Datasets:

parameterlab
/

scaling_mia_the_pile_00_HackerNews

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (3)

train · 52.4k rows

text stringlengths 44 776k	meta dict
Pittsburgh is the most liveable city in the U.S. - cwan http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/business-news-briefs/2011/02/its_official_pittsburg_is_1_in.html ====== rdouble D.C. is third and Detroit is 7. This might just be a trick to see if they can get anyone to buy their $500 report to see WTF they are talking about. ~~~ edw519 I don't know about D.C. or Detroit, but here is my instance of the class "Pittsburgh": 85 year 2000 sq. ft brick house on 1/4 acre. 4 BR, 2 ba, 2 car garage. Totally gutted and modernized. 3 miles from downtown, 1 mile from Oakland (Carnegie- Mellon, Pitt, Carnegie Museum/Library, Schenley Park). Walkability index 92. Within one hour flying and 8 hours driving of 50% of the U.S. population. $160K. Same house in Miami: $500K. Same house in California: 7 figures + first born. 4 distinct seasons, but some people still don't like the weather. I prefer these thoughts: "Everybody complains about the weather but no one does anything about it." - Mark Twain (Looking at gray sky) "What a beautiful day, Herman!" - Lily Munster ~~~ steveklabnik Or me: Here's my house: [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=641+Maryland+Avenue,+Pittsburgh,+PA&aq=0&sll=40.455046,-79.930215&sspn=0.009372,0.01929&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=641+Maryland+Ave,+Pittsburgh,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania+15232&ll=40.45516,-79.930215&spn=0.009307,0.01929&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.455066,-79.930189&panoid=kLaDfqOqymd2T-qvZoUkPg&cbp=12,48.95,,0,1) I have the bottom floor. 3 bedrooms. 3 roommates. $1200/month rent, so I'm paying $300/month. (my girlfriend and I share a room.) I live in one of the more affluent neighborhoods in town. Yep. It's that cheap. 20 minutes walk from CMU, 30 from Pitt. Buses come either one block or 4 blocks away. CMU shuttle goes _past my house_. One block away: 4 bars. A restaurant. Two coffee shops. A bunch of other junk. A Japanese grocery store two blocks away, regular groceries about 5, a Whole Foods about 8. My two neighbors on either side are families. Pittsburgh is sweeeeet. ~~~ rdouble Can you live there without a car? ~~~ steveklabnik Yep. I do bike a lot because I dislike the bus, and they're never on time. ------ jefflinwood <http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajbrustein/5222637962/> It's a shame about the grey, overcast winters and the muggy summers though. I went to college there for four years, and it's a great city, I just couldn't stand the weather. ------ alexophile Looking at the worldwide list it seems like access to healthcare plays a really strong part... which I guess makes sense if you're calling your metric "Livability" ------ jwatzman Pittsburgh, seriously? Between the small, crowded, pothole-filled roads and buses which are never on time, it's impossible for me to get anywhere around here. The Steelers football fanaticism drives me insane and the weather is terrible. I absolutely cannot wait to move away from here next year; the city's only redeeming quality in my eyes is the plethora of universities. ~~~ Isamu > Between the small, crowded, pothole-filled roads Well, the wide ones have potholes too. > buses which are never on time I wouldn't say "never"... > Steelers football fanaticism well, yes... > the weather is terrible Wait, what? I'll tell you what's terrible. Bright, sunny days all the time are what's terrible. Downright depressing if you ask me. > I absolutely cannot wait to move away from here Some people just don't like "livable". Go figure. ------ tmarman We just moved from NYC and bought a house out here... it's not NYC, but it's a pretty nice place to live :) ------ cyrus_ Pittsburgh can be a bit of a shock for the San Francisco set though. There are comparatively few of what I'll call "post-hippie" establishments here. They're around, don't get me wrong, but not like in the liberal bastions of the West coast (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, etc.) One of the most celebrated places to eat around here, Primanti Bros., sells giant greasy, meaty sandwiches with fries and coleslaw inside. Froyo places have just shown up recently! ------ jleyank By some criteria, I'm sure. But if you like Broadway shows, it's not the best choice. And while there's a river or two, the surfing's not all that good. I suspect there are better places weather-wise, too. And I might be interested in some of those criteria at some point, but it's like some article that said it was great to retire in Fayetteville, Ark... ------ ableal Again ;-). If memory serves, around 1985 Pittsburgh got that title (from Rand- McNally, publishers of Places Rated Almanac, I think). ~~~ aothman Pittsburgh's 1985 win (in the middle of the steel industry collapse) prompted a lengthy screed about how cumulative ratings are assembled from a UW psychology prof: <http://www.briem.com/files/Loftus1985.pdf> Pittsburgh keeps winning most livable city awards today for the same reasons it won in 1985: it's a city that rates good or very good in everything and bad in almost nothing. ------ whatusername Pittsburgh is the 29th most liveable city in the World.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Confessions of a Ruby Developer Whose Heart was Stolen by Scala - YAFZ https://speakerdeck.com/ryanlecompte/confessions-of-a-ruby-developer-whose-heart-was-stolen-by-scala ====== gizzlon They way you'd build large systems in dynamic languages is to break it up into many smaller pieces that work together. This frees you to change parts without worrying about the rest. To me, this type of development is much more natural and sane than the "one big clusterfuck" type of projects I've seen in Java et.al. Edit: Also, dynamic languages let you make the tradeof between safety and speed. Sometimes you go slow and steady (simple code, tests..) and sometimes you just want to test something out. ~~~ mattquiros Hm, I don't know what you've seen but I'm pretty sure Java is about breaking up large systems into many smaller pieces that work together, instead of one big clusterfuck. Must be some really badly designed system, more of a programmer's fault than the language itself ~~~ gizzlon True, but isn't it still one big program/project? What I mean was to break it up into many smaller programs and (possibly) projects (think unix process vs. classes =) ------ BonoboBoner Scala is a fantastic language, but my heart seems to resist due to things like this (slide 27/42): implicit class RichSeq[A, C[A] <: Seq[A]](underlying: C[A]{ def cycle: Iterator[A] = { lazy val circular: Stream[A] = underlying.toStream #::: circular circular.iterator } } ~~~ vladev This is very dense code, and takes some getting-used-to in order to read. What it achieves is beyond the reach of many languages. All it does is convert a Seq (sequence) to a lazy stream that will infinitely cycle through the values. Seq(1, 2, 3).cycle.take(8).toList res3: List[Int] = List(1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2) It will work for any seq-like structure (including List. Vector, Queue, etc.) If you try to use it with anything else, like a Map, it won't compile. Also, note from my example that it's generic and the resulting List is of the correct type. Just like novice JavaScript developers struggle with "Why 'this' changes here?", it requires some experience with the language. ~~~ dons > This is very dense code, and takes some getting-used-to in order to read. I don't think so. It is full of syntactic noise, for what is really just notation for building a cyclic structure. * type annotations stated explicitly, not inferred * type variables given multiple times * too much non-verb, non-noun syntax e.g. `#:::` * and the actual construction of the cycle is stated imperatively with great ceremony (despite it being an applicative) It is the opposite of dense. ------ jitl As a Ruby developer, I can't get through these sorts of slides. My other languages are C, Go and JavaScript, and the Scala syntax is totally inscrutable to me. Isn't the point of slides presenting something that can be easily absorbed? And I can't just quickly look up these declarations either — Scala is too complex for that given my experience level. Is there a gentle introduction talk for Scala around so I can evaluate the language without putting in a week of learning? ~~~ trailfox As a Scala programmer I find Ruby syntax complex and inscrutable, almost like Perl. ~~~ csense As a Python programmer, I agree. Here's a Ruby snippet. I don't want to pick on this particular project [1], rather, I've found that this is typical of Ruby code: state_machine :state, initial: :active do after_transition any => :blocked do \|user, transition\| # Remove user from all projects and user.users_projects.find_each do \|membership\| return false unless membership.destroy end end My conclusion? Ruby's syntax is awful. There are colons, absolute value bars, implications, and who-knows-what-else flying everywhere! It gets worse, elsewhere in the same file there are messy lines like this one with single- arrow implications, question marks and ampersands [2] [3]: scope :not_in_project, ->(project) \ { project.users.present? ? \ where("id not in (:ids)", ids: project.users.map(&:id) ) : scoped } Simple, intuitive syntax? From where I sit, the syntax of Ruby is worse than C++, and approaches Perl levels of awfulness. In most languages, I can at least sort-of grok what's going on from the context when I see unfamiliar operators, but not so in Ruby. This is a copy-paste of a comment I made [4] weeks ago on another article. [1] [https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/4caaea824cf51670d1...](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/4caaea824cf51670d11b409efa5701dd74614d2a/app/models/user.rb#L118) [2] [https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/4caaea824cf51670d1...](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/4caaea824cf51670d11b409efa5701dd74614d2a/app/models/user.rb#L143) [3] I split the line and inserted backslashes because HN gives me a horizontal scrollbar when it's a single long line; apologies if this transformation isn't legal Ruby, or changes the meaning of the code. [4] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5784296](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5784296) ~~~ relix I'm a professional ruby programmer and your comments opened my eyes. If you don't know what's going on, then that does look like really icky code. First off, parenthesis in ruby are optional. So calling a method can be done without parenthesis. The following two lines are the same: print() print As are these: print(1, 2, 3) print 1, 2, 3 Here's some bits that might explain better what stuff does: :state If you prefix a word with a colon that creates an object of type Symbol, with value "state", which is a bit like the string "state". The difference is that every mention of :state is a reference to the same object, while if you create a string "state", and a bit further do it again, those are two different objects. We use symbols because it runs faster for conditionals etc: to compare two symbols the interpreter only needs to check the reference, while to compare two strings, every character needs to be checked. initial: :active This creates a Hash with one key-value, with key :initial, and value :active, both symbols. This is equivalent to typing :initial => :active which you encounter a bit further up. do \|var1, var2\| .... end This creates a block, which is like a closure. The variable names between pipes are the arguments this block takes. Any code inside the block is only run when the block is called. In Ruby, every function can have a block passed by adding do ... end to it. Inside this function, the block can be called using the keyword yield, e.g. yield(1,2) to call the block with arguments 1 and 2. The find_each method will loop through every value of the Array it is called on, and run the block once for every value. project.users.present? The question mark is a valid character for a method name, there's nothing special happening here, present? is just the name of a method. This could easily have been called is_present, or just present. a ? b : c The ternary operator, the same in any language. It translates to "if a, return b, else return c". ->(arg1, arg2) { ... } This creates a lambda, with arguments arg1 and arg2. A lambda is almost the same as a block, so this is almost the same as typing do \|arg1, arg2\| ... end ~~~ csense This may be the clearest explanation of Ruby syntax I've ever read! My attempt to parse the above example comes to something like this: state_machine(STATE, {"initial" : ACTIVE}, function() { after_transition({"any" : BLOCKED}, function(user, transition) { user.users_projects.find_each(function(membership) { return (membership.destroy ? true : false); }); }); }); I'm writing in JavaScript because its function notation is way better than Python's lambda syntax. From the parent's explanation, I'm pretty sure this is a valid translation, even though I don't know Ruby. But having three levels of nested anonymous functions really makes the code hard to understand. I'm guessing that this is idiomatic Ruby though, and if you program with the pattern long enough, it gets easier. OTOH it's still a barrier to entry entirely separate from the _syntax_ \-- if the _semantics_ of Ruby code you see "in the wild" is typically this complicated, it's almost as bad as Haskell and its monads! (I have much stronger math chops than most programmers, I've tried to read introductions to monads twice, had them explained to me three separate times on HN, and still don't understand them at all!) ~~~ relix Yep, just about, although if you look closely, the `any` in the original code is not a symbol, but is actually a variable or a method (could be either, we can't know from the sample). Also, the return in that block would cause an exception, because it doesn't do what the original programmer thinks it does. I guess he never tried out what happens if destroy returns false (which would happen if destroy fails, e.g. because a validation failed). ------ trailfox For those interested in learning Scala I'd recommend the free chapters from Scala for the Impatient: [http://logic.cse.unt.edu/tarau/teaching/SCALA_DOCS/scala- for...](http://logic.cse.unt.edu/tarau/teaching/SCALA_DOCS/scala-for-the- impatient.pdf) ~~~ pyvek Also, _Functional Programming Principles in Scala_ course on Coursera by Martin Odersky (Scala's designer) is very good. [https://www.coursera.org/course/progfun](https://www.coursera.org/course/progfun) ~~~ dhugiaskmak I just finished the most recent session of this class and I found it incredibly frustrating that there was no discussion of the homework assignments after the due dates had passed. What's the point of having homework if there's no way to get the correct answers and get feedback on your solutions? And take the "in Scala" part of the course title with a grain of salt. You're only taught enough to complete the exercises. ------ hejsna It seemed like most of his slides came down to the old typed/untyped flame war. Yes, in Scala you can look at your objects in an IDE and be told what type they are, in Ruby you can't. Some organizations and people need that, some don't. And yes, it's easier to optimize typed languages. Some applications need that extra speed, most don't. I'm happy he found a language he enjoys working with, but I doubt this will change anyone's mind... ~~~ coopdog Somewhat true but I find Scala's inferred typing a surprisingly great compromise between the two. For example: val i = 1; i = "some string" // throws a compiler error, because it knows i is an integer It's great when you haven't declared the types, you change for example an int to a double or a class to some other class (eg swapping a data structure) and it just flows through the code base without problems like a dynamically typed language. It can also be pretty useful to look up types when they get complex in the middle of some function, like a Map[List[(String,SomeObject)]] (a map of lists of (String,SomeObject) tuples). Allowing the types to get complex lets me focus on the problem while giving a crutch to quickly remember where it's at half way through (and while finding other methods/source of data) and keep moving towards the solution. ------ garysweaver Ruby and Scala are for two different kinds of environments. One is an environment where having less code to maintain (that can also be highly legible) matters and where you have a lot of options. The other is an environment where an edge in performance is more important, but not important enough to write it in an even faster language/not run in the JVM at all. I noticed a lack of a link to a 1:1 comparison of application code with realistic examples. I think such comparisons and related discussion are often the best way to convince someone to use a language. And some slides were just blatantly wrong, like Mixin Abuse: apparently that is just a long list of module includes? I have never seen so many module includes in a single class in application code. But, assuming you did have that, you should show what it would look like side-by-side in Scala. In Ruby, there are a lot of options when it comes to including other code or defining code in a class, instance, etc. Those options can lead to much less and more legible code if used correctly. I remember when people said Java was slow; they made it seem like it was a fad, and no reputable company would use it. And... we see where that went. ------ Stranger2013 Well, of course a classic programming language is better then a script language for majority of tasks. Script languages like JS and Ruby just should not be abused and should only be used as a very thin layer on top. E.g. GUI scripting. ~~~ aaronbrethorst I would recommend that you immediately inform Yahoo, 37 Signals, Hulu, GitHub, Penny Arcade, and every other Node, Rails, Sinatra, and EventMachine user of this fact! Also, Tcl/Tk called and wants its use case back. ~~~ unono Why do microsoft and google insist on static compiled languages? ~~~ marshray Because they allow us to put very useful limits on the degree to which changes in a large and evolving codebase will violate the expectations of developers. When adding and changing code in large collaborative projects, the primary question in every developer's mind is "OK, what else depends on this, i.e., what is possibly going to break?" This goes back to the old wisdom of separating interface from implementation. Highly dynamic languages, such as Ruby, certainly have their advantages too. But programs in languages which enable, if not encourage, developers to add new methods to the integer '5' can quickly become very difficult to reason about. Static, strongly-typed languages also provide other benefits such as much better error checking and compile-time optimization. ~~~ alinajaf > But programs in languages which enable, if not encourage, developers to add > new methods to the integer '5' can quickly become very difficult to reason > about. Can you give me an example of a single ruby developer who thinks this is a good idea when writing new code/a library? ~~~ marshray I think probably for every language, every development team needs to have agreements not to do certain things. The probability of a developer doing something unexpected increases exponentially with the number of developers and the amount of code. It only takes one, but here are a few thousand to start with: [https://github.com/search?l=Ruby&q=%22class+Integer%22&ref=a...](https://github.com/search?l=Ruby&q=%22class+Integer%22&ref=advsearch&type=Code) Do your projects use any Gems that are pulling in any of this code? Could they change to do so in the future? Most importantly: how much effort is it for you to definitively answer this question? Our task is that of proving a negative (which as we all know is very difficult). Namely that there is _no_ other code that is relying upon the behavior that you are changing. When there are reasonably well-defined interfaces between components it _dramatically_ reduces the possibility space for implicit dependencies and interactions. So this is a slam-dunk case where tools can make our job _much_ easier. Without tools, we're basically reduced to "verbal lore" and "honor system". Programmers have to rely upon the shared understanding and behavior of other humans in order to reason about their own code. ------ playing_colours The speaker pays a lot of attention to implicits in Scala. Well, it's a powerful tool, elegant solutions can be built with it, but you should be careful using them. Implicits bring its own magic and abusing them can pollute your project, make it difficult to understand the code. Maybe the speaker is so attracted to inplicits because they remind him of Ruby's / Rails' magic? ~~~ vladev You are correct that implicits are a sharp tool. Thankfully, the Scala community knows that nowadays and they are used for a fairly small number of cases - pimp my library (add methods to Ints, Strings, etc.) and typeclasses. ------ sandGorgon Can someone comment on the current state of tooling in the Scala world. Last I had tried (some months back), SBT was extremely slow. Googling about SBT came back with a lot of complaints about the state of scala tooling back then. ~~~ yareally I've been using Scala on Android + Intellij IDEA for about the past month after wanting to try something new[1]. Other than having to run it through proguard first, the compile process in Intellij is comparable to how it is with just Java. Scala plays nicely with Android and I have loved using it so far. Makes Android development a bit more fun than with just plain old Java. [1] [https://github.com/yareally/android-scala-intellij-no-sbt- pl...](https://github.com/yareally/android-scala-intellij-no-sbt-plugin) ~~~ sandGorgon ah - "Using proguard lets you build Scala without any extra plugins and sbt fiddling". Seems like the tooling is still one of the more painful aspects of Scala. Kudos to Intellij, -1 to Scala. ~~~ yareally Yeah, if I had to manually fiddle around with the SBT build process and manually adding dependencies instead of letting Intellij handle it all, I would be less motivated to want to switch away from Java on Android for sure :). Excessive configuration to get a new project up in a running is a major demotivator sometimes when you have a new idea and want to just start coding right away. ~~~ th0br0 Do not forget, however, that (for development) you can easily skip the Proguard step if you install the scala libraries on your device directly. Also, setting SBT up is pretty much a one-time thing. Afterwards, you only need to do a few tweaks when starting a new project. I've used Scala for a couple Android apps in the past... it was great fun to do so! Still, AndroidAnnotations not working with Scala code requires you to rewrite some of their functionality... but you can do that rather easily with Scala's traits etc. ~~~ yareally Thanks, I forgot about loading the libraries directly onto my phone for testing. When you say Android Annotations, are you referring to the ones built into java/android (like @TargetApi) or your own custom ones? Just wondering, since I'm about to add ActionBarSherlock to a Scala project and it includes quite a few I'll have to rewrite. Edit: seems it doesn't like ActionBarSherlock most likely due to that. I get "Error com.actionbarsherlock.R and com.actionbarsherlock.R$xml disgree on InnerClasses attribute"[1]. [1] [https://issues.scala-lang.org/browse/SI-1167](https://issues.scala- lang.org/browse/SI-1167) ~~~ th0br0 I don't believe I've used ABS with Scala before. Shouldn't integrating ABS as an apklib solve this issue though? Regarding AndroidAnnotations: [https://github.com/excilys/androidannotations/wiki](https://github.com/excilys/androidannotations/wiki) ~~~ yareally I'll try that option. I was just building it into the project as a separate module dependency out of habit from Java, but no real need to do that. Ahh, I know of that project. Like it quite a bit. Was just confused over the ambiguity of the term "annotations." Thanks for the followup though. ------ dgregd I just wonder when someone will build a tool to annotate Ruby, Python source code with var types gathered during run-time. If C has Valgrind then dynamic typed languages should get something for the types. ~~~ Erwin PyCharm does this. In addition to doing type inference while you have your project open, you can while debugging it run it and make it collect type information. That's quite a bit slower than usual, but once done you will get extra type hints of possible types passed to your functions. [http://blog.jetbrains.com/pycharm/2013/02/dynamic-runtime- ty...](http://blog.jetbrains.com/pycharm/2013/02/dynamic-runtime-type- inference-in-pycharm-2-7/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Colleges are getting ready to blame their students - akud https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/colleges-are-getting-ready-blame-their-students/614410/ ====== aurizon accuse, then expel, keep their money,(note, number one is the rules of acquisition = Once you have their money, you never give it back.) fund a generation of class action lawyers, some as yet unborn... For reference:-[https://memory- alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition](https://memory- alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Primer on DarkNet Marketplaces - huntermeyer https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/a-primer-on-darknet-marketplaces ====== atom_enger You'd think someone in the chain of command would say, "what would this look like as a legal market? How much could we generate in taxes? Do these people really belong behind bars?" A few questions I have: * How many schools and hospitals could we fund from taxes? * Could we redirect these users to hospitals or treatment facilities, and if we can't, so what? * Could these agents be considered adrenaline junkies? This cat and mouse game will have no end until they can tap into your brain stem and prevent you from committing these 'crimes' or modify your brain chemistry in a way that will make you not yearn for altering your conciousness. Either way, that's not a world I want to live in. How can we get the government to respect our right to put anything in our body that we want to? As long as it does not hurt others through the production or the consumption or harm the environment, I really don't understand the moral hard on people get from telling a group of people what they can and can't do. I'm kind of rambling, but this is what comes to mind when I see these types of articles. ~~~ chinese_donald "This cat and mouse game will have no end until they can tap into your brain stem and prevent you from committing these 'crimes' or modify your brain chemistry in a way that will make you not yearn for altering your conciousness" As someone that doesn't do any drugs, I'm all for drug legalization. However, there needs to be limits. I should be able to fire someone that is high on the job, for instance. Driving a motor vehicle while under the influence should also be illegal. 'altering your conciousness' can directly harm the people around you and they have the right to not be harmed by your personal choices. "How can we get the government to respect our right to put anything in our body that we want to?" Another issue is health care: Should the government continue to pour tons of money into allowing you to kill yourself with drugs? "I'm kind of rambling, but this is what comes to mind when I see these types of articles." You never mention firearms, which is another primary business on the dark web. Are you also fine with anyone being able to buy a weapon at any time? ~~~ atom_enger > 'altering your conciousness' can directly harm the people around you and > they have the right to not be harmed by your personal choices. I stated clearly "As long as it(drug use) does not hurt others through the production or the consumption or harm the environment". > However, there needs to be limits. I should be able to fire someone that is > high on the job, for instance. Driving a motor vehicle while under the > influence should also be illegal. If you are the employer, you should absolutely have the right to fire someone for being under the influence during their hours of employment. Driving is the same -- you're putting other people at risk. Not acceptable. > Should the government continue to pour tons of money into allowing you to > kill yourself with drugs? The government pours tons of money into fighting the wrong fight at the moment, they're treating the symptom, not the problem. They're inflating law enforcement budgets and eroding our rights every which way to "fight" this battle. I say if they could take that exact same amount of money they're using to "fight" this battle and put it towards healthcare and treatment, then yeah, they should pour tons of money into it. Our current solution isn't working. > You never mention firearms, which is another primary business on the dark > web. Are you also fine with anyone being able to buy a weapon at any time? I'm not talking at all about firearms. I'm naive in the sense that I dream about a world without them but I recognize they can be useful tools in certain situations. ~~~ EpicEng >I stated clearly "As long as it(drug use) does not hurt others through the production or the consumption or harm the environment But... It does. We know that it does. There are classes of drugs which don't lend themselves to responsible use. That problem will remain, and you'll still have the junkies stealing to get high, regardless of where they spend that money. These drugs have a negative societal impact, of course exacerbated by the fact that using them turns you into a criminal. I don't know that e.g. unfettered access to heroin is a good thing. I do know that treatment instead of jail is a good thing. ~~~ atom_enger What if a junkie could go to a clinic and get their fix? I'd happily pay more taxes to get junkies their fix. I'd also be happy to pay taxes that would help them seek treatment as well. I'm not at all qualified to propose real solutions to this problem but I know from watching this failed drug war that we should start talking about alternative solutions and the way we do that is start considering other options. I feel like our current solution is hurting us as a whole more than it's helping us. ~~~ leakybit Yes, but how do you stop people from becoming junkies in the first place? Opiate addicts already have access to methedone and some countries are looking into giving pharma grade heroin replacement, but these types of addicts are essential lost causes and will always be addicts. I believe sentencing laws/guidelines needs to be reformed, but you have to see it from the governments perceptive. How do you stop people from becoming drug addicts? Legalize the drugs your trying people not to use? ~~~ girvo > _Opiate addicts already have access to methedone and some countries are > looking into giving pharma grade heroin replacement, but these types of > addicts are essential lost causes and will always be addicts._ I'm a "lost cause"? Thanks. I was a heroin addict from 16 years of age until I was 24. I've been clean for four years now, due to my governments excellent opiate-replacement therapy program. The dehumanisation that happens when people discuss "junkies" makes me sick, and _directly_ contributes to why a lot of us never ask for help. ~~~ another_account Hear, hear. Coming up to two years clean from an IV habbit. So, also a "lost cause." I feel if people had the slightest idea just how many people around them are high on some kind of opiate, and how indiscriminate addiction really is that this type of language would be less prevalent. Congrats on beating the gorilla. ------ mabcat I think the screenshot tells a much more accurate story than the text. 120,000 listings for drugs, 1,900 for weapons, no main category for child porn. Based on the listings, the kinds of activity that actually go on would seem to be in reverse order from what the press release suggests. I'm struggling to imagine anyone leaving feedback about how potent a poison was or chatting away about their last 'cache of guns'. I could be wrong. ~~~ ramblenode The items are purposefully listed in order of concern rather than volume. The FBI is also in the business of selling its utility to the public, and its pitch should be treated with as much skepticism. ~~~ elcct > Some of these individuals confessed to ordering a range of illegal drugs and > controlled substances online, including heroin, cocaine, morphine, and > ketamine. And yet they don't do what they tell they care about. Such a waste... ------ jstrieb This talks a lot about drugs and weapons, but it says nothing about what I've heard is one of the most commonly-purchased dark-net commodities: fake over-21 American licenses. It's ridiculously easy to buy a fake ID online and have it shipped right to your door, from basically any state you want---even high security states like California and New York---and for relatively cheap too. I suppose that might be because several fake ID vendors will only sell ones that show an age between 21 and 25 and only sell to people in the US to deter law enforcement based on the idea they're only selling to teens for alcohol as opposed to allowing people to be smuggled into the country or other such things. Though I have no personal experience with making purchases from darknet markets, I was curious about how easy it would actually be to get a fake ID after watching the movie Superbad. I was astounded at the wealth of information available to the benign Googler. For more interesting info: [http://reddit.com/r/fakeid](http://reddit.com/r/fakeid) ~~~ baby This is interesting, needing a fake ID could be the gateway to get drugs as a young student in America. The common problem of getting alcohol when you're "under age" is leading you to learn how to get drugs online. ------ FELEG Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG) Sometimes I wonder is Snowden was an orchestrated provocateur, tasked with dropping things in the open so that the operations that were big enough to be hindered by covert practices could now operate freely, in the open, and accelerate their programs. 15 or 20 years ago, an INTERPOL style coalition of this sort would have raised eyebrows. Snowden blew the lid open, and nothing changed. In fact things are taking shape faster, if (we know about them) at all. ------ throwatme (throw away). I am technical and recently tried Tor / AlphaBay for the first time to experiment and see what it would be like to buy MDMA online. I followed the excellent guide at [https://getsafedrugs.org](https://getsafedrugs.org), but ended up not purchasing. I have friends who have purchased successfully and surprising the entire process works. ~~~ keyboardhitter Adding onto this, I prefer to research this kind of web content with a VPN or public internet that isn't associated with my ISP. Paranoid, sure. But the less personally identifying information involved in these transactions, the better. ------ baby Honestly Darknet marketplaces are doing a good thing for a lot of people. Think of all these people who would buy their drugs in the street instead. They would probably get the worst quality, and even damage themselves just to try something. ~~~ GordonS I agree. One of the biggest problem with illegal drugs is adulterants/fillers, and drugs not being quite what you thought they were. For example, a lot of drugs sold as MDMA contain amphetamine or worse [1] The reviews on DNMs don't eliminate this problem, but they certainly help. [1] [https://www.ecstasydata.org](https://www.ecstasydata.org) ------ tn13 Wait till someone exposed that FBI itself is selling explosives, weapons and child porn on dark web. [http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes- child-...](http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes-child- pornography-to) ~~~ atom_enger Don't know why you're being down voted. I thought it was well known that they actively commit/participate in crimes in order to entrap people. ------ qwertyuiop924 There's something really disturbing about this. The FBI is cheerily talking about attacking "darknet infrastructure". In layman's terms, they're saying they want to wage war on TOR. It's kind of disturbing how pleased with themselves they are about it, though. ------ LeoPanthera > Payment for these goods and services is usually through virtual currency > like bitcoin, also designed to be anonymous. Bitcoin is not, and was not designed to be, anonymous. ~~~ delcaran Actually, bitcoin is anonymous: no information links an account to his owner. However it's true that the owner of a specific account could be guessed with a good amount of precision going through all transactions history and pairing the data with those of bitcoin exchanges. ~~~ juliangoldsmith That's not anonymous, that's pseudonymous. You still have a name (an address), it just isn't your real name. ------ jdironman As I posted further down in the comments: "I don't understand something. Why is a compromise not an option? Like safe spaces for such vices. State or city, or even privately owned venues with highly audited and regulated enviornments. Solid security, but also inviting enough to be an option for anyone. Revenue and taxes generated from them ofcourse benefits society, while also putting a damper on crime lords income that could possibly end up being used to fund worse activities such as human trafficking. Those who currently refuse to observe laws and still want that 'fix' have a legal option in a controlled enviornment. Reducing convictions to only those who do not utilize the safe space and put theirself and others at risk. They can cheaply and efficiently be monitored to know if they are well enough to be back in public. If not, sleep it off or have a verified driver pick them up. Consumption can be monitored possibly greatly reducing accidental overdoses. Increases availability which may lead to less 'its hard to get, I want it more' scenarios that strengthen addiction and habits. It may also help prevent people from getting in over their head by racking up debt with individuals who have no problem resorting to violence and sometimes also intentionally or unintentionaly hurting other innocent people. I truly cannot think of any 'Cons' to having such a system other than the possible general public's opinion that 'we have accepted defeat and decided to join them' pinning involved organizations and business as effectively drug dealers and just as bad. Let me summarize with an example: Gambling other than lottery is not permitted in my state as far as I know. If I want to gamble I have to hit the casinos 1-2 states over. Knowing I have such an exquisite option available if I decide to do so allows me to appreciate that. I've never stepped foot inside a casino, nor done any type of serious gambling, but if I ever did I would like for it to be in a nice, fair, and engaging enviornment like those available. Just as if I decided to take a trip on shrooms, or hit a line of cocaine just for the experience with friends. I'd rather be in a place that I can relax and know everyone involved is exponentially safer than doing so in the neighborhood crack house. I would love to hear others thoughts." ~~~ kefka Mainly from the US perspective, "It's an affront to God to allow such debauchery, so no one is allowed to, except for those dirty natives, that we had to allow because of the Constitution." I blame Christians, and their previous roots from the Puritans. I've seen enough other Christian-majority things shoved through as laws - it's no long stretch. And I come from the state that thinks, and funded, "electrocution to fix gayness". That was one of Mike Pence's doings in our state. ~~~ jdironman I politely dissagree. Puritan / christianity beliefs may have once been at the core of America's original founders visions but it has been a rather progressive 200+ years. We now can find and see things, rather common place at that, that a majority of the forefathers would be enraged over. I think while morality issues play the largest role in such a decision, it is in reality a 'technically' hard problem that we still feel we can 'fight'. (War on drugs since early 60's and seventies). The majority is not ready to admit defeat by accomodating, no matter what benefit. ------ losvedir I must not understand how Tor works because it seems pretty trivial to me for the FBI or a government agency to identify users. Where's the error in my thinking: Tor works by routing a connection from your computer through a few hops in the network and then to the server. If the FBI operated the relay connected to your computer and also the server (say as a sting operation, or if they identified one and downloaded the logs), then wouldn't it be pretty easy to match the traffic through their relay (which has your naked IP address) to the traffic in the server logs? ~~~ allemagne It doesn't even need to be infiltrating TOR. They caught a kid who called in a fake bomb threat to get out of a college test because his connection to the TOR network coincided with the threat. You could relay your traffic through one or more VPNs before connecting to the TOR network if you trust the companies not to keep logs or be beholden to the FBI/NSA. But realistically your only friend in a worst-case scenario is the fairly reasonable hope that these agencies don't have the ability to parse all of their raw data, that they wouldn't waste time looking for you, and that you're not important enough for them to show their hand to everyone else and reveal exactly what they're capable of. ------ libeclipse > Payment for these goods and services is usually through virtual currency > like bitcoin, also designed to be anonymous. Not true. Bitcoin is pseudonymous at best. ------ enneff There's not really any information in this article, unfortunately. I know the FBI don't want to tip their hand, but I am genuinely curious to know more details about how they are investigating crimes online. ------ reducesuffering Did the FBI really think it was a good idea to start with a huge picture of a "hacker" like that? Aren't they just romanticizing the DarkNet and possibly interesting new opponents? ------ micaksica As an infosec fan, I'm curious what "network investigative technique" (ie 0day) they used against these servers to pop them. Criminal complaints will tell what FVEY LE hath wrought. ------ kilroy123 I know people really buy drugs on these markets. Are people really able to buy weapons so easily? ~~~ asddddd A recent and high profile example is the Munich shooting from this summer: [https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/08/25/german-dnm-vendor- arre...](https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/08/25/german-dnm-vendor-arrested- selling-glock-munich-shooter/) ------ AlphaWeaver Though quite a long read, the feature WIRED did on the story of Silk Road [0] talks more in detail than this article about the FBI's infiltration and takedown of the site. Great read! [0]: [https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk- road-1/](https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/) ------ Steeeve I thought they did a decent job of explaining it, but by publicly exposing it in a high profile case (Silk Road) they did themselves a disservice. The fact that it's referenced regularly in primetime TV means that thousands of people who never would have heard of it now check it out - increasing darknet sales well beyond what they would have been otherwise. ------ jyap Posting this story since people seem interested. The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 1 \| WIRED [https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk- road-1/](https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/) ------ id122015 A man is a wolf for his fellow men. Ancient quote. Now do something "good" and save all those bastard children because, we were taught we are different and not animals. Law is a hipocrisy. Disrupt banking and national bank monopoly, dont run after bank fraudsters. Teach people to treat other people like humans, and disrupt the sex and mental health industries. Always resolve the root cause. But be aware, if all people were saints the pope would go bankrupt, so know who the pope is and be prepared to fight him. ------ SSLy We're sorry... The request has been blocked. Anyone got a mirror? ------ syngrog66 don't think I'll visit an FBI page on that topic. talk about the honeypot potential. esp given the potentials of a Pres Trump.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Developping a Flask Web App with a PostreSQL Database - mubaris https://www.theodo.fr/blog/2017/03/developping-a-flask-web-app-with-a-postresql-database-making-all-the-possible-errors/ ====== gigatexal Python 2.7 in 2017?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask YC: Best cheap or free screen sharing solutions? - ericb I'm wondering what cheap or free screen sharing solutions people have found? I have someone working remotely on my project, and it would be handy to do some screen sharing sessions. The ideal solution would let you pass control back and forth, but passive viewing is ok (if it's free). The ideal solution would also be cross platform. Thoughts? ====== sysop073 If you're using a text interface, GNU Screen is excellent. I use screen usually; VNC if I need to share a GUI <http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/> ~~~ staticshock the annoying thing about screen is that both people need to log in using the same username to share a screen session. correct me if i'm mistaken. ~~~ iratsu You are mistaken. See here: <http://aperiodic.net/screen/multiuser> ------ vivekamn <http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx> Good thing is that you don't even have to install. Free for non-commercial use. ~~~ quaff1 thanks ------ staticshock i don't understand, you're only sharing with one person? isn't that perfect VNC territory? both people can control the screen, it's free, it's open source, it's cross platform... what am i missing? what's fundamentally bad about this that no one else has mentioned it yet? maybe i'm just behind the curve on this. ------ ordinaryman Check out <http://meeting.zoho.com> It is in free while it is in Beta and even later it should remain affordable. Supports Flash, Java and ActiveX modes, so your platform concerns are addressed. ------ unalone Depending on OS, iChat works pretty damn well, and it has a feature for sharing presentations as well. But I'm uncertain as to whether that works at all with Windows or Linux programs. ~~~ silencio The screen sharing component of Leopard is just plain old VNC that you can enable/disable on your own in Sharing prefs in System Preferences, so yes it should work with any VNC client for Windows or Linux. The iChat integration I'm not so sure about either. But you don't need iChat to use screen sharing. ------ icey I use GoToMeeting. It's 50 bucks a month, so I'm not sure what your "cheap" parameter is. I also don't know if it's cross-platform. That being said, it's a great piece of software; I've been very pleased with it. ------ andr VNC. ------ rmason Go to www.acrobat.com and use Adobe's free ConnectNow service which is far more elegant than those other solutions and free if it's just two people connecting. ------ sachinag <http://www.mikogo.com/Welcome.aspx> Mikogo is great and works seamlessly with Skype (but only on the Windows side). We use this internally; launching Parallels is a small price to pay to be able to be on the same page without having to be in the same room. ------ alaskamiller From Spolsky and Co: <https://www.copilot.com/> ------ rajatrocks A second vote for Acrobat.com's ConnectNow. You can have up to 3 people (including you) and it works great. I've also used Glance: <http://glance.net/site/Home.asp> and it works - basically VNC but easier to use I think. ------ johns For Windows: SharedView <http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=94> ------ gourneau screenstream : <http://www.nchsoftware.com/screen/> It is a free Windows only application. What I like about that the only software the client needs is a web browser. No ActiveX, no java, no flash. The application is basically a http server that serves screenshots of whatever window has focus. So it does not allow remote control. It also supports video cams and audio. Bonus points to anyone that create an opensource multiplatform clone. ------ ghostz00 Yugma <http://yugma.com> Free Basic screen sharing abilities. And it's cross platform ------ luminousbit The absolute best and free: www.dimdim.com	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
My name is adam from indonesia,please help me go to CA. - adamramadhan hello my name is adam,i really love learning new things, i can do some code in php,willing to learn other language and i really want to get some startups experience, especially at startup companies at CA especially San Francisco.unfortunately im far away from CA, and in not a good situation that i just can buy plane tickets to go there, i am <i>willing to code or anything</i> at CA for just a living + <i>some learning</i>. im doing things like www.github.com/adamramadhan ( mainly private ), pm me for example, or you can see my online work at www.networks.co.id or talk to me at rama(at)networks.co.id.i know this sounds crazy, but yes im doing everything i could to take a chance. please take this seriously, thanks!. Adam Ramadhan<p><i>if there is any question, or suggestion please comment</i><p>sorry this is my first post if there is something that i missed at http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html please comment.<p>edit thanks for the vote!. it helps me to get more comments. ====== jim_h I would suggest improving the visibility of your networks.co.id website a bit more. It's should also be in English if you are focusing on an American employer. Also maybe a landing page so we know what it's about and what makes it special without needing to login first. (Maybe also make the load time faster. Took 30 seconds.) Unfortunately SF/CA is quiet popular and startups are hard. I would assume they're looking for very dedicated people who are masters of their domain. Be prepared to show them that you have both qualities. ~~~ adamramadhan thanks jim for the comment, 1\. English : yes it should be on English, but yes i know, and im very sorry about it, but i can tell im working on it. 2\. i dont know about it and what makes it special: yes that's why, here its extremely difficult to find people like me to share ideas, and im hopeing working there will make me have some expirence about things like this. 3\. loading: yup its on iix ( indonesian datacenter ) so i am expecting it. 4\. well yeah. im expecting that too. i really want to meet some people to talk to, skype ? ( adamramadhan ) or anything so i know, what do really they need, and how we do things later on. about dedicated, yeah im a bit desperate that is im writing this now at YC. ( ive been here quite long but just for the great news, friends told me to take a leap or whatever they call it :) ). and what im thinking is, indonesia is a social addict if you have twitter or anything else, but its epic hard here, we have no trust on the internet ( cause of scammers etc. ) and second i believe no VC will invest on any product, that they dont know or have meet the founder facetoface, not just that, they just dont believe it, especially if we have no experience on startups ( again that's why ). if there is information about VC or angels that is on indonesia, or currently have done a research about indonesia. please pm. Thanks again. ------ diehell Dude, i feel you. I'm from Malaysia myself. How is the startup scene in Indonesia. For 250 million population, you could do your own startup there. Hit me up on fretwiz at gmail dot com. Maybe we could do talk or come up with something. ~~~ adamramadhan emailed bro. ------ naithemilkman How about Singapore? ~~~ adamramadhan i don't get it, you mean why CA? ~~~ naithemilkman I mean how about considering other places like Singapore ~~~ adamramadhan well i do consider singapore, but really, its not as fast as CA. i will post again maybe with my CV :) thanks btw. ~~~ naithemilkman the startup scene in singapore is beginning to heat up. check out founders institute singapore and jfdi.asia or hackerspace.sg to get a feel for the scene. hope that helps.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Stay at my acquihire? Need advice - banksyornot I am young (early 20s) and my company was just acquired. I got a small amount of cash and I have 150k in options, I get 50k of them in 12 months. The company is valued @ 100m and I think there is no chance they don't have some liquidity event in the next few years for at least 2-5x that.<p>But I really don't like the work I'm doing and I don't care about their mission. I kind of know what I want to do next but it is going to take a bit of time for me to flush out, but in the mean time I just really don't like being here - but I don't want to walk away from hard earned money, especially if it could be worth < million in the next 12 months. I don't want to make a financially idiotic decision and walk away from a bunch of money.<p>idk what to do..need some feedback. I'm not passionate so it is really hard for me to get into the work.. ====== socalnate1 Mentally commit to staying a year and re-evaluate. That is long enough to see what happens with your (now vested?) options and the companies prospects, and you may feel very different about the work and job in that time. Life is too short to spend all of it doing something you don't like; but frankly it's also too long to bail immediately every time we don't love the work you are doing or aren't passionate about a companies mission. ------ k4ch0w It's hard to do work you don't feel in anyway connected to. I'd try a technique called negative visualization. Imagine if you don't take the money and leave. What will your life look like in the next year, 5 years. What is the worst possible scenario? Will you regret it for the rest of your life or will you be happy you made the decision. That money could potentially free you to pursue more meaningful work. Look, everyone works a job they dislike at some point in their life. You won't always feel passionate about the things you're doing, but you need to weigh how much you may regret it otherwise. This sounds like a sure bet for 2x-5x more in straight cash within your 20's. People don't always get that. Maybe, try to change something different in your routine of life. Shift the focus from work for 12 months to something else, like dating, a hobby, a sport. If you seriously hate it, I mean really hate like it boils your blood to get up in the morning and think about going to work then leave. Absolutely, make your peace of mind and health the most important thing. However, this may be an opportunity for you to shift focus and coast for a bit. ------ pickle-wizard I am about twice your age so my situation is a little different that yours. I'd be inclined to stick it out, because for $1M, I'd be able to retire. Granted it would be a modest retirement, but I could retire. Then I'd have time to work on what ever I wanted. Think about what you could do to improve your situation? Can you move to a different project? If it is something else bothering you a frank conversation with your manager may be helpful. I just did this myself today. I work for an early stage start-up and was ready to say fuck it and quit. I sat down with one of the founders and we discussed my grievances. I feel a lot better now, and I think it will be helpful in the long run. Also maybe you can do something outside of work to make things more meaningful. Take up a new hobby, or may a new side project. ------ sirspacey Find a new challenge inside the org. I've found it's easier to stay engaged in a project/company I'm not that passionate about if I can use it as a lab for something I am. Maybe start with challenges you faced at your startup - what would you like to get more insight into? If you build another startup and plan to scale, what can you learn from studying the success/failures of the managers around you? From how the incentives executives design effect (or fail to effect) them? Learning adventures are fun, wherever you have them! ------ ekanes >> I think there is no chance they don't have some liquidity event in the next few years for at least 2-5x that Something to consider, aside from the boredom/motivation is that imho the future of this new company is less certain than you're thinking. Companies are regularly disrupted, even if they seem strong now. Could you start whatever is next now, and push the decision down the road until it's clearer? Meaning, you are excited about what you're moving _towards_? Tactical question: Do you need to buy your options if/when you leave? ------ JSeymourATL > kind of know what I want to do next but it is going to take a bit of time > for me to flush out... Once you know where you want to end-up; it's easy to deconstruct backwards. Articulate that journey; the milestones, check-points, experiences, people, moments to keep moving forward. Good take on Purpose & Momentum by Bosco Anthony > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV5AUAle2Zs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV5AUAle2Zs) ------ tzhenghao Your mental and physical health is more important than the money you would leave on the table imo. With that being said, like many comments here, I'd use cost-benefit analysis to reevaluate if you should stay or not. Sometimes progress isn't a straight line pointing up north, so there are more factors where joining a new and different team gives you much more energy and boost to be at a better spot in your career than you would otherwise for staying with your current team. ------ mygo Outside of the tech bubble, most people on this planet would be lucky to make even $100K / yr. You’d make what they’d make in 10 years, in one year. Look at you now. Look at you now - oh - you’re getting paper. You would be able to not work for 10 years _and_ live fairly decently for those 10 years, if you wanted to. I’d easily trade 1 year for 10. ------ whichdan "but in the mean time I just really don't like being here" That's the key takeaway here, IMHO. If you aren't in a situation where you absolutely need the money, there's nothing wrong with prioritizing your own happiness and wellbeing. People regularly take pay cuts and give up options for a better quality of life. ------ ecesena Note that if you've got options, in 12 months you'll have to pay money to get your stocks. When considering to stay, think also if you'll be willing to invest your money to purchase the stocks in the next 12 months (it might be the case you won't or couldn't buy.) ------ SirLJ Do you want to sell the next 12 months of your life for 1Mil? If yes stay, if not, just go... ------ notanidiot22 I guess it just comes down to: do you care about the world or not? The world is pretty fucked up and needs smart people like yourself fixing it. If ~250K is more important to you than humanity, stay.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
No, the 2019-nCoV genome doesn’t seem engineered from HIV - HugoHobling https://theprepared.com/blog/no-the-2019-ncov-genome-doesnt-actually-seem-engineered-from-hiv/ ====== mytailorisrich "Doesn't seem"? More like actually isn't. And, no, HIV, isn't an experiment on a Polio vaccine gone bad, and Ebola isn't a "bio-weapon". Every time these new virii trigger conspiracy theories by fruitcakes. These days social media are fertile ground for spreading these 'diseases'.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
