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scaling_mia_the_pile_00_HackerNews

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Smear Campaign Ramps Up Against Protect IP Opponents - d0ne http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110705/02174514963/smear-campaign-ramps-up-against-those-who-believe-free-speech-is-more-important-than-hollywoods-obsolete-business-model.shtml ====== danssig I wonder how far we can go with placing all value on the short term _at the expense of_ long term. I hesitate to make any predictions because I would have expected to see serious fallout before now. Looks like people like Mr. DuPuis want to find out though.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
ASk HN: I made some changes to my app. Can you please review it again? - maserati http://jamafriend.com/LargeMap.aspx?er=4 ====== maserati Like a week ago, I submitted this weekend project of mine for critique. So I submitted it again to know if I did an improvement or made it worse. Sorry if I ask again but I don't know any site that is as reliable as HN to critique a web app. If you do, please direct me to it too.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Why do banking websites break the web and are generally crappy? - thinkloop This probably doesn't apply to all banks, but it does apply to all <i>my</i> financial institutions:<p>- browser back/forward doesn't work<p>- can't ctrl+click to open a link in a new tab<p>- logging out often gets stuck in a refresh loop forcing a hard reload<p>- generally required to hard reload at different random times<p>- session timeouts, auto-logout, etc. never work well<p>It feels like how things ran in ActiveX in the 2000s. Clearly they are doing this is the name of security, but many modern websites care as much about security (i.e. google).<p>What is it about banking that seems to force them down this route? ====== throwAwayCity I assume a bank would say a great banking application is good enough to prevent users from leaving for other banks, i haven't encountered a US bank site that bad (i do sometimes have to disable Adblocker to use bank sites). I assume a bank would say a great banking application deters the user from calling the bank to talk to someone (bank doesn't want to pay money to staff someone to talk on the phone). I think banks had to race each other to get online 15 years ago to serve millions of users which explains why a lot of their products feel outdated. If its not broken don't fix it mentality. I assume reeducating users on a new bank site design could force banks to forgo interest/penality payments and things like that. Considering banks are involved, people are constantly trying to break in, so security is definitely priority over usability. In the US at least, mobile apps are already used more than desktop apps, so i assume investment will continue to pour more into mobile apps while desktop users will be stuck with more outdated technologies. ------ forgotmypw I think it's a combination of several factors. One is that few people join or leave a bank because of their website. It's usually encountered already after you've deposited your money and it's going to be very inconvenient to leave them. Another factor is that they typically have a big pile of money budgeted to develop it, which means hiring large teams, which means finding work for many people, which means building a very large complicated website to have something to show for it in the end. This is where design-by-committee comes into play, which is a third factor, and where all those asinine rules come to play. And don't forget, they are already under the authority of all the regulatory committees, with a committee deciding exactly how to follow another committee's rules. ~~~ thinkloop Why does having a big budget or committees make you break back/forward buttons or disallow opening a page in a new tab? In what ways do these even potentially break security? ~~~ new_guy The obvious answer would be caching, if your balance is accessible by (anyone) pressing the back button on your browser it wouldn't be good. Still no excuse for the overall bad design though. ~~~ gtsteve I guess they might also have a system that detects if the browsing pattern is unusual, i.e. someone has rooted your machine and has stolen your login cookie and is browsing at the same time as you on their own browser. If you break the back/forward buttons then you can find impossible browsing patterns that could indicate this. source: total conjecture, I know nothing about these apps. ------ duxup I have some visibility to a small bank (quite a few branches over a large area but not a mega bank)... and basically they hire a company to manage their individual online banking. They're not provided a lot of options outside of branding and such. Having said that they're secure and that is what matters to them the most. I have mixed feelings about your description of them though. I've found most of my US online banking to be "adequate". I don't feel like the what you describe is really the worst of what we see as far as "break the web" goes. ------ thiago_fm Your bank just sucks, not all of them are like this: n26 for example got a good application and is now in the US and is big in Europe. Nubank as well(Latin america). There are other competitors in that space. On my home country(I now live in Europe ;-) ), Brazil, there are so many banks that have amazing apps, customer service and are completely free, with an overall modern banking system, that I wonder if North America didn't really manage to get in the XXI century :-). It's also kind of cheap to build the software to run a digital bank, possibly much more cheaper than the banking license itself. ------ Trias11 I worked at large bank who decided to give up solid, predictable and reliable html/aspx pages in favor of silly one-pager framework "to improve user experience". This of course to be accomplished by an army of hit-n-run offshore consultants. Issues predictably ensued multiplied by losses from users who couldn't tolerate this nonsense and switched their trading and banking activities in favor of competitors. I raised this question few times but what scolded by mid-management in fear of being put on a spot for bad business decision. Yet it still keeps happening. ------ byoung2 If you have to divide your budget between UX and security, a bank focuses on security. Your favorite startup focuses on UX. ~~~ muzani How much budget do you really need for security though? Banks aren't exactly short on money. ~~~ byoung2 Imagine 2 identically sized dev teams...one is a bank, and another is a hot startup like Instagram or AirBnB. During sprint planning, the bank team would likely focus on infrastructure and security tickets. The startup would focus on consumer facing features. A bank's website is not as important a deciding factor as interest rates, number of ATMs, fees, etc. ------ imvetri It's business application. Not a entertainment site	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Git 1.7.7 released - LiveTheDream http://code.google.com/p/git-core/downloads/detail?name=git-1.7.7.tar.gz ====== ropiku Link to the release notes: [https://raw.github.com/gitster/git/master/Documentation/RelN...](https://raw.github.com/gitster/git/master/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.7.txt) ------ anonova What makes this release significant? ~~~ nbpoole <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3060215>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event - Geee http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/ ====== IkmoIkmo First no video, then constant mixing between the TV Truck schedule, a video of the crowd, a video of the presentation screen showing the apple logo, a message showing apple copyright. Refreshed a few times, got 'access denied to server' page a few times. Then got video with Chinese translations talking over the presenter. Then it suddenly stopped, I pressed 'resume' to get the TV truck schedule again. On an iPad. ~~~ highace A whole bunch of people don't have a job in the morning. ~~~ ldng Or maybe a whole bunch of people don't live in the same time zone as you. ~~~ dkokelley ??? I think the parent's implication is that people will lose their jobs tomorrow morning, because of today's poor production. ~~~ ldng Okay, I might have misread. From where I come from, when people watch something, say en Apple show, instead of working we say "some don't have work". That's what I misunderstood. I also assumed (wrongly ? I haven't checked) it was in California which meant it was morning already. The parents say "don't" not "will not". Even though there are trouble I very much doubt people are fired on the spot, they're too busy fixing it. But sure, some might. Later, in the future. Anyway, the comment was out of line an the downvotes deserves. ------ sytelus Summary: 2 new iPhone models: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. iPhone 6 is 4.7", iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5". Power button on right side. A8 chip - 13% smaller chip, 25% faster CPU, 50% faster GPU, 50% more energy efficient than A7. Battery a little better on the iPhone 6; iPhone 6 Plus has amazing battery life. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) - make calls over LTE internet instead of using minutes. Camera is still 8MP... YouTube video stream is working: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxCbIjAg6mg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxCbIjAg6mg) ~~~ dragonwriter > VoLTE (Voice over LTE) - make calls over LTE internet instead of using > minutes. That's would have been a killer feature if it had occurred when smartphones were new enough that providers were selling plans with limited call minutes and unlimited data, but now that virtually every carrier has smartphone plans that are unlimited phone minutes/unlimited text and limited data with surcharges for data overages, who is looking to move from using voice minutes to using data? ~~~ sytelus This could be a significant feature if one can make international calls for free. ~~~ jallmann I doubt VoLTE will make any practical difference in day-to-day usage, unless carriers allow customers to default to a custom SIP/IMS registrar -- which won't happen for a long time. Calls (signaling) are still routed through the carrier[1], and your carrier still has to interconnect with the other end. While most backbones have been all-IP for a long time, the copper/cellular last mile is still mostly circuit-switched, even more so internationally. [1] I'd be very surprised if VoLTE traffic, including media, was sent over the public Internet at the same QoS as the rest of your data. Voice-over-LTE is a nice technical achievement -- IIRC reliability was very difficult to ensure, especially during 3G/2G handoff -- but to consumers, VoLTE means nothing. ------ mslev I'm watching it using VLC. Media > Open Network Stream... > Paste this link: [http://p.events- delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...](http://p.events- delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpvkjnfvpijhabdfvpijbadfv09/m3u8/atv_mvp.m3u8) ~~~ dzhiurgis Works just as bad. Actually managed to crash VLC somehow. ------ zvanness Right now i'm at: Access Denied You don't have permission to access "[http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept- event/"](http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/") on this server. Reference #18.2d2f0660.1410283131.13b065e3 ~~~ carlosaguayo Right now there's no even access to apple.com ------ e0m Anyone else seeing the TV Truck schedule instead of the keynote right now? ~~~ MCRed Ok, got video, but am getting the Chinese Translator speaking over Tim Cook. I can barely hear him. ~~~ ahjushi Getting audio of the Chinese Translator over Tim, but no video. "Watching" via Apple TV... ------ yumraj Is it just me or the iWatch "looks" really ugly, at least when compared with Moto 360 which looks beautiful. iWatch may win out on functionality and user experience etc., but it just looks funky. ~~~ julianpye The crazy part is the Gold 'Edition' Version. It's not like a Swiss watch, which is sold to be passed on to new generations, since your children won't be happy to get such outdated tech. What will they do with old Gold versions? Smelt them? ~~~ joosters Regarding the watch to be 'passed on to new generations', this is well worth reading: [http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/11/luxury_branding_the_f...](http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/11/luxury_branding_the_future_lea.html) ~~~ julianpye Thanks! Great insight into how watch marketing works... ------ Aardwolf This website says that live streaming requires OS X or iOS. Why would they only allow already-customers to watch their presentation? Locking out non-customers seems not the best way to get some. ~~~ bla2 They probably use [https://developer.apple.com/streaming/](https://developer.apple.com/streaming/) , an HTTP streaming mechanism that's implemented by Safari that didn't get adopted by any other browser. ~~~ MCRed Ever since Apple originated consumer computer video with Quicktime back in the early 1990s, they've done a great deal to make it better, first for CD Roms and in a proprietary fashion. But when the net came around they opened up their proprietary format to become a standard-- the Mpeg4 file format is the old MOV format. They've also proposed a lot of improvements along these lines for other people to adopt. Like Bonjour, I really don't understand why other companies don't adopt these open standards. They don't benefit Apple particularly. It's not like Apple has some competitive advantage in HTTP Live Streaming. Meanwhile these competitors rush to copy everything else Apple does. Frankly, I think its appalling that youtube, for instance, is still running on flash. How many years ago did they first trial MP4 streaming? Why I can't I access all the videos over MP4? Why would you want your browser to be bad at streaming video? ~~~ Kurtz79 Serious question: what is the state of the art for in-browser live streaming to date ? Twitch, Google Hangouts, any "live" sport event what protocol/technology do they use ? A mix of HLS and flash ? ~~~ duskwuff Twitch uses HLS with a Flash front end. No idea about the others. HLS is nice because it doesn't require any new servers or protocols -- it uses vanilla HTTP, and can be served up by basically any web server. As a result, it's much easier to make it work with a CDN. ~~~ Kurtz79 Thanks. I guess the reason of having such poor support outside Apple browsers, despite the benefits, has to do with licensing issues and the complications of embedding ads, as someone pointed out. ------ RexRollman I'm getting older, so maybe my desires don't match up with the majority of tech people's anymore, but does anyone really _want_ an iWatch (or whatever it ends up being called)? I am just not sold on the usefulness of such a thing. ~~~ tchock23 Many moons ago I ran a research study for Microsoft on their SPOT watch initiative, and despite countless focus groups among many different consumer audiences, absolutely no one wanted a smart watch. Granted, their smart watch had some fairly large deficiencies due to the lack of mobile tech infrastructure available at the time. I'm very intrigued to see if Apple can pull it off... ~~~ danielweber That's the weird thing about fashion, which is precisely what this is. If Apple can make this thing fashionable so that people want to show it off, it will take off. It's incredibly hard to predict whether they will succeed or not (although after the fact most people will say what happened was incredibly obvious beforehand). They'll bomb or they'll take off. ------ nodesocket Solid black screen for me. Now, I have video, but why in gods name is there a Chinese translation? Wow, this is an utter failure. Now video is skipping around. ------ Quai "Sorry, your browser doesn’t support our live video stream." My browser supports live video just fine. It's -your- streaming software that lacks support for my browser. This illustrates why I never have, and never will own a Apple product. ~~~ anon4 It's really ludicrous to be this picky about browsers when you're trying to reach new customers. I presume that Apple want to market to people who aren't Apple users already. ------ brotchie ApplePay: I do this every day and have been doing this every day for the last year with my Android phone in Australia! _edit_ Admittedly the integration of all different types of cards with Passbook is good stuff! ~~~ cylinder Exactly. I do it in the US with Google Wallet + NFC chip in my phone. It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as if this is a brand new technology. Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone ~~~ __david__ > It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as > if this is a brand new technology. That's pretty disingenuous. Everyone knows NFC exists, they're probably just happy it's finally coming to _their_ platform of choice. > Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of > pulling out the phone You can! ------ gramasaurous The video started for me a few minutes ago, anyone else notice that there seems to be two songs playing in the background at once? ~~~ sudhirj I'm guessing that the mics are picking up the hall music, and some technician had instructions to play background music on the web feed. ~~~ gramasaurous Sounds right, I just heard a voice over the PA system. ------ cylinder Restricting this to Safari only? Fuck you Apple. I'm on a god damned Macbook. ~~~ OedipusRex I hope this isn't a sign of things to come, they really seem to be clamping down on third-party competitors on their platforms. ~~~ evinugur I'm not even sure what the strategical advantage of limiting the stream in the first place. People who can't access it still want information about Apple, and often resort to 3rd party blogs, or someone else streaming the stream. I understand why apple has a closed door stance on technology, but limiting people from participating in a live event about Apple seems foolish and with no obvious benefit ~~~ thesimon Reduce server load? ------ fidotron Lessons so far: fragmentation is only bad when it's a criticism you can apply to other people. EDIT: Additionally, losing Steve Jobs really was as damaging as many feared then. ------ aroch Apple.com/ has been redirecting to apple.com/live for about ~20 hours now. They're very confident about what's about to be presented. ~~~ drewnick They've been using a '301 MOVED PERMANENTLY' redirect, meaning they are extra serious about this. ~~~ songgao Correct me if I'm wrong. IIRC, there isn't a status code for temporary moved *with a timeout. If you use 307, it means the browser will always still check the original apple.com first, then get redirected to apple.com/live. Using 301 would make browser go to apple.com/live directly which improves response time. When the event is finished, they can do a 301 on apple.com/live back to apple.com to overwrite the rule. ~~~ bennesvig 302 is a temporary redirect. ------ evertonfuller Well someone's going to get fired after this is over. What complete shambles so far. ------ sudhirj As far as live feeds go, this is one of the biggest screwups I've ever seen. ------ natch Lest anyone blame local networks or non-Apple hardware for the streaming problems: I was on IRC with other iOS developers viewing the streaming using Safari on Apple hardware with fully updated software all around (I know these people), in different parts of the US, people working at different companies, using different, very fast, geographically diverse networks, and all of us were seeing the same catastrophic problems at the same times: a mix of simultaneous multiple audio streams sometimes in sync, sometimes slightly out of sync, stopping and starting video, truck schedules for 5-10 seconds every minute or so, English over Chinese, audio temporarily resetting to beginning of stream while another track of audio continued at the current position superimposed over the let's-start-over audio, access denied errors, pause/continue buttons not working, refresh not working.. this went on for at least 40 full minutes as the problems started before the broadcast and didn't stop until after 30 minutes. And no, we were NOT madly hitting Refresh or pause/restart all the time, although we did try invoking them a few times and calmly waiting, usually to little avail. I want to emphasize that when I saw a TV truck schedule on my screen in San Francisco, at that very same moment my buddies in other parts of the country started seeing the TV truck schedule on their screens as well. If we can say one thing for this broadcast, it is that the screwups were very well synchronized for many if not all viewers. The mind boggles as to why the didn't have someone dedicated to be listening to a dog food channel of their own stream on a remote network, and report the problems back earlier, and whether they did or not, why they couldn't fix it sooner. ------ wiredfool Wall Street is going to be disappointed if there's no Singularity. ------ moeedm Wow, they're going all out for this one. Lots of new things they haven't done in past keynotes. Can't wait to see what they show off. ~~~ autism_hurts Gruber has a spot on wrap-up: [http://daringfireball.net/2014/09/prelude](http://daringfireball.net/2014/09/prelude) ~~~ brk How can it be a wrap-up, or judged to be spot-on in advance of any actual confirmed facts? I'll admit he's probably mostly prescient, but we won't know for another hour or two. ~~~ autism_hurts We'll see after the event. ------ rubicon33 Yes apple, I want to buy your products! Why? Well, because you showed such engineering prowess with your streaming service, that I am sure you know what you're doing! ------ ryanSrich Can anyone see this right now? My video is seriously messed up. I have both VLC and Safari running the stream. It's freezing, jumping around from the iPhone 6 release back to the beginning video. The audio is a combination of glitches, Chinese, and skipping english. ------ readerrrr How can I watch this on windows if I don't have Quicktime installed? ~~~ el_duderino Even better, use VLC: [http://9to5mac.com/community/how-to-stream-apples- sept-9-iph...](http://9to5mac.com/community/how-to-stream-apples- sept-9-iphone-6iwatch-event-on-windows/) ~~~ pduan Dead EDIT: Nvm it worked after waiting for a couple minutes. ------ antr Call me dull, but I'm looking forward for a new iMac 27". Apple recently renewed the 21" version, but I'm just waiting for a new 27" to come out. ~~~ WildUtah The new iMac 27" should have a nice 5120x2880 screen. That would sure justify the hype. But I bet we'll just get a 4.7" iPhone, Apple catching up to where Samsung has been for three long years now with a medium sized phone instead of a tiny chiclet. (I love the chiclet, but bigger would be better.) And we'll probably get another lousy "smart" watch that needs charging every day and doesn't do anything you can't do by pulling out your phone for a second. Maybe fanatic runners like Apple's CEO will find it almost as useful as a fuelband or fitbit. _Note_ : Downvoters really hate the idea of a retina iMac. ~~~ MCRed Do you think Apple's been desperately saying to itself for the past 3 years "gee, I wish we had the technology to make a larger phone!" ~~~ WildUtah Everybody knows the future of technology is bigger everything. Just look at the giant iPadds on Star Trek. ------ pt Anyone hearing Chinese commentary? ~~~ SeoxyS Yeah I am. This stream is also super low quality… what is going on? ------ dzhiurgis I am hearing Tim Cook and some Chinese translation in the back. Go figure. ~~~ mromanuk Yes, super annoying! ------ ChuckMcM Pretty sad, on my iPad I had it for a while first with the Chinese translation and then that faded out, then the video stopped but the 'live blog' updates kept going, and then Safari crashed. And now three versions: access denied, a plain text non-stylized page, safari crash. Amazing that this isn't a solved problem by now. ------ moeedm Guess: The building outside is actually a stage where Dre will perform. ~~~ canadaj Announcing Apple Records and iLabel. They will also announce their first album to be Detox. ------ gooseus Question that I didn't hear addressed anywhere in the talk or online yet. Will the NFC capability be exposed to third party apps through the SDK in any way? I'm curious because they started talking about the apps for iWatch right after talking about its features, but they didn't discuss NFC in any other context but its use via Apple Pay. What do you all think? ------ anigbrowl I can't watch any of the video (using Chrome) so I'm just watching the live updates on the website instead with bullet points...which is apparently a lot more useful than the video feed. 200 comments and nobody is discussing the technology, what a shame after all that build-up. Anyway the new iPhone looks more like a Samsung in terms of size, screen resolution etc. but presumably with a significant Apple technical edge. It seems like a really beautiful product, and I say that as someone who doesn't care for Apple's stuff in general. I'm sad that the launch of multiple new products is being overshadowed by the clusterfuck of the presentation, but it's a great example of execution > ideas that will probably be taught in business schools for years to come :-/ ~~~ dublinben The hardware decisions of the iPhone 6 (and especially 6 plus) closely follow what Android manufacturers have been doing for years. ~~~ JohnTHaller Mostly but not quite. The iPhone 6 is still low res (720p-ish) compared to top tier Android phones (Galaxy S4 from last year is 1080p). The only HD iPhone is the iPhone 6 Plus, but that starts at $750. ------ laacz People will get used to iPhone6 size, though many of iPhone5 users will feel like unfarily forgotten. I was betting on iPhone6 being same size as 5s and another on just a tad larger - I was wrong. Apple Watch does not bring anything exceptional to wrist devices world, though overall functionality and UX is much better than those of Android. It's just an accessory for iPhone. One thing they got right - wristwatch is personal, so it should be able to be made look personal and different. I can't say much about Apple Pay. Payments via iPhone look nice (fingerprint as authorization method) but paying via Watch just does not look very secure to me - how are you going to add that one factor? Also, it's another proprietary way of paying for stuff, which just does not feel right... ------ taylorwc The livestream of this event, both browser and Apple TV access, is an unmitigated disaster. I'm not sure I've ever seen something go _this_ poorly, and I'm certain I've never seen an Apple event go this poorly. ------ jdprgm I was really hoping the watch would be able to track gps for runs without needing an iphone. Am i supposed to wear the watch and then still have my iphone in my hand when I go for a run? Terrible user experience. ------ grej OUCH! This is on a MacBook Pro running Safari: Access Denied You don't have permission to access "[http://www.apple.com/"](http://www.apple.com/") on this server. Reference #18.342f0660.1410282543.baf7bd ~~~ dutchbrit Server quirk. ~~~ stock_toaster I think Akamai is dropping the ball today. ------ wickedOne quite a disgrace for a tech company of this size: either a black screen, an access denied error, stalling stream with a chinese (?) voice over… but hey, the iphone 6 has rounded corners! B\| ------ keithxm23 This article explains pretty well what went wrong with the stream. It wasn't Akamai, it was Apple. The interactive JSON-based elements that had on their page prevented it from being cached which resulted in the issues we were seeing. [http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/09/why-apples- livestream...](http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/09/why-apples-livestream- failed.html) ------ hoistor Aaand japanese translations ??? ~~~ discardorama It sounds like Chinese to me. ------ discardorama Is anyone else getting Chinese crosstalk on the audio? ~~~ jastanton Yes it's incredibly distracting. ------ derengel Who wants to see the mac mini revived? ;) ~~~ MCRed Apple has a pattern before keynotes where they push out the less glamorous products. They keep them ready to go in the keynote in case something happens with a glamorous announcement they have filler. But when they are confident that they can announce the next iPhone, or whatever, they push out the minor rev of the iMac or whatever. I'm worried. This is the machine I want to buy next. A modern mac mini would be ideal. They should have shipped one early this year but didn't. That's ok, the mac pro took a lot of resources and is a major redesign. So, then the next expected time is last week. So, either the Mac Mini is significant enough to talk about today (with two phones and an alleged watch? that seems doubtful)... or it might be effectively cancelled. ~~~ rsynnott Or they decided to skip Haswell, and are now waiting on Broadwell, which is substantially delayed. I'd say a Mini early next year might be a good bet. ------ killerdhmo Are the top comments really about the livestream problems and not about what they released? [http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6125873/apple-watch- smartwa...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6125873/apple-watch-smartwatch- announced) ~~~ wickedOne well yes, this thread was / is actually about that… ------ u124556 For those not able to see the video, text updates [here]([http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2fwmcl/apple_special_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2fwmcl/apple_special_event_9914_live_updates/)) ------ saganus I'm getting "You don't have permission to access "[http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept- event/"](http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/") on this server. Reference #18.520fd717.1410283069.16b78ac2" How come? ------ adricnet Gizmodo's live blog here has been working well for me: [http://live.gizmodo.com/our-new-iphone-liveblog-starts- right...](http://live.gizmodo.com/our-new-iphone-liveblog-starts-right-here- on-9-9-at-1pm-1629704968) ------ jimotto This site has the most and best comments on the disaster by Apple. I am a fan of Apple and use many of there products. To my disappointment I was not able to hear or watch any of the broadcast. I agree with many of the comments...fire the bad guys! ------ jdnier Apple's web site has a curated set of "live" posts giving details. [http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept- event/](http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/) ~~~ jdnier These highlights (with pictures) are coming in real-time and save the bother of trying to watch video. ------ cbgb Off by 1 error in the new Fitness app. Apparently you can be 101% done with a run. ------ ewoodrich Direct stream for VLC: [http://p.events- delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...](http://p.events- delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpvkjnfvpijhabdfvpijbadfv09/m3u8/atv_mvp.m3u8) ------ stock_toaster Now redirecting directly to cdn (akamai) at [http://www.apple.com.edgesuite.net/live/2014-sept- event/](http://www.apple.com.edgesuite.net/live/2014-sept-event/) ------ malchow Does anyone know whose network is delivering the streams? Is it Akamai? ~~~ mattdotc One of the links posted to the stream is hosted on p.events- delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net and a little googling shows that Edgesuite is an Akamai product. ------ shawn-butler The translation voiceover is pretty distracting. Not sure what Apple is trying to do. ------ rdvrk Little onions love to disco. With Chinese translations. And the TV Truck. Maybe they have an augmented reality product coming? Bringing back the rainbow logo? This is terrible. ------ acomjean I like working and having the text feed. I use: [http://www.macrumors.com/](http://www.macrumors.com/) feed of the event. It autorefreshes which is nice. ------ bane Reddit live link [https://www.reddit.com/live/tjm08vw836vc](https://www.reddit.com/live/tjm08vw836vc) ------ krorange hahah.. from all videos player i think apple video player sucks!!. I hate that.. not to say Apple event last night (MY time). I think youtube or google services are better video player. hmm.. why apple always wanted to create and use their own video player but they denide to develop it. I cannot play video in some websites. Sucks!!! Apple should change this. BTW Im apple fan though. ------ Zikes Oh good, charts with no Y axis. How informative. [http://i.imgur.com/4UZk0MH.png](http://i.imgur.com/4UZk0MH.png) ~~~ recursive I like how there is a trend line that interpolates between different iphone generations. That's probably meaningful somehow. ------ math0ne WOW their streaming choices here have made me loose another notch of respect for apple WTF, safari only? This is 2014 apple grow up. ~~~ mitchty This has always been the case. Either setup VLC so http live streaming (which is JUST a m3u playlist of mp4 files that get downloaded in succession) or install safari. ------ sdegutis tl;dr: they made a bigger phone and a watch ------ lordbusiness Can anyone recall if iOS goes GM / public release on the day of this? Or do we have to wait a week? ~~~ mathieuh iOS major versions are usually released soon after the actual phone is released, so still another week or two to wait. ~~~ lordbusiness That rings a bell - thank you. :-) ------ lifeisstillgood So the smart money is on: \- iWatch with less features, possibly just tracks your every move and becomes part of quantified self \- a new record label or Dre inspired mood \- two new iPhones Possibly some or all put back till they are perfect. Is this a correct reading of what has to be a record 150 HN posts in five minutes flat? ------ discardorama Yay! The Chinese translation has stopped!! It took only 26 minutes to achieve this. I hope someone gets fired for these goofs. I expected better from Apple. ------ RayVR getting translators for...mandarin? korean? over the sound of tim cook... ------ stasy How much will an unlocked version be of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+? If you buy full price from Tmobile. ------ rebel This presentation looks like it's going to be on another level.. even for Apple standards. ------ droopyEyelids Any chance we can keep all Apple discussion on HN contained in this thread? ~~~ WildUtah Half the stories on the front page will be Apple stories within the next two hours. The ranking algorithm will drop them off soon enough. Maybe the time coefficient should be stronger for days like today, though. ~~~ k-mcgrady >> "Maybe the time coefficient should be stronger for days like today, though." I disagree. The reason the front page becomes full of Apple is because Apple launches all their stuff at once. There are only maybe 2 or 3 times a year that Apple releases new stuff. The discussions of these things are important. They shouldn't be penalised for happening at the same time. ------ AlexeyBrin Can't wait to see the new iPhone 6, time to change my old iPhone 4 :) ------ htaunay [Off-Topic]: The 12:44 pic might as well be a Starbucks ad (8:44 PDT) ------ icpmacdo I'm getting an access denied page trying to refresh the stream ------ evidencepi The live stream is a disaster. Anyone experiences a homepaga crash? ------ clairity did anyone catch if apple devices can do peer-to-peer payments via apple pay? (e.g., one phone acting as a reader, à la square, another as payer) ------ ulfw Wow they seriously messed this one up. ------ jl6 iBeats smart headphones with voice-only UI. "Wish we could say more". ------ bringking whats up with the Chinese translations? ------ hlmencken seventeen songs at once are playing ------ DSingularity anyone else getting access denied? ------ hlmencken why am i getting bars ------ DSingularity now no audio? ------ wfjackson I wonder if they started working on the bigger iPhones while airing this ad. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4c2mh15Yk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4c2mh15Yk) The new "reachability" feature is an interesting way to try to minimize the problem though, if a little cumbersome. ------ autism_hurts Honestly very excited about this... very excited. ------ TheAlchemist Getting 'Access Denied' now ------ udzinari WTF per minute world record just got smashed to peaces ------ niix Get it together, jeesh. ------ subpixel I can't believe I'm actually tuning in to watch this. ~~~ hlmencken so silly, could really make or break my opinion of apple's future ------ wilsonfiifi Streaming seems to be better from the iPad than the Mac... weird ------ stasy The timer doesn't display for me. Is this happening with anyone else? ------ DigitalJack The new iPhone 6000 SUX. Big is back! Because Bigger is Better! (c.f. robocop) ~~~ DigitalJack Maybe you all are too young to remember the 6000 SUX. ------ hobarrera "Our live broadcast begins at 10 a.m. PDT." Considering that the entire world uses GMT, and that _only_ US citizens use PDT, they could have bothered to use GMT. Or better still, they could have detected your location/system time and just put a countdown or your own local time. ~~~ Smirnoff Uhmm, did you not notice that HUGE countdown timer? That pretty much covers entire world. And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast. ~~~ hobarrera > Uhmm, did you not notice that HUGE countdown timer? That pretty much covers > entire world. It want's there when I visited. :-( > And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what > time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people > live on east coast. But they must most certainly know their GMT offset, since it's the worldwide reference.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How One Employer Stuck a New Mom with a $898,984 Bill for Her Premature Baby - smacktoward https://www.propublica.org/article/how-one-employer-stuck-a-new-mom-with-a-bill-for-her-premature-baby ====== bernierocks The difference with government care is that you won't get a bill..but you may not get coverage either.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why Do You Need PGP? (1994) - raldu https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/crypto/cypherpunks/zimmermann-why-pgp.html ====== christianbryant Phil is still as vocal now as he was then: [http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-regulation/phil- zimmermann...](http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-regulation/phil-zimmermann- privacy-silent-circle-166897) ------ diafygi I've been hacking on several side projects with GPG and OpenPGP for the past few months[1][2][3], and I've come away from it fully convinced that the lack of interest in PGP is because people don't want to unofficially extend the format. The the fundamental format and specification are really extensible and could be used as the base for most crypto apps, including Keybase/OTR/TextSecure apps. However, for some reason, people are scared to unofficially extend the OpenPGP format specification to add the features they need. Maybe it's that they don't want to extend the format, maybe it's that there's no good tools to actually do that (there really aren't). For example, there is a "User Attribute" packet you can add to a PGP public key that can contain arbitrary data. The only official format for this packet is a jpeg image, but you can specify up to 99 more types of "attributes" on your own, and parsers that don't understand them will just ignore them. So Keybase could have extended this packet for its online identity validations, but instead it created it's own centralized PKI, signature format, and command line tool. One of my next side projects is going to be trying to add my Keybase signatures for my github to my PGP public key. Also, there's no reason why the format can't be extended to allow for Forward Secrecy. You could very easily use OpenPGP as the base format for OTR and Axolotl. One of my next side projects is going to be implementing the same OTR and Axolotl flow using OpenPGP as the base format. That way, you could use the public keyservers to start end-to-end encrypted chat sessions (AND utilize the web of trust in the process). I love Keybase and TextSecure just as much as the next person, but it really sucks that we're having to rely on so few people to maintain the infrastructure, protocols, and formats for the next generation of crypto apps. [1]: [https://github.com/diafygi/publickeyjs](https://github.com/diafygi/publickeyjs) [2]: [https://github.com/diafygi/openpgp- python](https://github.com/diafygi/openpgp-python) [3]: [https://github.com/diafygi/keyserver- elasticsearch](https://github.com/diafygi/keyserver-elasticsearch) ------ nota_bene Join the FSF's email encryption campaign to accelerate the movement: [https://www.iwoulddo.it/en/campaigns/2949/email- encryption](https://www.iwoulddo.it/en/campaigns/2949/email-encryption) ------ SFjulie1 The UI is too complex, and the security of the ring of trust relies on the key signing. It would suffer poor key signing habits that no noobs understand. Plus for key signing, I need to show my papers... What if my interlocutor is an infiltrated whatever? I just blew away my identity. Else, my key worths nothing. Plus like decentralized certificate system it is vulnerable to a majority attack. Sometimes a local majority in time or space is sufficient. It requires too much knowledge to be applied correctly. Service Secret loves to know a secret is exchange and GPG is like telling "hé Deep Packet Inspection terrorist one with well known address1 is talking to well known terrorist2 with address2 and key2" Secret services do not really care about the secret ... They care about sociograms Well the only good use I see for GPG mail is to make the content of a mail as valid as a formal contract between two parties. ~~~ VienneseCPA Heh, no. GPG mitigates a wide spectrum of threats. Not all threats. It's part of an over-all strategy of risk management. Your thinking of "it's a silver bullet that fails completely" is as lulzy as the people who think "it's a silver bullet that works perfectly." Think probabilistically, not black-and-white binary logic. ~~~ SFjulie1 Probability: \- I experienced lots of gifted geeks doing stupid things with key signing party (like creating fake ID for their cats); \- I experienced IT specialist from the security unable to use GPG with their mailbox to send their forms to RIPE so we used clear text passwords in mail (yes they were of course security experts); \- I know for real secret services care more about who talks to whom secretly than what is the secret. And using GPG/PGP is like a smoking gun. I did too lost all my floppy disk with my revocation key. I do use my PGP key to sign my python packages. But this UI/UX is hellish. So yes, GPG sux and is unusable by mere mortals, and even me who advocated for it in the late 90's think that I will not let anyone try to drag any relatives of mine close to this hell, because I would have to do the support, and this product sux big balls. ~~~ VienneseCPA This sounds like a deeply emotional issue for you. Do keep in mind that other people have a wildly different history with GPG than yours.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Server hack prompts call for cPanel customers to take “immediate action” - shawndumas http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/02/server-hack-prompts-call-for-cpanel-customers-to-take-immediate-action/ ====== sucuri2 Some more details here too: [http://blog.sucuri.net/2013/02/cpanel-inc-server- compromised...](http://blog.sucuri.net/2013/02/cpanel-inc-server- compromised.html) thanks, ------ raintrees The discovery of successful attacks is starting to have a serious drum-like cadence...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Creating a to Do App with VuetifyJS and Back EndLab - chris140957 ====== bidkat Did you forget a link?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Underscore Perl - zeeone https://github.com/vti/underscore-perl ====== jerf This is... not useful. Perl doesn't have a (weak) functional-programming gap that needs fixing that badly in the first place. The big clue should have been when map had to be defined in terms of... map. Perl's map can be used directly to do the vast bulk of things in that file: # reducing; folding is obvious from here my $accum = 0; map { $accum += $_ } @nums; # filter map { $_ ? ($_) : () } @list; # also grep, of course, but if you want to filter and # do other things it's useful # flattening map { @$_ } @arrayrefs; For the rest, just look at the source code and observe, for instance, the pointless wrapping of List::Utils::uniq for unique. Far more idiomatic or established ways of doing all (or almost all, with the remainder being easily fixed up from CPAN) these things exist in the core shipped modules. The actual use of this library is almost certain to be both klunkier _and_ less idiomatic and readable than what Perl ships with out of the box. Underscore is not the _sine qua non_ of weak functional programming. ~~~ zeeone You're being too harsh. I think Underscore.pm provides an unified interface to a lot of missing array functions. Big deal that it overlaps some existing CPAN/Core Perl functionality. I would easily replace the List::* modules with this.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Starting over after business failure - throes_death I'm a little burnt out after my business failed after 4 years of hard graft. I'm looking for a new online opportunity but feel as if I've run out of ideas, problems and general creativity.<p>I'm not sure how to start again. Any advice? ====== legitster Work a job as normal and boring as you can find. Boring is, boring. But boredom is a good way to build up energy for a future run at a startup. Also, one thing you lose working in a startup for a long period of time is perspective on what "normal" problems are. Which is why so many startups look like they only target other startups. The best ideas come from working in an industry long enough to understand the specifics about a problem, how to solve it, and who would buy it. ~~~ endymi0n Big +1 here from my side, and here's a bit of scientific background: [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and- seek/201407...