500 million accounts. \- 1% conversion (they could 2%
or higher) \- 5 million conversions \- $50/year Wooo hoo. $250 million. Ok,
not a billion but not a bad start, all without burning developers or free
users.
Charge businesses for business level accounts and analytics and you could get
another $250M.
Twitter's problem isn't just a "Now" problem it's a management team that's
following Facebook on their path to ad failure.
~~~
SoftwareMaven
Twitter dies if they lose 98% of their users. So many people would leave that
you'd never be able to keep even 1%.
Watching Twitter and app.net over the next couple of years should be
fascinating. Twitter can't start charging, but app.net is starting there. If
they get 1% of Twitter's population, they are a huge success. And Twitter just
gifted them a lot of potential developers.
~~~
kmfrk
I think that depends a lot on how it's marketed. If it's touted as something
that regular users ought to have access to as well, it _might_ tick off a lot
of people, but it doesn't have to be like that.
Although I wouldn't be surprised if the knuckleheads at Twitter botched it.
~~~
endersshadow
I agree. Think of the way Reddit Gold works. It doesn't really take anything
away from the Reddit experience, but it does give folks some additional value
that those that feel like paying for it, do. If Twitter just adds features for
the premium side, and doesn't strip current features from free users, it
should be easy to make that transition.
------
dy
After reading the Innovator's Dilemma, you start seeing this effect everywhere
and it applies equally in people's careers. I think it's probably the same
principle as the law of diminishing return - you're getting less and less out
of your current path but it's still more than some other perceived endeavor.
Perhaps there is some disruptive thing Twitter could do that will eventually
disrupt their current advertising model and be a true billion dollar business.
It's possible they don't see it (or less likely, there is NO path for them to
get where they need to be) and so they're letting it be known that they're
planning on extracting increasing rents from their current income streams.
~~~
dshipper
Interesting, I've never read that book. But that's a nice take: your feedback
loop isn't functional enough to notice diminishing returns. Putting it on my
list.
~~~
dy
Prepare to have your mind blown! :)
Innovator's Solution is probably the better book (same ideas expressed, but
more in-depth thinking on how to fix it inside your company by Christensen).
It's a must-read by startups because it puts you in the right mind-set of why
your crappy little MVP can possibly disrupt powerful incumbents.
Thanks for your article - I've been enjoying your posts!
~~~
davidw
Good books, but can't they mostly just be summed up in a page or two?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation>
~~~
kmfrk
No.
------
JohnExley
In addition to being a young founder, Dan could be the most talented writer I
know. Engineering + communication, quite a mix.
~~~
tessr
He's also a genuinely nice guy. A triple threat, if you will. ;)
------
majani
I think this is the problem with the "product first, business later" approach
that's dogma in Silicon Valley. People get used to such an extreme
user/developer-centric experience that when the time comes for making some
profit, it seems absurd to many people. What's so wrong with building the
business and the product at the same time?
------
MatthewPhillips
> And so what happens? They spend the 6 months they could have used learning
> to code, trying to find a cofounder instead.
Who goes from not knowing how to code to being a decent to good coder in 6
months? Maybe I'm just not that smart, but it took me many years to get to
that level. Learn a few basics, hit a plateau, light-bulb is triggered on some
concept accelerating your growth, hit another plateau, and on and on like
that.
------
ludicast
Agree 100% on nontechnical founder thing. And the sad thing is, though the
level of skill needed for sustainable application development is very high,
for building MVPs you need to know very little.
Like not 6 months worth, but on the order of a for dummies book. The fact that
someone doesn't do this shows me they lack the desire and courage to achieve
their vision.
Not sure how I'd tie it into Twitter, but my 2 cents.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I switched from computer science to English - danso
http://www.dailycal.org/2015/10/27/switched-computer-science-english/
======
ljk
Not surprising, computer science isn't for everyone
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IMAP or POP? - chintan39
Which protocol do you prefer and why?
======
paulmatthijs
Is POP still around? I thought that was a remnant of the "Dude, look at my a
Pentium"-age. Is there even a way to work with POP in the current multiverse
of connected devices?
------
anubhabb
Depends on what you are doing - if your need is to access email offline use
POP, else IMAP
------
anonfunction
IMAP because I use email across multiple internet connected devices.
------
zhte415
IMAP. Email across multiple devices.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Please stop using Twitter Bootstrap - endtwist
http://notes.unwieldy.net/post/43508972396/please-stop-using-twitter-bootstrap
======
coldtea
> _Let’s be honest: a great many of us are tired of seeing the same old
> Twitter Bootstrap theme again and again. Black header, giant hero, rounded
> blue buttons, Helvetica Neue.Yes, you can customize the header to be a
> different color, maybe re-color some of the buttons, use a different font.
> Ultimately, however, that doesn’t change anything—it still looks like
> Bootstrap._
Well, your blog still looks like a me-too minimal one column, design, like
another 50,000,000 blogs out there (half of them on Tumblr), but you don't see
me complaining, do you?
~~~
pknight
I was thinking the other day how annoyingly common the one column minimal
design has become. Half the time it sucks in terms of user experience because
a bunch of these themes are designed as if a visitor isn't going to be
interested in reading more articles or getting some background info on the
author. And since they all look the same you won't even realize that you
visited a particular author's site before.
------
bonaldi
"And not just the same general layout, but the exact same components."
Funny how on the desktop designers demand HIG compliance and standard UI
widgets, while on the web they want us to get all Kai's Power Tools on every
button and widget.
~~~
unconed
I'd say the difference is two-fold. First, desktop applications generally
still have unique icons and branding. Second, desktop applications have much
more freedom as to how they combine the elements. Usually you can tell which
application it is from a distance, because the layout has been designed to
suit the app's specific needs and functions. The OS chrome itself is meant to
be invisible, in favor of what makes it unique.
For example, Firefox, Safari and Chrome all look identifiably different on OS
X, despite all implementing the same overall style.
Twitter bootstrap isn't just a CSS style, it's a rigid layout and UI pattern.
The author is decrying the use where bootstrap is the only kind of design
being done. In that case, people typically haven't considered what layout they
want to use or which elements to emphasize and how. They just go with the
standard 960 grid and its simple divisions, regardless of how much content
there is, and take something that's meant to be invisible and emphasize it
visibly by not adding anything new.
While bootstrap gives the appearance of being well designed, often the content
inside it fails to live up to that promise.
------
krapp
> It has a time and a place, but you wouldn’t use Times New Roman on your
> startup’s website, would you?
Only because I have a thing about using serif fonts in html, otherwise it
might well be one of my fallbacks.
And besides, arguing that people should put more effort into restyling
Bootstrap is different than arguing they should abandon it altogether. In
terms of providing a framework for layouts, I think it does its job quite
well, and that users will probably intuitively understand a Bootstrap site
because they've encountered them a hundred times before. This in turn gives
your site an implied sense of stability and trustworthiness since it "looks
like twitter/etc etc."
------
mt4ube
Yes, the Bootstrap components are obvious and the internet is starting to look
like Bootstrap. I totally agree, I can tell in a glance whether a site is
Bootstrapped or not... it's everywhere. And I also agree that this makes the
experience seem less personalized, the product ends up feeling like all of the
others once you make the connection, etc. (but in the end, I think this might
mostly be designers / developers).
But he notes that it's 100% customizable and says "most people do not bother".
That's the real problem. As long as you bother with that, you can't tell it's
Bootstrapped (<http://diehlgroup.com/>) and his whole argument collapses. It's
not JUST a design package for developers. It's also a basic reset and browser-
compatibility package, taking away so many headaches and days and days of
work.
To me, the best argument against Bootstrap is purely the weight. But even
then, I can strip it down to only components I need, literally even it's just
one file of LESS mixins (which is what I pretty much end up doing).
Interesting and true, though. Shits taking over.
------
malandrew
Aren't all native desktop apps effectively "bootstrap" and doesn't that
consistency convey a level of affordance that only comes with
standardization/popularization?
Are you going to ask iOS developers to stop using the Master-Detail
Application, Tabbed Application, Cards-based Application or Page-based
Application templates next?
Hate on it all you want because you think it is boring and generic, but at
least acknowledge that it provides value, especially in circumstances when the
alternative is an interface created by someone who likely lacks the chops to
create a well-designed coherent interface.
------
sgdesign
The problem here is that before Bootstrap, the only way for a non-designer to
get something decent was to hire a designer. Now thanks to Bootstrap there's a
whole new middle-ground of gets-the-job-done design that doesn't suck but is
also very, very generic.
I still think on the whole we're better off than before because in most cases
Bootstrap replaces things that were even uglier.
It's just a little disappointing sometimes when you see a company that clearly
has the means to develop its own identity and design settle for generic
Bootstrap.
------
dshanahan
The only people who feel this way are the ultra-early adopters. Assuming most
sites aren't meant for that audience, I don't think it's actually worth
worrying about in the process of getting an early iteration out the door.
Sure, as a site/app scales it should think more about branding but early on
it's more likely a net benefit to have the kind of UX clarity that Bootstrap
provides for most web users.
------
mattvv
As a developer, I find using bootstrap to lay out a project before a designers
hand's touches the project really nice. It gives the project a much better
look then I would normally put effort into doing and allows the designer
flexibility to quickly and easily style it.
As a designer, would you rather take spaggetti html code from a developer or
one compliant already with a framework like bootstrap to start working off?
------
dpweb
Sorry, but F design. Wikipedia, Google search, HN, Craigslist - they're
essential - they are real value - and they're not winning any design contests.
------
NicoJuicy
instead of complaining, sum up some alternatives.
And wrapbootstrap or bootstrap themes? :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C plug - narfz
https://thunderbolttechnology.net/blog/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-does-it-all
======
sctb
Comments moved to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645013).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: First Two Weeks on Mac - thezach
http://technow.info/2013/05/my-first-two-weeks-with-a-mac/
======
cl8ton
I'm in the same boat and just ordered a new iMac.
My old dell laptop was 32bit and going forward w/Win8 you need 64bit. Going to
use VMWare Fusion 5 to run Win8 in 64 bit.
Your post didn't mention it but how are you booting windows on your Mac?
------
Jeremy1026
You can configure two finger click on the trackpad to work as a right click.
It's in system preferences.
~~~
kls
I am pretty sure that is the default configuration for two finger click on the
track pad.
For those new to Mac, make an effort to learn the track pad gestures. I
actually found that I abandoned the mouse all together in favor of the track-
pad. It was not a conscious decision I just found that as the gestures became
reflex, it was more efficient to use the track-pad. The big ones are two
finger right click and two finger scroll. The two finger scroll is far more
efficient than the scroll wheel on the mouse.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The hidden cost of Gangnam Style - mathattack
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2014/06/daily-chart-1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
======
CPAhem
Perhaps it is wrong to assume people would be doing something else which was
productive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The math gap - gnosis
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/math-gender.html
======
patio11
As a former member of the math team (among many other nerdy pursuits), I have
to ask the question that nobody ever wants to answer: is an academically
prepared girl with the ability to compete at the highest levels on math team
better served by competing on the math team (or the debate team, or the
scholastic bowl team)?
I mean, one could plausibly look at the statistics and say "Hmm, it seems like
the girls who are getting high scores on our math SATs are not bothering to go
for the geek cred and are, instead, merely maximizing their credentials via
easier routes such as making sure they get the A in English. This gets them
into marginally better colleges. There, they avoid geek cred paths like going
for a PhD in math and instead choose easier majors like business, where they
work less, earn more, and have more work/life balance. Confound all this
sexism! All genders should share equally in the underpaid, overworked, unsung
triumph that is being a graduate student in a field not one person in ten
thousand can even understand!"
~~~
barry-cotter
[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/ppsc/2006/00000001...](http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/ppsc/2006/00000001/00000004/art00003)
"For example, in the SMPY cohorts, although more mathematically precocious
males than females entered math-science careers, this does not necessarily
imply a loss of talent because the women secured similar proportions of
advanced degrees and high-level careers in areas more correspondent with the
multidimensionality of their ability-preference pattern (e.g., administration,
law, medicine, and the social sciences). By their mid-30s, the men and women
appeared to be happy with their life choices and viewed themselves as equally
successful (and objective measures support these subjective impressions).
Given the ever-increasing importance of quantitative and scientific reasoning
skills in modern cultures, when mathematically gifted individuals choose to
pursue careers outside engineering and the physical sciences, it should be
seen as a contribution to society, not a loss of talent."
------
tokenadult
The study referenced in the article:
<http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/4298>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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MTNT: Machine Translation of Noisy Text - ArtWomb
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pmichel1/mtnt/
======
lqet
Here are a few more examples from the en-fr dataset in case you are
interested:
240 There are some nice JVM languages like Scala and Clojure. Il y a quelques langages JVM sympas comme Scala et Clojure.
244 Would anyone here actually register their firearms if a bill passes making registration mandatory Est-ce que quelqu'un ici enregistrerait reellement ses armes à feux si une loi passe rendant l'enregistrement obligatoire
348 Of course Adam and Eve would have belly buttons. Bien sûr, Adam et Eve avaient des nombrils.
658 I get their order out, and she starts claiming that the pizza isn’t cut. J'obtiens leur commande, et elle commence à se plaindre parce que la pizza n'est pas coupée.
698 Why does Cici's Pizza advertise so much around here when the nearest one is in Morgantown? Pourquoi Cici's Pizza fait-elle autant de publicité ici, quand la plus proche est à Morgantown?
899 I am for the truth, not your rhetoric or anyone else’s. Je suis pour la vérité, pas pour ta rhétorique ou celle de quelqu'un d'autre.
966 Every dog I have had appologizes when they get stepped on Chaque chien que j'ai eu a reçu des excuses quand ils se sont fait marcher dessus
In general, the level of noise (grammar / spelling) seems to be what you'd
expect from reddit.
------
eternalban
Speaking of "noisy text", is it really necessary to require javascript access
to read that blurb.
\-- p.s. to other script averse --
[https://github.com/pmichel31415/mtnt](https://github.com/pmichel31415/mtnt)
[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Epmichel1/hosting/mtnt-
emnlp.pdf](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Epmichel1/hosting/mtnt-emnlp.pdf)
------
imh
Sadly, I am mostly monolingual :(
One neat aspect of "noisy" text is that deviations from prescribed grammar
conveys so much personality and tone and all that good stuff. If I write
"Ummmmmmmm, dude, that's like totally cray (IMO)" a strictly correct english
to english translation could be "That is totally crazy in my opinion, my
friend" but there's so much lost in translation.
Can anyone multilingual comment on whether the examples listed keep that kind
of nuance in translation?
------
codetrotter
If they named it Translation by Machine of Noisy Text then the abbreviation
would have been TMNT. (As in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.) Missed
opportunity.
~~~
overcast
There should be a whole industry around this, like naming prescription drugs.
~~~
tw1010
There would be an industry around it if there was an incentive to produce
titles like that. But most authors probably want to avoid cutesy pop-culture-
referential names because it signals unprofessionalism.
~~~
roywiggins
I think it depends on the wildly on the field. MRI has techniques named things
like GRAPPA and CAIPIRINHA which are gloriously tortured backronyms, and there
is something of a competition to come up with good ones.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Do you remember “Color”? - jarnix
http://www.businessinsider.com/color-deal-2011-3
======
ellisonf9
stop reminding me :P
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Out of acqui-hire stage - duck
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2012/04/out-of-acqui-hire-stage.html
======
ChuckMcM
Nice post. I tell engineers itching for promotion a similar story. Once you
are demonstrating you can be promoted you have to ask do you _want_ to be. The
standards of evaluating your work change between code monkey and senior code
monkey.
As it is with startups, as you grow the expectations of what you can do also
go up. So doing just as well as before when you heard feedback like "cool,
innovative" becomes "is that all they do?" as Scott Mcnealy told promoted
folks at Sun, "one step up, one step closer to the door."
------
tdenkinger
Forgot one: "Go for profitability, make poor decisions, bounce along the
bottom for awhile, and then liquidate."
The most likely path.
------
davidw
A few 'case studies' and some data would make this a lot more interesting
discussion.
~~~
its_so_on
I would frame this as, Let's hear them!
HN is the right place to ask...
~~~
kposehn
Some friends of mine went through the same process and got to actual value.
They chose the cash machine and did fairly well - to this date they turn a
fairly significant amount of cash and do very well.
The regret they still have to this day is it didn't fit with their life goals.
They each wanted to keep doing more things, but they are tied in and cannot
exit that easily. Several of the founders would like to move on, but that
option is several years off.
