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Enclosed tube maglev system tested in China - jyrki
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-enclosed-tube-maglev-capable-mph.html
======
melling
While this is cool, it's probably decades away. People should note that low-
speed maglevs have arrived.
[http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/860672.shtml](http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/860672.shtml)
[http://english.cri.cn/6909/2014/05/16/2702s826842.htm](http://english.cri.cn/6909/2014/05/16/2702s826842.htm)
A few of these would be nice in NY or LA. JFK to Manhattan in 20 minutes.
Cross the width of Manhattan in 4 minutes.
~~~
danmaz74
I would be curious to know what is the advantage of using maglev technology if
you only reach speeds of 120 km/h. "Firstly, there is no friction, and little
noise or vibration; secondly, it eliminates the risk of derailment; and
lastly, it is an eco-friendly method of transportation without emissions"
looks like nothing special to me.
~~~
melling
I'm not really sure how to answer this. You're kind of asking me to explain
the value of safety and noise. I guess most people really put a high price on
safety. Accidents do happen on subways:
[http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/f-train-derails-in-
nyc-...](http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/f-train-derails-in-nyc-subway-
officials-say-1.7898804)
Subways, and rail in general, can be quite noisy. Paris uses rubber tires on
their subway, for example.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_M%C3%A9tro](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_M%C3%A9tro)
In Silicon Valley, one of the reasons people don't want HSR near their homes
is because of the noise:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-high-speed-
rai...](http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-high-speed-rail-2011-4)
Ever hear the above ground train pass by in DUMBO in Brooklyn, NY?
Anyway, a super-smooth quite ride at a mile a minute certainly does seem like
an appealing way to get around a big city.
~~~
danmaz74
Honestly, the safety argument looks pretty moot to me - monorails don't derail
either. For the noise, that's cool, but I'm under the impression that a high
speed maglev will be quite noisy too.
~~~
Anechoic
_high speed maglev will be quite noisy too._
At <100mph, the TR08 is fairly quiet [0]. When I was en Elmsland for the noise
testing, it was common for the vehicle to sneak up on us when it was running
at lower speeds. At higher speeds, especially over 150 mph when aerodynamic
noise kicks in, it is very loud.
[0]
[http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/22000/22500/22570/fra0213.pdf](http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/22000/22500/22570/fra0213.pdf)
------
mcintyre1994
Can any physicists compare this briefly to hyperloop? The prototype tube has
curves but would this have to go in a very straight line similar to hyperloop?
Does it have the same safety issues in terms of being a closed pipe? -
obviously that prototype with open air seats isn't going to carry anyone
1000mph+.
~~~
dnautics
I don't think open air seats are good when you've got a low atmospheric
pressure, either. It looks like the prototype is a mock-down at a lower scale.
The principal advantage of hyperloop is that it takes the atmosphere (which is
a liability for maglevs) and turns it into an asset,- by collecting it at the
front and redirecting it below as a mode of levitation. This means the tracks
can be unpowered. I'm not sure if the tracks are powered in the chinese
maglev, but the article said "superconducting" so that's energetically costly
either on the pod or on the tracks.
An interesting maglev alternative to superconduction is inductrack, which,
however, cannot be combined with magnetic propulsion -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductrack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductrack)
~~~
dojomouse
The atmosphere isn't a liability for Maglevs, you could make hyperloop with
maglev tech and it'd still work fine.
The tracks don't need to be powered for most Maglev concepts; superconducting
maglev doesn't use powered track. Superconducting maglev is also energetically
extremely cheap from an operating perspective - it's arguably energetically
expensive during construction because you need a shitload of permanent magnet
material (the entire track surface is coated with it). The superconductors are
the cheap part from a system perspective. Electromagnetic suspension - like
with shanghai maglev - also doesn't need a powered track, the relatively small
amount of power required can be supplied by onboard batteries and periodically
refreshed. Inductrack can be combined with magnetic propulsion, it's just not
a form of magnetic propulsion in itself. There's no obstacle to integrating a
separate propulsion stage into the track (as is proposed in the inductrack
based container movement system proposed for... LA?)
~~~
dnautics
Atmospheric drag absolutely is a liability... That's the whole point of an
evacuated maglev.. To make an artificial atmosphere with lower drag. Note how
the mockdown chassis cross section is small relative to the tube... That's
also a drag limitation; and note how hyper loop has a nearly full tube cross
section.
~~~
dojomouse
Sorry, I didn't word that very clearly - yes it's a liability, but it's a
liability that's fairly independent of the levitation mechanism. I think it's
more clear to say "That's the whole point of evacuated tube transport, to make
an artificial...". Whether you use wheels or maglev or air bearings is a
separate issue. Hyperloop doesn't turn the atmospheric drag into an asset - it
just uses a particular method of overcoming the large liability. Because of
how it overcomes it, it might be able to get away with a higher blockage
ratio, but to say that with any real confidence you need to specify the vacuum
level in the high-vac example you're comparing it to. And then do a bunch of
compressible flow math that I've not yet seen for a high-vac ETT. This paper
([http://jmt.swjtu.edu.cn/EN/abstract/abstract8587.shtml](http://jmt.swjtu.edu.cn/EN/abstract/abstract8587.shtml))
looks at the _incompressible_ flow case... but that's kind of missing the
point I think.
------
pistle
How does one pressurize the cabin in a serious vacuum tube? How long will it
take and will there be special requirements to adjust pressures for travelers
in such devices?
Is this not essentially equivalent to going for a ride in the space station
for us out of shape schlubs?
~~~
headcanon
From the article, it doesn't appear to be a full vacuum tube, just much lower
pressure, which airplanes have been protecting their passengers against for
years.
Also, the reason astronauts need to be so physically fit is not because the
environment outside their ships is a vacuum, its because they have to be able
to handle the immense g-forces of launch and reentry, as well as be able to
operate in micro-gravity, which wouldnt apply here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Enginuity Search – We taught a machine to understand human emotion. - thehal84
http://engu.me/zJmafNq
======
jcr
On the "Why Enginuity" URL
[http://theenginuity.com/tour.html](http://theenginuity.com/tour.html)
You're delivering a "403 Oops!" error when the browser user agent is not
set/sent. If you read RFC2616 Section 14.43, you'll learn that sending a user
agent string is Optional.
Edit: You probably want to use "Trend Search" or "Trending Search" rather than
"Viral Search"
Edit2: [http://theenginuity.com/index.php](http://theenginuity.com/index.php)
> "with support in 28 international languages."
should be:
"with international support in 28 languages."
~~~
thehal84
Thanks jcr. Will get those fixed and lighten the mod security rules for no
user agents.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FoodieBytes Helps You Fill Your Cravings - terpua
http://mashable.com/2007/12/03/foodiebytes/
======
terpua
Too bad Halu Ramen is not on the list:
[http://foodiebytes.com/search.html?t=item&rad=20&srt...](http://foodiebytes.com/search.html?t=item&rad=20&srt=score&q=ramen&loc=San+Jose%2C+CA+95117)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Halite 2020: An AI Programming Challenge - thibpat
https://www.kaggle.com/c/halite/overview
======
thibpat
I've never participated an Halite, but it's the 4th version of this contest.
Usually people use Machine Learning to create the winning AIs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Change C-corp name, or file for a DBA? - graffitici
Hi,<p>We incorporated our startup using a fairly generic (/boring) name, mostly due to my lack of creativity. After a year in operation, we found a catchy alternative. From what I understand, we can either change the name, or file for a DBA. Any advice as to which course to pick?<p>Filing for a DBA seems to be easier/cheaper, and we also signed a few NDAs under our previous name. But we also don't want to be stuck with the bad name forever..<p>Thanks!
======
davismwfl
You can do either, but in general I hate changing the corporation name after
you already have contracts in place etc. It isn't a huge issue, but to do it
properly you need to update all agreements with a notice of the change and
make sure all parties are updated. Then you also have bank accounts to deal
with, credit accounts if any exist etc.
A lot of times a DBA is easier and even more appropriate, especially if what
you are doing is brand specific. And at the bank you can just add the DBA as
an additional name on the corporate bank account and deposit checks that are
written to the DBA etc. Plus with the DBA you are not required to change any
current agreements etc.
There are reasons to do both honestly, the earlier you are the more I
personally would lean towards changing the corporate name, the further along
you are I'd look more towards a DBA unless you have really good reasons to
change the original corporate name.
Just as a point, most brands are not corporate names, e.g. look at Proctor and
Gamble etc, they have 100's of brands under their corporate umbrella and most
are not their own corporation or even a DBA, just a protected brand name. Even
Google is no longer Google per se, they are Alphabet with Google as a core
brand.
------
smt88
Talk to a lawyer. S/he will do a name search for the new name (which is
important) and advise you on how to use it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams - jazamora
Hello HN!<p>We’re Jorge, Kevin and Sean and we’re building GoLinks (<a href="https://www.golinks.io" rel="nofollow">https://www.golinks.io</a>).<p>GoLinks is a platform that allows you to easily manage and share links by letting teams create a short link for any internal URL within a company. These links are easy to remember and share, so you don't have to bookmark or copy and paste them in emails.<p>Each day we use and share hundreds of links to get our jobs done, without considering how long it takes to access and share these resources. It’s one reason why many of us leave tabs open in our browser: we don’t want to spend the 5 to 10 steps to navigate back to that important page. With GoLinks, you’ll be able to deep-link directly into any application with just a simple keyword entered into your address bar. This allows links to be conversational. For example, one employee can create the keyword “go/review” to point to the annual review page in Workday. Later in a meeting, that employee can mention, “Remember to visit go/review to fill out your annual reviews!” Now anyone in that meeting can remember and access the link “go/review”, without digging through their email or Slack.<p>Golink systems are commonly used in many big tech companies such as Google, Linkedin, Twitter and Airbnb, built by internal tools engineers in those companies. These systems have become an integral part of the way tech companies share internal links.<p>When we started our careers in tech, we would often visit each other for lunch at these tech companies and we began to notice the same go/links everywhere. In the hallways, cafes, break rooms, posters. fliers and TVs, there would be these keywords prefixed with “go/” that allowed employees to quickly access information on their devices. The employee could enter a shortened URL like go/food into their mobile browser, or desktop, and could access the lunch menu for that day. An easy and simple concept, but an extremely powerful method for internal communication.<p>Although these systems are ubiquitous in large tech companies, we noticed there was nothing on the market that catered to startups, midsize, or non-tech companies. Companies usually don’t have the time or the resources to build sophisticated internal tools, so we set out to create GoLinks as a Service.<p>The challenge was building an internal tool for companies that may not have any internal infrastructure. For example, large tech companies have infrastructure so when you connect to the company Wifi or access the VPN, you can access the internal company network. This allows users to access the “go” domain on the network, which resolves the deep link redirection. For smaller and midsize companies, employees might be 100% remote or working in a coworking space, or maybe the company never got around to setting up an intranet. We had to build a product that did not rely on assuming internal infrastructure.<p>We were able to replicate the functionality of an internal network, and the simplicity of a short-link redirect system, by creating browser extensions for each of the popular browsers. The extension would proxy the “go” domain to our server and we authenticate and redirect the user to the correct location. Now coworkers can be on any network and any wifi, and as long as they authenticate in their current browser, we can find their company’s internal links.<p>We are startup-friendly—anyone under 10 users can get started completely free—but our main initial focus is on enterprise clients.<p>If you’ve ever used our GoLinks or any company's golink system, let us know how it’s changed your daily workflow. Thanks for reading. We appreciate your ideas and feedback!
======
yingw787
I think our company has a policy against using shortened URLs, namely because:
\- If the company goes out of business, then our documentation and business
logs have a lot of dead, useless links that can't be fixed after the fact. If
it's a business critical use case, then you just shot yourself in the foot.
\- Related to the above, it's not human-parseable. If you're on a mailing list
and you send out a hyperlink, you don't immediately know if it's relevant to
you and have to scan the rest of the text for context.
\- It's an unnecessary abstraction on top of perfectly good HTTP URIs, that
couples an Internet-scale protocol to one particular company and its closed-
source parsing logic.
I also don't get how this is product is "sticky" / won't be cut at the first
sign of a recession, how much overhead larger companies really have in
maintaining such an internal tool (I would think you make something like
bit.ly once and keep extending the suffix length by changing one number in a
conf file), why smaller companies might need this (I think larger companies
just track everything because human analytics at scale might have business
value), and how it's different from other solutions on the market.
~~~
seantomburke
To address the first concern, anyone in the company can modify any link, so
they will never go stale. We do this to solve that exact problem where
documentation may contain dead links. With GoLinks your links will always be
up to date as long as people are using them. Your company is the owner of the
links, not an individual.
The second, our links are actually more human-parsable. go/customer-feedback
is much more readable than
[https://docs.google.com/d/document/ABCDE1234/](https://docs.google.com/d/document/ABCDE1234/).
You actually wouldn't know if the google doc is relevant without opening it.
This might be surprising, but many companies with a similar system actually
don't maintain them very well. It works the first time when a tools team
builds it, but when those engineers leave the company, new engineers will
either try to revive the old system, or rewrite the entire system from scratch
to maintain it. We continue to improve the product over time with customer
feedback and can provide analytics for the most common links used in the
company.
There currently isn't a solution specifically solving these issue on the
market today.
Hope this helps!
~~~
badfrog
My understanding of the first concern was that users are in trouble if GoLinks
shuts down or has an outage. Do you have any mitigation plan for such cases?
~~~
seantomburke
Yep, It’s in our terms of service, in the unlikely case something happens to
GoLinks, we will provide you with all your links. But we plan on being around
for a long time.
~~~
3into10power5
Grandparent asked about outage. Not about going out of business.
~~~
seantomburke
Outages are definitely a risk every company encounters. Whether it's a third-
party hosted solution or an internal solution, unfortunately, servers do go
down. We run all our services on AWS which provides an uptime SLA of at least
99.99%, so uptime shouldn't be a problem, but we do recognize the concern.
~~~
h1d
Services can also go down when the infrastructure is up too.
Self hosted solution can give that responsibility away though.
------
Detry322
If you want a simple (but bare-bones) self-hosted version of this service,
check out the open source version I made a couple years back:
[https://github.com/Detry322/redisred](https://github.com/Detry322/redisred)
Here’s a hubot plugin for slack:
[https://github.com/Detry322/hubot-
redisred](https://github.com/Detry322/hubot-redisred)
We use this extensively at MIT for HackMIT and the MIT Pokerbots competition,
and best of all, it’s free.
The deploy to Heroku button should “just work”.
~~~
badfrog
I think Facebook's "bunny" system is also open source, but I have no idea how
easy it is to set up.
~~~
seantomburke
We've actually curated a large list of the open source solutions on our blog.
Find "The History of Go Links" article to see the full list!
------
zerkten
I think you have something useful here. This is something I've seen a number
of large companies build/deploy internally because they've been burned hard on
content migrations. In the enterprise noone is going to set up a .htaccess
redirect unless it's for the CEO's document repository. Whether it can sustain
a company larger than 1-2 people is a larger question.
* Have pages listing available links go/hr could take you to the HR homepage, but go/hr/_list would link everything that exists under go/hr like go/hr/holidays or go/hr/stockawards.
* Give users a personal links page with personal and private links. Allow the company to display custom news/content on this in a tasteful way. Internal comms want to get their content to users.
* Let users bookmark links from the _list pages I mentioned.
* If a user links another link shortener, or a page that has a redirect, either - remove those intermediate redirects, or flag it to the admin.
* Add some sort of safe site checking to "protect IT from the risks of public link shortening services." Not sure if you can reuse an online database for this.
* Provide RSS feeds of top links etc to import into the company's portal.
* Resolve page titles correctly. If someone pastes the link into a tool that looks up the go link for a preview, ensure you return useful metadata. This is a common problem now because companies have some stuff on-prem (their documents and tools) but are using a cloud chat tool. If you can work out a way to know that particular tools are scraping your link then you might be able to give a better experience.
~~~
seantomburke
You pretty much just listed out our current backlog. Great minds think a like!
For the first item though, we plan to implement “tags”. The sub directory
format actually causes links to be siloed under a specific subname, so if 2
links should exist across 2 sub directories, it would need to be duplicated.
With tags, you can tag the link and aggregate the links with the tag.
For the 4th point about someone using another link redirect, that's an
interesting use case. Should we change the link to the underlying link,
removing the intermediate links, or treat it as its own links? I can see a
user doing this to try and create their own analytics, or maybe they found it
easier to copy an already shortened link. That's a great suggestion, and we'll
look into that use case.
~~~
zerkten
I'm not sure on the best solution. From the security perspective many
enterprise customers like want the intermediaries removed so that they can see
the real final destination. If the destination changes at some point you
should update to the new destination, but it might be interesting to record
the change when your system checks link validity.
------
3into10power5
Congrats. I used this funtionality in a couple of companies I worked and its
neat. Never thought someone could make a business out of it. Especially, since
ever tech company's favourite question is "Design a URL shortener"!!
~~~
seantomburke
Thanks! The functionality is definitely powerful at large scales. We want to
provide a solution that companies can get started with right away, with zero
setup.
------
usaphp
It asks me to install a browser extension, which asks for this permission: "It
can: Read and change all your data on the websites you visit". Is it normal?
~~~
jazamora
The browser extension is how you we're able to get "go/" links working in your
browser without having any kind of network infrastructure. We have other
integration options without the extension but its the recommended approach.
[https://www.golinks.io/support.php#technical](https://www.golinks.io/support.php#technical)
~~~
badfrog
I think the question is why the extension needs that particular permission.
~~~
seantomburke
Specifically, it's to resolve any go links that exist in your browser, but we
plan to explore the partial permissions options to have the user choose if
they want this feature enabled or not. This way you could install the
extension and have the golink redirection option without the "reading all
data" permission.
------
kaseyb002
It would be great if you could create a separate links page for individual
teams within an organization. The most important and most complicated links at
my work tend to be specific to my team, and are not relevant to the rest of
the company.
Unless I'm using the product wrong...
~~~
kyeong
Thanks for that feedback! We've actually been hearing that from multiple users
and have added the feature to our backlog.
~~~
kaseyb002
That's great. Thanks for letting me know
------
kissgyorgy
I don't think it's needed. We make domain names for important links with a
simple DNS entry. Things like
[https://jenkins.balabit/](https://jenkins.balabit/) for all the Jenkins
instances or [https://doc.balabit/](https://doc.balabit/) for all the
documentation we have. These are both Confluence pages. Not really a big deal
to make another one, as we are using multiple DNS servers anyway.
~~~
seantomburke
That's great! More companies need a solution like the one you've created,
unfortunately, not everyone knows how to build one. There needs to be an easy
way to access important links. Some companies will even save a Google Doc with
a list of all the important links, which isn't scalable long term. We're
hoping we can make that process even easier so that even non-technical
employees can create links.
------
Sephr
Personally, at my company we just use a private link redirecter at go.company-
name.example. We use a modified version of the open source Zerodrop webapp[1].
This solution doesn't require a browser extension with elevated permissions
that increases your attack surface.
1\. [https://go.eligrey.com/zerodrop](https://go.eligrey.com/zerodrop)
~~~
seantomburke
Always happy to see go links being used at other companies! You can actually
take this a step further at Eligrey. By setting up a DNS Entry that redirects
go.eligrey.com to the domain go you would then allow your links to become
conversational and even quicker to access. For example you could say "Checkout
go slash zerodrop" without physically sending an email or message.
------
jedberg
I think this is super useful and you're totally right about how go spreads. At
Netflix we ended up rewriting go at least three times. Every time someone new
took it over, they rewrote it. Having a go service with no work is super
useful.
I set it up but didn't look carefully -- is there an export function? And an
API? I think I could get around most of my concerns if I could just get a CSV
each day of all the current links, just in case something happens to you guys.
Another source of comfort would be if you could give me a lambda function that
I could deploy into my own AWS that would just resolve go links. So all the
management would happen on your platform, but the actual resolution would be
on my side so I would be in control of its reliability. I know that at Netflix
we built go to be highly reliable because in an outage, go was actually
essential infrastructure to get us to the tools and dashboards we need most.
Thanks for making this!
~~~
seantomburke
We do plan on creating an API that will allow users to create links, and view
links through integrations, but it isn’t built currently. That’s an
interesting solution for resolution, but I can definitely see the utility in
having the resolution be in a lamda function, to ensure reliability. We don’t
have a daily export function, but can provide links to companies in the rare
event that something happens to us.
------
jmathai
Curious about the pricing. It says $2.75 / month / user but it also says
unlimited users. Does that mean you can pay $2.75 / month / user for as many
users as you want? Seems confusing and I'd assume it's unlimited users if I'm
paying per seat.
Can everyone in the company use the go links but only paid users can create
them?
~~~
seantomburke
Good catch, we've been doing some price experimentation with user count and
price, and I think that line needs to be updated.
------
earlybike
Few questions:
1\. [solved] How does it work? I couldn't get it from the website: 'go/' is
not a real DNS-resolved domain but some host alias?!
2\. [solved] If 1 is true, how do you want to target smaller to medium sized
companies which just have G-Suite, Slack but no real intranet/private net
where you could create this host alias easily for the entire staff? Guess I
got it wrong, so I am happy about a technical explanation/architecture.
3\. How is the business model's defensibility? What's hindering me to set up
the same with some open source repo, write a Chrome extension, add a nice
landing page and hire a sales force for SaaS enterprise sales?
_EDIT: ok now I fully read your post and got my answer for 1 and 2 but how
should this work on mobile where you don 't have extensions?_
~~~
seantomburke
We have a mobile application on the product roadmap, so stay tuned!
For our business model, we’re focusing on making GoLinks integrate with all
the great applications that you use everyday. We’re currently available in the
Slack marketplace, and Okta, but soon to be in Attlasian’s marketplace, with
more integrations in the way. The more integrations we can incorporate, the
stronger the business.
------
patrickxie
Setting up the account to try this for our small team, we're running
everything on different spreadsheets, pulling different sheets has been "hey
X, can you get me the sheet url for Y again". Thanks for the startup friendly
pricing model, keep up the great work!
~~~
seantomburke
Awesome! Definitely a problem a lot of companies have. Great to know we can
help out.
------
lol768
Whenever I see mentions of go links, I think "How are you handling TLS?" which
there's not a great answer for* so I think it's neat that the extension model
solves this problem.
* I don't trust most enterprise IT teams to be able to set-up and administer a secure CA with the appropriate critical nameConstraint that limits the CA to signing certificates for `go`.
\--------
OP: You should probably mention the TLS problem on
[https://www.golinks.io/support.php#technical](https://www.golinks.io/support.php#technical)
since right now I assume the CNAME approach will only work with HTTP.
~~~
seantomburke
That's a great suggestion, our support page could include more technical
details. It's long over due for some updates.
------
blueberry_47
I use golinks for personal use and it is incredibly valuable. Thanks for the
service!
~~~
jazamora
Great to hear! Few of our users have suggested this and is something that
solves a valid use case :)
------
dandigangi
Looks like a useful product. We'll give it a try at our company.
~~~
seantomburke
Thanks! Let us know if you have any feedback
------
jbob2000
We are distinctly not allowed to use URL shorteners at my enterprise company
and our fraud prevention department regularly educates us about the dangers of
clicking URL-shortened links (you have no idea if it will send you to a
phishing site or not).
URL shortening was created so people could send tweets without using up their
character counts on a URL. I'm pretty sure most software companies aren't
communicating via Twitter, so I'm not sure the practical application of this
anyways.
Good luck.
~~~
seantomburke
It's less of a link shortener and more of a link manager for companies. The
concern that companies have with URL shorteners is they can't manage who is
creating these links, and who owns these links. With GoLinks, the company will
own the links, they can manage, edit, update, delete any links within the
organization, so they will be centralized. The added benefit is that with a
memorable link, you can access go/benefits much easier than bit.ly/fE7r232r.
URL shorteners aim to shorten links, Golinks aims to make links memorable.
~~~
jbob2000
The issue is that you obfuscate the destination of the link. This is a big no-
no in enterprise fraud prevention. We train people to only click trusted
links. How do I know whether a golink is trusted or not? And what if my
golinks account is compromised and all my links get redirected to phising
sites? All of this huge risk so... people can remember the link?
~~~
seantomburke
These are all great questions. Security is definitely our number one priority,
especially since most of our customers are large enterprises. In order to
create a link, you must first authenticate with your company's Single Sign-on
solution to access the dashboard. If a user cannot properly be authenticated
through Okta, GSuite, or another SSO, then that user cannot use the shortened
link and cannot access the knowledge base of links. Second, all of the
destinations can be audited in the dashboard, and we're currently testing
solutions for checking the safety of a link that users can redirect to. This
is unique to a golink system since the company can set these policies up for
its users. For example, as an admin, you can disallow "http" links and force
all links to use "https" to increase the security of the links. Now the
company has control over which links are allowed to be used. The memorable
link portion is also an added benefit of implementing a golink system.
------
esigler
We've been using golinks.io for a few months now at my current employer, and
it's been very well received by folks, with both technical and non-technical
users adopting it quickly.
Variable links are very useful - links like "go/monitoring/alpha",
"go/monitoring/beta" (with a template "go/monitoring/$1 -> $1.example.com"),
make it super easy to keep things up to date.
~~~
kyeong
Glad to hear that it's been a hit within your organization! We love to hear
about happy customers. :)
------
godot
I linked your site on our slack to ask about opinions, and was surprised (not
pleasantly or unpleasantly, just neutrally so :) to see that Slack can
identify the app even though I haven't installed anything yet:
[https://i.imgur.com/H6v3LYX.png](https://i.imgur.com/H6v3LYX.png)
~~~
jazamora
Slack has a really great feature where it associates websites with
applications if they have them. Thanks for sharing this! Its working as
intended :)
------
pacifika
So I built this as a prototype for the college I worked on. Broken links are a
big problem with learning materials which are hard to change after publishing.
The idea was that someone is responsible for each link and any 404s would get
corrected. Then if the person left active directory would assign the manager.
Hope that’s useful. It was also called go.
~~~
seantomburke
Yep! This is a problem we've addressed by making everyone in the organization
an owner. If a link breaks, anyone in the organization can change it, even if
the original creator leaves the company. Checkout out our blog to learn more
about the history of go links, you may see why the "go" term is so popular.
------
chinathrow
I'd probably use it or give it a try.
The pricing jump from the free to paid tier after you hit 11 users is a bit
steep. Like from free to 363 USD at once.
Also, I'd'offer a feature to opt-out of your analytics collection as I don't
see a reason why your company should know on how exactly our team members work
all day long.
~~~
seantomburke
Pricing is always a tough thing to get right. If you look at Shopify's pricing
page on the internet archive, you can see it changes almost every week since
2012, so it's something that all companies struggle with getting right. We're
always open to feedback from customers.
For the analytics, this is a trend I've personally seen in SaaS products
lately, where companies can get in-depth analytics on how their team members
are working. If you look at Github, Jira, or Google Docs, you can see personal
stats for user events. Even Slack is starting to send out the number of
private vs public messages sent throughout the week. It's something that
definitely needs to be discussed because I can see it being used for good or
being used for bad (as in micromanagement). Google Docs is the only one I know
of that gives the option to opt out of usage analytics, so that's a great
suggestion for a feature.
~~~
jedberg
One suggestion -- make the $2.75/user/mo not apply to the first 10 users. So
when I hit user 11, you bill me $2.75/mo. User 12 makes it $5.50/mo and so on.
That way you don't have the big jump, and you're not losing a lot money
because if they had 10 users it would be free anyway.
~~~
seantomburke
That's actually a really good suggestion, thanks!
------
mountainofdeath
Don't domains managed by Microsoft Active Directory do the same thing? E.g. If
git is hosted on git.contoso.com and my workstation is part of contoso.com, I
can just go to [https://git](https://git)
~~~
seantomburke
Yep, that's correct! That works assuming you have access to setup subdomains
for contoso.com. We make it easy for any employee, technical and non-
technical, to update and create links.
------
irs
When it is designed to be conversational, wouldn't the company run out of easy
to remember keywords at some point? Or should they keep reusing the keywords
whenever they update the resource?
~~~
seantomburke
It depends on each company, for example let’s say you have a link to a holiday
party, you can create go/holidayparty and update that every year to the new
page, or use go/holidayparty2019, go/holidayparty2020, ideally, you could
update the links so that they are more relevant to the current time that they
are being used.
------
mooman219
Anecdote, you've done some Facebook ad targeting to Google employees. Clever.
One of the ads in the Seattle area has a meet and greet of Google employees in
the comment section haha.
~~~
seantomburke
We're still experimenting with our ad strategy, but one of our target markets
are previous employees of companies who have used to have a go link system. It
just happen to spread to current employees that use a go link system, probably
through word of mouth.
------
tschellenbach
Isn't this identical to Bit.ly's business model?
~~~
seantomburke
Great question, and it’s a common question we get a lot. Bit.ly allows you to
shorten links in marketing campaigns, and is meant for public use. GoLinks is
used to make links memorable and conversational and is private, so it can only
be used within your company.
------
hamandcheese
I love the usability of go links when I’m at work, but it sucks that they
don’t work on mobile.
~~~
jazamora
You are able to use go.golinks.io/KEYWORD with ours or if you are setup on the
enterprise tier with us, we can setup full TLS go.youcompany.com/KEYWORD
------
pankajk1
Hi Jorge, nice to see this at HN front page. Wish you guys all the best.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Forced into the City After 9,000 Years in the Jungle - mcone
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-08-08/forced-into-the-city-after-9-000-years-in-the-jungle
======
woliveirajr
> The east side of the city today has factory after factory, owned by domestic
> companies and global powerhouses such as Samsung, Honda, Harley-Davidson,
> and Procter & Gamble.
It doesn't mean that it's easy to live or to find a job there: many of those
plants are just for integration, i.e., goods come pre-manufactured and pieces
are just assembled there. So, many companies but not labor-intensive, with
much automation taking care of everything.
~~~
dzdt
That is the brave new world awaiting us all. As machines get more capable, the
economic role of humans diminish. This is analagous to the fate of horses
after the introduction of the internal combustion engine.
Most everyone on this site has the education and skills to stay ahead of the
AI revolution for some time. But many other people already have fallen behind.
If the only things you know how to do can be done by machines at less cost
than a living wage, then what hope do you have to compete?
~~~
woliveirajr
I couldn't have said it better
------
aaron695
People 9000 years old. That's great genes.
Is the argument culturally they can't handle it or genetically they can't
handle it.
Compared to the hundreds of millions of Chinese who have done the same on the
past few decades ( and been pulled out of abject poverty)
~~~
jmknoll
Did you read the article? There is no argument that they can't handle it.
Rather, it discusses some of the challenges these migrants face moving to the
city.
And not sure what the reference is to Chinese migrant workers. Other than the
fact that they both physically changed locations, I see very little similarity
between a 20 year old kid leaving a provincial city in Sichuan to make it big
in Shenzhen and a family of indigenous refugees transitioning from a hunter-
gatherer lifestyle to a modern, urba life.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Need a marketing person to take 30% stake - Advice - sammville
I am a developer and built a ad network but not good at marketing the product. How do i get a marketing person to take a stake in the profits and get customers. HN members advice pls
======
instakill
I work in digital marketing as well as media buying, so from the perspective
of 'somebody who you're looking for', I'd definitely recommend that you put
together a good list of features that your ad network has, the functionality
it offers, any USP's that other ad networks don't have, the (vaguely if need
be) type of networks you'd want to operate in.
Also, are you looking for a sales guy to actually get agencies or brands to
buy ads on your network, or are you looking for a person with a deep
understanding of online marketing that would be doing business development and
acquiring publishing channels for your network for advertisers to advertise
on?
~~~
sammville
Thanks for the advice. I am looking for a sales guy who would help acquire
publishers to the network..
~~~
instakill
Can you put an email address in your profile?
~~~
sammville
I have done that!! thanks
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why some physicists think there's a 'mirror universe' hiding in space-time - laurex
https://www.livescience.com/truth-behind-nasa-mirror-parallel-universe.html
======
ascorbic
It's pretty funny that this story started in the Daily Star and was actually
picked up by other outlets. It's the most downmarket of daily tabloids in the
UK. It's like getting your cosmology stories from the National Enquirer. It's
not really surprising that it's inaccurate
------
artsyca
I'm pretty sure we'll eventually understand that our universe has no beginning
and no end, it's a perpetual motion machine.
As well we'll understand that time is not the fourth dimension per se but the
constraint that keeps everything happening in the 'now'
~~~
uniqueid
I dunno. I'm not a physicist, but Time as a fourth dimension seems sensible.
Since what you consider 'here' (your office, maybe) isn't the same as my
'here' (my living room, atm), why should your 'now' (2020-06-23) be the same
as Ben Franklin's 'now' (eg: 1790-01-01)? Must any one 'now' be more
significant than any other? A person has to be _somewhere_ in time and space.
~~~
artsyca
It's our shared now dude. We're in the here and now. Ben Franklin is dead as a
motherfucker.
~~~
uniqueid
Well, he's dead to people _in 2020_ , not to his contemporaries over in the
18th Century, if you catch my drift. And _we 're_ dead, to people in (most of)
the possible 3020AD futures that branch out from 2020.
_The hedge is in case there are some where medicine advances to the point
where we live 1000 years_ :)
~~~
artsyca
There's only one now. That's time forcing everything to happen all at once.
Quit thinking like a classical physicist and take into account all the
discoveries of recent years. I fucking hate this website why do I keep coming
back to it?
~~~
uniqueid
> There's only one now
Why, because _you_ experience it? Is that different from saying the only
_place_ that exists is your office? That's just where _you_ are.
~~~
artsyca
Yea dude that's my theory that time is what keeps everything focused on one
single now so that energy doesn't leak out to some other now somewhere else
There's nothing outside this one moment, ever.
It all moves together in perfect unison and that's why the speed limit is the
speed of light.
Edit: for all these other histories happening outside of the now, they can't
change shit about their timelines so they obviously don't have the same
freedom of movement we do, do they?
~~~
uniqueid
That's over my head. Anyways, I shouldn't shoot my mouth off. Like I said,
Physics is not my field :)
~~~
artsyca
Dude computer science is the one field to rule them all
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Machine Learning – Based Personality Analysis of a Failed Finance Minister - fforflo
https://tselai.com/machine-learning-baroufakis.html
======
kensai
Every politician should have his/her talks parsed with this technique.
~~~
Chris2048
That will just begin a process of wealthy politicians hiring companies to game
their speeches..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Japanese Addresses: the opposite is also true [video] - stakent
http://sivers.org/jaddr
======
rwmj
But getting to places in Japan is still stupidly difficult, even when you have
local knowledge. Street naming is a _better system_ because we walk along
streets, not blocks. Unless you're Godzilla ..
~~~
patio11
That has not been my experience, and my direction sense is nil. The address
system also has not harmed the Japanese distribution industry, which is quite
possibly the most efficient in the world.
(These days all the routing is computerized, but prior to that all routing
made use of the fact that Japanese addresses get progressively more specific.
You used that to sort the parcel at every location so that it got to a
distribution center closer to the destination, at which point one of your
carriers who had worked in that neighborhood for years would get it directly
to the proper door.)
~~~
sorbits
Sounds similar to sorting by zip code.
I don’t know how many postmen share each zip code. In Copenhagen the western
district has been sub-divided into a lot of zip codes so it could be that each
is its own route, but they only did it for the western district, the other
districts still only have a single zip code — I suspect that they did it to
simplify sorting but found that people are more likely to make mistakes (when
you have a dozen zip codes for the colloquially same district).
------
ugh
In the German city Mannheim streets also don’t have names, blocks do. Well,
only in the old city center, but still.
Mannheim’s old city center has these regular, almost quadratic blocks (called
„Quadrate“) which are very unusual to find in any European city. If those
regular shaped blocks made Mannheim name its blocks, not streets, why didn’t
the same thing happen in the US (where those kinds of blocks are much more
common) at least once? I think that’s a intriguing question.
[http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Mannheim_Inn...](http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Mannheim_Innenstadt.jpg&filetimestamp=20061013191902)
(Photo)
<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratestadt> (sadly, only in German)
------
wglb
This is a very nice post showing that sometime you need to go far away to see
what assumptions you are quite unaware that you are holding.
------
lisper
Um, I was just in Japan and streets definitely have names. For example, this
is in Nagasaki:
<http://flownet.com/ron/fukken_street.jpg>
~~~
mullr
The street outside my window in Kobe has a name because it's pretty major, but
the two running orthogonal to it on each side of my block don't. This is
typical. IIRC Sapporo has a western style street system, and is laid out on a
grid, but otherwise the video is correct.
Meeting points and directions are generally expressed in terms of landmarks
like train stations.
The system isn't really that strange. We (in america) use the same system of
space decomposition for states, counties, and (in some places) cities. This
just continues breaking it down to city regions (区), district name, chunk of
blocks（丁目), block number, and finally house number. It's consistent with the
larger scale system, and it handles change pretty gracefully.
~~~
BigDamnDeal
So how do you give directions? I know you must have a system, but I'm not sure
exactly how it works. "Head down to Block 16, take a left and turn right at
block 22"?
~~~
ramchip
"Turn right at the next crossing, then at the 4th street turn left, then after
you see the Buddhist temple turn right". Major streets also have a name, and
there are maps at a lot of places, most importantly at the train station.
Around my place there are even detailed, apparently hand-drawn maps with the
shops' names written on them.
In the block themselves there may also be a map of the block with the houses
and the family names of the owners. Houses themselves don't have a number
plaque but they have the owner's name at the entrance. Apartment buildings
tend to have a (more or less pompous) name as well. Here "mansion" means an
apartment :)
Generally you don't need to ask though, since the websites for japanese shops
usually have a detailed map, and people who invite you will give you
landmarks.
------
Mz
A couple of completely unrelated thoughts:
Even in America, there isn't necessarily some standard format for giving
directions. If you spend any time around career military folks, they tend to
give directions which include north, south, east and west as a critical part
of the explanation. Many civilians cannot make heads nor tails of such
directions.
I am reminded of an anecdote (probably from Reader's Digest) where an American
man working with a Japanese company was frustrated at his inability to get on
the same page with these folks. One day when things finally seemed to be
getting better, he remarked they were "thinking along parallel lines". The
Japanese man agreed. Some time later when they were again at an impasse, he
referenced that discussion. The Japanese man then replied "Parallel lines
never meet".
------
ojbyrne
The conclusion of this was very much in line with my proverb that "every
proverb has an equal and opposite counterpart."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Happened to Downtime? The Extinction of Deep Thinking & Sacred Space - minouye
http://the99percent.com/articles/6947/what-happened-to-downtime-the-extinction-of-deep-thinking-sacred-space
======
wccrawford
If you have that much trouble disconnecting sometimes, you need help.
I'm a loner by nature and I find it extremely easy to get alone time even
without 'disconnecting'. My computers stay on, my phones stay on, everything
stays on.
-I- am in control. I don't let devices or other people control me. I make the decisions on what to do and when.
~~~
kkowalczyk
You've made 452 comments here, a 3.86/day average for the 117 days since
you've registered.
Somehow that doesn't strike me as a behavior pattern of someone fully in
control of his web browsing habits.
~~~
patio11
I think I win, or lose, depending on your point of view. Most people consider
me fairly well-adjusted and successful. (Quote my aunt, to my cousin: "See,
you can like geeky things and still grow up to be a productive member of
society.)
Nobody says boo about someone who watches 3.86 thirty minute episodes of TV a
day, or who writes 3.86 pages of email a day, by the by.
------
mkramlich
This is one of those "speak for yourself" articles. Meaning, it assumes that
everybody has this problem. When they don't. And for those folks who do feel
like they have this problem, well, they have a lot of options and control at
their fingertips to fight against and probably make it go away, or at least
reduce it. There have been times where I've felt overwhelmed or had a hunger
for solitude and it's almost always possible to deal with it. There are knobs
you can turn. Leave your cellphone at home. Stay away from Twitter or Facebook
or web forums (like HN) for a day or a week. Check email only once a day
rather than 20 times a day. Plan a weekend vacation, offline, someplace quiet.
And so on.
~~~
kkowalczyk
You're criticizing a strawman. Nowhere in this article you'll find a claim
that "everyone has this problem".
It just states pretty obvious facts about the combined effects of new streams
of information (mail/rss feeds/twitter/facebook) and new means of accessing
those streams (laptops, smartphones) which leads to a growing addiction to
frequent checking those streams.
This is not a novel or controversial point. There've been many articles about
this effect in the past and there will be many more in the future.
I can observe this addiction in myself, when I pull out my iPhone to check my
Twitter during lunch with my coworkers. I can observe this addiction in my
coworkers when I glance and their monitors when I pass by and see the browser
opened on Facebook or Twitter. I can see that in people on the street, who
walk looking at their iPhones or Droids. I can see that in people in cafes,
drinking their lattes with a laptop lid open and browser set on YouTube. I can
see that in people like myself, checking Hacker News several times a day.
There is a problem, it is widespread and there is no easy solution. That's all
that article is saying.
------
thingie
I wish this was a problem. What is completely missing (at least in my life) is
offline "downtime" and solitude. People in large openspace in the office,
crowded tram, crowded shop, people everywhere in the park, people around my
favourite walking trail, and of course, roommates, everywhere. There's no
escape, no opt-out, no nothing. It actually drives me mad.
~~~
snowwindwaves
there is an abundance of empty space here in canada
~~~
deffibaugh
I really think that more and more people will start leaving the cities as
communication continues to improve. The reason people conglomerated was so
they could be in constant contact and physical space is not limiting factor to
that any more.
~~~
pyre
The more remote the area, the more expensive supplies will be. Land might be
cheap, and communications networks may be available, but you'll have to pay
the extra for shipping things like food in.
~~~
lovskogen
Well, you're kinda extreme in getting away from the city buzz if you have to
move someplace that needs to _ship_ food supplies.
~~~
deffibaugh
Even if you live in the boondocks today it is still only a 30 minute trip Wal-
Mart. There just isn't any traffic.
------
mark_l_watson
Good advice. My favorite down times and introspection times are short
meditation periods when I first get up and in the late afternoon. A key to
good meditation is not worrying if you can't always clear your mind or random
thoughts occur. I live in the mountains in Central Arizona, so short 20 minute
walks by myself on the trails behind my house also form what I call walking
meditation. I also find sitting outside for 5 minutes, again not thinking
directly about work, helps me get a good perspective on whatever I am doing
that day.
When I lived in San Diego I had a window office looking out over La Jolla Cove
and I found a few times a day using 10 minutes with my door shut, looking at
the ocean helped.
The subconscious mind is a powerful problem solver. I believe this is why it
is common to wake up in the morning with an unsolved problem, worked out.
~~~
deffibaugh
"The subconscious mind is a powerful problem solver. I believe this is why it
is common to wake up in the morning with an unsolved problem, worked out."
Have you read anything about this? I do this all the time with my course work
and I thought I was just strange. I can't tell you how many times I have
banged my head against the wall with an assignment until I went to bed and
then proceeded to get up an hour before it was due and finish it with no
problem.
~~~
mark_l_watson
I can't recall reading anything specific about this. I was just relating
personal experience. I assumed that this is a common occurrence for everyone.
------
hoop
Take a long, hot shower and bring a beer in with you.
------
deffibaugh
I must be a counter example to the people with the problems this article
describes. Maybe it is natural for a person about to graduate college with no
idea what I am doing or where I am going but I can not stop thinking about my
big problems. Moreover, my constant thought about myself is almost crippling
and keeps me from actually doing anything. I do think that maybe this stems
from the "self esteem" work this article talks about...
~~~
AlexandrB
I was in this state a year ago and I found that external self-esteem boosters
are pretty useless. The nagging self-doubt still lingers no matter what others
say.
What I found helped was doing the task equivalent of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method> \- starting with a list of
stuff I wanted to do/improve I did the easiest[1]/fastest things first. This
builds confidence quickly and you can start working up to harder tasks - it
also keeps you focused on nice short term goals, which reduces how much you
worry about the big problems.
Not sure if this helps... good luck.
[1] I literally had things like "buy new shirt" in the list that were very
easy, but we're constantly getting forgotten/put off because of the constant
worry about the big problems.
~~~
deffibaugh
Thanks a lot I will have to try this. I have started using todo lists and they
have seemed to help. I do worry I might be slightly depressed. However, I
think this problem is something different because I have not had any problems
with meeting people and making new friends recently. Quite the contrary
actually. Did you happen to smoke a lot of marijuana before this onset? I
really think the intense reflection I do while high led to my conscious mind
getting stuck somehow... I am just theorizing though.
~~~
AlexandrB
I did not smoke marijuana, but I tend to fall into a state of intense
reflection when I'm stressed and at some point I wasn't able to come back out
even though the stress went away.
My biggest cause of stress is procrastination. When I put off things I need to
do I stress myself out and then start down this path - maybe that's why the
todo list thing helped.
------
j_baker
My way of thinking about it is this: if I can't resist twitter and/or my email
long enough to get something done, is it _really_ worth doing?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How do managers get stuck? (2017) - luu
http://www.elidedbranches.com/2017/09/how-do-managers-get-stuck.html
======
aerophilic
This analysis resonates with my experience. It also (somewhat) correlates with
the Peter principal [0], people get promoted to their level of incompetence.
That said, I still remember “the rules” my High School math teacher told me
about “Corporate Life”: 1\. Be able to do your Boss’s job 2\. Make sure you
have someone that can do _your_ job 3\. Dress/act the part of your boss
1\. Is important because the best way to prove you can do the role is to
actually do it. If you can “step in” while your boss is elsewhere, it proves
your ability.
2\. Conversely, if you don’t have anyone that can take over your role, you are
“stuck” especially if your role is critical
3\. As mentioned in the article, your boss/their management needs to feel like
you will be able to represent them appropriately. If they have any doubts,
there is no way you will get the opportunity to prove you can.
[0] [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/peter-
principle.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/peter-principle.asp)
~~~
taneq
I can see 3) coming across negatively if your boss feels like you’re treading
on their toes, which could be career limiting.
~~~
gondo
also 2) can be dangerous as there will be someone to replace you and make you
redundant
~~~
taneq
True, but if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
~~~
mandeepj
> True, but if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
Not exactly true. If you can't find a replacement internally (or when there is
a conversation about your promotion) then do an external hire
~~~
aerophilic
While nice in principal... that adds friction to your ability to be promoted.
Usually someone promoted someone into a role to fill a specific need. If you
need x months before you can cut over, that decreases your ability to fill any
but the longest term needs.
If however you can leave almost at a “drop of a hat” because you have someone
that can fill your spot, then the moment the org has a need you can fill, BAM
you fill the need. Much lower friction.
------
stormking
When it comes to promotions, there is one simple rule:
A promotion is not a reward for doing a good job in your current role. For a
company, promoting people is an optimization technique. Good employees are
hard to find and if you already have one and he or she shows the potential to
do even more valuable work, you promote them.
It's as simple as that.
~~~
eitally
I disagree. Well, I agree, but with nuance. A promotion for a knowledge worker
role is typically a recognition of already having been operating at a higher
level than the employee is currently mapped to. This is _not_ the same as
promoting someone because you recognize potential, but those two concepts do
usually coexist.
~~~
cutenewt
This sounds like the typical corporate line explaining why someone hasn't
gotten a promotion: "A promotion for a knowledge worker role is typically a
recognition of already having been operating at a higher level than the
employee is currently mapped to."
~~~
pdpi
I appreciate where the cyniscim comes from, but e.g. Facebook is fairly
explicit about working this way, and makes it work quite well. First, because
the criterion for promotion is precisely “performs at roughly the middle of
the pack for the next level over”, so there is an objective(ish) metric for
what you should be doing. Second, because performance bonuses are mapped such
that your effective pay before and after the promotion are essentially the
same (so you were both performing, and earning, as if you had the promotion).
~~~
scarejunba
Interesting. So Facebook assumes that some large number of promotions will
fall behind previous performance? Probably a valid assumption. But interesting
that they'd perform at one level and then degenerate when that's recognized.
~~~
pdpi
Sorry — when I said “middle of the pack” I meant performing at “meets all”
level for the level above.
~~~
scarejunba
That makes sense.
------
PorterDuff
Just to play grumpy old guy for a sec., I can't say that I've ever seen this
in action. In my experience.
. Line managers rarely make the leap, if anything they jump laterally or go
into 'new opportunities'.
. Actually escaping the gig and advancing, and I'd say that being a manager
manager is a far more desirable line of work, seems to be more tied to selling
yourself and to being associated with high visibility/profitable/successful
projects which often has little to do with your own personal skills.
The article sounds quite plausible though.
~~~
human20190310
In my experience, managers who step into a role that someone else has already
occupied tend to get stuck. Those who grab territory and take newly created
roles as a company expands tend to move quickly.
~~~
badfrog
> In my experience, managers who step into a role that someone else has
> already occupied tend to get stuck. Those who grab territory and take newly
> created roles as a company expands tend to move quickly.
Sounds like that could just be because the latter case indicates the
company/org is growing quickly and making room for people to grow.
~~~
o-__-o
Or it sounds like the Gervais Principal to the T[0]. On one side Ryan climbs
the ladder and has opportunity for getting the director title in front of him
within weeks of joining. The other hand, Michael Scott almost put Dunder-
Mifflen out of business with his tenacity to do better or growth. What I’m
trying to say is that sociopaths are still on top.. they are just a bit nicer
these days thanks to the liberalization of drugs
[0] [https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-
principle-...](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-
the-office-according-to-the-office/)
------
chase-seibert
I've done both roles, but my sense is that manager of managers is essentially
a more risky role -- chances of being laid off are higher, with accompanying
risk. Line managers virtually never get laid off.
Compensation seems similar, as well.