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and- seek/201407/the-surprising-benefits-boredom) Some of my anecdotal evidence: Left an exploded and then imploded startup (where I was one of the first employees), completely burned out and was approached by a guy for a startup. Sounded good, but my creative energy was gone and my wife told me to go to hell if I wanted to start a company with a newborn on the way. Went to a super boring corporate job instead that had three big benefits: 1) Nice and cushy 9 to 5 with great money to lick my wounds 2) As OP said: Energy came back and I realigned with normal people and normal problems 3) I left after 11 months with a nice bore-out and so many great examples of what not to do in a company that it had my fire lighted and ready to go. Turned out the guy who wanted me for the startup had waited for me and together we built the largest streaming search engine worldwide over the past 5 years. That in turn was a serious roller coaster ride with its own story again, but that wasn't your question, right? :) ~~~ nefitty JustWatch has been such a game changer for me! Really awesome job. Great UI, intuitive layout, responsive. You guys must be getting a barrage of well deserved traffic lately. ------ startupnthrow What you are experiencing is absolutely normal. You worked on the best idea and you worked it hard. You even delivered revenue from customers and maybe you successfully raised some investor money. However, 4 years later, you're the end of the road. You are hungry for a new idea because you have built up a unique set of entrepreneurial skills that you want to keep using. You're a professional high-energy operator who builds and executes. However, you don't have anything as good as the last business because starting is hard. You know that a startup requires commitment and conviction. However, to get that fire again, for a new business, is a drag. Your startup left you out of commitment and conviction for your industry and with even less fight in your spirit for another run. My advice: Go back to the scene of the crime and open up an investigation while the trail is still warm and you have some consulting gig to keep cash in your pocket. Your startup worked for 4 years. I would recommend you go back to your industry and meditate on why you were convicted and why you were committed. Why did you succeed? What did you do better than the competition? Why did you stop succeeding? What about your customers you really loved? Which customers did you really hate? What was the magic of the business that others couldn't repeat as easily as you. In those answers may possibly lie the new startup that you want to launch that will CRUSH the COMPETITION. In a careful poring of the 4 years are the seeds for a new and possibly even more successful company. Take your time because looking at the failure will be painful. ~~~ throes_death Thanks. TBH I think the niche was to small, the problem was too hard, the solution was too complex, the audience was too hard to connect with. The niche can be served but I'm not sure it can be served and make a living from it. There are other competitors (without our USPs) but they're backed by universities so it's not clear if they're "stand alone" viable either. Thanks for your advice! ------ bramkrom Some people have given solid advice here on financial restrictions, so will focus on the 'fire for building' part. Recently listened to a podcast of Tim Ferris, where he interviewed Tony Fadell - who built the iPod, iPhone and Nest. In it, he makes a serious case for getting bored. He explains how he uses it to drive new ideas, such as how it helped him get the clarity of mind to get the idea of Nest, and how afterwards he's done the research for his current problem - one of plastics. "Get the time to get bored. Spend three, six months if you can, or at least two or three weeks outside of that. Get bored. Just put away all of your things. Maybe go clean up the garage or whatever it is. Right? Through that, you’re going to start to think differently. You’re going to act slightly differently and your mind might open up to other sources of inspiration, other problems, other things where you start to go, “Oh, now I see differently.” I’m not just going to go run to the competitor because I understand the space and run to the competitor and go work for them because they’re going to give me a better job. But I want to go do a whole different thing that I want to learn about that’s going to challenge me so I’m not just checking in every day and doing my work, but I’m actually growing through that." Listen to it here: [https://tim.blog/2019/12/23/tony- fadell/](https://tim.blog/2019/12/23/tony-fadell/) ~~~ pgt An important aspect of fostering boredom is avoiding gratification like Netflix or Twitter (which I am hugely guilty of). ~~~ metal13 Underrated comment. Those things are great, but when your minds' entertainment comes from outside, you never rebuild the creative muscle. ~~~ endymi0n Playing a game or watching a movie feels good — but at the same time, you're living someone elses' dreams. All this dopamine, all this adrenaline will feel so good and make you tired just enough to conveniently forget about your own. ~~~ ilrwbwrkhv what about reading books? either fiction or non fiction? ~~~ daseiner1 the distinguishing benefit of reading, particularly more challenging works (of any genre), is improved reading comprehension and likely improved written ability as well, skills that have immense value in day-to-day life. Arguably video games and movies don’t have the same trickle over benefits. That being said I have an immense respect for the value of film and I imagine video games have certain benefits as well. ------ predictmktegirl After I exited my last business, it took me 3 years to finally get up to feeling ready again. I also went to a dark place for a while. My best advice is to keep your head up and think more about the present than the future, at least for a little while. Keep yourself busy and avoid things that feel too cumbersome or dreadful. Exercise and treat your body well. In between battling depression and anxiety over the years, I started doodling things again. Those doodles turned into thought experiments, into reading research papers, into connecting into a new field. I'm feeling more energized these days about starting something new, and more excited about working on a startup again. I wish there was some way I could have avoided falling into the emotional abyss and spending so many years there. Maybe I should have focused on building more friendships over the years instead of being a loner. You really start to take for granted such things until the isolation of failure sinks in. Hopefully this time I will find a co-founder willing to go to felt with me. I'm not sure I can endure another solo fail. ~~~ pm What field did you come from and what did you end up going into? ~~~ predictmktegirl Well I am still in computer engineering, but I've always considered that engineers always have a "minor" in whatever discipline in which they are working. Of course you can be a generalist web-dev; however, anything more interesting usually requires specialization into either a technology or domain. To answer your question, I used to be an engineer more focused on front-end work, UX, and design. These days, I've gone back to my educational roots in economics and mathematics and moved more towards ML and prediction markets. ------ throwaway68102 I've been through a handful of ventures in the past few years with ultimately no lasting success. Some made money in certain periods, but ultimately they failed, with the thousands of hours and many thousands of dollars invested in these ventures now "down the drain". The only thing we can keep doing is pushing forward. Failure must be seen as a learning opportunity, not a failure of intellect or similar. With that said, if you are experiencing emotional side-effects, which are completely normal from my POV (I've certainly had them), I urge you to consider your mental health, nonetheless your overall health. Success and money do not mean a thing if you cannot get out of your bed or house every day, or if you've frayed all relationships (whether familial, friendships, etc.) while working as hard as we're told to as entrepreneurs. ------ optemization I failed a business after nearly three years. I thought that it was a great idea and invested $50,000 of my father's money. I got lucky in many ways because I started it in college and didn't have rent or family matters on the line. That said, closing it down really sucked. I feel like there are still some loose threads between myself and teammates — we never closed the loop on some things, so make sure you do that. Otherwise, it will bother you for a long time. To bounce back, I focused on the opportunities that this experience has instead brought me. I realized that I got deeply involved with the entrepreneurship community on campus. I channeled all my energy to help others start companies and avoid the mistakes that I have done. This, in turn, led to more work opportunities at accelerators and organizations that support startups. After working for about a year I gained new perspectives and experiences which pointed me to a new idea that I am currently pursuing. The "circle of startup" if you will :) One of the best frameworks that starting my first company helped me develop is finding "problem/solution fit". Of course, that depends on your past business and experience. Personally, I became more sensitive to noticing problems and realizing that I could solve them with technology. ------ throwawayfail Serial fail-er here. Start consulting with companies that have made it a little further down the road and learn from them. Remember that not everyone has solved the same set of problems. Find companies that have problems that you already solved with your business, and help that company by applying what you've learned. They'll benefit from your experience and fresh approach, and you'll see what you can do with a different set of tools (more capital, better product, better team, etc.) After working with a few companies for a few quarters, you might have a fresh outlook on whether to solve a new problem or join an established company. ------ websitescenes I went through this recently and have come out the other side with a successful new venture. It took some self reflection, humility and creativity to get here. What did it for me was putting aside my ego and realizing that maybe my ideas weren’t the pinnacle of human thought. Up until this point I had been building what I wanted, believing that as an engineer I knew better than everyone else and therefore what they needed and should want. I think Silicon Valley and VCs have this problem in general and this is why most of them fail. It wasn’t until I immersed myself into searching, networking and communicating, that I finally understood that there is a huge divide between what people need and what engineers think they need. With that said, my suggestion would be to network with people outside of your normal circle and find someone or a business that is doing remarkably well without engineering or automation. Figure out how to pitch the bigger picture to them and co-opt them into a new venture. Their idea is already working with manual, redundant workflows. Imagine what you could do together to make the business scalable. ~~~ throes_death Thanks for your advice. Your suggestion re: success businesses with manual, redundant workflows is great food for thought! ------ Ididntdothis It depends on your financial situation. If you can afford it, take some time off and forget about the whole thing. If you need money, I would either get a steady job or a contracting position to reestablish a stable financial situation. It’s hard to think straight while being broke. ~~~ throes_death Thanks. I do need to forget about things but I also feel I need to feel as if I've earnt a paycheck. Does that make sense? I have not "won any bread" for the last 4 years and even some casual hours doing unskilled labor, I think, might make me feel energized. ~~~ Ididntdothis I totally understand. Personally I would do some contracting. Having somebody tell you what to do and making some money without much stress can be good for the soul for a while. ~~~ literallycancer I would expect contractors to be let go and/or contracts not refreshed at the nearest decision point at nearly all companies. ------ throwaway875u58 This was me a few years ago. My end goal was to build up savings in the 3-5 year time frame. My off-ramp was to: 1) Take on consulting clients This allowed for a shift in day to day/finding an alternate source of income asap. Depending on opportunities available, you might want to skip this step. 2) Identify interesting startups in the area + get a software dev job. This allowed me to hone up my rustier coding skills and make good money without needing to worry about clients/big picture deliverables. 3) After 1 year, move to FANG. I needed a year to get back into the IC mindset and skillset at a level where I could be hired as a senior/principle level at FANG. ~~~ rhlsthrm What's the best way to get consulting clients? I want to start building a pipeline now in case I end up in a similar situation. ~~~ optemization I just started actively consulting two months ago. So far, 8 projects and five clients. Before doing this, I built a pretty strong startup network in New York City. Through starting a company and running an entrepreneurship club at New York Univesity, I got to know a lot of relevant people on the scene. entrepreneurs, investors and community builders. Once I was sharing with people that I was working on. I got introductions to potential clients. My biggest client right now is a person whom I knew from the first year at the University. If you are good at hosting events or bringing up ir target audience together, I would suggest looking into that. ------ contingencies _A penny saved is a penny earned._ Instead of focusing on making more money, focus on spending less. This reduces pressure, increases health and time to think and be creative. In my adult life I have spent years in low expense scenarios learning and creating. Forget the herd, do what you want to do. Move to a cheap place (avoid anywhere with a 'digital nomad' community) and go swimming, surfing, rock-climbing or cycling every day. Even if you have zero savings one remote gig or an occasional bout of local work will keep you going. ~~~ nudpiedo Can you elaborate more the "avoid anywhere with a 'digital nomad' community"? Isn't that supposed to be a positive network or alike people/entrepreneurs? How do you keep your networking/customers/support network in an isolated cheap area? ~~~ contingencies I often build something that takes time _before_ taking customers. Doing this in an isolated location keeps costs down, assists focus and allows free intellectual exploration without outside influence. ------ toyg I’ve just pulled the plug on my business, and now I’m moving sideways - back to regular employment but in a role that’s pretty different from what I’ve done for the last 15 years. Hopefully that will recharge my batteries, and then in a couple of years I might be ready to try again. ------ canvasduck I took a job at a small startup for a year. It was healthy for a number of reasons -stable pay, rebuild savings -catching up on new tech I had missed while being heads down -larger teams, more socialization I had missed -time and space to decompress and process what I have learned ------ throw03172019 I wish I took some time off in between startups. I’d suggest taking some time off to clear your mind and rejuvenate. If you have the ability, traveling can help (although this is tough now with the virus outbreak). ~~~ kweks Definitely this. I have lived through two (one major) restarts. Be gentle to yourself. You probably will need longer to recovery emotionally than financially. Let the process take its time. If you're unsteady emotionally or under pressure (need to make a business to regain income) it is very difficult to make pragmatic decisions. Good luck. ------ xwdv Just work a regular full time job for a while. No shame in it. And if you absolutely can’t get past the idea of being employed for a steady paycheck, then just think of it as a way to raise cash for your next venture when you get a good idea. ------ flyinglizard Don’t jump into startups right away. Find a company to work for, preferably one which is interesting and positive (not just any stable BigCo but not someone else’s 4 people startup either). Do that without imposing any time limit - when you’re mentally ready, the startup bug will bite. That time you’ll be better all around. ------ jbob2000 Go work for a big company. The work is slower and you can take a break. Big companies also mean big opportunities. And you don’t get to see what these opportunities are unless you’re on the inside. You will find some inspiration there for a great B2B company and you can leverage the connections you make there to make it happen. ~~~ itake All the big companies are freezing hiring. This doesn't seem like practical advice. ~~~ legitster But running your own business is a surefire way to get to the top of an applicant list. ~~~ mndg Have you failed at a startup & business and experienced recruiting as a business owner/founder / have you had skin in the game here? Having failed 4Q19 at my startup, and tried finding work elsewhere, employers have rejected me left and right. I'm no longer positioning myself as a founder/business owner, instead choosing a more traditional function, and deleting any reference to me being a founder / having done practically every single function. Research out of U Oregon confirms my experience. [https://business.uoregon.edu/news/job-prospects-former- start...](https://business.uoregon.edu/news/job-prospects-former-startup- founders) ------ vpEfljFL Let new ventures find you instead. Take some time to refresh your mind. After grinding your idea for four years you most likely lost some experience in other fields. Have fun, read fiction books. When you'll find a new idea, you most likely neglect this parts of the life again for several yers. Good luck! ------ mikesabat I took a job in the same space as my startup. My startup was bootstrapped, so having built a product and learned the market was interesting experience to my new employer. The work in the job seems much easier once you've been grinding for the same problem on your own. I've continued to deepen my network. You can still solve the problem you were trying to solve with the startup, although you'll be doing it at a company. Maybe approaching it from a different angle will shed new value on your ideas and creativity, and you won't feel as depleted. ------ orasis It took me 4 years to recover from burnout post business failing. I moved to the mountains, did a lot of meditating and snowboarding and was able to start a now-successful company after that 4 years. ------ throes_death Wow, I've just woken up to a bunch of new comments. Thanks everyone! ------ alex_c I’ve been there. It was incredibly stressful and tiring, especially towards the end. I could not focus on anything for weeks after, let alone think about starting something new. Give yourself some time. Eat, sleep, work out, live - chances are you might not have done much of that lately. I would suggest travel, but maybe not right now :) Look after yourself first, allow yourself to be bored again, the creativity and the itch will come back. But you can’t force it if you’re running on empty. ------ Gonzih Take a break, take care of yourself. Be careful with energy levels and then you will know when is the right time and what you want to do. ------ ctas I've been there. If you want to chat (and maybe even work on something together), mail me. ------ ad31mar Partner up with somebody :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Man threatens to shoot Iphone; escorted to Genius Bar - gtani http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/02/man-threates-to-shoot-iphone-at-genius-bar/ ====== steamer25 Assuming the story is complete, I hope they're lenient on him. From where I'm seated, it doesn't look like he threatened anything besides his own property. Since he was cooperative when confronted, the mall owners would do well to overlook his lapse in judgement on their property. ~~~ loupgarou21 Depending on the situation, the mall owners may have no actual recourse anyway. I know in my state, a "no guns allowed" restriction isn't enforceable for an entire mall unless every business in the mall posts a "guns not allowed" sign. But, he could always be charged with stuff like disturbing the peace.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
I quit social media and now I want a cigarette - supr_strudl https://hadalin.me/blog/i-quit-social-media-and-now-i-want-a-cigarette ====== moksly I’ve always found these articles fascinating on HN, because while anecdotal, hacker news is easily the social media that has wasted the most of my time and been the source of the most stress and anxiety (aren’t you using this new tech yet?). The privacy issue doesn’t exist here, at least not unless you decide to share, but if you do, you actually won’t be able to delete your posts unless you contact the admins. Facebook actually adds a lot more value to my life than HN does because Facebook is the place one of my friend groups arrange our 4-6 yearly weekend retreats. This is the only thing I use Facebook for though, I don’t have any of their apps and I only log on a couple of times a month. Don’t get me wrong, I wish we could do it on some other medium exactly because of facebooks evil history, but unfortunately Facebook is the only place everyone is. I used to use Facebook differently, I used to follow things and interests, but one I removed all my likes and follows it became a pretty harmless address book that sells my information to advertising. Hacker news on the other hand is where I waste the most of my online time, and mostly it’s on feeling inferior because I’m not learning X and Y or starting some side project company. This is anecdotal like I said, but I don’t think HN is any better than FB from a purely psychological point of view. Facebook is obviously still more evil due to the privacy issues, but this article is about the cigarette side of social media. ~~~ agumonkey we need a legacynews where people discuss how they're not transitioning to java8 but keep java7 for now ~~~ shantly "How Perl 5 is basically fine and gets the job done" "If node is so fast why does my PHP site feel way faster than this React+Redux+Node thingy? An inquiry into what 'fast' means." "Why GUIs in things other than webtech are actually not hard at all and work way better." ~~~ agumonkey > "If node is so fast why does my PHP site feel way faster than this > React+Redux+Node thingy? An inquiry into what 'fast' means." this actually a true statement. I probably spent a thousand hours deeply mocking PHP, but everytime I use their website I'm shocked how lean everything is. Given the infinte amount of brilliant work done on js VMs and HTTP2 or whatever, I think there's something to be learned there. ~~~ derefr PHP is, at its core (i.e. after in-engine precompilation), a hand-coded-in-C virtual machine with its ISA purpose-designed for efficiently generating dynamic HTML from the results of backend network service requests. Honestly, that’s not a bad idea. It’s a lot like how many old game consoles have ISAs that specifically make game software efficient to run compared to generic application software. Purpose-built architectures can be exploited to achieve incredible efficiencies in CPU/memory usage for a given effect—as any demoscene programmer could tell you. Even emulators running this CISC code often outperform the same code written idiomatically for the host arch (see: one of the reasons that z/OS FORTRAN programs stick around.) So far as I know, we haven’t recapitulated this approach in any other modern stack. Sure, we “compile” templates, but only to the bytecode ISA of the scripting language hosting the MVC framework, which has none of these dynamic- HTML-oriented CISC opcodes (other than _maybe_ the Erlang VM’s vectorized write of “IO lists” using writev(2).) A web MVC framework for another language (e.g. Ruby, Node, Elixir, whichever!) would actually likely do well in performance terms by having its “view” component be a static PHP (or Zend microcode) generator, feeding the web frontend (e.g. Nginx) a directory of PHP to expose to the world, which would only call into the server backend (and so the MVC controller) through API- subdomain subrequests. The static-generated PHP “app” would serve the same purpose as a JavaScript SPA... but would exist on the server together with the backend, so there’d be much less point in persisting state there (since you’re not patching over a latency boundary by doing so.) There’d probably be even more efficiencies to uncover if you designed an ISA from the ground up to be used _solely_ for this purpose (i.e. being “edge- worker logic” spat out during a backend’s compilation phase), though, compared to PHP which must be Turing-complete for those that want to use it as a full- stack solution. I imagine the resulting ISA would look like some weird bytecode hybrid of eBPF, Server-Side Includes, and Nginx’s in-memory representation of loaded location{} entries. (I also imagine that some Cloudflare engineer already has a design for such an ISA in a notebook somewhere, as a more-efficient-through-constraints Cloudflare Workers target—but they haven’t bothered going further because it’s kind of an arcane idea and they’d need buy-in from framework devs before it’d be useful to build.) ------ meerita I have partially removed all my social networks except Twitter. I want to find out about things in real time, and from various sources, therefore Twitter is still a valid medium for this purpose. Although I interact little in the discussions. Leaving Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and other networks gave me automatic anxiety relief. I no longer care what anyone close to me thinks and I don't get into discussions with close relatives. My life as a conservative is much better without social networks where they censor me non-stop, just Twitter and being very careful with what I write and how I write it I can more or less start conversations. Sooner or later I will leave Twitter too, it is a matter of finding another social network, free and open and nurtured by people. ~~~ jbob2000 I’m curious why you’re being censored. Are you a fiscal conservative, or a social conservative? Because I have a bunch of fiscal conservatives on my Facebook and the only thing they post about is monetary policy. Nothing about abortions, marriage, immigration, or policing - the things social conservatives tend to drive themselves red in the face with. It might be worth examining your own discourse to understand why you were being censored (or _felt_ you were being censored). I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong, I’m just wondering if you’ve ever reflected on what you post and how people react to it. ~~~ rpmisms And what's the difference? What makes being a social conservative less valid? You're coming from a very high-and-mighty standpoint here, when the simple truth is that he should not be censored. ~~~ jbob2000 I don't want to get into the mud on social conservatism. These people want to undo abortion and marriage rights, among a lot of other social progress we have made. Do I really need to explain the difference between someone who likes to debate interest rate hikes with someone who wants to remove rights for women and LGBT people? I'm not being high and mighty. I simply asked if he had reflected on why he felt censored. If he was sharing fake news about Hillary being a lizard person, then yeah, I understand why people would remove him from their newsfeed. ~~~ rpmisms And there you go. Check your bias, because it's making you sound remarkably like you have an excellent elbow-pad-and-fedora collection, ------ seanwilson I can't help but feel that people that become addicted to social media should really be looking for underlying issues they need to address e.g. the need to compare themselves to others, the need for validation from likes/upvotes. If the underlying issue is still there, quitting social media isn't addressing the cause. I use social media to keep in contact with friends and can't relate to posts like this at all. I don't check often, rarely see the point in posting and generally feel bad for people that boast all the time about how great their life is. ~~~ kennyadam In my experience with addiction (drugs), there's always an underlying cause. The problem is, there are lots and lots of people with unaddressed issues that aren't seeking or can't obtain the proper solution/advice/help/whatever and end up self-medicating with drugs, video games, social media, etc. ------ darrmit This is a refreshing article to see on HN because it’s not the typical clickbait “I did X and my life is changed forever” nor is it “I quit X and I’m better than you for it”. It echoes my personal experience. I’ve gone without social media for extended periods - years. But I’ve always filled the boredom void with something else: HN, work, other websites. Now I have a Facebook account but I have a very small number of friends and family I keep up with and I follow a small number of interests. I run out of things to scroll often and that’s okay. ~~~ non-entity Same here. Worse, I thought I would be able to channel my time into something at least productive whether that be side projects or getting my life together, but I still can't ------ BucketSort I quit social media and after a while I couldn't even make sense of why I was there to begin with. "There was no value lost... what the hell was I doing on there all this time?" I never had any "glowing" experience on social media, no memories, yet so much time wasted. People just aren't that interesting. It's all the same stuff over and over again. And if you do get into something interesting, you end up with an exchange of 20+ comments which just seems out of place... especially on FB. ------ jordan801 I quit Facebook and Alcohol at the same time, cold turkey. Facebook I didn't even notice. I looked back after a few months and thought, "oh yeah, I did also quit Facebook". I didn't delete it. I just stopped using it. Quitting Facebook changed basically nothing. Now I don't get done with a Facebook binge and feel like I just wasted 10-30 minutes of life. Alcohol was a totally different experience. The one thing that I regret about not having Facebook is organizing events. I've missed a couple with good friends, because I simply don't have Facebook. As a software developer, I wonder if this is something I can change. Perhaps couple Facebook's API with Twilio's API and convert events into text messages. Perhaps a completely separate system that I have to urge my friends to adopt, simply for my inclusion. Not sure what the solution is, but the problem itself isn't worthy of luring me back into Facebook. ~~~ a_geeky_bro Do you care to share more about how quitting alcohol was? How much were you drinking before you quit? How do you curb cravings? I'm in a similar boat and I've honestly found LaCroix to be one of the best substitutes for the urge to open a drink. ~~~ rahoulb If you've not already, I recommend reading "This Naked Mind" by Annie Grace ------ mordymoop Social media is addictive in roughly the same sense that not punching yourself in the face is addictive. The "dopamine hit" aspect is grossly oversold. Social media is distraction from suffering. Most addictive behavior is, but social media is almost _entirely_ distraction from suffering. If you don't do something about the background suffering that's leading you to the distraction, you'll just fill that void with something else. ~~~ beshrkayali Dozens of studies show the opposite of what you're saying. Social media companies do every tick in the book, and then some, to get people addicted. In certain cases what you're saying is true, but it might as well be the other way around for the rest. ~~~ mordymoop Let's say for the sake of argument that I was being hyperbolic with my "punching yourself in the face" statement. Let's say you are addicted to social media, and you use it for 5 hours a day. Let's say I take away your phone. For a week. You will probably feel gradually diminishing impulses to look at your phone, which will eventually subside almost entirely within a handful of days. You will not experience withdrawals. You will not lose sleep. You will (probably) not try to scam somebody else out of their phone. If I hand you your phone back after a week, there's a good chance you might just delete the social media apps off the phone yourself, having realized how much time you were wasting. In other words, if the social media companies are doing every trick in the book, it's not really amounting to much. If you were spending 5 hours a day on Facebook, it probably had a lot more to do with the general shape of your life and opportunities for actualization and socialization, than it had to do with intermittent reinforcement schedules. And fundamentally what I'm saying is correct: it is mundane daily suffering that creates the void filled by social media and other distractive addictions, giving them a foothold in your life. This is orthogonal to any claims about whether social media is "actually" "addictive". ~~~ beshrkayali I think you're still generalizing based on how you feel, instead of analysing this objectively. I quit a few years ago and for the most part I didn't even notice after a month. But I've seen friends get offended and get into arguments over likes, and teens online cry and go through withdrawal-like symptoms over losing followers. The full effects of this stuff is yet to come with young gen. And no, it's not like anything physically addictive of course, but it still has a hold on some, and the patterns are similar to other non-physical addictions. Edit: And how can you even say conclusively that it's mundane daily suffering that creates the void filled by social media, and not that social media is causing the creation of this void that is leading to mundane daily suffering? ------ donatj > I absolutely cannot understand people who have 153 unread notifications. > They're probably the same people who sleep with a blanket turned the other > way around — zipper facing the head. a) What kind of blanket has a zipper? I don’t think I have encountered any. b) As the kind of person with several thousand unread emails, I don’t know why people bother? I can easily search for the important stuff, and visually scan the new pile a few times a day. I have better things to do with my life than manage my inbox, I don’t need that stress. Family, video games, basically anything else. It’s way more work than reward. I know a number of people this drives absolutely nuts, but I don’t get it. ~~~ bestest > a) What kind of blanket has a zipper? I don’t think I have encountered any. This most probably refers to the "hole" which is used to insert the insert of the blanket, which, for most people at least, means that it should be at the "feet" end of the bed. It's just some blankets have zippers to cover the hole, others have buttons etc. ~~~ donatj Oh, I think we’re taking about a duvet cover? I believe that’s distinct from a blanket, which is usually sealed fully or a single ply. I have certainly never been duvet levels of fancy. ~~~ Broken_Hippo One doesn't need to be fancy for duvet covers - merely live in a country where the duvet is standard and the blanket is secondary. United States: Duvets are fancy. Norway: Common, everyday stuff. ------ enz > Social media is like smoking. It takes a while to get addicted. You do it > because everyone is doing it I would add: Besides, it tastes awful when you start, but you do it anyway until you get familiar with it. Just like the first days when discovering a social media without understanding it and doing dumb things such as posting the wrong stuff etc. ------ corodra PSA for anyone who does this, regarding the friends part. Hell, works well if you happen to move to a new place too. Go join a hobby club of some sort. Even if you're introverted. A structured "social" activity makes it super easy, approachable and everyone (in my experience) is welcoming. Meetup.com is a pretty good place to start. Even the generic social groups are fun too. Try your local library and rec center too for get togethers near you. Or if you do have a decent friend circle already, do the leg work to coordinate something. Doing a structured social activity helps a lot. Even everyone bringing a random bottle of whiskey and watching a movie while you all try different whiskeys is better than being home alone. Having a real social network you meetup with, makes it real easy to cut back on the addiction of social media. ~~~ woodrowbarlow in my experience (4 years without "friend"-based social media), becoming disconnected from friends is temporary. during the first year after quitting social media, you will have to work hard to maintain relationships; _you_ will have to instigate social time with your friends through other channels. but after a while, it will start to work in your favor. when those same friends are setting up events on facebook, they'll start to remember that you can only be reached through other channels and they'll start reaching out to you even when they might not have thought to invite you via facebook. and when they want to have a conversation with somebody but don't feel like opening the facebook app, who will they reach out to? you. my approach was to keep my facebook account, but strip it of everything except my name and a profile picture that says "i don't use fb, please text me". that way, people can still be reminded that i exist and they know i'm always a text message away. ------ imgabe > I would pay a monthly subscription for an ad-free version of Facebook. I think we're on the cusp of an explosion of ad-free subscription sites. An ad-free subscription Facebook could provide all of the actual benefits of Facebook at a fraction of the cost. No need to employ hundreds of PhD machine- learning experts to analyze mouse movements if you're not trying to hyper- optimize ads. ~~~ goatinaboat The paradox is: people with the disposable income to pay for ad-free social media are the most desirable advertising targets. The reality is that a subscription Facebook would take your money _and_ sell a profile of you for ads on other sites. ------ ubermonkey My wife and I have taken opposite approaches, kinda, to curtailing social media. She removed the FB app from her phone, so she only takes a stroll through that feed at night, while we're watching TV or whatever. She left Twitter entirely (well, her account is there, but she neither reads nor posts anymore). I still participate in Twitter, though I've moved some of the prolific accounts I enjoy to Feedbin so my feed isn't impossible. It's about evenly split between "people I actually know" and "entertainers / writers I like who are clever." I don't go in for rage-Twitter or whatever. I wish I could abandon FB entirely, but the network effects keep me there. The biggest one is cycling. I'm an avid road rider, and in my city pretty much ALL the coordination for cycling events (group rides, out of town trips, even happy hours) is on FB. If you leave FB, you're out of the loop. So in a real sense, FB is both healthy AND unhealthy for me. ~~~ ssully I did the same thing your Wife did with Twitter. I found myself checking it at work whenever I was stuck on a problem or basically whenever I was slightly bored. It's great on keeping up on things and getting some good laughs, but it was also draining in many ways as well (politics, being up to date on every terrible thing in the world, etc). I still check it every other night on my computer/ipad at home, or I'll login from my phone if something big is happening. But not having the app on my phone has made a huge difference. A minor aside, but it was almost pathetic how the first day after I deleted the app, without thinking, I would open my phone and click where the Twitter app used to be. It took me about 2 days to get over that habit. It truly is an addiction. ------ hartator The funny thing is the people the most adamant about quiting social media are usually the ones oversharing the most on it. ~~~ rbonvall Selection bias. You don't find out about the ones that don't share. I also quit social media and told no one (oops, it seems I just did). ------ bvanderveen Apropos of LinkedIn: I run my own business. I deleted my LinkedIn last year (having nuked everything else a year before) and the only thing that changed is I get fewer mass mails from recruiters. My overall deal throughput is not large enough make any statistically significant conclusions. (edit: speling) ------ mikedd I'm in the same boat. Recently quit LinkedIn too and am working on my github.io page for people to contact me for potential opportunities. Have no idea if it'll work out or not, in the long run but tbh, I feel a lot better not being on these sites than vice-versa. Just my 2c :) ~~~ OJFord My (early career, not notable - hang on why am I doing this to myself :)) CV is hosted on GitHub, FWIW I have had a few people contact me as a result. Sample size is small and it's anecdotal anyway, etc., but I do think the quality (of all of them) is much higher than the average I get through LinkedIn. I think it's certainly worth doing. (And if you want to or have already written it in LaTeX, feel free to use the Docker image & CircleCI config I created for the purpose.) ------ outime I left Twitter (where I was very, very active since ~2008) and FB (which didn't use much anyway) 2.5 years ago. For me, the typical listed benefits are mostly true. I have a lot more time to spend mainly on side projects and books, I stopped caring about futile arguments (-> less anxiety) and also realized how little real connections most of us have. Overall, it made me focus on the important stuff and never looked back. Granted I do have other distractions and I'm not aiming to be a perfect productive robot but social networks do affect us in at least some negative ways. Nevertheless there are cases where balanced usage is possible and you can reap many benefits while experiencing fewer drawbacks. I couldn't use it in a smart way though. ------ gwbas1c > Social media is like smoking. It takes a while to get addicted. It only takes about a pack of cigarettes to get addicted; but it takes awhile to _realize_ you're addicted. I'd say the same thing is true with Facebook. It took me about a decade to realize I was addicted. ------ danso > _For every “good” post I had to consume thirty “bad” ones. 30 /1 is just not > that good of a ratio._ It'd be interesting to see the writer expound on his expectations for "good" and "bad". Speaking for myself, I go into social media with much different (i.e. lowered) standards than I do for other media, because the energy of consumption/opportunity cost is so low. I couldn't stand consuming 10 bad books/movies for every good one, but for tweets it's no problem. And of course there are ways to increase the signal-noise ratio (trimming the list of users you follow), but I generally like the serendipity of seeing what people are randomly tweeting. I don't feel the pressure to consume my timeline feed more than just a few swipes. And I find the Twitter default non-chronological sort does a decent job of surfacing interesting content for me. ------ KirinDave I can't work out if I should flag these articles or not. They seem off topic and are almost invariably uninteresting and uninsightful. This one has the added flaw of being written in an obnoxious way. Why are these articles so popular here? ------ nakodari Why not balance the usage with moderation that works for you? I would always catch myself picking up the phone randomly and checking Facebook even if I didn't plan to. I decided this was bad and it was distracting me from experiencing the world and spending time with my family in the evening. So I removed FB from my phone. I check FB once or twice a day for a few minutes on my laptop during work and that's all. It works for me. I stay in touch with some friends and at the same time, I am not addicted to checking it over and over again on my phone throughout the day. Has anyone else tried the same? ~~~ tsmarsh I quit for a year. Then figured I’d just use facebook for the bits that work for me: local sales, peloton and fitness groups. My deal is no friends, not even my wife. No posting about me, just the group, just helping/commenting where it feels healthy for both me and the group. ------ ShadowFaxSam I've always reflected on the idea of deleting my social media accounts, especially after studying media in University. The more I learn about social media, and other forms of media the more aware I am with regards to what I post and share online. At the same time, I have friends all across the globe and use social media to stay in contact with my friends. I have a question though, would you consider Whatsapp to be social media? Especially because users can share stories on the platform. ~~~ ryandrake Don’t think of it as “I have to quit all Social Media. What is the exact definition of Social Media so I include it in my quitting?” If you think something you are doing is harmful, just stop doing it and don’t worry if it counts as Social Media. It is highly personal and will be different for everyone. For some people their WhatsApp usage is a net negative and they should stop. For other people it might not be. ------ MatekCopatek I have a slightly similar experience - I got off all social media, felt good but not life-changing. My guess is this is due to not being an extremely addicted user in the first place. ~~~ goto11 Don't you consider HN social media? ~~~ jperry Why would you? I see it as more like a news site with a comments section. I don't consider those to be social media either. ~~~ misterman0 Aren't we socializing right now? ~~~ HenryBemis We have different definitions of socializing. Commenting on a piece of news or opinions to enhance our thinking and gain knowledge/motivation/ideas, I don't call that socializing. I haven't made any connections through this platform and if I don't check the HNews for a week, I don't feel sad or missing anyone. But that's me. Someone else may be more (in)vested in here and consider HN as an integral part of their social life. I won't judge them. ~~~ TeMPOraL I suppose there's a subtle viewpoint difference. You see yourself "commenting on a piece of news". I (and presumably GP) see you socializing with the GP, the way you could casually socialize with a stranger on a bus stop. ------ raverbashing While social media impact on mental health is important, I have to confess it's mostly self inflicted. Once I realized the unfollow/mute button was there (not knowing it was, realizing it was there), it was a no-brainer to just unfollow toxic people. And while there's FOMO, sorry, don't turn your social posts into a political propaganda piece/disgrace curating panel and I wouldn't have muted you Follow the right people and it will be a much more smoother experience. ------ MrOxiMoron I don't get that people want notifications for basic stuff. I always turn off notifications and only leave the really important ones. Also no blinking lights or sounds or vibrations, I check my phone often enough and if it is really important those people can call me. Then social media is just a thing to scroll through while on the toilet . ------ bobloblaw45 I had Myspace for a short period of time and hated it. When Facebook came out I had it for about 2 weeks before deleting it, hated it as well. Even back then people would love to get in stupid arguments for stupid reasons and display a fabricated life. I've always felt like the weird one for not being into these forms of social media. ------ amriksohata According to Hinduism, we are all here in this world because our jiva (souls) want to be the enjoyer, so we get the opporunity to enjoy. Hence the dopamine, on anything, video games, cigs, social media etc. However self realisation is when we realise we are but a tiny spec and not the true enjoyer at all. ------ quirkafleeg3 I've never had any issues with social media, and they key is making sure your feeds are pleasent. I make sure that the people I follow on twitter are people I like and people who post nice things, like fan art of franchises I like or jokes. I never follow people who post stuff about politics. ------ jdlyga I stopped posting pictures to social media since I realized I was just using it to share them with friends and family. Instead, I just send them to group chats or people individually. It feels a lot more personal that way. ------ Kiro I mostly use social media to follow artists and DJs I like. It's my prime source of finding new music and almost everything I see is relevant. I can never relate to these posts and I feel like I'm in total minority. ~~~ mojuba Very similar experience here, plus I find that Facebook is good at suggesting and planning events, seeing who's going. Pretty much the only useful function for me. I follow a bunch of music venues and galleries and occasionally invite FB friends to attend if there's anything interesting. Works just brilliant. Twitter is more for following music makers, labels and things like Boiler Room. Just for a daily doze of music and music news. I guess that's another form of addiction though... Everything else, I just don't understand what people are complaining about and why it would require such an effort to quit. Don't like what you see, or don't find it useful? Just unfollow! ~~~ markus92 Guess I'm also in this boat. Facebook is my main way of keeping track of gigs in and around town. ------ investologia Some people scroll social media, some watch the Khardashians, Some play World of Warcraft, and some smoke cigarettes Most of the people are addicted to something and it might not be the worst thing in the world if you somehow keep it balanced ~~~ BigJ1211 Just because you spend a large amount of time on something that doesn't mean you're addicted to it. We shouldn't really throw that around willy-nilly. If your hobby isn't detrimental to your life, you're fine. ------ agumonkey forget social network, join a local group that do whatever is nice for neighbors or the area it's probably widely healthier on every metrics ~~~ ryanmercer Many local groups use Facebook to organize/communicate though. Via private groups: our local Atari group does and we similarly have one for regional vintage computer gatherings, my Church does, one of my Lodges does, one of my gyms does and I know of several others in the area that do. Via pages/events: some local tattoo shops that regularly have events, several local venues, numerous gyms and their various strength competitions will have all communication/announcements through an event page associated with the page of the gym hosting the event, etc. It's effective because people know to go check Facebook for an update about the group/event, you don't have to worry about an email ending up in a spam filter or someone not seeing a flyer posted, you can post real-time updates like when our meeting place for the local Atari group was closed due to the weather instead of needing to text 2 dozen people, or when snow/ice necessitates a Church event being cancelled or when there are storms in the area and we can post what members need help. ~~~ agumonkey Then cut facebook usage as a tool too. #radical ------ ulisesrmzroche How trendy. Next up hipster PDA making a comeback? ------ eafkuor Another "I quit social media" post? Haven't we had enough of this? How are these interesting? ~~~ dev_256 All of them are about how awesome life is after quitting. This one is not. ------ 11235813213455 the good side about social media is you can totally ignore it, cigarettes on the other side it's not easy as soon as you're among other people ~~~ Funes- Well, social media, and smartphones in general, make people around you ignore their immediate environment--including you--, so there's that. ------ tripzilch That Joe Rogan video linked in the article has some _super_ questionable statistics and misleading graphs (which are then described badly for the podcast listeners leaving out "details" such as "there are only three data points but they still drew a line through them"). Not that the thing they're talking about might not be a real effect, but holy hell ~~~ blow-jogan Joe Rogan is fantastically meat headed about so many things, but really he's a jack of all trades, master of none, and he majors in cardio kickboxing. The thing is, he often operates pretty engaging interviews, and the Murray Gell-Mann amnesia is in full effect for all of them. He's basically talk radio, and despite the subject matter, he refrains from sophomoric shock jock goofing off, unlike Howard Stern. He is willing to meet most guests in the middle, and he's got the gift of gab, but infrequently waxing blow hard, with a few exceptions. Most notably: gender identity politics. But other than that, he's plays pretty fair with everyone across the political spectrum (he's had more than a few gay/lesbian gender bending guests on), even if head count favors hypermasculine tropes, and satellite ideologies. But while having serious pop-science guests on the show, fringe UFO theories are bread and butter among pro-wrestling enthusiasts that enjoy the art of kayfabe. And if you think it's all in good fun, hey that's fine, but Joe Rogan certainly seems to eat up junk science all the time. His recent show with Bob Lazar, discussing Area 51 was filled with "what-if" tales of anti-gravity and synthetic Element 115, which was futuristic when it emerged in the 1980's but hasn't withstood the test of time. He talks of cyclotrons shooting anti-matter at government synthetsized Moscovium fuel pellets to produce free energy and, then by turns, anti-gravity, concluding in time travel and teleportation. Joe just gobbles it up like a wide-eyed Joe The Plumber, and the rest of the bullshit artistry piles up. Now, faster than light travel across megaparsecs is an open, probable reality, and so too, alien races from Zeta Reticuli. The _Grays_ are really androids. They're at war with The Reptilians, which is why an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. Riiiiight... But it's all faces and heels in an MMA match, nothing more. Unless you're not in on the joke. Most people don't grok particle physics enough to be dismissive of the premise of magical (or rather, unstable) element 115. They don't get that it's just another blob of the usual nucleons that we're all so familiar with, no free gravity, no free lunch. That lights in the sky do not, a spaceship, make. Oh well... ~~~ somatic There’s no question that Rogan’s style is to make every interview as “warm” as possible, rarely challenging any guest on any extraordinary claim. There’s also an argument to be made about his “platforming” of arguable kooks and so on, though it’s clearly preferable to entertain unconventional ideas than to dismiss them out of hand, the cumulative payoff of an unconventional idea being so very great. Flying saucers are always good entertainment, though not good enough to paper over the fact that half of that Bob Lazar “documentary” was footage of a tattooed guy shouting into his smartphone for the benefit of like three different GoPros. The open secret of physics is that nobody really knows WTF is going on. Particle theory is obviously a rough approximation, and string theory and quantum theory have been effectively stalled for long enough that it’s increasingly apparent that the complexity of the Universe has more moving parts than the working memory of the human brain. Humility is called for. “We know” ... yeah, okay. ------ HNLurker2 Malboro red long or die ~~~ coolnow You mean Marlboro Red Long _and_ die? ~~~ HNLurker2 I smoke 'cause I'm hoping for an Early death And I need to cling to something ------ amelius I wonder if the endless edit-compile-run and "see if it works" cycle is as addictive and harmful as social media. At least with social media I'm interacting with other people. ~~~ agota It probably isn't, given that social media is intentionally designed to be addictive, while tinkering with things (code in your case) isn't. ~~~ amelius I was thinking, perhaps it helps to make the edit-compile-run cycle as long as possible. E.g. coding until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and only then running code and testing.