I think the lesson I've learned is that as entrepreneurs we should look at
those options based on our goals in life. If you'll be satisfied doing the
same sort of business for a long time, then the cash machine is open. If
you're not, look for - and work towards - that exit.
One of them said to me "The path to your exit starts at day one; people you
meet today could be your potential acquirers/partners tomorrow."
[edited to show the last line was a quote]
------
cperciva
Isn't this largely determined by the number of employees? My impression was
that for internet startups the valuation to # of employees ratio tended to be
close to constant (since when valuations rise companies raise more money, of
which almost all gets spent on employees); which suggests that the valuation
to # of founders ratio is proportional to the total # of employees to # of
founders ratio.
------
illumen
ramen noodle, aqui-hire, ..., facebook
~~~
its_so_on
Personally, I would hate to be in Zuckerberg's shoes. I don't mean I would
mind the money, but I would hate to literally be in his shoes running the
company "with my name on it" as a sole founder. If anything goes wrong, he's
pretty much "done" with entrepreneurship. So perhaps a better example is the
loads of non-facebooks that make a ton of money on a quiet multibillion dollar
exit, without anyone outside a tight circle even knowing who the founders
were. (although having a ton of users). Instagram, maybe?
EDIT: you guys don't like this comment. Let me generalize.
\- Facebook is a bad example because it reached a 50B valuation in private
equity deals pre-IPO.
It's better if you mention a company that has already IPO'd, been sold
outright (founder not involved anymore), or has lower-valuation equity deals,
so that the founder is not under as much pressure.
I would not like to be in the position of figureheading such a company pre-
IPO.
This is just my personal taste. Please don't think that I'm trying to be
prescriptive. You can trade places with Mr. Zuckerberg if you like. I'm just
giving you my thoughts of a better example.
now I'm at -2. Would you please explain why ramen noodle, aqui-hire, ...,
facebook can't be replaced with
ramen noodle, aqui-hire, ..., zynga (i.e. post ipo, valuation 6B)
or ramen noodle, aqui-hire, ..., instagram (bought for 1b).
Why do we have to use the company loads of people are saying will fail, and
which has to start from a baseline of private equity deals that have already
happened valuing it at 50 billion?
This is approximately the amount of money Microsoft has in the bank. How many
sales does Microsoft make per year.
This is an enormous responsibility to his previous backers and those who
believe in Facebook. I hope for him that everything goes right and he makes a
great IPO and remains at the head of company that will always be worth more
than that.
But why pick an example where he's under pressure to achieve that. Can you
imagine how devastating it would be for the day to come when facebook is sold
for 5billion? That would mean that 90% of its valuation would have been
"squandered".
baselines and anchors are incredibly important. I think you guys are just not
failing to appreciate the pressure on him to stay on top.
~~~
bmelton
Done? Really?
He's a proven winner, at this stage. He's got billions in revenue, and took a
startup from "the kids at that one college" phase to being one of the most
used applications on the planet.
Facebook has more users than Microsoft was able to sell copies of Windows 7
to.
I think "done" is a knee-jerk response, as I'm betting that he wouldn't have a
hard time finding a team, or funding, or be hampered in any way in his ability
to execute on whatever he decides to do post-Facebook, even if he screws it
all up.
~~~
eaurouge
_Facebook has more users than Microsoft was able to sell copies of Windows 7
to._
Not commenting on any other points raised in this thread except to say: you
can't compare Facebook users to Microsoft customers, there's a big difference.
Edit: To the downvoter. This is not a Facebook vs Microsoft argument. Users
don't pay for the product, customers (I'm assuming they bought the software
and didn't pirate it) do. It's not the same metric.
~~~
rhizome
Facebook users are not Facebook's customers.
~~~
MaysonL
Windows users (for the most part) are not Microsoft customers.
~~~
rhizome
I know what you're saying, that actual retail sales are not a big deal for
them. However, you're making a category error in that "Windows purchases" (as
well as Office, etc.) are what defines their customers of Microsoft's software
arm where there is no parallel situation on the Facebook side. That is, at all
levels, Microsoft's customers are interacting with the same stuff: Microsoft
software.
For Facebook it's different. Facebook's customers are consuming and
interacting with an entirely different resource than Facebook's users. In
fact, I'd say that Facebook's customers (advertisers et al) actually have
__very little __social interaction with each other on an experiential basis
compared to Facebook's users. This is to say that Facebook likely puts _a lot_
of work into ensuring that nothing on the customer side gets inadvertently
shared, unlike the user side.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Debug bar and profiling tool for PHP with support for popular projects - emixam
http://phpdebugbar.com
======
bilalq
This is actually pretty cool. A pity it didn't get the visibility it deserves.
------
jonheller
Amazing, I just had an idea to implement something like this, and here it is!
------
krapp
Looks nice. I'm going to see if I can fit it into a Laravel 4 project.
------
joeyjones
This is sweet. If it did profiling as well it would be perfect!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Out with the Caraway, in with the Ginger: 50 Years of American Spice Consumption - ryan_j_naughton
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/out-with-the-caraway-in-with-the-ginger-50-years-of-american-spice-consumption/
======
matt_morgan
Interesting. I have a history of food service jobs (way back) and a spice
shelf deeper than most. I haven't used any of my big jar of caraway in years,
but the spices you typically see in Indian food are used everywhere now.
~~~
abrowne
We just need a Tunisian food trend. I had to go buy some caraway to make a
_tabil_ spice blend for a fennel couscous.
------
TylerE
Those graphs...ugh. Including so many points that the noise overwhelms the
data is NOT helpful.
~~~
cdcarter
Actually, I'd say the jitter is low enough that noise isn't really an issue
here. Yea, you could drop every other point easily, but the meaning is pretty
clear.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: SEO impact of HN's URL “itemid” vs. an actual title? - a_small_island
What is the reasoning behind only an itemid in the URL for HN? Is there an SEO impact?<p>For instance, a url on reddit may be:<p>https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4ea7ee/what_would_the_horizon_look_like_if_you_were/<p>while a link on HN looks like:<p>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11465163
======
jedberg
As the person who wrote the code for the SEO part of the reddit URL, I can
tell you that there is definitely an impact. It made a huge difference at the
time, because reddit wasn't really on Google's radar. Today I suspect it would
have less impact for reddit.
For HN, I get the impression that they don't really want to be all that
optimized for Google, so it probably hits their goals just fine, but it
probably does hurt them a little bit. But since the words are in an H1 right
at the top, probably not all that much.
Edit: The code in case anyone is interested:
[https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/cfd979fa0119191257eadc...](https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/cfd979fa0119191257eadc4ccfcada60968984a1/r2/r2/lib/utils/utils.py#L936)
~~~
avar
To me your comment demonstrates why it's really hard to figure out anything
worthwhile about SEO.
You wrote that code almost 8 years ago[1]. Google and other search engines
have changed a lot since then. Who knows if this has any impact today?
Actually did you even A/B test it at the time? Or just turn it on along with a
bunch of other changes?
It's hard to tell, and there's so much SEO (mis)information out there based on
old anecdotes, and all the players doing A/B testing for this sort of thing on
a big scale keep their data to themselves.
1\.
[https://github.com/reddit/reddit/commit/353ad2a](https://github.com/reddit/reddit/commit/353ad2a)
~~~
rbinv
I'm pretty confident that no one A/B tests URLs for SEO purposes. How would
you A/B test this anyway? You can't exactly serve Google different URLs and
see what works (in fact, this would ruin both approaches).
~~~
jasongill
You're definitely wrong about that - there are whole businesses built on
building "case studies" that try to decipher the inner workings of Google's
algorithm.
These days most tests are run by buying two domains that are a combination of
random letters/numbers, setting up two nearly identical sites, and doing
identical linkbuilding to both - then seeing which one ranks higher.
It's not exactly scholastic research quality, but repeated enough times it
gives you an idea of what's working "right now".
~~~
tobltobs
This method wouldn't work. To make both results comparable you would have to
put the same content on both sites, which would result in one of both pages
getting hit by the duplicate content problem.
~~~
jasongill
It actually works great; the "duplicate content problem" only impacts pages on
the same domain, not identical content across multiple sites. It's possible to
make a lot of money by taking the content of mild authority sites and putting
it on a high authority domain - can outrank the source sites in short order.
------
dsp1234
_What is the reasoning behind only an itemid in the URL for HN?_
It's easy to code
_Is there an SEO impact?_
Probably, but as SEO is search engine _optimization_ , if a site doesn't care
about search engines, then it also probably doesn't care about optimization of
those searches.
~~~
awinder
To be fair putting a title and an item id is nearly as easy to code, just the
"overhead" of a rewrite rule.
~~~
bdcravens
It's not exactly a huge amount of work, but validating and sluggifying text is
also part of it.
------
ChuckMcM
Technically "no" the SEO goals for HN would appear to be unaffected by the
choice :-).
And in this case its actually a good thing. If you scroll through the /new
pages as I do you will see that a lot of people try to use HN like Reddit as
an SEO tool to get more views to their web site. That can be facilitated by a
link baity headline cum URI which gets indexed with the keywords of interest
of the day.
By simply putting 'itemid' in the link text HN gives very little "link love"
to keywords and so is not as easily exploited by "digital presence" folks (aka
people who try to SEO their client's sites or products).
------
cromulent
When I Google for "SEO actual title" this page is the first result.
[https://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=seo+actual+title&ie=U...](https://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=seo+actual+title&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)
~~~
BinaryIdiot
That's a fairly specific search term though. I'm not sure I'd use that as the
only evidence that it doesn't matter.
~~~
scrollaway
It's really not that specific. It's not the _only_ evidence that it doesn't
matter, but if google can pick up on a 3 word query (one of them being "seo",
an extremely competitive keyword) in <30 mins then it's safe to say hn is
doing fine.
~~~
BinaryIdiot
Google polls sites that provide primarily discussions regularly. Doing an
exact query match makes the most sense to do as step 1 of a query. So even if
HN was trying to actively prevent this I think Google would still have an easy
time.
~~~
dsp1234
_exact query match_
You keep saying exact query match, but commenter above used 3 non-consecutive
words out of the 12 words in the title, and did not use any sort of quoted
search text.
Indeed, it even works with just two words out of the title:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=seo+actual](https://www.google.com/search?q=seo+actual)
The point being that HN's use of just the id in the URL has a minimal, if any,
effect on search ranking.
~~~
BinaryIdiot
> You keep saying exact query match
Only said it once =/
> The point being that HN's use of just the id in the URL has a minimal, if
> any, effect on search ranking.
A single data point absolutely _does not_ indicate whether the id in the URL
affects SEO or not. Your Google search is context specific (to you) so I would
certainly expect it to show up near or at the top. But what about those who
have never touched that page or even have gone to HN? The more specific the
title the better overall but none of this gives us data about the id in the
URL being good or bad for SEO.
Likely I think it's more of a UX than an SEO thing. But still don't go off a
context specific, single data point to decide whether something is true in
general or not.
~~~
dsp1234
_Your Google search is context specific (to you) so I would certainly expect
it to show up near or at the top._
New VM at aws, no previous Google searches. Still #2.
------
romanovcode
There is an SEO impact, however HN is not that oriented on general public and
it has no ads so it doesn't really matter.
~~~
tobltobs
> There is an SEO impact,
Any source for that?
------
chejazi
What you are referring to is a "slug" [1] which adds another searchable
dimension to the content. This appeals to marketers trying to add searchable
keywords to boost discovery. Not having one won't affect HN since
"everything's present" in the forum. For instance, if you google the title of
your post it is ranked #1 in the search results [2]
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_URL#Slug](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_URL#Slug)
[2]
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Ask+HN%3A+SEO+impact+of+HN%2...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Ask+HN%3A+SEO+impact+of+HN%27s+URL+%E2%80%9Citemid%E2%80%9D+vs.+an+actual+title%3F&oq=Ask+HN%3A+SEO+impact+of+HN%27s+URL+%E2%80%9Citemid%E2%80%9D+vs.+an+actual+title%3F&)
------
krapp
I'm pretty sure HN doesn't want urls to provide an SEO boost either for
themselves or the people submitting - and if so, I would tend to agree with
them.
It's well know that pg doesn't want this site to have mainstream appeal, so
having HN articles list high in search engines would probably be a problem
they would want to avoid, but also, submitters shouldn't have an incentive to
use this site to boost their own SEO by submitting low-quality linkspam.
If it were me, I would go even further and route every link through a
dereferring proxy just to mess with their analytics as well, and block
everyone except maybe IA through robots.txt. For a site which is meant to be
about discussion and thought-provoking stories and not content aggregation for
the sake of ad revenue, I think SEO is a cancer.
------
pgfrd
A site doesn't need to be selling something (ads) to implement good SEO
What is the reasoning behind only an itemid in the URL for HN?
Like someone previously mentioned, easier to code, less thought required
around site architecture and optimization
Is there an SEO impact? Yes, from a basic standpoint, descriptive URLs are
easier to crawl, index, and rank accordingly. They help readers find info
better when searching for questions + answers
From a more highlevel standpoint, descriptive URLs and an optimized site
structure helps in many ways including SEO, analytics, accessibility, and
more. Reddit does it well
~~~
gnaritas
> What is the reasoning behind only an itemid in the URL for HN?
The reason is because it's the minimum information required to do the job. HN
was built to function by PG who built it old school as a demonstration of his
custom programming language, it's clearly not been optimized for SEO and
putting a slug in the URL adds nothing functionally and thus the engineer had
no reason to add that feature. It also uses tables for layout, has embedded
style information, and saves all state to files on disk using no database.
It's hardly a "best practices" type application.
------
bhartzer
Frankly, the usage of having keywords in the URL is a very minimal factor. If
everything were equal for a URL with the keywords in the URL and one without,
there wouldn't be much more of a benefit to the one with the keywords in the
URL.
However, if your overall site structure is one that has topics and subtopics
or categories and subcategories, it would help the user see that site
structure. For example, in the reddit example above, users can get directly to
the askscience subreddit by removing part of the URL and going directly to
[https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/).
Setting up URLs like this is a good practice, the URL would then follow the
site's breadcrumb trail.
For H/N, I don't really see any benefit, at this point, for using keywords in
the URLs. There's just no SEO benefit.
------
primaryobjects
I can think of a couple of impacts:
\- Shorter urls are easier to copy and share.
\+ Keywords in the url may increase search engine rank.
\+ Full title in the url helps readers know what they're clicking.
There are advantages to having the full title in the url for both SEM and
readers. However, as others mention, HN wasn't designed for SEM and contains
no ads to profit from it.
~~~
chipperyman573
>Full title in the url helps readers know what they're clicking.
Almost every website I've seen lets you re-write the url. For example,
[https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4eaqjb/something](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4eaqjb/something)
and
[https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4eaqjb/anything](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4eaqjb/anything)
both go to the same link.
~~~
accounthere
HN could simply add a '&title='. No need to change anything in their routes,
just change the link in the main page.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11472694&title=ask-
hn-s...](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11472694&title=ask-hn-seo-
impact-of-hns-url)
------
brudgers
My understanding is that originally [and perhaps currently] Hacker News uses
the file system for storage and that the id number is the name of a file on
disk. A few years ago, I recall a discussion about a reorganization of the
files from a single [or few?] directories into a more broadly branched tree.
The basis for doing IIRC so was to improve performance.
My impression is that this would be a simple way to produce a RESTful
interface. When the resource is a file on disk, how complex does application
layer routing have to be?
Anyway, my guess is that general SEO is not particularly high on the list of
features to implement. On the other hand, if adding Algolia and the API then
it's another story. That was also a substantial improvement to the feature
set. It might even turn up the aforementioned discussion about the file system
hierarchy [I think PG wrote the post].
Good luck.
------
dragonbonheur
HN wasn't intended to be used as a tool to improve your SEO. It may increase
your visibility to actual people or you may sometimes, through HN, get noticed
by other websites but don't expect it to directly lead to an improvement in
the SERPS.
~~~
wyldfire
I think the question may be regarding indexing HN itself, not the sites-
linked-to. If I wanted to find discussion about "what would a horizon look
like ... " by searching those terms, would reddit be favored because of those
terms in the URL?
~~~
siquick
It depends on a multitude of factors but a huge weighting will be given to the
page with the largest number of __high quality __links pointing to the site.
Notice i said 'high quality'...
The URL structure isn't always that important, but it helps.
~~~
wyldfire
> The URL structure isn't always that important, but it helps.
If that's the case then all else aside the answer to the question being asked
is, "Yes, there is an impact" and perhaps "but it's not significant enough to
justify changing HN"
------
PhasmaFelis
Why does the URL text matter for SEO? Wouldn't a crawler be looking at the
page content?