~~~
hinkley
I wonder sometimes if the almost-military model of business hierarchies is
intentional, unintentional, or emergent behavior of the system.
The line manager and lead developers are not unlike non-commissioned officers.
They are supposed to be able to talk to the grunts, and even though they don't
do the "shit", getting shit done is not abstract for them. They know how to do
it in a more concrete way. If they didn't, nobody below them would respect
them. (Though I have heard tales of new NCOs being sweated by their reports
because they clearly did not know anything in a concrete way. They were either
going to learn or they were going to be forced out.)
For everyone else there's a lot of up-or-out. If you've been a middle manager
for 20 years there must be something wrong with you.
~~~
SaltyBackendGuy
> If you've been a middle manager for 20 years there must be something wrong
> with you.
In my experience, the Army was the same. If you saw a 18 year E-6 he/she
probably had a problem staying out of trouble or were just incompetent.
Edit(context): Active duty in a combat MOS.
~~~
walshemj
Really isn't that about the top of the tree for NCO rank as it in the UK - as
there are not that may RSM's or even warrant officer roles.
------
cosmotic
This list seems largely biased toward thriving in a highly-political
organization and largely biased against Actually Getting Things Done.
~~~
raz32dust
Probably true. But then, I think all organizations achieve these
characteristics beyond some critical size. Good executive leadership can help
somewhat, but politics and difficulty in getting things done (a.k.a.
coordination overhead and communication loss) is part of any large org. So
these tips are definitely good to know unless you are planning to always be in
small companies (< ~100 employees).
------
aj7
It’s at least 50% appearance and image.
~~~
dlphn___xyz
in other words - its politics.
------
ed312
If you feel you're doing all three of those categories reasonably well, and
there just are no open roles to advance in your company, what do you do? Does
an MBA help you "level up" in the eyes of HR etc.?
~~~
thinkingkong
Your feeling of how youre doing isnt the goal in these circumstances. You get
promoted based on the opinions of 3 separate groups the least weighted is your
own.
------
test1982
Lack of empathy
------
kyberias
Define stuck, please.
~~~
munchbunny
Wanting to move up or get promoted within the current role, but not getting
promoted after several years.
"Stuck" is in the mindset of the individual.
Edit for clarification: I mean that a person is "stuck" when they feel/think
they are stuck.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Should I Leave CA or Keep Looking for a Job? - tonym9428
Me: I'm a 33 year old professional who was laid off last week from their job as a data scientist. I've found a new job at a Fortune 300 company in Minneapolis. However, I'm having second thoughts about accepting it.<p>Background:<p>I have lots of savings (100K liquid)<p>I have cerebral palsy...walk with a limp and use a cane. Moving would suck as I have cerebral palsy and makes life a b<i></i><i></i><p>I'm a powerlifter and have a gym/coach in CA. I really want to stay serious about this and keep lifting.<p>Option 1: Move to Minneapolis<p>Pro: It's a job in my field<p>Pro: I've previously lived there and so the winters are something I can tolerate<p>Con: Relocation is possible, but my disability makes it a challenge<p>Option 2: Stay in CA<p>Pro: Keep looking for a new job<p>Pro: Get to keep my powerlifting coach/gym<p>Con: Even though I'll have unemployment, I'll be without a job. And there is no guarantee I'll find a job here<p>Option 3: Other<p>grad school, become a freelancer, etc
======
nieksand
Where in CA are you? I'd be surprised if you have difficulty finding a new
position in any of the major metros.
~~~
tonym9428
It's been easy finding a new job. I got three offers in four weeks. The
problem is that ALL of them were outside of California
I'm in the SF East Bay
~~~
howard941
That's a bad thing? In
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19122034](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19122034)
you said you hated life in CA.
~~~
tonym9428
I do hate CA. But given my disability, it's a lot easier to stick around than
move around from state to state
~~~
scarface74
What does having CP have to do with moving - I have CP also (mostly my left
hand,a very slight limp)?
I couldn't deal with the cold weather though. It makes my CP worse.
Get on a plane and pay movers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inside the World’s Most Elite (and Secret) Traders’ Club - ForFreedom
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-03/inside-the-world-s-most-elite-and-secret-traders-club
======
ggm
Well, it's a given there is little direct benefit to me in this, but I am
wondering if there is even a benefit to the finance system overall. It feels
like this is simply not sustainable, and is done because huge wealth created
it's own rationale of what can and cannot be done.
Hedging ones expensive house mortgage.. that was neat.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ReactOS X64 boots on modern hardware with RAM-disk - jeditobe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rgsXXbs2FA
======
RickSanchez2600
It just needs better driver support. It looks good so far.
~~~
simonblack
Exactly. When a long-standing lack of USB drivers means that you can't even
install ReactOS on many machines, there's been a definite failure in the
allocation of development resource priorities.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Cranes Keep Falling - mhb
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a19612/why-cranes-fall/
======
patio11
This is one of those "Wow that certainly feels like an _exotic_ way to die;
clearly, cranes must be more dangerous than cars in St. Louis." sort of
situations.
Spoiler alert: they're not. Cranes are industrial equipment. They're getting
progressively safer over time, due primarily to the general progress of
technology and decreasing reliance on the most error prone component in the
crane.
The most common crane-related fatality is not "crane falls over, killing
operator and/or people on the ground." It is electrocution when the crane hits
a power line. (c.f. OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) This is almost
invariably a consequence of human error and failure to follow well-understood
safety procedures rather than "oh noes the software is so complicated these
days."
~~~
cr1895
Another recent tragic crane-related fatality:
[http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/02/23/at-least-two-killed-
after-p...](http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/02/23/at-least-two-killed-after-
passenger-train-smashes-crane-train-overturned/)
Crane operater tries to drive a crane across a railroad crossing,
underestimates the time it takes, passenger train slams into it killing the
train driver and injuring a number of others.
(link text says two killed but it's wrong)
~~~
Symbiote
I assume the same rules exist as in the UK, where slow vehicles must telephone
the railway signaller before using a crossing.
So this is just another version of not following the rules.
------
FussyZeus
Considering the work they do in the places they operate, I'm kind of amazed
they manage to kill only 90 people a year. While it certainly is a tragedy,
the politicians kind of make it sound like the companies are being purely and
unnecessarily penny-pinchy to not have the cranes taken down when things get
rough, yet in the same article the author points out that is sometimes a multi
day/week process. That doesn't affect just the construction company, it's also
a ton of lost productivity for the workers involved, and disassembling the
crane during said conditions could be dangerous itself.
I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin when Big Blue fell, I remember the news
coverage vividly and we took a drive down to Milwaukee that weekend to see it.
Crazy stuff to think a machine that huge could fail (as a kid anyway).
------
jakub_g
> Statistics from the United States Dept. of Labor's Bureau of Labor
> Statistics shows that the United States suffers nearly 90 crane-related
> deaths per year
In Europe I almost never hear about crane accidents, either they do not happen
as often or are underreported. Anyway, seems me being uncomfortable walking
past them is not too much paranoic.
~~~
blackstrype
I don't think I've ever seen mobile/crawler cranes here in Paris. All of them
seem to be tower cranes and the structures seem quite stable (I couldn't find
death by crane stats with a quick google). These tower cranes I see everywhere
are on fixed construction sites... I suppose the use of mobile cranes is more
for renovations -- and yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-
base crane. But still, when one is going to the effort of building/renovating
something of such magnitude, why can't a fixed-base crane be used ? If done
right it shouldn't be too hard to mount and dismount a modular tower crane --
maybe there's a market for this sort of thing...
~~~
lhopki01
Yeah I very rarely see crawler cranes here in London. The only times I see
them are to disassemble tower cranes. I wonder if this has to do with the size
of streets in New York vs London. In New York most streets are wide enough to
accommodate a crawler crane while in London big crawler cranes have to be
disassembled and brought to the building site in pieces and can't site in the
street beside usually.
~~~
robk
They're not at all uncommon around Victoria. Lots of construction around here.
~~~
lhopki01
Large crawler cranes? There are small ones around London, about the same size
as truck cranes but very rarely do I see one the size of these ones on New
York.
------
davidw
Perhaps it has something to do with those gravitational waves we've been
hearing about.
------
murbard2
"Operator error lies at the root of most crane collapses."
" Crane manufacturers are now trying to build in new automatic features to
keep disaster from striking their eqiupment. "
Maybe skip through the features and make it fully automated.
~~~
unethical_ban
Create an AI to operate cranes in all kinds of climates, geography and weather
conditions, operating near city centers.
I'll have it by Friday.
------
krylon
> Such events highlight the awesome and scary power of cranes
On the one hand, I like that expression, on the other hand it sounds a
little... dramatic.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Flexible JavaScript Validation Library – Strickland - bullman
https://www.strickland.io/
======
bullman
Learn more here:
[https://github.com/jeffhandley/strickland](https://github.com/jeffhandley/strickland)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AudioKit's “Analog Synth X” Source Code - shawndumas
http://audiokit.io/downloads/
======
analogmatt
Thanks for the post. If you're interested in what the code does, here's a
video: [https://vimeo.com/152378869](https://vimeo.com/152378869)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Obie Access – A Slack-first wiki for startups - altruly
https://obie.ai/solutions/access/how-it-works
======
altruly
For a little more detail on Obie Access, we also wrote a blog describing how
it came to fruition: [https://obie.ai/blog/obie-access-knowledge-base-
software-for...](https://obie.ai/blog/obie-access-knowledge-base-software-for-
small-teams-remote-companies-and-startups/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Man on the Edge - cluiggi
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/a_man_on_the_edge/
======
nbautista
ahh, eccentric explorers. who are they in our time?
------
spoiledtechie
Good read...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Shipping Containers as Tiny Homes - liseman
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-16/now-you-can-live-in-a-remodeled-shipping-container
======
liseman
Heather and I build these; happy to answer any questions! -Luke
~~~
mojomark
@Luke - A few years back I looked at opportunities to resolve the issue of
having surplus containers stacking up largely in U.S. ports due to trade
(import/export) imbalance. As you probably know, it turns out that its
generally cheaper for Asian companies to abandon containers overseas and
simply fabricate new ones than it is to book a return trip for an empty
container. So, the continership capaciy surplus (rcord cheap shipping rates)
coupled with a trade imabalance has helped create a container surplus. Given
the surplus, and knowing that nobody is going to pay $2K to ship an empty
container, I would think you could get a much lower cost per unit than $2K. Is
there no longer a surplus?
~~~
liseman
2k is delivered to my door. Definitely still a surplus, but they're worth
_something_ as scrap: prices fluctuate directly with steel's scrap price.
~~~
mojomark
Ah, got it. Sounds like as you look to scale you could probably increase your
margin by doing your own trucking.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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RethinkDB looking for a technical cofounder - andreyf
http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/rethinkdb-tech-founder.html
======
eserorg
During Larry Ellison's recent interview with Ed Zander at the Churchill Club
in Silicon Valley, someone asked Larry Ellison what he thought was the most
significant distruptive innovation that Oracle was paying attention to.
Larry Ellison said: "Flash".
Apparently, Oracle is taking flash very seriously. They already have a flash-
based Oracle database product that is shipping.
And with the Sun acquisition, Oracle now owns MySQL.
RethinkDB needs to move ahead fast.
~~~
praxxis
Here I was thinking you meant _Adobe_ Flash - cue massive confusion. You can
get an Oracle database in _flash_?! Well it wont run on the iPhone...
------
falsestprophet
- You're not afraid of modifying Linux kernel source code.
- You're not afraid of modifying MySQL source code.
The truth is I am afraid of both of these things.
~~~
cookiecaper
Yeah, I think that's their "nice" way of asking for someone with significant
experience there. The problem is that you only want someone with significant
experience, not just someone who is "unafraid" of it, because any worthy
developer unversed in those projects would be scared to just jump in and start
changing random things if the work is ever going to be used.
Both Linux and MySQL are huge, complex systems and if you want someone who can
immediately start making usable changes to those systems, you should probably
recruit on their respective mailing lists. Developers running in to huge
things like Linux and MySQL ad-hoc and making changes causes lots of problems.
See Debian's SSH-certificate problem from a year or so back for just one
immediate example.
As with any complex platform, it takes a lot of tinkering and experience to
know what flies and what doesn't. Those dudes should change their ad away from
the cute thing to the serious thing unless they plan on allowing the hire time
to figure these things out.
~~~
coffeemug
That's not true. While we'd prefer someone with experience in these areas,
when we say "you're not afraid" we really mean "you're not afraid".
Hacking Linux really isn't _that_ hard. I implemented two kernel-level
projects - a stackable filesystem that gives you an assurance your files
haven't been tempered with, and an "object orientation" system that lets
processes modify and inherit their syscall vectors. Each project took about
four days and I never looked at the kernel code before. I had pretty good
access to a Linux expert who pointed me in the right direction, but I didn't
ask _that_ many questions. It wasn't the caliber of code that would make it
into vanilla, but it was very useable.
The idea that hacking the Linux kernel requires superhuman abilities is a huge
misconception. I can assure you that I'm as far away from being a genius as
anyone. If I could do it, any reasonably competent software developer can. And
the complexity of MySQL codebase pales in comparison to Linux.
We want some degree of experience hacking high performance low level systems,
but we care about competency, determination, and ability to ship working code
far more than experience in any specific area. It's Linux and MySQL today, but
it could be FreeBSD and Postgres tomorrow.
~~~
cookiecaper
I never said it required "superhuman abilities". It just requires some
familiarity, obviously depending on how deep you want to go. The trend of
developers running in guns blazing and changing a complex codebase they don't
understand is bad. I'm glad your stuff was personally usable, but there's a
difference between something that's adequate for personal use and something
that you can distribute as part of your new _database engine_. That stuff
requires serious stability and complex programs are complex and changes can
often have unforeseen consequences even for devs already trained in these
large projects.
I'm not saying one can't learn, but I am saying that most good developers who
haven't changed the source code for ginormous things like MySQL and Linux
_are_ scared to take a new job where they're expected to be able to make
meaningful and/or significant changes to any ginormous thing they don't have
much familiarity changing, especially if you want to changes that are
immediately deployable in your project.
If you're going to give the dudes time to get used to MySQL and Linux and
tinker and discuss adequately, then that's fine. If not, and you expect them
to go from 0 to "usable filesystem" in 4 days, you should probably be more
specific in your ad.
------
cperciva
Can we please stop this nonsense about "cofounders" joining a company several
months after it is founded? What's wrong with calling a spade a spade and
saying "RethinkDB looking for 1st employee"?
~~~
jmtame
Is it a fetus or is it a baby? It doesn't matter, it's so early that you can
call it what you'd like. I think it's fine that they're looking for co-
founders. They could just say "hiring first employee," but sounds like they're
looking for a person who will be more involved than that.
~~~
cperciva
_Is it a fetus or is it a baby? It doesn't matter_
If it dies, the law considers there there is a very large difference. :-)
More seriously: The English language says that "co-founders" are "people who
found together"... not "people who found together plus anyone who joins them
shortly thereafter".
~~~
catch23
Not necessarily. LinkedIn technically had 1 founder: Reid Hoffman. But really
he couldn't build LinkedIn solo, after raising a small amount of capital (and
using some of his own from paypal) he recruited 4 others to help him and
become additional co-founders. So LinkedIn actually has 5 cofounders, but
really started with 1.
------
mustpax
This is one of those times where I honestly wish I was at a time and place in
my life where I could take the leap. RethinkDB does exactly the kind of low
level, rethink-the-whole-stack systems development that I've been crazy about
from the get-go. Best of luck folks!
------
jmtulloss
I'm a pretty good engineer, and I think I'm better than I am, but I'm pretty
sure I'm not smart enough for this gig. Seems like one of the few job
descriptions that requires software/hacking skills as well as computer science
skills.
------
ntoshev
RethinkDB seems to implement a functional btree on a log-structured storage.
This would involve lots of copying, I wonder what is the performance impact of
this (compared to a less pure implementation that copies the modified nodes
every thousand updates or so).
Also, the most important feature for SSD storage (no random writes!) is
fulfilled by Cassandra / BigTable implementations based on SSTables, I wonder
how a btree-based implementation compares to them.
------
jmtame
The founders are awesome =] This is a group that you'd want to work with,
besides the cool technology challenges and perks of being early in a funded
start up.
------
jasonlbaptiste
Certain infrastructure plays really get me wet. This along with push
notifications is one of them. We need to start building the infrastructure for
the future. If I knew anyone who was qualified for this specifically, I would
tell them to drop whatever they are doing and go join the company. Best of
luck with the co-founder search and the future.
~~~
prodigal_erik
As a storage engine, are they in any position to fix MySQL's deeply held
assumptions that the user is generally not interested in validation or
constraints? We should at least begin expecting correct answers if this is the
infrastructure of the future.
------
antirez
Please can someone briefly explain why DB on SSD are important? Thanks
~~~
ntoshev
Flash based storage is better than disk because there is no seek latency (the
time for the head to find the location on the rotating platter where the data
in interest are stored), which currently is the major bottleneck of databases.
Also the transfer rate is faster than disks the prices are falling (not as
fast as the prices of disk based-storage, but faster than RAM)
_Today a gigabyte of NAND costs less than 1/3rd as much as a gigabyte of DRAM
and the gap between the two is growing. ... By the end of 2012, when a
gigabyte of NAND costs 1/19th as much as a gigabyte of DRAM, the optimum
balance of flash/RAM will be very different._
<http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-ram-flash%20pricing.html>
~~~
antirez
Disclaimer: I'm the author of Redis.
The Q is, why don't directly jump to RAM instead to take this intermediate
step?
~~~
Maro
When you turn off the computer, you loose what's in your memory. Solid state
disks don't loose data when power is turned off.
~~~
antirez
ok thanks now I got it.
~~~
gcb
i Don't. why exactly this must be done in the DB, against, say, in kernel or
filesystem space?
~~~
antirez
My "I understand now" was just for fun. It's like LOLWUT... given that I'm the
author of an in-memory snapshotting DB I belive I know at least the difference
between RAM and SSD. So I stopped the thread this way.
That said, seriously, I think that what applies for SSD applies for RAM: that
it's going to be cheaper and cheaper, and bigger, super fast, and unlike SSDs
the writing and reading latencies are comparable, so even if as today it's a
psychological barrier to hold your data in RAM, I think it is going to be much
more common in high load applications in the future.
Actually most people are doing it already, with memcached. Sometimes the total
memcached memory used could be enough to store the whole dataset well
organized given that when you use a K/V cache a lot of space is wasted
compared to using it to hold data.
------
ConceptDog
Seems like a really fun gig. Wish I had the chicken guts to qualify.
------
pavs
Just curious, whether you are interested in this job or not. Anyone here meets
all or most of those qualifications mentioned there?
~~~
raffi
I think the right person who sees this ad will jump on it. I like the fact
this company is doing something systems oriented and not just another web app.
Pretty cool to see Scott's startup and this out there. Good job YC. It looks
like PG and crew are seeding some folks with potential to make a long term
impact on the plumbing of our internetz.
------
Maro
What's your business model?
~~~
Maro
Ah, it's not open-source.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hanlon's Razor - wemdyjreichert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
======
n0b1dy
hello world
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What's your opinion of the "99%" issue? - orijing
Reddit is aflame with shared outrage. HN has a somewhat different population. What do you all think about it?<p>Should people just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop leaning on others' generosity, or are there serious structural issues with the "American dream"? What can we do about it, if you think it's wrong?<p>Sure, we can all think of ways where our governments have failed us, but is there something extraordinary to merit such a strong opposition?<p>I'm extremely curious for all your opinions. Let this be an open discussion: PLEASE be civil and don't downvote comments that you don't agree with.<p>Thanks! Looking forward to a lively discussion.
======
luser001
Am I understanding correctly that you consider reading about the occupy wall
st. movement an "ordeal"?
If so, I think you tipped your hand and started on an (IMHO) uncivil note by
calling it "ordeal".
Anyway, FWIW, I think it's about time Americans woke up to Wall St's rigging
of the game in its own favour. When an ordinary homeowner is foreclosed, it's
a teaching moment about "personal responsiblity", but banks should be bailed
out because ...?
About the only good thing I can say about Wall St. is that entry to the top
echelons doesn't seem to be hereditary.
~~~
MrWestley
I can say that I have mixed feelings about it because it is a very grey area.
For a lot of people it is about personal responsibility. There were a LOT of
people that knew better but instead choose to believe what the "big money" was
saying. The catch to that is they owed it to themselves to look closer at
their personal situation and asses if they could afford what they were told
they could. I myself paid $215000 for a house that is now worth about $140000.
If I didn't inform myself before buying the house I could have lost it.
Instead I have put myself in the best situation I can. I position myself to
never be "upsidedown" just by being careful. I didn't do things that other
people can't. I just did my homework. Does it bother me that my house lost a
tremendous amount of its value? Hell yes, but I planned for that possiblity.
My point is that for a lot of people they could have been more careful. The
other side is that a lot people didn't have the means to know better. They
trusted what was happening around them and it cost them. Is that there fault?
Maybe, but I fell like saying they shouldn't have trusted anyone is a worse
solution.
~~~
luser001
Am I to understand that you're ok with you and others in your position not
being bailed out, but do think that the big banks should be bailed out?
Don't you think the same yardstick that you apply to yourself and others like
you should also be used for the big banks.
FWIW, my two cents is that neither individuals nor big banks should be bailed
out.
Sorry about the late response. :) Maybe you'll see this.
~~~
MrWestley
Well I have to say that initially I am not for bailing out banks. To be
honest, I don't know if it is that simple. From what i understand a big reason
for the bailout was to avoid the banks "problems" jumping to companies other
than banks. Thus really damaging the economy. For example, just prior to the
bailout BoA was about a day or two away from ceasing lending to GE. Not
because anything GE did but because the shit hit the fan. In turn GE
shareholder that are already scared would panic and GE stock would plummet.
Needless to say that given all of the things GE has it's fingers in that
trouble would spread elsewhere.
Now, have no idea if that is true, but that is something that makes the
bailout less about bailing-out and more about staying afloat. If it was that
is what the public should have been told.
To me all of that is speculative unless there is more information available.
So unless there is more proof I will take the side that bailing out anyone or
anything is usually a bad idea.
------
cpt1138
I keep thinking about this: <http://www.miniature-earth.com/>
If you have a computer, a roof over your head and enough to eat, you're in the
top 3% of the world.
~~~
bluedanieru
And if you're alive today regardless of where you live, you're probably better
off than most humans since the invention of agriculture. So what?
The idea that it's only absolute wealth that should matter completely misses
the point. That the typical American or European, et al, literally lives like
a king (or better) is beside the point. The economy is not a zero-sum game,
sure, but politics certainly is, and unfortunately nothing predicts your
political power better than the wealth you've accumulated. So the average
person in the first world may live like a king, sure, but he has the influence
of a peasant or worse. There is more virtue to an egalitarian society than
merely a sense of economic or social justice. They are healthier, more stable,
and more democratic.
------
dools
What's a 99% issue?
~~~
MrWestley
It's when 99% of people don't use google to look up something that can be
answered in 10 seconds. :)
~~~
dools
I looked up 99% issue and what is the 99% issue which returned nothing
meaningful at the time (it does now)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Long-Lost Avro Arrow Model Found at Bottom of Lake Ontario - stickhandle
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/09/08/long-lost-avro-arrow-model-found-at-bottom-of-lake-ontario.html
======
slededit
The fascination with the Avro Arrow is a mixed blessing for Canada. On the one
hand its confirmation we could be technological leaders, but on the other hand
it lays bare exactly how Canada has failed for the 60 years since to push the
envelope.
As a country we really need to look forward. Not talk about that one time we
almost, just about, did something amazing - but then cancelled it.
Its not mentioned in the article, but at least when I was taught about it in
school the subtext is the Americans forced the cancellation. Discussion about
ICBMs making long range bombers obsolete (and therefore interceptor planes
like the Arrow) weren't brought up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“Power pose” research is the latest example of scientific overreach - NN88
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/01/amy_cuddy_s_power_pose_research_is_the_latest_example_of_scientific_overreach.single.html
======
J-dawg
I was told the "7%-38%-55% rule" during an awful management training session
on giving presentations. The instructor said that this rule is based on
research that people get only 7% of the meaning of what is being said by a
speaker from the actual content, while the remaining 93% comes from body
language and tone of voice. I looked around the room and couldn't believe that
everyone was nodding along with this nonsense. It doesn't stand up to the
slightest bit of logical scrutiny. How do you break down the "meaning" of
something like a presentation into percentages? Does this mean I can stand in
front of a crowd and babble complete gibberish, and providing that my tone of
voice and body language are good I'll still get 93% of my point across?
Anyway, I finally got around to googling where this "research" comes from. It
turns out it was a (flawed) study where someone would say a _single word_ and
the listener would be asked to describe the inferred meaning [0]. Extending
this idea to an entire presentation is clearly ridiculous.
I guess my point is, many people seem happy to believe utter nonsense without
a moment's thought, providing it gives them a clever-sounding, apparently
counter-intuitive anecdote to impress their friends with.
[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Mehrabian](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Mehrabian)
~~~
derefr
> Does this mean I can stand in front of a crowd and babble complete
> gibberish, and providing that my tone of voice and body language are good
> I'll still get 93% of my point across?
Presuming a military or political speech, that sounds about right. Rousing
speeches are still rousing even if you don't speak the language they're
written in!
The point of a lot of presentations is effectively to dump a bunch of words
that move the audience's emotional state closer to the presenter's emotional
state. In "emotional rhetoric", the body language and tone is primary; the
words themselves are secondary, much like slides—they exist mostly to serve as
a substrate for social-alliance signalling. (Imagine interactions between
candidates during a presidential debate.)
The words in the speech _can_ also aid the one-in-ten audience members who are
too stubborn and analytical to be swayed by anything other than the facts.
Even then, though, most emotional-rhetoric speeches usually have an
accompanying leaflet/programme/manifesto/whitepaper specifically for these
people. A speech is almost never the proper place for the data to convince
people of the soundness of the plan; instead, a speech's proper role is in
making clear what _emotional affect_ the speaker holds toward the ideas
they're presenting. Which is, in a political environment, usually the most
important thing to know about an idea: it's the metadata that lets you know
whether the idea is really going to be tried or not, caught up in bureaucracy
or not, etc.
~~~
cafard
[http://teachers.sduhsd.net/mgaughen/docs/Mencken.Gamalielese...](http://teachers.sduhsd.net/mgaughen/docs/Mencken.Gamalielese.pdf)
------
0xcde4c3db
The article hints at the pattern, but I think it's worth mentioning directly:
it's fairly common for a psychologist with a pet theory to publish a self-help
book based on it. This creates an incentive to exaggerate the scope, size, and
certainty of the effect they claim to have discovered, because their status as
a scientific expert on the phenomenon becomes a marketing tool. Even if they
don't engage in any deliberate misconduct, this could still create bias that
leaks into study design and analysis/interpretation.
~~~
cJ0th
Ironically, these days you find more useful self-help advice by finding
similarities between different religions than by reading up on brand new
scientific findings.
~~~
pjscott
Because the former approach finds things that are obvious enough to have been
noted by multiple cultures independently, while the latter approach finds
things that seem unlikely enough to be novel -- right?
A social scientist will not become famous as a deep, original thinker by
telling people to work hard, be patient, keep a reputation for honesty, and
eat their vegetables.
~~~
cJ0th
As for many popular social scientists I can't even tell whether they aim at
becoming famous or whether they're just very ignorant fellows who really think
they've "cracked it".
------
shritesh
We were shown the TED talk on our first "Professional Communication" class
this week. It sounded like placebo from the get-go (like the majority of the
_most-viewed_ TED talks). But hey, who am I to question a Harvard professor?
Thankfully, someone else did.
~~~
randycupertino
The thing is, placebo is actually extremely effective... so if you believe
power poses are really helping, they probably are! Same with the power of
prayer, or voodoo dolls, or whatever...
------
mettamage
Thanks HN for making a graduated psychology student more critical. When I was
studying psychology at uni I had no help from peers in being critical with
regards to psychology. It's a lot harder being critical when no one really
challenges your thoughts on the subject.
Now on to a method that does invoke "neuroendocrine and behavioral changes".
The Wim Hof Method, it takes about 10 minutes to do to feel a strong effect
IMO. Don't want to hijack the topic but I thought it was a fitting counter
example :)
The results are also not barely statistical significant, it's more like 5
deviations away from the norm with regards to their main RQ.
Paper is here:
[http://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379.full](http://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379.full)
Claims about behavioral changes are mine (and I'm just a guy on the web who
takes cold showers every day), the research team focused on immune response.
But as you can see in their charts about the adrenaline boost one gets,
behavioral change occurs in my experience at least.
------
Fede_V
The problem with this is that a sexy splashy finding gets a completely
unwarranted level of attention. A study with 21 patients should never be
published in the first place (unless it's something like a medical case study
- that's different).
Peter Thiel quipped that "The eccentric university professor is going extinct
fast". He is completely right - and what's replacing them are incredibly media
savy extroverts that are incredibly apt at marketing their own studies.
------
striking
I've wanted to put together a website that highlights bad science and
resulting journalism (both when journalism exposes bad science, and when
journalism furthers bad science).
Would anyone be interested in seeing something like that?
~~~
tokenadult
_I 've wanted to put together a website that highlights bad science_
Have you taken a look at PubPeer?[1] I guess I don't have the right touch in
submitting articles to Hacker News. I've submitted a few that mention this
problem of checking and exposing bad science publications, linking to PubPeer,
but the articles I submit[2] don't usually enjoy as much discussion from you
and other Hacker News participants as I would expect, based on the frequent
statements I see here that people would like to help clean up scientific
research. There is already a site for that, and it's called PubPeer.
[1] [https://pubpeer.com/](https://pubpeer.com/)
[http://retractionwatch.com/2015/08/31/pubpeer-founders-
revea...](http://retractionwatch.com/2015/08/31/pubpeer-founders-reveal-
themselves-create-foundation/)
[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/08/pubpeer-s-secret-
out-...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/08/pubpeer-s-secret-out-founder-
controversial-website-reveals-himself)
[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=tokenadult](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=tokenadult)
~~~
striking
PubPeer looks like it's very focused towards professionals who want to engage
in peer review. I'm curious to see if it's possible to leverage a wider group
of users.
I like PubPeer because it can help fix science. But what's also broken is
journalism/popular media, and how it encourages "pop science" attitudes. It
sensationalizes unproven and dubious content, actually making the public
dumber.
Would you agree that there's room for a site that wants to fix science
journalism and how the public interacts with science? Heck, it could even link
to PubPeer, without directly replacing it.
~~~
tokenadult
_Would you agree that there 's room for a site that wants to fix science
journalism and how the public interacts with science?_
Problematic publications about science are certainly a big problem, worthy of
your attention and mine, and my posting history over 2624 days here on Hacker
News may suggest that it is one of my pet issues. How much interest this issue
gains here on Hacker News is one thing I look at as I ponder what to do about
the problem--it will take a lot of work with a lot of collaborators (some of
whose work is cited in my various submissions and comments here) to tackle
that problem.
As far as I know about who can participate on PubPeer, absolutely anyone can
participate, as long as they have something to say about a particular
scientific paper.
------
seibelj
My drug of choice is placebo. The more I use, the better it gets. I recommend
it to everyone
~~~
Gravityloss
Turns out the study which verified the placebo effect was actually seriously
flawed.
It's because, on average, sick people tend to get better even if nothing is
done. The placebo study had no control group. So they can't say giving a
placebo is better than doing nothing.
~~~
SquareWheel
Not an expert myself, but I somehow doubt there was only a single study
showing the effectiveness of placebos. It's a very common subject and a key
component of current scientific testing (control groups).
------
xefer
As I was reading this I had a bleak vision of being in a meeting with a bunch
of alpha types all trying to out "power pose" each other
~~~
drxzcl
It sounds like it would be straight out of a "Silicon Valley" scene.
------
DanielBMarkham
Is it just me, or does "scientific overreach" sound like a terrible euphemism?
If the same people were on late-night TV peddling this, I doubt we'd be
calling it "overreach".
For those of us who truly love science, it's important to treat these things
exactly the same, whether it's a newspaper article, TED talk, or "Incredible
Mysteries" TV show. Being mealy-mouthed isn't doing anybody any favors.
~~~
bphogan
I agree.
One scientist does a study, finds a thing.
Another group attempts to repeat the study (as one does in science) and finds
different results.
Sounds like science to me.
~~~
semi-extrinsic
No. It's bad science. I'd go as far as to say it's fucking crappy science.
Which is what TFA is saying.
I mean, look at the figure in TFA where they show the original study effect
size plus/minus two standard deviations, and the _huge_ error bars (at 95%
confidence) are just _barely_ excluding the null hypothesis. With a sample
size of 21 people. That is so pitiful even the Mythbusters would've said "We
need to do a bigger experiment." But this Harvard professor instead said
"Hooray, a significant result!" and went and did TED talks and books and all
sorts of publicity stuff.
Scott Aaronson recently quipped "(...) there was much discussion around the
discovery that most psychology studies fail to replicate. I'd long assumed as
much, but apparently this was big news in psychology!"
The observation in the hard sciences that psychology has a big problem goes at
least back to Feynman's "cargo cult" speech in '74\. The fact that it's taken
them forty years to catch up to this fact speaks volumes about the field.
~~~
bphogan
Presenting things that are not peer reviewed is generally considered bad
science, is it not?
This kind of "science" happens here on HN every day and nobody bats an eye.
"We used XYZ framework and it's the best thing ever!"
Then tons of people use XYZ framework.
Blog posts.
Videos.
Fad happens.
Fad is over because "Why I'm switching to ABC framework."
With tons of benchmarks of course.
My point is that this happens all over the place. Someone makes a "discovery",
markets the hell out of it with great speeches, bravado, etc. It gets
coverage. It "grows legs" if you will. People repeat it and spread it.
The "science" part I was referring to was the part where someone else attempts
and fails to repeat the initial findings.
~~~
semi-extrinsic
> Presenting things that are not peer reviewed is generally considered bad
> science, is it not?
Not really. Most conference presentations present stuff that's not (yet) peer
reviewed. A Master's thesis is not peer reviewed. Etc.
> This kind of "science" happens here on HN every day and nobody bats an eye.
Sure. And bad cooking happens every day in the kitchens of many homes in the
US. But when bad cooking happens in the kitchen of a Michelin star restaurant,
and the cook still serves it up as gourmet food, it's a really big problem.
------
johnchristopher
FWIW: Jordi Quoidbach is another researcher (from Harvard), he worked with Dan
Gilbert now that I think about it, who heavily relies on the power pose and
other outstanding claims from positive psychology experiments to promote...
positive psychology (and some self-help books).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Pompeii Graffiti May Rewrite History - hecubus
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2018/10/16/new-pompeii-graffiti-may-rewrite-history-in-a-major-way/
======
colechristensen
When you say things like "rewrite history" the implication is one of
significance.
The month Vesuvius erupted is fairly irrelevant. There aren't any consequences
to the fact changing. Pompeii is quite important in historical understanding
of Rome, you would expect "history rewriting" discoveries to really be
something. This isn't. Mildly interesting perhaps.
~~~
rriepe
This theory on it happening in 1631 might scratch your itch:
[https://www.stolenhistory.org/threads/79-a-d-no-more-
pompeii...](https://www.stolenhistory.org/threads/79-a-d-no-more-pompeii-got-
buried-in-1631.121/)
~~~
colechristensen
The first article on the frontpage of stolenhistory.org is about how triumphal
arches were, in fact, teleportation devices.
So no, whacky conspiracy theories don't scratch any itches.
~~~
fassina2
Do you know if there's a report button here? That guy's comment should be
removed.
This conspiracy theory he posted makes this entire platform look bad. And
that's not even considering the missinformation it could spread..
~~~
nine_k
I suppose the link was posted ironically.
------
hnzix
Here's a fun collection of ribald Pompeiian graffiti (NSFW):
[http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%2...](http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm)
_" O walls, you have held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed that
you have not already collapsed in ruin."_
------
FranzFerdiNaN
This has been known for years. See this blog post from 2013 for example:
[https://garethharney.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/the-
forgotten-...](https://garethharney.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/the-forgotten-
coin-dating-the-destruction-of-pompeii-and-herculaneum/)
The key piece, among other circumstantial evidence that was already known for
decades, is a coin found many years ago and not this graffiti.
------
fernly
What a nasty website.
* video that floats over the text as you scroll
* empty gray thing that drops down from the top for no reason (prob. trying to display an ad, but UBlock Origin stops it?)
* when you page through the image gallery every new image makes the page jump-scroll down
* oh goody another floating video on the right side now
* image caption obscures bottom 1/5th of each image.
bleagh.
~~~
kwhitefoot
You need Noscript. I didn't see any of those things and didn't even think
about it until reading your comment; then I looked at the Noscript icon and
saw that it had blocked scripts from forbes.com.
------
Aardwolf
To be honest, the walnuts and clothing are more convincing to me than a date
without year. But it could be.
------
drb91
> This new graffito may not rewrite history, but I am more convinced than ever
> that an early fall date for the eruption is the one I should use when
> formulating hypotheses about and interpreting data from the human skeletal
> remains.
Markets?! We need laws regulating editors. The headline they provide is
bullshit.
~~~
jackfoxy
Changing a date would literally _rewrite history_ without dramatically
affecting most historical understandings.
~~~
drb91
According to the article itself, it either may or may not. So why say anything
about it?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Firefox 71 - AdmiralAsshat
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/71.0/releasenotes/
======
pcx
Great to see Mozilla consistently improving devtools in Firefox. I have been
using them over Chrome for a while now, hope it gets to a place where most
devs start using FF again for debugging web apps.
~~~
cm-t
I agree, devtools are getting better. By the way , I recommmend developpers to
use the developper edition
[https://www.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/developer/](https://www.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/developer/)
~~~
johnward
What is the difference? I just thought it was basically a dark theme.
~~~
addicted44
They have some experimental features enabled there which they don't in other
channels.
For example, I'm running Nightly, and the Dev Tools>What's New tab says the
"Debug Variables with Watchpoints" (break when a property is read/written)
feature is in Developer Edition (and presumably not in Nightly or the Release
channel).
------
telegrammae
Firefox is wonderful! Still hoping for much-needed general UI improvements,
though. The tabs look bulky and have animation performance issues. The
bookmarks manager is outdated and inconsistent with other tools in its look.
Same with the downloads manager. All these things aren't a big deal, but
Safari and Chrome seem to have a more pleasant overall graphic design.
~~~
olah_1
> The tabs look bulky and have animation performance issues.
The fact that the tabs don't shrink, but instead slide out of view is
infuriating. Something like this affects users constantly.
~~~
bzbarsky
The shrinking behavior infuriates a lot of people too, by making it impossible
to find the tab you want. That's my experience with Chrome, at least.
Setting the "browser.tabs.tabMinWidth" preference to 0 in Firefox will let the
tabs shrink down fairly small (to just the favicon and maybe one letter of the
title). If you want the tabs to shrink even more than that, I'd like to
understand why, other than "it's what I'm used to". Which, to be clear, is a
perfectly valid reason to want something!
~~~
olah_1
There should really just be a "Chrome" config template for Firefox for people
that prefer Chrome UX and styling.
But in general, it's very upsetting that Firefox doesn't actively support
editing these user setting fields.
My experience was that if you changed even a single boolean value, the answer
to every support question was "reset to default settings and see if it's still
broken". Just awful.
------
qxnqd
>Native MP3 decoding on Windows, Linux, and macOS
What does "native" mean in this context? Uses accelerated CPU instructions?
Uses the codecs of the system instead of something Firefox has built-in?
~~~
techntoke
Now if they could focus on native video decoding in Linux, something that
actually works with Chromium and leads me to believe that Chromium developers
are more committed to open source.
~~~
MrRadar
Mozilla are working on a "Wayland DMABuf" feature which will allow for
separate processes to share GPU buffers on Linux[1]. For a long time that has
been a blocker for hardware-accelerated video decoding as otherwise the data
would need to be copied GPU->CPU->GPU which would negate a large portion of
the gains. In the short term the work will only apply to WebGL rendering but
it should open the door to hardware-accelerated video decoding in the near
future.
[1]
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1572697](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1572697)
~~~
nominated1
I’m hoping Mozilla will move to libplacebo [1] when it’s stable. It’s seems
the most promising.
[1]
[https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libplacebo](https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libplacebo)
------
portmanteaufu
I've been shocked by how helpful the new Picture-in-Picture feature is. I wish
the pop-out brought the full set of playback controls with it, but it's still
far superior to making a full-blown window for video playback.
~~~
dickeytk
I want to try it, but it’s windows-only right now I think
~~~
nkrisc
It is, so they say. They said it should be coming to macOS and Linux in
Janurary 2020.
[https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/12/03/news-from-
firefox-o...](https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/12/03/news-from-firefox-on-
mobile-private-network-and-desktop/#PiP)
~~~
ihuman
Its in 71 on macOS (and maybe Linux), but its disabled by default. In
about:config, search for picture-in-picture, and enable everything except for
always-show (unless you want that). If you right-click a video, there will be
a new picture-in-picture option. For Youtube, you need to double-right-click
to bring up Firefox's right-click menu.
~~~
snailmailman
Can confirm that these options exist and appear to work in linux, at least for
me. (ubuntu 16.04) And im still on v70, so i guess its been there for a little
while at least.
------
psim1
FF still causes considerable grief on my wife’s Windows 10 laptop. Two hour
battery life is not acceptable. MS Edge (spit) more than triples that battery
life.
------
polymorph1sm
I switch to Firefox few months ago on macOS and Linux. Other than issues on
Youtube video playback ( sometimes the frame just freeze when I switch between
different workspace in macOS )and a few minor bugs across google's service the
overall experience is mostly on par with Chrome.
------
bluenose69
I'll update, because that's the sensible thing to do. But, frankly, I only use
FF because the Zotero plugin works in it, but not in Safari.
And I tend to load FF, use it for a few minutes, and then quit it. That's
because FF has a habit of going nuts somehow, and gulping energy on my OSX
systems. I've no idea what causes the problem, and I don't really care,
because Safari tends to be faster -- sometimes a lot faster.
~~~
MrRadar
Regarding the energy use, give 71 a try. It includes compositor enhancements
(actually included in the last release) that should significantly reduce
energy use on modern macOS:
[https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/dramatically-
red...](https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/dramatically-reduced-
power-usage-in-firefox-70-on-macos-with-core-animation/)
------
benologist
Looking forward to this update hijacking my browsing and demanding a restart
instead of just waiting for me to close the browser.
------
weinzierl
I'm happy to see subgrid land and I hope Chrome will catch up soon.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Buys Another Map App, Embark - _pius
http://jessicalessin.com/2013/08/22/exclusive-apple-buys-another-map-app-embark/
======
ajju
Embark makes some of the best transit apps out there [1]. Given their
attention to detail on UX, Apple seems like a great fit for them.
Congratulations to David Hodge and team!
([1] Disclaimer: David is a friend, but I am pretty sure his non-friend users
will tell you the same :))
~~~
andreasklinger
If you like transit apps and detailed UX take a look at iPhone/android apps of
www.citymapper.com
So far they only launched for NYC and London but they are truly amazing.
They are pretty much the only thing that makes London public transit bearable.
Their mission is: "to save Londoners from London!"
Disclaimer: I know the founders from London quite well.
~~~
dmix
Looks good. The only app I miss from my iPhone, after moving to Android, is
the Transit app: [http://thetransitapp.com/](http://thetransitapp.com/)
~~~
Scaevolus
They have an Android app.
~~~
dmix
Oh nice, looks like they just launched in July!
------
swang
Everyone saying Apple is finally taking Maps seriously: shit does that mean
they brought their C game against Google?
Their serious "A" game against Google was what you saw with the first version.
And it stunk. Just terrible. It wasn't that they weren't "serious" about Maps.
Apple just completely dropped the ball. Terrible data, no bus/transit routes
without third party apps (if this wasn't a huge red flag for, "we are not
ready to release Maps" I don't know what is), and an icon that subconsciously
told their users to drive off a bridge.
They assumed users would give them a pass on their lack of data because they
would be too busy being wowed by the Flyover views. Well they were wrong.
~~~
glhaynes
_Their serious "A" game against Google was what you saw with the first
version._
Not sure why you'd say this then list its obvious and avoidable failings.
Failings which contributed to an SVP being ousted and a huge amount of
investment being made to catch up. Seems more like they came out with their
"C" game and are now trying to ramp it up to their "A" game.
------
untog
I use the Android version of Embark. Oh dear. Time to find a new app (that
doesn't repeatedly crash, hopefully)
An interesting purchase- Embark doesn't have any valuable data, or user
details, etc. I can only assume Apple bought them because they have great
UI/design instincts, and might be able to help rescue Apple Maps.
Kudos to them for achieving their goal - giving away an ad-free transit
planning app could only have one aim, really.
~~~
prawn
Can you try Transit Times? Office friend of mine makes that and works very
hard on it.
------
bradleyjg
I use both the LIRR and NYC Subway versions all the time. I hope they aren't
shut down.
~~~
crazygringo
NJ Transit too. Likewise, really hope they don't shut down until Apple
integrates their functionality.
I mean, they don't need constant connections to servers or anything, but they
do need to update their schedules every so often. I don't know if they
download from Embark servers, or if it's directly from transportation sites,
but I would suspect the former.
------
clauretano
Sounds like they're getting serious about transit, between Embark today,
HopStop on 20 July[0], and Locationary on 19 July[1]. All too soon for iOS 7.
Hopefully soon we won't have to hop back and forth between apple maps and
random mediocre third party transit solutions --or just use google maps, which
most probably do now.
[0][http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-19/apple-said-to-
buy-h...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-19/apple-said-to-buy-hopstop-
pushing-deeper-into-maps.html)
[1][http://allthingsd.com/20130719/apple-acquires-local-data-
out...](http://allthingsd.com/20130719/apple-acquires-local-data-outfit-
locationary/)
~~~
r00fus
Luckily, they can update Maps app without waiting for an OS release. Sure,
it'd make a great preso, but I'd prefer they take their time and get it right.
Google maps also has better UX than Apple Maps unless you use Siri. I hope
Apple tackles UX as well - perhaps converting Apple Maps to the new flat look
and adding more swipe support.
~~~
smackfu
>Luckily, they can update Maps app without waiting for an OS release.
Can they? It's not actually a separate app from the app store like Find My
Phone or iBooks. So it would require at least an OS point release, and Apple
doesn't seem too keen on doing those for features.
~~~
untog
Well, at this point parts of iOS7 are still an unknown. Maybe they could add
that possibility.
------
swang
Is this why Embark SF shutdown about a week ago?
------
JofArnold
I love Embark. Even though they've stopped supporting it in London - and it
comes up with that blasted "we've stopped supporting it" message every time -
it's still one of the best travel apps around. Well done guys.
------
aroman
I for one am really happy to see Apple getting really serious about all this
mapping and transit data. Competing with Google on this front is going to be a
win for the consumer, I believe.
------
bumbledraven
Article says Embark is a YC company. Congrats on the exit!
------
harrytuttle
Tell me when they get even close to Nokia Here on WP...
------
mmanfrin
Shortcut to a huge buyout: develop a map app that generates local,
personalized content for users, then start a bidding war between Apple and
Yahoo.
~~~
ajju
They have been working (very hard) on this for 4 years. If that's a shortcut,
what is a long cut?
------
SandersAK
David Hodge and co are legends. Congrats.
------
droopyEyelids
'Grats guys. I absolutely love my Embark Metra app. The absolute least
friction to getting what I want to know-- thanks to a lot of insight into,
thought about, and work on how I'd use it no doubt.
------
samstave
I use iBart and Caltrain app every single day!
The apps are fantastic!
The only complaint I have about them is that iBart makes train connections too
short for some stations. To transfer at 12th street you have to change levels,
and iBart gives you one minute to make the connection, but I've only made that
connection once. All other times I missed it.
~~~
willimholte
Perhaps I'm missing something, but I am interested in what behavior you expect
from the app vs the behavior you are observing.
(I've used iBart a few times, but not in a few months and not to route trips
in Oakland.)
Are you saying that your train arrives at 12th Street at noon and iBart tells
you to board a train leaving 12th Street at 12:01? Would you prefer iBart tell
you to board the next train? (Not sure about schedules, is that about 15
minutes later?)
~~~
prawn
In Switzerland, train connections are optimised for minimising time and allow
for distance between the platforms in question. It's stunningly efficient.
~~~
r00fus
I'm curious - what are examples you've seen that differ from what exists in
less efficient platform layouts?
~~~
prawn
(Hope I'm understanding your question correctly. I'm not from Switzerland, but
used their train system for a week a month ago.)
They have an excellent web site and app, first up. It allows you to set
departure and destination, earliest departure time (if you don't want to leave
before 10am, say) or latest arrival time (i.e., so you can make a flight),
tweak routing and see every detail to the minute. You can get print-outs (if
required) telling you what to do and when. The platforms for arrivals and
departures are set rather than vague as in many other countries so you know
exactly what's happening in advance.
I'm confident that they've worked nation-wide to coordinate arrivals and
departures to ease passage for the absolute majority of people. Each train
change is aware of the distance between platforms so that it might allow two
minutes to cross platform to another train, or seven minutes if you need to
move a bit further. You don't get stuck waiting for 30 minutes or have two
minutes to cross six platforms. (We were travelling with an infant and a lot
of luggage that meant changing trains was traumatic - in Switzerland, it was a
dream.)
In one very handy sequence, we caught a series of two gondolas down a
mountain, switched to a bus, then a train, then another train. Waiting time
was barely there - it was brilliant. Trains seemed to leave shortly after you
got to them, like the world was designed around you. People were joining or
leaving on other routes too and seemed to have a similar experience.