There is a prime number which contains Super Mario (2017) - whym http://akiyah.hatenablog.com/entry/2017/12/06/204024 ====== whym The article is written in Japanese, but I thought the idea would be obvious enough from the picture (and the linked source code) even if you don't read Japanese. In case you are wondering, here is a translation. \---- 11111111111122211111111111122622111111999992266211119999999222221119999999966666111999999999996611166622622266661162262262222266116226622222222611622662226222261662222266666661166662222666626111166222222226611111999966966661166666699696661166666666966966116666666699696111662266669966911162222669999621112222269992999111222229999999911121229999999991161229999999999166111999999999666611169999999966666669669999996666666999669999666666699999119966666669999911111111666999911111111166111111111111116111111111111111 is a 512-digit prime number. When fit in a 16 x 32 rectangle, it will be: 1111111111112221 1111111111122622 1111119999922662 1111999999922222 1119999999966666 1119999999999966 1116662262226666 1162262262222266 1162266222222226 1162266222622226 1662222266666661 1666622226666261 1116622222222661 1111999966966661 1666666996966611 6666666696696611 6666666699696111 6622666699669111 6222266999962111 2222269992999111 2222299999999111 2122999999999116 1229999999999166 1119999999996666 1116999999996666 6669669999996666 6669996699996666 6669999911996666 6669999911111111 6669999111111111 6611111111111111 6111111111111111 which can be colored: (Super Mario appears)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What are the other websites you visit daily? - flashyfaffe2 I'm curious over what others website, people regularly visit in addition to NewsYcombinator? As aggregator, I finds it great, especially for topic that are out of my area. But is there similar websites in your daily feed or blog you follow?<p>Any insight would be appreciated.<p>Cheers. ====== gumby One thing is: I don’t. That is, if I like a site and it has an RSS feed or feeds I put them in my reader. If not, I can’t be bothered going to the site. Why? \- because who knows if it has updated. \- if there are two or three posts since my last visit I can’t tell at a glance Basically if ppl can’t be bothered to put out an RSS feed they can’t be bothered having me as a reader. That’s ok; there’s plenty to read, and not everybody needs to cater to my wishes. ~~~ oefnak So what RSS feeds have you subscribed to? ~~~ gumby Well it’s up to your tastes. I have major newspapers (Economist, NYT, Wapo, Zeit, Spiegel, Figaro) trade press (EE Times, Science, Matt Levine at Bloomberg), and local newspapers. Fortunately you can subscribe to sub feeds! I have various “major” blogs (e.g. vox). I get corporate / tech updates like abseil, omnigroup etc — low volume and useful. I follow personal blogs, some from people for whom it’s part of their business (Herb Sutter, Bartek, Heather Cox Richardson, Matt Stollar...), Many things that are sent as “email updates” are available as RSS feeds too which is more convenient than cluttering my mail. Substack mailing lists for example are all available as RSS feeds. ------ sudoaza Missing the "Ask HN" [https://phys.org/](https://phys.org/) [https://www.pagina12.com.ar/](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/) [https://www.ambito.com/](https://www.ambito.com/) [https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html](https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html) [https://www.youtube.com/](https://www.youtube.com/) [https://rarbg.to/](https://rarbg.to/) ------ barbe [https://thebrowser.com](https://thebrowser.com) (by subscription) [https://longform.org](https://longform.org) [http://www.openculture.com](http://www.openculture.com) [https://food52.com](https://food52.com) [https://smittenkitchen.com](https://smittenkitchen.com) [https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily- cartoon](https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon) [https://www.rawstory.com](https://www.rawstory.com) ~~~ 0xBeefFed Bit late to the party. I checked out thebrowser.com but there is no mention of the subscription cost anywhere - it seems they won't tell you until you give them your email. Would you know the cost per billing period? It seems like a cool service but I'm curious how their cost compares to something like the economist (different information, I know). ------ run2arun [https://www.aldaily.com](https://www.aldaily.com) \- I've been going here for more than fifteen years now. It's a great way for me to keep in touch with the literary world both contemporary as well as classics. ~~~ tangerine_beet Glad to learn about this site, thanks. ------ jamessun [https://marginalrevolution.com/](https://marginalrevolution.com/) (Tyler Cowen) ------ Hoenoe [https://thecorrespondent.com/](https://thecorrespondent.com/) The Correspondent is an online platform for unbreaking news, committed to collaborative, constructive, ad-free journalism. Together with our members, we want to change what news is about, how it’s made and how it’s funded. ------ atomize RIP - [https://www.linuxjournal.com/](https://www.linuxjournal.com/) [https://www.linuxtoday.com/](https://www.linuxtoday.com/) [https://lwn.net/](https://lwn.net/) Used to check the weather, forget the url. =P ------ donnie3000 [https://moss.garden](https://moss.garden) for background music. ~~~ sgroppino This is a great discovery! ------ sagischwarz [https://daily.jstor.org](https://daily.jstor.org) _JSTOR Daily is an online publication that contextualizes current events with scholarship. Drawing on the richness of JSTOR’s digital library of more than 2,000 academic journals, thousands of monographs, and other materials, JSTOR Daily stories provide background—historical, scientific, literary, political, and otherwise—for understanding our world. All of our stories contain links to free, publicly accessible research on JSTOR. We’re proud to publish articles based in fact and grounded by careful research and to provide free access to that research for all of our readers._ ------ slyall Four Short Links [https://www.oreilly.com/radar/topics/four-short- links/](https://www.oreilly.com/radar/topics/four-short-links/) has 4 links daily, high overlap with the sort of stuff on Hacker News. ------ markgavalda [https://electrek.co/](https://electrek.co/) [https://www.theinformation.com/](https://www.theinformation.com/) ------ xueyongg I just subscribe to the hacker news telegram robot (@hnrobot). All the updated posts and articles are just posted there on one page. Really convenient. I also collated some of these sites that I think are really useful and segregated them based on their domains. Hope it is of great use for you readers! (: [https://blog.phuaxueyong.com/post/2020-02-29-articles-in- sec...](https://blog.phuaxueyong.com/post/2020-02-29-articles-in-second-half- of-feb) ------ hiidrew [https://kottke.org/](https://kottke.org/) \- love Jason's blog, [https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/](https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/) \- great news aggregator, [https://pluralistic.net/](https://pluralistic.net/) \- another good one, [https://www.drudgereport.com/](https://www.drudgereport.com/) \- as someone that leans left I sometimes check drudge out to see what my dad is reading, [https://www.matthewball.vc/](https://www.matthewball.vc/) \- recently found this guy, been enjoying some of his essays ------ realgabriel I visit [https://www.itswinwinboardgames.com](https://www.itswinwinboardgames.com) daily in search of board games at a discount. (I built it for that purpose) + [https://www.boardgamegeek.com](https://www.boardgamegeek.com) \+ r/boardgames ------ binarynate • Twitter (great for following people or sites you find on HN) • Subreddits for specific interests (like /r/Unity3D or /r/Hololens) • Podcasts, like: - Indie Hackers (https://www.indiehackers.com/) - Software Engineering Daily - Stratechery - Startups for the Rest of Us - Artificial Intelligence w/ Lex Fridman - How I Built This • https://lobste.rs • YouTube subscriptions ------ mglauco [https://github.com/ytisf/theZoo](https://github.com/ytisf/theZoo) daily in search of new malware sources ------ KCUOJJQJ [https://www.theregister.co.uk/](https://www.theregister.co.uk/) Tech/science news, written in a funny way. ------ octygen In order of visits per week: 1) gratefulness.io 2) trello.com 3) Strava 4) LinkedIn Learning (used to be Coursera) 5) Feedly ... but did you mean news websites specifically? ~~~ nekapoor You visit gratefulness.io the most every week!? I'm the creator of Gratefulness and that's incredible!! It's crazy that our small little thing on the corner of the internet is something you use so much. Thanks so much for the support!! ------ Vivianrust [https://www.reddit.com/r/programming](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming) ------ syedmeesamali www.spacedaily.com Following them since 14 years. Amazing source of news about latest advancements in space (both civil and military use). ------ yhackernews Google [https://www.google.com/](https://www.google.com/) ~~~ wolco duckduckgo.com Wish they owned ddg.com ~~~ n8henry You can use duck.com ------ Venkatesh10 Hackernews, Indiehackers, dribble, Google news, space.com, newscientist, sciencedaily, twitter, reddit. ------ xadz [https://webwide.io/](https://webwide.io/) ------ Infinitesimus * Arstechnica * Anandtech * Randsinprose * Reddit * (Podcasts + Audiobooks) ------ akg_67 Reddit app and Microsoft News app are the only one’s I open daily. ------ balladeer I will pretty much list the sites I visit daily. Google News (I couldn't find a clutter free alternative that gives an easy snapshot of news about India/world) Brief (aka Morning Reader) [https://overcast.fm](https://overcast.fm) (I listen to podcasts from the web app when on the computer, I wish they had a native desktop app) [https://theoldreader.com](https://theoldreader.com) (I've given up on Mac RSS reader apps) Twitter, Reddit, Some private trackers, [https://lobste.rs](https://lobste.rs), MeFi, Vimeo, IMDb (almost daily) And yes, wikipedia :) ------ markosaric Not too many. I mostly "visit" sites using RSS. [https://lobste.rs/](https://lobste.rs/) is another one of similar sites to Hacker News that I end up on very often. ------ gabar01 Instagram	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Update your iPhone Your iPhone can get hacked just by opening JPEG image - ridobok https://www.facebook.com/AndroidMalware/photos/a.899684773388358.1073741828.898235870199915/1232437960113036/?type=3&theater ====== mtmail Please submit the primary source of the news, in this case [http://thehackernews.com/2016/10/how-to-hack- iphone.html](http://thehackernews.com/2016/10/how-to-hack-iphone.html), not a facebook photo. I'm writing this because all 9 of your submissions so far have been facebook photos.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Fred Wilson Is The Truth - pruett http://www.gawrilla.com/2010/04/15/fred-wilson-is-the-truth/ ====== hipsterelitist "Less is more... especially in your first few iterations." I can see how this would lead to 'holes' in a platform or generally ambiguous application boundaries. ~~~ pruett right...that's a valid concern. i think however, when weighing the options between releasing something that's fully robust and polished (say 12 months time) versus a minimum viable product (say 3 months time) most would lean towards the latter. there is just too much rapid iteration that can (and probably) will occur after releasing the minimum viable product. if you wait too long, you'll be behind in the race.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Valve & Adult Swim Are Teaming Up - jeffool http://www.adultswim.com/promos/valve/ ====== jeffool With the registration page having a picture of Pyro and the text "We're your new family now.", part of me is thinking it's a TF2 cartoon. That'd be quite fun, and new territory for Valve.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Null is your friend, not a mistake - netcyrax https://medium.com/@elizarov/null-is-your-friend-not-a-mistake-b63ff1751dd5 ====== LorenPechtel Somebody finally gets it! Null is a concept--there is no data here. We need the concept and code needs to be able to act on it. If you rewrite the code to avoid all possible nulls you have done nothing to ensure that everything is operating on sane data, you have simply removed the easy mechanism that flagged cases the developer failed to handle. In most cases you're better off going boom than operating on wrong data and getting rid of nulls shifts the balance towards the latter. ------ Spivak It seems like the author actually likes Java's Optional pattern but needs some syntactic sugar to make the medicine go down. Because int id = args.getOptional().orElseThrow(() -> new Error("id expected")); isn't _that_ different than the author's Kotlin example. ------ lkschubert8 I feel like that's just a weaker attempt at something like Maybe (Haskell) or Option (Rust). ~~~ elizarov It is not much weaker, but more pragmatic. A typical application has this need to represent a "missing" value quite often and adding a special `?`-based syntax for it totally pays of in practice. However, it is important to not that `String?` in Kotlin is not a syntactic sugar for `Option<String>`, but a syntactic sugar for `String\|null`. The difference between the two might seem minor, but is quite big pragmatically, especially when combined with flow-sensitive typing.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Wallet Found After 40 Years and Returned to Owner - jamesjyu http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/a-wallet-lost-40-years-ago-now-is-found/ ====== dasil003 I just lost my wallet in Palo Alto. There's nothing of sentimental value in there other than my Coupa Card with $50 on it, which if returned to me in 40 years will hopefully still be enough money to buy at least one latte.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple is trying to kill the laptop - elorant https://theweek.com/articles/804670/apple-trying-kill-laptop ====== idclip good thing we still have HP Zbooks and Thinkpad Ps + Dell Latitudes VB/VMs. Probably also good FOSS laptops at somepoint if this sort of self defeating behavior continues its better/more correct to say Apple is killing their own laptop brand. sort of like how IBM killed the old thinkpads. it annoyed us, we moved on. ------ ainiriand If you saw the latest MacBooks you can certainly say they are trying. ------ niceperson (for those who don't need one)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to lose $172k per second for 45 minutes (2013) - sunasra https://sweetness.hmmz.org/2013-10-22-how-to-lose-172222-a-second-for-45-minutes.html ====== wcoenen I'm amused by the tone. It's like the author doesn't realize that 99% of software development and deployment is done like this, or much much worse. Welcome to the real world. We work in an incredibly immature industry. And trying to enforce better practices rarely works out as intended. To give one example: we rolled out mandatory code reviews on all changes. Now we have thousands of rubber-stamped "looks good to me" code reviews without any remarks. Managers care about speed of implementation, not quality. At retrospectives, I hear unironic boasts about how many bugs were solved last sprint, instead of reflection on how those bugs were introduced in the first place. ~~~ seanwilson > I'm amused by the tone. It's like the author doesn't realize that 99% of > software development and deployment is done like this, or much much worse. > Welcome to the real world. Agree with this, a lot of developers are in a filter bubble where they stick to communities that advocate modern practices like automated testing, continuous integration, containers, gitflow, staging environments etc. As a contractor, I get to see the internals of lots of different companies - forget practices even as basic as doing code reviews, I've seen companies not using source control with no staging environments and no local development environments where all changes are being made directly on the production server via SFTP on a basic VPS. A lot of the time there's no internal experts there that are even aware there's better ways to do things instead of it being the case they're lacking resources to make improvements. ~~~ Reedx > I've seen companies not using source control > ...all changes are being made directly on the production servers via SFTP I know this used to be common, but recently? Curious how often this is still the case. ~~~ frosted-flakes I have seen it recently. I did my best to change the practice before I left the company, but was mostly unsuccessful. Given that they were still running some of the spaghetti-code PHP scripts that were written in 1999 and still used PHP4 in _new_ development they were stuck in the stone ages. To give a little perspective, support for PHP4 ended in 2008, so they had almost a decade to update, but didn't. ~~~ HenryBemis "If it ain't broken, don't fix it". And then one day the server goes boom, the backup was incomplete, and everyone is trying to find the usb flash disk with Spinrite in it. Meanwhile the CEO who was rejecting the €¥$£ in yh budget since 2000 is angry at everyone! Oh the times I have seen this!!! ~~~ frosted-flakes Oh, now that you mention backups, that was a nightmare too. Thankfully, the production database was backed up daily on magnetic tape and stored offsite, but the code was generally edited live on the server, and backups consisted of adding ".bak20190402" to the end of the file. Needless to say, losing code wasn't uncommon. This was for a 100+ year old company with millions of dollars in annual revenue that was owned by the government. So, yeah. 100% the IT director's fault, who'd been there since the early 90s. ------ chollida1 discussed previously at: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6589508](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6589508) I remember the week after this. Everyone I knew who worked at a fund was going over their code and also updating their Compliance documents covering testing and deployment of automated code. __As a side note __one of hte biggest ways funds tend to get in trouble from their regulators is to not follow the steps outlined in their compliance manual. Its been my experience that regulators care more that you follow the steps in your manual than those steps necessary being the best way to do something. I came away from this thinking the worst part of this was that their system did send them errors, its just that when you deal with billions of events emailing errors just tend to get ignored as at that scale you generate so many false positives with logging. I still don't know the best way to monitor and alert users for large distributed systems. The other take away was that this wasn't just a software issue but a deployment issue as well. It wasn't just one root cause but a number of issues that built up to cause the issue. 1) New exchange feature going live so this is the first day you are actually running live with this feature 2) old code left in the system long after it was done being used 3) re-purposed command flag that used to call the old code, but now is used in the new code 4) only a partial deployment leaving both old and new code working together. 5) inability to quickly diagnose where the problem was 6) you are also managing client orders and have the equivalent of an SLA with them so you don't want to go nuclear and shut down everything ~~~ LeifCarrotson > I came away from this thinking the worst part of this was that their system > did send them errors, its just that when you deal with billions of events > emailing errors just tend to get ignored as at that scale you generate so > many false positives with logging. I write apps that generate lots of logs too...I think an improvement lies in some form of automated algorithmic/machine learning (to incorporate a buzzword in your pitch) log analysis. When I page through the log in a text editor, or watch `tail` if it's live, there's a lot of stuff that looks like TRACE: 2019-04-01 09:45:03 ID A1D65F19: Request 1234 initiated ERROR: 2019-04-01 09:45:04 ID A1D65F19: NumberFormatException: '' is not a valid number in ProfileParser, line 127 WARN : 2019-04-01 09:45:04 ID A1D65F19: Profile incomplete, default values used WARN : 2019-04-01 09:45:14 ID A1D65F19: Timeout: Service did not respond within 10 seconds TRACE: 2019-04-01 09:45:14 ID A1D65F19: Request 1234 completed. A = 187263, B = 1.8423, C = $-85.12, T = 11.15s Visually (or through regex), you can filter out all the "Request initiated" noise. Maybe the default value warning occurs 10% of the time, and is usually accompanied by that number format exception (which somebody should address, but it still functions, and there's other stuff to fix). But maybe the "Timeout error" hasn't been seen in weeks, and the value of C has always been positive - that is useful information! Don't email me when there's a profile incomplete warning. Don't email me any time there's an "ERROR" entry, because that just makes people reluctant to use error level logging. Definitely don't email me when there's a unique request complete string, that's trivially different every time. But do let me know when something weird is going on! ~~~ exelius Don’t mean to sound snarky, but there are tools that do this and have been for years. If you’ve been grepping through logs for the last 3 years, you’re doing it wrong for the cloud era. Often times the answer is writing better alert triggers that take historical activity into account to cut down on false positives. Other times it’s simply to reduce the number of alerts. In every case you need an alerting strategy that takes balances stakeholder needs, and you need to realign on that strategy quarterly. It’s ultimately an operational problem, not a technical one. Alas, back in the real world, logging is always the last thing teams have time to think about... ~~~ mattdodge Care to share what types of tools do this? I'm genuinely interested. I haven't come across a log management tool that uses AI to detect abnormal conditions based on the log message contents like the OP describes. I stick to Papertrail for the most part though so I'm likely out of the loop. ~~~ exelius I’ve used and really liked DataDog in the past. It has some rudimentary ML functionality for anomaly detection of certain fields, but it’s only getting better. I’ve also had clients in the past use Splunk with ML forecasting models that inject fields as part of the ingest pipeline. I don’t know the details of that implementation; I just know how the dev teams were using it. ------ ajuc Deployment is where the really scary bugs can happen the easiest. I've been working on a warehouse management software (that was running on mobile barcode scanners each warehouse worker had, as he moved stuff around the warehouse and confirmed each step with the system by reading barcodes on shelves and products). We had a test mode, running on a test database, and production mode, running on the production database, and you could switch between them in a menu during the startup. During testing/training users were running on the test database, then we intended to switch the devices to production mode permanently, so that the startup menu wouldn't show. A few devices weren't switched for some reason (I suspect they were lost when we did the switch and found later), and on these devices the startup menu remained active. Users were randomly taking devices each day in the morning, and most of them knew to choose "production" when the menu was showing. Some didn't, and were choosing the first option instead. We started getting some small inaccuracies on the production database. People were directed by the system to take 100 units of X from the shelf Y, but there was only 90 units there. We looked at the logs on the (production) database, and on the application server, but everything looked fine. We were suspecting someone might just be stealing, but later we found examples where there was more stuff in reality on some shelves than in the system. At that time we introduced a big change to pathfinding, and we thought the system was directing users to put products in the wrong places. Mostly we were trying to confirm that this was the cause of the bugs. Finally we found the reason by deploying a change to the thin client software running on the mobile devices to gather log files from all the mobile devices and send to server. ~~~ hinkley I bet you had one engineer who claimed that the real problem was that the users were stupid and not that the deployment process was error prone. I've heard about this case many times before but somehow in the other renditions they downplayed or neglected to mention that the __deployments were manual __. As this story was first explained to me, one of the servers was not getting updated code, but I was convinced by the wording that it was a configuration problem with the deployment logic. Performing the same action X times doesn't scale. Somewhere north of 5 you start losing count. Especially if something happens and you restart the process (did I do #4 again? or am I recalling when I did it an hour ago?) ~~~ sucrose Was the deployment process of your parent post actually error-prone? From what I gathered, the developers were unaware of the lost handheld scanners. I imagine if they did they could've proactively put them out-of-service until found. ~~~ ajuc We had automatic updates in the thin clients (that's how we were able to add "logging to server" on all of them at once). The problem was - the startup menu with testing/production choice was enabled independently of the autoupdate mechanism (separate configuration file ignored by autoupdates) for some technical reason (I think to allow a few people to test new processes while most of the warehouse works on the old version on production database). ------ time0ut My company's legacy system (which still does most revenue producing work) has deployment problems like this. The deployment is fully automated, but if it fails on a server it fails silently. I rarely work on this system, but had to make an emergency change last summer. We deployed the change at around 10 pm. A number of our tests failed in a really strange way. It took several hours to determine that one of the 48 servers had the old version still. It's disk was full, so the new version rollout failed. The deployment pipeline happily reported all was well. We got lucky in that our tests happened to land on the affected server. The results of this making past the validation process would be catastrophic. Not as catastrophic as this case I hope, but it'd be bad. We made a couple human process changes, like telling the sysadmins to not ignore full disk warnings anymore (sigh). We also fixed the rollout script toactually report failures, but I don't actually trust it still. ~~~ C1sc0cat Ignoring disk full condition ! really. Handling an out of space condition should be part of your test suite - it certainly was back when I looked after a Map reduce based Billing system at BT and that was back in the day when a cluster of 17 systems was a really big thing. ~~~ lifeisstillgood I think the parent did well openly and honestly raising a personal example where missing a "basic" check caused near career changing problems - I applaud them for sharing a difficult situation. I was concerned that it's possible to read your comment as if it was critical of the parent - was that your intention? ~~~ time0ut To clarify a little, I was neither responsible for monitoring the underlying hardware or the deployment systems in this case. I also didn't have access to fix it myself. It took me a couple hours to go from "random weird test results" to "full disk broke the deploy". ------ HenryBemis > Knight did not design these types of messages to be system alerts, and > Knight personnel generally did not review them when they were received So they received these 90mins before they were executed, and as it so happens in many organizations, automated emails fly back and forth without anyone paying attention. Also.. running a new trading code, and NOT have someone looking at it LIVE on the kick-off, that is simply irresponsible and reckless. ------ hinkley I bring up this story every time someone talks about trying to do something dumb with feature toggles. (Except I had remembered them losing $250M, not $465M, yeow) The sad thing about this is if the engineering team had insisted on removing the old feature toggle first, deploying that code and letting it settle, and only _then_ started work on the new toggle, they may well have noticed the problem prior to turning on the flag, and it certainly would have been the case that rolling back would not have caused the catastrophic failure they saw. Basically they were running with scissors. When I say 'no' in this sort of situation I almost always get pushback, but I also can find at least a couple people who are as insistent as I am. It's okay for your boss to be disappointed sometimes. That's always going to happen (they're always going to test boundaries to see if the team is really producing as much as they can). It's better to have disappointed bosses than ones that don't trust you. ------ alexeiz I had a chance to get familiar with deployment procedures at Knight two years after the incident. And let me tell you, they were still atrocious. It's no surprise this thing happened. In fact, what's more surprising is that it didn't happen again and again (or perhaps it did, but not on a such large scale). Anyway, this is what the deployment looked like two years after: * All configuration files for all production deployments were located in a single directory on an NFS mount. Literally, countless of _.ini files for hundreds of production systems in a single directory without any subdirectories (or any other structure) allowed. The_.ini files themselves were huge as it typically happens in a complex system. * The deployment config directory was called 'today'. Yesterday's deployment snapshot was called 'yesterday'. This is as much of a revision control as they had. * In order to change your system configuration, you'd be given write access to the 'today' directory. So naturally, you could end up wiping out all other configuration files with a single erroneous command. Stressful enough? This is not all. * Reviewing config changes were hardly possible. You had to write a description of what you changed, but I've never seen anybody attach an actual diff of changes. Say you changed 10 files, in the absence of a VCS, manually diff'ing 10 files wasn't anybody wanted to do. * The deployment of binaries was also manual. Binaries were on the NFS mount as well. So theoretically, you could replace your single binary and all production servers would pick it up the next day. In practice though, you'd have multiple versions of your binary, and production servers would use different versions for one reason or another. In order to update all production servers, you'd need to check which version each of the server uses and update that version of the binary. * There wasn't anything to ensure that changes to configs and binaries are done at the same time in an atomic manner. Nothing to check if the binary uses the correct config. No config or binary version checks, no hash checks, nothing. Now, count how many ways you can screw up. This is clearly an engineering failure. You cannot put more people or more process over this broken system to make it more reliable. On the upside, I learned more about reliable deployment and configuration by analyzing shortcomings of this system than I ever wanted to know. ------ padseeker I realize that the consensus is that lots of companies do this kinda thing. I don't know if it's 99% - but the percentage is pretty high. However what's neglected to mention is the risk associated with a catastrophic software error. If you are say instagram and you lose your uploaded image of what you ate for lunch, that is undesirable and inconvenient. The consequences of that risk should it come to fruition is relatively low. On the other hand if you employee software developers that are literally the lifeblood of your business for automatic trading, you'd think that a company like that would understand the consequences of treating this "cost-center" as a critical asset rather than just a commodity. Unfortunately you would be wrong. Nearly every developer I have ever met that has worked for a trading firm has told me that the general attitude towards nearly all it's employees that are not generating revenue as a disposable commodity. It's not just developers but also research, governance, secretarial, customer service, etc. This is a bit of a broad brush but generally the principles and traders of those aforementioned firms are arrogant and greedy and cut corners whenever possible. In this case you'd think these people would be rational enough to know that cutting corners on your IT staff could be catastrophic. This is where you would be wrong. Most of the small/mid sized financial firms that I have had friends who worked there have told me they generally treat their staff like garbage and routinely push people out who want decent raises/bonuses, etc. These people are generally greedy and also egocentric and egomaniacal, and they believe all their employees are leaching from their yearly bonus directly. This story is not a surprise to me in the least. What's shocking is no one in the finance industry has learned anything. Instead of looking at this story as a warning, most of the finance people hear this story and laugh at how stupid everyone else is and that this would never happen to them personally because they're so much smarter than everyone else. ~~~ user5994461 >>> Instead of looking at this story as a warning, most of the finance people hear this story and laugh at how stupid everyone else is and that this would never happen to them personally because they're so much smarter than everyone else. What if we're smarter than everyone else? When I was in big bank, we had mandatory source control, lint, unit tests, code coverage, code review, automated deployment, etc... pretty good tools actually. Not everybody is stuck in the stone age. Even in a small trading company before that, we had most of the tooling although not as polished. Very small company with a billion dollars a month in executed trade. One could say amateur scale. ~~~ padseeker Big bank is not the same as a small/mid sized trading firm. Banks have regulations they need to meet, and typically do things by the book. I'm not an expert here. Part of what I said is based on the 6 different people I've met who have worked in the industry. I'm just saying if you have $400+ million to lose and you rely on the IT infrastructure allows you to make that money then you can spend a few million on top notch people and processes to prevent this kind of thing. I worked at a relatively large media company, and every deployment has a go/no-go meeting where knowledgable professionals asked probing questions, you defended your decisions. I've love to know what they did in Knight Capital. The idea of re-using an existing variable for code that was out of use strikes me as a terrible idea. ------ malux85 What baffles me is how they got his far into operations with such dreadful practices, 100-200k could have got them a really solid CI pipeline with rollbacks, monitoring, testing etc, But spend 200,000 on managing 460,000,000? No way! ~~~ free652 How would CI help in this case? It isn't even software bug, it's a process issue - they had old code running on one of out of 8 servers. The monitoring was triggered, but no action was taken. ~~~ werbel I disagree that it isn't a software bug. "The new RLP code also repurposed a flag" \- this is the moment when terrible software development idea was executed that resulted in all of the mess. Of course I don't know the full context and maybe, just maybe there was a really solid reason to reuse a flag on anything. What I observe more often is something like this though: 1. We need a flag to change behaviour of X for use case A, let's introduce enable_a flag. 2. We want similar behaviour change of X also for use case B, let's use the enable_a flag despite the fact the name is not a good fit now. 3. Turns out use case B needs to be a bit different so let's introduce enable_b flag but not change the previous code so basically we need them both true to handle use case B. 4. Turns out for use case A we need to do something more but things should stay the same for B. 5. At this point no one really knows what enable_a and enable_b really do. Hopefully at least someone noticed that enable_a affects use case B. If you have an use case A, create a handle_a flag. If you have a use case B create handle_b flag _even if they do exactly the same thing_ as more than likely they do exactly the same thing only for now. What would probably be even better is separate, properly named config flags for each little behaviour change and just use all 5 of those to handle different use cases. edit: formatting ~~~ reificator > _If you have an use case A, create a handle_a flag. If you have a use case B > create handle_b flag even if they do exactly the same thing as more than > likely they do exactly the same thing only for now._ A hard lesson to learn, and a hard rule to push for with others who have not yet learned. Imagine what our species could do if experience were directly and easily transferable... ~~~ werbel Hah exactly :) Same goes for functions, classes, React components, DB tables and everything else. Just model it as close as possible to the real world. The world doesn't really change that often. What does is how we interpret and behave within it (logic/behaviour/appearance on top). If you have a Label and Subheader in your app, create separate components for them. It doesn't matter that they look exactly the same now. Those are two separate things and I guarantee you more likely than not at some point they will differ. My rule of thumb is: If it's something I can somehow name as an entity (especially in product and not tech talk) it deserves to be its own entity. ~~~ reificator It's funny though, because my experience has led me to the exact opposite approach. Modeling based on real world understanding has been very fragile and error prone, and instead modeling as data and systems that operate on that data has been very fruitful. ------ neals Makes me feel less bad about rm -rf 'ing a product database and losing 1 hour of client data, the other week. Maybe I should show them this... ~~~ throwawaymath I would argue you shouldn't have been able to do that in your organization without bypassing (several) significant safeguards. Did you forget a where clause while deleting data on a table, or were you actually on the production server hosting the database? Any code you write that interacts with a database (or really any production code at all...) should be reviewed before being merged. And developers shouldn't be writing raw SQL commands on a production server. It's hard for me to see this as anything other than an organizational failure rather than your own. EDIT: Based on the number of downvotes this has received, I can only imagine we have a lot of devs on HN who cowboy SQL in production...holy hell how can any of what I said be controversial. ~~~ penagwin While I mostly agree, many companies have a tech department of half a dozen people, and implementing and enforcing every good practice devops isn't always realistic. That said, I'd expect at least a backup of production, then again he said he lost 1 hr of data so it was likely between backups. ~~~ Cthulhu_ If you haven't been able to invest the time to do database maintenance tasks in a safe way, at the very least enforce a 4-eyes principle and write up a checklist / script before hacking away in the production database. I mean I get it, I've made mistakes like this as well knowing I shouldn't have (we had test and prod running on the same server, about 40K people received a test push notification). But the bigger your product gets, the less you can afford to risk losing data. ~~~ penagwin I totally agree, if feasible those steps should be done! I was just trying to explain that many business like the one I'm at don't do business in tech (mine sells wholesale clothing), with 6 people in the tech dep, so understandably there's certain limitations on how far best practices can go. While I would usually consider it a mistake, if you thought you were just making a quick, what should be read only query, and it happens to hit some random edgecase-bug and crash a db... _Edit_ , continuing - Sure you should have tested that on the test DB first, but I'd be kinda understanding of how that happened. Depends on the business too, if you're a startup-tech company then yea, get your -stuff- together! It's just a lot of business only need their website and some order management, their focus isn't on the tech side of things. ------ phodge Loosely related - this is what terrifies me about deploying to cloud services like Google which have no hard limit on monthly spend - if background jobs get stuck in an infinite loop using 100% CPU while I'm away camping, my fledgling business could be bankrupt by the time I get phone signal back. ~~~ Bartweiss Woah, how does Google Cloud _still_ not support budget capping? It has budget alerting, so the capabilities are obviously there, but it's never been added. Instead, there's just a vaguely insulting guide on writing a script to catch the alert and trigger a shutdown... ~~~ shawabawa3 Pretty sure Google cloud does support it Pretty sure aws still doesn't ~~~ Bartweiss Google App Engine has spending cutoffs. Cloud allows API call cutoffs, but for actual spend it only has alerts. Their 'controlling budget' page sends you to a guide on writing your own triggers to respond to those alerts: [https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how- to/budgets](https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/budgets) ------ pjc50 This is one of the classics of the genre. If you're interested in software reliability/failure, you should read some of COMP.RISKS .. and then stop before you get too depressed to continue. ------ snotrockets > This is probably the most painful bug report I've ever read I suggest further reading, starting with Therac-25. ~~~ PhantomGremlin An honest bug report for the recent Boeing fuckup would be even worse. They deployed unconscionably shitty software (MCAS system) that killed a total of 346 people in two perfectly airworthy planes. ------ kylek Totally unrelated, but the title made me think back to one of my previous roles in the broadcast industry. If you're using a satellite as part of your platform, every second that you aren't transmitting to your birds (satellites), you're losing a massive amount of money. There are always a lot of buffers and redundant circuits in those situations, but things can always go wrong. Funny tangent- the breakroom at that job was somewhat near the base stations. Some days around lunchtime we'd have transmission interruptions. The root cause ended up being an old noisy microwave. ------ vxNsr Needs (2013) tag. As usual, human negligence is to blame. ~~~ geofft Is there any case where human negligence is not to blame? ~~~ philipov Pompei? ~~~ folli Building a city on a known lava field? ~~~ ineedasername It had been "silent" for about 300 years when Pompeii was destroyed. And before that, it had mainly had small series of low-level eruptions. Basically, for much of known history at that time, it was a safe place to live. ------ brootstrap Just popping in to say i believe the Equifax hack was also do to a 'bad manual deployment' similar to this. They had a number of servers but they didnt patch one of the servers in their system. Hackers were able to find this one server with outdated and vulnerable software and took advantage of it. I think deploys get better with time, but that initial blast of software development at a startup is insane. You literally need to do whatever it takes to get your shit running. Some of these details dont matter because initially you have no users. But if your company survives for a couple years and builds a user base, you still have the same shitty code and practices from early times. ------ thanatos_dem I have no sympathy for high frequency traders losing everything. So many more interesting and meaningful uses of computing than trying to build a system to-out cheat other systems in manipulating the global market for the express interest of amplifying wealth. ~~~ shrimpx A trading bot is a money-making machine and so is Facebook. What's worse, a "headless" machine that is directly manipulating buy/sell orders to feed off market inefficiencies, or a machine that lures humans in, then converts their attention and time into money? ~~~ nilskidoo I've thought before that transforming our soft grey matter into gold is basically what the Rosicrucian alchemists were on about. ------ anonu I watched the market go haywire on this day. Attentive people made a cool buck or two as dislocations arose. What's crazy is that there were already rules in place to prevent stuff like this from happening - namely the Market Access Rule [https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-210.htm](https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-210.htm) which was in place in 2010. When the dust settled, Knight sold the entire portfolio over via a blind portfolio bid to GS. Was a couple $bn gross portfolio. I think they made a pretty penny on this as well. ------ Havoc >Knight relied primarily on its technology team to attempt to identify and address the SMARS problem in a live trading environment. Ah the good old "fk it we'll do it live" approach to managing billions. ------ spyspy Could use a [2013] tag, but this story is fascinating and horrifying and I re- read it every time it pops up. It's a textbook case of why a solid CI/CD pipeline is vital. ~~~ java-man ... and a requirements tracker linked to the code. ------ nickthemagicman Who did they hire to develop this software? ~~~ ukoki Incidents such as these are rarely a people failure and nearly always a process failure. People will always make mistakes — perhaps seniors will make fewer mistakes than juniors, but no-one makes no mistakes. ~~~ randyrand People are responsible for making the processe, no? It’s still a people problem. ~~~ ashelmire Right, it's usually something like this: A: I'd like to hire some people to improve our processes. It will take time and money and prevent future problems, but you will never notice. B: Time and money and no new features? No way, I won't approve that. A: _tries to sell it some more even though they are technical and not a salesperson_ B: No.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Preparing for a Tech Talk, Part 2: What, Why, and How - danabramov https://overreacted.io/preparing-for-tech-talk-part-2-what-why-and-how/ ====== l9k I don't get the pyramid representation? Why not just a list? Is the "How" more important because it's on top, or the least important because it's smaller? Or is it the first thing to talk about? ~~~ sudhirj They build on each other. Without the foundation of Why, the What and the How are prone to ramble and be forgettable. Having a weak "What" (without a "Why") usually evokes boredom. It's not obvious to me why I should listen to the idea being presented. And that also drives the "How" \- see what medium will best get your point across, otherwise it's east to fall into the trap of making slides of something that needs to be shown, or vice versa. ~~~ danabramov That was the intended meaning, thanks for explaining!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple to Shift iPad A6X SoC Orders From Samsung to Taiwan Semiconductors - pragmatictester http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+to+Shift+iPad+A6X+SoC+Orders+From+Samsung+to+TSMC/article29530.htm ====== mtgx All rumors were pointing to TSMC. Apple might've involved Intel in the rumors for a while only because they wanted TSMC to lower prices, but Apple has no intention of going to Intel. If anything, they will start to use ARM chips in more of their products, and depend less and less on Intel. Samsung should expand its own chip business, instead of just being a fab for Qualcomm. They have very competitive chips, but they are only keeping them for themselves, and aren't even using them in all of their phones.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Microsoft is Dead - rajivn http://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html Would like to know if PG's stance on MS has changed ====== AlexC04 According to analytics, I've had 20,000 hits to my website in the last 30 days. 75% of those are reported to be running a windows operating system. As much as I respect the interesting point of view presented in the article, I sometimes wonder if sites like Hacker News and Slashdot don't put us all into some sort of exceptionally nerdy bubble-think. Like with the last week or so when everything I read seemed to say "google sucks", "lynch google", "burn and raze googles offices so they can never spam search results again" What was the rest of the world's reaction to this seemingly endless flood of histrionic blog posts about broken google search results? Crickets chirped and a tumbleweed yawned with boredom. Microsoft isn't dead. From what I see, in the last 30 days Microsoft is a minimum of 75% alive and we'd all be very much richer if we didn't forget that. With the utmost respect of course. Without exaggeration, hyperbole will literally be the death of us all. ~~~ TomOfTTB There's certainly some truth to what you say but I'd encourage you to look at the context of the conversation here. pg's blog and Hacker News appeal to people who are generally looking at the world from one of two perspectives: investing or as a startup. Keeping that in mind shapes the conversation differently In Microsoft's case I can absolutely see how 75% of the people visiting your website might be Windows Computers. But how many of those people want to be on Windows? How many are using it because there's simply nothing else or because they're just too lethargic to switch? How many are using it simply because they're on their work computer and no one's seriously challenged MS in the corporate space? So Microsoft could very well be dead and not even know it (as pg's addendum to this post makes clear). If you accept that thesis it has very relevant implications to the intended audience. From a startup's perspective it means you shouldn't rely on Microsoft technology and need to pursue a strategy that supports Microsoft's desktop but doesn't build on it (which probably means web apps). From an investing perspective it means looking down the line for any possible desktop competitor that could be viable. Because once that viable competitor comes along the bottom will fall out of Microsoft's profits. ~~~ Tichy "How many are using it because there's simply nothing else or because they're just too lethargic to switch?" Isn't that true for any conceivable product? I am using cars because there are no teleporters. I am using a keyboard because I don't have a good brain to computer interface yet. If I had a tablet, it would only be because there isn't a nano computer in my eyeball yet that projects directly on my retina (the real retina, not the Apple display). ~~~ armandososa The point here is that most people who have the luxury (and information) to chose their platform won't use Windows. If teleporters were invented today, chances are that you wouldn't be able to afford one for the next 20 years. ~~~ Tichy I know several people who willingly chose Windows 7, and who are knowledgeable about computers. In fact, 75% of IT people I know could be about right. ~~~ lukeschlather I've intentionally chosen Windows 7 + Windows Server to run my IT infrastructure, but the majority of the factors that motivated that choice were not due to much real work on Microsoft's part. QuickBooks, an internal Access database, our bookstore's POS software, and CAD software. All are needed, none of them run on Linux (and most of them don't run on Macs.) Windows being the best choice of operating system is an entirely orthogonal issue from Microsoft being dead. ~~~ wtracy So your reasons for choosing Windows have everything to do with third-party software that only supports Windows, and nothing to do with Windows itself. From a strategic perspective, that should be scary to Microsoft and anyone who is betting on Microsoft. ------ kbob Remember IBM? From 1960 through ~1985, IBM was the only answer for enterprise computing. And there really wasn't any other kind of computing then. IBM Research did everything from semiconductor research to databases to virtual machines. IBM was the hottest stock in the market in the 1960s, passing $600/share. (That's about $4,000 in today's money.) They eventually faded, as their customers moved to a combination of desktop PCs and servers and other companies' servers. IBM is still with us. They're having to reinvent themselves regularly, because the only concept they own is still "Mainframe", and they failed to hold on to "PC". But they're still a huge company selling systems and professional services. I expect Microsoft to go the same way. There will be significant but dwindling demand for Windows for 30 more years. (But probably not Azure, Windows Mobile, or XBox.) They will stay alive, and even prosper moderately, on that business. ~~~ TomOfTTB To me the cogent point is that IBM re-invented itself but only after it broke from a line of internally groomed CEOs leading all the way back to the Watsons. IBM was about to be split into pieces when Lou Gerstner was hired from the outside. He's the one who saw the advantage in IBM's footprint and the value it could add to a service based business. He's also the one who put an end to several sacred cows like OS/2 and took IBM's focus almost completely off mainframes. The parallels to Microsoft are actually pretty compelling (For example "Windows Everywhere" is Microsoft's Mainframe imho). I don't think Ballmer has been a bad CEO (like some do) but his time is done. The old tricks aren't working anymore. They need to find someone with a fresh vision if they want to survive. ~~~ klbarry This is a little off-topic, but I've heard a lot of bad things about Gerstner as well (read the one star reviews on Amazon for his book). It is pretty well accepted that he saved IBM, or is it controversial amongst people in the know? ------ Matt_Cutts I remember when pg first wrote this. A lot of people misunderstood the headline. From the pg's Cliffs notes: "What I meant was not that Microsoft is suddenly going to stop making money, but that people at the leading edge of the software business no longer have to think about them." That's at <http://paulgraham.com/cliffsnotes.html> So the two definitions pg gave in 2007 were "You don't have have to be afraid of Microsoft" and the definition above. ~~~ jdp23 When this came out I was still at Microsoft with a charter of "game changing strategies". There were (and still are) quite a few things that MS could do to reinvigorate itself, but the corporate culture keeps them from gathering momentum: the company's success came in a PC-oriented world, so they don't think from a phone, device, or web perspective; and the lack of understanding of win/win dynamics (which Google rode to success) means they're not able to leverage their huge assets. Since then, the ongoing loss of great people has deepened a huge generational hole. So yeah, this essay has held up real well. ~~~ kenjackson Jon, as someone from MS (and with great repute), I'd be curious to get your take on something I've heard from ex and current MS employees I talk to regularly. One issue that seems to come up a fair bit (often not directly) is that MS has a hypercritical culture, where there's always a reason NOT do something. Since they had big money makers in Office and Windows, no one really noticed for a long time.. I hear constant grumbling that people with ideas get their ideas shot down with lots of criticism. Many of these people say that MS would have killed the iPhone, iPad, and Wii had they been proposed at MS in final form. It sounds like a company made of bright people who have no problem finding issues with products, but less good at fighting for new innovation against these same critics. ~~~ jdp23 Very true -- in fact Microsoft's values include being self-critical, but not being self-aware. Also, it's a very competitive culture, and the easiest way to show you're smarter/better/more powerful than somebody else is to attack them. The net result is that it's an incredibly negative culture, and it really affects people both on the professional and personal side. ~~~ ardit33 Seems to be a Seattle thing. I feel Amazon has a similar culture too. Or perhaps it is just a big company problem. When the two ways to get ahead is: 1. Do something and brag as much as you can about it (shameless self promotion) 2. Criticize everything about everybody around you, even for the most minute details (make your self look good, by putting down everybody else ideas or way to do things). Not helpful behavior, all disguised in the name of the company's 'good' of course. ~~~ enjalot there are two ways to build the tallest building; build it higher, or destroy the buildings around you ------ zdw There are two Microsofts: \- The one that does interesting, innovative stuff but a failure/modest success in the marketplace (online, xbox, sync interface for cars, zune, windows phone 7) \- The "legacy" one that makes windows, office, and server apps, which makes a ton on licensing. Nobody likes "legacy" microsoft, and it's the most vulnerable, but also has the most momentum behind them. People develop on or support the dominant platform to earn a paycheck, thus the dominant platform stays in place. Until the PC goes away, and there's a huge shift to do real work off our phones/tablets/other non-legacy devices, MS will most likely be dominant in terms of market share. ~~~ wh-uws I feel like products like Windows 7 and the Kinect among other things are a sign of a rally from the Microsoft camp. Agree / disagree? ~~~ Zak I don't think Win7 is a sign that MS is making a comeback; it's the final product that Vista was a massive public beta for. I don't know anyone who loves it - the usual opinion of people who choose to use it is "good enough". The Kinect is pretty impressive though. I wonder what the per-unit cost is for MS - are they making a direct profit on sales? ~~~ te_chris I disagree. I know lots of people who love it but, really, neither of us are being scientific and we're both just making sweeping generalisations on an internet forum that are based on hear-say. ------ swombat 1) Yes, it still holds. 2) Don't editorialise the headline. It gives a distinctly Reddit-like feel to the place. The correct way to post this would have been to do an Ask HN and include the link in the body. 3) "How many...?" is obviously a poll question, so create a poll. ------ mooism2 Microsoft still matter: they control Internet Explorer and they control Windows. If they were to add SNI support to Windows XP, for example, https sites could be hosted more cheaply. But Microsoft is not the monopolist it used to be. PG used "dead" to mean "is not scary any more", not "is slowly going bankrupt". So I think his conclusion still holds. ~~~ raganwald Absolutely. I think the key point of the article was this phrase: _No one is even afraid of Microsoft anymore. They still make a lot of money—so does IBM, for that matter. But they're not dangerous._ And I think that's still true, even with the popularity of their latest hand- waving thing. Back in the day, almost everybody writing a business plan had to answer the question: "What will you do if Microsoft decides to crush you?" Nowadays, I imagine they ask that question about Google or Facebook. ~~~ kenjackson Actually the climate has fundamentally changed in a way that is even bigger than the article. Nowadays people no longer generally fear companies at all. In the 80s companies were much more prone to just crush you outright. Now companies "seem" more likely to buy you out. There is a lot more positioning now for acquisition. When I talk to founders they aren't worried about Google or Facebook crushing them, but are more focused on acquisition, even when attacking core businesses like search. Ppl are no longer not afraid of MS because of something inherent in MS, but because the world has changed. ------ rywang Microsoft Research is one of the top 10 computer science research organizations in the world. Some of the work done there (such as the Kinect) is game changing and will continue to be a resource Microsoft can draw upon. As an MIT PhD student, I know many people who are eager to work at Microsoft research. [1] [http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7...](http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7&domainID=24&last=0&start=1&end=100) [2] [http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/11/features/the...](http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/11/features/the- game-changer) ~~~ rchowe But aside from vacuuming up some talent, Microsoft Research isn't going to be a part of any startup or VC's equation. ------ jcfrei The perception of who's 'alive' really depends on the perspective. If you're dealing with software solution consultants you can't get around IBM - but if you're a small software developer you might just as well never have heard of them. just for the record, take a look at the revenue and employe numbers to see what has changed since the 1960s (big blue is still on top): IBM $95.75 billion / 399'409 (2009) Microsoft $62.48 billion / 89'000 (2010) Apple $65.23 billion / 49'400 (2010) Google $23.65 billion / 23'331 (2010) ~~~ nivertech Notice that IBM and Apple revenues are higher, because they selling mostly hardware. MSFT selling mostly software with exception of XBox. ~~~ dgudkov This isn't true for IBM. In 2009 IBM's revenue from hardware was less than 17% from total revenue. <http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2009/2009_ibm_annual.pdf> ~~~ nivertech Services revenue is mostly consultants salaries too. What I mean, that software and advertisement margins are generally higher, than for hardware and services. ------ Stormbringer Wow, lots of hatorade on the drinks menu today. I of course had the same reaction as everybody else to the sensationalist headline... but when I read the article I agreed with pretty much everything he said. I suppose that is fair and preserves my strong PG contrarian streak, the articles everyone else loves I hate, and the articles everyone else hates, I love. ==== From the article: So if they wanted to be a contender again, this is how they could do it: (1) Buy all the good "Web 2.0" startups. They could get substantially all of them for less than they'd have to pay for Facebook. (2) Put them all in a building in Silicon Valley, surrounded by lead shielding to protect them from any contact with Redmond. I feel safe suggesting this, because they'd never do it. Microsoft's biggest weakness is that they still don't realize how much they suck. They still think they can write software in house. Maybe they can, by the standards of the desktop world. But that world ended a few years ago. ==== This is brilliant. And when we look at the Microsoft Kin Phone Debacle of 2010, we see that indeed they splashed the cash to buy a startup (Danger) to get into the smartphone game, but they critically failed the second part of the plan, which is the lead shielding bit. This is why PG is a genius, and this is why we can say that Microsoft is dead. Because they are the problem. The problem with Microsoft _is_ Microsoft. Because they are irrelevant, and to Microsoft being irrelevant is worse than death. One of the things I've noticed about Microsoft over the last couple of years, is that when someone leaves Microsoft, and they blog about it (as you do), and then you get ex-Microsofties arguing with current-Microsofties, is that they have their own weird sub-culture and language that is incomprehensible to anyone on the outside. The more inward focused they become, the less and less relevant to everyone on the outside they will be. This is another sign of their decline. Joel Spolsky said some interesting things about this, on the topic of hiring programmers. Someone asked him how much a programmer should be paid, and he said that across the industry there was a pretty uniform amount of profit that a company can make per programmer - something like $100k-200k, but that there are a couple of exceptions to this rule, one is Microsoft, because the Windows and Office parts of their business are ridiculously profitable, and the other is Google. And that Microsoft makes millions per programmer, so they can afford to go out and hire the good and the bad, in order simply to prevent them from working for their competitors. So they hire all these people, and then ignore them or put them to work on bike sheds. I think it is very dangerous for a company of any size to ignore their smart people, and this is another sign of their decline. ------ GeorgeTirebiter This sentiment is not new. See "Microsoft at Apogee" by John Walker (founder of Autodesk, and a really brilliant guy): <http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/msapogee.html> Note the date: 9 Feb 1997 (!) ------ patrickk I remember reading somewhere that IBM makes something like _$8bn per year_ still from mainframe computer sales. If IBM are doing that - two major computer architecture iterations along the line - (client-server and now cloud coming along), then that bodes well for Microsoft's survival, but perhaps not their relevance. Startups aren't going to go after highly conservative organisations like banks who won't risk changing from mainframes for no obvious gain. So there will be a market for Microsoft technologies (their OS and Office in particular) for a long, long time; long after consumers are mainly using Android/Linux/Macintosh-based tablets or other portable devices to do their personal computing. ~~~ rbanffy > like banks who won't risk changing from mainframes for no obvious gain. So > there will be a market for Microsoft technologies Comparing Microsoft products with the kind of reliability banks require from mainframes misses the point. No product Microsoft offers can match 5 nines outside a controlled environment (and most probably, neither inside one) ~~~ patrickk Perhaps the point I was trying to make wasn't clear. Certain enterprise customers will always want to work with what they know, (i.e. typically Windows XP and Microsoft Office currently.) So this will be the long tail that Microsoft will coast along, if/when consumers migrate their personal computing to other platforms. Granted, there are certain situations when using an older technology such as mainframes makes complete sense, and there is little benefit to risk a major system upgrade; but there are many other situations where not upgrading seems lunacy (e.g. in an era when people want to have much of their banking online, the old mainframes in the background struggle to cope with the demand.) As an aside, I interned at a bank where one of the tasks I did was adding HTML tags to predefined paragraphs that were in plain English. I did this in Excel, manually, line by line, on a PC sporting Windows XP and a 15" monitor. This could have been done in seconds with a shell script if anyone there had a clue. This kind of ignorance is a godsend to Microsoft who will continue to sell software licences to clueless companies for the foreseeable future. ------ ankimal Even 3 years later, this is still true. The only thing MS has is Windows and Office (the only MS product, in my opinion that is real quality). MS will not die but will become irrelevant. The way they kept jacking up PC hardware requirements for Windows, Internet bandwidths will keep becoming bigger and better and "thick" clients will become irrelevant. Everything eventually will be on the web and that day is sooner than we think it is. (For some its already here) ------ kingsidharth > I know they seemed dangerous as late as 2001, _because I wrote an essay_ > then about how they were less dangerous than they seemed. Didn't get it. They seemed dangerous because Paul wrote an essay? ~~~ corin_ The ' _because_ ' refers not to them seeming dangerous, but to his knowing, in 2007, that they did seem dangerous in 2001. ------ noelchurchill Can someone please make a website ismicrosoftdead.com similar to <http://isitchristmas.com/>. ------ Encosia I doubt that anyone working at Sony or Nintendo shares this apathy toward Microsoft's continued ability to enter and disrupt an industry. ------ Aegean "A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead." haha that's a great sentence to start an article. ------ j_baker I find pg's proposed way of Microsoft becoming a contender again interesting. I don't doubt that he'd like Microsoft to start buying up more Web 2.0 startups. Granted, that doesn't make him wrong. I just find it interesting. ------ nivertech What means death of Microsoft? It means fragmentation on the desktop (similar to what we have on the mobile): * MacOS X on x86, maybe even desktop version OSX/iOS on ARM? * Wintel (Windows on x86), WARM (Windows 8 on ARM) * ChromeOS on x86 and on ARM * Linux on x86 and ARM (Gnome, KDE, Unity, etc.) I predict that native desktop software will become more expensive, while generic HTML5 versions will be ad-supported or subscription based. Assuming, that HTML5 family of standards will be fully adopted. With all these new AppStores and Marketplaces ISVs will be able to save money on marketing and sales, but they will need to spend several times more money on developing for several desktops platforms/CPU architectures. ------ kehers _Checks post date. Noticed it is 2007. Moves on_ ------ DealsForHackers Replace "Microsoft" with "Google", and this article suddenly captures the zeitgeist of today's startup environment. ------ Hov I understand he meant that nobody is scared of Microsoft anymore. I guess the question I have is, is there a company that exists that everybody IS scared of? No. So I rather chalk it up to a sign of the times. ~~~ zmmmmm As recently as last year I was reasonably scared of Apple because they appeared to be accumulating a market power that was transforming the industry itself into something I didn't like. Fortunately, however, Google came to the rescue with Android and I'm now far more relaxed about it. A lot of people claim to be scared of Google though ...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What not to talk to acquirer about? - selfdestruct I was recently approached by a PE firm that is gobbling up companies in my space at pretty insane clip. I have a call scheduled with one of their lower level folks. I've read about these kinds of fishing expeditions but never been the subject of one. Can anyone offer some advice on the parameters for the discussion? What topics, if any, should I consider off-limits? ====== relaunched There are a couple things you should know going in, or at least by the end of the first call: 1) What is this PE firms model? Google them, cold call founders of companies they've bought, etc. Some will want to buy you to integrate with existing entities. Others want to accelerate your growth, based on their operating model. If you don't have time to figure this out, you need to know all of these details by the end of your first call. 2) What do you want out of the deal? Ever entrepreneur should have a number or a vision, or both. You need to know what gets a deal done for you. 3) Why are they reaching out to you? Is it exploratory or already vetted and strategic. Before you say anything of substance, you should understand where they are at in the process. Oftentimes the level of the person you are speaking with dictates the seriousness of the conversation / interest level. 4) Are they winners? Funds can't help but brag about their successes. Who are their big exists? What do they return to their investors? How many funds have they closed (and when)? If you have any additional questions, my email is in my profile. ------ muzani I was extremely open with my acquirer, even saying things like us not planning to work there after the acquisition and pointing out every single thing that sucked about the company. They were happy enough that they bought it for 3x what we actually wanted. ~~~ danieltillett I think you make a good point which is being honest is the best approach. Unless you are giving away the company secrets there is no reason not to be honest. ------ codegeek Don't give out your secret sauce. Let them taste it but not "how" it is done. So just tell them the "what" and not the "how".	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How the World’s Largest Garbage Dump Evolved into a Green Oasis - mmastrac https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/nyregion/freshkills-garbage-dump-nyc.html ====== harikb It is happy to see that Rudy Giuliani had better days when he did good and he was respected for it. How the mighty have fallen. > About an hour later, Mr. Giuliani was at Fresh Kills himself, standing amid > garbage hills 200 feet tall, alongside Staten Island’s borough president, > Guy Molinari, and Gov. George E. Pataki. These three Republicans had worked > together to close the dump that Mr. Molinari’s father first protested when > it opened in 1948, a time when Fresh Kills was a saltwater marsh where kids > swam. After 1948, it became an ecological nightmare and a political hot > potato. A banner behind the politicians read, “A Promise Made, a Promise > Kept.”	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Delicious to Pinboard username mapper - mcantelon http://delpin.heroku.com/ ====== crazydiamond Has a signup fee to discourage spammers. >The signup fee helps discourage spammers and defrays some of the costs of running the site. Thanks to the entry fee, Pinboard has remained spam-free since launch. Not having to expend resources on spam fighting means having more time to work on features, and keeps the site fast and small. The fee is based on the formula (number of users * $0.001), so the earlier you join, the less you pay. ------ AdamGibbins When searching my network and being unable to find a match - perhaps could you perhaps do a lookup for the same name on pinboard rather than returning? example → Unknown, but try example Other than that, can see this being a handy tool if it gains traction (both the tool and pinboard), thanks.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Beyond the LRU cache policy - japaget https://github.com/ben-manes/caffeine/wiki/Efficiency ====== Terretta Cat's finally out of the bag, at least a whisker or paw. For anyone thinking about this, here is some more: Advection implemented a tiered version of a cache eviction algo very similar to this single tier take since early 2000's. These graphs showing near optimal curves hold up in the real world. When you have the one cache and window shown here, easy to see how to extend to layers (capacity/cost/performance) of cache. Harder to extend this across independent nodes across a global footprint of federated hubs, but that works too. Crucial to get eviction and refill right when you're dealing with video sized files and limited cache pool. Pushed the VDN to innovate here well beyond what CDNs had or still have. _/ / Advection was a private label VDN (under strong NDAs and no sales and marketing) under the hood of brand name CDNs, with a VDN provisioning API. Several of largest premier certified streaming CDNs were Advection powered for their streaming certification, and many of the largest events throughout the last decade used Advection under the hood, even into this decade. The company was bootstrapped, profitable, and growing into the start of this decade, but HLS finally meant other CDNs could do video well enough they didn't have to have a parallel dedicated video infra, they could finally use their own edge, taking wind out of sails. While I stepped away several years ago, AFAIK Advection still offers boutique transactional video, able to track and control every user's stream in real time, enabling at scale a ton of very slick capabilities still behind some extraordinary VOD and live video business models, the ones that aren't just naïvely ad supported. Advection also innovated something we called "zero admin", now called devops. It had no sysadmins or support people, only devs._ ~~~ NovaX Are you allowed to describe the eviction policy? It would be interesting to know the differences. You can contact me privately (ben.manes at gmail). I'd be interested in knowing, \- Did it use a sketch in a similar manner? \- Was it an LRU window to a classic LFU? Did it retain history? \- Was it robust in all workload patterns or optimized for VDN workloads? I would expect a 4-Segment LRU (S4LRU) policy to work well in VDN, while being a simple O(1) policy. That's used by Facebook photos, among others, so probably good for CDN content. ~~~ Terretta There are a couple other key diffs not yet out of the bag, so I can't go into more, but I will say S4LRU is not at all optimal for very large video edge. Most of the research work remains focused on HTML or images. The problem was very different for video given objects per cache and nontrivial time to replace. ~~~ NovaX Any chance you have pointers for public trace files? Its interesting to see the behaviors under different workload patterns. Adding a cost model (GDSF, et al) is too specialized that I haven't spent time looking in that domain. From your hints that sounds like the unexplored area that your work successfully optimized.