------
BorisMelnik
As a user, I would find it helpful to have a more human readable permalink /
slug for the "at a quick glance" purposes. As someone w/ some knowledge of
SEO, it would most likely add value as well.
~~~
tobltobs
Isn't the link text human readable enough?
------
ajonit
HN doesnt really care. Even if slugs didn't provide any SEO benefit, I would
implement them purely for usability reasons. xyz.com/learn-seo looks much
better to a user compared to xyz.com/46765475
------
giarcyevod
Doing 'SEO' is like punching smoke. Build for those visiting and using your
website.
------
accounthere
I don't think search engines are the main source of readers for HN.
------
return0
I never understood why a slug should be considered a signal.
~~~
chrismarlow9
These might be a few:
\- Though it's not much more difficult, it does show you spent a little more
effort on the website to not just leave the pk there. I would think this would
be more relevant for sites not using a framework like wordpress (which we
absolutely know from search results filters that google can categorize sites
in this way...)
\- Legacy... older websites that are pure static pages will likely have good
keywords in the file name, since it would be maintained primarily by humans
looking at directories of files.
\- Social significance. The link would be more likely to have a better social
impact because the content of the page could be determined whether its an
anchor tag, posted in irc, or sent in gmail. You might argue that just because
the page name has the keywords doesnt mean the content is about that, but I
would argue google can quickly detect and demote those kind of things (aka the
page title is only really relevant to your seo if it's also relevant to the
content... otherwise it's essentially just a random primary key).
Just my thoughts...
~~~
return0
I find all these 3 are contrary to the definition of a URL, and the whole idea
of using slugs just screams "game me".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I switched back to Firefox and had an epiphany - mkr-hn
http://mkronline.com/2013/03/28/i-switched-back-to-firefox-and-had-an-epiphany/
======
xauronx
Soaked it all in until I saw that the read previous post link was titled "I
don't get google+". Seems like someone just isn't a fan of Google anymore.
As for it being released when Blackberry was still king, I suppose technically
that's true but...
[chrome] "The browser was first publicly released for Microsoft Windows (XP
and later versions) on September 2, 2008 in 43 languages, officially a beta
version.[18]"
[iPhone] "The two initial models, a 4 GB model priced at US$ 499 and a 8 GB
model at US$ 599, went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, at 6:00
pm local time"
iPhone was released by that point, which although it may not have had market
share, the technology existed. Comparing it to the blackberry is an obvious
ploy to relate it to something known to be old and shabby, but honestly:
"The Firefox project went through many versions before version 1.0 was
released on November 9, 2004."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ning Security Hole Discovered By Hackers - Millions of Accounts Compromised - yurisagalov
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/20/ning-security-hole-discovered-by-hackers-as-many-as-100-million-accounts-compromised
======
ohashi
The title is a bit misleading. I don't see any evidence of a hack. Just
because a vulnerability was discovered doesn't mean it was used to compromise
accounts. It is possible, but it was always possible with or without this
vulnerability being disclosed now. If it did occur, this may not have even
been the method used.
------
supereric
I work for Ning and wanted to let anyone who is interested know that there is
some additional info on the Ning Blog about this issue if anyone is
interested: [http://www.ning.com/blog/2012/04/security-updates-on-ning-
pl...](http://www.ning.com/blog/2012/04/security-updates-on-ning-
platform.html).
Hope that helps. Have a great weekend.
E
------
plowman
I work at Ning. I can confirm this hole was recently patched.
------
thezilch
In fact, one of referenced articles [0] states the students disclosed the hack
to Ning in March. It's not clear when the hole was patched, but I have a hard
time believing it has been nearly a month between the hack being demonstrated
to Ning and Ning releasing a solution. Furthermore, it appears the Dutch news
sites and TNW's translation are only reporting on the issue because the
students are comfortable in now releasing this information, only after Ning
has patched the vulnerability, BEFORE millions of accounts could be
compromised. In this regard, I don't understand TNW's tone nor this post's
title.
Of course, Ning should certainly come forward with their findings and what
diligence was made.
[0] [http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/110261/ning-lekt-
accounts-100-mil...](http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/110261/ning-lekt-
accounts-100-miljoen-gebruikers.html)
------
rdl
It got ignored for a _year_. That's an argument for Full Disclosure, at least
to me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Key selector is the most important one in CSS - pothibo
http://csswizardry.com/2012/07/shoot-to-kill-css-selector-intent/
======
jplur
What about inheritance? I'd rather start with 'header ul{}', then continue
with 'header ul.nav{}' and 'header ul.nav.main{}'
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sell your product with fake screenshots - jmorin007
http://groups.google.com/group/lean-startup-circle/browse_thread/thread/90c344816e4f1cd6?hl=en&pli=1
======
btilly
Personally I think it would be crazy not to start with putting fake
screenshots in front of users to get feedback before you invest development
time and energy on what is likely to be the wrong thing. Iterations with a
graphic designer are a lot cheaper than iterations with a development team,
and are nearly as effective for identifying large usability issues.
The trouble with user feedback normally is that people can't get a sense for
how it would work unless they can see it. Sure you can make them put it in
writing, but if they haven't seen it they almost surely asked for the wrong
thing. So you really need to get them something they can see before you get
useful feedback. And you want to do that in the fastest way possible. (Albeit
while generally making it clear that actually getting it will take time.)
~~~
NathanKP
It makes sense to show potential customers pre-development screenshot mockups
but I find it mildly sleazy to deliberately lead them to believe that these
are screenshots of an actual working system.
~~~
lupin_sansei
Yes you'd at least want to tone down the language and call it a prototype, or
a work-in-progress.
~~~
NathanKP
Right, it isn't good business practice to start out a new potential contract
with dishonesty on your part.
------
gruseom
It's surprising to me that in that entire thread, not one person expressed any
misgivings about the fact that the author actively deceived his/her customers
(indeed practically brags about having done so). This despite the fact that
the OP added:
_There has been a lot of discussion about what the anonymous poster did
right. How about some things that he/she could have done better?_
I just joined the group to post that surely he/she could have done better by
not lying. But the thread is old and there was no Reply link, which is just as
well: it would have been rude to butt in like that.
I've been vaguely aware of this group for a while. I've read several of Eric
Ries' posts, I have Steve Blank's book, and I like Steve Blank's blog a lot.
The ideas of customer development make a lot of sense. But the above makes me
think there's something wrong with this community. I'd rather surround myself
with people whose first reaction to something like that is WTF.
Edit: Obviously if the message to the customer had been, "these are just
mockups as we figure out what you need," there would be no ethical objection.
That's part of what I can't understand. What would have been the problem with
just telling the truth?
~~~
motoko
OP did tell the truth. Your interpretation adds judgment.
The relevant facts to the listener (prospective customer) are:
\- "This is a picture of software to buy"
\- "This software to buy will solve your problems."
Here is what you added:
\- "These are just..." we ourselves do not believe that this software to buy
is valuable despite we are here to convince you that this is software to buy
is valuable
\- "figure out..." we ourselves do not believe that this software to buy will
solve your problems despite that we are here to convince you that this
software to buy will solve your problems
~~~
akeefer
Deciding which facts are "relevant" to the customer is a pretty dicey
proposition: why do you assume that the fact that no code has been written is
irrelevant to the customer? Just because the sales guy wants it to be
irrelevant doesn't mean that the customer shouldn't have the right to make
their decisions based on the actual facts, rather than what's convenient for
the seller.
~~~
tptacek
No, if the facts are important to the prospect, the prospect asks about them.
I didn't read anything in this post about them supplying false answers to
direct questions.
You are not obligated to provide SEC disclosures along with your pitches. I do
that, and it's a horrible habit and something I've been trying hard to break.
It communicates nervousness and lack of confidence.
Again: you can't just make stuff up. If the prospect asks, "how much of this
stuff actually works", you need to be clear --- "we're still in the design
phase". But if the prospect doesn't ask, the prospect doesn't care, and you
let it go.
~~~
akeefer
Fair enough; you're not obligated to disclose everything up front if they
don't ask. But that's a world different from making a deliberately misleading
statement.
If someone says "We're actively developing this" I'm not going to just assume
I'm being mislead and say, "Sure, but do you have code?" The statement implies
an answer to the question, so I'll feel like I already have an answer to the
question, and I'd be wrong.
So no, it's not a direct answer to a question, but it's meant to imply an
answer to the question so people don't ask anything further. Deliberately
attempting to mislead people is just as bad as outright lying in my book, and
I can't see the way that statement is worded as anything less than an attempt
to mislead the potential customer.
~~~
tptacek
Change the words "actively developing this" to "actively designing this". Can
we stop debating it now?
------
nobody_nowhere
So much good stuff in this article:
1\. You're not your customer/user
2\. Identify the minimum viable product
3\. Incur technical debt wisely
4\. Get feedback early and often
Pursuing angel financing with those signed LOIs is a completely different
ballgame from showing up with an idea, or even working code.
~~~
ams6110
Except the LOIs in this case are utterly meaningless. I've been on the
customer side of LOIs that were signed on request, knowing that it obligated
us to nothing.
~~~
nobody_nowhere
They just mean you have a sales pipeline, nothing more.
Imagine you're an investor. Two guys with ideas of similar merit come in front
of you. One has three signed (and admittedly meaningless) LOIs from potential
customers and knows what to build. One has a prototype but is really unsure of
the marketplace.
The investors I know pick the LOI guys every time, all other things being
equal. It's the execution side of the "ideas vs execution" debate.
------
akeefer
Starting with prototypes and mockups? Great idea. Definitely the only way to
go. Deliberately misleading customers into thinking those are actual
screenshots instead of mockups? Ugh.
Part of the reason it's so hard to sell software is that so many people have
historically sold vaporware, which makes life harder for those of us that go
out of our way to be honest with customers about what's implemented, what's a
mockup, what's planned, and what's promised. Customers don't trust us because
they've been screwed over by decades of shady sales guys.
Please, let's not contribute to the horrible, shameful record of software
companies lying to customers in order to get sales. (And yes, I personally
count "deliberately misleading" and "outright lying" as approximately the same
thing: if lying about X is unethical, so is deliberately misleading someone
about X.)
------
bjclark
This is possibly the sleaziest way to describe what most people would describe
as a great paper prototyping session. Everyone should be doing this, it's
super easy, you don't even need to photoshop anything, just draw out your
interface on paper or use balsamiq.
Would have anything changed if he hadn't been shady about it? No, except he
wouldn't have come off soundingly like a d-bag.
~~~
lupin_sansei
I love Balsamiq. Demo of it here:
<http://www.balsamiq.com/demos/mockups/Mockups.html>
------
jimbokun
"BUT it definitely does NOT have the super-duper-hyper-ultra-cool Web 2.0 spit
and polish about it because we haven't been able to find a good, dependable
designer who works at reasonable rates."
Couldn't he have just said: "But it doesn't look good because we can't afford
a good designer."
------
zacman85
I have started working on something similar. I have 3-4 ideas of apps I would
like to do. I figure it would be far easier and way cheaper to launch landing
pages for each, with mocked up "screenshots" of the apps. I plan to include on
each of the apps a form to provide your email address in exchange for an
invite. Then, I would do some simple SEO and word-of-mouth marketing and see
what kind of response rates I would get back through this form. I figure in
the end, this would help identify which application has the lowest barrier to
adoption (e.g. easier discoverability, more user interest).
------
nobody_nowhere
A lot of commentary about whether this is lying/unethical.
Have you ever played poker?
Salient quote:
_we told our potential customers that we were actively developing our web app
(implying that code was being written) and wanted to get potential user input
into the dev process early on._
Does paper prototyping fall inside of your dev process or outside of it? It's
definitely inside mine.
If you bet on every round of poker based solely on the cards in your hand,
you'll lose.
------
edw519
_...he had spent the last 6 months in a cave writing a monster, feature-rich
web app for the financial sector that a potential client had promised to buy,
but backed out at the last second_
Wait a minute, because one of you got burnt and lost 6 months of work, now you
won't do _any_ work? With today's technology, I have to think there's a good
middle ground between 6 months of dev work and paper prototype only.
If I was one of your prospects, I would never sign a letter of intent based on
drawings only. I'd make you come back later with something, anything I could
play with for 2 reasons:
1\. I'd want to see that you can actually produce _something,_ no matter how
limited.
2\. There's a _huge_ difference between playing with something and talking
about something. We'd arrive at a real functional requirement much faster with
a working model. Anything less is just waterfall analysis and design, and we
already know how well that works.
Come back when you have something real to show. Until then you're no different
from any other poser.
------
alain94040
Very good example of the minimum viable product. It's the right approach
(minus the lying). VentureHacks had a really good coverage of the topic at
<http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product>
------
percept
Don't most industries work with prototypes? As long as no lying is involved it
seems okay.
Besides, most of the projects I've worked on don't actually begin until after
the first delivery (when the customer finally looks at the software and starts
deciding what they _really_ want!).
~~~
edw519
_Don't most industries work with prototypes?_
A screen shot != a prototype
A prototype = code that runs
~~~
c00p3r
yeah!
_echo "there are data from our distributed, fault-tolerant cloud-based
backend"; # TODO: Insert actual code here._
is much better.
------
bulkeb
Like some of you, I disagree with the idea of propping up stuff for the
purpose of making your prospects believe that you're up to something helpful.
I call it "the feel good factor" entrepreneurship is supposed to be hard work
nothing simple.
Like the guy who used markups in the 90's, I come from the school that seeks a
point of pain and then start working your way into solutions.
I learned this from the advertising agencies where I worked a few years ago.
Client came in with a problem, specified the problem and the particular need
for a solution and wrote this out in something called "a creative brief" we
took this info, worked our way into sketches, prototypes and then convinced
the client that we had a solution.
Convincing the client meant conducting independent customer research and
validation.
Lots of iterations where done but at no point did we push, shove or even seek
to misled clients for the sake of validating our ideas without hard work done.
I like customer validation. I use it everyday. But I want to do my research
and some hard work and then let the customer guide my way. Real MVP and real
customers and then we can do all the supper stuff. But you have to be willing
to do the hard work and the phony part makes me uncomfortable.
------
ebloch
Awesome case study. Totally what we did with our new pivot (same market B2C
Customers - Saas), that is now in the works (didn't do this first time around,
and paid for it). Only difference, we told the customer that these were just
high fidelity screen mockups for the product we will eventually be building.
Get your screens in front of customers before you ever code. It is mind
BLOWING!
Wonder how well this would work for consumer web... thoughts?
------
sachinag
I love the line about how they can't find a designer who can follow
directions. Ah, creatives.
------
Shamiq
Is this unethical?
~~~
bprater
Is selling any unrealized concept unethical? Is pitching you an idea for a
company in trade for your money wrong?
I think it becomes unethical when you begin lying: "Production of the app is
coming along nicely! Here are a few more screenshots from development this
week."
So the question might be more accurately: do you position this so you don't
have to lie to a potential customer, but have them assume it exists? Is that
positioning unethical? What do you say if they ask you point blank?
~~~
jfager
_Is selling any unrealized concept unethical?_
Of course not, if you disclose that it's unrealized.
_Is pitching you an idea for a company in trade for your money wrong?_
Of course not, if you disclose that it's an idea.
_I think it becomes unethical when you begin lying_
Which they were doing. They have your example of what would cross the line
almost verbatim: "Each time we would come back with a few more 'screenshots'
and tell them that development was progressing nicely and ask them for more
input."
_How do you position this so you don't have to lie to a potential customer,
but have them assume it exists?_
You don't. Creating the impression it exists when it doesn't is the unethical
part. Why not just be up front with your customer and win them over with your
design, insight, and ability to turn around real prototypes?
~~~
gojomo
A good set of evolving screenshots _is_ nice progress in development.
With just a little other investigational programming on the side, everything
in their presentations would have been truthful, to the level of detail that a
customer cares about.
~~~
jfager
_A good set of evolving screenshots is nice progress in development._
It is, but that's not what they were referring to.
_With just a little other investigational programming on the side, everything
in their presentations would have been truthful, to the level of detail that a
customer cares about._
Which is a big reason why I think it's unforgivable that they chose to lie
instead. They crossed a brightline in their relationship with their customer
without any real benefit from doing so.
------
jorgem
I think they would be better off to have tried to charge __something __,
rather than give it away.
It's important to validate the pricing and business model -- and you can only
do that by selling it (charging for it).
But, a good read.
------
joej
_"we haven't been able to find a good, dependable designer who works at
reasonable rates"_
I found this to be a really tough part of my project as well.. Good designers
are often really hard to find and charge a shitload..