I got the impression that popular routes were optimised to minimise walking
distance between platforms, but could've been imagining that.
Another handy thing was that every platform access had stairs in one direction
and a ramp in the other. The underground systems in London, Paris, etc were no
where near as handy for people with luggage or prams, often not even having
lifts for disabled access.
~~~
smackfu
From what I've heard of Switzerland, the real key is the trains being exactly
on time. Once you can guarantee that, it's easy to set a connection at exactly
4 minutes or something. OTOH, if your train arrival time is +/\- 3 minutes,
your connections are going to be too tight or excessive most of the time.
~~~
prawn
Yes, they are hilariously on time. It really is a model for others to follow.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Start-Up Blends Old-Fashioned Matchmaking and Algorithms - JrobertsHstaff
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/business/smallbusiness/start-up-blends-old-fashioned-matchmaking-and-algorithms.html?_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Small%20Business&action=keypress®ion=FixedLeft&pgtype=article
======
harmegido
The article completely buried the lede for me: very excited to here more about
this company on the StartUp podcast.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Anonymous Has Declared War on IS and Al-Qaeda Following Charlie Hebdo Attacks - mikeleeorg
http://www.theladbible.com/articles/hacktivist-group-anonymous-have-declared-war-on-is-and-al-qaeda-following-charlie-hebdo-attacks
======
tslug
Ironically, waging effective war on them would probably involve not defacing
their sites (which I imagine would only make them scatter) but instead
infecting them and then handing the c&c server details over to the
authorities, who I'm sure would proceed to monitor everyone visiting the sites
and then making the actionable creeps truly miserable, as only large, well-
funded governments can.
It would be super trippy to see entities like Anonymous and the US gov't
collaborating.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Would you hire someone self trained from a MOOC? - hojoff79
MOOC's are prevalent in today's media and certainly offer significant volume of quality content in certain fields (some computer science disciplines). As an employer / manager, would you hire someone who was self taught using courses available through a MOOC?<p>If your answer is no, what is the main reason you would not be willing to hire them over a comparable person with a traditional bachelors degree?
======
shock
I would hire anyone regardless of the source of their training as long as they
are capable of demonstrating proficiency, a firm grasp on the core concepts
and a willingness and determination to learn.
~~~
hojoff79
What metrics / standards would you use to vet a potential hire? (someone with
no previous professional work experience). Personal work portfolio, strictly
interview questions? The benefit of a degree is an implicit sign off from a
reputable institution. How would you think about replicating that comfort for
someone who is self taught?
~~~
shock
I've done several approaches:
\- homework project
\- heavy interviewing with plenty of tests and several (3-6 people) giving
written feedback on the candidate in the form of 5 points rating on lots of
skills
\- hire on gut feeling
mixed in various amounts.
In my case, a diploma/certificate doesn't make me feel better. I've seen
plenty of incompetents with a diploma, so I don't take it at face value.
Testing worked best for me. A diploma/certificate also doesn't tell you
anything about the candidate's work style/attitude. A hire with a bad attitude
is much more toxic than a hire that lacks technical skills.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I Want Off Mr. Golang's Wild Ride - whatever_dude
https://fasterthanli.me/blog/2020/i-want-off-mr-golangs-wild-ride/
======
fhood
The author spent a lot of time dwelling on Window's filesystems, at which
point many of the readers got bored and started commenting. There are actually
a couple of excellent points in here, the majority of which relate to Go's
tendency to just be silently completely wrong in its behaviors from time to
time, and is absolutely packed with hidden gotchas.
~~~
klodolph
That said… I feel that Rust’s use of WTF-8 for OsString on Windows has
resulted in some really nasty problems, especially since OsString doesn’t
expose any useful methods for string manipulation. As far as I can tell,
Rust’s approach fails to hide any of the complexity, and then adds the
additional complexity of a new encoding and conversions on top. I can see that
there’s some end goal of being able to work with OsString in Rust code but at
the moment the API is missing _everything_ except a couple functions to
convert it into something else.
It’s a truly cursed problem that we have three separate notions of strings. We
have Unicode strings, we have bytestrings, and we have wchar_t strings on
Windows. No two of these are completely interoperable. This has a ton of
direct consequences which cannot be completely avoided. For example, if I want
to make a version of “ls” that gives a result in JSON, I’m already fucked and
I have to change my requirements.
~~~
steveklabnik
I have felt this pain for sure, but only really once. This is because, in
languages with strings as paths I tend to use string manipulation to do
operations on paths, but given that virtually all of my OsString usage is
paths, which have specific manipulation functions already it’s lesser.
This is also why the interface isn’t so rich, there just hasn’t been a lot of
demand. That said I think some things are in the pipeline?
~~~
ChrisSD
Do you have any more info about what's in the pipeline?
~~~
edflsafoiewq
[https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/49802](https://github.com/rust-
lang/rust/issues/49802)
------
whateveracct
Here's an example of why Go's simplicity is complicated:
Say I want to take a uuid.UUID [1] and use it as my id type for some database
structs.
At first, I just use naked UUIDs as the struct field types, but as my project
grows, I find that it would be nice to give them all unique types to both
avoid mixups and to make all my query functions clearer as to which id they
are using.
type DogId uuid.UUID
type CatId uuid.UUID
I go to run my tests (thank goodness I have tests for my queries) and
everything breaks! Postgres is complaining that I'm trying to use bytes as a
UUID. What gives? When I remove the type definition and use naked UUIDs, it
works fine!
The issue is Go encourages reflection for this use-case. The Scan() and
Value() methods of a type tell the sql driver how to (de)serialize the type.
uuid.UUID has those methods, but when I use a type definition around UUID, it
loses those methods.
So the correct way to wrap a UUID to use in your DB is this:
type DogId struct { uuid.UUID }
type CatId struct { uuid.UUID }
Go promised me that I wouldn't have to deal with such weird specific knowledge
of its semantics. But alas I always do.
[1] [https://github.com/google/uuid](https://github.com/google/uuid)
EDIT: This issue also affects encoding/json. You can see it in this playground
for yourself!
[https://play.golang.org/p/erfcSIe-Z7b](https://play.golang.org/p/erfcSIe-Z7b)
EDIT: I wrongly used type aliases in the original example, but my issue is
with type definitions (`type X Y` instead of `type X = Y`). So all you
commenters saying that I did the wrong thing, have another look!
~~~
uhoh-itsmaciek
Not to mention that sql.Result (the return value of Exec) has a LastInsertId()
that's an int64, so if you're using uuids, you can't use that at all and have
to call Query instead and manage generated IDs yourself.
~~~
HelloNurse
This is a more ridiculous symptom of bad library design than the filesystem
trouble mentioned by the article.
In the real world, executing most SQL statement could be made to return a
semi-useful integer according to simple and consistent rules (e.g. affected
row count, -1 if there's no meaningful integer).
But the official Go documentation
[https://golang.org/pkg/database/sql/#Result](https://golang.org/pkg/database/sql/#Result)
makes it quite clear that the Go design committee decided to imitate a
remarkably limited and inelegant MySQL function that returns the value of an
auto-increment column, not even realizing that only a few statements have
auto-increment columns to begin with. I'd call this a negative amount of
design effort.
LastInsertId returns the integer generated by the database
in response to a command. Typically this will be from an
"auto increment" column when inserting a new row. Not all
databases support this feature, and the syntax of such
statements varies.
(Of course, MySQL's LAST_INSERT_ID() is only bad as a building block and
inspiration for a general API; in SQL queries assumptions aren't a problem and
overspecialized tools can be occasionally very useful)
------
dilap
If you imagine a spectrum of languages from sloppy-but-"easy" to precise-
but-"hard", with something like Python or Ruby way off on the left and
something like Rust way off on the right, Go is sitting somewhere in the
middle.
And so if what you're craving is absolute precision and maximal avoidance of
errors or incorrect behavior, then Go is not going to be your jam. I
sympathize w/ that.
That said, these specific complaints don't strike me as that bad.
\- Filesystem perms exposed on windows, which just no-op. This seems pretty
reasonable, though!
\- Filesystem paths represented as str type, which is assumed to be utf8, but
doesn't have to be. This also seems reasonable! If you want to check for
invalid utf8 and specifically print out something special in that case,
nothing in Go is stopping you from doing that. This is a classic "easy but
sloppy" vs "hard but precise" tradeoff.
\- Timeout thing -- I'm a little confused here, or maybe not up-to-date. He
says let's do things the "modern" way and pass a context to do HTTP timeouts,
which apparently doesn't work, and then goes off on a 3rd party package to
then fix this which has an insane dependency graph. But...if you just set the
Timeout field on the http client, everything works correctly. So what's the
problem? Or am I missing something?
~~~
fhood
The http client isn't always directly exposed. I agree with the author.
Context is a per request object and timeout should be able to function on a
per request basis. Client is often shared and reused, and thus not always
exposed in certain design patterns. If context has a timeout why doesn't it
work as you would expect?
Also, now that I think about it, why does the basic http.get call mentioned in
every go networking tutorial not have a default timeout?
~~~
dilap
(I have never personally used context, so I'm not so sure what the
expectations are with that.)
Looking at the http docs, I don't see any reason to believe setting a context
for a request would control timeouts.
If the complaint is, "the http library API does not provide a way to set
timeouts on a per-request basis," then OK, I guess, that's true, but I don't
see why that should be a huge issue (just use different clients for the
different timeout values you need).
But if you _really_ don't want to do that, it should be easy enough to access
the underlying network connection and set the timeout before reading the body,
though I've never done this.
What Go is doing here still seems very reasonable from my perspective...
~~~
fasterthanlime
Author here, the article was actually wrong - I meant to expose yet _another_
timeout you can set on HTTP requests, I've updated it to include that one, and
be clearer on what `idletiming`'s purpose is.
------
gameswithgo
A lot of people seem to be missing an overarching point, which is the benefits
of a language having Sum types, so that edge cases can be represented clearly,
and in a way where the consumer of the api can't fail to know they exist, and
can't fail to handle them. Anyone thinking of making a new language today,
should really get some familiarity with Option and Result types. They make so
many things not only safer, but also nicer to use.
~~~
fhood
I surprises me that most people here aren't up in arms in agreement with this
point. Code that is silently incorrect is an absolute disaster on an
enterprise level. I spend a lot of time writing seemingly redundant double and
triple error checking into my code, only to have the designers of the LANGUAGE
say, "yeah, most filepaths are utf-8 so seems good enough to me".
~~~
physicles
I’ve written go full-time for the last 3.5 years and it still amazes me that
by default the linter doesn’t at least warn about unused/uncaptured return
error values.
~~~
nif2ee
Golang is such a joke of a language. The compiler won't even compile if there
is an unused variable but won't warn you if there is an unchecked error! This
language is meant to produce buggy incorrect code that can only be mitigated
with writing excessive repetitive tests that have nothing to do with business
logic itself.
Golang is probably the biggest embarrassment of a modern programming language
ever conceived. Again, if you don't believe me, just start writing your first
Kubernetes controller.
~~~
api
This doesn't match my experience. Go apps tend to be extremely clean and
reliable. It's of course possible to write crap code in Go, but you can write
crap code in any language.
The unused variable thing is mildly annoying but fits with the cleanliness
philosophy. Not checking errors is very easily detected by a LINTer such as
the one built into the JetBrains GoLand IDE. It highlights failure to check
errors and requires that you explicitly ignore the error return with something
like "_, foo = bar.baz()".
Go is spectacularly productive when used properly. It's a very nice language.
------
_bxg1
I think the mistake may be assuming that Go is meant to be a general-purpose
language. From what I can tell, it's purpose-built to be a "web services"
language, and its design-decisions center around that. What does that mean?
\- It's expected to be run on Linux servers (not Windows) and developer
workstations (probably not Windows).
\- It needs to be fast but not blisteringly fast. Micro-performance concerns
like the Time object thing are devalued.
\- Embedded use-cases are probably not given too much attention.
\- Agility in working with dynamic data (because that data is often foreign)
is valued over flawlessly safe types.
By deciding not to worry about certain use-cases, the language can be more
developer-efficient for its intended use-cases. In this light, for better or
worse, I think the decisions made make a lot more sense.
~~~
alexandercrohde
Except docker is written in go. Guess they never got the memo to not use go
for non-webservices...
~~~
lwb
Docker’s primary use case is also web services.
~~~
g_delgado14
Ubuntu is used (mostly?) for web services. Is Ubuntu suitable to be written in
Go?
~~~
eudoxus
Umm..what? Ubuntus primary use case was not web services, it was a user-
friendly PC OS compared to the Linux variants at the time.
It's picked up a lot in the server space because of the familiarity of it,
with respect to package management et all.
------
Liru
My most popular project on Github is currently a program I slapped together in
Go a long time ago. The `sync/atomic` issue mentioned at the end of the
article is THE issue that made me stop considering Go for anything other than
trivial things. Lack of decent error handling, a terrible builtin json
library, constant `interface{}` to poorly substitute for generics, the package
management issues that made Node.js look well-thought-out by comparison,
struct field tags, and generators provided by the core team that set off
linters provided by the core team with no good way to silence them kind of
piled on before that, but the `atomic` issue is the one that made me avoid it.
The author is right, all the little things add up.
Note that a bunch of these may have been fixed since I last used it, but
honestly, I haven't checked because it was frustrating working in it and
debugging it. It's a shame, `pprof` and the race detector are pretty cool.
------
gavinray
Holy shit, the entire explanation of the absurd reasoning behind needing to
use the _getlantern /idletiming_ lib, and the debacle behind unraveling it's
dependencies is pure gold. When the breadcrumb trail to dependency-hell stems
from a file whose contents are:
// This file is intentionally empty.
// It's a workaround for https://github.com/golang/go/issues/15006
I about fell out of my chair. Pure gold.
------
madhadron
> The Go way is to half-ass things.
This used to be known as the New Jersey school, and is the underlying
philosophy of Unix: build a bunch of little pieces that work a lot of the time
and kind of fit together if you remember the gotchas, then call it a day.
There is an essay on this that I am unable to locate right now which mentions
the horror of someone working on ITS when they asked how Unix solved a
rollback on error case in a system call and were told, "Oh, we just leave it
inconsistent, and the application programmer has to deal with it."
Does anyone else remember this citation? I truly am failing to find it this
morning.
~~~
skrebbel
Sounds like it might be straight from the original "worse is better" essay:
[http://dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html](http://dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html)
> _The MIT guy did not see any code that handled this case and asked the New
> Jersey guy how the problem was handled. The New Jersey guy said that the
> Unix folks were aware of the problem, but the solution was for the system
> routine to always finish, but sometimes an error code would be returned that
> signaled that the system routine had failed to complete its action. A
> correct user program, then, had to check the error code to determine whether
> to simply try the system routine again. The MIT guy did not like this
> solution because it was not the right thing._
~~~
wrs
Ironically, that is referring to the EINTR error code that I predict is about
to cause a bunch of unexpected failures when people switch to Go 1.14. [0]
[0]
[https://golang.org/doc/go1.14#runtime](https://golang.org/doc/go1.14#runtime)
------
typon
I don't understand why you would create a statically typed language but not
actually take advantage of types, instead typing everything with generic types
like string. Why make the user pay for complexity in types but not actually
deliver their promise? This is the problem with C and Go doesn't really solve
it either
~~~
terminaljunkid
There is a sweet spot and for different people, that spot lies in different
places.
Having a proliferation of types is bad for everyone but highest order FP
Weenies among us.
------
reggieband
Classic: “There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain
about and the ones nobody uses.”[1]
The thing that bugs me is the comparison to Rust. I mean, the author did
caveat that he chose it because Rust provided the best available counter
examples to his specific gripes. But my issue is that comparison seems to make
a false conclusion: Rust is better. My intuition says if the author used Rust
(or any other language) as much as they have used Go, and in the same
environments solving similar sized problems, they would have a completely
different 1000+ word rant on all the things they hate about that language.
We have an expression "use in anger". It describes a particular kind of
understanding that only becomes available when we face the real problems and
not just idealized ones. I even see smaller rants within this comment section
showing how the very systems he lauds in Rust have sharp corners when used in
anger.
I thought this rant had many good points and highlights many shortcomings of
Go. I would have preferred that it did not contain the comparison which draws
an implicit conclusion that IMO is likely incorrect.
1\. [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/226225-there-are-only-
two-k...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/226225-there-are-only-two-kinds-of-
languages-the-ones-people)
~~~
eximius
Rust is better _at the problem presented_.
Rust not being perfect does not mean other languages can learn from its
successes.
~~~
reggieband
> Rust is better _at the problem presented_.
What I'm suggesting is that wasn't demonstrated. Go had a real-world used-in-
anger problem. That was compared to an idealized solution in Rust. It seems to
me that this is an unfair comparison.
Fair enough, it is hard to demand anyone who wishes to make a comparison
between two programming languages to have built equivalent massive systems
that stretch each language to their limits. But the point of the article
wasn't to compare languages, it was to show the kinds of problems exposed in
Go when it is used in massive real-world systems. So maybe it would have been
better to leave the comparison out.
~~~
eximius
> What I'm suggesting is that wasn't demonstrated.
An in-depth analysis of the respective languages APIs for a particular
targeted problem isn't enough?
I won't disagree that readers might make a leap to intuit the author thinks
Rust is overall better. But that extra leap doesn't mean he failed to show
Rust was better at a particular problem. In fact, that is WHY people would
make that un-warranted leap.
> But the point of the article wasn't to compare languages, it was to show the
> kinds of problems exposed in Go when it is used in massive real-world
> systems.
I mean, not really. Cross platform file manipulation is, maybe not common, but
not obscure. And making a web request _reliably_ is also not something you'd
expect to be only needed in massive systems.
~~~
reggieband
> An in-depth analysis of the respective languages APIs for a particular
> targeted problem isn't enough?
It isn't the _same_. There is another cheeky quote I can paraphrase: Everyone
has a plan until they get punched in the face. He is comparing a Go
implementation that has been punched in the face in a real-world use case
against a Rust implementation that was sitting on the sidelines.
If the point of the article (and the title) was "Go file system API vs Rust
API, an in-depth analysis" I would not have made my comment. The thesis of the
article appeared to be "pains I felt in Go when I used it on hard real-world
problems". All of his points seem to stand completely fine when you remove the
comparisons to Rust. For that reason I would have preferred to remove them.
~~~
eximius
You mean the Rust language that has dozens of cross platform implementations
of coreutils binaries? Go might be larger, but I hardly think Rust qualifies
as sitting on the sidelines.
That's a fair opinion. I think the article is richer for having shown what a
better API can look like for contrast.
------
umvi
Maybe I'm a zealot, but I don't really consider "doesn't work as well on
windows" a con of a language.
C# is (or at least used to be) utter garbage on Linux compared to Windows. I
don't hold that against C#, but rather recognize that Linux/Windows are very
different, and that compiler maintenance and development is non-trivial (and
obviously Microsoft is going to prioritize Windows).
This article is basically a rant that Go was designed with *nix in mind and
that Windows is a second-class citizen by comparison.
~~~
jjuel
But you knew C# was Windows only. Go was always touted as a cross platform
solution due to statically compiled binaries. If said binaries have issues on
Windows due to design decisions it seems like a language fault.
~~~
eudoxus
The binaries themselves don't have issues. But Go's descision to make the
standard library Unix focused isn't a flawed design decision.
If you need OS/platform-specific precision, you're free to create or use an
alternative library. The standard lib was never designed to be the magic
bullet for cross-platform, but the language internals, compilation, and
execution do a good job for _many_ platforms.
We need to keep in focus what the goals of each part of the language are
intended for.
------
bsimpson
> Nine out of ten software engineers agree: it's a miracle anything works at
> all
There was a beautiful rant about a decade ago called something like
"everything's broken all the time and nobody cares." The gist of it is that
all software is written by people. Anyone who's written software knows that
it's usually riddled with hidden corner cases, unfortunate tradeoffs, rushed
deadlines, etc. Software is also moving into critical spaces like aerospace,
medicine, banking, etc. The thrust of the article is that we're trusting more-
and-more critical infrastructure to a discipline that anyone who's worked in
knows is untrustworthy.
Does anyone remember the link to the article? I've often wanted to re-read it
and share it with people, but I've never been able to find it.
~~~
temac
> Software is also moving into critical spaces like aerospace, medicine,
> banking, etc. The thrust of the article is that we're trusting more-and-more
> critical infrastructure to a discipline that anyone who's worked in knows is
> untrustworthy.
"Anyone" who's worked in those industries knows SW _can_ be done in a
trustworthy way.
At least not less than other engineering _disciplines_.
"hidden corner cases, unfortunate tradeoffs, rushed deadlines" in uncontrolled
proportions are a symptom of _lack_ of discipline, either originating directly
at low level (even if maybe mainly because of cultural influences, but I mean,
what is not?), or under pressure from the hierarchy. The same conditions can
led to critical failures of other kind of engineering realisations. One key
point of critical failures resulting from hierarchy pressure is that it does
not absolves the engineers doing the work, and some engineering culture
actually recognize and teach that. Other cultures mixe everything in the same
pot without even an once of ethics nor serious reliability thinking, and you
get people maintaining the myth that software just can't be reliable, that the
whole industry - without exception - is in an eternal crisis, and that that's
even normal because the field is "young". None of that is true; you even have
plenty examples around you, and decades of history to study. And of course, we
must remain exigent so that the quality does not decline just because of a
kind of self prophecy.
~~~
stjohnswarts
*self fulfilling prophecy.
------
flohofwoe
Isn't basically all of this shortcomings of Go's standard library, not "Go the
language"?
The Go standard seems to be heavily geared towards doing work on the server-
side, and "server-side" essentially means "Linux" today.
If I'd need to write "client-side" cross-platform code that also needs to run
on Windows, Go wouldn't be my first choice, also not my second or third.
And TBH, most other languages are not that much better (Python might be the
only notable exception, and even this requires different code paths for
"Windows vs the rest of the world" here and there).
For this type of cross-platform code, it's almost always better to talk
directly to the underlying OS APIs and put those under a thin custom wrapper
library instead of relying on the language's standard library.
~~~
fasterthanlime
A standard library says a lot about the language. Even if someone made a much
better path/file handling library for Go, another one of its strengths are the
ubiquitous interfaces you can rely on across libraries. Unless the superior
library gained a lot of adoption really quickly, it would remain largely
irrelevant in the face of the standard that was set years ago by the Go
authors.
~~~
throwaway894345
Look at Go’s HTTP library. It’s much lauded for striking a good balance
between performance and ease of use, but it’s not as performant as it could
be. For that, fasthttp exists and is quite popular although not nearly as
popular as the standard HTTP library.
Your comment gives the impression that this is a failure because the library
for niche performance cases hasn’t become the go-to library for the general
case. I disagree—it’s ideal that we have a canonical general purpose library
and another for high performance cases.
Perhaps you would argue that we should have interfaces that allow for a
pluggable performant implementation and an easy-to-use general purpose
implementation? This is all well and good, but it’s inherently not possible,
because the interface is about ease-of-use and the performance is achieved by
trading off on friendliness. You might offer Rust as a counterpoint since many
of its standard libraries use an interface that is suitable for the general
case and the high performance cases; however, this is a lie: these interfaces
(and the core language) are manifold harder to use than their Go equivalents.
In other words, Rust’s “general purpose” interfaces trade ease of use for the
ability to support high performance implementations. This tradeoff isn’t
inherently bad, but it is bad to pretend as though it’s _inherently good_ or
that there is no tradeoff at all.
------
DLA
Windows-focused rant. Plus a few reasonable points. Every language is complex
at some level and in their own ways-Rust included. Every language hides some
of the complexity of layers below it like assembly and thus hides hardware
details. Computers are complex. Point granted.
Fact is Go is a very reasonable set of compromises that let's real enterprise-
scale work get done and run with solid performance. I've done work on mostly
Nix systems but have cross-compiled for Windows when needed. These are wildly
different OSes and some adjustments are needed thusly in the code.
Go has faults. The "OMG Go has no generics so it's total trash" argument is
just silly. Generics are coming.
Personally, Go has never let me down with anything I've asked it to do -- ETL
flows, servers, streaming data processing, CLI programs, networking tools,
etc. Use whatever tool fits your needs.
~~~
HideousKojima
>Go has faults. The "OMG Go has no generics so it's total trash" argument is
just silly. Generics are coming.
Until it has them it's a valid complaint. And the fact that they're finally
coming _11 years_ after the language's creation is another matter
~~~
throwaway894345
This is silly. Lots of people are very productive in Go without generics. Even
more productive than many languages that have generics (including Rust). Lots
of people are very productive in _languages without static typing at all_.
Generics will significantly improve a relatively small proportion of use
cases.
------
physicles
Having used go full-time for the last 3.5 years, this article didn’t feel like
a twist of the knife. Yet all the language evolution efforts I’ve seen in the
last two years make me think that early Go was, mixaphorically speaking,
lightning in a bottle that won’t strike twice.
\- I’ve never hit the file system stuff. We all use Linux; all our code runs
on Linux. I’m curious who the people are who are using Go on Windows.
\- Network timeouts are a stupid gotcha I first hit about six months into my
go tenure. You can set read/write timeouts on the Transport that’s used by the
connection though; not sure why that isn’t covered.
\- The wall clock time thing is new to me and looks crazy complicated; I’m
angry that it’s something I have to know about now. It’s bad enough that
time.Time operator == and .Equals() behave mostly but not quite the same.
Something that’s not in the article: the tooling situation (autocomplete,
source navigation, and so forth) IS STILL WORSE THAN IT WAS TWO YEARS AGO. The
old tools were perfect but were never updated for module support. gopls is
still an unfinished mess; last week I had to write a script that auto-kills it
if it uses more than 3GB of memory.
------
weego
_It constantly lies about how complicated real-world systems are, and optimize
for the 90% case, ignoring correctness_
I don't know how this comment appears to come as a new thought after them
using Go in production. I don't use it at all for work but that is literally
my understanding of the point of Go; granular "correctness" as a trade off for
the productivity it provides if you're doing things that are just on the "good
path"
------
fortran77
> So, no errors. Chmod just silently does… nothing. Which is reasonably -
> there's no equivalent to the “executable bit” for files on Windows.
It's simply not true that Windows doesn't have "execute permissions" for
files. It does:
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/win32/fileio/file-s...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/win32/fileio/file-security-and-access-rights)
It's just that the people who wrote the go library couldn't be bothered to
abstract this interface across all platforms.
~~~
mehrdadn
+1 came here to say the same thing. This seems more like a problem with the
standard library authors not putting in enough effort than anything else.
------
kodablah
2/3rds about platform FS incompat, last third about only a couple of things
like time comparisons being monotonic now (does more good than bad IMO).
I suspect if issues of such importance are enough to make you want off the
"wild ride", you will not find a ride suitable.
~~~
jjoonathan
He presented them as typical examples, not as issues of such importance as to
independently make him off the "wild ride."
He also compared them to alternatives that he found favorable, which
specifically addresses the idea that alternatives are worse.
It could be reasonable to disagree with the content of his argument, but it
didn't have either of these structural problems.
~~~
kodablah
> it didn't have either of these structural problems.
Disagree...the volume/importance of grievances should be directly proportional
to willingness to abandon. That a few examples can be provided isn't an
indictment of the ecosystem anymore than it would be if I did the same to
those the OP found favorable.
~~~
jjoonathan
He chose to go deep instead of broad. That was an editorial tradeoff to keep
the length this side of an encyclopedia, and I don't think it's fair to
criticize him for it unless you're also going to argue that the generalization
he asked us to take on faith doesn't hold -- in other words, that the example
he gave in which a simplifying API decision backfired is atypical.
I haven't used much Go, but the bit that I've played with gave me the distinct
impression that "opinionated simplification" wasn't just common, it was the
defining quality of the entire language, which would strongly suggest that
OP's complaint would easily generalize to a hundred other APIs. Is that not
the case?
------
dickeytk
> _(Note that path /filepath violates Go naming conventions - “don't stutter”
> - as it includes “path” twice)._
That guideline is for package/content name, not package directory names.
[https://blog.golang.org/package-names](https://blog.golang.org/package-names)
~~~
skywhopper
Yeah, the author misunderstands the naming scheme which actually suggests this
sort of repetition. See also, io/ioutil.
~~~
fasterthanlime
My mistake, I removed the relevant paragraph in the article.
~~~
iudqnolq
I still see it, maybe cached?
------
7532yahoogmail
I'm c/c++ over 20 years, go 1 year, Python 5+ years. I work at a company with
a guy on the c++ standards committee with the internal sdlc and engineering
training for large scale, commercial systems to boot.
This article is a rant. Not an engineering take down of go. There's just not
much of substance here. Were I to care about windows (I don't) for serious
cross platform os interaction, go isn't your hammer of choice.
I've turned to go recently for some I/O heavy apps of a micro-service type
which it is fine for. I also turned to go because of God awful c++ build times
and bad build systems in the sense that they assume all code is in a single
branch. By switching to go I also prevent less experienced programmers from
linking in legacy c++ libraries and the evil that comes with them.
Go has delivered. My needs are such that protobuf/flatbuffer are good enough
for types and go's lack of generics is irrelevant. I'm pushing bytes across a
network pipe in which each message admits simple transforms/operations.
Now I am keeping my eye on three things that I think go could burn me on:
\- garbage collection
\- channels ... cool but slow
\- something unixy/multicore/close to the bare metal ... Like kv store
Those things I'd be reticent about doing in go.
Folks, we need 2-4 languages with their connections to libraries and tool
chains in our toolbox.
While we remain dominated by c++ (a complex beast of a language) I am looking
to add a functional language to my kit (ocaml/Haskell). Btw good engineers
need a formal language too. I recommend tla+ and there's a guy in hacker news
here that's got good books on it. Recommended! Highly concurrent code ought to
modeled in tla+ first before leaving your app language gun and taking the
canolli.
Cheers
------
Thaxll
"With a Go function, if you ignore the returned error, you still get the
result - most probably a null pointer."
Well you should handle the error in the first place.
~~~
hota_mazi
The language should make you handle the error and the compiler should refuse
to compile your code until you have done so.
~~~
philwelch
So checked exceptions, then?
~~~
hota_mazi
That's one way, yes.
------
bfrog
I felt the same way after writing a large (100kloc) project in Go, this is
back when go was 1.0 or so as well. It started off well enough, but eventually
started to fail in helping me create the software I needed to make.
~~~
martinni
No matter what, after 100k loc, you'll encounter language quirks that
irritates you. It's a matter of how complicated it was to find and what the
work around is.
------
madmax96
I think its worth pointing out that the Rust code is more broken than the Go
code in this example. Because Rust is trying to come up with a sane way to
display the filename (a) it prevents users from using encodings the language
designers did not anticipate and (b) it prevents the solution from integrating
with other system tools. For instance, you can't run `rm "$(rust_program)"`,
but you can with the Go solution.
But discussing _any_ of this means you've missed the point of languages like
Go. Instead of arguing about the best way to to represent pathnames that
aren't a valid byte sequence under $PREFERRED_LOCALE, we should be talking to
our customers and solving their problems.
------
totalperspectiv
My main takeaway is the quote from scottlamb:
> ... these sorts of statements contribute to my belief that Go is an
> opinionated language that I should hesitate to choose for anything that the
> language's authors haven't specifically considered in depth.
------
marcus_holmes
Can we just stop with the "Rust vs Go" shit?
If you want me to take a critique of Go seriously these days, pick another
language to compare it to. Any other language.
And yeah, I'm aware that 5 years ago there were a ton of "Go vs Java"
articles. I didn't think much of them then, either.
~~~
fasterthanlime
Author here - I apologize for pulling Rust into this, but for the life of me
couldn't find any comparable language that solves those problems "the right
way".
I tried really hard. I knew a lot of people would instantly have that
reaction, but I couldn't find another way to show that _there is another way_
, short of pulling it out of thin air (which would've made for an even longer,
less accessible article).
~~~
marcus_holmes
LISP, surely? all HN knows that LISP is the perfect programming language... ;)
~~~
msla
If only because Lisp is a moving target, so practically anything you say about
it will be true by someone's definition.
------
lanius
For those unaware, the title is a reference to a hilariously long user-created
ride in Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 titled "MR BONES WILD RIDE" [1]. The ride's
exit connected to its entrance, so passengers were forced to repeatedly ride
the roller coaster forever.
[1] [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mr-bones-wild-
ride](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mr-bones-wild-ride)
~~~
CameronNemo
Have you not heard of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride?
------
carapace
> Computers, operating systems, networks are a hot mess. They're barely
> manageable, even if you know a decent amount about what you're doing. Nine
> out of ten software engineers agree: it's a miracle anything works at all.
I like that he identified the real problem right at the start.
~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
Yeah so do I. It would have made a nice tweet.
------
mushufasa
main gripe seems to be that go will "optimize for the 90% case, ignoring
correctness" \-- particularly leading to issues on non-unix systems like
windows.
That fits Go's stated goals afaik. While I understand the author ran into
problems for their use-case, I did not find this rant compelling as a general
criticism.
~~~
defnotashton2
Same because if you try to create the % case you end up with things like ASP.
NET and entity framework. Working with those for 5 years I was constantly
annoyed with how far I could add super complex features only to have to
unravel them to implement a simple lower level edge case.
And in my experience this too easily reflects poorly on the devs "well I found
a blog post for ef that does what we need in 30 seconds.." which just isn't
the case. I migrated to golang and find its nuances much easier to swallow. No
generics? True - write a generator for your use case. It's really not that
hard..
------
dellinspiron
(Comparing a function in Rust's sdtlib to Go's:) > Of course there's a
learning curve. Of course there's more concepts involved than just throwing
for loops at byte slices and seeing what sticks, like the Go library does. >
But the result is a high-performance, reliable and type-safe library. > It's
worth it.
When I first saw Go, I was blown away. Not by its features, but rather the
lack thereof. It seemed like one last "Hail Mary!" from the C programming
community to get "back to basics". But, as the author showcases, the time when
programming was about manipulating arrays with pointers is, if not behind us,
hopefully on its way out.
------
klodolph
With the path example… just try to combine this with flags, so we do something
like:
$ ./my_program --file="$(printf "\xbd\xb2\x3d\xbc\x20\xe2\x8c\x98")"
Well, just try to write the program that does that in Rust, without using some
option-parsing library that hides all the details, and then try to figure out
how to get it to work equally on Windows.
To spoil the answer, it turns out that OsString only exposes a couple
conversion routines and can’t be manipulated, and people have been trying to
figure out a way to add a string-like API to it for years. Rust’s “do it the
right way even if that exposes lots of complexity” approach here has its
drawbacks.
~~~
dpc_pw
If you want to half-ass it like Go you go [https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/ffi/struct.OsString.html#metho...](https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/ffi/struct.OsString.html#method.to_string_lossy) or
[https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/ffi/struct.OsString.html#metho...](https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/ffi/struct.OsString.html#method.into_string) if you want to
potentially get an error.
If you want to deal with bytes / invalid Unicode, you go [https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/ffi/index.html#conversions](https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/ffi/index.html#conversions)
~~~
klodolph
I'm aware of the conversions, unfortunately, you can’t really do any
processing before you convert and you can’t (unlike C++) write generic code
that works on both types of converted values.
On Unix you get Vec<u8> and on Windows you get an iterator over u16. This is
hot garbage, to say the least, if you want to do any kind of processing. I can
go into more details, but in C++ you would just be working with std::string
and std::wstring, depending on platform, and at least in that case you can
hide everything away like this:
#if defined WIN32
using OsChar = wchar_t;
#else
using OsChar = char;
#endif
using OsString = std::basic_string<OsChar>;
This is only the beginning, but you can see how the C++ version is much easier
to work with, even though it doesn’t hide the problem from you.
Note that I’m not advocating that you make everything in your code into
OsString, just that it’s common to need to do some small amount of
manipulation of OsString and Rust makes this much harder than it should be.
~~~
dpc_pw
With Rust you can also convert to `Vec<T>` where T is either `u8` or `u16` and
use generics to work on any. ️
And there are probably handful of libraries that would help with all that too.
Also - whatever convenient functionality you might want, can be added in the
future without issues. Hardly a language flaw - just a minor unimplemented
functionality.
~~~
klodolph
> With Rust you can also convert to `Vec<T>` where T is either `u8` or `u16`
> and use generics to work on any.
That’s a very cumbersome way of doing things. I would love to see an
illustration. It also involves a ton of conversions: if want to parse a
command-line flag which contains a file path, it would go: wchar_t -> OsString
-> Vec<u16> -> OsString -> wchar_t. It also makes it difficult to use Rust
APIs in a more or less idiomatic way.
> Hardly a language flaw - just a minor unimplemented functionality.
It’s a flaw in the standard library, not the language. When you say that it’s
minor, all you’re doing is saying, “I don’t care about the things you care
about.” That’s not really an argument, just a statement of your own personal
opinion.
------
irrational
>when you make something simple, you move complexity elsewhere.
This applies to so many things. I wish I could get non-technical people to
understand that making something simple moves the complexity elsewhere.
------
sitzkrieg
i wrote go professionally on a project for a year in a single very intense
push, and i was burned by every single thing listed in the article. felt like
uphill impedance mismatch the whole way. its nice to see it articulated well
~~~
donatj
> burned by every single thing listed in the article
Really? That seems absolutely bizarre to me, I've been writing it
professionally for ~8 years now and never hit… any of these.
I mean I basically never interact with Windows on any level, but none of this
has ever bit me.
~~~
sitzkrieg
this was cross platform forensics software ripe with edge cases
------
SpaceManNabs
I have become annoyed at go for completely different reasons than OP. I wrote
my blog using go as the backend a few years ago. Deployed it on Google App
Engine. Every time Go updates or the App Engine SDK updates, it is a super
pain to update my site. I almost want to throw it all away now that Go is
handling dependencies in a completely new matter.
------
altmind
50 Shades of Go: Traps, Gotchas, and Common Mistakes for New Golang Devs, a
good read about go quirks and unexpected behaviors
[http://devs.cloudimmunity.com/gotchas-and-common-mistakes-
in...](http://devs.cloudimmunity.com/gotchas-and-common-mistakes-in-go-
golang/)
------
luord
I kept waiting for practical examples that showed how these shortcomings made
go a non-starter, and ultimately all I got was a mention, right at the end,
about how he hit a particular bug multiple times.
I mean, currently I work in a go shop and I hate nearly everything about it,
all just from what he calls "the bad", which is enough to make me not feel
precisely happy about writing it. The content of this article, what he calls
"the ugly", comes across as a bit nitpicky in comparison.
Nonetheless, it is a good article about string and path handling, time, and
being irresponsible with what one is depending on.
------
donatj
I'm late to the show here, but I think the whole argument around filepaths
needing to potentially be encoded before being presented to end users is a
non-issue / how most languages I've worked in have handled it?
Does rust have some fancy handling? Sure? Is it syntactic sugar? Absolutely.
Maybe I've been working in Web too long, but encoding a value before handing
it to the user seems second nature.
------
kkredit
This is an excellent example of Waterbed Theory: "This is a theory which says
that if you push down the complexity in one part of a language or tool, there
is a compensation which increases the complexity of another part of the
language or tool."
[http://wiki.c2.com/?WaterbedTheory](http://wiki.c2.com/?WaterbedTheory)
------
time0ut
Based on the title, I was expecting a post about some sort of production
horror story or some difficult edge case upgrading to 1.14.
------
dellinspiron
Comparing Rust to Go: > Of course there's a learning curve. Of course there's
more concepts involved than just throwing for loops at byte slices and seeing
what sticks, like the Go library does. > But the result is a high-performance,
reliable and type-safe library. > It's worth it.
------
GiantSully
Go is an opinionated language, but opinion is not just right or wrong, and
it’s getting complicated with time passing by. Opinion might be prejudice.
Anyway, I like the multiplexing and go routine in go.
------
ungerik
I wanted a little bit more from FS department, so I rolled my own:
[https://github.com/ungerik/go-fs](https://github.com/ungerik/go-fs)
------
ggm
Scuolo di Michaelangelo "god, this Carrera marble is so hard to work in why
can't we just pour concrete into rubber moulds like the garden gnome factory
next door"
Michelangelo "fine, I thought you wanted to learn how to sculpt perfect
buttocks but whatever"
Jeff Koons "that garden gnome idea, how about now I know how to carve Carrera
marble I make one in marble"
Scuolo ..."Jeff.. we hate you"
The GO authors are gifted. They make tools gifted people understand. If you
aren't gifted, they are difficult tools to use.
(I'm not gifted btw)
------
philpearl1
getlantern/idletiming has 9 stars and 2 forks. This is not something the
general Go community uses
------
pmarreck
Go needs good criticisms like this.
I will never understand why this language is so popular.
~~~
bsdubernerd
It's due to the same reason Rust is: it's backed by a large popular company
investing in the language and being loud about it, which leads to a rapidly
growing mindshare and ecosystem around it, which is essential for adoption.
This is not meant as a criticism toward go or rust: the history shows several
cases where this happened before irregardless of the technical merits.
A language still needs to become popular, it's not like we're lacking great
languages nowdays. It's certainly easier if you're big and can provide the
founding around it.
~~~
AnimalMuppet
The backing can get you publicity. If the language is lousy, though, the
publicity won't help it. But publicity can turn an obscure good language into
a well-known good language.
I think the bigger thing that corporate support gets you, though, is a better
library (more complete, more debugged, and more polished). _That_ is an
essential ingredient for language popularity. Up through Java, it was enough.
But these days, I think that there's one more ingredient needed: Solve some
problem that isn't well-solved in other existing popular languages. Go has
pretty good answers on multiple threads and network services. Rust has the
borrow checker. Those are useful enough pieces to gain traction for those
languages.
------
pcj-github
Got really tired and bored with this. Maybe structure the article with some
sort of meaningful abstract so that you can summarize the points you want to
make up front without having to subject the reader to 9/10ths of this article.
------
tschellenbach
2+ years on Go, 13 years on Python and JS. Some Kotlin and Java as well. Go is
by far the best programming language you can find to build scalable
microservices. Hands down, years ahead of anything else.
------
tyrankh
I think this post summarizes to,
\- I don't like the file-related packages
\- What's up with this random 7 star library having a lot of transitive
dependencies
\- Rust for life
\- In summation, Go is the worst
~~~
fasterthanlime
Not that this is a good faith summary, but I've updated the article to point
out that it's not just "this random 7-star library", but in fact, 266
publicly-available Go packages.
~~~
cdelsolar
Your rant largely has to do with a library someone wrote that did not handle
dependencies well. A few years ago you would have complained about lack of
module support at all. I have a toy project that's relatively simple, and the
Javascript frontend has a lockfile that is literally over 10000 lines long.
~~~
fasterthanlime
I was already shipping Go code a few years ago, and the various vendoring
tools gave me a lot less grief the new module system has. Besides, it still
had all the same limitations, the same standard library choices, the same
sloppy abstractions. The rant applied then and it applies now - and focuses
not on any specific problem outlined in the article, but the general
philosophy of the language, its standard library, and its ecosystem.
------
miguelmota
Go is my favorite language but I do agree that Windows support has always felt
like an afterthought.
------
shadowgovt
It's a pretty good article. The tl;dr is that golang is a POSIX-focused
application programming language that is incorrectly advertised as a platform-
agnostic systems programming language.
------
crimsonalucard
Rust is great it follows modern programming techniques and theory but it
focuses a little too much on zero cost abstractions and because of that the
abstractions are a bit complicated.
Go is easy to learn but poorly designed with an incomplete type system hence
all these strange issues.
There is a vacuum that exists between Rust and Go. A language that utilizes
modern Algebraic Data Types (like rust) but does not necessarily need to
create abstractions just to make everything zero cost (like Go).
~~~
hajile
It's not a void. StandardML file the niche well and Ocaml is getting close
(just waiting for multicore support). The issue is a company that wants to put
in resources.
~~~
jhoechtl
Came here to say OCaml wojld be the sweet spot.
Sorry about multicore. It's like Perl6. A dream which will never come true or
your accept F#.
~~~
lizmat
Note that Perl 6 has been very much a thing since December 2015 (first
official release). However, last October it got renamed to Raku
([https://raku.org](https://raku.org) using the #rakulang tag on social
media). And it is still very much a thing. If you want to keep up to date, you
should check the Rakudo Weekly News
([https://rakudoweekly.blog](https://rakudoweekly.blog)).
------
jbverschoor
Haha
------
terminaljunkid
TL;DR I am on Windows and Go doesn't play well with its weird filesystem. It
is all Go's fault for relying on highly used server OS semantics and therefore
Go's simplicity is lie.
------
ptah
i think your problem is with windows, not go
------
_wldu
Articles like this are evidence of Go's huge success.
------
sagichmal
What a ridiculous and narrow thing to get so upset about.
~~~
crimsonalucard
It's not ridiculous. Functions should not be returning garbage values when an
error occurs.
This is the worst part of javascript and certainly it's not pleasant to
uncover this in Go.
------
ainiriand
If somehow we had a way of checking Golang's source and submit our desired
changes...
~~~
klohto
I seriously hate this argument.
Go and have a look at the issue the golang is discussing currently. Do you
seriously think that everything can be fixed by a simple request?
Most of the time it wouldn't fit with the way Golang is going. It's not a
critique of some bugs in Golang source code but the mentality and flow
surrounding changes.
Do you except the author that submitted change overhauling the whole way
Golang handles Unix vs Windows would be accepted?
I do not agree with the author, but that is fine. It's fine for me, understand
it's not good for his use cases. Saying "duh, just submit your request" is
stupid as it gets.
~~~
ainiriand
Obviously what I mentioned is just an oversimplification. I expect that when
some particular piece of software (open source in this case) is causing major
trouble to a big chunk of its users, they get together to fix it.
In the particular case of this user, some of the problems are are really
related so I can imagine that if they were widespread it would´ve been taken
care of.
I am sorry for using sarcasm to take a detour from my real point and I was
just making some light-hearted fun about op's problem.
~~~
klohto
Apologizes for not getting the sarcasm, it seemed real enough.
------
kissgyorgy
If you don't care about Windows, half of the rant is just not interesting for
you. So even if you accept that he is right in every single point, excluding
those parts there these are not a lot of problems. EVERY language has
problems, even Rust.
------
cheese4242
Clickbait title.
Should be titled "Golang doesn't work well with Windows".
~~~
jackbravo
Granted, the article is pretty long, and spends a lot of time talking about
this windows pitfall that I was also about to abandon it. Then it speaks of
other examples like the monotime issue which I think is a better example of
what he is advocating.
------
zemnmez
i cant help but feel Go is the new Javascript. Everyone wants to complain
about how its semantics as a language do not align with their favorite
programming paradigm. In this case, having complex, algebraic type-based
abstractions that attempt to accurately reflect subtleties that are rarely
important.
Yes, Go, as Javascript has unique failure cases and subtleties, but they are
(as of 2020) very productive languages within their particular paradigms.
That's not to say either language is beyond criticism, of course. But it's a
little silly to think that a language that supports the 99.9% of writing a
service well, but does the .1% badly as a tradeoff for simplicity is a
fundamentally broken language because it doesn't share those aspirations. We
might as well be complaining about the lack of pointer arithmetic in Python.
------
zxcvbn4038
What is the point of a ten page rant like this? If the guy doesn’t like coding
in Go, just stop using Go, problem solved. How many more times are we have to
have the language X is different then language Y and I hate feature Z
discussion? These are popping up almost daily. We could probably automate
generating a daily rant with commentary, and let all the Joe Nobody coders get
back to whatever they are trying to accomplish.
~~~
krallja
Hardly anybody writes a retraction after three years of “mongodb is great in
production” — they silently switch to a new product, and maybe say something
positive about it too. These kind of rants are hard-earned battle scars of
former zealots learning their lesson, and should not be discarded.
------
sudhirj
Most of this rant is a disagreement of how Go handles file system differences
between Unix and Windows, most of the rest is complaining about some badly
written library.
May be good to know if you’re dealing with any of that, but this much effort
would be much better served submitting a proposal to change whatever the
author is so worked up about. Either the proposal is accepted, or the Go
community will provide a response if the proposal is written with due
consideration.
------
earwetr
i went through the pain points of Go myself but that was at the beginning when
i was expecting behavior i was used to from previous language(s) and from
trying to force the previously learnt norms onto Go.
Reading the blog post(i wrote something similar that got a ton of views here
few years ago) it sounds more like the issue is between the keyboard and the
armchair, not with the language itself.
As with anything else, if you don't like it, don't use it. If you like Rust,
Rust away.
------
h2odragon
I'm sure there's real issues; but this reads as an extended whinge on "Windows
and Unix are __Different __and languages wrap those differently whaaa! "
If you want OS interfaces that look the same wherever; then choose a
portability layer that abstracts that for you.
------
sascha_sl
Uh okay, lots of "but windows" and a few misinformed takes about the http lib
(using contexts over using a client instance with a timeout set) alongside
ripping apart a random package I've never used or heard of for having a huge
dependency graph.
Such a long article, for this?
------
alharith
> which makes a lot of problems impossible to model accurately
_Impossible?_
> (instead, you have to fall back to reflection, which is extremely unsafe,
> and the API is very error-prone),
_Extremely_ unsafe?
> when you make something simple, you move complexity elsewhere.
Does it? Or did you, in reality, not really make it simpler?
> Go says “don't worry about encodings! things are probably utf-8”
Does it? [https://blog.golang.org/strings](https://blog.golang.org/strings)
It just sounds like the author is very frustrated at some seemingly minor
inconsistencies (from their perspective), and the extreme language used for
things that are not that extreme are evidence in my opinion. Blogging can be a
good exercise to shed some frustration, I definitely understand that aspect.
Not sure this needs to be shared as a good example of anything or taken in any
light, other than "someone is venting."
