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Disqus relaunches to turn your comments into a Reddit-like social network - dctrwatson
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/26/8116199/disqus-social-network-reddit
======
podman
Is anyone else troubled by how they're trying to drive traffic away from the
site on which the disqus comments are embedded? It doesn't look like there is
any way to disable this functionality.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Optimal hw specs needed for chrome with 100-1000+ tabs to run smoothly? - SolveEverything
======
qubex
I have no idea what the correct answer maybe (beyond the obvious linear
extrapolations whose bounds of applicability I am not aware of) but I am
curious what prompted a question so patently absurd (not an insult) and with
such a broad order-of-magnitude spread.
~~~
SolveEverything
heyy how about something helpful?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs - happy-go-lucky
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/31/547646709/u-s-employers-struggle-to-match-workers-with-open-jobs
======
altotrees
Recently had a recruiter call me, interview me over the phone once, in-person
once, and via skype once. The job seemed to be a great fit, the pay was there,
everything seemed to be lined up. The recruiter called me again to tell me
that they were going to be taking the next steps with me very shortly. A week
of silence goes by, then another.
I email, inquiring about the position. "Oh, we gave that to someone we had
been interviewing for months, but we'll keep you in mind for the future."
Unprofessional disconnects and other encounters like this have taken place
several times, in my experience. It turns out I knew the person who did get
the job I was all but promised. After talking to them, the company had
contacted them three days after its last interview with me, and the successful
candidate had been asking for $10,000 dollars less and had less experience
than myself. A month later, that candidate emailed me and told me they were
let go for "being unable to meet the requirements of the position."
Anecdotal experience like this really makes me skeptical when I hear employers
bemoaning that they cannot find employees. Can they really not find employees
or good talent, or do they just not want to pay the wages that people are
asking for?
~~~
cynicalkane
I feel like there's two tiers of the software industry: those employable at
AmaFaceGoogFlix or a competitor, and everyone else; but the "everyone else" is
completely unaware that the first tier exists. It's like if minor league
baseball had no idea about major league baseball.
You even see it on HN. Someone will come along and talk about how a senior dev
at Google can expect $250k a year. You'll get two categories of replies: "I
don't believe this at all, Glassdoor proves you are wrong, nobody I know makes
that, blah blah" and "bro that is totally normal". $250k is honestly on the
average-lowish end for a senior eng at a major SV company in 2017. Much of the
industry is not only unaware of reality but refuses to believe in it. This
includes real engineers who do real work at real companies and comment
actively on Hacker News. $250k for a senior engineer is just completely
outside their reality.
On my last job search, my best job offer was about 2x as high as the worst
one. The guy who made the worst one--which was about 30-40% below my minimum
stated range, depending on how you valued the equity, so he had been stringing
me along, but anyway--he started arguing with me about my unrealistic
expectations, and wouldn't stop talking until I told him I was going to hang
up if he kept trying to talk me down.
I know it's considered bad negotiation, but if I can't figure out the salary
range of a job opening, I'll name my requirements up front. Over 50% of the
time the conversation ends there. I know at least twice people assumed I was
over-highballing as part of some misguided negotiating tactic when I actually
was a little conservative.
~~~
jcadam
I still don't believe the $250k figure :)
I make exactly half of that here in Florida (a fairly low cost area) as a
senior dev and my salary has definitely plateaued (and I haven't had a raise
in a few years).
I know I make more than most of my peers and local recruiters scoff when I
tell them my current pay (I had to talk my current employer up about $30k just
to match my salary at my previous employer to get me to switch -- and they
only did so because they were quite obviously desperate).
~~~
dsr_
"here in Florida (a fairly low cost area)"
Let's say you work in downtown Tampa and live 30-40 minutes away. You can get
a 4 bedroom 2500 sq ft house for $350K. That's about 3 years salary for you.
Now let's say you get a job at Facebook and want to find a similar house,
about 30-40 minutes away. I think it will cost you upwards of $2M. You need to
be making $670K or more to make housing the same fraction of your living
expenses.
Your quality of living and long term economic prospects are probably
significantly better where you are.
~~~
vacri
> _to make housing the same fraction of your living expenses_
And when housing is the same fraction, the disposable income after that
fraction is removed is far, far higher. As Bill Gates says, once you can
afford the $30 burger, there's nowhere to get an even more expensive burger.
~~~
etblg
Bill Gates needs to update his quote, I don't think $30 is where burger-
technology has topped out these days
------
jdhn
"They're just asking for the moon, and not expecting to pay very much for it,"
Cappelli says. "And as a result they [can't] find those people. Now that
[doesn't] mean there was nobody to do the job; it just [means] that there was
nobody at the price they were willing to pay."
In my opinion, this is the key paragraph in the article. I see this all the
time when recruiters send me job postings, and they want someone with 5 years
of experience for the salary of someone with 2 years of experience.
~~~
kartickv
But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? You seem
to be assuming it's worth doing at any price, as does the article, and that's
untrue.
Besides, I don't know about others, but I've recently put out multiple job ads
for one vacancy. Our app, Noctacam, uses computational photography to take
great photos at night. I was looking for someone with computational
photography knowledge and/or iOS. And/or Android, since we plan to make an
Android app in the future. I found it convenient to post three job ads, so
that I can clearly organise the dozens of applicants based on their skills.
Two of them went unfulfilled. Which is exactly as was intended. Someone who
doesn't understand the background may say, "Oh, no, tons of positions aren't
being filled." In other ways, it may a counting problem, not a real problem.
~~~
notyourday
If they need to fill this job and it is not worth the higher salary and it
cannot be filled at this salary or lower then this job should not exist as a
job: the owner of the company, the manager of the company, the HR person of
the company can either do that job themselves or that job should be
eliminated.
~~~
icebraining
But why? Does having the position open harm anyone?
~~~
thatcat
It needlessly wastes peoples time.
~~~
toomuchtodo
If employers were required to pay for someone's time for an interview, you
would see this fixed right quick. But because an employer can leave an
unreasonable job req out there and interview as many candidates as they want,
with the only cost being their own time, this continues.
~~~
lloyd-christmas
Here's something I wrote on a different discussion about hiring:
_Imagine I cost my company $50 an hour in salary, and earn them $150 an hour
(revenue of 3-5x salary is ballpark for most companies, we 'll go for the low
end for some perspective). As a senior dev, I have to sit in all the
interviews of people potentially joining my team. Imagine we have 10 people
that make it through the HR round. I have to participate in 10 interviews, and
then likely 3 more for the final round.
My cost for round 2 is: 10 people x 2 hours x (150 lost revenue + 50 salary
paid) = $4k
My cost for round 3 is: 3 x 8 x (150 + 50) = $4.8k
My company has already dropped $8.8k on my involvement solely in the interview
room for your typical entry level position. This doesn't even include my
involvement in onboarding, training, pre-interview prep, post-interview
review, etc. This is also JUST ME, and a very lowball figure at that. Now
factor in the cost of the HR round, recruiters, background checks, the other
devs in the interviews with me, etc. It adds up very, very quickly._
The "costs of doing business" can easily be reduced by not interviewing for
shits and giggles.
~~~
Danihan
I don't get why companies can't just hire a bunch of more "questionable"
applicants at a lower rate, say $45k - $60k or so for junior devs in most
cities.
No need to spend much effort on the interview process, just make sure they can
solve a couple standardized problems, and then "hire" them as contractors for
a 90-day trial.
Put them onto teams and throw them in the deep end, then get rid of all the
ones who can't swim, which will probably be like 75%. But you'll also find
quite a few unexpected gems that way.
I mean, that's exactly what we did in Call Center management and it worked
great. Hired people at $10 / hour for the first 90 days, then a $2 raise up to
$12. We did have super high attrition for brand new employees (since we didn't
technically do a contracting period,) but who really cares.
We just kept on filtering and eventually had dozens of shockingly intelligent
and competent call center employees for like, $13 / hour. (This was in the
Midwest.)
~~~
HeroOfAges
Quite a few companies are doing exactly what you describe to fill dev
positions. The real cost comes when the systems designed and built by those
junior devs are so brittle it becomes very time consuming and expensive to add
new features. Most of the time, however, those systems built by the junior
devs are so buggy there's no time to build new features in any case because
everyone is too busy dealing with issues in prod.
~~~
notyourday
That's because these companies management loves to develop by committee that
comes with agilie, points, IPMs and standups. When a voice of expert is
assigned the same weight as the voice of a Joe Random Developer and there are
more Joe Random Developers than experts, you end up with garbage fire of
systems.
------
dkhenry
The tech sector is the worst at this. The skills we test for are the ones that
can be figured out in about a month, and the ones we don't test for are the
ones that need to be learned over a lifetime
~~~
avoutthere
Well said. I've been telling people for years that tech sector interviews
select for the wrong skill sets.
~~~
pgwhalen
What skill sets should they select for?
~~~
existencebox
Having done a good handful of interviews, I tend to look for "generic problem
solving" (not in the sense of trick questions, but in the sense of running
through ambiguous engineering and mixed social/engineering scenarios to see
how they'd move forward) communication skills (the ability to communicate the
above effectively, talk about past work, problems, successes) and frankly
track record. (this is obviously harder for new hires so you look for things
like coursework, projects, even successes in other lines of work can
demonstrate someone's professionalism and capability)
You may note that these are all primarily "soft skills" and I would hope this
is the takeaway from my ramble. My experience has been that it's often easier
for a hire to pick up the technical rather than the nontechnical side of
things. Depending on the level of the job, of course you have to filter for a
certain level of competency as well, but I can usually get a good sense of
that within the questions I ask above. When I get someone to really start
talking about "what have I succeeded/failed at; why; what would I do
different" I tend to find I can get a decent read on if they're bullshitting
me or not.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Are you hiring programmers/developers or people like sys admins? It sounds
like the latter, I can't imagine anyone hiring the former claiming dev skills
are easy to pick up.
~~~
WalterSear
I think they are talking about picking up unfamiliar tools and languages that
are reasonably close to their existing skillset rather than 'learning to
code'.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Maybe, evaluating a dev is tricky, judging them on soft skills alone would
lead to many false positives and negatives.
~~~
WalterSear
Sure. I think the parent is implying that this evaluation is what is flawed,
and overly driven by a focus on the superficial layers of technology.
So, for instance, a Reactjs developer fresh out of bootcamp gets considered
over a veteran Angular developer, 'because they know React.'
------
qudat
In my mind this is screaming for apprenticeship programs like in
Germany.[1][2] Companies need a more streamlined process to get employers
early in their career so employees have the necessary training and then get
promoted within. All the while employees get paid to learn and work.
This one-size-fits-all 4-year college track that every U.S. citizen is being
pushed through is failing miserably.
[1] [https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/why-
ger...](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/why-germany-is-
so-much-better-at-training-its-workers/381550/)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship#Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship#Germany)
~~~
surfmike
Even for people who go to college, more work experience is a huge plus.
Waterloo's coop system (4 months of school, 4 months of internship, repeated)
provides a great mix of practical experience and academics. It would be great
if all majors could have an experience like that.
~~~
stevenwoo
I graduated from college 30 years ago and every engineering major at every
state university I ever heard of had a coop program.
~~~
maxerickson
Waterloo places much more emphasis on it. The program is built around every
student doing coops.
~~~
stevenwoo
That part I did not know, most of our professors in our first year engineering
classes strongly recommended it, though. I co-oped at a company only about 100
miles from my university, though other students were from out of state
schools.
The other thing I just thought of was I co-oped at IBM for three semesters
which was the max for a location but they had openings in a different country,
I probably should have done that instead of staying in the USA for my last co-
op, are most of the Waterloo students going to Canadian companies?
~~~
boyaka
A _lot_ go to SF bay area. I met a large group of them in 2007 when I was
doing my coop. My school, University of the Pacific, also had a mandatory coop
program, although they started to make it optional sometime after 2009.
------
5trokerac3
_Insert comment about requiring 5 years of experience in a 3 year old
language_
HR gating really is the worst thing going in American hiring practices today.
"Do you have multiple years of experience with 99.9% of the skills listed as
requirements, which only a handful of people in the country have? Yes, but I
see that on our web form that you had to use to submit your resume you didn't
check the box next to 'Degree in X', so you're automatically disqualified."
~~~
jarsin
Or in the software world...I see you have essentially built my exact company
before and have tons of experience, but what I really need to know before I
hire you is...Can you show me how many queens you can put on a chess board in
code!
~~~
talmand
let numQueens = 64;
------
dreamcompiler
Part of this comes from executives being taught to think of employees as
expenses rather than assets. "Less money to employees = more money to me."
This attitude is part of a larger systemic problem: A great deal of American
business is now more about gaming the system than about building products.
Take the VC money, build nothing, and cash out. Sell customer data to ad
networks and cash out. SEO the hell out of that thing and cash out. Cook the
books and cash out. Sell bundles of subprime loans and cash out. Buy your
competitor, harvest its assets, kill their product, and cash out. Pump and
dump and disappear. "What, you still have seed corn? Eat that shit!"
It's all just bullshit short-term arbitrage. It has nothing to do with adding
value, which is what sustainable business is based on. It works well in an
environment where such behavior is not punished, and where business executives
are rewarded for "maximum profit in minimum time" and penalized for long-term
thinking. It's certainly not sustainable, but alas, that's exactly where we
are in the U.S.
~~~
BoiledCabbage
An underrated comment. It sounds harsh, but It's institutionalized get-rich-
quick. A lot of it is the hyper-focus on efficiency. Which gets interpreted as
efficiency of time, which turns to "get money back out as quickly as
possible". And as people look for faster and faster ways to get money out at
some point the only route/scheme that can keep up is "create an illusion of
value and sell that."
And all of this is a drain for society, not a net plus. Even though you'll
inevitably hear the argument "Creating an illusion of value has societal
value. Obviously it does, otherwise people wouldn't pay for it." A which point
you're reaching peak irony. And then you begin the inevitable arms race of
smarter minds working on better ways to hide the illusions, and smarter minds
on the otherside working on better ways to sniff them out. This is pretty mucb
equivalent to having your best and brightest optimize better ways to predict
horsetrack betting (but at least in that case if an Einstein invents an
accurate weather prediction machine that value is transferable to society at
large). These minds are bust develiping non-useful, non-transferrable non-
useful abilities instead of becoming the next Elon Musk. It's a train wreck in
slow motion, but those on the inside are so deep in it they're unable to see
it.
------
chrisbennet
I love what Joel Spolski said about this "problem" in his article "Whaddaya
Mean, You Can’t Find Programmers?" back in 2000.
[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/06/15/whaddaya-mean-
you-...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/06/15/whaddaya-mean-you-cant-
find-programmers/)
_" Now, let’s review some microeconomics. In a free market, it is almost
axiomatic that the market always clears. That’s a technical term that means
that when somebody tries to sell something, if they are willing to accept the
market price, they will be able to sell it, and when somebody wants to buy
something, if they are willing to pay the market price, they will be able to
buy it. It’s just a matter of both sides accepting the market price."_
~~~
dabockster
But, when the price of other labor sources is cheaper (eg H1-B, interns, your
nephew, etc), economics dictates that you should use those instead of the
local population.
The solution, imo, is to raise the price of the other sources somehow. That
way, the local population is cheaper.
~~~
chrisbennet
If a company _can_ find "other labor sources" then they really don't have a
reason to say "we can't find labor".
Employers are saying "there is a shortage of workers" when what they really
mean is "the market price for workers is more than we want to pay" or "we
don't want to share more of the profits with the employees (who actually make
the product) then we used to". To "fix" this, they want some sort of special
treatment that will decrease the cost of employees - like being allowed to
employ more indentured servants (H1-B) at below market rate.
~~~
stale2002
If bread costs 100$ per loaf, and people are literally starving to death in
the streets because they can't pay for food, is this just the "market clearing
rate" for bread where supply is meeting demand, or is there a shortage of
bread?
~~~
xenadu02
You could have a point if it cost $10 million to hire a senior competent
software engineer. It does not.
You could have a point if bread cost $75 to produce. It does not.
Many of the companies complaining about a shortage of people are posting
record profits. Workers are receiving the smallest share of the pie in many
decades.
In many cases this really is just stingy employers complaining because they
want to keep most of the profit for themselves.
In other cases businesses can't raise prices because their customers don't
have any money (because wages are so low and the 1% captures so much economic
surplus, stashing it away in investment accounts, causing investors to dash
around shoveling _tons_ of cash at anything that looks like yield). In this
case hiring workers at higher wages wouldn't be sustainable without raising
prices. The "solution" in this scenario is not to suppress worker's wages even
further; that only makes the problem worse. The solution is much higher taxes
on the ultra-rich to filter the money out of investments and back into the
economy where 10: it can be spent by workers, raising profits, leading to
expansion, higher pay, more spending, more profits, goto 10.
If we were in a capital-constrained environment then it would make sense to
cut taxes to make more capital available for investment. We aren't. We haven't
been in decades. Taxes on income & capital gains >10m should be much higher.
~~~
lj3
> The solution is much higher taxes on the ultra-rich
I was with you up until this part. This has been tried for decades and it
clearly doesn't work. What we need now are tax breaks specifically for small
businesses. We want people to be able to work for themselves or work for
somebody more willing to share more of the profits with their workers. More
businesses willing to pay market rate means more employment, more competition
and more pressure on the companies who like to underpay.
Neither idea (tax breaks for SMB, more taxes for rich) are going to happen
anytime soon. Nobody with deep enough pockets to lobby for it would want
either idea to become law.
~~~
Mc_Big_G
When was this tried? I'm really interested in data that shows taxing the
ultra-rich at the same rate as the middle class (~30%) and "clearly doesn't
work"
------
notyourday
Pay. More. Money.
There, I solved it for every single one of the "struggling" employers. Money
is a proxy for _everything_.
~~~
tim333
Though with unemployment around 4.3% you may be paying up for mediocre
employees you are then stuck with for a long time.
~~~
quantumhobbit
If you want better than mediocre employees then guess what the solution is?
More money!
Although mediocre employees can often become great employees with some
training and coaching.
~~~
owebmaster
> Although mediocre employees can often become great employees with some
> training and coaching.
Although mediocre employees can often become great employees with some _MORE
MONEY_!
~~~
samfriedman
True, but it's often the case that the money is spent inefficiently or on the
completely wrong things. More money + proper spending = worker growth.
------
maxxxxx
Maybe they should allow people a little time to learn the exact skills needed?
These days you need to have done already what you will be doing on the new
job. No time for learning anything even if it would take only a few days or
weeks to get up to speed. How are people actually learning new stuff?
If Uber had looked for a CEO that way they would have rejected any candidate
that hadn't run a fast growing ride sharing company with HR problems and an
extremely high valuation and no clear path to profit. They would also complain
about not being to find suitable candidates.
~~~
crispyambulance
> How are people actually learning new stuff?
You just do it. On the job. Without asking for permission.
This doesn't work for all skills, unfortunately, and some people have jobs
where they are project-managed to a degree that every minute needs to be
accounted for. But mostly, there's some slack to pick up new skills.
~~~
dabockster
> You just do it. On the job. Without asking for permission.
And hope your boss is forgiving.
~~~
crispyambulance
Perhaps, but I have NEVER heard of somebody getting fired for "up-skilling"
while still getting work done.
~~~
maxxxxx
I have seen people squeezing in a whole new stack just because. Like instead
of adding two new web APIs to the existing server suddenly you have that weird
beast that's half Node and half .NET.
~~~
jaggederest
I think that's one of the gaping flaws to that method of skill acquisition.
It's a great way to introduce politics and negative-sum-games to the
workplace.
Suddenly people are picking projects and stacks based on personal
aggrandizement rather than professionalism.
Maybe companies should start hiring a chief behavioral (economic?) officer to
go with the chief culture officer.
~~~
maxxxxx
I don't blame this on the people doing it. There are some idiots but in
general it's mainly because a lot of people don't feel challenged and
therefore look for something interesting.
Managers should encourage innovation but control it. I see so many projects
where management rejects every kind of change without discussion. Either only
losers will stay in that environment or you get this kind of underground
projects. If management looked at something more than only deadlines and
budgets the whole climate would improve.
------
molestrangler
Go and read "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O’Neil.
This has an excellent chapter of the use of ATS software the majority of
recruiters use these days.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicant_tracking_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicant_tracking_system)
~~~
expertentipp
Resume optimization to get the foot in the door, take home assignments,
automatic platforms verifying programming skills, algorithm and data structure
teasing. This is getting inpenetrable. I wonder how many of those smartasses
inventing another question or an assignment would be able to get a job again.
~~~
dabockster
> automatic platforms verifying programming skills
Somewhat related, I withdrew from an entry level physics course in college
after only two weeks since the professor insisted on using an automated
homework platform that cut your grade in half if you couldn't figure out the
problem on the first try.
This problem isn't exclusive to tech.
------
ChuckMcM
I've been watching this tension grow for a while (otherwise qualified workers
unwilling to work for the pay offered). I keep expecting the system to crack
and boost pay, and then we'll see some more severe inflation in the US economy
as a cycle of product costs go up rather than down. And yet it is stubbornly
hanging in as employers try ever more intricate ways to avoid having that cost
bump.
It is very much a prisoner's dilemma sort of situation. If one company boosts
their pay (and their product prices to cover that pay) then they lose market
share. If both boost pay they both make a bit more money as their prices go up
simultaneous (no change in market share). If neither boost pay they continue
to operate at a restricted level which doesn't allow them to do additional
development or increase sales.
~~~
alain94040
That dam has burst years ago. Facebook, then Google, significantly increased
their pay to software engineers and it lifted all the salaries in the bay
area.
What's interesting is that this tide hasn't propagated very far outside
California yet.
~~~
ChuckMcM
Not the tension I'm seeing. I'm seeing it in the rank and file all across the
country as the article points out. Office admins, waitstaff, hospitality
positions, janitorial, etc. These generally blue collar positions have had
negative wage growth between 2009 and today but that has slowed or nearly
stopped according to the labor statistics put out by Bureau of Labor
Statistics[1].
As an example, at some point the customer complaints about room cleanliness
will force hotel chains to increase their wages offered to fill positions that
have gone unfilled for too long. That change will be reflected in higher hotel
rates. Restaurants that can't keep all their tables open during 'peak' times
will have to raise prices to add staff Etc.
It isn't a 'big deal' for Facebook or Google to raise wages because it just
slows the free cash flow into their bank accounts. But it is a big deal for
business models where personnel costs are a material factor in the company's
operating margin.
[1]
[https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf)
~~~
sdenton4
And then all of these new janitors and clerical staff will have paychecks,
which they can use to play for hotel rooms on their new paid vacations...
There's a strong argument that the wage stagnation in the middle and lower
classes in the US is slowing down the economy across the board.
In fact, I wonder if the increasing concentration of profits in a handful of
companies is contributing to the inability of companies further down the food
chain to pay workers market rates.
~~~
ChuckMcM
> _In fact, I wonder if the increasing concentration of profits in a handful
> of companies is contributing to the inability of companies further down the
> food chain to pay workers market rates._
You would not be the only one wondering that :-). A friend of mine who used to
be an economist working at Google and I were discussing what the impact of
having over a Trillion dollars locked up in 'cash and cash equivalents'[1] by
the top 50 international companies.
By its nature, cash equivalents can't be lent out by banks for longer term
investment (they are required to be able to exchange the investments for cash
on short notice) so that hoard just sits there.
[1][https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/september-2016/global-
cash-25...](https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/september-2016/global-cash-25-2016)
------
quantumhobbit
I've recently started mentally comparing tech companies that complain about
the "lack of talent" to SUV drivers who complain about the price of gas.
There is so much low hanging fruit in terms of improving engineers
productivity, but the companies refuse to even consider the possibility. If
you offered private offices or remote work and the opportunity to use more
productive tools, candidates would line up to apply. And would need fewer
workers because they would get more work done.
------
expertentipp
There is flood of American outsourcing centers in post-Communist EU countries.
Top salaries for software devs/eng, including seniors, are USD 40k gross
annually. They can treat the employees in the worst "corporate America" ways -
their offices, available hardware, policies, laughable benefits, annual leave,
create a perfect package for miserable professional and private life.
~~~
qaq
? Total misinformation. As applicable to Ukraine salaries are US salary - US
tax -(20-30)% take into account cost of living and special tax treatment
(3-4%). Workday is normal workday and not some unknown number of hours offices
are way nicer then in US minus the usual suspects (Google FB etc.). You get
way more time off plus there are like 3X official holidays in Ukraine. Running
recruiting biz. on the side we had real trouble finding people for senior java
dev. remote product work 60K/year (tax rate 3%) + all the usual benefits good
candidates wanted 70K.
~~~
expertentipp
> As applicable to Ukraine salaries are US salary
> remote product work 60K/year
60k USD gross anually in Ukraine? No. Sorry, but it doesn't exist. An unicorn
salary, dozen of those lucky perhaps have.
~~~
qaq
To reiterate we had trouble hiring at that rate good senior Java engineers.
Not sure what you are basing your opinion on I lived and worked there for over
10 years including running my own company and working for other companies. I
also know good number of founders/owners of the top outsourcing outfits.
~~~
expertentipp
> good senior Java engineers
duh! they left for Germany
~~~
qaq
Some did, but they did not win as far as after tax $, it's mostly for better
infrastructure and security. At the time we were trying to fill the positions
a large UK based company closed down dev. office in Ukraine they had 120 dev's
about 40 were senior scala/java within 1.5 weeks only one was without a new
job he didn't take 60K offer either as he got a better competing offer.
------
habosa
There are a lot of comments in this thread about how recruiters are bad at
their jobs, they want X years of experience in framework Y and they want to
pay for X/2 years of experience.
What can we really expect from recruiters though? They get paid a fraction of
the salary of the jobs they are recruiting for, and they're asked to evaluate
someone's potential competency in a field that's complex and rapidly changing.
So _of course_ they pick proxy metrics. They just ask "do you have 10 years of
C++ experience" because it would be impossible for them to, say, read your
GIthub code and see that you're really good at C++ even without the years of
experience.
The only way you're going to have a good experience with a recruiter for a
technical position is if the recruiter has the technical aptitude to make
judgement calls on your qualification.
So maybe we need to pay recruiters more and then convince people with software
engineering degrees to become recruiters? Of course the companies would have
to be willing to invest in their recruiters, and they won't do that.
------
CoolGuySteve
"A players hire other As, B players hire Cs..."
"The cost of a bad hire is higher than a false negative..."
"... culture fit.."
"We solve hard problems so we need the best.."
It's pretty clear that hiring in technology is a cargo cult that mostly serves
to waste time and haze newcomers.
But I think the hiring ritual in general of 'post requirements -> get resumes
-> interview' is ineffective bullshit. Each filter is progressively more error
prone than the last and you mostly get noise out the other end.
~~~
crispyambulance
> post requirements -> get resumes -> interview' is ineffective bullshit
I agree, but that's not necessarily the way many (most?) jobs even get filled.
There are other channels, professional networks and word-of-mouth, etc.
------
Animats
At the low end, few people will move to take a $8-$17/hr job. Moving costs are
too high, and selling a house in a declining small town doesn't provide enough
cash to buy a house in a town with jobs. This is why there are so many people
stuck in small towns with no jobs.
Moving to a place where there's one big employer, the case in too many small
towns, is signing up for indentured servitude. You can't quit without moving.
Employers like that situation - it's called having a a "compliant workforce".
It's common in the southern US.
From the employer perspective, hiring for low-end jobs means first filtering
out the druggies, the crooks, and the crazies. Druggies alone are about 20% of
applicants. The U.S. Army says that only about 25% of young men meet Army
recruiting standards today. The Army won't take fat people, druggies, crooks,
or anyone requiring frequent medical care, and they require a high school
diploma. It's scary that only 25% pass that basic screen.
------
RealityNow
The reality is that you need your job more than your employer needs you. We're
all replaceable, and this is further exacerbated by technology and
outsourcing. Hiring in the tech industry where senior engineers have to go
through multiple rounds of answering data structures & algorithm riddles is
probably the epitome of this absurdity.
As long as this is the case, employers are always going to demand the moon,
only hire the "best", and offer as little money as possible. If employers
really needed you, they wouldn't be holding out for the diamond in the rough
willing to work for peanuts.
It boggles my mind that we as a society still cling on to this notion that
everybody must rent themselves out to somebody else to survive. Wage slavery
should not be the backbone of our economy. Something like a basic income would
go a long way towards evening the playing field, so that desperate workers can
walk away from this nonsense.
------
fiblye
To sum up the article, businesses are making ridiculous demands and expecting
to pay prospective employees marginally above nothing. Aside from the people
posting these job ads, nobody is really surprised.
~~~
crispyambulance
Job postings are ridiculous, but one would think employers would gradually
learn a lesson when not enough applicants come forward and relax puffed-up
requirements.
But if anything, job "requirements" in postings have been getting even more
absurd and persnickety in the last 10 years or so. Are employers simply not
adapting or is there something else more complex going on? I suspect the
latter.
~~~
tcbawo
I believe many companies want to portray the image that they are successful,
growing, hiring. Job listings are cheap. What is the real cost of advertising
for many positions and hiring the good people that come along irrespective of
the advertisement?
~~~
dabockster
> What is the real cost of advertising for many positions and hiring the good
> people that come along irrespective of the advertisement?
If by "good people" you mean desperate workers willing to work for peanuts,
then the cost is almost nonexistent. And that's the problem. Since real
workers don't like to be fished.
------
jasonlotito
You can partly blame the tech elites like Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe for
this. They were found to have a no poaching agreement [1]. This kept wages
down, and because their wages were down, other companies benefited by not
having to pay as much compared to them. They could remain competitive even
with these companies.
You cannot pay "competitive" salaries and "only hire the best."
1\. [http://fortune.com/2015/09/03/koh-anti-poach-
order/](http://fortune.com/2015/09/03/koh-anti-poach-order/)
------
throwaway-sorry
Most of the commentary here is focused on the high end, but there's a bigger
problem on the low end of the labor market.
Our government plows tons of money into job services, training add, and other
programs at the state/local level. There are some really successful agencies,
but there is a hell of a lot of waste where the system just helps enough to
"check the box" that you're trying to find work and eligible for unemployment.
A huge part of the problem is that the workers don't trust the system. And why
would they, when massive data breaches happen due to poor handling of data.
See [http://www.securityweek.com/joblink-breach-affects-job-
seeke...](http://www.securityweek.com/joblink-breach-affects-job-
seekers-10-states)
Unfortunately, this problem is only going to get worse as more data is
accumulated by state agencies unqualified to watch over it. I firmly believe
that if we reformed the data systems and the programs relying on them at the
state level we could make a lot of progress on the lower end of the labor
market to get people re-engaged, more productive, and start growing skills.
As those people increase skills and responsibilities shift to them, the people
who are freed up will be able to become more productive and move up-market as
well.
Which sounds like a pipe dream - but what person in IT hasn't been tied up
with "junior work" they would be happy to unload if there was anybody to do
it? And once that task finally goes away, you go on to do better things.
------
B4CKlash
This is largely a problem of "informational asymmetrics between agents," as
Nassim Taleb would describe it.
Or Gharrar as describe in Sharia law. "It is an extremely sophisticated term
in decision theory that does not exist in English; it means both uncertainty
and deception –my personal take is that it means something beyond
informational asymmetry between agents. It means inequality of uncertainty.
Simply, as the aim is for both parties in a transaction to have the same
uncertainty facing random outcomes, an asymmetry becomes equivalent to theft."
The employer sees the entire talent pool and can therefore leverage this
informational advantage to drive prices (wages) down.
[http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/equality.pdf](http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/equality.pdf)
------
kartickv
It's possible for there to be a shortage of people AND millions of unemployed
people if they're unskilled.
That's certainly the case in India, where the majority of "software engineers"
can't tell me the maximum value an 8-bit integer can have, or claim that an
object's instance variables can continue to exist after the object gets
deallocated. One clown even wrote an if statement with two else clauses, the
second one "just in case the first doesn't execute".
[http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/engineering-
emp...](http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/engineering-employment-
problems/1/713827.html)
------
dilemma
Employers _always_ struggle to to fill openings. It's the same thing as
selling a product - you have to work on marketing, promotion, advertising.
This says nothing about the state of the job market.
------
pasbesoin
Employers are unwilling to invest in employees. Then they wonder why the
(good) employees they do have don't stick around.
U.S. labor market: Everyone running around, looking for "something for
nothing." We had a couple decades of outsourcing and off-shoring, coming from
this perspective (and law and regulation effectively neutered on its behalf).
Let's hope the MBA's and short-term-focused executives find out just how
fungible they are. (A suit is, after all, just a suit.)
------
newforice
A better title would be, U.S. Employers are cheap and if they don't cut it
out; unions might be on the rise in America.
------
partycoder
If this happens is not due to lack of candidates bur rather because of
extraneous and extravagant expectations.
------
dogruck
This article has little relevance to the kinda professionals on HN. They're
talking about relatively low paying labor.
I think the problem boils down to vanity. Companies want to post glamorous
jobs, and figure they'll hire if the glass slipper fits. Conversely, job
seekers aren't too hungry.
------
robodale
...for the price they are willing to pay.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ridiculously Simple React.js Forms – Without Flux, ES6, JSX, Libraries - jamesknelson
http://jamesknelson.com/learn-raw-react-ridiculously-simple-forms/
======
daliwali
All of the examples past the first one are broken in Firefox. Also this seems
like overkill, why introduce React when you could do the same thing with just
the DOM API, with less overhead? And you get to learn about the underlying
standard instead of vendor lock-in library. 177 lines for rather trivial DOM
manipulation is too much.
~~~
jamesknelson
Thanks for letting me know about the broken Firefox examples! They should be
fixed now.
I agree, you'd never want to actually build something this small with React -
Vanilla DOM manipulation would make a lot more sense. That said, React does
make sense for larger applications - and my intention is to write a series
which will take you from not knowing React to being able to use it for an
appropriately sized app. This is just part of the road there :)
------
vincentdm
I like this article. I started with React last month, and navigating through
the jungle of related technologies (Flux, Redux, Webpack, JSX, Typescript,...)
is a real challenge. Most examples use one or several of these, which clouds
the understanding. I like it how the author brings it back to basics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Does your ACM chapter suck? - jmtame
My school has one of the country's largest ACM chapters, yet it's extremely cliquey. I know there's a line that is fuzzy between "hackers" and "entrepreneurship," so I might be unreasonable in expecting ACM hackers to be more entrepreneurial. Does anyone else have this problem at their school?<p>Our ACM chapter hasn't always sucked, but it seems to go through cycles.
======
hapless
Why did you expect "the world’s largest educational and scientific computing
society" to welcome your "entrepreneurship" ?
That's just not what they're about.
------
dangrover
This is my school's: <http://acm.ccs.neu.edu>
It's okay -- I was involved for a couple years, then got sick of it. We've had
some decent speakers.
------
TransientMuse
My chapter at University of the Pacific doesn't even have a website right now.
We have a forum that doesn't get used, and the club is filled with gamers that
don't have very much motivation to do anything related to programming. I'm
going to try to start an SICP project group next semester, but right now no
one's trying to do anything educational or new.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
McDonalds's initiative to save 'The Sparrow' - appman
http://nadinepereira.com/#happySparrow
======
69_years_and
_The sparrow population in Mumbai has decreased mainly due to urbanization and
electromagnetic waves from mobile phones._
Huh - if it's not wind turbines killing them it's RF from mobile phones - I'd
say its stacked up against them and Ronald M is not going to be able to help
all that much.
Causes of bird deaths: <http://www.currykerlinger.com/birds.htm>
------
bold
Bloody hypocrites, poison humans with their fast food and 'save sparrows'?
Pffft...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MailerJS: Send email with client-side JavaScript - unignorant
https://www.mailerjs.com/
======
bcrescimanno
Flagging for an incredibly misleading topic / tagline. This isn't actually
"sending email with client-side javascript;" it's simply a script that allows
you to send a message to a service that will generate an email for you.
Seriously, it's basically a scripted email form--how this at all interesting?
~~~
patsantre
You can also ask how HTML forms are interesting? (Answer is WuFoo)
------
wvl
Interesting idea. This could be useful for signup and contact forms from a
static website.
It's amusing to me that the contact link is just a mailto. Why not use
MailerJS?
~~~
kijin
> _It's amusing to me that the contact link is just a mailto. Why not use
> MailerJS?_
In case someone wants to complain that MailerJS doesn't work in their browser,
I guess?
------
the_bear
I don't see any pricing info on their site. If this is intended to be free for
life, then I guess it's pretty nifty. But it would take about 30 minutes for
any web developer to duplicate this functionality, so I hope they don't plan
on charging for it.
~~~
chromedude
It's hidden until you sign up: \- Free - 5 emails/day \- Basic ($5/month) - 50
emails/day \- Big ($29/month) - 500 emails/day \- Huge ($99/month) - 5000
emails/day
~~~
jorde
That is pretty steep taking into account that even Postmark, which many
consider expensive, charges only $1.50 per thousand emails. The basic plan is
$3.33 for thousand and you're limited to specific daily limits... I usually
don't complain about pricing but this just feels too much. Of course these two
services are different but I chose Postmark as it's from the expensive end of
email sending services. And one can replicate MailerJS in just one evening
(when writing this there might already be a open source clone).
Enough with the whining... The main reason why I'm not a fan is that the
pricing is hidden behind sign up and the site gives the impression that the
service is free.
~~~
the_bear
I don't see why you'd need to use a third party at all for this type of thing.
Postmark is designed to increase email deliverability, but if you're only
sending emails to yourself, that shouldn't really be an issue. It seems like
good ol' sendmail would do the trick.
Agreed on the pricing though. Doesn't seem very honest.
~~~
toomuchtodo
Sendmail doesn't work if you're serving up your site statically from S3. Then
again, their pricing is so ridiculous, its cheaper to just POST the email
message via REST to a service to send the mail (Postmark, Sendgrid, AWS SES).
I'm not sure what this solution solves.
------
jrockway
_You need to tell Mailer.js about your API key_
What exactly stops me from stealing someone else's API key and using it to
send spam? You can't trust the client.
~~~
wvl
That was my first thought, however, from the docs:
_MailerJS will send mail to the address you enter on your account page. You
can't specify the receiver dynamically, as client-side JavaScript is publicly
accessible by definition, and we want to protect you from spammers._
Why steal someone's api key just so you can send them email?
~~~
oconnore
(not something I would do, but someone else would) To put them over their
account limit.
------
thomasjoulin
This is terrible. Overpriced web service that sends emails to a single
address, 20-lines script calling the API using jQuery $.ajax (why the
dependency ?!) and sends the request with GET instead of PUT or POST...
~~~
JRambo
Indeed. Why would you pay for, and be dependent on, a service like this when
you could quite easily make something like this? Running on your own server
where you have full control.
------
tauv
This is great but ridiculously overpriced that 1 months delivery is how much I
would tack onto a clients bill for building a customer form or implementing
this service.
This is just bad value for money
------
le_isms
Cool. I can think of many reasons it would be bad to have a mailer on the
client side, but a big pro w/ this is that you can send mail easily when you
only have file access to say, a client's website.
------
mardiros
Oh, collect email in an html form ?
------
drivebyacct2
Why email? It seems like an inefficient method to deal with bug reports. Not
to mention it seems like this would be really open to abuse.
~~~
zackattack
I agree, it's overpriced. I would rather just put a snippet in that tracked
javascript errors somehow, and also grabbed all of the user's browser
information etc. And bonus points if it takes a screenshot (doable with HTML5)
and copies over everything from console.log. Would really help with debugging.
P.S. They should have put the pricing information on the home page. Didn't
realize they were a YC company either.
~~~
untog
_I would rather just put a snippet in that tracked javascript errors somehow,
and also grabbed all of the user's browser information etc._
That's a worse user experience, though. And you have no opportunity to ask
follow-up questions, or even say "hey, it's fixed!". That kind of customer
service goes a long way.
~~~
zackattack
_That's a worse user experience, though._
How? Worse than what?
------
josscrowcroft
Open source it. I know, I know, but just do it. Charge for support or
something.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sandberg: Men still run the world – and it’s not going that well - delibes
http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/sheryl-sandberg-men-still-run-the-world-and-it-s-not-going-that-well
======
rndmind
This article contains more logical fallacies than the movie Spaceballs
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Security Notice and LibraryThing Password Reset - Nogwater
http://blog.librarything.com/main/2014/02/password-reset/
======
deftnerd
It says a lot about the nature of a company when they admit the breech even
though it occurred in November of 2011 and they just found out about it. Other
companies might just try to pretend that it didn't happen.
It also says a lot that they just upgraded all of the users who were members
before that point to a free lifetime membership.
Classy move, LibraryThing.
~~~
rodgerd
They've done a good job providing a clear explanation of what happened, how
they're mitigating it, and apologising.
I'm also pleased that they have proper audits. Very well-handled.
------
loopj
I wonder how many companies have had similar breaches that went un-noticed or
un-announced. Scary.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Google We Lost - bdr
http://andrewbadr.com/log/16/the-google-we-lost/
======
gruseom
I've been wondering about this too, and your explanation is interesting -
basically, lack of self-knowledge on Google's (and its own founder's) part and
trying to be what they're not.
It seems so odd that Google would go this way and even odder that it would do
so as a result of a founder taking control. Perhaps it only seems odd because
we have extremely incomplete information. On the other hand, sometimes the
from-afar view has advantages. From afar, Google+ looks like Google's Bing.
Another interesting question is: will they change course or double down?
~~~
bdr
We do have extremely incomplete information, and saying things like "lack of
self-knowledge" about a corporation is shaky ground, so it took me a while to
get this post out. I'm glad you found it interesting.
> will they change course or double down?
Worst would be neither, of course. The next few data points about their
behavior will be important.
------
ljd
Here's the upside: people will stop asking how your start up will compete with
google.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Stop Turning U.S. Corporations into Tax Exiles - hvo
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/opinion/how-to-stop-turning-us-corporations-into-tax-exiles.html?hpw&rref=politics&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
======
princeb
I am trying to think of companies that should rightfully repatriate cash back
to the states, and companies that should not.
Why is it that it is repulsive that Google or Apple chooses to keep their cash
overseas, whereas it is fine for Budweiser to do so (ignoring magnitudes for a
second)? Because AB Inbev is Belgian? This is a difficult example for me to
think of, because the US is one of the interesting countries where the largest
companies here (or globally) are almost always American too.
But let's imagine for a moment that there is a company called Apple Inc that
only does business in the US and nowhere else, and there is an unrelated
company in France called Pomme SA, and another unrelated company called Apfel
AG in Germany that happen to sell identical iPads and iPhones. Do they have a
duty to transfer cash to each other and their jurisdictions? What if the CEOs
of these companies travelled and met each other and went, "oh! we did not know
it but we sell the same thing, let's share resources in some way", which
country has a right to collect tax on the revenue of the new global
organization?
The real debate is really about fairness in transfer pricing (which is
difficult if not utterly boring, because typically transfer pricing are for
services that are not fungible or even exchangeable in arms length markets,
and so the debate within tax jurisdictions are over the nitty-gritty
"economics" of the transaction in addition to consideration of foreign tax
obligations yadda yadda yadda _yawn_ ), and this tax evasion through scary
financial structuring like "inversion" is a really catchy thing to publicly
excoriate, but it's probably not the right concern. So this is kind of a
stretched example.
The point I am getting at is that many American companies aren't 100%
American, and it doesn't seem like there is a good reason for insist that all
foreign earned cash (from Apfel and Pomme) to be brought back to the US. I do
not agree that a company like (say) Royal Dutch Shell, being one of the
largest oil companies here, should repatriate cash into the US, and
unanimously most of us don't think so, so this is not really the problem we
should be getting angry about.
~~~
pzone
If these tax laws incentivize productivity-destroying mergers then they are
utterly moronic, immoral even. The Pfizer CEO said he wouldn't do it but for
the tax savings.
All these companies want to do is bring back their cash to the US and pay
their US shareholders. It's fair and defensible for Pomme to want to bring
cash to France to pay its French shareholders, and for Apfel to bring it to
Germany to pay its German shareholders.
~~~
wavefunction
These companies are free to do so. They just need to pay their taxes.
~~~
pzone
Or as an alternative, they can invert! It really does save a lot of money.
------
blisterpeanuts
Almost more interesting than Icahn's common sense article are the many
talkback comments from the New York Times readership, most of whom appear to
be bitterly opposed to corporate activity which maximizes profits.
Has the NYT become a haven for left wing advocacy, Icahn's capitalistic
perspective notwithstanding, whose primary readership are socialists? How much
of the country do they represent?
I worry about our economic prospects when a significant chunk of the
intelligentsia no longer believe in free market economics.
~~~
seivan
I get the same feeling, and it's pretty much not isolated to just NYT.
------
deciplex
Is the end to double taxation for the corporate tax only? Human Americans are
also double-taxed on income earned abroad.
~~~
pzone
Yes. The reason is that corporations vote with their feet quite readily, as
seen here.
~~~
gozur88
People would vote with their feet, too, except they're heavily penalized for
doing so. If you renounce your US citizenship there's a one-time tax of 40% of
your all your US assets and the US claims the right to tax you for the next
ten years.
Subjects, not citizens.
------
adventured
For reference, statutory corporate tax rates by country (PDF):
[https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Docume...](https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Tax/dttl-
tax-corporate-tax-rates-2015.pdf)
~~~
pzone
Important part: middle column, where the rate is basically 0% everywhere
except the US, where it is 30%.
~~~
lazyjones
Why is this the important part? It's not 0% in Austria as listed, it varies
too (in Vienna you pay tax for subway infrastructure, among other things).
It's the sum that matters, including exploitable loopholes such as trusts and
holdings (AFAIK, in Switzerland, a pure holding pays no corporate taxes).
------
leereeves
> Congressional leaders agree that passing legislation according to [the
> Schumer-Portman] framework would stop inversions
Until another country offers an even better tax deal to attract multi-national
corporations.
~~~
cmdkeen
Not really - there are benefits to being based in the US. If everyone just
chased the lowest taxed jurisdictions then every corporation would be based in
a tax haven.
Corporations aren't repatriating the money they hold offshore. I can see why
the US wants a piece of that pie, but they currently aren't getting any pie
and are losing piemakers. Taking a smaller cut of something whilst also having
that something flow back into the US is surely a good thing.
~~~
icebraining
> Corporations aren't repatriating the money they hold offshore.
Indirectly, they are: "Nearly Half of So-Called “Offshore” Funds Already in
the United States"
_Earlier this year, a survey was sent to 27 U.S. multinational corporations
and found they held more than half a trillion dollars in tax-deferred foreign
earnings at the end of FY2010. The survey also found that 46% of those foreign
earnings – almost $250 billion – was maintained in U.S. bank accounts or
invested in U.S. assets such as U.S. Treasuries, U.S. stocks other than their
own, U.S. bonds, or U.S. mutual funds._
[https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/me...](https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/media/new-
data-show-corporate-offshore-funds-not-trapped-abroad-nearly-half-of-so-
called-offshore-funds-already-in-the-united-states)
~~~
muzz
Yes, an important but never-mentioned distinction is that "offshore" is
basically an accounting designation, and that money is not somehow prevented
from being put to work in the US.
------
brandelune
Such a pile of crap, by Icahn, of course. Corporations do not exist in a
vacuum of social irresponsibility and their first duty is certainly not to
their shareholders but to the people they employ and to the societies they
thrive on.
~~~
apsec112
"Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as
possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the
Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes."
"Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so
arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does
so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay
more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary
contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant."
\- Judge Learned Hand
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand))
~~~
rmc
There's no legal responsibility on me to be nice to my elderly parents either.
Doesn't mean it's not The Right Thing To Do.
~~~
sokoloff
We legislate that you can't murder, torture, kidnap, or assault your parents.
What you do beyond that is up to your conscience.
Given that corporations are conscience-less entities, the de jure minimums
become the de facto outcomes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What the HTTP is CouchApp? - cosgroveb
http://couchapp.org/page/what-is-couchapp
======
petervandijck
Calling the standard stack "fragile custom code" doesn't do much for their
credibility here. I mean, really. Fragile?