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Facebook reportedly discredited critics by linking them to George Soros - nsedlet https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/14/facebook-george-soros-pr-firm-discredit-critics-crisis ====== abrowne The original source is [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook- data-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia- election-racism.html) ~~~ sctb Discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18453958](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18453958). ------ ada1981 If you work for Facebook, what do you do in this situation? Can you all please just leave? Is there some acceptable amount of collateral damage for you to maintain your lifestyle? I’ll personally help you reconnect to your purpose and go out and live a life you’ve dreamed of. Go start a company better than Facebook and hire all the people. ~~~ peterlk Also, if you use facebook, stop. I haven't used facebook in years, and I feel pretty fine. I still have friends; we hang out; we show each other pictures. And, best of all, our communication isn't being injected with ads meant to distract us from communicating with each other. Texting, email, slack, whatsapp (yes, I know), signal, discord, and gchat work pretty well. If you're a user of FB, stop, and their power over you and your friends will begin to evaporate (if that's something you're concerned about) ~~~ ravenstine > whatsapp (yes, I know) Hold on a sec... what do you mean by this? How is using WhatsApp or Instagram not essentially the same thing as continuing to use Facebook? ~~~ snazz I’m not sure why aside from the fact that end-to-end encryption should make it harder (impossible in theory) for them to read your messages. They still have access to your contacts book, which is kinda scary since some people I know keep Social Security numbers in their contacts. ~~~ mayniac They don't have to be able to read your messages server-side to pick out keywords client-side and send those unencrypted. It would still be truthful: all messages are encrypted e2e, but the app on your device parses decrypted messages to "deliver relevant ads". Also: >kinda scary since some people I know keep Social Security numbers in their contacts. That is absolutely terrifying. ------ mixmastamyk Always found the obsession about Soros odd, how can one guy be at the root of everything wrong in the world, like a comic-book super-villain? Just because he donates to some political causes, like most billionaires? ~~~ xpaulbettsx Right-wing people have decided that George Soros is a proxy / representative for "globalism" (an anti-semitic dog-whistle). When people are angry at Soros, it is a dog-whistle for prejudice / hatred against Jewish people. It's not obvious that this is the case to people outside of right-wing groups, which is why it gets so much unexplained press. ~~~ devmunchies but jews DO make up a majority of the top 1%. it doesn't have to be hatred against jewish people. its just talking about the facts. sounds like textbook social justice. I don't agree with it, but i see the hypocrisy in being able to talk about whites (who make up the majority of the top 10%), but not the jews (who make up a majority of the top 1%). I'm in the camp that recognizes success, but seeks to be associated with it and emulate it rather than "dog-whistle" as you say (I work at a jewish company) ~~~ the_zisko Wtf is a jewish company? Get your head on straight dude. This is the type of hatred where you misattribute your boss' success to their "otherness" which makes anti-semitism so elusive. Re-evaluate. ~~~ devmunchies Sorry for responding late but my company gets all the Jewish holidays off and most of the leaders are Jewish. We even work half days on Friday in preparation for sabbath. There’s no hatred or “anti” anything. Quite the opposite. ------ nemild I spent the last two years reflecting on FB (was an early employee in social media), and put some reflections on the bubble at Facebook: [https://www.nemil.com/tdf/part1-employees.html](https://www.nemil.com/tdf/part1-employees.html) _Management will laud what employees do, show them selective facts that justify their views, and hire /promote those who behave similarly to them. Employees in isolated teams with training in a single function may not realize the broad, unintended effects of their company's work. They'll assume the best of their friends and coworkers, without inquiring into the larger effects they're having._ ------ travisoneill1 Interesting difference in opinions between this thread and this recent post about FB needing to censor it's platform: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18458938](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18458938) Not sure why the surprise. Pretty obvious that FB (and all other entities) will use it's power only to advance its own interests. > People just submitted it. I don't know why. They "trust me" Dumb fucks. \- Mark Zuckerberg ------ InTheArena Just like the last election, they literally played both sides of this. For thoose of you who don't know, Soros is a the Koch boogyman of the alt-right, and the frequent conspiracy charges against him start with the fact that he is Jewish. "Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also tapped its business relationships, lobbying a Jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-Semitic. In Washington, allies of Facebook, including Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, intervened on its behalf. And Ms. Sandberg wooed or cajoled hostile lawmakers, while trying to dispel Facebook’s reputation as a bastion of Bay Area liberalism." In other words, they hired someone to make racist claims, and then hired someone to call anyone who criticized facebook racists. Then they got engaged with political groups on both sides, to play into stereotypes. This is literally the tactics that Putin used in the last election. I wonder who he got it from ------ qbaqbaqba So, were the critics connected to Open Society Foundation on any other Soros controlled organisation? Also, describing him as a philanthropist and not mentioning his shady businesses like causing "Black Wednesday" or what he did to Thailand is... curious. And the fact he's Jewish doesn't make looking into his actions racist. ------ groth this is embarassing ------ jandrese Has any George Soros conspiracy theory ever panned out? Hearing his name come up is a bright red flag that the person you're talking to has had his brain poisoned by right wing nutjobs. ~~~ danharaj There's a reason why George Soros is singled out among liberal billionaires by certain right wing groups, and it certainly isn't evidence. ~~~ kurthr I assume you mean singled out by Russian trolls because of Putin's dislike for him? ~~~ danharaj No. It's a tradition far older than that. ~~~ asianthrowaway If that were true, why George Soros and not other liberal jewish billionaires, who no doubt exist? I think it's absurd to state that he's not being singled out due to his political activities. ~~~ danharaj Well, first of all, something like antisemitism doesn't have to be self- consistent to be a thing. Second of all, actually, other Jewish billionaires are also targeted: [https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/politics/tom-steyer- mccarthy-...](https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/politics/tom-steyer-mccarthy- tweet/index.html) I don't understand what you're so skeptical about. What is the standard of evidence for antisemitism you're seeking? I'm not going to find many mainstream adherents to Soros conspiracy theories that are going to flat-out admit it, am I? ~~~ asianthrowaway > I don't understand what you're so skeptical about. What is the standard of > evidence for antisemitism you're seeking? I suppose a good counter example would be liberal jewish billionaires being attacked despite not contributing to liberal philanthropic endeavors. Or non- jewish liberal billionaire philanthropists NOT being attacked despite contributing on the same scale as George Soros. I'm just saying that the "George Soros is only being targeted because he's jewish" argument is a shitty cop out. ~~~ moorhosj > I'm just saying that the "George Soros is only being targeted because he's > jewish" argument is a shitty cop out. You are moving the goalposts. You first asked why only Soros was being targeted and not other liberal, Jewish billionaires. That was proven false (Bloomberg, Steyer also targeted) and now you are trying out a new line of reasoning that is just as thin. ~~~ asianthrowaway > You are moving the goalposts. You first asked why only Soros was being > targeted and not other liberal, Jewish billionaires. How I am moving the goalposts? The initial comment I replied to was "There's a reason why George Soros is singled out among liberal billionaires by certain right wing groups, and it certainly isn't evidence.", which I think I correctly interpreted as claiming that Soros was only being targeted for being jewish. > That was proven false (Bloomberg, Steyer also targeted) I've never heard of this Steyer guy, I know Bloomberg and I'm not aware that he's banned from Hungary, or that he has a dedicated wikipedia page to "Bloomberg conspiracy theories", so I don't think he can be remotely compared to Soros. So yeah I don't know what you're talking about, honestly. ~~~ moorhosj Here's your quote I responded to: "why George Soros and not other liberal jewish billionaires, who no doubt exist?" Evidence was provided to prove that other liberal Jewish billionaires have, in fact, been targeted. > I've never heard of this Steyer guy, I know Bloomberg and I'm not aware that > he's banned from Hungary, or that he has a dedicated wikipedia page to > "Bloomberg conspiracy theories", so I don't think he can be remotely > compared to Soros. This is more goalpost moving. Nobody claimed they were targeted more than Soros or that you knew who they were. None of that changes the fact that they are liberal, Jewish billionaires who have been targeted. This is the criteria you created. ------ cat199 shady spin issues aside - because some people criticize george soros for antisemitic reasons, automatically all criticism of george soros is antisemitic? then again this opinion is from ADL which states that anti zionism is automatically anti semitism (effectively calling huge numbers of hassidic jews anti semitic) oops, i criticized. must be a nazi. ------ api What is the deal with George Soros anyway and why is he such a bogey man to the far right? ~~~ lawnchair_larry He’s one of the most wealthy contributors to left wing activism. It has absolutely nothing to do with him being jewish - those claims demonstrate the ignorance of the left regarding how right-leaning voters (who are overwhelmingly pro-israel due to their religious beliefs) think. Same thing the left says about Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson (also Jewish, oops, there goes that theory), etc, just reversed. The left’s complete failure to understand the other side is why they were so shocked that Trump got elected. And it looks like we are in for a repeat in 2020, since they’ve learned nothing. ~~~ tacomonstrous One difference between the Kochs, Adelson, et al and Soros is that for the former there is a very obvious link between the causes they fund and benefits to their own business empires (this is particularly stark with Adelson). Soros is harder to pin down and seems to be genuinely interested in the causes he supports, not just out of personal interest. ~~~ partiallypro The Kochs are libertarians, anything they do will be viewed as simply wanting to help their own business, even though that is not true when you actually evaluate what they have said. I personally don't think the Kochs nor Soros are bad people, and likely want what they view as what is best for society. They put their money where their mouths are, nothing nefarious about that. If the Kochs were only for their own self interests their main focus right now wouldn't be criminal justice reform. ~~~ uniacid So a few donations to seemingly good causes make them good? Don't be easily fooled by their "generosity" as it's not always as it seems to be, many times they fund "independent" organizations or think tanks which really are just foils for them to push their Conservative agenda. [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/we-now-know- how-...](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/we-now-know-how-the-koch- brothers-and-leonard-leo-buy-special-favors.html) [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/trump-koch- brot...](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/trump-koch-brothers- deregulation-white-house/) [https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate- denier...](https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate-deniers/koch- industries/) [https://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2017/got- sci...](https://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2017/got-science- feb-2017) I can keep going on, so please don't paint them as just some "nice" guys who give money. ~~~ partiallypro You do know that Soros also funds think tanks, right? Anyhow, you just cited 4 left leaning sites, so that's not helpful (and actually proves my point in other parts of this thread!) Charles Koch himself does not deny climate change (you can read about this in actual news sites like the Washington Post,) he is against corporate welfare like the government directly/indirectly subsidizing Tesla, etc. Which is perfectly in line with his libertarianism. Even the one source you could argue is somewhat "real," was from an opinion writer. Here's the rest of his pieces, which uh, don't seem so unbiased. [https://slate.com/author/mark-joseph-stern](https://slate.com/author/mark- joseph-stern) ------ cagenut as long as peter thiel's on the board you generally have to assume they're doing _at least_ this level of scummy shit. ~~~ misiti3780 this comment is ridiculous - what could you possibly have to back that up ? just because you do not agree with his political view doesn't mean everything he does is with bad intentions and "scummy". ~~~ cronix Personally, I find Palantir pretty scummy. I don't see how what they are doing is much different than what China is doing. It's the tech that empowers the modern day police state. They might even be using Palintir there. We can't even find out where it's deployed in the USA. This is the type of tech that we can do without, imho. [https://www.wired.com/story/how-peter-thiels-secretive- data-...](https://www.wired.com/story/how-peter-thiels-secretive-data-company- pushed-into-policing/) [https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter- thiel...](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/) [https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/27/17054740/palantir- predict...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/27/17054740/palantir-predictive- policing-tool-new-orleans-nopd) ~~~ Aunche This is somewhat tangential, but what exactly does Palantir do? From what I understand, they're a glorified consulting company that does data visualization, so why do they get so much attention? ~~~ licyeus One of their primary functions is helping governments track people [1]. They market their suite as aiding the fight against crime/terrorism, but many argue that they're providing tools to governments to track their own citizens (see GP's Bloomberg link). I fall into the latter camp. There are even some old (fairly unrevealing) demos on Youtube [2] 1 - [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/joining-the- dots](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/joining-the-dots) 2 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51YYljuz4u4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51YYljuz4u4)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Zoom Telephonics finally got traction selling modems. Then the trade war hit - maddermusic https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2020/01/05/zoom-telephonics-finally-got-traction-selling-modems-then-trade-war-hit/cld4r5sfbISXs2H8p0RYqO/story.html ====== maddermusic Fallout from the trade war.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
House panel votes to split Air Force, create new U.S. Space Corps - petethomas https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-news/2017/06/house-panel-votes-to-split-air-force-create-new-u-s-space-corps/ ====== Animats Sounds like somebody at USAF Space Command wants a promotion. This seems decades late. The USAF has no manned space capability. The U.S. Government once owned the Space Shuttles. They had astronauts. The USAF once had a Space School. That's all gone. Now, they just buy commercial rocket launches. If anything, the reorganization the USAF needs is to lose the close air support mission, and the A-10 Warthogs, to the Army. The USAF keeps trying to kill off the Warthog, and doesn't want to get involved with smaller fixed-wing aircraft for close air support. The Army needs that low-level aerial firepower. They need it from affordable aircraft they can use in quantity, not rare, overpriced F-35s. There's an old deal between the Army and the USAF, the "Key West Agreement", that the Army would stay out of fixed-wing aviation and only use helicopters. That needs to be looked at again. (The Marines have their own air, and it works out well for them. Marine air and ground forces tend to coordinate better than USAF/Army combos.) ~~~ vosper I imagine that the not-too-distant future of close air support is drones with guns and rockets. These could potentially be operated by soldiers on or near the front lines. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine a soldier with a tablet tapping on things for the drone to shoot at. Not needing a pilot could make them smaller, cheaper, and able to enter (and remain in) dangerous areas in a way a helicopter or plane never could. This seems like something the Army could operate themselves. ~~~ rubyfan Given the choice between a drone+iPad and an A10 warthog, I'd pick the warthog all day every day. That said, I doubt it's an either or thing. ------ dmichulke _... because we have to defend the ehh hmmm satellites against cough ehm ehhh other satellites._ Nothing like a fourth branch of the armed forces to increase the biggest military budget in the world [1] by another few dozen percent. [1] From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures) 1. US 611 bn 2. China 215 bn 3. Russia 69 bn ~~~ codyb Aren't those all about the same as a percentage of gdp? ~~~ MaulingMonkey From the same table: 1. US 611 bn (3.3% of GDP) 2. China 215 bn (1.9% of GDP) 3. Russia 69 bn (5.3% of GDP) ------ Overtonwindow This is a fall in line bill. In my office on Capitol Hill that was our name for legislation that leadership has agreed to, is all ready to go, and there's little to argue that will go anywhere so...just fall in line. Interesting footnote to history: The Republican leadership, from 94 - 06, steamrolled over everyone with legislation. When the Democrats took over from 2006 - 2010, they turned the tides and began ramming bills through without giving much, if any, time to read and analyze. A Republican pledge after they won big in 2010 was to mandate posting of a bill to the web three days prior to debate on the Floor, and other "time to read" ideas. I guess we've come full circle to Republicans preventing Democrats from reading. I'm afraid to see what the Democrats do when they eventually take over; the cycle of things. ------ gumby Why, in this day and age, is the US military organized along a structure (Army, Navy/Marines) based on the Elizabethan English military organization (I recognize the USAF was spilt off to avoid a battle between Army and Navy)? For that matter why are dress uniforms based on obsolete English gentlemen's dress? A bit of rethink based on objective/mission seems well overdue. The 1940s reorganization that lead to the Department of Defense papered over the structural problems. ~~~ dctoedt > _For that matter why are dress uniforms based on obsolete English gentlemen > 's dress?_ This is getting way off topic, but can you give an example? The Navy officer service-dress blue uniform is basically a business suit with gold-colored buttons and gold sleeve stripes; it's been pretty much the same for probably a century now. [0] [0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_of_the_United_States_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_of_the_United_States_Navy#Dress_uniforms) ~~~ gumby Indeed, service dress and full dress are essentially frozen in the same time as the business suit. Essentially we are still under the influence of the Prince Regent's buddy Beau Brummell. At least the necktie ("cravat") has an actual military origin. But the split into three dress uniforms still apes ancient sumptuary laws and the (thankfully obsoleted) structure of officers coming from the noble and gentle classes and the infantry/sergeants from the lower classes. Then again the whole white wedding / white (instead of seed) cake weddings come from Victoria. But it cracks me up to see, say, North Korean generals in uniforms that really just look like Regency clothing! ------ ChuckMcM OK, now I _totally_ want to go to what ever academy they open up for this branch and officially become a Space Cadet! :-) More seriously, this isn't much different that the Army Air Corps becoming the Air Force, logistically it opens up a branch that can have strategies and priorities that are not constrained by its original branch (the original Air Corps was constantly arguing with the Army over what was more important, tanks or airplanes, for example). It also opens up a bunch of jokes for late night comedians like "Look, it is a new customer for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter, now its required to operate in a vacuum!" ------ neuronexmachina Looks like the Senate is in disagreement with the House on this: [https://www.govconwire.com/2017/06/despite-disagreement- hous...](https://www.govconwire.com/2017/06/despite-disagreement-house-moves- forward-on-creation-of-u-s-space-corps/) > The Senate Armed Services Committee isn’t calling for a Space Force in its > version of the NDAA; and is instead stressing the importance of cyber > warfare and a more conservative approach to spending. ------ Macsenour Meetings and sub-committee hearings on Space Command... but no time for the same on healthcare... Not trying to start a discussion, just noting the irony. ~~~ Turing_Machine National defense is a constitutionally mandated function of the federal government. "Healthcare" is not. ------ Analemma_ This seems weird and premature. We will probably need a "Space Corps" _eventually_ , but doing it now when the technology is still in its infancy, instead of being able to leverage the manpower of an existing service, seems unhelpful. Making the Air Force its own thing, instead of part of the Army, was a good decision in 1945 but would've been dumb in 1912 too. ~~~ gorkonsine Actually, I think they should go the opposite way: they should eliminate the Air Force, and make it part of the Army again. The AF was split off because of the Cold War, and is just a relic of that time. No other modern military force has a separate "air force", because having it separate only complicates things when conducting a conventional ground war. For a while the Air Force even thought they were going to make the Navy obsolete, because they wanted to rely on ICBMs and long-range bombers for everything. ~~~ tomjakubowski > No other modern military force has a separate "air force", because having it > separate only complicates things when conducting a conventional ground war. Besides the US: Turkey, Syria, Russia, Israel all off the top of my head have air force and ground army (along with, at least, a navy) separate under one "Armed Forces" command. What modern air forces operate as part of the army, rather than separately (as most navies do)? ~~~ smacktoward The big one is China, where all the services are technically branches within the People's Liberation Army: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army) ~~~ gorkonsine That really doesn't sound any different than the US, it's just different naming. In the US, all four services are branches within the "Department of Defense". So US DOD = China PLA. To properly compare, you need to look at whether the air force has the same level of autonomy from the ground army as the navy does. If it does, it's just like the US. If not, it's not. ------ boznz SciFi usually base military in space based on the navy, I wonder if this was considered or even makes a difference? ~~~ dhd415 I'm guessing that the sci-fi practice was due to the sociological similarities between spacecraft crews and ship crews on isolated, long-term voyages. At present, the US Air Force has been responsible for most high-tech concerns including cyber warfare and space warfare, so it probably was the least organizationally disruptive to bring the new branch in alongside the AF. ~~~ vpribish plug for project rho! They have some discussion of sci-fi military organization (and nine thousand other things, seriously, it's the TV Tropes of sci-fi) [http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/military.php#id...](http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/military.php#id --Organization) ------ musachenko Militarization of space notwithstanding, this could be great news for the spaceflight industry as a whole. A lot more contracts handed out for launches and orbital infrastructure, as well as "normalizing" space travel would encourage investment in an industry that has been mostly dominated (and still is) by government entities. ------ ddrum001 Curious how this would affect private ventures like SpaceX? ~~~ blackguardx It probably means more money for the space industry and other government contractors, which includes SpaceX. ------ pavement Uh... what?! The bill would order the Defense Department to establish the new corps by January 2019. It would be a distinct military service within the Department of the Air Force, in much the same way the Marine Corps operates as a service within the Department of the Navy. The Secretary of the Air Force would oversee both the Air Force and the Space Corps, but the new chief of staff of the Space Corps would be a new four-position, co-equal with the chief of staff of the Air Force. DoD would have to deliver reports to Congress in both March and August of next year on the details of how it plans to set up the new service. Wow. Out of fucking nowhere. ~~~ benmowa if i had to guess, i'd guess this is 'out of' lobbying by big govt contractors who want another budget pool, and MIL insiders pushing for this. Right now airforce satellites for star-wars type initiatives and airforce refueling tankers all fall under the same budget, while serving very different organizational needs. conversely this is why 'innovation' arms/skunkworks get created... because the mothership moves too slow and has too many competing priorities and budgets to innovate and get out of its own way. ------ omegaworks Welcome to the militarization of space.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Behavioural economics helped me kick my smartphone addiction - sien http://timharford.com/2019/02/how-behavioural-economics-helped-me-kick-my-smartphone-addiction/ ====== wodenokoto Similarly to BE is gamification. The online “game” Habitica, which uses gamification to help players form new real world habits, helped me kick my reddit addiction and for a while, floss. ------ sAbakumoff very long text,,,is there TDLR? ~~~ YUMad Behavioral economics will help you kick your tldr addiction.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
US School Kids Are Doing Better Than Ever – But You Never Hear It - pchristensen http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/11/02/why-us-school-kids-are-doing-better-than-ever-but-you-never-hear-it.aspx ====== Alex3917 Wow, this has to be just about the most blatant propaganda piece I've ever read. They somehow managed to avoid citing a single relevant fact or statistic, and yet claim that there is 'evidence' that our school system is largely succeeding. Reading this truly makes me feel like I'm from another planet or something. edit: Let me just preempt this whole discussion by saying that anyone who claims that more people going through the system means that the system is of high quality is being incredibly intellectually dishonest. ~~~ scott_s There is a correlation between people going through the system and people actually getting an education. If the opposite were true - less people were going through the system - I'd be very worried. The problem with "high quality" is that I don't know how to measure it. If we can't measure it, then it's difficult to have a meaningful discussion about whether one thing is better than the other. That is, we're restricted to a purely qualitative discussion that's not based on evidence. Graduation and enrollment statistics don't measure quality, but I think they are a coarse indicator of where we are. ------ Zot95 Your mileage may vary, but I know that in California, the curriculum has gotten a lot more ambitious. When I went to kindergarten, you learned the alphabet, how to count to 12, played with blocks and finger painted. When my son went to kindergarten, he knew how to read ("Dick and Jane" level text) and add and subtract single digit numbers. Granted, blocks and finger painting were gone, gone, gone, but kindergarten has gotten a lot more academic, at least in CA. ~~~ Periodic Well, we need to make sure they're prepared for the standardized tests they'll get in first grade. If we can start them on reading early then we can score higher for our district and get some more money for our schools. If we let them spend their time finger-painting then we might get tagged as a deficient district! ------ mikedouglas While I think the constant pressure to reform is generally a positive force, to hear that AP placement in math and sciences is triple what it was a decade ago is a nice reminder of progress. ------ jamesbressi Finally someone shows the other side of the story about education in the U.S. -- not saying either is right, but always great to have balance. Education and Climate are currently the two most abused topics facing our politics and society today. ------ feverishaaron A casual google search found this PDF which contradicts most of what this blog postulates, at least among the fastest growing racial groups. [http://www.highereducation.org/reports/pa_decline/pa_decline...](http://www.highereducation.org/reports/pa_decline/pa_decline.pdf) ~~~ scott_s They're saying different things. The author's article looks at the US as a whole, and using the most recent statistics of enrollment, concludes that our school system is better now than it ever has been in the past. The Higher Education paper uses current statistics on changing demographics in the country, and the number of workers in those demographics with a college degree, to project into the future. They predict that the educational gap between whites and minorities will increase. These are not mutually exclusive conclusions. ------ mattheww Newsweek also recently devoted its cover to shortening 4 year college programs to 3 years (<http://www.newsweek.com/id/218183>) and also asked a team of "experts" to discuss the idea (<http://www.newsweek.com/id/218234>). Much like the blog post here, there was no discussion of the quality of education. No statistics about the quality, effectiveness, or usefulness were presented. The primary focus was cost and arguments about "development." Unfortunately, discussions without supporting data seem to be the norm on this topic. ------ dstorrs At the risk of sounding overly pedantic, I have a lot of trouble giving credence to an education-related blog article that averages roughly 1 spelling / grammar error per sentence in the first paragraph. ------ Periodic It's interesting that this piece comes right after The Ph.D. Problem which was posted yesterday (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=916850>). In that piece, the author points out how graduate studies have gotten longer and we are producing more graduates, but there are fewer positions and they are getting less non-academic experience. Essentially, more Ph.D.s is a problem in itself. I'm not sure how that might translate to 4-year degrees though. ------ DanielStraight The US school system is more BS than ever. At the highschool closest to where I live, teachers are _NOT ALLOWED_ to give a midterm grade lower than 60. The student can literally do nothing and get a 60 on the midterm. Then it only takes like a 75 on the second half of the class to pass. So overall, it's something like 37 percent of the points the student actually has to earn to pass. Even if 100% of kids passed that wouldn't be a sign of the kids doing well. It would be a sign of a stupid system. ------ char I think it is useless to argue (as in this article) that students are doing either better or worse in the American school systems now than in the past. What is significant (and much more interesting) is the fact that compared to other rapidly advancing countries (e.g. India), our educational system is much less effective, and that this could have severe consequences for the US in the near future.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Best iPad accessory ever? - dchs http://vimeo.com/12333858 ====== kevinelliott We still haven't seen delivery of the gaming case that's been promised for what seems like years now. The demand is certainly there for DPads, so I wonder why the huge holdup. Apple certainly makes it difficult for third-party hardware vendors to release legitimately supported attachments that make use of the connector (otherwise you often need to jailbreak). Some games, like Tetris, racing games, and retro games, would function so much better with a physical DPad than a virtual screen based one. ------ mikeleeorg Wow. And here I thought velcro was the best iPad accessory ever: <http://vimeo.com/11886557> ~~~ dchs That is so awesome - thanks for that!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Engadget Retina Macbook Pro Review - Nick5a1 http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/13/apple-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review/ ====== ntkachov The one thing that would make me buy this machine is the screen. But in apples usual "we know better than you" attitude they don't allow you to run the os at native resolution without scaleing. This is a huge deal breaker for me and is the one thing that is turning me off this machine. ~~~ aristidb Are you _really_ sure you'd want that (I think my eyes wouldn't like it)? You can run it at 1920x1200 though. ~~~ ntkachov I might not. But at least give me the option to. ~~~ cma why clutter the UI with completely useless options? If someone accidentally set it, they might not even be able to see to undo it. ~~~ masklinn > why clutter the UI with completely useless options? A dropdown box does not clutter things. Seriously. It would take 10% of the space of the current weird graphics, and the new one actually frightens me: how is it going to handle setting the resolution of external displays or overhead projectors? ~~~ glhaynes "A dropdown box does not clutter things. Seriously." — things an Apple engineer would never say ~~~ masklinn There are other reasons to dislike or otherwise not use dropboxes: they're technical, they're textual, they're not really intuitive and when there is a high amount of data they're unusable. But clutter is not one of them when you replace it with a combination of two radio buttons and 5 fucking huge buttons, which altogether take about 4 times the surface of the corresponding _open_ dropdown. ------ dlytle What I'm wondering about is how that Retina screen handles in Boot Camp Windows. I haven't seen any reviews that discuss that, and that's going to make or break things for me. ~~~ Scene_Cast2 As for me - I'm waiting for a non-Apple laptop that can fit this screen, it's 1.6:1. (I'm writing this on a 1080p 15" thinkpad with a swapped screen) ------ patman81 Wow, that was fast! Great review (considering the short timespan). Seems like a great machine. But, beeing used to a Macbook Air, I don't want anything more heavy. I better avoid seeing that screen... ~~~ aditya The screen's OK, once you get used to it, it'll stop feeling like a big deal, the extra pound and a half is something you'll feel every day. ~~~ Tyrant505 I don't understand the WHOLE 1.5lb complaining.. Since when are men(and ladies) such wimps. If you want a strong machine, be a bit stronger yourself. ~~~ gks To be honest here. I carried a 5.5lbs PowerBook G4 around to college for a couple years. I hated it. I'm not a big guy by any stretch of the imagination (5'7", 120lbs) but as soon as I added books, paper, folders of hand outs and homework to the list of things I was carrying.. I really wanted the laptop to be lighter. My last year of college was spent carrying a 2010 Air around with me instead of the PowerBook and it was a signficiant difference in weight. You just have to realize that a laptop isn't the only thing people carry around. So 4.6lbs isn't a big deal, but when you add it all up then the number starts to increase. Extra savings is beneficial. ------ BryanB55 I bought one the day they came out, I really just needed a faster machine with more hard drive space. I currently use an AIR with 120gb SSD and I have to constantly keep deleting files to free HD space. The 4GB of ram I have also wasn't cutting it. So I went with the 500gb SSD and 16GB of ram in the Retina MBP. Expensive, yes, but I think it is a great machine and I spend 40+ hours a week on the thing and run my businesses through it so it's an expensive I'm willing to make. I also do a lot of design work so the Retina display seems like it will be worth it. The only thing I wasnt sure about was that it will be heavier and seem larger than my air, but 80% of the time it sits on my desk anyway... We'll see what happens when it gets here next week! ------ ewanmcteagle Seems the anti-glare/glare issue has been turned into some kind of compromise. I don't think I'll be able to get this. ~~~ bitwize Not really a compromise. Glossy vs. matte is a function of whether the front glass of the LCD has an anti-glare coating on it. There is no front glass on the Retina MBP LCD. Apple removed it to save weight. Apple: So innovative, they solve problems they weren't even trying to solve. ------ forgetcolor the review says almost nothing about apple's claim that they've reduced glare by 75%. considering there's no matte option, this is a crucial point i need answered before considering one. otherwise i may need to go with the old heavier model (w/ matte screen of course).	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
My tough love for C++ - ahmedahamid https://medium.com/@hazemu/my-tough-love-for-c-e2c703684e28#.5ijkc1ix3 ====== Chris2048 The complexity of non-trivial software goes beyond what a regular person can model in their head. You can break things up into "modules" of functionality. Mental models are themselves abstractions. But eventually, some part of a large enough system becomes so complex that even the abstractions of those indivisible components become too complex. This is becoming a greater problem as computers, and networks become more powerful, fast and pervasive. Complexity management is the new game, _not_ efficiency. ~~~ ahmedahamid I cannot agree more. The thing is: you cannot manage complexity while you're overwhelmed with minute details that currently govern the world of native development.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Kindly provide feedback on our startup project to info (at) updatenode (dot) com - updatenode https://www.updatenode.com?ref=hn ====== updatenode client is prebuild for Linux (deb/rpm), Mac and Windows. Android Beta API is also available. Give it a try and help us to make a better software. Thanks	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Facebook relaxed misinformation rules for conservative pages - chanfest22 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/sensitive-claims-bias-facebook-relaxed-misinformation-rules-conservative-pages-n1236182 ====== im3w1l I think from a lot of peoples point of view, the fact checkers have a left- wing bias. Seen from that perspective, Facebook is just correcting for the bias. People on the right often don't even want the fact-check system to exist in the first place. It was pushed by left-wing people who hoped they could use it to kick out the right. ~~~ CathedralBorrow This sounds a lot like tribalism. The left-wing people coordinating an attack on the right-wing people to win some battle. Isn't human communication on a global scale slightly more nuanced than that? ~~~ im3w1l The fake-news battle is mainly shaped around the American left-vs-right battle. You are right that there are many other groups in the global sphere, but they are not influential in this battle. What happens to them is mostly a side-effect of the battle. Talking about people like Bolsonaro, Modi, Duterte or for that matter Boris Johnson. ------ nfoz I suspect that Facebook is powerful enough to choose election winners whose policies will favour them. Much moreso, and with much less visibility, than regular media companies. ------ mikenew This whole thing is just insane. Facebook, as a platform, has enabled mass amounts of misinformation, hatred, and groupthink, to the point of becoming a serious concern for our democracy. It is fundamentally designed into the platform to give more exposure to provocative, polarizing content. And somehow, people think the solution to this problem is to give Facebook the explicit job of deciding what is true and what is not. The answer to the problem is simple. Facebook should not exist. This is a service that handles a significant percentage of the information flow in the world, and yet it's fundamental goal is to optimize for ad spending. Which means it needs to keep people using it as much as possible and as engaged as possible. Your text messaging service doesn't care if you use it or not, and it doesn't care what information to send or receive from other people. Facebook uses everything at it's disposal to keep you addicted to it, and that comes at the cost of being a balanced, thoughtful way of communicating. The model is broken and it is not going to be fixed. ~~~ threatofrain Facebook at its core is a green list of people or voices you approve of. Any misinformation, hatred, or groupthink... is coming from the world you approve. And with regards to groupthink, there is surely some basic level of personal burden arising from the freedom of association. ~~~ mikenew It doesn't matter. You can argue that "people shouldn't fall prey to groupthink" and I'd agree with you. But they do. We're talking about a group of 2.6 billion people, not an individual. On average, people are a product of their environment. And the environment, in this case, is a bad one. It promotes all the wrong things and the incentives are in all the wrong places. ~~~ kmlx the "environment" is in fact our society. you assume the cause is facebook, when in fact facebook is the effect of a sick society. but, facebook does help in bringing to light our abysmal failure in building society. ~~~ Joeri It is a circle. Society influences facebook, facebook feeds back into society. For example, I’m convinced facebook’s amplification of pro-brexit and pro- trump messages in those campaigns was instrumental in their victory. No facebook, no president trump. I’ve also seen how facebook turned my sister into an anti-vaxxer. In essence you can look at facebook as a platform for information warfare. It tends to amplify lies, and some forces are more able to exploit that. ~~~ kukx It is your sister. You probably talk to her. Try convincing her. If you fail, is the Facebook to be blamed? I do not think so. ~~~ hellisothers Yes. Because what is one voice (even family) vs the 100s of voices and constant reaffirmation of lies and misinformation. ------ dandare I hate when words drift in meaning and I am not happy to see the "conservatism" label being used with clearly alt-right media. I would go as far as argue that the GOP does not not represent conservative values any more and the party is Conservative in name only. (Likewise I hate it when socialism is labeled as liberalism in the US, or when cronyism and corruption are labeled as capitalism.) ~~~ rgoulter "I hate when words drift in meaning" John McWhorter discusses this as an inevitability with language. (Indeed, he wrote a book with title / subtitle "Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally)"). He discusses various examples of this happening, both in political and non- political contexts. His suggestion is to just accept it, and to help communication remain clear by using new words once old words become too ambiguous to be useful. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmcqcyyR1Y0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmcqcyyR1Y0) ~~~ dandare Good point. I wonder what would be the new names for * a political and social philosophy whose central tenets are tradition, organic society, hierarchy, authority, and property rights. * a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. * an economic system characterised by private property and the recognition of property rights, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary exchange, a price system and competitive markets. ------ peteretep I can't see history being especially kind to Mark Zuckerberg. ~~~ nabla9 I'm not so sure. Bill Gates was Zuckerberg of 80s and 90s. Very unethical tactics, self admitted bully. Tried to screw his best friend of MS stocks. MS monnopoly strategy hindered innovation software development for a long time. Now in the retirement he is perceived favourably and seen in positive light. ~~~ sdigital He is actually hated fervently by a large crowd that believes in various Covid conspiracy theories. Most any recent video of Gates on Youtube will have top comments that are along these lines. ~~~ kelnos Sure, but this "large crowd" is still a tiny tiny fraction of the number of people who hated Gates in the 80s and 90s. ------ code_closure On one post people are saying: FB should not exist! On another post people are saying: country X is bad as it bans FB! It’s just so funny to see this. ------ cblconfederate i really love to watch tech companies being forced to dance the censorship dance. Yeah, that s how it works, when you join the dance, you dance ------ 0xy >Facebook's fact-checking rules dictate that pages can have their reach and advertising limited on the platform if they repeatedly spread information deemed inaccurate by its fact-checking partners. "fact-checking partners" such as BuzzFeed (no, really!), partisan Politifact, hyper-partisan Vox and the Washington Post. ~~~ peteretep Do you have some examples of where you don't agree with the fact-checking services of any of the sources you've shared? ~~~ 0xy Sure, a notable recent example is Politifact labeling Biden's comments that busing would turn schools into a "racial jungle" as "half true", even though the statement was actually stated by him and is on record. [1] There's an entire website dedicated to their bias. [2] Another obvious point of bias was Politifact labeling a statement by Trump that "CNN did a poll where Obama and I are tied" as "pants on fire" because it was "one poll" (he never stated otherwise). [3] [1] [https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim- graham/2020/07/10/p...](https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim- graham/2020/07/10/politifact-nervously-tries-add-context-bidens-old-racial- jungle) [2] [https://www.politifactbias.com/](https://www.politifactbias.com/) [3] [https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2011/apr/27/donald- tru...](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2011/apr/27/donald-trump/trump- says-recent-cnn-poll-shows-him-competitive-c/) ~~~ viraptor The way I understand it, they object to the "CNN did a poll" part. There's one poll that exists with a close result, but it's not a CNN poll. It means we don't even know if he got lucky with a lie, or did he know about that poll and made a mistake about the source. (Fwiw, I agree it's not a pants on fire situation. (Mostly) false, sure.)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Pomodoro Technique - antoaravinth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique ====== joefarish There have been lots of posts on the Pomdoro Technique to HN in the past: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=pomodoro&sort=byPopularity&pre...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=pomodoro&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Cuba first to eliminate mother-to-baby HIV transmission - wrongc0ntinent http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/30/cuba-first-eliminate-mother-baby-hiv-transmission ====== seliopou Back in the 1980's there was a group of punk rockers in Cuba called "Los Frikis" that Radiolab did an episode about[0]. Back then, it was prevalent amongst this group to inject themselves with HIV virus as a form of protest against Castro's regime. With 30 years between generations, if any of the Los Frikis had families, their grandchildren would be born around now. I wonder if this news and their acts of protest are related. [0]: [http://www.radiolab.org/story/los- frikis/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/los-frikis/) ~~~ meric They injected themselves with HIV to get into the sanatorium where it's a much better life. It was also a message saying they'd rather die than live in the world the government created for them outside. Two of them are still alive, out of around 200, and they're still there, despite the sanatorium being now abandoned. [http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/los-frikis- documentary-...](http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/los-frikis-documentary- tells-story-of-cuban-punks-who-got-aids-on-purpose-6926386) ------ dredmorbius If this can be replicated elsewher it's huge. For Zimbabwe, _40% of infant / childhood deaths are from HIV/AIDS._ The vast majority of those from mother-to-child transmission. Life expectency in Zimbabwe and numerous other African nations has decreased by about 20 years since the 1980s, falling to levels of the 1940s and 1950s. [http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health- profile/zi...](http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health- profile/zimbabwe) [http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/life-expectancy- africa](http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/life-expectancy-africa) (Poke around that site a bit, but be warned, it's sobering.) ------ peeters Maybe it's in the article and I'm missing it, but can anyone cite what the WHO considers "eliminate" to mean in this context? All I see is that in 2013 two babies were born with HIV (though seeing as mother-to-baby appears to include from breastfeeding, I'm not sure that number is the full picture). Does eliminate mean there was a single year (2014 I guess) with no mother-to-baby transmission? The reason I'm curious is because just because this year there are no cases, doesn't mean there won't be next year. So I wonder what the definition they're using is. ~~~ wrongc0ntinent You will find more info in the WHO press release here [http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv- cuba/...](http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/) (under "note to editors" some, but there is a separate document mentioned that specifically addresses requirements) ------ ohitsdom This is pretty great. Only 2 babies born with HIV in Cuba last year, although the article doesn't say how many were born previous years. Only data I could find says as of 2011, 6,200 adults had HIV in Cuba. ~~~ cafard I don't know whether the policy has changed since I read of it many years ago, but the Cuban government treated HIV infection pretty much the way the US government once treated leprosy: turn up positive, and you were quarantined. ~~~ pki Technically, this does work doesn't it? ~~~ matthewmacleod I suspect not. It seems likely that such a policy would prevent any at-risk patients voluntarily testing, meaning they remain unaware of their HIV status and continue to spread the virus. I'm not sure if there's research on this though - it would be interesting to see. ~~~ pandaman If Cuba is anything like the USSR, preventing voluntary testing does not mean one can remain untested. The government medicine also means you cannot deny medical procedures that the government has prescribed to you. ------ 0xCMP So many Cuba posts/articles these days. I'm still cautious about how this will actually turn out for the cubans or if we'll get a rosy view of what it's actually like over there. ~~~ varjag Probably a mix of genuine moment-driven features with lobbying efforts. [http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html) ------ Tepix Fantastic news, let's hope other countries soon follow their example! ------ ctdonath Another thread on HN had informative posts describing how diseases have been cured in Cuba by government threatening to kill any doctor who reported an instance of it. ~~~ netrus That's a huge claim, and a short Google-voyage did not show any such claim. It is very counter-intuitive given the overall quality of the Cuban medical system. Do you have a source for that/ link to the HN discussion? ------ somecrapname Displacement.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
After Long Delays, Breakthrough Nanopore Sequencer Finally in Labs - rberger http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530746/radical-new-dna-sequencer-finally-gets-into-researchers-hands/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140917 ====== waiquoo Researcher working on a different approach to nanopore sequencing here. The Minion is really interesting technology, but early reports basically indicate that it's essentially useless in it's current form. One of the issues is that the basecalling algorithm relies on a noisy, two bit signal. Apparently it works okay on trained sequences, like lambda DNA (that's where the 60-85% accuracy comes from). But when used to sequence untrained DNA, the accuracy drops off significantly (<10% accuracy, [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-0998.12324/a...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-0998.12324/abstract)). There is lot's of room for improvement though. All of the commercial nanopore tech is based on biological nanopores, which have the advantage of having very straight-forward to fabricate. But they are limited to the ionic current signal, which is very noisy and weak. Once these companies start introducing solid-state devices though, things will begin to get very interesting as alternative signal transduction mechanisms come into play. ~~~ troymc It sounds like they are reading several DNA strands in parallel at the same time, and each output-sequence has noise. It seems to me the problem then becomes one of finding the most probable "signal sequence" given all those noisy output-sequences. Oh, and it also sounds like you wouldn't know which letter is number 1, which is number 2, etc. Is that right? It seems like a fun problem in information theory. Can you point us to some articles or papers about current approaches to solving it? ~~~ waiquoo Winston Timp has done some interesting work in this area ([http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006349512...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006349512004511)). Basically, by training a hidden Markov Model, you can get the most likely sequence from a noisy source. ------ Sulfolobus There was recently an online mini-conference mostly about the MinIon (involving the CTO of Oxford Nanopore and a few of the researchers involved in the MinIon Access Program). People may be specifically interested in the first and second talks with the corollary of both being likely biased towards the MinIon: \- 1st is by Clive Brown (ONP CTO) and discusses the MinIon platform, background to the Nanopore technology, analysis platforms and the future PromethIon expansions - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ut...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UtXlr19xTh8#t=189) \- 2nd has Nick Loman (one of the MAP researchers but admitted 'fanboy') discussing the performance on the MinIon in his lab in 'real world' conditions - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ut...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UtXlr19xTh8#t=2950) ------ jacquesm This is one of those examples where both patents and venture capital come out shining. Incredible work, the stamina on display is extremely impressive and I hope they and their backers will reap the rewards from all the hard work very many times over. To put in laymans terms what this thing is: it's a tape-playback machine for DNA. Now they need to fix the bugs (hard, but probably not nearly as hard as getting to this stage in the first place). ------ cliveowen Talk about serendipity, I was just reading this article from September 6th: [http://www.economist.com/news/technology- quarterly/21615029-...](http://www.economist.com/news/technology- quarterly/21615029-george-church-genetics-pioneer-whose-research-spans- treating-diseases-altering) "One of these, Genia, is commercialising a process called nanopore sequencing that Dr Church first devised in 1988. Distinct polymer tags are attached to each of the four nucleotides poised to contribute to a single molecule of replicating DNA. As they react, the tags are released near a protein layer full of tiny holes called nanopores. Each tag blocks the flow of electrical ions across the layer in a different way. Because it relies on electronics rather than optics, nanopore sequencing promises faster, cheaper sequencing. Dr Church holds up a fingernail-sized chip containing 128,000 nanopores that he reckons will bring the cost of sequencing down to $100. In June, Genia was acquired by Roche, a Swiss pharmaceuticals giant." ------ Gatsky Not having to deal with all the complexities of analysing short read sequence data would be fantastic, I hope they get the accuracy a bit better. At the moment current sequencing technologies are great at detecting mutations but struggle with changes in gene number, gene fusions and large structural variation at the kilobase or more scale. Hopefully long read tech will open up this aspect of genomic information to greater scrutiny. Having said that, for cancer genomics, the vast majority of archival tumour tissue in the world is stored in a way that auto-fragments the DNA, so being able to do long reads won't actually help... ------ nhstanley Here is a critique of this system by an expert: [http://omicsomics.blogspot.com.es/2014/09/reanalysis-lays- ba...](http://omicsomics.blogspot.com.es/2014/09/reanalysis-lays-bare-minion- reviews.html) It's a great achievement and I'm hopeful, but the accuracy needs to go up before it competes with current standard. ------ XorNot At $1000 a machine, if they can get the accuracy up these things are going to be _everywhere_. There'll be absolutely no reason for any lab tangentially related to DNA not to have one. Like that is not even a blip in a normal research budget for equipment. ------ lotsofmangos I like that it is called a Minion. Presumably there is a gene sequencer market for evil megalomaniacs who live under volcanoes. ------ mrfusion How do they get the DNA unwound and free from tangles? Isn't it normally wrapped around his tones ? ~~~ waiquoo There are a number of ways to handle that problem. You could melt the DNA or denature it in a basic solution. In some nanopore designs, the diameter of the nanopore is so small that when the DNA is pulled through, only a single strand can pass which forces the DNA to unzip and untangle. I believe the Oxford Nanopore approach is to use an enzyme to cleave single nucleotides off of the end of the strand one by one. That way the signal is only coming from a single base, which is helpful in the decoding process. ~~~ geographomics The DNA would have to undergo purification beforehand anyway, to extract it from the cell and separate it out from the cellular proteins and RNA. So histone removal would be through modified salt concentrations and protease action. Also I think the method you are describing is their other sequencing approach - this one, as far as I know, passes an intact strand through each pore and examines the electrical conductivity of overlapping 6 base pair sequences. ------ mrfusion How do they pull the DNA through the pores? That just seems impossible to me. ~~~ ISL In solution, DNA is weakly charged. The application of an electrical potential across the pore threads it and pulls it through.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
U.S. Nerve Gas Hit Our Own Troops in Iraq - taivare http://www.newsweek.com/how-us-nerve-gassed-its-own-troops-then-covered-it-317250 ====== taivare WHILE ON THE FORWARD AIRFIELD AT KKMC THE ALARMS DID GO OFF, WE ALSO HAD LIVE CHICKENS AT DIFFERENT PLACES AROUND THE AIRFIELD TO DETECT CHEMICAL ATTACKS, THESE CHICKENS DID ALL DIED WITHIN 30 MIN AFTER THE CHEMICIAL ALARMS WENT OFF. EVERY ONE THAT WERE NOT WEARING A MASK HAD SPLITTING HEADACHES AND COLD FLU LIKE PROBLEMS THE NEST DAY, EASY ENOUGH TO PROVE ASK ANY ONE STATIONED ON THE AIRSTRIP DURING DESERT STORM. A comment to the story from , Carl Youngblood, Mississippi ------ mellavora This happened also in WWI, one of the many problems with gas weapons.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Zuckerberg: Why I stayed CEO even though many people thought I should quit - Adrock http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-zuckerberg-the-founder-versus-the-ceo-2009-10 ====== breck Remember the good old days when the internet was text and it took 3 minutes to read an article versus 30 minutes to watch it? Can someone link to a transcript? ~~~ breck too bad there's not a transcript. however, i just watched it and would highly recommend it. some of the highlights: \- 3 key values: move fast. be bold. focus on impact(helps attract the best people; at fb each engineer is responsible for >1M users). \- the more control you give users over their own information, the more they will share \- unless you're breaking some stuff, you're not moving fast enough. ------ mrshoe I say this with all sincerity: It must have been hard work for him to learn how to not come across as an arrogant douchebag like he used to. Kudos to a nerd who learned how to hack his personality and become a positive PR force instead of a negative one. He also had some very interesting stuff to say about Facebook. ;) ~~~ MikeCapone I guess I wasn't paying attention to him during that phase. Any representative examples you could link to? ~~~ rms I found this article about a 2005 interview but the video linked appears to have been taken down. <http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-facebook- phenomenon> Edit: OK, here it is. [http://bambi.blogs.com/bambi_francisco/files/zuckerberg_256k...](http://bambi.blogs.com/bambi_francisco/files/zuckerberg_256k.wmv) Personally I don't think he sounds that arrogant; the only thing that stands out is the question/answer "What was your pitch?" "Oh... we didn't do one." Can someone find examples of Zuckerberg in 2006/2007 for us to compare? ~~~ iseff This was one that I particularly thought was a little bit of him reading his own press a bit too much: “the next hundred years will be different for advertising, and it starts today. As marketers pushing our information out is no longer enough. We are announcing anew advertising system, not about broadcasting messages, about getting into the conversations between people. 3 pieces: build pages for advertisers, a new kind of ad system to spread the messages virally, and gain insights. ... Once every hundred years media changes. the last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next hundred years information won’t be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have. Advertising will change. You will need to get into these connections." [http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/06/liveblogging- facebook-a...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/06/liveblogging-facebook- advertising-announcement/) ~~~ unalone I actually just got out of an advertising class (like, literally 3 minutes ago), and we discussed this. It's dead on. Television advertising is in many ways the exact same as radio advertising: New techniques have been developed, but the philosophy behind it remains the same. Internet advertising is a much, much different beast. ------ lyime All i gotta say is that those random ads in the video are super annoying. DO it either before or after. ~~~ wensing Out of curiosity, would you rather pay to watch? ~~~ lyime No I wouldn't pay to watch a 60 second clip. ~~~ wensing 60 seconds? The interview is 30 minutes. ~~~ lyime Agreed. But It was broken up in too many parts. If it was a single video, with no ads I might pay. ------ TomOfTTB The thing that bugs me about the "founders should run the company" line of thought is that it's not entirely true. Bill Gates handed the business side of the company over to John Shirley in 1983 and Steve Jobs did the same with Apple and John Sculley. And both were right to do so (Gates often says Microsoft might not have made it without Shirley, Jobs is still a little bitter about the whole "pushing him out of the company thing") Both realized it would be better to have someone with experience run the company while they learned the ropes (since both eventually took over their respective companies though we all know Jobs' road to CEO of Apple was a longer one) So it's' not like there's some grand tradition of founders holding onto the reigns of power and never letting go. Just the opposite. The truly smart founders got someone who knew what they were doing and used the opportunity to learn from them. ~~~ icey FTA: "In this model, the founder remains CEO of the company and surrounds himself or herself with a strong executive team." ------ gaborcselle Best part: "If you're not breaking things, you're not moving fast enough" [...] "The goal of building something is to build something, and not to avoid making mistakes" ~~~ stevenj "If you don't make mistakes, you can't make decisions." -Warren Buffett ------ rykov Direct link to whole 30 min interview: [http://www.businessinsider.com/mark- zuckerberg-innovation-20...](http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg- innovation-2009-10)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