~~~
sascha_sl
It's the fairest point, modeling some issues is a pain in go, particularly
dynamic data types (think ActivityStreams).
~~~
alharith
Debating whether certain domains are more difficult/painful in Go than other
languages is valid. Saying they are _impossible_ is extreme.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google buys Meebo - patrickaljord
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/04/confirmed-google-is-buying-meebo-the-startup-that-turned-chat-into-a-business/
======
pbreit
Wow, I thought Meebo was on track for much more than a $100 million buyout. It
has raised $70 million and apparently has a very large, active user base after
all. I wonder what happened?
~~~
mrchess
Strategic exit I'm guessing. I think they have been struggling to find a core
product for a while now. The meebo bar was essentially a pivot after
popularity of meebo messenger started to decline.
~~~
ChuckMcM
That seems likely. I doubt there was any employee participation on this exit.
Google has a pretty good track record of giving 'RSU's[1] to the key employees
in an acquisition which can make it worthwhile.
[1] RSU - Restricted Stock Unit. Unlike a stock 'option' where there is a
price per share which is set at the current market price and then is only
valuable if the stock goes 'up', an RSU a convertible instrument that has a
nominal face value of 1.0 share of Google Stock. However it has attached to it
a scaling factor which is generally tied to performance. The scaling factor
can go to 0 if performance is poor or as high as 3 if performance is stellar
generally. This would be similar to an 'earnout' although its more about how
the employee does at the company rather than how the acquired assets perform.
~~~
heretohelp
Meebo was about to lose most of their remaining (they'd already lost a few)
key employees to better companies anyway. A Google buyout with incentives to
keep the employees around was really the only way this was going to end well.
------
jcampbell1
I hope the founders have cached something out of this, or are getting an earn
out. When you raise $70, and sell for $100, the founders shares are worthless.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Kaboom: Minesweeper you always lose when you guess except when you have to - cyborgx7
https://pwmarcz.pl/kaboom/
======
cyborgx7
Blog post about how to go about implementing this:
[https://pwmarcz.pl/blog/kaboom/](https://pwmarcz.pl/blog/kaboom/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
$600 Bolognese pasta sauce - jlangenauer
http://theqwoffboys.com/post/585799393/grange-bolognese-ii
======
jlangenauer
For those that don't know, Penfolds Grange is amongst the very finest red
wines produced in Australia (and probably the world) - a bottle of the new
current vintage goes for around $500, and aged bottles of good vintages
considerably more.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Intel Core Processor Combines High-Performance CPU with Custom GPU from AMD - vanburen
https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/new-intel-core-processor-combine-high-performance-cpu-discrete-graphics-sleek-thin-devices/
======
jmnicolas
Wow ! Now you can tell me that it snowed for the first time in Hell, I
wouldn't be more surprised than that ! :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Minecraft@Home - networked
https://minecraftathome.com/minecrafthome/
======
siraben
One recent notable achievement by Minecraft@Home was the discovery[0] of the
start screen panorama seed which was seen from Beta 1.8 up to 1.12. Reverse
engineering Minecraft seeds is an impressive feat given that the search space
is so large. The finding of Pewdiepie's survival Minecraft world seed was
achieved (without Minecraft@Home) despite him revealing his coordinates via F3
only twice in the entire series[1][2][3].
[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/hthrmk/big_news_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/hthrmk/big_news_we_have_found_the_seed_of_minecrafts/)
[1]
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=LE8ml2hZVZM](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LE8ml2hZVZM)
[2]
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=MbAymA6OAa4](https://youtube.com/watch?v=MbAymA6OAa4)
[3]
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=qWnTRNw4mDY](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qWnTRNw4mDY)
~~~
siraben
I should also follow up with a technique that might be of interest to
programmers. Some Minecraft blocks have textures that appear rotated in one of
four ways. Turns out this rotation is pseudorandom, the rotation number is a
result of seeding Java's rand.nextLong() with the (x,y,z) coordinate of that
block.[0] This has been used for "malicious" purposes such as finding the
location of a base from a single screenshot, which can lead to its destruction
on anarchy servers. The author of the linked video used a CUDA search to find
the location of a wall of netherrack.
[0]
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=6__hO4cc1pA](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6__hO4cc1pA)
~~~
Balgair
Aside: 2b2t is the most notable of MC anarchy servers. Whenever I read about
it, I'm amazed at the machinations of the people that play there. It's kinda
like reading Eve Online after action reports of their big battles. I've no
inclination to play on 2b2t, but it's great reading all the same.
~~~
Nannooskeeska
I have the same feeling about Dwarf Fortress. I absolutely love reading DF
stories (see [0]), but the couple times I tried to play I just couldn't get
into it.
[0] [https://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-
Boatmurdered/](https://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/)
~~~
kiaulen
I'm with you. Also hopeful that the DF steam release comes with a slightly
easier to use UI.
If you want similarly hilarious stories, try rimworld.
------
varbhat
I appreciate Minecraft as a game.
But,instead of donating/contributing to it(because it is closed source and is
paid software), i would instead donate/contribute/play
[https://www.minetest.net](https://www.minetest.net) which is opensource/free
alternative to Minecraft ,and minetest has better modding capabilities too.
~~~
johnghanks
> because it is closed source and is paid software
Is this supposed to be a negative? Should I not play my favorite games because
I have to buy them?
~~~
dlhavema
I think the post is more about not contributing more to a closed source system
like this. Play the game all you want. They are suggesting supporting an open
source project instead of well funded commercial software...
~~~
solipsism
An open source project that's blatantly stealing an idea and a look.
Interesting that it's considered ethical to steal someone's hard work as long
as you're giving it away for free.
------
The_Double
I sometimes wonder if these @Home projects are actually a net good. Due to the
lower energy efficiency of old hardware, or just the higher overhead from
running multiple less power full machines, it might be a lot cheaper and more
environmentally friendly if these users would directly donate the money that
they are spending on their electricity bill.
~~~
Rexxar
It's probably financially ok if you run it in winter when you have to heat
your home.
~~~
Nextgrid
If you're heating using electricity then it's financially equivalent. It's
actually beneficial to be able to use that energy for an additional purpose
(mine crypto or this) than to just burn it.
~~~
lgessler
That depends on what you mean by electricity--heat pumps can achieve >100%
efficiency since they move around heat instead of creating it.
~~~
saalweachter
I believe with heat pumps (at least ground sourced heat pumps) you can get
something like 3-5 units of heat per unit of electricity. (Compared to 11-15
EERs for cooling.)
~~~
osamagirl69
Efficiency of heat pumps are roughly the same for heating and cooling (the
only difference is which side you measure from -- the hot side gets the
electrical power input counted in its power). The reason EER is so high is
that they used absurd units for the heat flow (BTU/h = 0.3W) so you need to
divide EER by 3.4 to get the actual efficiency in unit per unit.
------
yreg
>For the third time in 1 week, Minecraft@Home has broken the tallest cactus
height record in normal terrain generation. I present, a 22 block tall cactus.
This is so neat!
------
FrankSansC
Methodology used for pack.png :
[https://packpng.com/method/](https://packpng.com/method/) Don't know if it's
the same here but it definitely worth a read.
------
qqii
Seed finding takes quite a lot of number theory, and the following video is a
good introduction:
[https://youtu.be/XVrR1WImOh8](https://youtu.be/XVrR1WImOh8)
Seed finding was originally important to find witch hut structures that are
generated close by in order to make efficient farms. Soon speedrunners saw the
utility of finding a good seed for their uses, and with the rise of
pewdiepie's let's play many begun trying to figure out the seed for his world.
Eventually this lead to the current project and packpng.com
------
TedDoesntTalk
Any ideas how top explain this to a 9 year old minecraft player to interest
him in computing?
~~~
DanBC
I guess start with hashing. You can use Minecraft (at least, the Java version)
to demonstrate "hash collisions".
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/3229wu/these_2_d...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/3229wu/these_2_different_seeds_generate_identical_worlds/)
------
arnaudsm
This is basically virtual archeology, nice work !
------
gambiting
I mean, it's cool, but somehow it really rubs me the wrong way. Obviously, I'm
not going to tell anyone how to use their computing power, but I'm personally
contributing to Folding@Home instead.
~~~
z3t4
Its not a zero sum. This will increase interest in other @Home projects. It's
really wonderful that thousands of people can work together to solve
interesting problems - all over the world.
~~~
nuccy
There seem to be a strong belief that everything what is done for scientific
purpose is "useful" automatically, though it is not always the case.
Occasionally massive amounts of resources of huge supercomputers and research
clusters are wasted for useless tests, mistakes, typos, accidentally executed
tasks, wrong input data, wrong configurations, etc, which then run for weeks
or months with zero use afterwards. So indeed if this popularizes @Home
projects for young people then it is very beneficial.
~~~
nuccy
P.S. By saying that I'm not suggesting we should decrease the amount of
resources for research, actually the opposite, since misuse is a fraction of
the whole process and some discoveries would not be possible without such
mistakes. We should increase the amount of resources and more importantly find
people who are eager to utilize them for the sake of science, research and
development.
For instance in LIGO gravitational wave detector one of PhD students
accidentally misconfigured one of the black hole-neutron star merger
simulation runs, so that it took months instead of days, but resulted in very
detailed simulation, which then was used to study fine details of the observed
signals.
------
solarkraft
How is this related to pack.png
([https://packpng.com/](https://packpng.com/))? Same community, some overlap,
no overlap?
~~~
qqii
Essentially the same people figureheads leading the project.
------
MasterScrat
See also: MineRL, a machine learning competition in which agents compete to
learn how to play
[https://minerl.io/](https://minerl.io/)
------
SubiculumCode
The geek in me thinks this is a totally rad project, but..I'm not one to tell
people how to use their computers, but building virtual worlds using computers
burning actual worlds just strikes me wrong, I guess. I recognize that my use
of computers for entertainment increases my carbon footprint dramatically, but
recruiting cycles across the globe to inefficiently construct objects in
Minecraft. idk
------
foreigner
I don't know anything about Minecraft's internals. Why are there two seeds
that produce the same result?
~~~
yreg
Your comment sparked my curiosity. Java Random[0] which is used for terraine
generation uses only 48 out of the 64 bits of the seed, so there are 2^16
seeds for each possible world.[1]
Apparently only the land/ocean biome generation stage utilises the full seed.
[0]
[https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Random.h...](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Random.html)
[1] [https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-java-
edition...](https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-java-
edition/seeds/2229720-can-two-different-seeds-produce-identical-worlds)
------
trollied
A TL;DR for people:
'This project attempts to find the world seed of the iconic panorama image
which appeared in the background of the main menu of Minecraft between 2011
and 2018.'
Essentially it's Folding@Home but for finding a specific Minecraft world seed.
~~~
I_Byte
They actually already found the panorama world seed [1]! Currently they are
working on figuring out what the tallest naturally generated cactus in
Minecraft is and so far they found a world seed with a cactus that is 22
blocks tall [2]. This project however is just a filler until they get some
more work done trying to figure out how to best brute force the world seed of
the iconic pack.png image [3].
[1] -
[https://minecraftathome.com/minecrafthome/forum_thread.php?i...](https://minecraftathome.com/minecrafthome/forum_thread.php?id=42#288)
[2] -
[https://minecraftathome.com/minecrafthome/forum_thread.php?i...](https://minecraftathome.com/minecrafthome/forum_thread.php?id=14#116)
[3] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC7f9tMslVE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC7f9tMslVE)
(Interesting bit is around 7:50)
------
ScannerSparkly
Interesting project!
------
tomerbd
what is this?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser? - Kroeler
https://twitter.com/kaydo/status/1259747848502960130
======
sholladay
I used to visit the iGrill website every couple of days and stress test my
product there during development.
I worked for Ai Squared on an app named Sitecues, which was a SaaS product
that companies would add to their website to improve their accessibility for
low vision users. We ran into a vast number of edge cases when trying to make
our JavaScript library compatible with all of our customers' websites, many of
whom had awful coding that we needed to handle gracefully (hacky CSS, old
versions of Prototype JS that override Object.prototype, and far, far worse).
One day I stumbled upon the iGrill website and found out that it exposed
practically every problem that we had seen scattered across various other
sites. It was so convenient that their website was so poorly coded that I
could stress test our app on their site and if it worked, well, "ship it!"
Looks like their site has had a few updates since then, but those were good
times.
~~~
komali2
How'd the company turned out? I'm pretty interested in accessible web dev and
have toyed with the idea of working on profiling tools, or maybe something to
show abled users just how shitty their site is to use with various access
tools.
~~~
sholladay
Ai Squared was great and that was my favorite job. The company had been around
for a while, with a rich history, and they made good products. Particularly
Sitecues, the division I worked in, had a good culture and product, which was
designed to modernize the company. We took our time to get the implementation
right and management supported us. Unfortunately, Sitecues had been burning
through the rest of the company's revenue. Right as we were starting to scale
and get customers left and right, some of the financial backers decided to
sell to a private equity firm. A few months later, days before Christmas, they
laid off everyone at Sitecues except for me and effectively shut it down. I
was kept on just to keep the servers running for a few more months, probably
to fulfill some contractual obligations. It was a disaster. Other parts of the
company were outsourced or merged into other companies, including Freedom
Scientific, which had long been "the enemy". They renamed the combined
organization to VFO, and later renamed again to Vispero. Now they focus on
profiting off of accessibility related lawsuits, which Sitecues had aimed to
prevent. It's disgusting. I would avoid doing business with Vispero or any of
their subsidiaries. The Sitecues source code is public on GitHub now, though,
since someone stopped paying the bills.
------
tdeck
For those curious about the technical details here, here's a dump of the
iGrill Android manifest (it's not XML because Android APKs contain a binary
manifest): [https://pastebin.com/fwbJ9TjD](https://pastebin.com/fwbJ9TjD)
It looks like this is the culprit:
E: activity (line=48)
A: android:theme(0x01010000)=@0x7f110149
A: android:name(0x01010003)="com.weber.igrill.pages.splash.SplashActivity" (Raw: "com.weber.igrill.pages.splash.SplashActivity")
A: android:screenOrientation(0x0101001e)=(type 0x10)0x1
E: intent-filter (line=52)
E: action (line=53)
A: android:name(0x01010003)="android.intent.action.VIEW" (Raw: "android.intent.action.VIEW")
E: category (line=55)
A: android:name(0x01010003)="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" (Raw: "android.intent.category.BROWSABLE")
E: data (line=57)
A: android:scheme(0x01010027)="http" (Raw: "http")
This registers an intent filter for all HTTP (but not HTTPS) URLs. I would
expect it to require a DEFAULT category though, not sure what happens when
that's left out.
~~~
amelius
Does anyone else feel that editing these manifest files is like filling out
tax forms?
I personally can't blame them for getting this wrong if the development tools
don't provide adequate feedback.
~~~
WJW
It would be nicer if the tooling was better, but at the same time:
1\. Everyone else can apparently do it properly. 2\. They could have caught
this problem in testing.
It's just a case of a non-software company adding on an app as an
afterthought.
~~~
laumars
I wouldn’t be surprised if they just outsourced the app development to the
lowest bidder.
------
rhizome
Android is such a drag sometimes. Between mystery quirks like this, where I'm
sure someone who has been making Android apps for 6 years will be able to
explain it, and things like the absolute inability to override the order of
items in the sharing panel[1], such that Android will routinely topline
sharing to a contact you got one text message from three years ago.
"F.U., that's why" is the simplest conclusion I can draw. "Unpaid concept
testing" is the next simplest.
1\. [https://cdn57.androidauthority.net/wp-
content/uploads/2019/0...](https://cdn57.androidauthority.net/wp-
content/uploads/2019/09/android-10-sharing-menu-edit.jpg)
~~~
9nGQluzmnq3M
> the absolute inability to override the order of items in the sharing panel
As an extra F.U., it also _changes_ the list of contacts after a second. So I
try to tap on my wife, only to have it substituted with the plumber who came
once half a year ago... and this of course gets logged by the AI, ensuring the
plumber continues to hold pride of place in my contacts.
~~~
hnick
Is there an agreed upon name for this, where a website or app loads elements
piecemeal so we click the wrong thing by mistake?
I know it exists as an intentional dark pattern (so we just _think_ that's
what happened). But it also seems so common now across computing and it pisses
me off every time.
~~~
cubedrone
In my opinion, Windows search is the absolute most infuriating example of
this, compounded by how slow it is. Let's name it so we can shame it
~~~
hnick
Just yesterday I tried to type "Network and sharing center". Apparently it
does not exist in the index which is quite annoying, I have to click through
the control panel (after accidentally ending up on a web search). Windows 10
is an odd beast with multiple generations of UIs all nestled away.
~~~
HeWhoLurksLate
Trying to get to the network devies page is equally infuriating- it's under
network adapters and options in Control Panel, and may or may not actually be
accessible from the new Settings app- I don't remember.
~~~
2fast4you
Even better, try setting the dead zones on an XInput game pad. Off the top of
my head, it goes something like: “Settings” > “Bluetooth and other devices” >
“Printers and other devices“ > Right click your game pad > “Gamepad Settings”
> select your gamepad > “Ok” > “Deadzones”
~~~
ethbro
The really sad thing is that Windows has multiple accessibility layers for
every visual control (e.g. Active Accessibility).
So there is literally already a textual, and usually interpretable, path to
_any window_.
Apparently tying search into that made too much sense though, and so instead
we get a reinvented (slightly square) wheel.
------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
With all the sites with CPU intensive Javascript, my phone gets hot enough
that sometimes I feel my browser wants to be my default BBQ.
~~~
asplake
I’m getting this on CNN:
[https://twitter.com/asplake/status/1263907373825081344?s=21](https://twitter.com/asplake/status/1263907373825081344?s=21)
------
beervirus
What a crock of shit that grills are now IoT devices. The less of my life
that’s accessible on the Internet, the better.
~~~
crazygringo
I saw from another thread that this is actually for the temperature of a meat
thermometer, that you can constantly monitor and without having to open the
grill (which is undesirable).
So actually not a crock of shit, and pretty useful if you're grilling/smoking
over long periods of time before/during a big party or something. Not all
grilling is quick searing.
Sometimes new features aren't just gimmicks, you know?
~~~
youngNed
a guage. On the bbq lid. No, i can't check it while i sit inside, this is
true, there is, however a very good argument that says, maybe i shouldn't
actually be inside while the bbq is on though.
~~~
zerocrates
There's a barbecue recipe guy I like, big proponent of leave-in thermometers
(the kind with leads that snake outside the barbecue). He likes to say that
the in-lid thermometers are just fine, provided you're planning to eat the
lid.
I still probably wouldn't use an IoT one, though.
~~~
youngNed
i'm gonna level with you here, i've never eaten meat in my life, so am out of
my comfort zone here, but i can't help but feel from reading this that the HN
crowd have a propensity for over-engineering that is coming to the fore here.
Fire, knives and an apron with a pithy slogan - c'mon, how hard can it be?
~~~
sk5t
A business built to sell grill gadgets to the HN crowd sounds like a
guaranteed recipe for failure.
Anyhow, folks who are serious about preparing smoked brisket, ribs, etc., are
very particular about the temperature of both the air/smoke and the food. Two
thermometers and maybe a computer-controlled fan or damper are not far outside
the norm.
~~~
karatestomp
> A business built to sell grill gadgets to the HN crowd sounds like a
> guaranteed recipe for failure.
Haha, gadget as in IoT crap, maybe, but we're for-sure the market for:
aeropress, sous-vide devices (yes some do them DIY but...), dedicated pizza
ovens, and so on. You got a gadget to prepare food or drinks that already have
other ways to prepare them, HN's not a crazy place to market it. Bonus if it's
"sciency" or can be described as more "authentic".
But of course we're not like the stupid plebs falling for those silly devices
we _don 't_ like.
(mind, I'm far from immune to this, so I'm not just casting stones at
others—oh I _am_ getting one of those pizza ovens at some point. That's
happening.)
~~~
sk5t
Heh. I mean only that HN'ers are too fussy to sell to. People do indeed love
gadgets and other vehicles to try to fill the void. Why is why I intend to
build a domed brick and clay bread/pizza oven in the backyard when time and
knowledge permit...
------
aib
Okay, so an IoT BBQ is a useful thing.
How are we going to prevent every single useful thing from coming up with its
own crappy, poorly-maintained application? Because obviously having open
standards is not enough.
So far the solution we've come up with seems to be "wait until one or a few
companies dominate the market, come up with their own solution, and hope it's
an open one and/or others adopt it."
This particular app might not be crappy, but I think my question still stands.
~~~
jkcorrea
Is that necessarily something we want to prevent?
In the context of the early Web, should we have prevented any company from
making their own website? Enforced some standard for how your website UX
should work in the name of security and usability? Obviously not, as that
diversity has led to more, better choices over time, and in the end the better
UXs usually win out anyway.
Perhaps in a similar way, as Weber and other grill brands continue to sell
into the IoT space, competition will drive them to differentiate in UX on
their apps in addition to their hardware. Albeit at a slower pace given that
their hook is their hardware unlike a digital product where the website is
also usually the first impression.
~~~
ran3824692
> In the context of the early Web, should we have prevented any company from
> making their own website?
Well, websites are now a bundle of arbitrary remote code execution called
javascript, we didn't allow that, so by today's standards, ya we did.
> Enforced some standard for how your website UX should work in the name of
> security and usability?
Well, html, so ya, again, ya we did. And we could again. A lot of the
functionality of apps simply don't justify requiring you to run a program.
------
0xDEEPFAC
Some good replies:
"Comes with a built in firewall"
"*Default Braiser?"
"Still better than Internet Explorer!"
~~~
dillutedfixer
It's the hottest new browser on the market.
I'm here all week.
------
jameslk
Why does Weber have their own browser? Or is this one of those embedded
browsers in an app? If the latter, why do they need an embedded browser in
their app?
~~~
whalesalad
Have you ever used the kind of application that would be produced by a
barbeque grill manufacturer? I am not surprised it has an embedded web browser
and this type of misconfiguration in the bundle.
~~~
jameslk
No, I usually don't install apps for things like grills, refrigerators,
trashcans or other domestic objects since I can't imagine they'd offer me
anything obviously beneficial. I'm sure that's why I haven't enjoyed
experiences like this.
~~~
notkaiho
This. Sure, we can question why these kinds of apps get bundled with "internet
of things" devices, but it won't stop until we realise collectively we aren't
in fact better off with things listening to every word, reacting to every
move, recording everyone passing our house, etc.
~~~
abakker
Just makes me think of that Futurama episode where the robotic wash bucket
switches bodies with Amy...
------
tibbon
I am truly curious what happens if you hit yes
------
K0balt
I'll give you a heads up when my react project goes live. I can't help but
feel like it's going to be useful to you in that role.
------
pkaye
I think the iGrill lets you see the readings on the temperature probes.
Probably broadcasts it to your phone in the vicinity.
------
veeralpatel979
[https://mightyapp.com/](https://mightyapp.com/)
I think it would be incredibly cool if this tweet especially was turned into
reality:
[https://twitter.com/Suhail/status/1253781213363363840](https://twitter.com/Suhail/status/1253781213363363840)
------
paulie_a
Ever since Weber took it over the app is a piece of shit.
------
mech422
LOL - Just be glad it wasn't a keyboard device!
------
chadlavi
Holly shit, this is a friend of mine! Small world.
------
qbaqbaqba
Your BBQ has an android app?
------
dang
Url changed from
[https://twitter.com/caseorganic/status/1259858946917097473](https://twitter.com/caseorganic/status/1259858946917097473),
which points to this.
------
domnomnom
No way this isn't an ad.
~~~
petee
By collecting scorn on HN? This would be a terrible way to market a product
~~~
domnomnom
Not really, engineers don't actually care about security.
------
markrages
... and it's not the worst browser of the three.
------
airstrike
This is prime
[https://twitter.com/internetofshit](https://twitter.com/internetofshit)
material
~~~
na85
Frankly so is 98% of my interaction with technology on a daily basis.
------
nixpulvis
I'd be SOOO happy if my grill was _able_ to do this on iOS. Then I'd destroy
the grill.
------
pnako
I trust my BBQ more than any browser nowadays, so I would probably pick that.
~~~
downerending
If I have to choose between BBQ and the Web, I'll take BBQ.
~~~
Alupis
At least this is a "Web"-er Grill. Makes sense.
~~~
downerending
Take your upvote and get out.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My wife's horrible experience with Groupon - billboebel
http://thefreshpalate.blogspot.com/2011/06/catch-22-of-groupon.html
======
timmaah
On one hand he was pissed that Groupon didn't make changes so it would get a
bigger audience, but then they could barely handle the sales they made?
~~~
bethbboebel
One of the aspects of Groupon is not everyone that will view it will purchase,
but they will at least be aware of their company. What's the point if they
don't think you're a service they could use, regardless of a discount?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to get started with AngularJS - robbiet480
I asked this previously for Backbone [1], now I'm asking it for AngularJS. Send me your best resources!<p>[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4434553
======
clockwork_189
These two are really useful:
[http://weblogs.asp.net/dwahlin/archive/2014/03/24/the-
angula...](http://weblogs.asp.net/dwahlin/archive/2014/03/24/the-angularjs-
jumpstart-video-training-course-has-been-released.aspx)
[https://egghead.io/](https://egghead.io/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
To my friends in the Node community - kingkilr
http://jacobian.org/writing/dear-node-community/
======
undoware
This is one of the few things that my unique and unfortunate biology give me
some authority to speak about.
I'm trans -- and that means I've done time as a female developer, and as a
male developer.
When I was a guy, I used to laugh in the face of women that complained about
things like gendered pronouns in source comments.
Now, with different ears to hear, it has gone from (say) this:
The user needs to know that some data has already been sent, to stop him from sending it twice
To this:
The POTENTIALLY-YOU needs to know that some data has already been sent, to stop NOT-POSSIBLY-YOU from sending it twice
It is jarring because while the syntactic form of the sentence remains static,
changing the reader alters the semantic form of the sentence to one with an
inconsistent grammar. Even more than the (obvious, probably unavoidable)
implied suggestion that the typical user is male, it is this post-parse
grammatical inconsistency which makes the text itself weirdly difficult to
read.
Sexism comes in at the level of parsing.
If this doesn't make sense to you, please google 'indexicals' (in the
advanced-logic sense) and read what the grey eminences have to say about
pronoun resolution in sentential signification.
------
spamizbad
Beyond just political correctness, there are practical reasons to use
it/they/them instead of him/her/he/she. As a native English speaker, using
gendered pronouns to talk about the _code_ is confusing. If I were just
scanning a commment, I'd assume those gendered pronouns were referring to an
author of the code or some other individual being cited.
Anthropomorphizing your code in comments is a bad idea in general.
~~~
jiggy2011
Based on the examples on the page it doesn't look like they are doing that.
They are talking about the "user" which depending on context might be the
programmer using the API or the end user using the application.
But I think this gets to the root of the problem. Text with generic pronouns
can get clumsy , especially so if the grammar is less than perfect.
"He" or "She" removes any ambiguity that you are referring to a singular
person. Whereas "they" could mean a single person, a group of people or some
inanimate object. So a gendered pronoun can make your writing clearer but of
course forces you into a specific gender.
Historically "He" was often used as a pronoun which could be considered either
gendered or gender neutral dependent upon context.
~~~
tptacek
That is the opposite of my understanding of the history here; my understanding
is that "they" has, for most of the history of written english, been used a
gender-neutral singular pronoun, and that it was a prescriptivist movement in
the late 1800s that attempted to away with that practice.
The gender neutral singular "they" has a long history, is correct, and should
be uncontroversial.
~~~
jiggy2011
There's a discussion on Stack exchange here:
[http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30455/is-using-
he...](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30455/is-using-he-for-a-
gender-neutral-third-person-correct)
But I would still class the late 1800s as relatively "historical" compared
with tech documentation.
~~~
tptacek
You misread me. The effort to eradicate singular "they" is a late 1800's
movement, and, I agree, that movement is archaic. The singular "they" has been
a feature of English since Chaucer and remains current; Conrad used it, as did
CS Lewis.
------
joshguthrie
Flagging.
Seriously, this is getting tiring. Actually seeing these issues happen is one
thing: it's real, it's happening, it's life and our community, etc... Now
having to bear with every blogger jumping the band wagon for the same
copypasta of "Dear community of <%= @LANGUAGE %>, I love you, but you screwed
up about <%= @ISSUE %>, now we need to do better"? I'm done with it.
As for all the name-calling on both sides of the argument, this is ridiculous.
Fine, we're moving away from a "male-dominated culture" by becoming an
"idiots-from-all-genders-dominated culture". Today, I'm ashamed to call myself
a member of this community.
~~~
tptacek
That's an abuse of the flag button. You flag a story that is off-topic for the
site, or that is spam, or that deliberately trolls the site. But flags are not
downvotes. I can safely count on the fact that dozens of stories I won't like
will hit this site every day. I don't flag them.
You should hit the "unflag" button now. Or don't, but then don't complain
when, after gratifying this bad habit of yours for a few more months, you lose
the flag button.
~~~
joshguthrie
Off-topic, not. Spam, okay, not, but close. Troll, after the flamewar we've
had on two topics and two github issues, giving it more fuel is close.
This is not even "news" and the "I-am-picky-about-my-comments" bit prevents it
from being discussion, escalation of discussion or anything else that could be
relevant in this place. Also, the appeal to "the node community" when the
issue at hands is just tangentially linked to it makes it linkbait.
------
rjknight
I'm surprised by the disproportionate level of angst from the people who are
upset about the use of 'they' in place of 'he'. I can see the point of
eliminating both and using 'it' instead, but some of the comments on that
Github issue sounded like the kind of 'political correctness gone mad!' drivel
that one[1] reads in the Daily Mail[2], for goodness' sake.
[1] A gender-neutral pronoun!
[2] If you're fortunate enough to not know what the Daily Mail is:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI)
~~~
jaegerpicker
It's not really about the They VS. He issue. No one got worked up about the
original commits/documentation. What people are strongly objecting to,
correctly in my opinion, is the divisive and condescending way in which the
commits were reverted and the reason why they were reverted. Simply put he
said that making the project feel more welcoming for women was a trivial and
unimportant. It's basically the same as actively promoting the myth that open
source is a white male only thing, not cool IMO.
~~~
rjknight
I dunno. He said that the pull request was trivial, which could have been
meant in the sense that the _change_ is trivial - a one-word change to a code
comment that does not affect the program's operation. Commit history space is
a _somewhat_ scarce resource, and I can see the point in rejecting the commit
on the grounds that it doesn't really change _enough_ to be worth a commit.
For example, did the commit fix all instances of masculine pronouns or just
one? Was it intended to fix the whole problem, or just to "make a point"? I
can see why the committer might not have seen much value in the PR. I don't
think that he deserves to be totally excoriated for his rejection of the PR
just yet, as it would be good to hear his side of the story first.
Comment threads are rarely conducive to positive discussion, especially once
people start tweeting about them, and I think a lot of assumptions were made
on the basis of fairly scant evidence. I'm enough of an optimist to believe
that the committer didn't meant to suggest that open source is a white male
only thing, and if we're concerned about that view becoming widespread then we
might want to be cautious about suggesting that as his motive.
~~~
oakwhiz
That's definitely the real reason behind this situation: The people behind
large projects tend to have to manage tons of releases, branches, and commits
along with the code itself. The solution that many projects use is to appoint
a few people with The Power to Approve Commits, so that all this meta-
information can be managed more effectively. Every commit that you create is a
set of extra objects that need to be downloaded, examined, and discussed
separately. If you have people to manage this, then the amount of meta-noise
goes down. Otherwise, you have some people trying to merge branches with tons
of tiny commits with names like "Argh why doesn't this work" instead of
squashing them together, increasing the amount of noise that you must look
through.
So it is understandable that anyone in such a position would reject a change
which amounts to editing a word to a synonym, in terms of the meaning of the
documentation. What really matters with documentation is the question "Does
this commit improve the ability of the documentation to teach users how the
product works?" Rarely do I see a pull request and think "Is this commit
offensive or discriminatory?" because people submitting code that is offensive
is a pretty rare occurrence, rare enough that it almost seems impossible. But
here's the issue: In this case, there were at least two Commit Approvers
involved. When the commit was rejected, the committer obtained permission from
another Commit Approver. When the commit was pushed through, then to the first
Commit Approver, the committer appeared to be breaking the golden rule: Only
the appointed Commit Approver may approve commits. Which is why there was a
chiding comment left by that first Commit Approver. Now of course, looking at
one side of the evidence, it is very easy for some people to jump to the
conclusion that misogyny is involved.
It just so happened that the commit in question contained so-called Colored
Bits [1] - it carried gender equality connotations that some people found to
be objectionable. What people don't seem to realize is that maybe not that
much attention was paid to what kind of meta-meta-information was associated
with this commit (itself being a piece of meta-information about the
documentation, a piece of information.) Maybe the person in charge of
approving commits had a lot of work on his plate that day and only wanted to
focus on what a lot of developers say is the Part That Matters - the code. So
he acted bureaucratically on this pull request. It is possible to act in an
entirely robotic manner and still get accused of things like gender bias.
Looking at the backstory of this commit, it doesn't seem like there was any
malicious intent by any party at all.
What could have been done to mitigate this situation? Maybe if there was a
single person in charge of managing updates to the documentation, who curated
the incoming commits in large batches before creating pull requests to the
Commit Approver, then there would be less friction in getting documentation
updated. Maybe if the executive people at Joyent were more understanding of
the situation, then they would not have fired one of their employees over
trivial circumstances.
[1]: [http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23](http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23)
------
daleharvey
The original conversation about this was buried @
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6823279](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6823279)
the fact that the majority of comments were in support of rejecting this
rather obvious improvement was shocking.
Its also extremely worrying that the thread was buried (as I half expect this
will be) and having a discussion about this topic is somewhere between
censored and frowned upon on Hacker News.
I have always avoided commenting around the topic of lack of diversity in tech
and tried to quietly 'do the right thing', however this is a problem that is
becoming visibly worse over the time and one that makes me pretty ashamed of
the industry I work in.
The upside is that something as public as this helps remind people that this
is a big problem and can hopefully be a catalyst for positive changes.
~~~
gdwatson
This is only an obvious improvement if you share certain ideas with the
committer: ideas about equality and how grammatical gender relates to it.
Those ideas are by no means universal; why should dissent be shocking?
------
semiel
It's encouraging that all of the comments on the Github issue are supportive
of the inclusive language. Sexism in tech is far from a solved problem, but
it's nice that we're finally at a point where a large number of people are
taking it seriously.
~~~
theorique
Did you _read_ the github issue? It seems to be an angry free-for-all.
------
__pThrow
I dislike both "him" and "them" in this example, but of the two, "him" is more
accurate since the code is referring only to a single writer, and not to a
collection of writers.
"them" may feel to Alex like a #SMASHPATRIARCHY moment enabling a world of joy
and rainbow unicorns by subverting the domination of white men, but in this
example, in a possible multiple writer environment, it seems a poor choice of
words.
How about instead of "him" and certainly not the terrible but feel good choice
of "them", how about "the writer"?
Also, I am not sure why Alex felt it necessary to describe the dialog as "shit
like this". It's a group of developers holding a discussion. I don't see much
in it that I would characterize as 'shit'. I see dialog. Attitudes expressed
as Alex has here are what holds a lot of progress back by raising defenses and
mischaracterizing the honest and sincere efforts of others.
~~~
tptacek
Once again, the gender-neutral singular "they" isn't inaccurate; it's been
used by everyone from Shakespeare to CS Lewis.
~~~
__pThrow
I do appreciate the literary history (and I really do), but it's needlessly
ambiguous in an environment where it can easily be construed to mean what it
commonly and currently not in Shakespeare's time means: a plethora of writers,
not a single writer.
Better to write documentation as you might write code:
_Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others_
~~~
semiel
How about adopting "she" as the generic pronoun, then? No chance of confusing
it with a plural pronoun, and it's not subject to the gender-based critiques
that "he" would be.
~~~
ams6110
I think that's fine. There is nothing gender-specific in the antecedent "the
user" so either "he" or "she" can be used in reference (though don't switch
back and forth, I've actually seen writers try this and it gets _really_
confusing).
~~~
tptacek
The fact that it's confusing should clue you in to the fact that needlessly
gender-specific pronouns are treacherous: you're not even actively aware of
the gender assignment you make at the first pronoun, but are instantly aware
when the assignment is violated.
~~~
__pThrow
So my argument for her or him, he or she, rather than they, is that her or
him, he or she, in documentation humanizes the documentation. It piques my
interest. There is an active person here.
It's not boring, dead trees, produced for some deadline documentation, Sally
is doing something with this code! Bob needs to stop sending data!
He or she are far better to see in code comments for the same reason it's fun
to encounter latin, or star trek quotes, or even curses.
They doesn't have that effect on me. They tells me the documentation was done
grudgingly, likely by a prig. It is likely formally correct and will still say
nothing, or be completely obtuse and thick.
~~~
tptacek
If you want to humanize the documentation, introduce actual characters.
"Here's Bob. Bob wants to update his widgets." Don't pretend that stereo
instructions can be made to read like Elmore Leonard stories simply by
changing pronouns.
At the point where you start synthesizing vibrant life stories out of gendered
pronouns with "the user" as antecedent, you might consider instead just
conceding the argument.
------
thenerdfiles
The user needs to know that some data has already been sent,
to stop [the user] from sending it twice.
[...] is our only way to signal to the user that [the user]
should stop writing [...]
When considering pronouns at all, take recourse to The Zen of Python:
Explicit is better than implicit.
It is not about non-gendered/gendered. Pronouns shouldn't be used at all. This
improves documentation.
Using "they", regardless of the "gendered pronoun" debate is incorrect. The
"user" might be transgendered, or might identify as Third Gender. Source Code
and Documentation should contain no gender leanings what-so-ever, in
preference for explicitness.
~~~
thenerdfiles
I think alternating and writing sporadic genderfication into our Documentation
is a bad idea. It will only further promote undisciplined writing.
Using "it/they/them" decreases findability and grep-ability of the
Documentation.
Generally pronouns increase the signal-to-noise ratio. "The User" or less
noise increases the visibility and viability of search hooks.
We should find a way to (a) drop pronouns all together, which ultimately
involves (b) rewriting the sentence, or (c) writing with explicitness.
~~~
dragonwriter
Avoiding pronouns decreases _readability_ of documentation. And readability is
more fundamental to the purpose of documentation that "findability" and
"grepability".
And, given the need for explicit referents preceding uses of pronouns (other
than "one"/"many", which aren't the kind of pronouns at issue here), using
them properly doesn't negatively impact searching.
~~~
thenerdfiles
Readability has a subjective basis and in this case comes with a cost.
Findability and grepability have clear advantages without the cost that
readability incurs (the gendered pronoun debate). If you apply a pure text
search engine over such documentation, relevance and discovery is enhanced.
Signal-to-noise, again.
You're telling me that "it" or "they" riddled more often than otherwise does
not negatively affect search results? Pronouns increase the chance irrelevant
results. This is implied by your use of "properly"; which only begs the
question.
~~~
dragonwriter
> You're telling me that "it" or "they" riddled more often than otherwise does
> not negatively affect search results?
Basically. More specifically, I would say that using definite pronouns
improves search results.
> Pronouns increase the chance irrelevant results.
No, because there is no reason to search for definite pronouns, you search for
the nouns that are the antecedents of definite pronouns (since using a
definite pronoun _requires_ using a noun as an antecedent in writing -- this
can be substituted by gesture or other non-verbal cues in oral communication.)
And if you use pronouns, you get less result clutter for those searches for
the same reasons that you get better readability, you have less close-
proximity repetition of the key nouns.
~~~
thenerdfiles
I just want to state that I think we have an interesting sub-discussion/set of
theories here, even if mine is radically false. It's true or false on account
of testability, in the end, I genuinely believe.
------
dmourati
Wow bnoordhuis, way to be a dick! Reject the pull request, then try to have it
reverted?
I've had nothing but trouble with the node.js community from the get go,
including isaac. This whole donate hardware so we can run our crappy npm
repository also rubbed me the wrong way.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6802203](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6802203)
Bnoordhuis needs to be cut loose. You can't have poisonous people like this in
charge of a project and expect to accomplish anything. Sounds like they all
need to grow the heck up.
------
sergiotapia
This whole gender correctness thing is getting out of hand.
Edit: Just reading that entire github thread makes me want to throw up.
[http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2838/spfart3vo.jpg](http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2838/spfart3vo.jpg)
------
woah
I just deleted a sarcastic comment on here making light of the situation- I
had judged it from this PR:
[https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482d...](https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482dcc8d1c41c14333fcb48)
From that commit it looks like someone simply didn't follow commit protocol
and had the commit reverted because of that.
But if we look at the original
[https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015#issuecomment-29538...](https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015#issuecomment-29538615),
we see that that it already had been rejected once, which is, IMO, wrong.
After seeing that, it looks like it was right for someone to merge it against
protocol.
~~~
steveklabnik
The very first comment says that it was signed off on
[https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482d...](https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482dcc8d1c41c14333fcb48#commitcomment-4736897)
------
voidr
Dear everyone who likes to post sensationalist posts that rehash the same
"sexist" whining.
This is not news, this is just jumping on the "male-dominated industry"
bandwagon.
I get it: tech is mostly composed of white males. I don't have to be reminded
of this every day. I, like many others wish this wouldn't be the case, but
posting bitchy articles every day won't solve it.
One commit rejection does not represent the whole "Node community", stop
labelling a large group of people based on actions of single individuals.
Instead of wasting time writing posts like this, go and tell women how awesome
the tech industry is and get them to be excited about it and help them.
And if by chance you do happen to spot sexist individuals, call them out
individually and don't label everyone in the community sexist.
------
rlt
Question for the women: does the use of non-gendered pronouns do anything to
make you feel more accepted by the programming community?
It seems to me like there are much bigger issues to worry about, and changing
some docs here and there is nothing more than feel-good measures (along the
lines of "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do this"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician's_syllogism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician's_syllogism))
But I'm not a woman so I have no idea.
~~~
jaredmcateer
My girlfriend, not a programmer per say but has done a some technical
documentation in her time, says that non-gendered pronouns doesn't make her
feel _more_ accepted but gendered pronouns do make her feel _less_ accepted.
~~~
stefan_kendall
I find both "he" and "she" jarring. When there's no reason to use gender, it
shouldn't be used.
It makes me think the author either 1.) does not have a strong enough command
of the english language to use "they", or 2.) is trying to accomplish
something by picking a gender explicitly.
~~~
gruseom
That's well put, and I'm with you, but let's also note that the language norm
is in the process of shifting, so it isn't necessarily obvious.
------
bdcravens
Tough situation - I don't think bnoordhuis is trying to push a sexist agenda,
but trying to enforce a workflow (at least as I'm reading it)
~~~
ams6110
I agree. He rejected the original pull request on the grounds that it was
"trivial." It didn't add anything new, didn't improve anything, and didn't
correct any problem.
The then reverted the commit when procedures weren't followed (he had already
rejected it).
~~~
jaegerpicker
His rejection and trivialization of the issue IS what people are upset about.
Not the actual rejection. If he had rejected the commit, on grounds of
procedure but offered a better neutral wording, or at least some way to
improve the wording via another pr, then I don't believe anyone would have
been upset. Instead he choose to make the gender inclusion matter trivial
which is pretty close to just being plain divisive.
------
shawnz
I think the reaction here is a little bit absurd. At first glance what I see
is a revert due to a policy issue. Now, it certainly is a petty one, but
having said that, I don't see any reason to believe that it is a result of the
sexism issue in our industry. Of course there IS a sexism issue in our
industry and I am happy to discuss it, but I just don't think that this one
revert has any place as the centrepiece of that conversation. Rather, it seems
like it is being used as an excuse to get angry.
EDIT: Likewise, I don't think this one commit can be used to make such
sweeping generalizations about the node community as the OP is doing. Maybe
the commit IS driven by sexism. There is still no evidence that it is the
whole community that is responsible and that this is not an isolated incident.
~~~
jaegerpicker
At first glance this seems reasonable but if you look at the history of the
pull request, he clearly trivializes the issue and rejects it based upon it
not being important enough.
------
mahyarm
I don't like this kind of stuff because it just creates huge amounts of
interpersonal drama, hurt feelings and divisiveness over identity politics and
minutiae.
Especially if someone's commit is only about that and it only corrects one
persons comments over something they feel is a casual happenstance.
A social test I would put for this, would you feel absolutely comfortable
about making a commit just about this one thing at work as a non-senior
developer? Would you do this in person too? Probably not, because you know
it's a socially antagonistic thing to do.
------
eeemmm
Why not using it ? What is the difference between us and a tree ?
------
mikesmullin3
nice comments about node but libuv is written in C and its the asynchronous
i/o magic sauce for many many projects now, including Ruby.
------
centrinoblue
gender politics in tech is an increasingly polarizing issue but I don't think
that was the reason for the rejection.
------
peterdelahaye
Alex Gaynor is the world's biggest white knight. Does he think doing this will
get him laid?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jesus Christ, Use a Password Manager Already - pzxc
http://pzxc.com/use-a-password-manager-already
======
glhaynes
As a person who spent a long time today changing passwords (in part due to the
Gawker thing, but I had been meaning to for a while), I have some _very_ nasty
things to say about how many sites have stupid restrictions on passwords - why
do you care if I want a password that's longer than 8 characters? Why do you
care if I want to include a non-alphanum in my password? wtf, really, why?
It's easier to _not_ have those restrictions on a field so why why why are you
going to extra trouble to add them? Oh I'm getting mad just thinking about it.
~~~
brown9-2
I was amazed to find one my banks (Chase) limited the password to something
like 12 characters when going through this same exercise yesterday.
~~~
harshpotatoes
I know, right? And even more insane, they only allow alpha numerics, no
symbols allowed. And for probably the only password which matters...
~~~
glhaynes
Yes, exactly. I was surprised how little correlation there was between how
important the security of the site was and what quality of password was
allowed by the site.
~~~
count
Some of that is archaic database tables (or using NIS/YP as the user manager
in the backend). You didn't used to be able to start a password on AMEX's
sites with a digit...
~~~
drinian
No bank should be storing passwords as plaintext, therefore the content of
your password should not be their concern.
~~~
bmastenbrook
I don't think it's just about hashing. When I see restrictions on passwords or
other fields, I always assume the worst. If < is not allowed, that's because
your password will show up unencoded in HTML somewhere. If $ is not allowed,
that's because somebody is afraid that it will actually be treated as a
variable reference somewhere. Likewise & or % in URL-encoded data, ' or " in
JavaScript, etc.
The most universal and silent restriction seems to be on NUL bytes.
------
Jach
Here's why not to, at least for me:
1\. I don't want a single point of failure, though I suppose an email account
fulfills that role no matter what you're using. My email account password is
30-34 characters long.
2\. I use multiple computers, multiple OSes, sometimes not owned by me, and
sometimes multiple browsers.
3\. Many accounts I couldn't care less if they got compromised; they get the
same password as each other, which is still complex.
> hashing your master password with SHA-256, encrypting the result a default
> of 6000 times with AES, and then hashing it again
Any crypto-geeks around to say whether this makes it more secure or less? I've
heard it said many times that multiple encryptions and hashings can actually
make the encryption weaker.
~~~
Sephr
Using KeePass + Dropbox + local copies of the passwords db makes it so that
even if Dropbox goes out of business, you'll still have your database. Dropbox
and KeePass (well at least variants thereof) all run on Linux, OSX, Windows,
and Android. On the issue of computers not owned by you, you shouldn't be
entering your passwords on untrusted computers to begin with, but if you must,
KeePass works right off a USB drive.
> Many accounts I couldn't care less if they got compromised; they get the
> same password as each other, which is still complex.
Sign up on mywebsite.example. I now have the password to (depending on what
accounts you couldn't care less about) your Facebook, Twitter, Hacker News,
etc. accounts and can ruin your reputation by spreading false information.
------
bmastenbrook
Using a password manager is a great idea in theory. In practice, I have the
same problems with the concept as many other people do. It's great if you
have, say, a MacBook, a Windows system, and an iPad that you want to keep
synced. When you have one of everything, your options are narrowed
drastically. Many of these solutions also either punt on synchronization and
rely on me to find an option I like to handle that problem, or they use some
kind of cloud service not under my control. I don't need or want that cloud
service. I don't care how well the file itself is protected; you can't attack
what you don't have.
What I do have access to from most of those systems is SSH to a machine I
control. I'd be willing to run a password manager on that system, but I
haven't yet found one I'm willing to install. I'm not going to put Qt and X11
on the system just to run KeePassX. I'm tempted to write my own at this point.
It'd at least solve the password management problem in way that I'm
comfortable with (i.e. any problems in the solution are my own fault and if I
get owned, I'm the only one to blame) and without having to send a copy of the
encrypted database out to the cloud (except in tarsnap backups, but I'm
already trusting cperciva with the keys to the kingdom there!).
------
auxbuss
What can I say? I use keepassx. I keep the db on dropbox -- so that it's
always available to me -- and protect it with a key file and a password.
Good luck getting into all my accounts. First you need to crack my dropbox
account. Then you need to guess which file out there on the interwebs I use to
protect it. Finally, you can try to crack the password I use. I'll even give
you a clue: the password is less than 40 characters.
So yes, use a password manager. It's trivially simple and stress free.
~~~
trjordan
Except that it's _not_ trivially simple. I don't want to:
\- Set up dropbox on every computer I use.
\- Figure out how to get keepassx to work on Android.
\- Open up a password manager when I want to log into something. Oh, I can
leave it open? Wait, is that secure?
\- Figure out if there are any limitation of the password manager you've
suggested, which you may have missed.