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Magnus Carlsen VS Bill Gates - jonbaer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84NwnSltHFo ====== NigelTufnel It took Carlsen 12 seconds and 2 piece "sacrifices" to mate Gates. That was fast.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to be happy – Princeton course review - JasonCEC https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/how-to-be-happy.html ====== JasonCEC I found the article quite poignant and well written. I think a class like this would do most people well, and could break individuals out of the social-media surface-level dopamine cycle that drives them into an unhappy addiction. ~~~ some_account Parents should simply talk to their kids about things like this. It's called parenting. ~~~ JasonCEC I see as many adults addicted to their phones and social media as high-school aged students. With new technology like this, its not surprising some people may need help coping with applications designed to be addictive.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Simkl: It’s Time to Build a Better TV, Anime, Movie Watchlist and Tracker - skipass http://simkl.com/ ====== SideburnsOfDoom I hear the words "It's time to build a better ... tracker" and right away the author is at a disadvantage - they have an uphill battle to convince me again that there is a benefit to being tracked. ~~~ cake At first I thought it was about a torrent tracker... ------ guillermin Third time this project is on HN frontpage in 2 days... and it's nothing special. They should sell their online marketing knowledge instead. ------ mallin Though it's certainly a valuable number to know, I'm not sure a huge "TIME WASTED WATCHING TV: x DAYS" is what people want from a TV watchlist. (Whereas this would be a valuable feature in a productivity app.) ~~~ Spittie I'd though so, but I have a friend that run a similar site, and he told me that this was one of the most request features. Sure, the choice of wording is unfortunate. "Wasted" is a negative word, I think "Time spent watching TV" would work better. ------ SchizoDuckie Why would you pay money for something that's a definite nice to have? Who pays money to have their stuff tracked? I've built DuckieTV for this (and more, [http://schizoduckie.github.io/DuckieTV](http://schizoduckie.github.io/DuckieTV) ). No need for a kickstarter, no need for donations, and no need to automatically hook all those services into eachother. You just click an icon and it's marked the thing as watched. Am I really missing something obvious that this product does? ~~~ skipass How often do you forget to click on your icon? To be able to do it automatically should be much nicer, don't you think? You don't pay money for tracked stuff. You pay for the ability to has this opportunity + your personal profile, lists, recomendation etc. Just imho ~~~ SchizoDuckie Much nicer is a really big word for some scrobbling and suggestions. I pay money for tracked stuff you say, but they're basically tracking what trakt.tv already does, hooking into their recommendation engine, and then serving the result in some nice sauce. I think marketingwise this is brilliant, but I would never pay money for it. As said above, this is a nice to have feature on top of a lot of other things. Content availability being the most important IMO. ------ shaunpud Always interesting to see the stats on those bitly links, just append a + to the end of the url. [http://bit.ly/TVTracker+](http://bit.ly/TVTracker+) ------ nikolak I don't see how this is different and/or better than trakt.tv. And what the hell does "automatically track what you're watching" mean. 3rd party software? Like xbmc+trakt plugin? I also don't like how wherever you click on that website, including the search box, you're redirected to kickstarter campaign. ~~~ skipass Trakt \- doesn't detect what you are watching on PC, \- doesn't detect what you are watching onlie(HULU, Netflix), \- doesn't has Anime DB(as I know they just parse TheTVDB). Just saing what I've read from their campaign and retelling my comment below. P.S. Yes, redirect from search input is pretty annoying ~~~ tallanvor Detecting what you are watching on Hulu or Netflix is a stretch goal for them and according to their description it would only be for Chrome. Right now it's limited to avi, mkv, mp4, m4v files you watch on your computer. ------ egil The kickstarter was posted yesterday. See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7737134](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7737134) for the previous discussion. ------ philfrasty [http://watched.li/](http://watched.li/) is awesome to track tv series ------ torarnv How is this different from [http://trakt.tv](http://trakt.tv) ? ~~~ skipass As I can see. They track PC and try to do the same with online content. Also, maybe better watched list. ------ ritonlajoie one more time ?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Does Google's PageRank algorithm scale? (Presented at Microsoft Research) [pdf] - dvd03 http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~dvd03/Documents/DoesPageRankScale.pdf ====== dvd03 For more details, the corresponding paper may be found at: <http://tinyurl.com/ksbobg>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: A languishing startup with a great product - thoughts? - jodrellblank I found http://www.senseboard.com/ a few years ago. It's a keyboard-substitute that clips over the back of your hand, and interprets the tendon movement as you "type" into text.<p>The device is elegant and compact, but better yet it's an elegant solution to the problem of mobile typing/data entry. It's the missing link for a new era of mobile computing - it completes the trio: Cellphone, Pocket Projector, Senseboard.<p>Use just the phone, or the phone + projector, the phone + senseboard, or all three. That trio would be smaller, more portable, more comfortable and more flexible than any netbook.<p>Now is the perfect time; screen size and data entry are <i>the</i> major limitations for mobile devices. Powerful PDAs and cellphones are here. Phones with 'proper' operating systems. Pocket Projectors are just appearing to get around the limitations of small, low resolution displays and they wont stop at being 640x480 and dim. Soon they will hit netbook screen quality. But data entry is still limited to those foldaway keyboards that are both big and unwieldy compared to a phone, full of delicate moving parts, and still small and cramped to type on. Senseboard is a much better alternative.<p>The big problem is - it's vapourware. Best new product of 2001. Nothing but a couple of minor press releases since then.<p>"So what?" you ask. Well, I've mentioned it here a couple of times and had no discussion. I decided to submit it directly as a link to publicise it a bit - it plummeted from the new submissions page with no comments and no votes. That's life, eh? I would probably have left it there except I said this:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=570994<p>and got <i>27</i> upvotes. 27! For a pernickety grammar correction one-liner! Right now, that contrast is really getting under my skin. I know there are technical people here, people who've used the Twiddler, successful business founders, hardware and software developers, VCs, people who might see what I can't, might also care, and might have influence, so I Ask HN:<p>Do you think the Senseboard is as cool and potentially game changing as I think it is? Do you think it could be a successful product?<p>Can we outsiders <i>do</i> anything to encourage it into existance, and - should we?<p>(I have no affiliation with the company, I'm just tired of seeing what seems to be first class ideas like this sidelined while streams of clone digital cameras, media players, GPS receivers, cellphones and so on pour into the market as if the world wont be satisfied until there's ten models for every human - and that needs to happen yesterday!) ====== jerf I see two basic possibilities: One, it ran out of money before it could launch, or two, it _doesn't actually work_. I would put relative probabilities of those two as somewhere around 1:9. I look at this thing as an engineer and I see a signal processing problem that means it's probably pretty easy to build something that's right about 70% of the time, and with great effort you could get to 85%... but that's terrible for an input device. Maybe I'm wrong. But I also know for a fact I've encountered tons of people who have faced other problems like this, and in their boundless optimism are _sure_ that the last few percent are just a matter of trying harder, and some of them go on to blow millions on "trying harder" on what is fundamentally impossible. The truth is, electronics really don't care how optimistic you are. Most of the 'first class' ideas you think are being overlooked are actually the second case. 3D interfaces, a whole whackload of input devices (including the fun case of exotic video game console interfaces), energy sources, new circuit types that are going to blow silicon out of the water, and the list just goes on and on. Most of them just plain _don't work_ like the advocates said they would. Some of the advocates are honestly wrong. Some... are not. Just about the only thing that factors in this thing's favor is that exotic input interfaces have historically faced a very steep uphill battle. Dvorak and other alternate keyboard layouts have gotten very little traction, and that involves no extra hardware at all. I've used a couple of exotic input devices or methods that work perfectly fine but stand no chance of general acceptance because people have no interest in learning how to use them. (I would point out that I've left open the possibility that it does work. But I'd want to see a lot of evidence not coming directly from the company. Everybody _always_ claims awesomeness.) ~~~ jodrellblank _some of them go on to blow millions on "trying harder" on what is fundamentally impossible_ :( One of my big hopes for this is that fingers, I think, only have tendons going into them for movement - so tracking those tendons in the palm/back of hand covers the entire range of possible finger movements. If it's possible to type on a virtual keyboard without feeling the keys, it should be possible to pick up what you're "typing" from the tendon movement. _Most of the 'first class' ideas you think are being overlooked are actually the second case. 3D interfaces_ 3D interfaces are a daft idea; _this_ is _different_. I can say that I completely believe that, and at the same time see it's exactly the sentiment that drives people to the behaviour you describe. I guess the proof of whether it really is different is whether it ever appears and works or not. _I've used a couple of exotic input devices or methods that work perfectly fine but stand no chance of general acceptance because people have no interest in learning how to use them._ Me too; I agree and slightly dislike that it is so. ------ webwright This is one of those ideas that sounds wonderful, just like the touchscreen of the iPhone sounded wonderful... But people are rightly skeptical of things that claim to be game-changing which haven't launched. The instant this exists and a reporter slips it on and can "type" 70 WPM with minimal errors (with no learning curve) is the PR shoots straight up. Until it's changed the life of a single user, it's science fiction. I'll cheer 'em on in the meantime (just like I'll cheer for TechCrunch's 'CrunchPad'), but I'd go hoarse if I evangalized every game-changing product that hasn't been built yet. (Flying car? Jet Pack?) ------ brk My guess is that it has not gotten a lot of traction because it appears to be completely vaporware, and it's hard to get excited about something that doesn't exist, and does not seem to be on a path to completion. The Internet, and the VC startup world, is littered with fancy product illustrations, mocked-up demos, and empty press releases. What makes this one worthy of a fan-club above all the others? ~~~ wallflower It might be somewhere past vaporware. There is a product demo video for 2009 where typing is demonstrated. However, even if it does work, it may not work well enough (yet) for real-world uses. Future prototype iterations may well improve dramatically. Inventor Gunilla Alsiö's elevator pitch at Plugg '09 (one of 20 invited startups out of 143 applicants at this Europe entrepreneur event). "The movies [Minority Report, Johnny Mnemonic] are fiction but Senseboard is real. We will let you try this yourself during lunchtime. Our business model based on licensing, with the combination of licensing fees and senseboard chips. We are focusing on the mobile gaming market." <http://vimeo.com/3603806> (Starts @8:55, note, some of the other elevator pitches are fascinating to watch - check out Myngle's @2:45) In the demo video, the rate of typing (painfully slow!) shown seems to indicate that the technology may not be fast and/or robust enough for coding or _even_ email-composition typing needs. "A first 0-series of the Senseboard(R) Gesture Recognition Technology has been introduced and can be tested at MWC. A demo video is available for download on at: <http://www.senseboard.com/video_0109/video.php> " @1:17 - demo of using senseboard for Google earth navigation @2:06 - virtual keyboard demo (note: continuity issues - video quality is low, set is different from Google nav demo - leading me to suspect it might not be demo'able live - if it was, why wouldn't they film it the same day/setting) The video is 78mb and it has a weird, smooth jazz soundtrack. Don't want to jump their bandwidth usage but they don't stream it. Maybe someone can share/host it. ------ noonespecial _I'm just tired of seeing what seems to be first class ideas like this sidelined while streams of clone digital cameras, media players, GPS receivers, cellphones and so on pour into the market as if the world wont be satisfied until there's ten models for every human - and that needs to happen yesterday!)_ It always seems that what could be built and hasn't been is so much better than what can be built and is. This is how technology matures. The market explores the new space with tons of releases with tons of features. Eventually, the best features are evolved and incorporated into all models via consumer selection. Sometimes this takes "ten models for every human" before we come up with the _one_ model for every human. The thing I've found about most of these sound-bite vaporware products that are going to "change the world when its released", is that most suffer from the 95% problem. The idea 95% works. But the 5% that doesn't makes it unusable. In this example, perhaps it works _just_ like a keyboard! The only thing we haven't been able to solve yet is that it confuses j and n 25% of the time. So its useless. Many products get into the 95% phase, generate all of their buzz, tout their impending, world changing release, and then flame out struggling for that last 5%. To make matters worse, their investors then sell the leftover company for pennies to patent trolls who ensure that its not worth it for anyone else to solve that last 5% either. ------ kqr2 If you are going to carry around a pocket projector, why not use the bluetooth laser virtual keyboard. And best of all, it's not vaporware. <http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/keyboards-mice/8193/> ~~~ dsil Looks very interesting, and relatively affordable...but, how are you supposed to get it to hover in mid-air like it appears to need to be used? ------ anigbrowl There are similar devices and ideas, aggregated here: <http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6670894.html> Personally, I don't see much hope for something that requires you to maintain a mental picture of a qwerty keyboard while you type. I do about 85 wpm with 10 fingers but when I try to type on the surface of my desk I just get lost, even looking right at my keyboard 3 inches away from my fingers. ~~~ jodrellblank Lack of feedback may be a big problem; fingers have no muscles in them, only tendons, so the movement of your fingers could (I imagine) be accurately sensed from tendons in your palm and the back of your hand. But maybe moving over a keyboard requires feeling the keys in order to do so consistently. ------ david927 The frustration is understandable. It's partly the problem of gate keepers. Something like 20 publishers turned down J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book. The people making the decisions on what to fund can be woefully out of touch. What makes me sad is that they often don't try. I'm sick of seeing silly Web 2.0 startups. At first I thought they were getting funding because no one is working on hard problems -- but no. There are a lot of startups taking on tough, game-changing problems; there's just not a lot of funding for them. That makes me sick. As for the device you mention as an example -- it would be much more amazing and powerful if you could move it down to your wrist, so that they look like wrist bands then combined it with an earbud microphone/speaker. If the electronics were in the wrist bands, the cellphone as a separate device could go away for a lot of people. I would definitely buy that. ------ ashleyw When you create a patent, are you obligated to follow through with the creation of the product/idea to keep the rights to it, and if so, do you have a limit? Or can the creator of this idea just wait for somebody else to create it, and then sue for patent infringement? (if he has a patent, that is) ~~~ dsil My guess is they tried for a while, and never managed to get a usable version working well enough, and the company now exists as a portfolio of patents waiting for someone else to improve it. ------ domdelimar We all know this isn't the first nor the last thing that come before its time. But even in this case I think all that is needed is a single person with enough will and dedication to shake things up and at least move them in the right direction. If that isn't you, and it certainly isn't me ;) (don't get me wrong, I like the concept but I'm not really interested in using it... much less in bringing it to masses), the world will just have to wait for someone who is. Given that this product has the future. And I'd merely wish I could try it out to see how good I'd be typing in midair :) - honestly. My main problem with this thing is that I believe not many people would be able to use it easily... ------ cmos If it got the 'best product of 2001' at CES that pretty much guarantees it's 100% vapor. Awards like that are a scam.. it's all about who you know + how much bs they are willing to absorb. Since that time most high end trade shows require the product to be shipping before getting an award, brought about because of absurd products winning that never had a chance of seeing the light of day. Even if the technology existed, and it was ivory soap accurate, no one would use it. Those things you put on your hands just look lame, like you need hand braces or something. I'd rather learn morse code and just tap my finger... ~~~ jodrellblank _Those things you put on your hands just look lame_ The newer prototypes look more technical, less medical, and generally better. ------ lionheart My biggest question is: does this work? Or are we sure it can be made to work? It seems to me that interpreting your keystrokes from tendon movements would be hard. But if this can be done, I would buy one immediately. ------ jmatt This is interesting. It's definitely a different take than the laser virtual keyboard or the Wii Remote. What sort of advantages does this have over hacking a Wii Remote? Is it more portable? Is it more sensitive? Arguably it's design would work better in a mobile environment. When I look at recent innovations in this sector (gestures/gyroscopes) I think the Wii is the product that's made the biggest impact on the industry and the first to (at least widely) release a product that does as advertised. See <http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/> ~~~ jodrellblank _What sort of advantages does this have over hacking a Wii Remote?_ You can type - it picks up the movement of tendons in the palm and back of your hand and tracks how your fingers are moving. ------ resdirector Maybe spruce up your pitch? I skim read this Ask HN and went on to the next article. Everything's a pitch in startup. Even this Ask HN.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
You’ve got an idea for a startup, now what? Seven actions to create momentum - sgignoux http://www.ideastostartups.com/entrepreneurship/you%E2%80%99ve-got-an-idea-for-a-startup-now-what-seven-actions-that-will-create-momentum/ ====== bpeters Build and ship code. Get feedback, build and ship code. Rinse and repeat until something sticks. Any time spent reviewing your idea and building even a one page "Business Model Canvas" is time wasted. Most likely the idea you initially had will not be the one that ends up working out for yea. I feel like this article is a list of best practices for pretending to be an entrepreneur. I like this as an alternative, "You've got an idea for a startup, now what? JUST DO IT!" ~~~ ammmir amen. it's far too easy to get stuck in a rut of just building and not shipping and getting feedback. this happened to me recently. i kept wanting to add one more little feature and improve efficiency, but all that time could have been used in gathering user feedback. personally, my problem is that i've been trying to build too much at once, which makes the build-and-ship cycle awfully long. but some days, i love seeing posts like these to remind me of how important it is to avoid obsessing about efficiency or features without adequate feedback. negative feedback is better than none! ~~~ sgignoux I still think that some thinking and planning are important, but I agree definitely that speed of implementation is a critical success factor for startup. The shorter your build-and-ship cycle is, the more feedback you can get. In the worst case, if you build something that is not as useful as you expected or that has a negative impact, you didn't waste a lot of time before correcting your trajectory. ------ wushupork I'm not sure I would have bought into Twitter's pitch - a social network that only has the facebook status update, or say what you are doing to all the world in 140 characters or less. I just wouldnt see the possibilities until I started using it and having other people use it. Same goes with Foursquare. I didn't get it until one day a friend of mine stopped by the cafe I checked in, because he was 15 minutes away.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Life before Google: What was it like? - kbyatnal https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44871028 ====== smofnoopttzzaaa I thought this article was going to be about AltaVista, The Mining Company, Lycos, Dogpile, etc. and of course Yahoo!'s human-curated indices.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Algorithm for Drawing Trees - mfbx9da4 https://rachel53461.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/algorithm-for-drawing-trees/ ====== slavik81 > I recently wanted to take a hierarchy of items and draw them in a nice tree > structure. For example, a Family Tree. In general, a family tree is a directed acyclic graph. Branches of the tree will always join back together if you follow the history far enough. The number of ancestors in a generation is 2^N, with N being the number of generations back you're looking. There were only 100 billion people that ever lived, so by the time you get about a thousand years back, it becomes literally impossible for all your ancestors to appear only once. Of course, that's just an easy upper bound to make the point that becoming a graph is unavoidable. In practice, branches will come together a lot sooner than that. ~~~ erdeszt Is it always acyclic though? [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6163683/cycles-in- family...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6163683/cycles-in-family-tree- software) ~~~ slavik81 Yes. You cannot be your own ancestor. A graph pointing from child to parent can split and merge, but never loop. Though, you may need a cyclic directed graph for fictional family trees and time travel paradoxes. ~~~ rhn_mk1 A family tree is an overloaded term. The tree of ancestry, which describes who beget whom, sure cannot be cyclical. The graph of civil relationships can certainly contain cycles. If the relationship in question is "is a legal parent of", for example, then adopt your parent. The opportunities for cycles multiply if both blood and legal relationships are taken into account. ~~~ lidHanteyk So don't mix those two things, then; keep them distinct. Work to preserve the acyclic property, rather than trying to toss new concepts in. ~~~ rhn_mk1 This works only until the concepts are the reason the problem is being tackled. A family tree based only on genetic relationships is interesting to few people outside geneticists and doctors. Most people are interested in familial ties as they are culturally defined. ------ anigbrowl It's a source of ongoing perplexity to me that so many Linux file managers don't even offer a tree view, never mind some of the more advanced possibilities. Consider Robertson's work on Cone Trees from Xerox Parc in....1991. [https://research.tableau.com/sites/default/files/p189-robert...](https://research.tableau.com/sites/default/files/p189-robertson.pdf) and variants thereof at [https://infovis- wiki.net/wiki/Cone_Trees](https://infovis-wiki.net/wiki/Cone_Trees) Oddly, there has been some work done on _source code_ trees such as Gource, but for some reason nobody has yet thought of applying this to file systems or browser navigation paths. [https://gource.io/](https://gource.io/) ~~~ j88439h84 There's [https://dystroy.org/broot/](https://dystroy.org/broot/) Are those fancy tree displays actually useful for anything or is just pretty? ~~~ anigbrowl That's for console use. Trees are useful for looking at the whole thing at once, much as it's easier to appreciate a real tree that way than by maintaining a list of the leaves and branching distances. I'm a a researcher and my source material is ~50gb spread across ~50k hand- picked files with pretty arbitrary structure, plus another 4-5 times that in mirrors of other collections. Trees let me _see_ things that I would overlook by _reading_ lists all the time. Right now I half-ass use some bioinformatics tools originally intended for cladistics and proteome research to visualize the collection. Some days I go looking for specific information or catalog what I have, other days I stumble across a cache of valuable data and might select hundreds of individual files. ~~~ j88439h84 I'm having trouble imagining this. Would you be able to show a screenshot? ~~~ anigbrowl I use a piece of software called Dendroscope to kick out circular cladograms, as documented here: [https://software-ab.informatik.uni- tuebingen.de/download/den...](https://software-ab.informatik.uni- tuebingen.de/download/dendroscope/manual.pdf) It works OK, but it means directory listings first have to be kicked into a Newick tree format: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newick_format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newick_format) I use a variety of other graph-based tools too, such as Maltego, Gephi, and Cytoscape, but to be honest I do so in a very ad-hoc way for specific tranches of data ( afile collection, or a relevant social media stream) and keep most of it my head. Otherwise I will get hung up on tooling rather than the underlying material. ------ tejtm Was thinking was going to get some nice L-system eye candy [0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system) ------ virtuous_signal So the author mentions hearing about the Reingold-Tilford Algorithm which wouldn't work for the example given since R-T is meant for binary trees and a family tree might have more than 2 nodes. Which led me to wonder why is there even an "algorithm" per se for binary trees: wouldn't it be acceptable to just trace out a complete binary tree with spaces reserved for each potential node, and only fill in a space with a node if it is non-null? Or does this not meet some criterion of "niceness" for drawings? ~~~ captncraig If you do that, you quickly run into the feasible depth limit for what you can show in a fixed space. Especially for sparse trees. Consider something like family trees, where you generally don't know anything about certain lines, but may have 20 generations or more on selected lines. No way could you show 2^20 nodes in a fixed format rendering, but you can make something kinda pretty by eliminating the empty space and organizing things to fill it intelligently. ~~~ taywrobel I was _just_ writing a radial RT-like visualization for displaying the branching structure of a binary tree and ran into the issue of information density you describe. Still pretty happy with the results, tho, in how it shows the structure and clustering. And I colored it like a tree, just for fun - [https://giphy.com/gifs/TKFUkrWQtil60Ij2YJ/html5](https://giphy.com/gifs/TKFUkrWQtil60Ij2YJ/html5) ------ Drup I'm surprised they chose that algorithm, it's fairly limited and not that efficient. If your nodes have width, you should read "Improving Walker's Algorithm to Run in Linear Time" (I have an implementation here: [https://github.com/Drup/tree_layout](https://github.com/Drup/tree_layout)) If your nodes have width _and_ height, you need to read "Drawing Non-layered Tidy Trees in Linear Time" If you want to go bananas visualizing n-ary trees: [https://treevis.net/](https://treevis.net/) :D ------ HatchedLake721 I implemented something similar at [https://automations.io](https://automations.io) converting a workflow stored as a flat linked list to a tree structure and then traversing and rendering it out in HTML and sprinkling CSS on top ------ michaeltoth I was expecting a generative art algorithm for drawing trees ------ sprt This is interesting, I was asked this question in an interview for a Microsoft internship, but for a binary tree. ------ javieranton I implemented this in this app iOS: [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/collaborative- groups/id1478800...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/collaborative- groups/id1478800849?ls=1) Android: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groups.net...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groups.network) Which also has some nice features like sharing your tree with others and working together on them ------ xorand Some trivial mathematical facts. No matter what algorithm you use, you want to make a quasiisometrical embedding of a tree into a finite dimensional space. Or, for a tree the no of nodes at distance R from the root is like exp R, but in any space of dimension N you can cram about R^N points which are at distance R from the origin. Hence the problem. But you can embedd any tree into the Hilbert space :) ------ tunesmith There are the various graph layout algorithms I've heard of, Sugiyama, KIELER, ELK - these can be used for trees of course, although I'm not sure they have highly constrained vertical levels like the article depicts. ~~~ ygra Sugiyama has layers and can be used for trees just as well (and may give nicer results for almost-trees than removing non-tree edges and routing them individually). KIELER and ELK seem to be collections of various layout algorithms, including Sugiyama and specialized tree layout algorithms (same with our own library yFiles). ------ winrid Sebastian Lague did a video that includes some tree generation that was fun to watch EDIT wrong kind of tree :D [https://youtu.be/\--GB9qyZJqg](https://youtu.be/--GB9qyZJqg) ------ jmiskovic Nice write-up. I enjoyed how the material was presented - the introduction to problem, intuitive summary method and then detailed steps with visualizations of partial results. ------ billfruit I remember Robert Sedgewick's listed a really simple method for drawing trees in his book, only it drew them sideways.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
More UFOs Than Ever Before - prismatic https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/08/26/more-ufos-than-ever-before/ ====== archgoon > Lazar believed these were the components of a nuclear reactor powered by an > element then unknown on earth: element 115, which, once dismissed as > fantastical, was synthesized into existence in a Moscow lab in 2003 The element isn't fantastical, and anyone with a basic understanding of chemistry would expect it to exist (albeit, not for very long); Lazar's attributed properties to it were (and are). As a side note, since 2010, the entire bottom row of the Periodic Table has now been filled out with synthetic elements (and names since 2016). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscovium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscovium) ------ DanielBMarkham There is an epistemological truth here that is overlooked: for any non- reproducible phenomenon, physical or psychological, we can make no judgments on what happened. The default answer is always going to be "no" for some people and "yes" for others. These are the folks who just have to have a firm answer. The actual answer is "nobody knows" I also want to believe, so I tend to be extremely skeptical of any UFO stories. But looking throughout history, I have to admit that I am in no position to make a decision one way or another. A bunch of really respected guys made some observations of a thing with instrumental evidence that we don't understand? Cool. There's something we don't understand. Spinning up some tale of the atom bomb or aliens? That's just to sell books to the rubes. We don't know. That's okay. _If_ there are other intelligent lifeforms around, and _if_ they have any developmental parallels in their society to ours, they probably think of us as nothing more than a particularly advanced form of fungus. And _if_ they were to come here to observe, they'd either use a blind or come and go in such a way to create the kind evidential noise we currently see in the public record. So while I wish something is going to come along and settle this, it ain't going to happen. ------ scottmsul I think there's probably something to the UFO phenomenon. However I'm convinced Bob Lazar is a fraud. It's a tricky case because certain parts of his story are verifiable, like that he worked at Los Alamos and that his friends did see a moving light in the sky. The best explanation I've seen is here: [http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other- strange...](http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange- places/looking-at-the-bob-lazar-story-from-the-perspective-of-2018/) [http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other- strange...](http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange- places/bluefire-main/bluefire/particle-beams-and-saucer-dreams/) The explanation is he worked on particle accelerators as a mechanic (not a physicist), and they were shooting particle beams into the sky. However since this is all likely classified he would be forced to stick to his UFO story. ~~~ clubm8 Why would someone want to shoot a particle accelerator into the sky? (The article mentions plasma balls, but as a non physicist I wonder still "Why?") The US military probably does not want plasma balls because they look pretty. ~~~ scottmsul Radar spoofing, it's mentioned in the second link. But the author admits it's only a guess. ------ goda90 The argument that the government wouldn't be able to cover something like that up is kind of weak imo. They had just spent years keeping the Manhattan project under wraps and they were starting to ramp up all sorts of spying and secrets surrounding the Cold War. And for info that does get out(like numerous eye witnesses), we've seen real life examples of how effective the strategy of treating believers like they're nuts is when it comes to other government programs like PRISM. People talked about NSA spying for years but got dismissed until we got some big document dumps. ------ JoeAltmaier There are so, so many atmospheric phenomenon that can produce 'ufos'. Every time someone sees a jetliner compressed by humidity and heat into a row of dots (the windows) around a cigar shape, they're convinced its the first time anyone has ever seen such a thing. The burden of proof for a 'real' ufo is heavy, and nobody makes any real effort. Its reasonable to dismiss the entire topic as overheated descriptions of normal phenomena. ~~~ leeoniya crown flashes and ball lightning have to be some of the strangest [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPk0mKVnnCs](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPk0mKVnnCs) ~~~ Gravityloss Whoa. It's a completely different class of dynamic phenomenon, unlike anything I've ever seen. Thank you for posting. ------ dmoy Unmentioned in the article (or I missed it because I just woke up) is the fact that lockheed's skunkworks started pumping out weird shit around the end of WWII. Seems like that would have some effect. ------ lostgame Wow. An interesting nod to the incredibly fascinating third season of David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks', whose brilliant eighth episode and the accompanying Secret History of Twin Peaks and Final Dossier novels were astounding examples of historical fiction. I was quite impressed as to just how deep that rabbit- hole went. ~~~ criddell Every time I read a Paris Review article linked from here, I'm glad I did. They've published a lot of great stuff that you can easily read in a short sitting. ------ exabyte "Robert Jamison, a retired USAF nuclear missile targeting officer, told of several occasions having to go out and 're-start' [nuclear] missiles that had been deactivated, after UFOs were sighted nearby. Similar sightings at nuclear sites in the former Soviet Union and in Britain were related. ... The incidents were never officially explained." [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel-ufos- dea...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel-ufos-deactivated- nukes/) ------ fucking_tragedy We're in an era where there's an arms race in the lightweight and unmanned aircraft space between the most powerful nations on Earth. Of course there are going to be more UFO sightings domestically. Where else are we going to develop and test these things? It's well known that the government is happy to feed conspiracy theorists disinformation in order to protect classified information[1], like the existence of secret weapons. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage_Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage_Men) ------ reggieband I have a more dark and cynical outlook on UFOs and their continued presence in our culture. I watch Joe Rogan and I saw most of his interaction with Lazar as well as his even weirder interaction with Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge. In both cases I got the impression that they were dupes. Tom had these crazy stories about high-level military officers bouncing him around between each other. They all seemed to be giving him a wink-and-nudge that he was on to something and he should keep digging. They actively encouraged him to publicly share whatever he learned. I have a suspicion that there is an old-boys-club of high-level military guys pushing UFO conspiracies for some purpose. At the very least, muddying the waters can help mask any civilian reports of potential classified aircraft. At the worst it can act as a lightening rod to redirect public thirst for unearthing military secrets. When guys like Bob Lazar and Tom DeLonge show up they must be happy to get free dissemination of their programs. I'd even go so far to believe that Bob could have been one of a few that were set up by the military using an elaborate stage-show with the hope of creating false leaks. The idea of the military staging the kind of things Bob reports after psychologically filtering for types of people who believably exaggerate is not beyond possibility in my mind. You may not have to work very hard at tricking someone if you find the kind of person who really wants to be tricked. ~~~ fucking_tragedy > _I have a suspicion that there is an old-boys-club of high-level military > guys pushing UFO conspiracies for some purpose. At the very least, muddying > the waters can help mask any civilian reports of potential classified > aircraft. At the worst it can act as a lightening rod to redirect public > thirst for unearthing military secrets._ This is the thesis of the documentary "Mirage Men". ------ carapace This is very well-written, from my point of view it's a showcase of how the mind works to prevent cognitive dissonance. The author compares meeting the neighbors with meeting _God_. > My relationship to UFOs is like my relationship to God. I call this "cognitive leverage". There's a sort of if-then structure: IF aliens exist THEN something-something-God. The THEN-clause is too psychologically immense so the brain invalidates the IF-clause and organizes thought and perception in alignment with the result. > I want to believe, but find it hard. > I wish I could see one for myself, as I wish I could see the Virgin Mary > floating above the yellow roses in my backyard. Would you want to meet somebody that made that big a deal about it? It would be wildly uncomfortable for anyone but a megalomaniac, eh? The reason the "G-men" don't openly talk about the UFOs, and the reason the spacemen don't land on the White House lawn, is right there: it would cause too much trouble because humans are nuts. One classic way that this sort of denial of reality presents itself is in trivially invalid reasoning, for example when Cohen postulates that we can hide the existence of ultra-tech aircraft but not UFOs. And here is a textbook rationalization: > Belief in UFOs is really no stranger than any other sort of belief, no > stranger than a belief in prophets or ancient codes. That fails to account for e.g. his own neighbor who "had been in the military when he saw the UFO." and who presumably believes in UFOs only because he has seen one. He wasn't raised in a UFO cult, eh? ------ antonvs > Some suggest it was the first atomic bomb [that] sent a shock wave across > the universe. It registered in distant solar systems as deep-sea earthquakes > register with us. It was a clarion call. It said: DANGER! It meant the > previously harmless human race had gotten ahold of matches that could > immolate all of creation. ...or all of planet Earth, whichever comes first. Hint: it's not the former. ~~~ exabyte Assuming that UFO's are being controlled by an alien species and that they are in fact more frequent since the event of nuclear explosions on earth, then I think the safest assumption we can make is that the nuclear event sent a strong enough signal to notify them of our existence. If that's the case, I don't think we should speculate too quickly on how they would interpret the signal. However it does seem like there has actually been action taken by an alleged UFO. Look at the following link: [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force- personnel-ufos-dea...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel- ufos-deactivated-nukes/) There's a youtube video with testimony given by a commander that I can't find at the moment, but it's pretty insane. ~~~ dogma1138 Well the problem with that is that they would need to be passing by only a few light years from earth to detect it, if it’s even detectable on astronomical scales. It’s not that they came here centuries after the nuclear tests, because even if they have FTL that is the shortest time frame that makes sense unless a nuclear explosion causes some signals that some how move faster than light which both violates physics as we know it and would be really unlikely to go unnoticed based on just how much data we have from nuclear blasts and nuclear reactors. ~~~ exabyte yeah but you're also assuming that they're subject to the same dimensions of time and space as we are ~~~ dogma1138 The signals still needs to get there so unless they have listening posts or are in the neighborhood the timing doesn’t match. And in general the gamma burst form a nuclear explosion is so minuscule on galactic scales that it’s unlikely they can even pick it up over the background noise. A spectral analysis of the atmosphere of the earth and the detection of fission borne radioactive isotopes is a much more likely method which means they would need to be actively observing the earth to detect it and still the same light speed capped timeline is in effect. ------ nerf_javascript The end of the article is really crazy when you look at it -- Stimson growing up w/ great-grandma who was told stories by GW as a child, advising Truman about the atomic bomb. That "one life" thing really shocks you into perspective... In less than 200 years, we went from rioting farmers at the mercy of nature to the most powerful war-faring nation on the planet with the ability to turn a war in which other superpowers struggled. We went from the bloodiest battle numbering over a thousand dead to obliterating entire cities and hundreds of thousands of people with just two bombs. I would've thought that as we raise the standard of life in our society, we'll inevitably create technology that will be used to become more efficient at killing, but it's actually turning out to be the opposite -- as we get better at waging war, we're developing the technology that will raise our standard of life. ~~~ Sharlin To be fair, in 200 years _most of the developed world_ went from bickering nobles and rioting peasants to a bunch of powers capable of waging megadeath war. Industrialization is like that. Honestly, the transition of the Soviet Union was even more impressive, going from an agrarian backwood to a hydrogen- bomb-wielding superpower in less than fifty years, albeit cutting some corners in the process. ------ allnightowl Maybe it’s hysteria, but I’ve seen 2 clear examples of UFOs/UAPs with my own eyes and I can assure anyone reading this that multiple types of craft either not of this world or ultra top secret are a part of our reality. ~~~ nprateem But what about this author who's never seen one who says they don't exist? Surely you'll reconsider what you saw!?!? ------ mortenjorck _> I wish I could see one for myself, as I wish I could see the Virgin Mary floating above the yellow roses in my backyard. When I said this to my neighbor, who runs a blog called I Saw One Too, he shook his head sadly and said, “No you don’t. You really don’t.”_ The one time I thought I was seeing something unexplainable out on the highway at night (thankfully revealed, after ten minutes or so, to be the oddest atmospheric occlusion of the moon I’ve ever seen), the one thought on my mind was “man, I really don’t want to be one of those people who’s seen a UFO.” ~~~ criddell > man, I really don’t want to be one of those people who’s seen a UFO You just reminded me of the Saturday Night Live sketch _Close Encounter_. It's one of the funniest things they've done. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfPdYYsEfAE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfPdYYsEfAE) ------ aplummer I’ve always assumed people were seeing vehicles like this one [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar) ~~~ Animats Oh, that thing. It was a lemon. A cool looking lemon, but a lemon.