~~~
jchrisa
Have you ever tried keeping a web application running? It's _hard_. About as
close as we've gotten to doing it well is the plain-old PHP and Apache httpd
stack. I've written PHP apps that stay up for years as long as I pay the bill.
I was never able to get anywhere close to that reliability from other web
stacks. CouchApps aim to be simpler and more reliable, so that eventually end-
users can deploy and perhaps even create them.
~~~
kunley
Not playing devil's advocate here, but a deep concern:
Today's world is full of programmers posing as production administrators,
while the solution is to employ administrators and move on. I've seen so many
production failures because of admin-posed programmers wishful thinking or not
having a sufficiently broad perspective to prepare themselves for the
disaster. It was regardless if it was a simple Apache+PHP, hairy
Weblogic+Oracle stack or some new sexy Erlangish stuff.
I have nothing against programmers and I am both admin & programmer myself,
but many (most?) coders just lack some operational perspective & experience.
Is is possible that selling new solutions as "don't plan, deploy & pray" will
make this trend worse?
~~~
jchrisa
The important thing to keep in mind is that by "deploy" I mean "install" --
the goal is to make CouchApps as easy to share / replicate / install on end-
user devices like cellphones and laptops.
Once you have a fully replicating application, you want to run it as close to
the user as possible to avoid network latency. I don't think the deployment
challenges of large centralized apps will go away, but there are a lot of apps
that better fit the decentralized model.
Now that CouchDB makes decentralized web apps possible, we'll get to see what
can be done.
------
va_coder
map reduce for a blog - brilliant!
now in the real world:
select data
from this_table and this_table and this_table and that_table
where there was no previously defined relationship
but users need this data with the new relationship
and have it done in a few minutes
~~~
pak
Wait a minute. Unless you already built RDBMS tables with that relationship in
mind, you are just as screwed there as you are in Couch. And if you are
talking about the time it takes Couch to build a new index for some custom
view, I'm sure it's nominal compared to the number of times you feel the need
to change or create one.
------
JamesNK
So have any real world applications successfully used this as a framework?
It looks interesting but I see any moderately complex web app, i.e. more than
CRUD, hitting a wall of complexity when using CouchApp as a base. You
eliminate so called "fragile custom code" up until the point where the
framework doesn't support something and you need the custom code anyway,
except now there is the overhead of getting custom code working together with
everything else. At which point you wonder what was the point?
~~~
jchrisa
The most complex thing I've done with it is this Twitter client:
<http://jchris.couchone.com/twebz/_design/twebz/index.html>
It uses OAuth and all that good stuff. The "fragile" parts are handled by an
asynchronous _changes based process (Node.js is a good fit but really anything
works).
The key is to get anything that could go wrong, out of the request / response
loop between the browser and the server. The asynchronous handler pattern is a
best practice anyway (resize an image on POST, or in a queue?). Keeping the
request / response critical path simple makes for more reliable apps.
------
benblack
CouchApp really is excellent marketing, folks, and I congratulate you. As I'm
sure you know, any database with an HTTP interface will do exactly the same
thing. Riak, for example. I leave you to your normal round of thoughtful,
reasoned NoSQL vs RDBMS debate.
~~~
jchrisa
Riak and other HTTP based databases do not have the peer-based replication
which sets CouchDB apart. Being able to share an application and its data with
a simple HTTP call, and synchronize it across all your phones and laptops --
that is not something other databases can do.
------
gfodor
Ah, soon we will be writing stored procedures in the database tier to enforce
business logic again, like the good (read: miserable) old days.
------
equark
I wish the couch guys would just focus on integrating the _changes feed into
different languages. What I find appealing is their attempt to solve the
distributed sync problem. That's useful, but adopting couchdb on all the
clients doesn't make much sense. Microsoft's sync framework is moving to
allowing full cross language / platform sync. It already allows two-way
syncing odata feeds to the iPhone, android, windows phone, and pure javascipt.
I don't see why I need build all my clients on couchdb directly to get this
functionality. It seems like a nonstarter for 95 percent of use cases.
------
Pickhardt
This project really challenges a lot of my assumptions. I'm not sure how I
feel about it yet.
I'm going to sleep on it.
------
pepijndevos
"Your site can be faster than theirs, if you serve it from localhost."
Is there some arcane wisdom in here, or is this just stupidity? Sure, if I run
Google on my own computer, and replicate it to my laptop, they will both be
very fast... and need quantum HDs for storage.
------
vyrotek
Apparently, Not Found
~~~
frou_dh
The server-load quip reversal, still going strong in 2010!
------
gaiusparx
Where normally does a couchapp put its application/business logic? At client
side javascript?
~~~
jchrisa
There is a server-side JavaScript validation function which can reject updates
for being malformed or if the user isn't allowed to proceed:
<http://guide.couchdb.org/draft/validation.html>
------
aneth
Not sure how I feel about exposing my database directly to a client. This
means all security regarding reading and writing any data must be handled in
CouchDB. Not knowing about CouchDB, the existence of CouchApp leads me to
believe there must be some way to do this, but I can't see how this would be
possible with MySQL or Postgres.
Cell level security in a database? Hmm.
~~~
jchrisa
CouchDB's security is per-database (since you assume you will be replicating a
complete database to the end-user, the concept of cell-level security doesn't
make sense).
~~~
aneth
Cell-level security would never make sense, which is why you need an
application layer to perform queries and return and modify only data that a
client has permission for.
Am I right that the database would be shared by all clients and that the
application layer is essentially moved into the client? If so, this seems like
a pretty silly architecture.
~~~
jchrisa
yes the application runs entirely on the client, but validation functions are
run on replication, so I can change my copy of your blog post, but you won't
let me change it via replication. That would be silly.
~~~
prodigal_erik
Is that desired behavior in CouchDB? If replication will refuse to change
anyone else's copy of that document, changing my own copy merely
desynchronizes my replica and deceives myself about the true state of the
world. I would prefer the system know which changes would be rejected
elsewhere, and stop me from making them in the first place.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WordPress Now Powers 25% of the Web – Apps – By Emil Protalinski - SimplyUseless
http://venturebeat.com/2015/11/08/wordpress-now-powers-25-of-the-web/
======
vineetch
Attributing Wordpress as the core CMS for a domain based on simply checking
for a wordpress installation on the domain seems like a flawed approach. Lots
of domains have blogs hosted on Wordpress but might not be using Wordpress as
a CMS to manage the entire online presence.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Proof Shows Infinite Curves Come in Two Types - gotocake
https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-proof-shows-infinite-curves-come-in-two-types-20181107/
======
claar
The headline seems inaccurate to me.
The proof in the article states that there is a 100% chance of a random
elliptic curve being either rank 0 (50% chance) or rank 1 (50% chance).
However, the article also informs us that there are an infinite number of
elliptic curves with rank 2 or more. For example, the elliptic curve
`y2+y=x3+x2−2x` is of rank 2.
So is it truly accurate to say that elliptic curves come only in two types?
~~~
ducttapecrown
I'm an undergrad taking some measure theory right now.
This is probably not exactly the mathematical formalism they are using, but it
could be similar.
If I asked you to pick a random real number from 0 to 1, what do you think the
probability is that the real number is rational? A natural way to answer this
question is to try to generalize the way we say the interval from 0 to 1 is
length 1 to more kinds of sets. Measure theory does exactly this, but we find
out that the measure of the rational numbers is 0! This means that the
probability of picking a rational number is 0. But that's clearly impossible
you say, because there are an infinite number of rational numbers from 0 to 1!
But in a precise mathematical way, the probability is 0.
Now a funny think I said was "pick a random real number". Since the computable
numbers are also a measure 0 subset of the real numbers, it's literally
impossible to randomly pick a real number with a computer...
~~~
cix_pkez
Hey, non-mathematician computer science type here.
If I follow correctly, the issue with randomly picking any real number in that
interval is that irrational numbers would require infinite computational steps
to resolve. So the probability is really 0 that you'll get an irrational. If
you have a finite number of computations, you're guaranteed to resolve to a
rational, while if you have an infinite number of computations, you never
resolve to anything.
Is that a decent lay interpretation?
~~~
gpm
Uniformly at random picking a number from the interval [0, 1] isn't possible
with a turing machine (even giving it access to random coins). I.e. it's not a
computable function.
It doesn't even really make sense, you can't represent uncountably many
numbers on a turing machine, so it isn't even possible to return all but a
tiny subset of the space.
You're imagining some turing machine that attempts to compute it anyways and
thinking about the output. You seem to think that you can make a turing
machine that
\- In the probability 0 case that we should output a rational, will output
that number
\- Will otherwise infinite loop
This is randomized, so we are getting our randomness from some kind of "coin
flip" like process. To know that we are in the that probability 0 case of
outputting a rational, we will need to have seen infinitely many coin flips.
If we've seen only n coin flips, there is still 1/2^n > 0 of the probability
space that we haven't explored. So in fact any such turing machine has to loop
infinitely in the rational case as well.
~~~
man-and-laptop
Replace the role of Turing Machines with Type 2 Turing Machines. Then it _is_
possible. And it's got absolutely nothing to do with computable functions.
[edit] The downvoters can't argue with facts. I am _not_ deleting this
comment.
~~~
gpm
Computers are not type 2 turing machines, nor are any other physically
existing thing that we know of. They aren't really turing machines either
because they have a finite tape, but since we are only interested in running
the turing machine for a finite amount of time and thus accessing a finite
amount of tape that distinction is unimportant.
The standard definition of computable is on a turing machine, not a type 2
turing machine. Of course we can define an alternate model where more things
are computable. Edit: And the standard definition of computable is relevant
because it happens to be the exact set of functions we can compute on real
computers.
While Weihrauch [0] does introduce a _different_ definition of the word
computable, that would in a randomized setting allow for sampling from the
interval [0, 1] (and not just for rationals as I understand it either). Any
algorithm on his "oracle turing machines" will still have to take an infinite
amount of time, even to return the rationals. He just allows that in his
definition of computable.
[0]
[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82440448.pdf](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82440448.pdf)
~~~
man-and-laptop
Type 2 Turing Machines are a conservative model of computation. They are as
realistic as Type 1 Machines. Both models involve an infinite tape. Your
previous comment used the Turing Machine abstraction, so my response was
entirely valid, suggesting that replacing your abstraction with another
equally valid, and I believe more appropriate for this purpose, abstraction
eliminates the problem.
Also, by the way, the distinction between "complete" and "potential" infinity
is useful here. The Type 2 Turing Machines features only a "potential"
infinity, the same type that's common throughout Theoretical Computer Science.
A real number is a only a "potential" infinity -- a process of sorts. You seem
to be demanding that a real number be represented as a "complete" infinity,
but this isn't needed for anything in physics or engineering or anything else.
The demand you're making, which would imply that an infinite amount of time is
needed, is unreasonable.
And by the way, the downvoter is somebody who can't argue with facts.
~~~
gpm
I suppose the argument you are trying to make here is basically "having a
machine that if we run it for long enough, will tell us any particular digit
of a number, is as good as having that number".
In the concrete example, you would argue that if a machine which after n time
steps specifies which 1/2^n sized interval the randomly generated number lies
in, then having that machine is equivalent to having the randomly generated
number.
I disagree. If I come up with any property of the number that requires seeing
arbitrarily many digits to specify (e.g. "is rational", "contains more 1s than
0s", etc) you can never tell me whether or not the number your machine
specifies has that property. That said, I can see where you are coming from.
There is at least some argument that under this model it's not the number
which can't be computed, but the "is rational" function.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about the downvotes. Internet points aren't
important in life anyways.
~~~
edflsafoiewq
What does "to have a number" mean?
A program isn't a black box. The number specified (in binary) by this program
emit "0."
loop forever:
emit "110"
is both rational and contains more 1s than 0s. You no more need "run the
program forever" to determine these of the number it presents than you need to
perform an "infinite amount of long division" to determine it of the number
presented by 6/7.
~~~
gpm
For arbitrary turing machines, determining what they will output solves the
halting problem. E.g. the following machine is pi if M' halts else 0.
simulate machine M'
emit pi
Because of the halting problem you more or less do have to treat arbitrary
machines as black boxes.
~~~
edflsafoiewq
So? That's no different than a number specified in a "conventional" way, ie.
by some mathematical formula in propositional logic. Let x be 0 is P if true
and pi otherwise.
~~~
gpm
I'd recommend reading the relevant portions (or just all of) this paper:
[https://www.scottaaronson.com/papers/philos.pdf](https://www.scottaaronson.com/papers/philos.pdf)
The conventional way of knowing a number is specifying it in a way that we can
_quickly_ determine what it is and operate on it.
If I say "the next prime after 9^9^9^9^9^9^9^9^9", or indeed "the next prime
after busy beaver(1000)" I have specified a precise number. But you don't
think I _have_ it in any useful sense, because I can't compute it quickly (or
in my second example at all).
Edit: And it should be noted that the above is more akin to the busy beaver
example, no matter how long you operate that turing machine, if M' happens to
be of the sort that doesn't halt but doesn't provably not halt, then you will
never be able to tell me whether the number I "have" is 0 or pi.
~~~
edflsafoiewq
But you haven't cleared anything up at all! What do you mean "determine what
it is"? Do you mean compute its digits? Can you __have __an irrational number?
a rational number with a non-finite decimal expansion? And what do you mean
"operate on it"? By which operation? And what do you mean "quickly"?
In any case, the relevant program (assuming a fast random oracle)
emit "0."
loop forever:
x := query random oracle for one bit
emit x
seems to fit all your criterion. You can compute as many digits as you like
very quickly. If you can have pi I don't see why you can't have this number
(if you can have any random number at all).
~~~
gpm
We have branched into two different discussions it seems.
Does having a turing machine that will eventually output a number x suffice
for having the number x.
And does that specific turing machine suffice for having a random number in
range [0, 1].
As for the second, I have misgivvings about it but there's certainly an
argument that that machine does work. The argument against that I currently
find most convincing (that you don't have a classical representation that you
can make two isolated copies of) is outlined here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18424725](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18424725)
The first discussion is more nuanced. The meaning of knowing/having a number
is not something I claim to have an exact answer to (and indeed since it's an
english term it probably doesn't have an exact meaning). It's clear however
that having a turing machine that eventually outputs the value is not the same
as knowing the value.
What operations is really the most fundamental question, I'd argue that it's
clear that if you know x you can at least tell me what the n^th digit of x is.
An arbitrary turing machine fails this, an arbitrary turing machine fails
being able to tell me what the _first_ digit is, let alone the n^th one.
I'm not going to take the stance that being able to compute its digits quickly
is sufficient for having a real number, but I also won't argue against it.
Personally I'd like to ask for equality testing too. I'm willing to yield that
since I'm pretty sure that man-and-laptop will disagree and argue that being
able to test for closeness is good enough, and he has a point even if I'm not
convinced.
As for your the other questions you put to me, they aren't relevant for the
turing machine part but:
Quickly, means in at most polynomial time. It might actually mean something
stricter, but polynomial time seems to be a pretty clear upper bound on the
amount of computation time you can need to find something while still being
able to claim to know it. (See the paper I linked above)
We can certainly have a rational number with a non finite decimal expansion,
you just need more creative forms of representing the numbers than listing
digits. For instance the common method of putting a bar on top of the repeated
ones, or alternatively quote notation is rather cool:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quote_notation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quote_notation)
~~~
edflsafoiewq
> I'd argue that it's clear that if you know x you can at least tell me what
> the n^th digit of x is. An arbitrary turing machine fails this, an arbitrary
> turing machine fails being able to tell me what the first digit is, let
> alone the n^th one.
Sound good (assuming we accept the 999... problem of non-uniqueness). So let's
assume the machine makes progress in finite time ie. there is a sequence of
natural numbers a(n) such that after time a(n) the machine has emitted at
least n digits.
There's another possibility you mentioned above about a machine taking an
input n and finding a value within 2^(-n) of the number. A machine that keeps
emitting numbers on either side of an integer, eg. 2.1, 1.99, 2.00001, etc.
fails to tell the first digit. But these numbers are arguably even more
physical that programs-emitting-digits. They're roughly the real numbers you'd
get from doing actual (classical) physical measurements.
> Personally I'd like to ask for equality testing too.
You didn't answer the question about irrational numbers but do you think we
can have pi? It seems infeasible to mechanically determine that an arbitrary
program you are given is a valid pi-digit-calculator though.
If you don't think you can ever have irrational numbers, then I think I see
where you're coming from now. Having a number could be having a finite
representation of the number that can be mechanically tested for equality (in
time polynomial in the sizes of representations): a string of digits, a ratio
of strings of digits, a string of digits with decimal point and a bar over the
repeated ones, etc. IOW a normal form in some finitary data type.
> Quickly, means in at most polynomial time.
In what? You want the nth digit printed by time O(P(n))? If so, that is
strictly stronger than finite time progress so we could dispense with that.
But polynomial time doesn't make any sense for a machine that emits a finite
string of digits and halts because it doesn't have an input.
> or alternatively quote notation is rather cool
Hah, I was going to ask about p-adics (do I have -1 if I have the machine that
emits an infinite string of 1s?).
~~~
gpm
> 2.1, 1.99, 2.00001
I'm really not satisfied with saying that a machine that gives smaller
intervals like that is fully sufficient, on the other hand that's really all
we're doing when we specify digits...
> They're roughly the real numbers you'd get from doing actual (classical)
> physical measurements.
I'd argue that a series of physical measurements don't give you a number so
much as a probability distribution, even classically.
> do you think we can have pi
I'm not sure.
The problem I have with denying pi is it doesn't make much more sense than
denying 1. Base pi is a perfectly rational numbering system. It's perfectly
possible to introduce a special 'pi' symbol (rather like 'i') and define rules
of arithmetic so that things work with both rationals and rational multiples
of pi. And everything I said just applies to infinitely many other irrationals
as well (e.g. 2^(1/n))
> It seems infeasible to mechanically determine that an arbitrary program you
> are given is a valid pi-digit-calculator though.
Indeed, this is true even if you replace "pi" with "1" though, that's another
reason why having a program that calculates the digits isn't sufficient.
> Having a number could be having a finite representation of the number that
> can be mechanically tested for equality (in time polynomial in the sizes of
> representations)
Yes.
> In what? You want the nth digit printed by time O(P(n))?
It's a vague definition anyways, polynomial in the sum of everything that is
relevant... probably O(P(n + the number represented)).
------
wallace_f
Why do you think the article garnered 7 comments on its website, but 25 here
on HN?
~~~
AlexCoventry
A lot of people were confused by the paper's probabilistic claim, and tried to
correct each other. At the time I'm writing this comment, only one of them has
done so accurately and germanely, as far as I can tell.
~~~
Dylan16807
It's not unexpected for people to be confused when the article is stretching
the truth to the breaking point.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Homeland Security seizes music blog domains - stumm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/media/14music.html
======
Groxx
> _For now the seized domains are in legal limbo. David Snead, a lawyer
> specializing in Internet cases who is representing the owner of torrent-
> finder.com, speculated that it might be 30 to 60 days before he would be
> able to see a seizure order. “The government is providing zero information
> to help us determine what he is being charged with,” he said. “It’s a black
> hole.”_
That's just plain _wrong_. Under what rational reason have they seized these
without notice, and without declaration of wrongdoing? Is it part of a sting
operation, or are they being labeled as terrorists?
If not, it's simply impeding justice, and seems to _me_ to probably be
motivated by the desire to have this go through smoothly; if they can wait out
the initial surge of internet-interest, and _then_ make weak claims, there
won't be as many people scrutinizing them. Plus, this sort of event might just
drive a few of the sites out of existence anyway, so their goals are served
regardless, just by keeping their mouths shut.
~~~
chris11
What is worse is that some anti-piracy groups are refusing to release the
names of sites they are shutting down. Brein recently shut down nearly 30
file-sharing sites and has refused to release info on the targeted sites.
[http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-shuts-down-29-bittorrent-and-
nz...](http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-shuts-down-29-bittorrent-and-nzb-
sites-101215/)
------
tptacek
Just a reminder: this isn't a crazy overreach by "Homeland Security". DHS is a
very new cabinet department formed, like a beaurocratic Voltron, from a
smorgasbord of peripherally-related agencies. One of those agencies was
Customs/ICE, which for logical and historical reasons hosts federal anti-
counterfeiting enforcement. DHS "acquires" Customs and bam, finds itself in
the IP enforcement business.
~~~
yummyfajitas
So we should be thinking about this as a crazy overreach by Customs/ICE rather
than a crazy overreach of Homeland Security?
~~~
tptacek
You could, but this has been part of ICE's charter for a long time. I'm only
making the point that this isn't some crazy RIAA subversion of the Department
of Homeland Security. Homeland Security sounds scary, like, "the US Government
thinks the RIAA's IP claims are vital to national security!".
No, they don't.
~~~
grandalf
So you're saying that you think it would be perfectly reasonable if the FDA or
agriculture department happened to be tasked with enforcing music piracy
prevention ?
Joking aside, I guess this is part of the problem with naming departments
cutesy Orwellian names like "Homeland Security".
~~~
tptacek
I think it's not an indication that the government thinks the RIAA's problems
are homeland security concerns, and would prefer not to be baited into
discussing anything else I think about it.
~~~
joe_the_user
Who,
... on this deep thread,
... that you started,
... ever claimed this?
~~~
amadiver
While no one ever claimed it, tptacek was correct in assuming people were
thinking it. Or, at least, a person was thinking it.
I'm really glad to see a possible explanation for why Homeland Security would
be cracking down on music blogs. While I don't agree with the DoHSs actions, I
now have a foothold in understanding the situation. It may or may not be
correct, but as a fairly logical interpretation of the scenario, it'll
suffice.
I'm disappointed to see your fairly dramatic response (though I like the
elipses and poetic linebreaks :) ) and 'yummyfajitas's pat response earn
collectively more upvotes for delivering far less information (no offense).
~~~
joe_the_user
To me, jurisdictional questions around the particular authority claimed by ICE
to censor the web are interesting only in relation to the larger political
decision _to_ censor the web.
Tptacek focuses on only the first question and righteously refuses to look at
the latter question. He "prefer not to be baited into discussing" the
substantial question here. What I consider an important and disturbing
development: _the US government effectively taking up the authority to censor
websites sans any conviction of web master for anything_ (sure they "file a
lawsuit" but they do NOT have to actually convict or _even serve_ the
webmaster in question. It's the effective negation of free speech whatever the
ostensible argument).
I thus think the various responses are appropriate. I've disagreed with Yummy
on plenty of other issues but he decodes the _misdirection_ in the GP well
here.
~~~
tptacek
You found me out. It's all part of my evil plot to make HN'ers care about
intellectual property. Curse you!
~~~
joe_the_user
I suppose this is teaching people about intellectual property...
...how some intellectual property, that owned by large corporations, is so
important that other intellectual property should be confiscated by fiat to
protect it!
------
acabal
This is really scary for me, and I'm not even hosting any sort of illegal
content.
For me the internet has always been a wild-west kind of place, one of the last
places where politics and government and all of the paranoia-driven American
madness didn't have a hold. No matter what crazy shit was going on in the
"real world," it probably wouldn't touch the fabric of the internet. And today
I wake up to find the RIAA using the government as hired hitmen to shut down
seemingly harmless sites without any kind of warning or due process.
I know it was bound to happen sometime, and it would be naive to think the
government was never involved in the dealings of the internet, but this truly
saddens me. Our bought-and-paid-for government is finally making itself known
in our last haven.
Has it really come time to move our domains to _China_ , of all places?! And
if we move them to a foreign power, who's to say that power won't tomorrow
start doing what we're doing now?
I wish I had the money to donate to the EFF; but I don't, and I feel
completely powerless.
------
sammcd
Does anyone understand how domain seizing _technically_ works? What are they
actually doing?
Whois'ing the domain shows the nameservers are with GoDaddy. Is it so simple
that they are just asking GoDaddy to change the site to this image?
I was going to assume that the government used ICANN to point it to their own
name servers. Anyway, I'm just curious and would love if someone could shine
some light on this.
~~~
stumm
_they are not doing it at the Registrar level(by contacting the registrar for
the domain and forcing them to update the authoritative name server info to
point to NS1.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM, NS2.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM), but rather through the
agency who controls the top level domain. In this case, all the “seized
domains” appear to be .com and the agency/company who has the ICANN contract
for this TLD is VeriSign(which also controls .net TLD)._
More details can be found here:
[http://rulingclass.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/the-
background-d...](http://rulingclass.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/the-background-
dope-on-dhs-recent-seizure-of-domains/)
~~~
Robin_Message
Isn't this why the ICANN contract for a TLD should not belong to an American
corporation? Logically, it should go a company in Switzerland, who have
traditionally handled such things, and continue to be perceived as low in
corruption [1] and high in democracy [2], with strong property rights [3].
They tend to be neutral in wars, and are not part of the EU (which is probably
a bad idea for an independent TLD.)
[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index> [2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index>
[3][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Property_Rights_I...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Property_Rights_Index)
~~~
gst
Why not just register a .ch domain then?
------
dholowiski
And it only started a few weeks ago win wikileaks. Turns out it's not a
slippery slope, it's frictionless.
------
netaddict
Another reason for developing distributed DNS system
<http://p2pdns.baywords.com/>
~~~
Groxx
I'd love to agree, but I don't see a way out of what seems to be a fundamental
problem with any such system:
How does the system decide who gets domain-X in cases of conflicts? And there
_will_ be conflicts, and malicious ones at that, so there _must_ be a
resolution technique, and it _must not_ be decided in each case by end-users -
they have no way of knowing quickly / accurately enough, and it would prevent
the average person from being able to use it. Plus, it could simply be spammed
with billions+ of claims, shutting down the usefulness of the entire system,
especially if it's first-come first-served.
Meanwhile, if there are _any_ higher-priority deciders, they can be
manipulated similar to how DNS hosts are in this circumstance (or certificate
authorities, in the https world). So it _must_ be distributed... it strikes me
as a paradox.
edit: the only way out being that a distributed DNS could be a _mirror_ of
official ones... but what happens when domain-X gets seized, and then sold to
another, assuming it's a legitimate purchase for non-phishing reasons? And how
do you resolve domain ownership transfers - they look the same as seizures,
from a data standpoint, except they don't have a big "Your Gov't Wuz Heer"
stamp on them.
~~~
SkyMarshal
I wonder if such a system really even needs domains anymore. Would it be
possible to scrap domains altogether and use IPs only?
The link structure of the web is almost completely based on domain urls, but I
wonder if there's not some way to work around that in a DNS-less/P2P system.
~~~
qjz
Many common services (HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and _especially_ DNS, if you
think about it) are provided by daemons that don't really care much about the
domain name of the machine they're running on. For example, you can configure
your web server to deliver pages for www.example.com, and it will, as long as
that domain is in the HOST: header of the request. No DNS is required, you
just point the request at the web server's IP address.
The obvious problem is that, to my knowledge, you can't embed a HOST: header
in a URL to fetch that resource from an arbitrary IP address (something like
<http://HOST:[email protected]/>).
Like HTTP, SMTP servers will gladly accept messages for domains it is
configured to handle. But it also depends on DNS to get MX (or A) records to
deliver to domains it doesn't handle. It's trivial to support email addresses
that use IPs instead of domains (like [email protected]), but such addresses are
less portable than using domains and also create conflicts because two users
cannot have the same name, even if they operate in different realms. Besides,
they're butt-ugly and harder to remember than domains.
tl;dr: Using IPs only creates problems and DNS is a HUGE part of the solution.
Any replacement will have to solve the same problems.
~~~
nzmsv
DNS, URIs, and application-level protocols such as HTTP and SMTP work
together, but that doesn't mean they are the same beast. The reason for the
existence of URIs is to provide identifiers for resources. DNS makes these
human-readable. Applications in turn use these facilities.
When the user types <http://www.example.com> into the address bar, it's the
web browser that figures out what to do next. Which is: realize it needs to to
a HTTP request. Where to? Not an IP, ask DNS. Now connect to the IP address.
But an HTTP server can host multiple domains, so include the host name in the
request (that's the Host header). The web server then looks in its
configuration, and sends the right page back. Note that the HTTP headers are
specific to the application protocol, and are irrelevant both at the DNS and
URL level. It just happens to be the same string :)
------
ebaysucks
What steps can one best take to get their domain portfolio out of reach of US
authorities?
All my domains are at Godaddy (with private registration) right now. (Nothing
involving sharing of IP products, but I fear this slippery slope won't end
well.)
~~~
wmf
Since .com/.net/org are controlled by a US company, you'd probably have to use
a ccTLD like .ly and make sure to use a non-US registrar.
~~~
WiseWeasel
Libya would not be my first choice, if I was trying to escape politically
motivated interventions from my DNS supplier.
~~~
stoney
No, but if you had a .com and .ly version of each domain/site then you could
probably be reasonably confident that if one got seized the other would be ok
(I'm assuming that the US and Libya are sufficiently far apart politically
that they are unlikely to collaborate on this kind of thing).
~~~
WiseWeasel
Libya is so corrupt, they'll seize whatever domain your government (or
competitor, nemesis, etc.) pays them to seize.
------
knieveltech
Rapescan terminals in the airports, domain names seized with no information
provided, wtf, did the 4th Ammendment go down for a reboot or something? If so
when can we expect it to come back online?
------
jwr
The line between what totalitarian regimes (such as China) do to the Internet
and what the US government does to the internet becomes thinner and thinner.
Think about it — both governments now use their control of the Internet
infrastructure to limit access to undesirable content.
What I find most scary, though, is the very limited reaction this gets.
------
unicornporn
Past weeks has proved that the DNS system has become a seriously weak point.
This must be fixed.
------
gasull
Instead of thinking of alternative DNS systems, why people don't launch these
sites in a .onion hidden Tor service?
------
sabat
I'm never sure who to fear more: out-of-control government, or the mega-
corporations that sponsor it.
~~~
mcantelon
They're both working for the same thing: the world as one big corporation.
------
nowarninglabel
Step 2: Put news coverage of the event behind a paywall
Step 3: Profit?
~~~
Groxx
Really? It let me through, and I didn't do anything special...
Give <http://bugmenot.com/view/nytimes.com> a try.
edit: people don't like bugmenot links? It has been _immensely_ useful to me
for asinine sign-up-walls.
~~~
chc
NYTimes.com's paywall kicks in after a certain (fairly low) number of
pageviews.
~~~
Groxx
Aaah, did not know that. They do this to all free accounts, I assume?
Know if they're one of the ones which do Google referrals? I can never
remember who does and who doesn't.
~~~
chc
Yeah, they exempt Google-referred visitors from the wall.
~~~
waterlesscloud
I'm not sure I understand why they exempt Google refers.
Can someone provide an explanation of why it's beneficial for them to exempt
Google but not other links?
~~~
whatusername
easy. They want Google to index that content and they want to show up in the
search index. At one point I think some sites tried showing one thing to
Google-bot and a pay-wall to the rest of the Net. But Google realised that was
a terrible experience for users -- I've googled somethign and now when I go to
the page that google recommends to me - I can't see what I'm looking for.
So Google effectively laid down the law -- If you want to show up in Search
Results -- then users who have found you via Search need to be able to read
what you are showing..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sara Seager and the search for habitable exoplanets - jacobheric
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/magazine/the-world-sees-me-as-the-one-who-will-find-another-earth.html
======
gkya
Is there any concrete possibility of colonising another planet? Here in the
comments for similar stories I see lots of scifi talk about the topic but
little concrete arguments other than some amateur maths and physics. I know me
some astronomy and even colonised Mars seems pipe dreams to me. Am I wrong?
------
sdfin
Throwing money at searching habitable planets that are light years away is
what I'd call a terrible sense of what's a priority. We have immediate
problems on Earth right now, like getting enough energy, contamination,
millions of people living in poverty, and various illnesses that don't have a
satisfactory treatment. Directing money and efforts to analyze objects that
are light years away is complete madness, according to my subjective opinion.
~~~
sdfin
I'd like to read the downvoters arguments agains what I wrote. I love sci-fi,
I think that eventually humanity could colonize other planets, do
terraforming, build an intergalactic civilizations, etcetera... I just said
that that's not a priority now. Right now we are polluting and depleting the
planet, and we have to fix that before thinking about expanding to other
planets. If we destroy the Earth we won't be able to do that.
~~~
dogma1138
You need to feed the imagination and inspiration otherwise you don't have
anything to strive for.
Same can be said about the vast majority of space related exploration.
But that argument doesn't hold water space exploration isn't even a rounding
error in the budget of most nations including the US, not to mention their
GDP.
And the technology developed for it is then used to improve life here on earth
for a lot of people.
The ROI on NASA and other similar agencies world wide is pretty huge.
And even if it wasn't the 250m for a new space telescope won't improve the
life of that many people.
Before you talk about cutting space travel maybe it's worth talking about not
making another iPhone yet alone buying 2-3 fewer fighter jets.
One stealth bomber that will be (and is already) obsolete before the US would
have to fight a war in which it might actually provide some advantage costs as
much as sending an SUV sized rover to mars. And unlike a B2 bomber or its
replacement the technology for Curiosity isn't classified for the next 10000
years.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jesus Christ was also misunderstood, Masayoshi Son tells investors - kick
https://www.ft.com/content/d01fe70a-598f-4e6f-becc-2a002d6187b8
======
mysterEFrank
It is incredible how wrong this man is. He predicted a 20 year long stock
market crisis and it ended in 3 months.
------
dang
The man said get out of here I'll tear you limb from limb.
I said you know, they refused jesus, too. he said: you're not him.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdF4hBfQiE#t=190](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdF4hBfQiE#t=190)
------
lowdose
[http://archive.is/rL8Tj](http://archive.is/rL8Tj)
------
RegnisGnaw
So was "Hong Xiuquan", the brother of Jesus Christ.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
High school dropout built a $1B business selling phones nobody wanted - tehrania
http://uk.businessinsider.com/pcs-wireless-ben-nash-built-a-billion-dollar-company-2015-3?r=US
======
sukilot
Is there a more reputable source for this story than BI?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
South African politics, race, and tech policy - iafrikan
https://www.iafrikan.com/2019/09/29/gwen-ngwenya-on-south-african-politics-and-tech-policy/
======
Pick-A-Hill2019
Ok. So, clicking on the submitted link just takes me to a Gwen Ngwenya 'Who
is' link. A) This has no tech link. B) why submit it? This is partisan news
with absolutely 0 tech or other industry related information. Please provide a
better link about who Gwen Ngwenya is & why their voice matters and how it
impacts on the Tech Industry.
'k thx.
~~~
nomad010
Not that I agree with the content. You don't have to be an industry insider to
have an opinion on the tech industry. Especially an opinion about how it
relates to society as a whole. It's also a podcast show, the page shows a 68
minute podcast which is where the the actual content is. As for partisan, I'm
not even sure how you decided that.
~~~
Pick-A-Hill2019
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
As for the Podcast, wading through a 68 minute podcast (via a link within a
link on the submitted page) isn't for me.
Perhaps if the link to the Podcast was actually used as the post it might be
better.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Imagine Getting 30 Job Offers a Month - fourmii
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/imagine-getting-30-job-offers-a-month-it-isnt-as-awesome-as-you-think/284114/
======
markrickert
I DON'T TALK TO RECRUITERS!
I'm amazed at how quickly the reporter turned around that story. I talked to
her yesterday afternoon. Also unexpected: my face in the article, lol.
------
msoad
I used to read every single email I get from recruiters. They used to give me
confidence. Nowadays I don't even open my LinkeIn mailbox:
[http://i.imgur.com/cdDQDu8.png](http://i.imgur.com/cdDQDu8.png)
After being rejected by Google, my only goal in life is to be good enough for
Google. No matter if in that point, I'll be interested in working there or
not. I just want to be that good
~~~
fsk
Maybe you really are good enough for Google, but their hiring process is
hopelessly broken.
It's wrong to view approval from one specific person or corporation as your
benchmark for success.
------
pronoiac
The spam for openings in other states is particularly frustrating for me. I'm
job-hunting, and I have notifications enabled for email - I get my hopes up,
then see that it's (frequently) _that one_ recruiter who just _cannot
remember_ our previous conversations about "I live in San Francisco, and I'm
not moving." Frustrating!
------
talmir
I live and work in Iceland as a software developer (C++, python, javascript
and related libraries) and havent had a single e-mail from a recruiter for the
past two years I've been on linkedIn.
Is this strictly a US problem?
------
geminitojanus
Why do we have to imagine this? This is reality for software engineers on
LinkedIn.
~~~
leknarf
This is non-news for most hackers, but is actually surprising to people
outside of the industry. The atlantic has a wide readership. A lot of people
are having trouble finding any work. They'd be surprised that some people
would find 30 job offers irritating.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google bows to EU privacy ruling - AJ72
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b827b658-e708-11e3-88be-00144feabdc0.html
======
blazespin
Oh those poor search engines, making billions of dollars having to have the
decency to let private individuals not have to have their lives opened up to
casual searches on the internet 24/7\. What a tragedy!
I for one have NO DESIRE for my children to grow up in a world where they do
not have control over information about themselves on the internet. I can only
pray this sensible law makes it to North America.
For those downvoting - are you a shill for Google? Try reading the form itself
to appreciate how exceedingly reasonable it is:
A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union found that
certain users can ask search engines to remove results for queries that
include their name where those results are “inadequate, irrelevant or no
longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were
processed.” In implementing this decision, we will assess each individual
request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the
public’s right to know and distribute information. When evaluating your
request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information
about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for
example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal
convictions, or public conduct of government officials.
~~~
ars
People aren't complaining about the idea of removing private information.
They are complaining that you are just removing it from _google_. The info is
still there!
And not only that, it's only removed from google.co.{eu*} google.com will
still have it.
Which makes it as stupid of a law as the one about cookies: Make it look like
you are helping privacy while actually doing nothing of any value.
Anyone from the EU who wants the full scoop about someone will just use the US
google site, making this a completely pointless exercise.
~~~
MzHN
>it's only removed from google.co.{eu*} google.com will still have it
Where is this information from? Sounds a bit strange, but I guess it could be
true. It's not the first time big companies say "f u" to these rulings.
~~~
mike_hearn
Given the disaster this is likely to inflict on search results if scaled up,
and the fact that it's not required in America, do you really think they'll
make the whole global search engine work this way? Or do you think they'll do
the same thing as done in every other case where some stupid country requires
censorship: block based on domain name or IP address?
Historically, for Europe it's been done via domain name. Doing it via IP
address would not be any more effective though: there'd immediately be dozens
of proxy sites set up running in the US that simply forward the search to the
US Google and return the results.
Short of building an equivalent to the Chinese Great Firewall and blocking all
encrypted traffic, or forcing Google to apply European cenorship globally,
there's no way to stop Europeans who want regular results pages from getting
them.
------
tuukkah
This is the actual form "Search removal request under European Data Protection
law":
[https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_eudpa?product=we...](https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_eudpa?product=websearch)
------
cyphunk
Larry's request at TED a few months back that we have more faith in
corporations shows how much we have already lost to the hands of an
increasingly commercial internet. When it is clear that there is no neutral
party to trust any more (gov nor corp) balkanisation through enforcement of
new laws is a needed and natural effect.
------
arrrg
I don't know why, but this creeps me out. This seems like such a hard balance
to get right and also too much of a burden for search engines. Also, there is
potential for abuse.
~~~
danieldk
Sure, it is a hard balance to get right. But privacy is an important right and
we should not throw it away because it creates some extra effort for a multi-
billion dollar company.
I also find it weak that Page plays the 'think of the startups' card. In fact,
I think that since the Snowden leaks, there are far more opportunities to
create privacy-aware or privacy-protecting services. E.g., I am pretty sure
that Duckduckgo, a startup in search, benefitted tremendously from the recent
attention to privacy issues.
~~~
cbr
DuckDuckGo certainly has benefited from privacy becoming more salient, but
this ruling is probably negative for them. Each of these removal requests
needs manual review to keep people from requesting takedowns of other people's
stuff. There are ~500M people eligible to request takedowns under the ruling,
and if 1% of them ask for one link removed per year that's 14k requests per
day. If each request takes 5min then you need 143 people working full time.
Which high but doable for Google, but at ~20 employees this would be an
enormous burden for DDG.
These numbers could be higher if someone puts out a campaign that goes viral
and gets lots of people submitting requests, and there's nothing that stops
people outside the EU from submitting (invalid) requests.
One thing in DDG's favor, however, is that that at first people are probably
only going to send these requests to Google.
Disclaimer: I work for Google, on open source software.
~~~
danieldk
_There are ~500M people eligible to request takedowns under the ruling, and if
1% of them ask for one link removed per year that 's 14k requests per day. If
each request takes 5min then you need 143 people working full time. Which high
but doable for Google, but at ~20 employees this would be an enormous burden
for DDG._
You are making a mistake in your math here, since a sizeable portion of that
500M people use Google, but probably only a fraction of a percent uses DDG.
In other words, if DDG's usage is currently 1% that of Google (which would
surprise me), that's 1.43 people. If you are a search company of 20 people, it
seems reasonable to me to have at least a few people working on keeping your
index clean.
~~~
cbr
For my privacy to be protected in this way it doesn't matter what search
engine I use, it matters what search engine the people who are trying to look
me up use. If I want a fact about me to not come up when people search for my
name I would need to remove it from any search engine others might look in.
This is a lower barrier than usage, but you're right that at least for now
people probably won't bother submitting these to DDG.
Unless someone makes a single form for submitting a removal request to
all/most search engines? Though I guess then the search engines could pool
together and do some kind of centralized processing of these requests?
------
porcogordo
This is great for google, they have the manpower to do it, creating barriers
to entry for the potential future competition.
~~~
rnnr
But.., but.., what about our rights??? /retard
------
k-mcgrady
I actually have what I think is a valid reason to use this.
Years ago I created a friendfeed account. I used their Twitter signup button.
Now years later I would like to close my friendfeed account to remove that
information from the internet. There's nothing particularly bad about it but
it's old, useless and I would rather it was deleted. The problem is I can't
login into my account as I authorised through Twitter and I've since deleted
my Twitter account. I also can't get in touch with anyone at friendfeed since
they've shutdown but left their site up.
This ruling gives me a way to hide that friendfeed page from people.
Unfortunately it will still be up but it's unlikely anyone will find it
'accidentally' if it isn't on Google.
~~~
higherpurpose
I also agree that for reasons such as this (deleting an unwanted account) the
ruling is useful. The real problem is demanding _Google_ or other services
like theirs to delete data that appears from _other_ services, that Google has
nothing to do with, other than indexing them. Of course you'd have to believe
that once the data is gone from the parent host, it disappears from Google's
cache, too, automatically.
But just asking Google to get rid of it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and
I think it unnecessarily punishes them, too. Think about the tens of millions
of such requests they'd have to respond to every year in the future.
------
andybak
Will these take-downs at least make it to www.chillingeffects.org? I do hope
so.
------
globalpanic
why does the link go to ft.com, rather than google.com (the domain listed
after the link)
~~~
jve
When you search Google and copy a link from results page, thats what you get.
Links are going through google.com and redirected to the site.
This is probably what author did. :/
~~~
dang
It's a clever trick. Unfortunately, it breaks the referential integrity of the
post. I don't think we can allow it as the submission url, for the same reason
we don't allow link shorteners. People who are already posting links to Google
searches in comments, though, might want to post these instead.
For those reading this later, the submitted url was
[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F2%2Fb827b658-e708-11e3-88be-00144feabdc0.html&ei=mSOIU6bcOITvoASx54LgCA&usg=AFQjCNHUMgpLy_trccfJHij-
yjxxqAo52Q&bvm=bv.67720277,d.cGU)
~~~
Tomdarkness
The only problem is now when you click on the submission link you can't view
the article because you need a FT subscription. If you clicked the link that
sends you via Google you can view the article due to the FT allowing limited
free views via search engines.
~~~
dang
Yes—that's why the trick is clever. But this has been the situation for a long
time, and much as we're all annoyed by the annoyance, it would clearly be
inappropriate to have all paywalled links show up in HN as "google.com". If
people want to post links like this in comments, that wouldn't be a big
deviation from current practice.
------
hellbreakslose
Google bows... Misleading title by Financial Times that doesn't bow under laws
eh? Funny how the media can manipulate the wording and judge someone.
It's called LAW! You don't BOW to it, you OBEY.
What would FT do in Google case? form an army and go fight against the EU?...
Sick of reading articles like that.
Its sad that the EU is voting those laws, but its not Google fault of trying
to be a legal company...
------
happyscrappy
Only Europeans will have their data censored. Good for businesses hosting
VPNs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Gopass – A simple UI for password-store - jlundborg
https://github.com/cortex/gopass
======
bkmn
Password managers ftw! What is the state of go gui development? It's a nice
language that I only know the basics of, but it seems lacking in gui/desktop
areas...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to become productive programmer? - nodivbyzero
Hey HN community. I'm wondering how did you become productive programmers?
======
vincie
Break the problem/task down into independent pieces. Independent means that
the piece can be unit tested. Finish the piece and its unit test before you
stop coding. Design a good api/interface/signature etc for each piece to
enable re-use. A good design and unit tests also allows you to refactor later
on without blowing the whole thing up.
------
jason_wang
Don't multitask. Focus on one task at a time.
------
sudhi_xervmon
Define productive programmer. Some one who can complete a given task
efficiently quickly and precisely that meets or exceeds the expectations of
stakeholder. To accomplish, please understand devil is in details. 1\. Focus
and understand the problem you are trying to solve. 2\. Divide a strategy and
divide the problem into multiple tasks. accomplish the tasks 3\. After each
task - make sure the solution for the tasks meets the requirements as defined
in the task. 4\. Once you complete all the tasks - you have solution for the
problem. Practice this over a period to perfect the art and you will be
productive one day
------
eddflrs
Stay focused on the task at hand. If possible break it down into smaller
tasks. If you have a hard time staying focused, use the pomodoro technique to
get it done.
------
AlexeyBrin
Some books that could help:
Brian Tracy - Eat that frog!
Brian Tracy - No excuses!
if you prefer a tldr: Self discipline is the key. Identify your long term
targets and do one thing at a time until it is finished. Work on what you need
to finish even when you don't feel like working.
------
matiu
My 2c.
Concentrate on one thing and get it done. Break it down into chunks. Write
them in a todo.txt. Get one chunk done and finished and committed before
moving on to the next one.
For chunk size; I think a chunk is gonna take me 1-5 hours, and it usually
ends up taking 0-5 days.
------
read
(1) Automate. Besides saving time, it helps generate different kinds of ideas.
(2) Have a bug tracker, and create in it smaller subtasks for a task. It dumps
thoughts out of your mind, which helps focus on individual subtasks.
------
dlsym
Stop procrastinating on HN. Start finishing your project. Now.
------
lama12345
If you have ADHD, get Ritalin or Adderall. It also works for People without
ADHD (doping).
In Israel everybody is allowed to get Ritalin.
~~~
dlsym
If you don't have access to ritalin, you May try to develop a caffein and
nicotin addiction.
Stay away from alcohol. It makes you sleepy and lass sharp.
------
jason_wang
Check email only twice a day (11am, and 4pm for example). Definitely don't
leave your email app/tab open.
------
1mrankhan
I am also waiting for a good answer ..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to parse HTML - ranit8
http://blogs.perl.org/users/jeffrey_kegler/2011/11/how-to-parse-html.html
======
thristian
In the bad old days, parsing real-world HTML was a horrible task because every
web-browser had a huge collection of undocumented corner-cases and hacks; some
accidental, some the result of reverse-engineering other vendors' corner-cases
and hacks. Most standalone HTML parsers could generate _some_ document tree
from a given input file; whether or not it would match the one generated by an
actual browser was another matter.