\- Deal with a "password migration" if I decide to switch browsers, which will
include an absolutely non-trivial search for some software that replaces an
app that is now a crucial part of my daily routine.
I could go on, but password managers are most definitely not a trivial task --
they add a layer of friction that I simply can't bring myself to care about
when it comes to security to my Gawker account. Computers exist to make my
life easier, not as a creator of problems that require working around.
~~~
brown9-2
KeePass doesn't interface with the browser directly - instead (at least in
Windows) it registers a global hotkey with the OS which will use the active
window title to find an entry in your password database and then automatically
fill in the form with your username and password.
_KeePass features an "Auto-Type" functionality. This feature allows you to
define a sequence of keypresses, which KeePass can automatically perform for
you. The simulated keypresses can be sent to any other currently open window
of your choice (browser windows, login dialogs, ...).
By default, the sent keystroke sequence is {USERNAME}{TAB}{PASSWORD}{ENTER},
i.e. it first types the user name of the selected entry, then presses the Tab
key, then types the password of the entry and finally presses the Enter key._
For sites or apps with weird forms you can customize the sequence.
<http://keepass.info/help/base/autotype.html>
------
rwhitman
Ok, so I've definitely lost about 3 dozen client passwords when my password
manager was eaten by a drive failure. And then when I went to restore the
backup discovered that the creator of the password manager was no longer
supporting the software.
So my faith in password managers has been shaken. I greatly enjoyed having to
ask all my clients for their passwords again.
I have a new system, but if someone ever got ahold of my drives who knew what
they were looking for, that would be hellish
~~~
sjs
1password backs up to Dropbox which is a nice touch.
~~~
rwhitman
I'm looking at their docs now...
I worry about Dropbox + security. The fact that I'm sharing folders publicly
with other people in the same directory that I have private data, worries me.
Lots of room for human error
Why does 1Password need dropbox? It would make much more sense if they had
their own cloud solution
Edit: Don't get me wrong, I love dropbox and I'm sure 1password is great. But
I don't feel secure with dropbox (ever lost a file that was in your dropbox
because you or a colleague made a mistake on a synced computer?) and I hate
the idea that a person could have a copy of a single file with every one of my
clients critical passwords, encrypted or not
~~~
berberich
Have you taken a look at LastPass? It's great - centralized web storage with
clients/plug-ins on every major browser/OS/smartphone.
There was a Security Now episode about it this summer
[<http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-256.htm>], and it got the Steve Gibson seal of
approval.
~~~
rwhitman
yea this is closer to what i'm talking about, thanks
------
riobard
I use the default OS X password manager Keychain access.app and symlink the
keychain file to Dropbox. It manages all my web, app, WiFi, mail account
passwords. It has a nice feature to generate different styles (memorable,
letters&numbers, numbers only, random, FIPS-181) of password at various
lengths up to 31 chars.
The interface is less polished than 1Password, but since it comes by default
on every OS X install I just use it. Meanwhile 1Password seems really annoying
from time to time: it always asks to save passwords but seldom autofills for
me. Maybe I just use it wrong…
------
grok2
No one mentioned lasspass (<http://lastpass.com>) -- desktop benefits and
portable. Other than the fact that your passwords are out there on the
Internet (in encrypted form) for someone to hack into, is there any other
downside to using something like lastpass?
~~~
quadhome
I use LastPass; but, the fact it's file format is a per-record encrypted
sqlite3 database makes me nervous.
------
anthonycerra
At what point does "good practice" become justified OCD? Not every account is
equally important. Have unique passwords for email and financial accounts -
absolutely, but does it really matter if someone compromises your HN password?
As long you keep that completely separate from anything that can really hurt
you, why obsess over it?
Despite popular belief, writing down your password and storing it in a lock
box is leagues better than storing it online. The number of people who have
access to your physical belongings is many orders of magnitude less than the
number of people who can attempt to compromise an encrypted database.
"Don't write your password down" might have been good advice in the 90s when
most people only used a computer at work and the internet wasn't as ubiquitous
as it is today.
------
bcl
text file + gpg + long passphrase
You can also setup vim to read/write it easily
augroup GPG
au!
" decrypt before reading
au BufReadPre *.gpg set bin viminfo= noswapfile
" decrypted; prepare for editing
au BufReadPost *.gpg %!gpg
au BufReadPost *.gpg set nobin
" encrypt
au BufWritePre *.gpg set bin
au BufWritePre *.gpg %!gpg -ear email@wherever
" encrypted; prepare for continuing to edit the file
au BufWritePost *.gpg silent undo | set nobin
augroup END
~~~
wonderzombie
This sounds pretty great. I have much respect for DIY solutions.
Is there any chance you or anyone else could point me to a howto or something
similar?
~~~
bcl
This is so simple you don't need a howto.
1) Add the text block above to your ~/.vimrc file, change the email address to
be one of your gpg keys.
2) Edit the file: vim somefile.gpg
3) Save the file
------
spindritf
The author looks down on browser's password managers but to me they seem like
the perfect solution -- relatively safe, with reliable auto-fill and, most
importantly, already installed and configured. Syncing is just a matter of
moving your profile to another computer.
Am I missing something? Is there some inherent flaw in these managers? Firefox
will even encrypt the passwords by default and allows the user to set a master
password. Exporting passwords is a little annoying, but how often is there a
need for that?
~~~
theBobMcCormick
It certainly seems a lot more secure than re-using the same password all over
the place.
------
adammichaelc
I've always found it odd how people say Jesus Christ as if it were a curse
word. I wonder where this practice originated. Is it common in other parts of
the world for other religions? Do people in China have an equivalent saying?
Oh Buddha! etc.
-Genuinely curious
~~~
Dove
Yeah, there are a whole slew of religious curse phrases -- "oh my God",
"mother of God", "for God's sake", "for heaven's sake". Or even exotic
variants like, "sweet mother of mercy".
I find it interesting that they are generally used to express awe, surprise,
or to invoke a sense of gravity or urgency -- opposed to other swear words
which generally seek to disgust, communicate an offensive attitude, or invoke
taboo to draw attention through shock. The religious oaths seem to me more
like the oaths of fantasy ("By Turin's beard!", "I swear upon the sword of my
father", "In Vela's name") than the language of shock and offense ("scurvy
maggots", "Why don't you go stick your foo in a bar and then baz it?")
I'd speculate that they're referencing the strong emotions religious people
actually feel -- the awe and gravity of the sacred, a cry for help in a moment
of fear, not the offensive force of blasphemy. The amplification is always
toward the sacred ("sweet Mary, Jesus, and all the saints") or the silly
("Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick"), never toward the offensive. "Jesus"
amplifies to "Jesus Christ" or "holy Jesus", never to something like "Jesus'
stinkin' piss".
~~~
waterlesscloud
And Zounds! (God's Wounds!) and Gadzooks! (God's Hooks, aka nails that held
Christ to the cross).
------
joevandyk
1password + Dropbox is pure awesomeness. Great browser integration. Works on
iPhone as well.
------
cxy7z
Maybe this is a case of premature optimization: but what if you ever need to
log into a site from a public computer where you can't install your password
manager.
I realized that without a password manager you're forced to choose between 1)
having one super-secure password and 2) having multiple easy-to-remember
passwords.
My compromise is this: have a password template. This is a string that changes
in a predictable way based on the site. This could be something as silly as
"password_${site_name}", making my gmail.com password "password_gmail" and my
twitter password "password_twitter".
Obviously, the formula won't be terribly complex, so if I tell yo my gmail
pass you can probably figure out my twitter pass given though time. But that
doesn't bother me, since I'm mostly concerned about gawker-type incidents
where my password is among thousands of others, in which case the bad guys
will exploit the 90% of the passwords that do work instead of trying to
reverse-engineer those 10% which don't.
~~~
berberich
LastPass gives you the ability to generate one time passwords
[<https://lastpass.com/otp.php>] ahead of time that you can print out and keep
in your wallet for use on public machines.
There are also several options for multi-factor authentication for an
additional level of security.
------
hedaru
Password? Use your brain to memorize it all! Really, I've been memorizing
hundreds of password with just a simple key, hint, and reminder. Rather than
using a password manager that actually a computer programmed system. You'll
only forgot your password if you lost your brain!
Okay, for a serious situation, I'm using a basic text storage then encrypt it
with a trusted modern encryption system, high bit level.And some cloud
computed storage web app that already moving on the new way to store and
encrypt your password. That's it? Nope, it's useless.
But for real, there are lots of another way to store your password than using
a password manager or a computer. Sometimes we can do it manually. For your
life, use your idea. Peace.
------
drags
I use SuperGenPass with a strong master password. It's not perfect (a
malicious website could use Ajax to fish for my master password on a sign-up
form), but it gives me a single password to remember, different passwords for
every site, and I can keep the HTML page that runs the hash function on my
thumb drive and use it anywhere.
<http://supergenpass.com/>
~~~
bmastenbrook
In order to solve this problem for myself I looked into SuperGenPass as well,
and reimplemented it in Racket so I could understand what it's doing. Here are
a few notes on that:
• It's based on MD5.
• It repeats the hash 10 times. Typical key strengthening functions will do at
least 1000 iterations, and at least 10000 seems to be becoming more common.
• Each time it repeats the hash, the output is encoded with a variant of
Base64.
• The implementation of Base64 is deliberately nonstandard. + and / are
replaced with 9 and 8 in the output (respectively). It pads with A, not =. The
point is presumably to avoid generating special characters that could be
disallowed by some password systems. This actually seems like an unintentional
benefit to me: while it theoretically increases the probability of a
collision, it does make it slightly more difficult to recover the original
passphrase from the hash, or so it seems to me. (Any cryptographers want to
comment on this one?)
• Hashing is repeated until it generates a password that starts with a
lowercase letter and contains at least one uppercase letter and at least one
number. The first restriction must come from some actual site, but it hardly
seems common enough to enforce.
The biggest risk is in a site fishing your master password, though their
"mobile" version allows you to run it in a different window. All in all, I
think the concept has promise, but the implementation could be significantly
improved.
------
pielud
I like clipperz.com. Completely web based. Encryption is done client side in
javascript, so not even clipperz can access my account.
~~~
ivank
They can just change their JavaScript to capture your master password, or
change it to send all of your passwords to them after decryption.
Even if that problem didn't exist, I'm not sure I'd want all of my passwords
anywhere in browser memory.
------
MatthewRayfield
Wasn't Mozilla at some point working on a browser based global identity
system?
I can't seem to find information about it anymore.
------
da5e
username: yeshua password: wwjd
But seriously, I visit so many sites and use so many different computers that
I have my passwords indexed in a little black book encoded with my own
personal code. They would have to pry it from my cold dead hands to get them.
------
rinkjustice
The name Jesus Christ is a sacred name. He is my Saviour. Please don't defile
it.
~~~
lutorm
The article is lamenting the fact that He did not use a password manager. Why
does that constitute defiling?
~~~
Mithrandir
Although that could have been the author's intention, I doubt it as Jesus is
never mentioned in the article.
See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2006779>
------
sigzero
Vim:
set cm=blowfish
:X filename <\--- encrypts with blowfish
I have Vim everywhere I work. Blowfish is "good enough" for me. :-)
~~~
quadhome
I didn't realize Vim 2.3 came with this!
This is me, happily switching from my hacked together aesfilter solution.
------
scrod
Notational Velocity was designed from the ground up as a desktop password
manager and follows all of these rules, using PBKDF2-based key derivation with
a default of 8000 iterations, adjustable in units of measured CPU time.
Security features are described in greater detail here:
https://github.com/scrod/nv/wiki/Database-Security
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Square’s scary and impressive identity confirmation screen - zaidf
http://zaidfarooqui.com/squares-scary-and-impressive-identity-confirmation-screen/
======
cheald
If you've ever done a credit report, you'll recognize these questions; these
sorts of questions are standard fare.
I suspect it's not Square doing them, but rather, they're just farming
identity verification out to another vendor who already does this sort of
thing.
------
eps
I'm fairly certain that they are using 3rd party service to run these checks.
It's a well-established industry with banks, credit unions, car dealerships,
etc as their clients.
------
rogk11
Banks, credit card companies know a lot about you - residences, employment
history, family history etc.
All the data is tied to your SSN.
~~~
zaidf
They never took my SSN.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Don't use markdown for documentation (2018) - splix
https://mister-gold.pro/posts/en/asciidoc-vs-markdown/
======
dang
Concurrent rebuttal thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22677970](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22677970)
Edit: ah, the original post in this sequence was
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22675165](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22675165).
It set off the flamewar detector. (Apparently markdown does.) We've turned
that penalty off, so it's back on the front page now.
------
tristor
Not going to happen. Markdown has been a godsend to me in getting my thoughts
in writing in a way others can consume, which is critical in my business. My
time is already at a premium, and Markdown is both readable to technical and
non-technical users, as well as easily parsable to other formats.
This blog post doesn't get it. It immediately starts touting advanced complex
features as a benefit. The benefit of Markdown is the absence of advanced
complex features. It's my absolute guarantee that what I write is readable and
understandable to all audiences and can easily be converted into rich HTML
docs with embedded media.
I am not going to stop using Markdown any time soon, and I hope nobody else
does either.
~~~
seph-reed
> I am not going to stop using Markdown any time soon, and I hope nobody else
> does either.
I wish more people would.
I spent a whole 2 minutes fighting with the text styler in a gmail draft
today. One of my bullet points ended in styled text, so it really wanted the
next bullet point to be that style too. The whole cmd-shift-v for unstyled
pasting wasn't the issue. Selecting the text and unstyling it removed the
bullet point. The trick was to unstyle all the text except for the first
letter, then delete that and type it back in. Would rather just have used MD.
~~~
input_sh
You may be interested: [https://markdown-
here.com/features.html](https://markdown-here.com/features.html)
------
untog
Oh boy it's been a while since I've read something I disagree with to this
extent!
People use Markdown because you can read it both in its formatted version and
in its raw unformatted source. Asciidoc is... not that.
Just looking at the examples it looks like a full templating language:
conditionals, includes, blocks... I don't want _any_ of this.
> Actually, I was surprised by the fact that so many people think Markdown is
> a really powerful tool for documentation.
I don't think Markdown is powerful, unless you're counting "power through
simplicity". Markdown's lack of power is a positive: there is a very limited
set of things I need to learn in order to use it effectively and someone who
knows _literally nothing_ about Markdown can read its source immediately.
~~~
Symbiote
I don't see how AsciiDoc source is any more or less readable than Markdown.
AsciiDoc does everything Markdown does, but since there's a specification
there are no inconsistencies.
It also has features beyond that. You don't need to use them.
Edit: here's an example from KiCAD's documentation ("Raw" to view the source,
as GitHub supports AsciiDoc as well as Markdown)
[https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-
doc/blob/master/src/getting_s...](https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-
doc/blob/master/src/getting_started_in_kicad/getting_started_in_kicad.adoc)
~~~
dwohnitmok
The argument that certain features are optional overlooks the fact that other
people can and will use them, especially in collaborative projects.
That's not a death knell. You can gate the features behind style guides,
linters, or social conventions. However, those are costs in and of themselves.
Additional features of a language always have a carrying cost, even behind
optional flags.
------
svat
Consider reflecting on what you or someone else might mean by "documentation".
A submission from 3 hours ago titled "Please don't write your documentation in
Markdown" was on the front page earlier:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22675165](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22675165)
— but according to its author
([https://twitter.com/hillelogram/status/1242502542212333576](https://twitter.com/hillelogram/status/1242502542212333576)),
> _most people are talking a different kind of "documentation". Most people
> are thinking of "basic instructions + API", I'm thinking "multithousand-word
> manuals and reference materials". The latter needs a lot of stuff the former
> doesn't_
With this context, I think it absolutely makes sense that if you're writing
something structured (like a book), Markdown may not be the best choice to
capture that structure. Of course, if you aren't already sure you're going to
have enough documentation "content", then the best choice is whatever gets you
writing at all in the first place, whether it's Markdown or Google Docs or
emails to colleagues or whatever.
~~~
balfirevic
That's pretty illustrative, in that it demonstrates how actually thinking
about what you are trying to communicate is going to be much more important
than what format you've used to write it. That article would be equally poor
in html, latex, markdown or reStructuredText.
~~~
battery_cowboy
Hah! It's almost as if the developer "tool wars" are stupid because everything
has its place. Every tool is useful to someone; someone wrote it for a
purpose.
I think an article like this should be called, "markdown is good, but fur
large documentation requirements try ASCIIdoc" and approach it from that
angle, and then people would have a chance to compare the two, and maybe use a
new technology, without the clickbait title.
------
castillar76
I think the problem here comes in disagreement over the meaning of
"documentation". When we talk about documentation for a program, do we mean
the man pages? The README? The help docs? The API specifications? Or a long-
form document or manual describing the use of the program, such as 'The C
Programming Language' or the Camel books?
For all of the preceding except the long-form document at the end, I'd say
Markdown is a perfect tool. It's portable, it's readable as-is, and it's
supported on a variety of platforms including all the various git hosting
platforms with native parse-and-render. That makes it the perfect tool for
straightforward, uncomplicated documents.
For more complicated, formally structured documents, however, Markdown is
awful. I've worked on a number of structured documents like public standards
docs, procedures docs, and formal specs in Markdown, and they're a pain in the
neck. Without using one of the less portable variants like Kramdown, you
quickly find yourself having to work your way around the lack of formatting in
table cells or specific list-numbering (or lettered lists at all), and so
forth, and the less-portable variants mean you suddenly have to worry about
your publishing/rendering chain to make sure everything supports what you're
using in the form you're using it.
The rubric for me has been this: if the way the content looks/is structured on
rendering matters, use one of the more structured tools like AsciiDoc or even
Word. If the presentation of the content isn't as crucial, Markdown is a
perfect tool (and makes a good default!).
------
keithwhor
> According to John Gruber, the inventor of Markdown:
> "Markdown's syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for
> writing for the web."
> So, I want to finish this article with the simplest conclusion ever:
> "Do not use Markdown for things it was not designed to do. For example, to
> write documentation."
Documentation is a form of writing on the web. Am I missing something?
~~~
coldacid
"Documentation" and "writing on the web" _do_ intersect, but neither is a
subset of the other. A technical manual is documentation but I'd rather die
than write one in Markdown, especially when there are much better systems in
place for that such as TeX, DocBook, or hell even MS Word.
~~~
Veen
Well, yes. Markdown is the right tool for some documentation. For other
documentation, it isn't. Use the right tool for the job.
Markdown is a great format for writing basic HTML documents. It sucks for
writing books or complex documents, as Matthew Butterick has argued [0]. But
that's only a problem if you try to write books or complex documents in
Markdown.
[0]: [https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/second-
tutorial.html](https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/second-tutorial.html)
~~~
hak8or
I used markdown for my documentation of a embedded liux system years back
([https://brainyv2.hak8or.com/](https://brainyv2.hak8or.com/)) and have been
very pleased. While it's not a book, it's also not a single page document.
The rust official docs are also written in markdown and thrown at mdbook
([https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/](https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/))
to generate documentation of a similar style, but it's much more book like.
I am pretty much all in for markdown based documentation for almost
everything. It does what I need and nothing more.
If I need more control over styling, that's a different story, but thankfully
almost all my use cases are good enough without such control.
------
filmgirlcw
I’m in utter disagreement. As others have noted, the brilliance of Markdown is
its simplicity — both in use and in readability. Since 2008, I've successfully
taught so many people — technical and non-technical — how to use Markdown.
The complexities of the various flavors is true — and the author has resisted
supporting any of those flavors for that reason — but the way around that, in
my opinion, is to treat each flavor as its own language. If I get to the point
where my needs require I use another flavor of Markdown (I personally use
Fletcher Penny's MultiMarkdown superset and have for ~12 years or so), it is
with the understanding that those features are for that project. That’s the
same approach I use for any collaborative effort.
And frankly, if I have to look at pandoc or as Asciidoc or something else, I’m
already complicating my life and the life of the people I work with. Which is
fine if that’s the premise and if that is the tool we need for our job.
I can and do use Markdown for documentation of almost anything I do, persona,
side-hustle, or for work. The Microsoft Docs team (I’m not on that team but I
work with them from time to time), even has a VS Code extension pack with a
collection of plugins specifically geared to how we do docs. Markdown is a
massive part of the workflow, in large part because it is so readable. I
honestly wish Microsoft Word and OneNote had native Markdown support (OneNote
especially. Yes, there are some kludgy plugins but I mean native).
I have never been a technical writer as a profession (I’ve written my share of
documentation, however), but I was a journalist for a decade and wrote
millions of words in Markdown in my text editor. Markdown might not be perfect
for all documentation types, but to pretend or even encourage people to NOT
use it is a really, really bad take.
------
indymike
Pass. Markdown is pragmatic, works well and is most importantly, easy to learn
and maintain.
Asciidoc is well-intentioned but is way too complex. Variables, extensible
formatting language, and conditionals really don't fit for 99% plus use cases
where you'd use Markdown... and if they do, they are as a part of a web
templating engine that is being fed markdown.
------
axegon_
Sorry, but no. Documentation should be small, portable and easy to read on any
device, even if you don't have a graphical interface. Hence the reason why
markdown succeeded. It is meant to be simple to learn, simple to write, simple
to understand. And you can teach a non-tech person how to use it in a matter
of 15 minutes. And it is nearly perfect for wikis.
That is no to say that in some cases you may find it lacking. I have and in
those cases I always resort to restructuredtext. My biggest argument in favour
of restructuredtext is the scikit-lerarn documentation. It covers a variety of
complex topics and everything has come out perfect. Annoyingly it hasn't been
very successful outside the python world but as an example I am currently
using it for documentation on a project which(for the time being at least)
won't include any python code.
------
irrational
All the benefits OP sees for AsciiDoc are negatives in my book. The primary
benefit to Markdown (in my opinion) is that it is always plain human readable
text. I don't have to worry that there will still be a program in the future
that knows what
include::source_code.js []
function multiply(num1,num2) { var result = num1 * num2; return result; }
means or how to process it.
I can read markdown easily without having to run it through a program. Of
course it is nice to run it through a program to change __bold text __to
<b>bold text</b>, but that is entirely optional.
I keep all my notes and other writings in markdown because I know that even if
all markdown parsers ceased to exist and another one was never written, I
would still be able to read everything with no trouble.
------
tombert
I've done my time with LaTeX for years, arguing for its virtues, and once I
discovered that I could write Markdown and convert it to LaTeX with Pandoc, I
haven't looked back. I feel like a lot (though admittedly not all) of the
Markdown rough-edges go away after that. Granted, I don't use Pandoc for
"documentation", just technical writing, so maybe that's irrelevant.
Most of the criticisms listed here aren't _wrong_ exactly, but I feel are a
bit short-sighted. If you tell people to stop using a language that's well-
supported as a rendering tarket in their favorite code-sharing repo, they're
not just going to switch to AsciiDoc or TeX and host a PDF on
Dropbox...they're going to stop writing documentation entirely, or just do
some crappy attempt of doing "documentation in the comments".
As it stands, I think slightly-NSFW quote says it well: "Documentation is like
sex...when it's good it's great, when it's bad it's still better than
nothing.".
~~~
afarrell
I think the last sentence hurts your point. There is definitely painful sex
which is worse than nothing and there is definitely misleading documentation
which is worse than nothing.
Markdown is good because it is much easier for someone to notice it needs to
be updated and to fix it without yak-shaving.
~~~
tombert
Fair enough, I just thought it was a humorous aphorism more than anything.
Yes, documentation can be out of date but even then it's often still more
useful than not having any. I agree with markdown being a lower barrier of
entry than most other stuff, increasing its appeal.
------
edgarvaldes
>Lock-In and Lack of Portability. The tons of flavors and the lack of semantic
support results in a lock-in.
Markdown is text, so very portable. The flavors of markdown can be ignored.
------
splix
The author is missing the difference with markdown, which seems to be the main
blocker here. But Asciidoc is more like markdown + extras. It's (optionally)
backward compatible with markdown, so unless you use those extra features,
it's unlikely that an average person will distinguish the difference. So you
can continue to write markdown as usual, only add extra stuff when you learn
it.
The minor difference is things like how you embed images, and so on. _For me_,
the main feature of the Asciidoc is the syntax for tables. Tables are
important for good documentation, but with markdown it's really hard to write
with tables, it makes a document a total mess and ruins the whole idea.
------
paxys
For me the biggest advantage of markdown is that it works just as well without
a parser/formatter. Markdown documents are perfectly readable as-is, in plain
source form. All the various alternatives mentioned fail at that.
------
wintorez
No. Markdown is the sweet spot between plain-text and HTML, and that makes it
perfect for the task.
------
mch82
The point of Markdown is to be legible as plain text, without being run
through a rendering engine. Rendering engines are a bonus, but not required.
Based on the samples shared, ASCII Doc is hard to read without a renderer
(just like HTML). I appreciate being able to use a simple, well thought out
set of conventions to facilitate writing in plain text files. Markdown isn’t
perfect, but it helps make plain text documents a little more readable,
especially when dealing with hyperlinks.
------
stared
(Discussion-wise, the link is a dupe.)
A recent discussion thread on exactly the same topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22675165](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22675165)
------
therealmarv
Disagree. Actually I've written my whole thesis in Markdown and it was
distraction free, practical and very easy to work this way.
If somebody needs the link to a good Markdown thesis template:
[https://github.com/tompollard/phd_thesis_markdown](https://github.com/tompollard/phd_thesis_markdown)
------
ken
Is Docbook dead?
I see it mentioned here only as an _output_ format, between HTML and PDF,
which sounds strange because I don't know any way to view it without first
converting it to something like HTML or PDF.
Docbook is a bit verbose, but highly semantic. I always liked the _idea_ of
Docbook, though I could never get it to work well. At best, you waste a lot of
time installing and configuring a big slow chain of programs to get ugly HTML
or PDF that's virtually impossible to adapt to the style of your webpage or
book.
Today the docbook.org "Tools" tab only points to a couple of XSLT stylesheets,
so it looks like they haven't improved since last I tried. It's one of those
technologies that I say "I should learn that...", look at for a couple days,
and then say "Maybe I'll check back in 5 or 10 years." Like XSLT.
------
silasdavis
Weak semantics are a feature not a bug. Flavour standardisation is happening
(see [https://commonmark.org/](https://commonmark.org/)). The ability to abuse
notation a little to provide extensions is actually rather practical. Things
like templating, inline code, slides.
------
CuddleBunny
Whenever I need anything more capable than markdown I go straight to HTML/CSS.
I understand this often isn't an option for technical writers who aren't
developers but I'd rather not take the time to learn any niche tools in
between. I guess you could say "when you can't markdown, markup!"
------
zdw
Markdown actually doesn't have tables - they're only in extensions or if
implemented in HTML: [https://talk.commonmark.org/t/tables-in-pure-
markdown/81](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/tables-in-pure-markdown/81)
------
uk_programmer
Most of these reasons why Markdown Fails are weak at best.
The 5th reason especially You can convert markdown into other formats such as
PDF, Word, Media WIKI etc using pandoc (I am sure there are other programs).
It is trivial to write a shell script or similar to convert markdown files
into another format.
> After that, it is hard to migrate to another tool, as custom-defined HTML
> classes and flavor's features won't work outside the current set of tools
> and page designs.
That contradicts his Lack of Extensibility. Typically anything custom you do
outside what is supported officially by the tools maintainer is your own
lookout.
Markdown is a like a lot of things that succeed. It is good enough to produce
well formatted documentation to be read by a client and simple enough for
people to learn it relatively quickly without headaches.
------
neya
Every GitHub repository with a `readme.md` file formatted with Markdown would
disagree and proves otherwise.
Markdown solves 90% of the problem, which is more than good enough.
------
bgorman
Org-mode is another powerful alternative to markdown. Github can render org-
mode documentation.
------
oftenwrong
I prefer plain text.
Plain text is best viewed in a program that turns URLs into follow-able links.
I use vim. Press 'gx' in vim to open the URL under the cursor in your browser.
Plain text is far more ubiquitous than Markdown, although Markdown is slowly
gaining ground.
Like Markdown, plain text also has different flavours. UTF-8 is my personal
favourite.
Like Markdown, plain text is easy to read in its source form.
Unlike Markdown, there are clear standards for the rendering of plain text.
In plain text, non-savvy people are not confused by ~this sort of thing and~
[this sort of thing]([http://example.com](http://example.com)).
In plain text, a line break is a line break.
Swap out your README.md for a README today!
------
meesterdude
Sure, Markdown isn't perfect - but it's good enough. It's not so bad that we
all should start using asciidoc. For most documentation needs, markdown works
great over it's real competitor, plain text.
------
pnathan
I've used rst. It was an unmitigated disaster for anyone except the rst-fan
who initiated the project. We eventually hauled the contents over to
Confluence, because it was less painful that way. If you can imagine. Later
on, we started using markdown.
All the fancy features and attempts to smooth over complexity are a hindrance
to having text that is easily writable. The complexity is there for a real
text processing engine, you can't avoid it.
I either write LaTeX or org/Markdown, if given the choice. Note that org and
markdown are trivially usable if the renderer explodes under you.
------
peschu
Your "headline" is just too general..especially for advertising asciidoc ...
for sure there are use cases for both
If you do that kind of stuff with people, it would be called "racism" or
"discrimination" ...not a good start ;-)
Why should anybody use asciidoc (over md) for a simple doc or user guide ... ?
My customers wouldn't pay the premium, because there is no added value for
them if I would "learn" asciidoc for these tasks.
And maybe next time better use a term like "I don't use..." people don't like
to get told what they have to do. ;-))
------
nunez
The arguments in this article are extremely weak.
First, yes, Gruber established the base specifications for Markdown back in
2004, but so many other people have added extensions on top of it. This is
also a contradiction to the author's third point about there being a lack of
extensibility. Pandoc has a really extensive Markdown syntax, as does Github.
As far as I know, nobody has mucked around with the basic semantics.
Second, I would much rather be able to express things that aren't supported by
my flavor of Markdown with HTML, which is a typesetting language at its core,
than something like LaTeX, which is kind of a mess readability-wise.
Additionally, the nice thing about HTML is that I can add CSS to it (for most
rendering engines) and stylize it however I want).
That said, I agree that AsciiDoc isn't bad. I also liked emacs org-mode before
I discovered Markdown.
------
jmilloy
> As the result, the base Markdown syntax can have an extra set of features
> available only in a particular specification.
The big win of Markdown is that the source reads just fine, without conversion
to html. The source itself is formatted, especially a monospace font. That
makes it easy to write, since you can still easily attend to both content and
formatting while writing it. It also makes it readable by folks in terminal or
text editor. That also means that if your converter doesn't support some
special feature, it will just leave it there and you can still _just read it_.
On the other hand, if as a reader or writer I have to go to some other part of
the document or some entirely separate file, e.g. to find out the value of an
attribute or edit an included external code snippet, that really interrupts
the process. Same for computing if-else clauses.
------
cmckn
Whether or not Markdown works for documenting your project depends on your
definition of "documentation" and "works." Blog posts telling you to stop or
start doing something are myopic and rarely helpful.
------
enobrev
Markdown is far from perfect, yet it remains my format of choice for most
writing that requires some formatting. I even write my longer emails in
Markdown and then paste them into an email app (would be great if gmail
accepted markdown).
If you require as much power for your documentation as demonstrated and don't
mind the relative obscurity in the source, why not just write it in your
favorite language and have it output to whatever format you want? Most
languages have a means of entering muti-line strings. And then you can include
all the bells and whistles your language and its ecosystem provides.
------
crispinb
To the author: perhaps you're an authoritarian manager, or a manque thereof. I
don't know. But I'm pretty sure you're not the boss of the internet. So please
drop the petulant imperative title.
------
smitty1e
YAMTF: Yet Another Mouth To Feed. Noun:
"Tool that purports to simplify, yet which exacerbates complexity."
If one is adept at the HTML, it is not infrequently faster to just use that
instead of figuring out how we do X in Y new tool.
------
coldacid
I don't mind giving up Markdown for writing docs, but only if we all agree to
use Org-mode text instead.
------
nemetroid
If Markdown gets you the features you need, go for it. In my experience, it
usually doesn't, except for the simplest projects. So I use reStructuredText,
so that I don't have to deal with someone telling me I need to use DITA
because the documentation is too low-fidelity.
------
ironmagma
Can't we just use JSX or XML? Those both beat this house of cards formed out
of one-off and nonstandard extensions, parsers, and pipelines built around
Markdown, which in itself is deficient and prompts the creation of these
fragmented ecosystems.
~~~
afarrell
Asciidoc and RST fall down because they act like Excel: a UI which expects its
user to work through a tutorial on pivot tables. The success of Markdown comes
from knowing that its users don't want to spend any more time learning it than
they spend learning how their bank website works.
So you want to preserve that navigability.
A source-reader isn't going to have the time to learn "conventions" like rails
asks them to do. So for any deviations from markdown, you would want the
reader of the source to be able to see how those are defined.
I think the sweet spot would be markdown-biased JSX.
The directory structure would be:
\- `/components` with two file to start: index.jsx, which would import the
`Markdown` element from the library and re-export it. There would also be
custom-component-example.jsx to demonstrate and document the interface
expected by the renderer. Any custom components go in this directory.
\- `/theme` which has theme information across the whole site. If you want a
different theme for a different part of the page, that is a different site
\- `/source` with a tree of mostly .md files, but occasionally .jsxmd files
which tell the source-reader where the component was defined, but otherwise
get out of the way. A .jsxmd file might look like this:
```
from '../../components' import Markdown, Aside;
export default () => (<Markdown>
## JavaScript Resources
The React documentation assumes some familiarity with programming in the JavaScript language.
You don’t have to be an expert, but it’s harder to learn both React and JavaScript at the same time.
We recommend going through this JavaScript overview to check your knowledge level.
It will take you between 30 minutes and an hour but you will feel more confident learning React.
<Aside>
#### Tip
Whenever you get confused by something in JavaScript,
MDN and javascript.info are great websites to check.
There are also community support forums where you can ask for help.
</Aside>
## Practical Tutorial
If you prefer to learn by doing, check out our practical tutorial.
In this tutorial, we build a tic-tac-toe game in React.
You might be tempted to skip it because you’re not into building games — but give it a chance.
The techniques you’ll learn in the tutorial are fundamental to building any React apps,
and mastering it will give you a much deeper understanding.
</Markdown>)
```
~~~
Macha
This seems worse for the markdown use case. The tags are distracting, and
arbitrary use cases (like github readmes, or in browser previews) need to run
JS code to render it, which probably spits out HTML specific output and
requires all renderers to pull in the web stack.
Compare that to markdown, where in the worst case, the .md file is readable as
a doc in isolation.
------
carapace
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_(markup)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_\(markup\))
I remember ages ago someone went and did a review of markup DSLs and _Creole_
was their winner IIRC.
------
carapace
I wish there was a datastructure standard for the "AST" that mardown et. al.
produce. (Maybe that's just HTML? I wonder what Pandoc's internal
datastructure(s) for docs look like..?)
------
KuhlMensch
Hm. The fact that markdown doesn't understand its own structure is a bit
annoying - but anchor tags are easy.
I could be swayed, but I personally LIKE markdowns limited palette.
------
reyan
This is just too much. Nobody wants to have a linter for their code
“documentation”! Oh we’re gonna have the linter in our CI pipeline too
probably.
------
natch
The ifdef and ifeval features are nice, but I would not take advice about
document formatting from anyone who uses full justification layout.
------
drtyolmck
no
------
bionhoward
Who’s the idiot who made google docs and didn’t focus-test it for software
docs? You need a third party add on just for code blocks ffs. I really wanted
to use Google Docs for this but it just didn’t work. Confluence makes you
switch between edit mode and view mode just like Markdown, and Notion is cool
but has limited features for this application (no api)
Sadly there’s no really mind blowing solution for documentation in 2020.
Crazy. Markdown for me for now
------
grliga
As long as the converted html is provided for the reader, markdown is perfect
------
steveklabnik
I feel for the author. However, I strongly disagree with the conclusions here
in practice. A lot of this boils down to "other tools are better," and that's
true, but the issue is that it's really, really hard to get people to write
documentation, and handing them a perfect but complex tool means they're less
likely to actually go through with it.
I've written every kind of documentation in Markdown, and it's not a panacea,
but it does work. I'll talk about the article's points first, though:
> Lack of specification
[https://commonmark.org/](https://commonmark.org/). It's not perfect, but GFM
and it are (slowly) unifying. Pick one, document that that's the one you
support, and you're done.
> Flavors
See answer 1.
> Lack of Extensibility
While it does not have an extension system, that doesn't mean that you can't
do it. As long as you only add things, you should be good to go. Most things
you'd want that aren't in the spec proper have some sort of existing extension
that will solve your problems.
This is not ideal, but it's also not insurmountable. This is the only true
negative I agree with on this list, I just don't think it's the end of the
world.
> Lack of Semantic Meaning.
While this is true in a sense, at the same time, CommonMark lets you put any
string on a code fence, which means that you can add whatever sematnic you'd
like.
> Markdown is now dependent on specific HTML classes, and page design
No more dependent on those classes than on whatever other semantic marker you
were trying to do, and if you want to change them, do what you'd have to do
with the semantic: configure your tooling to put out something else.
> Document content is no longer portable to other output formats
This problem would still exist if semantics were there; someone has to write
the mapping.
> Conversion to other markup tools and page designs becomes much harder
I disagree, but there's also no justification, so it's hard to respond.
> Lock-In and Lack of Portability.
This is a non-issue in practice. It's just like any other format.
\-------------------------------------
All of Rust's documentation is in Markdown. We've overcome these challenges in
a few ways:
* Choosing CommonMark
* Defining some additional, backwards-compatible with regular Markdown semantics. If you don't use them, you won't get as nice of an output in some cases, but if you do, stuff is a lot nicer. This includes things like "Show an icon to indicate that this does not compile" or "run this code sample as a test" or "this is a summary line and then this is a body."
* Writing Markdown to other format compilers. The Rust book (540 pages for its first printing) was written 100% in Markdown. Our editors don't use Markdown, they use Word. Carol, my co-author, wrote a DOCX to Markdown compiler in XSLT[1]. We write Markdown, compile it to HTML, concatenate it all into one big document, and send it to them. They open it in Word, they leave comments, we take the resulting DOCX, compile it back to Markdown, and address things.
[1]: [https://github.com/rust-lang/book/blob/master/tools/docx-
to-...](https://github.com/rust-lang/book/blob/master/tools/docx-to-md.xsl)
------
freeopinion
I'm guessing the author doesn't like reStructuredText either.
------
mattl
Both alternatives look like garbage as plain text.
------
bediger4000
At least he's not vehemently advocating Word.
------
xapata
rST fits all the goals of both sides of this argument. Reads well in original
format, supports more features than Markdown.
------
thomasdd
> Note: I Love Markdown
------
kempbellt
Don't tell me what to do.
Also, I like markdown.
------
lipis
No way!
------
jerng
What is wrong with you... Markdown is structured enough to be ingested by a
parser. You can input or output Markdown from and into any other structure you
prefer... :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Cheap cloud computing with GPU access? - bjourne
I wonder if anyone knows where you can buy cheap CPU and GPU time for training neural networks? Google Colab's resources are free but seriously underpowered. What I need is a shell account with exclusive access to a high-end desktop GPU and a few gigabytes of disk space. Also, it needs to be cheap because I'm poooooor.
======
tlack
I’ve used Paperspace.com a bit. It’s cheap if you don’t leave it online all
night :)
Be sure to use their “ML in a box” image for least hassle
------
verdverm
You can rent a VM with GPU for less than $1/ hr on GCP, AWS, or Azure
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Functional programming and memory management - aug-riedinger
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29496183/functionnal-programming-and-memory-management
======
daniel_sellers
Answered on S.O. [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29496183/functional-
progr...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29496183/functional-programming-
and-memory-management)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Simple animated drawing app and discovery of people nearby - oboh
http://teejik.com
======
mcocaro
nice idea! wondering whether the power of sketching demands an outside app
like teejik or is something whatsapp, line, wechat could implement next to
their stickers - sort of make your own stickers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It's official: NSA spying is hurting the US tech economy - rdl
http://www.zdnet.com/article/another-reason-to-hate-the-nsa-china-is-backing-away-from-us-tech-brands/
======
strictnein
Someone toned the title down just a smidge from the original, which is still
in the URL:
> another-reason-to-hate-the-nsa-china-is-backing-away-from-us-tech-brands
Anyways, the equation also isn't that simple. The "black" budget of the US is
$50-$60 billion a year. A significant portion of that is on tech, especially
with the NSA. You don't store exabytes and have the world's most powerful
supercomputers without buying a lot of hardware.
I'm not saying there isn't damage done, but this is just clickbait. It's light
on specifics (outside of Cisco), and some of the issues have nothing to do
with the NSA. HP is struggling in China because China is favoring local
companies. China has had a history of backing away from foreign companies to
bring tech in-house. This is actually what the original, non-filtered-through-
zdnet article says: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-china-tech-
excl...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-china-tech-exclusive-
idUSKBN0LT1B020150225)
The Reuters article has far more information. The ZDnet article is just
someone filling their allotted articles for the day.
~~~
strictnein
An interesting note at the end of the Reuters article:
> "The danger for China, say experts, is that it could leave itself dependent
> on domestic technology, which remains inferior to foreign market leaders and
> more vulnerable to cyber attack.
> Some of those benefiting from policies encouraging domestic procurement
> accept that Chinese companies trail foreign competitors in the security
> sphere."
------
mc32
Alternatively, NSA spying causes knee-jerk reaction in China government to
source locally, paradoxically, leaving China more susceptible to hacking.
Long term it has the potential to do two things: Great jumpstart to local tech
companies, or emergence of mediocre technology due to low competition.
------
dTal
They forgot to factor in all the industrial espionage the NSA is no doubt
doing. Sure, there might be a little fallout here and there, but who's to say
the US isn't still miles ahead?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Potential false-positive rate among the 'asymptomatic infected individuals' - trampi
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32133832
======
cultus
One fallacy that seems universal with healthcare folks is they think the false
positive rate is the chance that a given positive result is erroneous. If an
illness is rare, a positive result in a test with a 1% error rate might have
an overwhelming probability of being a false positive. This is why prior
probabilities need to be taken into account in making decisions.
~~~
ses1984
>If an illness is rare, a positive result in a test with a 1% error rate might
have an overwhelming probability of being a false positive.
Can you elaborate on this a little more...?
~~~
Cerium
If a given test has a 1% chance of returning true, even when the actual result
is false, then from a sample of say 1000 tests we would expect at least 10
trues, in addition to any actual true results. If the chance of having the
disease in the general population is low (say 1 in a thousand for this
example) then we would expect 11 true results in our thousand samples. Of
which 91% are incorrect results - false positives.
~~~
andrewseanryan
Would I be correct with the following:
If the false positive rate is higher than the expected rate of disease in a
given community, then the majority of positive tests will be false positives.
Does this relate to COVID in any way? Since the rates among affected
communities seem to be growing rapidly. Would appreciate your thoughts.
~~~
usrusr
Looking at growth rate with false positives is a bit of a mindbender: if you
limit your testing to the potential contacts of a positive (false or not), you
could get a "false R0" virtual epidemic from testing alone, if and only if you
test more contacts per positive than 1/false positive rate. Unfortunately,
actual hospitalizations and and deaths rule out a virtual epidemic so this is
not a hope to cling to.
~~~
AnthonyMouse
> Unfortunately, actual hospitalizations and and deaths rule out a virtual
> epidemic so this is not a hope to cling to.
Not necessarily. In theory all the deaths could have some other cause, i.e.
some fraction of people with a different underlying fatal condition had false
positive tests for this coronavirus and then died of the other condition.
That's probably not what's happening, but it's theoretically possible. (It's
also probable that _some_ of the reported deaths _are_ that, but who knows
what percentage.)
------
lbj
In Denmark we increased our testing 10-fold and found 300% more people
infected. Our response to that increase has been to shut down the country
completely for 2 weeks and expand our governments right to act: Forced entry
into private property, forced isolation and treatment, forced testing. If this
is all because of an error in the test kit I'm going to be super ticked off.
~~~
jmartinpetersen
This is somewhat misleading information.
First, the country has NOT been completely shut down. I went shopping today
and bought milk, yeast and flour. We didn't need toilet paper, but the store
had plenty. All schools and most of the public sector closes down for two
weeks on Monday. Some business (like restaurants, movie theaters and fitness
gyms) are closing down on their own accord. But you can - if you will - still
go shopping for clothes, gardening stuff, electronics and most importantly
food.
Second, although the right to forced entry into private property was in the
original draft it was removed before vote. Entry still follows the known rules
of needing approval by a judge.
You are right, however, that forced testing, forced treatment, forced
vaccination (if/when possible) and forced quarantine is mandated as per
discretion of the public health authorities.
~~~
hanche
The situation is similar in Norway. We're a bit more strict, as parts of the
private sector is also forcibly shut down: Gyms, pubs, hairdressers, movie
theaters are all closed.
Our infection rate has grown dramatically in the past few days, and not as a
result of increased testing AFAIK. Testing capacity has been limited, but is
being drastically increased as of today. So maybe the already high growth rate
will increase further as a result.
------
wycy
Would this indicate that the mortality rate is actually much higher
percentage-wise, since the denominator is actually artificially inflated?
~~~
wjnc
Not that I'd expect, since non-testing in probable positive cases (f.e. in NL
those sick, but manageable and in home quarantine are usually not tested)
seems to dwarf false-positives in negative cases.
~~~
coding123
But could that just be the flu.
------
andrewseanryan
One big question is what percentage of positive tests are asymptomatic? If
only a tiny percent are asymptomatic, then this false positive issue would not
be elevating the total numbers much, right? I won’t claim to have the best
resource here but one article stated:
“ Dr. Tedros noted that only 1 percent of cases in China are reported as
“asymptomatic.” And of that 1 percent, 75 percent do go on to develop
symptoms.”
[https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-
compr...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-
comprehensive-ars-technica-guide-to-the-coronavirus/2/)
------
nn35
How did they estimate this? If anybody can read the actual paper, I’d love to
know.
If false positives dominate true positives then you’d expect total positives
to depend primarily on number of tests given, right? Which sounds wrong to me,
but I’d be interested in hearing other thoughts.
------
anaphor
Can someone clarify which type of test they analyzed? 80% seems way too high.
I would expect something closer to 10% at most (which would still mean the
probability of a true positive might be very low per Bayes' theorem)
~~~
nn35
Are you confused or am I misreading your comment? The result is that 80% of
positives are false positives, not that 80% of all tests are false positives.
(IMO it is still fishy.)
~~~
rossdavidh
80%...in asymptomatic cases. So if most of the people who get tested DID show
symptoms, the false positive rate generally could be far worse.
But, it would suggest downsides to more general testing.
~~~
dnautics
But if your diagnostic criteria is showing symptoms later, then you are
ejecting the entire population of carriers who might be, say, teeming with the
virus but showing zero symptoms, for perhaps a genetic or "dumb luck" reason.
------
nck4222
Interesting, as this means that China would be quarantining more people than
"necessary", which would help slow the pandemic anyway. I can't imagine an
asymptomatic person would put stress on the hospital system? But maybe I'm
wrong there.
I am curious if this also could indicate a false-positive problem with non
asymptomatic people as well.
False-positives are also why the CDC tests had to be shipped back, although
that was because it was showing false positives in other diseases it was
testing for, not COVID-19.
~~~
gus_massa
> _I can 't imagine an asymptomatic person would put stress on the hospital
> system?_
If s/he is in the hospital in quarantine you must give blankets and food,
probably a nurse to check the temperature and symptoms two or three times per
day, a medical doctor one a day just to be sure. Perhaps a blood analysis from
time to time?
Luckily you don't have to handle visitors because they are in quarantine. (Or
there are some visits? What if one patient tries to escape?) You must give an
official reports for the family. Now you can assume the patient can send a
WhatsApp message to the family saying s/he is fine, but you need probably
still an official report. Paperwork, there is also paperwork.
How isolated are them from each other. If they are all together, you can
transform the overcrowded false positives in real patients.
~~~
gpderetta
why would an asymptomatic person be in an hospital? Even people with minor
symptoms are asked to self quarantine at home pretty much everywhere.
~~~
ineedasername
In China, asymptomatic with a positive test result still put you in their
make-shift hospital facilities.
------
mempko
Wait, so the actual mortality rate for COVID-19 is much higher than thought
because of all the false positives on cases without symptoms?
~~~
taborj
But that also means that it doesn't spread as quickly/easily as originally
thought. Right?
------
nknealk
Anyone save the full text? Every time I try to get to it I get a 404.
~~~
RobertDeNiro
I believe the full article is in Chinese.
~~~
virusduck
It's not in anything now. It's 404'd which is concerning.
------
cs702
If tests indeed have such a high false-positive rate, then all estimates of
fatality rate calculated by dividing over the number of individuals identified
as "infected" are too low, i.e., by implication the virus is actually deadlier
than naively estimated.
EDIT: _All else remaining the same._ See AnthonyMouse's comment below for
important clarifications and corrections.
~~~
AnthonyMouse
That's assuming a large fraction of the people who have been tested are
asymptomatic, otherwise a high false positive rate among asymptomatic people
would have minimal effect on the numbers because they aren't being tested to
begin with.
Meanwhile you also have the opposite happening for the same reason -- if even
a small percentage of asymptomatic people are actually infected but not being
tested, a small percentage of "asymptomatic people" (i.e. nearly the entire
population) could represent a very large proportion of those infected and
cause the fatality rate estimates to be much _higher_ than the true number.
~~~
cs702
True. I updated my comment.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Elon Musk is launching a tunnel digging company to reduce traffic in cities - rmason
https://electrek.co/2016/12/17/elon-musk-tunnel-digging-boring-company/
======
fuzzythinker
It will be the project/company that ties all his projects together.