------
dominiek
This is very interesting when working with B2B style consulting, but the real
trick is to apply these MVP practices to the creation of entire new B2C
markets.
------
chanux
It was almost Microsofts story at the beginning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lawmakers say obstacles limited oversight of NSA’s telephone surveillance - ghosh
http://pages.citebite.com/n1w9a6i4n5gmo
======
pwg
> because rules restrict their ability to speak with other members and the
> public.
The amazing irony here is that the "rules" that are "restrict[ing]" them are
of their own making.
They certainly know/understand how to change the rules when they want to do
something for themselves, such as vote for their own pay raise, yet here they
simultaneously forget how to change the rules.
The excuses sound like just that: "excuses". An attempt to argue "it's not my
fault, it was the rules".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Outsourcing vs. In-House Software Development - Jyotirmay
Which is the better approach?
======
Jyotirmay
[https://www.binaryfolks.com/blog/outsourcing-vs-in-house-
sof...](https://www.binaryfolks.com/blog/outsourcing-vs-in-house-software-
development)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Android development for beginners; where to start? - tagabek
I have a few weeks until school starts and I want to spend most of my time learning mobile app development.I have some experience with Python and just like everyone else, experience with web design.<p>After looking for various methods of learning, I realized nothing that I was looking into was quite like the iOS Stanford class.<p>Do any of you know a good, solid path to learning Android development? Something that is sort of like the Stanford iOS class, but for Android? Also, if it could be free, that is a bonus.<p>EDIT: I'm currently going the the mybringback video series. It's helpful but I do want a video series that will teach me the basics for Android app development with one of the more recent SDKs (preferably 4.0+). All help is appreciated.
======
sippndipp
Subscribe to <http://androidweekly.net/> it is a newsletter dedicated for
devs, also check out their toolbox <http://androidweekly.net/toolbox> it shows
libaries to get stuff done.
------
orangethirty
[http://www.vogella.com/articles/Android/article.html#tutoria...](http://www.vogella.com/articles/Android/article.html#tutorial_temperature)
~~~
tagabek
Thanks! I'm looking for a video series to teach me though. Knowing myself, I
know that visual and auditory stimulation is the most efficient way for me to
learn.
~~~
jamesjguthrie
Marakana Android Bootcamp Screencast Series
<http://marakana.com> or on YouTube.
~~~
tagabek
Thanks jamesjguthrie!
I'm actually new to Java and I'm starting off as a beginner so this course
will unfortunately not work for me.
~~~
jamesjguthrie
I was new to Java too! I had only done VB prior to my work on Android so don't
worry about it.
~~~
tagabek
Ok, thanks a lot then! I am going to get started right now!
This is what I'm starting with:
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RHtKIo_KDI>), is this the correct one?
~~~
jamesjguthrie
Sure is
------
rburgosnavas
The New Boston series on YouTube is also a good place to start
<http://thenewboston.org>.
------
bbunix
The great irony... 32 minutes later I post this to my blog: Cross Platform
Mobile Development tools and my latest invention... just spent the weekend
looking over exactly this.
<http://blog.maclawran.ca/151353706>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Usability Checklist - stayintech
http://userium.com/
======
ColinWright
On a page about usability, which explicitly talks about text contrast and
similar layout issues, their box about cookies has the same background,
apparently the same font, and overlaps the main text with no obvious
separation of concerns.
[https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/UX_Failure_teamsuccess.png](https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/UX_Failure_teamsuccess.png)
And the site is the now-to-be-expected difficult-to-read dark grey on light
grey.
Nice sentiments, noble and worthy objectives. I just wish the page were more
readable, accessible, and adhered to its own guidelines.
</rant>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Production is Red, Development is Blue - jeffmiller
http://jeffmiller.github.com/2011/01/10/ssh-host-color
======
KrisJordan
To get a red prompt drop this line in your ~/.bashrc file on your production
server:
PS1='\\[\e[1;31m\\][\u@\h \W]\$\\[\e[0m\\] '
We use this in our production environments and the red prompt, though not as
jarring as a red background, is still scary enough to serve its purpose.
One upside in setting this up on the server, as opposed to local like the OP,
is that all connections in will get the red prompt.
~~~
jonhohle
I do that in bash for root/non-root users (root is red, non-root is blue):
if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then
PS1='\[\033[01m\][ \[\033[01;31m\]\u@\h \[\033[00m\]\[\033[01m\]] \[\033[01;32m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\n\[\033[01;31m\]\$\[\033[00m\]> '
else
PS1='\[\033[01m\][ \[\033[01;34m\]\u@\h \[\033[00m\]\[\033[01m\]] \[\033[01;32m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\n\[\033[01;34m\]\$\[\033[00m\]> '
fi
Interesting to think about using it across servers, though.
~~~
s-phi-nl
Konsole does this automatically, at least on openSuSE linux.
~~~
pmjordan
It's actually just the default bash config on openSUSE, nothing to do with
Konsole. It works on text-mode VTs, via ssh, etc.
------
joshfinnie
I think it is time to add *.github.com to the filter list. I read through the
whole post before I realized it was not from GitHub, but someone who hosts on
github. We do it for blogger etc, can we get github added?
~~~
there
it should probably just try to strip ^www\d*?\\. from the domain and leave
everything else, rather than strip off the first component of the hostname
regardless of what it is.
better to print too long a url for some than too short for things like
example.github.com, code.google.com, etc.
~~~
igravious
Oh please yes. + a bucket load for code.google.com which comes up a lot and
would provide nice glanceable info.
------
Loic
You should never ssh into a production system, everything should be going
through automated scripts. Doing this will really save your life. For me this
means:
$ fab deploy
... oups errors on the website even if tested on stagging ...
$ fab getdebuglog
$ fab rollback
... fix test ...
$ fab deploy
fab is fabric, a very very nice deployment tool in Python:
<http://www.fabfile.org>
~~~
pak
Or for those less python-happy: just use expect
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expect>
Slightly weird syntax, but learnable in a few hours. You are likely to already
have it on your machines.
~~~
alttab
I've built *Nix testing frameworks using Expect. Would one use
Expect/Fabric/etc. to manage deployments and development environments?
Having the ability to immediately stage an environment to reproduce an error
without configuration issues would really take a lot of treachery out of
trying to evolve larger systems.
~~~
pak
I've seen it used to manage deployments, and it's not perfect, but it's a lot
better than expecting a whole team of engineers to muck about on the
production servers and remember to get everything just right.
In fact, an expect script [can be] nicely self-documenting, because somebody
can look at it and see "oh these are the steps to deploy X" because the
scripts basically read as "at the foo prompt, enter bar" over and over again,
with some branching to handle varying responses (missing prereq, error
messages).
The "ultimate" in building environments would probably have to be something
more comprehensive and declarative like bcfg
(<http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2>) which I have seen in action and it
works but is very XML-heavy.
------
sghael
We do this in a different context for our webapp work. We have three primary
environments: development, staging and production. We code a contextual, 20px
high, colored div at the top of our master template. It's red for development,
yellow for staging, and doesn't exist in production (i know it seems
backwards, but you can't really show an extra red bar in production :p ). It
also somewhere we dump out some quick and dirty debug info.
I've been burned too many times when jumping back and forth between production
and dev browser tabs. This simple hack saves me time, and possibly some
headaches.
------
protomyth
Did this at one place I worked for terminals and sql windows (red = prod,
green = dev, yellow = test). It does tend to inform you coworkers if they
should really be asking you stuff when you have a whole screen of red.
------
stephen
Doing the same thing for the webapp is also useful--it serves as visual
reminder to QA folk that the production box (white background) is /not/
someplace they should be running test scenarios (vs. the QA box with an
orange/whatever background).
Also, you can use different colors for different QA boxes--"I need blue qa
deployed" or "That fix is in black qa".
(Yes, this was an enterprise environment, why do you ask?)
------
gmac
I now run Byobu on my servers -- it's made my sysadmin life substantially
better -- and for each server I pick a different color for the status bar
along the bottom.
Production is red for me too. Like this: <http://img.ly/images/663862/full>
------
Luyt
I do this by setting the Window Background Color in saved sessions in PuTTY.
Works great! (The different colors for different machines, I mean).
------
morganpyne
I like this idea, and used to have a whole spectrum of color-coded terminals
when I looked after dozens of boxes years ago at a large company. It proved to
be very useful because although we did automate most activity on the machines
(using cfengine + other tools) I still found myself logging in regularly to
various machines and could often have many terminals on screen.
However... the color coding can be a bit misleading sometimes, particularly if
you are chaining SSH sessions and the colors are being set on terminal launch
(not on shell login). I was using PuTTY config settings for color on my
company-mandated Windows machine and soon found the limitations of this when I
logged in to machine A (green), then from there to machine B (red). The
terminal was still green and some time later I trusted the color and ran a
(destructive) command in the wrong shell. This reinforced to me that while
useful, color is no substitute for thinking before typing, and double checking
everything before performing destructive operations :-)
------
moe
Colorful shell prompts can be used for the same purpose.
~~~
there
except when you're doing something like editing a file, tailing a log, or
doing anything other than staring at a command prompt.
~~~
moe
FWIW, my editor has its own background color (vim in 256 color mode), so I
wouldn't see the terminal background either way.
However, I like the idea in general, just not the implementation. It would be
nice if modern terminal emulators (hello iTerm!) could adopt new escape
sequences to do things like set a background color on the _tab_ (like ZOC and
some others support by client-side configuration).
There is still lots of room for innovation in the terminal, it's a bit sad to
see progress at such a glacial pace. I'd actually pay for a terminal emulator
that's fast (first priority) and then also makes my life easier with
innovative features like the above.
For some reason all innovation in the terminal space seems to have died when
dialup BBS went out of fashion 10 years ago. Most terminal emulators have even
moved backwards and don't support ZModem anymore, which could be very useful
to provide adhoc drag'n'drop uploads instead of the scp/rsync limbo that is so
common nowadays.
~~~
po
One of the developers of iTerm2 also liked the idea responded to my tweet by
opening an issue request for it:
<http://code.google.com/p/iterm2/issues/detail?id=454>
~~~
moe
Wow, pretty cool! As an iTerm user I'll be looking forward to that.
------
swombat
Here's the same for those of us on Macs and who like transparent Terminals.
<http://geek.swombat.com/setting-up-terminalapp-with-tr-0>
------
pavel_lishin
I just set up the command line colors to be different on production vs.
development machines - I like my terminal backgrounds black, and regular text
white.
------
olalonde
Any chance it is possible to accomplish on Ubuntu?
~~~
there
you could use something like xtermcontrol
(<http://www.thrysoee.dk/xtermcontrol/>) and run it from your ~/.ssh/config
file per-host:
Host someproductionbox
LocalCommand xtermcontrol --bg=red
Host sometestbox
LocalCommand xtermcontrol --bg=blue
~~~
shimon
Great tip! Note that for this to work, you need to edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config
and set PermitLocalCommand yes
There's no way to change profile from the command line using gnome-terminal,
unfortunately, but there is "roxterm" which is very similar in functionality
and lets you do the following to change the color scheme of the current
terminal window:
dbus-send --session /net/sf/roxterm/Options net.sf.roxterm.Options.SetColourScheme string:$ROXTERM_ID "string:NAME_OF_COLOR_SCHEME"
------
reedlaw
This doesn't work with GNU Screen.
------
comex
Debugging is sweet,
And so are you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Search what really matters, fast - raminb30
https://denote.io/
======
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
6to5 (ES6 transpiler) is now renamed Babel - wildpeaks
https://github.com/6to5/6to5
======
sebastianmck
See
[https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/568](https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/568)
for why this name change happened.
------
wildpeaks
The website still points to
[https://github.com/6to5/6to5](https://github.com/6to5/6to5) yet the link now
redirects to [https://github.com/babel/babel](https://github.com/babel/babel).
Good move because even if it started with ES6, it now supports more (e.g. some
ES7 features and JSX) so the name didn't fit anymore.
~~~
sebastianmck
Haven't finished the rename yet.
------
fermigier
There's a well-known, widely used, Python project called Babel
([http://babel.pocoo.org/](http://babel.pocoo.org/)).
I find it quite annoying when people name their project without consideration
for other people in the open source community.
Other historical examples include Mozilla Firebird, which was renamed to
Thunderbird after loud complains of the Firebird database community, or
Twitter's Fabric, which clashes with Fabric
([http://www.fabfile.org/](http://www.fabfile.org/)), another Python project.
~~~
sgentle
I don't think it's as inconsiderate as you imply. Babel (as in tower of) is a
fairly well known biblical reference that I'd expect to find used in all sorts
of project names related to translation.
Indeed, a quick googling shows there's a Python Babel, an Eclipse Babel, an
Emacs Babel, a TeX Babel, a Babel language, and an Open Babel for chemistry.
I'm sure the addition of this new JS Babel won't inconvenience anyone too
much.
If anything, I think the real issue is open source projects overplaying their
hand and insisting they own certain words or ideas that they have no real
claim to, particularly when there isn't any actual chance of confusion. The
Firebird renaming wasn't so much sensible precedent as a good example of a
Mozilla saying "okay please stop yelling, we'll do whatever you want".
~~~
rspeer
I recall there have been multiple, incompatible tools for managing gettext-
style translation files called "Rosetta".
------
jarcane
I was wondering about this today; it makes sense to change the name eventually
anyway. Once ES6 starts being implemented more widely by actual browsers, the
old remit is likely to be obsolete.
------
norswap
2015 most original project name award.
------
albeva
so how is this different from say TypeScript?
~~~
itsbits
once browsers/JS engines supports ES6/ES7, we don't need babel. But thats not
the case with Typescript. But we never know. Babel may start supporting ES8.
It can be never ending process.
~~~
stupidcar
I'm sure Babel will be supporting ES8 and beyond. The rename wasn't just about
ES6/ES7 confusion, I believe, but to reflect the expanded ambition of the
project to be a general transpiler from the edge ES version to the version
with the widest browser and Node.js/io.js support.
However, TypeScript's goals aren't as different as you might think. It is a
strict superset of JavaScript, and although it adds features that are not yet
on the standards track, there are proposals to add optional static typing via
annotations to JS. Given that Google are also interested in such a capability,
given Dart and AtScript, it seems probable that types will eventually become
part of the language.
~~~
itsbits
agreed. But don't think Dart will last long considering Angular community went
for a new AtScript over Dart...Also I am preferring to use Babel is in future
I can remove that dependency which not the case with TypeScript or AtScript..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Belarus has shut down the internet amid a controversial election - ikse11
https://www.wired.com/story/belarus-internet-outage-election/
======
yabones
I have some close acquaintances in BY, so this has been hard.
We saw that (at least as of 8 PM UTC) outbound connections to HTTP servers
wasn't really a problem. A fresh ec2 box with a basic web server wasn't
effected.
So, early yesterday I set up an OpenVPN server on ec2 (eu-west-1) to try to
get some slow but functional internet access. What we saw was that about 15-30
seconds after the TLS handshake the connection would stall and drop out. To me
this says they're doing some deep packet inspection to find TLS and dropping
those firewall states. I also noticed while running `tcpdump` that almost
every tcp segment from a BY address had incorrect CRC's after the IDS kicked
in.
Tonight we're going to try using an xor tcp proxy to obfuscate the VPN
traffic. The system we're using has a name, but I'm not going to say it to
risk KGB (yes it's still called that there) creating IDS signatures and
killing our VPN. I'm sure that after a few hours it will start dropping these
connections as well, but if we can buy some time that's worth while.
This, really, is the real problem with the internet. In many small countries
there's only one IX, often under government ownership or supervision. You
might think that they know better than to do stuff like this, but push comes
to shove they'll all lock it down as soon as there's a threat to their
authority.
~~~
Waterluvian
What are the odds this is some western commercially packaged product that lets
them do all this? Like some Sandvine stuff or whatever.
~~~
stjohnswarts
The Chinese are also rather good at shutting down the internet as well. why
not blame all possible parties?
~~~
jariel
"why not blame all possible parties?"
10 years ago I would have said 'it's probably Western companies helping them'.
Now, I would say probably it's Chinese. Frankly, because it's going to be so,
so much cheaper, let alone it probably doesn't come with any potential
political headaches, and, they are developing a 'core competency' in this.
That said, Putin has serious geopolitical interest in Belarus, and himself is
supportive of the regime. Since the Russian state is also 'good at that stuff'
it could very well be a state-sponsored initiative.