These days, however, we have the HTML5 parsing algorithm, reverse-engineered
from various vendors' web browsers but actually documented and implementable
(still horribly complicated, but that's legacy content for you). Not only is
the HTML5 parsing algorithm designed to be compatible with legacy browsers,
modern browsers are replacing their old parsing code with new HTML5-compatible
implementations, so parsing should be even more consistent (I know Firefox has
switched to an HTML5 parser, I think IE has made a bunch of noise about it
too; I don't follow WebKit all that closely, but I'd be surprised if they
haven't moved towards an HTML5 parser).
~~~
masklinn
> I know Firefox has switched to an HTML5 parser
Yep, this was mainlined in Firefox 4 (with Gecko 2.0).
> I think IE has made a bunch of noise about it too
Support is being built, it's planned for IE10.
> I don't follow WebKit all that closely, but I'd be surprised if they haven't
> moved towards an HTML5 parser
The HTML5 parsing algorithm has been in Webkit since the second half of 2010.
And you have not asked, but HTML5 parsing was officially released in Opera
11.6 last month.
~~~
kkolev
> HTML5 parsing was officially released in Opera 11.6 last month.
I hope that's not related to the annoying freezes the community's been
complaining about since that release...
------
justincormack
Now that html5 defines how to parse all html fragments there is really no
reason not to use that algorithm.
~~~
arkitaip
You're assuming that web sites consist of compliant html; which is never the
case.
~~~
masklinn
The HTML5 parsing algorithm was designed to standardize parsing of real-world
pages, including error recovery (for invalid and/or legacy markup), that's the
whole bloody point of it.
Better, using an implementation of the HTML5 parsing algorithm means _you're
parsing pages the same way browsers do_ : Gecko (Firefox), Webkit (Chrome and
Safari) and Presto (Opera) have all landed the HTML5 parsing algorithm, and
Trident (IE) is in the process of getting it (the feature is planned for
IE10's Trident 6.0)
------
jrockway
This article should be called, "how to write a Marpa-based HTML parser", not
"how to parse HTML". If you're a Perl programmer and want to parse HTML into
an XML-style DOM, use XML::LibXML. If you can't handle the libxml2 dependency,
use HTML::Parser.
------
perfunctory
The fact that browsers accept defective html is the most evil thing that
happened to the web. Any library that tries to parse "real world" html just
contributes to that evil. I am astonished that we tolerate this and still call
ourselves (software) engineers.
~~~
donut
"Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send." -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle>
~~~
perfunctory
<http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1999945>
~~~
donut
Good read, thanks for that. I agree with the conclusion: there is no one-size-
fits-all rule for interoperability.
The way I see it, it's ultimately about tradeoffs. I can only imagine what
things would be like today if web browsers implemented a strict parsing of
HTML and refused to render invalid pages. One possibility is hindered adoption
of HTML by the masses. Another is that two vendors would disagree about the
HTML spec and cause pages to be browser-specific. (Turns out this happened
anyway :-))
Is the HTML5 spec better in terms of interop and compatibility than the
previous ones? <http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/02/15/HTML5>
------
gambler
Since this seems to be aimed (among other things) towards input sanitization,
here is a semi-relevant entry that might amuse someone.
<https://gist.github.com/1575452>
This is a sanitizing HTML "parser" done in roughly 100 lines of PHP code. It
does tag and attribute whitelisting, checks for protocols to prevent XSS,
deals with unclosed and unopened tags, and does some other things. The biggest
issue is that it's not well-factored. However, its shortness is appealing,
because I understand how it works. I would have hard time trusting a library
with thousands of lines of code to do input validation.
------
skadamat
For you python users, the BeautifulSoup module has a prettify module which
does the same thing.
~~~
masklinn
Bleach[0] might be a better idea, it's based on html5lib
[0] <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bleach>
------
ypcx
If you want to go serious about web crawling and/or web scraping (within legal
boundaries of course), you want to use Node.js and appropriate modules (don't
remember the exact names right now). This is because Node.js being based on
the V8 JavaScript engine, can completely emulate a real web browser - it can
load and parse the HTML, as well as JavaScript. And many sites won't load
properly without JavaScript.
~~~
masklinn
What you're saying makes no sense whatsoever, at any level of resolution.
Chrome's rendering engine, and the library used to deal with parsing HTML and
building a DOM tree is Webkit's Webcore[0]. V8 and Webcore are not the same
thing and V8 does not provide a DOM implementation (that's webcore's job) nor
does it handle any HTML parsing (that's _also_ ) webcore's job.
V8 is a javascript VM. That's it. It does not "emulate a real web browser"
(let alone completely), and nor does Node.
[0] <http://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/WebCore?rev=64712>
~~~
ypcx
That's why I said emulate. V8 (Node) with appropriate modules can emulate the
browser - both parse the DOM, and then run scripts on that DOM. PHP/Perl/etc.
can't do that. Java could do that with Rhino I assume, but I'd say V8 is much
closer. I'm also not saying anything about emulating exactly Chrome. I wish I
had time to dig up that module for Node now, but I don't (I don't remember the
name).
| {
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Workers have daily smile scans - emontero1
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/5757194/Workers-have-daily-smile-scans.html
======
dan_the_welder
I think I need to install this on my workstation. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Nasa physicist says warp drive is more feasible than thought - tambourine_man
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/20/warp-drives
======
elorant
The article sounds like a linkbait.
The title says "more feasible than thought" and the ending paragraph says that
in order for it to work we should first find dark energy.
So how come something we don't know if it exists makes a theory more feasible?
~~~
i_cannot_hack
The discovery that made warp drives more feasible had nothing to do with dark
energy, but with the shape of the warp bubble.
So yes, we don't know whether or not warp drives are realistic, but since it
would apparently not require as much energy as previously thought they are
therefore in theory more feasible.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Is Angular 2 ready for Production use? - vaibhav228
Is angular 2 ready for production use. I looked at the angular.io site, but do not see any releases for the same.
======
kylecordes
Yes, very much so. Many organizations large and small, including Google
itself, are using A2 in production for large important project. This was a
good topic of investigation 6+ months ago, it is pretty moot at this point.
~~~
vaibhav228
Thanks. I was searching and did not find any news regarding the same.
------
madjack443
It's already been used in many production ready apps for both web and mobile.
See [https://www.nativescript.org](https://www.nativescript.org)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Custom HTML dropdown with jQuery - d3v3r0
http://alexsblog.org/2014/08/21/custom-html-dropdown-with-jquery/
======
NewsReader42
Also, you claim that you designed Tag Heuer's website to be mobile first. This
is a complete fabrication plus their site is terrible on a mobile.
------
NewsReader42
More bad advice from this guy.
STOP POLLUTING THE GLOBAL CSS NAMESPACE.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Price of Facebook Privacy? Start Clicking - bjonathan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/technology/personaltech/13basics.html?src=tptw
======
philwelch
The US Constitution is unusually short because it's written on the principle
of English common law. In traditional common law, the written law is very
short and very general. Then, as complications come up, the courts interpret
it and precedent is applied. This is opposed to more statutory systems where
you try to write a law as specifically as possible and the courts don't have
as much power to decide "case law".
Another famous example of common law is "The Laws of the Game", the official
rulebook of association football (soccer):
[http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/81/4...](http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/81/42/36/lawsofthegameen.pdf)
44 pages of the document are the rules themselves (17 rules), there's about 3
pages of addendum, and then over 50 pages of summarized interpretation (the
equivalent of case law). The pages themselves are not very dense.
~~~
known
more laws = more corruption
------
brk
My right arm is longer than my left foot.
I'm really not sure how this is a logical comparison in anything other than a
link-bait case.
The click-through licenses on some freemium apps I've used are also longer
than than the Constitution, yet shorter than War and Peace.
I would expect most modern legal-ese documents that define restrictions and
allowances related to privacy to be longer than 200 year old documents
designed to grant basic freedoms and allowances to society. Especially when
you consider that the US Constitution holds the distinction of being the
shortest such document of any modern nation with a Constitution.
------
jacoblyles
For a relevant comparison: every bill Congress passes is hundreds of times
longer than the Constitution. How does that make you feel?
~~~
YogSothoth
Like the current folks in congress aren't nearly as smart as the folks who
wrote the constitution.
------
apike
Don't miss the article's infographic, "A Bewildering Tangle of Options" on the
complexity of the privacy options panels.
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/12/business/faceb...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/12/business/facebook-
privacy.html)
------
mhartl
There was a bit this week on "The Daily Show" that chided the British for not
writing down their Constitution. But the British version is lower-case: their
government has a constitution, not a Constitution. And that's the original
meaning, _constitution_ being an English word meaning "the composition of
something".
Clearly, the U.S. Constitution bears little resemblance to the U.S.
Government's constitution. How long would USG's actual constitution be if you
wrote it down? Let's just say it would be a _wee_ bit longer than Facebook's
privacy policy.
------
jaxn
I find it interesting how short Flickr's policy is in relation to the others.
Especially since Flickr would seem to have more intellectual property.
I assume that is because of their use of existing copyleft license options for
photos.
------
tokenadult
And it is considerably more subject to amendment.
------
aneth
It also hopefully will not require 220+ and counting years of jurisprudence
for its true meaning to be divined.
~~~
pmccool
I expect there's enough case law relating to Facebook's privacy policy to keep
things interesting. That's the common ground as far as I can see: neither can
be read in isolation.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The Fine Line – Ryan Lochte Swimming. (NYT Video-Supported Storytelling) - danielhunt
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/05/sports/olympics-swimmer-ryan-lochte.html
======
danielhunt
I quite like how this approach to storytelling/demonstration has been put
together.
Sure, they hijack the scrollwheel, and there isn't a lot of textual content on
the page, but it is done very well in my opinion.
I thought it would be appreciated here (I have no connection with NYT or this
story)
A++, would scroll again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Restricting Manhattan’s 14th street to buses has been a success - js2
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/nyregion/14th-street-cars-banned.html
======
Tiktaalik
The tech industry is floating all these complex technological ideas so solve
traffic congestion, from apps that track traffic, to ride hailing to
autonomous cars, but the reality is that traffic congestion is not a tech
problem but rather a simple physics problem (and political problem).
The core issue is simply that cars physically take up too much space on the
road, and move too few passengers.
This simple physics problem can be solved solved with 19th century solutions
as NYC has here. Make exclusive room for buses, which are dramatically more
space efficient than cars. Problem solved.
~~~
anonu
The work of Robert Moses is slowly getting undone. He left a major imprint on
NYC, building infrastructure to support the automobile. For Moses, the car was
the great middle class equalizer.
The result is NYC has 2 highways going up and down it's waterfront when it
could have focused on integrating it's city on the rivers as opposed to using
them to funnel cars into Manhattan.
~~~
ggm
I sometimes visit a Brisbane development forum which cannot fathom my
suggestions to adopt "the big dig" with our city riverfront freeway. They all
see this as a waste of time, and I still see this as returning 100+ year value
to something precious: waterfront is too valuable to waste on cars.
The ground is amenable to tunnels. We should be getting rid of the flyovers.
~~~
LilBytes
Have you seen the posts on Facebook or the Courier Mail about the soon to be
dedicated busway that's going on Gympie Road? Or around how the road is
specifically going to be widened to open a 24/7 bus lane?
The public are vehemently against more busways while also complaining about
how congestion on Gympie Road, Lytton Road and Wynnum Road are constantly
getting worse. It all really beggers belief.
We continue to throw money on making roads bigger but it doesn't help, all it
means is more and more people move to the other end before the status quo
reaches equilibrium again, and the cycle of road works starts again. This of
courst assumes the road works ever finish. I'm looking at you, Kingsmith
Drive, Mudeergaba Exit on the Gold Coast. All the while we're saying there's
less commuters using public transport year on year than ever before.
This is a surprise to no one if you notice busses take an hour to travel 8km
when you're contending with gridlocked cars for the entire distance.
Less you purchase a moped or a motorcycle and join me and the 2 Wheel Nomads
that Brisbane's starting to enjoy.
The article is behind a pay wall, I'm not sure how to get around it.
[https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2...](https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcouriermail%2Fposts%2F10157191246717702&width=500)
------
rememberlenny
This is one of the more exciting things that has happened to traffic in NYC.
Getting rid of cars in a city isn't possible, but being able to make this
change to one street at a time seems feasible.
I live a block away from this area, and it's completely transformed the
neighborhood. It's much safer to walk across 14th st. There are many shops in
the area that seem to be getting more foot traffic (no data behind this).
There are more people congregating around the bench/sitting areas around 14th
street.
~~~
adrr
This is a better strategy than trying to put bike lanes on every street.
Drivers don't pay attention enough. Risk of getting doored or having some car
turn right without checking their blindspot/mirrors is too high.
~~~
mgleason_3
Vancouver took their 2-lane each way (4 total) roads and dedicated the outer
lane to bikes. They protected that lane from car with planters. So, it can
definitely be done.
That said, IDK if it’s a resounding success. There may be measures by which it
is, I’m just not aware.
For example, I found it difficult as a pedestrian and saw a few collisions and
lots of near misses between bikes and pedestrians. The planters create a nice
protected area which feels like it’s safe for walking and crossing. But the
bikes were moving quickly and quite unyielding in their perceived right-of-
way.
When we were there, there was definitely other challenges. There were terrible
traffic jams - especially going into the city. It seems like a lot of traffic
needs to go through the city to get somewhere else. It didn’t seem like they
had adequate public transportation.
~~~
Scoundreller
> Vancouver took their 2-lane each way (4 total) roads and dedicated the outer
> lane to bikes. They protected that lane from car with planters. So, it can
> definitely be done.
Makes snowplowing a mess. NYC can’t just shutdown like Vancouver does every
time it snows :)
~~~
jrockway
It is street parking that ruins winter for bikes. The snow plows can't get to
the edge of the road, so the bike lane which marks the parking/plowable road
area suffers.
I don't think it's a big deal because we don't really get a lot of snow in
NYC. A plan to improve the 50 weeks a year without snow on the ground is
better than not doing the plan because a couple weeks in February will be
miserable.
~~~
Symbiote
Here in Copenhagen, the city has narrow versions of the usual equipment for
clearing bike lanes. The bike lanes are cleared before the car lanes!
[http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/12/ultimate-bike-lane-
snow...](http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/12/ultimate-bike-lane-snow-
clearance.html)
------
Wowfunhappy
As far as I'm concerned, cars have no place in Manhattan, and should be banned
from all but a handful of designated roads. Maybe give out special licenses to
the disabled, or anyone else who _physically requires_ a car—that way, they'll
actually be able to get around at reasonable speeds, too.
~~~
thebradbain
Instead of an outright ban, I'd love to see price-prohibitive congestion
pricing and street-parking pricing (prohibitive in the sense that it wouldn't
make financial sense to drive a car as the primary mode of transport, not that
if someone needed to occasionally use a car they couldn't) within Manhattan,
with the aforementioned provisions carved out for those who demonstrate a need
for a car.
That way, for any of those stubborn and wealthy enough who refuse to use
public transit, we can direct all funds generated to improving public transit
-- not just reliability and frequency, but also line expansions and remodeling
the deteriorating stations and upgrading train/bus interiors to create a
first-class transit experience for the rest of us and to finally prioritize
public transit correctly in the US.
Singapore already operates a similar (but stricter and broader) scheme:
[https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/asia/singapore-
cars/index.htm...](https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/asia/singapore-
cars/index.html).
~~~
neilv
> _price-prohibitive congestion pricing and street-parking pricing_ [...] That
> way, for any of those stubborn and wealthy enough who refuse to use public
> transit, we can direct all funds generated to improving public transit*
That seems to hand the shared public resource to the wealthy. (Regardless of
whether you envision the revenue being used to someday provide a comparably
attractive option for the non-wealthy.)
~~~
pkulak
Is it really "handing" if it's market priced?
~~~
abdullahkhalids
1\. The ability to transit from one place to another is a right of the people
of a city, that should not be modulated by one's socioeconomic class (or
medical condition or sex etc).
2\. If rich people can zoom around the city much faster than poor people, then
rich people have more of this right than poor people. Not good.
3\. Crucial to this argument is that the price is prohibitive in nature, and
that transit by car is a rivalrous good. So other rights, such as easy access
to food, don't fall so easily to this argument because poor people can still
buy nutritious food from their wages, even if rich people can buy more
expensive and better food.
------
randall
Imagine if, in high density areas like Manhattan, cars were simply not
allowed. Wow. The thought of how pleasant Manhattan would become if only cabs
+ busses + delivery trucks + ambulances were allowed makes me almost too
happy.
Would be so awesome.
~~~
gpm
I don't understand why "cabs" is an allowed exception here.
Cabs are like cars, except more expensive, and they drive around without
anyone using them for transport looking for business. Why are they superior?
I'm picking on this example not because I think that list is meant to be
complete or perfectly thought out, but because cabs often seem to get
exceptions like this (e.g. in HOV lanes) and I really don't understand why. It
basically seems like a "I'm rich enough to pay someone to do my driving for
me" exception.
~~~
adventured
Cabs could be highly useful for various emergencies or more generally for
people in need of urgent singular transport.
Ambulances cover the medically injured. Buses cover normal strictly time
regimented use.
A simple scenario: my son has been injured at home and I need to immediately
get home or to the hospital. The bus may take far too long depending. That's
an example of an urgent need for singular transport.
~~~
nikanj
Would you be happier if your taxi wasn't stuck in traffic? I have an inkling
that 99% of cars on Manhattan are not urgent emergency
------
gniv
The article is a bit lacking in facts. Here's some more info from another
source [1]:
"The MTA and Department of Transportation announced Monday that beginning July
1, private cars will be banned along 14th Street from Third to Ninth Avenues
from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m."
"It’s part of the MTA’s plan to increase bus service while repairs continue on
the L train."
[1] [https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/06/11/commuter-alert-
most-...](https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/06/11/commuter-alert-most-of-14th-
street-will-be-closed-to-cars-most-of-the-time-starting-july/)
~~~
Merrill
Repairs aren't the only cause of mass transit outages. There are also the
occasional MTA strikes, which happened in '66, '80, and 2005.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_New_York_City_transit_str...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_New_York_City_transit_strike)
------
mapgrep
This conclusion of “a phenomenal success” is based on “a span of several
days.” Again, several days.
I want this to be true. I support this policy decision. I don’t own a car,
live in NY, and want to see the streets reclaimed from drivers. Love it.
But if someone declared this experiment a terrible failure after /several
days/ I would laugh and say, “please wait a bit so we can examine some real
data.”
Please, urbanists, consider waiting a bit before calling this “a phenomenal
success.” Let’s have some evidentiary standards.
~~~
Wowfunhappy
Well, it hasn't caused the immediate armageddon some were predicting.
It may be early yet, but realistically, what catastrophes do you foresee that
wouldn't have come by now?
~~~
hoorayimhelping
In the six years I lived in NYC proper, there was a giant flood, a giant power
outage, several hurricanes, several blizzards, several city-wide protests, and
countless large events taking place on the streets.
That's just a few events I thought of off the top of my head. That doesn't
cover the normal ebb and flow of activity in the city - it's pretty busy
around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and dead in February, and a zoo in the
summertime. How do all those things affect this? What happens when school is
out? What happens during shopping season? What happens in heat waves or during
snowstorms?
The point is, a lot of different things can happen in the city on pretty
annual cycle, and declaring this a success even after a month is pretty silly
and potentially very costly.
~~~
fishingisfun
not even a month
------
chrismcb
I wish they works ban cars on the Las Vegas strip. It would require rerouting
hotel entrances. But the amount of real estate it would free up would be
incredible.
~~~
woutr_be
Out of interest, how much real estate would it actually free up? I assume you
still need roads for emergency services, delivery trucks, construction
vehicles, etc... Maybe the number of lanes can be reduced, but that wouldn't
exactly free up any sizeable amount of real estate that could be used for more
housing, or would it?
------
baxtr
Cities were designed around cars. It’s time for a change.
~~~
jacquesm
Very few cities were. Cities for the most part were designed around horse
drawn carriages and tons of foot traffic.
~~~
baxtr
That's a very narrow way to read my comment.
Cities are rebuilt all the time. My city now invest heavily into bike lanes
reducing the number of car lanes from 2 to 1 and replacing them by bike lanes.
That is a choice, which can be made every year by any city.
~~~
jacquesm
Of course there is no reason to leave things as they are. But any city older
than 120 years - and that's the bulk of them near where I live - will have had
horses and carriages as the bulk carriers of their time. Except for those
parts where boats were used, but that requires some pretty rare conditions
(Venice, Amsterdam, Bruges).
Getting rid of cars is a good thing, let's hope we get rid of them in inner
cities before electrics take over and rob us of that chance. The pollution
caused by cars is one of the main drivers of getting rid of them, if that
reason is dealt with then it will be much harder to marshal the forces
required to see this through.
------
jshaqaw
I’m torn on the cars in Manhattan debate. I live my whole city life on public
transport. I hate the pollution of cars and I hate how perilous it is for my
kids to cross the streets.
At the same time we sometimes do want to or have to travel outside the city.
I’m not really sure how that would work in a car free city.
~~~
danielharan
You could have parking with rental cars on the periphery of the city or its
car-free zone.
~~~
jshaqaw
Sort of. It sounds OK in pure theory. In practice when we end up loading the
car to visit parents/grandparents for a week plus a dog in tow I’m not sure
how we end up getting from our apartment door to the peripheral rental car
zone which this being Manhattan is presumably in NJ. That’s a lot of cargo!
Again I would love a car free Manhattan if I could figure out how to make it
work. But many of those who argue this most vehemently I often suspect aren’t
trying to raise families in NYC.
------
Ericson2314
Ironically with a superblock style plan, 14th Street would be one of the
_only_ streets where cars are allowed.
Jokes aside, yes, I really hope this is the beginning of the end of cars in
Manhattan. When it was announced I was thrilled: here was the perfect flash
point to grow the anti-car movement in NYC. Now we have to deliver.
------
wging
Seattle did this for a stretch of 3rd. I don't have the data to call it a
success (or failure) but buses on 3rd seem pretty quick to me.
------
throebd
Maybe fix the metro first? Kiev in Ukraine has better metro than NYC.
~~~
wetpaws
This is a false dichotomy. One does not exclude another.
~~~
close04
No but the order is important. Making public transport better first would make
the transition away from car traffic somewhat smoother.
Many cities already successfully pulled this off and this method received far
more popular support than just cutting off car traffic and expecting the
people to "deal with it" without having good options.
~~~
techsupporter
Except that the order usually goes like this:
1\. You can't take away personal car access; the public transportation sucks!
Make it better, first.
2\. You can't improve public transportation; everybody drives so it's not a
good cost investment. Get more people to ride transit, first.
3\. Goto 1
~~~
close04
Most European cities that shifted away from car traffic did exactly that.
First they improved public transport and encouraged any other alternatives
like bicycles. They invested in that infrastructure until it was ready to take
over. Then they started to slowly "push" people away from cars by turning some
streets or city centers into pedestrian zones.
You collect the returns _after_ you invest. Otherwise almost any initiative
would get bogged down into your 3 point loop. When companies build a new HQ
they don't tear down the old one first. The "loop" is a fake conundrum.
~~~
techsupporter
It's not a fake conundrum in political systems, especially when--as so often
happens--road projects sail through the legislature with nary a peep but
public transit spending has to be voted on (often more than once) by the
people in the region or, sometimes, statewide. European countries often don't
have these barriers or at least have a political and government legacy where
the people see the investments as worth it. That's not a situation we often
enjoy in the States, some reasons cultural and some self-inflicted.
For example, in western Washington, we've repeatedly voted to tax ourselves
for transit. Our regional leaders had to push, prod, and beg our state elected
leaders to pass laws permitting us to have those votes. (Meanwhile, road
projects sail through.) Yet, more often than not, we've voted yes. But in
November, through our tediously broken initiative system, the entire state
will get to vote on whether to repeal our locally-approved taxing authority
because a political shyster likes running bumper-sticker-politics campaigns on
$30 car tabs because "nobody uses transit."
You're right that the "loop" need not happen and often doesn't in most
circumstances but people are _very_ persnickety about transportation and their
deity-granted right to park their vehicle on a free street directly in front
of their place of residence.
~~~
close04
Some political systems make even the best solutions "a loop".
------
rubyboss
I don't understand this anti-car sentiment from the city liberals. It's
already happened here in London and it's getting worse. From 20mph speed
limits to blocking roads for bus-only traffic to ultra-low emission zones and
congestion charges. It's becoming pretty clear that they don't want people to
own their own cars. I'm struggling to see how this is progress.
~~~
electric_muse
Walkable cities sounds great until you have luggage to carry or groceries to
lug. It’s all about the collective good over that of the individual.
~~~
jcranmer
I have had absolutely no problem lugging my luggage to the airport or carrying
my groceries on foot or by mixed foot/train/bus. It might require some
modifications to your trip (e.g., going more frequently, or purchasing some
personal shopping carts to carry stuff around in), but it's not that hard.
~~~
jimktrains2
Depending on area of course, but usually a grocer or supermarket is much
closer, meaning that more frequent and smaller trips aren't an issue and mean
you often have fresher produce to work with.
------
thrower123
This kind of thing makes sense in Manhattan. Manhattan is relatively tiny, and
it is dense, and there is workable public transit. A subway system with
stations every quarter mile or less does wonders.
It just doesn't extrapolate to anywhere else in the country particularly well.
Even Boston is a shit-show without cars, and that is another dense, old, East
Coast city with legacy public transit, albeit much less well designed.
It's a complete non-starter most places.
~~~
kunai
Congestion charges and upzoning would fix that issue, but people with the same
outlook on this problem (aka NIMBYs) that you do seem to hate those things as
well.
People often forget this fact but the vast majority of cities east of the
Mississippi in the U.S. developed without cars for most of their existence.
Streetcars were the name of the game until the 1950s, after which personal car
ownership was heavily pushed and subsidized by the government after bending to
the will of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
The entire idea of designing our cities around car ownership and the single-
family household is extraordinarily new and unnatural. There's nothing
prohibiting us from creating density in these post-WWII cities; just look at
Denver or Portland and their massive successes with public transit and
upzoning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Security Engineer – for Hamburg’s first Unicorn company - TechRecruiting
https://corporate.aboutyou.de/de/jobs/security-engineer-for-hamburgs-first-unicorn-company
======
ktpsns
Oh god. I have met these people in real life on a job fair. I definitely would
not want to work there.
Furthermore, this is without doubt not Hamburg's first Unicorn.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon Startup Challenge - robmnl
Heads up and reminder for everyone:<p>Apply for the Amazon Startup Challenge by the 28th of this month:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=377634011" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=377634011</a>
======
Jaggu
Did u apply? and did u get confirmation email? I have applied and never
received any confirmation email.
~~~
robmnl
Haven't received one either.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Sourcegraph Scales with the Language Server Protocol - georgewfraser
https://text.sourcegraph.com/how-sourcegraph-scales-with-the-language-server-protocol-a4e8fd3fbae5
======
sqs
Sourcegraph CEO here. Thanks for posting this! And thanks to Microsoft,
Codenvy, RedHat, etc., for their foundational work on LSP.
For the curious: we have links to more language server implementations at
[http://langserver.org](http://langserver.org). And if you want to see what
real LSP requests/responses look like, go to
[https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/gorilla/websocket/-/blob/...](https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/gorilla/websocket/-/blob/compression.go)
and hover/click on tokens with the JS console open.
Happy to answer any questions about LSP or our usage of it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Zenbox: Bushido Pivots From Cloud Platforms To Customer Data - sgrove
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/06/y-combinator-backed-bushido-pivots-from-cloud-platforms-to-customer-data/
======
amirnathoo
Great pivot Sean: Zenbox has become critical for us in a very short space of
time.
We use it with Stripe, Mailchimp and Salesforce so when we received a support
email we can immediately see which plan the customer is on and the details of
their recent builds. That allows us to provide personalized support faster.
Request: it would be great to be able to color code emails in our support
inbox so we can see which ones are our Go Pro plan customers even before
opening them.
~~~
sgrove
I really like this idea - making sales and support loads skimmable within
gmail with bins of customers based on the data from all your tools.
Love it!
~~~
kerryfalk
Turn it into a desktop app that works with Outlook and flavour of the month
ERP and you just killed Salesforce. Every sales rep, sales manager, and
marketer on the planet would love this.
Great work.
~~~
sgrove
Yeah, a few features around this (Desktop, etc.) would be great. Outlook is an
definite win, we just have to time it right.
~~~
j_s
FYI, the 'Oulook Social Connector' provides a framework already setup for
this, you'd just need to implement a provider.
[http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-
outlook/archive/2010/07/...](http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-
outlook/archive/2010/07/15/developing-a-provider-for-the-outlook-social-
connector-version-1-1.aspx)
~~~
sgrove
I had no idea about that - looks great. Thanks so much for the heads up, seems
like a much faster way to implement Zenbox-for-Outlook.
------
ColinHayhurst
Grappling with customer data across multiple SaaS applications is a real pain
point. I've tried quite a few Google Chrome extensions that work with GMail to
help with this problem. None of them survived much more than a few days.
Zenbox by contrast has been useful every day since installing a few weeks ago.
Gmail is an essential tool for me in dealing with customers, so I'm there
every day, often multiple times. So being able to see relevant data in
Mailchimp for example, without leaving Gmail is a good time saver.
Now if could push data to MailChimp directly from Zenbox in Gmail, it would
then go from being a good-to-have to must-have app.
~~~
sgrove
I love this idea - All in due time, heh.
------
sgrove
Bushido/Zenbox founder here - happy to discuss what went into this.
Clicky: <http://zenboxapp.com>
Zenbox feedback has been incredible, and we really appreciate everyone who's
helped us out. That includes many, many people on hn. And, of course feedback
welcome!
~~~
latortuga
I have multiple Stripe accounts for different products that my business sells
- is there any way to allow connecting multiple Stripe accounts to one zenbox?
Also it seems to simply not be working. Your demo worked great but I installed
the Chrome extension and I get no pop ups on the example email page or in the
welcome email you sent me (after running the curl command and getting a
Customer created message). I'm on Chromium on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit.
~~~
sgrove
No support for multiple Stripe accounts for our MVP, but it's easily something
we can accomodate - the UI would be the most difficult part. I'll reach out to
the Stripe folks and see how their OAuth support would be for this.
I'll follow up by email for the issue right now.
------
swampthing
This is so killer... one of those "why doesn't this already exist" ideas and
great execution (been using it for a while now). A real game-changer with
regards to traditional CRM, which I've always hated.. Congrats to the team on
launching!
------
JofArnold
I know Sean so I'm not without bias but that looks very useful; I feel this
pain daily as our relationships with our users are split over multiple
platforms and interacting with them requires an epic memory.
Great move, guys - we will be using it.
------
anandkulkarni
We've been using this for a while and we love it. It solved some major
compatibility issues for us when we were all using different CRM tools. Can't
wait to see how it expands!
------
coopr
Wishery, my previous startup, was trying to solve most of the same problems
that Zenbox is tackling - and they are doing an amazing job. Congrats on the
pivot!
------
sgdesign
I think Zenbox is part of a trend of aggregating and consolidating data. It's
crazy how much information is duplicated and dispersed between all the
services we use, so I think it's great that some companies are starting to
bring everything together like this.
I'm curious to see where Zenbox will go, and hope I'll able to help them get
there!
------
PStamatiou
Congrats guys! Sean gave us a demo of this at the last Stripe Hackathon..
definitely cool stuff.
~~~
sgrove
Akshay of Picplum gave us really amazing advice. After listening to him (and
furiously taking notes), it was no wonder that Picplum was such a joy to use.
Thanks for the help guys!
------
Robin_Message
Isn't synchronicity in inventions amazing? I'm actually working on something
similar at <https://unifyo.com>, so it's exciting to see someone else's take
on the problem.
We're focusing more on the team side of things, to help people to discover
knowledge within organisations - so with Unifyo you can see what messages
anyone in your team have exchanged with a contact. We're also working on
closer integration with CRMs as that's where companies have this data already.
Anyway, may the best team win! Good luck to Bushido and congratulations on the
launch guys.
~~~
sgrove
Unifyo looks great - impressive design. Looking forward to seeing how you guys
progress. Might be worth a chat sometime, my emails in my profile.
------
BryanB55
This is my first time hearing about Zenbox but wouldn't something like zendesk
or desk.com be able to accomplish the same thing if not better? I think I'd
rather use a helpdesk for this than gmail.
[edit] I guess there are some things like stripe integration that may not work
with a help desk. We actually use WHMCS.com for a saas and service/design
business and it works incredibly well. I think a lot of people overlook it. I
may write up a blog post soon on how we use it as a crm/help desk/billing
system.
~~~
sgrove
Zenbox just sits on top of all of your existing tools. You never give anything
up or change your behaviors in order to use it; we just make your existing
behavior must more efficient.
We actually work alongside Desk.com and Zendesk (and have integrations with
both!).
We tie together everything together and bring it with you wherever you are -
your blog, internal dashboard, email, etc. WHMCS is likely something we would
end up integrating with - you still use it for what it's best at, and Zenbox
shows all the info to you alongside all your other tools.
------
pbiggar
Loving this. I just signed up and can see our Stripe data about customers when
they contact us. We're going to add custom data soon.
Feature request: Support for intercom.io.
~~~
sgrove
Thanks for the kind words!
We're big fans of Intercom and the team. I'll look into adding them as an
integration.
------
Gaussian
We're stoked to get this going and dialed in with Stripe and some of own
customer service controls (free deals, unique discounts to single customers,
unsubscribers, etc.).
This addressed a sharp need for a lot of us--and there's little better than
doing that in a startup.
Good luck, Sean.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stanford scholar gets six-figure settlement from James Joyce Estate (2009) - walterbell
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/september28/shloss-joyce-settlement-092809.html
======
iokevins
Summary: According to Stanford University's account, Lawrence Lessig (then
Stanford, now Harvard) helped lead Stanford's lawyers to victory over Joyce's
grandson's lawyers in a fair use case, letting an English professor publish
certain Joyce-related materials in the USA only...this article represents the
coda of the legal argument, with the English professor getting $240,000 in
legal fees reimbursed.
~~~
codingdave
That is a summary of the facts, but misses the bigger point. The Joyce estate
had a history of being legal bullies. Someone stood up to them, and won their
case, setting a precedent that not only is legal bullying not going to work,
but can backfire to the tune of a quarter million dollars. It is a win not
just for one scholar, but for all of academia.
~~~
logicallee
This article misses the point. Someone needs to call out, by name, the lawyer,
laywers, law firm, or law firms who hoodwinked Joyce's estate into doing this.
some author's grandson isn't going to have such notions. I have a very strong
prior (99%?) that this is just some lawyer(s) milking a famous writer's
estate. Of course it's easy for them to trick the grandchildren - who don't
have any legal training. This is wrong and should be called out specifically.
(obviously be prepared for a fraudulent defamation lawsuit by the same, if you
do it under your own name - hell, there's a chance those bad, corrupt, lawyers
would follow me into this Hacker News thread, a chance I weighed before
posting and found acceptable as I have no relation to the case or the estate
and did not even take the time to find them by name. But I am fairly certain
that if I did the research, I would find what I surmise in this comment.
Really, nobody does this.)
~~~
matthewn
There's no hoodwinking. The grandson is the problem, and has been for a long
time. I've met scholars who've been personally confronted by him at
conferences. It's his personal crusade.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_James_Joyce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_James_Joyce)
~~~
mistersquid
The Wikipedia entry explains that much of Stephen James Joyce's efforts to
silence academics relates to his aunt, Lucia.
> In 2004, Stephen Joyce threatened legal action against the
> Irish government when the Rejoyce Dublin 2004 festival
> proposed public reading of excerpts of Ulysses on
> Bloomsday. In 1988 he destroyed a collection of letters
> written by Lucia Joyce, his aunt. In 1989 he forced
> Brenda Maddox to delete a postscript concerning Lucia from
> her biography Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom. After
> 1995 he announced no permissions would be granted to quote
> from his grandfather's work. Libraries holding letters by
> James Joyce were unable to show them without permission.
> Versions of his work online were disallowed. Stephen
> Joyce claimed to be protecting his grandfather's and his
> family's reputation, but would sometimes grant permission to
> use material in exchange for fees that were often
> "extortionate".
It's been more than 20 years since I've studied James Joyce's work in an
academic setting, but I remember very clearly the family controversies
surrounding James Joyce's wife, Nora, and their daughter, Lucia. The only
thing I feel can safely be asserted about Lucia is that she suffered from
mental illness, usually understood as schizophrenia.
There are also rumors that Lucia shared a bed with her mother and father well
past puberty. Such rumors gain strength given that James Joyce's erotic
behaviors (documented in his letters to Nora and elsewhere) are considered by
many to be fetishistic at best and depraved at worst (coprophilia, for one
example).
In 2004, Michael Hastings published an article in _The Irish Times_ about his
writing a play about Lucia Joyce. [0] In that article, Hastings writes about
the troubling hint of incestuous intimacy between the father-daughter
relationship that sits at the heart of Joyce's avant garde masterpiece
_Finnegans Wake_.
> [In _Finnegans Wake_] is a hint of intimacy between father and daughter here
> that borders on incest. Lucia once remarked to her father
> that no matter how many loves she had, she could never be
> unfaithful to him.
>
> Even today among Joyceans this subject remains taboo.
> Regarding Lucia, academics have toed the Joyce party line -
> that she suffered fits, had uncontrollable sexual urges, and
> endlessly shouted forensic sexual details with involuntary
> abandon. For the sake of being allowed to quote from Joyce's
> papers, writers have repeatedly cast Lucia as the "problem",
> just as James and Nora always did. In effect, Lucia has been
> vaporised from history; memories of her obliterated. She is
> a "vanished woman".
Given these details, one can understand the intensity of Stephen Joyce's
efforts to restrict research surrounding the life of his family, even if one
disagrees with the execution of such efforts. As James Joyce's sole surviving
descendant, Stephen Joyce may well have decided that squelching such academic
and biographical speculation is preferable to seeing traumatic personal
details of his family and his most renowned ancestor exposed for all the world
to see.
[0] [https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-life-and-loves-of-
lucia-...](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-life-and-loves-of-
lucia-1.1134416)
~~~
Stratoscope
Mobile friendly quotes:
> In 2004, Stephen Joyce threatened legal action against the Irish government
> when the Rejoyce Dublin 2004 festival proposed public reading of excerpts of
> Ulysses on Bloomsday. In 1988 he destroyed a collection of letters written
> by Lucia Joyce, his aunt. In 1989 he forced Brenda Maddox to delete a
> postscript concerning Lucia from her biography Nora: The Real Life of Molly
> Bloom. After 1995 he announced no permissions would be granted to quote from
> his grandfather's work. Libraries holding letters by James Joyce were unable
> to show them without permission. Versions of his work online were
> disallowed. Stephen Joyce claimed to be protecting his grandfather's and his
> family's reputation, but would sometimes grant permission to use material in
> exchange for fees that were often "extortionate".
> [In _Finnegans Wake_ ] is a hint of intimacy between father and daughter
> here that borders on incest. Lucia once remarked to her father that no
> matter how many loves she had, she could never be unfaithful to him.
> Even today among Joyceans this subject remains taboo. Regarding Lucia,
> academics have toed the Joyce party line - that she suffered fits, had
> uncontrollable sexual urges, and endlessly shouted forensic sexual details
> with involuntary abandon. For the sake of being allowed to quote from
> Joyce's papers, writers have repeatedly cast Lucia as the "problem", just as
> James and Nora always did. In effect, Lucia has been vaporised from history;
> memories of her obliterated. She is a "vanished woman".
(HN tip: Don't format a quoted paragraph like code with leading spaces, put it
all on one line with a single ">" in front, and a blank line between
paragraphs. Also, "_" doesn't work for italics but "*" does.)
~~~
hyperpallium
Thanks for that, and you're right, but... really, HN should be able to render
code-quote (leading spaces) in a mobile-friendly way.
~~~
superflyguy
Pick one of:
1) Nobody has ever brought the problem up before.
2) It's a tricky problem to solve.
3) Mobile usage is a niche fad which will go away if left alone so no point
addressing it.
------
bhc
Shel Silverstein's literary estate is also known to take scholars and
biographers to court under some misguided notion of protecting the brand.
[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/10/my_shel_sil...](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/10/my_shel_silverstein_biography_can_t_quote_shel_silverstein_why.html)
------
CaliforniaKarl
This should be marked [2009], but it’s still a good read!
~~~
dang
Added. Thanks!
------
dgacmu
Add to the ever-growing pile of reasons to shorten the duration of copyright
protection. James Joyce died in 1941 -- under a sane copyright regime, we
would not be having this discussion. _Dubliners_ was published over 100 years
ago, and the author has been dead for 76 years.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Number of home-schooled students has doubled since 1999, new data shows - MrZongle2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/11/01/number-of-home-schooled-students-has-doubled-since-1999-new-data-show
======
russnewcomer
Was homeschooled K-12, Graduated high school in 2001, still have family that
are homeschooled. I'd guess, as the article doesn't mention, that a large
driver of homeschooling growth is second generation homeschooling, that is, my
cohort of students that were in the first homeschooling growth wave are now
homeschooling their own children.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Want to make social media posts, blogs, and digital ads 10x faster? - anishjain123
http://www.aspireto.be
======
anishjain123
I got some great news! Aspire, the AI powered marketing content studio is
coming soon, so be sure to sign up for early access! www.aspireto.be
I would love to talk to anyone who is interested in the product (particularly
Digital Marketers and Entrepreneurs) to hear thoughts and feedback to ensure
that I create a product you’ll love :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Keep a static "emergency mode" site on S3 - jonthepirate
https://coderwall.com/p/68ozza
======
colmmacc
(I work on Route 53).
As __lucas has mentioned, this can be achieved with Route 53 Failover, which
we'd recommend.
Route 53 Failover is (hopefully) pretty easy to configure. Just mark your ELB
as the primary and enable target healthchecks, and add the S3 website bucket
as the secondary. We'd also suggest that you use an S3 website bucket hosted
in a different region than your ELB. This should take no more than a minute or
two of setup in our console.
The difference is makes is that Route 53 failover doesn't depend on any "make
this change" control plane ; the status of every Route 53 healthcheck is
constantly being polled from at at least 16 locations and then sent (via 3
redundant networking paths) to every Route 53 DNS server. The system is always
operating at full-load, with a tremendous degree of fault-tolerance and
redundancy. We hope that makes it very robust against very "hard to fix"
internet and power problems, and also API outages.
So for an awkward "worst case" example; if there were a large networking
outage in an intermediate transit provider your customers might not be able to
reach your ELB, and likewise you may not be able to reach the API to make the
changes necessary. Route 53 failover should work anyway by detecting the
reachability problem and flipping to the pre-configured secondary - an action
which is triggered at our edge sites.
If you'd rather not use Route 53 as your primary DNS provider that's ok; all
of the above can still be achieved by using a dedicated zone on Route 53 just
for managing the failover, which you may then CNAME to, just as with ELB. Each
zone costs $0.50/month. Of course we'd also like to make this kind of
functionality easier to use and built-in, and that's something we're
constantly working on.
~~~
jedberg
Except that his way all the traffic instantly switches, and your way you have
to wait for DNS propagation, which about 15% of the users on the internet will
not pick up for over a week.
DNS is an awful way to do failover.
~~~
colmmacc
To your point ; it's ok to do both.
Route 53 supports DNS TTLs as low as 0 seconds. ELB and S3 endpoints both have
60 second TTLs. My experience with flipping names like www.amazon.com doesn't
reflect the 15% figure. I've seen about 97% of web traffic honouring the TTL
and flipping quickly. Within 5 minutes almost all of the rest too. We also
take CloudFront sites in and out of service for maintenance, and in 5 years
I've never anything like a 15% straggler effect.
That said, we do see a very small number of stragglers. While resolvers over-
riding TTLs hasn't shown up as a significant problem, buggy clients can be; we
come across clients now and then who either don't re-resolve ever (Various
JVMs and their infinite caches are a common cause), or only re-resolve on
failures (which is fine for failover, but not great for traffic management).
If you have a distribution time plot for the 15% figure it'd be interesting to
see; [https://www.dns-oarc.net/](https://www.dns-oarc.net/) would be a good
venue, [https://lists.dns-oarc.net/mailman/listinfo/dns-
operations](https://lists.dns-oarc.net/mailman/listinfo/dns-operations) is the
open list. Ignoring TTLs for a week is very concerning; it would very likely
break many DNSSEC configurations. Is it possible you were dealing with robots?
~~~
jedberg
When we flip Netflix domains we see about a 15% straggler effect (although to
be fair only about 3% take a week, but many take around 24 hours).
~~~
revertts
How much of that 15% is driven by ISPs versus misbehaving clients? (eg. set to
boxes)
------
mayop100
Or better yet -- make your entire site static to begin with! This is how our
site works (firebase.com). Our entire site is static content that's generated
at deploy time and hosted on a CDN. Dynamic data is loaded asynchronously as
needed. If a server were to go down, at least all of the static pieces (which
is most of the site) would be unaffected.
We use Firebase to power the dynamic portions (obviously), but you can use
plain old AJAX requests as well.
The age of the dynamically-generated HTML page is coming to an end.
~~~
adrr
You still need dynamic "pages". Things like geoip redirection or localization
etc. You could in theory load this stuff via ajax, but this doesn't work for
search engine crawlers. But i do agree most stuff can be static, you can push
json on fragments onto s3 and have the web page fetch them via ajax.
~~~
Bockit
We've done this for a lot of data vis work. Clients have access to a cms which
lets them stage and publish their data. Doing so puts JSON files on s3 where
we also serve the site. There are some trade offs, sometimes you miss having
that rest api, but you also gain a lot too.
------
__lucas
You can do this now automatically with Route53 DNS failover
[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/dns...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/dns-
failover.html)
~~~
krallin
Yup - and Route 53 can now even serve the Zone Apex to an S3 bucket!
------
giovannibajo1
A drop-in solution to achieve the same is using CloudFlare as CDN for your
website. CloudFlare has a configurable "Always Online" mode that is
automatically triggered whenever your site is down, that shows the user an
offline version of the website, together with a warning message.
Obviously, if you're using CloudFlare in the first place, chances are that you
won't have too many problems with high peaks of traffic anyway. But obviously,
it can still happen, depending on how high the peak is :)
[https://support.cloudflare.com/entries/22050652-What-does-
Al...](https://support.cloudflare.com/entries/22050652-What-does-Always-
Online-do-)
~~~
Afforess
replying to 23david, not the parent. 23david you appear to be shadow banned.
It seems to be recent, might want to get it checked out.
~~~
23david
thanks for letting me know. emailing the mods.
~~~
Afforess
glad it's cleared up. Seemed innocent to me :)
------
svmegatron
This is a totally awesome idea. You are still in trouble if the load balancer
has problems or S3 has problems (unlikely, but _not_ impossible!). It's always
smart to have a couple of ways of failing over to something if your main site
has problems - for instance, I'm always surprised that more people don't spend
time customizing the default rails error/maintenance pages for heroku.
~~~
pquerna
I previously wrote about making a downtime page:
[http://journal.paul.querna.org/articles/2009/08/24/downtime-...](http://journal.paul.querna.org/articles/2009/08/24/downtime-
page-in-apache/)
One thing you'll probably want to do is set 5xx HTTP status codes on your
static site, and to try to get things to not cache it as much as possible.. A
redirect to a subdomain hosted on s3 makes it more likely something like
Google will pick up on it.
------
brianmcconnell
App Engine is also a good way to do this. Let's say you have the bulk of your
site running on AWS (assume for whatever reason you don't want to use GAE as
your primary environment)
* Have a heartbeat task on GAE that polls your server, and if its running, write to "serverisrunning" on memcache with a short time to live.
* (normal operation) : redirect initial visitors to your AWS site.
* (server not responding to a heartbeat task on GAE, or memcache miss), serve static content from GAE, or a limited functionality version of your app hosting on GAE (for example, a static site with signup form).
This type of setup has the added bonus of automatically detecting an outage
and responding to it. While App Engine has its own downtime issues, outages
are transient. Since they migrated to the high replication data store, I
haven't seen anything that lasted more than a few minutes.