5 tips to screw up your whole customer acquisition process - Viktor_Egri https://blog.automizy.com/2016/05/5-tips-screw-customer-acquisition-process/ ====== Viktor_Egri Lead generation can be challenging but converting trial users into paying clients is even more challenging! According to MarketingSherpa, 7% conversion rate is avarage in SaaS businesses. But what are the key influencers of that specific number? What are the key parts of a good customer acquisition process? Here are the 4 parts where you can screw up your whole customer acquisition process.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google to sunset Google TV brand as its smart TV platform merges with Android - hanapbuhay http://gigaom.com/2013/10/10/google-tv-rebranded-android-tv/ ====== relaxitup Perhaps this is an indicator of why Google has not released an official Google Play Music app for Roku and other third-party devices?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Good, experienced engineer but suck at interviews. Looking for a coach - throwaway13000 I am an experienced engineer(10+) working as software engineer.<p>I know all the CS basics and concepts. I can 80% of the puzzles/coding questions in interviews. But I have few blindspots that I am hoping to use a coach for. As I am not a beginner, most online portals are not useful for me. I want to use my time efficiently.<p>If you guys know anybody who can coach an experienced engineer, let me know. I will probably need a time commitment of 1-2 hours per week from you. I am happy to pay for the service.<p>All you have to mostly do is curate a few questions in my weak areas and pester me to solve them.<p>Something like youneedaboss.com but for software engineering interviews.<p>Please let me know how I can contact you. If you have experience hiring people before, it is even better!<p>My contact is in the profile. ====== itengelhardt Hi, I think Josh Doody might be the right mentor for you. He definitely offers coaching/mentorship sessions. Check out his writing & work here: [https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com/](https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com/) ~~~ throwaway13000 Thanks very much. The website doesn't mention any technical mentoring but since you mentioned, I will directly write a mail to him and find out. ------ AnimalMuppet Some questions for you: What are your weak areas/blind spots? What kind of programming do you do? Where are you located? ~~~ throwaway13000 >>What are your weak areas/blind spots? I do trees, hash tables fairly well. When it comes to arrays, I usually do well when brute force takes O(N) but optimal solution is O(logN). I do badly when brute force is O(N __2) but optimal is O(N). Even in interview, I know I should look for O(N) solution, I do get the general solution right but I fail to get the specifics wrong. For example, most O(N __2) solutions include two for loops. You tend to redo a lot of work if you run two loops. But figuring out a subset of indices which do not need to be computed, one must come up with a O(N) solution. This somehow, I fail, consistently. Graphs are a hit or miss. I do dynamic programming well most of the times. >>What kind of programming do you do? I work on a major mail provider's middleware team. I write Java web services code in a distributed environment. My service talks to storage system, notification system etc. Most of the work involves designing and implementing algos for rate limiting, for fetching and caching data from storage system etc. Work also involves scaling to involve increased load etc.Day to day work is all Java. Write REST API code +unit tests + integration tests and then deploy. Worked on compiler frontends before(C/C++). >>Where are you located? SF Bay area. But I am looking coach from anywhere in the world! Email in Profile. ~~~ AnimalMuppet Maybe it's just your misfortune for being in the Bay Area, but... Google exists. Knuth's TAOCP exists. In such a world, why do interviewers expect you to be able (under pressure at a whiteboard) to come up with the optimal algorithm? How much of the work that you do actually depends on finding O(N) rather than O(N2) solutions? I think that you are unfortunate in the companies you are interviewing with, not necessarily in your interview skills or knowledge. Can you fix it by studying? Maybe, with a lot of effort. It might be as easy to find companies that interview with a different approach, and interview there. (Note: Not easy, but _as_ easy.) ~~~ jaredsohn >find companies that interview with a different approach, [https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without- whiteboards](https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards) ~~~ throwaway13000 Well, The salary difference between FAANG and most companies on this list easily 100K+/year. And that level, they can ask me to jump through multiple hoops and I will be ready. Its a fairly rational decision on my part.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Sysbench Benchmark for MongoDB – Performance Update - plasma http://www.tokutek.com/2013/05/sysbench-benchmark-for-mongodb-v0-1-0-performance-update ====== plasma Received an email from TokoDB about this new tech, available to play now. Perf Blog: [http://www.tokutek.com/2013/03/sysbench-benchmark-for- mongod...](http://www.tokutek.com/2013/03/sysbench-benchmark-for-mongodb/) Download Source: <https://github.com/Tokutek/mongo> TokuTek say to contact them for using it. TokuTek made TokuDB, a storage engine for MySQL that uses Fractal Indexes (as opposed to B-Tree), read more at <http://www.tokutek.com/products/tokudb-for- mysql/> ~~~ danielbarla I'm curious about the fractal tree indexing referred to, but so far all the information I'm running across seems to be fairly one-sided. Performance is rarely so one-dimensional that I can accept statements like "When used in a database, they can be used in any setting where a B-tree is used, with improved performance" (from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TokuDB>) on face value. The algorithm claims to have strong insert performance, as well as higher compressability when compared to B-trees, and all the performance results play heavily on these. What about read-heavy workloads, etc? Can someone with a bit more insight provide an objective overview? ~~~ leif I am an engineer at Tokutek. Just talking about TokuMX, I have only seen MongoDB beat us on single-threaded, read-only workloads on extremely small data sets (like under 8K, or one MongoDB B-tree bucket). The statement is really pretty much true. The best B-tree indexes (InnoDB) beat Fractal Tree indexes a little bit on in-memory reads, but we're not done tuning our implementation. On out-of-memory reads though, we usually beat B-trees because we compress so much better that we simply need to read less off disk. Benchmarking is a tricky business though. Workloads can be varied, and you can probably find some corner cases where InnoDB beats TokuDB. I think we have some outstanding issues where the MySQL optimizer doesn't plan our queries properly, and we're still working on that. I'm a little out of touch with the MySQL side these days though so that could be wrong. But algorithmically, there are no cases where a B-tree index has a significant advantage over a Fractal Tree index. Generally though, the read performance advantage we see is that if your indexes are Fractal Tree indexes, you can afford to maintain a richer set of indexes than you could have on InnoDB or MongoDB, and these extra indexes make your queries orders of magnitude faster. I think this is the most important (non-obvious) point to understand. I gave a talk about it here: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6BnG74FZMQ> ~~~ StefanKarpinski This data structure sounds as mythical as a unicorn. Are there any peer- reviewed publications about this data structure or is it a trade secret? The name seems pretty vacuous/hype-laden since any well-balanced tree is fractal. ~~~ leif The name is a marketing term, you're right. The structure is somewhere in the realm of buffer trees, LSM-trees, $B^\epsilon$ trees, and COLAs. It's hard to give it an academic name precisely because the implementation takes hints from many places, but we hope to publish more soon. B-trees are on the optimal tradeoff curve but there are many other points on that curve, and B-trees _heavily_ favor reads so there's plenty of room to win on the write side. I have a couple of blogs about this actually: [http://www.tokutek.com/2011/09/write-optimization-myths- comp...](http://www.tokutek.com/2011/09/write-optimization-myths-comparison- clarifications/) [http://www.tokutek.com/2011/10/write-optimization-myths- comp...](http://www.tokutek.com/2011/10/write-optimization-myths-comparison- clarifications-part-2/) ------ malkia I'm working with PostgreSQL right now, and it supports various indices (I'm sticking with btree for everything I have for now). Just made me wonder, whether the folks behind TokuDB cannot pursue PGSQL variant of their solution? never mind - found some good answers here - [http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Fractal-tree- indexin...](http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Fractal-tree-indexing- td5744987.html) ------ programminggeek So, TokuMX is web scale? In all seriousness, this looks super cool, but I'm easily fooled by benchmarks and I don't have any projects right now that really push MongoDB that hard, so it doesn't impact me other than giving us a potentially faster Mongo, which is cool. ~~~ zardosht I work for Tokutek. In addition to performance improvements and compression, another cool thing about TokuMX: it's fully transactional. We hope this makes development of applications simpler. ~~~ kapilvt could you clarify this statement. mongodb native is consistent and atomic wrt to single documents. Are you saying that tokumx does something additional wrt to transactions (which also implies client api changes)? ~~~ leif TokuMX offers multi-document transactional semantics without application changes (snapshot reads), as well as protocol support for multi-statement (read-modify-write style) transactions, within a single shard. We are still designing how we want to present transactions in a sharded cluster. ------ toolslive is to be expected: you have a data structure where half of the inserts can be done in O(1). ------ nasalgoat I've signed up for this beta release - even without ACID transactions on a cluster-wide basis, the other features alone are worth it, especially the compression. ------ philsnow From what I understand, what mongodb needs is not more speed, but better acid guarantees by default. ~~~ zardosht From Leif earlier, "TokuMX offers multi-document transactional semantics without application changes (snapshot reads), as well as protocol support for multi-statement (read-modify-write style) transactions, within a single shard. We are still designing how we want to present transactions in a sharded cluster." ~~~ philsnow All built on the rock-solid webscale foundation of Mongo?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tech entrepreneur/developer from NYC visiting the Bay Area - vic_nyc I am a tech entrepreneur and web developer (Ruby/JS) currently visiting the Bay Area. I barely know anyone around here, so if anyone would like to meet up for a drink / chat I'd be very happy ====== tectonic Hey there. Send me an email - <http://andrewcantino.com>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Creative Commons Zero: Waiving Copyrights - jwilliams http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/02/25/cc0-waiving-copyrights/ ====== jwilliams See also this post: [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1142559&cid=270...](http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1142559&cid=27007011)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Where do weatherbug, foreca get their data from? - marnujra Especially for countries like India? Is this data available for free? Thx! ====== robbeatz "...WeatherBug manages and operates the world's largest proprietary weather network with over 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations and more than 1,000 cameras strategically placed..." <http://weather.weatherbug.com/about-us.html> I'm not sure where foreca gets its data from. There are a few weather APIs on programmableweb ------ jonah India Meteorological Department? <http://www.imd.gov.in/> Netwings? <http://www.netwingsinfotech.com/weather-data-services.html> ~~~ marnujra Both of these services have over 2K stations in India. IMD doesnt seem to have more than 300 of them.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
I’ve spent five years writing a JavaScript framework - jcormont https://medium.com/@jcormont/ive-spent-5-years-writing-a-javascript-framework-on-my-own-af1201f4075c ====== pier25 A priori I'm not too crazy about the architecture and nomenclature, but I have to say that having zero dependencies is a goal more projects should have. The JS ecosystem is pretty fragile because every project depends on hundreds of other projects. The other day I had to go back to a 2 year old Vue project. I found that many of the dependencies had vulnerabilities so I started updating those. Then nothing worked because the newer versions changed its API or didn't support such and such feature. In the end I had to reconfigure all the project from scratch. And this project was just 2 years old... ~~~ CivBase Devil's advocate here. If you hadn't used those libraries, you would have had to implement functionality from those libraries in your own code. Presumably, your code would be subject to the same vulnerabilities and probably require even more work to update. After all, API changes are generally easier to handle than design changes. </advocacy> I do agree that tiny, insignificant libraries like "left-pad" are bad. Imo, a good dependency is one that significantly reduces the design complexity of a project. ~~~ vbezhenar The problem is that you need one function and you're pulling an entire library. Also you have some limited use-case (e.g. you don't have to support IE 6), but libraries tend to accumulate all the cruft in the world over the years, so you're pulling and executing lots of unnecessary code. JavaScript is too dynamic to reliably delete unused code, so even approaches like tree shaking, etc do not work well. And left-pad style libraries has its own problems, yeah. There are universal utility libraries. jQuery for DOM, underscore for general utilities. It's OK to use them, because everyone knows them. But if you miss some tiny function, just write it yourself. DRY principle often brings more harm than good. ~~~ pojzon I would argue whether DRY enforces 3rd party libraries usage. "Yourself" touches the code you wrote, noone asks you to use already written solutions. ------ emmanueloga_ A lot of C programmers build this "utils" folder that they carry around every project, I'm sure they keep refining the content of this folder through the years with things they find and adapt to their taste, or refinements of their own implementations of different algorithms and data structures. Seems like you did something similar with regards to building web applications (5 years working on this framework). Good for you! And if you can convince others to use your stuff, all the better! I'm trying to focus on writing my own tools too for the kinds of projects I work on, including fronted development (instead of always be trying to catch- up with the latest frameworks) [1]. Can't completely ignore the trends or fashions, though, sadly. A hard balance! 1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvOsegaN9Wk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvOsegaN9Wk) ~~~ ehnto I do the same thing, but it doesn't play nicely with the modern JS ecosystem. I have a library of re-usable JS/HTML/CSS components that I can sling around at will. But I can't use them on React of Vue projects so easily. One of the selling points of React/Vue was that components were portable. But I have seen so few people actually re-use anything in the real world and you didn't need a library to make re-usable components to begin with. I believe that re-usability isn't a language or framework feature, it has to be a personal or team choice to prioritize it. It could be as simple as a utils folder or as organised as a bunch of modularized git repos but ultimately you have to choose to organise that way. ------ biesnecker > No revisions to the architecture, ever. I'd love to have this sort of confidence in my ability to foresee everyone's future needs, but I don't. I mean, I agree that having to do full rewrites every time your framework's version bumps, but promising no changes ever seems more constricting than necessary. ~~~ jcormont Sure this is a major restriction but there are lots of systems out there with architectures that never changed. I think accepting major changes from framework authors is something we learnt over time, from projects with lots of people who have lots of ideas and the project ends up swinging in all directions. ~~~ pknopf Just remember, coming out with a V2 that has no upgrade path, while still supporting and improving V1 and V2 doesn't count. ;) ------ neogodless This is a neat project. Personally, I can't wrap my head around 100% code "views". A million years ago, I wrote some (almost) vanilla JavaScript projects where I would do a lot of document.createElement('...') and I never really liked it, but it got the job done, and it only required that I understood JavaScript and the DOM. I could make helper classes in individual libraries that fit my needs. But I would not want them in a framework. Or at least, if I'm honest, I might want them in "MY" framework, but never one that I would think ideologically could be used broadly by a variety of developers. I like template engines to some degree, and I love binding like you find in Angular. But the first few times I read Angular code, I didn't "get" it, because it seemed like there was some magic somewhere. Some automatic things that happen without being explicit. (This was particularly prevalent in AngularJS, in my opinion.) Never a fan of that. So an explicit coded view would be preferable. But I think it's probably going too far towards trying to make web views in code. Similarly, I dislike React for that reason. I'm not religiously opposed to markup... HTML and CSS from being controlled in your code. But I still struggle with it, and prefer to do what I can to keep them inside templates, as HTML and CSS, and not some abstraction. I do love TypeScript, so for my purposes, I'll happily use Angular 8, having never lived through the original AngularJS 1.x -> Angular 2.0 transition that made so many developers unhappy. But I appreciate what you've done, as well as respect the work and time you've put into the documentation web site. Cool stuff! ~~~ jcormont Thanks for sharing your views. The way templates are implemented is definitely a matter of personal preference, I personally don't like mixing two different languages, always seemed like kind of a hack to me. With this restriction Typescene is more like Flutter and SwiftUI, these ended up being very similar. Can't really compare to React and Vue or even Angular, but I can see that some people do prefer looking at XML and that's fine :) ------ typon Sticking to a project for five years and releasing it to the world is not an easy task. I wish you and the project best of luck. ------ root_axis Cool project, but I dislike the semi-arrogant tone taken by the author. > _Have you ever opened a years-old project that used the favorite Web > framework-du-jour, and tried to make sense of it now? Would you be able to > maintain such a piece of software?_ Yes? Even if the answer were no, why would this framework be any different? The author seems to suggest that his perspective on "maintainable" is universal when it's actually just his opinion. Having strong opinions is fine, we all have opinions, but trying to play up your own framework as if it's objectively more maintainable is eye-roll worthy, _especially_ in the context of JS land. > _Who will remember the (hypothetical) peculiarities of the willUpdate method > in version 14.2.132 of framework X?_ This is a banal criticism that can be applied to any piece of software that introduces breaking changes. The idea that the author will never release breaking changes is absurd, especially on the web. > _Code shouldn’t have to be completely rewritten to be compatible with the > next major version of Typescene_ "completely" and "compatible" are pretty vague caveats. Is it a complete rewrite if I have to rewrite 25% of code? 50%? 60%? I'm sure someone can point out an example of a framework that required "a complete rewrite" in order to be "compatible" with the next major version, but this isn't typical. > _No-nonsense object-oriented (OO), event-driven approach._ OO is nonsense (someone's opinion). > _you’ll only need external modules to import complex UI components or > application behaviors that aren’t included in the framework itself._ You'll only need external modules for complex UI and behaviors that aren't included in a minimalist framework... So, just like every other framework out there. > _Most importantly, Typescene hasn’t been invented overnight, it’s not a > Minimum Viable Product that introduces some clever new paradigm_ What is an example of a framework that was "invented overnight" that introduces some clever new paradigm? I'm not trying to come down on the author, and I'm not making a technical criticism of the project, but the "everyone else's shit stinks but mine smells like roses" is a turn off, for _me_ personally. ~~~ _delirium It didn't really bother me, but I might be reading it more strongly in the context of this being a single-person job. If a project took a strongly hyped tone while also having a large amount of money backing it, I might be annoyed (heck, this isn't a hypothetical, it happens all the time from Facebook/Google/Amazon!), but this is some random individual who is trying to explain why their project has advantages, when other frameworks are mostly backed by large corporations. In that context my reaction is more, "hey, good hustle, we'll see how it pans out". Maybe it's good, maybe it's not, but if it's not, it hardly threatens me, because there's no money and little manpower behind it anyway. There are other strategies to take with a more humble tone, but I'm not really _offended_ by this strategy, and there's a risk that a more modest strategy would result in nobody giving it a second thought even if it _did_ have significant pros. Not that my reaction is correct or anything, just thought I'd add a subjective reply. ~~~ root_axis Sure thing. I'm not suggesting that there is anything _wrong_ with the framework, and just because I find the tone of the blog somewhat arrogant doesn't mean that I'm _offended_ by it; sometimes arrogance has a reasonable explanation, I just don't see that here. > _trying to explain why their project has advantages_ IMO you can do that without the tacit suggestion that the competition produces unmaintanble code, or at least, explain why this framework is objectively more maintainable and not just one's particular opinion of what is maintainable. > _if a project took an arrogant tone while also having a large amount of > money backing it, I might be annoyed_ I'm not really annoyed either way, but in my totally subjective opinion a lone developer should take a more humble tone, it's not as if backing by a large corporation correlates with non- maintainability. ------ ggregoire > the component factory pattern used by Typescene doesn’t sacrifice > readability: <foo x="y">...</foo> simply turns into Foo.with({ x: "y" }, > ...). The JSX version is more readable tho. It looks like HTML. Everybody knows HTML. ~~~ jcormont Not saying that HTML isn't _also_ readable (although... once the number of attributes grows larger I always end up with a bit of a mess, but that might just be me). The real feat here is getting rid of the hacky way that XML and/or template strings and JS are mixed together in the compiler, without _sacrificing_ readability per se. ~~~ FlorianRappl If it would be 2013 the "hacky" way would be acceptable, but JSX is a de-facto standard that is supported by _all_ tools used in production (incl. TypeScript, Babel, your favorite colorizer, language server extensions, ...). Imho the proposed way sacrifices readability a lot (what does "with" do? is it like the infamous JS with? what is the first, second, third, ... argument?). ~~~ jcormont Just read it like natural language. Where it says UIButton.with({ label: "OK" }), that's a Button With a Label of OK. Editors with TypeScript-aware autocomplete (e.g. VS Code) will suggest most of the identifiers here, and tell you what the arguments are for so in practice this works better than you might think. JSX is a de-facto standard, and it might be convenient in the way that PHP is convenient, but that doesn't mean it's not inherently a hack :) ... ------ dmitriid So many frameworks do this, and I can’t understand why [1]: onClick: "checkTodoItem()" Why? What compells people to go ahead and say: yes, we’re writing everything in JS/TS which has perfectly fine support for actual functions. That’s why we’re going to arbitrarily use strings that evaluate to function calls in some parts of our framework. [1] See views [https://typescene.dev/docs/introduction/overview](https://typescene.dev/docs/introduction/overview) ~~~ jcormont The onClick event handler refers to a method on an object that exists when the component is _rendered_ , not when the template is parsed by the JS interpreter. So, to refer to the method itself you'd need to do something crazy like go through .prototype or something. Anyway, yes Typescene does let you supply an actual function in place of the string here, but for me that ruins the 'neat' flow of the view and starts mixing views with logic. ~~~ dmitriid onclick: () => function_to_be_defined_at_runtime() This also lets you deal with functions that are defined at runtime. Moreover, this actually lets you provide types for the expected callbacks. > but for me that ruins the 'neat' flow of the view and starts mixing views > with logic. How is providing a reference to a function "logic"? You still provide a reference to a method, only you do it in an unspecified stringly-typed DSL. Be sides, you're using these magical strings in so, so many places: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20310666](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20310666) This is anything _but_ strongly typed. This is _stringly_ typed. ------ hartator I've read the article and part of the documentation and I still don't have an idea what's the added value? Looking at the code doesn't seem specially appealing: export default UICell.with( UICenterRow.with( UILabel.withText(bindf("${foo}, world!")), UIPrimaryButton.with({ label: "Do something", onClick: "doSomething()" }) ) ) ~~~ futureastronaut I don't think it's in good taste to use a reserved word like "with" in the API either. And it feels like it's being used in places where a plain function call would suffice (you call a function "with" params). ------ pcj-github Where's the app that you built with it? If you have not actually used your own "framework" to build a meaningful app, I'd argue you've spent 5 years poised crouching at the starting block waiting to hear the gun go off. Otherwise, you can't possibly even begin to understand the realities of working with it. This is why popular frameworks tend to come out of large active shops that have real problems to solve. ~~~ jcormont I do mostly non public work, LoB apps in particular. ~~~ clintonc Life of Brian? Lots of Babies? Library of Barcelona? Linux on BeOS? ~~~ eberkund Line of Business I presume ------ devin I can run Clojure libs that are 5+ years old on the latest clojure with no code changes. I applaud the author for designing a framework that keeps devs off the absolute waste of time that is the upgrade treadmill. ~~~ schpaencoder This is such a great kept secret. Most people just scoffs of when they see a project on github not updated for a couple of years. Not with Clojure. ~~~ JasonFruit Even less with Common Lisp, in my experience. There's some rot, sure, and some dependencies that have disappeared — but there's a lot of things that are no longer under development because they're _finished_. ------ miles_matthias Lots of respect for working on a project for 5 years and releasing it to the world. That's really hard. Question - do you have financial goals with this project, or do you see it as a community / hobby project? If so, what are your plans to do that? ~~~ jcormont I've mostly made this for use with my actual (paid) project work, so the idea was I 'might as well share'. Turned out to be much more work than I anticipated :) Definitely not a hobby project though, I'm hoping eventually a big enough community might pick this up. ~~~ wott > I've mostly made this for use with my actual (paid) project work, so the > idea was I 'might as well share'. Have you made sure you got authorisation to release the code, or that you were in a case where you didn't need such authorisation? Because in a lot of cases the code is not the developer's property, it belongs to the company who paid him to develop it. ~~~ jcormont Yup no worries, I work with my own standard contract and work like this is excluded. Valid point though, thanks. ------ paulhodge The article sure hypes it up but the code doesn't really solve many problems for you. It's about the same level of a framework as Backbone.js but with way less features. ~~~ jcormont Examples? ------ quickthrower2 There’s good old KnockoutJS too. I feel like code written in that will still be working in years to come. ------ royalghost Is [https://typescene.dev](https://typescene.dev) itself developed using this framework or not ? ~~~ jcormont Not the content itself. There's no need, it's generated by GitHub pages and works fine (and no issues with SEO). The search popup is implemented using Typescene though. ------ jbuckner This looks really nice! The class structure reminds me a lot of UIKit in iOS, which I really like. Having that layer of abstraction to build UI components for the web looks quite appealing. Nice job! ------ bloaf [https://imgur.com/aJJ3nvD](https://imgur.com/aJJ3nvD) ~~~ neogodless An issue has been logged to the documentation web site, and the creator has been responsive. I'd imagine it'll be fixed in reasonable time. ------ atarian The first commit was 3 years ago: [https://github.com/typescene/typescene/commit/9bc0d9844eed7e...](https://github.com/typescene/typescene/commit/9bc0d9844eed7e14cdc97ab7fce44450e62c1d34) ~~~ mcknz If this started as part of another app, it could have taken 2 years to isolate the framework as a standalone piece of work. ------ hizanberg > a mission to build the most elegant framework ever The only elegant thing I find about this framework is that it has no deps. A TypeScript-first framework would be a plus but I find the Typed API particularly inelegant with its usage of static methods to compose the UI which is particularly non idiomatic for JavaScript. There doesn't appear to be any live examples you can experiment with which is a notable shortcoming for a modern JS framework and the only complete stand- alone example I can find is something called "first project" that was contributed 19 days ago: [https://github.com/typescene/first- project/](https://github.com/typescene/first-project/) The name doesn't fill me with confidence and the only example I could find has a webpack dependency which kind of throws out its "no deps" USP. I don't find anything compelling in that example that would entice me to use it over React, Vue or even just Vanilla JS - which I'd prefer to implement this particular example of which I'm not clear what value it adds that would justify adding a dependency to this JS FX. This file is the most code I could find: [https://github.com/typescene/first- project/blob/master/src/a...](https://github.com/typescene/first- project/blob/master/src/activities/main/view/index.ts) It's full of "magic string" APIs where there's no way you could intuitively guess what the values would be, e.g: - maxWidth: "100vw" - gravity: "center" - revealTransition: "fade" - borderColor: "@separator" The benefit of using TypeScript is that all these values could be typed to assist during development and type-checked to validate any runtime errors. Magic strings are even being used for callbacks that looks like it uses its own unknown DSL in different APIs of which is going to be unknown to anyone but the author: - onEnterKeyPress: "addTask()" - state: bind("object.complete") - onClick: "+ToggleTask" - tl("{@text/50%}${todo.nRemaining} task#{/s} remaining") - hidden: bind("!todo.nCompleted") The docs are particularly lacking in working examples of which the bulk looks like an API class dump which isn't a useful onboarding experience for anyone who wants to learn and use the framework. Honestly if headline didn't say it took "5 years" to implement I would've guessed its a few months effort max - nothing like the refined, battle-tested, real-world validated framework this article proclaims it to be. ------ doitLP This looks interesting. Well done on making something and putting it out there! ------ ng12 Why provide a layer of indirection between the developer and the DOM? I already know HTML elements and the DOM API, why should I want to learn a hole new framework to construct them? ~~~ pknopf Everything these days abstracts the DOM. Why use _anything_ then? ~~~ ng12 It's not abstraction it's indirection. You're not using <a> or <button> you're using UIButton and UILink and whatever a UIExpandedLabel or a UISelectionController does. ------ franciscop > a mission to build the most elegant framework ever This is where it lost me. Why is elegance a priority? What problem is elegance trying to solve here? Elegance is just a feature, that ill-suits many people who might be better served by others. Also seeing the examples in the homepage don't seem very "elegant": // A first Activity, similar to the Controller in an MVC approach export class MainActivity extends PageViewActivity.with(view) { ~~~ darkerside Examples aside, here's how I think about elegance. Sometimes you run across, or imagine in your head, or accidentally stumble into writing some Especially Good Code. The code just seems to work, extends easily, repels bugs, scales appropriately, etc etc. I think what's happened in these cases is, typically by luck, you've written code that matches up very simply and beautifully with an undescribed and perhaps indescribable pattern that's present in a larger problem domain. Like poetry, your code expresses the nuances of that problem in a way that prose simply can't (efficiently). You can't always tell or explain what's so great about it, but working with it is a pleasure, and it rarely lets you down. To me, that's the ideal of elegant code. ------ sansnomme OP is almost definitely an Android developer. ~~~ pknopf Why do you say that? ~~~ sansnomme The style, nomenclature, choice of vocabulary are those of someone who has spent a lot of time with Android Java. E.g. see this: [https://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/start...](https://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/starting- activity#java) Compare it to OP's framework documentation. ------ Crazyontap So basically what this does is that instead of writing HTML I can now write everything in Javascript, i.e <buttton> becomes "new Button" and then I can write nested JavaScript code like I write nested elements in HTML.. is that it? ~~~ jcormont Yes, for the View part. There are also other components that handle logic and your data model. Writing 'new Button' for every single UI component would be really cumbersome, that's why there's also a 'template' syntax which uses static methods (Button.with(...) which creates a button factory). ------ jamalrashid 0 dependancy project! That is a worthy goal. Think all projects should have a live counter of how many dependencies they have and highlight the highest risk ones ------ NohatCoder What does this framework actually do? The introduction bashes some malpractices of other frameworks, but it doesn't tell me why I would use this framework over Vanilla.js. ~~~ jcormont I guess a good rule of thumb would be if you don't see the benefit of using a framework for your project, you probably don't need a framework in the first place :) ~~~ NohatCoder I'm not shopping frameworks, I just found it peculiar that the marketing is all about what the framework doesn't do. It seems like you think that the word framework in itself describe the purpose. ------ z3t4 This seem to fully abstract the DOM and also CSS, so could probably make it compile to "native" like react native. ~~~ jcormont Bingo ------ futureastronaut Where's the TodoMVC? ~~~ jcormont Not quite, but maybe close enough: [https://typescene.dev/docs/guides/first](https://typescene.dev/docs/guides/first) ------ hatch_q Looks very similar to mithril... with triple the size and no users ------ Tade0 _Strongly typed_ I would refrain from using this term since it doesn't have a single agreed upon definition. ~~~ GordonS Especially given the other comment here about using strings for handlers in views, which seems crazy TBH ------ arisAlexis Imagine if you spent 5 years trying to make the world a better place or fight cancer. There is so tremendous time waste in developer world just inventing new langs or rewritting new frameworks that do the same. ~~~ mahesh_rm Imagine if he spent 5 years becoming an heroin addict. There is so tremendous judgmental attitude in your comment. Let me guess, have you been changing the world and/or fighting cancer in the last 5 years? ~~~ arisAlexis there is no logic in this comparison. you can stare at a wall too.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
On checking OpenSSL - AndreyKarpov http://www.viva64.com/en/b/0183/ ====== samuellb Flaw N3 is not present in 1.0.1c. The \| has been replaced with & in ssl/s3_svr.c:2933. ~~~ AndreyKarpov A good reason to use the right tools of static analysis, rather than look manually. ;) ------ jacques_chester OpenSSL straddles a difficult line: on the one hand, security. On the other, performance. It carries a fair amount of state around in big context structures and there is a ton of clever, platform-specific code. One alternative that I've played with is PolarSSL[1], which has the nice property that every module is designed to be compiled as a standalone. It's slower and it's less efficient, but I suspect that it would be a lot more auditable. [1] <https://polarssl.org/> ~~~ vaxdigitalnh How about MatrixSSL? I've given up on the SSL libraries in favor of simpler, non-IETF offerings from a seemingly maverik yet brillliant crytographer who is very focused on performance, but I'd be curious what you think of MatrixSSL. ~~~ jacques_chester Honestly? I'd never heard of it until now. A quick glance through the MatrixSSL docs suggests that it aims at being specifically an SSL/TLS package. So it can take certainly liberties that would, I presume, make it a bit smaller and faster than PolarSSL in that role. What interested me about PolarSSL at the time, though, is that it is modular. I wasn't interested in SSL, I was looking for a small, easily-wrapped, standalone implementation of SHA-512 and SHA-512 HMACs. PolarSSL lets me use just the bits I want. ~~~ vaxdigitalnh That's my main problem with OpenSSL: it tries to be so much more than SSL (despite it's name), and with all that extra functionality comes more responsibility, e.g. a much higher auditing burden. OpenSSL is an impressive amount of work that has a long history, but for some purposes, it seems needlessly large and complex. Reminds me of when OpenBSD wrote openntpd. The ntpd folks felt the need to criticise the project because it tried to simplify things a little, and left out much of the functionality (and complexity) added to ntpd over the years. Overall, unless I am the one who has written something and thus understands how it is constructed from the ground up, I find smaller amounts of code (e.g. as standalone modules) easier to work with than larger ones. Massive, integrated projects with huge amounts of code seem very popular, and I often wonder if I am alone in my appreciaton and preference for smaller standalone chunks of code.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple brings ad-blocker extensions to Safari on iPhones - coffeedrinker http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34173732 ====== coffeedrinker If extensions like this became ubiquitous, I wonder what Google's response would be? Would they refuse to run their apps on iOS like they do on Windows Phone, or would they still have a sufficient revenue stream to not see this as an attack against them? How would web site operators respond to this?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Set a deadline, Do it anyway - dawie http://www.centernetworks.com/do-it-anyway-set-a-deadline ====== pg I never set deadlines. I just work as fast as I can. Likewise when I was poor I never made budgets, but just tried never to spend any money. ~~~ dawie A deadline helps me to minimize features. "I can't build that and still make the deadline.." and then also, the question: Is this feature so important that the dealine can be moved for it? ~~~ staunch That seems sort of backwards to me. If you're implementing only the strictly necessary there's no room for compromise in either direction. You can't ship with less features than are necessary and you wouldn't add more just because you have additional time according to a deadline. ------ nostrademons I prefer the opposite approach: every time you have a block of time, set a task list of things you want to accomplish in that block, and hold yourself to that. Problem with deadlines is they tend to back-load a task. If you know you need it done in a week, you might figure it'll take you 3 days to do, and hence start it in 4 days. Of course, things rarely take as long as you expect them to, so you end going over the deadline anyway or stressing yourself out to make it. With a task list, you'd start that task immediately, and it's done when it's done. If you go over, you have some padding before it's necessary, and you can decide whether to give up on your original task and start the next item, or push through with it and postpone everything else. It's also much less stressful, since things don't get bunched up around the deadlines.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Focus on weights to understand neural networks - ArnaultC https://blog.sicara.com/about-convolutional-layer-convolution-kernel-9a7325d34f7d ====== ArnaultC Which CNN should I choose? I could never find the time to test them all, nor have a quick idea why one architecture is better than another. To improve this, I created some go-to checks to see the pros and cons of each one. I discuss one of those in this article. What are yours?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Heroku API was down - dencold https://status.heroku.com/incidents/543 ====== bgentry The title of this story, "Apps are down" is a complete mischaracterization of this incident. "Heroku Dashboard/API" would be more appropriate. Nobody's app stopped running because of this. Edit: Thanks for correcting it! ~~~ dencold my apologies, I was referring to the "apps" dashboard page, which was inaccessible during the outage. thanks for the quick resolution! ------ dencold CLI tool is also down, heroku engineers have acknowledged the issue: [https://status.heroku.com/incidents/543](https://status.heroku.com/incidents/543) ------ andrewvc Uptime has never really been Heroku's strong suit. I wonder why we've never heard a meta-analysis from them as far as what they could do to improve it. ~~~ bgentry To clarify, this incident did not impact running applications. It only affected the ability to make changes to running apps. AKA, this incident did not affect application uptime. Feel free to view Heroku's 12-month historical uptime data here: [https://status.heroku.com/uptime](https://status.heroku.com/uptime) ~~~ andrewvc It affected my ability to run commands on production applications. The fact that the status was degraded only for 'development' was, in my mind, disingenuous. Production should should have been orange, not green. ~~~ bgentry I interpreted your original comment, "Uptime has never really been Heroku's strong suit", to refer to _application uptime_. I guess you're actually referring to something different. AFAIK, when any other provider speaks about "uptime", they're referring to whether or not the service they're selling is up and running. For AWS, that'd be whether your instance or ELB is up and running as expected. For Heroku, it's whether your app is up and running. Issues in the control plane that affect your ability to make changes to your resources are generally outside the scope of any "service uptime" numbers you see published (unless that uptime is specific to the API/control plane). Edit: We do our best to publish info for both the service, and for its control plane. I would agree that our status site categories ("production" vs. "development") might not be the best way to label this split. Previously we used "app operations" and "tools". We may yet change it again. ~~~ andrewvc My impression was that development meant apps not in the production env. Now it's much more clear. I'd definitely change the wording. ~~~ dencold Agreed, this was confusing to me as well, especially since there is no real concept of "development" on the heroku platform. you can't separate your dev/test apps from your production instances in heroku, they are all just treated as "production". might be helpful to clarify this on the status page at some point. ~~~ bgentry The detailed explanation is here, linked from the status site: [https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku- status#status-i...](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku- status#status-information) ------ danso Update: "We lost the primary database for the Heroku API. Our engineers are failing over to a replacement." [https://status.heroku.com/incidents/543](https://status.heroku.com/incidents/543) ------ bguillet They're back!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Highways gutted American cities. So why did they build them? - colinbartlett http://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917/highways-interstate-cities-history ====== m_mueller As somone who's lived in different European and Japanese cities it just saddens me that highways _replaced_ local public transport in many American cities rather than added to it. That really doesn't make any sense to me. The way I see it, any healthy city needs local transport like metro or streetcar so sou can do your business there without wasting time (getting back to your car, drive to the next place you need to go, find a parking lot, walk). It seems like shopping malls have replaced that 'going to the city' activity - the problem there is that you have no choice in the individual stores - they tend to have one, max two of the bigger stores you need. Low competition results in low quality - then the next big thing gets built further away, people drive there instead and the whole cycle continues. The lesson here is to stop lobbying from becoming too powerful - building highways is not the problem, ripping apart public transport is. ~~~ forrestthewoods No. Any city needs a good way to get around. Ideally any person could go from any point to any point with ease. Theres nothing fundamentally special about the mechanism used to do so. If cars can do it, great! If they can't but trains and trolleys can, good! I maintain that a pre-requisite to "good" public transportation is bad infrastructure for cars. If you had good car infrastructure, and many medium sized cities do, the public transportion wouldn't be needed. Good transportation for large, dense cities is an unsolved problem. In the US New York and its fabled subways result in the #1 longest commutes in the country. No thank you. Self-driving cars are obviously the future. Well, part of the future at least. I'm very curious what the "ideal" city would look like with self-driving cars at the center. What would a city look like if built from the ground up with them in mind? ~~~ m_mueller I'm sorry, but this is just a load of bollocks. There is a fundamental difference between public transport and cars, other than the upfront investment that was pointed out in another comment: A car is a ~12m2 sized thing that you have to (a) somehow route into the system (road space requirements) and (b) leave somewhere when you do your business. (a) is an overhead of a factor of ~40 compared to people standing and a factor or ~20 compared to people sitting for the transport alone (I'm assuming here people driving alone, which from experience is how this mostly works out). (b) is an additional constant overhead of 12m2 for every participant that's not moving. In computer science terms, your network protocol sucks, and leads to inefficient cities. Would you like an example? L.A. metro area has about the same size as Greater Tokyo, produces about the same amount of carbon emissions total (!) [5], yet provides space for 2.5x less people and produces ~2.4x less GDP at purchase power parity [1],[2],[3],[4]. [1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP) [2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_metropolitan_area](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_metropolitan_area) [3] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Tokyo_Area](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Tokyo_Area) [4] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP) [5] [http://www.researchgate.net/publication/223399559_Twelve_met...](http://www.researchgate.net/publication/223399559_Twelve_metropolitan_carbon_footprints_A_preliminary_comparative_global_assessment) ~~~ forrestthewoods Self-driving cars don't have to be left somewhere. They can go and transport other people. Or they can drive themselves out of the way somewhere to hang out for awhile. Or some combination there of. I'm not sure how much I want to comment on your math equation. It's obviously much more complicated. It can't be reduced to an equation. ~~~ m_mueller _ideal_ self-driving cars basically remove (b) from my equation. The thing is, even if self-driving cars are around the corner now, I reckon that the type you can just leave on its own without any humans inside are still far out. Even just a solution for driving in bad weather conditions hasn't been tackled at all yet - you can't just shut down the city transport just because snow has covered up most of the visual markers. So, self-driving cars isn't going to solve any network problems for quite a while, and even when they do you still have overhead (a), which intuitively I'd say is even more important. I don't think it's that complicated btw. - if you do, please provide things I haven't considered and significantly change the outcome of the calculation. ------ bane I subscribe to reddit's /r/retrofuturism and I've formulated a hypothesis about this. The future we used to want was full of what I like to call "garden cities" [1][2][3][4]. Massive structures spaced far away from each other and in between carefully curated green spaces. The obvious problem with this vision is that getting around anywhere turns into a huge problem. This appealed to transportation companies and car makers came out on top and we ended up with the rest of the problems, _without_ ending up with the garden cities. It turns out these visions of the future are bad for a whole host of reasons, transport was only one. 1 - [http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/415544/5082948/1260951...](http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/415544/5082948/1260951403247/HORIZONS- MURAL-Rober-McCall.jpg?token=PHSPVatsg2T5xuH1MoAbv97PN%2BI%3D) 2 - [http://www.fldesign.net/blog/images/imgRetroFuturism3.jpg](http://www.fldesign.net/blog/images/imgRetroFuturism3.jpg) 3 - [https://youtu.be/Rx6keHpeYak?t=379](https://youtu.be/Rx6keHpeYak?t=379) 4 - [http://www.wired.com/2014/07/a-north-korean-architects- crazy...](http://www.wired.com/2014/07/a-north-korean-architects-crazy- visions-of-the-future/) ~~~ DanBC Have you read William Gibson's "The Gernsback Continuum"? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gernsback_Continuum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gernsback_Continuum) A dodgy Russian site has the text [http://lib.ru/GIBSON/r_contin.txt](http://lib.ru/GIBSON/r_contin.txt) ~~~ ak217 lib.ru is not exactly dodgy. It's the oldest Russian online library, founded in 1994. ~~~ PhantomGremlin Perhaps he meant dodgy in the sense of "dishonest". I.e. ignoring the spirit if not the letter of the Berne Convention? I'm by no means a legal scholar, but this story was apparently published in 1981. Russia agreed[1] to Berne protection for 1973 and later work. So why is the full text of the story available at that link? [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Russian_F...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Russian_Federation#Amendments_of_the_1993_Copyright_law) ------ Spooky23 Chalking everything up as racism is a real one dimensional way to look at this issue. You really got to think through process in context... The world had just been through two devastating world wars. The past was 30 years of depravity... People were focused on building a better future. I think in those days, nobody saw vibrant neighborhoods. They saw cold water flats, often desperate poverty and the legacy of the past. A rare visionary would look at a 1950 industrial waterfront or tenement neighborhood and see a valuable public resource that the public needed to be connected with. ~~~ jqm Exactly. What I got out of the article was that GM and some racists conspired to destroy America's cities and pollute the environment so the rich could get richer. (FWITW, I'm highly in favor of green cities and efficient public transportation. And highly against politically charged exaggerated one sided articles.). ------ ojbyrne My understanding is that a significant part of the motivation for the interstate system was military, which doesn't seem to get any consideration in this article. Wikipedia says: "The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the Reichsautobahn system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's Autobahn network, as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System) ~~~ hippich I don't know much about autobahns. Do these go through cities, or go near cities? ~~~ mschuster91 Yup, just look at Berlin and Munich. Munich is surrounded by a (partially) 8-lane ring, and numerous Autobahns end within 10min driving distance of the city center. ------ csomar The article criticises the cost of the entire interstate-highway and yet he focused on the couple highways that are inside the city. I think that the cost of the interstate highway was mainly due to, you guessed it, building the highway interstate (I might be wrong). The interstate highway also serves a different purpose than driving to work. It links states. Any industrialised country should have highways to link major cities. Heck, my underdeveloped country has highways that links all of the main cities (around 80% of the population) ------ theVirginian This would have been an interesting article if it didn't try to expose the highway system as some giant racist conspiracy. ~~~ alexqgb It wasn't a conspiracy. In a country where laws against interracial marriage weren't struck down until 1967 (SCOTUS: Loving v. Virginia), there was no need to be furtive about racism. Quite the contrary, segregation was a selling point. ~~~ sologoub That may be true, in all honesty, I don't know enough, but am trying to learn as much of this history as time permits. Not originally from US... That said, US on average seems to be doing a hell of a lot better in owning up to such injustices than many other place. For example, I was bored last night and reading about the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia circa 1700s, and somehow managed to find out about TWO distinct ethnic groups and languages that barely exist today, but were more or less thriving as late as early 1900s in the area I would have considered nothing but Russian. If you are interested, read up on the history of Vyborg and Ingria: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingria). Good luck getting the current residents to even knowledge this... At least US is not in complete denial and that is quite laudable. Hopefully, more progress is made to that end. ~~~ smil >At least US is not in complete denial and that is quite laudable. Hopefully, more progress is made to that end. You are clearly in denial to the point where you need to look at other nations 500 years ago and conjure things that never happened, to make yourself feel better about the U.S., a country that has never been democratic nor free. As for Ingria in Sweden, still exist, have their own language and the state/county is still named after them, Ångermanland. ~~~ sologoub How can I be in denial if I said I'm just learning about the US history and details? I absolutely acknowledge that I have not read enough on the subject to have a proper informed perspective. As for Ingria, I think we are referring to different places. I'm referring to the area mostly in present day Leningradskaya Oblast in Russia. From the same wikipedia article: "According to the Soviet census of 1989, there were 829 Izhorians, 449 of them in Russia (including other parts of the country) and 228 in Estonia." Compared to: "By 1897 (year of the Russian Empire Census) the number of Ingrian Finns had grown to 130,413, and by 1917 it had exceeded 140,000 (45,000 in Northern Ingria, 52,000 in Central (Eastern) Ingria and 30,000 in Western Ingria, the rest in Petrograd)." So from 140k to maybe ~800? At least to me, that's pretty heinous... Edit: Note that events I'm talking about are less than 100 years old and, as a resident of the country doing it, I had no idea it even happened... ~~~ smil You specifically named Sweden, and that's the remark I replied to. ~~~ sologoub Because that land was controlled by Sweden before 1700s. But in any case, the article I linked to is written better than I can explain and also links to other relevant info if you are interested. ------ tedunangst > Curiously, urban planners were absent — the profession barely existed at the > time. Huh? Wouldn't it have been even more curious to include people who didn't exist? ~~~ vidarh It's exaggeration. Hippodamus (5th century BC) was described by Aristotle as "the first city planner". Europe is full of examples of detailed urban planning dating back a millennium or more. Roman cities were carefully planned out to ensure transport, water supply, defence capabilities etc. After the Roman expansion, we have tons of plan-drawings for new city developments across Europe spanning hundreds of years. The US too had any number of prominent examples of detailed city planning dating back to e.g. Pierre L'Enfant's plan for Washington D.C. in 1791. It might be more reasonable to say that in the US, city planners were still not considered relevant to planning major transport infrastructure. City planners were employed to handle the layout of the interior of cities, and more often landmarks and politically important parts of the downtown areas. Why would you consult them when you wanted to figure out how to move people _between_ cities? It was not seen as their domain. Europe was different in this respect mostly because Europe already had the road networks, and population density along them, that means building freeways have been largely about upgrading/replacing existing "working" road connections that were already integrated into the urban fabric, sometimes through centuries, or even dating back to Roman times, and much less about creating entirely new road connections. Add on to this difference that freeways were seen as a sign of the future even in Europe to the point where e.g. the London suburb where I live was _proud_ to get a flyover cutting straight through the historic city centre in the 50's - it passes right by a market dating back to the 1300's, and a church dating back to some time before 960... Today it stands as a monument to the lack of respect for the integrity of the town the planners at the time had; then it was a monument to progress. ~~~ jpatokal Meh, the Romans and Greeks are upstart striplings when it comes to city planning. Mohenjo-daro in present-day Pakistan was built as a planned city in c. 2600 BCE, and Chinese capitals like Luoyang's first incarnations aren't far behind. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo- daro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luoyang#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luoyang#History) ------ ak217 I'd say heavy-handed urban freeway construction is all the more unfortunate, even tragic in how it caused the pendulum to swing too far the other way, resulting in the current culture of nimbyism and reign of misguided anti- development community activists. ------ mieses Rail guts cities. We have a cotton candy view of it since we don't see it much. ------ mirimir > But this new arrangement had the backing of President Eisenhower, who was > especially interested in seeing the system built, partly so it could be used > for troop movements and mass evacuations in the event of a nuclear attack. I've read that US interstates were designed to accomodate mobile ICBM launchers. That was the pre-silo plan, as I recall. Does anyone else recall that? ------ EGreg Aha so the great American success of Federal governent that progressives tout also displaced a lot of disenfranchised residents of cities. I guess there's no such thing as a slam dunk when it comes to giant projects like this. ~~~ pekk The Interstate system is typically attributed to Eisenhower, a Republican. The attitude that infrastructure is worth having isn't really a "progressive" attitude. ~~~ brandon73 Don't make the mistake of conflating liberal with progressive, republican with conservative, nor the idea that someone who values small govt is necessarily a conservative. Those are all substantially different things, even though current majorities make them SEEM equivalent. As a thought experiment, consider that most of our nation's founders were liberal but they favored small govt. Also, there is a number of people today who believe in classical liberalism but don't identify as progressive nor conservative; they are usually called libertarian. Libertarians would generally eschew both Eisenhower, big govt programs, AND progressivism. ~~~ lukeschlather That's really an oversimplification. In the early history of the USA, there were two camps, the federalists and the anti-federalists. The federalists explicitly wanted a strong central government. The anti-federalists, which you might describe as the "small government" side, wanted a freedom from monopolies written into the constitution, with the understanding that the government would revoke corporate charters if any company got too powerful. Even so, the federalists didn't really want an environment where strong corporations check the power of government, they wanted an explicit oligarchy where the most wealthy men around were Senators. Neither of these camps really sound like modern libertarians to me.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Interview with Tumult (YC W11) Co-Founder Ryan Nielsen - ryannielsen http://howtowriteabusinessplan.com/2012/08/tumult/ ====== FinanceGuru Great information, and nice job! ------ pointybunga What a fantastic interview. Nice work! ------ oliolioli simply amazing interview!!! ------ mrbailey great interview! ------ lukedeering Great startup! ------ cartagenam4 Nice read...."real artists ship" is right. Outcome over output!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Donald Trump as Winston Churchill? - notlukesky https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/489416-donald-trump-as-winston-churchill ====== magwa101 Yes, as water is to wine.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