Finally, Belarus is not Venezuela, wherein they might have difficulty
recruiting all the talent necessary to do this. Belarus has enough native
talent to contemplate the task.
But it'd be interesting to know 'who' is helping them do this.
~~~
sueuu3rid8
Frankly, I don't see why it matters who is selling or managing the equipment.
It's a pointless debate that misses the forest for the trees. Only children
thought refusing to produce and export this kind of expertise would stop it
from from proliferating. The demand and the money aren't going to go away
because anyone in particular took the high road. Refusing to participate just
means someone else gets the money.
------
SergeAx
Yesterday and day before editors of Telegram channel nexta_live [0] managed to
report events in Minsk and other cities in Belarus. They are now seeng
subscribers count boost from 300k to 1.1m in 2 days. The entire country
connection was badly shaped but still alive. Telegram is famous for it's
ability to work on a very thin bandwith, and also anti-blocking techniques.
Today all mobile data is switched off, but there are still small streams of
information, I think using sat connections.
[0] [https://t.me/nexta_live](https://t.me/nexta_live)
~~~
TrainedMonkey
To put this into context, population of Belarus is below 9.5m:
[https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/belarus-
popul...](https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/belarus-population/)
~~~
SergeAx
I think lots of subscribers there are from Russia (myself included), Ukraine
or other ex-USSR republics. But still.
BTW, it's 1.25m already. Gotta be 1.5m tomorrow. And those users are extremely
engaged - view counts on post from just an hour before is north of 0.5m.
------
caleb-allen
I have coworkers in Belarus who have been cut off from our (US based) company
since the weekend. I've been able to hear from one of them intermittently, but
it's a scary thing, I can't imagine what they're going through.
~~~
hamiltont
FYI - we have been able to get regular SMS and voice calls through (using
Google Fi as our carrier). It was great to go from "absolute zero
communication" to "we know you're currently OK"
~~~
3pt14159
Surely if there are telephone communications then someone can modem out? Or
are they scanning for non-human communication over telephony?
~~~
gpm
The number of people with the hardware and know how to send data over a
telephone line is probably very small.
~~~
tanatocenose
Slightly ironic since this was once the only way. Brb investing in a modem.
------
onetimemanytime
It's really simple and sad: he has been in power since 1995. God knows what he
has done as an absolute dictator. Also, to stay in power, tens or hundreds of
thousands of others have helped him and they have their own fiefdoms.
Losing that and risking jail, isn't going to happen because people want
change. So people better be lucky, because if they lose this revolt, they will
be crushed mercilessly. Not sure EU /USA has any say over him, after all
staying in power is his goal.
------
obogobo
wondering what / if any impact "the space internet" (or like networks) will
have on national government's ability to disrupt comms. or if it just shifts
the goalposts to a different network operator
~~~
enkid
I don't see Starlink shutting down subscribers if the Belarussian government
asks them to, at least not very quickly. If the terminals are available, this
is going to make all of the national internet projects (Russia, China, Iran)
much more difficult to pull off.
~~~
toast0
My guess is Starlink isn't going to turn off subscribers for small countries,
but large countries like Russia and China may have more influence.
The real question is if there's going to be enough receivers to make a
difference.
~~~
est31
Any country which has the capability of shooting down satellites has more
influence than countries which can't do it. But even a country with like 100
million residents, if it doesn't have a space program (or someone protecting
it with a space program), it doesn't have much of a say.
~~~
enkid
Countries that have that capability can't shoot down 40000 of them.
~~~
sergeykish
A few hits would provide enough junk for runaway process
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome)
~~~
marvin
I don't think a country with space capability is seriously considering making
orbit useless over censorship. That'd be like shooting yourself in the foot
right after you've trained for a marathon, in order to ingratiate yourself
with firearms manufacturers.
~~~
sergeykish
And private company would not consider such risk either. Like with nuclear
weapon ability to shoot is enough. Funny how it works with
s/country/private company/
s/space/nuclear/, s/orbit/land/
------
kovek
I believe Briar can help the people if they believe in democracy. However, I
don't know how best to share knowledge of the Briar project to people in
Belarus.
[https://briarproject.org/](https://briarproject.org/)
~~~
dunefox
Only available for android, so it's kind of useless.
~~~
m-p-3
If the authorities forces Apple to block the hypothetical Briar app on iOS
from showing in that country then you're SOL, while you could sideload it
without any problem on Android.
This walled garden has its risks when dealing with freedom.
An alternative would be Bridgefy, but that's a closed-source product.
------
bitxbitxbitcoin
#KeepItOn.
Internet shutdowns are disastrous economically and the countries that need to
resort to them are just feeding fuel to the fire. There are countries that
simply shutdown access to certain social media platforms (not that that's
better) but shutting down the entire internet is the very definition of
desperate to me.
------
shmerl
One feed here: [https://news.liga.net/world/chronicle/vybory-prezidenta-
bela...](https://news.liga.net/world/chronicle/vybory-prezidenta-belarusi-vse-
glavnye-novosti---live)
Those fascists are really getting more and more brutal against people. And
population will soon start treating them as they treated fascists during WW2.
------
macinjosh
Almost 10 years ago I was working on a freelance contract job over Skype with
another contractor who lived in Belarus. One day he told me his country was
undergoing revolution and he had to go join. Hope that guy is OK out there.
News like this always makes me grateful for what I have.
Can these internet shutoff valves intercept dialup? Could be useful for at
least text based communication.
------
dmix
I've noticed this in other countries where there are accusations of rigging
the results that the ratios always super high, in this case 80%.
If you're going to fake an election result that had some legitimate measurable
opposition, why make it so extremely high? Does that mean nearly every vote
counting place is rigged and it's so bad they don't even bother hiding it?
Just like when Crimea voted to join Russia it was 97% [1]. People use it as
justification pretty widely but it's also hard to tell what's true in such an
environment. It's nearly impossible to trust such a number, even if a majority
potentially existed.
Note: I'm not suggesting it's at all accurate but it makes it all the more
outrageous and suspicious. The protests are then predictable.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum)
~~~
pydry
>Just like when Crimea voted to join Russia it was 97% [1].
In Crimea's case the majority of the population being ethnically russian, the
neglect from Ukraine, anger over the maidan, russia promising pension payments
and infrastructure investment and the opposition boycotting the vote probably
all contributed to this result.
As far as I know the main thrust of the argument against this vote from the EU
and Ukraine was that having the vote was illegal and/or unconstitutional and
thus null and void.
All Russia cared about was maintaining access to warm water ports.
~~~
linuxftw
Also, let's not forget, the Ukrainian government was just over thrown by a
western-backed coup. Of course, you won't know that from the Wikipedia cliff
notes, but that's what happened.
~~~
macinjosh
Exactly, reminds me of when Asst. Sec. of State Victoria Nuland went and
handed out sandwiches to supporters of the coup in the Maidan! And we have the
nerve to be upset when other countries meddle in our affairs? How would we
feel if a high-level Russian diplomat went out on the streets in the DC
protests and handed out food to members of antifa or the alt-right?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztt72mpTPXA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztt72mpTPXA)
~~~
dmix
I inherently don't like these sorts whataboutism used in your comment, it's a
poor approach to questioning the morality/strategy of any country and but-the-
US-did-x-minor-thing has long been used by dictators and the like to justify
horrible things. Especially when it's not even top-down but a single phone
call of some mid-tier diplomat.
That said, after reading Nuland's Wikipedia her brazenness is something I'd
expect more from the old CIA than the modern state dept. It's rich hearing her
protest against Russian interference in the sovereignty of another country
while trying to play the cocky puppet-master role in the background over the
future leadership of Ukraine.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland?oldformat=true...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland?oldformat=true#Leaked_private_phone_conversation)
But the main forgiving grace is that she was only assistant for Europe which
isn't top tier and in other cases has demonstrated a maverick streak, not a
person receptive to operating under authority or established norms. She’s also
super pro-intervention in general which is less popular these days.
Most importantly this is not anywhere near the level of intervention shown by
Russia. Really, it's extremely insignificant by comparison.
Russia has long been grasping at straws to build the western intervention is
just as bad conspiracy. If all Russia has is some heavy-handed backroom phone
call by a minor diplomat then the US doesn't have much to worry about.
~~~
pydry
>Most importantly this is not anywhere near the level of intervention shown by
Russia.
A country that borders it and has been repeatedly invaded via it.
------
crispyporkbites
So hacker news, what’s the tech solution to this? P2P mesh networks? Encrypted
DNS?
How do we build a network today in peaceful countries that is resilient to
state actors?
~~~
DonCopal
Spread information via Bluetooth.
------
jarnix
I think it's going to be the same during the next elections in Russia. It's
really sad to see the declaration of the main opponent (Tikhanovskaya) (1)
Protesters are in jail (more than 2000 people), a guy has been killed by a
truck, etc.
1:
[https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1293127604330016769](https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1293127604330016769)
~~~
sam_lowry_
The first video in the twitter thread you link to was _extorted_ from the
winning opposition candidate by senior Belarusian officials in the office of
the Central Electoral Commission.
The declaration she made after arriving in Lithuania is here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzisJ388Xs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzisJ388Xs)
In it, she roughly says "I thought I've been hardened by this campaign and
that I will handle it. But I am still the weak woman that I was initially. I
made a difficult decision. God save you from the kind of choice I had to make.
Take care of yourself. Kids are the most important thing that you have in
life."
And indeed, the internet is __completely __down in Belarus. Phone network
still works.
~~~
liability
Ah, so they threatened her kids. Sickening.
~~~
sam_lowry_
At some point in the past, she said that her kids were safe abroad, but it
does not take a big country to successfully track and extort people anywhere
in the world.
~~~
webkike
I believe her husband, who she has been running in the stead of after he was
(unjustly) disqualified, is currently imprisoned in Belarus. That is probably
one of her concerns.
~~~
sam_lowry_
This is true.
------
ciguy
This is incredibly sad. I spent a few weeks in Belarus last summer (2019) and
everyone seemed incredibly hopeful and positive. It's a beautiful country and
Minsk is a gorgeous city.
I've been able to contact a few of my friends there sporadically over the past
few days, but have heard nothing from them for 24 hours. Initially it seemed
like a block on communication apps like WhatsApp and they could get around it
with a VPN but now it seems that it's turned into a full internet shutdown.
~~~
madaxe_again
I was there in ‘17 - and nobody, _nobody_ I met had a good word to say about
the government. The main theme was “it’s going to change, soon” - which makes
the credibility of this result all the less probable.
Sure, it’s apocryphal, but after a month there travelling all over, the only
person I met who thought lukashenko was good for the country was a
multimillionaire from “business”.
~~~
ciguy
Yeah I got the impression that people really believed things would change next
election when I was there. And similar experience regarding general opinion of
the government. Though I always take that with a grain of salt because the
people I talk to are generally not a good random sampling of the population,
definitely selection bias at work.
------
Ericson2314
Can we call this the "Kashmir playbook"? Or is there a better earlier example
of a temporary-induced communications blackout vs what e.g. the PRC does.
~~~
2Gkashmiri
yes. This is more like the kashmir playbook. stopping internet to prevent
people from communicating, to prevent an uprising where external agencies can
provide information, assistance, attacks and such. This same thing is
happening in kashmir the moment i write this so its hardly surprising more
countries havent done it yet because it is a kill switch and governments are
willing to push it if it threatens them
------
Abishek_Muthian
I presume the ISPs had shut it down on the Govt. orders. But how does VSAT
providers act in such situations? e.g. if Starlink had subscribers there,
would it need to comply with Govt. orders or would Govt.(except U.S.) have no
control over it and has to physically cease the devices(and ban it from
selling it further).
Anyways, VSAT + WiFi nodes for non-cellular mobile Internet[1] seems to be a
good case for protecting the freedom of Internet.
[1][https://needgap.com/problems/51-non-cellular-network-
mobile-...](https://needgap.com/problems/51-non-cellular-network-mobile-
internet-telecom-internet)
------
tapvt
A case where I feel amateur (ham) radio would be a potential lifeline to the
outside world.
~~~
Mediterraneo10
By international treaty, hams cannot discuss politics (like chaos following
dubious elections) over the air. In fact, in many countries it is the custom
for hams to avoid any topics that might be seen as "serious", instead they
limit their remarks to general technical matters or the weather.
~~~
tylermenezes
I'm not really sure where you've gotten that from. Can you post an actual
citation?
Here in the US, communications just need to be "of a personal nature." Part 97
prohibits (with some exceptions) commercial communications, encrypted
communications, music, and things which are otherwise illegal. It's also not
the licensing test.
It's not unusual for the US to ignore a treaty, of course, but I can't find
anything about this online either.
I've always heard "don't discuss politics" as a sort of unspoken agreement.
(KG7TUJ)
------
qserasera
US foreign policy on telecoms, freedom of speech, ect is full on clown car
right now.
Special interests are so cram packed we cant even see the windshield of the
car we're driving.
Im starting to agree that US should or potentially could have a larger share
on the legwork for telecoms, fiber, and community servicing. I'm not sure how
long starlink ect will be competitive with the bandwith, total information
speeds in the future.
------
sulam
We have an office there and people were able to use normal internet services
on Monday (albeit over VPN in some cases). Some people did have home network
service interrupted.
I haven't heard of any escalations today, but obviously my sample size is
limited (70 people in Minsk).
------
M2Ys4U
"Controversial Election"? Now that's an understatement if I've ever seen
one...
I don't think elections in Belarus have _ever_ been seen to be free and fair.
~~~
Nginx487
So-called "elections" after 5th-6th term are a bad joke. Face it, ex-Soviet
republics Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan never seazed to be totalitarian regimes
with pathetic tries to convince the world they adopted some democracy.
~~~
foepys
I don't think it's impossible for elected officials to be liked for 5 or 6
terms. In Germany Merkel is so well liked that most people (>70% according to
polls) are actually sad that she doesn't want to run for a 5th term.
~~~
dgellow
I think it’s worth pointing out that a German chancellor has very limited
power when compared to the Belorussian president.
------
yurlungur
About 20 years ago there was this optimism that Internet is this new
unstoppable thing that will liberate the world to have free communication and
knowledge sharing. Unfortunate that turned out to be such a false idea.
Probably the infrastructure of it all simply wouldn't allow it...maybe that's
what needs to change.
~~~
jaggirs
Peer to peer internet is what is missing I suppose.
~~~
betterunix2
The Internet is peer to peer by design, even if the most popular user-facing
applications do not take full advantage of peer to peer architecture.
------
kebman
I wonder how satellite links and p2p devices could circumvent state-controlled
ISPs. For instance I saw some interesting work on how to make HAM radio into
packet radio. On the other hand, there was a dark time in Norway when you
could be sentenced to death for owning the wrong type of radio.
------
ajuc
This is a full blown dictatorship imprisoning innocent people, beating up
protesters, blackmailing opposition candidate to escape the country by
imprisoning her husband.
There are already dead protesters.
Calling these elections "controversial" is like calling WW2 "a disagreement".
~~~
gorbypark
The husband was the original candidate, who was arrested and his wife ran in
his place.
------
McDyver
I had already commented this 7 months ago when Russia did the same thing.
"In the interest of the people everywhere in the world, there should always be
dial-up access points available, in different countries.
The "national interest", for whichever country, should always be the people's
interest; and restricted information has never been of any benefit except for
those restricting it"
Someone had raised the point that with the current technology, modems might
not work internationally anymore.
Is that the case? Can such a system still be put in place?
~~~
stefan_
Of course ISPs can stop modems from working. But nothing to stop a directed,
tracking satellite system like Starlink (except somewhat triangulate senders).
~~~
McDyver
The problem with relying on a single private company like SpaceX is that it
still is a single point of failure.
Who's to say that Musk, or whoever will own Starlink next, won't side with an
authoritarian regime, and do the same?
~~~
actuator
That is not even an if. He like most humans would do anything to secure his
profits. He has been mum on anything related to HK but wouldn't hesitate to
drop statements like this.[1]
[1] [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/31/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-china-
ro...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/31/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-china-rocks-us-
full-of-entitlement.html)
------
Cyclone_
Good example of why decentralized power is important
------
brightball
This is why I’m excited about Starlink.
~~~
sschueller
Starlink is not the solution. A private entity then decides who gets what and
the US government will also meddle in what is allowed.
Do you think Starlink would be allowed to route TikTok traffic if it got
banned?
~~~
brightball
I think people in China would be able to use Starlink without the great
firewall being in the way. Just having access not be routed through ground
based, hardwired facilities will go a long way toward preventing this type of
thing.
There's no reason to ban TikTok or other apps if people in China have
unrestricted access to US companies.