------
bobfunk
S3 works for static websites but in general the latency without Cloudfront in
front is not that good.
I'm actually working on something that'll make it incredibly fast to get a
static site up and running with a powerful CDN and get form submissions
working. Will be up at [http://www.bitballoon.com](http://www.bitballoon.com)
soon.
------
EGreg
Yeah but the big question is, how can you switch the DNS over in time when
NONE of your servers can respond fast enough?
~~~
Retric
You still need to update DNS ASAP, but unless your dealing with a physical
flood/fire you can often get something to respond on the old IP. So, depending
on the type of failure your dealing with, often setting up a static redirect
is viable for insane levels of traffic even if your hosting it off of a single
underpowered CPU and limited bandwidth.
Aka the site has been running off your FIOS connection and a spare CPU the
suddenly the taffic spikes 5,000% what do you do? Host a single short test
only, sorry we where not ready for prime time please come again, or redirect
to a nice scalable static site you can manually update with nice pictures of
your total failures / requests for donations or whatever.
~~~
EGreg
Why don't you just always have your site static and connect to your back end
as necessary? Treat it as a webservice with uptime, etc.
~~~
Retric
Because designing V0.1 of your application from the ground up based on edge
cases is a Great way to never release anything. Spending a weekend setting up
a static failover on the other hand has no long term downside and let's you
put off worrining about a host of those edege caeses without any real down
side. It's like buying a UPS for your dev box it's probably never going to
matter, but it's cheap so feel free.
~~~
EGreg
Actually it's a great way to simultaneously design a website AND an api for
others to use. It's also a great way to separate concerns. It's also a great
way to reduce load on your server. In fact, it's an easy way to have some
people code a standard back end with a standard authentication so that some
other people can make front ends for the web, iphone, and more. You can use,
for example, oauth to authenticate with the back end, from any front end app.
[http://www.discourse.org/](http://www.discourse.org/) is one example of such
an approach
~~~
Retric
I dont't think we are quite on the same page, having an public API etc is
wonderful but let's use a slightly different topic. Using some 3rd party ORM
to talk to your database is generally a no brainer, but v0.1 might not even
have a database yet because persistence is not generally needed for a demo.
Why put off such a core feature, because just changing your objects is less
friction so and the goal is to see if anyone is ineested. aka idea validation
and nothing else.
~~~
EGreg
Because it's just as easy to code your front end independently and then hook
up your back end to it. If the front end is static, it can be completely
hosted on a CDN. If your back end is unreachable the front end can just take
another code path. There's your 0.1
------
frakkingcylons
Great idea. Putting the static site on Rackspace Cloud Files would also be
advisable as an alternative to S3 in the event of an AWS outage.
EDIT: It also takes like no effort to turn on Akamai CDN option for Cloud
Files as well.
------
peterwwillis
Disaster Recovery. It's called a Disaster Recovery Site.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=disaster+recovery+site](https://www.google.com/search?q=disaster+recovery+site)
------
reeses
Your origin is extremely slow. Perhaps this is an artifact of the HN rush, but
it's slow enough that I would be looking for ways to improve home page
response time.
Ideally, under normal conditions, your 'active' landing pages should be as
fast as your static maintenance page.
------
gregd
Why not just do an origin-pull via CloudFront? No need to build a static site
on S3.
~~~
reeses
You would need to make sure you still build the 'static site generator' on
your current site (so login, search, and any other functionality dependent on
your app is not exposed).
This is relatively easy, and could possibly even just use CSS with the
understanding that yes, someone could have a bad experience.
------
mrweasel
What is the point of involving S3? Why not just run the emergency site
directly on the Apache installation doing the rewrite? Unless your traffic is
absolutely massive there shouldn't really be any need for the S3 step.
------
dustingetz
I would pay for someone to take care of this for me. I presently run a GH
Pages static blog but would like complete control of the build. I want to
upload a .zip somewhere and have things just work.
~~~
bobfunk
Mentioned it further down in the thread, but working on a really easy way
([http://www.bitballoon.com](http://www.bitballoon.com)) to get a static site
online and backed by a CDN (and we do support uploading a .zip).
What kind of control do you feel you lack when using GH Pages?
~~~
dustingetz
I want to use clojurescript on the page, (which has a compilation step), and I
don't want to track the build output in source control.
------
gmu3
I remember last year when Kony 2012 blew up for a couple days, they switched
their site to static s3 pages to handle the traffic and collect donations. I
thought it was pretty clever.
------
davidgerard
+1. The question to ask yourself is: "Is Amazon's uptime better than mine?" If
the answer is "yes", use them.
Route53 is also an excellent DNS service.
------
lttlrck
Your primary site has mobile formatting issue (IOS). The maintenance site does
not ;)
------
kmfrk
As someone said in the comments, just keep in mind that S3 is just for
_storage_ , not serving. You'll need something like CloudFront for that,
although I don't know at which degree of activity it's going to save you money
to use it. Maybe from the get-go?
~~~
cenhyperion
That's completely false. Hosting a static website on S3 is very well
documented.
~~~
philfreo
yes but the recommended approach is to put CloudFront in front of it, if you
care about performance at all
~~~
res0nat0r
I think the point of their post, is that this is their "oh shit we are down"
setup, which will consist of a small static site that S3 will happily serve up
to anyone anywhere in the world very quickly. This isn't meant to be a full
wack highly performant copy of their existing website fronted by CDN's.
------
angersock
Very good point--a static site up now can be waaaay better than a dynamic one
that is slow and user-raging.
That said, looking through their linked startups is kind of depressing; the
firstest of the first-world problems.
EDIT: Okay, okay, not all of them, as my salesbro points out.
------
diminoten
> As far as I'm concerned, S3 static file website serving is completely
> indestructible. I only need one bland Apache server to bump requests over to
> it.
Is this generally the experience of everyone here?
~~~
ceejayoz
Nothing you can do is going to take S3 as a whole down, and it doesn't appear
to have EBS dependencies so it generally dodges the bullet when AWS has
troubles. I'm not aware of any significant S3 outage in the last five years.
~~~
vidarh
One would hope not... With the API they offer it _should_ be the type of
service that is reasonable easy to make pretty much indestructible.
------
Pxtl
I'm surprised this forum isn't full of the usual "omg, use nginx instead of
apache for rerouting".
~~~
anderspetersson
If the only thing you're doing is rerouting I'm sure Apache can handle pretty
sick traffic as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
EpicWin Is Now Available On The AppStore - matthewphiong
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epicwin/id372927221?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
======
plasticbugs
I was waiting for this to arrive. Sadly, they haven't yet optimized the
graphics for iPhone 4's retina display, so it has a blurry, pixelated sheen.
------
gyardley
A fun application, but still a little rough.
1) The experience required to advance the first level seems quite high. In
order to get people hooked, you should give them a quicker reward up front. As
it stands it looks like it'll take me a couple of weeks to become a level 2
whatever.
2) The task scheduler needs to be more flexible - at a minimum, including days
of the week in the interface, plus the ability to schedule a quest for 'every
weekday'.
3) It would be nice to set a standing goal, which can grant experience every
time it occurs. I might like to award myself 100 points every time I get
positive feedback from a customer, for example - not something I can easily
schedule in advance as a 'quest'.
~~~
curiousepic
The dev seems pretty devoted, and also very vocal on his Facebook page at
least. There's already an update waiting for review at Apple. Hopefully we're
in for some good additions soon.
------
enanoretozon
grinding RL is such a chore, I think I'll buy an account instead
~~~
cswetenham
I've not read it, but I think you're looking for "The 4-Hour Workweek" by
Timothy Ferriss
------
amichail
Anyone find that RPGs don't seem like a natural/obvious/fundamental game genre
-- they are more like an accident of history?
People who have not followed their ancestors in game evolution would probably
find RPGs strange and arbitrary.
~~~
Gianteye
I always thought that RPG's make their impact by giving people a constant
stream of small, finite rewards. Growing numbers and flashing lights are
something that just seems to fill people with an addictive pleasure, e.g. slot
machines.
What strikes you as unnatural about RPG's? Do you think there will be some
kind of generational shift where their popularity will wane?
~~~
amichail
The stats, character classes, etc. are strange. There is no reason why a game
should appear so complicated and require so much assumed knowledge.
Moreover, there seems to be way too much stuff to collect. And if keeping the
right stuff is important, it's not at all clear what the tradeoffs are.
The quests tend to be rather similar and are not much fun.
There's also too much grinding.
BTW, I also find RTS games to be strange... sure they are a natural
progression beyond games like chess, but they are not as fundamental as chess.
There's too much to learn and it's not obvious why people would find them fun.
~~~
masklinn
RPG simply grow out from pen-and-paper RPGs, which are basically collaborative
storytelling.
> Moreover, there seems to be way too much stuff to collect. And if keeping
> the right stuff is important, it's not at all clear what the tradeoffs are.
I'd like to know what kind of RPGs you're talking about here. In most good
RPGs (e.g. the great days of Black Isle & al), packratting is very much
optional. Packratting tends to be a characteristic of A-RPG more than
"Western" (aka "true") RPGs.
> The quests tend to be rather similar and are not much fun.
> There's also too much grinding.
Same question as above, a good RPG is a crafted experience, and a well crafted
experience is terrific. Would you per chance be talking about MMORPGs?
> but they are not as fundamental as chess. There's too much to learn and it's
> not obvious why people would find them fun.
Chess and go and other such games are simplifications of war from a general's
point of view. They're played by people who want to battle strategically
without shedding blood. RTS are "realifications" of those, standing closer to
actual wars. That's why they're fun: you build yourself, you set up strategy
and tactics, you try to understand your opponent's and react to that, ...
------
bradhe
I'm not sure what's sadder, people that want to make lists and pretend they're
playing a video game or people that play a video game that resembles real life
in terms of having to complete a list of menial tasks...
------
kiba
I am reminded to work on my own RPG/life improvement hybrid web application.
------
Gianteye
I'd actually love the same kind of app for finances. It would be pretty easy
to set short term goals automatically using Mint or another financial service.
~~~
mcgraw
I was actually thinking about how this might work while on my way to work this
morning.
~~~
Gianteye
It's kind of a fun concept. Your scores are your money. I suppose it would
also be good to have a levels system where you gain xp or ranks for juggling
your finances well. You set goals for yourself, do daily tallies that give you
a discreet "whistles and bells" review of all your gains and losses. When you
meet important goals like making rent this month or paying down your credit
card it lets you know what you can go out and buy or do with your remaining
income, e.g. "You just paid down INSURANCE today! With your extra cash you can
get yourself a BURRITO at UNION BURRITO!"
You could incorporate it with a wishlist so that it alerts when you've got
enough to go out and buy that Upper Playground tshirt while still making rent
this month.
------
chaostheory
Make it 0.99 and I'll buy without thinking. 2.99 makes me think.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Roger Video Walkie Talkie for Mac - monkimonki
Hi HN,<p>I'm so excited to introduce to you Roger. It's a "push-to-video talk" Mac app for crazy fast team communication.<p><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/roger-3" rel="nofollow">https://www.producthunt.com/posts/roger-3</a><p>My teammates and I made Roger because we found communicating w/ Slack and Skype to be a pain in the butt.<p>Either we had to type out what we wanted to say, or we had to go through the tedium of scheduling a call, ringing, waiting for an answer, hanging up, and so on. It was just too much friction.<p>Roger cuts out all the cruft of Slack/Skype and lets you communicate as quickly and freely as possible. You just hold down on your contact’s bubble and start talking, right away. If they want to respond, they hold down, too. That’s it!<p>It’s as close to sitting next to someone as you can get, without sitting next to them!<p>If you do any remote work, we think you'll really like this...please let us know what you think!
-Alex
======
bradknowles
Oh God, please no.
When I'm working next to someone, I can hear and see if they are busy. I can
roll over and then discover they have their headphones on, and then I should
use other means.
The last thing I want is to have my computer audio/video interrupted at the
convenience of the person on the other end, whenever they have some random
thought and they can't wait to share that with me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A startup's "Why we use Lisp" story - zachbeane
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.lisp.lispworks.general/9675
======
mojuba
Lisp is a beautiful language but I think the biggest problem with it is its
proponents failing to explain the merits. I'm sorry, this post would have
probably made a bit more sense 15 years ago, but definitely not now.
> (a) Very fast development that is enabled by CL (e.g., _everything_ from
> hash tables to string-operators to memory management is automatically
> included - there is nothing that is not included).
Name a modern mainstream language that doesn't have these things.
> (b) Excellent programming environments - e.g., parentheses-savvy editor.
You haven't seen XCode, Delphi or MS Visual Studio, where, for example, you
can jump to the definition of a symbol with "one click", allow interactive
step-by-step debugging with variable watch, disassembly, stack trace, etc - I
shouldn't really name all the things that are possible in a typical modern
IDE. And I don't know any text editor which is not paren-savvy.
> (c) Excellent compiler, especially with declarations, enables very fast
> code.
A compiler which doesn't "enable very fast code" has no place under the sun
nowadays.
> (d) Excellent system stability with no random crashes at all.
Very exciting, although GC-based languages (i.e. those usually lacking
pointers) should not crash at all, or if they do crash that's a shame.
Stability and robustness of your compiler and your runtime system shouldn't
really be mentioned as a merit. If it doesn't meet stability standards, it
shouldn't be released.
> (e) Macros and all that.
Finally getting to the point and you say "and all that"? Btw, "all that"
includes unification of code and data - something no other language provides,
let's say, idiomatically. This is an amazing feature, and in fact Lisp macros
are Lisp macros thanks to just that - unification of code and data and
symbolic nature of the language.
Memory footprint: megabytes do matter because of the CPU cache. A 30,000 LOC
program should take a few megabytes at most and fit a modern CPU cache
entirely. Compared to a 50MB program the performance gain can be enormous.
~~~
philwelch
"You haven't seen XCode, Delphi or MS Visual Studio, where, for example, you
can jump to the definition of a symbol with "one click""
That's an old feature. It used to be called "ctags" and even console-based
text editors support it.
"Finally getting to the point and you say "and all that"? Btw, "all that"
includes unification of code and data - something no other language provides,
let's say, idiomatically. This is an amazing feature, and in fact Lisp macros
are Lisp macros thanks to just that - unification of code and data and
symbolic nature of the language."
Lisp's problem seems to be that, until you know how to use macros and
code/data unification, you can't be easily convinced of their merits. It takes
a considerable commitment to learn Lisp before you can reach that level,
though.
~~~
lg
Yeah, Slime does this and without ctags, I believe most lisps keep track of
the location of definitions in source.
But what's a definition? Slime does this for defun/defvar etc, but not for
things defined with, say, hunchentoot's define-easy-handler. Can you tell your
IDE to take me to that location in a single keystroke? Maybe Slime supports
adding definition types, I have no idea. Or maybe it throws up its hands
because of the potential naming conflicts.
All this makes you wonder whether Lisp is too powerful for any IDE to keep up.
~~~
lispm
LispWorks does that. You can add your own ways to record source locations of
your definition forms.
[http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/lw60/LW/html/lw-60.ht...](http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/lw60/LW/html/lw-60.htm)
------
gaius
This is the key point:
_I started programming in LISP way back in 1971 on a Univac 1108 mainframe
and also implemented a 68000-based Lisp system (~50K lines of real-time
assembly) for mobile-robotics use in 1983 - and so know my way around the
language._
All Lisp (or Smalltalk, or...) success stories I've read hinge on someone with
an enormous amount of experience with the language. I'd argue that someone
with that much experience could get the job done in (almost) any language. I'm
surprised that someone with that much experience would put it down to language
choice rather than deep knowledge of the problem domain.
~~~
olavk
That is close to saying that all languages are equivalent given the same
amount of experience. I don't buy that. For a specific task some languages may
be better suited / more productive than other languages, even given equivalent
levels of experience.
I don't believe in a global linear scale of language power ("the blub
theory"), but I do believe that some language may be better than others for a
specific task given specific constraints.
E.g. if I have equivalent levels of experience in C++ and Python, I'm pretty
sure I can write small webapp quicker in Python. OTOH if the languages are
very similar, like Python and Ruby, the level of experience is much more
important that the relative strengths and weaknesses of the languages.
Of course, it is seldom that you get that kind of fair comparison between two
languages - usually everyone has a favorite language they know better than any
other.
~~~
coliveira
In some place I read that differences in languages could account for at most
30% of improvements in speed of development. This is an epsilon if compared to
differences between programmers.
Another issue is that, if you are talking about small-to-medium sized
applications then clearly there is a difference in languages. For example, it
is pretty clear that writing a script is easier in perl than in C, or writing
a medium sized expert system is easier in LISP than in Pascal.
However, if you consider large scale applications (100k+ LOC), then I don't
believe there is any difference between writing in C, C++, Java, or Common
LISP, as long as the programmer(s) have deep experience with the used
language.
Just notice that the language is not going to solve the large-scale problem by
itself. As long as such language has tools for creating abstractions, the code
will have about the same complexity no matter what. If that complexity will be
encapsulated in simple concepts (structs and functions) or higher level
concepts (closures and continuation) depends on the taste of the developers
and the language used.
~~~
loup-vaillant
30% is an understatement. Think of the productivity gain when you go from
assembly to C. Now, consider the fact (I do mean _fact_ ) that the jump from
assembly to C and the jump from C to LISP are comparable.
The choice of abstraction _do_ matter. If you use weak ones, your productivity
is taking a serious hit: your program will be bigger, more complex, and have
more errors (squared).
C++ abstractions, for instance, are incredibly weak. Take the function
abstraction, which isn't even complete: you have no way to write anonymous
functions the way you write literal integers[1]. Higher level concepts, as you
call them, aren't more complicated than the "simple" ones. Often, they are
just less familiar and more consistent.
[1]: Anonymous functions should actually be called "literal functions":
(fun x -> 7 x + 42) -- a literal function
357 -- a literal integer
2 + 3 -- expression which yields a integer
f . g -- expression which yields a function
Nothing "high order" about that. This is just acknowledging that functions are
mathematical objects like any other.
~~~
drunkpotato
Funny, I went to a talk today on statistical methods for opinion analysis, and
in the annotated corpus presented, the only opinion word that was used more
often in a subjective frame than an objective frame is the word "fact".
------
zck
>(d) Excellent system stability with no random crashes at all.
This is interesting, considering one of the main reasons Reddit switched from
Lisp to Python was because it was crashing often.
~~~
lispm
that was another Lisp implementation
------
skilldrick
I don't understand why a Lisp hacker wouldn't match parens properly when
ending a parenthetical statement with a smiley:
(commentless, of course :)
Hasn't he seen xkcd: <http://xkcd.com/541/> ?
~~~
mbrubeck
If you do it the double-chinned XKCD way, it messes up your auto-balancing
text editor.
~~~
loup-vaillant
…which you obviously use to write your e-mails.
~~~
BrandonM
Apparently you don't know anyone who spends 90% of their working time in
emacs.
~~~
loup-vaillant
I do. :-(whoops, I don't : he uses the _other_ editor).
------
vii
Seems to me this discussion is missing one of the main points of the original
post: a massive plug for an unfairly under-appreciated book:
> "Let Over Lambda"
> (which is really quite scary to read - I can't say that I understand
> 100% of it - maybe 60% and I am very happy with that level of
> comprehension) -- you end up with an enormously powerful set of
> programming tools unlike anything else out there.
I really like this book too and recommend it.
<http://letoverlambda.com/index.cl/toc>
------
zandorg
A friend of mine keeps asking me to dump Lisp and "Get modern" with C#, and I
try to explain why I prefer Lisp, but he won't accept it.
It was Paul Graham's essay that encouraged me to try Lisp in 2005.
~~~
gridspy
I'm just dreading the day that Microsoft decides that C# isn't modern enough
and they want to sell a whole bunch of seats of Visual Studio (insert new name
here)
~~~
icey
They release new versions of Visual Studio every few years, and C# is updated
almost as regularly. C# / .net 4.0 will be released this year (as will Visual
Studio 2010).
The differences between C# 1.0 and 4.0 are _enormous_. Microsoft isn't shy
about making changes to the language.
------
idlewords
"Excellent system stability with no random crashes at all"
This holds for pretty much any language you care to use.
~~~
aharrison
People keep saying that, and I can understand where they are coming from, but
this isn't the case. Just yesterday, I managed to segfault python
2.6.something. I have no idea why (I really should have figured it out) but my
hypothesis is that I freaked out the parser. It was vanilla python code; it
should never segfault. I have had the same experience with the JVM: I once
segfaulted the parser by incorporating a static string that was hundreds of
lines long. Curiously, Eclipse "compiled" it just fine.
Sometimes environments have bugs. If you need an underlying runtime that
simply will not crash, using something tried and true may be at the top of
your priority list. That might be overkill for most projects, but I can see a
guy who wants something so robust he knows its his fault when it breaks.
~~~
idlewords
So based on your experience (as a comp sci student, I'm assuming, based on
your other comment), Python and the JVM are both 'crashy', but you don't
happen to remember exactly why?
Reminds me of a bunch of compiler bugs I found back in the day. Strangely the
longer I program, the fewer of these compiler bugs I seem to be able to find.
~~~
aharrison
I am going to defend myself. Then, I am going blow my argument out of the
water.
Backstory: I am a fifth year comp sci student. I have worked part-time as an
SDE for most of my college career. The python crash I referenced earlier was
in class, the java problem at work. I have written an optimizing compiler
before (C subset to LLVM to SPARC MIPS), so I hope that you will at least
agree that I am not a complete moron in this area.
Java story, more detail: To make a really long story short: I wanted to move a
really really long stored procedure (~2k LOC) into a JDBC query. Don't ask
why, it was a very scary legacy issue. So I copy and paste the stored
procedure into one long const string in eclipse, and it compiles just fine. I
run our ant script against it, and it explodes with a stack overflow (IIRC).
The solution that I found was simply to replace newlines with \n" + (newline).
No stack overflow on compilation anymore. From this I could only assume that I
had fubared the compiler (which would have been a reasonable way to fubar,
being as I was trying to create an absolutely massive const string directly).
Now we could quibble over whether this even counts as a crash in the sense we
were talking about, but the underlying premise is: you never want to have to
work around your tools. As computer scientists we do it a lot, but it is never
fun and its worse when something goes down in production because the tool
crapped out. Theoretically, a VM or OS should never fail and bring the entire
system down. A compiler should never outright crash.
Now to debunk my own defense: I just sat down for about an hour and did
everything I could to reproduce the bug in JDK 1.5.6 (the original JDK I broke
it on). Well, go figure, I can't get it to break in the hypothetical way I
wanted to. I might one day do exactly what I did with the stored procedure,
but setting that _particular_ environment up again would take quite some time.
In conclusion, you can assume I was an idiot because I can't show you the
code. I would in your shoes. :)
P.S. This all assumes you are using tools given to you by the platform itself.
Using JNI to dereference a NULL doesn't count. :D
~~~
pvg
That's not a 'random crash.' The compiler ran out of memory trying to compile
your file. Stack space is not infinite, a typical Java VM comes with some
default which can also be reconfigured. After running out of memory, the
compiler told you what the error condition was and exited.
~~~
lispm
Why not extend the stack at runtime?
LispWorks:
CL-USER 101 > (defun foo (n) (unless (zerop n) (cons n (foo (1- n)))))
FOO
CL-USER 102 > (foo 1000)
Stack overflow (stack size 15998).
1 (continue) Extend stack by 50%.
2 Extend stack by 300%.
3 (abort) Return to level 0.
4 Return to top loop level 0.
Type :b for backtrace or :c <option number> to proceed.
Type :bug-form "<subject>" for a bug report template or :? for other options.
CL-USER 103 : 1 >
Now use restart 1 or 2.
------
motters
Apparently iRobot also uses Lisp in an embedded context.
~~~
jjwiseman
iRobot used to do embedded Lisp (back when they called themselves IS
Robotics), but I haven't heard anything indicating that they still are. See
<http://lemonodor.com/archives/2004/08/l_mars_venus.html>
They had L, their Lisp dialect, and Mars, the macro layer for doing robotics
in L.
The paper "L - A Common Lisp for Embedded Systems" is available at
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/pubpg/luv95.pdf>
~~~
motters
The last I heard Rod Brooks said all the pacbots software was written in Lisp.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An XSL Calculator - skorks
http://fxsl.sourceforge.net/articles/xslCalculator/The%20FXSL%20Calculator.html
======
po
This makes me sad.
I think xsl is my Vietnam. I still have flashbacks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SF Approves Twitter Tax Break Deal - rsuttongee
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/05/BA7R1IQM9D.DTL&type=printable
======
ajays
IMHO, this entire 1.5% payroll tax should go. And while we're at it, lets
bring the property tax below 1%. And sales tax should go back to the 8% that
it used to be.
Yesterday I got an email from SEIU (the government employees union), asking me
to write in opposing this deal. It turns out there are over 14,000 city
employees in the City + County of SF. For a population of under 800,000 . Wow.
And in last years election, they were pushing hard for a ballot initiative
that would have slapped an additional tax on hotel rooms.
There is just too much bureaucracy in this city. As revenues have gone up, the
bureaucracy has ballooned. The City's annual budget is $6 Billion; and yet
they can't find the $300K to support the SF Botanical Garden? In the meantime,
personnel costs keep skyrocketing. Politicians keep hiring their cronies. For
example: a local politician served before there was a law providing for
healthcare benefits upon retirement for politicians. So he was hired for a
month on the City payroll; his previous service counted, and voila! Now he has
subsidized healthcare for the rest of his life. Lucrative Parking Garage
management contracts are awarded at below market rates to cronies, who make a
tidy profit.
Abuse is rampant all across San Francisco. The only way to stop is to stop the
flow of funds that enables such abuse.
[edit: I had written 34,000 earlier; corrected it to 14,000 _City_ employees]
~~~
Duff
Try living in Upstate NY. My school taxes were $2,500 in 2007. With no change
in property assessment, they are up to $3,400 this year. And we just found out
that the local library wants to jack their portion of the tax by over 25%.
This place was a boomtown in the 1960's. Today, the booming business is in
demolishing abandoned buildings.
~~~
ajays
In San Francisco, a 2-BR condo goes for around $800K. At a 1.16% property tax
rate, you'll be paying $9000/year in property taxes. How's that for a tax
rate?
~~~
Duff
In my city, a 3 BR home assessed at $175k goes gets hit for $3100 school and
$2100 city/county taxes. A little less than 3x more.
That said I'm not claiming that San Francisco is a cheap place to live, but
I'm assuming, that like NYC, living there comes with other opportunities that
may balance the costs somewhat.
------
Aloisius
Actually, San Francisco got it right.
Instead of giving Twitter a tax break, they're giving anyone who moves into
mid-market or the Tenderloin a tax break. Mid-market has been a blight for
decades and plans to revitalize the area have never panned out. The Tenderloin
(especially lower Tenderloin), isn't any better.
I think this is a great alternative to the city dumping money into the area.
It'll create a powerful incentive to move there regardless of the blight and
the effect of a few thousand engineers moving into that area will be dramatic.
I just wish it was for more than 6 years since I think it'll take longer than
that to revitalize the neighborhood.
------
uuilly
Bureaucrats and politicians who make ad-hoc decisions like this do a lot of
indirect damage to companies. What they have effectively done is raised
uncertainty for businesses in SF. Will we get a break? Will our competition?
Etc, etc. Uncertainty adds to risk and risk adds to costs.
------
orijing
Apologies in advance for sounding so pessimistic, but this is just another
example of _beggar-thy-neighbor_ tax/tax-break policies that limit government
revenue potential.
------
OstiaAntica
This is outrageous and, in my opinion, is unconstitutional. Americans and
American businesses are entitled to equal protection under the law, and
handing out customized tax breaks to a couple neighborhoods in order to
benefit a specific company is shameful and corrupt.
~~~
jessedhillon
First off, the payroll tax applies only to companies with payrolls > $250k;
does your demand for 'equal protection' mean that you insist on companies of
all sizes paying this tax?
Second, the tax break is not Twitter-specific (although even if it were, that
would not be unconstitutional). It applies to businesses located in a certain
part of SF, and it exempts a company from the first six years of payroll
taxes.
Third, city supervisors have the authority to adjust tax structures with a
level of geographic-granularity. Why shouldn't they be allowed to make a dumpy
part of town more attractive to businesses?
Do you complain when cities and states make themselves more attractive to
outside businesses by giving exemptions to certain classes of companies? Do
you complain when cities block big-box stores like Walmart from opening in
their limits? (Since those are as targeted as this exemption.)
~~~
hugh3
_Do you complain when cities and states make themselves more attractive to
outside businesses by giving exemptions to certain classes of companies? Do
you complain when cities block big-box stores like Walmart from opening in
their limits? (Since those are as targeted as this exemption.)_
Personally, yes, I complain about both of these.
As for this specific deal... I'm not too concerned about it, but I think it's
the kind of special deal that cities shouldn't be allowed to make. There's
just too much potential for corruption when city hall can say "OK, businesses
inside this particular neighbourhood don't have to pay taxes". (Gee, Mr Mayor,
I've been so good to you with campaign donations over the years, how about you
declare _my_ block to be dumpy too?)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Faster than radix sort: Kirkpatrick-Reisch sorting - milo_im
https://sortingsearching.com/2020/06/06/kirkpatrick-reisch.html
======
vanderZwan
So since this sorting algorithm involves a trie, would there another
optimization possibility by using a data structure inspired by the MergedTrie?
My first thought would be to split the list of numbers into a prefix and a
suffix part and building two tries connected at the leaves[1][2], replacing
the trie used in the article. Then we sort both tries using the Kirkpatrick-
Reisch method (but in reverse order for the suffix trie so that the final
result is sorted correctly), and finally we would have to reconnect the two
while walking the tries.
[0]
[https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215288)
[1] more or less, the MT in the linked paper works a bit differently but also
has a different use-case in mind.
[2] Also I have no idea if it make sense to have two depth 2 tries, or if
there is _another_ algorithm out there with two depth 1 tries that _kind_ of
looks like this algorithm
~~~
vanderZwan
So I tried working this out on paper. The simplest variation I could think of:
\- split the numbers into a top and bottom half (from now on: prefix and
suffix) (linear time)
\- make an unordered suffix trie (linear time). First level has suffixes as,
second level has prefixes
\- make a (recursively sorted) ordered prefix set, and a (recursively sorted)
ordered suffix set
\- initiate an ordered prefix trie, but only the first level for now - that
is, don't insert suffixes yet (linear time over the ordered prefix set)
\- in order of the ordered suffix set, walk over the suffix trie and for each
prefix leaf insert the parent suffix into the appropriate prefix bucket in the
prefix trie (linear time)
\- now we can walk the prefix trie in order and combine prefix and suffix
again (like in the article)
This _feels_ like it should have comparable computational complexity - as far
as I can see the only real difference is that it recursively sorts twice as
often (once for the prefix set and once for the suffix set). Either way it
still seems to have horrible memory overhead, requiring a trie for each level
of recursion and all that.
Then I realized that if we are at the base case where prefix/suffix can be
sorted with a counting sort, then the above can actually be simplified to LSB
radix sort where we sort the suffixes into a temporary secondary array, and
the prefixes from the secondary array into the original array (I think we can
safely say that using a plain array of _n_ elements has both lower memory
overhead and better computational performance than a trie with _n_ leaves).
But... couldn't I then optimize _the entire recursion_ into an LSB radix sort?
Which would imply it must have... worse time complexity than Kirkpatrick-
Reisch sorting? Wait what? Where did I go wrong then?
------
olliej
I suspect memory indirection would clobber the theoretical perf, but I'd be
happy to be proved wrong.
My inclination is that this would be slower than "standard" high perf radix
sorting, but I'm not sure if the high level overview of this algorithm
represents an equivalent level of implementation.
------
oxxoxoxooo
If you are into integer sorting, this might be of interest as well:
[https://yourbasic.org/algorithms/fastest-sorting-
algorithm/](https://yourbasic.org/algorithms/fastest-sorting-algorithm/)
[https://sorting.cr.yp.to/](https://sorting.cr.yp.to/)
------
nathell
Written by Tomek Czajka, a 3x TopCoder winner and algorithmic mastermind.
Worth following!
~~~
mirekrusin
Remember him at high school programming olympiads, top place year after year
(also on math olympiads and likely other competitions I'd have to recall),
everybody admired him.
------
1wd
O(n+n * log(w/log(n)) )
Wouldn't this decrease again for large enough n, and even go negative after
n=2^(w * 2)?
~~~
karpierz
The recursion assumes that log(n) > w; if log(n) <= w, then you're in the base
case and it's O(n).
------
cwzwarich
> Faster
Benchmarks?
~~~
vvanders
Yeah, would be curious as well. There's two really _awesome_ things about
radix sort:
1\. It scans in linear order, so if you tune your radix size to L1/L2 cache it
will happily beat other "faster" algorithms thanks to the prefetcher.
2\. If preserves ordering for keys with the same value.
#2 makes is a really good depth-sorting algorithm for alpha rendering, and #1
just makes it darn fast. There's a nice floating point implementation out
there for it as well.
~~~
corysama
vvanders, I believe you’ve worked in games so you might already know about how
the PlayStation 1 kindof had radix sort baked into the hardware. The hardware
had no Z buffer, so all polygons had to be ordered back-to-front using the
Painter’s Algorithm for visibility. The hardware understood a linked list of
polygons; as odd as that sounds. And, the standard practice presented by the
API was to have a pre-allocated linear array of NOP list nodes forming a radix
as the starting point for inserting sorted polys.
------
xiaodai
I might be missing something but radix sort I can sort a 64 bit vector 11 bits
at a time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Verizon’s “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Measures Unveiled - mtgx
https://torrentfreak.com/verizons-six-strikes-anti-piracy-measures-unveiled-130111/
======
sroecker
Who decides what is legal and what not? Is it even legal for an ISP in the US
to monitor your traffic or to act like this without a court order on behalf of
a shady company? I don't get it that nobody is protesting about this...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lean Startup - Extreme Version - thecombjelly
http://thintz.com/essays/lean-startup-extreme
======
patio11
Are you solving a problem that people have and are willing to pay to get
solved? I think that is one of the core insights from Lean Startups. Having a
MVP done in a day is nice, but it will probably end up being tossed a week
from now, and then you only have another week of runway.
I wish you the best, but would not advise your course of action to anyone. It
is ridiculously dangerous and strictly inferior to either freelancing&startup
or dayjob&startup at the stage you're currently in. (Since you can be doing
anything during a "wait and see" stage, you might as well be getting paid.)
~~~
mattm
Agree. I'm currently not working and mainly focusing on building some products
but my runway is about 10 months. Even with that I have been putting some
effort into marketing myself and getting some interviews for work. With
building a business, there is a much longer lag time between building the
product and earning revenue compared to working for somebody else.
If you're down to $200, you need money now. Take up freelancing for the
minimum number of hours that will cover your expenses. You should still have
plenty of time left over to work on your ideas.
------
sblank
Thomas is going to get the cheapest and quickest entrepreneurial education
available. Continual customer contact, fail fast, fail cheap, iterate. In two
sentences he encapsulates most of the Customer Development philosophy:
"1. now had something out there that people could actually use (and hopefully
pay for)
2...now had my mind cleared of a lot that I didn't even realize was clogging
it."
Entrepreneurship is a contact sport - No guts no glory.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Whatsapp Web - benjlang
https://web.whatsapp.com/
======
corin_
A lot of negativity, but despite its limitations I already love it. (OK love's
too much, but it's a big improvement for me at least.)
I don't use whatsapp with a huge number of people, but some of them I talk to
daily on it. When we're both behind a computer (work hours, sometimes outside
them) we'll often move to Skype to be able to type quicker. Skype's pretty
horrible on phones (for me and most people I know), so usually prefer whatsapp
when not using PCs/laptops.
Sure it's not a huge change, but just being able to type quickly when sat at
my laptop, and not needing to keep grabbing my phone to see what's been said,
is a great change for me. One that I was complaining about just the other day
without realising this was around the corner.
In case anyone's interested, here's what it looks like for me in Chrome
(nothing unexpected really):
[http://i.imgur.com/90C0v9V.png](http://i.imgur.com/90C0v9V.png)
(Added bonus in the required app upgrade for WP8: message delivery status
icons now shown in list of conversation, rather than just once you are inside
a conversation - I know this feature was on at least one platform months ago,
maybe all others, and it's [very slightly] annoyed me since I moved to
Windows)
~~~
josu
While I agree with all your points it's still the shittiest implementation
that I have seen. I have been using Telegram Web, and it works delightfully
without having to connect my phone to the web. Line has it's own desktop
program since at least a year.
I have no idea why they decided to go this route, none whatsoever. It looks
more like a hack than an official solution. I've been following Whatsapp since
2010, and to me it always has looked like a bad company. They haven't really
taken care of the security of their platform until they have reached 500
million users. The more I read about Whatsapp, the more I think that they just
got lucky.
~~~
jonalmeida
This is a very similar implementation with how Blackberry Blend is
implemented. Although, the core value was for security. It's definitely hard
to understand what was the motivation for WhatsApp to go this route or what
their future plans are.
------
thomaslutz
Does not work for iOS yet? Edit: "At this time, WhatsApp Web is available only
for Android, Windows Phone, Nokia S60, BlackBerry and BB10 smartphones."
[https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003](https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003)
~~~
Mikeb85
Apple's browser is probably lacking necessary features. They have been much
slower adopting features than the competition.
~~~
danielhunt
It's not the browser ... the iOS app doesn't yet have the capability to scan
the QR code to link your account to the website
------
cvburgess
So what exactly _is_ whatsapp web?
[edit] Found the answer at
[https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003](https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003)
> WhatsApp Web is a computer based extension of the WhatsApp account on your
> phone. The messages you send and receive are fully synced between your phone
> and your computer, and you can see all messages on both devices. Any action
> you take on the phone will apply to WhatsApp Web and vice versa.
------
thinkt4nk
Heck of a roll-out, guys.
- only works on one browser
- requires interop with the mobile app
- supporting mobile app version on Android only
- supporting mobile app version not universally available on Android, presumably because of Google Play registry population or something.
~~~
SifJar
Also works with mobile apps for WP, BB and BB10. Only iOS support is missing,
really.
~~~
kaishiro
And every single other major browser.
------
hawkice
I'm using Chromium, says it only supports Chrome. Can we shave some characters
off the regex here?
~~~
bello
As a temporary solution, you could spoof the user agent by running chromium
from command line: chromium-browser --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux
i686) AppleWebKit/535.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.1132.47 Safari/536.11"
------
skynetv2
I changed the UA on Frirefox, then whatsapp web started working. Firefix even
showed desktop notifications.
BTW, you cannot have two web sessions going on at the same time. Once you
start a new session on one browser, other detects and prompts
"WhatsApp Web is open on another computer or browser. Click “Use Here” to use
WhatsApp Web in this window."
also, it needs phone to be connected to whatsapp service. So it sync from
phone to your browser.
------
kiwidrew
It works quite well. They've done a great job at following Google's "Material
Design" prescriptions while -- surprisingly -- not actually using the Polymer
framework. First time I've seen that.
The app loads some interesting libraries:
* CryptoJS 3.1.2 (for AES and HMAC-SHA256)
* punycode 2.1.4
* bluebird 2.5.3
* React 0.12.2 (with addons)
It's entirely possible that they really are doing end-to-end crypto...
~~~
WaterSponge
They did this recently:
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/11/18/whatsapp_...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/11/18/whatsapp_adds_textsecure_end_to_end_encryption_by_partnering_with_open_whisper.html)
------
applecore
_> WhatsApp Web only works in Google Chrome._
It's 2015, and we're still using browser compatibility checks.
------
fabrice_d
So it seems to do some pairing between your phone and chrome? Not really what
I call a web version. A real web version would run on, you know, any
reasonably recent web browser.
~~~
derefr
I think the point of the pairing itself is more just to make sure people only
have as many WhatsApp accounts as they have phone numbers. Not sure why it's
Chrome only, though.
------
jaseemabid
There is a very good criticism here:
[http://andregarzia.com/posts/en/whatsappdoesntunderstandthew...](http://andregarzia.com/posts/en/whatsappdoesntunderstandtheweb)
and I have to agree to all of it.
------
Aldo_MX
I appreciate most an Open API the same way Telegram[1] does. But at least,
this is a -somewhat acceptable- first step.
[1] [https://core.telegram.org/](https://core.telegram.org/)
------
dutchbrit
Strange that this isn't on the frontpage, anyhow, for people who can't get it
working for Android, try the following APK:
[http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/whatsapp-
inc/whatsapp/whatsapp-...](http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/whatsapp-
inc/whatsapp/whatsapp-2-11-498-apk/) (yes, it's not the newest release but
they did a rollback after this version removing the web menu item). Reboot
your phone after installing.
------
lightonphiri
I have been using whatsapp-purple---a WhatsApp protocol implementation of
libpurple [1] for some time now and it works really well.
That being said, accessing it from within a browser window has it's advantage.
I currently have to install whatsapp-purple on all machines I use &
syncronising chatlogs via Dropbox has it's challenges...
[1] [https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-
purple](https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-purple)
------
ravinder
To make the 'Whatasapp web' option show on the latest Android version on my
phone I had to do this:
1\. Back up your data (Whatsapp Menu > Settings > Chat Settings > Backup
conversations)
2\. Go to 'App Info' for Whatsapp had to 'Clear data' (Settings > Applications
> Applications Manager > Whatsapp)
3\. Restart phone
4\. Access whatsapp -> enter your phone number -> restore from backup
5\. The 'Whatsapp Web' should appear under menu now
~~~
achim123
yes this works, but will reset all stats :(... i restored my titaium backup...
i still missing the Web Entry in menu :(
------
conqrr
This is truly useless, It needs your phone to stay on to access the web
version. And why is it a web version if only Google Chrome is supported.
------
quintin
I couldn’t figure out a way to install this.
~~~
jug5
It seems you need a version of WhatsApp on your phone that isn't out yet.
~~~
SchizoDuckie
Indeed. Play Store says I have the latest version... anybody have a working
apk?
~~~
dutchbrit
Try the following APK: [http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/whatsapp-
inc/whatsapp/whatsapp-...](http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/whatsapp-
inc/whatsapp/whatsapp-..). (yes, it's not the newest release but they
apparently did a rollback after this version removing the web menu item)
------
tiffanyh
I know everyone is complaining about Chrome only support, but the more
important question we should be asking is what technology stack are they using
for the web client?
It's well documented that Whatsapp is a Erlang shop.
Did they stay with using Erlang for the web as well ... or did they switch to
another technology like Nodejs, etc?
~~~
arianvanp
They seem to be using React for the View rendering. Websockets for data.
Bluebird for promises. Google's CryptoJS for end-to-end encryption. MomentJS
for time formatting.
The code seems to be pretty modular There are some nice gems in it like EXIF
format decoding etc. This is nice to reverse engineer :)
------
Nux
They should have waited with the announcement until they got more browsers
supported. This is really frustrating.
~~~
cpach
Sure, but they gotta start somewhere.
------
PauloManrique
It's 2015, we use multiple devices, phones, tablets, computer, smart TVs, and
they still didn't figure that out?
Come on, ICQ, Telegram, Groupme, Viber and tons of other apps have multiple
clients for multiple devices.
Sadly people take too long to change, or else WhatsApp would be dead already.
------
balls187
This is sweet.
I like being able to chat with my friends while I am at work so I'm glad to
see WhatsApp bringing web access.
Hopefully iOS support is around the corner, but given how often iOS gets
preferential treatment over Android, I'm okay with my Droid friends getting
first crack at it.
------
orliesaurus
Its awesome, I can save my phone battery by switching it off and leaving only
whatsapp on! boom!
~~~
conqrr
No its not. Your phone needs to stay on the whole time.
~~~
pycassa
Really.. I use a dumb feature phone and the only thing I want in is whatsapp..
Thought of signing in once with a smart phone and using it forever and
continue using my dumb phone..
------
andor
Can anybody explain how this is supposed to work in combination with the end-
to-end encryption that's allegedly implemented in the Android client? I can
see all my Android to Android conversations in the Web client.
------
tracker1
While maybe not directly on topic, I've never seen the point of Whatsapp over
plain SMS, or for that matter any of the other chat apps that can do way more
(Google Hangouts, Skype, etc)... what's the point?
~~~
seppo0010
In some countries the price per SMS is not null. Also you have received
verification. And group messaging with some features that are not available in
MMS. Also end to end encryption.
------
Animats
What did they do in an add-on that won't work in Firefox? Chrome add-ons and
Firefox add-ons are rather close; I have one that has about 80% common code.
------
arcticf0x
Doesn't work, apparently you need to scan the code from your phone's WhatsApp
which you can't due to lack of that functionality.
------
raonyguimaraes
This is apparently not available in my country (Brazil) ...
Whatsapp version 2.11.476 updated on 16 jan 2015
I guess it's only limited to US and other regions.
~~~
dpacmittal
Used a US VPN to see whats the latest version and its 2.11.491, which is the
same as installed version on mine (India). However, I still don't see the
option to scan QR code.
~~~
corin_
I'm on WP8 which I imagine you probably aren't, so this may not be useful to
you, but in case it's relevant across platforms, or in case there are any WP8
readers:
a.) I updated when I saw this HN submission, a 17mb update, to version
2.11.634 (it didn't updated automatically, but was available when I checked my
app store)
b.) Opening whatsapp after the update showed it had updated (I could see some
other features that had changed), but I couldn't find the web option. After
killing whatsapp and restarting it, it then appeared on a menu where it hadn't
been before
~~~
raonyguimaraes
It's finally working for me, so i guess it will be available worldwide :D
------
radicalbyte
I thought that Whatsapp didn't store (or read) messages, and that was why it
was so secure / awesome?
So how can they do this?
~~~
nichochar
You're mistaken, they do store. And don't hide it.
Also they don't even encrypt, they send messages over the air in plain text.
YAY $16 billion!
~~~
subliminalpanda
Hopefully that will change soon.
[https://whispersystems.org/blog/whatsapp/](https://whispersystems.org/blog/whatsapp/)
------
praeivis
Why it's called web client if: WhatsApp Web only works in Google Chrome and do
not work with iOS?
------
kiuiras
Which version of Android app do you use?
2.11.498 seems don't work for me. There isn't a WhatsappWeb option.
~~~
dpacmittal
How did you even get 2.11.498 (which seems to be newer than mine but still not
latest)? I'm trying to download and all I get is 2.11.491.
~~~
kiuiras
From Play Store. I think version varies with device.
On WhatsApp site there's still your version.
~~~
shubham_mittal
I think that version is for Nexus 5. I can't install 491, and 498 doesn't have
the menu option :(
------
hugovie
I have been waiting for this move for a long time, but, badly, doesn't support
iOS yet :-S
------
adrianlmm
Really?
[http://imagebin.org/328080](http://imagebin.org/328080)
~~~
handsomeransoms
FYI Google Chrome warns that imagebin.com "might contain malware".
------
leet
Unfortunately it is not a desktop client and you have to open the browser all
the time to open it.
Use this to get a desktop client on mac
[http://lifepluslinux.blogspot.in/2015/01/whatsapp-web-
deskto...](http://lifepluslinux.blogspot.in/2015/01/whatsapp-web-desktop-
client-for-mac.html)
------
timlindinct
I'd love to see them open source this react material design implementation.
------
programmer_dude
I had to restart my phone to see the whatsapp web menu option. I am on
Android.
------
ameyjah
I like it. This was certainly needed; especially when I am working.
------
sandy23
I dont see whatsapp web on whatsapp menu of my computer.
------
mkremer90
Why does this completely destroy the back button?
------
Zepplock
Back button is not working in Chrome on Mac
------
JUAN123456
how this web hide the scripts tags? and how hide the scripts (js) from the
resources tab from the rdeveloper tools?
------
dbailey5
Pleeeease don't hijack my back button
------
therealmarv
installed newest Android version. Does not work here. No option for scanning
QR
~~~
balls187
Did you try:
Menu -> Whats App Web?