\- Tesla: At least one lane will be for self driving cars only, moving at
higher speeds. Giving more reasons for people to buy Tesla and other self
driving cars.
\- Hyperloop: Not exactly his main focus these days, but tunneling may be an
alternative to pylons even though it will be more costly.
\- SpaceX: He will gain first hand experience needed for tunneling on Mars.
~~~
asenna
He's doing so many different things and on that scale, literally anything he
does can be tied in into all his other businesses.
------
dbg31415
Seriously, can we clone Elon. I'm hoping all those kids he popped out via in
vitro were actually just clones.
* Elon Musk Has Created His Own Grade School Because Of Course He Has | Motherboard || [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/elon-musk-has-created-his-o...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/elon-musk-has-created-his-own-grade-school-because-of-course-he-has)
------
charlesdenault
What law/precedents exist around underground land ownership? Do the surface
owners have rights to the land below it to a determined depth?
------
victornomad
I generally like what Elon Musk does, but this sound to me like a patch for
the cities that works extraordinarily well with his other business Tesla. What
we need is more and more sustainable public transportation. Trains, subways,
etc that can last 40-60 years without replacement.
Tesla cars "might be" eco-friendly but building cars, batteries, etc is a
pretty wasteful thing if you have to replace your car in less than 10 years...
Just wait few years until new cars start having forced system updates that
block your car and ask for a replacement.
------
jcchin41
This could also be a stepping stone to reducing Hyperloop tunneling costs
------
TenJack
Now I just can't stop thinking about the comparison between humans and ants.
------
tiredwired
Roads for ants. Flying cars will happen first.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
About Racism, Discrimination And Louis Vuitton - edragonu
http://www.bebelissimo.com/about-racism-discrimination-and-louis-vuitton/
======
onreact-com
While this is a good article I don't really get the connection between the
"gypsie" part of it and the Louis Vuitton brand.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: I'm writing a leanpub book - Upgrade to Rails 4 - philipDS
https://leanpub.com/upgradetorails4
======
steveklabnik
There's also <http://www.upgradingtorails4.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Unique wedding gift for an avid HN reader? - weddingthroaway
Throwaway for obvious reasons.<p>I'm attending a wedding in the next few months for a very close friend who is also an avid HN reader.<p>He's an engineer and CTO of a Bay Area startup.<p>He is ridiculously well traveled. He deliberately avoids all news, but is one of the most well informed people I know.<p>His bachelor party was the most unconventional I've ever been to, and as a result, the most memorable.<p>Traditional registry based gifts seem so...unnecessary for him.<p>I want something elegant, yet simple - and memorable in its uniqueness.<p>Any ideas from folks who are the best distillation of his personality I've found en masse?
======
qbrass
Buy him a blender ironically.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Biggest patent troll of 2014 gives up, drops appeal - imglorp
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/biggest-patent-troll-of-2014-gives-up-drops-appeal/
======
MichaelBurge
If they're a shell company, I wonder if they'll actually end up paying the fee
or just declare bankruptcy and start another shell company. Can the owners be
made to pay the fee?
~~~
drzaiusapelord
Only certain things can pierce the corporate shield, like unpaid workers comp.
Legal fees, thankfully, don't.
Of course patent trolling always becomes a discussion of corporate shielding
instead of the conversation we need to have: a radical reform of the patent
system and a re-thinking of what should be patentable, especially in the
software world.
This conversation always gets derailed by the tort reform crowd on the right
or the anti-corporate shield crowd on the left. Those are just symptoms to a
larger problem and both of those things (torts, shields) exist for valid
reasons. Fix patents instead.
~~~
WalterBright
The patent wars are hardly a recent phenomenon. They go back to tremendous and
crippling fights over the telegraph, telephone, auto, movies, radio,
television and airplanes.
It's a bit hard to see how patents promoted anything - they mostly seemed to
retard progress. The airplane patent wars were so bad that aircraft
development shifted overseas out of reach of US patent courts. The movie
industry packed up and left for Hollywood to evade patent courts. Industry
progress on the TV happened only when the patents expired. And on and on.
~~~
eru
Even further back, to steam engines.
~~~
chris_wot
Absolutely. James Watt didn't invent steam engine but came up with an
innovative design that gave him a big advantage. He based this on other,
unpatented, technologies. Then he sued the living day lights out of all his
competitors and if argue prevented innovation for years.
~~~
stan_rogers
Unpatented? Not quite. Savery's patent (which Newcomen licensed because it
would last longer than any he could have gotten himself) had long since
expired, and Boulton and Watt had to work around Pickard's patent on the crank
(!) using planetary gears.
~~~
eru
Yeah, the planetary gears they came up with were pretty crazy. Everyone
switched to the crank, once the patent ran out.
------
toomuchtodo
The ArsTechnica piece says the judge ruled the patent invalid. I assume that
overrides the USPTO?
"eDekka's patent, which had been used to sue a wide array of online retailers,
described nothing more than "the abstract idea of storing and labeling
information," Gilstrap found. Those were "routine tasks that could be
performed by a human" and didn't meet the standard for getting a patent.
Gilstrap ruled the patent invalid."
~~~
fweespeech
> The ArsTechnica piece says the judge ruled the patent invalid. I assume that
> overrides the USPTO?
Correct.
If the USPTO or the Federal Court invalidates it, it is invalid and stays that
way.
[http://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/patent-
litig...](http://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/patent-
litigation/about-patents)
> In general, patents can stay in force for up to 20 years from the time of
> filing although the actual length of a patent’s life can vary depending on a
> variety of factors. More information about patent term, and an explanation
> of how to estimate whether a patent has expired, is available on the Patent
> Term Calculator webpage. Also, note that the claims of a patent can be
> invalidated by federal courts and/or the USPTO only prior to their
> expiration date.
~~~
baldfat
Wish we could do this for extending Copyrights so that Disney gets their
Golden Ticket for Mickey Mouse and everything else gets to be Public Domain.
Make it cost $20,000,000 to file the motion, a million to every Senator's
campaign fund and $25,000 for every Representative and $2,000,000 for the
Chairman of every committee.
That way it is just upfront who wins a special copyright extension and
everyone else get's Anne Frank's Diary, the rest of Sherlock Holmes and the
Autobiography of Malcolm X.
~~~
herge
What does patent law have to do with Mickey Mouse?
~~~
eloff
Why is this downvoted? Copyright and patents are two completely separate
things.
~~~
baldfat
Yes that is 100% why I said I wish this could be done for COPYRIGHTS. Guess
this is the new Hacker News read a portion and then down vote. (This will get
down voted by at least two people.
If there was no Disney there would be now Copyright Extensions where we have
No Public Domain works entering the US system for the last 30 years.
[http://artlawjournal.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-
copyrig...](http://artlawjournal.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-copyright-
law/)
------
steveeq1
Didn't they pass some law making patent trolling a lot harder to do? People
keep telling me this, but this behavior seems to continue.
~~~
WildUtah
There is a proposal to make it slightly harder to troll called the "Innovation
Act." You can look it up on [http://thomas.loc.gov](http://thomas.loc.gov)
IT has not passed.
------
JDiculous
How the hell does something like this get granted a patent?
[https://www.google.com/patents/US6266674](https://www.google.com/patents/US6266674)
~~~
tyingq
It gets worse.
[https://docs.google.com/a/google.com/viewer?url=www.google.c...](https://docs.google.com/a/google.com/viewer?url=www.google.com/patents/US4195707.pdf)
Talking between two tin cans and a length of string.
~~~
function_seven
Did you read the patent? That's not tin cans and a string. It's an improvement
that allows it to be packaged in cereal and assembled by the end-user.
Sure it's not complicated, but novel inventions aren't always complex. This is
a unique-enough idea that it probably deserves the patent.
~~~
tyingq
The "claims" portion of the patent does not reference any of that. The scope
of the grant is wider than you think.
~~~
tclmeelmo
The claims establish the legal bounds of a patent, however, they must be read
in light of what is disclosed in the specifications. The enforceable scope of
this patent is fairly limited.
~~~
tyingq
You would think so, but in practice, that's not really what happens. NCR, for
example, successfully settled with many companies "infringing" on their
ancient patents with their ecommerce sites. The patents predated ecommerce,
and made reference to things like microfiche.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The True Cost of Amazon's New Kindle - mjfern
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090421_430707.htm
======
timdorr
Great. Another iSuppli teardown that's going to cause everyone on the Internet
to cry foul at how Amazon is charging 48% mark up on it's devices. Yes,
because these things build themselves, weren't designed by anyone, get shipped
through instantaneous teleportation, market themselves, and do their own
support...
~~~
michael_dorfman
50% mark-up is pretty standard for retail items. I'm surprised the Kindle
mark-up is not higher.
~~~
silentOpen
It's not 50% mark-up, it's 93% mark-up: $185.49 to $359.00
~~~
MrRage
That depends on how you read the phrase "50% mark-up". I read it as 50% of the
retail price is mark-up, the other 50% is cost.
~~~
silentOpen
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_(business)> is generally accepted.
------
harpastum
John Gruber wrote a great commentary on iSuppli's methods a while ago [1].
Basically, his assertion is that their numbers are a mix of generalizations
and pure imagination, and don't take into account a lot of important factors.
[1]<http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/isuppli>
------
tedshroyer
I think you get free wireless for the entire lifetime of the device. Some of
the cost must go toward that.
~~~
kqr2
I believe that's also subsidized by the cost of the ebooks which they hope you
will purchase.
------
saturdayplace
Who _cares_ how much it costs Amazon to make the thing? You don't like the
price, you don't buy it. What do Amazon's costs have to do with that decision?
~~~
sgrove
I'm not sure why you phrase it so discouragingly. What's wrong with wanting to
know simply for curiosity's sake? I'm interested in buying a kindle. I'd be
interested in buying it without knowing individual component costs. But if
offered the chance to see the prices, I'd be interested, sure.
~~~
saturdayplace
My phrasing was because of the markup discussion above. I'd assumed people
were talking about the high _(?)_ markup because it'd factor into their buying
decision, which seems pointless.
I see nothing wrong with wanting to know for curiosity's sake.
------
gcheong
As a consumer, I'm more interested in cost of ownership of the device in
comparison with just buying physical books rather than the underlying
manufacturing cost.
~~~
rw
The books you buy for the Kindle _are_ physical books, i.e. they are made of
electrons.
------
showerst
Here's their actual detailed breakdown for the curious:
<http://www.isuppli.com/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=20138>
------
joshu
I find it odd that they would call out ARM licensing fees. Wouldn't that be
included in the cost of the part?
~~~
ableal
The research guys, iSuppli, rightly did not include them - they're usually
paid by the chip vendor to ARM (or whatever licensor), and included in the
chip price. The writer tried to be clever, and missed.
Retail price = 3 x BOM (bill-of-materials) is one rule-of-thumb for volume
hardware without special assembly or extraordinary software.
~~~
joshu
(so to nitpick, iSuppli rightly DID include them? -- in the cost of the chip)
~~~
ableal
Well, iSuppli did not mention them. The writer brought it up: "Royalty
Payments Not Addressed ... One cost iSuppli's teardowns don't address: Any
royalties paid to ARM."
He missed the mark - he might have had a point for data formats. I think that
licensing costs are borne by the manufacturers (of the final product) for
firmware they toss in to decode DVDs, MP3s, etc. Cf. recent TomTom/Microsoft
FAT kerfuffle.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I'm going to explain what's going on when data is encrypted - jxub
https://twitter.com/colmmacc/status/1101565626869407744
======
johannsg
I hardly think that twitter is the right medium for this, so for your reading
pleasure, here is the dump of the tweets:
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b6Ulqo8Ja33x_bqvPtuOfzie...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b6Ulqo8Ja33x_bqvPtuOfzie3XbyHzTM4YxWnimVdzU/edit?usp=sharing)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Could big rubber pipes save the Thai cave boys? - jakobov
I'm wondering if large rubber-like pipes could be used to make crawl-able tunnels through the submerged areas of the cave?<p>Divers would carry the rubber pipes through the cave such that both ends are above air, the water would be pumped out of them, and then the boys would just need to crawl through the pipes.<p>If a suitable type of pipe could be found/made this seems like a good solution.<p>What does everyone think?
======
simon_acca
Interesting, I don't see any "first principles" reason why this couldn't be
done, except for some bend radius that might be just too tight [0]. Also the
pipe would have to be made of something more solid than rubber to overcome the
water pressure (it's not much but it's still there).
From a risk management point of view however this solution seems a bit
reckless, as a rescuer you never want to cause more damage/hazard than what's
already present and this untested solution could fail in some catastrophic
ways. What to do if the pipe becomes punctured? How do you rescue somebody
that becomes stuck for whatever reason? (think also psychological factors)
If you compare this to just waiting a few months and walking out you might
conclude that it's not worth the risk.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-
interactive/2018/jul/03...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-
interactive/2018/jul/03/thailand-cave-rescue-where-were-the-boys-found-and-
how-can-they-be-rescued)
~~~
eesmith
Such a pipe would have to be placed with water inside, then pumped out once
its installed. Why? Because it takes a lot of force to put an air-filled tube
through water.
I see no way that such a pipe could be deployed. Even without buoyancy issues,
there will be a lot of friction from the cave walls, and going around bends.
The force can't come from simply pushing it it, as anything flexible enough to
bend around curves will also crumble from the pushing force.
If I read it right, the pipe would need to be 6 meters deep in some points in
the cave. As you might recall from Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, the
transparent aluminum scene, the whale tank needed 6" of Plexiglass. If I use
the "Aquarium Thickness Calculator (xls)" from
[http://www.sdplastics.com/aquaria1.html](http://www.sdplastics.com/aquaria1.html)
and plug in 200 inches (for about 6 meters), then it says it would need 16
inches of Plexiglass.
You might shave that down, with better materials that don't need to be clear,
but, as The Guardian points out elsewhere, there isn't much room: "Parts of
the cave system are reportedly so narrow that Thai Seal teams and the
volunteer rescue divers had to remove their own breathing apparatus to get
through"
Furthermore: "It’s about 11 hours – six on the way from the entrance to where
the kids are and five on the way back"
Who will guide the pipe at it goes through the route? Once the pipe has gone
through one of those constrictions, can anyone else get by? If the pipe blocks
the route, then what?
And, how long would it take to lay such a pipe?
~~~
simon_acca
To eliminate some of the raised issues, particularly around the forces acting
during the installation, the conduit could be assembled from sections, in the
guise of HVAC ventilation shafts[0].
With that said, I won't add any further speculation since mechanical/materials
engineering is really not my area of expertise. Someone knowledgeable could
provide insight on: what material (steel?) is suitable for such a task and
what are processes for watertight bonding performed underwater (welding?).
0: [https://bigreddog.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/Ductwork-1-...](https://bigreddog.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/Ductwork-1-1-768x337.jpg)
~~~
eesmith
There is no need for a materials engineer. We can look to existing structures
which hold water to get an idea.
Above ground pools use 1/8" steel for about 1-1.5 meters of water depth. (Eg,
[https://www.answers.com/Q/How_thick_is_a_swimming_pool](https://www.answers.com/Q/How_thick_is_a_swimming_pool)
)
Pressure is linear with depth, so 6 meters would require about 1/2" of steel.
HVAC ducts like you pointed to are about 1/40". (Based on numbers I see at
[https://www2.iccsafe.org/states/newyorkcity/Mechanical/PDFs/...](https://www2.iccsafe.org/states/newyorkcity/Mechanical/PDFs/Chapter%206_Duct%20Systems.pdf)
).
~~~
simon_acca
I just pointed at hvac ducts to illustrate the kind of tech I was referring to
(pipes assembled from small sections), wasn’t suggesting that actual hvac
pipes should be used
~~~
eesmith
Ahh, I see. I misunderstood.
Your model, I think, is that the divers would lay at least 1km of 1/2" thick
steel pipe, from the far end backwards (since otherwise there's no way to get
the segments to the end). Call it 1cm for easy of calculation.
Steel is 8g/cubic centimeter. Assuming the divers can carry 20kg (which seems
large), each segment is at most 25 cm long. That's at least 4,000 segments,
each to be welded. Assuming it takes 5 minutes per weld, that's 13 days of
non-stop work. And I am assuming that the welding equipment doesn't need to be
moved in.
As Johnny555 pointed out elsewhere in these threads, the divers are having
problems putting in a communications cable, which is much smaller and more
flexible.
~~~
simon_acca
Thanks for doing the math, looks plausible to me. Just for the argument sake,
since there seem to be logistical problems (hey, Hanoi is not that far away,
right?) to the whole solution: you could carry out several non-adjacent welds
in parallel and then join these segments together, that would speed things up.
The data cable seem to have water damage problems, something that would not be
a concern here it seems.
~~~
eesmith
How do the divers get to the non-adjacent welds if the pipe blocks their way?
How are they supplied?
Why should we assume that the require equipment won't also suffer from water
damage? Eg, "around small passages" might mean the cable scraped against the
wall, causing water to leak in.
BTW, it seems the critical section is under 5 meters of water, not 6 as I
thought, and is 70cm across.
And it seems one of the divers just died. If that's an indication of the
mortality rate, then imagine how many might die building a tube.
------
Johnny555
Note that they had issues just pulling a simple communications cable, I can't
imagine that a 2ft diameter rubber tube is going to be easier.
_However, attempts to install the cables have been unsuccessful so far, Maj.
Gen. Bancha Duriyaphan said. One cable suffered water damage as divers
transported it "around small passages." Teams are attempting to take in a new
one._
[https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/04/asia/thai-cave-rescue-
intl/in...](https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/04/asia/thai-cave-rescue-
intl/index.html)
------
aaang
I was thinking this too. Wide PVC plumbing pipe with joints for the angled
sections, just for the water filled sections. The person is wrapped, arms up,
and pulled at speed through the pipe via a rope attached to some kind of
harness attached to the waist, legs and feet.
------
simon_acca
Elon Musk seem to think this is an option worth exploring:
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015105500105412610](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015105500105412610)
------
cimmanom
AFAIK, there's no path through the tunnel that would allow one end to be
brought through while keeping it above water.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Coolest iPhone Photography Accessory You've Ever Seen. - spoonersean
http://magnate.co/2012/09/the-coolest-iphone-photography-accessory-youve-ever-seen/
======
Tichy
I'm sure it is a parody? Photo printers have been around for a while...
~~~
MartinCron
I think that the distinction is that this is a fully analog photo printer
using the old (and beloved) Polaroid instant printing technology instead of
the more mechanically complex inkjet approach.
Cute, but not really revolutionary.
~~~
Tichy
Never had a photo printer, but I don't think they were inkjets. They produced
"prints" that looked like photos (the same material). Actually not sure if
photo printers are still commonly being sold, though - last I checked was a
couple of years ago.
Where I live you can create such prints on the fly in every drugstore. They
all have photo printing machines.
------
rrbrambley
I watched the Kickstarter video and I have to say, I feel like I'm being
trolled in the most epic fashion.
------
na85
... is this a joke?
------
taude
No offense to the kickstarter project, but I'd much rather see a device that I
could just send photos to wirelesslessly and have some form of digital-analog
conversion done to print it...having to dock the iPhone into this unweildy
looking device is ______. I can't belive how much funding this has raised. I
guess I don't "get it"
------
neya
Why is this even on the front page?
~~~
tav
Because it is a pretty cool project? Linking directly to the Kickstarter would
have been more useful though:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impossible/impossible-
in...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impossible/impossible-instant-lab-
turn-iphone-images-into-rea)
~~~
neya
"Well … we invented it."
I hate this kind of faux 'Apple-sque' marketing. These printers have existed
for long and there's nothing new about them. Its just not authentic.
------
roop
Basically, this contraption seems to take a photo of the iPhone screen and
prints that out like a Polaroid. That's basically it. All I can think is,
"wtf".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rackspace terminates FOSS support without notification, charging fees - polemic
https://mobile.twitter.com/kantrn/status/1225863584569102338
======
jtreminio
Calm down, it's been resolved.
I don't work for Rackspace, they host an FOSS of mine that in its peak used to
transfer TB of data per month. Not an enormous amount, but out of pocket would
have been similar to OP's.
From my understanding Rackspace would create a plan with a far-out expiration.
Say, a plan that's active until a year from now.
Not as smooth as I would have liked, but when I would get that yearly invoice
I would just contact them and they would take care of it fairly quickly.
They have not informed me of FOSS support being terminated, and I have never
had to pay a single penny for them hosting my FOSS.
Big thanks to them, by the way!
~~~
rambojazz
Resolved how? I don't see any mention of that in the thread.
~~~
opless
[https://twitter.com/kantrn/status/1225904381049987073?s=21](https://twitter.com/kantrn/status/1225904381049987073?s=21)
"it's been resolved"
However no details how at all.
------
whatsmyusername
TBF I wouldn't use a product I knew was hosted at Rackspace. Their entire
security posture falls apart once you realize it's easy to circumvent by
calling their support line and talking your way past one minimum wage call
center employee.
~~~
t0mas88
I've dealt with them a lot in the past and this is absolutely not true. The
people you talk to are not minimum wage call center employees, and if you
don't provide the agreed upon phone codes they're not going to do anything for
you.
Try "forgetting" the phone codes and your login, you'll end up with escalation
to a technical account manager and providing things like government ID and a
notarized statement etc, same as AWS does.
~~~
whatsmyusername
The exact situation I'm describing happened. And the security question wasn't
a guessable answer, the answer was completely nonsensical. We had other,
grosser, issues with them revolving around security as well.
Funny how when we asked about the security question they never got around to
confirming or denying whether it was asked and answered.
I don't know when you dealt with them last but once the private equity firms
came in and starting laying off/outsourcing everyone that company plunged
straight into the toilet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Kasaya – A scripting language and runtime for browser automation - hliyan
https://github.com/syscolabs/kasaya
======
BiteCode_dev
All those kind of projects share the same flaw: it uses a DSL instead of an
existing language, so tooling/documentation/testing/support/modules are going
to be very weak, and 100% depending of the creator for the first years, in a
domain that is already a niche.
It could be a library with good API instead. Or even a special env setup for
an existing language with injected built-in and automatic imports.
Now you could argue that the goal is to have this "simple DSL that looks like
english" so that normal people can use it.
This argument has existed since DSL exist, and the result is always the same:
\- the simplicity of the language will, in the end, limits its usefulness. Not
every domain is like SQL/HTML/CSS, where descriptive is enough. Complex
domains need branches, loop, namespaces, etc. Eventually you will be forced to
add features in a twisted way to something that was not designed for it and
replace its simplicity with ugliness, or restrain yourself and be limited
forever. See Ansible DSL for a good, or rather, horrible, example of that.
\- end users that can't use a normal programming language won't suddenly
become tech saavy because your DSL is simple, but their use case will never
stop at simple. So they will start building complex systems as soon as they
use it for real, with a limited DSL and their limited ability. The system will
become a monstrosity, and you'll have no tooling to help.
\- successful dsl are usually not simple. Css is not. Sql is not. Html is an
exception because it has no logic. This has logic.
\- it looks so cool. It's like candy for tech lovers. Even to me: I find it so
sexy. And so people will adopt it, ignoring the arguments above. Ignoring the
decades of such attempts that ended up in pain behind so many corporate
firewalls. There will be many tweets at adoption to talk about how nice it is,
but no blog post 2 years later to admit it was a bad idea. And then it will
happen again with $new_shiny_dsl_based_tool.
~~~
debaserab2
All these kinds of HN comments share the same flaw: they unnecessarily detract
from the work the OP has done by attacking use cases that the project never
claimed to solve.
DSL's, for all their problems, do simplify complex programming logic, and
people use them every day to do great things. DSL's like Ansible and Chef save
people an order of magnitude of time for server provisioning hence why they
are wildly popular.
It seems reasonable to me that someone would build a DSL with the same goals
for web browser automation. The screen recording example gif they have looks
so intuitive even a non-programmer could do it.
I don't look at this project and expect that it solved every problem with web
scraping and reading the README it doesn't look like they are claiming it does
either.
~~~
threatofrain
Using Ansible is what made me lose faith in DSL's in all the ways mentioned
(eventually wanted loops, conditions, variables and namespaces...). Ansible is
an API over a domain and if it were originally just represented through a
Python language library I don't see why it would be less accessible or
productive. Even something as simple as YAML can be screwed up and turned
complicated.
~~~
farisjarrah
Building infrastructure is complicated. Have you found an easier way then
Ansible to accomplish building infrastructure?
Ansible does make yaml more complicated, however, you don't need to use much
of that complexity for simple projects. Compared to Terraform, Chef, Google
Deployment Manager, and Windows Desired State Configuration, Ansible is by far
the simplest to get up and running on to do real work with.
~~~
erikpukinskis
AWS CDK would be an example of using a programming language rather than a DSL
to build infra.
~~~
ofrzeta
There's also Pulumi that covers a wider range of infrastructure than AWS only.
------
zabil
This looks great.
I also want to shamelessly plug something similar I am working on, Taiko, it
uses javascript and comes with a REPL that generates scripts like.
await openBrowser();
await goto("http://todomvc.com/examples/react/#/");
await write("automate with taiko");
await press("Enter");
await click(checkBox(near("automate with taiko")));
The reason we use a javascript is familiarity, IDE support and use of existing
node js libraries for testing.
For anyone who's interested
[https://github.com/getgauge/taiko](https://github.com/getgauge/taiko)
~~~
kozhevnikov
FYI to avoid all those awaits and make it chainable you can wrap it in a
Proxy.
[https://github.com/kozhevnikov/proxymise](https://github.com/kozhevnikov/proxymise)
~~~
egeozcan
Or ppipe, if you want more features (I'm the author):
[https://github.com/egeozcan/ppipe](https://github.com/egeozcan/ppipe)
~~~
imvetri
Completely irrelevant. Something I tried for front end frameworks
[https://github.com/imvetri/ui-editor](https://github.com/imvetri/ui-editor)
------
aloisdg
We can do this with Canopy in F# (repl/interactive style too!):
//go to url
url "http://lefthandedgoat.github.io/canopy/testpages/"
//assert that the element with an id of 'welcome' has
//the text 'Welcome'
"#welcome" == "Welcome"
//assert that the element with an id of 'firstName' has the value 'John'
"#firstName" == "John"
//change the value of element with
//an id of 'firstName' to 'Something Else'
"#firstName" << "Something Else"
//verify another element's value, click a button,
//verify the element is updated
"#button_clicked" == "button not clicked"
click "#button"
"#button_clicked" == "button clicked"
[https://lefthandedgoat.github.io/canopy/](https://lefthandedgoat.github.io/canopy/)
~~~
Dontrememberit
The idea of this library is exactly to not use HTML ids (or css paths etc),
but use instructions you could give to an human browsing the web (enter the
page, press tab, type this..)
~~~
holtalanm
the problem with that is anything that can 'detect' an html element based on
human-language will eventually fail to find something described with human-
language due to crappy html on legacy systems.
------
ou_ryperd
Test automaton guy here. Why reinvent the wheel? Selenium/WebDriver is already
a standard
([https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver/](https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver/)). It has
years of maturity. Maturity means that through use and development iterations
it can now cater for a lot of corner cases. How to do domain authentication in
IE. How to handle all the different types of modal dialogues. And so on. It
can be used in several different REAL programming languages so you can
interact with a database, or drop a message in a queue or call a webservive
during browser interaction. I have done all of those. But sure, if you want a
tool for a specific small use like a business analyst doing one linear test
case, go ahead. If you don't believe all the corner cases, do yourself a
favour and look under the Selenium tag on SO.
~~~
webignition
I'm currently developing a test automation DSL as part of a full automation
service.
My partner worked for some time running on-site test automation courses. This
was for organisations where the devs were average 9-5 workers without any
passion for software development. Not the sort of places that would ever
feature on HN.
Manual testers transitioning to automation testers within such organisations
are, in most cases, fully incapable of doing so effectively.
Such testers cannot learn to code. Many could barely type with much
proficiency. All were great people and great at manual testing, but coding was
generally not what they were wired for.
There is a market for something easier.
It took me some time developing a plain-English DSL to realise myself that the
majority of browser automation coding isn't coding.
You can abstract away the hard parts. What you're left with is not coding but
configuration.
Given the right automation system you don't need to write code to define your
tests, you instead need to configure the system to test as needed.
A DSL to replace current automation coding as-is is indeed an odd task.
A DSL for a minimal-grammar configuration language within an automation system
can definitely work.
Will it work for everyone? No, absolutely not. Not you and not many who read
HN. We're the outliers.
Will it work for boring dusty companies that we've never heard of and which
can't afford to employ people who read HN? Yes, definitely.
~~~
ou_ryperd
I take your point, and kudo's.
Where I'm coming from is having seen some tool vendors sell "scriptless" test
automation tools. UFT has it, and what used to be Rational Functional Tester
has it (I peddled RFT in a previous life). The vendors sold it very
successfully to non-technical managers, and it looks cool, the dusty companies
and large companies all fell for it. "Your Business Analysts can automate
tests". But a few months down the line, you realise that it is a rock muffin.
No modular code, but linear end-to-end scripts. The login page changed? Update
hundreds of test scripts. Who looks bad? Test automation as a profession.
~~~
webignition
I certainly feel your pain when it comes to non-modular linear end-to-end
scripts.
The DSL I'm working on is already quite modular so as to reduce repetition, to
hide complex-looking things like CSS selectors behind user-defined names and
to support the definition of data sets independent of the tests that use them.
A test for a given page can import test steps, adding further actions and
assertions if required and injecting one or more sets of data over which to
iterate.
Sets of data can be defined inline (to support quick learning) or defined in
separate files and imported and referenced (more ideal).
Properties of a page being tested can be defined separately to the test
itself, including aspects such as the URL and named locators expressed as
either CSS selectors or XPath expressions, referenced later as needed by the
user-defined name. This reduces to one the number places many page-specific
details need changing, as well as allowing the tests (which reference by name
pre-defined locators) to flow more naturally.
I'd greatly appreciate your feedback in a few months when we have something
workable to demonstrate. My email is in my profile if you're happy to help.
~~~
ou_ryperd
So is mine. Send me a link when you have something.
~~~
webignition
Your email doesn't appear to be present in your public profile that I can see.
------
nubela
Interesting but I'm not sure about the syntax. If I'm writing code, why do I
want to write code in a language that is overly verbose and not that precise?
Just make it code.
And if it is not meant for programmers, then make it clickable+drag-and-drop.
Having a compromise in this case, makes it not a solution for anyone.
~~~
gitgud
_> Having a compromise in this case, makes it not a solution for anyone._
Drag n drop is surprisingly slow and limiting to use, it's also hard to
implement etc.
I think this DSL is approachable for non-programmers. I envision
bosses/clients using this to write tests for parts of website to make sure it
works.
If they need more functionality, they can move to more complex browser
automation later... _if they need it_
A specific use case, but I can see demand for it...
------
subhashchy
Interesting concept, sounds promising.
Have you checked taiko ?
[https://github.com/getgauge/taiko](https://github.com/getgauge/taiko)
~~~
hliyan
Neat! When we were looking around, we didn't find this one, thanks.
Can it also do stuff like this:
read ${sender} from row "Test email" column "Sender"
By the way, that works using cartesian lookup.
------
bmn__
> pronounced Kuh-SAA-yuh
That's ambiguous and not helpful – particularly in English that has many
varieties and also too many vowel phonemes to map onto letters. Use IPA
instead.
~~~
thosakwe
For anyone else wondering, IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet.
------
vincelt
Looks promising but I don't want to install the JDK (and it's not practical
for CI). Isn't it possible to do without with something like Puppeteer?
~~~
hliyan
Will look into this!
------
mml
might want to think about a different name.
[https://www.kaseya.com](https://www.kaseya.com)
------
languagehacker
Would be great if this "transpiled" into a more robust and popularly supported
formalism so that the functionality could be refined over time.
I could see implementing this script as being a requirement for a new feature
delivered by engineering, and then having test engineering use that
functionality as a foundation for more thorough qualification.
I worry that this approach by itself will fall into the same issues that
Cucumber does, which is the amount of manual definition you would need to
implement through what they're referring to as "macros". Over time those
become as brittle as the code you intend to test.
~~~
someone7x
I think Selenium IDE is still around.
Its a drag-n-drop browser plugin that does everything Kasaya can do (both
selenium under the hood) and can export to js/python/etc.
------
rubyn00bie
I don't see how this is a scripting language and runtime; so, maybe I'm
totally missing the boat and everything below is nonsense...
I think DSLs like this turn into one thing: maintenance nightmares.
I love the idea of them, I've just _never_ seen one be useful for more than a
demo. Especially, for something as complex as interacting with the browser...
Why not just use a visual tool and record the session with something like
selenium? At this point, the idea of a "DSL" for non-programmers is pretty
much a fantastic myth. I think DSLs should really only be used when they
enforce quality, not to have a nicer looking statement. Same rule applies with
macros, and lmao, if they aren't responsible for most DSLs.
I haven't even begun touch on the problems with errors, debugging, warnings,
deprecating, updates, etc. which also come with a DSL.
The SDK setup looks an awful lot like I'm just using selenium with node and
this is on-top of that entire debugging nightmare, is there more to it than
that and the DSL?
As well I'm curious, how do you reliably use the web without selectors? I see
it referenced, but I don't see "how," and that quite honestly seems like the
coolest thing on the readme.
Again, I love the idea, it looks slick. Just based on my experiences, it seems
like how nightmares, not dreams, start...
------
thosakwe
The "blah blah this could have just been a library instead of a DSL blah blah
no one will use this blah blah" conversation always comes up, but always
ignores the fact that even if it were just a library, that alone wouldn't make
people use it... It also ignores the fact that you'd get just as many "blah
blah why not just use this other existing library blah blah" comments.
------
chrisweekly
Cool. Related: the venerable WPT
([https://webpagetest.org](https://webpagetest.org)) is well-documented, and
it's straightforward to set up a private instance (eg via AWS AMI) that
supports scripting and a robust set of testing tools.
------
losvedir
This is neat. I was just looking for something like this the other day.
Does it support loops? I don't see any example like that. Basically I wanted
to load a search results page and check something about _each_ of the results
on the page.
~~~
hliyan
Our current thinking is to not provide branching mechanisms (loops,
conditionals) by design. Both to keep the language simple, but more
importantly, to force script writers to create one test per each scenario. If
you need an if statement, that's probably an indicate you need two tests.
For your use case, you'll need to write a macro and then call it the number of
times you need.
how to check for $something in search results for $thing
...
end
check for "foo" in "bar"
check for "foo2" in "bar"
check for "foo3" in "bar"
That works?
------
socialdemocrat
I think people often fail to grasp why natural language works for humans. It
is because we can have a conversation back and forth and supplement with other
things like illustrations or drawings.
That I can explain task to a programmer in natural language and that he can
implement it, is only possible because he can ask questions back and gradually
build up a mental model.
These natural language solutions often lack this feedback loop mechanism.
When you don’t have feedback you are better off with a more precise and more
mathematical language.
------
spectaclepiece
Looks cool for really simple things but wouldn't use it for anything serious.
I have been using Cypress[0] the past few months and so far I've been quite
pleased with it.
[0] cypress.io/
~~~
casperc
Is it suitable to do automation? They seem to be mentioning testing only.
~~~
kevlened
It is. Testing is simply automation with assertions.
------
A4ET8a8uTh0
I like the idea. Bookmarked for when I get back to my home machine.
------
mc3
One way this can be achieved is using specflow or cucumber and then make that
drive selenium or puppeteer.
Probably a 10 minute job to set up some basic commands (like demoed here). Not
saying you can replace this project in 10 minutes of course.
Advantage is you can use the same language as used here pretty much, but you
can use some of gherkin's nice features like the tables for different test
cases (or scraping cases!).
Kasaya would have the role in this case of defining the common language.
------
naushniki
Does it use Selenium under the hood?
~~~
hliyan
Yes it does...
~~~
bdcravens
Note that some sites block Selenium, since browsers report the use of
WebDriver, and Selenium injects known predictable Javascript. Does Kasaya do
anything to mitigate this?
~~~
hliyan
Not yet, but someone suggested Chrome DevTools protocol. This is still in the
very early stages, so we're looking into these things.
~~~
maple3142
I wonder why don't use Puppeteer[1], which is a established project for
automating Chromium using Chrome DevTools protocol.
[1]:
[https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer](https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer)
~~~
zabil
Taiko was initially based on puppeteer, but it was hard to keep up with
puppeteer's api changes.
Plus, the abstraction leaked. Taiko is now built on the excellent
[https://github.com/cyrus-and/chrome-remote-
interface](https://github.com/cyrus-and/chrome-remote-interface)
~~~
hliyan
This is possibly Kasaya's plan as well.
------
Middleclass
Is Selenium less crashy nowadays?
Back in 2017 when I had a testing automation job, I wrote a test automation
system using Node, Selenium WebDriver, Cucumber and Vagrant.
It worked well once I managed to set up a Vagrant box that would take Cucumber
tests from a local directory and keep a Node, Selenium WebDriver and Cucumber
install cached, but WebDriver never really stopped crashing unpredictably.
I had to implement very coarse retry logic. Tests would take way too much time
just because each run a few of the tests would keep crashing for a minute or
more, until they finally succeeded.
I parameterized the Vagrant box so that testers could run subsets of tests by
running the "test" command with parameters, not because we had that many tests
(just about a 100) but because they were so slow.
It wasn't even that complicated of a SPA, and the backend engineers even added
nice classes and ID's to elements that were to be tested.
The binding of Cucumber to JS to WebDriver was flawless, adding new testing
functions (e.g. "do something with some particular type of list of items"), it
was just that the browser component kept crashing all. the. time.
I longed for a deterministic means of automating the browser then, preferably
by hooking right into the browser code and integrating with it, so I would
know why the thing kept crashing. That hasn't happened yet.
------
catchmeifyoucan
Dragging is a command I wish existed. I’m not super sure how to test draggable
components - any thoughts?
~~~
hliyan
Drag is implemented, but we haven't fully tested or documented it properly:
[https://github.com/syscolabs/kasaya/blob/master/kasaya.js#L8...](https://github.com/syscolabs/kasaya/blob/master/kasaya.js#L86)
------
lqs469
Inspiring ideas, Perhaps this will be useful for automated testing or
accessibility, etc.
------
socialdemocrat
Trying to explain to my mother what to click in a user interface over the
phone is next to impossible. So much for the superiority of natural language.
What you need is the ability to point and talk.
------
zmmmmm
There seems to be a lot of different efforts going on this space. While it's
great to see people trying to make this area better I'm pretty sceptical that
almost anybody would be wise to try and adopt this - you will hit the limits
of what you can do with such a limited language so fast. And the language is
only marginally more intepretable than things like Geb[1], which even supports
similar constructs to "near" etc., but is a full programming language (Groovy)
when you need it to be.
[1] [https://gebish.org/](https://gebish.org/)
------
jbob2000
Who is this for? It requires the JDK and Node.js to be installed, telling me
that this is targeted to developers. If I'm a developer, I'm OK to use a
browser automation framework that requires a bit of code (at least one that
has conditionals and loops...).
~~~
t0astbread
I guess it'd just need to be packaged up nicely.
------
tor291674
Why is Java SDK needed?
------
veysel-im
I did think today :)
------
dariusj18
I am confused by the use of "WYSIWYG". It seems to be more a control
console/REPL with Natural Language syntax.
Edit: A killer feature would be autocomplete for things found on the page.
~~~
hliyan
> Edit: A killer feature would be autocomplete for things found on the page.
_Challenge accepted!_
~~~
TuringTest
IMHO it would also benefit from a "raw typing" mode. It's a bit silly to have
to explicitly write _' type "cat"'_ and _' press "enter"'_, when you're
already typing _' cat'_ and _' enter'_.
You could simply start this raw mode with a keyboard shortcut, and everything
you type is automatically transformed into this "type" and "press" commands,
until you exit the mode with either the same shortcut or Esc.
~~~
dariusj18
Or if the first thing you type is a quote if you are focused on an input, then
it infers the type command, otherwise it's a focus search.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to increase reading speed - solomatov
What are the best way to increase reading speeds. I am reading at about 300 words per minute rate which I find unsatisfactory.
======
user_235711
What is the reason you are concerned with reading fast? Maybe it's just me,
but I think that comprehending what is read is far more important than
finishing reading quickly.
~~~
solomatov
I want to read more faster, want to read more articles more books in the same
amount of time. I currently have not very good speed about 200-300 words per
minutes (however, English isn't my native language).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
EU Puts Forward Ambitious Open Access Target - unitedacademics
http://www.united-academics.org/sex-society/eu-puts-forward-ambitious-open-access-target/
======
brudgers
Recent discussion of the news:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787271](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787271)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Probiotics help poplar trees clean up TCE toxins in Superfund sites - fern12
http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/08/14/probiotics-help-poplar-trees-clean-up-toxins-in-superfund-sites/
======
DrScump
A really interesting approach, but the article doesn't give evidence that the
enhanced growth _causes_ greater TCE remediation.
~~~
fern12
I'm confused. Doesn't this show greater TCE remediation?
>Additionally, the researchers found that groundwater samples taken directly
downstream from the test site showed much lower levels of the toxin, compared
with higher levels up-gradient from the testing area.
~~~
DrScump
That doesn't demonstrate that the _greater tree growth_ itself causes (or
contributes to) added remediation; it could have been the bacteria added to
the soil itself, or the presence of the grove as a whole, etc.
~~~
fern12
I see your point. Thanks for clarifying.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The 600+ Companies PayPal Shares Your Data With - pmlnr
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/03/the_600_compani.html
======
throwaway2016a
Having worked in the financial industry I am not surprised. You have to share
a huge amount of PII just to process a transaction. The more you share the
lower your fees per transaction which for a company like Paypal can mean
mi(bi)llions.
The assumption is, the more data the less likely it is fraud and therefor the
less likely there will be chargebacks.
Most of these are banks, customer service, and fraud prevention companies.
It's also worth noting that this list is of all the companies Paypal MAY share
your data with. If you never opened a credit card in Germany and used it on
Paypal it is unlikely to hit the German processor, for instance.
------
originalsimba
We need to change the language, it's too soft. Paypal isn't "sharing" your
data. They're "selling" your data.
Sharing is Caring. If you want people to take these threats seriously you need
to speak to them with language they can understand.
~~~
JimmyAustin
If Paypal pays service provider Y to validate a credit card hasn't recently
been used in fraud, they would be sharing the data, but they certainly
wouldn't be selling the data.
------
lykr0n
Direct Link: [https://www.paypal.com/ie/webapps/mpp/ua/third-parties-
list](https://www.paypal.com/ie/webapps/mpp/ua/third-parties-list)
Kind of interesting to see the network of companies paypal uses for various
functions. Surprise Surprise the largest sections are fraud prevention and
marketing.
~~~
wslh
PayPal fraud prevention makes it impossible to use, you are guilty until
proven innocent. In a way Coinbase is in a collision course also. Not saying
that it's entirely their fault but there should be an innovative way to offer
a good user experience while following regulations.
Beyond this, GDPR is educating us. I wonder how US regulations/regulators were
so flexible with this kind of companies but are so strict with their users.
~~~
Scoundreller
> guilty until proven innocent
I can’t see reversible payments between strangers over the internet working
without that.
Let alone the tax/money-laundering reporting requirements.
~~~
wslh
Many times I can't even send the payment.
------
onetimemanytime
A lot of it is common sense, banks for example: If you use your bank (you have
to via checking or CC) they have to know your PayPal information.
Also they have to care about fraud.
~~~
dorgo
Wait, what? Why does my bank need to talk to (share information with) PayPal?
------
grantlmiller
Interestingly, under GDPR EU citizens need to opt in to each of these,
explicitly, and be able to toggle them off on an ad hoc basis. Additionally,
PayPal is required to list each of these vendor's vendors (which could
increase the number of vendors by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude). If companies
actually follow the GDPR controls this is going to turtle all the way down.
~~~
dfxm12
_Interestingly, under GDPR EU citizens need to opt in to each of these,
explicitly, and be able to toggle them off on an ad hoc basis._
This sounds terrible. How is your regular EU citizen supposed to know which of
these companies would be required to get your payment to reach its
destination?
~~~
chopin
Maybe PayPal should disclose this?
Not
\- Your data MAY be shared with these 600 companies
but
\- For this transaction to complete, your data WILL be shared with those 10
companies
------
dahdum
This absurd level of data sharing is one of the reasons I use Apple Pay 100%
of the time it's offered, at least they don't go sending half the world your
info and product purchase history.
The merchant may still do so of course...but the footprint is reduced.
~~~
CaptSpify
How do you know that Apple isn't doing that?
~~~
stinos
I'm curious as well. I mean, it might not be '600' (although as commented by
others, that doesn't mean your particluar account data hits all 600 of them),
but at least something should get shared somehow to complete any type of
payment? If not just for the receiving party? And what information exactly do
they get?
------
ivanstojic
The title on the PayPal list itself reads "List of Third Parties (other than
PayPal Customers) with Whom Personal Information _May be_ Shared."
If that's true, this is just the "worst case" scenario - you are very unlikely
to hit any significant fraction of these companies for any single given
transaction.
Or so I hope.
~~~
jhall1468
The overwhelming majority likely _never_ get _anybodies_ info. These lists
have to be extensive, and for the "marketing" category the data is almost
assuredly anonymous. But to avoid hefty lawsuits, companies choose to list any
company that might accidentally get a CC they aren't supposed to.
------
Talyen42
Hopefully none of these 600+ companies ever get hacked.
~~~
thinkMOAR
[https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/paypal-tio-data-
breach.htm...](https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/paypal-tio-data-breach.html)
you were saying? :)
~~~
dovik
Kind of irony? ;-)
------
Scoundreller
> To allow payment processing settlement services, and fraud checking.
So, do they only share my info with them when I make a payment with that
specific institution, or do they share my info even if they’re uninvolved but
sell fraud prevention services?
------
egypturnash
The visualization he links to is pretty nice: [https://rebecca-
ricks.com/paypal-data/](https://rebecca-ricks.com/paypal-data/)
"Credit reference and fraud" companies are pretty much tied with "marketing
and public relations"; the latter seems to be about half "tracking pixel
providers". _Fuck_ ubiquitous advertising. _The Space Merchants_ was supposed
to be a _satire_ , not a manual.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the America Invents Act Will Change Patenting Forever - sk2code
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/america-invents-act/
======
oneandoneis2
So.. it's a change from "The patent is yours.. unless somebody comes along
with a convincing story about how they thought of it before you and just
didn't tell anyone" to "The patent is yours"
I don't understand the negative slant this article is trying to put on it.
Other than the same kind of knee-jerk "Change is bad!" that you see every time
Facebook changes its page layout, what's the problem with this?
~~~
banachtarski
The problem is that there are cases where the original inventor really is the
person without the resources or time to file the patent first. It goes both
ways.
~~~
nathan_long
That's true. However, if the little inventor doesn't file the patent, they
either 1) sell the product anyway or 2) don't sell the product.
If #1, they have prior art to keep a big company from patenting it, and the
two compete in the market.
If #2, I'd argue they don't deserve the patent; it doesn't benefit the public
to grant them that monopoly unless the public gets a product out of it. Let
the big company patent and sell it.
Right?
~~~
banachtarski
In the case of #1, how does the inventor keep selling once corporation X
successfully files?
For #2, the inventor may have patented in the hopes of licensing the idea to a
corporation with more manufacturing muscle.
------
tptacek
Previous thread, which includes comments from a patent lawyer.
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5211221>
Long story short: this change is not a big deal.
Especially useful comment:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5212111>
~~~
nh
It seems that media just read the title of the bill and ran with it.
Explain it to me as a 5 year old:
This is not a true 'first to file'. You basically get 1 year grace period.
Example: John gives a speech on his invention. Mark files a patent a month
later after hearing John's speech. John then files a patent application 6
months later. Mark's application cannot be used against John's application as
prior art,even though, Mark filed a application first.
This was generally the practice before AIA. As most people would say it
harmonizes US patent laws with around the world. In other words, mostly
semantics...
------
saosebastiao
So what happens when someone patents your company's established trade secrets
and then wants to charge your company to use its own internally developed
technology?
~~~
andylei
prior art is still a defense, just like it was before.
~~~
SEMW
"Prior art" is only stuff that was at the time available to the public, so
wouldn't apply to internal company secrets. The relevant defence here is prior
_use_ , which is different: unlike prior art, it doesn't invalidate the
patent, it's just a defence to infringement.
An example of a prior use defence in a first to file jurisdiction -- here, the
UK -- is:
"Where a patent is granted for an invention, a person who in the United
Kingdom before the priority date of the invention—
(a) does in good faith an act which would constitute an infringement of the
patent if it were in force, or
(b) makes in good faith effective and serious preparations to do such an act,
has the right to continue to do the act or, as the case may be, to do the act,
notwithstanding the grant of the patent; but this right does not extend to
granting a licence to another person to do the act."
------
EGreg
Does this mean that some entrepreneur can invent something, start building in
stealth mode, and one of his employees can patent it, quit and sue him in a
year? :P
------
ChrisNorstrom
Does anyone know how or weather prior art will be affected?
~~~
andylei
it won't be
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Memory and Creativity (1996) - danhak
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/newsletr/fall96/ambegao.htm
======
danhak
A more well-formatted PDF version, for those who'd like to click through:
[http://www.physics.cornell.edu/wp-
content/uploads/unedited-t...](http://www.physics.cornell.edu/wp-
content/uploads/unedited-typescript.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Monetize Maker Blogs to at least $99/m - ronaldl93
A few days ago I built a little site called https://makerblogs.xyz.<p>After a few people submitted their blogs via Twitter, I decided to post it on Product Hunt.<p>To my surprise, it actually went semi-viral and reached #2 for the day on PH. Quite a big deal for me.<p>Probably a premature 'launch' if I may call it that, as I realised I forgot something major - I never set Cloudinary (my image CDN) to resize images into something smaller before serving as static files.