DNS results now being manipulated in Turkey - makmanalp Here is a valid reason for adopting DNSSEC or DNSCrypt. It's likely they're using deep packet inspection. Using VPNs seems like the only valid solution here for now.<p>Result from "dig youtube.com":<p><pre><code> ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> youtube.com ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 21333 ;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;youtube.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: youtube.com. 86091 IN A 195.175.254.2 ;; Query time: 25 msec ;; SERVER: 8.8.4.4#53(8.8.4.4) ;; WHEN: Sat Mar 29 13:59:52 2014 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 45 </code></pre> Result from "dig youtube.com @4.2.2.2":<p><pre><code> ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> youtube.com @4.2.2.2 ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 61182 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 11, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;youtube.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.38 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.40 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.33 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.35 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.41 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.37 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.39 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.36 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.34 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.32 youtube.com. 197 IN A 173.194.113.46 ;; Query time: 78 msec ;; SERVER: 4.2.2.2#53(4.2.2.2) ;; WHEN: Sat Mar 29 14:33:53 2014 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 205 </code></pre> Clip from the whois result on 195.175.254.2:<p><pre><code> inetnum: 195.174.0.0 - 195.175.255.255 netname: TR-TELEKOM-960902 descr: Turk Telekomunikasyon Anonim Sirketi country: TR</code></pre> ====== alex1 Can you do a traceroute to 8.8.4.4? If it's actually reaching Google's network, then yeah, they're doing deep packet inspection on DNS traffic. If not, they're probably just routing 8.8.4.4 to a DNS server they control. If their goal is to manipulate traffic to www.youtube.com (probably to block access to certain videos), another solution would be for YouTube to require SSL for all connections coming from Turkish IPs. Of course, this wouldn't work if they got some Turkish (or other) CA to sign a bogus www.youtube.com certificate. EDIT: As lawl points out, trying to require SSL on www.youtube.com won't work either, since they could just do an sslstrip type attack. EDIT 2: Proof that they are in fact messing with routes to Google Public DNS anycast addresses (they're doing to same to OpenDNS): [https://twitter.com/esesci/status/449902883933126659](https://twitter.com/esesci/status/449902883933126659) ~~~ lawl > _another solution would be for YouTube to require SSL for all connections > coming from Turkish IPs._ What? NO! They are messing with the DNS results from 8.8.4.4 (Google DNS) Too early for TLS to do anything. Maybe with HSTS, but I still doubt that HSTS is any effective against state level MITM. ~~~ alex1 You're right. Maybe if they turned on and required SSL for everyone visiting www.youtube.com _and_ added www.youtube.com to Chrome's preloaded HSTS list _and_ somehow got everyone to use Chrome. Sadly, this probably won't happen, but DNSSEC adoption probably won't happen either. Even with DNSSEC, they could still do deep packet inspection on HTTP traffic going to YouTube IPs and initiate MITM attacks that way. ~~~ psykovsky Why not ditch the current DNS system and use Namecoin? If you have to force some piece of software into users computers, let's do it right at least... ------ bayesianhorse Seems like Erdogan is hell-bent on restricting free speech in Turkey. Somehow it is comforting how abysmally bad he is at doing that though... ~~~ mrtksn The elections are tomorrow and it's prohibited by law to broadcast political rallies on the last day. The pro-government TV channels are broadcasting Erdogan's rallies while other TV channels respect the law(and they are afraid of disproportional penalties if they do the same). So today only Erdogan is on national TV. ~~~ bayesianhorse So every voter in Turkey essentially knows what Erdogan is doing. So nobody who understands democracy should vote for Erdogan. If however not enough people understand democracy ... ~~~ mrtksn Erdogan claims that there is a "global conspiracy to stop the rise of Turkey" and people who believe him don't care much about the unlawful things he is doing because you know, Turkey is under attack and extraordinary measures should be taken to protect the country. Polls show that %77 of the population believe the corruption case against the government is real. However the situation is really complicated. Without going into details, I have to say that probably there is a real conspiracy orchestrated by the Gulen(islamic cleric allegedly with big influence on the judiciary & law enforcement) movement because some of the leaked tapes seems to be collected illegally. The Gulen movement was close ally with the government till recently. They probably collected evidence about the corruption in the government since years and waited until the right moment comes to start the criminal case. The PM responded by demonizing the whole movement and suspending the rule of law. The allegations against the Gulen movement are not proven at all but few years ago the same prosecutors started a case against the military and lot's of unlawful things took place during the whole trail process. That time the PM Erdogan strongly supported the case but today he claims that this was a conspiracy against the Turkish army. Many lawyers agree that lots of the evidence against the military was fabricated and many people were imprisoned for political reasons. Back then a sex tape of the main opposition party leader was leaked and PM Erdogan used it as a political tool. Today the same PM claims that these leaks about corruption are invasion of his privacy. Another leak shows that the PM was involved in the filming and distribution of the sex tape of the opposition party. It's just huge mess here. ~~~ mercurial Yes, it's really nasty. Three groups with different agendas and none of them interested in democracy or the rule of law. ------ ttflee [sarcasm] Having been enduring this kind of shit for years in mainland China, I am glad to see that it migrated to the (sort of) 'free' world, eventually! [/sarcasm] BTW, I have to manoeuvre some IP addresses of the CDNs in /etc/hosts in order to get access to github.com today, and some others for stack overflow.com last week. Interference from those who have power really sucks! CDNs nowadays are so vulnerable to political issues, and some CDNs seems to be hurt by extended non-specific attacks/blocks to some other sites sharing the same IP addresses, due to some unrelated reasons, which makes me feel nostalgic to the web before CDNs. ------ davidu DNSSEC wouldn't stop this... unless the resolver knew to require DNSSEC and ignored unsigned responses (which is unlikely). DNSCrypt could help here... but chances are their middleware would just barf on it. You need something more evasive. ~~~ axaxs It wouldn't prevent getting the wrong answer, sure. But a smart resolver would see DS records at the parent and recognize it as an unsigned, thereby invalid, response. ~~~ nahlio Thus, DNSSEC doesn't protect against censorship. It's hilarious that people are saying DNSSEC can be used in Turkey (or anywhere else) to defend against censorship. Either they don't know what they're talking about or don't care about having an honest discussion. Or both. ------ sanqui I didn't see this posted on HN yet - Turekey is also blocking the Tor Project's website: [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/when-tor-block-not- tor...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/when-tor-block-not-tor-block) ------ mrtksn I can confirm NS lookup to Google DNS, when done using the national cable ISP network, returns spoofed results. here: [http://i.imgur.com/jfZS31C.png](http://i.imgur.com/jfZS31C.png) ------ wila Google also offers IPv6 public DNS servers, maybe that helps? (probably not though as they might not yet have turned on ipv6) 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844 Also look at the other links that user lemonade posted here. ------ vijayp Too bad DNSSEC isn't widely used; signing the records would prevent this from working. The government could still block the DNS requests, though. ~~~ davidu As I pointed out above, DNSSEC doesn't stop this. I am not just a DNSSEC hater, but the level of misunderstanding on DNSSEC is quite large. When victim issues a query for youtube.com, I can intercept that query and hand back whatever response I want. Unless the victim KNOWS IN ADVANCE (which DNSSEC doesn't offer) that the response should be DNSSEC signed, they will accept my forged response. DNSSEC solves problems we don't really have, and ignores the ones we do. ~~~ wtallis Can't you say the same thing about users who don't know to expect their connection to use TLS? What you're claiming as the problem isn't a problem with DNSSEC, but with the absence of DNSSEC. If DNSSEC were the default, then this attack couldn't happen. ------ gaoshan "Using VPNs seems like the only valid solution" But a government like China interferes with even VPNs (more so outside of the greater Shanghai and Beijing metro areas, in case anyone is sitting in those areas saying "My VPN works great"... they permit it and can block or interfere with it anytime they like) so I don't think they are really a solution. In China, nothing really works if the authorities don't want it to. VPNs are degraded to the point of being unusable, SOCKs proxy over SSH is the same, TOR is unusably slow, etc. Unfortunately, I don't think there really IS a solution in the face of determined governmental interference. ~~~ rahimnathwani Yes, the Chinese government can interfere with or block VPNs whenever they want. However, don't discount the impact of bandwidth/peering issues on VPN performance. In most cases, I've found that VPN throughput over TCP (either PPTP or OpenVPN) is similar to HTTP throughput to the same host. You can test this yourself. Put a file on your VPN server, and try to retrieve it over HTTP. If you're worried that the latency is limiting the throughput, use wget to make several connections at the same time, and sum up the transfer speeds. Finally, you're right - there is no (technical) solution in the face of determined governmental interference. ------ roeme Please correct your second query, asking for the A RR of "youtube.com\@4.2.2.2." is needlessy wrong ~~~ makmanalp Ooops, missed a space there. Fixed, thanks! ------ Jugurtha SSH tunneling also works. It's cheap and easy to set up. ~~~ michh By default using a SOCKS proxy (which, using ssh -D is probably the easiest and most common way to do this) in most browsers doesn't solve this problem as DNS resolving is still done locally. As they're messing with DNS, you'll still be connecting to their evil version of YouTube through your SSH tunnel. In Firefox this behaviour can be changed by toggling network.proxy.socks_remote_dns in about:config. Of course, setting up an actual tunnel (i.e. on a lower network layer) would be better but that's a bit more complicated to do. ~~~ alyxr Why isn't it default behavior to route dns through socks? ~~~ michh AFAIK it's a legacy thing. SOCKS4 didn't support it, SOCKS5 did but using that functionality changes behaviour depending on which SOCKS version the remote end happens to use. ------ cryptologics this is what I get with VPN and without VPN [http://i.imgur.com/XNtDGYq.png](http://i.imgur.com/XNtDGYq.png) ------ acd Wont stop tor or onion addresses You can do the same setup as [http://piratebrowser.com/](http://piratebrowser.com/) ------ M4v3R Excuse my ignorance, but does anybody knows why they are doing it? Is there any piece of news I missed? ~~~ higherpurpose Yes, you missed quite a bit. They tried to block Twitter and Youtube, and then people started using Google DNS, OpenDNS or others to circumvent the block. Some leaks about Erdogan's corruption and false flag attack in Turkey to blame Syria and go to war with it came out in those channels, and he wanted people to stop talking about it or see the leaks. I think some elections are in Turkey soon, too. ------ lemonade There are many more public DNS servers out there, too many to block.There is a nice comprehensive list here: [http://public-dns.tk/](http://public-dns.tk/) You might also be interested in [https://dnscrypt.eu](https://dnscrypt.eu). ~~~ est They mangle all udp port 53 data. ~~~ leath Actually not all port 53 as there are some DNS servers still accessible and actually resolves stuff fine. ------ bohm namecoin would fix this: [https://www.namecoin.org/](https://www.namecoin.org/) ------ STSW Hide my ass will do a good job here.. ~~~ Jugurtha Yeah, tried that. It's really slow most of the time, plus many websites will warn you or delay you (Google will display a message). Plus I wouldn't trust my data going through those machines. As I said, I much rather get my own hosting (even shared hosting) for as cheap as 4 bucks a month, and tunnel my traffic through that machine. But HMA is a valid solution for someone who's not willing to pay. ------ Fasebook It's about time Turkey took a step towards US in controlling the flow of information. I mean, how long has this been going on here, undetected? The obvious solution, Turkey, is to target specific individuals after digging into their background, confirming that they are not computer experts before attacking them via their computer. ------ hadoukenio The NSA and GCHQ have been doing this for years, so why complain about Turkey doing this? The only difference I can see is targeting individuals vs targeting the general population. ~~~ javajosh Your tacit assertion is that if something wrong is done for years, and you find out it's done one more time, you shouldn't bother complaining about it. People like you have existed for all time, and will always exist, but your views truly don't matter: change comes because people continue to fight for what is right, despite the balance of years. Slavery on US soil had been legal and "normal" for hundreds of years, but that didn't stop people from "complaining" about it, and eventually changing it. Women's suffrage, same story. Wanton violation of our 4th Amendment rights in the digital age will proceed accordingly. ~~~ hadoukenio See my reply to the other comment.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Accordion Style Checkouts – the Holy Grail of Checkout Usability? - dwynings http://baymard.com/blog/accordion-style-checkout ====== givan There are multiple problems with checkout done with steps either accordion or not, it hides valuable information, you need to do x steps until you get to payment/delivery step to see if your preferred option is available. Most website don't bother having a page with details regarding all accepted payment/delivery details and people go directly to the checkout hoping to see all options there but when they see all those steps and forms to fill in, they quit. I think the best way is to have a fat free checkout and ask only absolutely necessary things and put checkboxes where additional information might be needed to show the necessary inputs, in this way having everything on one page without steps is possible and is less typing for the user and he is shown everything he needs to know to place the order.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tufts chemists create world’s smallest electric motor - tq41 http://bostinnovation.com/2011/09/06/breaking-ground-scientists-at-tufts-create-the-worlds-smallest-electric-motor/ ====== rflrob Feynman would be pleased. It would seem there's no longer " _plenty_ of room at he bottom", and only 50 years after his challenge. <http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Mini Meme Generator (using photos from recent Lenovo campaign) - gregarious http://slidechute.com/memes/lenovo ====== gregarious TechCrunch ran a story about how funny these photos were and how they should be captioned. We thought it would be cool to actually do it. Original article: [http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/07/the-only-logical-thing- to-d...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/07/the-only-logical-thing-to-do-with- these-lenovo-ideapad-ads-is-start-a-caption-contest/) ~~~ wtracy Ah, that context is helpful. Right now the page appears to be broken, and is giving me a blank image to caption. ~~~ gregarious Yeah we're trying to figure out what's happening. I am getting a timeout on the jquery script of all things. ------ waffle_ss giant comma: <a>, cut off right side of picture: <a>\|\|\| text overlay: <?foo><?bar> ------ NeutronBoy All I can say is: Marketing campaign == successful! ~~~ gregarious haha yeah, pretty funny. ------ drivebyacct2 I want my laptop and I want to be using it. I don't want some woman holding it near a horse. Number one because I can't use it, number two because she might drop it in horse shit. How is this effective marketing beyond "look at pretty people"? Or am I just wrong for thinking that that sort of marketing would not be effective on the intelligent types that I expect would be interested in Lenovo laptops?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dynamically generating MIDI in JavaScript - sergimansilla http://www.sergimansilla.com/blog/dinamically-generating-midi-in-javascript/ ====== leviathant Of course the HTML5 audio tag doesn't support MIDI. MIDI is (basically) a command set for interacting with tone generators, and beyond that, has nothing to do with making sound. Think of it more like an electronic equivalent to sheet music. Nonetheless, implementing MIDI through javascript would be kind of cool. I'm about 90% done an HTML5 emulation of a Boss DR-110 (warts and all), and while the timing of the audio playback ain't great, I'd be curious to see if better results could be achieved by sending the sequencer data out as MIDI instead. Considering how picky folks get about latency in audio software though, generating MIDI with Javascript seems more useful as a learning tool than an actual music production tool. ~~~ sergimansilla I agree, latency is way too important in that scenario. I made that as an experiment, I never thought of it as a professional tool. I am curious about your Boss DR-110 emulation in HTML5, are you going to publish it somewhere? ~~~ leviathant I'll definitely be posting it freely online when I'm done. At this point I'm pretty much down to the 'polish' stage. I'll probably post a link here, along with some observations I made while creating this. After I publish it, I'm going to work on better knobs (they're a little clunky now) and the ability to store your patterns. As it stands now, if you leave the page and come back, it's like you're running off a 9v with no batteries. I'll either store the array in a cookie or make it something you can download/upload. ------ mudx An option for browsers that don't support Quicktime is a Java to Javascript bridge that exposes portions of the MIDI framework (could be used as a fallback): [http://mudcube7.blogspot.com/2010/08/dynamic-midi- generation...](http://mudcube7.blogspot.com/2010/08/dynamic-midi-generation- in-browser.html) ------ skybrian I wrote something vaguely similar, but it relies on App Engine: <http://midiserver.appspot.com/> <https://github.com/skybrian/Midi-Server> Agreed that this stuff is way too nonportable. ------ athom I've been wanting something to translate old Commodore 128 PLAY strings to MIDI. This might just be the ticket. Thank you, Sergi! I'll try and let you know how this works out! ~~~ sergimansilla That sounds like fun, can't wait to hear about it! Keep an eye on updates to the library, and if you run into bugs (you will) don't hesitate to nag me, or even solve them :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Espruino – An open JavaScript microcontroller - todd8 http://www.espruino.com ====== alexchamberlain This is awful. What has happened to choosing your language appropriate for the task at hand? If you are targeting embedded platforms, you should not be writing in an interpreted language. Edit: I was having a bad day, and this comment was over the top. I don't like the current trend of everything should be implemented in JavaScript, but respect what Espruino are trying to do. ~~~ centizen Look, I get that the recent sea of -duino devices can get annoying and represents a new, unknown genre of programming to you, but don't be ridiculous. What stopping you from using whatever language you want to use on whatever platform you want to? And who are you to define what paradigms should be allowed on which hardware? Embedded platforms are evolving at an incredible pace, in some cases outperforming PC's from just a few generations ago. There is more than enough headroom to make interpretation a viable model for micro controllers, and there is hardly a better way to make the technology more accessible to beginners. Granted, JavaScript would not be my choice either - but to say that interpreted languages aren't an option is ridiculous. ~~~ kybernetyk > There is more than enough headroom to make interpretation a viable model for > micro controllers, and there is hardly a better way to make the technology > more accessible to beginners. Making tech accessible to beginners is a fair point. But I don't really buy the headroom argument: There's always the case to use as few resources as possible when it comes to embedded (the micro controller kind of stuff): Power usage. The less overhead your software stack creates the less power your always on/battery powered device will consume. ~~~ centizen For production embedded systems I wholeheartedly agree with you. But for educational platforms, especially those aimed at complete beginners, the trade-off for accessibility could be well worth the excess power consumption. ~~~ DiThi Case in point: programming GPIOs with Python in Raspberry Pi. I don't have data but I'd bet it's the most frequent use case after lightweight server and media center. ------ gfwilliams I'm the guy behind this - I just woke up so I'm a bit late to the party :) It's really good to see a decent discussion here... For me, it's about getting the right tool for the job. I'm mainly a C programmer, but if I want to manipulate a bunch of files I probably won't use C, I'll use Bash. In the same way there are (a lot of) times when what you actually want to do with hardware is quite simple, but you'd end up writing a whole bunch of C code to accomplish it - and that's where Espruino will not only be faster, but a lot more fun :) Someone also mentioned power consumption/events and I thought I'd give you some figures. When Espruino sleeps between events (which is does automatically) it draws ~50uA. Even with explicit power management calls, pretty much all Arduino boards draw at least 5mA (so 100 times more), and without explicit calls it'll be 20-30mA. Raspberry Pi is anywhere from 100-500mA, so over 2000 times more power. ------ ChuckMcM Wow another STM32F design win. Amazing that folks are still using AVR parts when 32 Bit Cortex M parts are cheaper, faster, and more capable. The trend to on board interpreters is interesting. The whole JS thing with Beaglebones was my first experience with it. Back in the stoneage there were Handiboards with a version of C that was interpreted on the board. And I've built over a dozen robots with boards that ran BASIC of one flavor or another. Personally if you're going with the STM32 chips anyway I expect Micropython is a better starting point. ------ Mister_Snuggles This is very cool. This seems like it's just like Micro Python, but with JavaScript. Even the form factor looks pretty similar. The amount of computing power that's now available in embedded systems is just amazing. ------ greyfox i don't quite understand, is this for arduino and raspberry pi? I understand comment 1 that the language may not be correct for the platform, but it doesn't come right out and say whether this is for RasPi and/or Arduino although it would appear so since it as -uino in the name. I see they are offering their own board, is this a language and board, neither both or separate? Kinda super confused here. ------ kelvin0 `Hey think of how easy it will be for front-end designers to be able to go into the 'embedded' market. What do you mean limited RAM? ------ kelvin0 Hey think of how easy it will be for front-end designers to be able to go into the 'embedded' market. What do you mean limited RAM? ~~~ revelation Right. "I added this short manual to my program, but now all my RAM is gone! Whats going on?" ------ philwise This is a really nice programming environment. It reminds me of playing with forth for the instant feedback and interactive working. ------ vsviridov Nice price (compared to Tessel). Tessel does have a whole bunch of pre- designed modules though. ------ ErikRogneby Wow, this is great! I really appreciate the instant execution on the interpreter. ------ snoopybbt It really sounds like it's time to learn javascript. Sigh. ~~~ cordite It really isn't all that special or complicated. The biggest riff (that I have seen) which gives it a bad reputation is browsers coming up with their own conflicting or awkward APIs. (which is one reason why jQuery exists) ------ codehero Are there any examples to read high detente count encoders? ------ tomphoolery ES5 or ES6?!? :) ~~~ oso2k I believe it's more like ES3/ES5-ish. Latest/full spec isn't necessary for embedded work.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
“Reverse location” search warrants identify all cellphones near a crime scene - Jerry2 https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/07/google-location-police-search-warrants ====== renholder > _He noted that even if it did target the wrong person, "it doesn't mean > they're going to get convicted or arrested, it just gives the detective a > look at who could be involved."_ ...because no case has _ever_ been so righteously pursued, with such a vigorous degree of righteous indignation, that an innocent person was _ever_ thrown in prison[0], yeah? This blasé attitude about sweeping-up data of innocent people is precisely how you arrive at it eventually being abused. The eroding of rights isn't a flagrantly giant leap but tiny concessions that occur until it's too late to reverse what has essentially become the modus operandi. [0] - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19186759](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19186759) ~~~ nabla9 All criminal investigations start with group of innocent people. That's the only way to investigate. Police collects data from security cameras, road cameras, credit card purchases, witnesses, and now from mobile service providers. I agree that privacy erosion is real, but you argument was not convincing. ~~~ jancsika > All criminal investigations start with group of innocent people. That's the > only way to investigate. Agreed. Also, all methods of gathering evidence from a group of innocent people are not legal. So let's take your examples one at a time: > Police collects data from security cameras, _If_ a proprietor wishes to give the police footage. If not, they need a warrant in the U.S. to search them. If the police asked for a general warrant to go collect footage from everyone's security cameras in the same area it would probably have been denied, no? > road cameras, Agreed. > credit card purchases, Citation needed for local law enforcement getting a general warrant to run a credit card purchase history search "so expansive in time and geography that it had the potential to gather data on tens of thousands of Minnesotans." > witnesses, Again, citation needed where police can force tens of thousands of witnesses to answer questions and/or submit relevant data to the police. > and now from mobile service providers. Agreed. > I agree that privacy erosion is real, but you argument was not convincing. I agree it's not very persuasive, but neither is your counterargument. I'd like to have a deeper discussion about what triggers a violation of constitutional rights, and how to design technology that doesn't threaten to erode those protections. ~~~ fixermark If your train of logic basically reaches the conclusion "police cannot legally investigate crimes," I'm afraid I have some bad news about the facts underpinning your train of logic, because society will not conclude crimes can no longer be investigated. ~~~ jancsika That sentence was poorly worded. But then if this least generous interpretation you chose represented my train of thought, one would have expected me to clearly argue that both "road cameras" and "mobile service providers" are illegal. Instead I replied with, "Agreed." Did you read down to those parts? If so I'm curious what you thought that could mean in a worldview where police cannot legally investigate crimes. ~~~ fixermark No, the error was mine. I zoned out on details because I misinterpreted your earlier sentence and assumed the remainder of the post was poor justification of my misunderstanding of your thesis. ~~~ michaelmrose This is surprisingly civil for an internet discussion forum. Kudos on having good manners. ------ JoeSmithson So essentially they asked for anonymised lists of phones (i.e. not even the actual numbers) that had been in the locations where the suspects had been, then cross-referenced these to find potential suspects, presumably finding some phones that exactly matched the reported movements of the suspects which they then made a second application to de-anonymise. Do people honestly think this is disproportionate for investigating a home invasion? It seems like they have been quite privacy conscious in my opinion. What would have been a better way to investigate this crime? ~~~ michaelt Do people honestly think this is disproportionate for investigating a home invasion? I think the concern is not Google sharing this data once they have it. The concern is Google having it, in the first place (in personally identifiable form). There's a lot of unclarity about which free and paid Google services and products are and aren't tracked. Who knows if their DNS resolver or their wifi-visibility-to-phone-location service or google-maps-used-without-logging- in would have come up in such a search warrant? ~~~ bepvte We know, because its outlined in their privacy policy that they store dns logs for 24 hours, and store the location data of devices which allow the location history feature, and provide data to governments who send a proper search warrant with reasonable cause. ~~~ pubutil My problem isn’t so much that Google is storing location data _if people have agreed to allow it_. The semantics of agreeing to enable location history are arguable, but by default Google’s location history feature is opt- _out_. I’d prefer it be not be that way, but that’s a debate for another time. What I do have a problem with is what this line from the article suggests: >An Associated Press investigation last year revealed that even with these settings disabled, Google continued to collect and store users' location data. Maybe I’m missing something from the TOS, but it seems to me that the opt-out process doesn’t do what it describes; so what is it for? ------ knolan Several years ago while living in London we had a visit from the police because they were able to access my partner’s Oyster travel card registration details — she had provided her home address and I hadn’t. They were following up on an apparently minor assault and pulled tbe Oyster card details for everyone on a specific train. Considering this is a city with ubiquitous CCTV, smart phones are just another data source. ~~~ Jerry2 > _Considering this is a city with ubiquitous CCTV, smart phones are just > another data source._ London is quickly becoming one of the most dystopian cities in the world. I recently read a story [0] how London police are now face-scanning pedestrians and you are not allowed to cover up you face. If you protest this scanning, you're issued a £90 fine. You're basically treated like cattle. [0] [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/facial- recogniti...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/facial-recognition- cameras-technology-london-trial-met-police-face-cover-man-fined-a8756936.html) ~~~ dsfyu404ed It's like the middle ages all over again. Citizens are a resource of the land and have no say in things except in the most extreme cases. The people in charge only care about the masses insofar as it relates to GDP growth (or whatever their metric of the day is) and is perfectly happy to subjugate them for that goal. God forbid we endure some economic instability while we deal with social issues. /s I'm exaggerating but that sort of paternalistic authoritarianism seems to be more and more common among the politicians who's job it is to do things such as check the power of law enforcement. ------ jamiethompson I find it concerning that a judge, being presented with a textual description of four GPS coordinates would sign off on a warrant without simply asking... "okay, can you show me that on a map then?" ~~~ FartyMcFarter Do we know that the judge didn't simply plug the coordinates into some online mapping service to find out? It's not that hard... ~~~ jamiethompson It's alluded to in the article that judges aren't aware of the size of the geofences they're asked to sign off on, yeah. ------ fixermark This feels like a method of catching criminals that criminals will rapidly adapt to avoiding. "Don't carry the thing that broadcasts your location at all times while you're committing a home invasion" seems like a pretty obvious thing to avoid once a threat model is understood. Regardless of the privacy issues, I don't anticipate this approach will stay useful in the long run. ~~~ anderspitman Or better yet, pick pocket someone else's phone at another location. Commit a small but likely-to-be-reported crime near that location. Then carry their phone (and not yours) while committing a much more serious crime. They'll be tagged at both locations. ~~~ fixermark That breaks down fast when the pickpocketing victim reports their phone stolen. Police have retrieved stolen phones via the pickpocketing victim running "find my phone" on their property when they realize it is gone. ------ maweki In Germany the "Funkzellenabfrage" ("reverse location" request by cell) provided by the providers is used quite often. On the last Chaos Communication Congress there was a talk about this and the police uses it quite frequently. The guesses were that on average every german phone is identified multiple times per year during this procedure. According to the Berlin statistics from 2017 there were nearly 450 requests resulting is 60 Million returned phones. Just compare that to Berlin's population... ~~~ chosenbreed37 "Funkzellenabfrage" \- That's a great word. Is there a word describing the ability of the German language to condense English phrases into a single word? :) ~~~ zimpenfish I think this would come under "agglutination"[1]. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutination) ~~~ sshanky One of my favorites was "Vorlesungsverzeichnis" (lecture directory/course catalog). Vorlesung = lecture \- Lesung = a reading (like a book reading)/lesson \- add "Vor" ("before" as in "in front of [a group]") and it becomes Lecture Verzeichnis = directory \- Zeichnis = symbol, signal, reference, sign \- add "Ver" (hard to really explain what it does) and it becomes directory, index, register, list ------ philipodonnell > Bruley said detectives learned about the potential value of the practice and > how to write the warrant applications at an August training seminar held by > ZetX, an Arizona-based company that teaches police about cellphone > investigations, and sells software called TRAX that generates legal > documents and maps cellphone data to assist in analysis. The company holds > trainings all across the country. > Material from the U.S. Department of Justice was presented, said Bruley, > including suggested language for use in these types of warrants. I found this bit to be concerning as well. Create software that is more valuable with more warrants? "Train" officers on how to carefully write warrants to sneak them past overworked and less-technologically-sophisticated judges. Judicial deception as business development. ------ yread Do they also give it to you so that you can use it in defense? ~~~ thecatspaw If it gets brought up by them during trial then they need to submit it during discovery IANAL TINLA etc ------ bloak How often does someone carrying out a planned crime carry a phone with them that is switched on, these days? Use of mobile phone data by the police has been standard practice since 2001, at least, and widely publicised. ~~~ coldtea > _How often does someone carrying out a planned crime carry a phone with them > that is switched on, these days?_ Almost all of the time. ~~~ bloak Do you have a source for that? I read somewhere how the police once solved a crime by analysing a cigarette butt left behind in a stolen car, but within a few years it was quite common for them to find that a stolen car had its ashtray filled with cigarette butts apparently taken from a public ashtray: even joyriders were clever enough to thus outwit forensics. So it would seem weird to me if armed robbers or professional burglars were carrying switched on phones, and most crimes are committed by people who commit multiple crimes, as I understand it, people who have plenty of experience of how the police and the courts operate. In online discussions there are always people who claim that criminals are idiots, but I don't think that's accurate. I reckon that when it comes to crime, most criminals are in effect a lot more intelligent than I am with my elite university degree and so on. But in general, the older I get, the more aware I become of my own limitations and the less likely I am to dismiss anyone else as an idiot. ~~~ coldtea > _In online discussions there are always people who claim that criminals are > idiots, but I don 't think that's accurate. I reckon that when it comes to > crime, most criminals are in effect a lot more intelligent than I am with my > elite university degree and so on._ Career criminals (mob, drug cartels, etc) yes. But people who commit random premeditated crimes are more often than not (judging from trial) in "Fargo" movie territory, and most smaller criminals (e.g. gang members, methheads, etc) are dumber than cotton. ------ jjbinx007 So would this work the other way around? Leave your phone at home to prove you didn't go somewhere? ~~~ oh_sigh No, because people leave their phone at home all the time, but phones rarely go on trips without the owner. ~~~ pbhjpbhj So, send phone on trip to "prove" I wasn't somewhere else; put it in my kids backpack, fix it under my neighbours car. ~~~ nagyf So you put it in your kid's backpack and later the police will see that you spent your day in an elementary school. Does not seem like a very good alibi. The same is true for your neighbor, they will see that you spent your day in the parking lot of your neighbor's workplace, pretty suspicious. ~~~ amvalo So put in your wife’s purse and say you spent the day with your wife (maybe spousal privelege would be useful there) ------ Animats Why did the police ask Google, and not the cellular operators? They know who was where to the level of positioning detail this requires. ~~~ VectorLock Cell providers have information on what cell sites a mobile user has connected to and rough triangulations of the devices position. Google has the exact GPS coordinates sent by the device itself, WiFi networks around it, and other location data. ~~~ baud147258 But that's only if the GPS and wifi are activated on the phone. On my phone it's rarely the case. ~~~ VectorLock I'm sure if there is no data from Google they get it from the cell provides, or they _also_ get it from cell providers, but Google is definitely going to have much richer and detailed information on an individual -- if they have it turned on. I bet in 7/10 cases they do. ~~~ baud147258 I don't disagree, I just wanted to point that Google might not have all info on all Android phones. ------ slack3r Of course, Palantir is behind this. Someone should really start putting checks on Silicon Valley executives, especially Peter Thiel. ------ nraynaud In France that’s how the former president got busted, he used his burner phone from a sparsely populated area. ~~~ baud147258 Which president got busted for what? ~~~ nraynaud Nicolas Sarkozy, for peddling influence. He was under investigation for getting money from Gaddafi when the police discovered he had another phone and was peddling influence with his lawyer as accomplice. He was trying to get informations on yet another enquiry against him by promising a judge he would use his influence to find him a higher job. ------ hrdwdmrbl In the future I think that the idea that the government doesn't know where everyone is at all times will seem hard to imagine. (This is an IS statement not an OUGHT statement) ~~~ growlist I'm actually kind of surprised that we don't all have permanent connected heart rate monitors already, in order that an ambulance can be called automatically should something happen. ~~~ Ajedi32 [https://www.apple.com/apple-watch- series-4/health/](https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-4/health/) > With the new accelerometer and gyroscope, Apple Watch Series 4 can detect > that you’ve fallen. When an incident like this occurs, a hard fall alert is > delivered, and you can easily initiate a call to emergency services or > dismiss the alert. If you’re unresponsive after 60 seconds, the emergency > call will be placed automatically and a message with your location will be > sent to your emergency contacts. ------ titzer Carrying a phone can make you a suspect. Not carrying a phone can make you a suspect. Conclusion: You are a suspect. I can't stand our culture's constant fear of people. ~~~ freeflight Sadly it ain't even exclusive to the US [0] [0] [https://youtu.be/pdIA0jeW-24](https://youtu.be/pdIA0jeW-24) ------ flavioramos Good to know Google could help find missing people (specially in disasters like missing planes and floods) but they just don't want to. ------ weej >But by that point, police had already developed suspects without Google's help, based on vehicle descriptions and a confidential informant, they said in court filings. Even with a lack of probable cause and massive data surveillance, good old fashion police work is what mattered. ------ Paul-ish My concern with this sort of search is it could evolve to be used in a pretextual manner on small crimes. "We have a reported flasher in this area, lets dump the cell phone record locations to find them. Oh looks, there are people with warrants that live in the area." ------ clort "Most human beings can't interpret large strings of numbers and GPS coordinates without a map to illustrate them, and judges are no exception," said Nathan Freed Wessler, an attorney for the national American Civil Liberties Union. One would hope though (clearly not, in this case) that a judge would be motivated to recognise when they were unable to interpret data like this that they were given, and request that it be provided in a clearer form that they could interpret. If judges do not do that routinely then perhaps they should be required to do so ~~~ justjash You would hope, but I bet it rarely happens. I've only been in a courtroom once and hope to never have to deal with that again. Its a real let down seeing how decisions are made so quickly. ------ warp_factor this article convinced me to never use an Android phone nor Google maps ever again, ~~~ RestlessMind Because you think Apple (iOS, Maps) is not susceptible to warrants? Or is there some alternative which won't track you at all? ~~~ warp_factor Apple doesn't track you by default (or when it does, it sends the data anonymously). The Apps on ios might track you, and that's why I will not use Google maps again. Your provider indeed tracks you, but at least for now, the accuracy is way below GPS. It is an issue and we should all be worried about slippery slope that it puts us all on. ~~~ Brotkrumen >it sends the data anonymously It shouldn't send anything at all if Apple was privacy minded. A warrant for all anonymous data from that location combined with a provider data from that cell and the user isn't anonymous anymore. ~~~ renholder > _It shouldn 't send anything at all if Apple was privacy minded._ You can turn location services off at the device-level, which _stops_ everything from collecting your location data. You can disallow apps, individually, from having access to your location data, as well; but that requires granual settings that most people aren't aware of and/or can't be arsed to go check every time that they install an app. If I recall, correctly, apps using the Facebook SDK will still retrieve and push the last known location (yay for pointers...) but that's a problem with the app (and Facebook) moreso than it is with Apple. So, this was just a long-winded and pointless way to say, you can prevent the data from being sent but, agreed, Apple could do slightly better in this area; however, I think it's a trade-off betwixt absolutely strict-privacy (e.g.: explicit deny until approved) and usability for them. ------ VectorLock Looking at the graph of reverse location searches over time (despite being an atrocious way to present the information) shows that there were a lot when it was first started and then quickly petered off. Is this an indication of its efficiency, pushback from Google, or denials from judges, I wonder? Edit: Or they were just hot on it after the training and then their interest petered out. ~~~ rocqua Or they had a backlog of active cases where it was effective, and then it slowed to a steady-state of incoming cases. ------ forgottenpass >ordering Google to identify the locations of cellphones that had been near the crime scene in Eden Prairie So, is the court pretending that Google isn't conducting a search that involves every cell phone Google has ever known about, or are they saying that's "Google's database" particularly describes the place to be searched? ------ aussieguy1234 So the police have a list of 1000 people who were near a crime scene. Next step is to narrow it down - racial profiling, who has a criminal record... Young people are statistically more likely to commit violent crime, that's probably taken into account. It might be wise to turn off location if you belong to any minority group. ------ acd The interesting point would be if its repeat crime by the same person. Say that the same cell phone has been at several crime scenes during the crime period. The combined data set/cluster of cell phones present at the time during crime scenes would be interesting for the police. ~~~ tyingq Or maybe casing places/people for something they want to do later. You know...pre-crime. ------ onetimemanytime question: can an appeals judge later throw out the warrant, if the judge applied the law "incorrectly"? This technique makes sense _for cops_. For a lot of killings there's a lit of potential suspects so this weeds out all but a few. ~~~ cf141q5325 It doesnt weed out anyone. You dont have to have your phone with you during a crime. ~~~ onetimemanytime sure, but not everyone plans it perfectly. Plus, some are crimes of opportunity ------ zyxzevn Next steps: Identify all cars near a crime scene. ~~~ 908087 Thanks to ALPR-laden vehicles constantly cruising around collecting this data for sleazy companies like Vigilant, this is probably already happening. This will be made even easier as more car manufacturers start installing GPS, wifi and 4G as standard features so they can double dip by collecting data on the people who pay them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a car. ~~~ the_pwner224 This is already happening We have a 2018 Nissan Rogue and Toyota RAV4 (as well as previously a 2015 RAV4). Every time you start the Rogue, it flashes a message saying that "Vehicle Data Transmission is ON" (or "OFF"), and that certain features (live traffic updates, etc.) may not work if data transmission is off. It is clearly stated that data is transmitted to "Nissan and its business partners." And these days the trend is for devices to have non-owner-controllable software updates, so there's no guarantee that purchasing a car without this antifeature will keep you safe. With the Rogue you at least can (apparently) make a choice on keeping your privacy or selling out in exchange for a better navigation system (still kind of sad that this needs to be done after spending >$30k on it...), but with the Toyotas there's no choice... they have some "HD Radio" technology (not related to audio quality) which is used for traffic and weather data, and there's no way to find out or control what it sends. ------ Kenji Is anyone surprised that your cellphone location is used in a criminal investigation? Silly people. Just a few years ago they caught a killer like this around here. They asked the cell phone providers for location data, pruned the group with what they knew about the killer and took a DNA test of the remainder of the suspects. Easy. ------ iceninenines Note that most police in the US can locate any mobile number _in real-time,_ usually within 100m, without a warrant. ------ _bxg1 Every time I see one of these I'm validated in my decision to switch to Apple. ~~~ stunt Apple is the same. There are a lot of hidden regulations when you work on that scale. ~~~ stunt btw, this is the same story even if you use a feature phone. Mobile operators are also sharing data and they have to keep all your data and activities for at least 6 months. Telecommunications is full of these regulations. ------ turc1656 This should surprise no one. I believe this has been known for a while now. This is one of the many reasons I have location services and GPS disabled on my Android and have all that tracking/history disabled in my Google account. GPS is only ever enabled precisely when I need it and only at those times (for navigation only). I also disable my wifi as well for the same reason - Google is able to track your location based on that, and they absolutely do so. I've seen it documented elsewhere. Only if you really need wifi enabled should you use it. Also, call me crazy but I'm pretty sure there is a legal requirement that mandates that warrants be very specific about who/what they apply to and what they expect to find in order to be justifiable. ~~~ everdrive I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Android really appears to be a different beast: [https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users- locatio...](https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locations- even-when-location-services-are-disabled/) ~~~ turc1656 Interesting. But Google has something that allows all users to see what has been collected on them. All of my stuff is empty - no website history, no location history, no youtube history, etc. All of it is empty and always has been when I check periodically. So then the question becomes...is Quartz wrong or is Google simply lying about what they have on me? And FWIW, I checked prior to the Quartz article being written so it would have been before any actions were taken by Google to modify its practices.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Analysis: Plaxo and Friendfeed, pushing the feed - paul http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/09/analysis-plaxo-and-friendfeed-pushing-the-feed/ ====== paul My feed: <http://friendfeed.com/paul>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Firefox 67 - colinprince https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/67.0/whatsnew/ ====== ozchris > Keep an eye on data breaches with Monitor This is fairly neat; For example, I browsed to the Datacamp website and was notified of a breach in 2017. But that must hurt for the company. Still, it strongly incentivizes keeping high security standards, because now, customers will know. I like it. ------ envolt This was fucking absurd update. My firefox profile was not compatible, and all my extensions were removed (And resynced). I was using Containers to manage all my work/personal/work2 sessions, and they are all gone (Again; first happened when firefox addon outage happened) ~~~ dandellion Pocket integration that nobody asked for, breaking extensions, removing useful features like RSS and bookmark descriptions... I've been a Firefox user for something like 15 years and I wish they could get back to focusing on making a good web browser, the direction they have taken lately has been incredibly disappointing. They do some cool projects, but I can't be happy for those when the core experience keeps getting worse and worse. ------ kup0 I think I prefer the regular release notes ([https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/67.0/releasenotes/](https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/67.0/releasenotes/)) instead of the marketing page - gives a much better overview of what's truly "new in 67" ------ Lowkeyloki What if I just want my browser to be a browser? ~~~ classics2 Metrics show very few users want a browser in their browser. HTML is old and dated. ~~~ ncmncm "It can be so much more!"	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How a Blind Developer Uses Visual Studio - nreece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWXebEeGwn0 ====== mattbgates What an inspiration. I know that Windows, Mac, and Chromebook have greatly improved upon their handicapped tools. But there is still always work to be done to help even the blind be more efficient. He has learned so much, even training himself to quickly pick up the syntax so he doesn't need to listen to the entire line. Amazing.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
AI Detects Heart Failure from One Heartbeat: Study - rusht https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasfearn/2019/09/12/artificial-intelligence-detects-heart-failure-from-one-heartbeat-with-100-accuracy/ ====== corodra Wasn't a similar claim made about an AI detecting skin cancer from moles? Once the AI was deployed in the real world is failed miserably. I think it was a ton of false-positives because it was trained on images where cancerous moles all had images of rulers with them and the benign ones didn't have rulers in the image. So it just picked up on the ruler as a cancer indicator. ~~~ Sanzig Would you happen to have a source for that story? My workplace has really swallowed the AI Kool-Aid lately, so I would like to have some cautionary counterexamples to demonstrate potential pitfalls of the technology. It's got a lot of interesting applications for our field which I am excited about, but there seems to be a tendency among non-experts to consider it a magic bullet that can solve any sort of problem. In particular, I am concerned about applications where conventional approaches have already converged on an optimal solution that's used operationally, but somebody wants to throw AI at it because they thought it might be cool without first understanding the implications. ~~~ 3b18 Check this link out [http://132.206.230.229/e706/gaming.examples.in.AI.html](http://132.206.230.229/e706/gaming.examples.in.AI.html) There was a hn discussion about it a while back: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18415031](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18415031) ~~~ carbocation What a great resource! The first example is perfect: > Aircraft landing > Evolved algorithm for landing aircraft _exploited overflow errors in the > physics simulator_ by creating large forces that were estimated to be zero, > resulting in a perfect score ------ Cass As a doctor as opposed to an AI researcher, so many of the choices this study makes are baffling to me. First of all, why just one heartbeat? You never capture just one heartbeat on an ECG anyway, and "Is the next heartbeat identical to the first one?" is such an important source of information, it seems completely irrational to exclude it. At least pick TWO heartbeats. If you're gonna pick one random heartbeat, how do you know you didn't pick an extra systole on accident? (Extra systoles look different, and often less healthy, than "normal" heart beats, as they originate from different regions of the heart.) Secondly, why heart failure and not a heart attack? One definition of heart failure is "the heart is unable to pump sufficiently to maintain blood flow to meet the body's needs," which can be caused by all sorts of factors, many of them external to the actual function of the heart - do we even know for sure that there are ANY ECG changes definitely tied to heart failure? Why not instead try to detect heart attacks, which cause well-defined and well- researched known ECG changes? (I realize AIs that claim to be able to detect heart attacks already exist. None of the ones I've personally worked with have ever been usable. The false positive rate is ridiculously high. I suppose maybe some research hospital somewhere has a working one?) ~~~ Cass To add to this, looking at figure 4, why is their "average" heartbeat so messed up? That's not what a normal average heartbeat looks like. P is too flat, Q is too big, R is blunted, and there's an extra wave between S and T that's not supposed to be there at all. If their "healthy patient" ECGs were bad enough to produce this mess on average, it's no surprise their AI had no trouble telling the data sets apart. (For comparison, the "CHF beat" looks a lot more like a healthy heartbeat.) ------ et2o I'm going to sound like a skeptical jerk here, but 490,000 heartbeats is how many patients? From what I recall these public ECG datasets are like 20 patients who underwent longitudinal ECGs. 500k heart beats is like 5 person- days of ECG recordings. Ninja Edit: N=~30 patients. For something like ECGs which are readily available, they really should have tried to get more patients. A single clinic anywhere does than 30 EKGs per day. Suggesting this is clinically applicable is ridiculous. It's way too easy to overfit. Chopping up a time series from one patient into 1000 pieces doesn't give you 1000x the patients. I even think this approach probably will work. Very reasonable given recent work from Geisinger and Mayo. But why are ML people doing press releases about such underwhelming studies? ~~~ joker3 A lot of machine learning people don't really understand study design or power or things like that. It's gotten a little better over the past decade or so, but this is an area where the field has a lot of room to improve. ~~~ Camillo "A lot" of ML people perhaps, but also the overwhelming majority of clinical scientists and the near totality of doctors. ~~~ braindeath There are plenty of academic and academic center trained physicians that understand study design and are competent in research. They aren’t typically primary care/general practitioners so you just don’t encounter them as much. And yes they are the minority. But it’s not the totality. Clinical research that isn’t making ridiculous claims tends to get much less press. Furthermore, of all places to lap that crap up... this hacker news site is frankly one of the worst. I mean look at this submission. Yes it’s true people are pillorying it here (including some doctors), but i don’t recall much interesting well designed medical research being discussed here (though arguably maybe not the place for it) ------ brilee So first clarification is that heart failure != heart attack. Heart failure is a chronic condition where the heart is unable to pump hard enough to keep blood flowing through the body. Typically results in blood pooling in the leg, shortness of breath, etc. The study avoids the obvious pitfall, which is to put different slices of one patient's data into both training and test. The press also reports the training accuracy (100%) when the test accuracy/sensitivity/precision metrics are all at around 98%. Another encouraging sign is that when you dig into the 2% error rate, a majority of those errors turned out to be mislabeled data. The study also acknowledges the following: "Our study must also be seen in light of its limitations... First the CHF subjects used in this study suffer from severe CHF only...could yield less accurate results for milder CHF." I think this is a good proof of concept but that the severe CHF and tiny sample size (33 patients) means that we're a long ways away from clinical usage. ~~~ carbocation The study looks at 33 patients total, and the cases and controls come from entirely different data sets, with data coming from different devices that recorded signal at different frequencies. There is nothing to see here. ~~~ brilee Apologies - I didn't catch that the HF / healthy patients are from two different datasets. Agreed that this essentially invalidates the result. The missing experiment is to have a third dataset from yet another machine, with both positive/negative examples, and use it as the test dataset. Then transferability questions are at least somewhat addressed. ~~~ carbocation No apologies needed, we're all in agreement on the broad strokes! Your proposal is good: I would be quite surprised if it generalized, but that is definitely the way to find out. ------ qiqitori Pff, I can detect heart failure with no heartbeats at all. ~~~ manmal Care to explain? ~~~ jacquesm It sort of spoils the joke but if there are heartbeats it hasn't failed yet. So no heartbeats = failure. ~~~ manmal Oh I really didn't get it. Thanks for explaining. I still don't find it funny. ------ binalpatel Discussion of this on /r/machinelearning: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/dj5psh/n_n...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/dj5psh/n_new_ai_neural_network_approach_detects_heart/) ~~~ phonebucket The Reddit thread is worth a read. There's a healthy dose of scepticism about the paper there. ~~~ forgot-my-pw Claiming 100% accuracy with a single heartbeat is just hard to believe ~~~ RosanaAnaDana And its also just clearly wrong on its face. ------ fencepost This is interesting, but more because it indicates that there's adequate data in a single heartbeat to do such diagnosis. In practical terms it's probably not nearly so relevant because it sounds like they were working with the raw data not tracing. By the time you have a patient hooked up to the proper equipment to do this diagnosis you're going to be getting adequate data anyway. The main impact might be that if this holds up people could be tested with a short hook up in an office instead of with a 24-hour monitoring where they have to bring back a Holter device the next day. Of course, that 24 hour dataset may have independent value of its own for further diagnostics beyond just whether the patient has CHF. ~~~ VHRanger The study is not worth paying attention to. The datasets for positive cases and negative cases come from different databases. n=30 patients, on top of it. All this does is recognize the patient/ECG technician who recorded the data. It's basically certain it doesnt generalize ------ ryanschneider IMO, the important part is Section 3.3 of the [paper]([https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S174680941...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1746809419301776)), particularly the image at [[https://ars.els- cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S17468094193017...](https://ars.els- cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1746809419301776-gr4_lrg.jpg\]$https://ars.els- cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1746809419301776-gr4_lrg.jpg$). To my eye the difference in shape of the orange and green signals could also be found through more traditional signal processing/statistical means that machine learning. In a past job I did a combination of manual and machine-learning-based analysis of cardiac signals. We didn't have ECG, but did have PPG (blood flow) and PCG (sound) signals, and a pretty large study group. I recall there being one study participant who's signals were very clearly indicative of heart failure, enough that we raised the issue with our medical advisor about whether the subject should be deanonymized and contacted. In the paper they state that "the CHF subjects used in this study suffer from severe CHF only"; my suspicion is that a simpler, "hand rolled" model based on the features of the ECG could compete very well with this CNN approach for finding the same level of pathology in the ECG signal, without the "black box" of a CNN casting doubt on the technique. ------ nradov Congestive heart failure can also be detected fairly reliably based on a sudden increase in weight. It causes fluid retention. There are several programs underway to give Internet connected scales to high risk patients and those report weight every day. ~~~ pkaye It could also be kidney failure. My weight ballooned by 30 lbs when I was progressing towards it. Even the doctor was saying the usual "you need to exercise and eat healthy" until he got my blood test results. ------ nycbenf Heart failure patient here. This is kinda cool but tempered a bit by the fact that I've seen multiple cardiologists make a diagnosis by just glancing at a 12 lead ECG sheet. There are some pretty recognizable hallmarks. ------ mikece Perhaps the title/premise might best be summarized as _based on everything we know_ we can detect heart failure form monitoring one's body for one heartbeat. Along with doing a lot of good and making a lot of early catches, I suspect that relying on AI to do medical analysis is going to bring into sharp relief just how much medical science DOESN'T know about the human body and its mysteries. I think we're a long, long way away from handling medical science over to AI and the real fun of AI-guided exploration is about to begin. ------ kbody Clickbait title aside. I find that ethical issues around AI raised by Musk etc. shouldn't be around AI taking over the planet, but rather have ethics around overfitted models or otherwise unrealistic models being pushed for PR or whatever and responsibly playing with people's health and hopes. ------ querious One of our simplest “screening” questions for DS roles at my company is: “your model is 100% accurate. How do you feel?” If the answer is anything other than deep skepticism (Data leakage, trivial dataset etc), it’s a big red flag ------ wil421 How long until society becomes Gattaca? Sorry citizen our “AI” has detected genetic anomalies you will be a disposable factory worker. The rich would surely pay for their children to be genetically altered. ~~~ fermenflo What exactly guarantees that reality? Why can't these tools be used for good moving forward? e.g. detecting heart problems. Seems a little arbitrary to spin technological advancements as progress towards some inevitable dystopian AI-driven future. ~~~ mdorazio I'd say it's fairly certain given a capitalist society and human nature. Remember pre-existing conditions and insurance denials pre-Obamacare? Yeah, insurance companies would _love_ to get their hands on your genetic data and tailor rates to your likelihood of future healthcare cost. At the same time, rich parents pretty much always pursue any advantage they can for their children - that's why private schools and homes in good school districts are so expensive. Add in the fact that we _already_ have massive inequality and dropping social mobility in the US, and a Gattaca-like future starts looking pretty damn likely. ------ logicbombr last year we've started to cloud recording obstetric ultrasound videos. we add more than 17,000 ultrasound exams to our platform each month. It's probably the largest dataset in the world of obstetric ultrasounds videos (~ 300,000 exams). reading news like this makes me think about how we can explore our dataset using ML/AI and help produce better diagnosis. I have no idea how (We're not an AI company). If someone here wants to start a project with AI on top of ultrasounds, I'm all in. let me know at hn at angra.ltd and I can give more details ~~~ smt88 I'm not sure that data set will mean anything without human-drawn conclusions about the patient (diagnoses, abormalities, etc.) ~~~ logicbombr Obstetric ultrasound is very standarized and easy to evaluate with Hadlock ([https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/000293...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0002937885902984)) We, however, have access to the report too. ------ godelzilla I guess adding "Congestive" to the title would've ruined the click bait. Also how can the detection of a progressive disease be 100% accurate? I guess details ruin the click bait too. ------ ryanmcbride Don't see any mention of how many false-positives they had in the article so... Yeah we'll see how effective this actually is. ------ conjectures Guy detects bullshit from one headline. ------ m3kw9 Or zero heart beat ------ counterpig if it doesn't beat the heart has failed. ------ cat199 Dear Elizabeth Holmes, I found a great startup opportunity for you. \- Recruiter	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
JVP claims CSW is Satoshi - insulanian https://twitter.com/haq4good/status/727295380019277830 ====== tantalor Oh. Who's JVP?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google exec: Hell no we're not paying anyone to use Google - fromedome http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/live_google_execs_at_goldman_sachs_conference ====== LPTS How will they compete with microsoft?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
What are you thoughts on the FishEye menu? - myoung8 After reading this: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41290" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41290</a><p>it got me thinking that using a FishEye menu (e.g. using jQuery & the Interface plugin) positioned flush with the left side of the screen would be the most useable type of menu for a website.<p>What do you guys think about doing that? Good idea? Bad idea? Good in theory, bad in practice? ====== rms Here's an example but I don't have java installed. Are there any non-java versions? [http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/fisheyemenu/fisheyemenu- demo.shtm...](http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/fisheyemenu/fisheyemenu-demo.shtml) Edit: Here's one in Flash. [http://www.samuelwan.com/downloads/com.samuelwan.eidt/fishey...](http://www.samuelwan.com/downloads/com.samuelwan.eidt/fisheyemenu/FisheyeMenuDemo.html)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Wine Running on Windows with the Windows Subsystem for Linux - my123 https://woafre.tk/2017/02/08/wsl-wine-runs-on-it/ ====== robbiewxyz This really is interesting news for me. I actually moved to a full Linux stack a few years ago when I bought a new computer and discovered that my trusty engineering software wouldn't install on Windows 8 or 10 due to some of Microsoft's many backwards-incompatibilities. Imagine my excitement when I discovered that Wine would run it flawlessly! So, as much as this announcement sounds unnecessary at best, if another part of my job needs me back on Windows 10 someday, I may come back to this. ~~~ exclusiv I just switched completely to Linux just recently and thought I'd have some issues with necessary Windows software. There was definitely some learning curve to getting Adobe Photoshop CC setup using PlayOnLinux/Wine but it seems to work well. I'm very happy even with terrible bluetooth support in comparison to Windows. I couldn't get a Logitech mouse to pair with the Dell XPS Developer edition. Tried all the command line tricks with bluetoothctl and hcitool. I plugged in a really cheap Kinivo USB bluetooth dongle I had laying around from a headset and it worked easily. Go figure. ~~~ snuxoll Strange, I haven't had any issues with my XPS 13 (9333) or my work-issued Lenovo W540, both of which have been paired with my Microsoft Designer Keyboard/Mouse - go into GNOME Settings, pair, done (of course, they don't work during boot, would be nice if someone could figure out how to get bluetooth devices to work in the initrd so I could use them to type in my encryption passphrase - on the other hand it's probably for the best I'm typing it on a physically wired keyboard). ------ bubblethink Now all we need is 'Windows subsystem for Linux' to run on wine, and we'll rip a hole in space time continuum. ~~~ netheril96 Wine emulates Win32 API, while Windows subsystem for Linux is based on NT API, a level below Win32 API. So, no, that won't work. ~~~ mschuster91 Well, why isn't it possible to emulate just ntoskrnl, just like WSL does with the Linux kernel? Granted, it would require people to have a valid Windows license and install media (because you can't redistribute Windows binaries), but I don't see any major problem. ~~~ my123 There is flinux from wishstudio on Github for a fully-in-userspace layer that works in Windows 7, it's unmaintained now though ~~~ jesuslop And there was also CoLinux, a linux kernel on top of windows, supersweet. [http://www.colinux.org/](http://www.colinux.org/) ~~~ jacobush And there was LINE. ------ boona "Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." \-- Character Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park ------ foota I wonder if you might be able to improve wine by running programs side by side in wine and without and observing call differences. ~~~ Pitarou Nice idea. By the way, are you Scottish? I don't think they use the word "without" in that way anywhere else. ~~~ mrkgnao I've seen it in older literature, as "within and without", where the latter approximately translates to "outside" and is supposed to be an opposite for "within". (I'm Indian, but I can't remember seeing any instances of this in any texts that I'd say were written by people who wrote in an Indian idiom.) ~~~ throwanem It's also very unusual to see "without" used in this meaning and paired with "in"; one expects to see either "in and out" or "within and without", rather than a mixture of the two. I don't know that the latter is incorrect per se, but it does fall rather oddly on the mind's ear. ------ nandhp I see from the screenshot that it's running on Windows 10, Cloud Edition. I thought that the rumored Cloud Edition doesn't run any software not from the Windows store? [http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-coming- windows-10-cl...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-coming- windows-10-cloud-release-may-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-cloud/) ~~~ kevincox I thought you downloaded the Linux Subsystem from the Windows store? ~~~ nandhp True, that's a possible reason, but I don't think the X server normally comes from the store. (Is there even an X server in the Windows Store?) ~~~ shawnz No, it looks like this is a traditional desktop Windows X server. ~~~ my123 It's vcXsrv, a regular X11 server for Windows. ------ muterad_murilax Was Wine not working with the previous builds of WSL? If so, does anyone know what has changed that allows it to run flawlessly now? ~~~ asdfaoeu I tried it a while back WSL had some weird handling of unix sockets and they didn't appear on the filesystem. ------ rasz_pl remember [https://hackernoon.com/win3mu-part-1-why-im- writing-a-16-bit...](https://hackernoon.com/win3mu-part-1-why-im- writing-a-16-bit-windows-emulator-2eae946c935d) ? looks like Wine made this guys project redundant. ------ OJFord Next step: get WSL running in Wine... ~~~ my123 You may be able to get [https://github.com/wishstudio/flinux](https://github.com/wishstudio/flinux) working actually ~~~ OJFord But can it run wine? ~~~ my123 Not yet :) ------ ChuckMcM Part of me wants to yell "Inception!" :-) WSL has been getting better and better, I wish they would push the updates to mainline. I can't run the dev releases on my "work" laptop. I've heard that they will be in the next big W10 push (the 'creative' version) but we will have to wait and see. ------ Sephr Microsoft has the power to stop the distribution of Wine now that APIs are copyrightable (Oracle v. Google). If you rely on Wine commercially Microsoft could some day force you to pay a license fee or make you move to a future paid Wine competitor. ------ EvanAnderson I've been thinking about trying to run Samba under WSL for the lulz. Clearly I should pursue that. ------ slim Yo dawg, I heard you like windows.. ------ jlebrech great if you need to run a vb6 application on modern hardware maybe ------ nikolay So meta! ------ elcct Would be awesome if one day one could use GPU and USB with Windows Subsystem for Linux ~~~ TazeTSchnitzel Can that work over X11, or is X11 OpenGL not network-transparent? ~~~ elcct I was thinking about using things like TensorFlow or tools for Arduino ------ sametmax So... Winception ? ~~~ djsumdog It looks like it hasn't been maintained in a while, but at one point you could run Wine on cygwin, and cygwin on wine .. mostly. I can't find the original post I read on it, but it was an attempt to show how mature each project was at their implementations. ------ Retr0spectrum Can you run cygwin in it? ------ dingo_bat The worst part about wsl is that it doesn't work on windows 7 :( ~~~ nxc18 WSL fundamentally depends on kernel improvements that are only available to Windows 10. Similar to the countless other improvements like high-entropy aslr, appguard, better shutdown/bootup processes, a much improved print model, support for new classes of devices (usb3, 3d printing, etc), etc - and that's just covering Windows 8. There has been so much work done to improve the kernel over the last 7.5 years. You don't see mac users complaining that iOS integration doesn't work with Snow Leopard; iOS (the name) did not exist when Windows 7 was released. You certainly don't see snow leopard in the wild anymore. Stop. Using. Windows. 7. ~~~ ams6110 It's the privacy invasion and the gratuitous UI changes that keep people on Windows 7, not all that technobabble stuff. ~~~ nxc18 The funny thing is, the only people who are sticking around with Windows 7 are the people who should know enough to care about the technobabble. You are not getting the performance you could be out of your PC. Your computer isn't as secure as it could be. You don't have the latest features. Some of those UI changes you mention are actually nice, btw. Your PC is not spying on you; it is not scandalous that a web search via Cortana sends what you type to Microsoft. Telemetry is also not scandalous; Microsoft has had telemetry in Windows & in Office for well over a decade (coming up on two). Perhaps I should consider a career in tech journalism; With all the scandal around Windows 10's approach, I can only imagine how people will react to _literally everything they ever do in their browser_. You never use your web browser, do you? ~~~ tomc1985 While it may sound trivial, it was a bit of an insult to wake up one day and find Cortana begging me to ask her something. Also, telemetry is not scandalous but it can be subpoenaed or hacked, and given its omnipresence and sheer depth, I wouldn't want less-than-trustworthy people gaining access to it. Microsoft could have made its privacy settings simple -- an elegant on/off switch with the more legacy-style "click here to report this exception" behavior. Instead they complicate the matter and overwhelm the user with a ton of seemingly pointless options _by default_ , when it should have been a toggle and an "Advanced..." button. By throwing previously voluntary reporting into the same big telemetry bucket as everything else, they've diminished their product and forced users to accept an inferior experience when such integrations are unwanted (like my example above). Also, they never should have allowed marketing to get involved -- allowing advert pigs to switch people's desktops around is a massive overreach. You know the only reason it happened was to make more money from already-paid users. Win10 only gets my vote when an upstream netmeter and port-monitor show only essential network activity -- occasional Windows Update queries, local network scans, and so on -- during a long period of idling and local (non-network) use. ~~~ tokenizerrr > allowing advert pigs to switch people's desktops around is a massive > overreach Sorry but what do you even mean with this? Most of yours points already don't make a lot of sense, but this one jumped out at me. I've been running windows 10 while it came out and have literally not seen a single advertisement. Nor have I been bothered with cortana a single time. Not even sure what it is/does as I've never bothered to look into it or use it. ~~~ m45t3r There is ads in a default Windows install, since Anniversary update at least. I remember that I had to reinstall my Windows 10 system on Anniversary update since Microsoft Update was simply refusing to update my system (unknown error multiple times), and in my lock screen sometimes I would get an ad about some random UWP app (or it was a movie? Don't remember). I would get app install suggestions inside Start menu too, very annoying. For now at least, you can disable both in Windows Settings and they don't seem to come back automatically. I don't know in the future though. P.S.: before OP, this is on Windows 10 Pro. ~~~ tokenizerrr Weird. I have win10 on my desktop and laptop, and I've barely tweaked the install on my laptop because I never use it. Neither show ads of any kind anywhere and I don't recall ever seeing one. There are the random pictures for lock screens, but those are mostly just nature pics. Never any kind of ads. The start menu does have those flashy windows 10 app tiles, but I just reduced the size of the start menu until those went away. ~~~ m45t3r [http://www.howtogeek.com/269331/how-to-disable-all-of- window...](http://www.howtogeek.com/269331/how-to-disable-all-of- windows-10s-built-in-advertising/) I remember having to disable at least the first two items (Lock Screen and Suggested Apps). And instead of simply reducing size of Windows 10 start menu, I completely uninstalled all UWP included Apps. The really infuriating thing is that Microsoft seems to re-enable some of those settings in each major update, and this is no fun.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