~~~
dpacmittal
There's no option called 'WhatsApp Web". I'm on 2.11.491
~~~
balls187
My friend said it took a few seconds, then the option appeared. Sorry for the
2nd hand account. I'm on iOS.
------
JUAN123456
It was written using reactJS!
------
JUAN123456
It was written using reactJS
------
benjlang
Not working for me yet.
------
ramonck
Doesn't work for iOS! Better not release it then! :)
~~~
Aldo_MX
iOS users should already be resigned that they'll always receive updates later
------
isarang
v2.11.498 working
------
kylec
The title should more correctly say "Whatsapp for Google Chrome". You can't
really say it's for "web" if Chrome is the only browser you support.
~~~
profmonocle
Maybe they're doing client-side encryption in JavaScript? Apparently native JS
crypto is incomplete in Firefox:
[http://caniuse.com/#feat=cryptography](http://caniuse.com/#feat=cryptography)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Anyone under 20? - gianluka
Just wondering if there were few young hackers here.
======
hworth
Eighteen right now and on the cusp of turning nineteen. Currently trying to
build a website start-up with Ruby on Rails
~~~
gianluka
contact me at gianluca [@] Fabrica.io - I've got some interesting things to
tell.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Non-Programming Programmer - alexandros
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/02/the-nonprogramming-programmer.html
======
patio11
This is why I think that Codility (covered on HN earlier here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039140> ) is such an amazing idea. You
can administer a web-based company-appropriate FizzBuzz for rounding error
next to the cost of doing an interview or (worse) hiring someone who can't do
FizzBuzz.
Incidentally, if you think Java programmers who can't figure out how to count
the number of occurrences of the letter "a" in the string "Java java java" are
bad, you should see how many interpretations of "advanced oral and written
Japanese proficiency" we've had. Oh boy. Let's hypothetically say you're a
recruiting company and you get a candidate as far as our door without
disclosing that their exposure to Japanese is, I kid you not, "I loved
watching Kenshin in high school" -- we will not be doing business with you
again. Hopefully ever.
~~~
gfodor
See, honestly I think something like Codility misses the point of these coding
exercises.
For me, a coding exercise is more than just a way for me to see if the person
can produce something that works. It's also a kick-off point for other
questions. Often there are things the person will do along the way to a
solution that reveals some lack of knowledge, so I keep my eyes peeled as they
talk through their solution for these potential gaps.
One of the biggest problems now is that you have people who can even pull of
FizzBuzz but don't know much of anything beyond how to get something like that
working. They don't understand data structures, algorithms, or how a computer
really works.
A simple coding exercise like FizzBuzz _can_ reveal these gaps too, even if
they get the problem right. The trick is to use their implementation as a way
to probe their thinking.
For example, if they are just using a "sort" function, like in Ruby, ask them
how it contributes to the runtime of their algorithm. Or, if they are loading
a file into RAM instead of just iterating over reads on a file handle, ask
them about it. Or, if they are iterating over the keys of a hash (h.keys), ask
them how they think that works. (This recently revealed to me the candidate
did not understand that a hash function was irreversible.)
None of the major gaps in knowledge I've found that separate mediocre from
good candidates were found by just looking at their code and giving them a
thumbs up or thumbs down. That's good for separating the mediocre from the
morons. To find out if they're good, you have to probe.
To find out if they're great, well, that's another story entirely that is far
afield from FizzBuzz :)
~~~
jlampart
"That's good for separating the mediocre from the morons."
That's a lot, if you ask me - the morons usually make up the vast majority of
candidates, so by filtering them out effortlessly at an early stage, you get
to spend your time more effectively - identifying the great ones among those
who at least hold a promise.
~~~
gfodor
Yeah a good point, actually. I actually am just subconsciously responding to
the implicit meme that seems to be spreading that if they get the coding
question right, they win. I think for screening out morons, that is probably a
good bar. But don't forget to do the next coding question in person, and drill
into areas where they gloss over things that they may not understand.
------
bshep
We were once hiring programmers for a small consulting firm.
We asked the prospective employees if the knew how to program for Windows, VB,
etc...
They almost all answered 'yes', when we asked them to write a sample program
the couldn't, so we asked them to describe how the would program something for
windows...
Their answer: 'You put the CD in the drive and run the setup.exe'
They all thought that programming meant 'installing' software... Needless to
say we ended up not hiring anyone.
------
SMrF
Whenever the FizzBuzz topic pops up on Hacker News in the back of my mind
there is a nagging anxiety: am I one of these programmers that can't program?
There is always some comment in the ensuing discussion that makes me question
my own competence.
~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
If you had contact information
1\. I'd send you one of my regular tests
2\. You could reply with your code
3\. I could tell you if I think you can code at this point in time, under the
conditions you used.
Or you could email me. 30 seconds of searching didn't find contact details on
the blog in your profile.
EDIT: amended 3 in light of insightful comment(s) below.
~~~
edw519
It's very easy for someone to misinterpret 3. as "I could tell you if I think
you can _ever_ code, so I would amend it to "I could tell you if I think you
can code _now_ ".
"Can't code now" could become "Is a great coder" later.
Everyone is at their own place on their path. We've all traveled that path. I
look at some of my code as recently as a year or two ago and I'm embarrassed.
Nobody here should get discouraged. You should just get better.
------
cake
Could this phenomenon happen because of stress ?
I've done several interviews where I was asked to code and I really don't
think it's easy, because you're under intense pressure of doing your task
right the first time and under a very tight time frame. Sometimes even with
your interviewer sitting next to you.
~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
The whole point is to use a task so trivial that even moderate amounts of
stress won't prevent your fingers from taking over. That's why people who
criticize "FizzBuzz" as not testing the true requirements for a job are simply
wrong. All you want is some real code that produces a correct answer.
My programmers wrote FizzBuzz in under 60 seconds. If you can't write FizzBuzz
in 15 minutes in an interview then you are either unable to program, or _any_
level of stress will prevent you from doing your job. Either way, you couldn't
work for me. I don't routinely stress my programmers, but stress is a matter
of observable fact.
~~~
Retric
I don't think it's just stress. Few programmers actually write correct code on
a whiteboard / pen and paper so expecting them to accurately program outside
of their preferred environment can be vary hard for some people. It's
something like asking an author to spell out an essay, plenty of people can do
it but it's a separate skill from being a good writer.
PS: Try composing your response by saying one letter out loud at a time
without typing it before you type it.
~~~
j_baker
I've had employers ask me to bring my own laptop and have me write my code on
it in front of them. That reduces the "whiteboard effect" tremendously.
~~~
Luyt
That would be a good solution for me, too. For example: It's years ago since I
used Visual C on Windows, but I use C++Builder daily. I can whip up a good
looking, surprise-free, standards-adhering, well behaved GUI in minutes and
flesh it out to a fully functional application without hesitation in the hours
after. If you'd put me behind Visual C I'd probably be looking for minutes to
find the Dialog Editor (errr.... is that Windows Forms nowadays? Hmmm, I
should give .Net a look someday).
------
forkandwait
I can't remember the link, but I read about one job where they gave candidates
an ssh login and asked them to write a simple, running, perl script. Something
like 10% actually finished the assignment, and they hired one of them, but
avoided screwing around with LOTS of screening phone calls, enthusiastic
people who "were familiar" with Perl, Windows programmers who didn't really
know what ssh was, etc.
~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
<http://neil.fraser.name/news/2005/09/03/>
------
geebee
I think this article does a good job covering the second best way of selecting
programmers - the technical job interview.
The best "interviews" aren't really interviews, though, they're recruiting
sessions. A really strong, experienced software development manager who plans
to employ programmers should have 1) a strong background in programming, and
2) a strong network of programmers who would jump at the chance to work with
him again.
You already know your potential hires are good programmers, because you've
worked with them before - in school, on side projects, at work, in various
collaborations. You don't need to ask them to print all the nodes in a binary
tree, and if you did, well, you'd probably lose the candidate.
I think Joel (on software) put it this way (I'm paraphrasing): if you're a
small independent film maker, and Uma Thurman expresses an interest in your
movie, you don't ask her to audition, you ask what you can do to get her on
board. I think 37Signals is another example of a company that mainly recruits
people they already know through programming projects (esp contributions to
rails).
I won't say the technical interview is evidence of a "broken" recruiting
system the way some people do, because let's face it, we don't all have the
recruiting mystique to wave the magic wand and get top people to join us, and
our networks just aren't big enough. So we _have_ to interview relative
unknowns.
But I will readily admit that this shows that I'm not doing it the best way.
This goes both ways. If I'm in an interview and people start asking me how to
implement a singleton, I start to wonder if I'm going about my job search the
wrong way. If I have to ask the candidate this, then maybe I'm going about the
recruitment in the wrong way as well.
But if that's your reality, then yeah, make sure you screen well.
~~~
barrkel
Except that even headline actors do audition - if the role is good, there will
be competition.
~~~
geebee
Wow, I didn't know that. Brad Pitt actually has to audition for roles? Jeez.
Well, that's the problem with analogies.
But I'm not really a fundamentalist about the code test. I've gone through
many, many, many of them. I just had a little epiphany the last time I was in
one. I was thinking, "why don't these guys already know that I'm a good
programmer? Why don't they already know good programmers?"
It made me realize as a programmer and as a manager that I wasn't really
building my career the right way. I decided that I wanted to build a network
and a reputation that went both ways - essentially, I wanted to have a large
number of people out there, in different organizations, who are both confident
in my tech skills and my value as a manager. I'll step outside that network
constantly, and when I do, I'll certainly validate programming ability (and
I'd expect people to do the same for me).
But every time I do this, it's a reminder that I failed on Plan A, which is
the best way to do things.
~~~
jimbokun
"I decided that I wanted to build a network and a reputation that went both
ways - essentially, I wanted to have a large number of people out there, in
different organizations, who are both confident in my tech skills and my value
as a manager."
How did you accomplish this?
~~~
geebee
Well, I can't entirely say that I did!
So far, it hasn't been much more than doing a decent job in the different
positions I've held, and working in a few different industry sectors. I've
worked for a large silicon valley company, a couple of public sector
organizations, and a couple of small startups, and I've taken on management
and dev roles. I keep up my contacts.
When the startup I was working for folded, I got a bunch of interviews (lots
of tech questions), but my best offer came from a former coworker who didn't
bother with a tech test because he'd already worked with me.
While I wish I could say I'd done more (presented at conferences, made big
contributions to open source, etc...), but in some ways this is a better
story, because people start to think that if they need to be a total rock
star. You really don't have to, just keep up your contacts and make sure you
have a reputation for good work.
------
mootothemax
I remember interviewing for the first time, where I'd asked lots of questions,
and then called back potential candidates for a proper coding test if they
passed the talking test. I know better now, but anyway, it was scary! The
amount of people who can talk about the inner workings of compilers, internet
protocols etc, and then can't do the fizzbuzz test is shocking!
The next time, I started with fizzbuzz and made life a lot better ;)
------
javajones
Part of the problem here is that not all interviewers can recognize a
candidates learning aptitude. Typically the interviewer is so enamored with
his own coding style that if the candidate can't mimic his style the candidate
is not acceptable. If the candidate does not communicate in the interviewers
style the candidate is not acceptable and so on. As well, most programming
projects are not about such simple problem solving tasks as printing out the
contents of a text file backwards. Of course most people could figure this out
and as my experience has been this is when most people think about such
issues, when they are required to apply it to a larger problem at hand.
------
timwiseman
First, as someone who has done a fair number of technical interviews, there
are a lot of posers. I have had people claim to be experienced that had no
clue how to do even very basic programming, just as described in this article.
Even more common, I have had people that grossly exaggerate their skills and
experience. One that stuck with me was someone who was a "senior DBA" but when
I probed further it turned out he mostly ran stored procedures written by
consultants and didn't really have the knowledge right then to do much more
than that.
I would also like to point out that if you are up front about your lack of
skills and applying for an entry level post, it can work out. I had one
interviewee who had no programming skills, but was ready and willing to learn.
She was up front about it, convinced the whole team of her sincerity, and
willing to start for less than most people with a CS degree. By the end of her
3 month probationary period, she was competent. Still junior and with a lot to
learn of course, but quite competent and a good hire overall.
------
calebgilbert
Just to state the obvious but all fizzbuzz really tests for is whether someone
is familiar with the modulo operator or not. Arguably any good programmer
should know about it, but I think it's not a very comprehensive check on the
knowledge of any one particular individual. Suppose for instance, that the
only bit of code someone has _ever_ written was something which required them
to get very familiar with the modulo operator, but virtually nothing else.
They could pass fizzbuzz, but not much else.
Note: The author of the 'non-programming programmer post' saw took my comment
down when I had posted it there (which is why I posted it here). Guess there's
no knocking of the fizzbuzz test allowed... :p
~~~
pavel_lishin
The first interview's purpose - whether in person, over the phone, or via
e-mail - should be to weed out the obvious idiots.
If you don't know what the modulo operator is, door is right this way, operate
it by placing your hand around the knob, turning clockwise, and pushing
forward.
~~~
calebgilbert
I've been programming for 3-4 years now, have memorized tons of functions and
operators, across a variety of languages, and have never once needed to use
the modulo operator for anything, so I personally don't place it at the top of
list of priorities for what someone should know. As an employer and
interviewer I'm more concerned the person has a grasp on general programming
issues and the ability to problem solve than testing their knowledge of narrow
subjects.
------
ciscoriordan
The post mentions a tool for live coding over the web
(<http://i.seemikecode.com>) that looks simple but good. Etherpad
(<http://www.etherpad.com>) is also real good for those and has some other
features like line numbers.
~~~
gkoberger
Bespin (<http://bespin.mozilllabs.com>) is even better for this. It's slightly
less realtime than EtherPad, however it is made for collaborative programming.
It has syntax highlighting and a bunch of other features for coding.
~~~
telemachos
Check your link: you're missing an 'a'
<http://bespin.mozillalabs.com/>
------
edw519
I was recently contacted by a head hunter for a job I thought was worth
investigating. I wanted to talk to the company directly, but the head hunter
made it clear that Step 1 was _always_ a web-based programming aptitude test,
no matter who you were. 20 questions. 18 correct was considered passing. They
would only talk to candidates who got 19 or 20 correct.
So I took the test and got 20 correct (as I imagine many people here would do
as well). I thought it was very easy. The headhunter later told me that in 9
months, she had sent 52 people to the test, only 2 of us got 19, and I was the
only one who got 20.
I'm not really sure what this means. That there are a lot of posers out there?
That she wasn't very good at screening talent? That the companies seeking the
best talent gladly pay $100 50 times to save their time?
I guess my biggest feeling is one of disappointment. It's just not that hard
to become a good enough programmer to get 20 right every time. All it takes is
study, passion, a lot of dedication, and a lot of hard work. I wish more
people would do that. There aren't enough of us.
~~~
TimothyFitz
Wish I could find the source, but the math is simple. If you're great (at
programming and marketing yourself), you pick where you want to work and apply
once (or more likely, are convinced to leave one good job for another). If
you're good, you pick a few places and apply a handful of times. If you're
bad, you end up applying constantly. The average unscreened resume is the
average person in the job pool, who is well below the average programmer.
~~~
arghnoname
I decided this seems like something one should be able to calculate with
conditional probability.
Let P(A) be the probability that someone is a pretty good programmer. (I said
top ten percent, so .1).
P(A') is 1-P(A) = .9
Let P(E) be the probability someone is employed. I guessed and put that at
1-P(E'), guessing programmer unemployment rate at 6%. P(E) = .94 P(E') = .06
Here is a more wild assumption. Let's say that given that someone is a top 10%
programmer, there is a 98% probability that he or she is employed.
P(E | A) = .98, and conversely, a .02 probability they aren not.
With these assumptions in place, I ran the calculations. I was intending to
type them up, but it would be difficult with just a text area.
Here is the punch line (with those symbols, and assuming I did this correctly,
which I did it on the bus on the way home, so probably not)...
Given that someone is unemployed, there is a .033 probability that they are in
the top 10% and a .96 probability that they are somewhere among the rest. (The
'rest' includes a lot of pretty decent programmers though!)
In other words, 3.3% of applicants would be top 10% candidates, and that's
assuming equal probability of them sending in an application in the first
place.
I might rework it with different assumptions. Anyway, you said the math was
pretty simple. If someone wants to see how I screwed it up I can type it up
into latex and upload it somewhere.
------
donaldc
Some of this may be due to selection bias. The good programmers find jobs
quickly, whereas the non-programmers go to interview after interview, until
they finally find a company dumb enough to hire them.
------
lele
It makes sense to me. Programmers who can program - and don't want to stop
working as employees - give up programming to pursue higher paying careers,
such as project management. Actually, many "programmers" nowadays can get by
simply copying and pasting code from the Internet. If you ask them how things
work, they don't know. That's my experience.
------
Roridge
I think that it is worse that most people who turn up for a Developer job are
just programmers, have no design skills at all.
~~~
barrkel
Most development outside web front-end work doesn't particularly require end-
user UI design skills.
~~~
berntb
That is correct, of course (otherwise, I'd be unemployed!). But what you
comment on might mean "design" as in "system architecture design"?
~~~
Roridge
I do indeed mean architectural design.
------
johnl
I would think "bring a sample of your coding" might be better. Non-programming
might include: Query language "programming". Maintaining an existing "out of
box application" Maintenance programming. End user support. Little real coding
is necessary. These are programming jobs but not really programming as I see
it but. Then there is the ability to learn new languages, processes, dealing
with the end user, is the code maintainable, code by specs?, juggling multiple
projects. I might start an interview by a sample code but that would not be my
only criteria and if the person failed the "programming" test I would see it
as a need for further discussion, not really a big red failure flag. Example:
If the reason the programmer doesn't know sql is because they spent their time
putting out fires and supporting the end users, I would hire that person over
the others any day.
~~~
brown9-2
This is hard-to-impossible for those developers whose entire development
career has been for companies (i.e. no OSS contributions).
~~~
blhack
Do most professional programmers not ever work on personal projects?
~~~
nitrogen
Most professional programmers probably view programming like any other job,
rather than a passion like I expect most HN readers do. As a result, they
leave programming behind when they leave the workplace.
------
radu_floricica
Along with the CV I always used to ask for code samples. I wanted to see the
code before I could develop any biases by talking to the person. I found it
worked best to ask for "the last project/projects you had fun working on, or
developed on your own time". If there are none...
------
yanilkr
In early stages, aspiring programmers need mentors. It would be interesting to
know how many people who consider themselves good programmers, spend a
reasonable amount of time mentoring other jr. programmers. Looking back in 7
years, there were only two good programmers I learnt a lot from. I took every
chance to read their code and ask them to review my code and pair program with
me once a while.
I became convinced recently with a new approach to this problem. If you want
an artist, pick someone with decent interest to learn art and put a brush in
his hand and he becomes a painter. It takes time but this is overall good for
the programing community.
------
ohashi
Out of curiosity, anyone want to share some of the questions they use or would
use in these situations?
~~~
magoghm
This is one test I've used: write a program that reads a text file and then
prints out all the lines in reverse order.
~~~
jbellis
I love interview questions that make Python look awesome.
~~~
Luyt
python -c "print '\n'.join(open('file.txt').readlines()[::-1])"
Hmmm, slightly longer then the Perl version ;-)
python -c "print '\n'.join(reversed(list(open('test.py'))))"
Somewhat more elegant, but still lots of parentheses.
~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
It's also wrong - "readlines" keeps the "\n", and you've added another one
between lines.
~~~
Luyt
Indeed. A cosmetic refinement, but it should really be:
python -c "print ''.join(reversed(list(open('test.py'))))"
That's even two characters less!
~~~
spudlyo
Good, but too easy. Assume you can't keep the file in memory.
------
WorkerBee
I'm not sure about that article at all, actually.
My C++ and Java are very rusty, and I don't think I could do it on the spot if
I tried; let alone go into languages like python and ruby that are new to me.
But if you gave me a week or two, I know I could get up to speed.
------
va_coder
Tough questions without also building rapport is also bad.
I've had some interviews where they asked tough questions and I got a job
offer but I declined because I felt there was no rapport or interest in my
career.
------
yason
It seems completely unfathomable to pose for a programming job. It's one of
the rare professions where your skills and understanding can be tested very
quickly, harshly and objectively.
It would probably be easier to lie your way (with mere knowledge and possibly
some experience) into the position of a lawyer, an airline pilot, or a medical
doctor than a programmer.
(At least I hope they don't test doctor applicants as like "Please operate
this unfortunate cardiac surgery patient as an example so that we know you'll
know how to do it.")
------
zarski
Good article but didn't he write the same article in 2007 (as he mentions but
..)? This re-posting is a subtle shill for stackoverflow careers. Not that
there is anything wrong with that.
------
Jeema3000
IMO if you're giving people 'gotcha' programming tests in an interview, then
you don't know how to select candidates or interview in the first place.
You should be looking for competence by looking at their programming
accomplishments, both in and out of work, as well as their ability and desire
to teach themselves (probably the most important trait IMO).
~~~
brown9-2
This article doesn't mention "gotcha" programming tests.
~~~
Jeema3000
I disagree. IMO asking someone whether they can program a loop that
demonstrates the use of a mod operator is a 'gotcha' test because it proves
nothing as far as their suitability as programmer and as an employee and is
designed soley to weed people out based on one thing. Sure, _maybe_ they are
completely ignorant... or maybe they were just nervous that day or unfamiliar
with a particular language's mod operator. Lots of programmers don't do well
in high-pressure situations... which incidentally programming is _not_ most of
the time.
How about asking someone how they got interested in programming, or what sort
of things they've created with their knowledge in and out of work, or what
languages/technologies they've taught themselves in their free time, how they
go about fixing puzzling software problems, or what they consider to be good
vs. bad programming practices, or even what their hobbies are? - those kinds
of things that will tell you IMO whether they are smart, passionate, and will
make a good employee.
~~~
kaib
> unfamiliar with a particular language's mod operator
Just anecdotally, over some hundred interviews, I've never ever ran into a
candidate who failed one of these FizzBuzz style loop writing tests because
the didn't know the mod operator, or were nervous enough not to remember it.
I see a lot of candidates that can't remember what params some standard system
call is supposed to take and I always tell them I'm happy as long as they
define what they think it looks like. Heck, most of the time I have no clue
myself.
I'm not claiming the candidate you describe (competent but can't remember a
for loop) doesn't exist, just that I've never personally encountered such a
beast. Quite the contrary, with a technically open minded interviewer it seems
hard to get even the most introvert candidate to stop talking shop .. :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New iPhone Chip Will Cost an ARM and a Missile - nickb
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/new-iphone-chip-will-cost-an-arm-and-a-missile/
======
iigs
I'm not sure how the Linkedin leak is noteworthy. Preexisting information:
1) Apple uses ARM in the iPhone 2) Apple buys a company who makes ARM CPUs
Would it not be negligent for Apple to not at least have a small team
exploring this? Just because some chip engineer has a job doesn't mean that so
much as one IC will ever come from it -- companies investigate multiple
options all the time. That said, it's still likely that this would happen;
this seems like as good of a reason as any for Apple to have purchased a CPU
manufacturer.
I wonder if it rubs Jobs the wrong way to be making components for missles and
other weapons. The media commonly portrayed him as a flower child a while back
(decade plus ago).
~~~
wmf
PA Semi made PowerPCs, not ARMs. The fact that the former PA team is workin on
ARM is "news" (although obvious to everyone in the business).
------
louismg
This looks like a serious mistake on the engineer's part to post this on their
LinkedIn profile. Great move by the reporter to find it, but Apple can't be
too pleased. I expect this to happen much more often going forward.
------
dmix
Apple is officially part of the military-industrial complex.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rejected by Kickstarter; Lumawake opts to Selfstart - paulgerhardt
http://lumawake.com/we-will-not-be-denied/#hn
======
rolandal
It's understandable why Kickstarter has enabled and are enforcing their new
project guidelines & rules. It's a shame however when good products that are
fully functional and prototyped are tossed into the photo-realistic renderings
or simulations bucket.
I think the Lumawake team is doing the right thing by using the
<http://selfstarter.us> open source framework.
~~~
scott_roehrick
Thanks for the support man. I think there's going to be a big shift towards
this model since popular crowdfunding sites are shying away from hardware and
never really fit with software. Lockitron and app.net have definitely paved
the way but we're excited to be at the forefront. It will be interesting to
see how the JOBS act fits in to all of this too...
------
noonespecial
They might not be there yet, but I'd bet that Kickstarter can see "Camp
Paypal" from where they are.
I'm not sure there's much of anything they can do that would be worse for
their business than to start applying secretive, arbitrary rules that even
smart people can't figure out how to abide by and then following that up with
a clear demonstration that said smart people aren't even worth a phone call.
~~~
scott_roehrick
Hardware and Product Design account for just 4.2% of KS projects and 21%
revenue. With 75% not hitting projected ship dates it's easy to see they
applied the 80/20 rule and cracked down. KS simply wasn't made for pre-orders
and they don't have a system in place to track projects after funding /
enforce refunds. It's just not the business they want to be in. We can
understand that. We just wish they would have handled this differently but, at
this point, it's water under the bridge. We believe in our product and are up
for the challenge!
------
shaaaaawn
Preorders start today!
[http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/iphone-connected-home-
smart...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/iphone-connected-home-smart-dock-
lumawake-regroups-after-kickstarter-rejection-begins-pre-orders-today/)
------
thaumaturgy
Nice work, guys. That's a really beautiful piece of engineering you've put
together. I'm a little curious how the automatic shutoff works -- will it come
back on again if you roll over or stir in your sleep?
~~~
scott_roehrick
Thanks! I'm assuming you're talking about the home automation piece. We've
integrated with SmartThings and Belkin's WeMo. Once you've drifted to sleep it
can everything turn off and will remain off. It can also turn things back on
based on your wake event which occurs during your preset "wake window". It's
all fully customizable through Lumawake's free app.
------
benzofuran
Oh another iPhone dock! Kickstarter hasn't had enough of those lately, is it
possible they're having an attack of conscience / trying to keep from being
too pigeonholed, and thus the rejection?
------
scoowhoop
I never really found the idea of a iPhone dock to be all that
necessary/interesting, but I can definitely see the value here. Very cool
guys, good luck.
~~~
therobot24
I'm curious, as i'm failing to see any real value with this dock. It's an
alarm clock...not much different than every other dock available...oh wait, it
can change color.
------
nzeribe
This is definitely the right move for you. It's a higher-level fighting move
for you to turn a blow to your advantage.
------
justindocanto
I made this identical post yesterday. I see you added an #hn at the end so it
wouldn't credit me or the original post. That was very considerate of you.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4774253>
~~~
paulgerhardt
Oh, I can see how this would look. That wasn't my intention, sorry!
I added the #hn in what I thought was a pre-emptive gesture in case Lumawake
would have liked to submit the post as themselves with their own headline (as
opposed to my own editorialized one). I did not see or test that it had
already been posted.
------
zoidb
any theories on why they were rejected? it does seem a bit arbitrary like they
didn't bother to read any of their justification.
~~~
scott_roehrick
I don't think they believed or prototypes worked as advertised but I can't be
entirely sure...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenSSH and the dangers of unused code - 1ace
https://lwn.net/Articles/672465/
======
parfe
This article should be resubmitting when it becomes freely available on 1/28.
I'm surprised LWN had that many subscribers, or are people just upvoting based
on a headline?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reflections on Rust, and the Sand Castle Metaphor - craigkerstiens
https://brandur.org/fragments/rust-reflections
======
vvanders
Very much matches my experience with the last ~2.5 years of Rust.
One of the really eye-opening ones for me was building a UI library on win32
and watching it _just work_ on Linux, OSX, Android and WASM(with some Canvas
work). Obviously each platform took some work to build out their respective
rendering primitives but the core engine(including embedding Lua via gcc
crate) just worked.
As someone who's done x-platform stuff most of their career it was nothing
short of incredible.
~~~
weberc2
I have the same experiences with Go regarding xplat. I was particularly amazed
that I could trivially cross compile by simply setting the GOOS and GOARCH env
vars to the correct operating system and CPU architecture and then running `go
build`.
EDIT: Curious why people are downvoting this. Is it really so taboo to suggest
that Go could be nearly as pleasant as Rust at something? Do I really need to
roll out my Rust fanboy creds every time I participate in a thread on the
language?
~~~
vvanders
[https://crates.io/crates/gcc](https://crates.io/crates/gcc) is even more
amazing, it will cross-compile your _C_ dependencies(assuming you have the
right compilers setup, which is mostly handled already via rustup or base
install).
For Android all I had to do was point it to the NDK(for both Rust and the
crate) and I got all my C dependencies for basically free. Anyone who's had to
work with the NDK knows how nice that is. That's also with zero changes to my
build script/code/ifdefs/whatever.
~~~
weberc2
> it will cross-compile your C dependencies
That's really cool indeed! Rust's build tooling is truly world class.
------
Animats
It's not the borrow checker that the author considers a problem. It's move
semantics and futures. The borrow checker was a huge breakthrough in language
design. Some of the other new stuff is marginal. Trying to hammer Rust into a
functional language via the template system was probably a mistake. Too many
"see what cool things I can write in one line" features.
I was a big fan of Rust at first, but I bailed out a while back.
~~~
epage
From the article
> This is especially true when it comes to the more complicated ones like
> moves and futures, but also true for simpler ones like borrows. What I
> didn’t know when I wrote about it in frustration a month ago is that it
> doesn’t take a little longer longer to be effective in Rust compared to
> other languages, it takes 10 to 20 times longer.
I think futures might be exacerbating the authors problems. There was a recent
post [0] that does a good job explaining why futures are so hard and how the
in-progress async/await features fix it.
[0] [https://aturon.github.io/2018/04/24/async-
borrowing/](https://aturon.github.io/2018/04/24/async-borrowing/)
~~~
Animats
Too many articles about Rust talk about why the current language sucks, but
some feature in progress will fix it.
Rust started out with roughly the complexity level of C++, and it's become
more complex from there.
~~~
lossolo
I agree with both of your comments, I've noticed exactly the same thing. Every
feature that fix something brings more complexity and have probability that
will not interact nicely with some other features which means you need to make
another feature that will fix that and then that feature...
Soon people will use different dialects of the language like in C++ and like
in C++ only few will be able to say that they really know the language.
How will managing huge enterprise projects will look like in future? With
average developers maintaining it and not language experts like in case of
Mozilla Servo?
Time will tell I suppose. I am little bit pessimistic but I hope to be proven
wrong.
------
csomar
This is indeed very light in content. Also, while Rust fixes a whole set of
problems, it doesn't mean that Rust fixes all possible problems.
It is relatively easy to create a situation where you overflow your program.
See here: [https://github.com/rust-
lang/rust/issues/50049](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/50049)
Googling around, there are many situations where bad code can lead to an
overflow and your code breaking.
~~~
urschrei
Who, ever, anywhere, has claimed that "Rust fixes all possible problems"? This
is a straw man. As for bad code leading to overflows and crashes: yes, bad
code causes overflows and crashes, definitionally. Rust does not, and has
never claimed to protect against logic errors in this way. How could it?
~~~
edflsafoiewq
The language in the article is very strong.
> Rust is another step into the beyond. When finishing a feature and its test
> suite I’ll run my program to see it in action, but just as a formality – I
> already know it works. I also know that it’s going to keep working because
> meticulousness of the compiler is so good at catching regressions.
~~~
sargas
This is a bold statement, specially because not many other languages have such
high quality guarantees at compile time.
> I already know it works
This is the part I don't agree all of the time, but depending on the scope and
size of the project, I've seeing this be true. And the compiler is really good
at catching regressions, submitting PRs for Rust projects is not easy in the
beginning, but it is very hard to insert a regression.
------
jlg23
This is not at all specific to rust: OP is just grateful for the compiler to
find lots of problems one would have to write tests for in dynamic languages.
~~~
icebraining
It's not even specific to compilers; it's any type-checker. Compilers just
happen to include one.
~~~
simias
Well it's more of a feature of the language really. The type of static type
checking provided by Rust would be impossible to achieve in C or Python for
instance, unless you add specific annotations to augment the language's type
system.
------
guelo
I have a hard time believing that Rust's guarantees make it safer than easier
statically typed languages like Java or Go. Rust is hard because it is solving
a different problem, memory management without a garbage collector, not
because it has the strongest correctness guarantees.
~~~
vvanders
What Rust gives you over Java is determinism.
Having a GC doesn't preclude you from leaking resources(file handles,
textures, etc) _and_ you're at the mercy of whenever the finalizer decides to
run once the GC has determined it's time to free an object. Usually this
manifests as your Java application humming along until you hit some GC
threshold cliff and then perf/memory plummets.
I also can't enforce ownership in Java which drives me up the wall. Once you
hand out a ref anything is fair game and calling code is free to add that ref
to the root GC set so that it never gets freed.
~~~
SolarNet
The comparison I like to make is that Rust is the safer/modern version of
C++'s memory model. It's in a different class from most languages, but trying
to apply all the latest lessons and techniques.
------
IshKebab
I do think the difficulty of Rust is brushed aside by its proponents. This
week I wrote a little script to read an XML file, get a path from it, read a
file at that location, do some regexes on it, and then update the XML and
write it back to disk.
I'd estimate it took me about 10 times longer to implement in Rust than
Python. And I don't exactly know Python well - it wasn't just extra time
Googling how to do things.
A lot of it is just how restrictive the borrow checker is. Often you have to
structure your code in a really _weird_ way to satisfy it.
Dealing with strings is another pain point. I get why there is `&str` and
`String`. But that doesn't explain why I can't add two `String`s together
using +.
Another thing I've found is that because of the type inference it often gets
_really_ confusing whether a variable is a reference or not. Doesn't help that
code completion basically doesn't work at all at the moment.
I wish there were a simpler language, like Rust (no garbage collector, no
runtime), but that was a _little_ more helpful and willing to do implicit
things even if they are slightly slower than the most optimised code possible.
~~~
v_lisivka
You need to type your Python code extremely fast to finish it 10 times faster
than this Rust program:
extern crate xpath_reader;
extern crate regex;
use std::io::prelude::*;
use std::fs::File;
use xpath_reader::Reader;
use regex::Regex;
fn main() {
let mut contents = String::new();
File::open("test.xml").expect("Unable to open the file").read_to_string(&mut contents).expect("Unable to read the file");
//println!("File contents: {}", contents);
let reader = Reader::from_str(&contents, None).expect("Cannot parse XML file");
let files: Vec<String> = reader.read("//file").expect("Cannot find file entries in XML file");
//println!("Files: {:?}", files);
for file in files.iter() {
println!("File: {}", file);
let mut contents = String::new();
File::open(file).expect("Unable to open the file").read_to_string(&mut contents).expect("Unable to read the file");
//println!("File contents: {}", contents);
let re = Regex::new(r"foo bar").expect("Cannot compile regex");
let replaced = re.replace_all(&contents, "baz").to_string();
//println!("File contents: {}", replaced);
File::create(file).expect("Unable to overwrite the file").write(replaced.as_bytes()).expect("Unable to write to file");
}
}
~~~
cortesoft
This is a really silly counterpoint. I am not even sure what point you are
trying to make. How can pasting some program show how long it would take
someone to reason out how to write it?
------
fafhrd91
I like how author writes! And previous post on web dev in rust is very good as
well
[https://brandur.org/rust-web](https://brandur.org/rust-web)
------
andyidsinga
this: "Software is partly a production problem, but it’s mainly a maintenance
problem."
------
jrq
Doesn't have any objective content whatsoever. Not particularly useful for
anybody?
Maybe I misunderstand
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Blackphone 2 – Coming Soon - mike-cardwell
https://www.silentcircle.com/products-and-solutions/devices/
======
ilurk
AFAIK only the Neo9000 offers baseband isolation from the main system.
[https://neo900.org/faq](https://neo900.org/faq)
> Unlike some other smartphones do, Neo900 won't share system RAM with the
> modem and system CPU will always have full control over the microphone
> signal sent to the modem. You can think of it as a USB dongle connected to
> the PC, with you in full control over the drivers, with a virtual LED to
> show any modem activity.
I found no information on baseband isolation for the Blackphone. Does anyone
has further information on this?
~~~
EthanHeilman
Baseband isolation is a must for a secure phone. Blackphone does not offer it
and blackphones can been compromised as a result[1].
>"The Blackphone does not protect you against vulnerabilities in the Android
subsystem, in the application processor (SoC), or in the baseband itself." [1]
Blackphone excels at protecting communication from passive adversaries, but it
needs to shore up endpoint security.
>The makers of Blackphone are well aware of this. “We have a bit of a problem
with the press saying that the Blackphone will make you NSA-proof. If someone
[at the Blackphone booth] tells you that it’ll protect you from the NSA, I’ll
fire them,” Phil Zimmermann, one of the Blackphone’s creators, told Anthony. -
[2]
While the NEO9000 has some baseband isolation, I would still be extremely
careful in assuming this isolation is complete. I haven't researched this
enough to have an opinion but I would like to know exactly what privileges it
has and what sandboxing is done to isolate it.
[1]: [http://www.itproportal.com/2014/02/26/blackphones-big-
proble...](http://www.itproportal.com/2014/02/26/blackphones-big-problem-the-
belief-that-the-device-is-nsa-proof/#ixzz2uW5QC6WJ)
[2]: [http://qz.com/181977/hidden-risk-in-blackphones-secure-
commu...](http://qz.com/181977/hidden-risk-in-blackphones-secure-
communications/)
~~~
dogma1138
There's very little chance that anyone can make anything which is actually NSA
proof, if they want to compromise it they will it's just a matter of
resources.
The Neo900 is doing their BB isolation by using a 3G/4G USB dongle, by doing
this they claim that they not only can disconnect the BB from the rest of the
phone but also to analyse it's behavior. While the 1st part is very doable as
they can use relays/electronic switching to disconnect the BB the 2nd part is
well more iffy.
Due to regulations BBP's tend to be extremely close devices while the Neo900
might be able to do some power usage analysis in order to ensure that when the
BB is suspended it is indeed off (something that any phone vendor should be
able to accomplish) I have very strong doubts about their ability to detect a
compromise especially from a state agency with the capabilities of the NSA
while the BBP is mounted and in active use by the user.
For the most part I don't see neither of them as being a solution against
government directed action especially not against the NSA, so the question
here is really when it comes to effective privacy and operation security which
device can be made more secure against surveillance by criminal elements,
corporate agents, casual snoopers, and maybe low level state actors (Emerging
nation etc.).
------
ch4s3
I'd be curious to hear from anyone that has a Blackphone. How does it compare
to other phones you have used? Do you plan to get a Blackphone 2?
~~~
rbcgerard
In particular, what's it like using the phone outside of the silent circle
ecosystem...because let's face it, 95% of the people you are going to
call/text etc will not be using a similar device
~~~
orph4nus
I would assume it would have the same effect as with end-to-end encryption
mails, where you just have unencrypted data when you are communicating with
people that don't support this. Such as is the case with
[https://protonmail.ch/](https://protonmail.ch/)
------
mtgx
Have they ever responded to that warrant canary issue?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8796307](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8796307)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9162186](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9162186)
By the looks of it, they seem to have updated the warrant canary:
[https://canary.silentcircle.com/?new-
issue](https://canary.silentcircle.com/?new-issue)
~~~
StavrosK
I'm not sure if there was a public statement, but I was commenting on the
thread way back when it happened. It turns out that there was an editor issue
with the way the canary was being updated that prevented the new one from
getting saved, and nobody realized that was the case.
We've since changed the way we update the canary and added monitoring checks
to notify us if it's out of date. IIRC we also changed the text to a more
clear version.
------
Zhenya
Is silentcircle no longer offering the service for consumers?
Cache shows this:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oiqIFBt...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oiqIFBtn7TgJ:https://silentcircle.com/pricing+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)
Starter
100 Silent World Minutes
Make Calls to 120 Destinations
Unlimited Received Calls
Unlimited Member to Member
$12.95 /month
etc
but their website now only has you contact sales for enterprise:
[https://silentcircle.com/products-and-
solutions/](https://silentcircle.com/products-and-solutions/)
~~~
dogma1138
You can still register as a personal user with and buy a subscription for 1 to
50 users.
------
d_theorist
In Chromium on Ubuntu I'm getting:
"You attempted to reach www.silentcircle.com, but the server presented a
certificate issued by an entity that is not trusted by your computer's
operating system. This may mean that the server has generated its own security
credentials, which Chromium cannot rely on for identity information, or an
attacker may be trying to intercept your communications."
~~~
mike-cardwell
Weird. I'm getting the same thing using Chromium on Debian Jessie. Firefox on
the same system has no such warning. I don't see any errors on ssllabs.com,
but interestingly, it only supports TLS1.1 and above. No support for TLS1.0:
[https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=silentcircle....](https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=silentcircle.com)
~~~
heinrich5991
I believe Firefox ships their own Root Certificates.
------
karmakaze
The product info would be much more interesting with target pricing. Anyone
have an idea?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
‘Don’t Act So Surprised, Your Highness’: ‘Star Wars’ on the Subway - donohoe
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/dont-act-so-surprised-your-highness-star-wars-on-the-subway/?src=twr
======
mildweed
Certainly fun. I love improv and Improv Everywhere. No question.
However, this should be on Reddit, not here.
~~~
hugh3
Pointless nitpick: reciting a scene from Star Wars isn't exactly improv, is
it? They should leave it to Scripted Entertainment Everywhere.
~~~
zck
From their FAQ (<http://improveverywhere.com/faq/>):
>We are not claiming that what we are doing is improv. The majority of Improv
Everywhere Agents met each other through the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
in New York, the nation’s most awesome improv theatre and school. The name
reflects our idea of taking some of the skills we learned at UCB and bringing
them to life in public places. We stay in character at all costs and interact
with members of the public with no script beyond the mission’s idea. We have
no clue how people are going to react to us, and that is where the
improvisation comes in. Sometimes people misread our URL as "Improve
Everywhere." We think that’s probably a better name for what we try to do.
------
sethg
Isn’t it illegal for civilians to photograph Imperial Stormtroopers on duty?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong - snow_mac
https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
======
ulldoitforever
Honestly the headline doesn't match the article at all.
It's the same old advice from 40 years ago: eat your damn veggies and fruit.
~~~
rezistik
And exercise. It starts sounding like there's something specific and secret
that's been discovered but it's just the same advice. Eat less, exercise, eat
better natural foods.
~~~
ThJ
What? The article literally starts off by explaining that 98% of dieters fail
to keep their weight down long term, and that dieting bodies go into
starvation mode, impeding weight loss. That's the bit that no one talks about.
That diet and exercise doesn't help a fat person get thin and stay thin.
The one cure they fail to mention is bariatric surgery. It's the only
scientifically proven method of long term weight loss.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google to Put Wiki on Top of Search - babyshake
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_turn_search_into_wik.php
======
bprater
I just now saw this in my account, before I heard the news. I've actually
wanted something like this before when I used Google as a big bookmarking
service.
But for a moment, I thought I had got hit with some kind of strange virus or
some out of control Firefox mod.
Nah, just Google doing Google-ly things.
~~~
tjpick
good that it's finally gone mainstream
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New website with freebies - Design it & Code it - Idered
http://designitcodeit.com/
======
chrisacky
I can easily see this as being the beginnings of a great community. Everything
I've clicked on has appealed to me.
"That's neat". "Ah, that's cool".
I'm an experienced developer, but I still have those moments where I can't
quite be bothered to reinvent the wheel by starting from scratch in creating
something I'm sure exists elsewhere. I also have no problem in contributing
some of my "cool snippets" back.
Few comments also.
[1] Licencing. Your licencing page should be more expansive. While I'm sure
you intend total free use, specifically saying something is creative commons
will really help. Currently you have "All resources on this website are free
for use in both personal and commercial projects.". I'd suggest that you
licence under <https://creativecommons.org/about/cc0>
[2] Work on signups as soon as possible. Try and build a community like
Dribbble but built around code snippets. Allowing people the ability to even
iframe their "jsfiddles" would be a good/quick solution that is "good enough
for the moment".
[3] Navigation is tricky. Once you have browsed a single item, it's hard to
either, move back to the top item, or move to the next item. Consider
implementing some kind of breadcrumb or better to move from snippet to
snippet.
I like what you've done. It's simple and attractive.
~~~
Idered
Thanks for your long and helpful response :] I'll add what you mentioned in 1
and 3.
I already have signup page but it's not public, this project is rather
personal and even haven't thought of building community :) But it's not a bad
idea, I'll think about it. Thanks
------
jisaacstone
As a minor note, I learnt a new word today:
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/therere>
------
jnorthrop
I really like the simple and clean presentation of the code. I do wonder
however if that mode of presentation could scale. How useful will the site be
with 300 code snippets?
~~~
Idered
Later I'll add categories, page with list of all tags, links to prev and next
project and some more changes. All those projects are created by me and it
probably would take me a couple of years to do 300 projects :)
------
shloime
Love this! I'm a "codecademy graduate" so sites like yours are a huge help!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Elon's Musk résumé all on one page - SonicSoul
http://www.businessinsider.com/elons-musk-resume-all-on-one-page-2016-4
======
mailslut
That's an awful example of a resume. The bar charts on the right mean nothing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Entrepreneur First 2012 graduate startups raise millions in seed funding - jordn
http://entrepreneurfirst.org.uk/blog/ef-startups-raise-millions-in-seed-funding
======
lhnz
Can't help but feel I left University at the wrong time.
But unsurprised to see McKinsey consulting as one of the main partners.
------
tomwalker
I think that they all look like great start ups but where does the "worth
£15m" come from?
Is it speculation in value if they were all acquired just now?
Is it the combined total for sales + funding raised?
Is it the output of a formula?
~~~
mattclifford
Thanks for your interest, Tom. I'm one of the founders of EF.
It's the sum of the valuations in most recent funding rounds plus in two cases
the valuations implied by rounds that are - all being well - closing soon.
It doesn't take sales or Kickstarter amounts into account.
------
hkmurakami
err.. the very first company in this list has the CEO giving me the middle
finger treatment. I'm really not sure what to think of this...
<http://www.blazecomponents.com/#team>
~~~
jkldotio
You will perhaps notice if you look again that there is a caterpillar on her
finger.
Even if she was giving the finger I doubt that would count against her
business given the the intersection between the set of "urban cyclists" they
are targeting and the set of people likely to be offended by such a picture is
likely to be very small, if such an intersection even exists.
------
ceeK
Here's a cached version if anyone is getting an application error like I am:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://entrepreneurfirst.org.uk/blog/ef-
startups-raise-millions-in-seed-funding)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Make a 60 Sec Video Pitch in 500 Photos, $2 and 1 Day - avand
http://avandamiri.com/2011/10/09/60-second-video-pitch-in-500-photos-2-dollars-1-day.html
======
susanawilson
Good advice, but GREAT post. THIS is the type of brilliant marketing that
doesn't get pointed out often enough. I think it's because it's so gentle or
subtle that it feels "bad" to call it "marketing."
But I'm curious and I think the whole group would benefit if you'd acknowledge
your thought process in posting this b/c NOW we're all aware of your company
b/c we watched your pitch in an effort to meet our needs. This isn't an
accident, is it?
Well Done.
~~~
avand
Thanks! I genuinely was not looking for feedback on the idea. Not now anyway.
We've done some testing on a small scale to realize what we're missing.
Hopefully once we get to a real version one I'll reach out here for some
feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.
------
NerdieMcSweater
Are you sure you're not violating the Friendly Music license? Specifically
this: "Can my video be an advertisement for a product? No." Here's the whole
license agreement: [http://friendlymusic.com/docs/friendly-music-license-
agreeme...](http://friendlymusic.com/docs/friendly-music-license-
agreement.pdf)
~~~
avand
Looks like you're right. I'll have to pay more attention to the fine print
next time!
------
10JQKAs
Awesome. Wish I saw this before I paid (wayyyyy more than $2) for an animated
video for <http://recessionitis.com>
I'm def gonna give it a try.. I just got to brush up on my "coloring" :-)
~~~
avand
It's all about the catchy whistling soundtrack!