This has caused my bandwidth allowance from Cloudinary to max out, currently standing at 208%. Ouch. Somehow they still haven't cut me off and they are still serving the static images.<p>I tweeted Cloudinary if there's a way to bulk resize images, but no response yet.<p>They will probably pull the plug on me eventually unless I pay $99/m for their service, which wouldn't make any business sense, considering I'm not making any money off this site.<p>Anyone else got ideas on how I can potentially monetise to at least pay for my hosting and servers?<p>(I added a "sponsor" button to see if I can get a reaction)
======
mosedart
Yeah, there's a pretty easy way to do that, the entire idea of Cloudinary is
you just pass the size you want in the image URL.
Cloudinary isn't just image hosting, it's a transformation service. Take this
image which you are serving at almost 4mb (!):
[https://res.cloudinary.com/cinemakers/image/upload/v15440892...](https://res.cloudinary.com/cinemakers/image/upload/v1544089238/profilepics/fc38c35c-f93a-11e8-b32f-5600019ed549.jpg)
To display at 240x340:
[https://res.cloudinary.com/cinemakers/image/upload/w_240,h_3...](https://res.cloudinary.com/cinemakers/image/upload/w_240,h_340,c_fill,g_auto/profilepics/fc38c35c-f93a-11e8-b32f-5600019ed549.jpg)
notice the transformations in the URL. c_fill is the "fill" crop mode, and
"g_auto" stands for "auto gravity", meaning Cloudinary will find the salient
features in the image and crop accordingly.
This reduces the file size under 20kb, and you should be well within your free
plan limits after making these changes.
------
kristianp
I would guess your usage will go down once the PH article gets off the front
page, so the problem should only be temporary.
------
billconan
you can corporate with sparkfun and adafruit with ad for parts.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Draftr – Share drafts of your work and gather anonymous feedback - ElvisGump
http://www.draftr.xyz/
======
ElvisGump
Hello fellow hacker(wo-)men.
Long time lurker here. I want to show you a tool I 've built that I would like
to get feedback on. I've done all of the programming, design, copy, etc.,
myself. Pretty much everything and a lot of which I've learned how to do
through reading articles and comments right here on HN.
This tool allows you to upload drafts of your creations, such as animations,
designs, drawings, photos, reports, songs, and writings. You can then share
these drafts with your peers, allowing them to post anonymous feedback on your
drafts. Depending on the type of file you upload Draftr will display different
interfaces. Try uploading an MP3 and then a TXT, for example.
Any suggestions, thoughts, improvements or just general comments on the tool
are much appreciated.
Thanks.
------
brbsix
I've noticed that when I hit play on the example mp3 and then go back to the
homepage (via the icon in the upper left corner), the music still plays and
I'm unable to stop it. I can even have the same track playing multiple times
simultaneously. Great concept though... What stack are you using?
~~~
bossx
That's a Chrome for Android feature, you can stop it from your notifications.
[http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.ca/2013/02/chrome-
for-a...](http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.ca/2013/02/chrome-for-android-
update.html)
~~~
brbsix
I'm experiencing this behavior on desktop Chrome 49.0.2623.39 beta (64-bit). I
just now tested it with Chrome for Android and I'm unable to play the music at
all.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What It's Like Inside Apple Designer Jony Ive's Secret Lab - dirtyaura
http://www.businessinsider.com/jony-ive-lab-2011-3
======
dirtyaura
Forget this, the original article is much much better
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1367481/Appl...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1367481/Apples-
Jonathan-Ive-How-did-British-polytechnic-graduate-design-genius.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Review my first project (gift certificate templates) - toumhi
http://www.giftcertificatefactory.com<p>Background: Christmas time. When asked what I wanted for Christmas, I replied:" an electronic book". Problem is, it doesn't look very good on a christmas tree. Hence came to me the idea of providing gift certificate templates. And pivoting a bit on the idea, I thought that some businesses might be interested in paying to print for pre-designed gift certificate templates! So when I decided to leave my job and create my own company, I decided to start small and create a website filling that need (others exist, see www.giftcarddesigner.com).<p>What it is: providing pre-designed gift certificate templates that a (small) business owner could personalize online, without using photoshop, paying a designer or microsoft word.<p>Also, I'm currently bootstrapping this from Jakarta, Indonesia, my business is registered in France, and my main target would be (I assume for now) small american businesses.
======
nudge
Good looking site and a sensible product idea. A few thoughts:
1\. "GIFT CERTIFICATE TEMPLATES FOR YOUR BUSINESS" is not the best tagline, I
think. "Template? What's a template?" Perhaps better is something like "Sell
gift certificates for your business". The fact that you're actually selling
'templates' isn't really important to them. What they get is the ability to
sell gift certificates.
2\. Below the "sign up to the mailing list" on the front page the information
is a bit messy, and there may just be too much of it. What's the difference
between the "features" and "about product" tabs? (I don't want you to tell me
the answer - I'm just saying it's unclear). Perhaps just grab the most
important points and say them as clearly as possible, without requiring clicks
onto tabs or anything. Things like "add the name of your company" are probably
redundant - I would expect that I would be able to add the name of my company
at the very least! I would probably just junk a lot of that stuff and fold it
all into a "How it works" page. Then on the front page you just have "Start
Printing Gift Certificates" [not 'templates'!] or "How it works"
Various other of your pages could do with cleaning up a bit like that, but
overall I think the idea's probably a good one.
One final thought though: is there any fraud prevention involved? What's to
stop somebody just making a really good colour photocopy of their gift
certificate? You don't have any ID numbers or anything on the certificates, do
you?
~~~
toumhi
thanks for the feedback, it helps a lot! You're right on point 1 and 2, point
2 it's because I used a template from themeforest. This is a MVP and in a
second iteration I intend to redesign the site, with less clutter.
Very good point about the "templates" not being what they want, but on the
other hand people are looking for "gift certificate templates" on google quite
a lot (that's still a small niche of course). Also people might want to give
gift certificates, not sell them.
Concerning the fraud prevention, I indeed didn't do anything specifically for
it. For now I assume people can add a tracking number (manually) on the front
or back. I don't know how much of a deal breaker that is. Maybe people would
like a bar code, or serial numbers, or...
------
fwdbureau
Just curious: what's the interest of registering your business in France?
Isn't this the best way to choke on taxes?
~~~
toumhi
Well, since I'm french, it was easier. There is a new status called
'autoentrepreneur' and it makes it quite easy for people to start a business
(very little tax as long as you don't make more than 80000 euros a year, don't
have employees etc).
~~~
fwdbureau
sounds good! I ran away from france to holland a few years ago because of
this. I don't remember exactly but the threshold was much lower than 80000€
Wish you lots of luck!
~~~
toumhi
funny. I moved from france to holland three years ago, but have now started my
business in France this month. I'm currently traveling but am still undecided
on where to "settle" :-)
------
toumhi
clickable: <http://www.giftcertificatefactory.com>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla sues ex-employee for hacking and theft. But he says he's a whistleblower - Element_
http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/technology/tesla-sues-employee/
======
awalton
Whistleblowers leak _evidence of wrongdoing_ not rumors. If this guy believes
himself to be a whistleblower, all he has to do is provide the evidence of the
wrongdoing, period.
I'm willing to listen, but he's got miles to go before his claims are more
than hot air.
------
smt88
It took me longer than most others on HN, but I've recently come to see Musk
as a dystopian figure. If anything Martin Tripp says is true, it'll be yet
another reminder that we need great journalism to protect the public from
corporate reality distortion fields.
The interesting thing about this story is that both Tesla and Tripp should
have irrefutable evidence to back up their version of the story, and it just
remains to be seen who releases it.
~~~
skellera
I highly doubt they’d go as far as framing him. But either way, we need to
wait before going crazy with speculation. Both sides have not shown any
evidence.
If it’s true, someone got that data and should be building the story. If it
isn’t, Tesla can prove pretty easily that the data is truly trade secrets and
his whistleblower story is no longer makes sense.
~~~
smt88
Why wouldn't they frame him? I don't think they did, but they have a
multibillion dolla incentive to do it.
I think it's more likely that a lot of Tesla's side is spin to cover safety
problems. But I still have no idea what the real story is either way.
------
Element_
This Washington Post article has more details:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2018/06/20...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2018/06/20/tesla-sues-former-employee-as-elon-musk-signals-hunt-for-
saboteurs/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tales from a non-Chinese Gold Seller - shikind
Posting this on behalf of a friend who's too busy gold farming to make an account of her own:<p>As many of you know, I endured the banhammer on my main WoW account. I'm as bitter as anyone would be, but not because of all the time I lost. I can get mounts, titles, pets, gear and all of my 80s back within time. I think what I'm the most bitter about is how Blizzard went about this and how I have to basically bend over and take it in the rear constantly from this company.<p>I know gold selling is a bannable offense. It's stated in the ToS, it's stated (sometimes) when you log in. I knew it would happen eventually- but not like this.<p>After over 10 emails exchanged with the account admins, I was replied consistently with the same copy/paste format each time until I guess I annoyed them enough and it was taken up by a supervisor. I am still awaiting a reply.<p>After reading hundreds of forum posts, threads, and the like- people are getting banned for the dumbest stuff when it comes to gold. A guild breaking up and the GM splitting the guild bank between the 3 officers? Perma ban. Someone buying a crimson deathcharger from someone face to face instead of the auction house? Perma ban. Sending 140k to a brand new alt on the same account? Perma ban.<p>Most of these aren't even getting unbanned, let alone replied to. These people were doing normal things in the game yet were put on the same page of wrecking the economy, goldselling, etc. as me? It makes no sense. I in no way defend what I do/did. I sold gold. I made loads of cash. Call me a bad person, but it was good money. These people on the other hand? Did nothing wrong. From what I read, Blizz has a way of tracking large amounts of gold being moved. I get it- it makes sense. But do they not realize 100k is not a lot of gold anymore? You can make that in one day with proper farming, watching prices, and especially when a new expansion is released OR during Darkmoon week. If they're going to track gold and ban people for it- at least up the amount to track.<p>What really grinds my gears out of all of this is how quick they were to reply about the incident. Over the past 2 years I have contacted NUMEROUS GMs for harassment and threats made in and outside of the game WITH PROOF. I got blown off completely, and sent the same copy/pasted email format as to what action was taken. On what level is harassment and threatening a player put below selling currency? I don't understand.<p>REGARDLESS<p>I will not stop selling gold. It's almost like a bad drug addiction. The income was nice and I got to do things I would not have been able to had it not been for selling gold.<p>Game Stop is an okay job but pays for absolute shit. There's no way in hell I can make a living from that job but with it + gold I was making a pretty decent income.<p>I get sick a lot. I have a very weak immune system that treats a common cold as the flu. If I ever catch the actual flu, or even pneumonia- I will die, no questions asked. During December I had to call in multiple times because I was sick nonstop. Of course in December is Christmas- so every white trash child and his mother was trading in their nasty, dusty, smoke plagued items for minimal amounts of cash. Even with using hand sanitizer in between transactions, washing my hands to the point of where they were red and raw, you just can't get away from it. Long story short- I was out of work for a very very long time trying to recover.<p>With that said, I remembered I had sold gold here and there over the course of 2 years. I'd say maybe done it 6 or 7 times. I figured since I was going to be at home a lot, and there's no going back to work for a while as I am basically a biohazard- I'd start making some money on the side until I fully recovered.<p>It started off as just farming herbs occasionally on my mage, 1-2 maybe 3 hours at a time. I wasn't raiding and had loads of free time. This was a bit after Cataclysm was released so they were still decently priced. I did this for a few days and made well over 300k. I pawned off all of it to guildmates and ni hao sites via Paypal and transferred that money to my bank. After some time I realized how much quicker I could be making gold if I had instant flight form and could shadowmeld mobs off of me. Spent a few days leveling druid from 80-85. Max herbalism.<p>Hundreds and thousands of gold, time, herbs sold, volatile life sold, and many happy guildmates and customers later- I was sitting on well over 2,000$+ over the course of a month.<p>It almost became sort of a high for me, like a Colombian drug lord/trafficker. If you think about it- it is almost like the exact same thing, take away the prison time and health deterioration inflicted on others.<p>People want gold. Gold buys people what they want, which in return makes them happy and makes the game fun for them. Not all people have time to farm gold.<p>I wanted money. Money bought me Xbox games, my first Angelic Pretty dress set, a kickass birthday for my mom, a Valentine's day present for my boyfriend, and multiple breakfast/lunch/dinner outings my mom and I were never able to have- which in return made all of us happy. I have all the time in the world to farm gold, with very few hours I was working and an addiction to the exchange of currency to cash.<p>The argument is there I could just go get a better job. And you're right- I can. I have offers I can take any day, and probably will sooner now that I lost one of my accounts. Will it stop me from selling gold? No. Will it give me the same sense of fulfillment and the rush that gold selling does? No.<p>PROS OF GOLD SELLING<p><i>No real life human interaction. no sickness, no stress, no bashing of the head against the counter. Most transactions were done with very little communication, communication via Facebook, or were done with people I already know.<p></i>Making money from the comfort of my own home. I can get up at any point and go play Xbox if I get bored. I can eat when I want, where I want. I can play with my dogs and screw around while I wait on a transaction to finish, or just because I can.<p><i>Happiness. There is the saying "money can't buy happiness"- but I disagree. Money pays for doctor bills which in return give you medicine for your severe depression. I actually was taken off of my anti depressants because I had such a rapid change in my attitude towards life, and was more motivated and excited about things.<p></i>Fulfillment. I had a daily responsibility that fulfilled me in ways my job was unable to. Instead of secretly hating everyone that walked in the store, I was now excited to talk to people and help them get gold without spending a fortune. I am also able to pay off my student loans without stressing to get it done on time. With this, I have been able to look at potential other schools for later on in life.<p><i>Relationships. I've met loads of people through selling gold. Most of them turn out to be really awesome people that I still play with. Just like my job- I had repeat customers for having excellent communication, prices, and overall customer service. Like I told one of my regulars- you're helping me help you, vice versa.<p></i>My mom. My mom and I have always been very close. As I was struggling looking for work before I was hired at GS, we were having a rough time making ends meet. We never got to go out for dinner, we had to watch every penny, struggled with phone bills, dealing with my constant streams of sickness and doctor visits was depleting our money, and it was not a fun way to live. Now that I have my job combined with the gold income, we are able to finally go out, have fun, and do things together we originally were not able to do. It sounds superficial, but it's true. She has been less stressed knowing we have extra money to fall back on if something happens.<p>CONS OF SELLING GOLD<p><i>Time. I have to put forth lots of time in order to keep up to date on current auction house prices, dual box farming herbs, checking mail, doing transactions, waiting on paypal, and waiting on paypal money to transfer to my bank account, keeping up with constantly changing gold prices and adjusting my prices to always be lower. It's almost a full time job as I'm constantly at the computer doing one of the above. I also have to stay up very late into the night/early in the morning as that's when the ni hao sites have their live support up.<p></i>Sleep. Tied in with the above, I lose lots of sleep from waking up constantly to check auctions, put up more auctions, receiving mail, talking to china, responding to facebook mail, responding to emails, farming and the like.<p><i>WoW fun. The game has lost its luster 100% after making it a job. I did raid here and there, and that was fun. But overall? It's not a source of enjoyment for me. I can stop at any time, yes. But it's also a source of income and brings me again that sense of fulfillment.<p></i>Addiction. When I am outside of the house or away from my computer, I think of it as what sometimes goblin NPCs will say- "time is money, friend." The thought is correct and it sucks. Time I'm not farming is potential money lost- even in miniscule amounts. Even hanging out with my mom, boyfriend, friends- the thought lingers. It's not enough to make me rush home and tak tak tak on the keyboard, but it's enough to be a bit of an annoyance.<p>*Job. Although I spend hours upon hours doing this, have taught myself some simple Chinese greetings, and make a living for myself- it's not something I can put on a resume and claim as a previous job. I can't just walk into a business and say oh hey I farmed and sold gold on World of Warcraft for 2 years, hire me plz.<p>Overall, it's been a fun, rewarding experience. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. All transactions will be done on a third account once I get it opened up. I will stop someday, maybe once WoW dies. Even when I end up at Best Buy (the offer is on the table already) I will still carry on with selling gold on the side. I'm giving them their 15$ a month on top of extra accounts, and I'm making money that in return gives me the things I want. Everyone's happy.<p>Don't bother flaming- I got banned for a bannable offense. It's not a real job. Etc. you're telling me what I already know. I just wanted to share my experience =)
======
bmelton
Me and a buddy (him being the brains of the operation) made quite a profitable
trade hacking EQ and WOW, for a time. He's the name behind a number of (now
illegal) tools for WoW and EQ, and what we were doing was in very clear
violation of the terms of service.
We did well for ourselves -- I won't speak to my numbers (except to say that
my buddy did better), but I know he cleared well over $200k just on EverQuest
hacking.
When WOW was in closed beta, we paid a few hundred for beta invites. We would
get banned all the time, and have to spend another few hundred for a beta
invite. When WOW was released, in the few short months before Blizzard
exhausted all the hacks we'd found, we were buying, on average, a new copy of
the game per day, for each of us.
The challenge was awesome. Some of the hacks were brilliant, some, pedestrian.
Generally, the more mundane hacks were the easiest to exploit -- for example,
by intercepting the 'sendMail()' function, we were able to substitute the
value of gold we actually sent with an arbitrary one -- as Blizz wasn't
checking signed vs unsigned ints on their data types, sending -1 copper to a
cohort meant they would receive 65,535 copper on their end. When the game was
new, this was ridiculous, as there probably wasn't 1,000 gold in the entire
economy at that point that was legitimately gotten.
This was difficult, it was challenging, and yeah, every now and again we'd get
a little paranoid at a noise outside, imagining it was a SWAT team ready to
breach our house for having violated Blizzard's terms of service. The highs
were high, and the lows weren't that bad, since we were making tons of dough.
I cannot imagine the amount of time and energy it takes to farm $2000 worth of
gold without these hacks, but I can only guess that it is insane.
------
rick888
At most, how much were you making per month selling gold on Wow?
~~~
shikind
"I was sitting on well over 2,000$+ over the course of a month."
~~~
rick888
nice! I didn't even know this was possible.
There are a lot of skills you can use in other online businesses that you can
take from this:
1) watching auctions. Find something else to buy/sell besides WoW gold. There
are tons of other online opportunities out there outside of the WoW universe
that can make just as much money, you just need to find it. If you have some
Chinese contacts, you might be able to get in touch with some
wholesalers/dropshippers (if you want to go that route).
2) answering emails/customer support. Another good skill to have.
You could also reword your resume to say that you ran an online business and
you have experience with customer support and sales. I think many business
owners would be impressed that you were able to make a living on it, even if
it is WoW gold.
------
thegoleffect
Thanks for sharing. I know a lot of people who are burnt out by WoW and it
hasn't been fun for them in a long time.
------
zach
It's like Weeds meets The Guild!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Fibery – Connected Workspace for Teams - tablet
https://fibery.io/connect
======
fitzn
Congrats on the successful PH launch! :)
Product looks cool. My gut reaction is that its flexibility makes for a higher
barrier to entry for a new customer, but its flexibility will also make for a
massive tailwind once you get it rolling. Just my two cents and what do I
know. Will keep this in mind for use at Reflect when we get there.
~~~
tablet
Thanks! You are exactly right, it is hard to start, but hard to abandon when
you are in.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wondering What Happened to Your Class Valedictorian? Not Much, Research Shows - bane
http://time.com/money/4779223/valedictorian-success-research-barking-up-wrong/?xid=frommoney_soc_socialflow_twitter_money
======
gwern
I would question the statistics here without more details. As a simple matter
of course, you would expect very few valedictorians to do anything impressive
because few people ever do anything impressive; in a population of 320 million
people (more if you consider competition with foreign countries), 'impressive'
typically means something like being in the top 0.001% or higher. For
something like a Nobel, winning it means you are literally 1 in a few million
people. (Quick, what's the name of the 200th best chess player or tennis
player or mathematician?) While on the other hand, every year of every high
school in the USA produces a valedictorian (or more than one); if a million
kids graduate high school every year with an average class size of 200, then
there would be 5000+ valedictorians every year. Are there 5000+ famous
impressive people every single year without fail with 100% turnover? No, not
really.
It gets worse because high schools aren't equally selective. There's probably
plenty of tiny little high schools out in the Midwest or in other rural areas
where 'valedictorian' means being the best-graded out of 20 or 50 kids, while
on the other hand, at a magnet high school like Stuyvesant, half the school
might be valedictorian level if they had gone elsewhere (but they can't all be
the lone Stuy valedictorian).
Unless you've taken these into account, the rest of the discussion of grades
selecting for Conscientiousness and conformity etc, while plausible, sound
like just so many Just So stories.
(I have a similar issue with analyses of Hunter College Elementary School
which speculate at great length about why its alumnis appear to be so
disappointing, when as far as I can tell, the underperformance is exactly what
one would expect from the unreliability of early-childhood IQ tests plus base
rates: [https://www.gwern.net/Statistical%20notes#genius-
revisited-o...](https://www.gwern.net/Statistical%20notes#genius-revisited-on-
the-value-of-high-iq-elementary-schools) )
~~~
Fezzik
I would just say the metric of "changing the world" the author is using is
simply a bad metric. As you say, almost no one changes the world. The
interesting part, to me, is that Valedictorians end up doing pretty darn well:
"Of the 95 percent who went on to graduate college, their average GPA was 3.6,
and by 1994, 60 percent had received a graduate degree. There was little
debate that high school success predicted college success. Nearly 90 percent
are now in professional careers with 40 percent in the highest tier jobs."
In short, being a Valedictorian in high-school is a great predictor of future
success. The only perspective from which Valedictorians are not successful,
given the data set, is from a holier-than-though mindset. Garbling that
message by saying not every Valedictorian has moved mountains is... silly.
------
gmarx
On the other hand I pretty well fit the implied description of someone who
would go on to be very successful and yet I did not. I'm doing okay. I took my
shots and they didn't work out.
My class valedictorian, in a bizarre coincidence, lives next door to me (even
though we moved across the country and didn't plan it). He is a very rich ex
VC who now has a decently successful startup going.
So as much as I would like to use this article to prop up my ego...
~~~
iamacynic
wait... you're literally living next door to him yet you think he's operating
on some next-level of success compared to you? do you rent his guest house or
something?
~~~
gmarx
He owns two houses which he has merged into a compound like situation. I rent
next door in a tiny house that was likely created as grad student housing.
Most places rich people live also have more modest homes intermixed
| {
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What's everyone's thoughts on justin.tv? - domp
======
danielha
It is unsurprisingly compelling. But the live chat and interactivity really
made it for me. It's great to just idle in the room all day, pop back on the
computer after some time and ask "So what'd I miss?"
The potential of justin.tv is just phenomenal right now. The platform that
they've built is really going to change how entertainment is done.
------
pg
Dangerously addictive. I must have spent two hours looking at that site today.
~~~
domp
I'm not gonna lie I watched it a lot tonight. I really would have enjoyed it
better if the sound was better though. It was hard to hear the speaker and a
lot of the conversations. Wasn't Justin supposed to speak in front of
everyone?
~~~
pg
Justin's speaking at startup school; maybe that's what you're thinking of.
~~~
domp
Yup thats the confusion. Thanks
------
floozyspeak
Doesn't seem sticky enough for me.
Yer basically playing out a concept to see if you can do it and then you can
either break it down and turn it into a licensing kit idea for people and get
the masses to start creating their own, and adding their own personal style to
it.
If you don't sell it ya got about a month until someone learns from your idea
and rips it off and now yer bleeding.
Still isn't sticky.
You could play it up more and do more truman like things to it, but then yer
dancing into the realm of staged content, and the real effect could wear off,
but as if people really think reality shows are all that real anyways, theres
always a camera man there watchin people.
I dunno. Still biggest thing for me as a would be watcher, needs stickyness. I
like the fact you can embed justin like a widget, and all the bits you have to
rss it out etc is nice but overall stick is lacking.
Spend, Build, Learn, Craft, License, Sell thats yer best bet here. I seriously
doubt these guys can go a year, and if they could i mean my god, gun to head
please, eventually the audience will WANT you to turn the thing off. People
like blogs for stories and threads and ideas that get manifested into an
entry, in a real time stream, that after thought processing isnt there, so you
may see it you may not, stickyness is relying solely on the person in play and
whether or not somethings really interesting to see.
------
jimream
What would be better is a well edited documentary, comparing the two biggest
start-up incubators Ycombinator and Techstars.
It would be a fantastic promotional documentary for all party's involved.
Heck, you could even turn it into some kind of reality Tv show if your wanted
to where the 2 incubators compete somehow. 1st season broadcast via Youtube +
HD websites. 2nd season via NBC.
It's 1000x better idea for a show than this <http://www.iamtheprodigy.com/>
its a reality based tv show where 2000 door to door summer salespeople compete
to see who can sell the most, what garbage!! The people at Ycombinator and
Techstars are the _future leaders of the world!_ How much more interesting can
you get!?
If your interested in this idea I will be in the Bay area March 22-27.
[email protected]
~~~
nostrademons
There was a documentary done about one of the dot-com busts in 2000. I can't
remember the title, but Google may be able to help you.
The problem is that most of work starting a startup is _boring_. So either a
documentary distorts what actually goes on and shows you the interesting parts
(like the one above), or you lose interest and forget about it.
My day basically goes:
1\. Wake up. Start development VM. Check yCombinator. Reply to a post or two
while VM boots up.
2\. Implement a feature, or some administrative script, or setup some software
package on server, while eating breakfast.
3\. Go to day job. Work on somebody else's startup for 8 hours. Use breaks
etc. to resource technologies I'll need for that night's programming.
3.b. Sketch out some feature longhand in a notebook on the train home.
4\. Come home. Implement the low-hanging fruit that I just researched.
5\. Eat dinner
6\. Spend 2-3 hours working on some of the larger tasks that need doing.
7\. Repeat.
It's pretty productive, but hardly good TV. The documentary would basically be
"Jonathan staring at computer. Jonathan staring at computer. Jonathan staring
at computer."
I am keeping a blog (poorly - been 2 weeks since I updated) with the day-to-
day stuff. But really, that's just "Here's the challenge we just faced. Here's
how we solved it. Rinse, lather, repeat."
~~~
danw
The documentary is probably startup.com
------
herdrick
They'll get tons of VC money soon and they'll need it for the bandwidth bills.
More people want to film their lives than want to talk into a fixed camera
(i.e. YouTube). You need a little new hardware for this though which hurts.
Still, it will be huge. The next YouTube.
------
Alex3917
Excellent. I had a lot of fun watching the tail end of the YC dinner last
night.
I don't think they'll have any trouble getting publicity, considering all
Justin has to do is tell all the live viewers Digg a link to his show at a
certain time. :-)
------
jadams
It's very, very cool. I'm in Canada, and it felt like I was at that party.
I kept having the strange urge to talk directly to people like pg, Trevor
Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, as if Justin were some kind of Telepresence
bot, or medium. It's weird to think of him walking around, with all these
"spirits" in his head.
The robot demo was fascinating, and I love the unscriptedness. I think I
prefer that to an edited or scripted documentary. You can infer a lot from the
raw data that wouldn't make it through the editorial process.
------
sethjohn
My guess is that the real money here is in a product placement advertising
model, rather than licensing the platform.
They'll get some valuable patents for technology they develop, and a few
hundred bucks each off the few hundred people who want to broadcast their life
24/7/365. But a big .tv-star will be able to bring in $K a day just to test a
Segway, show up at the right restaurant, attend the launch party for a new
startup, etc.
------
herdrick
I think the police entering their apartment at 1:40 this morning, guns drawn,
is going to make a classic moment for the archives.
I'll be honest, I was thinking I was maybe going to see Justin get shot.
~~~
sharpshoot
whoa, seriouly what did i miss there!? Why did the police enter the apartment?
~~~
staunch
Apparently someone used a teletype service (intended for the hearing-impaired)
to call police and report a stabbing. Police arrived with guns drawn.
( These teletype services are frequently used for credit card fraud as a way
for the perpetrator to remain anonymous. )
------
Andys
What struck me was how slick the platform was. I don't particularly care to
watch Justin for more than just a few minutes, but if it was someone I did
want to watch I'd probably load it up every night.
------
rhmason
I may be older than your target audience but I think except for the police
raid it was rather lame. But then I don't understand the appeal of American
Idol or Survivor either
------
nostrademons
Posted them here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=5313> before this
thread was open.
------
sethjohn
Prediction: At least two of the first ten .tv-stars will attempt a Borat style
character.
------
dpapathanasiou
It feels like the "Truman Show", except the lead character knows he's being
watched.
------
staunch
I love it and I'm rooting for them big time.
------
marie
JustinTV is SO addictive!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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ASK HN: How to be a better programmer? - sid6376
I am a 24 year old guy who recently had an epiphany that the field i accidentally landed up in(programming) might just be what's my calling. But i want to get better at it than i already am today which frankly is not much.
and i need your help. I read this article by Peter Norvig in college http://norvig.com/21-days.html and have tried to follow it as a manifesto.
Specifically i want to ask these particular questions?
1. What blogs/books i can read on a daily basis to get a little better every day?
2. As i have a fulltime job which occassionally stretches into 12-16 hour workdays can i contribute to open source in a meaningful way? Or will working on a problem which i face is the better solution.
3. Any other tip that you might have, which you follow yourself or have seen someone doing that helps me towards this goal.<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.
======
dkersten
Ways to become a better programmer:
\- Practive! The more you program, the better you become. The harder the thing
you program, the better you become. This is the single most important thing
you could do. All the great programmers I know program outside of work, in
their own time. That is, they take an interest in programming and practice
even when they don't _have_ to.
\- Read code wrtten by people better than you. This will inspire you and give
you ideas on how to improve your own code.
\- Go to local user groups or meetups. Meeting other programmers outside of
work will give plenty of opportunities to improve, by talking about ideas,
showing each other projects or code or by working on projects together. If the
group also does talks/presentations/tutorials, then you have even more
opportunity to learn new things and improve.
\- Learn new programming langauges is a good way of improving your programming
skill, as long as the programming languages you learn are all different. For
example, if you know Java, you won't get a lot out of learning Java and if you
know Ruby, you won't get much out of learning Python etc (unless you want to
use a specific library for those languages). However, learning something
completely different, like Haskell or prolog or Common Lisp would help make
you a better programmer. Basically, learn a language that is of a different
paradigm than the ones you already know. The language itself might not be
useful to you, but the concepts, techniques and ideas of those lnaguages will
improve your programming skill.
\- As far as books go, people have different tastes. Most people will
recommend the classics (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs; The
Art of Programming, Code Complete, The Pragmatic Programmer and so on).
They're good books, but may or may not be what you want.
\- You can contribute as much or as little to open source projects as you want
or have time for. Even just fixing a bug here and there is beneficial to the
project, so find yourself a project that interests you and contibute what you
can - but don't worry too much it if you find you don't have enough time.
Understanding other peoples code and fixing their bugs is a great way to
improve your own skill.
\- Blogs.. I don't know. Its definitely a matter of taste. Keep reading
articles linked by Gacker News and other such sites and bookmark blogs whos
articles you like. Or go on stackoverflow.com and find people who post great
answers - they may have blogs that would interest you. Bascially, try and find
intelligent people who post about things that interest you.
Anyway, good luck!
~~~
wcarss
Just to throw in more opinion - I have rarely heard The Art of Programming
referred to as a book that should be read. It's a book to have around when you
need to solve a problem, but for your sanity, don't sit down and try to read
any of them. You would be doing marginally better for yourself than reading
the dictionary.
That said, I have enjoyed reading swaths of dictionaries :P
~~~
dkersten
Sure, its more of a reference manual. A lot of people still recommend it,
though. For example, the stackoverflow question about recommended books.
(I've _read_ dictionaries too. And reference manuals for various libraries and
languages. The Intel instruction set reference probably being my most _read_
reference manuals)
------
fierarul
My 2c:
#1 Try cutting down on blogs. There is really no need to read them daily.
#2 Try to include open-source patching into your actual fulltime job (of
course, management has to agree with this, etc). If you already work 12-16
hours per day, don't burn yourself by trying to do open-source on the side.
#3 Follow the good programmers nearby. This means move the the team that has
the best coders and best practices. Externally, go to user meetings and
occasionally have your company pay for big conventions.
------
matthewphiong
Practice makes perfect. The more you code, the better you become.
From my experience, reading books is one thing but if you didn't make your
hands dirty, it's nothing. My advice would be, if you are really new to
programming go learn the basics and get your hands dirty ASAP.
~~~
petervandijck
Unless you code the same thing over and over again until you retire, that is.
~~~
dkersten
If its sufficiently large to allow you to refine and improve on each
iteration, then you will still improve and learn from it. For a while, anyway.
------
biggitybones
This was posted a few weeks ago:
<http://samizdat.mines.edu/howto/HowToBeAProgrammer.html>
Lot's of good stuff in there.
~~~
sid6376
I read the first couple of pages, really good. Thanks for suggesting this.
------
WCC
\- Practice. Yeah, other people said it. It's that important.
\- Find a mentor. You'll improve slowly just from practice, but finding a
mentor will force you to get up to their level at a much quicker pace.
\- Read things. Books, blogs, whatever. If you have an active interest in it,
read it.
\- Use new technologies. Never heard of Node.js before? Stop and figure out
what it is. Try it. Even if you hate it, you will have been better for
learning about it. (Node.js is just an example I pulled out of thin air. This
applies to ANY new programming thing you read about and is new.)
\- Get a job. Even if it's a crappy programming job, nothing makes you learn
faster than having a boss telling you to do things faster and better.
------
petervandijck
Program tiny, but real, things in technologies you're not familiar with. They
have to be tiny (to avoid a long list of unfinished projects, and because you
learn more from finishing things), and they have to be real (ie. something
that at least 1 person can actually use).
~~~
pdelgallego
Sometimes is even good if you write the same tiny project taking a different
approach. I.e. You wrote an algorithm using a greedy technique, them repeat it
using a dynamic approach.
------
shawndumas
Man cannot understand the perfection and imperfections of his chosen art if he
cannot see the value in other arts. Following rules only permits development
up to a point in technique and then the student and artist has to learn more
and seek further. It makes sense to study other arts as well as those of
strategy.
Who has not learned something more about themselves by watching the activities
of others? To learn the sword study the guitar. To learn the fist study
commerce. To just study the sword will make you narrow-minded and will not
permit you to grow outward.
\-- Miyamoto Musashi, "A Book of Five Rings"
~~~
sid6376
You know it's funny, A really close friend whose programming prowess i admire
told me that great programmers always have another passion. I will tell him,
he's not alone in thinking so.
------
pdelgallego
Read this books and watch this video lectures.
* Introduction to Algorithms (SMA 5503) [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-046j-introduction-to-algorithms-sma-5503-fall-2005/video-lectures/)
* Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (aka SICP) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op3QLzMgSY>
------
weaksauce
<http://projecteuler.net/> is a good way to go through and learn a new
language. Focus is on programming, algorithms and the mathematical tricks
associated with paring down the number of things you should be searching
through.
------
kschua
Two books I recommend
1) Head First Design Pattern
2) Effective Java (Joshua Bloch). The principles in this book can be applied
to almost any programming language not just Java
------
purpledove
I recommend A. K. Dewdney's "The New Turing Omnibus". It is a series of
articles and is very easy to dip into.
------
noodle
practice (keep coding, work on your own projects, work on projects with
others), and go find someone who you know to be "good" and read their code.
it really is about that simple.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Move over Samsung Galaxy S3, here comes Xiaomi M2 at $320 - jemeshsu
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDM5Njg0Mzg4.html
======
jemeshsu
The first Xiaomi phone makes the company billion dollars and lots of fans in
China. The second phone Xiaomi M2 will be released soon. Android 4.1, 4.3 inch
1280x720 342PPI screen, 8MB f2.0 1080p camera, 2GB memory, HSPA+.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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It’s Not “Too Late” for Female Hackers - kirtijthorat
https://medium.com/hackers-and-hacking/f7efb084e8a
======
11thEarlOfMar
I am particularly interested in nailing this discussion down. I have two teen
aged daughters. They attend a super-competitive public high school. Students
are actually shunned if they are not academic. The peer pressure to excel in
math and science is really surprising.
One daughter is known as 'nerd goddess' and wears that nickname as a badge of
honor. She plans on becoming an English teacher. The other is the one to beat
in her honors geometry class. She wants to study business in college.
They both participated in 'Hour of Code' last week.
[http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2013/12/apple-...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2013/12/apple-microsoft-obama-urge-kids-to-spend-an-hour-coding-
this-week/)
I silently hoped that at least one of them would come home and say, 'Hey, dad,
this coding thing you've been doing your whole career is pretty cool. Let's
write an app!'
What I got was 'meh' and more 'meh'.
So am I supposed to chide them that if they don't get on the compiler they are
going to miss their chance to found a YC startup? Really?
~~~
kirtijthorat
You may want to look at the "Hackbright Academy" which runs a quarterly
engineering fellowship in San Francisco. This is a 12-week accelerated
software development program designed to help women become awesome programmers
- See more at:
[http://www.hackbrightacademy.com/](http://www.hackbrightacademy.com/)
I also recommend reading the following two sites:
[http://gracehopper.org/](http://gracehopper.org/) and
[http://www.girlswhocode.com/](http://www.girlswhocode.com/)
~~~
11thEarlOfMar
Thanks, but you may have missed my point.
They have known of my profession their whole lives. I talk to them about what
I do all the time. And they are under a great deal of peer pressure at school
to go into science the same way that I did.
Parents and friends are the most influential people for teens, yet they have
no interest. And I don't think it is proper parenting for me to push them into
something they have no interest in.
~~~
merrua
Thats fair that you do not want to push them. However if she likes english
teaching. Maybe she would be interesting in the problems of lingustics
computing or educational computing. Half the time people learn to program to
do stuff with it.
They can learn regex expressions to search through 1,000,000 lines of primary
sources for several different spellings of a word, or they can sit back and
think of a different way to teach a classroom of kids maths.
If she likes english, find out why english teachers are learning programming
(cos they are) or which area she is interested in and what tools they are
using.
------
sbt
If I ran a venture firm, I would approach founders like a scout looks for
talent for the NBA. People who start basketball in college and try for the NBA
are clearly at a disadvantage. If a scout reported this correlation to Sports
Center, it would hardly be considered controversial. Why is it that a hacker
scout somehow becomes a target of the political correctness mafia? Playing in
the NBA is hard, being a tech entrepreneur is hard. Fortunately, there are
other ways of making a living than starting the next Facebook or playing in
the NBA.
~~~
memracom
You won't find someone playing NBA basketball in their 50's. But you certainly
do find highly skilled software developers in their 50's, and much older as
well. Intellectual skills are not tied to age in the same way as physical
skills.
Yes, women who start in the field in college will be behind men who started in
grade school in some ways, but not in others. However, women will catch up by
their late 20's if they have the guts and determination to stick with it,
because most of the men will have problems with ego that cause them to either
stop learning and stick with the bit that they already know, or shift into a
showoff mode where they become all talk and no action.
I find that once people get into their 30's it is hard to tell how good they
are at software development if they are actually working at it professionally.
You need to spend a considerable time with them to be able to rank them
because for every weakness that you can detect there will also be strengths.
This is why I think that women can catch up to men even though they started a
bit late.
~~~
sbt
This is probably true for software development, but less true for
entrepreneurship. Once you pass 30, other factors start kicking in for the
latter, particularly for women.
------
kirtijthorat
Also read the article "How To Fix the Gender Gap in Technology" at:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/0...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/gender_gap_in_technology_and_silicon_valley_.html)
| {
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GAN generates fake snow in satellite images - philosophygeek
https://medium.com/descarteslabs-team/how-i-trained-a-gan-to-make-it-snow-6f6cfdac4b5e
======
philosophygeek
A scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory trained a GAN to test automated
change detection algorithms in satellite imagery, with a link to the
associated SPIE paper.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Kaleido - A Tool to Help Visual Thinkers Program - mgunes
http://kaleido.media.mit.edu/
======
MaysonL
An interesting approach to Literate Programming. ;-]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Memristors in silicon promising for dense, fast memory - ColinWright
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18103772
======
haberman
Memristors promise to flatten part of the memory hierarchy, merging non-
volatile storage and RAM. But the interesting question to me as a systems
programmer is whether they will ever merge cache with everything else too.
This question is really important because if there were no cache there would
no longer be any benefit to compactness and locality in memory -- data
structures distributed across large areas of the address space would be just
as efficient as ones that are well-localized.
To be honest this idea worries me a little. The performance advantage of small
and local data structures is one of the main natural forces that encourages
software to be small and simple. Software tends to grow over time, both in
size and complexity, especially when more people are involved. Unchecked I
fear that there would be no natural counterbalance to this tendency.
Put another way, I'm actually a bit glad that Eclipse is horribly slow,
because it's an easy-to-observe symptom of the fact that it's a horribly
complex stack of software. If software like Eclipse could get by with
acceptable performance because it had fast access to vast swaths of memory, it
would be that much harder for an upstart competitor in this space (like Light
Table) to be disruptive, because Eclipise would perform well enough that
competing on speed doesn't impress.
I'm probably oversimplifying a bit, but I do think it generally good for
programmers when simpler software also has better performance naturally.
But even if Memristors could be as fast as SRAM, could you out enough of it
close enough to the CPU that it truly flattens the memory hierarchy
completely? This is where I hit the limits of my knowledge of computer
architecture.
~~~
Symmetry
Basically, we're never getting rid of the need for caches. You can't put
enough of it close enough to the CPU because the muxes needed to select the
data you need have too many FO4s[1] of fanning, and because you're limited by
the speed of light, and the arrays you need are too big to get all of them
close enough to the processor.
Another problem is write endurance. RRAM is expected to have be able to take
many orders of magnitude more writes before failing than Flash, but its still
limited. The fact that you have layers of SRAM cache between it and the
processor buffering against repeated writes to the same location is why I'd
still be comfortable using it as main memory. Otherwise you could get an
infinite loop that could actually damage the memory.
[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FO4>
~~~
juiceandjuice
You're neglecting the possibility that we abandon the Von Neumann architecture
altogether.
~~~
Symmetry
Quite true, but far out speculation about the future of computer architectures
doesn't really seem germane to talking about a new form of fast non-volatile
memory.
~~~
sliverstorm
It's just a popular sweet-nothing people have grown fond of parroting whenever
memristors come up. It is impossible to really refute, because it speculates
about the possibility of an architecture we haven't yet imagined. That plus
how cool "brand new architectures, completely new ways of computing!" sounds
to the layman, means you hear it every time the word "memristor" hits the
headlines.
The joke, of course, is that (if memory serves) modern computers actually use
the Harvard architecture- not Von Neumann.
~~~
haberman
When someone writes about the end of the Von Neumann architecture, I take it
as dreaming that the poster's favorite language will someday be faster than C.
~~~
swah
This reminded me of an old Yegge post:
"You do realize that John von Neumann spent the last 10 years of his life
singlehandedly developing a theory of computing based on cellular automata?
The computer you're reading this blog rant on was his frigging prototype! He
was going to throw it out and make a better one! And then he died of cancer,
just like my brother Dave did, just like so many people with so much more to
give and so much more life to live. And we're not making headway on cancer,
either, because our computers and languages are such miserable crap."
[http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com.br/2006/03/moores-law-is-
cra...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com.br/2006/03/moores-law-is-crap.html)
------
Symmetry
As awesome as RRAM is, and as much as I've boosted it in the past[1], there
are still lots of things that could go wrong. Unless its practical to
manufacture in large quantities, this won't go anywhere for instance.
[1][http://hopefullyintersting.blogspot.com/2011/12/resistive-
ra...](http://hopefullyintersting.blogspot.com/2011/12/resistive-ram.html)
~~~
mbenjaminsmith
I'm not sure why you left out R. Stanley Williams in your post there. Leon
Chua postulated the existence of a "4th" electrical component but didn't make
any progress on it himself.
Listen to Williams' main talk on YouTube. I'm pretty sure they've sorted out
how to manufacture memristor-based RAM -- and are licensing the process out
already.
~~~
anamax
See Williams ee380 talk as well - [http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/fall-
schedule-20112012.h...](http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/fall-
schedule-20112012.html) .
------
aidenn0
Anyone else find it a bit lame that they couldn't test switching time below
90ns with the excuse that they didn't have the equipment?
~~~
cheatercheater
No, because I don't understand the process they would need to measure, and
neither do you
------
zokier
Is there any info about discrete memristors, will there ever be such things,
or will all products be only integrated solutions? By discrete memristor I
mean part comparable to an individual resistor or transistor. Something
elementary, which the electronics-geek in me could play with.
~~~
hwillis
Memristor-like components have existed since 1960
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADALINE>). There is no demand for a discrete
component so I doubt anyone would start making them. You could make an
analogous device with a microcontroller, but that kind of defeats the purpose.
Anyway its an elementary circuit element, so its behavior is fully described
and not super exciting.
~~~
cheatercheater
Weren't those super-expensive? You know, the reason resistors are basic
elements is among others that they're cheap..
I think a simple SiO layer, which is what this newest memristor tech is based
on, could be super cheap.
Even if you can't build "big memristors", you could just parallel thousands of
them in a single package. Then, they would start being approachable.
Besides, tiny capacitance hasn't stopped anyone from using the likes of
varicaps, and huge inductance never stopped anyone from using an inductor.
They have their place.
I, for one, want to see a discrete Memristor in all shapes and sizes. If we
don't try it, and don't experiment with it, we might be shutting out 1/4 of
all electronics.
Luckily, a lot of electronics companies do feel their responsibility as
educators. That's why we have samples (I'll teach you to use my chip, and if
you become an important circuit designer you'll use my chips in your designs),
that's why we have lots of antiquated chips still in production (stuff like
OTAs which is of interest only to miniscule hobbyist groups), that's why we
can still buy devices in units.
I'm looking forward to it.
------
dwiel
I'm excited to see cheap memristor devices that provide access to their
computational ability.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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It’s Time for Silicon Valley to Create an Underwriter Laboratories of Its Own - Kroeler
https://medium.com/@caseorganic/we-need-to-hold-people-accountable-for-designing-systems-that-fail-b78f9c94f3a0
======
4D1
As someone who works for the company mentioned, we already have offers for
emerging markets such as this in an innovations team. The unfortunate reality
is that manufacturers don't want to go through the time and cost of regulatory
certification unless demanded by some agency in power. The innovations team
consistently underperforms compared to our EMC and Wireless/RF teams, which
performs certification required by government agencies such as the FCC.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Getting any Facebook user's friend list and partial payment card details - franjkovic
https://www.josipfranjkovic.com/blog/facebook-friendlist-paymentcard-leak
======
tannerc
Important last-line: "It took Facebook's team 4 hours and 13 minutes to fix
the issue - the fastest report-to-fix for me."
~~~
jpollock
That's because you should never have first 6 and last 4 in the same place at
the same time, particularly to someone who is not the owner of the card!
That leaves only 6 digits to guess to obtain a valid card, and you're given
the check digit to limit the search further.
~~~
packetized
First six and last four are the limits for display set out by the PCI Security
Standards Council. The things you should never store _with_ the PAN are the
PIN/PIN block or CVC/CVV.
[https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pci_fs_data_storag...](https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pci_fs_data_storage.pdf)
~~~
kevindqc
How does that work? If you can't store the CVC/CVV, how come I don't have to
re-enter it when I re-order form say Amazon or Foodora? Or maybe I do have to
enter it? Don't remember :|
~~~
joering2
Most MSP (merchant service provider) gives you control over the details you
personally want to capture to verify someone. The minimum and most insecure is
simply approving card based on valid number! (Not even expiration date). Then
you can enable EXP, CVV and AV (address verification). Fun tip about AV: your
adres doesnt matter. There is so many spellings of "oak harbour drive
apartment 2" that industry pretty much gave up on some smart AI knowing them
all, it and only verifies the zip code (typical gas station card usage for
credit cards: verification is your zip code)
~~~
davidgh
Address line 1 in AVS is still used, however, only the numeric portion of the
address is checked. The AVS results will generally tell you the individual
match results for the address line and the postal code, so you can have a full
match or a partial match. Most merchants will allow you through with a partial
match.
------
stormbrew
Wait, why would facebook have CC info? I have never paid facebook for anything
(except in terms of ad views), and I'm not even sure what I could pay them
for? Posting ads I guess? But that's gonna be not a lot of people.
So if somehow their graph api has pulled up my credit card number into their
database, _that 's_ the disturbing thing...
~~~
kfrzcode
> Posting ads
Advertisement is Facebook's #1 revenue model, its literally _why_ they exist.
I wish everyone who's used FB would sign up for a business page and place an
ad; it's illuminating to see just how detailed their tools are.
Same with Google PPC and Bing etc etc.
I shudder to think at just how detailed the profiles are that FB, AMZN et al
keep on each of its users.
~~~
jlarocco
> Advertisement is Facebook's #1 revenue model, its literally why they exist.
It's how they exist, not why.
I do agree that their data collection is very creepy.
------
amasad
I wonder what the `CSPlaygroundGraphQLFriendsQuery` query is meant for. It
sounds like some testing/development thing.
~~~
wongmjane
`CS` in this context stands for ComponentScript. It appears to have something
to do with React Native.