------
2Gkashmiri
this is nothing. shameless plug. I am a kashmiri typing this from 2G internet
which apprently is the only acceptable thing for the indian government to
allow me. 4G access has been stopped since 5 AUGUST 2019. a freaking year has
passed and no high speed internet. I didnt have 2G for like 7 months.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revocation_of_the_special_stat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revocation_of_the_special_status_of_Jammu_and_Kashmir)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Kashmir#Censorsh...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Kashmir#Censorship_on_internet)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Jammu_and_Ka...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Jammu_and_Kashmir_lockdown)
belarus can stop internet for all they want, as long as they want. they have
the legal precedent to do so aka india via kashmir
~~~
jammucoder
I'm typing this from Jammu. Since 370 abrogation last year, number of terror
incidents in J&K is down by 40%. Every story has two sides. While I hope the
govt brings back full 4G connectivity soon, I am grateful to them for taking
the terror situation seriously.
~~~
arcticbull
Do you have any evidence limited speeds are the reason for a reduction in
terrorist incidents?
Unless you have some hard evidence that's a weak-sauce claim. Correlation _at
best_.
~~~
2Gkashmiri
children havent gone to school since 5 august 2019 in kashmir. while the world
is enjoying the benefits of zoom and stuff, everyone is stuck with 2G. that
means no zoom parties, no conference calls, recorded classes are sent via
voice notes on whatsapp groups for each class and children write simple exams
on paper and photo a picture. things are THAT DEPLORABLE and the narrative
"stopping terrorism" is given as an excuse to prevent 8 million people from
internet? what gives?
~~~
jammucoder
My friend, although I feel the same as you about the 2G connectivity issue, I
should remind you that just 3 years before 370 abrogation, schools in Kashmir
were shut for 8 Months [1] after the killing of Terrorist by security forces.
This is the J&K I have grown up in. "Stopping terrorism" sounds like just
another narrative, but not to those who have lived with its consequences.
[1] [https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kashmir-schools-
reopen...](https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kashmir-schools-reopen-
burhan-wani-encounter-winter-vacations-963272-2017-03-01)
~~~
2Gkashmiri
what is your point? that its okay to actively prevent schoolchildren from
studying? how does it matter schools were shut for 8 months 3 years ago. the
point is, with the current pandemic, schoolchildren are stuck at home anyways
and denying them high speed internet is denying them access to education.
plain and simple. you argue because its been done before so everyone is used
to it and thats somehow okay? its not
~~~
actuator
Although a very unfair comparison, and I don't agree with it. But I think his
point was three years back people were more than willing to protest for an
"armed millitant"[1] and a lot of that was organized through social media.
But this doesn't mean it is right, internet is a fundamental right at this
point. You can't just deprive people from it with a blanket ban.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burhan_Wani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burhan_Wani)
~~~
2Gkashmiri
your words, "people were more than willing to protest for an "armed millitant"
"
where do you say terrorism in that sentence? did hongkong stop internet when
there were protests? or BLM which were protests organised on social media,
telegram, whatsapp, facebook? or do rules apply differently when protests are
against injustices in usa and kashmir?
~~~
actuator
As I said, I support restoring internet access but giving the HK example wrt
Kashmir is more like a strawman argument. HK situation is nowhere what
Kashmir's is. HKers are fighting for democratically elected government. Look
at what the guy in question was fighting for, here is a statement from his
Wikipedia page. [1]
> He oft-elaborated about the idea of India being entirely incompatible with
> Islam thus mandating a destruction at any cost, and aimed of unfurling the
> flag of Islam on Delhi’s Red Fort.
This is the exact sort of sentiment that have been used by the current Indian
government and many others around the world to stoke fear and champion for
their ideology.
I honestly think you do disservice to your genuine concerns when you defend
people like him and this makes it easy for your real concerns to be muddled
with such bigotry. Same with the protests. This will not help your cause and I
honestly believe whether it is Xinjiang or Kashmir, armed separatism is not
the answer and is never going to succeed. Both the countries do really need to
find a better way to deal with it though.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burhan_Wani#Biography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burhan_Wani#Biography)
------
danielam
I just posted a link[0] with some of Friedman's response to what's going on.
TLDR: aside from Belarus' geopolitical importance and predicament, it sounds
like what's going on is largely a matter of speculation, though the events of
the last decade read in light of geopolitical realities seem to suggest
Russian involvement.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24121275](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24121275)
~~~
bitL
It looks plausible that Russia is trying to follow the US playbook in Ukraine,
i.e. a controllable quasi-chaotic removal of a person in power that goes
against their interests and outlived his usefulness (this time enlarging
Russia), while getting a popular support for it and making sure the other
party (US) can't do the same. I don't think Russia can afford losing another
buffer separating it from EU, so anything is possible.
~~~
adventured
You say the US re Ukraine. It's actually Western European powers, which have
dramatically more influence over the situation in Ukraine - they always have,
and they always will - than the US does.
It's hilarious that people think the US controls every aspect of planet Earth,
such that it can just point its finger at things and make them the way it
wants them to be. The bipolar response to US capabilities is the amusing part,
the US is either a god toppling governments at will or entirely incompetent,
depending on whatever narrative the anti-US contingent needs to push.
~~~
bitL
I still remember the leaked Nuland's call saying "F __* the EU " implying that
US was the main change agent and the other caller expressing views that EU was
too weak to do anything and they had to act. It looks like Russia has learned
from that, manufactured consent to get rid of Lukashenko utilizing his
weaknesses and expected actions (i.e. unable to resist corrupting the
elections, suppressing protests by force) and had trained people in the
background ready to take over. I guess Russia decided to preempt any potential
US/EU action by simply replaying the same scenario they saw in Ukraine,
Georgia etc. with the ability to steer its outcome at a time that is favorable
to them (COVID-19, economy down).
~~~
gdy
Russian state-controlled TV channels are portraying protesters in a very
negative light.
~~~
bitL
I might have overestimated how smart they were or they managed to strike an
agreement with Lukashenko after a live demo of a color revolution.
~~~
gdy
Or maybe they just don't do that kind of thing. Color revolution are American
specialty.
------
ck2
wow that headline/article really hedges like there are somehow other
possibilities and they are supposed to be inclusive? I mean he's an
authoritarian in power since 1991, it's a tyrants lifelong dream
I wonder how the USA's 2020 is going to be written by outsiders hedging how it
all could have been somehow legitimate.
------
linuxftw
Shutting down the internet is more or less as the major online platforms
colluding to shutdown one side of the political spectrum.
Sometimes it's the government, sometimes it's people that aspire to be in the
government and aren't yet. It's all about control.
------
throw1234651234
Context: Russian Mercs in Belarus:
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/belarus-arrests-
dozen...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/belarus-arrests-dozens-
russian-mercenaries-state-media-200729143155990.html)
~~~
OnACoffeeBreak
There's no context in the above link.
~~~
throw1234651234
It's background to the situation. Direct background.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to store user/pass securely in the browser? - geuis
I'm working on a web app that will let the user interface with a 3rd party site via my service. In order for my service to utilize the API of the 3rd party, it requires the username and password for each individual user's account. I don't want to store people's private information on my service though. Not only do I feel personally uncomfortable doing that when other services want me to, and I don't want to be like that, I don't want to be in a position where someone potentially hacking my service can get all of my users' info.<p>I will have SSL setup for all communications between the user's browser and my service, and the API servers for the 3rd party are also via SSL.<p>I know I can very easily store the user's U/P in a cookie on their local machine(s), but that in itself presents security problems for them.<p>So, I need to be able to store the U/P <i>somewhere</i>. I don't want to make it so the user has to retype their info every single time they use my service, because it then reduces the click-and-go functionality of my service to zero.<p>What's the best approach in this kind of situation? Am I missing something obvious, or do I just have to bite the bullet and take the least-onerous option that's available?
======
cperciva
First, I think the idea of you making API requests using your users'
credentials is a bad one from the start. If the third party in question wants
to allow requests-on-behalf-of, they should provide a proper API for it; if
not, you shouldn't be working against their wishes by impersonating your
users.
That said, if you really really have to do this: Have your users provide you
with their username and password; generate a random symmetric encryption key;
store (username, encrypted password) on your systems and send (username,
encryption key) to the user as a cookie.
This will give you safety against an attacker who can steal your database or
the user's cookies; it won't give you any protection against an attacker who
can steal both of those (that would impossible), nor will it give you any
protection against an attacker who controls your server at a time when a user
tries to use your service (again, that would be impossible).
But I still think this is a really bad idea.
~~~
jrockway
_First, I think the idea of you making API requests using your users'
credentials is a bad one from the start. If the third party in question wants
to allow requests-on-behalf-of, they should provide a proper API for it; if
not, you shouldn't be working against their wishes by impersonating your
users._
This is true, but unfortunately we live in the real world, and hacks are
sometimes necessary. Look at Mint.com, for example. Give some site all your
banking details? WHOA THERE. But it turns out the service is very useful, and
it works with pretty much every bank. If they had waited for proper APIs to
exist, someone else would have beaten them to market.
------
simonw
If you can convince the third party site to adopt OAuth, do that.
Otherwise, one technique you could use is to encrypt their password using a
key derived from a hash of the password they enter. When they log in, set that
hash as their cookie. Each time you need to use the third party password, read
that cookie and use it to decrypt the stored password.
Since you don't know their real password for your own app (as you only store a
different hash of it), you won't be able to derive the hash used for the
decryption process (note that this means you need to store a hash of their
password for your own authentication using a different salt from the one you
use to protect their encryption).
With this technique, having access to your database is not enough to decrypt
their third-party password.
Unfortunately none of this resolves the root problem. Firstly, by asking users
to trust you with their passwords for other sites you are teaching them to be
phished. Secondly, if you turn evil (or someone evil acquires your site in
some way) the server-side logic can be changed to steal the user's password.
~~~
tptacek
Don't do this: do what Colin said. Let k be 32 random bytes (using your OS's
_secure random number generator_ ), store AES-256-CBC(k, [user, pass]), send k
in a cookie over HTTPS with the "secure" flag set (that "k" is password-
equivalent, and can't leak over an HTTP connection).
Repeating Colin's caveat: the fact that you had to type "A-E-S" into your code
to make the scheme work is strong evidence that you are doing something bad.
------
Herring
Store it encrypted on their computer then decrypt it each time it's sent to
you? Maybe I'm missing the problem.
One way or another you're going to have to hold it as plaintext to submit it
to the other site. It's nice to hold it only in RAM, but the vulnerability is
always there.
~~~
bbb
Exactly, and use public key crypto:
1) Generate public/private key pair for user.
2) Send public key to client.
3) Encrypt PW on client, store as cookie.
4) Store (user, private key) on your server.
5) Client now sends the encrypted PW whenever it is needed.
6) Server decrypts on demand, but does not store a local copy.
Since you never relinquish the private key this is pretty much unbreakable for
spyware going through a client's cookies. (Nevermind key loggers...)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Are you suffering from ADHD? - drieddust
If yes then what copying mechanism you use to cope with attention deficit?
======
sless
Adderall
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startup vs. Lifestyle Business (A Short Comparison from a Guy Who's Done Both) - wallflower
http://www.corbettbarr.com/startup-vs-lifestyle-business
======
scottyallen
"I wanted to start a business doing something I enjoy that let me live a great
life now."
I wish we as a valley entrepreneur culture valued this more.
I quit my fulltime job at a startup recently, with the goal of starting my own
company. I spent a bunch of time having fairly in depth conversations with
potential cofounders. Really sharp people, many of which who had solid, well
validated business ideas with significant investor interest.
But I couldn't fully commit. In the end, I realized it was because deep in my
heart, I wanted to have a great life now, not at some unspecified (and
uncertain) point way in the future. So I decided to focus on building a
business that generates solid cash flow and which doesn't require a 60 hour
workweek for me to maintain, once I get it up and running.
The process of going around and explaining my decision to everyone who I had
been talking with awkward. If you liken the process of finding a cofounder to
dating leading up to marriage, then the process of "breaking up" was akin to
going around to all of the girls you're dating and telling them you're gay.
"We're both attracted to different things", and, "I respect your lifestyle
choice" were common phrases:) People were supportive in a "That's nice for
you, I'm glad you're following your heart, but I would never choose that" sort
of way.
It's a shame that the valley culture is so focused on big, home run hit
businesses. We're now in an era of entrepreneurship where very solid cashflow
businesses can be created with very little capital, and significantly lower
risk than a big homerun hit business. Yet, as a community, we treat them like
the uncle whose lifestyle everyone accepts but no one wants to talk about. A
lot of the advising, incubators, and accepted best practices all center around
taking funding and growing as big as possible as quickly as possible, above
all else.
If any "lifestyle" entrepreneurs want to grab a cup of coffee sometime and
swap advice and/or encouragement, drop me a line - my contact info is in my
profile.
~~~
ramanujan
The thing is though that a lifestyle business is quite stressful in many ways:
you have to innovate like a technologist while _also_ having the enormous
stress of bottom line responsibility for profit & loss...without the
possibility of getting more hands to help you out through growth, or the
margin of a large company to tide you over should times get bad.
37Signals is not the typical lifestyle business. A business you've never heard
of, or which you frequent without paying much thought, is the typical
lifestyle business. No one will make a movie about such a business, or be in
awe at its growth rate, or fund a bunch of competitors to get into the space.
It certainly has its pluses and minuses, but if you are an ambitious kind of
character who loves the clang of battle, there's a reason that a lifestyle
business seems like a defeat.
Finally, it's not much easier to build a lifestyle business that actually
makes more money (and hence provides more freedom) than your alternatives. If
you have such talent, you could probably make more of an impact either at a
big company or by joining/founding a top startup.
------
cstross
I've done the startup thing (I was first programmer hire at Datacash in 1997;
reverse takeover onto AIM in 2000, after which I left: acquired by Mastercard
last year). And I've done the lifestyle thing -- self-employed full time for
the past decade, doing very nicely but in a niche where it's almost impossible
to scale up beyond sole trader.
If I'd stuck in the startup mode, I'd be dead.
See, startups are very demanding. And if you don't have great health, or a
tendency towards stress-related illnesses, that's a very bad situation to be
in. I've seen a friend die of it (hypertension plus 90 hour work weeks are a
bad combination) and I was on course for it myself before I got out.
It doesn't matter if the startup is going to make you rich at the IPO if it
kills you first. And it won't do the startup any good if one of the founder
dies in harness, either.
~~~
davidw
> doing very nicely but in a niche where it's almost impossible to scale up
> beyond sole trader.
cstross is a sci-fi author:-)
I think for many, that would be going from startups to writing would be from
the frying pan into the fire in that they're both "black swan" industries.
Glad it's worked for him, though.
------
hxf148
I have worked corporate government web development for over a decade (sigh). I
helped bring in use of open source and php there and in a way it has always
operated as a startup with constant staff/tech changes.
But going it alone in the real world has been a teacher of many new lessons. I
am struggling everyday to balance working towards a goal while maintaining the
present reality. I am not alone in my current startup
(<http://infostripe.com>) but it's pretty much down to me right now to
finance, develop, market, and support it. Developing and managing growth are
tasks I actually crave to do and my goal right now is to build an idea slowly,
work hard, refine and iterate the results until it begins to take on a life of
its own and we can afford specialists and consider investment.
I would say for sure that until you do reach the point of stability in your
code and business model that you are living a particular lifestyle. Any time
you can find to get closer to profitability is your life. I've watched many
small business owners go through the same startup cycles. Some make it and
some don't. It just really comes down to the fact that if the thing you are
going after is something that you Love to do it will ultimately get easier if
it is a decent idea. The something whether code or knitting is the thing that
you want to do so figuring out the rest just enables your passion.
I believe ultimately that being able to think up, program and execute
technical and/or products and craft ideas for making coin online is an ever
growing small business of the now and future.
------
theitgirl
Great post! I am a software developer currently working full time for a
company. Recently, my husband and I started talking about having kids and the
first thought that came to my mind was that I don’t want my kids to be left in
someone else’s care while I work for someone else. I don’t want to stop
working entirely and become a housewife either.
I started looking into other options. From what I understand, startups are for
people who want to run a business and a lifestyle business is for people who
want to own a business with a focus on maintaining their preferred lifestyle.
I am choosing to go the lifestyle business route. We’ll see how it goes :)
~~~
funcall
My wife and I made this same decision about 5 years ago when we were expecting
our first child, for pretty much the same reasons you cited. We were extremely
fortunate to have found a niche for which we could build a product, and find
paying clients relatively quickly.