------
nirvana
Hey, that's a great idea if you've only got $2 or so.
I think you'd get better results if you have a digital camera. I found, even
with the cheap camera I had at the time, that putting it on a tripod, and
aiming it down at the table, and zooming in the appropriate amount let me take
really stellar shots. Many cameras these days come with IR remotes so you can
trigger them without touching them (important so you avoid messing up the shot
during animation.)
I wonder, though, wouldn't it be easier to do something like this and get
better results using a program like Motion? (part of the final cut suite.)
I've never used a motion graphics program before, but Motion costs $50, and
that's within my budget!
~~~
avand
The digital camera and tripod sounds like a great version 2 of this. I've
never heard of Motion but will check it out!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SLAC, Stanford Gadget Grabs More Solar Energy to Disinfect Water Faster - Lind5
https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2016-08-15-slac-stanford-gadget-grabs-more-solar-energy-disinfect-water-faster.aspx
======
SamBam
So a tiny nanotechnology that doesn't require any external power besides the
sun to kill all life in large quantities of water.
I'd like to see some science fiction endings for this.
~~~
mmagin
Direct sunlight kills a lot of things pretty well on its own. A lot of
multicellular organisms that spend much time in the sun have all sorts of
adaptations to deal with it.
~~~
SamBam
But this doesn't kill them with direct sunlight, it just uses direct sunlight,
so those organisms are still susceptible.
My point about "sunlight" was simply that it doesn't need to be otherwise
powered, I wasn't talking about the killing mechanism.
------
tgb
I think we're obliged at this point to bring up the cancer concerns that are
always present when dealing with nano-scale particles. Can these nanoflakes
break off? I know the asbestos problems were when breathed in, are there also
problems with drinking them? A very interesting product, though.
------
JoeAltmaier
Cool! Embed that in my water bottle bottom please.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reducing Slack’s memory footprint - cpeterso
https://slack.engineering/reducing-slacks-memory-footprint-4480fec7e8eb
======
bborud
Slack has to be one of the worst pieces of software I have seen based on what
it does and how it behaves. It gobbles CPU and memory to do something that
should require neither. It is offensively wasteful.
~~~
mordant
And yet Slack runs just fine on my 2016 12" MacBook, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPad
Mini 4.
~~~
bborud
I suppose you may not know any better. And I am not saying that to be mean,
I'm merely pointing out that your frame of reference _may_ not be the best to
judge how well the desktop Slack client was done with regard to resource use.
You may not understand just how few resources the desktop client could
reasonably be expected to consume.
And you would not be alone. Over the past 7-8 years I'd had to teach people
how to benchmark things. I see people measure things and then use their first
result as the performance reference. Sure, they can see relative changes, but
if you are orders of magnitude off a reasonable result, a relative reduction
of a few tens of percent is still orders of magnitude off.
As a developer you should have an idea what a _reasonable_ number ought to be.
For CPU, for memory, for latency, for anything you care to measure.
"It runs just fine" isn't data. It isn't a useful metric for performance.
~~~
joekim
> "It runs just fine" isn't data. It isn't a useful metric for performance.
I don't see any claims from "mordant" that their anecdote is a useful
performance metric. If anything it'd be a data point that could be used as a
user experience metric. ie. X% of users in the target demographic agree with
this statement, "works fine for me."
The point was a counter to your claim of Slack being, "offensively wasteful".
Further, isn't "offensively wasteful" equally useful as a performance metric?
If you're experienced in performance perhaps you could share some of your
"reason numbers" and contrast that to measurements your made against the Slack
client.
~~~
bborud
By "offensively wasteful" I mean off by orders of magnitude. At which point
the problem isn't one of mere programming but of actually having some idea of
what you are doing.
Recovery from this state of affairs doesn't happen by telling people how to
fix concrete, individual things, but teaching them to think about what they
are doing and to analyze things. In order to know when you are off by orders
of magnitude you need to have some idea of what is reasonable before you
measure. If the reality you achieve is way off what is reasonable, you either
need to change your perception of what "reasonable" is or you have to face the
possibility that you may not have done a good job.
A chat client that deals with perhaps 3-4 teams and perhaps 200-300 people
should not require 1Gb of memory and it should consume a negligible amount of
CPU. Any way you slice it that's a LOT of resources per user, per team or per
communication volume. So Slack miserably fails even cursory glance at
workload/resource usage.
You can start off with the lower layers: speaking a chat protocol. How much
resources should that eat up? For a chat application: too little to measure on
a modern machine. (I spent most of the early 2000s working on web-scale web
crawlers on much, much weaker server machines than even cheap desktop machine
is today). The IO should have trivial cost, the protocol parsing should
likewise have trivial cost or you have messed up badly.
Then move on to the internal state. Draw it on paper. What are the main
structures you will be needing. How much data do you need to keep in memory,
how much space does it need to take, how do access it and manipulate state?
What is a reasonable CPU expenditure?
Next is the UI. How do you make it responsive. How do you make it not gobble
up tons of memory. Are there tradeoffs you can make? How do other applications
do things? Where are the resources wasted?
One doesn't produce a resource hog like Slack by doing one or two things in a
wasteful and sloppy manner. One does it by having the wrong attitude and
systematically doing a bad job.
~~~
joekim
Thanks for your response. I generally agree with the technical approach, but
not with your assessment of Slack's products.
> By "offensively wasteful" I mean off by orders of magnitude. At which point
> the problem isn't one of mere programming but of actually having some idea
> of what you are doing.
That would imply that Slack, doesn't know what they're doing. Slack is an
extremely successful company. I myself use it for several teams
simultaneously. From a user and business perspective it generates a lot of
value and that ultimately trumps criticisms of their implementation.
> One doesn't produce a resource hog like Slack by doing one or two things in
> a wasteful and sloppy manner. One does it by having the wrong attitude and
> systematically doing a bad job.
Perhaps what you're taking into consideration isn't broad enough. Going back
to the original comment, if they did such a bad job, then why am I able to get
a lot of value from it? Their implementation seems "good enough".
What's the negative consequences of their "orders of magnitude" performance
problems? Does it destroy it's business value? What would you do if you were
the CEO? Cease all active development and re-build everything in scratch in
c++?
~~~
bborud
I'm not denying their success. But I'm also not attributing it to the quality
of their product.
------
pdog
Cool technique, but you hint at the best solution: "running all teams in a
shared context to eliminate the overhead of one webview per team."
~~~
brianwawok
Wouldn't the best solution be write it in C and have the entire app take 20MB
of ram?
~~~
CapacitorSet
I think Slack is focusing on code reuse, eg. using the same HTML/CSS/JS
codebase across all platforms - hence it would be preferrable to avoid having
to compile for every platform.
~~~
kalleboo
I don't think compliation is the issue, it's supporting the diverse platform
APIs and UI toolkits.
~~~
coldtea
They use like 5 widgets (styled text, textfield, buttons, radios, etc). They
could create their own UI toolkit with 1/10 the resources they have.
~~~
joekim
If this is true, then why are even bigger players with more resources like
Facebook and Microsoft building on top of Electron instead of building
natively?
I surmise that you are not alone in believing that Slack would be better built
as a native app. But if it's such a bad direction why are so many going down
this road and what are they missing?
~~~
coldtea
> _If this is true, then why are even bigger players with more resources like
> Facebook and Microsoft building on top of Electron instead of building
> natively?_
Because software is a pop culture, and the latest fad always prevails at most
shops. Also companies care more about cutting corners and shipping sooner than
about the long haul.
That said, it's not like Facebook particularly enjoyed web based apps: "Mark
Zuckerberg: Our Biggest Mistake Was Betting Too Much On HTML5"
[https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/mark-zuckerberg-our-
bigges...](https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/mark-zuckerberg-our-biggest-
mistake-with-mobile-was-betting-too-much-on-html5/)
~~~
joekim
The mistake there was one of timing and approach and they learned from it. The
promise of cross-platform, web-based technology is still there, that's why
they created React Native.
~~~
coldtea
React Native is not web-based. It just uses Javascript.
~~~
joekim
The technology originated from web. It uses javascript, React, babel, flexbox,
etc.
------
mdekkers
why not use the right tool for the job instead of doing Olympic-level
gymnastics to use a hammer as a screwdriver?
~~~
jjnoakes
Because it is faster and cheaper to get a junior JavaScript developer to bang
out a cross platform GUI in electron than it is to get one or more developers
together to write a proper cross-platform native application.
They cared more about cost and time to market than performance and technical
prowess, and in a business context, that is often a correct trade-off.
I don't like it because I prefer small fast clean applications, but I know I'm
in the minority and I accept that that's how the business world works.
~~~
mdekkers
_They cared more about cost and time to market than performance and technical
prowess, and in a business context, that is often a correct trade-off._
Cool when you are starting up and all, but surely they must have a bit more
money now, and would be able to do it right?
~~~
nemothekid
When Facebook was hitting performance issues with PHP, they decided to rewrite
the entire runtime instead of rewriting in a different language.
If Facebook with its billions decided it was cheaper to rewrite PHP, the
cost/benefit analysis must favor optimizing current code than doing a rewrite
~~~
mdekkers
Facebook is Facebook. Slack isn't Facebook, and neither is _every other
business besides Facebook_ Facebook decided to rewrite PHP because the CBA
worked out for _Facebook_ \- that doesn't mean the argument holds true by
default for any other situation.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2014 Thiel Fellows - clayallsopp
http://www.thielfellowship.org/2014/06/peter-thiel-announces-2014-class-of-thiel-fellows/
======
gohrt
“As student debt soars and the wages of college graduates sag"...
Thiel continues to hand out $100K grants (plus non-cash support) to
individuals to would receive full-scholarships to college and PhD placements
_anyway_ , some of whome _already graduated college_ and provides no
opportunities for average students -- the ones who take on debt.
The fellowhips are interestingm but don't help solve educational debt. The
"college sucks" libertarian political agenda is stapled to the side, making
the whole program smell bad.
~~~
analog31
Not to mention, every last one of them seems to be some kind of computer
programmer. No offense to HN, and I love programming, but I'd have hoped to
see more breadth.
Where are the biologists?
~~~
YokoZar
There have been biologists in previous classes.
Do keep in mind that the fellowship targets very very young people, and it's
exceptionally hard to show excellence in most fields by that age. Software is
a rare exception.
~~~
toufka
Not just 'show excellence' but actually know enough to contribute to the field
meaningfully. For better or worse, one can learn programming and some basic
math in order to contribute to the market in the span of a few years.
Traditionally to do good physics required a few years doing nothing but math,
and then a few years developing a good physical intuition. There have been
some great physics papers turned out by early-/mid- 20-year-olds. Modern
molecular bio requires a few years chemistry, a few years of either
math/stats/systems/programming, a few years of bio, and then a few more years
developing an intuition for biological systems. It's just a much longer route
to travel. A student - no matter how good - just isn't well suited to being
anywhere near 'useful' by the age of 20.
~~~
analog31
Agreed with all of the above points. What it suggests to me is that the idea
of bypassing college and going straight into entrepreneurship may only be
testable in a limited number of fields, notably programming.
------
tstactplsignore
Looking up one of the fellows who is using "crowd-sourced mobile computing", I
came across:
[http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/meet-hyv-a-startup-that-
can...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/meet-hyv-a-startup-that-cant-wait-
for-phone-unlocking-to-be-made-legal/)
Apparently the idea is to build a pay-to-use BOINC or Folding@Home, except for
iPhones, where the startup steps in by actually *paying 3rd party app
developers to bundle their distribution code in their app, thereby allowing
them to run independent code on a user's phone using the unaware user's
computing resources, data plan, and battery life without the user's direct
permission?
Not only would this seriously inconvenience consumers, have ample security
risks, have a dubious market for legitimate customers (Such a system could
never outperform the price of AWS or a custom GPU cluster, let alone volunteer
networks like BOINC and Folding@Home), only works at a ludicrously large scale
(Are there even enough iPhones out there to reach Folding@Home's 45
petaflops?), would require those running complicated algorithms to port
optimized code to Objective-C, but the icing on the cake is it only works on
unlocked phones.
So, did Thiel just fund a ridiculous idea which is essentially malware or am I
missing something?
~~~
uptown
Sure, maybe today the concept isn't the right fit for cell phones (all sorts
of trade-offs regarding CPU usage, battery-life, data consumption, etc.) but
perhaps the concept can evolve to take advantage of the future "internet of
things" grid which is likely to connect devices that have plenty of spare
processing cycles without the same constraints imposed by a mobile phone.
Aim for where the ball is going. Not where it is right now.
------
dmix
Nice to see Vitalik Buterin the founder of Ethereum getting backing.
~~~
markmassie
I was pleasantly surprised to see him on this list.
------
Killah911
This is a very interesting concept. I wonder how the previous Thiel Fellows
are doing. Probably too short of a time period for any definitive results to
come out, but it would be interesting if selection of highly qualified
individuals is more of a predictor of success than say, Harvard or MIT.
One might argue about the pedigree & network you get from college, but
couldn't motivated Thiel Fellows build equally powerful networks by virtue of
being a Thiel Fellow too?
~~~
spartango
Based on previous years, it would likely be difficult to make the comparison
with Harvard/MIT (or similar), given a good number of the fellows spent time
at either of those institutions. Those who did have had access to the
resources of both circles.
------
reledi
Any news on the progress of past classes?
~~~
whitehat2k9
Illegal activities such as impersonation and fraud?
[http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who-
tried-t...](http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who-tried-to-
impersonate-me.html)
~~~
imwhimsical
You're generalizing and blaming the entire Thiel Fellow community because of
one person? If you can somehow justify that, it still doesn't make sense to
spam the entire thread with the same link over and over again. Thanks.
~~~
opendomain
I do not think he is blaming the Thiel Fellows. After reading the link, it
seems clear to me that there was someone that received a fellowship that clear
should NOT have. The person putting in the link is just trying to raise
attention to this fact - maybe to try to get the fellowship to help correct
the situation. It does come off as spam, but honestly if this happened to you,
what would you do? Please read the story of the dead link and then make your
judgment. I probably would do the same after someone ruined my reputation
------
whitehat2k9
The Thiel Fellows program is a joke. Apparently, they've been accepting
lowlife, criminal script kiddies in recent years.
[http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who-
tried-t...](http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who-tried-to-
impersonate-me.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Crystal 0.31 - ksec
https://crystal-lang.org/2019/09/23/crystal-0.31.0-released.html
======
nerdponx
How portable are Crystal binaries? Or more generally, how easy is it to share
a Crystal program with someone who isn't a Crystal user? E.g. C and C++
requires a lot of esoteric knowledge w/ occasionally slow builds, Go isn't
that bad but has an intrusive bad default GOPATH, Rust + Rustup is like Go
with better defaults but relatively long compilation times, Python/Ruby need
the runtime installed + some kind of isolating environment, NodeJS just needs
the runtime + NPM, Perl needs some kind of CPAN setup which is really
confusing for newbies, etc.
~~~
rvz
Like Go, Crystal embeds the runtime inside of the executable by default so it
doesn't require the user to install the language runtime libraries on the
users computer unlike Java, C#, etc.
The only way to get a true portable statically-linked Crystal binary on Linux
is to compile your program statically using an Alpine Linux Docker container.
MacOS portability shouldn't be a problem since everything is static except for
libSystem.dylib.
~~~
pjmlp
Like Java and C# actually, it just doesn't get more known due to the amount of
devs that don't deal with commercial AOT toolchains outside corporations.
------
cyberferret
Excited by the constant development of Crystal. Here is hoping that the
various frameworks and shards will keep pace.
------
rvz
> Please update your Crystal and report any issues. We will keep moving
> forward and start the development focusing on 0.32.
There is potential in Crystal but the most terrifying thing about using it
right now is the breaking changes.
How often is it that Crystal has to continue to keep doing breaking changes on
every release? Everytime I read a new changelog, I am put off of updating due
to the number of changes required to compile with a new version. There are 8
breaking changes in this release which is enough to put some people off of
learning the language. It is now equivalent to Swift 3 at this point: No
source-compatibility, some initial Windows support and experimental multi-
threading.
Other than this, in terms of its speed and Ruby-like syntax, Crystal
completely blows all other languages out of the ocean. And it is on par with
C/C++/Rust and Zig.
~~~
norswap
It's still in the 0th major version, such changes are expected until 1.0. I
indeed wouldn't recommend using Crystal for anything serious until the
language stabilizes.
I think this is a good strategy if you want to end up with a good core
language with a lot of polish.
~~~
paulcsmith
Totally agree. If this happened post 1.0 I’d be concerned. But pre 1.0 this is
what I’d expect and want. Polish things up because afterward you can’t!
~~~
sjwright
(Or you can and you get the Python 3 debacle for a decade.)
------
helaoban
It is supremely annoying that the polygon icon in the top-left of the navbar
does not take me back to the home page, instead it's just a dumb play-thing
that I can drag around with my mouse.
People always judge books by their covers.
edit: that reads in a really nasty tone, imagine that I had instead said
"Unsolicited usability tip, ... " :).
------
maxpert
Can't wait for 1.0, shameless plug
[https://gitlab.com/maxpert/crlocator](https://gitlab.com/maxpert/crlocator)
is one of the project's I've been running on prod for over year now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fuchsia.dev - JayXon
https://fuchsia.dev/
======
jppope
no https?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Whats the best video talk you have ever seen? - ThomPete
There are many great talks available online. What are some of the best you have seen.
======
selfmadecelo
I've really enjoyed these two talks by Nickolas Means.
Skunk Works - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggPE-
JHzfAM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggPE-JHzfAM)
How to Crash an Airplane -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2FUSr3WlPk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2FUSr3WlPk)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Voice Integrated Into Sprint Service - acconrad
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/21/complete-integration-of-google-voice-and-50-million-sprint-customers-plus-4g-nexus-s/
======
marklabedz
With the news that AT&T is buying T-Mobile, does Sprint move to position
itself as a "cool, customer-oriented" mobile service?
------
nanoanderson
Brilliant maneuver by these two companies. As if I needed another reason to
wish more carriers carried the iPhone.
I look forward to Google Voice being something people understand as a feature
of their service plan rather than some mystery google product that makes
calling me more confusing than before.
------
MatthewPhillips
Google needs to go ahead and buy Sprint.
~~~
AndrewDucker
Why buy them? If you have partnerships then you can sell your product to the
entire market. If they buy Sprint then nobody has a reason to go into
partnership with them, because they'd be competing with their supplier.
------
nt
I am a sprint subscriber and had switched my voice mail handling to google
voice for a couple of months while using my existing number. I found that it
was not as reliable as sprint's visual voice mail, with notifications
sometimes coming in hours after the call. Also though gv rates for
international dialing are great the quality of the connection is lacking
compared to using sprint's long distance service.
------
mrkurt
Well I'm shocked. It's not often that I (as a Sprint user) get a cool new
ability before people on other networks.
------
marklabedz
Google Voice Blog post: [http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/sprint-
integrate...](http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/sprint-integrates-
google-voice.html)
~~~
mobilemonkey
Sprint landing page - www.sprint.com/googlevoice
------
camiller
Interesting. I have a Google voice number and a Sprint account but there is a
question I don't see an answer to, although I haven't dug around in the fine
print yet.
If I switch my Sprint number to Google voice, are mobile to mobile calls still
in the unlimited mobile to mobile pool, or do they go into the anytime pool(in
my case 1500 shared between myself, wife and daughter)? With a nearly teenage
daughter I'd rather keep most of our calls in the unlimited mobile to mobile
pool!
~~~
mobilemonkey
I worked on the Sprint side of this a bit, had the same question early on and
the answer I got was that it didn't change minutes of usage
calculations...so...nNo change to how numbers behave from a billing
perspective. If you're calling a mobile number and have AMA, it goes in that
bottomless bucket. If you're calling a landline, it uses Anytime minutes. Same
story for shared lines-- no change to how minutes are used.
~~~
camiller
Thanks for the info! So if someone calls my current Google voice number which
gets forwarded to my Sprint number it would not be AMA, but if I switch my
Sprint number to Google Voice control and they call that it is still AMA, yes?
Sounds like a winner!
~~~
mobilemonkey
yep, that's my understanding. If you actually sign up for GV as your Sprint
number, it acts just like your Sprint number. No forwarding involved.
Also, you get to keep your GV number for..I believe 6 months is the plan. It
behaves the same way as your Sprint number during that time. That's my
understanding right now anyway.
------
2mur
Wow. Just when I was thinking about looking for greener pastures, Sprint does
something seemingly user-friendly for once.
~~~
baggachipz
Same. I was pumped about Verizon LTE until I saw the insane caps they're
putting on usage. This plus Nexus S 4G + unlimited means I'll probably make
the switch when my contract is up.
------
bdb
This plus the 4G Nexus S is going to make it really hard to hang onto my old
T-Mobile/Nexus One combo. No equivalent of my T-Mobile no-contract post-paid
service, though.
------
bmelton
This is an interesting move, of course -- most of the carriers seem to hate
the un-monitorable things, like Google Voice, that we like so much.
Conversely, there's an interesting opportunity for Sprint here to catch all
the AT&T haters that will be leaving T-Mobile as they get acquired. I
personally haven't had much luck with either AT&T or Sprint in the DC area, so
I guess I'm Verizon-bound, but there is, perhaps, an opportunity for someone
to catch some chum.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Roskomnadzor recommended operators to block some of Amazon's IP-addresses - ivanblagdan
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://vc.ru/35196-roskomnadzor-porekomendoval-operatoram-zablokirovat-chast-ip-adresov-amazon&xid=25657,15700021,15700105,15700124,15700126,15700149,15700168,15700186,15700201&usg=ALkJrhjie2Z9UqNTT3cOFzdYMO_7hqmyvg
======
acqq
The part of the context (somebody can check the primary sources):
"Unfortunately, the app is also used by terror organizations around the world
when giving orders about terror attacks. This is due to the fact that it's
very difficult to decode and trace these messages. Rakhmat Akilov used it
during the Stockholm attack the 7th of April 2017 when five people were killed
and around 150 directly or indirectly hurt, physically or psychologically.
Zello was also used by Salman Abedi who killed 22 people, among whom we find
many children, during a concert with the artist Ariana Grande in Manchester
the 22nd of May 2017. The utilisation of this app among terror groups is
described in the book "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror" from 2015 written by
the security experts Hassan Hassan and Michael Weiss."
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zello](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zello)
I've read the first time about
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Stockholm_attack](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Stockholm_attack)
~~~
gandhium
Internet is also used by terror organizations around the world. Money is also
used by terror organizations around the world.
Moreover, oxygen and water are also used by terror organizations around the
world.
~~~
castle-bravo
That's why we're working hard to poison the water and replace the oxygen with
unbreathable CO2. It's hard work, but we're getting better at it every day.
Soon, terrorism will be nothing but an archaeological curiosity for visiting
extraterrestrials.
------
qwerty456127
Physical violence is obsolete. Rioters are futile. The only way to victory
over tyranny is inventing a kind of media efficient, reliable, anonymous,
invisible and easy to establish enough to set information flows free without
any compromises, totally or almost totally impossible to control, limit,
eavesdrop or detect. I believe this is what separates the humanity from the
next major level of development. The new messiah will be an engineer,
physicist and/or a mathematician to invent whatever will make this possible.
~~~
rainieri
What tyranny exactly?
~~~
qwerty456127
Whatever. A theoretical one. You name it. From whatever a political angle you
are watching, you can probably notice quite a number of them in the world. By
definition a regime is considered a tyranny once it starts doing harder to
keep the power at whatever the costs than to improve well-being of the people.
In the past people could oppose peacefully or violently, today they can't. My
hypothesis is that a society where anybody can easily communicate to anybody
secretly at any time will become an effectively self-regulating organism
making cancers of organized crime and tyranny nonviable. Special services like
the NSA or Roskomnadzor say they need to be able to eavesdrop and/or block
everything to fight the bad guys, I believe this probably is a mistake (or a
lie - everybody just wants the One ring and fighting the darkness is just an
excuse to keep it) so whatever an app they try and fail to have/block has my
sympathies. Once an app or whatever emerges able to stand the ground long
enough and easy enough for everybody to use we'll see.
------
amelius
What will Amazon do? Will they ban Zello from their network?
~~~
freehunter
I would hope not. AFAICT Zello is breaking no laws in their home country, and
is not breaking Amazon's TOS. Although it wouldn't be the first time I've been
disappointed to see a US company bend their rules to accommodate unrealistic
requests from dictatorships.
~~~
jessaustin
TOS can be amended. This seems more like the sort of thing you hire CloudFlare
to handle, not AWS. Why does this service need to operate from "dozens of
subnets"/"14 million IP addresses"?
~~~
freehunter
I’m not sure the service has that many addresses, just that’s as far as Russia
could narrow it down to block it. Otherwise they could just switch IPs and
keep rolling.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Solving real-world problems with Linux's proc filesystem - nitefly
http://blog.ksplice.com/2011/01/solving-problems-with-proc/
======
gnosis
In the "redirect harder" section, the solution given to a program that needs
an explicitly named file for standard input is:
echo hello | python crap-prog.py /proc/self/fd/0
In zsh the same thing can be accomplished with a more concise syntax:
python crap-prog.py <(echo hello)
And, if your process wanted to seek the file (which isn't possible to do with
a simple redirection of stdin), you could do:
python crap-prog.py =(echo hello)
The main difference is that here, behind the scenes zsh creates and deletes a
temporary file with the contents of the stdout of the program between the =().
Another neat thing you can do in zsh to solve the original problem is to
create a global alias for stdin:
alias -g STDIN=/proc/self/fd/0
Then, whenever you typed "STDIN" on the command line, zsh would convert it to
"/proc/self/fd/0". Then to make the exact equivalent of the original solution
(but one that's easier to remember and type), you could simply write:
echo hello | python crap-prog.py STDIN
A regular alias won't work here, since regular aliases only expand when
they're the first part of a command. Global aliases will expand anywhere in
the command line. So you just have to be a bit more careful with them.
\---
The solution in the "phantom progress bar" section is cute, and a good
demonstration of what's possible to do with /proc/$PID/fdinfo, but you could
just use a ready made solution like either of these:
<http://clpbar.sourceforge.net/>
<http://www.ivarch.com/programs/pv.shtml>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Nectar – A modular MVC framework for PHP - bswuft
http://www.nectarmvc.com/
======
conradk
Looks interesting. I like the modular approach the author seems to be taking.
Keep the core small and extend with modules. However, there are some things I
don't get about Nectar:
\- it is meant to reduce the barrier to entry, but from what I've experienced,
Laravel does a very good job at lowering it, \- it seems like the framework
doesn't come with Composer [1] support built in, which means you can't import
all sorts of awesome packages out of the box, \- other frameworks are modular,
namely Laravel, Symfony, Silex and a lot of others: what does Nectar provide
that these well established and battle tested frameworks don't?
I'm not trying to hit on Nectar, but I'm not sure I see its added value (yet).
~~~
bswuft
Thanks for the feedback! My main goal here is to recreate the workflow I'm
used to with Zend (with a bunch of customized stuff I've added over the years)
without all the bloat of Zend. Its more of an experiment than a finished
product (started it wednesday of last week). I plan to add more tools and
composer is definitely on the list. :) I guess this really stems from me not
liking how ZF2 works, but not wanting to give up a workflow that works really
well for me (from ZF1). I think that there are a lot of developers in the same
boat as me, and I really just want to build on it and make it better.
~~~
panopticon
I definitely see the ZF1 influence here. Disappointed to see that
application.ini made the jump--ini's are a really annoying format to work
with.
~~~
bswuft
I don't mind ini's. What format do you prefer? I thought about going with YAML
for the configs instead since I'm already using it for the database schema...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Descriptive titles or original titles? - pzxc
It saddens me that high-quality content, even if it's extremely interesting for hackers, can fail to gain traction on HN because of the policy of using original article titles. The author might write a great piece that lots of us would be very interested to read, but if they don't pick a good title it will never last on HN long enough for anyone to see it. I've seen many instances where something highly interesting was on the front page of HN for a short time - until a moderator came along and changed the submission to use the original title, even if it's less descriptive. And then it bombs if the title isn't eyecatching or if it doesn't appeal specifically to the part of the content that HN would find appealing. An otherwise great article, that might have lots to appeal to HN readers, will fail for something as simple as the page title not emphasizing the part that hackers would find interesting but another part of the content.<p>I understand (or at least presume) that the intent of the "original titles policy" is to avoid people submitting clickbait titles just to bring undue attention to their submissions.<p>But isn't there a way of applying the policy in a narrower way, so that great content that isn't well-titled still stands a chance on HN?<p>(In my mind, I'm thinking that it should be relatively easy for mods to distinguish between title changes that are obviously clickbait, and title changes that are simply more descriptive of the content. Right now, the policy is applied in an absolute way, which is evenhanded and fair, but means we're missing out on some great stuff just because the original author titles their content generically or in a way that doesn't mention the parts that would be interesting to HN readers)<p>I know this has come up before, and I fully expect <i>this</i> post to go nowhere. But it doesn't hurt to try! I really think that descriptive titles, not original titles, should be the order of the day. Just my opinion!
======
dang
Can you link to some examples of high-quality content, extremely interesting
for hackers, that bombed because a moderator reverted the title?
~~~
pzxc
Well, the reason I posted this today is because I posted a link to house.gov
where you could look up the personal finances/investments of each
Congressional representative. I also posted the link to the Senate version.
They must be highly interesting to hackers because both links immediately got
lots of upvotes -- about 30 for the HoR version and about 10 for the Senate
version, within the first hour.
My link was titled "House of Representatives Personal Finances" because I
thought it was more descriptive than "Financial Disclosure Reports Database"
which says neither whose info is being disclosed or what type of financial
info it is. I carefully considered and tried to choose a title that was more
descriptive but NOT clickbait.
After getting over 30 upvotes and reaching spot #5 on the frontpage, one of
the moderators changed the title to be the on-page title. I dunno if my post
was also hit with some kind of voting-ring penalty or changed-title penalty or
something else, but almost immediately it dropped to spot #31 (on page 2).
Right next to a post that had the same number of upvotes but was 8 hours old
instead of 1 hour old.
So maybe it didn't bomb because of the worse (original) title, maybe there was
some kind of penalty going on as well that could explain it. But after the
title changed and it immediately went from spot #5 to spot #31, it then in the
last couple of hours has received only 1 additional comment and no additional
upvotes, and now I can't even find the post without going to my profile page
and looking at my history.
That's the example that happened this morning that was the proximate cause of
this Ask HN post, but it has been on my mind for some time as I have seen it
happen to other good posts too, where the title had been changed by the
submitter to something more descriptive, then eventually a mod sees it and
changes it to the author's title and suddenly there's a lack of interest in it
and it rapidly gets pulled into the undercurrent.
EDIT: Forgot to include the actual link, it's
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8607463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8607463)
Wish I had other examples to show you, but although I've seen this happen
several times in the last couple of months, it's not a daily thing and I never
thought to record the links. But then I'm not on HN all day so the frequency
I'm sure is higher than my own personal witnessing of it
~~~
dang
That drop in rank had nothing to do with the title. A moderator penalized the
post, and a bunch of users flagged it, presumably because they thought it was
off-topic.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8608939](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8608939)
~~~
pzxc
Okay then. Thanks Dan.
------
DanBC
Sadly people tend to use clickbaity titles. That leads to pointless meta
discussion about choice of words.
I agree that I'm probably missing interesting content that is poorly named.
But I support moderators / software revertg to original titles.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to track an updates to a 3party libraries? - svetlyak40wt
As any software developer, I use many 3-party libraries in my daily job. Mostly, they are python libraries, but I think this theme should be language agnostic.<p>In python, we could store project's dependencies in different ways. They could be stated in the setup.py file or in pip's requirements.txt file. Some programmers prefer to pin exact version numbers some are not. I'm belonging to the first group.<p>Although pinning exact version numbers keeps me from accidental update to a backward incompatible versions, it also keeps me from updating (and more importantly from discovering) to a bug/security fixes, introduced in these new versions.<p>What do you use to follow 3-party libraries updates? How to solve this problem and keep on a bleeding edge?
======
bjoerns
I'm a Python guy - a 'pip-review' every now is what keeps me in the loop.
Admittedly not very elegant but it does the job.
~~~
bjoerns
apparently yolk -U does the same
~~~
svetlyak40wt
They are doing not exactly what I want. I want to know which changes actually
were introduced in version A.B.C.
------
svetlyak40wt
So, nobody knows the solution?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DAZN has Crowd-DJs for adding Artificial/Augmented Sounds to soccer games - ponderingfish
https://ottverse.com/fake-artificial-crowd-noise-bundesliga-dazn/
======
rrao84
I think Fox Sports does something similar and people complained. I've gotten
used to seeing cut-outs of people at ballgames now .. weird times that we live
in!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ello mocks Facebook by being creepy - halfimmortal
http://mashable.com/2015/06/25/ello-facebook-ads/
======
jarcane
Unfortunately, the Ello ecosystem seems more or less resist any non-artsy
content like an immune system warding off a plague. They've quite thoroughly
positioned themselves as an alternative to Tumblr photoblogs, and little else.
The recommendations and suggested users are all weighted towards hipstery,
partly because the algorithms all seem to be seeded off connections to the
founders, themselves artists.
The end result is that everyone not interested in posting art photos
inevitably seems to get bored and wander away.
~~~
sehr
It's not totally a bad thing though is it? Seems almost natural for a social
network to start with a sort of single focus
~~~
jarcane
No, it's totally a cool place, if that's what you're into.
As a writer and a techie though, I struggled to even find anyone else on the
network with similar interests, and of those, they seemed to wither away over
time.
The end result is less a "Facebook-killer" and more a "Tumblr/Pinterest
alternative for upmarket artists".
~~~
dredmorbius
@ddailey has some amazing SVG examples, I highly recommend him:
[https://ello.co/ddailey](https://ello.co/ddailey)
There's @ellotech: [https://ello.co/ellotech](https://ello.co/ellotech)
And @ellowrites: [https://ello.co/ellowrites](https://ello.co/ellowrites)
Search can turn up people writing on topics of interest, say:
[https://ello.co/search?terms=webdesign](https://ello.co/search?terms=webdesign)
[https://ello.co/search?terms=python](https://ello.co/search?terms=python)
(about 90 posts in 9 months)
Or you can enjoy the art.
------
amelius
Somebody should write an open protocol for social applications. Then convince
the governments to enforce companies to use that open protocol (like it is
already the case for telephony, for example).
I think for the European government, this would not be impossible to achieve.
~~~
pvg
That would bring the kind of unbridled, exuberant innovation that typified
telephony for decades to the internet.
~~~
freyr
I think you're trying to make a joke, but AT&T's Bell Labs was one of the
greatest centers of innovation in engineering and applied mathematics of the
20th century. The output was remarkable.
~~~
chris_wot
I guffawed, but then I remembered that these same people gave us sendmail.
~~~
freyr
Sendmail? No, but they invented the transistor. And UNIX. And introduced the
discipline of information theory. Confirmed the wave nature of electrons.
Pioneered cell-based (cellular) communications. Invented the solar cell. And
the laser. Created the first trans-Atlantic communication cable. The first
communication satellite. The C programming language.
------
codewithcheese
Those ads will be removed very quickly. The publicity is not from the ads but
from the articles about the ads. And the snake continues to eat its own
tail...
------
blhack
Me, and a lot of my friends, really _tried_ to use ello, but the interface is
so confusing that we really couldn't figure it out (not for lack of trying!).
Reading their about page just stinks of pretentiousness, as well, which kindof
leaves a negative taste.
[https://ello.co/wtf/about/what-is-ello/](https://ello.co/wtf/about/what-is-
ello/)
~~~
tim333
Much the same experience. They could do with an easier interface if nothing
else.
------
teaneedz
As an avid user of Twitter, all I can say is that Ello has captured my
attention to the point that I'm spending more time there these days (@teanee).
Twitter is still best for in-the-moment news, tracking bugs or product
updates, quirky random asides, and even finding other Elloers. Brevity is the
sweet spot for Twitter. However, privacy and ad tracking (including Twitter's
rush down the Facebook algo path) have made me look at Ello as a bit of an
oasis. I like the company's principles and take on what a social platform
should be. So yeah, I'm loving it on Ello - especially with an app now.
------
chris_wot
Ello is beautiful? Guess it really is in the eye of the beholder.
~~~
thomasfoster96
Just went to the Ello website and got greated by a flashing heading and a menu
with a single-digit font size. Not very welcoming in 1995, and a turn off in
2015.
~~~
dredmorbius
What browser/OS if you don't mind?
~~~
thomasfoster96
Chrome on Windows and similar (less usable but better looking) experience on
Safari/iOS8.
~~~
dredmorbius
Thanks.
------
aw3c2
I don't get those banners... First I thought they were placeholders not
removed by my blocker.
------
mahouse
Ello? Does that still exist?
------
fwn
I will def. give it a try after they published their Android app.
~~~
dredmorbius
That's being worked on.
[https://ello.co/cacheflowe/post/VCub0RNsU-
EkEzPd4dKmpQ](https://ello.co/cacheflowe/post/VCub0RNsU-EkEzPd4dKmpQ)
~~~
fwn
Yes, that is why I'm waiting. I'm on that list.
------
paulpauper
The joke is on anyone who invested in this company, thinking it would be even
1/100 a successful as Facebook. Remember bebo?
~~~
teej
I remember when Bebo sold to AOL and made its investors and founders
incredibly wealthy.
~~~
dredmorbius
AOL: [http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/13/aol-buys-bebo-
for-750-milli...](http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/13/aol-buys-bebo-
for-750-million/)
~~~
teej
Thanks
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Appdirect Buys Business Analytics Platform Leftronic (YC S10) - cdelsolar
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/10/appdirect-acquires-leftronic-to-deliver-fast-access-to-data-and-analytics-dashboards-for-app-marketplaces
======
andy_thorburn
It would be awesome if apps you purchased on the AppDirect marketplace would
automatically be linked into you Leftronic account.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Just How Correlated Are Silicon Valley Housing Prices and Venture Activity? - nickfrost
https://mattermark.com/vc-activity-just-might-predict-silicon-valley-housing-prices/
======
11thEarlOfMar
VC activity and housing prices are certainly correlated. I'd guess there are
several additional correlated metrics we can talk about: Traffic, employment
rates, salaries, etc.
What the world wants to know is the _causal_ relationships among them. If
cause can be well understood, the experiment can be repeated successfully
elsewhere.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pricing is weird - v21
http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/registernomads.php
======
zacharycohn
There's a lot of interesting psychology in pricing. There was a case study
(don't remember the link/source, I think it may have been in a TED Talk) a
while back about how the existence of an option that people would be dumb to
select can dramatically influence the outcome of the two options that make
sense.
Paraphrased example: There was a newspaper selling three packages: Newspaper
only - $40 Online only - $60 Online and newspaper - $60
There is no intelligent reason to select the "Online only" option, as for the
exact same price you could get the print version as well.
However, when this professor did two polls in several of his (large lecture)
classes. One group was given the three options, another group was given just
two options, print or online. The group given three options, predictably, had
0% selecting online only, with (these numbers are from memory) 70% selecting
both, and 30% selecting newspaper only.
The group that was given just the two options ended up dramatically preferring
the cheaper option with the numbers essentially reversed, 30% choosing online
and newspaper. (I looked for the talk to confirm the numbers but couldn't find
it - I'd love if someone could point it out and get the correct numbers).
The idea was basically that you could have a throw-away option that actually
GAVE MORE (perceived) VALUE and TOOK AWAY VALUE to other options.
This situation may not entirely apply to this example, but I wonder if what's
going on is basically: Trying to increase the perceived value of the more
expensive product by having a cheaper product right there, even though he
acknowledges there is no additional value.
~~~
photon_off
For anyone interested in learning tons more on the topic of consumer behavior,
here's a nice outline of the book "Predictably Rational" containing key
points:
<http://bookoutlines.pbworks.com/Predictably-Irrational>
Plugging that into moreofit.com gives you an endless list of interesting
consumer behavior articles:
[http://www.moreofit.com/search/?q=http://bookoutlines.pbwork...](http://www.moreofit.com/search/?q=http://bookoutlines.pbworks.com/Predictably-
Irrational)
~~~
cjy
*"Predictably Irrational"
------
patio11
For heaven's sake. This is every bad bit of pricing psychology I can think of
wrapped into a tiny package of poverty wages for the developer.
~~~
ericb
How so? He's selling twice as many at full price as the discount price
according to his real time stats.
To my mind, that seems like this isn't a failure at all.
~~~
tptacek
I didn't think too hard because as soon as I saw his rationale for cost-based
pricing I stopped thinking straight. So, just to get you started:
* Don't price things based on what they cost you unless you it's an ore or sorghum.
* Don't solicit customers that don't value your product.
* Don't demand that customers think carefully about which button to push to make a sale.
* Don't make the cheap option the first button users eyes cross.
You could probably go on to pick apart every sentence in the blog post (like
his misunderstanding of the concept and purpose of a "sale") or the fact that
his rationale sucks all possible incentive out of making his team more
efficient at building and harnessing content for his game, but those are the
big ones.
_PS: if those stats are lying, that'll be the one smart thing he did with
this page._
~~~
ericb
Hmmm... I didn't take his rationales seriously at all. I'm surprised you made
the mental leap to think the stats might be made up, but not the leap to think
that his cost based price might be fudged and provided solely to encourage
sales at the higher pricepoint.
I just looked at the genius of guilt-based discriminant pricing, and was
amazed it _worked_. (assuming honesty in reporting)
~~~
tptacek
Guilt-based pricing has been tried in lots of places, and I'm unaware of an
example where it's worked well. Radiohead seems to have had the most success,
and they grossed less on In Rainbows than any of their label releases (they're
a confusing example because their experiment was also about disintermediating
the labels, which was a success).
~~~
getonit
In Rainbows being a failure is the recording industry's spin and, as usual,
once you stop taking the cherry-picked data at face value and look at the big
picture, you find the complete opposite is true:
<http://techdirt.com/articles/20081015/1640202552.shtml>
~~~
tptacek
No, you are conflating two different issues. On the one hand, Radiohead
demonstrated that disintermediating the major labels is a win (naturally, the
industry wants to spin that). On the other hand, the response rate they ---
one of the most popular and beloved rock bands of all time --- got from this
promotion was... disheartening.
Think of it this way: Radiohead demonstrated that _anything_ , even _letting
customers set their own price_ , is better than working with a major label.
That doesn't mean letting customers set their own price is an economically
sound move by itself.
------
gregpilling
They should have also made a higher tier price. Some people would have paid
that because they love the game, and what is the big difference between $5.99
and $9.99 if you are in a wealthy country and have a full-time job?
~~~
jot
Having a higher tier price would also likely result in more sales of the
standard and even less of the discount.
------
jdietrich
Interesting nudge - the background image for the "discount edition" button is
a pile of maggots.
Aside from that, patio11 is right - there's nothing good about this idea. If
you can't immediately identify half a dozen _horrible_ mistakes in this
scheme, your first priority should be to do some reading on pricing.
~~~
tptacek
This should be fun. What's your half-dozen?
~~~
patio11
Ooh, can I play?
1) _Both_ prices are hideously underpriced. There is _no difference
whatsoever_ between $5.99 and $9.99 to anyone who has to type in a credit
card, so repricing that would double post-fee revenues almost instantly.
2) You critically hit gamers -- who have the attention spans of ADHD squirrels
hopped up on crystal meth -- with a wall of text just to get them to make a
purchasing decision. You can check this with analytics, not one gamer in a
hundred will actually _read_ this argument.
3) The availability of software at $3 compromises any notion of it being
valuable. You will not sell software to poor Africans. Do not price to be
affordable to poor Africans. (If $6 is too expensive, _$3 is not affordable
anyway_.)
4) Cost-based pricing. Don't mention it. Don't even _think_ about it.
5) Sales work because they are _scarce, time-limited events_ and _they
effectively segment_ customers who want the game _today_ versus customers who
want the game at the lowest possible price. Its a reverse auction, just like
book publishing, AAA games ($60 ~ $70 on release day, $20 in a year), MMORPGs
(pay for the box on release day, it will be free within a year), etc.
6) Showing your customers being penny-pinching lameos gives people _social
license_ to be penny-pinching lameos. It is like the broken window theory
(evidence of anti-social behavior causes anti-social behavior), and _you're
breaking your own freaking window_! If you wanted to highlight this, you would
do something like I suggested for the Indie Game bundle here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1318841> \-- give people options and
highlight that the _correct option is most popular_ without dwelling on how
many people make the wrong choice.
~~~
bobds
I don't think $6 is _hideously_ underpriced, considering that it is only an
expansion. The core game costs $20. A third of the price isn't that bad a
price point for game addons.
------
mjw
Interesting.
This kind of "differential pricing by gentle emotional blackmail" approach
seems to work for those who can establish more of a convincingly personal
relationship with the customer. Or which at least on a broad economic scale
feels like a relationship of equals.
As he points out, bigger orgs tend to fall back on the more traditional and
distanced means of differential pricing (sales, selectively-targetted
vouchers, student discounts etc)
------
someone_here
It's strange. As a 3D modeller who loves the game, I would adore making the
artwork for free for everyone to enjoy. GSB should involve the community more.
------
PatHyatt
I think this is a great idea and very upfront for the reasoning. There are
many games I know nothing about and would like to try, having the discount
edition (barring there is a demo) lets me do this at little cost to me, and if
it is a hit, I will be a lifelong customer paying full price onward. I dig it.
~~~
tptacek
Isn't this an expansion pack and not the full game? His customers already have
a relationship with him! Why is he offering them teaser pricing?
------
cullenking
I've considered this as well for pricing our product. We have users from all
over the world, all of which have a drastically different spending ability.
Additionally, we have a strong connection with our users, so I think the
emotional appeal would be successful.
It's just so hard to bet potentially thousands of dollars on it!
------
JoeAltmaier
Biggest mistake - too cheap by half. Best pricing change any online folks can
make: double your price, see what happens.
~~~
henrikschroder
I would assume it's much harder to double the price for what is the third
expansion pack in a series, that gives everyone price-points to compare with.
Also, if you make a computer game, its price will be compared to every other
computer game, and to be at the high end of pricing, you have to release an
AAA title that cost millions and had a 100+ person development team, otherwise
people will think it's too expensive.
So doubling your price is only a valid strategy if people can't compare your
price to similar products.
------
henrikschroder
Wait a minute? This looks like the best bits of Master of Orion 2, upgraded to
modern graphics standards. I've been waiting for something like this for a
long time. Now if only this workday could end so I can run the demo... :-)
~~~
JoeAltmaier
I still play MOO2. Interested: what are the "best bits"? I adore the tactical
combat - can you defeat 3 inbound battleships with 3 scouts and a missile
base? Ok it took 10 tries but what a blast when you succeed!
Buildings on the planet were cumbersome - how to improve?
Btw a group of us have designed a MOO-like collectible card game, in beta
test, pretty cool if I say so myself. 400 unique cards so far (Stellar
Converter! Ion Pulse Cannon!), dozens of deck styles/ways to win.
~~~
henrikschroder
The parts I really liked about MOO and MOO2 was that you could design your own
ships in minute detail, and then duke it out fleet to fleet. Really matching
ship layout against ship layout. The civ-like parts and research.. meh.
MOO3 was just in shambles, I spent years on the message boards of that
following the production, and the end result was.. crap. Some good ideas,
totally botched implementation.
Sins of a Solar Empire has an excellent starmap and fleet control, but not
customizable ships, and a static tech-tree.
Sword of the Stars was pretty good, but only somewhat customizable ships, and
I remember it getting a bit of both fiddly and repetitive on larger maps.
Random tech-tree was awesome. Should perhaps look at the latest expansions of
that.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
MOO2 could have another improvement: let me design starbases, missile bases
and ground batteries! Its so frustrating to capture Plasma Cannon and have all
the ground batteries become worthless.
------
getonit
No, pricing is fine, it's just that the anti-piracy brigade get more airtime
than the validity of their arguments merit... as has been demonstrated ad
nauseum by experiments such as this.