`CSPlaygroundGraphQLFriendsQuery` is a demonstration for Facebook engineers
internally to show how to display a list of "oneself's friends with auto-
pagination" using GraphQL and ComponentScript inside their Facebook main app
P.S. I don't work at Facebook. But this is something I stumbled across their
app.
~~~
amasad
Like the demo was released and accessible in the app? Or did you see it in the
RN JS code?
~~~
wongmjane
The demo is included as part of their main app (even in production) (at least
in Facebook for Android), and was supposedly only accessible by Facebook
engineers.
------
dirkdk
What bounty did he receive for filing this?
------
sp332
I thought Facebook considered the Friends list to be public? They removed the
ability to hide the list years ago.
~~~
hooksfordays
No, I can still hide my friend’s list. Settings > Privacy > “Who can see your
friends list?”
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating - Semirhage
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-43956001
======
majormajor
A bit of chatter here about "it eventually catches up to people anyway" that I
think misses the point.
You want people to learn when the stakes are low. This is better for them, and
it's better for all of us. School should gradually go from low stakes to
higher stakes, not be a low-stakes zone the whole time that then tosses people
into the real world. Otherwise you're presented with terrible choices like
expelling a 20 year old for a habit they learned when they were 8 and never
got called on, vs letting them get away with continuing to cheat.
Making it easy to cheat and lie when the stakes are low helps create
situations like "we can't trust anyone who says they know how to program so we
have to waste a lot of interview time on tedious crap."
The first solution that occurs to me seems to be smaller class sizes and
differently structured assignments with more of a "tell me about why you wrote
this" type interactive stuff. The same way you'd do when looking at someone's
github, to see how deep their understanding of the code there goes.
~~~
baddox
When are the stakes low vs. high when it comes to academic plagiarism? I would
think that the stakes are always quite low, at least until you get to post-
graduate academic work where plagiarism can have legal or serious ethical
(e.g. medical research) problems.
You seem to be claiming that at some point the stakes become _" truly"_ high,
and thus we ought to _artificially_ punish plagiarism so that people learn
that there are consequences.
~~~
joshvm
A recent TIFU (Today I Fucked Up) on Reddit, depending if you believe it - I'm
inclined not to, described such a situation:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/8g33nv/tifu_by_plagia...](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/8g33nv/tifu_by_plagiarizing_my_last_essay_in_college_and/)
They were allegedly expelled for plagiarising a 500 word essay.
> She sent me to the dean with the recommendation that I be expelled. Now the
> dean told me I can't graduate. I spent 4 years working on an engineering
> degree. I have over $100,000 in loans, and I can't be hired without my
> degree. My life literally vanished in the matter of 20 minutes.
The irony is they could have literally scrawled anything on the paper and
flunked, but passed the year.
Whether or not this story is true, universities certainly have grounds to
expel you immediately if you're caught cheating. And if you've spent $100k on
a degree that you need because of professional accreditation... those are
quite high stakes.
~~~
baddox
Aren't those the artificial high stakes we're talking about? I'm asking what
inherently high-stakes situation that is preparing you for.
~~~
joshvm
For a real world situation? Just look at the Google vs Uber trial. IP theft
and corporate espionage is incredibly high stakes. You can presumably make a
lot of money selling secrets, but if you're rumbled, that's your career over.
------
baldfat
As a former University Librarian and Residents Director
A) Cheating happens more then it doesn't. In a Philosophy Class which had a
dozen seniors all cheated in Spring Semester. Professor flunked them all by
giving them an F and told them they were lucky they weren't expelled.
President Graduated the students and fired the professor. Then on appeal the
President was fired and the Professor rehired with a raise.
B) Shocked that YouTube or any stock traded company would allow these videos
to stay up. Morally this is wrong since cheating hurts everyone in education.
EDIT:
C) No one was ever expelled for cheating, ever at my school.
~~~
sithadmin
As someone that used to write papers for cheaters: it doesn't bother me much,
because higher education is already eating itself alive in the US. The impact
of a few students paying others to author papers on their behalf is nothing
compared to the massive grade inflation one sees at top universities in the
US.
~~~
ocdtrekkie
It's always intriguing to see how people justify grossly unethical behavior to
themselves.
I don't think the issue is your disservice to higher education in general or
grade systems as a whole, but to your customers, who never receive the
education they were meant to, and that they paid for.
~~~
creep
Ethics are in the eye of the beholder.
~~~
always_good
...Something nobody ever said when they were on the receiving end of someone
else's poor ethics instead of the one partaking in it.
------
ChuckMcM
I get the outrage over cheating, and it really bothered me in classes that
graded on a curve that the cheaters would really adversely impact the people
who didn't.
But there is a meta question here, why does a youtube "star" even succumb to
the idea of advertising/promoting a cheating product, when doing so might put
all of their Youtube revenue at risk? Maybe it is because they get crap
Youtube revenue and 'several hundred dollars' is enough to push past their
moral compass.
People put a lot of heart and sweat into their Youtube channels. Perhaps it is
that Google is increasingly sucking more and more of the money that _used_ to
go to the channel in order to prop up their service which can't get
advertising revenues to support it.
I wonder when the Screen Actors Guild is going to figure out they have another
battlefront to engage on.
~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
"Several hundred dollars" heh.
These deals are worth at least 5 digits, sometimes 6.
~~~
ChuckMcM
From the article: *"Channels with tens of thousands of subscribers can be
offered hundreds of dollars for each advert."
Where do you get the 10's of thousands of dollars figure from?
~~~
magissima
Tens of thousands of subscribers isn't very many.
~~~
ChuckMcM
_" According to The Economist, influencers with at least 100,000 subscribers
on YouTube can get an average of $12,500 for a sponsored post, with payments
going up rapidly if you have one million subscribers or more. But those
figures refer to endorsements by people who are celebrities in their own
right. Someone who's only well known on YouTube might not command that kind of
pay."_
[https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/even-youtube-stars-
with-14-...](https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/even-youtube-stars-
with-14-million-monthly-viewers-earn-less-than-17000-a-year-research-
shows.html)
Suggests you can get low five figures for an endorsement with 100,000 viewers.
~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
Looks like if you scale it up from those numbers to the several million subs
category you'll easily get 6 figures, possibly 7.
~~~
ChuckMcM
I don't doubt it, but people with several million subscribers are in the 97 -
98th percentile. They are even less likely to risk their revenue stream by
pushing something that is clearly cheating. (Not that the guys who offer a
cheating service wouldn't love to have their endorsement of course).
I am thinking about people on the bubble who have enough subscribers to be
considered 'famous' but not so many as to be making bank like the top 3% do.
The economist article suggests that revenue as a 'youtuber' drops really hard
from the high end, into the not so high end personalities.
~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
The article mentions multiple people with millions of subs that's taking money
from cheating sites. I'm also thinking of one of my favorite channels:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFkbsvbJl7w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFkbsvbJl7w)
Definitely raking in the money these guys.
------
djhworld
Discussions about cheating aside, I find it hilarious watching these YouTube
influencers dropping these ads right in the middle of their videos without
even a hint of remorse. I mean, I get it, they want to make money, but still.
It reminds me of the days when some YouTubers would promote/endorse products
without specifically saying they were paid to do so. Or worse, promoting
products for gambling sites that they had business interests in.
It's interesting to see all this play out, it almost feels like it's the wild
west on YT right now. Every time the regulators try to come in and enforce
some policy, people still find the loopholes to create a quick buck.
------
at-fates-hands
As someone who worked as a grad student in a large Midwestern university,
these "paper writing" services have been around since the dawn of time.
As a grad student, it was hilariously easy to spot these for several reasons.
One, the writing style is usually inconsistent. You'll have a student writing
at about a high school level suddenly start using huge $5 words? Highly
unlikely. Or a student who writes almost exclusively on one topic (our school
had a ton of ag engineers so anything farm related was a favorite) and then
suddenly is interested in the micro-economics of island based economies? Yeah,
that's a big rad flag too.
As a University, our golden rule to clamp down on these was to require all
local sources, no internet sources, and have the ability to go back and look
at other papers the student has turned in for comparison. We'd normally bust
students, then give them two or three days to turn in a paper they actually
wrote with no penalties.
Most of these situations were just due to being lazy and not caring (I was in
the Sociology department) so it wasn't so much about cheating as it was just
getting the students to think critically and write better.
------
Renatewelgemoed
Have never been this hated by my husband who nearly killed me just because i
wanted to lay my hand on his Samsung phone and i was treated like i was a
small kid i endured for too long but i could not take it any longer then i was
informed of a hacker who saves relations by hacking into cell phones without
physical access to there phones and after contacting him mehn i got results of
what my husband has been hiding on his phone i got to read all his whats-app
messages, text messages and most especially his deleted text messages then i
knew what had been going on with him lately i found out my husband is a BIG
CHEAT but am happy that i found a helper please you all should feel free to
contact this hacker ([email protected]) he was the hacker that helped me
hack into my spouse phone and i must confess this hacker is fast and easy
going you all would love his hacking skills. Renate Welgemoed
------
sithadmin
I paid my rent and living expenses when pursuing my Masters degree by writing
papers for services that helped undergrads cheat on class/term papers.
I don't regret it at all. It helped me become a faster, more efficient author,
and in my experience, the sort of student that would pay someone else to buy a
paper will end up failing out one way or another regardless. I knew people
that paid for papers in undergrand, and most either flunked out, or barely
graduated and ended up worse off than our other classmates in terms of
job/grad school prospects.
~~~
shifter
That shifts the "cost" to employers... and you profited from it. Does that
make it theft? :-)
~~~
sithadmin
I don't really feel sympathy for employers that don't adequately screen
candidates.
And who knows: maybe the cheaters are completely capable of meeting the
requirements of whatever job they end up in.
~~~
ambicapter
inb4 the next HN article decrying hilarious overwrought interviewing
practices...
------
estsauver
I did a little poking on some of the profiles that are listed as top essay
writers. A lot of them that claim to be "Professors" are actually photos of
professors, but are usually from radically different fields.
This one is clearly just a stock photo:
[https://edubirdie.com/writer/public/750289](https://edubirdie.com/writer/public/750289)
[http://www.humanresourcestoday.com/diversity/?open-
article-i...](http://www.humanresourcestoday.com/diversity/?open-article-
id=7197807&article-title=5-incredibly-easy-ways-to-increase-workplace-
diversity-this-year&blog-domain=brazen.com&blog-title=brazen-hr)
~~~
maddyboo
I tried going through their onboarding process up to the point where you get
bids and messages from the "professors".
They send you messages in broken English like this:
"hello esteemed customer. kindly assign me the order. i have read the
instructions and understood them clearly as the assignment falls under my
field of study.Thus i can guarantee high quality work, free from plagiarism
and grammatical errors. Timely delivery is also my priority."
This seems like an essay mill out of India, which isn't surprising.
[1] [https://i.imgur.com/MlTdNDq.png](https://i.imgur.com/MlTdNDq.png)
[2] [https://i.imgur.com/DqLO4Pj.png](https://i.imgur.com/DqLO4Pj.png)
------
ada1981
Academic Outsourcing or Cheating?
Isn’t learning how to arbitrage time / money / skills a critical understanding
for the Gig economy?
Also, don’t we praise ignoring rules that don’t serve you and force your
resources into lower yield activities? (Uber, AirBnb, etc)
Where else in the real world do you get penalized for paying someone else to
develop IP for you? You can have books ghost written, copy for articles,
pretty much anything.
Have there been any studies that show people who outsource papers fair worse
later in life?
Aren’t Universites largely a scam to extract money for credentialing leaving
students with gross amounts of unbankruptable debt?
\- Devils Advocate
~~~
sakuronto
Sorry, but can you please argue against your own devil's advocate, because I'm
having a hard time coming up with counterpoints, and as a student currently in
university, it's left me pretty depressed about my future. Cheating really
does seem to pay off both in university and in the real world, regardless of
how immoral it is.
~~~
ada1981
Sure. The biggest argument is that integrity trumps being clever.
If you don’t like school, just quit. Trust yourself and endure the pain of
going against the mainstream.
Following your bliss and intuition will be the hardest and most rewarding
experience of your life.
Find mentors, ignore people who are still contracted in their own trauma /
nightmare who will try to hold you back.
If you like, come join us on Majagual.org, I will gift you a journey with us.
------
rb808
On a related theme - does anyone know how many people cheat on the initial
round hiring tests? Seems pretty easy to outsource, but I'm not sure how
common it is. I've always assumed our applicants did the work themselves but
maybe I'm naieve.
TBH if I was applying myself I'd be pretty tempted as usually its just a time
suck.
~~~
wpietri
The downside would be that you'd be more likely to work at a place that either
isn't sharp enough to detect cheaters or can't get it together to care.
Personally, if I suspect somebody is a liar or a cheater, I won't hire them. I
build teams that are low on micromanagement and high on independence and
trust. Somebody inclined toward fraud can be a big problem in a context like
that, both because of the direct damage they do and because they lower ambient
level of trust.
I recently had somebody apply for an internship claiming extensive iOS
experience with a nice iOS project on GitHub. But the commit history was
shallow, so I did some digging. Turns out it was a group project, and one of
the other people did almost all the work.
That person was instantly dead to me. They surely got a job somewhere, but I
feel sorry for their coworkers, who at best had to pick up a lot of slack, and
at worst had to put up with a bunch of new rules and micromanagement because
one employee couldn't be trusted.
~~~
8_hours_ago
Maybe it was pair programming on the partner’s computer, with most of the work
being done by the candidate? I feed bad that they got immediately rejected for
something that could have easily been fact checked by a few interview
questions.
------
a-dub
I suspect that if training and social sorting weren't conflated in academia
the way that they are today, the training would be _much_ more effective.
------
RIMR
I would love to see universities set a precedent and just catalog these
YoutTbers by name, and then let them know that they are permanently barred
from ever being admitted to their schools.
That would send a very strong message about how dishonorable academic cheating
is. Anyone promoting it is unfit for higher education, for obvious reasons.
~~~
warent
Disagree. I argue that a poorly educated person would be more likely to cheat.
In a sense, that punishment would be refusing education for the crime of
lacking education.
~~~
RIMR
A poorly educated person is the most likely to benefit from an education.
Cheating just means they intend to get credit for an education without
actually becoming more educated.
Cheaters have no place in academia.
------
fma
I think the solution to this is...classes have homework assignments throughout
the semesters, but your final paper is one that you write in class. And it's
like 50% of your grade. The purpose of the homework assignments throughout the
semester is to prepare for the final. If you ace the final, even having paid
for essays - then congrats you were able to learn.
Cheating is too easy now. There's a website where you can get solutions manual
for free. I've even seen websites that give solutions to Kumon homeowork. For
those who don't know Kumon - it's an after school curriculum to help kids
develop academically, to get to grade level if they are behind, of to
accelerate ahead even further if they are already ahead. What's the point of
cheating on those...
When I was in high school in the late 90's, babelfish had come out and kids
were cheating on their Spanish homework because it would spit out poor
Spanish. Now with the gig economy I'm sure you can scan your homework, upload
it and a native Spanish speaker would give you the perfect translation. I
remember reading that adjunct professors writing essays to supplement their
dirt poor income.
As far as YouTube Stars getting paid to advertise...meh.
~~~
Kalium
> I think the solution to this is...classes have homework assignments
> throughout the semesters, but your final paper is one that you write in
> class. And it's like 50% of your grade. The purpose of the homework
> assignments throughout the semester is to prepare for the final. If you ace
> the final, even having paid for essays - then congrats you were able to
> learn.
Isn't this a blue book exam?
~~~
fjsolwmv
Yes but those have fallen out of fashion because students don't like high-
stakes objective hard-to-cheat tests. (And there is _some_ argument against a
brief timed written test as an assessment for a whole semester. A friendly but
rigorous oral exam would be better.
Also, you can cheat a blue book test by hiring a stand-in. There's a story
about Ted Kennedy being caught at a pub by his TA, at a time when he was
supposedly taking a final exam at Harvard.
------
eecsninja
Anecdote: I remember in a scientific writing class in college, the professor
told us that we should always give credit when citing someone. I asked her if
that was just a good practice and courtesy, or an actual moral obligation. She
just repeated herself "you should always give credit" and didn't seem to
understand my question.
~~~
ThoAppelsin
It seems like she meant to say that it is wrong not to give that credit, i.e.
it is not just a good practice, not only a _moral_ obligation that you become
only immoral for not complying, but a requirement, a must that if you do not
do it, then you are in the wrong.
------
chrisseaton
I don't understand how this works. Surely you lecturers are going to know your
unique voice, your skill level and your opinions and a random essay by someone
else is not going to be passable as your own. Plus don't you have to discuss
in seminars essays that you submit? Won't it become apparent that it's not
your work when you can't defend it? Plus where do they find people skilled in
the particular curriculums of every school?
~~~
ISL
Many classes have a student/teacher ratio that makes such individual attention
impractical.
Furthermore, if someone is ghostwriting for you all semester, the
ghostwriter's voice is the voice that the teacher knows.
~~~
sithadmin
>if someone is ghostwriting for you all semester, the ghostwriter's voice is
the voice that the teacher knows.
This is also true. My agencies took care to assign repeat clients back to the
same writers.
------
djangowithme
"What do you have to lose? Stop being a bitch. Be a boss"
\- im sold
------
xenihn
I know two people who are currently doing a CS MS who barely do any of their
own assignments. They have friends help them, either by doing most of it or
all of it. They can pass programming classes because tests are leniently
graded, and at least half of the score comes from multiple choice questions
that can be answered without actually understanding the material.
------
ryanx435
All the people in this thread that think most people get a degree for
knowledge, instead of the truth that a degree is just a piece of paper that
tells employers "I am a normal member of the middle class and I can do basic
stuff so please hire me".
I honestly don't care if people cheat.
~~~
sakuronto
As a person who just started university, I have to ask: how else do I get
employers to not entirely ignore my application on account of "insufficient
qualifications"?
------
foobaw
How is the quality of writing for this? I know essays are extremely important
for college admissions so I'm wondering if this site's work is actually
contributing to changing people's future.
------
bambax
Why do students have to write essays at home? Get them all in a classroom or
big hall for 4-6 hours and let them write something on an imposed topic, the
same for everyone.
Cheating would be much harder this way.
~~~
jamesb93
This is what I did to get my BA only 2 years ago. We had exam essays and
prepared essays. It very quickly weeds out the people who don't know what
they're talking about.
------
mgleason_3
Interesting. Maybe it’s cause teachers will rely less on homeworkers and more
on in-class work?
------
YellowCode
Here is an interesting read
[http://www.culturewars.com/2008/BrooklynExistentialism.html](http://www.culturewars.com/2008/BrooklynExistentialism.html)
------
snambi
Ha... people find another way to do the same thing. Fundamentally the
education industry is failing to inspire students to study.
~~~
warent
Agreed with this. There's a disproportionate number of students that are doing
the work because they feel forced to. If the education system isn't willing to
somehow alter itself to engage its students rather than force pointless crap
on them that they'll try hard to forget after finals, then the education
system can continue to expect a large number of people attempting to game the
system.
Should it be condoned? Obviously not, but the point is this cheating thing is
only a symptom of a much bigger issue
------
2close4comfort
Too bad they do not possess the moral standing to do better with the audience
they have. But hey, Capitalism is great right as long as you have zero
character and are vapid enough to believe that any of this fake crap matters.
I say it is fine because they are the crabs at the bottom of the bucket...
------
mirimir
It's more than a little ironic that drug companies typically pay respected
medical-school professors to publish articles by ghostwriters.
And yes, I know, whataboutism. But aren't faculty supposed to set examples for
students?
------
roseadams
Hey guys i don't really do this but i promised Mr
Supreme i was going to let people know about his
hacking skills once he gets me a proof that he is
really genuine and i really wanted to know what my
husband has been up to lately as I seem not to be
getting his attention, but supremehacker440@gmailcom was able to hack into
my husband’s Fb, Snapchat, WhatsAp, Instagram and
full phone text, call logs and all the pictures datas
on the phone successfully; and he also help fixing
hacked applications as long its Electronics.
------
misterbowfinger
This reminds me of a story from my AI professor in college. Not exactly his
words, but it was something like...
"You have to do all of your work on your own. But let's say you decided to
copy someone else's homework. Well, to make sure you don't just plagiarize it,
you're going to start changing variables and function names, and maybe alter
the structure of the code altogether. As it turns out, the more you alter the
copy, the more it actually becomes your own work and eventually you would
have, in a sense, done the work yourself."
~~~
bad_good_guy
I may not have grasped the intended point to be made from your quote, but I
don't see how changed variables names or functions or whatever results in the
understanding of the logic.
~~~
fjsolwmv
They mean that if you can change it enough to not be detected as plagiarism,
you must be rewriting it in your own ideas, aka learning.
------
eecsninja
I'm really disappointed by the downvotes that sithadmin, misterbowfinger, and
I have been receiving in this thread.
Let me restate the argument, not in favor of cheating but why it's not the
moral issue that everyone makes it out to be:
1\. Cheating is only an issue in the artificial world of academia, where it
goes against how the system is supposed to work.
2\. We only think it is a moral issue because it's been drilled into us since
we were kids, and that we think it is not fair to those who don't cheat and
devalues the value of their degree.
3\. The current system is stupid. Academic grades and degrees, to the extent
that they affect your life after academia, should be based on what you can
accomplish or explain, not how well you can write answers.
4\. Employers should be using other methods to screen prospective employees --
looking at past projects, word of mouth, etc.
The sooner we can put to rest the notion that we should spend ages 6 through
22 in an artificial system that has no relation to the real world before we
can enter the real world as functioning adults, the better.
~~~
clairity
do you really not understand that railing against the system is not the same
thing as advocating cheating, as you seem to be doing?
and really? cheating is only an issue in artificial constructs like academia?
so if i design a building and crib the stress analysis from another building,
it's ok because that's not an artifical situation?
it seems academia really did fail you, as your argument just falls apart
_prima facie_. the learned person would reflect on the wealth of the feedback
that you're getting here rather than assuming that you've unsheathed some
gloden nugget of truth that the rest of us silly fools can't glean.
aversion to cheating is embedded in the social systems of all sorts of living
creatures. might you want to read up on that and update your arguments, or is
that too academic and artificial (as compared to typing into an emphemeral
textbox)?
~~~
eecsninja
My point is that cheating is at worst a violation of rules/contracts. I'm
saying there's a different way of thinking to understand why somethings are
wrong -- not just that they are wrong, but the underlying reasons as well.
Every example that has been provided could be counted as wrong by some other
existing real world standard. In the case of copying the stress analysis, that
is called FRAUD in the real world.
I sound like I'm being pedantic here, but I hope some people out there can
understand.
As far as social systems go, the object of aversion is deception and the
associated harm. That's bad. I think we mentally conflate that with academic
cheating (plagiarism), when it is something different.
~~~
fjsolwmv
You keep failing to explain the difference between academic fraud and
commercial fraud.
~~~
eecsninja
Commercial fraud: > The theory of contract espoused here demonstrates that
fraud is properly viewed as a type of theft. Suppose Karen buys a bucket of
apples from Ethan for $20. Ethan represents the things in the bucket as being
apples, in fact, as apples of a certain nature, that is, as being fit for
their normal purpose of being eaten. Karen conditions the transfer of title to
her $20 on Ethan's not knowingly engaging in 'fraudulent' activities, like
pawning off rotten apples. If the apples are indeed rotten and Ethan knows
this, then he knows that he does not receive ownership of or permission to use
the $20, because the condition 'no fraud' is not satisfied. He is knowingly in
possession of Karen's $20 without her consent, and is, therefore, a thief.
source: [https://mises.org/wire/problem-fraud-fraud-threat-and-
contra...](https://mises.org/wire/problem-fraud-fraud-threat-and-contract-
breach-types-aggression)
There is no equivalent of harm done to property or person with plagiarism in
an academic setting.
> Finally, it is curious that the first thing that occurs to people on first
> hearing the anti-IP case is plagiarism: “You mean it would be okay for
> someone to take an author’s work, put his own name on it, and sell it?”
> Two issues are conflated here. One can plagiarize without violating a
> copyright, and one can violate a copyright without plagiarizing. Under
> copyright law you may use brief verbatim excerpts of another’s written work
> without permission as long as you use quotation marks and attribute the text
> to the author. It’s called “fair use.” (Question for copyright fans: Isn’t
> even fair use a violation of an author’s rights?) If you were to use an
> excerpt that otherwise would qualify under the fair-use principle but
> without attribution, you would be guilty of plagiarism but not copyright
> violation. The same would be true if you quote Shakespeare without
> attribution. (Shakespeare wrote without benefit of copyright.)
> On the other hand, if you publish Atlas Shrugged with Ayn Rand’s name on it,
> you would be guilty of copyright violation but not plagiarism.
> For the sake of clear thinking, let’s keep these issues separate.
> Well, is plagiarism okay? No, it’s not! Obviously it is dishonest and
> dishonorable to represent someone else’s work as one’s own. But note,
> according to LegalZoom, “plagiarism is not a criminal or civil offense.” Nor
> should it be. It’s a breach of good conduct, and there is a plentitude of
> nonviolent, non-State ways to deal with it, especially in the Internet age.
Source: [https://mises.org/wire/slave-labor-and-intellectual-
property...](https://mises.org/wire/slave-labor-and-intellectual-property-
misplaced-analogy)
Look, I get it's a bad in a practical sense if someone cheats or plagiarizes,
especially to the cheater. It could even be a breach of contract between the
student and the school. But it's not a crime against another person. It's a
"victimless crime" essentially.
If someone falsifies licensing or safety requirements, like with an airplane
or a building, that's a legal matter. Call that "professional fraud" \-- it's
illegal. But there is no law against cheating in school.
~~~
learc83
> It's a "victimless crime" essentially.
It's not a victimless crime.
1\. Every CS class I took had some form of curve. People cheating directly
lowered the grade of people who didn't.
2\. Cheating devalues the credentials that other students paid for. You can
argue about the benefits of the credentialing system, but that doesn't change
that fact that students cheating directly financially harms students who don't
cheat.
3\. It harms job seekers who now have to spend time going through additional
screening steps because their credentials are no longer trusted.
It really seems like your trying very hard to justify some past behavior here.
~~~
eecsninja
Dude I've been out of school for almost a decade. I didn't major in CS. And
the only stuff I learned that was useful for my future career was through a
project class where it was impossible to cheat or otherwise bullshit your way
to an A. Most of my programming skills were learned from coding games in my
spare time.
~~~
learc83
What does any of that have to do with what I said?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Help Covid-19 Researchers simulate and understand nCov structure - sci_c0
https://foldingathome.org
======
sci_c0
The Folding@home software allows you to share your unused computer power with
worldwide bioresearchers – so that they can research potential cures for
COVID-19, Cancer, Alzheimers and Parkinsons.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Golygons and golyhedra - sctb
http://cp4space.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/golygons-and-golyhedra
======
tgb
Delightful to see explanation not just of a result but also of how it was
thought up, which is unfortunately rare in mathematics.
~~~
j2kun
I recently read a paper of Ryan Williams explaining how one discovers the
biggest breakthrough in circuit complexity in the last decade.
[http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.1261](http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.1261)
------
mrcactu5
A most delightful way to procrastinate is to
attempt the unsolved problems on MathOverflow.
agreed
------
Grue3
This is incredibly interesting, and (thankfully) has nothing to do with
golang, as I feared.
------
gdonelli
Spoiler alert: Unrelated comment... don't they sound like STDs? :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Was the thermal exhaust port on the Death Star really a design flaw? - dcpdx
http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/3200/was-the-thermal-exhaust-port-on-the-death-star-really-a-design-flaw
======
trafficlight
This is exactly what I love about the internet; a fictional question that is
being debated seriously and intelligently.
~~~
burgerbrain
And debated under the assumption that Lucas _wasn't_ just full of crap but
happened to be an alright director at the time.
~~~
michaelcampbell
Yes, "at the time" being of tantamount importance.
------
tzs
Yes.
To see why, look under your sink.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AngelPad Debuts 12 New Startups At Its Fall 2012 Demo Day - krohling
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/29/angelpad-debuts-12-new-startups-at-its-fall-2012-demo-day/
======
krohling
The companies:
Pericope: <http://www.periscope.io/>
FreedomCP: <http://www.freedomcp.com/>
Kinnek: <http://www.kinnek.com/>
Boomtrain: <http://www.boomtrain.com/>
Tray: <http://www.tray.io/>
Circl: <http://www.joincircl.com/>
ScaleGrid: <http://www.scalegrid.net/>
Buyou: <http://www.buyouapp.com/>
cisimple: <http://www.cisimple.com>
Shop2: <http://www.shop2.com/>
UpCounsel: <http://www.upcounsel.com/>
Storefront: <http://www.storefront.is/>
~~~
marquis
Has anyone tried freedomcp yet?
------
pedalpete
Interesting that the descriptions all started with the history of the
founders, then what they decided to build. Speaks to the "team first"
mentality, or is there another reason they do this?
------
salimmadjd
Congrats too all of them. There were so many applicants for this class and
Thomas and team had a great batch to select from.
------
eldavido
Notable how business-heavy this class is (read the bios in the articles).
Indicative of a longer-term trend for AngelPad?
------
ssazesh
Great group of companies! Proud to be part of this class.
------
adotify
Well done guys, fantastic class.. congrats to ThomasK
------
jacksonpollock
Fantastic cofounders in this class.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why don't carriers upgrade your Android version? - suyash
Are the carriers not upgrading the Android OS on your phone because it doesn't serve their direct interest. Since they have already sold you the phone? I've had LG Optimus with TMobile for a while and I'm still waiting to get onto Gingerbread (2.3) from Froyo (2.2). I'm thinking about CyanogenMod | or Rooting and installing it manually? Please advice and share your experience.
======
byoung2
The carrier takes the latest version of Android, and they put all of their
proprietary code on it. For example, Sprint makes sure their NASCAR, NFL,
Sprint Zone, and Sprint TV works on it, as well as disabling tethering without
the plan addition. This is in addition to whatever modifications the handset
maker needs to make (e.g. HTC Sense UI, Facebook for HTC Sense, HTC
Friendstream, HTC Footprints, etc.). Given all that is required to upgrade to
the latest version of Android, sometimes it makes more sense to work on a new
phone.
------
kls
I personally think this is the biggest issue with the Android market, phones
get stuck in time. Once bought, there is no way except for a very technical
process to modernize the OS image.
Contrasted with IOS; phones from several generations back are able to upgrade
through a fairly simple process to the latest OS. This helps insure that most
relevant hardware is within a few versions of the current shipping OS, thus
reducing compatibility issues.
I wrote off Samsung devices for this very reason. I bought one of the first
pads and to this day there has been no upgrades to the OS on the pad. There is
no reason other than forcing users into an upgrade path, that the tab could
not receive a honeycomb upgrade bringing the pad up to an OS that was designed
with tablets in mind.
------
angryasian
Just root it, rooting has basically become an unbrickable process. Your phone
will feel like a new phone running CM .
Yes carriers would rather have you buy a new phone, but for a lot of consumers
it doesn't matter. I mean seriously if it was that big of an issue you
probably would of rooted your phone by now. A recent study came out that 50%
of iphone users haven't plugged in their iphone after initial purchase, so
basically theres a large amount of people out there that just don't care or
know. The benefit of Android is that its customizable. On the other hand if
people really didn't want to worry about root but wanted upgrades they should
only get the Nexus phones.
------
b0o
having people buy new phones/contracts actually makes the carrier some money,
whereas giving free upgrades doesn't. Note: I use t-mobile, which uses sim
cards, which is just easier to deal with when changing phones.
Last year, I tried upgrading my phone, but they said it would cost me
$200-$300 to get a decent android upgrade, so I went on craiglist and bought a
G2 and a Mytouch 3g slide as my backup/music/video player for a total of $225,
they had scuffs on the side, but overall were in fine conditions. I also had a
G1 that i used to learn about rooting, so after i got the G2 i rooted that in
20 minutes by downloading the 1-step root app, downloading cyanogenmod 7, and
flashing it to cm7.
If you want help buying a phone via craiglist, pm me.
------
brudgers
Android has no long term roadmap, no standardized hardware spec, and little
meaningful vendor support. As others have pointed out, the carriers are on
their own (as are the handset manufacturers).
To paraphrase Kissenger, you can't get Android on the phone. Google just
releases what they release (or in the case of Honeycomb, doesn't) and it's up
to the rest of the world to figure out what to do with it and how to do it.
iOS and WP7 in contrast have a coherent hardware spec and roadmap.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NextBug: a next-good-bug recommender for Bugzilla - nextjj
https://github.com/aserg-ufmg/NextBug
======
mchahn
This is great. I find debugging a large system to be easiest when I clean out
a related area instead of going bug by bug down a prioritized list. Switching
around the code causes a waste of time relearning each area.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fukushima: Japan will have to dump radioactive water into Pacific, minister says - asymmetric
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/10/fukushima-japan-will-have-to-dump-radioactive-water-into-pacific-minister-says
======
rowanG077
It's really sad the guardian doesn't quantify at all how contaminated the
water is. This basically has no news value because of it. Is this a good idea?
Is this a bad idea? No way to tell without any hard numbers.
~~~
pvaldes
> Is this a good idea? Is this a bad idea? No way to tell without any hard
> numbers.
Having plenty of numbers and data is great, specially for making reports and
speeches, but maths are not the only tool that a human brain can use. Often
logical reasoning is powerful enough.
Is a fact that radioactivity kills people. No need to demonstrate it
statistically. We have enough empirical evidence.
Is a fact also that radioactivity is bioaccumulative.
We don't need a single "four", "seven" or a "twelve" to understand that
dumping a bioaccumulative poison in a coastal area inhabited by millions and
that provides a considerable part of the diet of this people, is definitely
not a good idea.
~~~
antientropic
I think you have an incorrect idea of "logic reasoning" if you think that
that's a scientifically sound argument. To know whether this contaminated
water will be insufficiently diluted in the ocean to cause problems, you
definitely do need to use numbers. I mean, if it's diluted to a trillionth of
the natural background radiation, then who cares?
~~~
pvaldes
The question there then (I think that both will agree with that) is not if is
a bad or good idea, is if (or how) they can get away with murder. The answer
to this question is yes, of course. Had been doing it since 2011.
The idea that they are getting short of space is ridiculous. The area around
the central is not exactly crowded at this moment. To me is obvious that they
are getting sort of money, not space, and trying disperately to find excuses
to save at any cost, and pass the problem to other.
~~~
Nodraak
Murder? Do you have a source for that? To my knowledge nobody died of
radiation at Fukushima.
~~~
pvaldes
> nobody died of radiation at Fukushima.
Are you sure?
[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45423575](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
asia-45423575)
[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/get-a...](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/get-
away-with-murder)
~~~
Nodraak
Sorry for misunderstanding getting away with murder, I'm not a native english
speaker. Thank you for the denifition.
Not sure he died because of Fukushima:
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2018/09/06/no-the-
ca...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2018/09/06/no-the-cancer-death-
was-probably-not-from-fukushima/).
Anyway, we are discussing one case. Nobody died during the crisis and after 8
years there is only this case, and this is the second worst nuclear disaster.
I am not saying that nuclear is the best, but it is way safer than how people
think it is. And definitly way safer than other ways of producing electricity.
------
Nodraak
Very good twitter thread on this thing, with numbers and detailled
explanations (in French, sorry):
[https://twitter.com/TristanKamin/status/1164497983402053634](https://twitter.com/TristanKamin/status/1164497983402053634)
Check also his other threads, it's a gold mine
------
pvaldes
Here comes the excuses. Who was irresponsible in the past, will be
irresponsible in the future if is allowed to do so. I would not expect a
different response.
Alaska, British Columbia and the rest of US West Coast will eat the garbage
shaped as fishes, by courtesy of sea currents, (and is obvious that nobody
cares). Strange times.
------
lioeters
They've been dumping (or leaking) hundreds of tons of radioactive water into
the Pacific every day since the incident in 2011. It sounds like they will
have to dump _more_ , as a controlled release.
> [using groundwater] to prevent the three damaged reactor cores from melting
> [built] a frozen underground wall to prevent groundwater reaching the three
> damaged reactor buildings [which reduced the flow]..to about 100 tonnes a
> day.
> the prime minister..assured..that the situation was “under control”.
Not convinced.
------
vilhelm_s
There is a long article in two parts "Radioactive water at Fukushima Daiichi:
What should be done?" [1,2] which was previously discussed here at Hacker News
[3].
The thing I find most interesting is that even the Fukushima fishermen agree
that dumping the water will be harmless, but they are still very opposed to it
because they think consumers will be irrationally scared and not buy fish
caught in the Fukushima region.
> Over the course of our long conversation, Sawada frankly acknowledged that
> the scientific consensus indicates very low risk if the water is released.
> “It’s not a question of scientific understanding,” he said. “We understand
> that tritiated water is released from other nuclear power plants in Japan
> and around the world. But we think it will be impossible for the public in
> general to understand why tritium is considered low risk, and expect there
> will be a large new backlash against Fukushima marine products no matter how
> scientifically it is explained.” I pointed out that the [fishery] coops
> agreed to the release of the subdrain and bypass water from Daiichi, and
> asked what was different about this. He pointed out that in those cases, the
> water is pumped out before it is contaminated, and the public seems to
> understand that the contamination levels are already very low.
[1] [https://blog.safecast.org/2018/06/part-1-radioactive-
water-a...](https://blog.safecast.org/2018/06/part-1-radioactive-water-at-
fukushima-daiichi-what-should-be-done/) [2]
[https://blog.safecast.org/2018/06/part-2-radioactive-
water-a...](https://blog.safecast.org/2018/06/part-2-radioactive-water-at-
fukushima-daiichi-what-should-be-done/) [3]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20304208](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20304208)
------
lholden
It seems they have primarily isolated the remaining contaminant to tritium?
This seems like it might be a nice source of tritium for tritium deuterium
fusion reactors? I am quite sure I am missing some fairly critical elements
here... but it certainly would be lovely if that was the solution. (I mean,
there are not exactly a lot of fusion reactors... heh).
------
beautifulfreak
I suppose the problem is the other contaminants, because tritium removal isn't
too difficult. Cost must be the real problem. Nothing cheaper than dumping it
in the ocean.
[https://www.nuclearsolutions.veolia.com/en/our-
expertise/tec...](https://www.nuclearsolutions.veolia.com/en/our-
expertise/technologies/our-modular-detritiation-system-mds-remove-tritium)
------
Havoc
I guess we get to role play all those nuclear wasteland games in real life.
Just kidding. Wasn’t there a calc a while back that the concentrations are
actually that bad? ie in some cases barely noticable against background
radiation
~~~
krageon
The nuclear field has as far as I'm aware always been full of people claiming
(sometimes with pretty sophisticated reasoning) that "it's not that bad" (used
to justify storing waste or just dumping it).
~~~
Havoc
Fair. I mean the correct answer is clearly zero but it's an imperfect world.
Even if it is actually bad...I don't see any other options? Maybe massive oil
tankers to transport it & dump it in a desert somewhere?
~~~
krageon
Radioactive waste is trading inconveniencing future generations for a tangible
benefit right now. Every storage solution has inadequately addressed long-term
viability ("we're sure we'll solve the issues some day") or has waved it away
by pretending it is unimportant (this happens for basically every dumping
solution).
Fundamentally, whether or not that reasoning is unethical or wrong is up to
the reader. I don't feel like disadvantaging my descendants because it's
convenient for me is the right thing to do, but looking at the state of the
world right now I doubt the majority of people feels that way (or even cares
to think about it). Given that that is the case, sure! Dump it somewhere
convenient.
------
adam0c
call me crazy but why dont they just fire it off into space... ahaha!
~~~
tmountain
The use of rockets raises the threat of an accidental release of the waste
into the atmosphere if there was an explosion.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Elephants Are Very Scared of Bees. That Could Save Their Lives - hvo
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/science/bees-elephants-.html
======
icebraining
Dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16246604](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16246604)
~~~
mcguire
I think you mean
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16251029](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16251029)
~~~
icebraining
Oops. Yeah, thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I made a community for people who love plants - devictoribero
https://chooseyourplant.com/
======
devictoribero
I put a lot of passion into this project that I started for myself.
A worldwide community to: \- discover plants you love \- know their cares so
you don't kill them \- see different images so people can see how different
they grow given diverse environments \- watch video tutorials
I hope you like it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Bean Counter, a (non crypto) virtual currency platform - billowycoat
https://currency.moyaproject.com/
======
billowycoat
Hi HN,
This is something I had an idea for years ago, and even wrote some code at the
time, but never really got it off the ground. I started from scratch again,
and its more or less working.
Essentially it's online banking for a virtual currency, but its not Bitcoin or
similar. It's intended to be used as a 'Community Currency' or for a group /
community that trust the provider.
Please test, and if you can, send some currency to an email address or user.
Let me know if you find any bugs.
Will
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bus errors, core dumps, and binaries on NFS (2018) - signa11
https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/03/15/core/
======
dveeden2
Reminds me of the differences between `cp` and `install` for putting .so files
in place.
`install` basically results in a new inode allowing for processes to keep a
handle on the old version of the .so
`cp` copies the content over the old content, keeping the same inode. Now
applications that had that .so open won't be happy.
~~~
temac
Binaries are probably not mapped with MAP_SHARED, but I checked the mmap
manual for MAP_PRIVATE and read: "It is unspecified whether changes made to
the file after the mmap() call are visible in the mapped region."
I learn something everyday...
------
burntsushi
This can also occur when memory mapping a file on Linux, which is similarish
to the NFS issue. If you truncate a file that you've already memory mapped and
the OS tries to read past the truncated part, you get SIGBUS.
~~~
iforgotpassword
Wanted to comment the same. When I first learned about memory mapping I went
"mmap() all the things!!" since it's so much easier than reads and writes all
the time, checking for short reads, aligning the pointer and calling read
again, handling EINTR, you name it.
But at least you do get proper error codes that you can handle in a somewhat
sane way.
A read our write error for an mmapped file? SIGBUS, game over. Want to handle
it? Use a signal handler for SIGBUS, use setjmp before every access to your
mmapped region and longmp back from your signal handler. And you thought
handling all the failure modes of read/write was ugly.
Use mmap if you absolutely need the performance. Otherwise just don't.
~~~
icedchai
Back almost 20 years ago, I worked on a medium-sized system - 1000's of
simultaneous users, millions in $USD transactions daily - that was based on an
mmap'ed flat file "database." It worked amazingly well. (Note that we did none
of that sort of error handling!)
~~~
todd8
Yes, the first time I saw this described was in 1987 in a paper by A. Birrell,
et. al. See [1]. It was also available as a DEC SRC report, number 24.
[1] A simple and efficient implementation of a small database,
[https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/37499.37517?download=true](https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/37499.37517?download=true)
------
the8472
The lack of posix semantics when unlinking on NFS rears its ugly head in many
more places. For example the common atomic write pattern that allows readers
to keep reading a stale copy doesn't work anymore (you get ESTALE on IO or
SIGBUS if it's mmaped) which means anything involving a frequently replaced
file will require more workarounds than on any other filesystem.
~~~
jabl
Isn't that what "silly rename" (on nfsv3, v4 doesn't need it?) is supposed to
fix?
The problem the article mentions is overwritin a binary instead of renaming.
~~~
the8472
The article is about the atomic write pattern: create tempfile, move tempfile
over original which effectively is an unlink of the original.
And yes, this should be solved, but some NFS servers don't support it, e.g.
AWS's EFS.
------
qiqitori
In my experience, you're better off avoiding NFS as much as possible. (Perhaps
except when you're sharing a filesystem between VMs on the same machine.) Try
something else, perhaps rsync, unless you know what you're doing. NFS over a
VPN -- probably in for a rough ride.
In NFS, you can set mounts as 'hard' or 'soft'. If hard, errors will get you
stuck until the share is back. You probably don't want that. If soft, you're
slightly better off, but remember that the retry settings are all per-mount,
and perhaps one size doesn't fit all.
As far as I know, when NFS goes awry, you get the same or similar behavior to
a hypothetical HDD/SDD that just explicably decided to no longer do anything
for a while. Your processes will be in a D state and won't be killable for a
potentially long time.
~~~
macintux
When I worked in BBN R&D back in the day, we used lots of NFS on a very large
fragile LAN built from 10-base-2, plus some sketchy AppleTalk hardware in a
closet somewhere nearby.
Every now and then I’d know someone was in the closet because my transceiver’s
light would peg and NFS was locked up. Someone had once again bumped the
AppleTalk router.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Which companies are the best places to start my career? - soonToGraduate
Hi HN, I hope some of you can help me:<p>I'm graduating with a CS degree this spring and I want to find a company where I'll learn best practices about software design, continuous integration, testing, and more.<p>From your experiences in the industry which companies really go out of their way to train their junior developers?<p>I'm not looking for help at every step, but it would be good to be at a place where I can get really good really fast.<p>Thank you!
======
calcsam
[http://hunterwalk.com/2014/03/08/new-grads-midstage-
startups...](http://hunterwalk.com/2014/03/08/new-grads-midstage-startups-are-
your-best-first-job-in-tech/)
is a good pointer.
------
eclipxe
Amazon.
Really, everything else pales in comparison in terms of rigor and scale.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tusk: an unofficial, open-source Evernote app - cookfood
https://github.com/klauscfhq/tusk#---refined-evernote-desktop-app
======
segphault
It's an electron wrapper around the official Evernote web app, but with some
color themes. Why do I want to use this instead of Evernote's high-performance
native desktop client?
~~~
million_words
I have been using it from version v0.5.0, and I can say it is well maintained
and user requests are heavily considered when it comes to its development,
something not true on how Evernote reacts, when we ask for something. Plus, it
is from the dog* who made signale, so it is going to stay of good quality. *
Apparently it's not actually that cute dog who made it.
------
krick
Meh… I became so excited seeing the title, thinking it might be some (maybe
even self-hosted?) alternative to Evernote. But turns out it's just some
"alternative" desktop client for Evernote, not even sure why "on steroids".
Well, maybe not today…
~~~
dang
We've taken the steroids out of the title above.
------
dvcrn
Not a Evernote user, but this looked interesting but for something like
Evernote that I would want to have constantly open in the background, another
Electron app is just too much of a battery hog.
Another alternative client someone recommended me a while ago is Alternote but
never tried it ([0])
At the same time I'm not sure if it's a wise idea to rely on a third-party
client for something essential to your workflow as it could get axed at any
time. I personally am now with DEVONthink. It's not as sexy looking as this,
but immensely powerful once you wrap your head around it
[0]: alternoteapp.com
[1]:
[https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/overvi...](https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/overview.html)
~~~
skinnymuch
Alternote is a pretty good app. I tried it out before. It does use some decent
CPU usage too though if I’m remembering right. Nothing close to what an
Electron wrapper will give you, but also not what Devonthink will give you. I
also have come around to using Devonthink (Mac only).
------
spraak
To use the steroids analogy, if you're looking for a sober (minimalist) notes
app, checkout Dynalist.io I have most of my life there (lists, plans,
journaling, etc) I am not affiliated with Dynalist, just a very happy user
~~~
Fnoord
Tusk is open source; Dynalist isn't. I just don't get it why anyone would want
a subscription to host their private notes online in a proprietary
application. Have people forgotten about Microsoft's Word vendor lock-in
already?
What you want for your notes is:
0) You need to decide what kind of functionality you need in a note management
app which cannot be fullfilled with other alternatives such as a simple text
editor (I use Sublime mainly for note taking, plus Google Keep for groceries).
1) An open data format so you are not locked in a platform. This allows you
far less time if you want to swap service which decreases monopolistic
behavior (vendor lock-in) and increases competition (yay capitalism).
2) You deciding the storage location (this then allows you to use Dropbox or
Syncthing or Rsync or whatever cloud, but also allows you to use public-key
cryptography such as e.g. Cryptomator). It also allows you to opt-out of the/a
cloud.
The logical solution is to use an open source application. Though I'm not sure
I'd want it to be a browser (saw NPM in the source tree). I'd say the logical
place for this kind of data is near your agenda, like Nextcloud.
~~~
adambyrtek
Tusk might be open source but it's still a client for the proprietary Evernote
service, so it's not significantly better according to your criteria.
~~~
Fnoord
I stand corrected! I thought this was an alternative to Evernote; turns out
its just an open source client. This isn't the droid you're looking for. But
I'm not sure about the data format of the files. Is that documented?
------
hliyan
I only scanned through the repo, but surprisingly few lines of code for a app
of this size. Good work. Also, should you be using the Evernote logo in the
app if it's unaffiliated?
~~~
maskedSlacker
Headline is super misleading--it's an electron app that wraps the web
interface for Evernote. It's not its own application.
~~~
hliyan
That _is_ super misleading. In that case it adds virtually no value over
Evernote's own offering (except perhaps eating more battery).
------
latchkey
I saw the evernote logo in the screenshots and my first thought was "wow, that
is a pretty flagrant violation." It wasn't until I read the comments here that
I realized it is a wrapper around the official app.
------
voltagex_
Possibly offtopic: Has anyone written any importers / exporters for OneNote?
------
erAck
If it's Electron it's the reason to not use it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Subways and Urban Air Pollution [pdf] - pulisse
https://www.nicolasgendroncarrier.com/_pdf/Gendron-Carrier_etal_WP_2018.pdf
======
pulisse
Abstract:
> We investigate the relationship between the opening of a city’s subway
> network and its air quality. We find that particulate concentrations drop by
> 4% in a 10km radius disk surrounding a city center following a subway system
> opening. The effect is larger near the city center and persists over the
> longest time horizon that we can measure with our data, about eight years.
> We estimate that a new subway system provides an external mortality benefit
> of about $594m per year. Although available subway capital cost estimates
> are crude, the estimated external mortality effects represent a significant
> fraction of construction costs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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