It took us about 18 months to reach a level of stability - literally, our
business grew alongside our first child. But, even during this phase we were
able to spend quality time with our child. Although, as one of the other
posters indicated a lifestyle business doesn't automatically mean tons of free
time and no stress. It's just that relative to a traditional startup life
(which I experienced as a principal when I was still single), it's still night
and day.
My wife and I are extremely grateful for the time and freedom our business
afforded us. We were able to spend more time with our children during those
precious first few months and years than we would have even working for a big
company, let alone a startup. There were still stressful times, especially
finding clients, or when servers went down in the middle of the night (funny
how that always happened just as soon as you go back to sleep after walking a
crying child to sleep :), but it was all worth it.
I wish you best luck in your path.
------
Lucadg
I have been living the lifestyle business for more than 10 years now. Here in
HN I feel a bit ashamed of: \- not having raised millions \- not having made
millions \- my small company staying small for so long.
but who cares? What I wanted was traveling and travel I did. The author is
right to point out that there's an (easier?) alternative to make it big. Make
it now.
------
dangravell
Both descriptors are too general, they hide the good and bad implementations
of either approach.
Depending on your experience of either side (which I, too, have) another way
of looking at the comparison is, respectively, an organisation that hopes to
turn into a business in the future, or a profitable business now.
Naturally, both sides want to earn revenue and be profitable. Only, on the
'startup' side, you have to have a really good reason to be in the position to
take that funding. You need to know, I think, the first market you will
tackle, the first problem you will solve and the first ways you will begin
building revenue and profitability, otherwise you are just wasting time with
other people's cash.
If a startup is a medical company needing funding for R&D, fine. If a startup
is a hardware company needing to fill inventory, fine. If the startup is a
software company that has worked out a repeatable sales model and now wants to
get boots on the floor peddling those wares, also fine.
I guess what I'm saying is that it feels to me in software that 'startup' is
almost the default, when in reality it should be a special case, or a latter
day option as you scale up an already proven sales model.
------
killerswan
There's also the alternative of working for someone else's lifestyle
business.........
~~~
MicahWedemeyer
A lot of us "lifestylers" have similar ambitions to the startup folks, like
wanting to work for ourselves and be masters of our own destiny.
Working for someone else's lifestyle business kind of has all the downsides.
You know it's not going to go big and turn your equity into big money, plus
you're still working for someone else, not being your own boss.
On the flip side, for the people who just want a good, low-stress job, working
for a lifestyle biz can be a great thing. There's a better chance the founders
will understand and respect your own lifestyle choices (kids, family, travel,
etc.) and try to prevent the job from interfering.
------
EECS
I've been on both sides as well, having done many lifestyle projects and
businesses as well as building startups including successfully getting
acquired and I have the opposite view.
I strongly believe that the main reason the author claims he prefers a
lifestyle business really boils down to financial reasons and freedom of time
associated with running a simple lifestyle business. But if you're in a
position where finances are no longer an issue, it boils down to what you
really want to do. For me, having been through both and having both do well
enough to financially secure me for life, the concept of doing a business to
"allow me to live life _now_ " doesn't really apply. I can technically not
work by choice and just enjoy life to the maximum extent doing whatever
(financially related or not) or do projects on the side to fill up time if
that's my hobby.
Instead, I find that I have a tremendous passion in doing startups, where the
lifestyle IS the life I want and I don't really care about doing all the other
so called "living life _now_ " junk because this is living life at its best in
my definition. I am the type that would rather not travel, hit up happy hour,
or do other leisurely things in lieu of running my startup doing something
cool or what I want to do. I rather focus all my spare time building a startup
anyway. So to me, to some extent, it seems like the authors decision is base
on the fact that financial, no matter how small of a factor it currently
plays, is still a determining factor nonetheless (read associate of time
included). The OP can feel free to correct me if this isn't so.
It also doesn't help that it seems the OP only has one startup experience to
relate to and its one that didn't succeed (not counting the experience
portion; which can be considered success or not separately) and ended up
making him and his cofounder split ways (which even on the best of terms and
all could still have some influence). Just my two cents.
After all is said and done, it also reflects how many people consider getting
into doing a startup under the notion of either not wanting to work for
somebody else or because of financial wins, less so because they just have a
strong passion for doing startups (similar to people who do open source
projects that aren't commercialize to an extent). I'm not saying the OP is
like that in any way, but as the old mantra goes, do what you love. And if you
love doing startups, freedom/finances isn't going to change your love of the
game.
Side Note: I lived in SF for over three years before moving down to the Valley
(Mountain View) in favor or startup life over city living. While SF is still
very tech centric, in my personal honest opinion, it doesn't hold much of a
candle to the Valley itself and _majority_ of the people I've ever talked to
arguing in favor of living in SF, are to a large extent, arguing for a life
outside of the startup world. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that but
the distinction should be made for non-Bay Area residents who may not
understand the difference. (Again, personal opinion)
------
neilk
This was nearly content-free. No details about either business.
It does outline the difference between a VC-backed startup and a regular
business but I hope that distinction is clear to most of the people here.
There is Tim-Ferriss-esque hinting at "dream lifestyle" stuff that disturbs
me.
~~~
noodle
follow the links in the post and you'll find it. he actually has a somewhat
lengthy thing about what he did and how.
what's disturbing about the dream lifestyle stuff?
------
jingerso
Let me guess, you are non-technical?
~~~
rewind
Can you elaborate? As a one-liner, that sounds both ridiculous and belittling.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A simple, extensible HTTP server in Cocoa - twampss
http://cocoawithlove.com/2009/07/simple-extensible-http-server-in-cocoa.html
======
cosmo7
I love embedded servers. I don't think adding SSL would be that hard. I've
done something very similar in C# and kept putting off SSL, only to find that
X.509 authentication was trivial.
The harder part is maintaining session info between requests and garbage
collecting dead sessions, though you could just authenticate each request.
------
I_got_fifty
Cocoa? Wouldn't that be like writing a HTTP server in Tk/Tcl? That's pretty
impressive.
~~~
allenbrunson
not sure why you would think that! objective-c uses a dispatch method for
message-passing which is a little slower than direct function calls, but it
rarely slows things down in practice. even if it does, there are ways around
it: for speed-critical code you can circumvent message-passing and call
functions directly.
cocoa code ends up being compiled, after all. that makes it lots faster than
the latest scripting languages.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Starting a consulting business. Can I get some feedback on my new site? - tahoecoder
http://www.appraptor.com
======
kintamanimatt
Drop the gmail email address. You have your own domain; use it.
I know HN is hugging this site to death right now and the present load is
atypical, so I won't comment on the performance because this isn't a real
world issue. (Curious, why did you choose Apache/PHP when you appear to be a
Ruby/Rails developer? It's been a while but Nginx/PHP-FPM was always a better
bet for high loads.)
Your strongest call to action is the freebies thing, but that's incongruent
with the purpose of the site: to get people into your sales funnel. Make your
"hire me" your most prominent thing and drop the "open source freebies" thing
completely. By all means list your open source projects, but they should
feature as part of your portfolio. Nobody's going to your site to get
something for free, and for reasons I can't articulate, it cheapens your
proposition.
Make your contact information easier to find by putting it on every damn page
in the header and footer, and if appropriate in the middle of your page too.
Make it stand out too because if I want to contact you I don't want to be
playing hide and go seek with your phone number.
If you're able to link to live versions of the apps you've created, do so and
make those links so obvious your mother would find them. The (+) icon makes me
feel like I'm going to add something to something, not open up a drop down
menu. Just put them as a row of links under the description rather than hiding
away these important links. Follow the mantra that your visitors are stupid
and tired when designing, even if they're actually bright and caffeinated.
Also make sure you don't open any external links in same window/tab.
Having said all of the above, it's a nicely designed site.
Going off topic, the screenshot on <http://www.mycelial.com/> is blurry as
hell. I don't know if this is intentional, but it bothers me quite a lot.
~~~
krallin
Regarding the load time, using static HTML with a site generator would yield
great results here. There really is not reason to be using PHP here.
A great option is to put it on S3 and distribute it with CloudFront.
~~~
bradgessler
Yep, take a look at <http://middlemanapp.com/> and
<https://github.com/polleverywhere/shart>.
~~~
tahoecoder
Thanks for those resources. Didn't know about them and they look really
useful.
------
drewcrawford
Relevant experience: I am you, except for native iOS dev.
This website is written for another software developer to read. Your primary
customer will be a larger (than you) Ruby/Python shop that has more work than
it can handle. You will be working closely with other, more trusted-by-
management software developers who are sort of vetting you, and may be trying
to angle for a hire. These companies are just large enough that they have
better lawyers and better paperwork, so disputes can get hairy. Also, they
will be protective of the relationship with the ultimate customer/client, so
the success of the project really hinges on how well the people above you have
captured the requirements. That said, the sales process will be easy and
familiar, because you have a career of experience already selling yourself to
other software developers.
Is that the customer you were shooting for? If so, good job!
------
jonemo
Minor comment on the domain name: "Appraptor" might confuse potential
customers into thinking you are an iOS/Android developer. For most non-
technical people (potential customers) "apps" are the things you get from the
App Store.
On the "hire me" page I suggest including a few pieces of info about the way
you work: Do you only work remotely, or are you willing to visit clients on
site? If so, where are you prepared to travel to? It also sounds like you are
outside the office a lot (good for you!), so how can you be reached? Do you
work full time or part time? What size project are you after? What happens
after those two months are over, will you be around to support your work if
necessary after that time period?
~~~
tahoecoder
Excellent points. I've mainly been working remotely, but I am also willing to
travel to the bay area to visit clients (might even move there soon). I will
make some changes to that page to include my skype contact as well.
------
auctiontheory
Sierra Perks, Rails, Chrome, Beta, and Pinterest should be capitalized.
"Local restaurants and bars" should not be capitalized beyond the first
letter. Use "and" not "&".
Your descriptions intermingle functionality with technology. Might be clearer
to break up each one into two paragraphs - what you did, and then how you did
it.
Then at some point, read this:
[https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...](https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1)
~~~
tahoecoder
Thanks for the link. That was a really useful article for me.
------
fusiongyro
I think the raptor image and name are a little incongruous with the lickable
eye-candy Apple product screenshots below. If I were you, I'd consider going
all-in with it and just make the whole design a little more threatening and
ominous. You could really go for a Rebel brand archetype. Broadcast that
you're hardcore, you charge a lot, and you don't care if you scare away a few
clients in the process; they were probably lame anyway. Heavily emphasize the
blue/grey of the raptor image, lose the big flat Twitter "get in touch"
button, the red, the gawdawful Lobster headings. Throw a motorcycle in there,
make your logo look like a tattoo, use an Old English-style font. It would
certainly be a refreshing distinction from all the Creator/Magician archetypes
going around in this industry thanks to Apple.
I'm just a programmer though, so this thought experiment is probably not worth
all that much.
------
shitlord
This is all relatively minor, presentation-related stuff:
\- Parts of your website are unreadable when I tile my browser (Firefox) so it
takes up 1/3 of the horizontal screen space and 100% of the vertical screen
space. The "Open Source Freebies" button is truncated and I can't scroll (not
even autoscroll) to see the rest of it.
\- You should make sure your text has proper grammar. For comments on the
internet, nobody really gives a shit, but you're selling a product. You want
people viewing your site to see you as a professional, and little things like
typos or grammar errors chip away at that.
\- The dedication to _why's guide, while nice, doesn't belong in the "Hire Me"
section. Consider making a new section for it or something.
Will update this list with more things when I think of them.
~~~
tahoecoder
Thanks for the firefox heads up. I'll look into that. I'm embarrassed about
the grammar issues. Two people have now commented about that. I have been
writing a lot of the copy late at night. (part of me was expecting nobody to
actually see the site for a while, too. A "launch" of a consulting site is
usually 10-15 visits, in my mind)
------
grey-area
The most important feedback I'd have is that your website doesn't matter as
much as you think it does. It's important to have one, and important that it
shows off your talents, but as a consulting business your most important asset
will be satisfied clients and contacts in the industry you want work in. So
don't worry too much about your website - a simple static site showing off
some of your work will be fine as a showcase, would hold up better to load,
and doesn't need security updates. If you are busy, you may not update your
blog as much as you plan to now :) Likewise demonstrations of what you can do
with apps/sites you have created yourself are far less useful as proof than
work created for clients (who will spread the word about you).
New clients will come to you as referrals from other clients in the same
sector, or because they hired you before, not because they stumbled upon your
website or did a google search. They'll use your work for other clients to
gauge your competence rather than your website, though they might have a quick
look at that too. So the most important step you can take in starting a
consulting business is to cultivate contacts with clients and keep them happy
- if you have none, focus on getting the first few clients first.
------
pdevr
The site loads slow (maybe just for me). Edit: just saw your response to
others, ignore this.
I got 15 errors while validating the home page. You may want to make sure it
is all valid HTML5.
Nice site, overall. Some pretty neat themes as well. If the themes constitute
your whole portfolio, it may make sense to rebrand "Open Source Freebies" as
"Portfolio", depending on your situation (type of clients, past experience,
etc).
Good luck!
------
ibudiallo
Wordpress maybe very easy to use but it can be a big performance hog. Maybe
you can try to use a plugin like supercache[1]. I hope this helps.
[1] <http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/>
~~~
tahoecoder
It's not a wordpress site.
------
oahzd
The left edge of the bird (falcon?) image you use on the front page doesn't
fully go to black. And I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of the bird is
other than being a cool image, but I feel like if you just had the texture in
the background extend the full way or something similar, that area would be
more effective.
Your footer doesn't stick to the bottom on pages that aren't as long eg I'm
using a 1920 x 1080 monitor and the about page
(<http://www.appraptor.com/about/>) isn't long enough. Google "sticky footer"
and there should be plenty of articles about fixing that issue.
Other than those issues and the ones that other people have brought up, I
think it looks great!
------
plaxis
As a non-developer looking to hire a developer, I would want to know what
specifically you can do. And sometimes I might not know the difference between
Java and Javascript. I see that the banner skills transition, but the
transition is seamless and probably timed long enough such that people will
miss your highlighted skills. Consider adding somewhere your "features" or
skills. In fact, the "details" inside each app are more compelling than what's
on the front page. Maybe switch and use the mini-pitch to create demand for
your skills.
I second the comment on grammar -- says the hypocrite.
Great job!
------
pseut
Off the top of my head; looks very nice. A few things jump out:
* I hate the bird
* copy editing:
"it's got" -> "it has" everywhere;
"in a beautiful way" -> "beautifully" (but really, "... It's got a pinterest
layout to show the pages in a beautiful way" doesn't seem to add anything
except the word 'pinterest' for SEO).
"Sign up and see what perks merchants are offering to members. Simple as
that." makes no sense; so... I sign up, and then you'll tell me what I get for
signing up?
edit: agree with other comments that you should not use a gmail account; use
the domain.
------
mtowle
Yes you can. Say we/us instead of I/me for everything. I know there's one of
you, and I know you're proud of that. But if I'm a client, fear of lone wolf
syndrome may lead me to avoid your company.
~~~
shimonamit
Just imagine how I'll feel if he says we/us on his site and then I discover in
our introductory call that he is a loner. Only say "we" if you can justify it.
If you tell me you're networked and have a working relationship with
ux/designers/programmers maybe that will fly.
~~~
pseut
I'd be fine with that as long as the "hire me" page makes it clear that it's
one guy. "We" has a more collaborative feel when describing the projects.
------
sans_seraph
Make sure you .stop() those fadein hover menus on the plus sign (+) buttons.
If you hover over them multiple times quickly then they bounce back and forth
fading in/out. Try something like this:
[http://justinmccandless.com/blog/Correctly+Fading+in%2Fout+o...](http://justinmccandless.com/blog/Correctly+Fading+in%2Fout+onmouseover+Using+jQuery)
------
orangethirty
I help fellow freelancers/consultants setup their marketing. Currently am
preparing to launch a product that simply takes the guesswork out of launching
this type of business. Since your page wont load, shoot me an email. I'd like
to give you real feedback (based on my experience working as a freelancer and
working with other freelancers). Email in profile.
------
stevoo
Footer : Make sure that the footer always stacks to the bottom. You might not
see it on a laptop but a modern desktop with a bit larger screen will
Contact : Add them all in footer. Make it easier for people to find them. Why
cant i send you a direct email from your site. Make that happen. Add a phone
too if you are serious about this.
------
Zombieball
I am not sure if your site is overloaded due to the increased traffic from HN,
or if the problem is unique to me, but it took ~30 seconds to finish loading /
rendering your homepage on my macbook pro. Perhaps you could look into
enabling compression or using a CDN.