It's almost as if they know damned well that their reasoning is wrong, and are
just trying to milk as much as they can before the rest of the world catches
up. _Hey, wait a minute..._
~~~
tptacek
So basically your reasoning is that "you" should be able to set the price for
"my" work.
~~~
higher
Not at all. The reasoning is that it is simply impossible to "steal" a non-
rivaled good, and it is absurd to claim ownership of an integer.
~~~
tptacek
That's good to know, since the information required to log into your bank
account is also easily represented as an integer. Can I have it, please?
~~~
higher
Yes. It should be fairly simple to generate a program that generates all
strings of length 20 that will be accepted by Wells Fargo's login page. I
would consider such a program a compressed version of a string containing my
username and password. If you want to generate a shorter output, you might try
the De Bruijn sequence.
edit: I should warn you, though, Wells is likely bankrupt, along with FDIC. If
you want to plunder my accounts, you should get to work before accounting
fraud becomes illegal in this country.
~~~
tptacek
How about I take the easy way out and buy the integer that the Russian Mafia
contracted the malware authors to steal from your less technically-inclined
family members? They're just integers; who cares how I got them? You violate
contracts, I buy them fifth-hand from people who don't track where they came
from. 1452373618202299713253502665406299980733506930, right?
~~~
higher
6729466257235539554569001718687588373666448683224383231337026
019905073400751018156318144951134485894311062056319984854259
302060891437370381162512635651087373408262536857317506536147
186872170494090165706190665926457868924827595159015446360281
183010218745193464862049820311770912960304161135038871621506
701864534740543956506706066808523426942838251657370223868436
844466943532116866437404057835199710326105051910979218083463
184098377866657027576548215047851405584797025622487788995491
356686114689049989434173534898442252175036069087582093616931
342900502171436833896077813785678367742565874503193480565584 90906414
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bocker – Docker implemented in around 100 lines of Bash (2015) - sturza
https://github.com/p8952/bocker/blob/master/README.md
======
tluyben2
Until well into the 2000s we deployed all our services as chroots. I even sold
a server side product successfully which was distributed as chroot so it would
install almost on any Linux distro without having to care about dependencies.
It worked really well and felt quite a bit more accessible and lighter than
docker. We just had a script which basically did:
wget https://bla/image.tgz
tar xzf image.tgz
rm image.tgz
chroot image/start
and the product would be installed and up & running. A lot of clients thought
it was magic. No Apache install? No MySQL install?? It works on Fedora &
Centos & Debian & Ubuntu & ... ?
I use this currently still a lot to run new software on unsupported
hardware/kernels. For instance, I run a lot of new (Ubuntu) software on my
OpenPandora under the default OS on that device; I have an SD with a chroot
with Ubuntu and things like dotnet core. Runs fine. Gives devices like that a
second youth.
~~~
Riverheart
Any notable downsides to using chroots?
~~~
rotten
1) There were/are sometimes ways to break out of them. 2) The process table is
mixed in with your OS process table - making it hard to tell what is running
chrooted and what isn't. 3) The network stack is shared 4) They share an OS
You can make a "spectrum" of environments where you run code. One one side is
everything running on a single server in a single OS, on the right is
everything having its own machine and OS. In between you have chroot, docker,
blade servers, virtual machines, and other isolation techniques. chroot falls
somewhere between everything running in one system, and everything running in
docker containers on one system.
~~~
seba_dos1
1) should actually be "there are ways to break out of them, period". chroot
isn't a security feature, it doesn't even try to be one.
~~~
crdrost
This. If you want the security features, switch to a BSD (jails) or illumos
(zones). These started spiritually from that same chroot place but were
designed to incarcerate your software in a small subsystem.
The illumos ecosystem in particular got a lot of work from Joyent in this
container vein—like how Windows can now run Linux binaries natively because
they implemented the Linux system call table, illumos has Linux-branded zones
that do the same “our kernel, Linux’s API, no virtualization” approach to
Linux containers.
~~~
ncmncm
Windows runs Linux binaries by running Linux in a VM. Something newish is that
Windows _also_ implements Windows by running NT and a Windows UI in a VM.
Running on a hypervisor originated at IBM, on its 370, and is very mature
technology. Arguably, an OS running on bare metal is practically an embedded
system, these days; There are just so many things that make a hypervisor
useful or essential.
The key insight IBM had was that the hypervisor runs under the control of one
of its VMs. That means the hypervisor doesn't need to provide a full-featured,
comfortable work environment; that is the job of guest OSes. Instead, it
manages resources according to policies implemented in an "executive" guest OS
not used for, or vulnerable to mistakes or malevolence in, regular user
programs.
A modern example of such a system is Qubes, security-oriented OS that hosts
and orchestrates Linux, BSD, and even Windows VMs.
~~~
JonathonW
WSL 2 is virtualization-based (and likely Microsoft’s primary path going
forward), but WSL 1 was _not_ — it actually did implement the Linux ABI on top
of the Windows kernel, allowing Linux processes to coexist alongside Windows
processes (with no actual Linux kernel involved at any point).
It’s actually a pretty neat architecture— I’m on my phone right now and can’t
track down a link, but it’s worth reading about if you’ve got the time. Kind
of a shame that they moved on to the virtualization approach, but
understandable— they’re trying to solve the same sort of problem as Wine,
where you’ve got to mimic _all_ the quirks of a foreign OS and it’s also a
moving target (so you’re never “done”).
~~~
miohtama
File system access is super slow on WSL. This was one the drivers. If I recall
correctly it is because some common Linux syscalls (stat?) are missing/slow on
Windows NT kernels.
~~~
celticmusic
The filesystem in general is known to be much slower on Windows due to it's
extreme flexibility, but Linux design decisions assumed a much more performant
filesystem. Hence why running linux on windows slammed into the performance
problem.
------
soygul
Quoting from the source code:
[[ $# -gt 0 ]] && while [ "${1:0:2}" == '--' ]; do OPTION=${1:2}; [[ $OPTION =~ = ]] && declare "BOCKER_${OPTION/=*/}=${OPTION/*=/}" || declare "BOCKER_${OPTION}=x"; shift; done
If the ambition is to write lines like this, you can make it into ~1 line of
code.
~~~
bawolff
I dont even read or write bash shell scripts regularly and i can understand
what that line is doing fine. I would not be able to understand if the entire
thing was one line, so i think there is a significant difference.
Just because something doesn't follow general rules for readable code, doesn't
mean it is actually unreadable.
~~~
viraptor
Do you actually know what it's doing, or are you guessing and inferring from
patterns? There's a difference when you actually need to read the source for
details rather than a quick skim.
I can definitely guess the pattern and I do write bash regularly, but I see at
least 2 things I'd need to double-check the man page for the behaviour.
~~~
bawolff
If you are asking if i have memorized bash syntax fully and know that
everything he did was valid, than the answer is no. However the intent of the
code and what each component is supposed to do is clear, which is what i'm
looking for when reading code.
Heck, by this definition i'm not sure any code is really good enough. In my
job i have to write php daily, i still need to regularly look at docs to
figure out order of arguments for various library functions. I wouldn't be
able to tell if explode($a, $b) in php has the right argument order at a
glance without looking it up. But i understand the intent and generally assume
the superficial aspects of the code are right unless that part appears not to
work.
And furthermore, adjusting the number of newlines isn't going to help with the
question of if that piece of code is using bash syntax correctly.
~~~
organsnyder
I don't see anyone claiming that the syntax is incorrect. But it definitely
causes me to have to stop and do some mental processing (mainly thinking about
order of operations) to make sense of it.
------
phinnaeus
I do really like the implementation of help text:
function bocker_help() { #HELP Display this message:\nBOCKER help
sed -n "s/^.*#HELP\\s//p;" < "$1" | sed "s/\\\\n/\n\t/g;s/$/\n/;s!BOCKER!${1/!/\\!}!g"
}
~~~
t0mek
Initially I thought that bash supports reflection and is able to get the
function contents, including comments. But this function scans its own script
file ($1), looking for the comments starting with #HELP and formatting them.
This way the usage info can live near the functions implementing sub-commands.
~~~
andreineculau
Yup. It is a nice trick that you might find more often in Makefile. I have a
make target that does this consistently in all the makefiles I write:
[https://github.com/andreineculau/core.inc.mk/blob/master/tar...](https://github.com/andreineculau/core.inc.mk/blob/master/target.help.inc.mk)
target1: ## Do this
target2:
target3: target2 ## Do that
would be nicely formatted as the output of `make help` into
Available targets:
target1 Do this
target2 Do that
and if you want to see all targets along with their origin file, even those
without help messages, type `make help-all` to render
Available targets:
target1 path/to/Makefile Do this
target2 path/to/Makefile
target3 path/to/Makefile Do that
------
sixstringtheory
No doubt this is cool and represents good work! Nice job!
Can we really say it’s a reimplementation of Docker in 100 lines, though, when
it requires other dependencies that probably total in the hundreds of
thousands of lines? That’s still code that has to be audited by people so
inclined. Not to mention the other setup specified in the readme and maybe
having to build one of the dependencies from source. Usage doesn’t sound
necessarily trivial.
Makes me appreciate Docker that much more though. Getting up to speed using it
at my job and it certainly abstracts away many things, simplifying our
workflow and conceptual models.
~~~
brianpgordon
I think the idea is to show how much container functionality is actually
available out-of-the-box from the operating system. It raises questions about
Docker's billion dollar valuation when someone can come along and reproduce a
bunch of it with a short shell script. Next someone needs to take on
orchestration and show how silly it was for IBM to pay $34 billion for
OpenShift. :P
~~~
m0xte
It’s all about creating a brand and selling it these days.
I actually wrote the core of an ansible class tool in 200 lines of Perl 20
years ago. Perhaps I should have been bought by red hat by now :)
~~~
eeZah7Ux
> It’s all about creating a brand and selling it these days.
Yes, and that's a big problem.
Nowadays huge numbers of developers pick choose technologies because they are
hyped up (aka marketed) rather than being wary of them.
~~~
rhacker
meh - I mean, I don't know what language you write in today, but I would wager
it's a language that has had at least a million spent in some kind of
marketing, books, directly or indirectly or through advocacy (that also costs
money as it's a company telling employees to put effort into that instead of
other things). And if you include that, we're probably talking about $1M to
1/2 billion if it's in the top 10 tiobe index.
~~~
eeZah7Ux
I use different languages, none of which is company-driven or had significant
marketing campaigns, starting from Python.
Same for other projects (not programming languages).
------
nickjj
The real value in Docker isn't process isolation at a low level.
It's being a toolset to build and deploy containerized applications.
In other words, being able to docker-compose up --build on any Linux, Windows
and MacOS box is what's useful.
~~~
crdoconnor
docker compose is the tool that winds me up the most.
~~~
gureddio
May I ask why?
~~~
crdoconnor
[https://docs.docker.com/compose/startup-
order/](https://docs.docker.com/compose/startup-order/)
>The problem of waiting for a database (for example) to be ready is really
just a subset of a much larger problem of distributed systems. In production,
your database could become unavailable or move hosts at any time. Your
application needs to be resilient to these types of failures.
absolute bullshit. docker compose thinks that it can excuse its bugs by dint
of the fact that we're supposed to build "more resilient" applications to
accommodate them.
and, their proposed workaround with "wait for" is disgusting. their tool
should be able to handle readiness detection. it's so fucking basic.
it's not only this but this is an example of the bullshit in this shitty tool
excused with shitty reasons.
~~~
nickjj
> my test of "does my application work given that the database is running" is
> explicitly not accommodated.
Are you working with tools where this is a problem in practice?
Most web frameworks I've used will keep trying to connect to the DB in a loop
until it either connects and things start normally, or it times out after X
amount of seconds where X by default is configured to some number that's way
higher than it would normally take for your DB to be available, even if it's
starting from scratch with no existing volume.
No "wait for it" script needed (and I do agree that type of solution is very
hacky). Although to be fair the same page you quoted said the best solution is
to handle this at the app level, which is what most web frameworks do.
~~~
crdoconnor
Yes, I remember it was a problem with Django. It wasn't just the application
server, you might need to run some scripts, after the database is up, before
kicking off the webserver. Any workflow like this is explicitly
unaccommodated.
100% of the solutions ive seen to address this problem have been hacky -
either polling bash scripts or explicit waits.
docker compose is a piece of shit.
------
zantana
This bubbled up the other day which was interesting as well.
[https://blog.alexellis.io/building-containers-without-
docker...](https://blog.alexellis.io/building-containers-without-docker/)
It does seem like Docker will be holding back containers from achieving their
true promise, as it flounders looking for profitability and chasing k8s. Its
sad that we're still moving around tar balls without advancing some of the
tooling around it.
One of my biggest gripes as a non-k8s container user are that we are still
keeping all this versioned cruft with every container. I would like to see an
easier way to just get the latest binaries not dozens of tar hashes with
versions going back to the first iteration of the container. Probably closer
to singularity [https://singularity.lbl.gov/](https://singularity.lbl.gov/)
Another area is the ability to update containers in place. Hass.io
[https://www.home-assistant.io/hassio/](https://www.home-assistant.io/hassio/)
does some of this with the ability to manage the container version from within
the container, but seems like a little bit of a hack from what I've seen.
Watchtower is closer to what I'd like
[https://github.com/containrrr/watchtower](https://github.com/containrrr/watchtower),
but why can't we have a more integrated system built into the default tooling?
~~~
efrecon
I have successfully used code built around my gist at
[https://gist.github.com/efrecon/8ce9c75d518b6eb863f667442d7b...](https://gist.github.com/efrecon/8ce9c75d518b6eb863f667442d7bc679)
to recreate containers that have the identical set of original options, but
with a newer image.
------
adgasf
Docker is designed to push you towards DockerHub, not to be the simplest or
best container implementation.
~~~
vpEfljFL
Why do you think it's not a good practice?
Docker is a good tool and deserves some resources to continue developing the
product and funding marketing team. I wish docker hub to be more competitive
among other rivals.
~~~
adgasf
> Why do you think it's not a good practice?
I didn't say it wasn't. Docker makes sense because everyone uses it.
However, I would prefer a Docker alternative that is purely local and doesn't
require so many permissions.
~~~
my123
podman is one, and it can even work just fine without root permissions.
~~~
MadWombat
Really? How can it run a web server container, for example, without root
permissions? You need root to listen on port 80.
~~~
takeda
Well, isn't that a specific case though? From my experience most containerized
apps use higher port.
In FreeBSD you would be able to also remove such restrictions if needed (not
sure if something is also available on Linux) alternatively you could have
your app listening on a higher port and use iptables to forward port 80 there.
~~~
MadWombat
> From my experience most containerized apps use higher port
Most public images I see on Docker Hub run on default ports. Sure, a lot of
these are configurable, but then you need to reconfigure all the consumer
services to use a non-default port. FreeBSD is not an option, unless you are
willing to run on your own hardware. As for iptables, does podman provide
network isolation where you can define iptable rules per container? I know it
wouldn't work with docker.
------
mirimir
Cute.
For me, the hardest thing about Docker was running my own registries. Or
rather, configuring credentials so Docker would use them. Not to mention the
hassle of doing that through Tor.
So maybe Bocker isn't so picky about registries.
------
thebeardisred
Fun anecdote: Early in the lifespan of CoreOS (early 2014 IIRC) I was meeting
with technology leadership at a Fortune 500 customer. I remember the head of
developer services asking all kinds of Docker questions. Finally, he was cut
off by his boss who said:
"Bob¹*, unless we've solely staffed the organization with folks from coder
camps a lot of the folks here should be able to carve out a couple of
namespaces in the kernel. That's not interesting and that's not why we asked
CoreOS to come in today. Let's talk about the actual problems they're trying
to solve."
<3 <3 <3 <3
That being said, it's great that folks continue to dig in to decompose the
tooling and show what's actually happening behind the scenes.
¹Bob was definitely not that guy's name.
EDIT: Added note of context appreciating the work by the author.
------
zelly
I was thinking about something like this for build systems. Everything in
Docker is regular Linux. I get why Docker is so big for its use case as cloud
deployments, but what I actually want from it is such a small piece of it.
Hermetic, reproducible builds that produce the same binary on the same kernel
release. No dependency hell because the dependencies are all part of the same
build. (I know Bazel has a lot of this already.) The Docker solution of
pulling in an entire distro is overkill, and it doesn't even solve the problem
because dependencies are just downloaded from the package manager.
~~~
adgasf
> it doesn't even solve the problem because dependencies are just downloaded
> from the package manager.
The advantage of Docker is that you can verify the container works locally as
part of the build process rather than finding out it is broken due to some
missing dep after a deployment. If you can verify that the image works then
the mechanism for fetching the deps can be as scrappy as you like. Docker
moves the dependency challenge from deployment-time to build-time.
~~~
crdrost
Does container mean something different to y’all than it does to me?
I ask because I read your comment as saying “the advantage of Docker is that
it uses (explanation of what containers are)” and the parent comment as saying
“all I want from Docker is (explanation of what containers are)” and I am
confused why (a) y’all are not just saying “containers” but rather “the part
of docker that packages up my network of scripts so I can think about it like
a statically linked binary” and (b) why you think this is a competitive
advantage over other things you might have instead recommended here (Buildah,
Makisu, BuildKit, img, Bazel, FTL, Ansible Container, Metaparticle... I am
sure there are at least a dozen) to satisfy the parent comment’s needs.
Is there really any container ecosystem which has write-an-image-but-you-
can’t-run-it-locally semantics? How do you finally run that image?
~~~
zelly
Docker is too general, too much of a Swiss army knife for this particular
problem. The problem I am talking about is where a C++ program has all of its
dependencies vendored into the source tree. When you run Make, everything
including the dependencies build at the same time. All you need is a chroot,
namespaces, cgroups, btrfs, squashfs--plain old Linux APIs--to make sure the
compiler has a consistent view of the system. Assuming the compiler and
filesystem are well behaved (e.g., don't insert timestamps), you should be
able to take a consistent sha256sum of the build. And maybe even ZIP it up
like a JAR and pass around a lightweight, source-only file that can compile
and run (without a network connection) on other computers with the same kernel
version.
Again, Bazel is basically this already. But it would be nice to have something
like OP's tool to integrate in other build systems.
I _could_ just make a Dockerfile and say that's my build system. But then I'm
stuck with Docker. The only way to run my program would be through Docker.
Docker doesn't have a monopoly on the idea of a fully-realized chroot.
~~~
crdrost
You might be interested in LXC if you haven't seen it already. It is also a
big tool, but it is smaller than Docker.
------
gauthamzz
Docker also implemented using 27 lines of python. [https://github.com/Zakaria-
Ben/Pocker/blob/master/Pocker.py](https://github.com/Zakaria-
Ben/Pocker/blob/master/Pocker.py)
------
logophobia
Huh, clever use of btrfs volumes, it does make it a little dependent on the
filesystem though. Quite informative overall, probably implements only a
fraction of docker, but it does do most of what you'd typically need.
------
songzme
I am so interested in this, but there are so many things I don't understand.
I wonder.... is there a service (Maybe a chrome extension) that lets you ask
questions on the page you are in? For example, I want to highlight:
`btrfs-progs` and ask... "What is a quick summary about this package?
`ship a new enough version of util-linux` and ask.... "What features in the
new util-linux allows this to work?"
Then maybe someone who also visits this page with more knowledge can answer my
questions.
This tool would augment my learning 10x and I would be a paying customer. Does
something like this exist?
~~~
tmcb
Let me know if that is what you are looking for:
[https://web.hypothes.is/](https://web.hypothes.is/)
As an example, WikiWikiWeb ([http://wiki.c2.com/](http://wiki.c2.com/)) has
integration with it. I've never used it, but it seems quite powerful.
~~~
songzme
Wow thanks! Set this up smoothly and asked the questions I posted above. Will
reach out to friends and start a community. Thank you for the find!
------
lbj
Well, it definitely got a chuckle out of me. Good job!
------
jerome-jh
"You won't believe line 4"
------
yepthatsreality
This was posted after a recent repost of another implementation in ~500 lines
of code. See other HN discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22232705](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22232705)
------
sub7
Containerization makes sense for a tiny, tiny fraction of all products. It's
just been overblown and overused, creating another point of potential failure
for no great benefit at all.
Just chroot the damn thing if you need to and keep it simple.
------
maitredusoi
I am wondering if the same was done in ruby, what it would like like
------
pantulis
Now I only need someone to write Kubernetes in 500 lines of Bash.
------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9925896](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9925896)
------
RocketSyntax
`entrypoint` directory is critical feature
------
killbot5000
just wait until you see how easy it is with bocker_compose
------
ponytech
Shouldn't it be mentioned this is from 2015?
~~~
dang
Yes, and now it is. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Cloud Email with Strong Privacy - josephby
HELP! A client of mine is looking for an easy-to-use cloud-based email solution with strong privacy protection.<p>They've got four requirements:<p>1) no cleartext is stored in the cloud<p>The only way to read the mail is to enter a secret at the beginning of each session.<p>2) email is encrypted instantly upon receipt by the service<p>e.g. an SMTP daemon is running that encrypts each email using a public key and stores only the encrypted copy<p>3) email can only be read by the person who holds the secret<p>4) the mailbox should be easily accessible using a client application<p>And one non-requirement:<p>The solution doesn't have to protect plaintext emails from intercept in transit.<p>I'm not talking about encrypting emails between parties; I'm just talking about storing them securely while preserving ease of access
======
DrWhax
Something like this you're looking for? <https://code.google.com/p/gpg-
mailgate/>
------
ghubbard
I think requirement 2 is a problem here.
If your cloud provider has the plaintext how can you trust it?
~~~
josephby
The solution doesn't have to protect against intercept-in-transit.
For example, suppose that this was implemented on a VPS on some random hosting
provider, and I own all of the code on the VPS. The hosting provider could
record all email traffic coming into that box, but that problem isn't in scope
(and could be addressed with, say, openPGP).
~~~
ghubbard
Just store your mail in an EncFS or truecrypt container on your VPS then?
Who/what are you trying to defend against?
~~~
josephby
That might work; can either of these be configured with separate encrypt and
decrypt keys?
Basically, if someone takes control of the hardware or software we're hoping
that it would still be very difficult to get at the contents of the emails.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Study shows that excessive athletic training can make your brain tired - rajnathani
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-09-excessive-athletic-brain.html
======
rajnathani
The part of the brain measured in the study to be fatigued is the lateral
prefrontal cortex (the prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision making).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ICCV 2015 Papers on the Web - fitzwatermellow
http://www.cvpapers.com/iccv2015.html
======
ashwinl
Thanks for posting this
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Write good git commit messages - pafo
https://juffalow.com/other/write-good-git-commit-message
======
scrollaway
Writing good commit messages is one of those things that IMO make the
difference between a dev who produces good code, and a dev who produces high
quality work in general.
The git log is one of the main entry points to an open source (or closed
source, in fact) project. Following them tells a story, and can help you
understand decisions made.
Imagine you have two projects to bisect. One of them has clean, atomic and
descriptive commits. The other has a git log that looks like this:
[https://github.com/pypa/pipenv/commits/master?after=d4d54eeb...](https://github.com/pypa/pipenv/commits/master?after=d4d54eeb39ef45a9b68c78b8fc8f66c3f5396691+1154)
I know which one I'd want to debug. This is also the primary reason why I
highly dislike merge commits: They make git logs extremely unreadable.
The thing is that writing clean commits is something that is extremely easy to
do. Unlike docs and tests, it's not more work (it's less, in fact) and it's
not something to continuously maintain as the code changes. It's an immediate
improvement you can make to your development habits that will have a
consequential improvement to your QOL. You _will_ catch bugs doing this!
(Tip when writing atomic commits: Use `git add -p`. That lets you stage patch
hunks.)
~~~
sly010
Writing the good quality commit message is not that hard and is sometimes
actually enjoyable (after all i get to brag about this feature / bugfix /
solution).
What does cause a lot of mental overhead (and consider myself a decent
engineer) is creating commits that have a single purpose in the first place.
Working on a new feature I often have to refactor something, and while I am at
it, I clean up some related parts. That is at the minimum 3 commits applied in
the correct order, sometimes over different branches. At that point there is a
lot of `git add -p` and `git stash apply` going on, which takes considerably
more mental energy while you see some colleagues getting away with `git commit
-a`.
Writing good commit messages itself is the reward for creating good commits.
~~~
awolf
Rather than `git add -p`, I suggest creating a second clone of your repo,
staging your foundational refactor changes in the second repo, creating and
merging your commits there, and then rebasing your working branch.
This makes sure you can fully test your refractors and that their change sets
stand alone.
~~~
dllthomas
If you know your way around git well enough that you're not going to be
screwing up _repository_ state in ways you can't fix, there's no reason to
operate from separate clones - check out git worktrees :)
~~~
bacon_waffle
Thanks for that! I've occasionally thought a feature like this would be
possible and helpful, but hadn't encountered it until your mention.
~~~
dllthomas
I felt the same way when I stumbled across it in a man page :)
------
navinsylvester
I use the following convention to start the subject of commit(posted by
someone in a similar HN thread):
Add = Create a capability e.g. feature, test, dependency.
Cut = Remove a capability e.g. feature, test, dependency.
Fix = Fix an issue e.g. bug, typo, accident, misstatement.
Bump = Increase the version of something e.g. dependency.
Make = Change the build process, or tooling, or infra.
Start = Begin doing something; e.g. create a feature flag.
Stop = End doing something; e.g. remove a feature flag.
Refactor = A code change that MUST be just a refactoring.
Reformat = Refactor of formatting, e.g. omit whitespace.
Optimize = Refactor of performance, e.g. speed up code.
Document = Refactor of documentation, e.g. help files.
~~~
hmcdona1
This is similar to the Conventional Changelog:
[https://github.com/conventional-changelog/conventional-
chang...](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/conventional-changelog)
I often use a customized Commit Lint in combo with Husky to enforce
conventional changelog messages:
[https://github.com/marionebl/commitlint](https://github.com/marionebl/commitlint)
[https://github.com/typicode/husky](https://github.com/typicode/husky)
You can also throw in something like the Commitizen cli for newcomers:
[https://github.com/commitizen/cz-cli](https://github.com/commitizen/cz-cli)
------
BlackFly
These sorts of prescriptions always strike me as the sort of fastidiousness
that some software developer types are stereotyped with.
Just once I would like to read someone that takes a descriptivist approach to
commit messages instead of a prescriptivist approach. I would prefer even a
scientific approach where someone sets out to measure if these sorts of
measures have a concrete measurable effect beyond people's anecdotal
preferences.
Prescribing what a commit message can look like implicitly prescribes what a
commit can look like and that turns a flexible tool into a less flexible one.
For many people, lack of flexibility can be a feature... but it is an
empirical question on whether or not if it aids development and I am not
really aware of anyone trying to measure these things. In the spirit of "No
silver bullet," by Fred Brooks, I am skeptical that between the code comments,
the code documentation, and the ticketing system that the git commits are
adding much.
~~~
majikandy
Best comment I read so far on this. Taken a stage further, a well written
codebase of self-documenting tdd’d clean code and commit messages become
moderately useless. For all the effort they take and the rare occasion they
aid in finding something useful, a completely blank entry for every commit is
arguably more efficient. In the spirit of it only taking a few seconds whilst
your head is in that space, a short brain dump of what it is in any format you
like is an excellent and efficient choice.
------
jimmytucson
My take: these aren’t good commit messages. The verb isn’t supposed to be what
you did, otherwise it would always be “add” or “change” or “fix”. The verb is
supposed to be what the program does thanks to this change. E.g. “Check server
fingerprint”, not “Add server fingerprint check”.
We already know you changed or added something, it’s a git commit.
~~~
MatekCopatek
But how would you name the commits that fix, refactor and remove that same
feature? "Check server fingerprint with less errors", "Check server
fingerprint in a different way" and "Check server fingerprint no more"?
~~~
matthewmacleod
“Handle timeout errors when checking server fingerprint”, “Use new API
endpoint for server fingerprint”, and “Replace server fingerprint checking
with magic”.
You can still use those verbs, but the interesting thing in commit messages is
_what they do_ , rather than what changes you made.
A commit message is really like a small note to future contributors; it’s not
always easy to write them, but it’s always worth thinking about them from the
perspective of someone who is looking at them two or three years hence.
~~~
usrusr
But "Replace server fingerprint checking with magic" has clearly crossed the
line from "the verb describes what the code does" to "the verb describes what
the developer did".
"Note to future contributors" is spot on of course. The best way to write
better commit messages is to consume the existing corpus as often as possible,
e.g. by never trying to understand code without the blame column active in
your editor of choice.
My preferred format is a condensed why-what, consisting of "$verb $ticket
$wherein":
$verb would be the developer activity, like fix/optimize/remove/.., and it is
mostly there to make it clear that the rest of the message should not describe
developer activity.
$ticket would reference your beloved issue tracking system (an additional
short keyword describing the issue doesn't hurt as a checksum and to prevent
excessive referencing, but it has to be optional because a bad keyword is
worse than none).
$wherein would be the customary quick rundown of how the code is supposed to
work, expect future readers to only read the beginning.
I like this order because it gives a rudimentary sentence structure to the
formulaic parts and positions them at the beginning where they can never be
pushed below the fold by the potentially rambly description of the code.
Anything more complicated than that will degrade harder when rules are not
followed to the letter. Perfect is the enemy of good.
------
chatmasta
I'm disappointed that the mods changed the title from "Write good commit
message" (which is the actual title of the article) to "Write good commit
messages," because I think this was an intentional, subtle joke by the author
to make the title resemble a commit message.
------
cygned
I always recommend this article: [https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-
commit/](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/)
The recommendations are the same, it's longer and provides more rationale at
some points.
~~~
CydeWeys
Yeah, it's the same advice, just Chris Beams did it over 4 years earlier.
This is the article I always link people to on my team when explaining how to
write commit messages. My company doesn't have a style guide for this exact
thing, so this article is what I've been using. And the results are here:
[https://github.com/google/nomulus/commits/master](https://github.com/google/nomulus/commits/master)
------
NateEag
Good commit message summaries are important (the short one-line overview).
Including links to the issues the commit relates to in the body is important.
That said, most of what I've seen in large commit message bodies (like the
ones I used to write) really belongs in the patch itself, as changes to the
project's formal documentation or source code comments.
If you thought it was worth explaining why you made the change as you did, it
likely means the choice was not obvious.
If it wasn't obvious, the explanation belongs in the project proper, where
anyone who cares can see it, not tucked away in a commit message that may be
hard to discover four or five years down the road.
If it's a decision that impacts UI, the justification belongs in the project
specs or docs, where people besides devs can find it (I like to keep my specs
and docs as plaintext in the repo and render them to HTML for non-devs to
reference).
If it's a strictly internal decision, like what algorithm you chose for a
function's internals, you should explain why right there instead of hiding
valuable knowledge in the commit message.
~~~
u801e
> If it wasn't obvious, the explanation belongs in the project proper, where
> anyone who cares can see it
A lot of times, code comments may not be updated along with code changes, so
they may not be accurate. A commit message is associated with a change at the
time it was made.
> not tucked away in a commit message that may be hard to discover four or
> five years down the road.
The git blame command makes it pretty easy to see what commit introduced a
line of code and it also makes it easy to see the context of the change (the
rest of the diff).
> If it's a decision that impacts UI, the justification belongs in the project
> specs or docs, where people besides devs can find it
There's no reason that it can't be recorded in both places.
> If it's a strictly internal decision, like what algorithm you chose for a
> function's internals, you should explain why right there instead of hiding
> valuable knowledge in the commit message.
But let's say you want to make a change to the method and you have a comment
explaining the change there. Now you make a change to the method and some
other part of the code breaks. If you looked at the commit message instead,
you can get an explanation and the context of the change (meaning the other
parts of the code that relied on the original change you're looking at).
~~~
NateEag
> A lot of times, code comments may not be updated along with code changes, so
> they may not be accurate. A commit message is associated with a change at
> the time it was made.
Code review ought to catch comments that haven't been updated.
Further, if a change would have caused the comment to become stale and
irrelevant to the project's current state, the commit message would have the
same problem. Where you keep it doesn't impact that.
If you want to look at historical states, the comment itself is saved
perfectly in the old commit, just like the commit message would be.
> The git blame command makes it pretty easy to see what commit introduced a
> line of code and it also makes it easy to see the context of the change (the
> rest of the diff).
I am intimately familiar with `git blame`, and have used it for code
archaeology in puzzling codebases over a decade old.
It sure beats having nothing, especially when you configure it to ignore
whitespace changes and use Magit's lovely blame interface to move through
history quickly, but it can still be a pain to figure out where code really
originated from.
If the originating commit gives me a link back to the issue that started it
and the code's well documented, I don't need more verbosity.
> There's no reason that it can't be recorded in both places.
There's no reason it can't be recorded in fifty places.
That doesn't make doing so a good idea.
> If you looked at the commit message instead, you can get an explanation and
> the context of the change (meaning the other parts of the code that relied
> on the original change you're looking at).
You are describing looking at a commit, not the message. By definition the
code changes are not part of the commit _message_.
At the end of the day, what I described in my comment is something I arrived
at after years of writing verbose messages and slowly realizing it wasn't the
best way.
You are, of course, free to disagree. Do what works for you.
~~~
u801e
> Code review ought to catch comments that haven't been updated.
There are a lot of people who just look at the diff and not the rest of the
code when reviewing. If the comment doesn't appear in the context lines, they
may not catch it.
> if a change would have caused the comment to become stale and irrelevant to
> the project's current state, the commit message would have the same problem.
Not really. Unlike a comment that can be seen with the current code base, a
commit with an outdated message tends to show up in very few lines (if any) in
the git blame output for a particular file. For example, in a code base I deal
with, the first commit for a particular file where the message explained the
rational and some implementation details now only shows up in git blame output
for certain blank lines in the file since most of the file has changed in the
years since that commit was made.
> but it can still be a pain to figure out where code really originated from.
You may want to look into the -S and -G parameters of the git log command.
They can be used to see when some text was added, removed or moved.
> If the originating commit gives me a link back to the issue that started
Until you encounter the situation where those links are useless because the
system they linked to was migrated to a new platform. Had the actual text been
there, then it still would have been useful.
> the code's well documented
In my experience, code comments rarely explain why a change was made. But if
the associated commit message does contain that explanation, then it makes it
much easier to see the context of the change.
> There's no reason it can't be recorded in fifty places. > > That doesn't
> make doing so a good idea.
That also means you don't have to look in multiple places to find the
information you need. The further the documentation is removed from the code,
the more likely parts of it will be inaccurate due to changes in the code
base, so if you only record documentation in a contract or wiki, then it's
very likely that contract/wiki may not be completely accurate.
> You are describing looking at a commit, not the message. By definition the
> code changes are not part of the commit message.
You can see both by running git show sha1_from_git_blame.
> At the end of the day, what I described in my comment is something I arrived
> at after years of writing verbose messages and slowly realizing it wasn't
> the best way.
I've spent years encouraging people to write verbose commit messages for
changes they made. I've found them very useful (especially in cases where the
person who wrote them no longer works for the company and they're no longer
around to ask for further clarification). Whenever I come across a commit
message that doesn't explain why a change was made and have to ask the person
who made it what they were thinking, I invariably think that it would have
been much better if their explanation was in the commit message in the first
place.
~~~
NateEag
To clarify, I'm not arguing against commit message bodies entirely. They're
valuable and I write them regularly. Not for every change, but lots - maybe
sixty - eighty percent.
I'm just saying that huge, multi-paragraph essays are often a sign you're
putting information in the wrong place.
I should also add I'm a big believer in small, focused commits - I fairly
often will have a branch that has a few hundred lines changed and twenty
commits.
You make a good point about the issue tracker dying - I've worried about that
but have yet to encounter it in practice. Reducing the impact of such an event
is probably a good reason to denormalize a little there.
------
ronjouch
Meh. This post is not harmful, but focuses on syntax and fails to insist on
the most important thing: tell _WHY_ you made the change; the _what_ and _how_
are already apparent in your code.
See Greg Ward at PyCon 2014: _" Documenting history, or How to write great
commit messages"_. His talk starts at 6:07. Direct link:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb6ij4eRu6c#t=367](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb6ij4eRu6c#t=367)
~~~
joe8756438
This is exactly right. It's easy enough to see WHAT happened by looking at the
code. Of course you can document the WHY in code also, but that usually ends
up in a comment that gets out of date. Whether you're trying to figure out why
the shit hit the fan or understanding a new codebase: commit messages that
explain reasoning are gold.
------
jordigh
One thing I always want to tell people about commit messages:
There’s no length limit.
In fact, write as much as you can. Go crazy. Write some more. Explain. Talk
about how your day went. Tell us how you found the problem. Put benchmarks
that show why your change makes things faster. Show the stack trace or test
output that you’re fixing. Quote other people. Put an email chain in the
commit message.
In a well-curated commit history, commit messages become source-level
documentation available via an annotate/blame operation. Most people hate
writing documentation, but commit messages are about the only time when our
tools force us to write something. Take this opportunity to really write
something. It’s the only time when writing is really required in any way.
There’s no need for a length limit because most of the time the commit
messages are hidden away, and most interfaces will hide the full commit
message anyway (or can easily be configured to do so).
If you want practice jamming lots of information into a small amount of space,
that’s what the first line of the commit message is, but after that, don’t
feel constrained by length limits.
These are examples of my favourite kind of commits:
[https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/4fb2bb61597c?style...](https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/4fb2bb61597c?style=gitweb)
[https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/ed5b25874d99](https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/ed5b25874d99)
[https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/1423ff45c322](https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/1423ff45c322)
[https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/dd028bca9221](https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/dd028bca9221)
[https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/8d5584d8345b](https://www.mercurial-
scm.org/repo/hg/rev/8d5584d8345b)
~~~
robocat
From your first link: I think that comment should be placed as a source code
comment near the source code: "preferedchunksize = 32768". I think magic
numbers should be described at the point they are defined, or at least put a
link (in a source code comment) to why the music number was chosen....
~~~
jordigh
That would be a lot of clutter.
When you're on a codebase where people bother writing commit messages,
reaching for blame/annotate output becomes second nature and reveals so much
about your code. It's just as good if not better than comments, because every
line in your source now has a comment.
~~~
tln
In fact, every line of your source has several comments! Which may or may not
really apply!
BOTH are needed IMHO, comments must be able to communicate knowledge a reader
of the code-as-a-whole needs to know, and commit messages must be able to
communicate knowledge a reviewer of the change needs to know.
------
tqkxzugoaupvwqr
Question: I use past tense instead of present tense because I explain what
changed. But I see a lot of commits written in present tense. Is one better
than the other? Which one?
~~~
laumars
You'll get plenty of devs who's make an impassioned argument that present
tense reads better (and they'd be right to an extent) but honestly it's really
more of an OCD thing than anything. The important thing is that messages are
detailed enough to be accurate but terse enough to be eyeballed quickly (if
you need more detail then include that after the first line summary); and that
you include reference numbers if you're commit is in relation to a ticket (eg
JIRA, Github Issues, etc).
Some people add tags, emoticons and other stuff. But the real key is
consistency. Pick a format and stick with it
~~~
brlewis
If the key is consistency, use present tense. If you consistently use past
tense, that works until your team merges with another one that's more
conventional.
The commit message is the headline of your story. Headlines are in present
tense even though they describe past events.
~~~
laumars
Honestly, out of all the things people argue about this has always struck me
the strangest. It's the part that makes the least real world difference (vs
not including ticket numbers - for example) yet it seems to be the thing
people get the most impassioned about.
Consistency is important, but if you're expending more energy arguing about it
than you would deciphering past tense message then you have serious questions
to ask yourself. :P
------
jph
Git commit message:
[https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/git_commit_message](https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/git_commit_message)
How to write better git commit messages, as a repo README. For example, we use
wording Add/Fix/Optimize/Refactor and semantic versioning, etc.
Git commit template:
[https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/git_commit_template/b...](https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/git_commit_template/blob/master/git_commit_template.txt)
You can use a template to improve git commit messages, that prompts for
writing "Why" you are making a change, and any co-authors, and any links, etc.
Constructive advice welcome. I'm the author.
------
vishnu_ks
If you enjoy this article you will find the Zulip project's commit guidelines
interesting as well :)
[https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/version-...](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/version-
control.html)
------
MacroChip
This is something I put significant effort into. Same thing for test names.
Most importantly, I explain why I did something. A test name
"testFilterSpecialCharacters" adds no documentation.
"testFilterSpecialCharactersBecauseSpecialCharactersCrashTextBoxLibV1_3" is
way better. It adds documentation and context that don't exist in the lines of
code in the test. I also added the exact version of the library that motivated
the filtering for convince. Don't be afraid of long commit messages, test
names, or varibale names.
------
Memosyne
I've been using the commitizen prefixes
(feat/fix/docs/style/refactor/perf/test/chore) but I've noticed that they make
messages lengthier and a little more difficult to understand.
I really wish git would have a built-in category system so that I can
automatically generate changelog headings (features, tests, etc...) without
sacrificing the legibility of commit messages. Git clients could display this
information alongside the message (think of how Github displays the short
commit hash).
~~~
scrollaway
I have always been extremely peculiar about commit messages and IMO the
commitizen stuff (aka "semantic commits") is one of those things which is only
useful if you personally find it useful _and_ you are the only one working on
your project.
I have never seen it work in a team of 2+. People mix up what each prefix
means. Hell, I've seen someone "use" it but only ever use "feat:" even for
typo fixes. I ended up rewriting his entire git history to strip all "feat:"
instances from the commit message since they were just noise.
Basically the only time I've seen it work is when all the following is true:
\- You're on a solo project
\- You commit a lot
\- You're very consistent with your prefixing
\- You want to use those prefixes to generate changelogs.
… then it's useful. Otherwise, it's noise.
~~~
Outpox
I disagree, we've been using it with friends of mine and I enjoy it. The main
reason is so that's it's easier to generate a changelog as we're following the
Angular commit guideline. I would consider Angular a successful project and
this is their git history:
[https://github.com/angular/angular/commits/master](https://github.com/angular/angular/commits/master)
~~~
scrollaway
I mean, I've seen it used by larger teams as well. For example Sentry uses it.
I've also had feedback from several devs using it in such teams that the whole
thing was "bureaucratic bullshit".
That said if you and your friends are happy users of it, I'm glad. I suspect
that if you have a small team that knows each other well enough, that is a bit
of an extension of a one-person project and it can still remain. I personally
have seen the system crumble enough times with even one single user, not to
trust it in the hands of two at once.
~~~
Outpox
> I suspect that if you have a small team that knows each other well enough,
> that is a bit of an extension of a one-person project and it can still
> remain.
Well yeah that's exactly this. Tough I've got to admit that it doesn't work
that well as we'd like regarding external pull requests since contributors do
not all read our commit guidelines.
------
ncmncm
Imperative is certainly correct.
However, the examples fail by emphasizing what was changed, rather than why it
was changed. Sometimes those are the same, and that's ok. But when they're
not, why is overwhelmingly more important. What can be seen from looking at
the diff.
These days, why is most usefully a PR number, and your workflow automation
turns it into a URL you can click. I.e., why did you make a change not
motivated by a PR?
------
agumonkey
Having checked out a forgotten 3yo fork I realize how this could be ..
important.
~~~
adtac
That is also exactly what a new dev goes through, so one should remember that
it's not just for themselves.
~~~
agumonkey
The original project had generic commits .. harsh. Mine are just a tad too
cryptic. It's so damn easy to be fooled by everything you have in mind when
coding..
------
ttty
You should always put the Jira/story id in the merge commit at least.
~~~
dasmoth
This seems to have become really pervasive the last few years, and I recognise
it’s sometimes driven by regulatory/certification requirements. But in the
absence of those, what does this gain you over putting a sentence or three of
human-readable motivation into the commit message?
~~~
detaro
All the context from the issue that doesn't fit in a sentence or three?. Of
course it depends, if the issue doesn't have context it's not important, but
things like "who requested/reported this", "who was involved in decisions
made", "what alternatives were considered and why where they rejected" might
not necessarily fit in the commit message but exist in an issue.
~~~
dasmoth
If there's stuff that's valuable, I'd prefer to see it pasted into the commit
message -- far less likely for links to get broken.
If it's _long term_ valuable, _i.e._ "I considered obvious, attractive
alternative algorithm X but it failed horribly because of Y", I'd prefer that
to go in a comment in the code instead. Far more likely to still be noticed in
three years time, after the code's been run through two different auto-
formatters and otherwise mangled around.
------
buttholesurfer
We started using commitizen at my workplace. It really seems to push the idea
of good commit logs. Combined with jira ID hooks to keep people from pushing
without a story/ticket.
[https://www.npmjs.com/package/commitizen](https://www.npmjs.com/package/commitizen)
Edit: doh, didn't scroll to the bottom!
------
seymour333
I always appreciate commit messages that are informative and well structured.
That said, I'm not a fan of specific formats for commits. The commit messages
in a project are where a lot of that project's collective "personality" is
stored. If you look through the commits for a project with a "colorful"
variety of messages, you'll get a sense not only of the work that was done,
but of the people who helped create the project.
Somewhat related: @git_commit_m on twitter has some great (and amusing!)
examples of what not to use for commit messages, which are pulled from
github's public data set.
------
kureikain
The key to write a good commit message is to write it for others, not for you.
Many time I see commit message is written for the author itself who has all
the context around it.
The Go programming language has very good commit messages
------
TuringNYC
For me, an ideal git commit message is one that also links to a bug or feature
ticket. Both {Github+Github Issues} and {BitBucket + Jira} support this almost
seamlessly, I imagine other systems do as well.
~~~
IE6
I agree here. OP's article mentions Chris Beam's page [1] and I have all our
developers follow that structure which helps but ultimately the biggest
strength is the final line with the link to our JIRA.
[1] [https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-
commit/](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/)
------
iliaznk
There's this advice I read in a similar article that, I think, makes a lot of
sense and is ignored in 99 cases out of 100 – put a period in the end of a
commit message so a reader can clearly see that nothing is broken or corrupted
and what they see is the entire message in its full.
Each of the few times I would mention this requirement on a project people
would look at me like I'm a retarded child and keep not using the period.
------
pasxizeis
Relevant: [https://github.com/agis/git-style-
guide](https://github.com/agis/git-style-guide)
------
stefan_
There are some tools that basically don't support this. GitLab is the biggest
offender:
1) default view is all commits in a MR squashed together
2) messages beyond the title hidden under a click on some micro expand icon
3) going through a MR commit by commit means clicking on an individual commit,
waiting for the damn thing to load it's view for 10 seconds, then when you're
done you have to go backwards and do it all again
~~~
dcosson
We use the same settings in Github of squashing PR commits. I guess it's a
matter of preference but IMO this workflow is a better version of what the
article describes.
You get the best of both worlds, you end up with a very readable history of
commit messages, where each one describes a single feature or unit. But while
you're working you don't have to break your flow to write documentation every
time you commit, or go back later to rearrange/rebase commits.
------
skinnyasianboi
I will redirect the article to my boss and coworkers who are not conviced to
commit with "Fix/Add/Update".
~~~
Vinnl
My favourite anecdote about this is an old coworker of mine who, at a certain
point in time, had a number of successive commits with the commit message
being his first name.
~~~
rocqua
I mean, if he's called Peter, and 'to Peter' has come to mean something like
'fix tiny typos' then a commit that says 'Peter' kind of makes sense.
------
Doches
I'm a big fan of outsourcing this sort of discipline to tools -- check out
[Komet]([https://github.com/zorgiepoo/Komet](https://github.com/zorgiepoo/Komet))
for a commit-specific text editor that makes it easy to write better commit
messages.
------
kazinator
Write commit messages in the GNU ChangeLog format.
E.g.
[http://www.kylheku.com/cgit/txr/commit/?id=bfc527af1af619742...](http://www.kylheku.com/cgit/txr/commit/?id=bfc527af1af619742163d238eac9f2b24f363b0d)
------
stroebjo
I would recommend to also look at this guideline + tooling to create an
automatic changelog based on your commits:
[https://www.conventionalcommits.org/](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/)
~~~
shouldnt_be
I always force myself to write good commit message. But I often ask myself if
it is really useful or if I'm just too tight and want things to look good.