I have a confession to make… I commit to master - patrickleet https://medium.com/@patrickleet/i-have-a-confession-to-make-i-commit-to-master-6a804f334beb ====== karmakaze I... use 'pencil icon' (Edit this file) on Github for simple edits or search/replace of a few items in smallish files. ------ devon_m nice. I agree, git-flow is terrible for modern architectures ~~~ patrickleet haha thanks! I understand I'm saying some controversial things :) Glad to get some support - reddit disagrees with me so far lol	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Practical Guide to GPL Compliance - astrec http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html ====== cmars232 Even more practical.. avoid GPL code like the plague, unless you're sure you'll never have to distribute it. ~~~ notauser Avoiding GPL code is a great way to make your startup less likely to succeed as you spend more than you need to reinventing the wheel or buying some in. Even if you are planning to distribute end user software (or you want to use AGPL software) the trade offs are more complex than you state. \- GPLed products can be a selling point, as your customers can feel secure even if in reality they come to you for support. \- They can earn you valuable community relation points. \- Dual license business models may be viable. Non-free plugins to free products is how Aptana makes money for example. \- You can still charge for GPL software as you only have to give it to your customers, although this is mainly true if your customers are unlikely to pass it on to anyone. (Custom business logic embedded in a GPL application server wouldn't be cheerfully handed out by customers for example.) ~~~ eru How likely is it that someone takes your GPL'd code and competes with you, anyway?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
1971 – Before the Pentagon Papers a break in exposed FBI surveillance [PBS] - seanieb http://video.pbs.org/video/2365475451/ ====== seanieb The trailer for the documentary: [http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/1971/](http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/1971/) The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI wiki page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Commission_to_Inve...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Commission_to_Investigate_the_FBI)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tragedy Made Steve Kerr See the World Beyond the Court - rhayabusa http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/sports/basketball/steve-kerr-golden-state-warriors.html ====== sdtransier There's also a great podcast interview between David Axelrod and Steve Kerr from several weeks ago: [http://podcast.cnn.com/the-axe-files-david- axelrod/episode/a...](http://podcast.cnn.com/the-axe-files-david- axelrod/episode/all/1TfhnBh5egpoJz/ckpysa.html) Axelrod goes into Kerr's background, his reaction to the assassination of his father, etc. really great listen in my opinion. It's always fascinating to see someone who's in an expert in one field (pro basketball), have such a good understanding of something entirely different (Middle Eastern politics). ------ jmduke I hate Golden State. They're an eminently villainous team: overconfident and insufferable. (This can also be said of many of their fans -- most of whom I suspect had not called themselves a Golden State fan until 2013 -- and their owner, who described their organization as 'light-years ahead' of the competition because they had the good fortune to sign Curry to the best contract in the NBA due to his reputation as injury-prone.) I can't hate Steve Kerr. He's self-deprecating, he's insightful, and he's fun. He's spoken passionately about basketball, obviously, as a coach and player and commentator, but his use of his platform is truly admirable. The sports world needs more people like him. Largely speaking, it's becoming easier and easier for me to watch the NBA instead of the NFL, if for no other reason than I _don 't feel guilty about it_. As more evidence piles up that American football devastates the human body and mind, it disgusts me a little to watch owners, GMs, and coaches avoid talking about "the world beyond the gridirons" as much as possible. Contrast this with figures in the NBA like Kerr, Gregg Popovich, and even the commissioner Adam Silver (who handled things like Donald Sterling and the All Star Game in Charlotte very well), and it just feels better to be a fan -- and I hope the coming generation of aspiring athletes feel the same way. (This is not to diminish the great job that players like Lebron, Carmelo, and Cousins have done off the court to improve their communities and speak out about issues, but I think the calculus is a little different as a player.) [EDIT -- I forgot to include perhaps my favorite Steve Kerr moment, the speech he gave after his game-winning shot in Game 6 of the '97 finals: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCcd- iAljI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCcd-iAljI)] ~~~ e40 When you say you "hate" a sports team, it's time to do some self-evaluation. ~~~ jmduke I don't think I've ever met a sports fan who hasn't hated at least one team. Rivalries are fun; teams that you relish rooting against are fun. Emotional investment in the outcome is one of the biggest reasons folks watch sports; rooting for the underdog to win is rooting for the overdog to lose (and I can't remember a larger overdog in quite some time than the Warriors.) It's also eminently clear from my comment that I don't have some all-consuming blind rage for the team, given that I just complimented the head coach, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at. ~~~ AznHisoka It's weird in another sense because you're only hating the uniform, since players changed teams so often these days. ~~~ lambdasquirrel Team culture can be a thing. Maybe there's something in the team's shadow that irks him, like Draymond's temper. I personally find it fascinating, all the emotions stirred up and that people aren't ashamed to talk about them. ------ zatkin I got redirected to the subscription page for NYT upon clicking this link. ~~~ grzm The "web" link beneath the submission title will bring you to a search page with a link to the actual article, which should get you around the paywall.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google is accused of union busting after firing four employees - phissk https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20983053/google-fires-four-employees-memo-rebecca-rivers-laurence-berland-union-busting-accusation-walkout ====== ricc duplicate? [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21636583](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21636583)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why are developers switching from Mac OS X to Linux? - BuuQu9hu http://cialu.net/blog/switch-from-mac-os-x-to-linux.html ====== massysett Come on, this piece is junk. He says people are switching to Linux because Apple hardware sucks. These rants are typical but would be much better if people identified the glorious PC hardware they are using. So I looked for that here, and it turns out he is still using Apple hardware. He then does not identify a single OS X flaw or a reason he loaded Linux onto his Apple hardware. Maybe what HN needs is a periodic "Apple Sucks, post your rants here" posting, just like the periodic "who's hiring" posts, because it's clear that "Apple Sucks" is the only reason for all these posts that completely lack any interesting content. ~~~ CoolGuySteve 10 years ago, there was no PC hardware that even came close the weight, dimensions, and build quality of the MacBook Air. Nowadays, PC "ultrabooks" like the XPS13 and UX305 are similar in size and build quality but come in a variety of configurations with better battery life and a choice between low power low res screens and high power high res screens. And they're significantly cheaper. Linux works perfectly on the Intel chipsets these computers use as well with open source drivers from Intel themselves. I haven't had any problems with Ubuntu, my install is pretty much stock Unity. I used to work for Apple and still have Apple stock. As a stock holder, I think they need to make a similar leap with their computers as they did back with the MacBook Air. The two things I would most want from them are a 40" curved screen iMac and and a MacPro replacement that looks something like the Razor Blade Stealth where a full powered GPU attaches via USB-C. I mention these 2 designs because they require a lot of tinkering to get working on the PC side and while Apple doesn't really make anything new, they do polish existing technology extremely well. ~~~ thebspatrol The build quality still usually is a narrow miss. Namely, non-apple manufacturers LOVE to cut corners by using plastic on the bottom or more fragmented case design. Touchpads are always iffy too. Does anyone know of any non-apple machines that truly are at parity in build quality? The new Thinkpad X1 looks nice. ~~~ CoolGuySteve Try the Asus UX305. No seams, completely aluminum body, no fans, large nice touchpad, and matte wide gamut IPS display for $600 or so when it's on sale. It's similar in design to a 13" MacBook Air but a little smaller/lighter and with a far superior display. At first I thought the Core M processor would be slow, but it's comparable, maybe 15% slower than an i5, once it reaches the full thermal throttle. (And the keyboard isn't backlit but I always thought that feature was kind of lame anyways.) ~~~ BoorishBears Traded in my UX305UB (so i7 instead of Core M, 940m instead of integrated, and 4K) for an _2015 i5_ RMBP. By all accounts a strict downgrade right? Except by the end of ownership I had grown so tired of Windows and Linux that I had to Hackintosh it to be bareable. That disabled the 940m (which I didn't miss anyways) and messed with power management so aim guessing the i7 wasn't turbo boosting anymore but it was _still_ worth it to get an OS that supported all my monitors without fuss, had developer mindshare, didn't crash from sleep and had a bash shell without compatibility layers and VMs. I posted about it on here in another comment and realized how silly that was and looked up someone selling a RMBP and asked for a trade the very next day (I'd have bought a 2016 MBP but I want to see the what next model will bring). Tellingly enough, the i7 UX305ub has depreciated so much faster than the i5 MBP that I should have owed the guy. The supposed "exodus" from Macbooks has the strangest timing to me. 6 months ago if you asked what the best hardware for a development machine was, you'd get some Thinkpad answers, but the mainstream was a 2015 MacBook Pro. Suddenly the 2016 comes out and isn't what people want, so everyone acts like the 2015 ceased to exist... Now people are recommending laptops that they used to recommend the 2015 RMBP over as where to head! Is it a need to have the shiniest new MBP? 2015s went on sale in most retail outlets so the prices are even better now. It's not like the hardware degraded because there's a new model either. Or maybe there's less substance to all the commotion than HN comments and posts would imply? ------ tlocke I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the moral case for using an Open Source OS over a proprietary one. Just to restate, Open Source software gives users the freedom to: * Run the software for whatever purpose they want. * Inspect the software so they can see what it's doing. * Change the software however they want. * Share the software with anyone. Call me an idealist, but aren't these things important? ~~~ mbrock I agree in substance, but I find arguments from moral principles mostly unconvincing, so I prefer to formulate it in different ways. * Proprietary software makes me dependent on the whims of a business. If the business shuts down, stops updating its products, or changes their products in ways I dislike, I have to discard the investment I've made (time, money, learning, etc). * Proprietary software makes it complicated to share my work tools with friends and even family. * Proprietary ecosystems prevent me from learning. On the other hand, I am profoundly grateful for the learning opportunities given to me by the free software community ever since I was a teenager. * Proprietary tools are hard to integrate with. For example, whenever a new version of Apple's mail program is released, the makers of the GPG plugin have to reverse engineer the changes before they (hopefully) can update their software. * Proprietary tools often use proprietary formats, which prevents collaboration and contributes to the problem of digital rot. And so on... ~~~ midnitewarrior Points 1,2 and 4 also apply to open source. 1\. Open Source makes me dependent on the whims of a particular community. If the group has infighting or lack of activity, enjoy your abandonware. Yes, you could resurrect the project yourself, but that is a ridiculous burden for most situations. 2\. It's often complicated sharing Open Source apps. They often require loads of tinkering, are poorly documented, and require specialized knowledge. Unless all of your friends and family are free software enthusiasts too, this isn't always simple. 4\. Open source tools can also be hard to integrate with. You exchange licensing being a barrier for integration with lack of resources for designing good integration schemes. The larger projects can have significant resources to get around this. ~~~ the_af I agree with you that the overall point of "it's FOSS, so you can change the software" is flawed. Most of us don't have the time, knowledge or inclination to change the software. However, even though it's flawed it's not _totally_ incorrect. You sometimes _can_ change something -- maybe look at the internals and write some trivial patch to solve an immediate problem; maybe change some scripting bit -- and sometimes if there is infighting in the official community, a fork can happen. Not saying forks are not messy or even always possible, but the possibility _is_ there and it happens. There is a huge difference between "it takes too much time/knowledge to change this piece of software" and "it's illegal to change it". ~~~ mbrock It's kind of like democracy. Sure, it's hard to elect a new leader or pass a new law, but it's possible, and that possibility is very valuable. It's also kind of like open knowledge, like science and math. Sure, it's hard to learn algebra or biology, but with hard work you can master it and contribute. ~~~ the_af Completely agreed! I'm a fan of FOSS, and for me the balance is definitely positive. I like that the possibility is there, even if many times it's not within my skill or patience to fix it myself. Same with science indeed. Even if I cannot always fix things myself, looking at (and breaking!) free source code taught me a lot about programming. ------ antihero Used to develop full-time using Arch Linux with a tiling WM (i3), and the reasons I switched to using a MacBook when my company offered me one are: * The trackpad is awesome, it's well integrated with the OS and feels fantastic. I've yet to use a PC trackpad that isn't completely awful. * Networking doesn't randomly break. This used to happen A LOT. The most stable solution I could find was just using wpa_supplicant and maintaining a load of config files, which was irritating and time consuming. * There's a pretty unified well tested operating system that is designed for this piece of hardware. And it shows. * The battery lasts for ages, even in this 2.5 year old laptop. * The text rendering is pretty. * The operating system is aesthetically pleasing and it's interface makes sense to me. I'm up for giving Linux a gander again, but honestly I want something that's as bug free as possible and allows me to get on with coding instead of tinkering around fixing bullshit. ~~~ loup-vaillant Using a "generic" laptop whose origin is not exactly easy to track (it bears the brand of the distributor, not of the maker). I installed ubuntu (LTS) with the proprietary (yuck) Wifi drivers. So far: * The trackpad works. I use a mouse anyway. * Networking didn't randomly break so far. * Don't care about "unified". Apart from a suspension bug, it works. * The battery lasts for 6-7 hours of programming. * Text rendering is pretty. * Xmonad + LXDE is pleasing and their interface make sense —to me at least. It took a little tinkering around fixing bullshit. The lingering suspension bug prevents me to log back in if I close the lid when logged out. On the other hand I can stay the hell away from Apple and their shiny locked down empire. ~~~ idm The fact we're still discussing the trackpad, suspend/wake, fonts, networking, and UI - in 2017 - means the problem still isn't solved on Linux. I gave a decade over to that quest (1996-2006) and then spent the next decade using MBPs. With a macbook pro, I have never once wondered about my trackpad, suspend/wake, fonts, networking, UI, or a host of other things like printers, scanners, USB, bluetooth, or external displays. That level of compatibility is a miracle, from the perspective of a daily Linux user. I have used my laptop for heavy computation, software dev, academic work, major presentations, video and multimedia, casual browsing, gaming, etc, and it has NEVER given me trouble due to compatibility. Having spent way too much of my life thinking about those problems on Linux, you have no idea how liberating it is to be free of those concerns. I get OCD about using a specific brand of disposable pen, so you'd better believe I think about the most important tool in my life: my laptop. The MBP is too good to accept any alternative. The 2016 was underwhelming, but it's still the best laptop/OS combination out there. It costs too much for the market and it's not enough-better to justify the upgrade, but dammit there's nothing that even compares. I've been thinking _hard_ about alternatives to the MBP during the past few months, and my decision is that I can't give all this up and still be a functioning academic and entrepreneur. I'll pay the $1000 premium and if I value my time at $25/hour, I'll recover that additional cost within 2 months compared to Linux maintenance. I wish it weren't so, but the maths don't lie. ~~~ loup-vaillant > _The fact we 're still discussing the trackpad, suspend/wake, fonts, > networking, and UI - in 2017 - means the problem still isn't solved on > Linux._ One reason is, it's not Linux's problem to solve. It's the hardware vendor's. Those morons still don't ship with proper drivers, firmware, or even _specs_ —possibly because spending a single cent on Linux isn't economically viable or something. Last time I checked, suspend and power management does work flawlessly on Linux… when the hardware is a couple year's old. But it will never work properly on new hardware unless the vendors make it so themselves. On the other hand, Wifi hardware vendors now often ship with proprietary drivers. Proprietary sucks, but it at least works. > _I 'll pay the $1000 premium and if I value my time at $25/hour, I'll > recover that additional cost within 2 months compared to Linux maintenance. > I wish it weren't so, but the maths don't lie._ Let's be generous and assume MacOS requires zero maintenance. 1000/25 means 40 hours (a full work-week), of Linux maintenance. A full work-week in only 2 months, aren't you being a tiny bit hyperbolic? I spend a few _minutes_ per month in maintenance. ~~~ idm Think of it like this: 8 weeks, 5 days per week, 1 hour per day. That's 40 hours. I spend more than a few minutes a month administering my MBP, so I have no idea how you get along doing so little for a Linux machine. In fact, I spend more than a few minutes a month administering my Linux servers... I honestly think my 1-hour-per-day estimate is in the ballpark and your experience sounds unlike mine. ~~~ loup-vaillant Maybe I'm just negligent, but I do have a remote server I spent a full week configuring (web, and mail, just for me, from ssh). I'm no sysadmin, I expect a good one would have needed no more than a couple hours. But I haven't touched it in _months_. It just works. (Or not. Lack of updates may have lead to vulnerabilities.) At this point I doubt we mean the same thing by "administration". To me, it means updating the system, fixing what doesn't work, and installing new programs. Spending en entire hour per day just for this sounds _insane_. Perhaps you had other tasks in mind? Also bear in mind that I'm currently using a "long term support" release of Ubuntu, on hardware I knew would be well supported (I've read a couple reviews). It's not Arch on a random laptop. ------ Philipp__ Situation is fairly simple. Linux on desktop has reached some kind of _mature_ phase (as weird as it sounds, compared to previous years, Linux on desktop was never in better position), where you can get decent performance out of DE and GUI, without sacrificing comfort of CLI. On the other hand, many developers felt let down by Apple's last year, and decided to jump to Windows/Linux. And that is totally fine. I think few factors played crucial role in that, besides Apple's _weak_ year. For example, people needed change. Many of devs got bored, and we know we developer are weird kind of people, sometimes little masochistic, where we constantly tweak and play with our systems. Remember the times around 2006. when many developers were jumping to Apple ecosystem, rise of TextMate, Dtrace, the magnificent Snow Leopard came out year after that... So I think things move, and that's the good thing. If you are not satisfied or productive on current platform/setup, then go and search for something that will fit your needs. I bought 13" MBP last year (2015. model) and I am really happy with the machine, to the point where I don't have a single gripe (except macOS thingys). ~~~ itchynosedev I think 2015 mbp is the closest a laptop got to being perfect for me. Screen, battery life, trackpad, finish and performance. All in a beautiful balance. I used to dislike macos so much that went mbp 2015 > thinkpad > sp4. I realised how much better macbooks were than their comptetition that I bought it again only with more storage. I think Surface line will bethe next thing for me but it was still too buggy for daily use. ~~~ Philipp__ Surface was always tempting for me, but I can't stand Windows in any shape or form. I really hate it, and I never felt comfortable using it or developing on it (I never touched Microsoft stack, .NET, Azure and that stuff, so...). What looks more tempting to me, is new Lenovo Carbon X1 that got announced a day ago on CES. That could be sweet Linux dev. machine, light, with solid battery life, thin bezels, nice keyboard, trackpoint... ~~~ 91bananas Is Linux possible on a Surface? It to me looks like the only possible replacement for an MBP right now, but I too could not handle Windows for a second. ~~~ Philipp__ I don't have nerves nor time to write drivers... no way in hell I'll buy Surface device and fiddle with Linux on it. I think you can get much better laptops for same price, plus I have opportunity to install FreeBSD on them, where on Durface it isn't possible, or you have to sacrifice certain functions/components. ------ coldtea A better question. "Who said they are?". Some are. Also on the other direction (and to/from Windows). Complaints for Apple, 32GB RAM option etc aside, I see no much reason to believe the numbers have changed in any large way. If for once a US-based developer conference (and its speakers) are not predominantly Apple laptops, we can check this again. ~~~ Fnoord Some are switching, some are not. Some arguments are sound, some aren't. Its all rather vague and anecdotal, without hard numbers. It really depends on the needs of the developer (or user in general), and if they're willing to make compromises or allow changes. The problems: * Lack of focus on macOS (compared to iOS), and the iOSation of macOS. * Lack of hardware upgrades on Mac Mini, Mac Pro, Macbook Air. MBP specific: focus on size and weight (and butterfly keyboard with less travel) instead of DDR4 32 GB RAM / stronger battery / latest gen processor (read: MBP becoming MBA). Gimmicks like touchbar, force touch. * "Bullying." +300 EUR extra tax on MBP. Ridiculous things like having to pay 100 USD to release a Safari extension. [Please, feel free to make addenda on these.] A post with some random picture of GNOME 3 with a Terminal is just cringeworthy though. What does that have to do with developers? I see no development taking place. Could be a sysadmin's workstation for all we know. I very much like macOS. Its excellent for development. You have the software from macOS (which includes some software not available on Linux). You got UNIX under the hood. All of the software is managed with Homebrew which is excellent (macOS has come a long way in that regard). Really need Windows? You got all the options available from Linux (VM, WINE) plus Bootcamp. Microsoft even provide a VM with Edge themselves. The keybinds and workflow in macOS are consistent and feel natural (with the addition of Amethyst for window management, Tmux in iTerm (fullscreen with Powerline, and Vim), and Alfred instead of Spotlight), and I'm very much used to them. That being said I could just use a Terminal with Git and SSH and Vim or Sublime Text on Linux or Windows as well, but I'd lose some of the above advantages. Linux has far less software, the workflow is clunky, and I'm scared for all the hardware working well. Windows just isn't UNIX under the hood and you notice that when you work with open source software just like you notice WINE isn't native on Linux or macOS. ~~~ rangibaby Package managers on Linux work better than brew IMO. They are more mature and better integrated with the OS. It would be nice if brew upgrade installed OS security patches etc. Instead there are the unsolicited, constant, and annoying nags from the MAS. I found it easier to rebind keys in GNOME than Mac OS. Dual booting OSes has existed longer than Mac OS X. Are there many truly Mac-only apps these days? Apple's own apps used to be a draw for me but they got rid of the one I used seriously (Aperture) and change the others so much it is hard to keep up. Adobe apps are honestly the only reason I am keeping my Mac partition at this point. ~~~ danieldk _Package managers on Linux work better than brew IMO._ I used Linux on the desktop for many years (1994 to 2007) and until now on servers, but I have to disagree respectfully. It's great that on macOS package management of third-party software is decoupled from the OS. It means that one can upgrade third-party software (per Homebrew) without upgrading (and potentially breaking) the whole OS. On Linux, it is normally a choice between a stable OS and stale software, or fresh software with an unstable OS. Of course, things like Snap, AppImage, etc. are changing that. _I found it easier to rebind keys in GNOME than Mac OS._ More important to me are _consistent_ shortcuts. On macOS virtually every native application uses the same keyboard shortcuts. With Linux it's all over the place. _Are there many truly Mac-only apps these days?_ Yes. Omni{Graffle,Focus}, Little Snitch, TweetBot, etc. And then there are many applications that are only available on Windows or macOS, besides Adobe software, the Affinity apps, Microsoft Office, 1Password, etc. ------ S_A_P In the 15 or so years Ive been writing code, Ive never had a moment where I was like, damn, I cant write this code I am tasked to write because my damn operating system is not adequate. I use Windows, Linux and OSX/MacOS, and I am pretty agnostic on the whole deal. I have use cases for each, and cant really understand the religious nature of this discussion. Cant we call this sort of article what it really is? Im mad because I dont think apple is thinking of my needs anymore. It could be because Ive changed or theyve changed, but either way Im going to write an article to to justify my feelings, even if my arguments dont hold water. ~~~ loup-vaillant > _I have use cases for each, and cant really understand the religious nature > of this discussion._ Linux: Free Softwaaare! (My favourite) MacOS: It Just Wooorks! (And is damn pretty) Windows: Gaaames! (And a host of other programs) Another way to look at it is, Linux is Hippie, Windows is Business, and MacOS is Beauty. Of course it will get religious: if you deliberately chose one platform, you likely care about its strongest suit enough to shun the other two. Most free software advocates will use GNU/Linux, and urge everyone to follow suit. They're _virtuous_. Most people who need such and such software will use Windows, because they have work to do, dammit. They're _practical_. Apple users are… I don't know, _loyal_? Apple does have strong followers. Me, I still feel a little guilty about my Windows desktop. But… games… ~~~ WayneBro I am a die-hard Windows user and I don't care about games as much. In my opinion, Windows is just the best all around OS. While I do use Mac and Linux wherever third parties require it - I prefer Windows by far. I also think it's the most practical choice for anybody that needs a solid general purpose OS. Some other thoughts: \- I like the Microsoft business plan the best - they don't want to lock me into hardware like Apple and their stuff isn't infinitely fragmented like Linux. \- Windows has the best all around UI and they cater to power users. Meanwhile, Apple hates power users and Linux thinks that "power user" means programmer/beta tester. \- The vast, vast majority of businesses use Windows desktops and not Mac or Linux. These are my customers. \- There are very few useful things that I can't do with Windows. Meanwhile, I can find hundreds of things that Mac and Linux can't do (or can't do easily/well) that Windows can. ~~~ iLemming Windows is still not very developer friendly. Devs like to use their command line tools: bash, zsh, tmux, git, etc. They like their Vim and Emacs configs, not everyone uses Visual Studio monstrosity. Devs want to be in control, there's no good alternatives on Windows for things like Karabiner, Hammerspoon and Alfred. I was just like you. For many years I thought Windows is the best. Until one day I broke out of my bubble. I feel free, nothing will make me go back. Unless MSFT decides to make it compatible with Linux. ~~~ WayneBro Furthermore, I find Windows more developer friendly than any other OS. The Linux community would have me doing rote memorization of shitty command line apps from the 1970s to do my programming. No thanks! I'll stick with my modern GUI! To do anything for Apple, you have to use their backwards UI and Xcode. Meanwhile, Microsoft caters hand and foot to developers. ~~~ iLemming Yeah, I feel sad every time I have to watch those experts, trying to do basic stuff like navigating to a file or open a file during their presentations. Using their sophisticated IDEs with nice, "modern UI". It takes them several seconds and bunch of mouse clicks to perform basic operations. ------ nkozyra Personal opinion coming ... To this date I really don't think there's a polished GUI/WM that can compete with OSX. The app ecosystem is vast but spotty. Even CLI work feels clunkier in any of the desktop distros. Is it better than 5 years ago? Maybe a bit. I just think with this huge community there'd be something as attractive and natural as OSX or Win10. And that's ignoring the hardware aspect altogether. Yes, you can buy some very solid machines now, but every review I read about Mac-killer laptop hardware ends with a bunch of things that just don't work as well as a MBP. ~~~ nottorp This is why I moved _from_ Linux to OS X. However, dear Apple are getting me concerned about their future because: 1\. The main innovation in the newest MBPros is... an Emoji keyboard accessory? Okay, that might actually be useful but: 2\. Worse, said newest laptops have battery issues to which Apple responds by removing the battery ETA indicator? That was actually useful since I knew how much battery life I could rely on while doing _the same task_. 3\. Since 2013, they don't have a desktop for _desktop_ (not web) developers any more. Minis are too underpowered, iMacs are noisy under load and who knows how long they will last when kept heated the whole time, the Mac Pro is a video editing machine and little else. Right now I'm doing fine with a MBPro and a hackintosh, but if they keep making dubious decisions about the laptops and not offering a developer's desktop, I'll have to consider Linux again. ~~~ timemachiner I may be the only developer on HN that doesn't have this issue or on the entire internet for that matter, but I have no issues with battery life on my tMBP 15". I do all day development in eclipse and have music playing in the background. I think the battery life issues are overblown based on the few other devs around me that also use the new tMBP but I haven't personally asked them how long theirs last, just see they keep theirs unplugged for long periods of time too. ~~~ nottorp It's not the issue's existence that's my cause for concern, it's Apple's reaction to it. They've always had some process that went runaway and ate most of the CPU for no reason. Just the name of the process changed across hardware and software versions. The problem is, now they're removing an useful indicator to swipe the current problem (and I'm sure a large amount of people do have it) under the rug. It's this decision that worries me, not that they botched something on this laptop generation. ~~~ timemachiner You can still view estimated battery life in Activity Monitor. ~~~ nottorp Yeah? Well you need to keep Activity Monitor on all the time to check what process is eating up your CPU for no reason anyway :) ~~~ timemachiner Haha, yeah that's true! ------ Udo I'm in the process of doing this, but it's difficult. When I switched from Linux to OS X as my desktop about a decade ago, I felt at home in a way I hadn't been since the Amiga. Now the Mac platform is stagnating, and in fact becoming somewhat of a prison, in both hardware and software. There's very clearly no future here for me, but I'm switching to Linux sort-of by default, not because it's better. In many respects, it's worse. There's always Windows, which would have the benefit of a (comparatively) low- maintenance system, and I could get working versions of many apps that have been making my life easier on the Mac for some time, but the system itself feels alien to me. I'm certainly not switching to Linux on already existing Macs, because macOS hasn't become bad enough to do that, not by a long shot. What's driving the slow changeover right now is hardware. So I got a PC, and I'm running it side- by-side with a Mac via Synergy, but honestly I spend most of my time on the Mac side. When I switched to OS X it was immediate and without looking back, whereas now I'm dragging my heels. All of this makes me very unhappy. I wish more vendors would just cross- compile to all three platforms. There should be very few, if any, apps that absolutely can't exist on multiple platforms. I understand that a big part of the problem is platform-independent UI, but even that shouldn't be such a huge deal if you just take care of that from the start - instead of suddenly being in the situation where your app is so intricately interwoven with your UI toolkit that it can't be separated anymore. ~~~ tornadoboy55 The biggest issue isn't UI - GTK easily solves that. It's just that when you officially release something you have to support it. Support costs money. That isn't feasible for a ~3% market share OS. ~~~ Udo _> The biggest issue isn't UI - GTK easily solves that._ I laid out above why this doesn't solve anything for products that haven't been developed with that in mind from the start. These are the majority of commercial software. _> Support costs money. That isn't feasible for a ~3% market share OS._ That's part of the reason why many vendors didn't (and still don't) support OS X either, whereas those who did turned a tidy profit. It's _certainly_ worth it if you just charge for it. And there's always the prospect of growing your market share with an underdeveloped platform. Personally I think it's largely psychological. Vendors assume Linux users will likely not pay for professional software. But with more developers switching over that could change. ~~~ tornadoboy55 The difference is that OS X is largely used by wealthier people (that can afford the entry fee into Apple's walled garden). OS X is also a stable target. Supporting all major Linux distros would already mean distributing your app in 4+ (!) package formats. Oh, and every distro has different libraries and bugs. Then there's the problem of Linux users, who are compromised largely of tinkerers and FOSS zealots. Believe me man, I would be stoked if I could use 1Password, Alfred, Amphetamine, Karabiner, etc. on Linux but it simply isn't happening for a few more years. Ingredients needed: 1 package format (so Flatpak needs to win because most other distros will never accept Snappy packages) 1 UI kit (GTK has this bagged) 1 core set of libraries and most of all consistency. Even from LTS to LTS there shouldn't change too much. I'm pretty sure someone that's used to OS9 could pick up Sierra and be reasonably productive. Try teaching an average person Gnome 1.0 on Debian 2.1 and then drop him in Gnome 3.2 on Debian 8.6..... yeah ~~~ cbcoutinho As far as package format goes, I think it depends on the complexity of your app. Electron is making development of rather simple apps pretty straight- forward - I'm using at least 2 apps daily that are developed using Electron, and I can access them on both Linux and Windows. I'm not a really heavy application user, but I am curious about the limitations of centralizing packaging using something like Flatpak or Electron. If you try to build a program like Photoshop or Solidworks, do you run into some of the bottlenecks of those services? ~~~ tornadoboy55 Electron is a webbrowser-as-a-backend on which JS+HTML5 apps run. Photoshop is written in C++, or at least large parts of it. Plus its millions of lines of code. Adobe (or any company really) will never go to the effort (think ten- thousands of man hours) of completely rewriting Photoshop (let alone their entire Creative Suite) just so its on Electron and Linux geeks can run it. Plus, its JS- it will run like hog-shit compared to C++. And even if you hypothetically did get it somewhat performant - we need to get rid of feeling the need to run everything on Electron. Atom runs on Electron. GitKraken runs on Electron. So does WhatsApp. I don't want to spawn 5 Electron instances just to run some apps. Its just horribly inefficient. WhatsApp on OS X, a chat client, uses 500Mb memory(!). Safari with 5 tabs open uses 550Mb. Telegram, which basically does the same as WhatsApp uses 125Mb, because its written natively. What would be best is a unified repo that solely contains Flatpaks. Flatpaks contain all the libraries the application needs to work, so no more issues supporting 20 different distros. However, that will never happen: 2/3+ of Linux users are on Ubuntu and Canonical will always want control (and they want to force their own standard- Snappy packages), and the other 1/3 does not want to bend to Canonical and their weird contributor license. I've already voiced it elsewhere but (mainline) Linux could be as solid as OS X, if only there was more consistency. If almost all distros were purely Wayland+Gnome+Flatpak (and mostly on the same versions) then most companies would feel comfortable targeting that instead of the constant moving multi- target that Linux is now. ------ hydandata You have to realize that MacOS, Windows, even typical Linux Desktop is not an optimal environment for a professional programmer, or for any other computer based job which involves a lot of writing, reading and maintaining flow state. The reason is that these environments are designed with user-friendliness in mind. Now what does that mean? it means that stuff should be easy to find, simplified enough for somebody who is learning how to interact with the machine, trying to remember what, where and how. As a professional programmer you should not care at all about that. You are not a user, you are a frigging master of the computer universe. You should care about avoiding unnecessary clutter so that you can focus easier, minimizing time from thought to action to avoid breaking the flow, about flexibility so you can adapt the environment to your personal needs and increase productivity. Erik Naggum nailed it long time ago [0]. You can have a tablet and do your non-work related activities there, iOS, Windows, whatever, but when you are working use your _workstation_! if you don't have one create it. You will be amazed by how much more productive you can be, how much happier you can be. I use StumpWM, Emacs, Conkeror, Ergodox with a custom layout and blank keys, and a trackball. The only thing a "user" can do on my machine is move the pointer and pull out the power cord, but in my hands this thing flies! [0] [http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/3065048088243385@naggum....](http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/[email protected]) Edit: Let me be clear, this is my personal journey from Windows to MacOS and finally to a custom setup on Linux and the reasoning behind it. I certainly do not mean to preach. I concede that thinking hard is and always will be the main component of professional work, but perhaps from time to time we should ponder what an environment could be like if it was made for _professionals_ not for users. If we simply keep accepting what is available and let others think for us we will only get more of what Apple does and less of what might be best for us. We are not the majority of Apple users, and probably never will be, it is not in their best interest to put us ahead of them when making various decisions. ~~~ alkonaut I launch my IDE, and that is a customisable interface created specifically for developers. In my code/debug cycle it launches the desktop app I'm developing, (which is a user interface created specifically for another type of professional). I agree that ergonimics is important, especially in terms of hardware. For developers, hardware is screens and keyboards, and pointing devices. As for operating systems, window managers etc., I couldn't care less. I basically don't _use_ the OS while developing. I launch one app and that's it. I'd go so far as to say that if my IDE would run on only one OS, then my professional machine would simply run that OS. And I'd be fine with it. If I'm using XCode today but Visual Studio tomorrow, I'd be happy to switch. The IDE matters, the hardware matters, but the OS not so much. ~~~ hydandata > I'd go so far as to say that if my IDE would run on only one OS, then my > professional machine would simply run that OS My workstation _is_ my IDE. Or as close to it as I can make it. > As for operating systems, window managers etc., I couldn't care less And we should not have to. So I personally go out of the way to rid my workstation of stuff that is _not_ what I care about. ~~~ alkonaut > My workstation is my IDE. Or as close to it as I can make it. This is a point I have been making too: everyone has a "DE". Whether you integrate it yourself by tiling a text editor and a shell or two, or if emacs or Xcode does it for you doesn't matter. What matters is that when you are _in_ your development environment - it's free of distractions and promotes your workflow. When I launch an IDE, the IDE is now my window manager. I never need to leave it. Just like your OS is your development environment, the equivalent is that my IDE is my "OS" for doing work. And by the analogy that you don't want unrelated crap in your OS - an IDE is often created _only_ as a tool for professional development. So that's why I don't care if my OS looks cluttered behind my IDE, or if it comes with 100 apps I don't need. It's exactly as if your development OS was a VM running inside any other OS. When you are developing, you would not care what the host OS was. ------ k__ I found it strange that they switched from Linux to OSX in the first place. Where I started programming, every dev had a Linux machine. I remember one gig, where I had to build a site with Mac that had these metal trackpads that give you instant RSI. I thought, Macs, in a dev shop!? Did I enter the wrong door or something? But then a few people around me started using MacBooks, especially in the start-up world it's considered good taste. ~~~ kayoone Personally i came from Windows being a gamer for most of my teenager years so i used Windows to develop initially. But all solutions like using Xampp, over Linux VMs to Vagrant where painful in some way or another so i switched to Macs in 2009 and never looked back (still have a Windows Box for rare gaming). Today i run docker for my local projects but since OSX is Unix it works much better then on Windows. No with Bash on Ubuntu on Windows, this could change though and Windows could become viable again. ~~~ k__ I come from windows too. I still use it on my private PC. But I always found Linux (Xubuntu) more pleasant to use for dev purposes ------ antouank I'm happy the new MBP sucked. Saved lots of money, and I discovered Arch linux. Spent a couple of days and made a much better personalised OS environment than what OSX dictates to use. Plus, I learned lots in the process. ~~~ vi4m Until you try to do first presentation on some conference, when your connected display crashes and you start typing xrandr / fighting Wayland/xorg drivers ... I see it all the time, never happened to Macs. ~~~ whyileft Can we dial back the FUD? I present all the time with my Linux laptop that does not require any dongles to connect to HDMI, VGA and DVI projectors. Oh yeah and airplay works just fine too. Been that way for as long as I can remember. This isn't 1997. ~~~ GrinningFool 'It works for me' is not an solid basis for the opinion that OP is posting FUD. Clearly the problem exists for some subset of people, or we wouldn't be talking about it. That doesn't meant that most people encounter it - but it's still a problem. ------ satai Thge reasons of mine: \- better UI. Window management in i3 is much more usefull for me than macOS window management \- native Docker (partly solved for macOS now) \- control and security \- belief, that Apple goes the wrong direction \- HW choices \- SW I write is deployed on linux anyway ------ somecallitblues Everybody is talking about switching because the MBP is about $1000 more than they expected. But then you go and look at PC laptops and you realise that nothing out there is built like MBP. And there's seriously nothing wrong with 2013 MBP. You have to be doing something really insane to find it slow. ~~~ wineisfine The buck stops at not offering a 15" Macbook Pro WITHOUT the touchbar. Heck: they could even charge the same price for with and without -- I wouldn't care. But not even offering the option of having a normal keyboard with function keys... that's just ignorance. ~~~ mrits I bought my new MBP right before the revamp. Everyone at work was letting me know I could return it and get the new one. I was so happy I got the last good one just in time. I think this model will realistically get me through the next few years, but after that I'll seriously consider a move back to Linux or Windows. ------ drKarl > The Apple hardware and operating system have been standards for developers > for many years now. I disagree with that statement. You can argue that many developers like to use MacBooks, but from that to saying that it's standard there's a long way... > and sells overpriced hardware Apple has ALWAYS sold overpriced hardware ~~~ rorykoehler Each microprocessor is graded in the factory. Apple buys up all the highest graded chips meaning no one else can get any. ~~~ na85 What a joke. Got a source saying that the i7 I buy from Intel is somehow inferior to the one that ships in an Apple product? ~~~ rorykoehler [http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/33816/the- man...](http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/33816/the- manufacturing-and-grading-of-families-of-microprocessors) I can't find the source just now though I do remember reading about apple prebuying all perfect chips of certain classes therefore making then unavailable to the competition. Given their purchasing power I don't find this wholly inconceivable. ~~~ na85 No source, then. Okie dokie. ~~~ rorykoehler That kind of tone is not why I and most others come to Hackernews. Please refrain from it in future. I did come across this article where Cook essentially says buying these components is a company secret.... [http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/18/apple_commits_3_9_...](http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/18/apple_commits_3_9_billion_to_secret_long_term_component_contracts) ------ rswail Aside from the current Apple anti-fanboi'isms, I switched _from_ Linux on desk/laptop to OSX two years ago. I had used Linux as my desktop and my laptop OS since around 1997 in various incarnations. Stuck with Fedora 12 for any number of years, primarily because of the fear that an upgrade would kill my desktop's flash, wifi, networking, X config etc etc. Yes I should have upgraded more often, but I had better things to do. My laptop was up to date with Fedora, but I still had to dick around to get it to work with external displays, current versions of flash/java (for browser crap I had to use), the stupidities of GNOME3 etc etc. I've been using computers since 1976, I'm sick of mucking around with them just to make something work when I'm trying to do work. Around 2 years ago, I started developing for iOS/Android and had no choice in using a Mac desktop (Mini i7). At first I hated it, but then, everything just works. When it came time to upgrade my laptop, early last year, buying a Retina MBP was an easy decision. As for upgrading it, I'll wait a generation, this round of upgrades was inhibited by Intel's lack of progress on Kaby Lake and Apple's fetish for changing connectors. By the time I upgrade (probably 2 years from now), USB-C/3.1G2/TB3 will be fairly ubiquitous. Docks will be available, good 5K monitors with USB-C to power the laptop. The current crap about only getting 16GB and not being worth the money is just that. Don't buy one. Get a 2015 MBP if that floats your boat. It has effectively the same performance without the "limitation" of USB-C. Have I dicked around with OSX? Yes, I run Karabiner, firefox, magicprefs etc. Reading these comments I found Alfred. But when I install these apps, they install, they work as advertised. Macports has everything I need to get a GNU like env, including latest versions of bash etc. It does it cleanly in /opt and doesn't screw around where Apple wants to lock things down (/usr etc). My MBP sits on my desk closed attached to dual monitors that just work. When I take it on the road, it works when I plug it in to a projector at a meeting. It's a workhorse. I can muck around for fun on a linux VM or on AWS. ------ tluyben2 I am using both Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac OS X all the time. The annoyance on Linux for me is very minimal; basically only the lack of iOS dev. If I can fix that somehow I would never use anything else. A while ago i installed Qemu with Mac OS X and that kind of worked, but was way too slow. Advantage is that USB ports work. Without that I will have to use both; if I dev for Android/Web/Desktop then I use my Ubuntu laptop; for iOS I open up my MacBook. Hope that will change in the future. ------ EtienneK Biggest problem for me is that it's too big of an issue to try and get my (Blizzard) games to work on Linux. Yes, it's possible - and I have done it before - but it's just so much easier with macOS. macOS gives me that good balance between Windows (for play) and Linux (for work). ~~~ chx Increasingly the solution is vfio: have a gaming video card in the system and pass it on to a Windows VM exclusively. So Linux runs on Intel IGP which is fairly painless and the game gets a powerful videocard. ~~~ jjn2009 This works surprisingly well. I have a xeon chip which probably helps but its great to have this flexibility ~~~ chx The abundance of cheap older Xeons also help. You can get an Intel board, 128GB DDR3 ECC RAM, two 2670 Xeons (SR0KX stepping which fixes VT-d) for $580 altogether either separately off eBay or in one kit from natex. That's an excellent base for such a development - gaming machine. And now there's even a decent yet cheap SSI EEB chassis, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro for only $100. (Nope, Rosewill cases do not count as decent, sorry.) ------ ssijak Simple stuff that should work 100% of the time without bugs and without me needing to intervene work on osx like they should. On linux there is always some little problem that bugs you from time to time, or some inconsistency, or some app that does not work, etc etc. Nothing that I can not sort out (I mainly use Arch linux when I use it on the desktop, on servers Ubuntu and Centos), but at a point in time, I started valuing my time much more so I switched to OSX for developer machine. ------ johndoe4589 Are they? Are you kidding me? Putting all controversies aside, OS X is a much better finished product. Which is also why the latest elementaryOS posts on Medium are kind of cringy. One moment the author says how Apple users are disatisfied that Apple may be abandoning powerful desktops, next moment he emphasizes how you can install Linux on any laptop.. starting with your Macbook. LOL? As if replacing the OS on the same hardware is going to solve the disatisfaction of a power user? And installing a much more broken, inconsistent collection of constantly broken packages? WHich you need to updated CONSTANTLY. If you don't like Windows updates, man, Linux is even worse. Every friggin day there are updates, they are all somehow VERY important, and they are all potential bombs that will fuck up your config or break some apps you installed. Fuck, I'm running a _LTS_ version and I still get updtes everyday, probably for completely insignificant fixes. I think I may end up installing Linux again on a partition because my Ubuntu VM is too sluggish for front end dev (especially CSS animations/transitions) but I would never expect that to be a better solution that straight up OS X. ------ dom0 > The Apple hardware and operating system have been standards for developers > for many years now. I think this is yet-another kind of bubble people submerge themselves in. ~~~ lallysingh Lots of places are heavy Mac, even when they only develop server side software to run on Linux. The laptops are well behaved, low maintenance, have good UIs, and have good support. ~~~ gpderetta I still don't understand why one would use a laptop as their main development environment instead of a proper workstation (more cores, more ram, larger disks). ~~~ jslabovitz My workstation is an 11" Macbook Air, and has been for years. For what I do -- mostly Ruby, some C, some shell -- it's perfect. I fullscreen everything, and switch between apps with cmd-tab. I avoid or have disabled most macOS GUI features. 4 cores is fine. 8GB is fine, though having a couple hundred open tabs in Safari slows things down a tad. If I need to do something requiring more screen space, like an InDesign layout or a SketchUp design, I just cable up an external monitor & keyboard. Simple, straightforward, no stress. ------ ohstopitu I used to depend on OS X for Sketch and iOS dev, but with the release of Figma, that has changed quite a bit. I do hope that Figma would release an Linux app to use system fonts and allow for upload of slack files that use weird fonts for example. Apart from that (and iOS development), Linux is a perfect dev environment (ofc we still need a few more apps like a good gui git client - I use Fork on mac and I love it), but Gitkranen can be a situable alternative till a good client comes along. Seriously though, if someone is willing to offer XCode over the web, or even a cheap dedicated vm (most VMs i've seen are insanely expensive for what they provide), that'd be great Figma - [https://www.figma.com](https://www.figma.com) Fork - [https://git- fork.com/](https://git-fork.com/) ------ slitaz There is choice now for good high-end laptops that come with Ubuntu. The Dell XPS13, the system76 and others. ------ ciconia I think in the current climate _choosing_ macOS over other alternatives has become a much less alluring option. On the contrary, in many ways the choice of OS has become a much less of a big of a deal than it was. Many development platforms and frameworks today have a good cross-OS story (notable exception: Apple's developer tools). In that respect OS's have become much more of a commodity product. As long as they can host your developer tools and frameworks, they can do the job. Even Windows today offers a pretty good experience for developers, and it's remarkable that Microsoft is actually working hard to make Windows a good alternative to MacOS _and_ Linux. ------ rbanffy People worry too much about the flavor of Unix they are using. I didn't switch - I have - and use - both Linux (a Dell laptop, an Acer "netbook", a Lenovo "server") and macOS (an rMBP, a Mini) and, quite frankly, there is no real difference. The rMBP is an awesome laptop - light, fast, great screen, but the Dell feels faster and the Acer is lighter (and much, much cheaper). The trackpad on the Acer and Dell annoy me. I don't trust HFS (been bitten by silent corruption more than once) Like I said before, people worry way too much about the program they use to run their terminals and text editors. If it has a Unix-like environment, even Windows (I prefer Cygwin) works. ------ tomelders So this is finally the year that Linux will take over. Again. I see no evidence that dev's are switching to Linux for their dev machine. And this recent peak in anti-apple sentiment stinks to me of the same mentality that led to Britain leaving the EU and Trump becoming president. It goes along the lines of... "This thing isn't perfect by the definition of perfect that matters to me. So I declare it to be fundamentally and irrevocably broken. It should be thrown away and everyone should do this other ill thought through thing that I like" There's a case to be made for Linux, but if your case is always presented with an "Apple sucks" pre-amble, then I think you're really just a fanboy. ~~~ echion Wait, you're tarring op with Brexit and Trump, but op's the fanboy? [edit] To be fair, op/article mention no statistics to support the assertion that "developers are switching from Mac OS X to Linux", so on that basis I think it's fair to say the piece is pretty anecdotal or fluffy. But there are plenty of reasons why people switch from OS X to Linux (see other comments, for example [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13317879](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13317879) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13317234](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13317234) ). ~~~ fetbaffe Current anti-javascript sentiment that is going on? Yes, you guessed it, Trumpism. Oh, you don't like React? Damn Brexiteer! Future is here. ~~~ Pigo Pepe and the alt-right promote Android, everyone knows this. We're just smart enough to ignore fake-news and see Apple is still king. This is classic.. ------ bsaunder I am such a developer. Just moved from an older MPB to a (soon-to-be) Linux (Ubuntu) laptop. Always preferred Linux as my primary OS, but liked Apple hardware and OSX when I didn't feel like fiddling with things. For me it was a complex calculation (in no particular order): -Increasing annoyance by subtle changes to various native mac apps. -Migration of OSX towards more of a Windows, hiding details from the user. -Wanting a machine with NVidia GTX 1070 to explore 3D and ML. -Apple's migration towards a fully soldered machine. -Removal of ports and DVD drive. -The Apple premium is too out of whack. I settled for an Acer Predator 17": [https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator- model/NH.Q17A...](https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator- model/NH.Q17AA.001) Essentially: -i7 CPU -NVidia GTX 1070 GPU -16B RAM (now 32GB, with $100 of RAM) -1TB HD -256GB SSD -1920x1080 display -CD/DVD burner -11 ports for stuff It was on sale at MicroCenter for an unbeatable price. The downsides: - its a beast (almost 10 pounds, and 18" - not sure it will fit under an airline seat, needed to buy a larger backpack). - its a "gamer" laptop... with all the tacky red lights and styling deemed necessary by marketing. - the display isn't as nice, but more than sufficient for my needs I've booted from the Ubuntu Live disk and seems to get up and running with minimal issues, not sure how long the road is to get this fully functional with Linux. I strongly considered a System76 laptop, but was ultimately persuaded by the value of this hardware. Ideally I'd like to just by a laptop with a preinstalled and supported hypervisor where I could trivially install any OS image I'd like (preferably in a way that would let me seamlessly run in either a cloud (AWS) or my local device). If I can slog though it, my ultimate plan is to get things running on here with a minimal arch linux as the hypervisor. Not looking forward to dealing with all the driver pain. ~~~ Fnoord Agreed with most of the disadvantages. Your processor is also quicker / more power efficient. 16 GB DDR4 will impact the battery life negatively, while 1920x1080 display will impact it positively. Both have their price. The weight of your laptop is more than 2 times the weight of the 15" MBP 2015, approx 1,5 times the weight of a 15" MBP 2010, and roughly 2,5 times the weight of a 15" MBP 2016 (there is no 17" MBP anymore.) DVD drive or burner I won't miss. I would've removed it from my old MBP 2010, but I am afraid it will cause instability. Its also a bit tricky to remove. 