Design wise, I like the site :)
Cheers!
~~~
tahoecoder
Yeah, sorry. In retrospect I should have put this site up on heroku.
------
nodesocket
Not a huge deal, but the load time is probably causing some people to turn
away. Replace Apache with nginx and use php-fpm. Let me know if you want some
help, happy to give you a solid nginx config.
------
signed0
I like the design of the site.
\- I'd add a redirect from www.appraptor.com to appraptor.com
\- The down arrow next to each section looks a bit odd. I would move it before
the label.
------
noonespecial
_It's got a chrome extension that runs concurrently and whenever you bookmarks
a site to one of your shared chrome folders,_
Should be no "s" on "bookmarks"?
------
tahoecoder
Sorry for the slow load times. I put this site on a small linode and wasn't
expecting this kind of surge. Trying to optimize apache right now.
~~~
timdorr
Try dropping CloudFlare in front of it. That should help a bit:
<http://cloudflare.com/>
------
andyhmltn
The freebies button is way more prominent than the hire me button and that's
not what you want I'd suspect. Try swapping them around.
~~~
tahoecoder
Yeah, I supposed more people would just be interested in the free stuff so I
made it easier for them to find it. My rationale was if somebody liked my work
then they wouldn't mind searching a bit more for the hire me link. Perhaps I
should switch them, though. It is a business after all.
~~~
andyhmltn
That's fair enough! They may be, but I just think the hire me button should be
the easiest to find as from your point of view, that's what you want people to
click.
------
vbrendel
Please don't write "interwebs". It only works when hearing it, not when you
read it.
------
Mistone
just a quick observation - solid feedback from HN here - way to be folks.
------
danielfriedman
why is the only way to contact you through Twitter?
~~~
tahoecoder
I have my gmail address and cell number up there as well. Guess I should make
them more prominent.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft Ad Monetization platform shutting down June first - optimiz3
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsapps/en-US/db8d44cb-1381-47f7-94d3-c6ded3fea36f/microsoft-ad-monetization-platform-shutting-down-june-1st
======
optimiz3
Microsoft Advertising is the only realistic ad platform for Microsoft Store
apps and this eliminates a huge swath of business models. IMO the writing is
on the wall for Microsoft Store apps.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google's SPDY Incorporated Into Next-Gen HTTP - jhack
http://hothardware.com/News/Googles-SPDY-Incorporated-Into-NextGen-HTML-Company-Offers-TCP-Enhancements/
======
mooism2
HTTP, not HTML.
Article body says it's a proposal, it's not at all certain that it will pass.
Title is wrong.
------
ch0wn
Next-Gen HTML? You mean HTTP 2.0, don't you?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Freelancing Tips, Other Than "Networking"? - tlongren
http://www.longren.org/freelancing-tips-other-than-networking/
======
gregjor
I freelance full-time. Networking is important: I get most jobs from previous
clients and referrals. LinkedIn is a good place to point prospective clients
to, not necessarily a source of jobs.
I wrote an article a few years ago about successful freelancing:
[http://typicalprogrammer.com/tips-for-successful-
freelancing...](http://typicalprogrammer.com/tips-for-successful-freelancing/)
I get jobs through an agency that takes a cut. They are worth it to me because
I travel and work remotely, and finding jobs in the US is harder when you're
in SE Asia.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla announces new Giga factory near Berlin - doener
https://twitter.com/jreichelt/status/1194343196463116298
======
chrisjc
Here's Elon making the announcement
[https://youtu.be/O8iEEVbhkR0?t=2593](https://youtu.be/O8iEEVbhkR0?t=2593)
------
doener
In German: [https://www.bild.de/auto/auto-news/auto-news/elon-musk-
beim-...](https://www.bild.de/auto/auto-news/auto-news/elon-musk-beim-
goldenen-lenkrad-tesla-baut-fabrik-in-deutschland-65992904.bild.html)
------
doener
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1194373823912538112](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1194373823912538112)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My first Google App: Six Degrees of Separation in Wikipedia - wiki-hop
http://www.wiki-hop.org/
======
anonymousu1234
Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't understand what to write in the fields :s.
~~~
wiki-hop
No worries, try typing in names of famous people, something like the
following: <http://www.wiki-hop.org/#!/Larry_Page//Kevin_Bacon>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Terrifyingly Convenient - DiabloD3
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/cover_story/2016/04/alexa_cortana_and_siri_aren_t_novelties_anymore_they_re_our_terrifyingly.html
======
Animats
In your car, OnStar listens to you. That was the first widely deployed "always
listening" system of that type. On January 1, 2014, GM changed their privacy
policy to allow them to use any info about what your vehicle is doing,
including where it is, for marketing purposes.[1]
At home, Echo listens to you. Amazon's is vague about how much they listen
to.[2]
And, of course, there's the XBox 360. It sees you when you're sleeping. It
knows when you're awake. It knows if you've been bad or good.
You'll never be alone again.
[1]
[https://www2.onstar.com/web/portal/privacy](https://www2.onstar.com/web/portal/privacy)
[2]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums/ref=cs_hc_g_tv...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums/ref=cs_hc_g_tv?ie=UTF8&forumID=Fx1SKFFP8U1B6N5&cdThread=Tx26V9TT6C3TD21)
~~~
GuiA
> You'll never be alone again
Or, if this bothers you, you can choose to avoid the hedonistic treadmill
altogether and not outfit your house with an Alexa, a Kinect, and countless
other mostly useless devices that people lived happily without 10 years ago.
~~~
rodgerd
The problem with this nice theory is you'll be getting it whether you want it
or not. As revenue comes in from the sureillance society, manufacturers will
(and alrewady are) crammin the functionality into devices. You, as a customer
will have no choice: sooner or later you'll need a new fridge, and a spy
fridge will be your only option.
~~~
dima55
That is simply not true. Maybe the latest and hipsteriest devices will all
have those features, but the market is vast and caters to all sorts of humans
and price points. You just have to care enough to make that choice as a
consumer.
~~~
r00fus
Try to buy a high-end TV without Wifi/Smart/3D useless anti-features.
It's getting harder each day.
------
walterbell
Protonet Zoe is a crowd funded Echo competitor that claims to perform local-
only voice recognition with some open-source code based on CoreOS,
[http://readwrite.com/2016/04/07/zoe-smart-home-hub-amazon-
ec...](http://readwrite.com/2016/04/07/zoe-smart-home-hub-amazon-echo-dl1/) &
[http://experimental-platform.github.io](http://experimental-
platform.github.io)
------
aftbit
"When I Google “kinkajou,” I get a list of websites, ranked according to an
algorithm that takes into account all sorts of factors that correlate with
relevance and authority. I choose the information source I prefer, then visit
its website directly—an experience that could help to further shade or inform
my impression of its trustworthiness."
While the Google experience is certainly more direct than the Alexa
experience, you're still allowing Google to filter and order your search
results. Check out the "filter bubble" if you haven't heard of it before.
The HN title, "Terrifyingly Convenient", hits the problem on the head. As long
as technology users broadly continue to sacrifice security, privacy, and
choice for basic convenience, these sorts of issues will continue occurring.
There's a potentially very dark future ahead of us where all of our choices
are made by entrenched mega-corporations who see us as nothing but a source of
revenue.
"CONSUME!"
~~~
walterbell
_> There's a potentially very dark future ahead of us where all of our choices
are made by entrenched mega-corporations who see us as nothing but a source of
revenue._
How about corporations who see us as nothing but a source of data, not even as
customers? [http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-
digital-d...](http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-
debate/shoshana-zuboff-secrets-of-surveillance-
capitalism-14103616.html?printPagedArticle=true) &
[https://vimeo.com/110222526](https://vimeo.com/110222526)
_" While advertisers have been the dominant buyers in the early history of
this new kind of marketplace, there is no substantive reason why such markets
should be limited to this group. The already visible trend is that any actor
with an interest in monetizing probabilistic information about our behavior
and/or influencing future behavior can pay to play in a marketplace where the
behavioral fortunes of individuals, groups, bodies, and things are told and
sold. This is how in our own lifetimes we observe capitalism shifting under
our gaze: once profits from products and services, then profits from
speculation, and now profits from surveillance."_
------
futureiswithus
I always had imagined this convinient future to be about an intelligence that
lived within my home and not a remote server farm. That way everyone had their
own personal AI that grew with you and not connected to any others. There was
no big brother since it wasnt centralized. Why cant a startup be formed to
make this real?
~~~
BatFastard
So you can get voice recognition at home, but you end up losing updates, new
features, and ability to interoperate with other services. Cloud based
services make it so that one person doesn't have to carry this load
themselves.
~~~
eli_gottlieb
Can't I get those things from `sudo apt-get upgrade`?
~~~
peterjancelis
Having mass market B2C customers do this is a customer support nightmare.
------
tomaskazemekas
As far as the fiction can envision the techno future and human AI interaction,
one of the more interesting books for me was SNUFF by Victor Pelevin. In it
the main character is a freelancer drone camera operator living with a
humanoid as a partner, tweaking her settings and getting very emotionally and
sexually involved with her. And the devise is so human like and autonomous,
that it eventually runs away from the owner leaving him with huge debt still
unpaid.
------
wtbob
Y'know, I have a terribly powerful desktop always running at my home; I'd love
to be able to load a container on it which does all this processing locally.
------
hinkley
I think this problem is on the verge of solving itself again. It'll come back
by the end of the 2020's of course, but we are at least due for a respite.
There's so much work being done on scalable server tech right now, and enough
broadband to use it. O little nudge and we'd be close to having a server
appliance that people could have in their own homes, and call from their
mobile devices.
------
mst
The most interesting thing from my POV was the existence of
[http://x.ai/](http://x.ai/)
~~~
theoh
It's a shame they didn't minimally push the boat out for sexual equality by
offering "adam" as a male alternative. Amy is (arguably) a stereotypically
girly name and given that what's being offloaded here is administrative work,
I think it looks bad to make it a female responsibility.
~~~
nkurz
The posted article suggests that they already do allow this: _Unlike some
other intelligent assistant companies, X.ai gives you the option to choose a
male name for your assistant instead: Mine is Andrew Ingram._
------
jveld
Enough with the 'woe humanity the machines are coming' pieces. After ten years
of facebook, and three years of snowden leaks, I have a hard time finding
sympathy for people who purchase 'smart' (read _data gathering_ ) devices from
large conglomerates _before_ considering the privacy implications. The cards
are on the table; we all know what the terms of this kind of convenience are.
If you're concerned for your privacy, then _stop opting in_ for fucks sake.
You've just voted with your dollars for a future of ubiquitous, autonomous
surveillance. Again. Knowingly. The ignorance card is utter bullshit at this
point.
The 'inevitable' future bewailed by these types of articles is only inevitable
because this kind of 'shiny! buynow thinklater' mentality. To paraphrase
Sartre, "we have the surveillance state we deserve."
If you're comfortable with the tradeoffs, I have no beef. I'm not saying that
people shouldn't buy these things if they want them. And they are cool,
wantable things. But it's 2016. You can have your thing or your soapbox. Both
are respectable choices. But you can only have one.
~~~
pdkl95
You seem to believe that _everybody_ somehow knows the consequences of "opting
in". Does everyone have a CS degree in your universe?
> we all know what the terms of this kind of convenience are
Most people have _no idea_ whatsoever what those terms are. Even among
technical crowds I still find people assuming that _humans_ are required for
various tasks that have been automated for a long time. I seriously don't
understand why you think people understand the "terms" of what big data and
machine learning are doing to their data. Even simple things like the fact
that cell phones give away your _location_ can be a new concept for people
that have only considered them telephones.
And why should most people have a realistic understanding of this stuff? The
computer industry has been over-promising and dressing up their products since
the transistor was invented. We have decades of services that dissemble as
their business model, convincing people that their data is "private".
> 'smart' (read data gathering) devices
Why should anybody think that their TV is surveilling them. It wasn't long ago
that saying your TV was spying on you could lead to a schizophrenia diagnosis.
Nobody reads the legalese and manual for a TV _before_ they bought it,
understood it, and choose to trade their data. They bought a TV that
advertised voice activation or some other feature. There is no reason for most
people to think surveillance would be involved.
> stop opting in
While some people have started to realized how this stuff really works, the
common response is to feel trapped without options. It will take time -
_decades_ \- to properly educate the general public.
> The ignorance card is utter bullshit at this point.
Look at how many people _here on HN_ that still think "anonymized" data cannot
be correlated back to real their real identity. If people that understand
terms like "hashing" and "INNER JOIN" are still figuring this out, the general
public doesn't have a chance.
~~~
hinkley
Hell, I'm the biggest cynic in most rooms, I border on diabolically clever
when the mood grabs me, and I don't have the slightest clue what the actual
consequences of opting in are.
But if the deal is too good to be true, it's only because you don't have all
the facts. Information asymmetry is the very basis for capitalism.
------
amelius
Is there a (comparative) overview of all the tasks smart agents can do?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What is going on today? Top 3 posts on HN are about Microsoft. - vbv
======
benologist
So I did some googling and it turns out this Micro-soft is one of the biggest
tech companies in the world with software used by about 11 thousand billion
people.
Not that surprising that there happened to be three stories at once involving
them.
~~~
vbv
I'm surprised because most of the times Microsoft related posts on HN get
downvoted really quickly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The MIT factor: celebrating 150 years of maverick genius - wallflower
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/may/18/mit-massachusetts-150-years-genius
======
jamesbritt
Previously posted: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2572229>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Drawbridge – Windows Containers 5 years ago? - itaysk
https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Going+Deep/Drawbridge-An-Experimental-Library-Operating-System
======
itaysk
Reading about the latest announcements of Ubuntu on Windows lead me to this
fascinating concept from MS I did not know about. Too bad they were focused on
the desktop scenario and not the server (although they do mention it).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Approached by competitor - mattjung
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.775338
======
jacquesm
"There are tons of competitors, and one of the larger ones just sent me an
email saying they'd like to talk and see if there is a way to work together. I
think what that means is I'm stealing sales and ranked #1 for the keyword they
probably want. A VC firm that invested heavily in them also called a few
months back and wants to talk (I said no thanks)."
Paranoid much ?
Really if every approach is rebuffed like that how will you respond to the one
that would have lead to either some great deal or an exit ?
The success of your business depends in a large degree on your communication
skills, if you behave like a hermit towards the groups that are the most
likely sources of 'big deals' then you have to really consider the value of
what you've just lost. Especially if you describe yourself as the smallest
fish in the pond. They're approaching you, that means you hold the cards,
theirs are on the table. Go there and _listen_.
Nobody ever died communicating with a competitor or one of their VCs, if your
main worry is some silly keyword ranking (as if that's the only way to build a
business) then simply don't give away anything related to that.
------
swombat
Jesus, what's the big deal? Just go and talk to them. Don't give away any
sensitive information, of course, but you can learn as much, if not more, in
an informal chat, as they can. People really shouldn't be so afraid of talking
to competitors.
Competitors are just other entrepreneurs who are trying to solve the same
problem as you. You should be on good terms, not paranoid.
~~~
trapper
I'm very trusting, as are lot's of entrepreneurs. I've met quite a few sharks
though.
I remember one young entrepreneur demoing his wares to a group of us, and this
a-hole said "Wow, that's a great idea. We are going to do that! I'm going to
ring X-famous-person who would love this now!". This was a successful,
internationally known entrepreneur with huge resources behind him. Everyone in
the room was just shocked. And he was serious, and didn't even offer the
entrepreneur anything, not even a job.
~~~
swombat
Presumably, this was something that was visible on the demoer's website
anyway, so the thief could have taken it from there anyway, no?
If he went and demoed his private, unreleased product to a bunch of potential
competitors, then I'd say that's taking trust a bit too far.
~~~
trapper
He actually had no website - just really cool technology - augmented reality
better than what I have seen but a few years ago!
The meeting was actually organised by the city to set up a cluster for our
industry, obviously nothing came of it after that debacle!
------
troels
Most businesses are not zero-games. You're missing out, if you think it is.
~~~
nico
Do you mean zero-sum games? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum>
Although, the zero-game also exists (I had no idea):
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_game>
~~~
troels
I thought it was the same, but reading the Wikipedia article, it appears that
zero-game is something slightly different.
I did mean zero-sum game.
------
edw519
You can never be too thin, too rich, or too knowledgeable about your market.
An excellent data collection opportunity you don't normally have has fallen
into your lap. Why wouldn't you take advantage of it?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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