[1] There are three videos: #1: Classified SECRET. It hasn't flown yet, but it's going to be really great. See this cool mockup! #2: Classified OFFICIAL USE ONLY. It flies! Well, hovers about 1m off the ground in ground effect. Wobbles too much. But with our elaborate testing program, a NASA wind tunnel, and maybe with more powerful engines and active stabilization, it can work! #3: UNCLASSIFIED. Well, here we are flying this thing around the back lot at NASA Ames as a hovercraft. Not too useful, but cool looking. It's a nice video history of a failed project. Meantime, the Army was also funding the UH-1, the "Huey" helicopter, which started flying around the same time and was far more useful. So the Army killed off the disc project and ordered a few thousand Hueys. The USAF, meanwhile, had figured out that swept back wings worked in high-speed flight, and didn't need to fool with discs. [1] [https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/army_saucer/](https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/army_saucer/) ~~~ 725686 Holy cow, the Hiller Flying Platform rocks! ~~~ Animats If you're in Silicon Valley, there's one at the Hiller Aviation Museum. They have a good collection of strange VTOL craft. ------ spease First thing I thought of is this: [https://xkcd.com/1235/](https://xkcd.com/1235/) I haven’t ever heard of a corresponding increase in UFO videos. It’s awfully convenient none of these suspected aliens buzz crowds full of people with 4k60Hz/40MP phone cameras. ~~~ DrBazza Came here to post that exact link. Cameras have never been better and in such widely available quantities, in just about every cell phone, and UFO pictures have never been worse. Also Occam's Razor. Far more likely to be an Earth-bound phenomena. Roswell: has technology to fly light years, but crashes in (possibly bad) Earth weather. Erm, ok. ------ UFODocThrowaway [https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/assessment-s...](https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/assessment- situation-statement-position-ufos.pdf) ------ Animats Where are the Instagram photos? ~~~ twic Any time a meteor or whatever goes anywhere near Russia, there's dashcam footage of it. If there are UFOs, they're avoiding Russia. ------ thaumaturgy I was hoping in the beginning that this would present some interesting new explanation for UFO ... hysteria, but it didn't really get there. The argument from governmental incompetence isn't terribly compelling to me. The occasional leaks of vast cover-ups -- like the extent of the NSA's surveillance apparatus -- suggest that the government is in fact quite good at keeping sensitive information hidden from the public. The UFO phenomena appears to me to track more closely with the rise of the extraterrestrial in popular sci-fi. It starts with the War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938, made even more compelling perhaps by the events of World War I and the technological advancements that would have seemed to be happening at break-neck speed at the time, and seen through the lens of a global tension as events began leading up to World War II. It was based on a story written in the late 1800s which was just another of many popular British invasion works of fiction at the time, just with an element of science fiction, owing to Wells' training as a science teacher. From there we have the rapid progression of Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Space Ghost, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Unsolved Mysteries, The X Files, and a whole pile of other shows, movies, comic books, and magazines. Frequency of UFO reports [1] seems largely US-centric and tracks pretty well with metrics like number of hours of TV watched [2]. It also correlates well with the most common locations for the sightings: in rural areas, who have in recent years shifted their interest in conspiracy theories from the great UFO coverup and towards QAnon and the deep state and all that. So while the nuclear age may have inspired some of the fiction, it looks to me like it's the entertainment age that created UFO mass hysteria. For the people involved, any phenomena they experienced -- strange lighting, whether real or imagined, or sleep paralysis, or the delirious effects of a sleep aid, or, maybe, proximity to experimental aircraft -- would all be best explained by the fiction they were most familiar with: extraterrestrials. As cultural interest has shifted towards domestic issues, and we have begun to explore space ourselves, and ubiquitous surveillance has spread to every person's pocket but has yet failed to produce any clear, incontrovertible evidence for alien spacecraft, reports of UFO sightings have likewise been trending downwards. [1]: [http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxevent.html](http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxevent.html) [2]: [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when- did-tv-watching-peak/561464/) edit: as I was writing this, ~reggieband posted a comment to this thread that pretty sweetly exemplified my main points: he was watching a Joe Rogan podcast, and thinks that Bob Lazar is being duped into being a part of a government conspiracy to conceal classified aircraft. ------ rasz more sightings, less pictures ------ bitL If UFOs are real, it's unlikely they started to appear only recently and most likely had Earth as their playground (vacation destination/ZOO), and maybe even originating life. Who knows, maybe this is some alien university project on how to make life on a distant planet from the scratch? We can observe that cells/DNA are programmed to adapt to local changes; we have no idea how they make sudden jumps for a more efficient design; maybe somebody was doing alien PhD in a better bipedal design in carbon-based life forms and just planted results here to see how they proliferate... If you look at religions, they all resemble optimization algorithms to build civilizations with different attributes; one could seed different "rules" to different parts of the world and observe which rules become the dominant ones and which kind of civilizations they bring. Moreover, having a conflict between different civilizations that couldn't be reconciled by any other way than a total annihilation, it could provide a needed impetus for progress as the permanent conflict it brings forces people to develop quickly and throw out inefficient ways to survive. From this point of view, globalization might be worse for our progress as species; USA vs China competition might be a needed conflict to progress in any meaningful way. ~~~ ben_w > We can observe that cells/DNA are programmed to adapt to local changes; we > have no idea how they make sudden jumps for a more efficient design; This totally misrepresents evolution. DNA isn’t programmed to adapt to local changes, but rather it’s _not_ programmed to perfectly reproduce without errors. Some errors are useful and get passed on, most errors are either useless or harmful and don’t. And lots of small changes equals a large change — we don’t have to be able to leap a mountain in a single bound to reach the top, either literally or metaphorically, just make a lot of small steps. ~~~ bitL The problem with this thinking is that it completely disregards the time complexity/probability of that happening. So having certain "bits flipped" in DNA in a certain sequence in multiple representatives of the same species in the same location for the change to propagate has too low probability, especially when the number of instances of biological species was usually quite low due to constant struggle for survival; the complexity of growing e.g. a new leg because you somehow need it is again unthinkable with our current computing power (we can't even model that properly with reinforcement learning on fastest supercomputers). So as a conclusion, theory of evolution is fitting for small adaptive changes but is either too optimistic or outright wrong for large jumps inside species; we are obviously missing something very important there. Listening to Dawkins I can agree with his local adaptations arguments but then he suddenly makes a jump and says "and this happens all over millions of years" and that somehow makes that happen, which is a position of faith and not science. Better would be if biologists finally admitted we have no clue about mechanism that allows these jumps; references to random sampling are laughable and fitting freshmen at a university and I am saddened this is accepted - we are likely going to miss some great discoveries because somebody will be insisting on this ridiculous hypothesis instead of figuring out the proper algorithm behind it. ~~~ ben_w > the complexity of growing e.g. a new leg because you somehow need it is > again unthinkable with our current computing power (we can't even model that > properly with reinforcement learning on fastest supercomputers). On the contrary, the _complexity_ is so trivial it’s something I did in 30 minutes, on a laptop, in 2008, as a “prove it to myself” response to a young- Earth Baptist Creationist. What we can’t do is _simulate full-lifecycle organ-scale multi-cell protein folding in real time_ , but that’s a very different thing. ~~~ bitL What do you mean? You trivially simulated the process of figuring out that an animal needs to grow a new leg/organ in response to some environmental situation or to gain "an upper leg" against its adversaries? Are you serious? ~~~ ben_w Genetic algorithms are a very easy to implement form of AI. The hard part is to create a fitness function which does what you actually want — In the wild, reality and competitors are your fitness function, and none needs to be created; conversely, in a simulation the fitness function is necessarily artificial, and can be made to reach any goal you want, from “compose a song” to “write the rules for an AI for this video game so I don’t have to” to “discover a new superconductor” to “design a clock” to “learn to walk”… etc., and all of those are real examples. Separately, as an algorithm, evolution also has easily characterisable failure modes (local minima), and we do observe those failure modes in organic examples. But, to emphasise, the fact artificial evolution requires us to write our own fitness functions is merely an implementation detail; these algorithms _work_ because _evolution works_. They produce novel solutions without the authors of the programs creating the solutions. ~~~ bitL Genetic/memetic algorithms are just a rough approximation of a certain selection mechanism we see in the nature, like what Deep Learning is to brain. Making a conclusion that some trivial algorithm with even complicated custom cross-over function can be translated to real-world is as much fantasy as thinking one could upload consciousness to TensorFlow. I never understood how anyone calling themselves a scientist could make such a leap, but obviously it's popular and people made a "scientific" career doing just that... ~~~ ben_w > Genetic/memetic algorithms are just a rough approximation of a certain > selection mechanism we see in the nature This is irrelevant to my argument. If the simplified version is capable of doing what you have said is unexplained, it is unreasonable to assume that the more complicated version will fail to be capable of the same. > I never understood how anyone calling themselves a scientist could make such > a leap, but obviously it's popular and people made a "scientific" career > doing just that... Occam’s Razor. Start with the simplest possible model, make a prediction, look carefully at reality to see if you were wrong (an act which is easier the simpler the model), and only update the model when reality disagrees with it. Me coding a genetic algorithm can easily reproduce the entirety of any specific human’s genome if I pick the correct fitness function. Pretty pointless to do so beyond proof of concept, but proof of concept is enough to make the point in this case.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Better Way to Do Daily Standup Meetings - CCs http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/a-better-way-to-do-daily-standup-meetings ====== raybeorn seems like discourse would be a useful tool to do standups as well.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Before Straight and Gay: The discreet, disorienting passions of the Victorian era - Vigier https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/before-straight-and-gay/513812/?single_page=true ====== Glyptodon To a certain extent I certainly find the current/modern fixation with classifying gender and orientation odd. It's not entirely clear to me why it's important that I know somebody is a "queer sapiosexual" or whatever else. But there are clearly a lot of people who think such things are very important. And of course what seems a tendency towards needlessly complicated overly- expository self-labeling encompasses a lot more than gender these days. It feels like there's a subtext to a lot of it which sort of suggests that ideas can only be heard and understood clearly by those who own the appropriate labels (including gender), and so people seek to have expansive identities that give them the social bona fides necessary to have their opinions, thoughts, and ideas treated with respect and presumed relevance. In other eras perhaps these social credentials came from wealth or class or other "accomplishments." But the modern world seems to have let an obsession with the the variously unfair, arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory nature of these previous credentials become the basis for inventing new ones based around constructed identities, since such constructs are available to all. In a way we can see this in how protest movements are labeled - it used to be that they were labeled by their goals or the problems they were trying to solve, like the "Civil Rights Movement" or the "Conservation Movement." But now we label things by their identity. Rather than conservation movement, at some point we ended up with "conservationists" and "environmentalists," which have given way to things like the "Women's March," "Scientist's March," etc, which seem to imply that identity necessarily indicates viewpoint - just by knowing what category/identity is marching I should know what it is trying to say. As a lazy human being I find this not an all-together pleasing development, mostly because it seems to go along with a bit of all-or-nothingism, particularly for "allies," who, absent the appropriate labels, may only accept or not accept the broad determinations of those who own the operative label at risk of being excluded/denounced. Anyway, I enjoyed the piece. Always enjoy reading about Victorian stuff. ~~~ delecti It can be difficult to feel normal if there isn't a word to describe how you feel. If all you see is depictions of a certain kind of person (straight and cisgender [1]), but you don't feel that way, are you broken, wrong, crazy even? I've seen countless accounts of people that fit the formula of "I felt different all my life, and it wasn't until I heard the word <label> that I understood." So yes, maybe if you're straight and cisgender you never gave a thought to it, because the majority of people around you were as well, but to a little transgender or asexual teen, hearing the label is like finding a community and comfort blanket all in one. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender) \- Cisgender (often abbreviated to simply cis) is a term for people who have a gender identity that matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. Cisgender may also be defined as those who have "a gender identity or perform a gender role society considers appropriate for one's sex."[1] It is the opposite of the term transgender. Edit: kid->teen, I'm not talking about pre-pubescent children ~~~ logfromblammo Whenever I see cis- and trans- applied to humans, I get the creeping suspicion that some subset of ortho-, meta-, para-, dextro-, levo-, gem-, vic-, hom-, syn-, anti-, exo-, and endo- will be next, and everyone will need to pass an organic chemistry course just to sign up for a dating service. (In queue at the local coffee shop.) Couple-A: (reading a Quandr-E profile out loud) Orthodisexual dextromasculine cismale seeks polyamorous dyad for exo- addition (or endo- if it feels right).... Couple-B: Awww... dang. Too bad drhe isn't para-disexual. Swipe left. Sasquatch: I know, right? But gotta respect drhis life choices. Couple-A: Hey, you wouldn't happen to be... Sasquatch: Nope. I only date unicorns. Senior Coffee-Service Engineer: (surreptitiously applies alicorn wax) Dude: (enters) Any hetero cisfemales in here? Chorus: No! Dude: (exits) Dodecagenarian: One half-liter fair-trade, please. No saccharoids. Double cannabis-butter shot. Senior Coffee-Service Engineer: That will be $6129, sir and/or ma'am. Rod Serling: (appearing from nowhere) Submitted for your approval: Birmingham, Alabama, in the year 2040, just 2 years after the Social Justice War.... ~~~ dTal Beautifully dense satire. A+, would read again. ------ dpark > _Though sex between men was a criminal offense ..., there was, as yet, > hardly a homosexual identity defined by same-sex desire. Until the early > 1950s, a man could have sex with another man without thinking himself in any > respect “abnormal”_ How do you reconcile the fact that gay sex was a criminal offense with the claim that it wasn't considered abnormal? This feels like wishful history rewriting. ~~~ jxf > How do you reconcile the fact that gay sex was a criminal offense with the > claim that it wasn't considered abnormal? Just because something is illegal doesn't mean people consider it abnormal. (I agree with you that it feels historically revisionist, but I don't agree with your argument.) For instance, smoking marijuana isn't considered "abnormal" by many folks. And yet it is a serious federal criminal offense in the US, punishable by significant jail time. ~~~ dpark That's a good point but there is lots of evidence indicating the prevalence and acceptance of marijuana in spite of its illegality. Where is the evidence that make homosexuality was largely considered acceptable or normal by before the early 1950s? Again, this just feels like historical revisionism. As if gay male sex was totally acceptable until a ~50 year period starting in 1950. Meanwhile this whole article is about a family of gay people who (at least the males) couldn't or didn't engage in this supposedly accepted behavior. ~~~ rsynnott > Where is the evidence that make homosexuality was largely considered > acceptable or normal by before the early 1950s? To be clear, the article's not saying that male homosexuality was largely considered normal. It's saying that having sex with men was not considered abnormal, which is a bit different. I think this is probably a bit of an oversimplification, but certainly, men who had sex with men would have been less inclined to think of themselves as different at the time than now. ~~~ dpark I have trouble buying that claim. In a world where gay sex happens but isn't acknowledged, I don't see how people engaging in gay sex would consider it "normal". As if it became "abnormal" only when we started labeling it consistently as homosexuality. Was "furry" sex also considered normal before we had a name for it? I can buy that men who had sex with men wouldn't consider themselves gay (or bisexual or whatever) because that wasn't really a recognized thing. That doesn't mean that the gay sex itself would have been considered "normal" even by the people engaged in it. ~~~ wolfgang42 > Was "furry" sex also considered normal before we had a name for it? Yes, you could make the argument that it was (setting aside the question of how "furry sex" differs from "normal sex"). Consider the following quote from an article on Winston Churchill: > Like other lovers, they invented pet names for each other. Clementine was > “Cat”, or “Kat”, Winston was “Pug”, then “Amber Pug”, then “Pig”. Drawings > of these animals decorated the margins of their letters to each other, and > at dinner parties Winston would reach across the table, squeeze her hand, > and murmur “Dear Cat”. [...] > These were not one-offs, taken out of context. Due to Churchill’s odd > schedule and frequent travels, he and his beloved Kat didn’t see much of > each other, and even while living in the same house they wrote each other > frequent letters. Practically all of them are full of love—and they’re > equally full of what we today would recognize in a heartbeat as typical > anthropomorphic on-line role-play. [http://www.adjectivespecies.com/2012/12/28/blood-toil- tears-...](http://www.adjectivespecies.com/2012/12/28/blood-toil-tears-and- fur/) ~~~ dpark > _Yes, you could make the argument that it was (setting aside the question of > how "furry sex" differs from "normal sex"). Consider the following quote > from an article on Winston Churchill_ I think you're answering a much different question than what I asked. You seem to be answering whether it existed before it had a name. I was asking whether it was _normal_ before it had a name. I have no idea whether Churchill was actually a "furry" but I don't think giving it a name suddenly made it _abnormal_. To whatever extend "furry" behavior is normal or abnormal, it was the same before and after it had a name. ~~~ wolfgang42 Admittedly I did not make this point particularly clearly. [I also realized as I was writing this reply that I made a possibly unwarranted assumption: that Churchill's actions were well-known and generally accepted at the time. I took from the quote that he was doing this at dinner parties, but have no idea what the public scope was. The remainder of the reply continues with this assumption, but I would want to do more research before continuing to use this particular example.] I'm interpreting "normal" as _considered not out of the ordinary by a reference group_ (as opposed to e.g. _within one standard deviation of the mean_ ). This brings the opinions of the group (here the general public) into play. I argue that giving it a name did, in fact, make it abnormal. It is difficult to discuss anything without having words to describe it with, in part because no clear boundaries have yet been defined. As a result, these sorts of things fall into a grey zone where they can't really be described as "normal" or "abnormal" (even if individual instances could be called "unusual"). Once they have been classified, they can be given a name (e.g. "furry"), and also the group as a whole can then be easily classified as normal or abnormal. ~~~ dpark Holding someone's hand and calling them a pet name at dinner is not the same as having one's private sex/romance practices publicly known. I doubt that if Churchill was engaging in furry fetishes that it was well known. But even if it were well-known that wouldn't mean it was generally accepted as normal. But it's weird debating Churchill since I have no idea if it's even true or if it's made up or or wildly misinterpreted. I don't agree with the naming argument. It might be harder to discuss something without a label on it but the underlying behavior can still be seen as normal or abnormal. We didn't have a real word for cisgender until recently but it doesn't seem to have made a difference in how cisgender people are perceived. We still don't have a word for people who are sexually excited by Ikea couches but it's pretty unusual/abnormal regardless. (I don't see unusual and abnormal as meaningfully different here.) ------ h4nkoslo The implication is that the modern identity of "gay" is a recent, politicized, Western (& really more like American) construction. The further implication is that this identity is also deconstructable. Which seemingly refutes the whole idea of "innate gayness" in as much as it amounts to any particular pattern of behavior. ~~~ twblalock > The implication is that the modern identity of "gay" is a recent, > politicized, Western (& really more like American) construction. The further > implication is that this identity is also deconstructable. Yes, that's the implication, and it's one that most people who have studied historical attitudes to homosexual behavior agree with. > Which seemingly refutes the whole idea of "innate gayness" in as much as it > amounts to any particular pattern of behavior. There is no refutation of that -- behavior and predispositions can be innate, but basing a person's identity on a certain set of them is a social construction. We know that is the case because all human societies exhibit homosexual behavior, but only some have adopted the concept of homosexuality as a personal identity, frequently as a binary opposite of heterosexuality -- and western society only did so somewhat recently. ------ return0 [nothing] ~~~ sp332 Labels are just an easy way for people to dismiss each other. Let's not. ~~~ lightedman Categorization is important. Those who wish to use such categorization as a means to discriminate are not important, and should not be given any services until they change their ways. If society went back to this simple structure, (plus our educational system would recognize this instead of co-opting it) then this would change. But we're now in a more complex age. Good luck with that. ~~~ tomp I disagree. I think "description" is important, and some words facilitate communication. For example, I consider "heterosexual" and "homosexual" mostly as _categorization_ words, as they tell you almost nothing about a person. On the other hand, if we used words like "penis-loving" and "vagina-loving", which are descriptions, we'd get along much better. I'm pretty sure I have more in common with vagina-loving women (i.e. bisexual women and lesbians) than with only-penis-loving men (gay men). ~~~ foldr >On the other hand, if we used words like "penis-loving" and "vagina-loving", which are descriptions, we'd get along much better. I think that would just be confusing, as you're conflating very different things. I'm gay in terms of who I'm actually attracted to, but I find both penises and vaginas sexually interesting. Similarly, gay men aren't necessarily particularly into penises and straight men aren't necessarily particularly into vaginas. (With regard to the latter, witness all the nasty misogynistic things straight men are liable to say about them.) I'd also point out that as a gay man I'm far more attracted to transguys, who generally have vaginas, than I am to transwomen, who generally have penises. So in short, describing my sexuality in terms of which genitalia get me going would be very misleading, and I'm not an isolated case. ------ sp332 Is it just me, or are people who were telling us that homosexuality is a genetic predisposition the same ones now saying that it's a choice and things are flexible? ~~~ legodt First you need to stop seeing it as a binary (being gay isn't a bit that gets 'flipped,' it's more of a range that you are predisposed to fall somewhere within) and then this will start making more compatible sense. If you're willing to accept that, here's a really good interview on the subject: [http://www.salon.com/2012/01/22/the_invention_of_the_heteros...](http://www.salon.com/2012/01/22/the_invention_of_the_heterosexual/) ~~~ sp332 Yeah, but that's always been true. So why was the emphasis on immutability for a long while? ~~~ M_Grey Maybe look at the various social consequences in places where the "immutability" line is or has been sold, versus places and times where it isn't or wasn't. ~~~ sp332 Could you be more specific? ------ dsfyu404ed I can't be the only one that read "of all the doings in the Benson household" as "of all the dongs in the Benson household".	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Nim Programming Language Tutorial - j-b http://nim-lang.org/tut1.html ====== beagle3 I've just read through the Nim manual. On the surface, it looks as simple as Python - but it is ridiculously deep when you look at all the template, macro, term rewriters, etc. Whether or not you can make use of it without being aware of all those things remains to be seen. I suspect the answer is mostly yes, i.e. that one can use the nim ecosystem effectively without knowing all of that. (my answer for C++ would be "mostly no" \- you need to really know everything about all the dark corners of the language to use the ecosystem effectively). I'm trying to think of a good way to implement automatic reference counting with copy-on-write, e.g. for big arrays, but haven't come up with one yet. Could a Nim veteran kindly point me in the idiomatic direction? ~~~ Araq You cannot do these things easily currently since the assignment operator cannot be overloaded. There are ways around it, you can "fix" the broken builtin assignment with a TR macro, but since TR macros MUST not change semantics (you can disable them on a global level and code shall continue to work!) this is a bad idea. ~~~ beagle3 How about doing something like: type refCounted[T] = val: T refs: int proc `v=`(var x:refCounted[T], var y:refCounted[T]) = inc(y.refs) dec(x.refs) if x.refs <= 0: destroy(x.val) x.val = y.val # use let so x and y cannot be assigned let x, y = refCounted[string] # instead use x.v to assign and manage refs properly. x.v = y using "let" would make sure all assignments happen through a blessed method (such as the ".v" assignment I defined above). But to actually make it work, I would need to decrease reference on going-out- of-scope (as there a way to do that? maybe a python "with" style enter exit macro?). And to make it easy to work with, there would need to be a way to pre- "incref" an argument before it is passed as an argument, and "decref" it after the function call return. I can probably write a macro that rewrites every function call with a refCounted arg so that it increfs() on the way in, decrefs() on the way out; or maybe have that macro on the callees instead. Guess I'll have to try the different approaches and see what works and how efficiently. ~~~ def- I think that should be type refCounted[T] = object val: T refs: int You could try a destructor for the object: [http://nim- lang.org/manual.html#destructors](http://nim-lang.org/manual.html#destructors) ------ fiatjaf For those wanting a quick grasp of the language, here's Nim in action: \- against Python: [http://rosetta.alhur.es/compare/Python/Nimrod/#](http://rosetta.alhur.es/compare/Python/Nimrod/#) \- against Ruby: [http://rosetta.alhur.es/compare/ruby/Nimrod/#](http://rosetta.alhur.es/compare/ruby/Nimrod/#) ~~~ def- Wow, that's really cool! Never seen that before. (I implemented many of the Rosetta Code tasks in Nim) ------ kartikkumar I'm intrigued by Nim after browsing through some of the basic tutorials. Looks quite straightforward to get started. As with other languages I look at, for my use-cases it's important for me to understand0 if scientific packages are available and if there's a "scientific computing ecosystem". I had a look through the `packages.json` [1] listing for Nimble [2] and couldn't really spot the maths packages that I'd need, e.g., numerical integration, optimization, linear algebra. Given that I can't find any of those, I'm guessing there aren't any physics packages either e.g., Newtonian mechanics, physical constants etc. Maybe maths libraries are available as ports to e.g., Eigen, NLOPT etc.? Can anyone that is more familiar with the community comment on the potential of Nim as a language for scientific computing, in contrast to e.g., Julia? [1] [https://github.com/nim- lang/packages/blob/master/packages.js...](https://github.com/nim- lang/packages/blob/master/packages.json) [2] [https://github.com/nimrod-code/nimble](https://github.com/nimrod- code/nimble) [3] [http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page](http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) [4] [http://ab-initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/NLopt](http://ab- initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/NLopt) EDIT: Fixed typos ~~~ ldlework While I'm not super familiar with the scientific computing field, I can say that Nim needs everyone's help in building the library ecology. Right now, Nim seems to be in the wrap-all-the-things! mode. You can see that most of the available packages are bindings to existing libraries. I'm not sure this is a bad thing. And I don't think it has anything to do with anything other than Nim's currently small community. ~~~ thalesmello I don't see a problem with that. Since Nim compiles to C, it's only natural for people to take advantage of existing C libraries. ~~~ kartikkumar I haven't dived deep enough to figure out if integration with existing C/C++/Fortran libraries works out-of-the-box, or whether you have to setup bindings a la Python. If it works out-of-the-box, my question is moot, especially if two-way interoperability with Nim code is seamless. ~~~ ilaksh You have to set up bindings but it is as simple as it could possibly be to do by hand, and there is a c2nim program to help. ------ barosl I'm quite surprised that Nim's strings are null-terminated, _and_ have a length field. According to a forum article[1], it is mainly due to the C interoperability. I understand that FFI is kinda important for system languages, but isn't it giving up too much to disallow null characters in the middle of a string? Null-terminated strings generally work well, but there have been some corner cases that made me annoyed. (Such as PHP's preg_* functions) [1] [http://forum.nimrod-lang.org/t/125](http://forum.nimrod-lang.org/t/125) ~~~ gecko This is actually really common in C++ libraries. I even worked in one (which I know was on Windows, but I don't think was MFC; maybe OWL?) where the pointers to the String object were actually pointing directly to the null-terminated C string, and then each function in the class would start by fixing up the pointer. E.g., something like class StringClass { ...all members, and then... char str; }; StringClass StringClass::new() { StringClass st = new StringClass; ... return (StringClass )st->str; } void StringClass::someFunc() { StringClass realThis = this - sizeof(StringClass) + sizeof(char *); ... } Evil, eh? The good news is that, no, this does not have to prevent you having nulls in your string. The way this usually works is that all of the language's native string handling routines _just_ use the length, so that's fine, _and_ you're at least _protected_ if you want to call C string handling routines instead. This can result in some unexpected behavior on the C side, but it beats the alternative. ~~~ SamReidHughes One example is std::string as implemented in the GNU libstdc++ or whatever it's called. ------ Tloewald Nice tutorial pitched just right for me. Looks a lot like Iron Python iirc. I like that you can start writing old school interactive command line apps so easily -- great for starting out and in the absence of solid gui tools. ------ wildmXranat I just spent an hour going through Nim related webpages by users who write in it. This is a good find, thanks. ~~~ Cyther606 This is another excellent Nim resource: [http://goran.krampe.se](http://goran.krampe.se) ~~~ wbhart Here is a slightly longer list of external articles I made. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8811132](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8811132) ------ jzelinskie Is that german quote from something other than Rammstein lyrics? ------ davexunit I don't see anything particulary special here. The metaprogramming features are quite weak. The macro system is very primitive. The number types seem to be lacking, too. I don't see anything about bignums, rationals, or complex numbers. ~~~ def- Metaprogramming: [http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Metaprogramming#Nimrod](http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Metaprogramming#Nimrod) My bignum library for Nim (not well tested yet): [https://github.com/def-/bigints](https://github.com/def-/bigints) Complex numbers: [http://nim-lang.org/complex.html](http://nim- lang.org/complex.html) How is the macro system primitive? ~~~ davexunit >My bignum library for Nim (not well tested yet): [https://github.com/def-/bigints](https://github.com/def-/bigints) >Complex numbers: [http://nim-lang.org/complex.html](http://nim- lang.org/complex.html) Ah, good! Glad to be wrong about that! It would be nice if Nim's reader could handle these numeric types transparently. >How is the macro system primitive? Well, I like to use macros to create new syntax, which AFAICT you can't do that with Nim. I'm used to using 'define-syntax' in Scheme, and Nim's macro system seems to be far less robust than that. I guess that's the price paid for non-homoiconic syntax. I just don't see anything new and exiciting in Nim. :( ~~~ klibertp You're really very wrong on Nim's macros. It follows Lisp's defmacro tradition instead of Scheme syntax-rules/syntax-case, but that doesn't make it any less powerful (many would argue it's demonstrably _more_ powerful). You are also dead wrong on syntax-rules/syntax-case capabilities, or maybe on what the syntax/AST is, if you think that there's anything they can do that Nim can't. Both systems deal with AST which means they both are unable to introduce new ways of parsing the code, only transform already parsed one. In (some) Scheme and Common Lisp you get access to readtable, which _is_ the parser, but that's really a different thing. And even in Lisps it's not that popular: Clojure and Emacs Lisp disallow this for example. Personally I favour pattern-based macros, like the ones implemented in Dylan, Elixir or Sweet.js (to show some non-sexp-based languages with such macros); but there is nothing "wrong" with procedural macros and they are not, in any way, less robust. You don't have to be excited by Nim, but you should try to avoid spreading lies just because you aren't. Maybe a "lie" is too strong a word, but this statement: "Nim's macro system seems to be far less robust than that" is really very wrong and I wanted to stress this fact.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Creating a query builder for end users - systematical Our product is starting to get lots of requests for custom reports from our customers. I've taken some steps to really stream line the creation of the reports and exporting reports to PDF / XLS format. This has really helped and most reports can be created fairly quickly with a very full feature set.<p>The other day I began thinking about giving users the power to create their own filters essentially creating their own queries through a UI. This isn't so bad because our framework, CakePHP, stores all the relations to the data and its easy to build on top of this.<p>The tricky part is striking a balance between usability and power. A concern of mine is that this sort of thing might be too complex to our non-techie customer base. Have you done something like this before? Do you have any great examples? How did you handle (or why did you not handle) complex things like: OR, AND, NOT IN, IN, <, >, BETWEEN etc... Specifically I'm interested in your thoughts on building an intuitive and beautiful UI. ====== stephenr I faced the same basic concept a number of years ago, and we had to make it work for barely computer literate police. Basically, we used a single piece of software's single feature as our reference, for describing it to others and for how to handle the experience. iTunes Smart Playlists. ([https://www.evernote.com/shard/s136/sh/7f5f39a1-6c85-4853-aa...](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s136/sh/7f5f39a1-6c85-4853-aa86-970931ea73f3/6c8638c37d303d492f263d396ae27b3e)) I have yet to see a better interface (than iTunes) for building what are essentially custom queries. ~~~ mneary I think that this can be improved by removing the All and Any operators and instead letting segmentations be nested. So for example: All a = b Any All c = d d = f c = e would be a = b c = d d = f c = e I think that it is more intuitive to segment the set as you go. ------ d4nt I built QueryTree ([http://querytreeapp.com](http://querytreeapp.com)) as a response to this sort of problem. It's a domain specific visual programming language designed for working with tabular data. So people who want to build a custom query on a database can do it just by dragging and dropping the right "tool" onto the "worksheet". It's a desktop app rather than web, although it is actually built using HTML, canvas and JavaScript. It can do _almost_ anything SQL can. It can't do "IN" queries yet but I have a plan do that in a way that's consistent with the general drag and drop approach of the app. It doesn't explicitly handle BETWEEN queries but they are easily achieved by using two filter tools one after the other. I think there are two types of complexity to be dealt with when enabling users to build reports/queries. One is the complexity of the concepts involved, the other is the complexity of communicating what you want to happen to the computer. I built QueryTree because of a belief that many people understood they the concept of a filter or a join, but just didn't like text based programming languages. I replaced the SQL syntax but left everything else in place. If I didn't think my target users were up to understanding the conceptual complexity I would have restricted it a bit more and would probably have ended up with something like IFTTT.com but for data. Mostly, people seem to "get" QueryTree though, especially when they're using it on data that they're familiar with. ~~~ j_s Looks nice! What technologies are you using for cross-platform support in your app? ~~~ d4nt After evaluating all the desktop html frameworks I could find, I settled on "node-webkit". ------ aaronblohowiak I've done this when building the reporting side of a survey product. The vast majority of your users won't use the complex filters. Ask your customers what kinds of reports they want to build, usually it will be a series of AND requirements. You can look at email filter builders for inspiration. Usually it is something like building a series of : Field (drop down) operator (drop down) value (text) The tricky part in the ui is combining these (and/or) and if you really want to get fancy, supporting parena to change the precedence of the operators. A AND (b or c). You must not convert this to SQL on the client side. You must validate the fields submitted are in your approved list on the backend (indexes/security). ~~~ capkutay 'You must not convert this to SQL on the client side. You must validate the fields submitted are in your approved list on the backend (indexes/security).' Interesting point. Can't you get around this by only exposing certain tables/fields in the UI based on the users permissions? ~~~ shebson You shouldn't trust it just because of your UI. With developer tools, regardless of your UI, it would be trivially easy for a malicious user to send any arbitrary SQL query. This would allow them to retrieve sensitive data or modify/delete records from your production database. You really should only build this query server-side, and, as the OP is using PHP, I should also add the caveat that they should use PDO. ------ jwdunne This is interesting because I'm building the exact same thing, which also has the be plugged into a Cake app. For choosing the tables to query, my idea is to present a grid. Each cell has the table name and tables available through relations. When a table is selected, the cells either remain "on" or are disabled based on relations available. These will typically change depending on tables selected. Relations are discovered as defined, say hasOne, hasMany, etc. this is step one. Step 2 involves selecting the fields to include in reports. These are typically prefixed with the model name and with underscores replaced with spaces. So User.first_name becomes "User's first name", User's country name or Country name, which I haven't worked out fully yet. I suppose some intuitive way to combine these into virtual fields would be nice. The hairy bit is selecting conditions. I get requests to hard code queries such as finding the number of product ordered by users who have taken an online course or an in-person course so I have to be flexible. This part is tough to express in a UI simply, because X AND (Y OR Z) isn't the same as (X AND Y) OR Z. However, having some way of grouping conditions and requiring that such groups also have a binary operator by dragging and selecting seems the way to go, a la selecting icons on a desktop. All of this can be saved as a "virtual table" for reuse. Output is typically a CSV for marketing purposes but my intention is to have this so I can plug in a PDF renderer with nice charts and what not, like Google Analytics. Though something tells me building all this may be overkill if I can find a package that handles analytics and custom-defined events, along with the ability to upload backdated data! ------ nairteashop > The tricky part is striking a balance between usability and power. Yeap, this is indeed the big issue. One thing that helps is to tune the UI for your _specific domain_ so that it has just enough power to be usable in that domain, but no more. We had to build a query tool for retailers in my last gig, and tuning the UI just for retail helped a lot. For example, make it easy to specify a BETWEEN operation in your UI if that tends to be used often, provide commonly-used domain queries as templates so your customers can learn by looking at and modifying these templates, etc. For inspiration, you may also want to look at other products that have query building as core feature. Two that stand out to me in terms of usability are mixpanel and chart.io: [https://mixpanel.com/segmentation/](https://mixpanel.com/segmentation/) (see "Goodbye SQL" section) [http://chartio.com/product/tour](http://chartio.com/product/tour) (see "Drag and Drop Chart Creation") ------ ideaoverload I was working on such system for performance measurements. Basic assumption was that user would never see any mention of tables, joins, column names nor any other SQL concept. 1.Table selection - there is predefined set of joined tables we call views. Views have descriptive names e.g. 'Temperature measurements', no underlying tables are shown. 2.Column selection - user selects columns from views using descriptive names , not actual column names . UI clearly indicates columns that land in 'group by' section by calling them dimensions. There is predefined aggregation strategy for all columns that are not dimensions - e.g. average for temperatures or sum for number of measurements. In some cases more that one aggregate is available e.g. average or maximum temperature. User just selects maximum or average temperature not aggregation operator. 3\. Filters: user can select simple filters on columns: =<> and string matching for text. All filters are ANDed 4.Sorting: user can select columns to sort on. 5.Display: results are displayed as tables or charts. More that one section may be placed on single report. The real system has tons of additional features but basic design as design as described above has worked great for years. ------ grdvnl I have worked on an app that gave the exact functionality to the users. The users could create queries using the query builder, and also schedule when the queries could be run. The challenges of course was training the users to use the operators correctly and in a way that made logical sense. It did take a while for the end users to learn to build queries. On the UI front, most of the fields and tables could be chosen by double- clicking or drag and drop. Certain operators could not be used with fields based on their types. We also provided a AST like tree to help users understand the operators. On the optimization front, letting users build their own queries could also lead to very costly queries. We had to profile the user created queries regularly and fine tune our query generator to handle such uses. We ended up creating a lot of materialized views in Oracle to handle specific frequent uses of joins in the table. The users who were using this tool were top level finance and accounting folks, who wanted to produce reports for the CFO has he dreamt up different data points to work on! ------ mingabunga We've been doing exactly this for our antispam app, we started off with a working custom filters web app (Angularjs) which you can see at [http://209.213.221.169:8080/](http://209.213.221.169:8080/) using text or regular expressions (the regexp has a bug in it). This also shows the query in plain english as you build the query. Original design credits for the test app to [https://github.com/kindohm/knockout-query- builder/](https://github.com/kindohm/knockout-query-builder/) This is the design we've come up with so far, which incorporates grouping of queries. We've tried to make it readable, but we also display the query in a sentence as you build it. [http://cdn.firetrust.com/images/misc/customfilter.jpg](http://cdn.firetrust.com/images/misc/customfilter.jpg) ------ korzh Take a look at EasyQuery.JS: [http://devtools.korzh.com/easyquery/javascript/](http://devtools.korzh.com/easyquery/javascript/) Live demo: [http://demo.easyquerybuilder.com/asp-net- mvc/](http://demo.easyquerybuilder.com/asp-net-mvc/) ------ petercooper My advice regarding the usability vs power issue is to have multiple stages. You'd have a DSL/query language that you parse, is secure, etc. And then you'd have a UI over the top of that which automatically creates the right queries. The win here is that you then have an easy interface for 90% of users but the remainder with more bizarre or complex requirements can still get to where they want to go by either writing a query themselves in an "advanced" field of some sort, or you could even do it for them for $$$. Embedded JavaScript is an option here. I would contrast this with something I would not advise, having a visual interface go straight to a database query behind the scenes.. because then you're basically limited to what you exposed in the UI. ------ mkal_tsr You could start with an intermediate stage, with say a query-builder wizard that walks them through the process. 1\. What type of report would you like to create? (define the domain) 2\. What are you looking for? (define the topic) 3\. What limits are there? (define the data boundaries) 4\. How do you want it displayed? (report output format like excel, pdf, etc). See how a select group of customers like it and get feedback on it ... some might immediately say "yes we want something more powerful" or what you have will be just fine. From there you can decide if you want to pursue exposing the query-builder more openly than a guided wizard, and if you want to charge extra for it. ------ santialbo Mac Finder's query builder is, in my opinion, the friendliest you can get. [http://i.stack.imgur.com/YdUSq.png](http://i.stack.imgur.com/YdUSq.png) ------ jschmitz28 I've done this before in dojo framework + dgrid. Our system is based off of a dynamic metamodel where users define classes (e.g. Task) and attributes under those classes (e.g. State, owner, project reference) from a set of predefined types (e.g. Enum, user, reference). The defined metamodel ends up as a class hierarchy and is presented as a tree for the query builder. After defining a class, you can then instantiate that class and set attribute values on it. For building queries, you drag classes and attributes from the metamodel tree into either the filter tree or the report fields section. The filter tree is a tree of AND's and OR's constructed as you drag attributes into it. Selecting an item in the filter tree then brings up a value editor based on the attribute type that allows you to filter your query based on values that make sense for that type. So if you define your tasks state as enum(unassigned, assigned, started, completed) you get a combo box with those values and options to select in, not in, null, etc. The report fields section is a list of attributes you want to see in the result set. Basically just a select on that attributes value for the query system. Imagine a todo list created instantly by filtering on tasks with owner == current user and state not in completed, but also wanting to see and sort on the priority, and not showing the owner since you know it's you. The report fields area allows setting of sort order, and ascending or descending. As you drag attributes into the filter or fields sections, a results pane underneath automatically gets new columns added (for fields added of removed) or new results based on a modified filter tree. After saving a query, users can then register for updates of items that match the query. If any data is changed that affects query results, the updated item or removal is pushed via websocket and that item is updated or removed from the results grid. With this, users never have to refresh the query since all the data is live. Screenshots are slightly edited and a little out of date, but you get the idea. Query builder: [http://i.imgur.com/AV071JV.png](http://i.imgur.com/AV071JV.png) Dashboard (powered by query/report building): [http://i.imgur.com/BvBW7L3.png](http://i.imgur.com/BvBW7L3.png) ------ camus2 there are a lot of query builders out there, i'm pretty sure you dont need to write one. Doctrine has one : [http://phpcr.github.io/](http://phpcr.github.io/) which deals with pure PHP objects.it follows a java standard,you can write SQL like queries with it. [https://github.com/phpcr/phpcr- docs/blob/master/tutorial/Tut...](https://github.com/phpcr/phpcr- docs/blob/master/tutorial/Tutorial.md) ------ j_s This blog post demonstrates grouping values under the associated filter expression: [http://kindohm.com/posts/2013/09/25/knockout-query- builder/](http://kindohm.com/posts/2013/09/25/knockout-query-builder/) There are also number of projects implementing JavaScript query builders that can be found from there, including Red, YUI, jQuery and Ext Grid query builders. ------ ecolner I've done this when I was working on the Playstation Network so business users could define storefront categories that contain products based on their own custom logic. We didn't get a lot of requests to change the feature and it was stupid simple. I wouldn't get too fancy unless your users get really excited about it and ask for it to do more. ------ olalonde MagentoCommerce (also PHP) has a query builder, maybe you could have a look for inspiration? [http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/_media/welcome_to_the_ma...](http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/_media/welcome_to_the_magento_user_s_guide/catalog_price_rule_conditions_combination.jpg?cache=cache) ~~~ aaronem Having spent over a year working with Magento's community edition, it seems to me that, for a developer unfamiliar with it, the reaction it's likeliest to inspire would be panicked flight. ------ bryanh You might look at how Wufoo's rule system works. Designed for not-very- technical users and it is pretty powerful. ------ HeyImAlex Check out HTSQL, should be able to act as your API. ------ eitally I spent ten years of my career building and then altering something like this and would be happy to talk with you about it. ~~~ progmanos I'm actually looking to work on something similar for an intranet tool. ------ petilon Take a look at Pebble Reports. It is exactly what you are describing. Although it is a Windows app, not web. ------ bra-ket SQL is pretty good	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader - mrzool https://miniflux.app/ ====== dsr_ There's something terribly wrong when the first feature listed is "optimized for readability" and it's written in light-gray on white font so that I can barely make it out. Higher contrast is a necessity. Also, "No dependencies" and "Depends on PostgreSQL" are contradictory.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