1 TB HDD is also IMO pointless. I just use networking if I need to access data. WiFi is quick enough. A major advantage of your beast is the graphics card. If I'd find that important (I don't) I'd consider a eGPU. Regarding bad battery life, if a device uses USB-C I can see power banks being useful in that regard. Good luck, hope to read from you how it works out for you. ------ titraprutr The title of this article should rather be: "Why I switched from Mac OS to Linux?" ------ abalashov I've been using Linux on the desktop since age 11, so about twenty years. I guess I missed the whole Apple excitement? ~~~ 3131s Since age 17 for me, so about 11 years. I would use Linux even if I thought it were less capable than MacOS / Windows. I don't think that though -- Linux is awesome and somehow I have spent very little time dealing with the problems that others in this thread claim are so common. ~~~ abalashov Yeah, I don't know, maybe I'm just lucky, but I haven't had to spend much time getting hardware to work in recent years. Certainly not on Ubuntu. It really does Just Work. I run Arch nowadays and that is certainly not as turn-key as Ubuntu, but there's just too much "magic" in Ubuntu and I was tired of it. But Apple folks should like that sort of thing... ------ pps I'm using both OS X and Linux Mint every day since 2012 (and before that Windows & Ubuntu I don't even know how long). There is no way for me to switch completely to Linux, it is just not enough, I'm working WAY faster in OS X, and the experience is so much more pleasurable. ------ Insanity > you simply have to look around during workshops and speakings to see 90% of > Apple systems Are these perhaps apple events? But seriously, that numbers seems hugely exagerated, at least from the events I have been at. He is probably talking about a specific field for these talks, but this is quite a silly statement imo. ~~~ kayoone when i go to startup events/meetups it's not uncommon to see 80% Apple laptops. ~~~ Insanity I have not been at events related to startups. Thank you for giving some insights into where they might use that many apple laptops. The events hosted by my former university have a _few_ macs, but mostly I see people running Linux or Windows. And then there are the microsoft-oriented events, but it is safe to say these do not count here :-) ~~~ therealmarv Go to USA, maybe some Google conferences (or look at Google employees): You will mostly see only mac people! ------ kayoone Long term i don't think many will switch away from OSX, at least i don't see anyone complaining around me and most happily use macs. Sure there will be some, but i don't think it's significant. Those who prefer Linux have always used Linux anyway. ------ raspasov Have we reached peak Apple hate yet? ~~~ wineisfine I don't think it's hate - at all, it's rather: dissapointment. So far, Apple didn't do anything malicious or evil, they just majorly underperformed to our audience. ~~~ raspasov Eh, maybe - I just remember being wrong myself about things like the iPad, for example. There was a ton of "it's just an oversized iPhone" speak everywhere but it turned out to be a pretty successful product (not better than iPhone but still successful by most standards). Right now there's a ton of "dongle catastrophe" speak. Not saying that we should not demand more and better from Apple but I think many of the complaints are not very warranted. For example, I don't know why people are complaining that MacOS has "suffered" compared to iOS. In my opinion, the latest Sierra version is way better than Lion for example. ------ franciscop I was considering buying a MacBook Air few years back to install Linux. However, I decided in the end to go for the Zenbook Prime at the time for slightly better characteristics in all departments EXCEPT in battery life. It was a great decision. Now I'm on the Asus UX305CA which is great in all departments including battery life EXCEPT it doesn't have a backlit keyboard. It is like every time Asus fixes a thing they screw a new thing. Now that Apple is catching up, unless Asus/others release a good ultrabook by the end of this year my next computer might just be a Mac. The future is going to be made of USB Type-C so I want my next computer to bet heavy on those, including charging. ------ _ZeD_ better question: why were developers on Mac OS X to begin with? Honestly I think even Windows is a better os from a developer point of view. ~~~ out_of_protocol As a fellow developer i say: Development on Windows is really REALLY painful. Any *nix is so much better. I chose OSX because it's "okay linux distro" ;) not real linux but close enough on practice ~~~ alkonaut > As a fellow developer i say: Development on Windows is really REALLY > painful. I think the statement really is "development in a unix/linux _style_ on windows is really painful". If you like doing development with text editors and shells and have any tools that are command-line only then yes - it sucks on windows. Windows development in an IDE is usually just fine, not to mention that it's often exactly the same as running the same IDE on linux. ~~~ hackits I found that for my development pipeline that GIT (SSH)/Conemu together worked out really well on windows. Considering that vast majority of the time I'm connected via a shell to a Linux mainframe and or cluster does it really matter what I ssh into as long as its a working console? ------ konart Might as well right why they are switching from Linux to OS X, Windows or something else. I've been using Ubuntu up until 10.10 (if I'm not mistaken) and then Arch (for about 4 years). In the last two years I've gone from Android+Linux to full Apple. The reasons were: 1) At the time there was no notebook that could compare with MBPr (late 2013 in my case). Yes, you could have find some with the same hardware and even same size\weight, but I haven't hold a single one of them that wouldn't creak. Macbooks are build to be with you all them time. Other companies build them to be compact alternative to your desktop. From what I've seen - nothing really changed since then. 2) Free\opensouce\etc shit. Don't get me wrong - free is good, opensource is awesome, freedom is what all people need. But not the price it comes to your sometimes. Sometime free can be more expensive, opensource can be more binding. One of the reasons to live linux was the number of forks of all the libs and utils in the system. Every now and then some team splits or somebody decides his new chrome and shiny fork is something people need and voila! you have a zoo of this shit. Because the very next day some projects will split because they can't come to agreement about what lib to be using now. This is not a bliss, this is madness. When it comes to my user experience - I don't care what lib does mpv uses and can use, or... whatever. I only care if it does the job as well as before and I don't what all of the said forks in my system, this is a mess. 3) As soon as I got my MBPr I realised I want to try the so called BIG A ECOSYSTEM and bought an iPhone 6 on my birthday (my bd was on the same day the phone came to my country). I was amazed by the level of comfort. Everything works out of the box, the god damn design is always consistent[1], no need to dive into python (or something else) to seamlessly use your phone with your computer. Yes, this comes at a price - without jailbreaking you are tied to your apps, services etc. You can't just upload your music to your phone via usb and some other things, but there are solutions. ONE TIME SOLUTIONS, LINUX!, not one week prior the next update ones. ~~~ oliwarner I'm a little bit bemused by your description in #2 as the open source ecosystem as a zoo. It is what you make of it. If _you_ pick brand new shiny things from unproven teams at war with their sourcecode's origin community, you're going to see some churn. You moved from the relative stability of Ubuntu to the _constant_ churn of Arch, which suggests you've missed the point of cadence distributions. Newer is often not automagically better. We've been using and developing with and deploying on Ubuntu for years now. It's not the zoo you describe — though you are _free_ to make it one with poor choices. ~~~ konart Well, I was prepared to see something like this, unfortunatelly I didn't really had time or desire to write a more detailed response. No, that's not what _I_ made of it, but _them_ I went from Ubuntu to Arch becase they desided they are now the coolers kids in the town and started to introduce shit like Unity and other things. Be the time 10.10 came out - I had to rebuild 1/3 of the system to make it as nice (in my opinion) as it should be and as it was up until they decided to fuck it up (again - just my opinion). Anyway - Arch was the best thing I could find among all other distros. Modular approach, KISS, very easy to install and maintain. The problem (both with Ubuntu and Arch, mind you) comes not with what you described as "new shiny things from unproven teams" or "Newer is often not automagically better.". Here is an example for you. At some point Jim was using program A for audio editing and program B for video editing. A used some libA library and B uses libraries libA and libB (among many others). At some point something happened inside the team of libA and now we have libAa and libAb. They have some differences (obviously). Now the teams of A and B have to decided what library to use. Fighting among them leads to new arguments about functionality and other this and two new forks appear. So now we have programs Aa, Ab, Ba and Bb. Now Jim, as a use of their previous versions had to chose what to use from this moment onwards and sometimes, it happens so that he needs all the functionality that B had, but not it is torn between Ba and Bb. So by the end of the day he has two forks of B installed, one fork of A, two libraries that do the same thing and he is praying nothings starts to get in conflict with the others. And this happens all the time. >We've been using and developing with and deploying on Ubuntu for years now. This makes it sound like you are talking about something that works as a server for services or software you deploy. I'm talking about using linux at home as working\media machine, not as a server. The latter has no such problems (not to this extent at least) ~~~ oliwarner I don't think you have the correct measure of me. I use Linux everywhere. I'm a user. A developer. An Ubuntu member. An advocate. I help people for free (Oli on Ask Ubuntu and #Ubuntu) and I also professionally deploy desktops and servers and kiosks and single-purpose boxes, and write software at all levels (kernel to user interface). I sympathise with desktop nomads but _all_ desktop environments (closed and open) are opinionated. You didn't like Ubuntu's. Neither did I; I moved to Kubuntu. Literally a single meta-package swap, no rebuilding necessary. I find it curious that you're allowed an opinion about desktops but the developers who write your software aren't about the software they use. Moreover, in a maintained ecosystem (eg Ubuntu) end users don't really have to worry about build deps. Yeah the confusion between (eg) libav and ffmpeg can really draw on but mostly things just work. apt install this and that and it doesn't matter if that's Aa or Ab. As long as A installs the user is happy. It's the maintainer's problem to keep that going. Even on Arch —where you are exposed to more of this— the community is usually pretty decent at fixing builds. Now as a developer (and maintainer) _I_ get pissed off when my libraries change their deps but that really has nothing to do with my operating system, or even the concept of open source. It is what it is and it's built into my workflow. ~~~ konart I don't even try to measure you (not in any bad way at least :) ) >I find it curious that you're allowed an opinion about desktops but the developers who write your software aren't about the software they use. Well, first of all, I am a developer, just as they are and by any sane logic - they are allowed to have an opinion as much as I am. What you are describing (from my point of view at least) - is something similar to Garbage Collector. Yeah, garbage is not okay, but we have GC to deal with it. My point is - I don't like garbage in my room at all. Even with GC doing it's job - sometimes 'things' do happen. And yes - you are right about the community part. This is one of the best things about linux, actually. Chances are as high as they can be that problem will be reported, documented (in some way) and fixed rather quickly. You can't compare Arch's forum (which did me more help even while I was pretty new to Ubuntu, ironically) to Apple's forums and most of the 'have you tried to reset your Mac's SMC & PRAM?" posts on the web. >to do with my operating system, or even the concept of open source But it's still part of it, face it. The fact that it is built into your workflow does not change this fact. I'm not advocating for moving from open to proprietary, I'm just saying, that some people would rather prefer a system, that offers closed code, that just works. Apple did this and you still have the same opportunity to build and used open source on their system. I had apt-get and pacman, now I have brew. But I don't have to worry about some configs in my system I'd rather not know about at all. ~~~ oliwarner > I'm just saying, that some people would rather prefer a system, that offers > closed code, that just works. Apple did this Again, I don't see why that only applies to open source. I've implemented both open source and proprietary software that have changed how they work after upgrades. Both have also provided long-term support on older versions to work the old way. When I say I build this into my workflow, the basis for this is understanding how the software I depend on is maintained. Things like Ubuntu, Django, Nginx, Postgres all have long and predictable lives if you opt into that. I can deploy something on 16.04 today an still deploy it on 16.04 in 2021. The infrastructure will have received security updates, but the APIs remain static. My software will continue to work as it always did. That's also how you'd aim to do it with proprietary software but you can still make bad decisions. If you insist on staying on the very latest everything (instead of opting for long term support versions) you will have to test and upgrade your application a lot more frequently. Just to round on Apple here, they're not perfect at this either. They make no commitment to how long their software will be supported and on average versions of OS X are supported around ⅔ the time Ubuntu LTS versions are. Ubuntu (or RHEL) are far better bases if you require a predictable and long- lasting product. ------ beagle3 I'm trying to move from Linux to OS X (after using Linux exclusively for the last 12 years, win/lin before that), and I keep hitting things which feel wrong, like dropping .DS_store files on every directory visited, the 30-minute please-wait-while-we-upgrade-your-kernel which seems to happen more often than once a month. And I have not yet since anything that wowwed me. Linux for me "just works" and has done so for a decade. Am I missing something? Is there are a MacOS secret tweak utility that would get rid of these annoyances? asepsis stopped working on Sierra. ------ 72deluxe Things missing for me on Linux: Logic Pro X (no Ardour doesn't cut it, sorry. I even subscribed for a while). Xcode (for iPhone/iPad development. KDevelop and Geany or Nemiver, CodeBlocks etc. isn't going to cut it, sorry). Ability to AirPlay to my AppleTV 3rd gen. Does anyone know anything I can easily broadcast to from a video inside a web page? On Safari or Quicktime I just have to click the airplay icon. For reference, I write C++ for my dayjob and for fun (who doesn't??) ~~~ Filligree > Xcode (for iPhone/iPad development. KDevelop and Geany or Nemiver, > CodeBlocks etc. isn't going to cut it, sorry). For iPhone development I'm sure you need a mac, but if you want an IDE, look no further than IDEA. It's much better than Xcode in general, and does have a C++ plugin. (Of course.) > Ability to AirPlay to my AppleTV 3rd gen. Does anyone know anything I can > easily broadcast to from a video inside a web page? On Safari or Quicktime I > just have to click the airplay icon. Chromecast. ~~~ chippy > For iPhone development I'm sure you need a mac I'm wondering, can one use a VM? ~~~ nathan_f77 Yes, it is technically possible. Search for "hackintosh". However, there's no way to do it legally. It violates the Apple EULA. If you ever get in trouble and take it to court, Apple will probably win: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psystar_Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psystar_Corporation) ------ tzury Here is my setup (switched from ThinkPads/Ubuntu to MBP 5 years ago). MacBook Pro with Ubuntu Server in VirtualBox. All git repositories, runtime env. is linux. Editing is done with my Editor of choice over SSHFS, editing linux files directly. This is the very best setup I have had for decades (yep, I am that old...). No current Linux distro can beat Apple when it comes to stability and peripherals support. Yet, my actual work is still runs on a native Linux as I like. ~~~ sevagh Is it native Linux or VirtualBox? ------ rumcajz Somehow tangential, but OSX is pain to develop for. I am running Linux on my laptop. If I want to test my project on OSX I would have to buy an Apple box. So, in the end, I am left with Travis CI, which I am using in 60's way, like a timesharing system (change code, submit, wait till it compiles, check errors, iterate). All in all, it not much better than targetting Windows. ------ markplindsay I am ready to do this whenever a viable alternative for Sketch becomes available for Linux. I already run a Ubuntu VM full-time for development. Only using VirtualBox for Microsoft's IE VMs would be great. I suppose I could also run Illustrator in Windows, but 2 out of 3 of the designers I work with regularly have embraced Sketch, so I might be out of luck with that plan anyway. ------ a_lifters_life I used to be a complete apple fan boy...until my $2,500 MacBook pro completely bit the dust (less than 4 years old). Instead, I built a $500 Ubuntu rig(desktop), and bought a $200 chromebook and put Ubuntu on it. Needless to say, a month or two ago this happened, and I'll NEVER spend $xxxx again on a MacBook again. ------ Zigurd I recently switched in the opposite direction because I have a greater need of using Xcode than I have of compiling Android. I'll probably install and configure Ubuntu from scratch now that I don't have continuing need of stable toolchains on it. But, for now, I'm liking MacOS better. ------ greenspot I code and I like huge, crisp screens. Minimum two or better three. One for the code, one for testing and one for API docs. If those monitors are hi-dpi, even better (or rather a must in 2016). With the new MBP 15 I can drive... 2x 5k 27" screen + the internal one. _No other notebook can do this._ Most struggle already with 2x 4K monitors. ------ gjvc Fedora 25 is solid and compatible enough. ------ SirJohnFalstaff I am surprised that nobody mentinoted poor quality of LLDB and especially its integration with Python for scripting. Along with absence of tiling window manager these will be my only complaints when using Mac as development environment. ------ phreack I would love switching away from the royal pain that is OSX and the increasingly worse MacBooks, but alas, I work in iOS development and making a hackintosh is too much of a gray area and fragile. I hate that lock in. ------ hoodoof No one said they are. This article makes the assertion with pure zero facts to back it up. ------ cxromos The only thing that makes me wonder is how this piece got 168 points (at the moment of writing this). I hope YC is not going to catch populism (mediocracy) that being a 'trend'. ------ shams93 I see more young developers on Chromebooks and that's not because they hate Apple it's because the la tech marketplace hates to pay them enough to afford a MacBook pro ------ Bladtman Are there any of those just-now-or.recently-switching devs in here? It would be interesting to hear their opinion, rather than guesswork. ~~~ hookshot This is my first week back on Linux after using OSX for ~4 years. I switched because it's cheaper. I needed more power and building a Linux desktop is way cheaper than buying Mac hardware. So far: KDE is incredibly nice. I'm pretty blown away. Aesthetically I actually like it more than Aqua. The file manager is nice, the terminal is fine, there is a spotlight style search, virtual desktops, pretty much everything I would miss moving from OSX. I miss 1Password the most. Right now I'm using a CLI client (passcards) to access my 1Password vault. I haven't setup notes yet but it seems like there are decent Notational Velocity alternatives. Relearning muscle memory to use CTRL instead of CMD is painful. I'm wasting a lot of time tweaking keyboard shortcuts. ~~~ Bladtman Interesting. So for you the change was on desktop, not laptops. What changed you mind wrt price? I wasn't under the impression that apple computers have gotten more expensive than they were before? ------ djhworld I'm too entrenched in OSX to move, to put it bluntly. I have bought a lot of software that is OSX only ------ HugoDaniel If you are a web developer how do you test for safari outside of OSX ? ~~~ _ZeD_ I personally just ignore safari altogether. It's a "zero point something percent" of the clients in my works. ~~~ therealmarv Seems you are not working on world wide mobile reachable websites where e.g. most of US users are browsing with Safari. ~~~ GordonS _most_ US users? Really? ~~~ therealmarv taken the fact that many people nowadays surf only on mobile look here for yourself: [http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-US- monthly-201512-...](http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-US- monthly-201512-201612) ------ davout Try "brew install valgrind", you'll understand. ------ diimdeep Alan Kay: 'People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.' This is why no one not even close to macOS and Macbook synergy. ------ dorian-graph Betteridge's law of headlines—and this article seems to have no substance either, a couple of sentences and then some links to some other blogs. ------ k0dede Typical Hacker news BullSHIT. Start with a 'WHY', lets make a discussion about nonsense ------ st3v3r Isn't the new MBP one of the best selling laptops of recent? And I'm honestly not seeing anything in the little blurb of an article that states concretely that this is happening in significant numbers. ------ jhoechtl Mac is overpriced and hyperbole. All the innovation happens in Linux these days. Except for overpaid fanboys which can brag around how cool they are, Macs make no sense from a developer perspective.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: DevDash, highly configurable terminal dashboard for developers - thanato0s https://github.com/Phantas0s/devdash ====== thanato0s I released some months ago DevDash, a side project in Go to create terminal dashboards, in order to gather the data I need, as a developer, into the terminal. I was annoyed to switch between multiple tabs in my browser to see everything I wanted to see. Since I have a blog and side projects, I developed DevDash to get data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Github and Travis. The difference with other terminal dashboards out there is the configuration. You can push it pretty far, you can even use it to do custom call to the Google Analytics API and render the result in a widget. Any feedback are welcome! If you want some new functionality for DevDash, don't hesitate to open a pull request to speak about it, or to simply let a comment here.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to be a hacker - amadeuspzs http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/27/how-to-be-a-hacker ====== grannyg00se I thought this was going to be about bash, vi, SICP, cryptanalysis, emacs, asm, or maybe something about 3d printers, or fpgas, or soldering fine point smd ICs onto home stenciled PCBs. This isn't about being a hacker at all. It's about doing some entry level penetration testing with a software suite designed for that purpose. ~~~ yogo That was also my initial takeaway. To me hacking is about understanding how it all works. Using a tool isn't a problem but the guy that wrote the tool is a hacker, and you're only a hacker if you understand what it is you're doing well enough that you can solve unfamiliar problems that the tool doesn't already cover. Otherwise you are going to get stumped, which translates into getting caught. To look at it another way: installing wordpress with some plugins doesn't make you a web developer. Edit: I took this article's bait but I realized afterwards that this was all to ride off the recent Target fiasco. ~~~ smonff Hacking meaning is complex. For me it means something ingenious, a way of creating or using a tool in a round about way. It's not even necessarily about computers. But it involves most of the time _creative uses of technology_. I mean, an passionate girl or boy can be a hacker, you don't even need a computer: electronic, craft, artists, vintage device, bicycles, motorbikes, food, biology, DNA, politics, sextoys, any activity field can be hacked. If you use the penetration kit out of the box like you are supposed to do, I don't see any hacking here (even if it allows you to penetrate in a prestigious "open system"). In the opposite, if you hack a bit and can prove that you can open a car door with a computer and a network penetration tool, it start to be interesting. Hacking is a huge field. Restrain it to computer networks rides is not fair, even if historically, it has been much more used by networks and telecoms people. I think hackers are also people who create inestimable wealth. People who create a compiler, that will make possible for others to create languages, that will allow others to create tools, etc. are very strange. Why do they do that? Not because their boss ask them for. A programming language is useless as far as you hadn't create something with it. Creation and hacking are very similar things. ~~~ yogo I agree, it shouldn't be limited to computers. ------ vezzy-fnord "How to be a script kiddie" is more apt of a title. This is embarrassing to actual infosec specialists and penetration testers. ------ sdfjkl You're not a hacker until a hacker calls you a hacker. ([http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker- howto.html#hacker_alread...](http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker- howto.html#hacker_already)) ~~~ artolus Then who was the first hacker? ~~~ ne0phyte Doesn't matter. If there is no hacker you can call yourself a hacker without any other hacker complaining :D ------ RankingMember 'Eye of the beholder, as always. To my grandmom, I'm an elite weapons-grade hacker because I hit Ctrl-B to bold something in MSWord rather than clicking the button for it. ~~~ atmosx Totally. For all my real life friends I am beyond comparison when it comes to computers. Reading people's comments around here or on SO makes me think I know nothing... ~~~ sockrateeze The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. ------ dobbsbob Step 1: go on IRC Step 2: change nick by adding 0x in front of your regular nym Congrats you're a hacker ~~~ X-Istence Interestingly enough that won't work. IRC nicknames are not allowed to start with a number. My alternative nickname from X-Istence is 0x58, and on IRC I go by x58... ------ yawz Oh my God! The secret is out. We're no longer safe! ------ sejje It's trivially easy to be a hacker, but luckily it's also trivially easy to defeat would-be hackers by keeping your computer up-to-date... Right. ------ faffi Yes, using nmap, metasploit and meterpreter totally makes you a hacker. ~~~ jesalas Not even Norton can protect you from those tools. I think you need to re- evaluate what you think you know about hacking. ~~~ atmosx Hmmm norton can not, but PF & SNORT can ;) Seriously 'security' and 'Microsoft' do not play well in the same sentence. ------ alan_cx People, take note... This article was written for Guardian readers, not the elite HN hacking corps. ~~~ sbuk Since there are a number of links to Guardian articles posted here daily, I'd argue that the 'elite HN hacking corps' and Guardian readers are the same thing. ------ throwwit Unfortunately, a poorly thought through article. This article seems to only promote FUD regarding information security. I hope the overall goal of creating robust systems is not lost by calling out certain tools. Security through obscurity is not security. ------ jonas_b Serious question: how insecure is Mac OS X to this kind of stuff? ~~~ coolsunglasses How up-to-date with patches is that Mac OS X? Safari doesn't have a great track record. ------ angersock I'm going to put up 7 firewalls and buy a dog. ~~~ maerF0x0 unplug the computer, stick it in a vault and hire armed guards. ~~~ dllthomas ... and hope no one bribes the guards. ------ Gwen_Bell Real hackers know Git. If you don't know Git, you don't know Shit. Am I right fellow hackers??? ~~~ UNIXgod Only if your name is Mel: [http://foldoc.org/The+Story+of+Mel,+a+Real+Programmer](http://foldoc.org/The+Story+of+Mel,+a+Real+Programmer) [http://www.wps.com/J/LGP-21/mel-the- programmer.html](http://www.wps.com/J/LGP-21/mel-the-programmer.html) The man didn't even use patch or diff! Now _git_ off my lawn kid!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
SSH tip: Automatic Reverse Tunnels for Workflow Simplification - tswicegood http://codysoyland.com/2010/jun/6/ssh-tip-automatic-reverse-tunnels-workflow-simplif/ ====== lazyant Or you can just use the SSH filesystem: # apt-get install sshfs # sshfs server:/remote_dir /local_dir ~~~ shmichael Very inefficient for commands such as find. ------ pilif I might be a fossil, but this is what I'm using screen/sz for, because that even works if I don't have an SSH daemon running on my local machine. Configure screen with zmodem catch and then ssh to the remote server from inside screen. If you found the file you wanted, issue sz <name of file> on the server. Screen will see the ZModem transfer and ask you where to store the file. ------ bnoordhuis Same but without having to edit your .ssh/config: ssh -R localhost:2222:localhost:22 remote scp -P 2222 /path/to/file localhost:~ ~~~ glabifrons ...and if you forget to enter the setup string during the initial connection, at any time during your ssh session into the remote system, you can enter ~C then the setup string. So, to use the above port settings, when you find your file, you just type: ~CR2222:localhost:22 remote Then you can issue the scp command just as above, or... if on Solaris (or using an old OpenSSH on "remote"): scp -o Port=2222 file.tgz localhost: ------ tlack Is there any way to get this transparently persisted to all of your SSH connections, no matter how deep you tunnel? Something like the way $DISPLAY is transmitted? That would be amazingly useful if so. I tend to do a lot of work bouncing around from one host to another and the ability to quickly "jump back" and reference my starting point would be incredible. ------ surki On a related note, if you want to keep the connections open and get reconnected automatically on disconnection, try this autossh <http://www.harding.motd.ca/autossh/> So I have something like autossh -f -N -R 2222:localhost:22 home -S "none" at my work machine(put into startup script), so I can always get back to the work machine from home. ------ mjs Nice tip! One small problem: if I set .ssh/config to do the RemoteForward, if I open up two shells to the same host, the second shell complains that it can't set up the remote forward (because the first shell has already set it up). Of course it's not necessary for the remote forward to be established twice--is there any way to get the port forwarding set up once, and only once, for a given host? ~~~ JoachimSchipper You can get this as a side effect of multiplexing connections, see ControlMaster in ssh_config. Multiplexing connections also makes opening a second connection to the same host _much_ faster, so it's usually worthwhile on its own. (Note that it's not perfect: in particular, the first connection to a host remains open until all collections have been closed. This is being worked on, IIRC.) ------ Sidnicious There have been a number of posts lately about closing the ssh/scp gap, and with great reason. It's stupid annoying to find a file on a remote machine that you want locally (or vice versa) and have to open a new shell and start mucking around with paths. Instead of all these hacks, it would be awesome to see support for in-session file transfer built into ssh/sshd. ~~~ sjf This doesn't require any external tools, you just have to set up the config files. I think this is about as close to 'built in' support as you are going to get. ------ yogsototh For this problem: scp $(ssh remote find -name 'fic.tar.gz') . seems simpler. But of course there are another advantages to be able to contact the local computer from the remote. ------ drivebyacct I know it's OT, but I have a PC that is behind a firewall that I have no control over. I have a public server that I run/control. Can I use SSH to create a tunnel so that I can hit publicserver.com:port and have it route through a ssh tunnel initiated from my firewall'ed private computer? ~~~ drats If I remember rightly, issue this type of command at the private computer. ssh -R 1234:privatecomputer:22 user@publicserver So it's: secureshell, reversed, publicport to privatemachine:port, authentication+address for public machine. Then traffic to publicserver:1234 should appear at privatecomputer:22 Perhaps there should be a nicer syntax like "ssh [email protected]:1234 => localhost:50"	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
RISC Is Unscalable - signa11 https://blackhole12.com/blog/risc-is-fundamentally-unscalable/ ====== dgacmu The article is conflating three separate issues: (1) The amount of compute and/or data motion that can be achieved with a single instruction. This is really about amortizing the cost of decode and allowing the pipeline to be kept full by producing a lot of work from a single instruction. (2) efficiency gains from vector processing. This both amortizes the cost of decode and produces the amount of control circuitry relative to the number of ALUs --> more flops/area. it also generally favors larger sequential memory accesses which is good for bandwidth. (3) extracting parallelism from the instruction stream. The VLIW debate is about whether that should be done by the CPU itself, e.g., in the form of out- of-order execution, or whether it should be handled by the compiler. VLIW allows the compiler to do this work, which keeps the CPU simpler. It's been clear for several years that larger vectors are a win, and that's been happening in the Intel and arm space, not to mention GPU. The VLIW debate is less clear, and has been going back and forth. I think that we have been doing a better job of getting a handle on when instruction complexity and diversity is beneficial versus not - remember that the initial RISC proposal was in contrast to the PDP instruction set, which was kind of ridiculously over specialized for the technology of the time. ~~~ simias >remember that the initial RISC proposal was in contrast to the PDP instruction set, which was kind of ridiculously over specialized for the technology of the time. That's a good point and I expect that it still somewhat holds true today: many of the RISC supporters (and I'm one of them) effectively assimilate CISC with x86 since that's by far the most popular CISC instruction set out there these days[1]. And x86 is the C++ of instruction sets: decades and decades of legacy feature which shouldn't be used in modern code, a large selection of paradigms copied from whatever other instruction set was popular at the time. You want to do BCD? We have opcodes for that (admittedly no longer supported in long mode, but it's there). Also do you like prefixes? Asking for a friend. But obviously that's a bit of a fallacy, one could design a modern CISC-y IA without all the legacy baggage of x86. It's not so much that I love MIPS or RISC V, it's that I don't want to have to deal with x86 anymore. [1] We don't yet consider ARM CISC, right? ~~~ Taniwha Actually it was in contrast to the Vax instruction set ... the PDP instruction set is something else (and some Vax's had a PDP emulation mode ....) ~~~ monocasa VAX was a crazy town ISA too, with stuff like single isntruction polynomial evaluation. ~~~ dragontamer Crazy for its age, but all modern processors (x86, ARM, and Power9) implement a polynomial multiplication. ARM: vmull.p8 Intel: PCLMULQDQ Power9: I forget, but trust me, its in there somewhere. IIRC, they're all 64-bit carryless (or polynomial) multiplications. The funniest part is that ARM and Power9 still claim to be "reduced instruction set computers", despite having highly specialized instructions like these. Power9 is the funniest: implementing hardware-level decimal-floats (for those bankers running COBOL), quad-floats (for the scientific community), Polynomial-Multiplication and more. ~~~ floatboth Well, the meaning of "reduced" has shifted from "not having specialized instructions" to "load-store and preferably fixed-length". Here's a CRC32 impl using POWER8/9 polynomial instructions: [https://github.com/antonblanchard/crc32-vpmsum](https://github.com/antonblanchard/crc32-vpmsum) — coincidentally, you don't have to do this on ARM, ARM just has CRC32 instructions. > hardware-level decimal-floats (for those bankers running COBOL) IBM being IBM :) I've heard somewhere that they are sharing some internals between POWER and z/Architecture (mainframe) chips. No idea how true it is and how much is shared if true, but a scenario like "decimal floats were implemented because mainframes are using the same backend with a different frontend, so we exposed them in the POWER frontend too" sounds quite plausible. ~~~ CalChris _Well, the meaning of "reduced" has shifted from "not having specialized instructions" to "load-store and preferably fixed-length"._ Ain't that the truth. _Reduced_ never meant anything; they never defined it. Patterson said they cooked up the name on the way to a grant presentation. I think they should call it _Warmed Over Cray._ What was new in RISC that wasn't in Cray? It was like the Geometry Engine; it was _possible_ for an academic department to accomplish but that doesn't mean they accomplished anything that hadn't already been done. _preferably fixed-length_ Or fixed-length/2. ------ byefruit This is relatively misinformed piece of writing. There is little to no reason why high performance RISC-V implementations can not achieve performance comparable to modern "CISC" cores. As other commenters have said, VLIW doesn't suddenly make the problem go away and no amount of compiler magic is going to fix the fundamental issue that memory access on a modern processor is highly non-uniform and scheduling is not something that can be done statically ahead of time. RISC-V is designed to be extended with complex instructions and accelerators and that's the scalable part. ~~~ bem94 I think it depends on how you interpret "reduced" \- Does it mean reducing the actual number of instructions in the ISA? \- Does it mean reducing the functionality of each instruction to it's absoloute minimum? These are similar, and overlapping in places. You can also do one without the other. I think that the base RISC-V ISA does _both_ to a perhaps unhelpful degree. As soon as you want a RISC-V core to be competative with other peer ISAs, you need a bunch of the extensions, which minimises the value in calling it reduced in the first place. At the least, it exposes a possible dichotomy between "reduced-ness" and "usefullness". ~~~ nickik RISC-V even with the basic extention set is still far smaller then the competition. And when you add the 'V' extention it is also considerably smaller comperative SIMD instructions. A comperable RISC-V core in terms of feature, will always have less instruction. ~~~ floatboth Indeed, but that just means RISC-V designers have pursued the "less instructions" goal for its own sake. Having less instructions is not inherently beneficial. It can actually be detrimental: common operations require more instructions. [https://gist.github.com/erincandescent/8a10eeeea1918ee4f9d99...](https://gist.github.com/erincandescent/8a10eeeea1918ee4f9d9982f7618ef68) ~~~ nickik The RISC-V designers disagree. A number of typical patterns can be optimized easly by macro-op fusion in higher performance cores. The benfit is a decoder that has an incredibly small size, minimizing minimal core for RISC-V. Also RISC-V preferes less in in the core spec because if you have application that really needs something there will be standard extentions to add it. ~~~ floatboth > minimizing minimal core for RISC-V Again: why should I care about _that_? As a user, I care about big desktop- class cores, not academic minimal cores that fit on FPGAs. Small decoder is not a benefit for real world usage. > there will be standard extentions to add it That is, there will be fragmentation. ~~~ nickik > Again: why should I care about that? Have you considered that the world doesn't revolve around you? You are infact wrong, many 'real world' uses like how small these cores can be. And given that many SoC now have lots and lots of small cores in them, having those cores be as small as possible is beneficial. > That is, there will be fragmentation. Yes. There will be fragmentation because an industry that is so broad, in terms of minimal soft cores to massive HPC systems, so having a true one-size- fits-all would have been doomed from the beginning and was never a viable design goal. RISC-V is design to approch the problem of a universal open-source ISA. It knows that avoiding fragmentation is impossible and thus they tried to build something that makes fragmentation managable both in terms of the organisation of the standard and in terms of the tools. ------ teton_ferb The author fundamentally misunderstands what RISC is, what CISC is, what SIMD is and what VLIW is apart from misunderstanding every major computer architecture concept RISC was invented as an alternative approach in an era when processors had really complex instructions, with an idea that high level languages could be efficiently compiled to them and assembly programmers would be efficient if they can do many things with one instruction. RISC philosophy was to make simpler instructions, let compilers figure out how to map high level languages to simple instructions, and therefore fit the processor on one die (yes, "processors" used to be several chips) and therefore run it at high clock speeds. RISC is not a dogma, it is a design philosophy. On top of that exception handling in complex instructions is hard. Implementing complex instructions in hardware consumes considerable design and validation effort. RISC has won for these reasons. Some things have changed, we can fit really complicated processors on a single die. Memory access is the bottleneck. The downsides of RISC in this reality is well known: It takes many more instructions to do the same thing, which means instruction cache is used inefficiently (anyone remember the THUMB instruction set of ARM?). It might be useful to add application-specific hardware acceleration features, because we now have the transistors to do it. How does that make RISC unscalable? Many CISC machines (eg Intel's) are CISC in name only. The instructions are translated to micro-ops in the hardware. The micro-ops and the hardware itself, is RISC. Register re-naming was invented to ensure that we enjoy the benefits of improvements in hardware without having to recompile. Let us assume you have a processor with 16 registers. You compiled software for it. Now we can put in 32. What do you do? Recompile everything out there or implement register re- naming? VLIW failed because they took the stance that if we remove hardware-based scheduling, the extra transistors can be used for computation and cache. Scheduling can be done by compilers anyway. The reason they werent successful is because if a load misses the cache, you wait. Instead of superscalars which would have found other instructions to execute. On top of it, if you had a 4-wide VLIW and then you wanted to make a 8-wide one, you had to recompile. And oh, the "rotating registers" in VLIW is a form of register re-naming. Poorly informed article. ~~~ adwn > _Many CISC machines (eg Intel 's) are CISC in name only. The instructions > are translated to micro-ops in the hardware. The micro-ops and the hardware > itself, is RISC._ This is an oft-repeated but incorrect statement. Modern x86 CPUs perform _macro-op fusion_ and _micro-op fusion_. As an example of the former, a comparison and a jump instruction can be fused into a single micro-op [1], which is decidedly non-RISC. As for the latter, some micro-ops perform a load from memory and an arithmetic operation with the retrieved value – also very non-RISCy. Modern x86 CPUs are CISC above and below the surface. [1] [https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/macro- operation_fusion#x86](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/macro-operation_fusion#x86) ~~~ monocasa Yeah, vertical microcode always looked pretty RISCy if you're not used to it. And FWIW, I've heard that there's two distinct uOp formats inside a.single core these days for quite a few of the uArchs. There's the frontends view which is concerned with amortizing decode costs (so wide fixed purpose instructions, that other wise look pretty CISC), and the backend's uOps that's concerned with work scheduled on functional units. A lot of the fusion happens on the front end, and a lot of the cracking happens on the backend, and the frotbejd tends to be two address, and the backend three address. So like a frontend's and rax, [rbx, addr] is something like ld_agu t0, rbx, addr ld t1, t0 and rax, rax, t1 on the backend. ------ dragontamer 1\. CPUs are about minimizing latency. CPUs aren't designed to scale, they're designed to execute your (presumably single-threaded) program as quickly as possible. This means speculatively executing "if" statements and speculatively predicting loops, renaming registers and more. 2\. GPUs are the scalable architecture: The 2080 Ti has 4352+ SIMD cores (136 compute units). And NVidia can load 30+ threads per compute unit, so 130560+ conceptual threads (kinda like hyperthreading) can exist on a GPU executing at once. 3\. VLIW seems like a dead end. AMD GPUs gave up the VLIW instruction set back in 2008. Instead, the SIMT AMD GCN or NVidia PTX model has been proven to be easier to program, easier to schedule, and easier to scale. If you want high- scaling, you should do SIMD or SIMT, not VLIW. Intel, RISC, ARM, and Power9 have all chosen SIMD for scaling (AVX, ARM-SVE, Power9 Vector Extensions, NVidia PTX, and AMD GCN). 4\. I think VLIW might have an opportunity for power-efficient compute. Branch-prediction and Out-of-order execution of modern CPUs relies on Tomasulo's algorithm + speculation, which feels like it wastes energy (in my brain anyway). VLIW would bundle instructions together and require less scheduler / reordering overhead. If a company pushed VLIW as a power-efficient CPU design... I think I'd believe them. But VLIW just seems like it'd be too unscalable compared to SIMD or SIMT. 5\. Can we stop talking about RISC vs CISC? Today's debate is CPU (latency- optimized) vs GPU (bandwidth-optimized). The most important point is both latency-optimized and bandwidth-optimized machines are important. EDIT: Deciding whether or not a particular algorithm (or program) is better in latency-optimized computers vs bandwidth-optimized computers is the real question. ~~~ atq2119 All good points, but: > VLIW seems like a dead end. Since you mentioned this in the same breath as GPUs, I feel I have to point out that according to some reverse engineering paper, Nvidia's Turing is a VLIW architecture. (I'm talking about the actual hardware here, not PTX.) Presumably they have some reason for that that's unrelated to increasing IPC, since AFAIK their GPUs aren't superscalar. ~~~ dragontamer > Since you mentioned this in the same breath as GPUs, I feel I have to point > out that according to some reverse engineering paper, Nvidia's Turing is a > VLIW architecture. (I'm talking about the actual hardware here, not PTX.) NVidia Volta / Turing has been reverse engineered here: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.06826](https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.06826) . EDIT: I'm talking about the actual hardware, the SASS assembly, not PTX. It doesn't look like a VLIW architecture to me. Page 14 for the specific instruction-set details. I realize this is mostly a matter of opinion, but... those control-codes are very different from the VLIW that was implemented in the Itanium. > On Volta, a single 128-bit word contains one instruction together with > thecontrol information associated to that instruction. So NVidia has a 128-bit instruction (16-bytes) with a LOT of control information involved. The control information encodes read/write barriers, but there is still one-instruction per... instruction. The "core" of VLIW was to encode more than one instruction-per-bundle. Itanium would encode maybe 3-instructions per bundle for example. What NVidia is doing here is having the compiler figure out a bunch of read/write/dependency barriers so that the GPU won't have to figure it out on its own (I presume this increases power-efficiency). The only thing similar to VLIW is that NVidia has a "complicated assembler" which needs to figure out this information and encode it into the instruction stream. Otherwise, it is clearly NOT a VLIW architecture. > Presumably they have some reason for that that's unrelated to increasing > IPC, since AFAIK their GPUs aren't superscalar. NVidia Turing can execute floating-point instructions simultaneously with integer-instructions. So they are now superscalar. The theory is that floating-point units will be busy doing the typical GPU math. Integer- instructions are primarily used for branching / looping constructs (and not much else in graphics-heavy code), so they are usually independent operations. ------ cwzwarich > (which, incidentally, also makes MILL immune to Spectre because it doesn’t > need to speculate) Mill still provides speculation, but it is exposed as part of the user-visible architecture. Before Spectre was publicized, the Mill team proposed using speculation in a way that would make Mill systems vulnerable to Spectre: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16125519](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16125519) There is an obvious fix for this (avoid feeding speculated values into address calculations), but they didn't say how much it costs in terms of performance. ~~~ thomasjames Is Mill happening? Has there been silicon yet? I have been reading about it for so long, but have not seen any peer reviewed work on it, silicon or soft cores. I would like to see more exotic architectures out there, but I think I speak for many when I say that I am starting to question if the Mill architecture is going to land in a major way. ~~~ zaarn If it happens or not, the Mill team still produced some of the most interesting talk videos on youtube that you can watch. I would highly recommend anyone who hasn't watched the series to do so, it's very in depth and interesting. Personally I hope that Mill happens. If it will beat existing CPUs left and right or not can then finally be answered. ------ BubRoss He talks about 'the laws of physics' meaning that RISC can't scale, neglects prefetching completely and then talks about the vaporware mill CPU as being some sort of solution because it does 'deferred loads that take into account memory latency' ~~~ zaarn That sounds a bit dismissive. Deferred loads do have a massive advantage; your compiler knows best when loads are needed, so it can, for example, run the load for the next array value while still processing the current one, allowing the CPU to not stall at all at highest efficiency (because the compiler can know instruction latencies and counts out when to start the load). Prefetching is an optimization of caching, it still doesn't beat the speed of signal in a silicon CPU, nor does it solve the scalability issues mentioned in the article. ~~~ BubRoss You have your facts almost completely backwards. Compilers don't know best and any company who has banked on that for general purpose CPUs has been burned hard. Your explanation of what a deferred load is, is actually more of a description of prefetching. The compiler also does not necessarily know instruction latencies since they change from one CPU to the next. Out of order execution already does the job of deferred loads. Loads can be executed as soon as they are seen and other instructions can be run later when their needed memory has made it to the CPU. This is why Haswell already had a 192 instruction out of order buffer. OoO execution also schedules instructions to be run on the multiple execution units and ends up doing what compilers were supposed to do with VLIW CPUs. > "Prefetching is an optimization of caching, it still doesn't beat the speed > of signal in a silicon CPU, nor does it solve the scalability issues > mentioned in the article." None of this is true. Prefetching looks at access patterns and pulls down sections of memory before they are accessed. Caching is about saving what has already been accessed. I'm not sure what you mean by 'beating the speed of signal' but if you are talking about latency, that is exactly what it deals with. By the time memory is needed it is already over to the CPU. The article talks about issues that are due to memory latency (which much of modern CPUs features deal with on way or another) and prefetching directly confronts this. Instruction access that happens linearly can be prefetched. ~~~ CalChris There's SW prefetch instructions and HW prefetching engines. SW prefetch instructions have largely been a bust. Linus is famous for ranting about them. [https://yarchive.net/comp/linux/software_prefetching.html](https://yarchive.net/comp/linux/software_prefetching.html) HW looks at access patterns (as you say) and does at least as good a job. ~~~ BubRoss Yep, I've tried to use prefetch instrinsics multiple times and I've never been able to beat the CPU and speed things up. ------ jasonhansel Reminder: all current, performant CISC CPUs just internally (in microcode) compile instructions down to smaller uOPs, which are then executed by a RISC- like core. CISC chips are just RISC chips with fancier interfaces. ~~~ kllrnohj CISC CPUs also take multiple instructions and combine them into larger uOPs through macro-op fusion. But whether or not the CPU's uOPs are RISC are not isn't really relevant here. The article is talking about pressure on things like L1. The argument is that CISC becomes almost a form of compression. If the CPU internally splits it into multiple uOPs that's fine - you still got the L1 savings, and those uOPs can potentially be more specialized. The CPU doesn't need to look ahead to see if the intermediate calculation is kept or anything like that. As in, it's overall more efficient to take a macro op and split it than take micro ops directly. ------ kazinator I don't agree with the proposition that vector instructions (SIMD) are inherently non-RISC. RISC is about whether the "I" is a reduced instruction set, not whether or not "D" is multiple. ------ nickik This is nothing new and unnessesarly competative. RISC-V is designed to make pipelining very efficent but there has always been a limit. RISC-V just helps you get close to that limit with limited complexity. Beyond that, part of RISC-V will be the 'V' standard extension that will give you access to a advanced vector engine that is a improvment on many of the ways we do SIMD now. ------ Azerb The irony here is most modern CISC design are breaking instructions to RISC- like μOps. Moore's law also means - you have more transistors for the same area, now figure out how to use them creatively to increase performance. Workloads are constantly evolving and hardware evolves with it to make those workloads fast. ~~~ api CISC since around the turn of the millennium is basically a custom tuned high decode speed data compression codec for RISC-like micro-ops. It's been a very long time since anyone designed a CISC processor that actually ran (non- trivial) CISC instructions directly in silicon. The root of CISC's persistent dominance over true RISC instruction sets is that memory bandwidth is _far_ lower what would be needed to feed micro-ops directly into the CPU. It makes sense to solve that by compressing the instruction stream. RISC looks far better on paper in every other way if you ignore memory bandwidth and latency issues. That being said, I've wondered for many years about whether a more conscious realization of this might lead to a more interesting design. Maybe instead of CISC we could have CRISC, Compressed Reduced Instruction Set Computer? Instead of CISC you'd have some kind of compression codec that defines macros dynamically. I'm sure X64 and ARM64+cruft are nowhere near optimal compression codecs for the underlying micro-op stream. If someone wants to steal that idea and run with it, be my guest. ~~~ wvenable The other advantage of the CISC is that it acts like a higher-level API. Many early RISC designs suffered because they were so low-level that early implementation details (like wait states) had to be "emulated" in later processors for compatibility. It might not be advantageous to just compress a RISC stream of instructions instead of higher level instructions made up of micro-ops for that reason alone. ------ temac Note that the post seems to be discussing about the old-school RISC reasoning, more than what we consider "RISC" in the modern world. Now RISC is just a style of ISA (and/or more informally some description of _some_ internal aspects of pipelines of CPUs (regardless of the ISA), behind the decoder and register renaming - and even then that's very far from all aspects)). And btw just because an instruction is called “Floating-point Javascript Convert to Signed fixed-point" with "Javascript" in its name does not disqualify it for appearing in a "RISC" ISA (or _even_ an old-school RISC uarch). At all. The (proven) modern high perf microarchitecture for generalists CPUs is pretty much the same for everybody nowadays (well some details vary of course, but the big picture is the same for everybody), so a RISC ISA is not necessarily very interesting anymore, but also not necessarily a big problem. However if we take things that still can have in impact on the internals, I would prefer RMW atomic instructions to LL/SC most of the time (arguably LL/SC is the "RISC" way to go). Hell I would even sometimes want posted atomics... So back to the topic: if RISC is to be interpreted as microcode like/near programming, yeah the RISC approach failed for state of the art high perf in the long run, and it even was a very long time ago that it did -- but was it even thought by anybody that it would win? Not so sure. It was more a nice design point for another era, that only lasted a few years. Anyway the term has become overloaded a lot, and has produced crucial results, even if indirectly. And I agree a lot with the opinion that Skylake/Zen-like uarch is the way to go, and even VLIW is dubious (or even already known as a failure if we take Itanium as the main example) -- I don't even think the Web or anything can save it, to be honest. But conflating CISC with the presence of an instruction useful for Javascript is nowhere near the right interpretation of the term "RISC", regardless which is chosen. I mean at a point you absolutely can have a wide variety of execution units, without that disqualifying your from having the main "RISC" aspects. ------ crb002 Surprised with FPGAs that there isn't a wave of new assembly languages. Or that processors in memory haven't taken off. Parallel prefix, vector addition, vector transpose, 32x32 dense matrix multiply ... ~~~ jlokier The basic reason is price, which appears to be down to commercial decisions, rather than manufacturing cost. FPGAs which are large and fast enough to make interesting CPUs are readily available, but they are far too expensive, compared with buying an equivalent CPU core. For perspective, the FPGAs you can rent on Amazon are listed at around USD $20,000 per individual FPGA chip! Much cheaper and smaller FPGAs exist, but they aren't generally cost-effective and performance-compatitive against an equivalent design using a CPU, even with the advantages provided by custom assembly languages and hardware extensions. There are times when it's worth it. People do implement custom assembly languages on FPGAs quite often, for custom applications that benefit from it. I've done it, people I work with have done it, but each time in quite specialised applications. (CPU manufacturers use arrays of FPGAs to simulate their CPU designs too.) Processors in memory is another thing entirely. These are actively being worked on. GPUs using HBM exist, where the HBM RAM is a stack of silicon dies laid directly on top of the GPU die, with large numbers of vertical interconnections. These behave similarly to processors-in-memory, because there are a lot of processing units (in a GPU), and a lot of bandwith to reach the memory from all of the units. Some studies show diminishing returns from increasing the memory bandwidth further, with the present GPU cores and techniques, so it's not entirely clear that intermingling the CPU cores with the RAM cores on the same die would bring much improvement. There is a physical cost to mingling CPU and bulk RAM on the same die, which is that optimal silicon elements are different for CPUs than for bulk RAM, so manufacturing would be either more expensive, or make compromise elements. ~~~ floatboth > HBM RAM is a stack of silicon dies laid directly on top of the GPU die nitpick: actually they're off to the side, connected via the interposer: [https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2019/02/amd-vega- ra...](https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2019/02/amd-vega-radeon-vii- hbm-100787435-large.jpg) ~~~ jlokier Thanks! ------ jcranberry I was under the impression that CISC processors have utiliized instruction pipelining for a long time already. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: _The terms CISC and RISC have become less meaningful with the continued evolution of both CISC and RISC designs and implementations. The first highly (or tightly) pipelined x86 implementations, the 486 designs from Intel, AMD, Cyrix, and IBM, supported every instruction that their predecessors did, but achieved maximum efficiency only on a fairly simple x86 subset that was only a little more than a typical RISC instruction set (i.e. without typical RISC load-store limitations). The Intel P5 Pentium generation was a superscalar version of these principles. However, modern x86 processors also (typically) decode and split instructions into dynamic sequences of internally buffered micro-operations, which not only helps execute a larger subset of instructions in a pipelined (overlapping) fashion, but also facilitates more advanced extraction of parallelism out of the code stream, for even higher performance._ [1] And Intel has an article on how instruction pipelining is done which covers CISC designs as well.[2] 1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_instruction_set_comput...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_instruction_set_computer#CISC_and_RISC_terms) 2\. [https://techdecoded.intel.io/resources/understanding-the- ins...](https://techdecoded.intel.io/resources/understanding-the-instruction- pipeline/) ~~~ Symmetry When RISC first came out nobody knew how to do pipelining with a CISC ISA. But a half decade and many engineering-years of effort later Intel was able to bring out a pipelined x86 processor. But it probably would have taken even longer with a CISCier ISA than x86 which lacks indirect loads and stores. ------ leoc > The problem is that a modern CPU is so fast that just accessing the L1 cache > takes anywhere from 3-5 cycles. Access to RAM on a MOS 6502 is about 2-6 cycles, isn't it? The total amount of RAM in a 6502 system is usually roughly the size of a modern L1 cache as well. It would be interesting if you could just program with an L1 exposed and structured as a main memory rather than a cache ... ~~~ AtlasBarfed With the embarrassment of riches in silicon real estate, I'm surprised there aren't SoC chips with a hundred or more megs of on-chip RAM. If we have room for 32 cores, then there have to be applications for 8 cores and RAM on-chip. My old 486 from the early 90's HDD almost fits in modern L3 cache. ~~~ janoc That RAM costs both in terms of space and power/heat. Especially high-speed cache RAM. That would make the SoCs huge and expensive for no particularly good reasons. Also large caches need a lot of logic to ensure coherency between multiple cores - with a small cache the probability of conflict isn't that big, so you can afford to keep it simple. With a huge cache such conflicts between cores would be pretty much assured and you would have to dedicate a lot of silicon just for managing access. ------ fortran77 Just like the saying "never bet against JavaScript" has been proven true, "never bet against CISC" is also true. Just when you think it's become way too complicated, expensive, and inelegant, it keeps chugging along. ------ bullen Might the solution be to give the programmer "manual" access to all levels of memory, so that we can choose which memory to use when, from what core. For the same reason that the OS should not decide which core runs what thread; you cannot progress unless you give people the power to improve things. In extremis this also means the mono-kernel has to go, but then we're talking big a change. Anyway I don't think the improvements are going to come from hardware or software only, we need to improve both simultaneously together, which is complex and often requires one (or atleast very few) person(s) to do the job. ------ gumby The value of RISC these days is that the ops are sufficiently small that computer-assisted humans can write not a JVM but an x68VM-code interpreter distributing execution across a number of functional units simultaneously Even that is super hard given that the leading producer of hardware interpreters for this VM shipped hardware with the SPECTRE vulnerability. ------ jasonhansel ...RISC-V supports SIMD though. ~~~ maeln Thats not the point of the article. I doesn't say that RISC-V doesn't support SIMD, it argue that in the real world, we prefer big instruction like SIMD that do a lot of thing "at once", which is not what RISC-V as been designed for even though it support some. ~~~ nickik RISC-V from the beginning was designed to work perfectly fine with vector processing. The lab that developed RISC-V made RISC-V to have an architecture that would allow them to use different vector units and experiment with different vector architectures. The Berkley Parallel Comouting Lab is where the worked on RISC-V. The RISC-V V extention is the result of this work and exploration into parallel architecture. RISC-V was to be modular and the V extention is just as much part of RISC-V as the F extention. ~~~ maeln I honestly don't have any opinion about it as i am not knowledgeable about this thing. I was just re-stating what the article is saying, and it didn't say that RISC-V doesn't have SIMD. ------ ohiovr What about SGI Onyx [https://m.slashdot.org/story/12659](https://m.slashdot.org/story/12659) Seems that mips was scalable back then There was a story headline about a 16 core RISC V just the other day ~~~ ajross That's not the scalability the article is talking about. It's about instructions per cycle, and the fact that this gets pretty firmly capped by the bandwidth and latencies of the cache hierarchy, so even with ~6 parallel execution units it's pretty rare to be able to fill more than 2 of them in a cycle. And this is true, but it has absolutely nothing to do with instruction architecture. The rest of the article is talking about how VLIW "solves" this problem, which is does not. Given an existing parallelizable problem, a VLIW architecture can encode the operations a little more efficiently, and the decode hardware required to interpret the instructions can be a lot simpler. But that's as far as it goes. If you have a classic CPU which can decode 4 instructions in a cycle, then it can decode 4 instructions in a cycle and VLIW isn't going to improve that except by reducing die area. VLIW also forces compilers to make a choice between crazy specificity to specific hardware architectures, or an insanely complicated ISA with a batching scheme a-la Itanium. This is largely why it failed, not that "compilers weren't smart enough". There's nothing wrong with RISC. Or classic CISC. Even VLIW isn't bad, really. The sad truth is that ISAs just don't matter. They're a tiny bit of die area and a few pipeline stages in much larger machines, and instruction decode is largely a solved problem. Programmers just like to yell about ISA because that's what software touches, and we understand that part. ~~~ gpderetta Amen. ------ dis-sys from the article - People still call ARM a “RISC” architecture despite ARMv8.3-A adding a FJCVTZS instruction, which is “Floating-point Javascript Convert to Signed fixed- point, rounding toward Zero”. The fundamental issue that CPU architects run into is that the speed of light isn’t getting any faster. Even getting an electrical signal from one end of a CPU to the other now takes more than one cycle. ~~~ vardump No idea why you've been modded down. Yeah, ARM arch is not that RISC anymore, there are a tons of instructions. Some pretty specific like that one. I don't see much of point of polarizing CISC vs RISC anymore in the first place. Both are borrowing from each other and gradually blending together.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Launching a Mac app in 32 languages for less than $250 - AlexeyMK http://www.hackerparadise.org/blog/2014/11/04/how-current-launched-with-32-languages/ ====== appden I'm the creator of Current, and I'm happy to answer any questions here! ~~~ boolean 1\. Are you doing anything in the server-side? 2\. How long did it take to build the app? (Articles says you've quit your job in February, since then?) ~~~ appden 1\. I don't have any server-side logic whatsoever. All requests are made through Facebook. 2\. I did some consulting work early on as well, but I would say I spent at least 6 months of solid development on the app.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Georgia Tech: Startup Semester - hunterclarke http://www.startupsemester.gatech.edu/ ====== PStamatiou As someone who started a startup during undergrad at Georgia Tech, and received some funding from the university, it's nice to see these kinds of efforts. But the shocker was when I saw "weekends". This initially sounded like a full- time thing, which would be amazing. And why not have some more hard deliverables and have it count as a 3-4 hour elective credit? As for "You do have a chance but you would need to find a technical founder yourself." Harsh. Georgia Tech has a ton of great minds on campus. Setup a site with the CoC allowing students to create a simple profile and express interest in potentially pairing with others for Startup Semester. Like the "I'm looking for a job" checkbox on github. (For those reading this, Georgia Tech also has an incubator called Flashpoint <http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/> ) ~~~ jdchizzle Hey PStamatiou, thanks for your comments! As I mentioned in a reply to a previous post, this entire program was literally hacked together in the past 3 months by two undergraduate students with no money and almost zero reputation with the school. From the very beginning we've always wanted the Startup Semester program itself to be recognized as a full-time internship (Akin to simply withdrawing for a semester to work on their startups, what many students are actually doing). Unfortunately, we haven't been able to sway Georgia Tech administration to our side. What we're left with is a "pilot program" to test our hypothesis. You're right. It is a little harsh that non-technical founders will have to look for someone technical themselves. We really wish we can implement a feature like that in the future. For now, a minimum viable program is all we can do with our own full course loads. At the end of the day, we gauge our success on changing attitudes, not having our startups appear on Forbes. If we can change the culture at Georgia Tech just one cohort of entrepreneurs at a time, more students at Georgia Tech will begin to think much like you. ------ dpeck It's great to see my school doing this, but looking at it doesn't seem very different from the senior design/capstone projects that many of the technical majors have already. I assume the big difference is not taking other classes along with this program and you don't have a customer lined up before starting? For perspective my senior design project was a semester long "class" that met once every week or two for milestone updates from the groups, and occasional lectures/instruction from industry folks. My groups project was 4 of us designing and implementing a group management system for social orgs. Basic stuff like shared calendars, sub groups, email<->forum integration, permissions/views for officers and such. Obviously not the most ambitious project, but the kind of thing that a few college kids could feasibly do in a semester on top of a full course load. ~~~ jdchizzle Hey dpeck, glad to hear your views on Startup Semester. Just to put our side in perspective as well - Startup Semester was the result of two undergrads at Georgia Tech who were frustrated at the silos of "schools" that never work together and a culture that seems to look forward to "getting out". We spent all of the last 3 months putting this program together for less than $50 with the goal that we ourselves would be able to learn from it and simultaneously benefit the community. To answer your concern more directly, our long-term mission is to create a physical entrepreneurial hub on campus that all majors are welcome to participate in. The purpose is to connect the entrepreneurs of all the schools at Georgia Tech - Industrial Design, Computing, Engineering, Business etc.. - to really build great products and businesses backed by an effective cross- functional team. In our experience, we've never encountered a senior design team with business students, designers, and engineers working together. We may be wrong, but it definitely seems like students are agreeing. At the very least, we're hoping this program could help us, and perhaps a few other misfits like us. :) ~~~ dpeck Great to see happening, didn't want to seem like I was downing on it. The cross major/school stuff would be great, especially getting the CoC kids out of their bubble. The senior/grad level Video Game Design (that still around? it was a ball buster, but a great class) was supposed to include CoC and kids from SCAD and arch/industrial design schools but I'm not sure how many actually had that happen. My team recruited a my comp engineer buddy who was serviable with photoshop. Agreed on the "getting out" culture, needs to change, but I'm not sure Tech would be Tech without it. My favorite times were always early in semesters and after finals where over, plenty of time to work on some projects with friends without the feeling of "talking shop" that happens during the intense workloads of mid to end of classes. ------ netmau5 I may have been slower than others, but my weekend time at GaTech was spent on laundry, groceries, and lots of CS homework. Just give them some money and the summer term to focus. Being clever just makes this harder. ------ prpatel I'm not sure how I feel about this. From one point of view, I think this is an awesome idea, get energetic, smart students down the entrepreneurship path early. Then my experience of running an actual startup, the ups-and-downs, the intricacies of building a viable _business_, etc come to mind and I think this is a bad idea. It doesn't matter how much mentoring one has - unless you've been in the trenches of a real world business, you have no foundation upon which to base your own. Not everyone can be Zuckerberg (hell, even Facebook isn't profitable yet). I would much prefer an apprenticeship type of setup - or even better offer this course to alums, or be part of the executive MBA program - those in an executive MBA program have industry experience, come with ideas on how they can improve the vertical(s) they worked in, and understand the real world better than a student who has zero experience. Don't get me wrong - if I were a GATECH student right now, I would love to be part of this program! ------ harigov University of Michigan already has a course that does something similar. Also, they introduced a 'Master in Entrepreneurship' focusing on all the aspects of Entrepreneurship. They are getting into it in a big way. I bet all the big universities already have courses, clubs or incubators serving similar purpose. ~~~ ohashi I received a Master's in Entrepreneurship at Lund University in Sweden. I am not sure how I feel about it honestly. The big advantage was being in a room full of people who wanted to do stuff. The negative side was the course was trying so hard to balance the study of entrepreneurship versus actually doing something. It leaned very heavily towards the study in my opinion and the doing was exceptionally undervalued. What exactly one would expect from a master's in entrepreneurship, I am not sure, but I honestly expected to get my hands a lot dirtier. I don't know what other programs are like across the world, but I think a focus on actually doing stuff rather than simply studying it would be nice. Our thesis equivalent was a business plan, which is a grand set of ideas graded by how good it sounds and well reasoned it is. There was little value in actually going out and creating and testing. ~~~ harigov Agreed. The key here is to make science out of art, just the way everything 'education' aspires to do. I do agree with you that getting hands dirty is probably the best way of learning but it is up to people to figure out how much effort they want to put into it. The course is just to mold their thinking to be a successful entrepreneur. ------ paul9290 An innovative college needs to make this a four year concentration! It will offer the students skills in design, development, online and regular marketing, PR, public speaking, team building, as well as internships at VC firms, other startups and more. I graduated with a degree in the Recording Industry from a school in and around Nashville, which offered internships at labels and other industry focused businesses. I'm surprised there isn't a web start-up concentration offered at any colleges similar to the Recording Industry concentration I studied. There should be! ------ aswanson I'm glad to see this spreading. A lot of people here are too young to know. Just a few years back, the zeitgeist in the CS/Engineering community was not about startups, which was a real shame. I bitched/ranted about schools not doing more to promote technical people to start companies. pg stated that over time it would invade from the ground up, which seems to be happening: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37850> [EDIT: Grammar, wording] ------ ynniv A little context: this appears to be an attempt to emulate UT Austin's 1SemesterStartup at Georgia Tech. [ <http://techdrawl.com/content/put-me-home> ] ------ pradn The University of Texas at Austin has had a similar class for a few semesters now. Glad to see the idea spreading. <http://www.1semesterstartup.com/> ------ s_baby This is a good idea but why the limit of 30 or strict requirements? It's not like this program using up limited school resources like Flashpoint. ~~~ rkischuk As a Flashpoint alum, I can certainly say that the resources that area limited are not those of the school. The most limited resources are those of appropriate mentors and advisors, and the time of the members of each team during group gatherings. Much the same case here. The availability of suitable mentors and coaches is limited, and you don't want spend too much time in very large group gatherings. ------ dreamdu5t "make entrepreneurship much more accessible to undergraduates" = We'll focus on web startups because everyone can make websites (right?) "We're dedicating an entire workspace just for teams to work, collaborate, and bounce ideas off each other." = We have a room with chairs and computers. "Workshops on lean principles, peer teaching, individualized team deliverables" = We'll teach you what a to-do list and a convertible note is. It's not easy. "Mentorship: Veterans entrepreneurs, business developers, specialists." = Unnamed people who don't know what they're doing tell you they know what they're doing. ~~~ heyaswin Hey dreamdu5t, Just curious but have you actually seen the mentor list? [http://www.facebook.com/notes/startup-semester/startup- semes...](http://www.facebook.com/notes/startup-semester/startup-semester- mentors/280987678683465) You're welcome to your opinion of course - just thought you might be curious.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