This standard might be useful for library maintainers in the cases stated
here: [https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0-beta.2/#why-
us...](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0-beta.2/#why-use-
conventional-commits)
Like having everyone using the same guidelines (code style) when writing code.
This might also be useful if everyone use it.
------
z3t4
I want to know _why_. I can already see what you did by looking at the diff.
~~~
jstimpfle
When you need an overview what happened in the last week, do you prefer to
_always restrict yourself_ to scanning 10k lines of diff (which may be missing
relevant context)? Wouldn't a screenful of short commit log be helpful?
------
Brosper
We use commitizen and it's working well. We also autogenerate CHANGELOG.md
------
gcoda
"if applied, this commit will" Works like code comments, and i feel how it
helps daily when using gitlens vscode plugin.
------
chatmasta
I'm obsessed with writing good commit messages, for a few reasons.
(1) Documentation is important, and comes in a few major forms: docs, code
comments, commits, and tests. Docs and code comments are good for initial,
high level understanding. Most "bad" documentation appears in the form of code
comments and external docs, because they are most likely to drift out of date
with the code. Tests do not have this problem (assuming they all pass) because
they are in sync with the code, and provide a nice way to understand
interfaces and implementations (the "what"). Similarly, commit messages, by
their very nature, cannot drift out of date with the code, and provide an
opportunity to document the "why". Therefore, commit messages are at least as
important as tests, comments, and docs and should be treated with the same
respect.
(2) Often the "why" of a particular implementation touches multiple files
around the codebase; in many cases you want to document the "why" in comments,
but that only helps when it applies to a single section of code. A commit
message is an opportunity to document the "why" of an implementation that
touches multiple parts of a codebase.
(3) Writing good commit messages forces you to keep the code contents of a
commit tightly related to its message, lest the message be inaccurate.
(4) Because good commits are groups of closely related files, you can
understand the subtle interactions of a codebase by looking at which files
change in the same commit.
(5) A good commit log tells a story and can often provide reasoning behind
what may seem like the madness of a legacy codebase. If you don't understand
why a file does what it does, just search the history for all commits to that
file and you will have a much better idea. There is a cool tool called Gource
[0] which visualizes commits to a git repo in a way that can tell such a
"story."
Some of the rules I follow:
(A) A short message with an imperative mood documents the "what". A longer
body, in list form, documents the "why" and/or the "how." Always include the
body unless its a tiny commit with an obvious why/how.
(B) A pull request should follow the same idea as commits, in that it
documents the how/why. It should also document the "how" of using any new
features it introduces. If possible, it should include
screenshots/videos/links of the changes so QA engineers / managers can quickly
read it for high level expectations of the next release. Other commenters in
this thread have mentioned that pull requests are where the documenting should
happen. But good pull requests are just as important as good commit messages;
they are not mutually exclusive. A pull request is just a higher level commit.
(C) Before submitting a pull request, use `git rebase -i` against the
development/master branch to squash, reorder and fixup commits. For example,
sometimes one commit is "solve problem A using method X," but you change your
mind in a subsequent commit "actually, solve problem A using method Y". In
that case, the two commits should be squashed together if they are in the same
pull request. In general, do not be afraid to aggressively reorder and regroup
commits in a pull request, if it improves clarity of the pull request as a
whole. For this, I like to use a tool called rebase-editor [1] that makes
interactive rebasing easy and satisfying.
[0] [https://gource.io/](https://gource.io/)
[1] [https://github.com/sjurba/rebase-
editor](https://github.com/sjurba/rebase-editor)
------
arrty88
Does merging / squashing kill good commit message?
------
ft_TI-84
Definitely works better than " "
~~~
cpburns2009
I frequently use "." because my commits are all over the place. I know it's a
bad habit.
------
0xdeadbeefbabe
Quit overloading the word good.
------
InGodsName
When i Opensource project, i hire freelancers to beautify my commit messages.
It makes all commit messages sound like a story where one innovation leads to
another.
~~~
bauerd
Surely this is a joke? You hire someone to clean up your commit messages?
~~~
InGodsName
No it's not a joke. Aesthetics matter.
Look at my latest comment, it's part of the package.
------
dzolvd
tl;dr: git gud
------
StapleHorse
Haaaaands!!
------
glutamate
Disagree. This is creating barriers for people to commit early and commit
often.
~~~
mikelward
You shouldn't be merging broken/exploratory stuff to master. Rebase or rewrite
the commit so it's correct, self-contained, and others can understand it.
------
muratgozel
The content of commits should be like Medium articles. I give up when I see it
in the command line.
------
TbobbyZ
What's the point of adding a sentence or two to a commit message? I only
include a keyword and the issue number, e.g. "Closed #41" or "Fixed #41". This
will link the commit to the GitHub issue, which will allow any users to see
all the details they need about what was involved in the commit message.
~~~
rco8786
That’s not particularly helpful if you’re looking back through git logs or at
a git blame. Unless you’ve memorized the context of every github issue you
have.
Also what if you move from github to bitbucket? Or self hosted git?
Git provides a great way to keep your changelogs directly next to the code,
why not use it?
------
chvid
One of the many horrible things about git is that it barks at an empty commit
message.
Of all the documentation that whatever you are working is lacking; you want to
have people writing commit messages.
Seriously; no-one reads this stream of incoherent babble. If you want more
documentation start somewhere else, somewhere where your documentation effort
actually would be useful.
~~~
majikandy
I can’t believe this has been greyed out. Absolutely well said. Self
documenting code all the way, what a ridiculous place to hide documentation.
~~~
chvid
Of course I was joking.
All IT-projects need more documentation. And all tools should enforce that.
Git should require a readme.md file all repositories and that file should not
allowed to be empty.
Java should require javadocs for all methods, fields and classes. Should not
compile if missing or empty.
And so on ...
------
amelius
Or integrate with an issue tracker and/or project management tool, and you'll
get:
43ec6aa Fix issue 1001
4fe84ab Fix issue 1002
753aa05 Implement feature request 1003
df3a662 Implement spec 1004
~~~
k_
I'd say _add_ issue tracker reference, not replace the description with it
43ec6aa Fix error when the URL is not reachable (#1001)
4fe84ab Add error message if something went wrong (#1002)
753aa05 Add server fingerprint check (#1003)
df3a662 Fix shadow box closing problem (#1004)
~~~
deadbunny
Yup, though I usually put the ticket number in the body of the commit rather
than the title.
~~~
adtac
Me too, but I put a full hyperlink to the github/gitlab issue in the body
instead of just the number so that someone can just click and start reading
what it's about. It also creates a back-reference on the issue page in some
web-based issue trackers like Github.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Speech and Language Processing (3rd ed. draft), Jurafsky, Martin - DerCommodore
https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/
======
totetsu
Very indepth book
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the Internet will change the world - mnemonicfx
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57611/title/Comment__How_the_Internet_will_change_the_world_%E2%80%94__even_more_
======
wdewind
This is useless, sorry. The TLDR: people generally agree technology is getting
better (shock), people generally are not prepared for the future (shock). The
internet is probably going to make us smarter (shock). Privacy is a big issue
on the internet (shock).
~~~
mnemonicfx
Useless, but published anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Malware hits millions of Android phones - Bedon292
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36744925
======
CarolineW
Some story reported on by arstechnica, submitted twice[0][1], but so far
uncommented upon.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12051850](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12051850)
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12054240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12054240)
_Added in edit: I 've put in this comment in case people want to find a
different source of the story, suspecting that it might be more interesting to
HN users to have arstechnica as the source. Clearly some people think that's
worth a downvote. <shrug> You're training me even more not to care about HN._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Does Conflict Drive Cooperation? - datelligence
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2016/KlingTurchin.html#.V8xeTl1enPE.hackernews
======
danharaj
Peter Kropotkin thought so about intraspecies cooperation being driven by
conflict with a harsh environment, much of his evidence coming from observing
wildlife in Siberia which is quite a harsh place to live. Here is a note about
his work by Stephen Jay Gould:
[https://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/kropotkin.ht...](https://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/kropotkin.htm)
------
raz32dust
This can be summarized in the old adage, (roughly) "There is nothing that
binds people together like a common enemy". I don't see anything ground
breaking here.
External conflict can cause internal unification. Of course, to elicit
cooperation, there needs to be a common benefit or good to all parties
involved. But external conflict is not the only possible stimulus, though it
might be the easiest to trigger.
------
MichaelMoser123
There is a very interesting talk/interview with Peter Turchin here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=q6fx3AN0tlo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=q6fx3AN0tlo)
It is about the follow up to the book discussed in the link: 'Ultrasociety:
How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth'
[https://www.amazon.com/Ultrasociety-Years-Humans-Greatest-
Co...](https://www.amazon.com/Ultrasociety-Years-Humans-Greatest-Cooperators-
ebook/dp/B0185P69LU)
Turchin is the founder of Cliohistory - he is trying to formulate mathematical
models that can describe history in the sense that it checks if social theory
corresponds to the models - similar (but not identical) idea as the fictional
psychohistory of Asimov's foundation series.
------
erikb
I really like the article and what I've read from the free pages of the book
on Amazon.
The concept of metaethnicity struck a cord with me immediately. I spend quite
some time outside the borders of my own country and took care of foreign
students during my university time. Thereby I also developed that feeling that
a country is not just one ethnic group, but many. And even a single individual
doesn't just belong to one group, but to many. Also I personally never was
able to associate myself with a single group alone, always felt e.g. hackers
have some interesting concepts I agree with, nerds have some interesting
concepts I agree with, scientists, Warhammer 40k players, punk rockers, at the
same time communists AND capitalists and so forth. But no group alone - so I
felt- could represent what I stand for. And that is a real problem when trying
to find a purpose in this society I live in, where people believe you are an
individualist because you decide which group you fully associate with. That
sounds strange and it is.
But something I don't understand. The book defines Asabiya (as quoted in the
blog) as this:
> Asabiya of a group is the ability of its members to stick together, to
> cooperate
So it's a measure of cooperation.
But then the essay goes on to talk about it's competitional aspects:
> If asabiya is supposed to predict the winner of an inter-group contest, then
> one must be careful to measure it in some way other than by counting
> victories in inter-group contests.
Why? Why should a cooperative value be measured in wins against others?
I would say the following are good measures of cooperation, and are
indirectly(!) able to predict competitive capability as well as comparison of
this capability:
\- 1 divided by the number of tax frauds, equalized over the population could
measure the cooperation of a country
\- The total revenue of a company (this is obviously discussable)
\- The mean grade of a class (cooperation between teacher and students)
\- The number of successfully graduating students of a university
\- The average time of a customer in an entertainment park like Legoland or
Disneyland
\- The total daily amount of tips of a restaurant
Sure, if you have two restaurants and one is able to generate only slightly
more tips, then it's hard to say who would win in a competition for customers.
But if the numbers are big enough it's quite clear, e.g. if one restaurant
makes $10 and the other makes $765 then it's quite clear the second one must
cooperate a lot better (of course considering all other factors equal, as is
done in science).
Thus I think if we look at "what are they cooperating on? Which values are
depending more on the result of cooperation than on the individuals output?"
then we can find a lot of ways to measure cooperation without including
competition. And I find this very important since the final, visionary (=not
achievable) goal should be to get rid of competition altogether. And you can't
really do that if you put it in the formula which you then use to measure your
success.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Zapcc – A caching C++ compiler based on clang - turrini
https://github.com/yrnkrn/zapcc
======
whitten
Could someone give us more of the story around ZAPCC ? I see that it is a C++
compiler that is based on clang, and that it only works well on Linux. Could
someone (perhaps turrini) share some comparison tables of the relative speed,
size, disk usage, of this compiler compared to clang and gcc ?
~~~
mbel
Explanation why fork of clang was required (as opposed to just improving
clang) would also be interesting.
~~~
hendzen
I evaluated zapcc at one point. Its a fork of clang because the changes are
very intrusive to clang, and probably would have had a hard time getting
accepted in to trunk without a ton of debate. I believe it actually daemonizes
in to a long running server process (zapccs) that then holds the instantiated
templates in memory, communicating with the zapcc compiler process over IPC. I
think that most clang maintainers would have found that radical of a
rearchitecting kind of controversial especially from an outsider to the
project.
~~~
loup-vaillant
> _especially from an outsider to the project._
That should really not be a criterion.
~~~
epilk
How else will the project know that the major changes will be maintained?
Having code in a project without an owner will just lead to bugs and bit rot.
~~~
loup-vaillant
So now not only projects have to be maintained, we also have to maintain
_changes_? I'm seriously getting sick at the notion that nothing can ever be
finished.
Bugs? That will be those introduced by the change, nothing more. If there is
any bug left, that's only because nobody discovered them yet. Having a
maintainer won't change that, only _usage_ reveals bugs. (Unless of course the
"maintainer" is instead tasked with finding bugs in the first place).
Bit rot? That's only an issue when the environment _around_ the code changes.
Clang is a _compiler_ , there's not much it cares about its environment. And
if you're talking about changes _within_ Clang that could have an effect, and
those are well within the maintainer's control. We shouldn't need a maintainer
for every patch.
This change in particular doesn't seem to introduce any new feature. I'm
guessing it only allows Clang to run faster. The new code path _replaces_ the
old, so it shouldn't require much more maintenance.
\---
More generally, we should do away with the notion that everything should be
maintained, forever. We should be able to code correct programs. We should
have environments stable enough to preserve that correctness. And we should
stop believing we need so much code in the first place. Let's not kid
ourselves, programs "require maintenance" (euphemism for "aren't finished"),
mainly because they're so damn big. We can do better, really.
[http://vpri.org/work/ifnct.htm](http://vpri.org/work/ifnct.htm)
[http://www.projectoberon.com/](http://www.projectoberon.com/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk)
------
qyron
Does ZapCC provide libclang.so which utilizes this caching?
I noticed that parsing heavy-templated files with clang-based tools is also
very slow which probably means that some kind of template instantiation (or
other processing step) is being made. These tools could greatly benefit from
any speedup.
While reported 2x average speed-up may be not big enough for me to consider
ZapCC for offline compilation, 2x less time to get list of completions in
Clang-based IDE is something I would be very happy to get!
------
floatboth
> in-memory compilation cache
I'd like to see a persistent cache. In-memory doesn't work well for the
"occasionally recompile Firefox, LLVM/clang, WebKitGTK, etc." desktop use
case...
~~~
lorenzhs
Isn't that what ccache provides? Admittedly it's not perfect but it sounds
like it might help your use case.
[https://ccache.samba.org](https://ccache.samba.org)
~~~
floatboth
This new zapcc thing seems to be more granular than ccache, it caches
individual template instantiations
------
jwilk
How is zapcc better than ccache?
~~~
sanxiyn
ccache does not speed up full build. zapcc does.
~~~
jwilk
What do you mean by "full build"?
~~~
jcelerier
zapcc speeds up the build even if you changed a #define across the whole
project or added a line to a header that you use everywhere leading to
recompiling of all your .cpp files.
------
rurban
Thanks for the open source release! I tested it with their commercial version
before and it was great for C++ projects.
------
Hello71
How does this differ from PCH?
~~~
lallysingh
Disk I/O. This stays in memory between compilations.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Heroku a way to hack? - jerome_g
If I found this on iPhone should I be concerned?https://devcenter.heroku.com/
======
iDemonix
I'm not really sure why you'd be concerned, 5 seconds of Googling and you'd
figure out that Heroku is just a cloud hosting service.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The ultra-lethal drones of the future - spking
http://nypost.com/2014/05/17/evolution-of-the-drone/
======
nonce42
Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.
-- Hilaire Belloc
A basic assumption with drones is they are great because the US has them, but
that's not always going to be the case. What worries me is what will happen
when drones become widespread. Sooner or later someone will make the AK-47 of
drones, and there will be millions of lethal drones around. I don't know what
that will do for warfare, but it can't be good. World War I showed the
difficulty of adapting to widespread machine guns, and the adjustment to
widespread drones could be just as bad.
~~~
_djo_
Drones are already widespread, which I discussed in a previous comment.[0]
Like all technology, Pandora's Box has been opened and there's really nothing
that can be done to stop people from developing ever more sophisticated
drones. America did not invent drones and it has never been the only source
for the technology. Countries like Israel and South Africa were using modern
tactical drones in combat long before the first Predator took to the skies.
But drones aren't the real issue, they're still relatively unsophisticated
aircraft that, even when armed, are not any more deadly than manned combat
aircraft and the array of sophisticated weaponry that most countries have
access to.
The real issue is the rapid development of robotics, of which UAVs (aka
drones) are a subset, that promises to dramatically change warfare. The first
robots equipped with AI software to automatically identify and shoot at
targets will probably be ground robots like the Talon or SWORDS, not UAVs
flying 20 000 ft above the battlefield. Russia is already experimenting with
such autonomous AIs on their Taifun-M robot, as are others.
At the current rate of development it's difficult to even imagine how far this
technology will go and what robots will be capable of, but suffice to say
we're already seeing levels of capability most believed were science fiction
just a decade ago.
Point is, arguing about armed drones like the Reaper and Predator is not going
to solve anything and it's a distraction from the real ethical debates that
need to be happening around weaponised robotics.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709420](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709420)
~~~
tritium
Drones are already widespread
Oh man, I just do not agree with you on that one.
They are not widespread like cell phones are widespread. They are not
widespread like automobiles are widespread. They are not widespread like
television is widespread. They are not widespread like six shooter revolvers
are widespread. They are not widespread like clock radios are widespread. They
are not widespread like cameras are widespread. They are not widespread like
hand grenades are widespread.
Maybe they're widespread like bi-planes at the end of world war I. Maybe
they're widespread like torpedos at the beginning of world war II. But that
still counts as uncommon technology in my book.
~~~
_djo_
The drones under discussion are not a consumer technology, how can you expect
them to be as widespread as consumer items like automobiles or cellphones,
unless you're looking at toy RC 'drones' like the Parrot AR Drone?
The proper way to map drone proliferation is to count how many countries have
them as part of their security forces and what type are being used. Last I
counted over 80 countries possess at least one model of drone in their
security forces and another 23 at least have active armed drone programs
underway. How is that not widespread?
That's without even discussing the dozens of countries building their own
military drones, armed and unarmed. There's a tendency to believe that this
technology is contained for the moment within US companies, but that has never
been the case.
------
pokstad
No mention of the super secret space drone???
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37)
------
walshemj
So ultra lethal is dead 2.0 kills you even deader than the pervious shooty
/stabity technology.
~~~
coldtea
Or you know, it's ultra-leathal in that it kills a larger percentage of
targets more efficiently (e.g they are not talking about it being "more
lethal" for a single person).
~~~
walshemj
or I could have been being _sarcastic_
~~~
coldtea
Sure, but sarcasm requires a specific target, and from your phrasing it was
their (perceived by you) misuse of the term lethal.
Being sarcastic is not a free pass.
------
stretchwithme
How about those drones on Star Gate Universe? Relentless enough to drive you
from the galaxy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Peach, a file download cache for vagrant + https files - shuoli84
https://github.com/shuoli84/peach
======
placeybordeaux
Why not just route HTTP and HTTPS through vagrant with
[https://github.com/tmatilai/vagrant-
proxyconf](https://github.com/tmatilai/vagrant-proxyconf) and use squid to do
caching?
~~~
shuoli84
I am using vagrant-proxyconf, but what it can do on https is very limited.
[http://wiki.squid-cache.org/Features/HTTPS](http://wiki.squid-
cache.org/Features/HTTPS). That's exactly why I build this.
~~~
placeybordeaux
Ah right you would have to MITM the SSL connections.
------
shuoli84
Now the vagrant client can be setup with a one line plugin install.
~~~
shuoli84
vagrant plugin install vagrant-peach ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Issues and Requirements for SNI Encryption in TLS (draft-03) - okket
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tls-sni-encryption-03
======
wahern
These two claims conflict in a very perverse manner:
Many deployments still allocate different IP addresses to
different services, so that different services can be
identified by their IP addresses. However, content
distribution networks (CDN) commonly serve a large number of
services through a small number of addresses.
...
The decoupling of IP addresses and server names, the
deployment of DNS privacy, and the protection of server
certificates transmissions all contribute to user privacy.
This logic says that we have _more_ privacy when resources are _centralized_
behind commercial CDNs.
WTF!?
The truth is that it's a complex trade-off. But IMO long-term in terms of
privacy I think we're better off discouraging CDN and Cloud centralization. At
least in the big developed countries it's easier to put legal limits in place
to prohibit ISPs from snooping than it is to control upstream content
providers and their agents.
The RFC conflates censorship in authoritarian regimes with privacy. I
understand the very real and legitimate issues with censorship, but it's
disingenuous to sell SNI encryption as a privacy-enhancing measure for
everybody else. SNI encryption adds little marginal benefit in censored
jurisdictions because authoritarian regimes can and will terminate HTTP
connections (e.g. Great Firewall). But SNI encryption could do tremendous
long-term harm because it creates a system where, perversely, privacy is
"improved" by everybody moving their content distribution to CDNs and the
Cloud.
Furthermore, even if you can trust the promises of someone like Cloudflare to
not sell data, the more traffic they proxy the more enticing a target they
become.
Centralization is risky. Centralization premised on dubious arguments is just
plain bad policy and poor stewardship.
~~~
LinuxBender
Agreed. Using a CDN does not enhance privacy and and centralizes logging for
all sites behind just a few vendors.
SNI does however improve privacy. I have dozens of SSL sites using one ip+port
and strict SNI. I combine this with wildcard certificates and wildcard DNS to
make enumeration futile.
Today, most web browsers support SNI. Hopefully in the near future, more
libraries and API tools will support it as well. This could ease the burden on
ipv4 to a small degree.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The epic startup story of Karl and Bertha Benz - geopsist
https://medium.com/@Giorgosps/a-tale-of-karl-bertha-a-revolutionary-startup-and-the-importance-of-marketing-f38b9ea77bf#.jjecvusye
======
devnonymous
Oh that last statement... Such a disappointment. The entire post was well
written and brought out the point of a partnership and 'doing what it takes',
'giving it all you've got' pretty well and then it ends with 'a _woman 's_
ingenuity and persistence'. Is that the point of the post? That sometimes you
need a woman 'cos they bring some special ingenuity and persistence?
~~~
geopsist
nope it was not :) but you can agree that she did "see" it with another view.
just my two cents :) no offence there
~~~
devnonymous
Sorry, I might've jumped the gun and read it in way that was unintended. The
statement could very well have been '...That or a person's unique insight and
persistence.'
I guess the reason I misread is because as I was reading the post I was
thinking 'wow, that's awesome ! she did all of that _despite_ being a woman in
the 1800s (when typically I presume this behavior would be frowned upon)' and
then I read the last bit and thought, is he saying that she did that _because_
she was a woman ?
Interesting how the content you read (past tense) influences what you read.
~~~
geopsist
You are right. It was just pure awesomeness that she did back in 1800s. Sorry
for my bad writing :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Linkers and Loaders - stefano
http://www.iecc.com/linker/
======
yan
I read this in paper format, and I can say I recommend it. It is however,
fairly out of date, but the text should bring you up to speed on linker+loader
ideas.
~~~
mahmud
Linkers haven't changed since the invention of the relocatable program in the
late 70s, though. None of the mainstream languages and operating systems
implement Java's security or JIT features, so Levine's book is still valid and
relevant, it just needs to be supplemented with the reading up on one's
executable header formats of choice.
------
davidw
I have that one. It's a good book, and learning about that gray area between
kernels and your code, that is inhabited by linkers, loaders, the C library,
etc... is very interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
3D printers can now read CT scans and produce bone models - swatthatfly
http://singularityhub.com/2011/11/15/surgeon-uses-3d-printer-to-make-models-of-bone-%e2%80%93-and-saves-hospital-bookoo-bucks/
Thanks to surgeon Mark Frame, 3D printers can now read CT scans and produce bone models at a fraction of the previous cost. To accomplish this he used OsiriX, an image processing package specific for the kinds produced by imaging equipment, such as CT scanners. As OsiriX is open source software that runs on mac OS, Frame was able to use it free of charge. He then used a program called MeshLab – also open source, and free, for Mac – to clean up the image and make them medical quality. Finally, this image was sent for printing. Seven days later the model bone arrived in the mail. All for £77.<p>Frame and colleagues have started a company that makes the models for you. Just send 3D-OM your CT scan and they’ll send you back your model. Heck, it’s so cheap now, if you’ve got a CT scan you might just want to get the model for fun.
======
ben1040
I recently did Invisalign, and when I got my set of aligner trays I noticed
that they clearly had been produced on a 3D printer (you could see the layers
made as the laser scanned across the piece).
On looking into it, I learned that the impressions my dentist took are sent
off to be CT scanned and then put through Invisalign's software to generate
models to be 3D printed for every iteration of the treatment. This just seemed
pretty awesome to me that this was possible.
~~~
evan_
surely the impressions were 3D scanned, not CT scanned.
~~~
nickpinkston
Yea, totally. CT is still too expensive for nearly everything, and the data is
unwieldy.
------
methodin
At first glance I thought this was going to tell me they can now replace bones
that are identical to the ones in your body. This is still completely awesome
nonetheless - the doctor could literally show you what they intend to do and
the practice for surgeons this could offer I imagine would be priceless.
~~~
nickpinkston
So they actually are doing full implants like that too:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955221910...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955221910002086)
I know several labs doing it in Ti, Mg and even stem cells for organs. There
are some amazing things coming.
[http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidn...](http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html)
------
teilo
I imagine that there will be some people with too much money on their hands
who will now attempt to own a model of their own skeleton - just because.
------
leeoniya
honestly, this seems like a no-brainer. i'm not sure what took so long to get
this done. both 3d scanners and 3d printers have been around for decades. the
fact that it was mere matter of procuring the scanned data in a standard,
open-source interoperable format is a big fail.
~~~
Providentian
It has taken a while for the printers to come down the cost curve, and for
materials to come up the quality curve. I was talking to the CEO of Z Corp (a
$50M 3D printng company) and he gave a great example of how, for Clark's
Shoes, they've been able to go from small scale looks-like prototypes, to
full-size prototypes, to functional shoes, over 10 years. Apparently
functional prosthetics are next.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Creating jobs? Still keep humiliated at the U.S. embassy abroad. - golubevpavel
I'm a foreigner.
I'm running my own IT company in San Francisco, CA.
I established it in in 2011.
We made over $5,000,000 in 2 years.
And sent significant checks to IRS.
And created new jobs.
And enhancing economy.<p>But keep humiliated at the U.S. embassy abroad.<p>Last time my wife was getting a visa in June, only 2 months ago. Her interview lasted 4 hours, not including 2 hours of line.
So after 6 hours she ran out of the embassy, fell on my shoulders and started crying and I could not stop her crying.
Then we she calmed down, she just said "Never, never I will go to this awful country, I hate it!"
During the interview little girl was accused in lying, they threatened her with jail (Stop lying us, you will go to jail now), they were behaving disrespectfully, they laughed at her.
And eventually her visa was approved. She got her L2 visa<p>So after few days she calmed down and we moved to San Francisco to develop my business.
We both felt in love with this city, got a car, rent an apartment, bought furniture, I leased a new office, hired new employees.
We almost forgot about that terrible fact.
But 2 weeks ago my wife went back to Belarus to see her parents.
And the nightmare has began all over again.<p>I was waken up tonight with a phone call from my wife, calling me after her embassy interview, crying again.
Same story! Again consul looked at her Belarussian passport and laughed at her. While laughing he said to his colleague: "Hahaha, they can't even fake documents in proper way". Then he told her, that she was lying and did not want to listen to her. And eventually rejected her visa.<p>And what do I have to do know?
======
golubevpavel
Some people think, that the whole story is made up. Please let me answer your
questions, so that you have no doubts it's 100% genuine.
Q: Your wife went to see her parents. Why you say she is scared and alone in
unfamiliar city.
A: Becuase there's no way to get a visa in Belarus. You have to go to Moscow.
Q: The story is made up, because emabassy in Belarus is not issuing visas.
A: Right. That's why if your parents live in Belarus, you have to go to
another country, like Russia, to have an interview and then stay about a week
in a hotel, waiting for your passport. You can't go back to Belarus, because
they keep your passport at the embassy and not giving it back to you right
away, even if you passed interview and your visa was granted.
Q: Why did you apply for a new visa if your previous was issued only 2 months
ago?
A: Both L1 and L2 visas are linked to your blanket petition. Petition is
another document, issued by USCIS for 1 year. You can't get a visa, which
expiration date is longer than your petition expiration date. My petition was
approved in August 2012, but I received it in fact only in spring (after more
than 6 months). And then, when I received it, it took several more months to
make final preparations for the movement, so we were able to get a visa for
her only in June (which expired in August according to petition expiration)
and moved to the U.S. right away after that. And again, petition has been
extended already, but I only received it in August, even though it has been
extended since April.
------
philiphodgen
1\. Immaturity at US Embassies is unfortunate and it happens. Sometimes
sadistic immaturity. I hear reports of this from my clients. I'm not saying
all State Department people are like that. Probably just a few. But there are
enough to make the USA look like a club populated by petty teenaged tyrants.
2\. Get an immigration lawyer to help you. It may be futile but at this point
you don't have a choice.
3\. My operating hypothesis is that citizenship is merely a business problem
to be solved for an increasing number of people. The 19th/20th Century notions
of Motherland/Fatherland and (gasp) Homeland are increasingly outmoded for
people like you. If you want to disrupt something, disrupt passports.
~~~
golubevpavel
Indeed, I hired a lawyer from the very first moment, long before I submitted
my first paper for review. She says, that everything will be fine and she can
handle it. But still my girl is alone in unfamiliar city and she must be
scared and I can't imagine what's in her mind right now.
~~~
stfu
_But still my girl is alone in unfamiliar city and she must be scared and I
can 't imagine what's in her mind right now._
She is an adult (I hope). Don't treat her like a 12 y/o, otherwise you
condition her into showing that same level of emotional stability.
------
userulluipeste
By insisting to be there you're only asking for it. You enforce the high-
demand/bad-attitude relation. Find another place for business development,
job-creating, and tax pay. One that might actually be grateful and respectful
for what you do.
~~~
golubevpavel
It's not me, who _needs_ to run a business in the U.S.
It's U.S., which _needs_ more income to its federal budget and more jobs to be
created.
My business is completely online and can hire people to serve it anywhere.
~~~
thesmileyone
What do you care about the US' needs? If you can run a business anywhere, then
do so somewhere a little less strict surely?
I know the UK could do with your business, we are too busy giving money left
right and centre to people who can't be bothered to work - it is only a matter
of time until the pot empties.
~~~
golubevpavel
I think you are making a very good point.
------
TheOsiris
this story is made up, folks. immigration 101: L2 visas are granted for 1-year
initially and then for 2-years afterwards. so the OP's claim that his wife
went back to the embassy after just 6-weeks of getting her visa is nonsense.
also, we're supposed to believe that his Belarussian wife, who went to visit
her parents in Belarus, who has a Belarussian passport is now alone and in an
unfamiliar Belarus?
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6353620](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6353620))
this makes zero sense on all levels. There's never a state dept official
that's this stupid and unprofessional. they can be rude nut never this far.
saying a passport is fake by just looking at it and accusing someone of lying
like that would never happen. I've had my fair share of interactions with
state dept officials
~~~
jedmeyers
L2 visas are granted together with L1-A/B visas which are 3+2+2 or 3+2 years
respectively, not 1 year initially.
And you cannot get a US visa in Belarus: "We apologize for the inconvenience,
but due to the decision by the Belarusian government in 2008 requiring the
U.S. Embassy to reduce its diplomatic staff from 35 Americans to 5, the
Embassy was technically forced to suspended full visa processing services
indefinitely. Residents of Belarus whose applications do not fall under the
above categories should make arrangements to apply for a nonimmigrant visa at
another post."
~~~
TheOsiris
Is this 3+2+2 time new or something? My dad got 2 separate L1's (separate
companies different years) and first one was always 1 year. My uncle just got
his 2 or 3 years ago, and was also granted a 1 year L1.
~~~
jedmeyers
It looks like L1 visa has different rules for citizens of different countries.
If your dad is from Mexico, that might be the reason why he got it for 1 year.
For citizens of Belarus it's 3+2(+2).
------
zerr
USA is one of the most shitty "partner" to rely if you're a foreigner. So in
the first place, why SF? There are lots of great places in Europe to do
business.
~~~
golubevpavel
Huge part of Silicon Valley and US economy depends on immigrants like me.
I agree. There are many other great places to do business. Do you think I
should suggest and recommend foreign entrepreneurs (who are ready to invest
their money and time in american economy) to invest in other great places?
------
jedmeyers
"Hahaha, they can't even fake documents in proper way" \- what kind of
documents was he looking at? As far as I know the only document required for
L2 visa is a marriage certificate and in my case no one actually looked at it.
So I really doubt the described situation actually happened.
~~~
golubevpavel
They looked at her passport and a marriage stamp in that passport.
~~~
jedmeyers
I see no reason for them to say that. Given that she have already had L-2 visa
issued and she should have had a marriage certificate with her.
And may I ask why did she go to Moscow for a visa and not to Kyiv?
~~~
golubevpavel
It's a common practice to say things like that in the embassy. She went to
Moscow, Russia, because US embassy in Minsk, Belarus is not issuing visas and
Belarus citizens have to go to another country to get a visa. Kyiv is not a
part of Belarus. It is a capital of another country Ukraine. So it does not
matter where she goes, to Kyiv or Moscow. Both cities are not part of Belarus.
~~~
jedmeyers
"So it does not matter where she goes, to Kyiv or Moscow. Both cities are not
part of Belarus." \- it does matter. Kyiv is cheaper to stay and US consuls
are usually more friendly.
------
greendata
what's you company?
~~~
golubevpavel
[http://alfaproductions.com](http://alfaproductions.com)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Error 53: Apple bricks phones to punish customers for independent repairs - walterbell
https://boingboing.net/2016/02/05/gerror-53-apple-remotely-bric.html
======
Shivetya
I understand why Apple did what they did, the security of the phone is one of
the best features ever since touch ID was introduced. However the idea that
the majority of phones in linked stories worked until the recent update is a
major misstep on Apple's part. The update should have validated the parts
prior to install or flagged them acceptable post install as they were there
prior to upgrade.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A river of lost souls runs through western Colorado - wormold
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-river-of-lost-souls-runs-through-western-colorado/2016/11/03/154fd1a0-8651-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html
======
xherberta
_“It’s really hard to withdraw from antidepressants,” said New York
psychiatrist and pharmacology expert Julie Holland. In some cases, “people
feel like cold water is running down their spine. They can feel their brain
sloshing around, or electric zaps in their head.”_
Dang.
If it's true as claimed that medications only help half the time, this seems
like a strong encouragement to try things like exercise, yoga, and lifestyle
changes before going the medication route.
Unless you're so depressed you honestly can't make those changes... as
commenters have mentioned, sometimes medications are absolutely helpful,
needed, and life-saving. I've heard of cases where being on a medication just
for a short time helped people break out of a rut.
If you're getting a prescription, it seems worthwhile to ask docs for options
that are less problematic to get off of.
~~~
Bluestrike2
Especially for depression, prescribing medications is about stabilizing a
patient's mental health and building a safe platform from which the patient
can work to minimize the negative consequences of their depression (or many
other mental illnesses, for that matter) on their daily life. No psychiatrist
is going to suggest that there's a magic pill, dosage, or regimen that will
make the depression go away. What medication can do, though, is help keep a
patient's depression from overwhelming them. Ideally, medication gives the
patient both time and enough separation from those negative emotions and
consequences to make changes that become well-reinforced habits. That can be
through traditional talk therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, simple
exercise, changes in diet and sleep patterns, etc. Medication can serve as a
sort of barrier between emotions that can overwhelm you and keep you from
getting out of bed at all. It doesn't make those feelings go away entirely,
but it gives you the breathing room you need.
Of course, the public doesn't necessarily see things that way. There's a
common belief that the right medication will 'cure' the problem for you or,
barring that, make it go away. After all, that's how other medications work!
Blood pressure problems? Take a pill. Bacterial infection? Antibiotics, and
poof, it's gone! That's a huge problem for psychiatry, and it's one that's
probably not going to go away anytime soon. Your GP might be willing to
prescribe an antidepressant, an ethical psychiatrist is almost always going to
be the better choice precisely because treatment isn't about just receiving a
script and heading to the pharmacy.
~~~
duaneb
I agree with what you said.
Of course, I've also heard psychiatrists call me irresponsible for going off
medication that was actively holding me back from the energy and motivation I
need to work well (and feel good about my life).
There is certainly a diversity of opinion amongst practicing psychiatrists
even what the role of the medication is.
~~~
bcook
Did you go off the medication without any input or supervision from a doctor?
I've had doctors accuse me of being irresponsible for doing that, and I have
to agree.
~~~
duaneb
I think I fulfilled my end of the doctor patient agreement; I used the
medication for years and tailed myself off slowly under supervision.
The SSRI detox is no joke, but it was a relief compared to sleeping much more
than necessary.
------
ChuckMcM
_" nearly 1 in 4 white women ages 50 to 64 is taking an antidepressant,
according to federal health officials."_
This is the saddest thing. My wife remarked that there was a weird sense of
expectancy that if you were a white female of middle age you were expected by
your peers to be taking anti-depressants.
~~~
douche
Out of the other 3 in 4, how many are self-medicating with something else?
Coincidently, my mother has three sisters, and all of them are in this age
range. Two are on antidepressants. Two of them drink a bottle or two of wine a
day. There is some overlap there.
Mother's little helper...
------
soared
Worth discussing: Positive association between altitude and suicide
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114154/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114154/)
~~~
czbond
Really interesting - thanks for posting.
------
justinator
I'm just going to throw this idea out - although I have no evidence either
way, but: is there something in the water?
Durango's water supply is the Animas, which is downriver from Silverton, and
many old, abandoned mines and basically SuperFund sites (even though there's
pressure to not call them that - or get that Federal $$$ to fix the problem,
for fear of tourist dollars leaving). Are there known correlations between the
types of acidic chemicals and heavy metals found in this type of polluted
water and mental health?
I ask because Durango is a beautiful, sunny place. It's hard not to be there
in the summertime and not feel wonderful. Yes, in the winter, it's a little
more clausterphobic, and you ARE in the middle of nowhere, but it doesn't have
the depressive anxiety feeling of a place like Leadville used to have, when
their main Moly mine closed down.
[http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/opinions/pagel-animas-river-
po...](http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/opinions/pagel-animas-river-pollution/)
~~~
sertsa
The city of Durango does not normally pull its water supply from the Animas
River but rather the Florida River which is not known for a large heavy metal
load. Animas river water is used as a backup supply.
------
chmaynard
Long ago, a cousin of mine and her husband raised their family in Durango. I
think they all felt it was a great place to grow up, especially because they
were passionate about exploring the wilderness around them. Attempting to
settle there as an adult with only a high school education and build a life is
another matter. Three of their four sons moved to the Front Range to go to
college, raise their families, and pursue careers.
------
findyoucef
Having traveled through this area of colorado, I'm not surprised that
depression runs rampant. There is literally nothing out there, no industry, no
jobs, nothing. When travel through these towns it's as if you travel back in
time and the majority of these people are stuck there. They have no way out.
I'm not sure what solution is for towns like these.
------
DanBC
> according to a Washington Post analysis of federal health data.
I wish they'd released this.
~~~
toomuchtodo
Ask them to.
EDIT: I just emailed the article author asking if they'd release the data in a
Github repo [1]. Default to action.
[1] [https://github.com/washingtonpost](https://github.com/washingtonpost)
~~~
bnjms
[1]. Default to action.
There is a maxim worth adopting.
~~~
clarry
That is one way to end up with too much to do.
~~~
bnjms
Maybe depending on the person and which side they come from. Personally I come
from the side of defaulting to doing nothing. Deciding against action is easy
to me. Defaulting to action means avoiding the doldrums of apathy. I imagine
more are like me than otherwise.
------
kennethh
Am I the only one who react when they write in the article
"Although more men than women take their own lives, the rate of suicide has
nearly doubled among middle-aged white women since 1999..."
And the whole article is about women who take suicide. The writer is a woman
but this is typical for big publishers like Washington Press. They very seldom
write about mens problems and challenges.
~~~
DanBC
Men die more often than women. But women have started using more lethal
methods than they used to, and women make more attempts. This combination -
increased lethality of method and greater number of attempted suicide is
worrying.
Newspapers often report the fact that rates of death by suicide are rising.
(It's a bit more complicated than how they report it - there was a decline in
rates for many years). Most of the rise is in women. In the UK rates of death
for men have dropped a bit, but rates for women have risen a bit, causing the
overall number to rise.
Washington Post has written before about the disproportionate number of male
deaths by suicide, so they're not ignoring it.
A couple of examples:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/the-h...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-
high-suicide-rate-among-elderly-white-men-who-may-suffer-from-
depression/2014/12/05/2bad6ea0-222e-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html)
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-
life/wp/2016/08...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-
life/wp/2016/08/31/men-die-by-suicide-at-alarming-rates-this-hashtag-tells-
men-its-okay-to-talk-about-mental-health/)
If you want an anti-feminist article that mentions in passing male suicide:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/30/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/30/feminists-
treat-men-badly-its-bad-for-feminism/)
------
ChrisNorstrom
[http://www.livescience.com/50813-low-oxygen-increase-
depress...](http://www.livescience.com/50813-low-oxygen-increase-
depression.html)
High altitutes can increase suicide and depression in certain people. While in
others, they get a sense of feeling "at home".
~~~
jhayward
Altitude apparently shows up both as an increase in depression and a decrease
in ADHD. One researcher hypothesizes that altitude affects both serotonin and
dopamine production, decreasing serotonin and increasing dopamine.
[https://mic.com/articles/104096/there-s-a-suicide-
epidemic-i...](https://mic.com/articles/104096/there-s-a-suicide-epidemic-in-
utah-and-one-neuroscientist-thinks-he-knows-why)
------
lcall
There is really no substitute for family, and for coming to know God. The
government or this-or-that philosophy will not give our lives purpose and
direction. The Mormon missionaries can help. Really.
~~~
DanBC
Do you have any evidence that there's a lower rate of death by suicide for
people in the LDS church?
One group at increased risk of death by suicide are LGBT people (at all ages).
Religious groups tend to do badly by these people, and anecdotally there's a
few news article about deaths by suicide of LGBT teens who were part of LDS
church.
[http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865646414/LDS-Church-
lead...](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865646414/LDS-Church-leaders-
mourn-reported-deaths-in-Mormon-LGBT-community.html?pg=all)
~~~
lcall
Thanks for your polite response. I've seen references debating general suicide
levels in Utah, USA (one interesting, later debunked I think), but I think
people tend to believe what they want, and I haven't researched it. My
personal experience seeing a wide variety of situations in my own family and
others, including many problem types that people experience in life, strongly
bears out the quote (Tolstoy?) that happy families are all alike, and
miserable ones are each miserable in their own way. Following certain
principles leads to the predictable results. We all have hard problems; having
the life tools available to deal with them and use them as building blocks
instead of being crushed by them, makes me feel very fortunate.
I hope you don't mind if I add, to to try to somewhat dissuade others' anger:
Some people respond harshly when one who is not atheist simply says what one
knows personally from experience. It's usually good to hear a variety of
viewpoints. I just know what I see, etc and how it all relates. So I just try
to keep going forward with purpose and direction, because I know where it
leads, and the things I can't control will be OK eventually.
~~~
lcall
ps: I certainly don't mean all sadness is one's own fault, or that medication
is never warranted, nor do I wish to minimize the realities we can all face as
individuals. But life decisions, perspective, forgiveness, knowledge of
purpose and answers to the big questions, support systems, etc etc, seem to
matter most of all.
------
peterwwillis
So women are now committing suicide at the same rate as men?
~~~
DanBC
No. Men are still dying more than women.
But women attempt suicide more often than men. And women have started using
more lethal means than they used to. And the combination - more suicide
attempts, more lethal methods, is worrying.
~~~
xherberta
Right. The way I look at this, suicide attempts are just the tail, the extreme
cases -- even more people are not quite that desperate, are suffering at a
level that's only _almost_ unbearable.
------
cowardlydragon
Women aren't the demographic with a suicide problem in that age range...
But my compassion is gone after the election.
~~~
throwanem
If all it takes to destroy your compassion is losing an election, you never
cared to begin with. You only claimed you did.
------
zepto
Depression is not caused by a deficiency of medications, but by a deficiency
of hope, so medications cannot cure it.
~~~
sgt101
Depression is a label for a wide range of complex illnesses. I am sure that
what you say is true for some people, but in some cases it simply isn't. I've
got friends who have been helped by medications, and I've got friends who have
tried medication and it didn't help. One thing that is counter productive is
to assert that these medications don't work ever, because they do appear to be
extremely effective in some cases. Which figuratively and factually is a life
saver.
~~~
zepto
You aren't responding to what I actually said.
I didn't say medications doesn't help some people. I didn't say medications
don't help ever.
I did say that medications can't cure depression.
~~~
Retric
It works around half the time. So, yea it can cure depression though it does
not cure everyone of depression.
It's kind of like rebooting a computer, it does not always work and sometimes
it makes things worse. But, comparing the cost vs benefit it's generally worth
trying.
~~~
zepto
Can you provide any evidence that medication cures depression at all let alone
50% of the time?
~~~
smacktoward
Your insistence on evidence for a "cure" is nonsensical.
Doctors don't have a cure for depression at the moment, it's true. They also
don't have cures for HIV/AIDS, or diabetes, or asthma, or lots of other
chronic medical conditions (see [https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-
and-Systems/Sta...](https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-
Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Chronic-Conditions/CC_Main.html) for a
list of the most common ones).
But they _do_ have medications that can make it possible for people with those
conditions to lead long, productive, more or less normal lives. Are you
suggesting the people with these conditions should be turning those
medications down? That they should refuse any treatment short of 100% removal
of the underlying condition, even if by doing so they reduce the length and
quality of their own life?
Why, exactly? Why on earth make the perfect the enemy of the good like that?
~~~
zepto
Nice strawman.
I did not suggest that people should turn down medication, or refuse
treatment.
I didn't say anything other than that medication doesn't cure depression -
which I stand behind.
Let me turn the tables on your indignance for a moment - why don't you care
about the causes of depression? If the incidence is on the rise, the causes
must be getting stronger. How can you condone simply restoring people to
productivity with drugs when there is an increasingly serious problem harming
them in the first place?
~~~
Retric
You are trying to redefine terms here. Depression is not the same as _the
underlying cause of Depression._ You can go from Depressed to not Depressed
without becoming normal or happy.
Further, it's not clear that the actual incidence is on the rise or if this is
reversion to the mean etc. We have shifted what people call Depression and how
willing people are to seek treatment. The age adjusted suicide rate was
actually higher from 1950 - 1980 than it is today.
In 1950 the rates of suicide for 75–84 years old people was 31.1 in 2010 it
was 15.7. If you look at the actual rate by age it's all over the map.
[http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779940.html](http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779940.html)
~~~
zepto
It's actually unclear what your argument is here. Remember that these comments
are in response to an article about rising incidence of depression treated
with multiple medications.
It sounds like for some reason you are now just trying to say that depression
isn't really on the increase in certain places.
Why would you say that?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenBSD 6.2 Released - zolotarev
https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20171009144926
======
justin66
This is not a dupe. The release had not happened yet when somebody linked to
it 3 days ago, and they linked to an unfinished release announcement. This is
different.
------
justin66
Has anyone written up how the various Octeon-based Ubiquiti routers compare to
one another when running OpenBSD?
------
ah-
Lots of ARM64 changes! Has anyone here tried running OpenBSD on one of the
supported boards? How was your experience?
------
DrPhish
Previous Discussion :
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15414987](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15414987)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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