There Isn’t a Single Down Stock in the S&P over Last 10 Weeks - aazaa https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-08/there-isn-t-a-single-down-stock-in-the-s-p-over-last-10-weeks ====== spendavis12 While this might be true, their value is lower now than it would have been had the market not crashed. ------ nikolay This shows how out of touch with reality the "marktes" are.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Fed: Americans' wealth dropped 40 percent - adventureful http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-americans-wealth-dropped-40-percent/2012/06/11/gJQAlIsCVV_story.html ====== minimax The report they are attempting to summarize covers the period from 2007 to 2010. It was just released by the Fed yesterday. It's publicly available, so I'm puzzled as to why they didn't link directly to the source material from the article. Here it is anyway: [http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2012/PDF/scf12.p...](http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2012/PDF/scf12.pdf) ------ lincolnwebs This seems hugely misleading as an economic barometer. Isn't it the case that real estate wealth was surging absurdly [in 2007], obscuring a rise in debt? If debt growth has leveled off, it seems like the story is Americans getting their shit together and stopping their debt accumulation, not "losing" bubble wealth. No? //edit: 2010?? Did they forget to hit 'publish' when this was still timely? ~~~ ChuckMcM I was going to say the same thing, basically that article notes that house prices have tumbled 40% and that is the biggest asset most people have, and if you're leveraged (which is to say you have a mortgage) then the contribution of your house toward your net worth probably went away, and so now you are 'less wealthy'. That reasoning completely sidesteps the fact that houses should not have ever risen to the prices they did. The sudden 'house wealth' bubble was directly attributed to extremely bad fiscal policy pretty much throughout the ranks. And while a number of us in Silicon Valley have already learned the lesson 'your not really rich if your wealth is all in a bubble asset' the rest of the country got to learn this too. It sucks, but its more like "you know what your house will be worth in another 15 to 20 years when it would have gotten there based on a reasonable fiscal policy and a 2% economic growth rate. (and yes it appears to be a story from 2 yrs ago, just when the real estate market crash was in everyone's mind, although this reporter seems to have picked it up today for a few hits during an election year.) ~~~ anamax > It sucks, but its more like "you know what your house will be worth in > another 15 to 20 years when it would have gotten there based on a reasonable > fiscal policy and a 2% economic growth rate. Any reason for using 2% growth instead of something closer to the US average (which is around 4%)? [http://visualizingeconomics.com/2010/11/04/log-scale-long- te...](http://visualizingeconomics.com/2010/11/04/log-scale-long-term-real- growth-in-us-gdp-1871-2009/) ~~~ ChuckMcM When I'm doing armchair economic analysis I use the 2% growth rate as its one that pretty much everyone agrees is the 'floor' of all estimates. So if you read my comment and did the math, and 15 to 20 years from now looked at your house value, you may find I exactly called it, but you may find that it was a bit under as the economy grew better than that. The chance that you would see lower than 2% growth is small (but non-zero!). There was a time (pre-2000 btw) when I would use the more optimistic numbers when planning ahead :-) ------ gordonbowman At least credit card debt has fallen across the board. "The survey also confirmed that Americans are shifting the kinds of debts that they carry. The share of families with credit card debt declined by 6.7 percentage points to 39.4 percent, and the median balance of that debt fell 16.1 percent to $2,600." [http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-net-worth-drops- level-1...](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-net-worth-drops- level-185603451.html) ~~~ cluda01 This has recently shifted to student loan debt however. The effects of this type of debt are a lot subtler and nastier because you can't get student loan debt discharged in bankruptcy proceedings. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college- inc/post/student...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college- inc/post/student-loans-surpass-auto-credit-card- debt/2012/03/06/gIQARFQnuR_blog.html) ------ debacle How the hell is the median wealth of Americans 77k?! Does this not factor in debt? ~~~ adventureful The Fed tags American wealth at around $58 trillion total, last I recall. I suspect the median is a bizarre way to calculate American wealth. That includes equities, real estate, precious metals, homes, bonds, etc. The stock market rebounding back upward nearly 100% added trillions to that no doubt. I would think it'd be far better to take the middle 80% of Americans and find an average wealth value (lop off the top 10% and bottom 10%). That would give you a perspective on how most of the nation is doing, especially since the very top radically skews the data upward. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_in_the_United_States> Interesting data point on the top 1% wealth wise: "They [the 1%] controlled nearly a third of the nation’s financial assets (investment holdings) and about 28 percent of nonfinancial assets (the value of property, cars, jewelry, etc.). These measures will be particularly interesting to revisit when the new, post-recession data arrives." "The Times had estimated the threshold for being in the top 1 percent in household income at about $380,000, 7.5 times median household income, using census data from 2008 through 2010. But for net worth, the 1 percent threshold for net worth in the Fed data was nearly $8.4 million, or 69 times the median household’s net holdings of $121,000." [http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring- the-t...](http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by- wealth-not-income/) ~~~ debacle The 1% has a very limited ability to drive change in the median wealth. The average wealth is very likely much much higher (probably closer to a half million) than the median, signaling vast income inequality. The median is a much more useful statistic when dealing with this kind of distribution, as it applies to a much larger population than the average, which is useless for ~80% of the population as an indicator. ~~~ aggronn I'll be even more bold and declare that the top 1% has no more ability to effect the median than any other 1% of the population. Using the median isn't strange at all for this kind of calculation. ~~~ planetguy I would suggest that the median is taken, in this case, because it provides the biggest and sexiest headline number. The average (and by extension the total) wealth has gone down by a much smaller percentage since 2007. The fluctuations just happened to have hit the people around the _middle_ particularly hard. The people at the bottom haven't seen their net wealth decline at all, because they never had any. The people at the top have seen their net wealth decline substantially, but since it was largely in other asset classes less so [percentage-wise] than the people right in the middle, whose net wealth was dominated by home equity. Bottom line: recessions suck. They happen every decade or so. Plan with this in mind. ------ zwieback ...wealth we never really possessed. ~~~ fennecfoxen I don't know how much economic sense that statement makes exactly; it's a little simplistic. Consider: Some people bought new homes for the first time at the top of the bubble, trading real dollars and real future liabilities for a house. The fact that the house can no longer be sold for nearly as much materially impacts what they will be able to do with their future: they have lost wealth. And at any time, many individuals could have sold their home to another person, in exchange for real tangible wealth which could have been put in a lasting form. That's an opportunity cost and represents a tangible loss as well. It's true that not _every_ individual could have done this, though, yes. It's a complicated picture, really, and we oughtn't simplify it too far in either direction. ~~~ tomp they haven't _really_ lost anything - they still own the same house, and no money, just as before(at the height at the bubble) ~~~ SwellJoe A house that was purchased with $250k of debt, that is now only worth $150k, has cost the buyer $100k, for nothing. That is $100k of lost wealth to the buyer. The buyer purchased $250k worth of house, using future earnings, and now only owns $150k worth of house (but still owes $250k of future earnings). That is a _devastating_ economic blow to a middle class family, and to dismiss it as "they haven't _really_ lost anything" is simplistic and cruel. ------ mark_l_watson I just watched a documenry tonight that partially explains this: contains fairly obvious stuff that intellectually we know is true, but, the last 15 minutes suggest a few things that sheepal (that is, ordinary sheep/people) can do to improve our situation like not buying from misbehaving corporations. Yeah, maybe. One thing that is really interesting in the first part of the movie is how psychology was used to control consumers. Buy, baby buy, because it will make you FEEL better! Another main message of the movie, that war = profit for corporations is obvious, but worth thinking about. They also cover the fact that the corporate controlled news media is not to be trusted. So, really obvious stuff, but well presented. <http://www.ethosthemovie.com/> This movie is on Netflix under documentaries. ------ carsongross Wealth: I'm not sure that word means what you think it means. [http://drduru.com/onetwentytwo/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/11...](http://drduru.com/onetwentytwo/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/110218_SP500vsGold.jpg) ------ zopa That's a pretty misleading headline. "Americans' wealth" /= "wealth of the median American". ------ adventureful As others have noted, it was wealth Americans never really possessed. The data point that I'd find most interesting is how much debt was accumulated on the back of that phony wealth. That is, how much more debt were Americans able to accrue specifically because of the bubble (than they otherwise would have been able to). Losing bubble wealth is bad enough (the psychological impact alone), losing it when you've stacked debt against it is a very real problem. The fake wealth was used to create very real debt. Suddenly you've got 1/3 of all home owners under water on their mortgages. ~~~ geogra4 >As others have noted, it was wealth Americans never really possessed This is one thing that definitely rings true to me. I grew up in a wealthy community that abutted many, many poorer ones. I would often ride my bike through all of these places, especially the most impoverished ones and lament to myself "So this is the richest country in the world?" Later, after I graduated college and started looking for places to live it was amazing to me how much wealth was caught up in places I don't think I'd ever want to live. Nearly identical tract housing for 10s of miles in all directions. Nothing walkable at all, even sidewalks were just an afterthought. "So, is this is what wealth looks like?" I thought to myself. Obviously it wasn't wealth. That money never existed, but the debt people signed contracts for is real. ~~~ guelo > rings true to me The problem with complex macroeconomics and popular politics summarized in one phrase. ~~~ jlgreco I wonder if we are best served by a democracy when, with perhaps the most important political issue there is, common sense and anecdotes provide little value and a higher education in a particular field is required to make an informed decision. ~~~ guelo Well, that was the reason for the creation of the Fed in the first place, the idea that you could have technocrats setting macroeconomics policy without political influence. But then Allan Greenspan happened, an ideologue disciple of Ayn Rand. When the federal budget was running a surplus in 2000 he told congress that budget surpluses were dangerous, then he pushed for Bush's tax cuts and then he helped inflate real estate and ignored everybody that was saying it was an out of control bubble. So no, unelected elites aren't going to save us either. ~~~ rubashov The Fed was founded because in fly-over country the financial system was rickety. Off the coasts, banks were regularly going bust and taking people's savings with them. This almost always happened during harvest season when demand for currency was high. In the urban centers the banking system was working fine. The problem to solve was a ridiculously inefficient and inept banking sector in large swathes of the country. As soon as the idea of some sort of federal level reform got going the House Of Morgan and friends seized control and the Fed became a tool of the major banks, which were already working fine, to increase their profits and control. Almost from the start it was the case the Federal Reserve Bank of New York really ran the system, which was entirely not the original idea. The idea of the Fed originated from a temporary problem unique to a particular period of American history, but was immediately usurped by clever power and money hungry people.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
An Update on the GitLab Situation - mlaccetti https://medium.com/@mlaccetti/an-update-on-the-gitlab-situation-c30452d6474f ====== DrScump "We aren’t actually losing features due to things changing tiers as much as we are losing features because we ourselves have forcibly downgraded our license." Then common decency should have you correct your article of April 3rd accordingly (as of 0200 GMT Saturday, it hasn't happened). ~~~ mlaccetti Hence the followup - I will link to it in the original article.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Monty Hall strategies - coinomega https://gist.github.com/cedricbellet/c07136ecdb3524ab802a679c916f5bb6 ====== coinomega Very simple script, and only confirms what has been posted several times here. However interesting scenario when the game master reveals a door with a goat, and the player does not know if the game master consciously decided to remove that particular door. In this scenario, probability of winning swings from 0.33 to 0.67.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Lightning Strike Triggers Amazon EC2 Outage - 1SockChuck http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/06/11/lightning-strike-triggers-amazon-ec2-outage/ ====== maximilian Can't those people just spin up new instances on different servers?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Getting payed internationally as a freelancer - 0xsven We are a group of freelancers from Europe that regularly work for US companies. Every time we send them an invoice there is a huge discussion about how to send the money starting. Somehow the Americans don't like wire transfer in Euros and so they always try to send us checks, which is something that doesn't really exist here. Our best guess is that nobody wants to pay conversion and transfer fees.<p>So my question: How to transfer the money from US to Europe? What is the cheapest way? ====== mtmail I'm very happy with [https://transferwise.com/](https://transferwise.com/) ~~~ 0xsven This looks like what we need. thank u :) ~~~ codegeek "Note: Our fees below do not include charges that your bank or intermediate banks involved in SWIFT transfers may levy." This could be tricky for US banks. Make sure you ask your bank about SWIFT charges before sending money otherwise you could end up paying additional for a SWIFT transfer. ------ wkubiak "Somehow the Americans don't like wire transfer in Euros" I'm really not surprised. It's the same with EU countries having to wire money to some non-euro currency. Why not setup a US dollar account? After receiving payment in your client's currency, you can rather cheaply convert it to your own currency. In my experience, US companies are interested in PayPal or TransferWise or other such methods only when for some reason wire transfer is not an option. I don't think you are in such a situation. Depending on the amount, using those services could be more expensive than handling a US dollar wire transfer with SHA (shared costs). ------ jakobegger I just invoice US clients in USD, and tell them to wire the money. My bank account is in Euro, so my bank converts the USD payment to Euro. Conversion + fees are usually around 1%. ------ eswat I’ve used Stripe or TransferWise with my US clients – I’m in Canada – with the former usually being less hassle for me and the client if we’re dealing with small amounts. A few clients also wanted to send me cheques. But you can convince them that these other options are better for your working relationship. As their trusted contractor you’re expected to deliver results and not skimp on details or make compromises. You should expect the same from your client, including their accounting department, and working with cheques cross-border is a compromise in the working relationship. ------ wayn3 get a multi currency account from a singaporean bank. ~~~ 0xsven How much would be the conversion fees? Do you know? ~~~ wayn3 Usually a flat fee plus forex. Insubstantial if you deal in thousands of dollars.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Moss Hills – My Story of the Sinking (2013) - randycupertino http://www.oceanossinking.com/index.php?page_id=15 ====== randycupertino This story by Moss Hills about the Oceanos shipwreck is incredible. I can't believe I've never heard about it before or that there hasn't been a big blockbuster movie made about the wreck. The ship MTS Oceanos had a crew of the most craven, selfish, cowardly Greeks to have ever gone to sea. When the ship started sinking off the coast of South Africa, the captain and crew all deserted the ship without even raising the alarm to alert the passengers that the ship was sinking. They snuck off, leaving the passengers in the dark to fend for themselves. They lowered a half-full lifeboat as soon as all the crew and their luggage was on board, despite people screaming at them not to. Moss Hills was the guitarist in the resident entertainment team and after checking the state of the ship (finding that the captain had lied in his announcements) he went to the bridge and found it deserted. Here is the video footage Moss took when he went down below deck to verify his suspicions that the boat was indeed going down: [https://youtu.be/9BFux2AAMso?t=57s](https://youtu.be/9BFux2AAMso?t=57s) Hills tells how he contacted another ship on the radio: "By radio, I spoke to Captain Detmar aboard the ship "Nedlloyd Mauritius" a few times and the radio reception was clear. Captain Detmar was extremely calm and efficient sounding and was very reassuring. At first he asked me a few technical type questions and wanted to know our exact position, how many people were still on board, our angle of lean and current strengths, etc. When I was unable to answer he wanted to know my rank. I answered that I wasn't any rank, I was a guitarist. After a short pause to digest this he came back on and was extremely supportive. In fact, South African newspapers picked up this story and ran a cartoon of me as a small figure on the bridge of a listing ship in pounding seas, captioned with "Attention, attention, this is your lead guitarist speaking". The artist sent me the original of it which I still have." He and some of his entertainment teammates organized getting the passengers rescued from the heavily listing and sinking ship by helicopter. Hills was the last man to be air lifted off the boat, minutes before the ship sank. Most impressively, despite the captains best efforts to be utterly derelict of his duties, not a single life was lost. Moss Hills later also survived ANOTHER shipwreck a few years down the road. ------ chiph Benji Smith, who used to hang out on the Joel-on-Software forum, was aboard the Costa Concordia when it ran aground & sank. And later wrote a book about the wreck: [http://www.amazon.com/Abandoned-Ship-intimate-Concordia- ship...](http://www.amazon.com/Abandoned-Ship-intimate-Concordia-shipwreck- ebook/dp/B00AUYIKNK) Similar events happened during the wreck - the crew lied to the passengers, did not do their duty to ensure the safety of all souls on board, left the ship early, and so on. ------ DrScump PBS Nova had an episode called "Why Ships Sink" that included the Oceanos story. Episode: [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/why-ships- sink.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/why-ships-sink.html) (note the Transcript link, for text) another clip: [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/cruiseship-guitar- hero.htm...](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/cruiseship-guitar-hero.html) ------ XorNot I really can't properly fathom what the hell was going on with the captain and crew. Like, I know people have weird responses to high-stress situations, but the actions of the captain and crew beggar belief.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How to find business partner in US? - IvarsIndriks In order to increase odds of building scaleable tech business I want to partner up with someone who is based in US. I'm nodejs developer (and other skills) and have been building online product for over a decade. I'm base in Eastern Europe, but would love to move to US. However, at the moment thats not possible. Currently I have not particular idea in mind, but with like-minded people brainstorming comes natural. ====== aswathrao Do you need a business partner for managing office and teams. Or is it ok if you just business presence in the US and people working remote or freelance ?? ~~~ IvarsIndriks I prefer remote work. I need someone who lives in US, so has a good understanding of local market, mindset and ability to meet other people. ------ boltzmannbrain Post a portfolio, project, or specific concept to build, and an email for people to contact you. ~~~ IvarsIndriks My skills are NodeJS, React, react native, ML etc. And together with US partner we will be able to come up with good idea and good understanding of US (primary) market. To know more drop me an email: [email protected] ------ throwaway_921 Everyone wants to live in the US buddy. Get in line, work hard. You'll be able to move eventually. There's no shortcuts. ~~~ IvarsIndriks I don't believe in lines. I believe in shortcuts. Not easy ones, but shortcuts that are risky and takes time.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
If Teaser Rates Work for Buying Houses, Why Not for Online Music? - prakash http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/if-teaser-rates-work-for-buying-houses-why-not-for-online-music/ ====== MaysonL It's a great idea - and my favorite band (the Evangenitals) seems to have discovered it already - I picked up their second album free (every time I go to one of their gigs, I get so carried away with the music, I forget).	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Scary Line Has Been Crossed For VCs - transburgh http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/12/a-scary-line-has-been-crossed-for-vcs/ ====== pwk In a down market, investors should be buying and not selling. In the context of VCs, it's probably a good time to fund ventures because the equity they get for their cash will be higher, and it's probably a bad time to exit because the cash they get for their equity will be lower. So, maybe VCs are simply being solid, patient investors. ------ jrockway I don't really think it's fair to single out 2008 as the start of a trend. Hell, money market accounts lost money this year. That is very unusual, and the economy is not doing so well right now. Why would startups be magically immune? Also, if you integrate the curves to get total funds raised and total value created, this doesn't really look bad. ~~~ mynameishere Money market funds in the aggregate have by no means lost money this year. ~~~ timr I think his point was that this has been a year of exceptional events. The fact that even one fund broke the buck is big news; under-performing VC funds are a footnote in comparison. ------ hooande This will work itself out. If you have an idea for a product that profitably solves a problem for hair on fire customers, you'll still be able to get money. Some of the so-so ideas might not get the amount of time and funding they were used to. ------ condor I'd like to see a graph showing a running total of venture capital invested versus a running total of net income earned by VC investments. ------ mattmaroon They're still ahead of finance and airlines. ~~~ alecco Finance and airlines get free money from government, VCs not. ~~~ ojbyrne Southwest proves you wrong on "airlines." Still making profits. ~~~ mattmaroon Some VCs make profits too, it was referring to the industry as a whole. Airlines as a whole don't make money. ------ thinkcomp The graph is indeed scary looking, and it's consistent with both Judith Estrin's book "Bridging the Innovation Gap," and an essay I wrote over the summer: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/all-is-not- wel...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/all-is-not-well-in- silico_b_113226.html) ------ time_management What's supposed to replace VC, exactly? No one likes having to deal with "the money problem", and there are obvious inefficiencies and flaws in the current VC system, but I don't see any obvious solutions or how anything better could be developed at scale. ~~~ ksvs Angels. ~~~ time_management This is why I qualified my post with "at scale". I don't think there are enough qualified, technologically knowledgeable angel investors out there to cover a significant fraction of the startups that need funding. Keep in mind, also, that although the economy will recover, the glacial retreat of the 20th- century big-box corporations is a rather permanent state of affairs, which means that there will be a lot more people trying to start companies, while the number of wealthy individuals/angels will not increase at nearly the same rate. ------ crabapple boo-fucking-hoo. a down market hurts everyone. well maybe they should use this lull to re-educate themselves for the future. guess what folks, sandhill road will be as dead as wall street unless you try expanding past websites. let yc fund this low-iq crap. time to bone up on all that chemistry you skipped in high school, you'll need it if you are going to evaluate greentech, nuclear, etc	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Elixir v1.6 released: code formatter, dynamic supervisors, and more - josevalim https://elixir-lang.org/blog/2018/01/17/elixir-v1-6-0-released/ ====== losvedir I'm really excited about the code formatter. I'm glad more and more projects are following Go's lead on this. How was the default style decided? And very importantly, what's the forum for users to bikeshed endlessly about how it should be different? More seriously, as someone who's literally updating a bit of code to use a :simple_one_for_one supervisor right now - is the new DynamicSupervisor more about naming, so people understand it better, than semantics? I was under the impression that :simple_one_for_one, :rest_for_one, etc, were all standard erlang OTP supervisor strategies and that Elixir mostly deferred to them. Is it still using the same erlang semantics under the hood? Oh, and edited to add: does that mean using `:simple_one_for_one` with a `Supervisor` is now deprecated? If so, what's involved in transitioning to the new approach? ~~~ napsterbr While it's clear that a std formatter is a big win (I absolutely _love_ elm- format), I'm somewhat afraid of this sort of change. Stuff like line length isn't only a personal preference, changing the width e.g. from 80 to 100 would seriously "break" my IDE window layout. At the same point, making it configurable would decrease the benefit of OneTrueStandard. Definitely a tough decision either way. ~~~ nickjj I think having something is way better than nothing. I too like 80 max chars since it lets me fit 3 side by side code windows. From what I gathered this is configurable at a project level. To me it seems like a huge step up from having to use a tricked out rubocop/flake8 config to detect issues while you have to manually fix them. Just knowing I never have to deal with formatting again because Jose and gang put a crazy amount of effort into ensuring it does the right thing is really nice. ~~~ eikenberry 80 character max also fits nicely with the 4-6 inch column width for optimal readability. ------ dgllghr It might be a small thing, but I am most excited about @defguard. I find that splitting a function to match on different inputs and using guards creates elegant, clear, and maintainable code, but if a guard statement is too large, that effect is diminished and I fall back to `if` or `case`. @defguard allows me to stick to the more elegant (in my opinion) solution. ~~~ davidkuhta For those interested in some of the thought-process of defguard check out Chris Peele's gist of his development process: [https://gist.github.com/christhekeele/76c3e37cb9082274f52f79...](https://gist.github.com/christhekeele/76c3e37cb9082274f52f79fa94bab6fe) While not the final spec per his PR, a really good look at the internals nonetheless. ~~~ christhekeele You can follow my development even further—the lingering question in that gist is how to expand the guard code to see if it is valid in a guard. I tried my hand at a pure-Elixir guard expansion in an earlier PR, documenting my thoughts as I went: [https://github.com/elixir- lang/elixir/pull/5854](https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/pull/5854) After José gave me some direction in response to that, I produced the ultimate PR: [https://github.com/elixir- lang/elixir/pull/5857](https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/pull/5857) It simply relies on calling the :elixir_expand.expand function that the compiler uses, with a guard context—so the defguard implementation is always up-to-date with what the compiler allows in guards. Waaay more elegant than munging AST myself. Funnily enough, the tests I wrote for defguard actually uncovered some missing assertions in that function. Some invalid expressions would make it past that step and return a different error much deeper in. It's kinda cool I indirectly contributed to the compiler. I took on the feature mostly because over 4 years ago I'd made a gist to do exactly that, minus the validation, and when I found the issue on github for it, it gave me a lot of pleasant closure to get it merged in! [https://gist.github.com/christhekeele/8284977/revisions#diff...](https://gist.github.com/christhekeele/8284977/revisions#diff- ba11d4e6b23e5ea4fc590c7da3988661R65) ------ ninjakeyboard Some extra stuff I've been working on to supplement the the formatter in your workflow a bit: Pre commit hook: [https://github.com/jasongoodwin/elixir-mix-format-pre- commit...](https://github.com/jasongoodwin/elixir-mix-format-pre-commit-hook) Emacs format current file: [https://github.com/jasongoodwin/emacs-elixir- formatter](https://github.com/jasongoodwin/emacs-elixir-formatter) Generally the formatter is good, but we've noticed a couple cases where it would be nice to override EG: it would be nice to have the join and on statements on the same line so you can see as the reader what relates to what u in Db.User, distinct: u.id, join: c in Db.Comment, on: u.id == c.user_id, join: p in Db.Profile, on: u.profile_id == u.id, join: x in Db.SomethingElse, on: x.profile_id == u.id, join: y in Db.AnotherThing, on: y.profile_id == u.id, ... I can see why it's like that, but it would be nice to be able to override it. Also the formatter requires () so you end up with ecto code differing from the styles recommend in the docs schema "thingy" do field(:name, :string) field(:abbreviation, :string) end instead of schema "thingy" do field :name, :string field :abbreviation, :string end Anyway, still useful and good for the team. ~~~ jurre > it would be nice to override One of the big advantages I have experienced from the Golang formatter is that you cannot configure it, period. This took me a little bit off getting over myself, but eventually the fact that every single Golang codebase adheres to these rules is so nice. Plus you don't have to think about it, ever. In this case I think it would be best if Ecto just recommends the new default style in their docs. ~~~ ninjakeyboard That's fair - thanks for the comment. It makes sense - then there are no opinions or variation so "this is the way" and all code looks like that. ------ rehemiau For people wondering about what Elixir and the BEAM are offering, for a quick overview of the best features of this stack see [this talk]( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO4_Wlq8JeI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO4_Wlq8JeI) ). If anyone starts learning Elixir now: I can recommend using VSCode with ElixirLS extension. Also: pragprog books, Sasa Juric's book. If you like video tutorials I've heard good things about PragDave's course. ~~~ gekkonier I guess you mean Elixir in action - its manning and not pragprog. ~~~ rehemiau Yes, and I do recommend all of pragprog elixir books and manning's elixir on action. ------ jeffreysmith defguard/defguardp is a really welcome addition that should improve lots of normal code. Planning on using it in a refactor _today_. Great to see improvements like this. ------ qaq Just in time for a start of a new proj. Huge thanx to everyone who contributed the maturity of tooling and attention to developer productivity is amazing and puts many established languages to shame. ------ jmcgough Been looking forward to this since your keynote at ElixirConf. Love the direction the language is evolving towards, and the emphasis on improving ease of use and better tooling. ------ richjdsmith This is fantastic! Easily most excited for the code formatter - it should make it easier for new users of the language to pick it up based on seeing others code. ------ grillwork thanks for everything you do jose, looking forward to getting our hands on it. ------ nurettin I wonder why go doesn't have it's elixir, yet. ~~~ chipotle_coyote I'm not entirely sure what that would exactly _mean,_ but I can think of two answers, one philosophical and one technical: (1) Philosophically, Erlang borrows a lot from Prolog while Elixir borrows a lot from Ruby. For some programmers (dilettantes like myself included), that relative familiarity is a fairly big win. Go doesn't have the same "weird syntax" drawback; it's pretty easy for anyone familiar with C-like languages to pick up the basics virtually on sight. (2) Technically, Elixir is another language for the Erlang VM, like Scala and Clojure are other languages for the Java VM. But Go doesn't _have_ a VM; its compiler produces native code. So there's no way to produce something that's strictly comparable. You could write a preprocessor that translates an entirely new syntax into Go, but that wouldn't be Go's Elixir, it would be Go's CoffeeScript. ~~~ richjdsmith > Go's CoffeeScript As someone terrified of lower level languages (I'm a somewhat JR dev, used to working with fun things like Python, Ruby, Elixir and JS) this would kind of be really nice. Mostly maps. ~~~ pmontra There are some languages that transpile to Go: Have: [http://havelang.org/](http://havelang.org/) with generics Godzilla: [https://github.com/jingweno/godzilla](https://github.com/jingweno/godzilla) ES2015 to Go I didn't try any of them, nor Go itself. ------ gabrielc good news, elixir is a such a joy to use. ------ sioa Sorry for asking here, but if I wanted to learn Elixir, do I need to know Erlang? ~~~ rehemiau No. You can start learning elixir and you'll learn about how the BEAM works on the way. You'll also eventually learn about Erlang/OTP libraries and probably that's when you'll start reading basic erlang code but that should come (mostly) naturally. I included some tips in another comment here. ~~~ sioa Ah thanks. ------ simooooo Is this code formatter roughly equivalent to format document in c#/VS?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Would you give $5 to a wikibook project about github? - techbio I would, for one. ====== techbio <http://www.wikibooks.org/> <http://www.github.com/> EDIT: ok, <http://progit.org/book/index.html> As the more general question: How does a unified docs project sit with the open source community? ------ pjhyett Could you clarify what you mean? You'd like to write a book about GitHub? ~~~ techbio Sorry for the delay, and no I am not soliciting. I mean I would like to read one, preferably a really good workflow/usage introduction and let's say adequate detail to reproduce all components/processes of an example application. Who would offer some donation or commit to contributing to great documentation projects? What are some great OS documentation projects? I am getting tired of too many decentralized, semi-contemporary search results while trying to learn new tools.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
React 16: A look inside an API-compatible rewrite of our front end UI library - darwhy https://code.facebook.com/posts/1716776591680069/react-16-a-look-inside-an-api-compatible-rewrite-of-our-frontend-ui-library/?utm_source=codedot_rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS+Feed ====== kendallpark > With today's release of React 16, we've completely rewritten the internals > of React while keeping the public API essentially unchanged. After the Angular 1-to-2 letdown, this is a refreshing commitment to keeping a stable API. ------ wheresvic1 This is a really cool engineering article on how they managed the migration of React 16 rewrite. It illustrates the use of \- feature toggles to reduce merge conflicts \- TDD for api coverage \- regression logging for faster feedback loop \- coverage chart for motivation \- staggered rollout and A/B testing with an eye on product metrics for migration issues Thanks for sharing!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
HEIST: HTTP Encrypted Information Can Be Stolen Through TCP-Windows [pdf] - jerf https://tom.vg/papers/heist_blackhat2016.pdf ====== niftich The techniques are interesting and clever, but isn't this "attack" only possible on websites that fail to properly protect against unapproved cross- origin requests, meaning they would be vulnerable anyway? I re-read the specs to make sure [1] but isn't it on the server to alter the response to potentially nothing if the cross-origin response didn't come from source the server expects? The paper says: "Similar to the defense of blocking 3rd-party cookies, the web server could also block requests that are not legitimate. A popular way of doing this, is by analysing the Origin and/or Referer request headers. However, it is still possible to make requests without these two headers, preventing the web server to determine where to request originated from. As a result, this technique can not be used to prevent attacks" On the contrary; the cross-origin access control spec (last edit in 2014) has an entire section on how to prevent malicious cross-origin requests like this, with verbiage like: "This extension enables server-side applications to enforce limitations (e.g. returning nothing) on the cross-origin requests that they are willing to service." If the server properly implements cross-origin access control by, say, returning nothing, the malicious cross-origin requesting script can't perform reflection attacks, and there's nothing interesting to measure with TCP windows and compression and the like. [1] [https://www.w3.org/TR/access-control/](https://www.w3.org/TR/access- control/) ~~~ pfg The thing is: this attack doesn't even use CORS. It just sends a GET request to an URL and looks at the timing, which can be done using the fetch/Resource Timing APIs. Here's a JSFiddle to play around with this[1], based on the code in the paper, using GitHub's account page as an example. You'll notice that the request succeeds and the fiddle has access to timing information. Inspecting the requests will show that there are no CORS headers being sent (like Origin) based on which the target could prevent the request from being served. (There's the Referer header, I suppose, but blocking the request based on that would break pretty much any third-party link to that page.) I've tested this against various high-profile sites that include sensitive information (Google's account page, Twitter's account page, etc.), and it worked just fine on each of them. Most of them also have a parameter reflection vector (typically the full request URL is included somewhere on the page, which should be enough), so I'm pretty sure each of those sites are potentially vulnerable (though I'm not sure if calling a _site_ vulnerable is the right approach here). [1]: [https://jsfiddle.net/39rsn2kg/](https://jsfiddle.net/39rsn2kg/) ~~~ nine_k Would inclusion of a small random timeout before serving the request solve this? Would not the load balancer activity cancel the effect? If anything, adding random garbage to the error page to approximately match the size of a normal response should make the attack useless. ~~~ pfg Typical (WAN) network conditions are not all that different from a small random timeout, and these kind of attacks still work. Adding random noise just means you'll need more samples, but statistics are going to win eventually. I guess a combination of random noise and tight request rate limiting might mitigate this in practice (in exchange for a DoS vector, I suppose). ------ Grom_PE Ah, third-party cookies, the bad idea to begin with, is causing problems again. Hopefully this will force browser vendors to disable that misfeature by default. ~~~ lossolo You mean those vendors that make money using third party cookies to track users? ~~~ Grom_PE Sure. Those who haven't modernized their money-making technologies yet should stop relying on this security hole. There are alternatives. ~~~ lossolo If this would be so simple you would not see flash anywhere in the web for years already. Unfortunately it's not the case. ~~~ beedogs I haven't seen flash on the web in years, because I've uninstalled it. Good riddance to bad rubbish. ------ j_s _Surprisingly, we found that not only do our attacks remain possible, we can even increase the damaging effects of our attacks by abusing new features of HTTP /2._ Interesting! ~~~ rubiquity The paper goes on to describe why. The short version is a big part of HTTP/2's performance comes from header compression via the HPACK algorithm. Anything that compresses can be compromised if the attacker can inject data into the compressed output. This paper does a really nice job of concisely explaining BREACH and CRIME. ~~~ Animats There's a provision in RFC 7541 that applies here. There's a way to indicate that a header field must not be compressed. Security-critical header fields such as keys and nonces should not be compressed. The RFC notes: "Note that these criteria for deciding to use a never-indexed literal representation will evolve over time as new attacks are discovered." So the protocol has a feature for this. Everything that sends HTTP2 needs to update the list of fields not to compress, but that can be done by the sending end without any change to the receiving end. [1] [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7541#section-7.1.3](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7541#section-7.1.3) ~~~ cperciva _" Note that these criteria for deciding to use a never-indexed literal representation will evolve over time as new attacks are discovered."_ Or, in other words: "We know that this is insecure. Maybe someone will fix it later." ~~~ Animats True, but the HTTP/2 people were building a wrapper for data, not a security protocol. At least they put in a feature to suppress compression. Because of that, this can be fixed from one end; it's not necessary to deploy new browsers. ------ honkhonkpants Just the text, for those of you unwilling to open PDFs from security researchers: [http://pastebin.com/rG3RD6hw](http://pastebin.com/rG3RD6hw) ~~~ joshka A pdf probably isn't going to be able to run JavaScript in your browser (the primary mechanism that this attack utilizes. Pastebin on the other hand... ;) ~~~ pests Except some major browsers like Chrome do their entire PDF rendering in JavaScript. ~~~ JonathonW Chrome's PDF renderer is a PPAPI plugin written in C++. Firefox is the one with the Javascript-based PDF renderer. ~~~ pests Oops yes you are correct. My original point still applies though. ------ kyled This sounds very similar to the Time attack from 2013. [https://youtu.be/rTIpFfTp3-w](https://youtu.be/rTIpFfTp3-w) . I hope they got credited. They used a timing side channel attack to extract data from a response when compression was enabled and user data is reflected back in a response. This attack can be done inside the browser and abuses how data is segmented when sent over tcp. ~~~ bluesmoon The building blocks were described even earlier than that: [http://www.slideshare.net/bluesmoon/messing-with- javascript-...](http://www.slideshare.net/bluesmoon/messing-with-javascript- and-the-dom-to-measure-network-characteristics) And here: [http://www.lognormal.com/blog/2011/11/14/analysing- network-c...](http://www.lognormal.com/blog/2011/11/14/analysing-network- characteristics/) ~~~ niftich See also, another cross-site timing attack from 2007 (pdf): [http://crypto.stanford.edu/~dabo/pubs/papers/webtiming.pdf](http://crypto.stanford.edu/~dabo/pubs/papers/webtiming.pdf) ------ ComodoHacker A common way to mitigate side-channel attacks is to add random noise to the side channel. In this case the original side channel is timing of network requests. Thus we can randomize time of network packets arrival, simulating unstable network link and trading speed for security. This can be done in the browser, at OS level client-side or at the server side. It's strange this method isn't mentioned in the paper. Also I wonder if inherently varying latency of mobile and inhabited Wi-Fi networks can by itself prevent this type of attacks. _Edit: grammar._ ~~~ madgar Actually, timing attacks almost always rely on statistical methods in practice due to the inherent noise in relying on coarse timing data. So adding random noise very rarely helps at all other than increasing the amount of data required for the already-prepared statistical methods used in the attack. ------ userbinator _purely by running (malicious) JavaScript inside the victim 's browser_ I've said it many times and I'll say it again: keep JS off by default and enable it only for the few trusted sites that absolutely need it. Interestingly, the authors mention disabling 3rd-party cookies as a countermeasure, but not JS. ~~~ jakeogh Agreed. Surf makes that easy, CTRL-SHIFT-S to enable JS for the current page. It's downright annoying when I use another browser now. Ditching JS makes everything faster. [http://git.suckless.org/surf/log/?h=surf- webkit2](http://git.suckless.org/surf/log/?h=surf-webkit2) I have modded it a bit: [https://github.com/jakeogh/glide](https://github.com/jakeogh/glide) (not well tested) ~~~ Scarbutt Is there a chrome plugin for that? activate JS with a key binding and automatically refresh the page. ~~~ jakeogh Not sure. There's a FF plugin: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/yesscript/?sr...