FTC Approves Google AdMob Acquisition - breck http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/technology/22admob.html ====== asmithmd1 Omar Hamoui's (CEO/founder of AdMob) Tweet in full on the news: "Whew!" <http://twitter.com/omarh> ------ pavs Google is having pretty rad year.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Using multiple cursors simultaneously with Vim - ParadigmComplex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umb59mMvCxA ====== ParadigmComplex I rarely post to HN - mostly just read it - but the first page for a search on google for "vim multicursor" has three links to HN were people claim Vim's lack of multicursor support as a primary reason they use another text editor. I figured there would be some interest.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Use your mac as an alarm clock without any special alarm clock apps - vishaldpatel http://www.seevishal.com/?p=226 ====== PCheese It’s probably nicer to schedule this with iCal instead of crontab. Create a new iCal event, and add an alert for that event that runs your script. You can easily and visually configure the event to repeat only on weekdays, and the best part is that you can simply delete or modify single instances of the recurring event to deal with exceptions like holidays. ~~~ vishaldpatel Ah cool - I'll add the iCal version to the post as well, thanks! =). ------ d_r Shameless plug. I always have trouble waking up. Since the Mac App Store came out this year, I've been working on a simple alarm clock app called "Mornings" to do just this (play iTunes or custom MP3s). It actually uses AppleScript to tell iTunes what to play for the iTunes option, so it works with whatever is in your playlists. (The "con" to this is that iTunes automatically opens when the alarm clock plays -- unlike other, more fancy apps, that load the playlists from iTunes but roll their own playback behavior.) Or you can just add your own MP3s and the app won't open iTunes. I haven't posted it on HN before, but I'd be absolutely grateful if anyone tried it out. As a developer I get some promo codes, so here are some codes (hit Featured, then Redeem to grab it. Or if none of them work, e-mail me and I'd be happy to give you one.) F7KTWHLM9H7P 3XKY3YEJX9EK K63HX7WE9X77 3RX6ENHL34EE WY7X3LRMHKPJ JFXETAJH3XYP XJXNHTXFEF4P ~~~ Gring That's a really well designed app! Thanks, I took code #4. A suggestion: turn up the volume when sounding an alarm. Currently an alarm might go off, but if the volume is set to 0, nothing will be heard. ~~~ d_r Thanks! That's a good point, I'm going to have to do that (and perhaps add an option to fade it in gradually.) ------ biturd AppleScript does not take into account the system volume level or mute status. That should be the first line of the script. ~~~ joshzayin For reference, to set the volume, one would use something like: set volume 10 ~~~ vishaldpatel Thank you both. Will add that to the applescript on the blog post. Cheers. ------ a3_nm I've been using "sleep 28000; mplayer whatever.ogg" as an alarm clock (without any special app) for a few months now. Less polished, but it works. :-) ------ pygy_ Back in the days of Mac OS 9 (IIRC), it was possible to schedule the boot time of Macs, and have a script automatically play the CD present in the drive. I don't remember the very details because I only used the (second hand) Mac for a few weeks, and the scheduler wasn't reliable (anymore?). But still, it was a cool trick. ~~~ joshzayin You can still set it to boot at a certain time with OS X, and if you set up auto-login and have that as a login item, it'll accomplish the same task. ~~~ pygy_ This is very cool. I looked for this when I bought my MBP, but I didn't find the option. A quick google trip and I found that you do it from the _Energy Saver_ preference pane. Thanks for the tip. On a tengential note: Is it possible to turn on the screen backlight programmatically? Since OS X 10.6.3, the backlight remains off when waking up from hibernation (this is documented in [1]). The proposed solution is to delete the related plist, which resets the hibernate mode to the default settings that are useless for me. My current solution is to close back the lid for a split second in order to trigger the hibernation process, then to fiddle with the arrow keys to abort it. I'd prefer something more elegant. 1\. [https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2384628?start=90&ts...](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2384628?start=90&tstart=0) ~~~ joshzayin I don't have that problem on my MBP with 10.6.8. How are your Energy Saver preferences set up? Trashing the plist and resetting it to how you like it might work--it's possible that the plist is corrupted. ~~~ pygy_ I'll try to reset the plist, then, thanks for your help. Battery Power Adapter Computer sleep: 10 min 45 min Display sleep: 2 min 3 min Put HD to sleep: Yes Yes Wake up from LAN: Yes Yes Dim before sleep: Yes Yes Boot after power failure: No ------ xfax come on, just 'man at' and use vlc and point to a mp3. been doing it since 2001. ~~~ jrockway This is what I do when I'm too lazy to find my phone and set an alarm. It's never failed me. (Actually, I use mplayer, but same idea.) ------ benatkin This one works well for me, and it's free: <http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/> The last version was released in 2007 but it still works great on Snow Leopard. I'm in no rush to replace working apps with Mac Store apps. ------ X-Istence I've got an old laptop running BSD, and for those days that I absolutely need to be awake at a certain time I tend to schedule, using at, for a cat /dev/random > /dev/snd. Never fails to wake me up :P ~~~ knotty66 Me too. Lovely sound to wake up to. sleep 6h && cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp ------ hollerith I would like this solution better if I knew a way to play an audio file from "the commandline" without having to rely on a big app like iTunes or VLC. ~~~ judofyr /usr/bin/afplay ~~~ hollerith Thanks -- exactly what I wanted. ------ dholowiski That's cool, but doesn't everyone use their cell phone as their alarm clock? ~~~ vishaldpatel Haha, yes a lot of people do, I think. I wanted to setup an internet radio station as my alarm clock and I still use my laptop =).	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How Much Money Do We Make? - colinprince https://www.alifefullofroses.com/how-much-money-do-we-make/ ====== TheHegemon Nowhere in the article does it actually say how much money they have made. ~~~ GhostVII If you want to actually get a pretty decent idea of how much you can make, someone made a good video about it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do1VLjNg6AE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do1VLjNg6AE) Your earnings vary a lot based on what kind of video you make so it's somewhat complex. ~~~ rr-geil-j TechLead's video[0] similar to this can be a good reference for his sub- category. [0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZsEU-T1Gmg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZsEU-T1Gmg) ------ nodesocket Call me a cynic, but it feels very typically hypocritical for the author to be a feminist and proponent for women’s social change yet repeatedly post half naked pictures of herself and partner on social media and Instagram. You have to admit the absolute double standard and conflicting message there. ~~~ journalctl I don’t have to admit that, because it’s not true. If women doing whatever they want with their bodies (be that showing them off or covering them up) isn’t feminism, then I don’t know what is. ~~~ rr-geil-j I personally understand both sides of the argument but I would like to be a devil's advocate this time and provide an opinion similar to the OP: The analogy of this will be like someone who declares that he is the master of his own fate and has freedom to do whatever he wants. Then he proceeds to slave away in a dead-end job with non-existent autonomy. ~~~ jstummbillig What argument? The original commentator simply displays a deep misunderstanding of what feminism is about. Feminism (in this case) is being able to pose naked as a woman, in the same way you would be as a man and not being treated any differently for it. Case in point: Most people wouldn't suggest it's anti-masculism if a male was posing naked. So then don't do it with females. There you go, feminism. ------ nabdab I call bullshit. They are telling me they probably make less than I expect they make, but if they actually gave numbers I’m certain it’s far above what most expect and that they would in the light of the actual facts appear quite greedy for wanting more. If that’s not he case I’m unsure why they push this vague cop out of an attempt to argue why more is justifiable without actually answering the title questions. Provide the numbers. ~~~ t0mbstone Not that I care (I don't even know who these people are), but the statement, "We don't make enough to cover our mortgage or our bills"... doesn't really tell me anything. For example, what is your mortgage? $1000 a month, or $15K a month? And how much of your "bills" are from credit card charges from shopping sprees or whatever?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What would you do? - ownershipopp If you were given the choice of having:<p>A. 10% ownership<p>or<p>B. 10% profit, increasing to 20% over the next 8 years and a clause for the same % if the company is sold.<p>What would you choose?<p>Both options would be an officer position in the company. ====== mdolon I think it depends on a few factors, namely: \- The likelihood of the company selling (consider both near or long term) or going public \- The difference between 10% profit and the salary you would make with 10% ownership \- How likely profit is to increase compared to the likelihood of the company selling In other words, it totally depends on the company and the situation. A web design company will probably never get acquired or go public, and so ownership doesn't mean much, whereas if you're working on something that interests Google or Facebook, the chances of acquisition (and the value of ownership) increase exponentially. Then again, my reasoning is based purely on monetary gain - you should probably consider the impact of ownership on the company and your personal life/career as well. ------ ownershipopp Let me add some more information which is relevant. I have been with a company for 6 years now out of 8 years in business. We have grown from a bootstrapped operation running out of a garage to a company with a solid customer base and re-occurring revenue. We have no debt and are profitable. I didn’t start the company, only helped build it, so the owner is offering me options because of the value I bring. I see benefits for both options. I wanted to hear some other opinions. ~~~ anigbrowl In that case, own the 10%. ------ zafka I would think that option A would be far more likely to be worth more. I can imagine that the company could increase greatly in value before turning a profit. ------ anigbrowl Assuming there is profit or at least value to begin with: Profit sounds better...but only if you never want to leave or cash out for a lump sum. If you can see anything in life that os attractive beyond this company, and you think it might be nice to have income coming in without direct effort while you pursue this Other Thing, then take the stock. You can always vote yourself more pay later if you own 10% of the equity. ------ damoncali I don't understand. 10% ownership implies 10% of the profit and 10% of the sale. Why would A ever be better? All I can think of is capital gains tax. ------ ownershipopp The main thing I can think of is that if I was 10% owner, and wanted to leave the company, it would have greater value than option B.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Laying off George - ajbatac http://www.zeldman.com/2008/12/16/laying-off-george/ ====== noonespecial There seems to be a clue or two missing in middle management. Its like throwing out the projector because they figure that now that they have the image on the wall, who needs it? I sense a hard lesson about to be learned. Good luck in your next endevour, George. ~~~ JacobAldridge "like throwing out the projector because...they have the image on the wall, who needs it". You just made my day. Thank you. ------ gruseom Did anyone else notice the oxymoron here? "I'll just get straight to the point. You've been affected by the layoffs." I guess it shouldn't surprise me that a middle manager would call a weasly euphemism getting "straight to the point". ~~~ andreyf In his defense, he admitted he was reading a script provided to him by HR. ~~~ gruseom We don't know whether that line was in the script or not. If it was, we can chalk the weasliness up to the whole company (which _would_ surprise me a little - I thought more highly of Yahoo). Incidentally, I agree with the commenters here who've pointed out that the cancellation of the project and layoff itself hardly seem unreasonable or tragic. It's the corporate culture I'm commenting on. If this vignette is indicative, Yahoo is in worse shape than I thought. ~~~ andreyf _If it was, we can chalk the weasliness up to the whole company_ I find it hard to talk about "the nature" of a company the size of Yahoo - this is more the "weasliness" of some HR employee which didn't get corrected by the structure of the company. Of course, it doesn't say anything about the many brilliant employees that had nothing to do with the layoffs. ~~~ gruseom _I find it hard to talk about "the nature" of a company the size of Yahoo_ I don't. I noticed years ago that organizations have distinct characters that seem mostly to trace back to their originators. Sometimes the connection is so strong that it almost seems the company itself has a personality. It's true the effect may weaken as companies get big (bureaucracy is depressingly uniform), and we're talking about patterns not laws (lots of room for individual variation), but what's striking is how noticeable the effect is despite those caveats. ------ adamsmith I'm sorry to hear how hard it's been for George. Flickr is a great product and has had huge returns for Yahoo. That said, my uninformed reaction is to consider this a good move. The last thing Yahoo needs is another project with no clear business model, regardless how cool. This is the kind of work that should be funded by massive donations like wikipedia. If it's going to be supported by a company, it shouldn't be one on life support. ~~~ fauigerzigerk You know, if yahoo is unable to find a way to make money off something like Flickr, there is no way any number of layoffs will save them. And there's something else I don't get. Why are they not trying to outsource projects that they do not consider to be core? Why are they not asking people like George to enter into some other kind of contractual relationship with them that would allow the continuation of a good project? Someone as well connected as George might be able to find additional funding for Flickr Commons from other sources. ------ sh1mmer #1 I work for Yahoo #2 I wasn't laid off #3 this is 100% my opinion not the company and I have no insight into Flickr policy or strategy I think the lay-offs are really hard for the people involved however you do them. I think Yahoo could have done better by not keeping people hanging for 3 months. That said has it occurred to people that it was Flickr Commons rather than George that was seen as an unnecessary cost. Commons is awesome, but it doesn't seem to be something that is going to make money for Flickr/Yahoo. In terms of the way that George was laid off, how do you lay off someone thousands of miles away? Is there a good way? I doubt it. The script seems insensitive but Yahoo has easily enough revenue to make it an easy target for HR based lawsuits. The script is there to protect the company from people that might exploit a more human process. There has been a bunch of bad press today about our layoffs it really feels sucky to people, and I get that. I know other people who left and I know Yahoo has given them an amazing package. Since then they have been talking to a lot of companies about a range of roles. I think a lot of those people may come out with a couple of extra months pay because they were laid off. It won't remove the struggle and emotional stress that losing you job has but I hope it somewhat soothes the pain. I personally find it upsetting that people keep attacking the company for doing what was in the best interests of it's shareholders. I struggle to think of people I know at Yahoo that aren't smart and working hard to make good products. Maybe not every decision that has been made has been perfect, and maybe there is a more bureaucracy than I'd like but every commentator is a genius in hindsight. I, like Michael Arrington, know that Hitler probably shouldn't have invaded Russia in Winter and that maybe we should have bought Google when we had the chance. I guess what I'm saying is I expected HN to be a place where people look a little deeper and think a little bit more. I wish you'd do that for us before you continue to throw your stones. ------ brm Sure Yahoo sucks, but take the good side of this story George Oates will do awesome work wherever she goes next so build something that's worth having her work on it and then get in touch ~~~ ardell Terrible situation, sorry to hear about it. Brm, you're exactly right, as truly high-quality employees are let go from failing big companies it creates unbelievable opportunities for startups to pick them up. It's true no matter whether you work for a small company or large company--if you do something that's valuable to someone, you won't go hungry. ~~~ delano Don't forget about the added sting of having worked on Flickr from the beginning. She was an employee of Ludicorp before being an employee of Yahoo. ------ swombat Tip when laying off your blogger/evangelist: be civil. Otherwise, you look like a bunch of assholes. Bad Yahoo, bad. ------ rthomas6 Why not just link directly to the actual blog post? ------ mynameishere Here's the real link (question to poster: Why did you link to an unnecessary reference?) [http://george08.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-quite-what-i-had- in...](http://george08.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-quite-what-i-had-in-mind.html) My comment: Congratulations to the affected. A website that does little besides arranging "img" elements is fundamentally lame. I was hit in the 2001 blowout, and it was probably the best thing that could have happened. Find something good..... ~~~ mynameishere Not sure why people are defending flickr. There are lots of equivilent websites, and have been long before it ever existed. I stand by my comment: It's fundamentally lame. If I was a CS professor, I would have sophmores make a clone of it for a 2-week project. Just because it's the most popular in its class doesn't mean it transcends the extreme simplicity of said class. Frankly, I don't even like it. Whose aesthetic ideal is responsible for the decision to show pictures at a size other than the maximum (up to a practical limit)? Show me the full-sized picture. Just seems obvious. What exactly does this have: <http://flickr.com/photos/mongol/515509897/in/photostream/> That this doesn't: [http://flickr.com/photos/mongol/515509897/sizes/o/in/photost...](http://flickr.com/photos/mongol/515509897/sizes/o/in/photostream/) (Obviously, you could put the various widgets next to and below the above picture with plenty of space to spare.) ~~~ nostrademons Missing the point. Sites that have been technologically equivalent or better than Flickr have been around since the first dot-com boom. The genius of Flickr was in building a community around it. It's really easy for technophiles to say "Oh, I could build that in a week", and usually they can. The problem is, nobody will use it. Building a community is _really fricking hard_ \- it's the sort of task where everyone says "Oh, I can do that" up until they actually try it and then find out that there's a lot of subtlety to it they've completely missed. Same goes for Reddit, and Twitter. Those are two other sites that are cloneable in a weekend, but nobody will use your clone. ~~~ whatusername But they've lost everyone but the photographers to facebook. The combination of the news feed and tagging people in photos (and having them show up in the news feed!) is facebooks secret sauce ~~~ gaius Flickr occupies a weird space between photo.net (which is almost all photographers) and Facebook (people who take photos of each other). It may be great for photo-hosting, but no-one wants that in a vaccuum. ------ cturner So will we see a "getting the band back together" effort from Ludicorp alumni? :) ~~~ delano I'm still waiting for the next Game Neverending beta. ------ tsally You can't be fired without some sort of severance pay or package, correct? Or am I just crazy. ~~~ potatolicious In states with at-will employment your job can be terminated - by either side - with no notice (hence no obligation for severance), with some exceptions against illegal discrimination (e.g. being fired because you're black). Most companies will offer you some sort of severance - or at least won't ask for their signing bonus/relocation/etc back, but that's out of goodwill, not legal obligation. ~~~ nostrademons Self interest as well. Lots of companies want you to sign additional agreements on the way out (don't trash the computers, don't bad-mouth the company, etc.) and you have no reason to sign these if they don't give you something in return. ~~~ dmh2000 just what I was going to say. it his blog he mentioned they were faxing out some 'agreement' for him to sign. My immediate reaction was 'why the fuck would he sign anything?'.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Visual Studio 2019 Released - mises https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ ====== joshschreuder Been using the RCs for a few weeks. It's definitely an incremental rather than revolutionary release but there's some nice changes. MS's faster release cadence with 2017 let them push quite a number of pretty big fixes and updates too, so no doubt 2019 will become essential in the next year or so. ------ pornel To Microsoft, C is dead :( They don't get that C isn't just an old version of C++. It took them 18 years to reluctantly produce an incomplete implementation of C99, and only the bare minimum to satisfy requirements of C subset in C++. This is super depressing, because there's no hope of C being evolved further. Any fixes to the language will end up being "non-portable" due to Microsoft thinking C is done. ~~~ devbat8712 Unfortunately, C with MSVC is dead. Personally nowadays I prefer to use cygwin and vs code, it's a good pair for pure c development when I need it. No real ides for pure c though...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Leaked DOJ memo: N.S.A. must start shutting down surveillance programs on 5/22 [pdf] - rubbingalcohol http://s3.fightforthefuture.org/images/leaked_wh_memo.pdf ====== forgottenpass "Leaked"	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Phil Knight, Nike Founder, Donates $400M to Stanford University - chirau http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/business/philip-knight-of-nike-to-give-400-million-to-stanford-scholars.html ====== mc32 Meanwhile underfunded state schools who do the lion's share of getting people into middle class jobs and giving the students a leg up in life, serving those in between scholarships and the trust fund kids get ignored and bypassed. Yes this has the potential to benefit third world countries if the students go back and contribute, but we well know there are many poor and disadvantaged in the US as well who get the short shrift. ~~~ oldmanjay I'm sure you find your point emotionally resonant so I'll give you an opportunity to make it interesting with a loaded question - is it better for the species to push people to grow beyond their bounds or is it better to swell in the middle? ~~~ geebee Is it really either or? (BTW, I don't find your question objectionable - I disagree, but it doesn't bother me at all that you asked it). For instance, across the bay from Stanford, there's a large state supported research university that probably has just a few more top-10 and top-5 PhD programs than Stanford (or Harvard, for that matter). It has a much higher percentage of low income students, and because it also enrolls a much larger undergraduate population, it enrolls more low income students (including more students who are the first in their families to ever attend college) than the entire ivy league combined. Why not give 300 mil to that school? You wouldn't be "swelling the middle", these are talented students, but you would be supporting more low income students.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Interviewstreet powers Department of Labor's Equalpayapp challenge - rvivek http://equalpayapp.interviewstreet.com ====== gghh Hi all. I am competing to the challenge. The interviestreet team is setting up Amazon EC2 virtual machines for the partecipants; I gave them my pubkey, but the thing looks somehow broken (couldn't login to my instance). Apart logging bots, nobody's on #codesprint (freenode), and the organizers aren't answering mails (yet). Anybody in the same situation? EDIT: just got a reply from the organizers, I am now fully connected to the contest. +1 for support (sorry I panicked a bit quickly)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Online threat — but SWAT team raids wrong house - stfu http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48018051/ns/technology_and_science-security/ ====== maybird pranksters placed a 911 call through a computer that cloned her number When did 911 start taking voip calls? ~~~ dangrossman September 28, 2005 was the FCC-mandated deadline for all interconnected VOIP providers (those that connect with the POTS, like Vonage, Comcast Digital Voice, FiOS) to provide E911 service to all customers.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Neural scene representation and rendering - johnmoberg https://deepmind.com/blog/neural-scene-representation-and-rendering/ ====== cs702 This work is a natural progression from a lot of other prior work in the literature... but that doesn't make the results any less impressive. The examples shown are amazingly, unbelievably good! Really GREAT WORK. Based on a quick skim of the paper, here is my oversimplified description of how this works: During training, an agent navigates an artificial 3D scene, observing multiple 2D snapshots of the scene, each snapshot from a different vantage point. The agent passes these snapshots to a deep net composed of two main parts: a representation-learning net and a scene-generation net. The representation- learning net takes as input the agent's observations and produces a scene representation (i.e., a lower-dimensional embedding which encodes information about the underlying scene). The scene-generation network then predicts the scene from three inputs: (1) _an arbitrary query viewpoint_ , (2) the scene representation, and (3) stochastic latent variables. The two networks are trained jointly, end-to-end, to maximize the likelihood of generating the ground-truth image that would be observed from the query viewpoint. See Figure 1 on Page 15 of the Open Access version of the paper. Obviously I'm playing loose with language and leaving out numerous important details, but this is essentially how training works, as I understand it based on a first skim. EDIT: I replaced "somewhat obvious" with "natural," which better conveys what I actually meant to write the first time around. ~~~ Rainymood I, literally just 15 minutes ago, had a chat with a friend of mine exactly about how what we are doing right now with computer vision is all based on a flawed premise (supervised 2D training set). The human brain works in 3D space (or 3D+time) and then projects all this knowledge in a 2D image. Here I was, thinking I finally had thought of a nice PhD project and then Deepmind comes along and gets the scoop! Haha. ~~~ simonster I don’t think this is a novel idea, but it is still a great topic for a PhD. While the results in this paper look impressive, my suspicion is that the system doesn’t generalize particularly well. (I suspect this from experience with similar, albeit simpler, ideas, as well as from looking at the datasets.) If you can make a system that generalizes to new environments and objects, or a system that works with real-world natural image/video data, that would be a tremendous accomplishment. ~~~ amelius Generalization is a more fundamental problem, and (imho) should be tackled first at a more fundamental level. For example, if you have a classifier that can recognize cats, it doesn't mean it will work for cartoon cats. You'd have to train the system all over again with cartoon cats. Instead, you want the system to learn more like humans, where only a small number of examples is necessary to make the connection between real and cartoon cats. ~~~ simonster It is possible that the problems are related—-it may be that, to achieve human-like generalization, neural nets need to learn in a human-like environment, instead of from a folder full of images. But time will tell. ~~~ igravious This has been said many times in different ways over the years. To achieve human-like intelligence one needs a human-like body operating in a human-like environment. It's the first of the E's in: embodied emergent extended enactive. [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/embodied- cognition/](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/embodied-cognition/) ------ TTPrograms I'm surprised people are so blown away by this. It's a cool demonstration, but for this problem you have basically infinite training data. If you can find a latent space of faces this is hardly a stretch, since you already have a fantastic notion of locality in your data (by perturbing the camera). The interesting thing is generalization, which they show in figure 3B and is... ok, I guess. It's not that surprising compared to any of the other VAE stuff people have done (see the morphing scenes, 3D face illumination / rendering and furniture stuff from 2 years ago, for instance). It's also not that surprising compared to ex. the generative scene model RL paper that came out a few months ago (with Doom and the driving game). IMO deep learning research has moved beyond "here's another set of points I can fit a curve to". It really feels like this publication was heavily driven by prestige when most of the innovative stuff was achieved by other groups 2 years ago or more. Ex. how's this different from [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.03167.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.03167.pdf) from 2015? ~~~ 2bitencryption I don't think the breakthrough here is generating a 3D space from 2D snapshots. I think it's the idea that a network capable of doing that is a far, far better input to training an agent than flat images, or even the ground-truth 3D space. ------ sgillen Very cool work, deep mind wows me once again. One thing I wish they would make more explicit (and in all their papers that I've read for that matter) is how much computational power it takes to train these networks and achieve these results. I'm not sure if this is something they usually leave out because it's not interesting, or because it's something that people that work with deep networks all the time (I.E. not me) already have a feel for. As someone in a related field (sometimes using deep networks but not researching them for their own sake). I certainly would like to know which of deep minds results would be feasible to replicate using my research groups resources, and it can be hard to do that without spending a lot of time actually trying to replicate the results and benchmarking them on your hardware. ~~~ dzdt Retracted! See below; compute is disclosed and is not that crazy. For this project their training hardware used 4 Nvidia K80's. Original comment: _I think they leave it out because otherwise the standard response to their work would be "no surprise they get better results than anyone else, they are using two orders of magnitude more compute time than anyone else!" Not highlighting the computational expense makes their results look more impressive._ ~~~ zerostar07 Also, because they are focusing heavily on the RL part of the modeling. They obviously have obscene amounts of available compute, but that is not their competitive advantage. ~~~ sgillen what exactly do you mean? Are you saying that RL requires less compute? I would say having an obscene amount of compute is definitely a big competitive advantage, especially over a lot of small academic research labs. ~~~ zerostar07 > We train each GQN model simultaneously on 4 NVidia K80 GPUs for 2 million > gradient steps. The values of the hyper-parameters used for optimisation are > detailed in Table S1, and we show the effect of model size on final > performance in Fig. S4. > The values of all hyper-parameters were selected by performing informal > search. We did not perform a systematic grid search owing to the high > computational cost. ~~~ jacquesm That's nowhere near an obscene amount of computing power for any serious ML project. ------ GistNoesis This seems impressive, but it shows that there is still some way to go when comparing to old school techniques. I don't know how many TPU they used but probably a lot. You can build a 3d key-points map using Slam algorithms real time on a raspberry pi. From there, you render those key-points and descriptors to a virtual screen given the desired camera pose, then you learn a deconvolution from these sparse rendered key-points to image mapping. Alternatively, using more memory, once you have a 3d map, you can save some key-frame with camera poses, when ask the view from a given pose, you pick the k closest poses and interpolate (eventually with a neural net). If now you have some more compute, you can do the previous slam algorithms with dense maps, and interpolate the dense 2.5d point clouds. Their network is probably doing inefficiently a mixture of those different things, trading compute and memory power for flexibility. ~~~ zxcvvcxz > You can build a 3d key-points map using Slam algorithms real time on a > raspberry pi. Does anyone have links to any open source projects doing this? Preferably with an example video(s) showing results? ~~~ GistNoesis I used this today for my robot. [https://github.com/Alkaid- Benetnash/ORB_SLAM2/](https://github.com/Alkaid-Benetnash/ORB_SLAM2/) (This particular fork can save the map although it needs to be generated on the pi). It works almost out of the box, just need half a day of slow compilation. For use on a raspberry pi model 3B+, 2000 key-points, it runs 1-2 fps at 640x480, 5-6 fps at 320x240. Use 500M for a few rooms and 75% CPU when map building 50% CPU once built. It's not optimized for the pi so you can probably get it to run at least 3 times faster if you are willing to get your hands dirty. For it to work well a 180 degree camera really makes a difference, and run opencv cpp-tutorial-cameracalibration on a chessboard to get the needed extrinsics. There are probably other slam algos in ROS, but I'm not sure how raspberry-pi compatible they are. If you want to try and experiment with neural networks, once you have build your 3d map on powerful computer you can build a neural network to learn the pose from the image. This will allow you to have some constant time, constant memory algorithm for later use on the pi, it will probably be less precise. ------ state_less Bravo. This sort of imagining of a scene could perhaps allow for an agent to recognize it doesn't know what's behind the ball if asked. That would be a nice feature if you wanted to reward the agent for finding unexplored areas. It also could help an agent plan to get to some goal. No need to guess if I take this fork in the road, will I need to retrace my steps? Instead imagine it and then avoid the imagined pitfalls before taking the action. ------ rasz I can totally see Google incorporating this in Self driving cars down the road, after training on millions of hours or dashcam footage, to augment or maybe even replace Lidar. Paper suggests it is capable of segmenting 2D picture input into logical objects and their discrete configurations/positions. Its not without its pitfalls tho, instead of Monocular SLAM generating factual, albeit fuzzy point cloud map we get overfitted (5 pictures x 2M similar scenes) magic black box generating very training set specific hallucination. This is how we get Scanners replacing numbers in scanned documents [http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox- workcentres_...](http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox- workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning) Similar example was posted 2 months ago [https://data.vision.ee.ethz.ch/aeirikur/extremecompression/](https://data.vision.ee.ethz.ch/aeirikur/extremecompression/) example picture (no doubt best case authors could manage) gained additional data absent from original, some of it dangerous like fake license plate numbers. ------ zerostar07 > We also found that the GQN is able to carry out “scene algebra” [akin to > word embedding algebra (20)]. By adding and subtracting representations of > related scenes, we found that object and scene properties can be controlled, > even across object positions. This is incredible because it provides a way to link with linguisic understanding and manipulation of the rendering. ------ formalsystem If any of the authors are on this thread, am wondering if there are any to plans to release source code this? This can potentially make generating environments for games or VR trivial by just taking photos IRL and then importing them into some game engine to generate a scene ~~~ modeless The important part is the dataset, which in this case is generated by DeepMind Lab, which is already open source: [https://github.com/deepmind/lab](https://github.com/deepmind/lab) Reimplementing the rest of the paper shouldn't be tremendously difficult. These techniques tend to be fairly simple at their core. But training it could be expensive. In any case, it is a _long, long way_ from here to "make generating environments for games or VR trivial by just taking photos IRL and then importing them into some game engine". Many years of research remain. ~~~ formalsystem Hey James, since you seem to know a lot about graphics and ML. Am wondering which specific problems remain open before what I mentioned becomes more feasible product wise? ~~~ modeless The domain of images used in this research is extremely limited. These are very low resolution artificially generated images of small scenes with simple lighting, simple textures, simple geometry, and very restricted camera positions and parameters that are known exactly (which is not the case for most natural photos). Each of those restrictions needs to be lifted before this will work on realistic natural scenes, and that will require many orders of magnitude more data. It's not clear that this approach will easily scale up to that amount of dataset variation. It's likely that a much fancier neural net architecture and training scheme will be required, and probably faster hardware too. This is not intended as a criticism of this research, which I think is really great. ------ tomxor > The generation network is therefore an approximate renderer that is learned > from data. > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-kWNQJ4idw&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-kWNQJ4idw&feature=youtu.be) I wonder if this is efficient... I know this isn't the researchers intended application, but the path tracer in me wants to see how far this can be pushed for real time rendering. I welcome the more interesting artefacts that a NN might produce (i'm talking about pigsnails [1] of course :D) full circle: GPU GLSL for graphics -> GPU cuda/opencl for NN -> GPU cuda/opencl for NN graphics [1] [https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27755-artificial- brai...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27755-artificial-brain-turns- clouds-into-psychedelic-pig-snails/) ~~~ halflings Disney actually does a lot of research combining the world of graphics with deep learning. Some examples that you might appreciate (from the excellent channel "Two Minute Papers"): . "Disney's AI Learns To Render Clouds" [0] . "AI Learns Noise Filtering For Photorealistic Videos" [1] [0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wt-9fjPDjQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wt-9fjPDjQ) [1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjjTPV2pXY0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjjTPV2pXY0) ~~~ tomxor Thanks! that is really some awesome stuff. It's even simpler in concept than this. ------ VikingCoder I'm disappointed they didn't demonstrate what happens when they take this system and expose it to a few real-world photos. Can it handle that, or has it been very much fitted to these shapes? ~~~ yagyu It has very much been fitted. The supplementary material describes the training set as 5 pictures each of 2M different scenes of the type you can see in the paper (square room with random objects). So to extrapolate wildly, it seems reasonable that getting similar results for, say, real-world bedrooms, you'd need to take around 5 pics each of 2M bedrooms, and record the location and angle of the camera for each picture. Edit: and I didn't mean to sound negative, using artificially generated rooms to develop the method is a great idea, and the next step will be narrow domain specific applications (they mention eg robotic arms) where it's feasible to automatically collect enough data for a task, and somewhere in the future we may have the data and compute to sample the distribution of real world environments in decent resolution.. ~~~ chrisfosterelli I'd say much more than that, since real-world bedrooms likely have a much more complicated representation than more simple generated rooms. ~~~ yagyu I agree with you that the estimate is conservative, and would depend strongly on image resolution and how broad your distribution of bedrooms is - only modern US style, or also 40 year old Japanese houses? ------ hacker_9 Well this is nothing short of incredible. I wonder if they'll get it to a point where it can look at 3d drawing, and immediately be able to produce a 3d model which includes all the occluded parts. ~~~ pwaai Probably not far off. We might get to a point where we have an AI software that can run on any computer which will entertain us to eternity. Combined with VXGI and other photo realism efforts, AI could produce any permutation of your favorite TV show that ended too soon. Ex. Breaking Bad Season 15: Walter Jr's Revenge or something like that. There's also an AI that produced a clone of the game by watching videos so with this new neural scene representtion, you wouldn't have to train it with thousands of hours of gameplay footage, it could see a video once and figure out the game mechanics ex. stepping on a group of sprites which it recognizes as Enemy1, it should increment score count based on some generic platformer template model. Once again, Deepmind delivers. ------ aqsheehy I wonder if we'll get to the stage where game engines become a series of neural networks hallucinating the output. ~~~ hypothetical I was thinking about exactly this kind of experiment. Given an input of gameplay recordings, train a model to predict the next framebuffer from the previous frame and keypress input. Would the model have to be excessively complex to avoid rapid divergence into feedback patterns resembling a Winamp visualizer? Probably, but it should be entertaining enough to watch and interact with anyway. ------ cabaalis Could this be a pivot point in rendering technology? All of the thought and effort over decades put into the math behind 3D rendering, meant to produce a rasterized scene following perfect 3D calculations and rules -- replaced with a system that just "imagines" the picture? ~~~ ClassyJacket If you're referring to increasing the speed of 3D rendering, it's very unlikely that this is faster than a traditional rendering method. It's probably an order of magnitude or three slower. If anything it would assist in the art stage, not the rendering stage. Also, what would you render? You still need input. ------ juanuys Demis alluded to this at the Cheltenham Science festival last Saturday when someone asked about rats in mazes and how spatial neural connections are formed. [https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science/whats- on/2018/de...](https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science/whats- on/2018/demis-hassabis-the-future-of-ai-and-science/) ------ closetCS Hey, just skimmed the news article. Seems really interesting, but the lack of information on compute requirements is concerning. Also I wonder what the latent factors and the specific layers in each model are? I tried to dig deeper in the paper but the description was pretty ambiguous? ------ allthenews This undoubtedly brings us a leap closer to AI. Imagine a number of these self learning nets arranged in some structure, learning and unlearning bits of information on demand, perhaps with different levels of volatility. Sounds almost like learning new skills and forgetting old ones. ------ guskel This + the recent grid cell work would allow for the view training points to be generated unsupervised as well. Just drop an agent in an environment, it will explore it and come up with the scene representation entirely on it's own. ------ ankeshanand One thing to note is that the camera viewpoint (it's position, roll, pitch, and yaw) is fed along with the images during training. Requiring access to this ground truth makes this method very constraining to use in practice. ~~~ ehsankia What kind of use cases are you thinking of where this wold be constraining? Don't many computer vision algorithms also require something specifying the parameters of the camera, such as the fundamental matrix for stereo imaging? As humans, when we look at a scene, then move a few feet and look at it again, we have a pretty good idea what the delta between the two views were, so why is providing the same info here any different? ~~~ boxy310 I would add that humans also integrate gyroscopic & acceleration information from the inner ear to understand relative balance. Multiple sources of sensor data is a net benefit, not a drawback. ------ ChuckMcM Nice work! I am guessing that this moves us that much closer to a camera only based SLAM system. I am also curious if they are going to use this architecture to defend against adversary GANs that are attempting to defeat image recognition. ------ martythemaniak It is rather funny that in nearly every Tesla-related thread, they are slammed as irresponsible fraudsters for their decision to not use LIDAR and rely on a radar/camera-based system. Cameras cannot detect obstacles, we are told, and they'll never be able to make an autonomous vehicle without it. This, despite the fact that humans do well enough and that Structure From Motion has been a well-established part of Computer Vision research for a while. More on topic, this is pretty great work and it'll have wide applications, for example Google's own efforts to make robot arms more perceptive using regular cameras: [https://ai.google/research/teams/brain/robotics/](https://ai.google/research/teams/brain/robotics/) ~~~ TeMPOraL > _It is rather funny that in nearly every Tesla-related thread, they are > slammed as irresponsible fraudsters for their decision to not use LIDAR and > rely on a radar /camera-based system. Cameras cannot detect obstacles, we > are told, and they'll never be able to make an autonomous vehicle without > it._ I don't think anyone reasonable says it's _impossible_ \- after all, humans are living, walking proof that it's entirely doable. The core of criticism is that it's _insanely more difficult_ than just using LIDAR data. One could even say that LIDAR, as a specialized tool for depth detection, is a intrinsically better tool for the job. ~~~ haberman In particular, I find this claim questionable: "All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware." [https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-tesla- cars-being-produced-now...](https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-tesla-cars-being- produced-now-have-full-self-driving-hardware?redirect=no) As you mention, this is trivially true on the level of the _sensors_. We know cameras are enough because human brains can do it with eyes (biological cameras). But there is no evidence that we know how to write software for the _processing_ part of it (to an acceptable degree of safety) with cameras only, nor that the computing power on-board is up to the task. How can you say that hardware package X is sufficient to implement something that has literally never been done before? ~~~ joshuamorton >this is trivially true on the level of the sensors. Maybe. The human eye is fundamentally different than cameras in terms of how it focuses on things. For similar performance, we may need much higher resolution cameras. We don't know. ~~~ haberman Interesting, I wasn't aware. How are they different? ~~~ joshuamorton Eyes don't have uniform resolution. The centers of our eyes (or what we're focusing on) have very, very high resolution, while the outer parts have much lower. Cameras normally have something like a middling resolution in comparison. ~~~ sorenjan Eyes doesn't send the entire picture to the brain at once at a constant sampling rate either, they work more like event cameras [0]. Combine this with micro movements of the eye, and specialized brain structures and it's not as easy as saying that because we only need two eyes, robots only need two cameras. Sure, stereo vision might be enough, but what kind of cameras, and what kind of computers do we need to reach feature parity with our own sight? [0] [http://www.rit.edu/kgcoe/iros15workshop/papers/IROS2015-WASR...](http://www.rit.edu/kgcoe/iros15workshop/papers/IROS2015-WASRoP- Invited-04-slides.pdf) ------ mark_l_watson Very nice. It will be interesting to see future results that work with real (non synthetic) scenes - I would not be surprised if that happens in just a few months. ~~~ extralego Why will you not be surprised if that happens in just a few months? As a mere CG artist, I will still be experiencing the surprise of seeing these examples a few months ago. Are any particular recent achievements, announcements or similar influencing your expectations? If so, please share. ~~~ Maybestring I also wouldn't be surprised. Results in transfer learning from synthetic to real world vision tasks suggest to me that if you could train this system with (for example) GTA-V as the environment, it may work reasonably well in the real world. ------ polskibus Is this patented? I heard that deep mind is patenting a lot of that, is that applicable to this particular technique? Where would such patent be enforceable? ~~~ ooyy From the paper: _DeepMind has filed a U.K. patent application (GP-201495-00-PCT) related to this work._ ------ auggierose The displayed scenes remind me a lot of Wolfenstein 3D. ------ bitL Fantastic! Is there some secret at DeepMind how to boost ones capabilities in this space to be _that_ good at bleeding edge? ------ cryoshon i'm envisioning a new kind of black-swan style mistake which i'm going to call the allegory of the neural net in the cave. people will feed neural nets data, and ask it to describe the specific data set that the data is coming from -- without having the majority of that data set in hand. in this instance, it would be showing the neural net a picture of a 3D area, and then waiting for it to extrapolate the details of the rest. on average, the neural net's prediction may line up with reality. that is to say, the simulated data set is identical to the real data. that is what we are seeing in the OP link. but as soon as this method can apprehend and predict things of more complexity, that's where the differences will start to show. sure, it isn't the neural net's fault -- any one worth its salt will place a confidence estimate on its extrapolated data points. but people don't understand how to interpret those confidence estimates. they'll round up to 100%, or round down to 0% accuracy. once people start using these techniques to guide serious decisions in business or elsewhere, that's where those dastardly percentages between 0 and 100 come into play. imagine using this neural net as a way to generate returns in the context of trading stocks on wall st. it's a misuse of the tool, of course. but that won't stop people from making a decision based on a 95% probability of being correct; of course, 5% of the time, it will result in disaster. nor will it stop people from getting screwed by unknown unknowns. this is the stuff which the consulting businesses of the future are built on -- scolding people about abusing models while trying to preserve the power of the model as a tool. needless to say, i'm interested in where this goes. ------ kayoone finally, CSI level hollywood tech will be real in a few years ~~~ yoz-y Would hallucinated images be accepted in court though? I hope not. ------ vokep I. Am. Terrified. This is too close slow the hell down ~~~ mabbo > slow the hell down I'm afraid this isn't a car that you can stop, it's a freefall without a parachute. You're welcome to try flapping your arms, for all the good it will do. And yes, the ground may or may not be approaching at an alarming rate. ~~~ sgtmas2006 What if we're flying up and not down? ~~~ fvdessen Into cold and empty space ? ~~~ sgtmas2006 Towards endless stars, bound to be pulled in by another	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A theory on the difference between iPhone and Android users - virtualpants http://virtualpants.com/post/44806818692/its-not-the-user-its-the-tool ====== jmhain This isn't a 'theory', it's just fanboyism. All it takes to prove a theory wrong is to find a single counterexample. My mother and girlfriend, both bordering on being technically illiterate, each heavily use their android phones. I also know many people who are scared of their iPhones and only use them for dumb-phone tasks. It _is_ the user, not the tool. ------ bussiem I have to agree with jmhain. If this is your opinion on the "difference" between them, then I would call into question whether you really are even considering Android as a possible phone for yourself. ------ dragos2 I'm sorry for being so bold, but this is plain stupid. I don't know any Android users that 'fear' downloading apps. I don't know where exactly did you get your statistics, but are clearly wrong. I use both Android and iOS and I never installed an app that crashed my phone or did something bad to my device. Maybe it helps that I don't download random stuff off the market. If you use a smartphone you should probably tell if a app is worth downloading or not. If you can't tell, maybe you should use a Nokia 1310. ------ hsshah I will have to agree with your perspective. I feel more comfortable setting up my parents with an iOS device than with an Android device. With iOS, I can happily have them install any app they find in the app store. ------ virtualpants I love Android. But I'm always uncertain about downloading apps, especially. I've had apps totally freeze up and blow through my battery while waiting in an airport. It sucks traveling with no smartphone. Never happens on the iPhone. The simplicity and stability of iOS gives even the most novice users a high level of confidence about computing.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How do I start contributing to Open Source software - singluere I am an intermediate level software engineer at a Bay area startup. I enjoy using several open source tools in my everyday job and want to contribute back. However, there seems to be no good way to know which projects have helpful communities and good documentation for a newbie to get started. How do I chose which projects to contribute to ? ====== detaro Generally you should get a basic feel from looking at the bug trackers and other community resources. Bad documentation you should be able to spot by looking at it or notice early when trying to follow it. Do they have clear instructions on how to get started, run tests etc? How's the tone? What are discussions on PRs like, is there good feedback or are PRs from non-core people just ignored? IMHO that's something you have to judge yourself, if you feel comfortable with a project and what kind of resources you need. (E.g. for me, many javascript projects are hard to contribute to because I have little experience with common tooling. But at the same time I know that in the JS community, most people are familiar with them and would not see this as a hurdle, and I would not necessarily fault the project for it.) Some projects explicitly mark issues as "beginner friendly", "good first project" etc. And try to pick something you use or care about: It's a lot harder to stay motivated if you don't really care about the end result. ------ mtmail There are a couple of helpful resources at the bottom of [https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/) That event started today. (as a German I laugh about the naming of course. Munich Oktoberfest starts middle of September and ends first weekend of October) ------ krakensden You might want to check out up-for-grabs.net, a place for projects that are looking for new contributors.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The American Presidency Project - Oatseller http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php ====== Oatseller There's an impressive amount of data. The "Elections" page [0] - with the color-coded maps of each election - show some of the extreme shifts, the difference between 1932 and 1976 is incredible. It's not obvious (they've put it at the bottom of the left navigation column) but some pages - such as "Documents > Messages and Papers of the Presidents" [1] - have a search feature to search the data by date/keyword. [0] [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/elections.php](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/elections.php) [1] [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dizzying Ride May Be Ending for Tech Startups - shard http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/business/dealbook/dizzying-ride-may-be-ending-for-start-ups.html?emc=edit_th_20151111&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57133712&_r=1 ====== DrScump Posted _eight_ times thus far today. Earliest I see is: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10544826](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10544826) ------ SteveWatson [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10546640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10546640)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
From Encrypted Drives to Amazons Cloud – The Amazing Flight of the Panama Papers - jaxonrice http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/04/05/panama-papers-amazon-encryption-epic-leak/#48c726361df5 ====== ksenzee > its portal used by customers to access sensitive data was run on a three- > year-old version of Drupal, 7.23 Drupal 7.23 is vulnerable to [https://www.drupal.org/SA- CORE-2014-005](https://www.drupal.org/SA-CORE-2014-005). Anyone who's ever read a Wikipedia article on SQL injection could have had shell access to that site. As a Drupal core contributor, I've always felt a small irrational amount of guilt for not catching that defect. But today suddenly I feel just a tiny bit better.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.