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/addon/yesscript/?src=api) and if you disable JS by default it's a quick way to enable it per domain. ------ majortennis almost perfectly acrostic	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Handwriting to LaTeX maths - yannis http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html?locale=default ====== gpakosz Hi folks, A small note on what we don't support _yet_ : no cube roots, no nth roots either square root's top line must be a single line (make it wide enough up front) no matrices no system of equations no corrections, no scratch out (use top left undo/redo arrows) leave enough space between integral/summation symbols and main expression for better accuracy LaTeX output pleases MathJax as much as possible (thank you guys for your lovely rendering library) Hope that helps, Thank you for trying it out. PS: MathML seems to get little attention, why is it so? _\--- LIST OF SUPPORTED SYMBOLS (encoded in UTF-8) ---_ Letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Digits 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Maths symbols € $ £ ¥ ₩ ¢ ( ) < > [ ] { } ! # % & ? @ / \ \| ∥ © ∂∅ ∇ ∞ ℂ ℕ ℚ ℝ ℤ + - ± × ÷ * ∘ · = ' , . : ; _ ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ↕ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ ⇐ ⇑ ⇒ ⇓ ⇔ ⇕ ∀ ∃ ∄ ∈ ∉ ∋ ∌ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊄ ⊅ ∼ ≃ ≠ ≡ ≢ ≤ ≥ ≪ ≫ ∝ ∠ ∏ ∑ ∫∮∧ √ Greek symbols Γ Δ Ω α β γ δ ε η θ λ ν π ρ σ τ φ χ ψ ω ϕ µ International convention units (with cursive support) km hm dam dm cm mm µm ha hl dal dl cl ml µl kg hg dag dg cg mg µg ms µs GHz MHz kHz Hz Other mathematical terms (with cursive support) sin cos tan sinh cosh tanh arcsin arccos arctan cot coth min max arg argmin argmax inf sup lim liminf limsup ln log dx dy dz dt ~~~ dwc > PS: MathML seems to get little attention, why is it so? MathML is hard to write and harder to read. The only time I pay any attention to MathML is when sites do not have TeX as an option. Others may feel differently, but this is my reason. ~~~ gpakosz I somewhat expected people would use it as an input to other math software ~~~ alexchamberlain I think enough people are used to using LaTeX that MathML was never going to catch on, as its too verbose. ------ kamens This is the piece we (Khan Academy) need to create a compelling math exercise experience on tablets. Playing around for a few minutes, this product seems to be way ahead of anything else out there. If you're the creator, should I go through the contact us stuff on your website, or is there a better way of discussing possibilities with you? (edited: @gpakosz contacted me on twitter) ~~~ profquail I saw another app like this (probably here on HN) a while back...it's an open- source Haskell project: <http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html> EDIT: GitHub sources: <https://github.com/kirel/detexify> <https://github.com/kirel/detexify-hs-backend> ~~~ apathy The version of Detexify for the iPhone is friggin' awesome. I remember once upon a time it was faster for me to write out an equation than to typeset it. Then I met detexify and Mathematica. Both are brilliant, one is free :-) ------ rubidium !FINALLY! I'm very happy with this. The recognition is much better than the other similar things I've tried. By my limited testing, it seems to be accounting for the image as a whole and not the order of strokes, so should work for uploads. A couple desired improvements: -Allow uploading of images -add an eraser/undo -some Greek/Hebrew letters (aleph, beth, xi... ) aren't being recognized despite my tries... they've very similar to X's, equivilant, and ='s. Beth really should work, but isn't. ~~~ pooriaazimi There is an 'undo' button at the top-left. Though sometimes it didn't register touches on my iPad. ~~~ rubidium ah, sure enough. I limit my suggestion to an eraser then. ~~~ MichaelJW Their Web Shape demo (<http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/shape.html?locale=default#>) lets you "scratch out" objects - perhaps they could implement that here? It's what I usually do when writing equations quickly, anyway. ------ ique This works surprisingly well! It even made my crappy writing into the correct markup. Great for when you have a big equation to "translate" to LaTeX quickly or to just look up a character you don't know the name of. I wish there was a function to upload an image or to capture an image via webcam or something like that. Then I could write it on paper and show it to the webcam and get the markup, or upload scans of notes to have them translated. ~~~ jessriedel > or to just look up a character you don't know the name of. There's Detexify for that: detexify.kirelabs.org/ ------ johno215 Very impressive! The only issue I've run into is it having trouble discerning lower-case and upper-case letters. Training with my own writing style should be able to correct this however. Is there a plan to offer this as a non-web-browser service? I would love to be able to write math out on paper, or a resistive screen tablet, and then import it into a LaTeX document. I am faster writing equations by hand than typing LaTeX (and definitely faster compared to using a WYSIWYG equation program). Edit: By the way, this is the perfect example of a problem I've always wished a start-up would come along and solve for me. ------ sachdevaprash <http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html> Found this ages back. It suggests options and not just one result. Works better. ~~~ lignuist Works only for single symbols, but not for complex formulas. ~~~ chalst They are different. Detexify is really useful, since it matches against a vry large symbol set, and is trained against a pretty large sample set. For symbol recognition, this app is pretty crude. It's still cool, but I struggle to think of a use case for it. It's too unreliable to be of use for scanning maths notes. ------ albertzeyer Seems to work very well. I wonder about the technics they use. I asked about exactly this a while ago here: [http://metaoptimize.com/qa/questions/2097/ocr-lib-for- math-f...](http://metaoptimize.com/qa/questions/2097/ocr-lib-for-math- formulas) The answers at that point were quite limited. The Tesseract OCR engine was just not made to recognize such structure. There are some other closed solutions, though. ------ drucken Impressive. It seems to work a lot better than Microsoft's Math Input Panel bundled with Windows 7! Though its not perfect: [http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg820/scaled.php?server=820&#...</a> ------ bdg This was interesting. I've recently been using latex to write math equations down but this might save me a lot of time (one I dig my drawing tablet out of the closet). I'd be _more_ interested in a write-up of how you made it more successful than previous attempts however, technologies used, etc. ------ ajuc It just works. I've thought it will sometimes work. And it just works. Brilliant. ------ jen_h So. Awesome. And it works on my phone -- very sweet. My only quibble is that I couldn't get it to hack me up a per mille (this was the #1 question I used to get working as LaTeX support for a journal publisher years back). ~~~ pooriaazimi I didn't know 'per mil' had a sign! 'Per mil' is one tenth of a percent(%), so 1% = 10‰. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_mil> ~~~ jen_h There's a package, wasysym, which gives you \permil, but I always just cheated with \%_o. Doesn't look very pretty, though. :) ------ fdej It did -\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\dfrac {\cos \left( \pi t+\beta \right) ^{2}} {e^{t^{2}}}dt=F\left( \beta \right) I'm impressed. ------ dfan That's pretty brilliant. I do wish I could edit the generated LaTeX in place to give it hints when it's gotten something slightly wrong. I wonder if it has any contextual smarts (e.g., sees a partial derivative sign in a numerator, knows it should "vote up" interpretations of the denominator that start with another partial derivative sign). ------ lignuist Awesome! I really hope, someone comes up with a pdf2tex tool, that handles formulas well. Edit: is even more fun on a tablet. ~~~ acharekar +1 This works amazingly well. Brilliant ! ------ keithpeter Just used this on an interactive whiteboard in front of a class for _basic_ algebra. Very nice indeed, well done sir. How about image save for the rendered formula? I could copy/paste straight into Word for a nice homework exercise. Basically education lower down the system could use this, not just University level. ------ euccastro Funny glitch: draw an alpha, get \alpha. Then draw a beta and gamma to the right, without touching or overlapping the alpha, and I get \propto \beta \gamma. I've found it shuns greek letters in general. I get an `x' from by best attepmts at \lambda. _Really_ impressive and useful, nonetheless. ------ jrockway I always dreamed of having a tablet that could do this when I was taking math in college. Where's the code? ------ arandomJohn Oh wow. This would make my iPad math game so much better. I already have handwriting, just no handwriting recognition... <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-battle/id476344792?mt=8> ------ impendia If you got this to the point where you could scan a document and have it spit out latex code for the whole thing, you would have... ... a huge success on your hand. EVERY mathematician I know, most certainly including myself, would use it constantly. I have pages and pages of disorganized handwritten notes. Since this is a forum for startup founders, put it this way: such a scanner would be of more use to mathematicians than, say, the sum total of Elsevier's output, and their latest financials show annual operating profit in the ten figures. FOSS would of course be even cooler (IMHO). But, food for thought... :) ~~~ SudarshanP They rely on analysing your strokes. So images cannot be used . ~~~ BHSPitMonkey This would be great, however, with one of those smart pen/pad combos that digitally transcribe whatever you're writing/drawing on paper. ------ muyuu Very nice. Always thought the stylus interface had a lot of upsides and this is yet another one. Looking forward to more devices supporting both fingers and stylus, like the Flyer or the Galaxy Note. ------ gjulianm Great! But it does not recognise matrixes. Matrixes are the hardest thing to write in LaTeX, it would be wonderful to write them by hand and then having the LaTeX code without problems. ~~~ gpakosz Indeed, we don't support matrices _yet_ but this is a feature we're currently adding, no eta though. ------ alexchamberlain I'd happily pay for an Android note taking app that integrated this. ~~~ backprojection I'd pay good money for it ------ cottonseed This is pretty cool, although it doesn't seem very efficient if you goal is to write TeX. It would be interesting see how well it works to OCR hand-written notes or old-timey typewritten (that is, typed on a typewriter) math manuscripts where the mathematical symbols written in afterwards by hand... ------ toppy I'm not sure who do you address with this application. That's how real math looks like: <https://nrich.maths.org/discus/messages/117730/117502.jpg> ------ ylem This is extremely cool! I could see using this to generate input for a paper-- but a mouse is not the best input device--I'll have to test this on a tablet later--but, even with a mouse, the results were impressive (no hbar yet?) ------ rafeed This is fantastic! It's actually more robust than I thought it was going to be. ------ kmfrk I just noticed that they even have a free app in the App Store: <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myscript-memo/id446368116>. ------ sbanach Try this (free) iPad app. Also contains a numerical solver: <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gridpaper/id385633188?mt=8> ------ deisner I had an idea for a mobile app where you'd take a photo of a legal pad full of handwritten text and equations, and the app would generate a latex document or a PDF. Maybe this is possible now? ------ gus_massa This is incredible good. But some formulas doesn't work (for example: $\sqrt[3]{2}$) and I can't find a feedback / suggests a better translation button. ------ drewda See also Enventra, works with Excel, Mathematica, and Maple: <http://www.enventra.com/> ------ shocks Fantastic work, very excited by this. A "learning" technique would be cool, if I could correct things and the system would learn over time. ------ mattbot5000 Was anyone able to get fractional exponents to work? I tried several different ways of writing it and had no success. ------ pusha Great work! Everyone else is thinking "this + wolfram alpha" == algebra / math analysis problem solver for ipad? ------ baltcode You guys have got to integrate this with teachontablo or something similar. That would be simply awesome. ------ jonnycowboy Is this 100% embedded in javascript? Is the code available un-obfuscated somewhere? thanks! ~~~ mathieuruellan No. The client requests a server (Jetty). The server uses our SDK with the Java version. ------ linuxlizard Amazing. So much fun, so useful. Will be using this in future homework assignments! ------ rdl This would have made university so much more fun. ------ sprash I did not manage to get $\xi$ working. ------ ylem Very Cool!!!!! ------ mohene1 Superwork! Hugs! ------ lurker14 Related: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=630233> "Windows 7 Ink Input and Math Handwriting Recognition" Nice to see a version on the web. Weird to the web cloning naive software on a few years delay.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Book a 1-on-1 call with a company insider - tbotnar https://www.studentment.com ====== tbotnar Hi there, a little background on Studentment: I started to think of Studentment when I was at the career fair in my school. I waited 30 minutes in line only to speak to a company employee for 30 seconds. How was I possibly going to make a connection in that time? Studentment allows students to book a guaranteed 30 minute phone call with company insiders. Upon booking, they set objectives for the call (pre- interview help, resume critique, etc.), which guide the call. Company insiders set their price and time availability beforehand.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Nobody will Train You but You \| webapplog - azat-co http://www.webapplog.com/nobody-will-train-you-but-you/ ====== vampirechicken You can find the original via railsconf. The video is of Zach Briggs. Webapplog is merely linkjacking the content to try to sell stuff.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How do I get a crowd sourced web app off the ground? - macinjosh I am working on a web app that in order to be useful requires that a critical mass of data be present. The application is crowd sourced so this data will come from my users and can only really come from them.<p>How do I get users to contribute to the app while this critical mass is being acquired? ====== kevinelliott I don't know the specifics of your product (or anything about it at all really), but it may be possible if you primed your database with data you've gathered yourself. Depending on the content, you may be able to spend 20 hours, 40 hours, or hundreds to thousands of hours to develop a base layer of data that will be enough to attract a userbase to "do the rest." Chances are, for most people, this will not work for you, but it is an option, and has worked for others in the past. It's risky though, because if you spend hundreds of hours priming the data and then no one comes, you've wasted a lot of man hours. For some products, there is no other way. ------ michael_dorfman What you are describing is known as the "chicken-and-egg problem", and if you search HN on that phrase, you'll find a lot of previous discussions and advice. The short version is that you will probably have to resort to non-scalable means of priming the pump-- basically, identifying a subset of users you can persuade (financially, if necessary) to produce enough seed content to get the ball rolling.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Picka – Fuzzy File Finder for OS X, Bash and Zsh - byronl https://getpicka.com ====== jawngee I downloaded the trial and gave it a spin. The indexing is super fast, even when I had it index a 4TB external drive. Nice. Can't move the input and it always shows on the second monitor, no matter what one I am working in. Not so sure about the fuzzy search. I searched for "tit" but it didn't prioritize where that clump of letters came in a word, ie I expected words that began with or contained only those letters to show up first. Instead, the top results where "Untitled". Pricing does seem a bit exorbitant. Alfred, which is sort of a competitor, costs about the same but seemingly does much much more. Fuzzy stuff is great, but Alfred and, even Spotlight, do a lot more things than search. Command line stuff looks cool though! ------ sgtpep Speaking of the open-source alternatives: [https://github.com/sgtpep/pmenu#alternatives](https://github.com/sgtpep/pmenu#alternatives). The pmenu ([https://github.com/sgtpep/pmenu](https://github.com/sgtpep/pmenu)) is an alternative, too. ------ oneeyedpigeon Requires Yosemite, seriously? Why does so much OSX software have an apparently unnecessary requirement on the very latest revision or two? ~~~ nicky0 There are compelling reasons for developers to require the latest OS versions; especially for access to the newest APIs. As a developer myself I'd be interested in your opinion of what's a reasonable minimum requirement, and why. 10.6? 10.9? I assume you do not expect devs to support all the way back to 10.0. ~~~ oneeyedpigeon I think there are a lot of factors that go into what makes a 'reasonable minimum requirement', and since I'm not an OSX developer, I'm not as well placed as you are to judge all of them. However, as a user, I would certainly want the following to be considered: * Install base. Judging by this [1] and some very rough back-of-the-envelope calculations, 10.6 has ~7% of the OSX share, and 10.9 has ~13%. To exclude at least 20% of your market seems unreasonable, to me. It certainly seems unwise if you're in the business of selling a product. Although that's obviously not the whole story; that 20% almost certainly represents less-than-average potential value. * Nature of the product. Of course, an app that absolutely must use a feature of El Capitan will have to set the requirement there. What on earth is there about a file finder that requires Yosemite, though? This is where your expertise as an app developer can add some value to my opinion: can you guess what APIs we're talking about here, and isn't it possible to program in a backwards-compatible way to avoid them if they're not available? In fact, if we were talking about the web, it would be bordering on unforgivable to fix on a specific release of a specific browser because it supports a specific feature. The Right Way (TM) to do it would be to feature-sniff and act accordingly, not reject use of the application altogether. Isn't that possible in the world of OSX development? [1] [https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market- share...](https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market- share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0&qpsp=201&qpnp=2&qptimeframe=M) ------ thealistra 30€? Really? For a file finding spotlight thingy? ~~~ nicky0 What would you say it's worth? ------ nicky0 Just tried this. Really like it, Superficially, this is a lot like Spotlight, Alfred, LaunchBar etc. However this is laser focused on one thing - finding files. It is very fast. I like how it displays the full file path and not just the file name. The shell aspect ("pi cd" etc.) is brilliant. The search results are incredibly fast. ------ ViViDboarder A Multi-platform terminal alternative is fzf. [https://github.com/junegunn/fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) I don't think it caches though. ------ threesixandnine Get picka. If only you knew what it means in Serbian language. Although it's not exactly picka but pička.... [https://translate.google.com/#sr/en/pi%C4%8Dka](https://translate.google.com/#sr/en/pi%C4%8Dka) ~~~ MatekCopatek Yup, pretty much goes for the entire ex Yugoslavia. Someone passed the link and I thought it's some kind of local dating site.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Growing Up Sexually in Europe - gwern http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HISTORYCHHS.HTM ====== infogulch For me, this redirects to: [http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HISTORYCHHS.HTM](http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HISTORYCHHS.HTM) Which is blocked at my workplace. So, possible NSFW? ~~~ saganus Same here. Anyone has any idea what this article is about? ~~~ unclenoriega Looks like some sort of encyclopedia-style article about the history of child and adolescent sexuality in Europe. I'm not sure why it's here. The citation: Janssen, D. F. (Oct., 2002). Growing Up Sexually. Volume I: World Reference Atlas. Interim report. Amsterdam, The Netherlands ~~~ gpvos It's just one chapter/section of a larger work. Not at all sure why it's here. ~~~ gwern What I found interesting is how different it is from the idealized picture of a chaste moral past a lot of people would like to believe in, and how different societies can treat the process of sexualization.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Speak Human - karjaluoto http://www.youtube.com/speakhumanbook ====== huhtenberg Yeah, Buckley's... riiight. Good ads, but they feel forced. As if someone in the marketing dept. said "let's not add any sweeteners, let them have Paracetamol (or what have you) as is and then build whole marketing pitch around its awful taste". Pretty much like someone trying to mass market a car without an A/C. Brilliant marketing plan, it gets noticed, everyone is going like "WTF ... what am I missing here?", but in the end when someone chooses between a handful of products, the awful tasting one won't be in the first place. I know that I personally never bought Buckley's and not likely to. ~~~ karjaluoto I don't entirely disagree with you. I'm not quick to reach for Buckley's (which is of course the point of the marketing), but my suspicion is that a lot of people do. Additionally, many people talk about them, which is a harder thing to achieve than most believe. The thing that I think we have to take away from Buckley's marketing is that without that approach, they'd have a bad tasting cough medicine. Admitting that it tastes bad, on the other hand, leads us to ask, "how good does it have to be, in order for them to admit that?" On the other hand, there are dozens of other brands of cough medicine out there, and I'm hard pressed to remember the names (or stories behind) any of them. ~~~ huhtenberg > _there are dozens of other brands of cough medicine out there, and I'm hard > pressed to remember the names (or stories behind) any of them._ There's no need to remember that, they are all made from the same ingredients. Just pick the first cocktail that matches your symptoms, and that's it. ~~~ karjaluoto That's how we should make our choices, but (sadly) most of us aren't that clear headed when we buy. The purchases we make are informed by how certain brands resonate with us. You could argue me this point, but I'd only ask when you last ordered a cola that wasn't a Pepsi or a Coke. The fact is, brands are powerful. ------ karjaluoto Not so long ago (last November) I released my book Speak Human: Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal. In it I look at how small can be an advantage, and how small companies can market more effectively. So far the reviews have been really strong, and I've been receiving notes from readers saying that they've found it helpful. In an effort to introduce the book to a wider audience, I started creating these brief 2 minute videos, which discuss notions presented in the book. If you have a moment (or, preferably, 2) this might be worth a look. :-) ~~~ jellisjapan Are these 2 minute videos a way of marketing your book differently like you discuss in this particular video? (no sarcasm here, I'm generally curious on how you've been using this advice to market your own book :) ) ~~~ karjaluoto The videos are largely an experiment. Our blog (ideasonideas) gets a fair bit of traffic, but it's more centered around the design community. As such, we wanted to try another venue to present the ideas in the book. I've gone into more detail on the marketing of the book (if you're interested) in this post: [http://www.ideasonideas.com/2009/12/my-money-where-my- mouth-...](http://www.ideasonideas.com/2009/12/my-money-where-my-mouth-is). It's really a big test: put out a good product, share it, and explore what methods resonate (and adapt when things don't work). I suppose it's like "agile" marketing. ;-) Although the videos aren't wildly "different," I believe the message of the book largely is. In my opinion, many of the marketing texts and resources out there are big on promises but perhaps deliver more checklists than methods. This book is really more concentrated on looking at how small operations can really market themselves--and how things like social media can make that easier. I realize that I've typed a fair bit here, and I'm not sure if I've answered your question. Does the above make sense?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Christmas carol penned by an AI via “neural karaoke” - kibwen http://www.avclub.com/article/ais-attempt-write-christmas-carol-absolutely-bone--247140 ====== konart Is it GLaDOS?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Top Seattle-based Startups - s_reid9 http://blog.500miles.io/2016/02/11/top-seattle-based-startups/ ====== GFK_of_xmaspast I continue to be amazed that (a) Algorithmia is still around and (b) anybody takes them seriously.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
First US Exascale Supercomputer Now on Track for 2021 - jonbaer https://www.top500.org/news/first-us-exascale-supercomputer-now-on-track-for-2021/ ====== arcanus But who will build it? The article hints that Intel (KNL) and Nvidia(+IBM) are _not_ the front runners.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Abbott receives approval for test that can detect coronavirus in 5 minutes - smacktoward https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/abbott-receives-approval-for-test-that-can-detect-coronavirus-in-as-little-as-5-minutes.html ====== smacktoward Abbott's official statement is here: [https://abbott.mediaroom.com/2020-03-27-Abbott-Launches- Mole...](https://abbott.mediaroom.com/2020-03-27-Abbott-Launches-Molecular- Point-of-Care-Test-to-Detect-Novel-Coronavirus-in-as-Little-as-Five-Minutes) _> [T]he U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the fastest available molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), delivering positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes... The ID NOW platform is small, lightweight (6.6 pounds) and portable (the size of a small toaster), and uses molecular technology._	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ellen Pao’s Gender-Bias Odyssey Ends as Kleiner Drops Judgment $276k Legal Fees - irl_zebra http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-23/ellen-pao-s-gender-bias-odyssey-ends-as-kleiner-drops-judgment ====== tdylan Proud that the jury followed the evidence, and not the knee jerk mob justice. ------ soneca I couldn't understand the english. Can someone explain in plkain english please? My understanding: the firm paid Pao's lawyer bill and she droped her case. She did not take any more money to keep her freedom to speak publicly about the issue. Is that right? ~~~ probdist No. Pao lost. 1) Pao lost the case and as a result was found to owe (part) of KP's legal bills. 2) KP has filled something with the court indicating that they don't need enforcement of that any more. Indicating either Pao paid them, or they came to an agreement to not get paid in full in exchange for Pao not appealing or related things like agreeing to not discuss them further publicly. All the court filings really indicate is that KP considers the matter closed. ~~~ soneca Thanks, i got confused with the direction that the term "awarded" implied. ------ xacaxulu Pleasantly surprised that this bit of frivolity didn't swing towards the direction the PC mob would have liked. ------ trose I'm mildly frustrated that this will be seen as a win by the MRA's. Yes, there was not sufficient evidence to back Pao's claims but anyone that has worked in an office environment with women present can attest to the fact that women still are not in equal standing with their male peers. There is a lot of work to be done in our society. I would love to live in a world where gender becomes insignificant to the point that it isn't discussed. ~~~ exstudent2 > anyone that has worked in an office environment with women present can > attest to the fact that women still are not in equal standing with their > male peers. This is certainly not true. I've worked in many offices with women who were treated with respect, excelled at their role and were recognized as such. If you have problems in your workplace you should report them, not generalize them to everyone's workplace. ------ buhrmi back to normality. ------ alansmitheebk I give it about five minutes before The Guardian publishes an editorial entitled: "Ellen Pao lawsuit ends but will not slow fight for gender equality in Silicon Valley." ~~~ steve19 The Guardian is doing very well. Thier articles/journalists have a left world view and do not pretend they are neutral. I don't agree with a lot of their editorial opinions, but I can respect their strategy. It is refreshing compared to the NYT and other media organizations that pretend they are unbiased/neutral, while promoting some sort of specific world view. ~~~ alansmitheebk Their news coverage is pretty decent. I read it daily. But their opinion pieces are laughably stupid. Just this past summer they did a piece about how air conditioning is sexist. Every day Jessica Valenti writes something about the Pro Life movement and calls it the "Anti Choice" movement, which is a like Fox News calling banksters "Job Creators." Syreeta what's her face did a piece the other day about how film stock is racist (she apparently doesn't know how to set her camera aperture properly and blames it on film not being designed to capture black faces). It's a fucking joke. ~~~ a_bonobo > Just this past summer they did a piece about how air conditioning is sexist. I wondered about that article and had a look: [http://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2015/aug/04/new-c...](http://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2015/aug/04/new- cold-war-why-women-chilly-at-work-air-conditioning) If you read through the article, it's clearly a joke to them. >25C it is, then. Fine, as long as you’re aware that means more men wearing shorts in the office during summer. ~~~ alansmitheebk I agree that there was a bit of a tongue in cheek tone to the piece. For example, the title referenced the cold war. That being said, given the larger context of The Guardian's opinion pieces and their tendency towards feminist demagoguery, I read it as "I'm kidding!" (but I'm kind of serious, too.) There was also a mention of the higher temperature being better for the environment, which reinforced the "I'm only half joking" subtext for me.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
GB Designs Launch - grantburke http://gbdesigns.ca A new graphic design and illustration company has launched out of Toronto, Canada called GB Designs. The site features the artwork of Grant Burke, which is confined to three main categories: illustration, branding & identity, and print design. GB Designs offers creative design solutions that are high quality, and ready on-time. Head on over to gbdesigns.ca to see past work, client testimonials, and to get a quote for your job now! ====== ishansharma Nice design. You are doing a good job. Links in footer not working though!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
California’s ‘hydrogen highway’ never happened. Could 2020 change that? - fortran77 https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/01/why-california-hydrogen-cars-2020/ ====== catsareok I hope so. Numbskulls love blaming Obama for all kinds of ridiculous shit, but I was legitimately crushed when he killed off funding for hydrogen cars. Such an awesome technology for creating lightweight electric propulsion.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Cloud-based animated GIF generation - nadavs http://cloudinary.com/blog/cloud_based_animated_gif_generation ====== nadavs This blog post details a programmatic way to easily create image compositions, build image-based animations and generate animated GIFs. All image transformation, layering, effects and animation generation are done by Cloudinary in the cloud (no software installation required). Dynamic URLs and sample code included.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
YouTube’s mobile app will soon better display all video formats, add messaging - janober https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/23/youtubes-mobile-app-will-soon-better-display-all-video-formats-add-messaging ====== knight17 I want two features from the YouTube Android application: Firstly, the ability to increase the video playback speed, similar to one available on my desktop browser. Secondly, remove the annoying incidence of comment reply opening my soft keyboard every time I try to read a comment thread. ------ saurik OMFG, they are seriously launching yet another messaging service :/.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Supercharging Android Apps with TensorFlow (Google's Open Source ML Library) - jalammar https://jalammar.github.io/Supercharging-android-apps-using-tensorflow/ ====== yazin Great post Jihad! I like the original photo examples you share .. but also your outside-in approach (describing the different bits in a clear, but concise way). I've been doing the ML course on Coursera, and have been meaning to get my hands dirty with Tensorflow .. your breakdown sure helps! Yaay for first post .. Keep them coming! ~~~ jalammar Thanks, man! Glad to see you enjoyed it! I'm going through the course as well! The Python route is certainly the easiest to get your hands dirty with TensorFlow, I must say. ------ jalammar Hi HN. OP here. Long time lurker. My first tech blog post. I basically tried here to clarify the Android app example that was bundled with the TensorFlow repo. Hope someone finds it useful.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Leaving your job to go create something awesome - vlokshin http://blog.darwinapps.com/post/44264524021/10-observations-leaving-your-job-to-go-create ====== dredmorbius > If your team’s hourly rate is $150/hr, that’s what they’re worth. Don’t > skimp on them or on yourself. That $100 savings isn’t worth it if two team > members each waste 30 minutes (you’ve effectively lost 50$). That's a confounding of a couple of slightly misleading concepts. If your _billing_ rate is $150/hr, then that's what you should bill for. What you do in your non-billable hours is what _makes_ your billable rates what they are. It doesn't mean that you're earing your billable rate during non- billable hours, or that you should evaluate them on that basis. Rather, you should evaluate non-billable time on the basis of: does doing this increase my billable hours, my billable rate, or otherwise improve business (reduced cost of sales, reduced churn)? By way of a sports analogy, a team that can fill a 20,000 seat stadium at $50/seat for a 3 hour game, a net rate of $33,3333/hour, shouldn't evaluate its training and transport time on that basis. Rather, training and transport are what _gets_ you to that $33 grand an hour. Similarly, a $50 expense should be weighed on its marginal effect on productivity, _in light of alternatives_. If a $25 expense will return an $80 productivity gain, and a $50 expense nets $100, you're better off spending $25 (net gain of $55) than $50 (net gain of $50). Of course, in reality, costs and benefits are often much harder to measure, you're working off of partial and uncertain information. But at least get the underlying logic right. ~~~ vlokshin You're breaking apart a very minor detail. (most) People on hackernews can do this math, as can I. Ironically enough, I had a much longer write-up for that section, and deleted an entire paragraph. An audience / readers are fickle, if you want attention -- you need to take out what doesn't really matter. But technically: you're right, you're right. Sorry to have offended you... ~~~ dredmorbius It's not so much that these are minor details, but I see fallacious / erroneous logic used to justify various actions. Most often, it's actively discouraging collaboration / close working by employees on the basis that they're wasting one another's time and/or that two people working on the same problem is not cost effective, regardless of the fact that they are electing to work in this way, and that productivity is higher (combined) than were they working independently. Yes, you can make the argument that excessive long meetings are cost sinks (but they're likely much more effective than passing information to people one at a time). The key is to keep meetings to the minimum required, to keep them on track and moving toward a goal, and to head off those who'll disrupt, hijack, or otherwise kill efficiency, as well as ensure that makers get their long-duration, uninterrupted time blocks when best suited to get their work done (probably the biggest negative of contemporary office life and design). As for the billing rate observation: that's not a math problem, strictly, it's a recognition of billable vs. nonbillable productive activities. No offense taken. ------ hakaaaaak This was a nice short read. However, I'd like to see something between this and The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Something that held out its hand, so that I could grab it that would lead me step by step to: 1\. Find out what in the hell I'm good at, love doing, and should be doing. Every book and website I read about this leads me to believe that I'm "creative". We'll that's great, but I don't know how to turn that into a business. I've read plenty of "you can do it" but there isn't a lot of "this is what you specifically should be doing because I know you- seriously". 2\. Help me get my ass off the couch with a plan. A plan that leads me the way a morbidly obese person could be inspired to start doing small exercises like barely sitting up, but eventually actually get in shape. Not just a book on getting a business plan together. If I wanted one of those, I could spit 20 feet and find one. I mean a plan step-by-step of what _I_ need to do to go from making X at company A to making X on my own, with a limited amount of time making x * 0.75 or x * 0.50. 3\. Tell me whether I really need an LLC or just business insurance. Tell me the laws for doing business in my state, in my country, with other states, with other countries. Do I need a VAT id? What is the difference between a quote and contract of work that I'd need to do business with the U.S. government vs. a small company in Germany vs. a small company in Australia? All of these details, but in a really friendly language. I know there are groups that support entrepreneurs and startups, but most of them don't support them to go international from day one, and they are more geared to evaluate and provide funding so VC's can invest and reap dividends. I have been approached by people around the world that want to pay me for my product or services, but can't because they can't tell me what I'm supposed to be doing. That's the kind of shit I want to know. I love reading these hopeful posts. But even the most informative don't touch the surface, and the ones that go too far into depth miss the practical stuff. I know it isn't easy. It sounds like I want everything wrapped in a golden ribbon. Well, I'm getting paid pretty well full-time and though I've always wanted to take the jump, spending years reading about others that have done what I want to do (kind of- if I knew exactly what it was), has gotten me nowhere. Magical information and assistance like this just doesn't seem to exist. ~~~ vlokshin "Magical information and assistance like this just doesn't seem to exist." Agreed, but that's why the majority of the world ends up living life as a cog. None of this shit is easy, and no one is going to handhold you through the process. If that's your expectation, you're simply not cut out for this. But... you did mention a Steve Blank book, which makes me think all hope is not lost :) I'd recommend: 1\. Read "The startup owners manual" by Steve Blank, or at least skim the parts that seem interesting to you 2\. Learn to follow the pomodoro technique religiously. This changed my "get shit done" ability dramatically -- sounds like that may be a hump you're having some trouble getting over. In detail to 2, the thing I love most about the pomodoro technique is that it forces you to break down a task to <25 mins. Let's take one of your points: "3. Tell me whether I really need an LLC or just business insurance. Tell me the laws for doing business in my state, in my country, with other states, with other countries. Do I need a VAT id? What is the difference between a quote and contract of work that I'd need to do business with the U.S. government vs. a small company in Germany vs. a small company in Australia? All of these details, but in a really friendly language." You're never going to figure that out on your own if that's the approach. That's a BIG, complicated question with a lot of factors to consider. Either you have the money to pay someone to figure it out for you, or break down something you can actually go do your research about. Assume, test, analyze, grind, repeat. ~~~ Volpe I like your response and tone. And the article. But: > Agreed, but that's why the majority of the world ends up living life as a > cog. This to me, amounts to: You are a failure (cog) if you don't do your own thing and "follow your dreams". I don't agree with anything in that statement. I would ask readers to really think about why "following dreams" is important. Is it related to happiness? What if skills and dreams are completely out of reach from each other? Is it really just going to set someone up for failure/depression etc. As I say, I like the sentiment, but feel there is little analysis to the thought. ~~~ hakaaaaak > What if skills and dreams are completely out of reach from each other? That is right on. Every time I list the things that are important to me that I love and/or would love to do they don't match up with my skills or they won't make me any money, with the exception of the generic "start your own business", so I'm doing what I don't really like all that much to be able to have a business, which I do love. It probably isn't a terribly great idea. But, I'm excited. ------ MicahWedemeyer I think it's a mistake to classify people who don't do this as "cogs." As a self-employed entrepreneur myself, I actually envy happy "cogs." I think they tend to lead much more balanced lives. They have work and a life. Most entrepreneurs I know can't separate their work from their life. If the statement, "I love my job" makes sense to you, then you should _never_ quit your job to start your own company. It's usually a terrible financial decision and it involves a ton of instability. The main reason to do it is because you look at your life as an employee and just can't see yourself ever being happy. ~~~ vlokshin You're completely right. From the comments/feedback, sounds like I generalized here a bit. I 100% believe in doing what you're passionate about / what you love. If that means contributing to a team of 1000, or a team of 1, so be it -- the "cog" is simply someone who isn't doing what they want to be doing, or isn't taking the steps to get there. ------ danhodgins It's all out there. The books, knowledge, people and process for entrepreneurship are there for the taking. Your job is to collect and synthesize knowledge from books, mentors, fans, customers and peers to find your unique formula for success. I can't tell you what your formula for success is - no one can. We don't know your strengths, weakenesses or whether you have come from an immediate or extended family with one or more entrepreneurs - a major factor in predicting business success. I will say one thing though. I don't know many entrepreneurs, whether business or technology oriented, who are abysmal marketers. The best technology-focused entrepreneurs are also, at the very least, average to above-average marketers. They got that way due to instinct, study, mentors, or all 3. Study and learn to love marketing and design. If you can combine those two things with strong technical acumen you'll be able to literally bring your dreams to life. The more of a curious renaissance man and generalist you can be the better, because you'll be able to dive in and do whatever it takes at any given time to drive your business, brand and product(s) forward - whether it's coding, design, marketing, networking, producing and syndicating content or optimizing conversions on a landing page. Sure, create something awesome. But don't pretend that your awesome thing is 100% of the equation. Your awesome product idea is 10% of success. The other 90% is selling and hustle. ------ paulgb > Deals you expect to close will fall through. Don’t let your business ride on > any one client or project — no one owes you anything until a contract is > signed. That being said, deals you don’t expect to happen will happen. This is gold. ------ known "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw ------ shurcooL Already doing that, thanks. I agree. ------ benched I did this. It was scary because I was leaving a very well-paying job, but I was so excited for all the possibilities. In a year, I produced tons of awesome code, that did what it was written to do. But the product itself floundered, and never took a shape that I could believe in. I even tried hiring others to give it a fresh take, but that didn't work. In the meantime, it sped the end of a relationship. She seemed as obsessed with her own goals of starting a family as I was with my goals of starting a company. There was little middle ground. My bank account ran dry sooner than expected. I didn't find quite enough freelance work to stay afloat. Finally, faced with a rapidly shrinking runway, the prospect of 1.5 years intense coding work amounting to nothing but uninspiring demos, and nobody else but me invested, I imploded. Meltdown. I was grasping at every straw, but it was all just that. Straw. The SO was gone. The money was gone. I'd taken the initiative to start interviewing, but nothing was connecting up. This led to one of the darkest depressions of my life. Things are only just starting to look up now, as I've finally had a job offer with a company that I'm truly excited to work at. And the work that I did while independent played a big part in landing the job. I can't say whether it was 'worth it' - only that this is how it happened, and I'm very grateful that it did. I feel it did not have to be so miserably hard. So, I suggest having even more cushion than you think you need. Keeping your relationships with colleagues warm. Pursuing other plans, contracts, or job prospects while you work on your idea. If you do not already have very supportive family and friends around who believe in what you're doing, ask yourself if you have the personality to really believe in yourself that much. Anything so it does not have to be like "I must succeed at this or life is over." ~~~ vlokshin Sorry to hear, and hopefully this doesn't deter you from trying again (if that's what you want to do). Sounds like it'll be a lot easier next time around from what you learned, and landing the job you have now was made possible by the same learnings.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Do you always FULLY understand the code you are working with? - DrinkWater I wonder if other devs have the same problem as me: i am extremely uncomfortable doing work on code i dont FULLY understand and grasp. Mostly this is due to lack of time, something needs to be fixed urgently, something needs to be extended, etc. I can still get my work done, but as i said, i feel not very good about it (simply put: i hate it).<p>Is this just me or are other devs experiencing the same? ====== daven11 Wait till you go back to your own code in 1,2,5 years and think who wrote this rubbish - only to look it up and find out it was you :-) ~~~ ragatskynet Hahhha... some days ago I checked one of my old PHP codes (I was not aware it was written by me) - I was swearing much.. then I saw my name in a comment on the top and then.. I sweared more :-) My style is transforming from year to year to a better one (I hope), so sometimes I cannot recognize my old ones. ------ swalsh No one does, that's why we write unit tests. You'll eventually not remember you own code, and you can basically ensure the next guy to come along won't fully understand your code either. If you have good coverage, its like having a safety net to fall on allowing you to take large leaps. ------ scorpioxy You're not alone. But you're also missing an important point. You often use libraries without fully understanding their code, don't you? You have to. You usually don't have the time or luxury to dig in and understand everything when you have a specific task to complete. Unless you're refactoring some old code where you try and make sure that you understand everything relevant to that codebase. Or you can just wait until it breaks... Things like automated testing and proper documentation try to help in this regard, but they're useless if they're not kept up-to-date with the code and they have their own set of problems. ------ andridk Recently got hired at a new place and I defiantly am having the same problem. There are two major hurdles: Domain knowledge and code-complexity. Then trying to dive into the countless layers of logic in the code itself. With a large codebase, it's impossible to understand everything. So the only thing we can do is to gradually learn how it works. Sticking with it will make you valuable to the company in time. Moving on will free your mind to do other things. ~~~ jlengrand Same here. A thing that helped me a lot was to try to divide code parts into boxes, and understand one piece after the other. Even after a year and a half, there are plenty of pieces I can't get. But it gets easier once you can find the main articulations. ------ onlyup I have found that you need to learn to trust other developers work. Even if you are going into their code to fix a bug.. you have to trust the rest of it works! ------ chris_dcosta I think the important thing is not to understand all the code, but to know where you are and why you are there.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Wanted: Male teachers in U.S. schools - akg_67 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/22/male-teacher-shortage-affects-boys-who-need-role-models/103585138/ ====== lovich This article ignored the fact that male teachers are discriminated against by many parents. Simple behaviors that female teachers can do without any batting an eye, like being hugged by a pupil, can result in fear, or accusations of pedophilia when a male teacher does it.[1] A single accusation can be career ending[2] When you couple this with the average pay it's a high risk job with no commesurate reward so of course you're going to find less men going into the field [1][http://abcnews.go.com/Health/men-teach-elementary- school/sto...](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/men-teach-elementary- school/story?id=18784172) [2][https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fairfax- teacher-sean-la...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fairfax-teacher-sean- lanigan-still-suffering-from-false-molestation- allegations/2011/03/04/AFVwhh3G_story.html) ~~~ jrnichols and such accusations are easy to level and can/have been used as leverage by unscrupulous students. men have become easy targets in education. [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/30/one-in- fiv...](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/30/one-in-five-school- staff-victims-of-false-claims-survey-shows) [https://www.nwpe.org/index.php/legal/false- accusations](https://www.nwpe.org/index.php/legal/false-accusations) ------ brianwawok > While pay can vary greatly by location, according to the most recent > statistics from PayScale, a crowd-sourced database, the median salary for an > elementary school teacher is $43,737. And that is the end of the story. Most men HAVE to provide for the family. A reasonably intelligent man can make much much more money in another field. So he would be silly to be a teacher for anything other than raw passion. For a job there are many thousands of openings, I am not sure you are going to fill them all with passion... So what do we do, double the pay of teachers? Most school districts walk a very fine budget line. Some like Chicago are a mess. Some in smaller towns have to pick which of the three leaky roofs in the district they can afford to repair that year. So not seeing any reasonable path out of this.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
SHOW HN: Listered.com lists of user-defined objects. Share, sort, follow - cstefanovici http://www.listered.com ====== cstefanovici Listered lets you define a thing that you would like to make a list of and add items to that list. People who are interested in what you are listing can follow one or more of your lists. You could list anything from movies, favorite baseball players, motorcycles, articles, works of art... you define the object and its properties. Lists can then also be sorted according to any of the object's properties. What do you think? ~~~ cstefanovici View some examples: Articles <http://www.listered.com/view/cat/Articles> Apps <http://www.listered.com/view/cat/Apps> CD Covers <http://www.listered.com/view/rony/CDs/> ------ JonLim Interesting idea, a few thoughts: \- No social integration to sign up? \- No clickable links for things you add to the lists (Like Apps? But Articles seems to have it.) \- Why would people use this over publicly available blog posts that collect all of this information in the first place? Just some questions I had in my mind as I was looking through this, would love to hear the reasoning.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Setup for JavaScript desktop app - fsloth It's nearly mid 2015 and Javascript is steaming ahead. What setup (platform/library combo) would you use to develop a desktop-friendly Javascript application that facilitates composability over convention (i.e. easy to add own widgets without getting lost in some large object and configuration hierarchy) without any need to be backwards compatible? "Desktop friendly" in this instance refers to running in a node-webkit environment or comparable setup.<p>I'm quite lost in the jungle of options and looking for anecdotal evidence of technical quality and long term (ahem) project maintainability. Perhaps most of all I'm looking for some best practice no-nonsense conventions that help to maintain a Javascript product alive. It's a bit difficult for a software engineer with lots of desktop but only little web experience to figure out what is actually important and valuable software engineering wise.<p>I don't mind writing my own widgets etc. but I would love to know how to maximize the platform interface I can cover with as little work as possible. If there is some weird combo you've found usefull I would love to hear about it as well. Erlang server serving a desktop gui to an embedded HTML5 renderer? If it works, tell me about it! I don't mind heterogenous language environments just as long as the individual components are supported on the Win/Linux/OsX desktop trio.<p>Edit: Fix typos. ====== coppolaemilio Try electron [http://electron.atom.io/](http://electron.atom.io/) [https://github.com/atom/electron](https://github.com/atom/electron)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How Google Glass Will Change Porn - sakuraa http://www.technewsdaily.com/17654-google-glass-change-porn.html ====== dizzystar I really want to like the concept of Glass, but I can't shake the idea that it is pointing in the wrong direction. First Utopia and now Utopian Porn. There are so many things that are revolutionary that we can talk about that Glass will allow. Imagine: There is an emergency operation. Patient is laying at the table and the surgeon could really use a specialist's help pronto. What better views can we imagine than the actual eyes of the surgeon? (Saving Lives) There is so much more, but as teaching aid, crime witness aid for police, and so many other non-big-brother things could be done with it that pushes our world into a much better place. ~~~ ryanhuff I find your examples "crime witness aid for police" and then "other non-big- brother things" a bit chilling. ~~~ yk "crime witness aid for police" would probably be beneficial by itself, _if_ it is possible to limit the privacy and surveillance concerns. So essentially the situation, where a witness starts to film a crime and then gives this video to the police. Or the police could be required to document everything they do (by taking a full video of each shift). On the other hand, the surveillance potential is of course scary. And once Google glass is out, I really do not know how to limit the impact. ~~~ r00fus > Or the police could be required to document everything they do (by taking a > full video of each shift). These tools already exist, and do great - except when they don't. Strangely, they tend to "not work" exactly when the officer is suspected/accused of overstepping the bounds of their authority or the law. The classic example is the 18 minute silence on the Nixon tapes [1]. [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_White_House_tapes> ------ igul222 Common misconception: Google Glass does _not_ augment your entire field of view, as this article implies. It only occupies the top right corner of it, and looking there for more than a few seconds at a time hurts your eyes. So no, Glass isn't going to change porn like this at all. ~~~ phenol Maybe not viewing, but the article also talks quite a bit about filming, in which Glass has a concrete advantage. ~~~ mxxx advantage over what? a GoPro? in terms of Glass as a tiny camera, that technology already exists and has for a long time. ------ thibaut_barrere Suddenly this reminds me of "Strange Days", the movie (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yaXPx6xWEQ>). ------ pshin45 Whether the Oculus Rift or Google Glass will change porn more is anybody's guess, but I think we can all agree that this is terrible news for the sex robot industry. [1] If you own shares in any sex robot manufacturers, you'd be wise to short/sell them immediately. [1] [http://www.ibtimes.com/sex-robots-meet-roxxxy-robot-comes- sk...](http://www.ibtimes.com/sex-robots-meet-roxxxy-robot-comes-skank-mode- nsfw-video-439870) ~~~ jacquesm > If you own shares in any sex robot manufacturers, you'd be wise to > short/sell them immediately. Qualified investment advice on an internet forum, great, wait right here while I put my pension on the line to follow your directions. ------ DigitalSea I get they're hinting at using Google Glass for filming porn, but lets face it, no pair of glasses will ever produce high definition video as good as an actual camera. Maybe for amateur porn, but I'm sure amateur porn is probably being shot on mobile phones at the moment anyway. I'd take a Canon 7D for filming video over any pair of glasses any day of the week. Would a pair of glasses like Google Glass even have the capability to shoot long duration high definition video? Battery life, bandwidth and storage would be massive issues to overcome, you've seen what HD recording does to a mobile phone battery. Google Glass will change how we access content on the go. The ability to look at a sign in another language and have it translated into your native language, now that's the kind of change I could get behind. The one thing I worry about advances like Google Glass changing is child pornography. I believe devices like Google Glass will make it easier for creeps to secretly film children in shopping centres and parks, the beach or wherever. As someone who is planning on having children soon, that thought scares me. ~~~ roel_v "no pair of glasses will ever produce high definition video as good as an actual camera" If there is one thing the last 20 years should have taught us, it's that people who say 'x will never be as good as y' are, in the medium to long term, almost always fabulously wrong. ~~~ anigbrowl Not true. I can think of many cases where they're wrong, but I can also think of many where they're right. With cameras and suchlike you're running limitations of physics, as far as image acquisition is concerned; the other issue is that there's a huge body of knowledge on how to move a camera properly, whereas a head-mounted camera is kind of painful to watch because you don't have the kinetic cues to go with it, and every little twitch or movement of the head becomes a distraction for the viewer who has to filter out the irrelevant movements in their visual cortex. Look at all those videos on youtube where people don't know how to hold a camcorder and it is just waving all over the place even when they're aiming it at a static object in front of them. The musical instrument world is abuzz with new analog synthesizers right now, because over the last couple of years several major manufacturers have just gone back to manufacturing it because SMT and FPGA/FPAAs have made it affordable to do so again. They're still making DSP synths because DSP still offers many advaantages (not as noisy, fewer limits on polyphony, vastly cheaper at scale), but analog synths are huge again because they simply sound more interesting to most musicians than their digital equivalents. I'm about to sell one of my DSP boxes for this very reason, in fact. ------ treeface I think the Oculus Rift is going to change porn more than Google Glass. ------ JDDunn9 Sadly, this is probably the best use-case-scenario yet for Google glass. On a sidenote, the porn industry originally chose HD-DVD, not Blu-ray. ------ alex_doom What's good for porno is good for business.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google Instant Coming Natively To Browsers “In The Next Few Months” - Shakattack http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/08/google-instant-chrome/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch) ====== Shakattack This is what I actually want...think many people don't actually visit Google.com anymore. Unless there's a fun/creative doodle.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Computer Sales in Free Fall - Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% - cs702 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324695104578414973888155516.html ====== jstanley This counts as free fall? Somebody show these guys bitcoin.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The New York Times Introduces a Web Site (1996) - nishantmodak http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/22/business/the-new-york-times-introduces-a-web-site.html ====== bradgessler From the way back machine [http://web.archive.org/web/19961112181513/http://www.nytimes...](http://web.archive.org/web/19961112181513/http://www.nytimes.com/) Wow... sweet gif! ~~~ nishantmodak and the headline reading 'Europe Betting on _Self-Regulation_ to control the internet' ------ gphil 1996 was quite a while ago if you think about it. 14 years is a long time. ~~~ jsomers I don't know why, but I always seem to count backward from 2000, so that I end up thinking of 1996 as being roughly four years ago. Gets me every time. ~~~ kingkilr I'm not the only one! I feel better knowing there's at least one person out there as crazy as I am :) ------ AlexRodriguez From a recent New Yorker article: "Newspaper companies are losing advertisers, readers, market value, and, in some cases, their sense of mission at a pace that would have been barely imaginable just four years ago." Read more: [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman#ixzz0jtn6LyhE) ------ PanMan And, the IMHO brilliant spoof by Techcrunch: <http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/01/new-york-times-ipad/> 14 years later, and it doesn't seem too strange.. ------ benologist It's not possible for the NYTimes to have been on the web longer than all the people saying they don't get the web! ------ afterburner > Subscribers will have limited access to archives of Times articles and > features dating to 1980, and will be able to copy articles to their own > computers for $1.95 each, Mr. Nisenholtz said. I wonder how that worked out for them? Online in 1996, that seems pretty cutting edge to me... ------ JocoProductions "address: http:/www.nytimes.com" Aren't they missing a slash or am I missing something? ~~~ AlexRodriguez My guess is that the address appears that way in the original publication. The web was new then, and the other slash had not yet been deeply ingrained into the culture as it is now.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Flying at No Mechanical Energy Cost: The Secret of Wandering Albatrosses - nkurz http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0041449 ====== pg Could an aircraft do it? ~~~ marvin Wow, a chance to reply to pg! Yes, it could and has been done. Glider pilot Helmut Reichmann describes the technique for how to do this in a glider in his book, "Cross-Country Soaring". He has also performed the maneuver a couple of times. You have to be flying in an area where there is strong wind shear, which means a sharp difference in wind speed with altitude. You could detect such wind shear when climbing or descending through it, either with GPS or by watching the ground and seeing how much you drift in relation to it. Cloud movements are another option. You also need a very maneuverable and aerodynamically efficient plane, so you won't lose a lot of energy from the sharp banking maneuvers required. So assume that the wind speed increases sharply with altitude, maybe around 20 knots over 100 meters of altitude. You start out flying the same direction as the wind and then sharply dive 100-200 meters down into the space where the wind is weaker. This turns part of your altitude into kinetic energy, so your ground speed increases by about 100-150 kph. But due to the change in wind speed, your airspeed velocity has changed less than it would in dead air. So your total energy has increased. You can then make a sharp (>120 degree) turn in the direction you want to go, so you face partly into the wind again. You then sharply pull up, gaining about 100 meters of altitude and losing some of your velocity. The relative wind speed has increased with altitude, so your kinetic energy loss in relation to the air from pulling up is less than it would be in dead air. Overall, you have gained velocity, moved the aircraft and maintained your altitude "for free". This process can be repeated, and you can keep doing it (albeit with some nausea, unless you're used to these sharp maneuvers) as long as there is sufficient wind shear. It will be easier to move perpendicular to the wind direction than directly with or against the wind, but the energy (altitude, velocity) you gain from this maneuver could be used to glide in any direction. I don't want to make any grand claims that this technique can be used for anything practical (i.e. passenger transport). Glider pilots don't use it in competitions, because there are lots of techniques for moving around without an engine that are a lot better and easier to exploit. (You can gain altitude in thermals, ridge lift or mountain waves - and translated to horsepowers, a thermal carrying a 500kg glider upwards by 3m/s is a very powerful engine). But the technique is very cool as an intellectual curiosity. [http://www.cumulus- soaring.com/books/CrossCountrySoaring/Cro...](http://www.cumulus- soaring.com/books/CrossCountrySoaring/Cross-CountrySoaring.htm) [Edit: Actually, it's interesting that the authors mention possible applications for this to robotic aircraft. I'm sure you could make a robotic glider that used the meteorological principles that glider pilots use to move around without engines. The "Albatross" technique would only be a small part of this - glider pilots have extensively studied techniques for moving around without an engine, and there are lots of them. Glider pilots manage >100kph average velocities over >500km journeys on days with good weather, and robotic aircraft could in principle do the same]. ~~~ incomethax So it's essentially like sailing, except in a glider/aircraft. That's pretty cool. Are there any directions that you would essentially end up "in irons" like with sailing? ~~~ marvin There isn't a direct glider analogy to being "in irons" (you can always dive to gain airspeed, assuming you have any altitude to lose of course - not having any altitude would mean you are guaranteed to crash, since gliding is basically flying slightly downhill all the time). But there are plenty of ways to get in trouble when gliding, most notably flying into an area where there aren't any sources of lift. This means you can't gain any more altitude, and you'll gradually lose your remaining altitude and probably have to land in a field or something. ------ Gravityloss Wasn't this known already much earlier? There has been an RC glider community doing dynamic soaring probably for decades, it's easy to find videos on youtube. Basically it's just extracting energy from the wind velocity difference. Of course you could use it at much larger scales, like a huge UAV dynamically soaring high up if the winds are in different directions at different altitudes. ~~~ nilsbunger Rc gliders do it behind a ridge, taking advantage of big wind speed differences caused by the ridge. It's pretty fantastic to see in a video or in real life. But I'm not sure whether it translates to generalized flying at high altitude - is there enough windshear without a close-by hill for this to work? Can it work in any direction? ------ jbuzbee I think my jaw dropped the first time I came across videos of RC gliders doing 400+ mph. No motor. 400 mph. Here's one clocked at 399. Others on YouTube show over 450 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oix6sHKzOLU> ------ SudarshanP Wow at last we can have our flying cars that don't need fuel... Just kidding. Can a minimally powered aircraft on mars or venus do this without spending a dime on fuel or panels for flight? That would be a cool technology demonstration getting the whole world shocked. And we could throw all kinds of exotic material like carbon fiber and thin strong foils and kites coz getting these beasts there would be way more costlier than building them. I see very interesting short term future possibilities for this. Maybe even an X-Prize for this would help. ------ cristianpascu How can this be an "evolutionary adaptation" is beyond my understanding. How can a genetic mutation lead to such complex flight strategy? Anyone can clue me out? Or is it just another irresponsable "just-so story"? [1] [1] [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/09/17/12091...](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/09/17/120917crbo_books_gottlieb?currentPage=all&mobify=0) ~~~ andreasvc It can be an instinct; an innate behavior that is not learned, such as a bear preparing for hibernation, or certain birds migrating in fixed patterns. When animals display these specific behaviors even in the absence of instruction from their parents or other members of their species, then it must be genetic, even though it's probably not known how that would work specifically. The accusation of a "just-so story" is made against a claim of how an adaptation came about. But that's not happening here, they just state that it is an evolutionary adaptation, without a theory of how it was acquired. ~~~ cristianpascu I see "instincts" as being a cover term rather than an explanation. It's another way of saying animals just know how to do stuff. ~~~ andreasvc You'll just have to accept that there can be a solid scientific concept without an explanation. Gravity is another example. ------ SeanDav Never ceases to amaze me that so much scientific innovation can still be derived from understanding mother nature. From optimum pathing with slime molds to effortless gliding by Albatrosses and so much in between and still to be discovered. ------ sopooneo Wouldn't this technically be gliding rather than flying? I had thought that by definition it was only flight if you could produce enough thrust to maintain velocity and altitude in still air. ~~~ mythealias Flight is general term for "unassisted" motion through air. By unassisted I mean no support structure from surface. So even a ball through up in air is technically in flight. While gliding implies flight with no thrust and is the primary mode for Albatross flight, they still produce trust by flapping their wings.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Look at the Box S-1 - mblakele http://kellblog.com/2014/03/27/burn-baby-burn-a-look-at-the-box-s-1 ====== jcampbell1 This title is obnoxious, but the content is really good. The title refers to "burn rate", not that the company is a house on fire. I did a similar calculation... they are spending about $40M/quarter on sales people who are generating an incremental $5M in recurring revenue each quarter. Not great, but not a disaster. Especially when you account for the fact most of the sales people are new. A year from now, with the publicity from the IPO, and more experience and natural snowballing, the same $40M salesforce could be generating $15M in incremental revenue per quarter. That would be a recipe for a quite valuable company. He came to pretty much the same conclusion that I did: "When you look big picture, I believe they see themselves in a winner-take-all battle vs. DropBox and in this case, the strategy — while amazingly cash consumptive — does make sense." 5 years from now, I do see a possibility that Box is doing very well in enterprise, and Dropbox gets squeezed hard in the fiercely competitive consumer/SMB space. ~~~ tg3 I agree that's their strategy, and I also agree that it may be their only play. However it feels like they're going all-in a little bit early. With a $23m/quarter burn rate and a raise of $250m, they only have a few years to "win" the market, and start moving in the direction of profitability. ~~~ gtCameron A few years is an eternity, its not like they have to keep burning through $100m a year until they either "win" or run out of cash, they could easily scale back on their customer acquisition spend and extend their timeline. I think their strategy is very aggressive but far from all-in	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Infinite Silences of Japan - acsillag https://lithub.com/pico-iyer-on-the-infinite-silences-of-japan/ ====== 9nGQluzmnq3M When reading any of Pico Iyer's drivel about Japan, remember that he can't read or speak the language: _" And the virtues of when I got to Japan, finding that I was essentially an illiterate. I can't read — I can't — to this day, I can't read or write Japanese."_ [http://www.dailygood.org/story/1092/the-art-of-stillness- pic...](http://www.dailygood.org/story/1092/the-art-of-stillness-pico-iyer/) _" He’s a big proponent of his own ignorance, saying he doesn’t choose to learn more than a smattering of Japanese because he needs mystery and “a sense of open space in life, something to offset the sense of the familiar.”_ [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/books/review/pico-iyer- au...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/books/review/pico-iyer-autumn-light- memoir-japan.html) Which makes him exceptionally unqualified to spout bullshit like this: _A single verb in Yasunari Kawabata’s short novel Snow Country is translated in 29 different ways because what we would render as “I think” can in Japan mean “I remember,” “I long for” or 27 other things._ No, おもう means two things, and they're written differently so you can tell them apart: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%86#J...](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%86#Japanese) ~~~ lgessler > _A single verb in Yasunari Kawabata’s short novel Snow Country is translated > in 29 different ways because what we would render as “I think” can in Japan > mean “I remember,” “I long for” or 27 other things._ Ugh. That might be correct in the sense that a translator could defend their choice in using a certain English word or another, but that's also correct for most words in literally every language spoken on Earth. ~~~ 0x8BADF00D The problem is that English doesn’t have a subjunctive tense that maps cleanly to other languages. It is implicit and masked. Expressing doubt is even culturally looked down upon as incompetence. Hence the confusion by native English speakers. ~~~ lgessler I'm not sure what the particulars are in this article, but if the suggestion is that Japanese is unusually expressive and English is unusually impoverished, that probably isn't true. In general, Language A and Language B, unless they're very closely related, will always lack some grammatical categories in common that will make translation from one to the other difficult. Eastern Pomo, for instance, requires any well-formed verb to inflect based on how the speaker learned the information being reported, with four possible values: direct, reported, inferred, or non-visually sensed (smelled, felt, etc.) knowledge. Retaining this information would be awkward in English, and encoding it in an Eastern Pomo translation would often be impossible (in the context of translating a book). Hindi lacks articles, while English has at least _a_ and _the_ , which encode (roughly) how identifiable the noun it is attached to is in the present situation. The rules governing when to use _the_ , _a_ , or neither are incredibly subtle and complex (I'm sure you've heard second language speakers getting it wrong but not in a way you could readily explain). Going from English to Hindi, the articles can mostly be safely disregarded, but going from Hindi to English, you need to think hard about how identifiable each noun is in discourse. I'm probably taking all this a bit too seriously, but it's frustrating to see well-intentioned but wide-eyed writers like Iyer trying to evoke a sense of wonder propped up by pseudolinguistic claims. ------ dunstad I read this from my chair in an office in Tokyo, and found it to be pretty dramatic and kind of silly. There are definitely cultural differences, but I don't feel like this article does a good job of representing them. Some of the linguistic points are a bit misleading too. ~~~ tmm84 Since I moved to Japan I have always looked back at pieces like this and get a good laugh. ------ Nimitz14 In contrast to the other commentators here, I enjoyed that! Thanks ------ jhanschoo 9nGQluzmnq3M gave some reasons why we shouldn't trust the article based on the author's history, I'll give some reasons by comparing English, Japanese, and some other languages. The author presents several examples from their reflections and observations in Japan, themed around "Japanese silence"; unfortunately, they speak more to the author's commitment to their colored perception than to any genuinely universal "Japanese silence". > More important than learning to speak Japanese when you come to Japan is > learning to speak silence. My neighbors seem most at home with nonverbal > cues, with pauses and the exchange of formulae. This is a point about Japanese culture. Presumably this refers to acknowledging neighbors when they meet each other without any further interaction. Regardless, I don't know enough about what the author is alluding to with this, but one can be just as surprised that one's current neighbors (while living in Japan) actually communicate or acknowledge each other if one comes from a place where neighbors don't know each other, something quite common in big cities. > A typical sentence in India—or from my friend from Mexico—begins, “No, but . > . .” Every other Japanese sentence begins, “So, so, so, so,” or “Yes, yes, > yes, yes.” This is a point about Japanese pragmatics. I don't see how this is meant to reflect silence. A recent BBC article speculates why French say "no" so much [http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190804-why-the-french- love...](http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190804-why-the-french-love-to-say- no) . It writes: > Because often, there is hope. “Contrary to popular opinion, the French do > listen, and well, but this usually happens after they say no a couple of > times. It takes a certain amount of faith, and sometimes a lot of talking, > but you can almost always find the yes hiding behind a French no, if it’s > there,” write Barlow and Nadeau. This sounds very much like how business writers observe that Japanese business err on saying yes, and sometimes after a lot of talking, you can find the no hiding behind a Japanese yes. > Countries like the US and Australia are low-context cultures where people > generally say what they mean and mean what they say. However, France, like > Russia and Japan, tends to be a high-context culture, where “good > communication is sophisticated, nuanced and layered. Messages are both > spoken and read between the lines,” she writes. There's more I guess I might speculate on this subject, but I don't see its connection to silence. The author presents it as an unqualified agreement "yes, yes, yes, yes". But you'd likely hear a "sore de", or "tokoro de", or "desu ga" immedately after ("so what about this..." / "however...") if there were disagreements that followed. > Seventy percent of Japanese sentences, by one count, lack a subject, and 50 > percent of all spoken sentences do, too. This is a technical point about the Japanese language. For that matter, most Romance languages do not specify a subject when it is obvious, beyond inflecting the verb to (under)specify whether the subject is the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. On the other hand, in many situations, you would use a person's name to refer to them in Japanese (J) where in Indo-European (IE) languages (English (E) and Romance (R) languages are some IE languages) you would underspecify with a pronoun. > Japan’s foundational novel, The Tale of Genji, is notoriously hard to > translate, because proper names are sometimes avoided, the subject of a > sentence changes halfway through and speakers are seldom indicated. That Genji is not easily translatable is not necessarily reflective of some quality in J. Rather you can attribute the difficulty to three things: 1. The language Murakami uses is not modern Japanese with little extant literature in the same literary form. 2. The literary novel was literally novel, so the author may have failed to be able to develop it to communicate (even to a contemporary audience) by the text alone, without oral commentatory. 3. The problem of editing, with the original(s) no longer extant. With proper names for one, it is reflective of that milieu, since one referred to each other in polite society primarily by their title or occupation. In that respect, it is not reflective if some tendency toward vagueness since using personal names would be the unnatural and less informative choice. The Economist writes: "Murasaki's language was already archaic and impenetrable a century after it was written, so the Japanese have been reading annotated, abridged, simplified and illustrated versions of the book since as early as the 12th century." [https://www.economist.com/books-and- arts/2008/12/18/playboy-...](https://www.economist.com/books-and- arts/2008/12/18/playboy-of-the-eastern-world) > Even those sentences that do have clear beginnings in Japan generally trail > off, like pen-and-ink drawings that leave most of the page open for a viewer > to complete. In England, I learned to start sentences by saying, “I’m not > exactly sure . . .” but in Japan the studied vagueness is not just about > diffidence but about allowing room for someone else to turn an opening note > into a duet. This is a point about Japanese grammar or pragmatics. I'm not too sure what exactly the author is referring to, but it's likely a technique for people to avoid committing to expressing something e.g. "sore wa na..." ("well, about that..."), that the author noticed. > Speech is dangerous in Japan, precisely because so many unspoken rules hover > around it. On the other hand, the average Japanese fails to grasp the many unspoken rules of E, and finds it difficult to be understood in English. For example, to a non-native is not obvious why it is more natural to "put in" effort and "take out" the trash (like you take out food?) rather than the less colloquial "give effort" or "dispose trash". The difference is that most rightly chalk it up to the limits of language education and lack of interest in E, and not to E being ineffably sublime. ~~~ jhanschoo > It’s generally a bad idea to use the word “you”—too intrusive—and there are > said to be 20 ways of saying “I.” See formal "you" and informal "you" in European languages for a related phenomenon. It's ironic that English "thou", the informal, singular "you", became so impolite that it fell out of general use. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou) . > Women are expected to refer to themselves in the third person, men not. It is interesting that J has women's language and men's language, but that does not make it exceptional in its uniqueness. > A single verb in Yasunari Kawabata’s short novel Snow Country is translated > in 29 different ways because what we would render as “I think” can in Japan > mean “I remember,” “I long for” or 27 other things. For comparison, I present the E verb whose Proto-IE ancestor has had the most success in surviving among its daughter languages [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bear#Verb_2](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bear#Verb_2) , and all the shades of meaning in E that it has acquired in its storied history. > One prince in Genji has never been allowed to speak with his own sister > except through curtains or behind a screen. Yet men in Genji’s world think > nothing of going to bed with women with whom they’ve never exchanged a word. Rather than reflecting on some essential role of silence in Japanese culture, it reflects primarily the court customs and the religious significance of the Japanese royalty. There may be an argument that this is reflective of silence and that this role of silence survives in some form in contemporary Japan, but it needs a more comprehensive argument with more evidence. > You can tell a Japanese restaurant in the Sixth Arrondissement of Paris, my > wife points out, by the fact that (unlike the places run by Koreans or > Chinese) it never says “Japanese” at the entrance. On the other hand, many Japanese restaurants advertise that they serve ramen/udon/sushi out front. In Japan, many restaurants have a greeter actively soliciting customers that you won't find in the West. > In Japan, more than anywhere, nothing is more fatal than thinking you know > what’s being said. The English word “hip” in Japan refers to the buttocks, > and “smart” means slender. “Naïve” is a good word in Japan, and so is > “tension.” A “mansion” refers to a thick-walled, modern and often small > apartment. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend) False friends are a perpetual source of embarassment, and is no way exceptionally fatal in Japan. ~~~ glandium > It’s generally a bad idea to use the word “you”—too intrusive—and there are > said to be 20 ways of saying “I.” There may be 20 ways of saying "I" but a lot of them are archaic. There are also plenty of ways to say "you" too, depending on the person and context, and I'm sure if you count them all, including the archaic ones, there's about the same number. It is often said that it's impolite to say "you" in Japanese, and while that might have a little truth, there are very many perfectly fine uses of some forms of "you" in Japanese. ~~~ jhanschoo I found this handout an interesting analysis of the contexts in which the different Japanese pronouns are being used. It explicated some of the tendencies in which they are being used. [https://people.umass.edu/partee/MGU_2009/papers/Ponamareva.p...](https://people.umass.edu/partee/MGU_2009/papers/Ponamareva.pdf) ------ daly ......	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why it's dangerous to liken DNA to computer code - fortran77 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/21/why-its-dangerous-to-liken-dna-to-computer-code ====== aiscapehumanity Articles like these ultimately say nothing new either. It points to the uncertainty in the implications of genemoddings future where essentially the stakes are higher and often so far less reversible than digital debugging. Okayyy, but the average folk would take this less as a warning and more of an endorsement towards an idea of a bioethical imperative to slow or obfuscate any progress imo(after all people buy into gmo skepticism and that's based in ignorance to basic biology).	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Tyk – Open Source API Gateway written in Golang - jively http://tyk.io ====== nodesocket Looks awesome, but curious if you are going to continue to support and develop Tyk? It seems like it was a side/weekend project. If we are going to integrate this in-front of our API (expose to our paying users), we have to have confidence that you can continue to support, maintain, and handle our traffic. Frankly, instead of TYK CORE & DASHBOARD being free, make it $12 a month. That gives us confidence you can continue to iterate and improve. We are interested in chatting further and willing to pay. By the way, I read the $150 plan as per month, and didn't really flinch, then I noticed that it is $150 per year. You are significantly under charging. ~~~ jively Thanks - it's not a weekend project and has taken quite some time to build - part of the reason for making the core app open source was to ensure that it could be easily supported long term and empower end users. With regards to price - we are offering the dashboard for a price, the main application that your users will interact with is completely free, so we're charging what we feel is a fair rate for a piece of software you may use for quite some time... Maybe if we end up with a hosted service we'll look at higher monthly pricing. ~~~ zrail $150/year is not a sustainable price for the market you're operating in. You could and should quintuple your price. This looks like an excellent product and would basically be a core component of any business that chooses to use it. You should want the kind of customers who don't blink at $750/year, because those are the customers that are going to be ravenous about your product and will continue to pay year after year. ~~~ jively Solid advice. There's an argument for going after large customers and in this market that seems to be the way things have gone. Everything is big enterprise, if not now it is somewhere we are looking to enter once we are ready. ------ bumelant Looks great! Is it possible to aggregate a bunch of requests into one (and get a single response with multiple responses)? This is a common pattern and sometimes very useful in web app scenarios to limit latency issues. ~~~ jively Not at the moment, but it can certainly be added. I assume you mean some kind of pipelining so that if multiple requests that have the same signature come through then only one gets executed and the response is shared amongst all the requesting clients without them ever touching the underlying application? ~~~ bumelant This could be an interesting use case indeed, but what I need is more like what's described in this paper [http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/emag- microservices](http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/emag-microservices) Page 8. So the usecase is - you have a client that has to call say 8 microservices, but doesn't want to invoke them one by one or in pararell due to nature of HTTP protocol. Rather it wants to execute just 1 request with 8 calls (batch them) and get returned single response that encapsulates 8 responses. This is for instance how facebook does it: [https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/making- multip...](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/making-multiple- requests) ~~~ jively Got it, yes that would indeed be very useful for heavy-use APIs, and shouldn't be too much of a problem to implement. However it would essentially add a default batch endpoint to an API which isn't defined by the owner. Also, certain things like maximum batched requests would need to be implemented. Also, how would this affect quotas and RPM? Many questions, but well worth investigating, will add to roadmap. ------ pquerna Have you looked at Vulcan Proxy? [http://vulcanproxy.com/](http://vulcanproxy.com/) It doesn't have the SaaS thing y'all be doing, but the APIs and structure of the proxy seem pretty well thought out.... ~~~ jively Took a closer look at this today, it really does look incredibly flexible, interesting to see how easy it is to add middleware to an endpoint stack. This might be an approach for us if Tyk functionality expands beyond an API Gateway and adds more reverse proxy features, though I feel this might muddy the waters. Adding IP-based request limiting to the roadmap. ------ MoOmer Interesting - A pal of mine was working on one of these in Go as well for his organization; I was contemplating writing one in Go also. I was your first star; but have no time to look at the code in depth yet! ------ erkose I find it difficult to compare features as the rows are not aligned. ~~~ shortstuffsushi Really? For me they are all aligned, with the exception of the REST row which isn't present in the basic level. ~~~ erkose Firefox-31.0 with no javascript. ------ keda In your Readme.md: "We are orking to increae test coverage of features" Do you mean "working to increase"? :) ~~~ zrail There's more. On the marketing page: "developers need ot <\-- eat too" "API's" should not have an apostrophe. ~~~ jively Fixed, thanks for the spot! ------ manveru You have <meta content="Bootstack - Bootstrap 3 Theme"> still. ~~~ jively Thanks, will pull the boilerplate out... Eek!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Future of College - ph0rque http://www.gatesnotes.com/Education/The-Future-of-College-NACUBO-Remarks ====== xiaoma I don't agree with his reasoning here: > _" The data we see shows that, unless you’re given the preparation and > access to higher education, and unless you have a successful completion of > that higher education, your economic opportunity is greatly, greatly > reduced. There’s a lot of data recently talking about the premium in > salaries for people with four-year college degrees."_ The problem is that the observation that people with degrees earn more than those without doesn't imply that increasing the number of people with degrees would increase overall prosperity. Degrees are credentials that are used to sort people. Similarly, while an individual student earning a lot of As is likely a meaningful signal of their studiousness and understanding of their subjects, inflating the grades of all students and awarding more As in general doesn't mean the students have become more studious. If nearly everyone had a college degree, its effect on their occupational opportunities would be very similar to that of a high school diploma now. Unless the focus is on the education itself, instead of schooling, the result is just credential inflation—something very expensive and wasteful economically and in terms of peoples lives. ~~~ seanflyon > Degrees are credentials that are used to sort people. Degrees are used to sort people, but not arbitrarily. A degree certifies what you have learned. Giving out more degrees could mean degree inflation or it could just mean that more people are learning. Our economy is shifting away from unskilled labor towards skilled labor. You can get those skills without getting a degree, it's just harder (and cheaper) to do. I love institutions like the Khan Academy that make it easier to improve your skills outside of a degree program, but I also love initiatives that make degree programs more accessible. ~~~ lutusp > Degrees are used to sort people, but not arbitrarily. I disagree -- I think the case can be made that the sorting process is largely automatic and disregards individual traits, This is supported by the number of very high achievers who are also dropouts, people who didn't understand or accept that they had already been "sorted". This certainly isn't meant to suggest that, _on average_ , a degree holder doesn't do better, has a higher income as a result of attending college. But as college costs continue to rise (now increasing faster than any other household expense) the day will come when it no longer makes economic sense. > Our economy is shifting away from unskilled labor towards skilled labor. You > can get those skills without getting a degree, it's just harder (and > cheaper) to do. It may be harder, but it avoids the trap of being taught things in college that are already out of date in a fast-moving world. ~~~ seanflyon As you said, degree holders are more likely to do better. The question is why and there are 2 obvious answers: 1) People who are already more likely to do well tend to go to college. 2) Going to college prepares people to do well. I think both have a significant effect. Certainly in my own experience what I learned in college has benefited me in the workplace and almost none of what I learned (graduated in 2008) is out of date. When I look at my most respected peers, several of them don't have degrees, but those who don't either went to college and joined the work force before graduating or took more than 4 years to develop the skills and experience they needed to compete with college graduates. I'm not sure what kinds of individual traits you are talking about that are ignored by the sorting process or how this claim is supported by the few very high achievers that dropped out of college. I would expect some of the very high achievers to take the harder path of blazing their own trail. ------ araes I generally think Bill Gates is a clever man. I also think his heart is normally in the right place these days. That said, I think he, and most of education reform seems to often focus on the externalities of education, rather than the core, the student. I agree that better data reporting, with focuses on goals and outcomes, much as has been done in the Aid sector, could help. I also think that having a better education environment, in the form of good advising for support, and broader class type / learning options, may help students complete school once they're there. However, in a tie-back to the earlier article [1] on the disconnect between boss / worker expectations, I think we also need a much earlier focus on individual achievement and learning. On setting goals, and then largely giving students freedom in how they approach and attack those goals. That is what college students need to be successful, and that is what the job sector identifies as the signal of good, high performing workers. Many of the students that we send to college are not mentally ready to be successful at college. In fact, many go without any clear idea of why they're going, besides the advertised 4+ year party, or family saying "go". In many ways, I don't think that's their fault. Part of it is, for not taking charge of their lives, but for many, college is one of the first times where you seriously have to set your own goals. High school teachers took care of it, parents took care of it. We need to remedy that by providing more, low-risk opportunities for them to develop those skills while they still can work with a net. As a corollary, I also don't think we should make it easier for students who aren't ready to attend. It does a disservice to them, and due to the way our current college loan system is set up, it often ends up burying them for the rest of their lives under non-transferable debt. (often times at the scale of a low-end house) For those who it didn't, many times we get C to D folks out the other end, who muddled by, and drift on to something. Maybe the act of attending enriches them, and ultimately makes them better people, but for a lot, I feel like higher education has become an expensive trap that we're not properly preparing them for. [1] [http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=4...](http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=46698) ~~~ marquis The british, and maybe other countries, have the concept of a 'Gap year' where it is acceptable to take a year between high school and college for the purpose of travel and community service. This can alleviate the problem of "not being ready". ~~~ superuser2 Cost of attendance rises slightly every year (say 3%). Delaying college means you come in later in the appreciation cycle; your total cost is substantially higher. Gap years are, unfortunately, a privilege for students who are so wealthy that doesn't matter or so poor that they're on full rides anyway. For a middle class student, it's just throwing away money. ~~~ dllthomas _" For a middle class student, it's just throwing away money."_ They _cost_ money, but that's not the same as throwing money away. It depends on what you're getting in exchange. If the gap year serves its purpose of helping you figure out what you want to do, the delta in cost is substantially less than paying a few years of tuition while you figure out the same thing. ------ djb_hackernews In 1982, in my state, minimum wage was $3.35/hr. Tuition + fees at my states large research university was $1,562/semester. In 2001 when I entered as a freshman minimum wage was $6.75 and tuition+fees was $5,707. In 2013 minimum wage was $8.00 and tuition was $13,258. minimum wage is up +200%, education costs up +850%. That is probably a major reason why a) Not as many young people are getting degrees b) why not many actually finish their degrees. My advice: stick to the trades, work in a union for a major utility provider. At least until the singularity happens. ~~~ totalrobe Utilities are beginning to see trouble in many places because of the rise of distributed power. High fixed costs + lower demand = trouble. ~~~ fokov People keep saying this, but does anyone actually have numbers to back up the claim that things are going to get really bad? The reason I ask is due to an NPR segment that aired last week about a Texas power company. They described the different types of energy they were using as well as how long it takes to "turn them on". There were order of magnitude differences between the various power sources. The more efficient the power, the longer it took to start/act to changes in demand. If more people are using local solar, then peak hours during a summer day would help level out usage: more sun = more local energy that will be used for AC. I would imagine that change would allow these companies to save a lot of money by not having to use the less efficient power sources to properly adjust available power. That extra money can then be spend on the infrastructure or more R&D. I'm just curious because I keep hearing crap like "solar is going to completely kill the grid and costs will skyrocket as people leave." ------ simonebrunozzi I think we still think about College with too much "baggage" in our minds. I am wondering if there's an even more revolutionary approach - for example, continuous education, where evaluation/tests are performed continuously. ~~~ cwal37 I took a class which had a short quiz/test at the beginning of each meeting. It was just a handful of questions that covered the assigned reading for that date. The reading in question wasn't out of a book, but was always a single review article, or 2-4 smaller academic papers. Together these quizzes represented a significant chunk of your grade. I learned more, and more quickly, in that class than probably any other I've ever taken. It was mixed between grad/undergrad (I was undergrad at the time), but because everyone "had" to do the reading for each class everyone was on a more or less equal footing, and the discussion was fantastic. ~~~ CocaKoala This works for more than just discussion based classes, as well; one of the best classes I ever took in college was a CS Theory course; every single day, the class started off with a quiz on the material we had covered in the previous class. Immediately after finishing the quiz, we'd go over the answers in class together. The end result was that you were constantly getting immediate feedback about how well you understand the material; if you thought you knew what you were doing and you were actually totally lost, you found out the very next day and were presented with an opportunity to ask for clarifications. And since there were so many quizzes, there was no need for larger tests (because the professor constantly felt like he had a good handle on how people were understanding the material) and you never got stressed out about bombing a quiz or two (because there were thirty other quizzes that would go into calculating your grade, plus the workshop scores and homework scores). It really removed the stress of the class and gave me an opportunity to focus on the material itself, instead of worrying about how I would do on the tests. Weirdly, when every day was a quiz, it seemed like there were never any quizzes. ~~~ incision _> 'The end result was that you were constantly getting immediate feedback about how well you understand the material...It really removed the stress of the class and gave me an opportunity to focus on the material itself, instead of worrying about how I would do on the tests.'_ Interestingly, this is exactly what I like so much about the best MOOCs I've completed. Assigned exercises typically allow multiple attempts and provide immediate feedback during and after completion. This is in stark contrast to my local University experience where everything is single attempt with the exception of papers where a single draft submission might be allowed. Needless to say, I find the former far superior for learning. ------ ilaksh Seems a good overview from a realistic institutional perspective but somewhat strangely in my opinion lacking in terms of really progressive details. Students should progress at their own pace in each subject. They should not be forced to speed up or slow down in order to synchronize with arbitrary time periods. The only reason that structure exists is because of constraints that exist in low-tech teaching environments. In a high tech environment individual pacing and discussion/collaboration groups organized according to current level are possible. Also there is no reason that students should purchase all of their courses in one lump from an individual university. Instead they should be able to mix and match virtual courses from different direct providers. Also, with our current technology we could move to a finer grained system for describing educational achievement where information about specific courses is conveyed and even match that with an ontology covering skills and knowledge areas used in business. ------ nmrm > I do think, as we look at the for-profit sector, there are a lot of best > practices there. The support systems they’ve had, the student tracking. The > way they use capital assets. This presupposes that these aren't present in the non-for-profit sector, which in my experience isn't the case. And if we're going to use outcomes as a measure, it's clear for-profits are absurdly dysfunctional. Except: > The way they take a much tougher cohort of students, on average, than most > institutions. The "we take on more difficult students" line makes no sense. With failure rates so high, it's not at all clear that they're doing anything other than taking on more students, failing those students, and thereby generating unnecessary debt and pocketing the federal grant money. More-over, favorable analyses of for-profits almost always compares for- profits to flagship state schools or private non-profits, ignoring the class of institutions most similar in terms of prestige and quality -- local and regional state-run colleges and universities. Which are -- in my experience -- similarly prices and vastly superior in terms of learning community and outcomes. > And, so, while there are certain practices that are not good to adopt there, > seeing the challenges they face and seeing the things the way they have done > well, bringing that into all of education, will be important. Yeah, but it's kind of a tautology. "Good practices are good". Anyways, I'm interested in specific examples. Because I really don't see any innovation per se in private higher ed. It's all stuff everyone else has been doing for decades, but with more marketing and unfounded claims to novelty. > I don’t believe that a measurement system should simply apply to them and > not apply to the broader universe. And, getting those things right is very, > very difficult. Yeah, I'll agree that performance-based funding structures don't make sense in education generally, and make even less sense in higher ed. That said, it's kind of a misnomer -- if laws end up looking like what's been proposed so far, private institutions will always have the option of not taking federal grant money or subsidized loans. IF performance measurement takes hold -- which it shouldn't -- I don't understand why the public should be expected to subsidize a for-profit industry and not have carte blanc to regulate. If you don't like the regulations, don't take the subsidy. ~~~ crazy1van > I don't understand why the public should be expected to subsidize a for- > profit industry and not have carte blanc to regulate. If you don't like the > regulations, don't take the subsidy. I think the last thing any part of the higher education industry -- for-profit or not -- needs is more subsidies. If we want them to cost less, we need to take money out of them, not dump more money in. When I refer to cost, I mean total cost, not just the bill the university sends the student. The only thing worse than a bigger bill for a student enrolled at the university is a bigger bill for citizens who choose to not even attend university. ~~~ nmrm2 > I think the last thing any part of the higher education industry -- for- > profit or not -- needs is more subsidies. edit: some revision. There are two forms of subsidy: direct funding for state systems, and loans. With respect to subsidies in the form of low-interest loans, the underlying premise of this position is both faulty and arrogant. Talk with any student. Odds are, they are acutely aware of how much debt they are taking on, and what that means for their life in the next 5, 10, 15 years. The trope about cognitively dissonant art majors is an exception, not the norm. More to the point, the position isn't even internally consistent. if the premise _is_ accurate (again, wrt low-interest loans), then rate hikes on loans won't have any effect other than increased student debt and larger profit margins for major banks. With respect to state funding, all we need to do is look at historical data. ~~~ crazy1van The purpose of subsidized loans is to redirect debt towards a specific area. Society determines that people should be given preferential treatment if they are borrowing for certain purposes and they pass laws to reflect that. Typically these are things like higher education and homes. When this happens, it changes the calculus of an individual -- borrowing towards these specific purposes becomes more appealing because you get more for your money. I'm not arguing that this is either good or bad. However, I don't see the logic of both complaining that we spend too much on something while at the same time advocating more subsidies for those who want to borrow to buy more of it. ~~~ nmrm This premise is also faulty; this isn't the calculus of most consumers of higher education. The calculus is more like "I need a college degree to get where I want in life. Period." > I don't see the logic of both complaining that we spend too much on > something while at the same time advocating more subsidies for those who > want to borrow to buy more of it. "we" the government, or "we" the individual consumer? It's possible for the individual to spend too much money on something precisely because the government isn't spending enough. ~~~ crazy1van > "we" the government, or "we" the individual consumer? I mean the total of all spending. Although I contend that the two really aren't that different as government spending is just the aggregate of individual spending on government itself. > This premise is also faulty You are suggesting that subsidizing something can make the sum total of all spending on that thing go _down_? I completely disagree with that notion and I think this is the root of our disagreement. At least we found the crux of it. Even if neither side in the debate leaves convinced of the other side's position, I'm convinced it was worthwhile if the debate ends knowing more precisely where you disagree. ~~~ nmrm > Although I contend that the two really aren't that different as government > spending is just the aggregate of individual spending on government itself. America has a progressive tax system, so this sort of aggregation argument is over-simplistic. > You are suggesting that subsidizing something can make the sum total of all > spending on that thing go down? Yes, absolutely. Even operating from your premises, spending more can decrease costs. In the case of no/low-interest loans, as long as the cost of defaults doesn't exceed the amount saved in interest paid to banks, everyone is spending less money on education. Combining no/low-interest loans with increased state funding for education significantly decreases the risk of default. So the "right answer" to minimizing spending is just a matter of simply arithmetic: C_f = Cost of state Funding C_d = Cost of Defaults B_i = Total money saved on interest payments (let's assume 5% rate with 20k load, probably higher if the entire market is unsubsidized) Then we want to maximize B_i - C_d + C_f. Since we have some amount of state funding and some subsidized loans, it's entirely plausible that increasing C_f could decrease C_d, because the loans are smaller and therefore risk of default is lower. Furthermore, decreasing C_d increases B_i since higher-interest unsubsidized loans will meet the new demand. Of course, there's a degenerate optimization: you can always just have zero subsidies. Most first world countries rightly give a shit about educating the non-independently-wealthy. But also: * I don't think "minimize cost" is a wise philosophy wrt education. Nations that do this tend to be sucky places to live/work. * America has a progressive tax system, so the aggregate reasoning of your first response is at least disingenuous. ~~~ crazy1van > Then we want to maximize B_i - C_d + C_f. This completely neglects that prices and demand will change as these values also change. ~~~ nmrm No, it doesn't. I thought this was clear from context, but: these are not constants. They are functions of many, many variables, many of which are probably shared; and probably also their dynamics are non-trivial. For instance, changes to prices could be perfectly captured because all three variables are functions of price, and each of them probably has at least a first price derivative. I actually talk about this in terms of the model in my post, so I'm not sure where you got the idea that the model can't capture price change. Also, demand for higher education is fairly inelastic compared to other variables within fairly coerce regions, so sacrificing fine-grained analysis of demand in exchange for more important variables isn't the worst exclusion. ------ misterbishop Notice that the best universities in the country have not and will not adopt the corporate reform "measurements" Gates proposes. The same is true of private primary institutions. Gates spends a lot of time talking about equality, but he's really talking about doing more with less. The scandal is that neither side of that equation works. Charter schools have the same or worse outcomes compared to public schools, despite the benefit of corporate funding. ------ lukasm "The United States has the highest dropout rate of any developed country for kids who start a higher-ed program" that worked out pretty well for him. ~~~ rpedela Bill Gates is an outlier as are other famous college dropouts. ~~~ scrollaway The funny thing about college dropouts: It's rare for a college dropout to become obscenely successful, but conversely it is also not uncommon for someone obscenely successful to be a college dropout. Or heck, it's not even that uncommon for successful people as long as we're not talking about something like lawyers (TV doesn't enter the equation, Suits.). I guess what I'm trying to say is, Bill Gates is an outlier in a heck of a lot more than education. Maybe it's time to consider that "being successful" has little to do with formal education and more to do with skills learned later in life. Which implies that being successful at a young age requires those skills to come earlier (which they are less likely to if you spend most of your time in college). ~~~ eli_gottlieb >Maybe it's time to consider that "being successful" has little to do with formal education and more to do with skills learned later in life. Maybe it's time to consider that "being successful" currently has little to do with formal education or with skills, but instead has more to do with family money. ~~~ lutusp > Maybe it's time to consider that "being successful" currently has little to > do with formal education or with skills, but instead has more to do with > family money. Consider a list of recent, spectacularly successful entrepeneurs -- Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and others. Most of them are not at all reliant on inherited wealth, often quite the contrary. I think the "family money" idea doesn't stand up to scrutiny, indeed in my experience those born to wealth don't accomplish much at all. ~~~ eli_gottlieb Elon Musk: judging by the fact that he went to a traditional English "public school" (what Americans would call a private school, actually), his family was well-off. Went to the University of Pennsylvania. Richard Branson: born the son of a barrister and grandson of a knighted member of the High Court. Also attended an English public school. Exceptional for _not_ attending university. Steve Jobs: son of a mechanic/carpenter ( _finally_ someone blue-collar!) and... oh no wait, an accountant who worked as a payroll clerk at one of the first Silicon Valley high-tech companies. Attended an expensive private college. Bill Gates: son of lawyers, got Microsoft's first OS contract for MS-DOS through his mother's connections to the board of IBM. Attended the University of Washington. Being merely well-off to start with is _also_ family money. ~~~ rpedela In the US, universities were far more affordable when Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc were that age. Harvard like other Ivy League schools was probably still expensive, but many were not. My father (slightly older than them) was able to pay tuition by working in a factory during the summer. He didn't need any loans. Unfortunately that isn't possible anymore. There was a time when you could be blue collar and still get a great education if you were willing to work hard while not being burdened with massive debt after graduation. ~~~ eli_gottlieb Yes, fine, but my point is: pretending that these men rose to become business magnates _despite lacking wealth and background_ is completely incorrect. Even the lowest of them started within the professional upper-middle class (roughly where you and I probably are), which is already _most of the way up_ the class scale, in percentile terms. ~~~ lutusp > Yes, fine, but my point is: pretending that these men rose to become > business magnates despite lacking wealth and background is completely > incorrect. Not so, and certainly not so in the case of Steve Jobs, an orphan. Each of the stories is of someone who certainly wouldn't have succeeded to the degree they did without personal qualities that transcended their origins, rather than family wealth, the original argument. Richard Branson didn't build his present empire by buying it with his family's money -- he created it out of his wits. Elon Musk is another story of the same kind -- it's hyperbolic to argue that he became successful because of inherited wealth as opposed to personal ingenuity and drive. > Even the lowest of them started within the professional upper-middle class > (roughly where you and I probably are), which is already most of the way up > the class scale, in percentile terms. But this isn't about class -- it might be about genetics, and it certainly isn't about family money, the original offered explanation. For these stories, class and family background are correlations, not causes. What we're talking about here are stories of exceptional success with no obvious cause apart from personal drive and ingenuity. They can't be dismissed as resulting from high birth or privilege -- it would be more consistent with logic to examine them on their self-evident merits. ~~~ JoeAltmaier How about: They won the exploding-market lottery by being in the right place and executing well? Just another bunch of upper-middle-class white boys who could get into all the right clubs is another part of it. ~~~ lutusp > Just another bunch of upper-middle-class white boys who could get into all > the right clubs is another part of it. It's too facile (and clearly somewhat tempting) to argue that race, or old-boy networking, played a part. Most of these people (some of whom I have met) are so driven that the idea of joining a club of rich white guys would seem like torture. Some will argue that they're all Aspies anyway, thus very unlikely to be joiners of anything. > They won the exploding-market lottery by being in the right place and > executing well? That makes more sense -- the role of blind chance. When I wrote Apple Writer for the Apple II in 1979, at the time I didn't fully appreciate the vacuum in which I was working, and how my program would seem more remarkable than it was, simply by being the only one. ------ aantix >In 2013, people with four-year college degrees earned 98 >percent more per hour, on average, than people without >degrees Wouldn't a more appropriate comparison be to compare the earnings of those that could have went to college but opted not to vs those that have completed college? ~~~ sokoloff An even more perfect comparison would be between people of precisely the same intellect, background, and work ethic. At some point, you have to make comparisons with the high-volume and reasonably high-fidelity data that you do have rather than wishing for more perfect data that you'll never have. ~~~ aantix >At some point, you have to make comparisons with the >high-volume and reasonably high-fidelity data that you do >have rather than wishing for more perfect data that you'll >never have. Certain personality types complete college (fairly disciplined). Are colleges taking a disproportionate amount of credit for the career success for the people that would have been more likely to succeed anyways(with or without) college? ------ ap22213 Funny he doesn't mention inbloom, in which in invested 100-170 Million [0][1] [0]: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer- sheet/wp/2014/04/...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer- sheet/wp/2014/04/21/100-million-gates-funded-student-data-project-ends-in- failure/) [1]: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/student-database- ga...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/student-database-gates- foundation_n_2800684.html) ------ misterbishop Having wounded public education through corporate reform measures, Gates now turns his gaze to higher education. There's so much un-examined ideology in this piece, it's incredible. RAISE TAXES. ------ danielweber I can't page down with my keyboard until after I click on the image (which I was reluctant to do because my mouse cursor changes which suggests it is a hyperlink that will take me away from the article). Can Gates not afford a web designer?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
I need a hacker. - ballred ====== ballred (I searched this site for a better way to post this, but didn't find anything. Please let me know if there is a more appropriate forum for this type of request.) I'm an Internet business/marketing guy with a prototype. I'm looking for a hacker to be my cofounder. I first heard about Y Combinator while participating in a similar program called Junto (www.juntopartners.com). As a frequent news.ycombinator reader, I've admired from a distance the work that Y Combinator participants and applicants have done. I'm looking for someone with that kind of skill set to work with me on a niche community site. Part-time commitment initially, more involvement as we're able to grow the site. With regards to equity, I believe in growing the pie rather than my slice. I want a cofounder, not an employee. Email me if you're interested: billallred [at] Google mail etc. ~~~ ballred Wow, you guys are fast. You responded before I even finished typing the details! ------ mukund for what? Hope not to hack into forbidden stuff and become a fugitive ------ zkinion to...?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Lesser Known Traits of Successful Founders - joshuacc http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/09/16/lesser-known-traits-of-successful-founders/ ====== ancornwell Actual Lesser Known Traits of Successful Founders: 1\. Private high school 2\. Supportive parents/mentors/friends (most likely parents, if on the younger side) 3\. Sleep deprived, yet energetic 4\. Addiction-prone 5\. Nothing to lose Just a few trends I have noticed over the past year. ~~~ joshuacc A spouse capable of financially supporting the founder while things are starting out seems common as well. ~~~ ancornwell Also a very good point. Being surrounded by supportive people improves focus for sure. ------ dennykmiu There is an old saying in my home country that basically says, "getting your hair wet.". The idea is that as you are washing your hair, you will slowly come to a point when you have shampoo on your head. That's when you know you are fully committed and there is only one acceptable outcome, otherwise you look silly no matter how much you try to explain your predicament. In my experience as an entrepreneur, the hard part is getting to that point of no return and the even harder part is to get out. Most people who wants to be entrepreneur but never do is because they are too rational to put themselves in that predicament. But as Yoda would say, "you do or you don't, but you must get wet first." I love this article. Good luck everyone. ~~~ mdg > Try not. Do or do not, there is no try Is what the Jedi master said (RIP). ~~~ dennykmiu You're correct ... Try not. Wet or no wet. There is no dry. I knew something was lost in translation ... ;-) ~~~ mdg Sorry if I came across as the comic book guy from the Simpsons ~~~ dennykmiu You were the perfect straight man. Thanks. ------ krschultz "We all know the guy who moves from one idea to the next and never finishes anything. He’s freakishly smart, but leaves a trail of half-finished carnage in his wake. Staying focused is a huge part of being successful." ~~~ theli0nheart Mark Zuckerberg fits this description perfectly, at least from what I glean before he started Facebook. Facebook just took off so quickly that he _couldn't_ get bored of it. ------ jonpaul I couldn't emphasize the part on focus. If you can't focus, you got problems. It seems to me that a lot of entrepreneurs suffer from entrepreneurial ADD. I've noticed that that's one key differences between those who succeed and those who don't. ~~~ joshuacc I suspect that there is a higher than normal occurrence of _actual_ ADD in tech businesses. Edit: Not sure why, but it looks like somebody decided that every comment on this post was worthy of a downvote. Seems strange. ------ enjo I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is one and only one trait that I've seen in common between successful founders: Great founders are _obsessively_ analytical. Plain and simple. ~~~ rwalling I've known many founders who don't have this trait. There's no single trait that all founders share. ~~~ astrofinch Nitpick: enjo referred only to _successful_ founders. ------ stevederico "I have a rule that I never spend money on an idea in the first 48 hours." waiting 2-3 days before moving forward is also a great tip.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
COSMOS remake (2014). Produced by Seth Macfarlane. Hosted by Neil D. Tyson. - rblion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBTd9--9VMI ====== peatmoss I'm assuming this is a joke? Please? Or maybe it's not, and I'm just woefully behind the times on how much zazzle is needed in edutainment?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: A social platform to record and debate predictions of the future - tompec https://www.predibly.com/ ====== Emma_Goldman The problem with this is that predictions should, ideally, be clearly specified, offer a percentage estimate (0-100% likelihood), and have some reliable method of validating the outcome. The Good Judgement Project does all these things: [https://www.gjopen.com/](https://www.gjopen.com/) This website, on the other hand, seems to encourage none of these epistemic virtues. It's people making more or less precise verbal predictions on twitter and then assessing themselves. ------ wiggler00m Suggestion: require "skin in the game" ie. make predictors risk something of value (with commensurate chance of gain if their prediction manifests). This would likely increase prediction quality/accuracy. ~~~ unusximmortalis Who will validate the predictions? Manual validation will not scale. ~~~ MRD85 Who will determine the odds of predictions? ~~~ Y_Y People can offer bets, those with differing views can take the bets. You can even make a market with floating odds like BetFair used to. ------ binaryorganic My favorite prediction from a similar site: [http://longbets.org/601/](http://longbets.org/601/) Jeremy Keith bet that “The original URL for this prediction (www.longbets.org/601) will no longer be available in eleven years.” He looks set to lose, which is great news for him, honestly. ------ tompec Hi there, My friend Nathan and I recently launched Predibly.com: a social platform to publicly share your predictions of the future and have interesting conversations about them. Nathan had the idea last week, I build the MVP and we'd love to know your thoughts! ~~~ anigbrowl It's cool. Develop an abuse flagging policy early. ~~~ Y_Y I predict this will be difficult. ------ BeniBoy A relevant episode of EconTalk[1]. If I remember correctly, Philip Tetlock is running a continuous betting project to try to determine what characterize good forecasters. [1]:[https://www.econtalk.org/philip-tetlock-on- superforecasting/...](https://www.econtalk.org/philip-tetlock-on- superforecasting/?highlight=\[%22tetlock%22,%22on%22,%22superforecasting%22,%22%22\]) ~~~ paulgb Direct link to the project: [https://www.gjopen.com/](https://www.gjopen.com/) ------ jobigoud I like it! Love that you can sort by time of prediction or by time of post/popularity. Sort by "controversial" could be nice. As soon as you have more than a dozen you will need tags or category. Tech, science, politics, sports... will cater to vastly different people and foster different discussions. I don't like the fact that Twitter is required to sign up. ~~~ tompec Glad you like the idea! Categories are on our list of features to implement. We're thinking about hashtags like Twitter does. Yeah, Signup with Twitter was mostly to accelerate the development time but an email signup will be introduced in the future as we're aware that some people prefer this way. ------ mgraczyk I have a similar site I've been working on, although ours is more focused on betting and quantifying accuracy. It's [https://hunches.app](https://hunches.app) ~~~ paulgb Note for US users, this is buried in the TOS: > If the User is a U.S. Person, User represents that user is an accredited > investor [https://hunches.app/terms-of-service](https://hunches.app/terms-of-service) ------ zbuf Nice idea! In case you haven't seen it, this site uses a similar concept: [http://longbets.org/](http://longbets.org/) ~~~ unusximmortalis Jeff (AWS) funded this one. ------ danielscrubs I really like the design! I would like a filter for controversial, having people add: The earth will still exist in 2020, is not so interesting. I normally don't like leaderboards, but in this case, it would be nice if and only if it was weighted by how controversial the prediction is. ------ black_puppydog Nobody suggest having a "prediction reputation" that keeps track of the quality of people's predictions? Like, after the even should have taken place, open it up for up/down votes or such? ------ johnchristopher Is there an API? Could I build a betting site around it? ~~~ tompec Not yet sorry :) Maybe one day! ------ lettergram If you haven’t seen it, I recommend predictionbook.com. Honestly, not as nice as what was shared from a UI perspective. However, the user experience on predictionbook.com appears better. [https://predictionbook.com/](https://predictionbook.com/) ------ antpls Interesting, but there is no legal disclaimer, about page, corporation, cookie usage information, etc Does that mean you don't log in anyway any information about visitor, and that you share all gathered information by contributors with the public ? For example, where can I download the whole database of prediction, with votes, comments and history ? If I can't, I'm assuming this is not fully public and you potentially use my data as a visitor and/or contributor to make money, and you therefore need a legal entity to represent the website. ~~~ fiatjaf C'mon, it's a side project. Let the person develop some functionality before expecting him to add all this useless legal mumbo-jumbo. ~~~ antpls Sorry, but I care about my rights, even if you are only experimenting ideas. ~~~ buzzerbetrayed It isn’t your “right” to demand that he follows your countries local laws, especially if he isn’t from your country. He is well within his right to make the website exactly how it is, and you are well within your rights not to visit it. ~~~ antpls True, and I made my decision. I only wanted to warn about it to other people who might browse here. The intent of the website is not clear. ------ hestefisk Nice. Imagine with a BTC betting api on top. ~~~ foundart There’s such a system built on Ethereum: [https://www.augur.net/](https://www.augur.net/) ------ chdaniel How about infinite scroll? ------ azimovsky Nice design. ------ chobeat I can't wait for all the STEMlords and edgy kids from r/futurology to blabber about Elon bringing them to Mars.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple Announces Beatles Collection - ankushnarula http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-beatles/id136975 ====== sigzero I am at a loss for words. Mostly because they are bads ones and I don't like being negative. ------ modernerd Worth noting that the dispute dates back to 1978, so it's a big deal for many that it's come to an end; perhaps not for people who aren't interested in buying music they already own, but the achievement's still worth celebrating. It's hard for Apple to announce anything quietly these days, so I think they've managed it pretty well; a leak to the WSJ, an understated holding page (albeit with a rather bold claim), and a stylish full-screen feature on the homepage. Anything bolder might have raised even more false hopes of something 'bigger'. Anything more demure and it might have failed to give credit to a quarrel that's lasted over three decades. ------ kieranyo That was it? One more thing? ------ xentronium <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v._Apple_Computer> somehow relevant. ------ celticjames Anyone know the technical details? DRM? Remastered recordings? Bitrates? Available in all markets? i see that Live at the BBC, Anthology, and Yellow Submarine Songtrack (not Soundtrack) are not there. So not quite compleat beatles. ~~~ G_Wen <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store#File_format> 256kbps .m4a file with an option to convert to an .mp3. For anyone who takes music quality seriously the lack of a lossless option is a big turn off. No DRM on the purchases unless you live in Japan where some albums are covered by DRM. Will do more research when I get home. ------ growt downvote me to hell, but: booooring! I was hoping for streaming :( ~~~ Tyrannosaurs Gruber was right last night when he pointed out that it was never going to be anything that big else they'd be hosting a full event for it. It's nice and a nice bit of PR for Apple but nothing more. It's not as if this is music that was unavailable, it's just music that was unavailable on iTunes. It was always going to happen sooner or later. ------ umjames I should have figured as much, but part of me was hoping it was something like the official release of iOS 4.2. I figured it was November, and we already knew what the features were going to be, so no need for Jobs to give a presentation. I just couldn't figure out what would make it a day I'd never forget. I guess I'm still wondering what about this is something I'd never forget. ~~~ panacea Ok, let's assume everyone knows who The Beatles are and will never forget them or their music (and above a certain age that is a more than reasonable assumption). So the teaser banner said: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget." Post announcement, you can read it as: "Today is just another day that you'll never forget The Beatles." Which is true (even though it was deceptive... but it was just a teaser banner on a website after all). ------ latch Ughh...truly I was hoping this wouldn't make it on here. ~~~ natep Well, the announcement post got >100 upvotes, so I think it's appropriate that the follow-up gets to the front page (even if it's anticlimactic). ------ sainttex This still doesn't explain why I haven't been able to add new applications to iTunes Connect for the past few days, until now. They seriously stopped that process for this? ~~~ sainttex Why the downvotes? This morning after they launched this, you could once again add apps and they'd actually show up in iTunes Connect. ------ itg This was blown way out of proportion by the media. Did anyone really think Apple would introduce streaming without Steve Jobs doing a presentation on it? ~~~ roc The media has no vested interest in maintaining skepticism anymore, on any event, in any context. People keep coming back to the respective sites no matter how many times they blow minor things out of proportion. No matter how many times they construct huge stories around zero facts. No matter how many times they skew things into a false dichotomy to rile up bases. No matter how many times they ignore the important in favor of the soundbite. So, yeah, _of course_ it was blown out of proportion. They had nothing else _easy_ to write about that would garner half as much attention as veiled promises of magic from Cupertino on an otherwise quiet Monday. ------ MykalM I not sure if they will make alot of money, If i remember right the copyright for the Beatles earliest songs are about to expire, i am wonder if EMI is doing this to squeeze any money out of these song? ~~~ bonaldi The copyright on the original vinyl performances is going to expire, hence the rash of remastering. New works = fresh copyright. ~~~ barclay Jesus. I had never realized that. ------ sandipc today's a day I won't forget? The day Apple announced yet another way to buy songs from the world's most popular band? ~~~ DrJokepu It's a reference to Beatles's[del][del][del] Paul McCartney's song "Another Day". And this is kind of a big deal as Beatles was one of the last really big top-tier bands that blocked every attempt to distribute their records online. They still cannot be streamed on Spotify but it's just a question of time now. I feel that many people here don't really appreciate the importance of this. This is really the beginning of the end of the old ways of the music recording industry, and a new music recording industry is emerging right now. Very interesting times indeed for those of us who are working in this field or anyone who loves music. And yes, it was Apple, not any of the major record labels or consumer electronics companies that has brought us this change. ~~~ coliveira I think this is more like the end of the end... The traditional model is dead for many years already. ~~~ glhaynes I was amazed to see someone say yesterday that 3/4ths of music is still sold on CDs. I can't remember the last time I even _considered_ buying a CD. ~~~ smackfu Easy to play CDs in the car. ~~~ leviathant Over two years ago I bought an Alpine head unit for my car that doesn't even take CDs. It has an iPod jack, a USB jack, and an 1/8" audio jack. The day before I installed that was the last day I even considered buying or burning audio CDs.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
BP Removed from Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes - moolave http://inspiredeconomist.com/2010/06/02/bp-removed-from-dow-jones-sustainability-indexes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+inspiredeconomist/com+(The+Inspired+Economist)&utm_content=Seesmic ====== alecco A few years ago I researched a tiny little bit available index funds. The so called ethical and sustainable funds looked as scams. Most were full of banks and investment firms. Now a sustainable index including one of the big oil corps. They are masters of doublespeak.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
German Addresses are Blocked: www.gutenberg.org - cydanil http://block.pglaf.org/germany.shtml ====== detaro previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16511038](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16511038) ------ CamTin Maybe somebody can explain why this US-based project has to respond to German court rulings in any way. Is there any reason not to just toss any scare letters in the trash can or say "Jump off a bridge, we're not in Germany"? ~~~ yayr [https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html](https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html) Q: So the court thinks that the presence of content in German means that courts in Germany have jurisdiction, regardless of the fact that PGLAF is entirely in the US? A: Yes, that was the original basis of the claim for jurisdiction, which the Court accepted in their judgement. Since then, there some more recent decisions in the European Court of Justice, and other German courts, that support this theory based on a Web site being accessible from a country. I.e., if a Web site is accessible from Germany, there are some cases where German courts claimed jurisdiction over that site, even though it was operated, and based, outside of Germany. These cases involve companies that actually operate (for-profit) in Europe, and the cases were between two European countries (i.e. part of the EU). They are not consistent with prior laws and cases, even in Europe, and also not consistent with provisions of the Berne Convention and other international law. In addition, PGLAF has pointed out that German is widely spoken in the US (the third-most common second language), and also is widely taught in schools and colleges. PGLAF has no actual presence or activity in Germany, and never did. ____ Essentially, this is similar to taxation, once you have certain business related activities in a country / region you become liable for taxes. In this case German copyright for these books is relevant 70 years after the death of the author, one may not like it, but it's the local law ~~~ Wowfunhappy But what businesses does Project Gutenberg have in Germany? _Not_ actively barring German visitors counts as doing business? If I spin up a random web server in the United States which so happens to be connectable from German IP addresses, but I don't do any actual business in Germany and I've never been to Germany, shouldn't Germany have zero jurisdiction over me? What if it was China or North Korea instead of Germany? I _definitely_ don't want to follow their laws! ~~~ yayr [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/nz-court- rules-k...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/nz-court-rules-kim- dotcom-can-be-extradited-to-us-on-copyright-charges/) again, one can like it or not, but the US practices similar court orders, even with magnitudes more impact on the responsible persons claimed to infringe the copyright ------ Dreami Wow, this is weird. I'm from Switzerland and I'm getting blocked since "I'm from Germany". They say to check Maxmind's DB and it clearly says Switzerland too. This reminds me of services blocking Switzerland because of EU regulations, even though it's not part of the EU. But country-specific blocking and misreading Switzerland for Germany, that's a new level. * it says they update the DB every month, so that could be an issue. It just seems a bit too wrong for me. ~~~ Dreami Edit: sent a feedback email, didn't see the address before. ------ ohiovr Not gutenough for Germany ironically ------ cydanil More details are available on their operation website: [https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html](https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html) It's a bit of a pity, especially when the law firm, Waldorf Frommer, doesn't seem to respect GDPR on their staff listing page: [https://www.waldorf- frommer.de/team/](https://www.waldorf-frommer.de/team/) ~~~ occamrazor In what sense aren’t they respecting GDPR? Most likely the staff authorized publication of photos and names on the website. ------ anotheryou Only certain publications are blocked, e.g.: [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31218](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31218) ~~~ skrause No, I can't access any books from my German IP address. ~~~ deivid I can access from my VPN hosted at hetzner ~~~ anotheryou via their dutch servers than I guess ------ growtofill (2018) ------ weinzierl This is about just a few publications from just three authors. The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the content. I think it's getting harder and harder for organizations like Project Gutenberg to do this kind of work - it's just too easy to get into trouble. ~~~ deogeo > The irony ist that it should be easy to get at least some of the books get > blocked in the US as well. Not for copyright reasons, but because of the > content. Can you elaborate? Because as far as I'm aware, thanks to the 1st amendment, not a single book is banned in the US. At most they're removed from public or school libraries. ~~~ renholder Correct, it looks like censorship, rather than out-right banning. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_States) ...but it's not like the United States has _never_ tried to ban books in the recent past. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchist_Cookbook#Legalit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchist_Cookbook#Legality) ~~~ ameliaquining That article lists four incidents that took place outside the U.S., plus one instance of what turns out to be the book's author arguing that its publisher should voluntarily stop printing it. No U.S. government censorship. Obviously there've been cases in the U.S. that came closer to government censorship of literature than this, but in general it remains the case that it's nearly impossible to get a book banned in the U.S.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why I hate Spring (2014) - neverminder http://samatkinson.com/why-i-hate-spring/ ====== stevesun21 I am not big fun of spring except JDBCtemplate. Overall, I think that too much XML/annotation configuration based tools fill in Java community and make a lot of people believe they know how to program, but actually just know how to twist XML file and @annotation without really understand how these things work together. Also, this means that after you programming this way in a long time, your programming skill set would be coupled to the J2EE world which is the most uncool part of Java community and also not healthy to your career.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google's new OnHub home Wi-Fi router: What is it and who might need it? - stevep2007 http://www.networkworld.com/article/2972815/internet-of-things/google-onhub-home-wi-fi-router-what-is-it-and-who-might-need-it.html?nsdr=true ====== stevep2007 Home Wi-Fi routers are often designed as unattractive, dumbed-downed versions of enterprise routers. Google's just-announced OnHub router takes a different approach – designed for consumers to connect everything to Google's and other clouds, it actually looks pretty sweet.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Good idea or not: freecycle for domain names - tedshroyer I have two domains that are expiring in a month that I bought thinking something was a great idea. Domain names are inexpensive, so why not? Now it's been a year and I don't really remember why I bought these domain names (pseudoactuality and questionablyvalid, fyi) and I'm not going to be using them for myself. I'd like it if there were a service where I could transfer them for free to someone who wants them. Would that be something worth making? ====== jamess Very good idea, I'd sooner give away a domain name to someone who was going to use it than let some blasted domain parking business get hold of it. On the other hand, I have no idea how you'd stop domain parkers from actually using the service to get domains for free. With freecycle itself, it's probably quite hard to hide that you're abusing it to make cash on ebay or something, but I don't know how you'd prevent that with non-physical goods. ~~~ vaksel by making it a pain in the ass...no domain parker is going to spend 1 minute requesting each domain. So just throw up a questionnaire that asks them who they are, what the domain is going to be used for, etc ~~~ jamess Wouldn't they just pay some Chinese sweat shop a dollar a throw or something? If they're saving money on registration fees, I don't see how making it a little awkward will deter them. ~~~ vaksel Well it'd be up to the user then. They'll get to see the questionnaire of each person who wants the domain...So if the user wants to give his domain to Landing Pages, INC instead of Blind Hungry Crippled Orphans Charity that's up to them. \+ You can let the user make their own questionnaire ...so they can make their questions be as relevant as they want. i.e. lets say you own something like newyorkjetsftw.com, you'd ask some questions that only a true Jets fan would know or someone who'd want to spend the 10 minutes hunting down the information ------ chris123 A few incomplete thoughts: Just let them expire and whoever wants to use them will (in theory) be able register them from. I.e., when you let them expire they will go back into the pool. I say "in theory" because of the possibility that domain name registrars will "taste" them <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting> and/or do something else to "grab" them and sell or auction them to the highest bidder in whatever marketplace they can expose the names to. Other downside is a domain name speculator will acquire and the the same. All this begs a debate on "right and wrong," which is a whole other topic. ~~~ tedshroyer One of my first experiences with letting a domain expire was with a domain called catbattle. I figured no one would pick up that name because it's stupid. It's been parked by the next person for 5 or 6 years now as a jump page for lots of cat ads. This sort of thing irritates me. I would rather have some kid get it and put a picture of his cat on it with some blinking text like "This is my cat! You are defeated!" I suppose what I really want is for a group of people that are interested in creating useful web content to have a chance at before it expires. My ideal target audience would be the readership here or a similar group. Just having a list of unused domain names registered by people on this site would be a valuable resource to me. I could get all sorts or ideas from it, make a comment on one of the names that inspired the owner to do something with it, or end up with a chance to collaborate with the owner on a joint idea. ------ cschneid I do that myself. I buy a domain name on a whim (alcohol sometimes present...), and then later the project never materializes. I've let a few expire, and a few I've "given" to charity by hosting something for them. Question: how do you handle multiple people wanting it? * First come first serve * "Bid" => money to charities * Fight to the death ~~~ pbrown Rock, paper, scissors. Seriously though, the bid (to charity) idea makes sense, but I foresee original owners getting greedy when they see what they could've gotten. Then they may pull it and "sell" it instead. You'd have to somehow set it up so they "give" a middle man the site, and then the middle man transfers it. Interesting idea though, I'm in. I've got about 15 domains I don't need. ------ lionheart Great idea. I know I've definitely got some domains that I'm not planning on using anymore. ------ petervandijck I do that too. Sounds like worth doing, for sure. ------ thorax Are you saying you also want to give away pseudoactuality.com and questionablyvalid.com? (Not that I'm going to want them, just clarifying.) ------ kajecounterhack ebay? I've seen it done before. ------ pclark tie it into Hacker News.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
RubySource » Everything About Ruby On Rails Development and Database Programming - niyas http://rubysource.com/ ====== comi9 hi there!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Silicon “sandwiches” make for lightweight, high-capacity batteries - praveenscience https://newatlas.com/energy/buckypaper-sandwiches-lightweight-high-capacity-silicon-anode-lithium-batteries/ ====== prideout I wonder why the researchers are more excited about space applications than electric cars. ~~~ philipkglass It sounds like an implicit admission that it can deliver superior performance but is expected to be too expensive for large scale applications like electric vehicles. I prefer that over the hubris of press releases that say a battery recently demonstrated in the lab could change the whole world in 5-10 years. ------ morceauxdebois Is the bar just really low for creating theoretically revolutionary battery technology? ~~~ treeman79 Research grants need justification. Shinny press release is a good start. Also when Working on a project with multi-decade timescales and low odds of success, you celebrate the wins you can. ~~~ Gravityloss There are a lot of teams on this subject. And it's deemed newsworthy as well.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Cassandra and Tableau or Cassandra and Elasticsearch and Kibana - sd_sangit I'm a student studying software engineering at San Jose State University. As a part of side project, I'm developing an application where data (NoSql) from Apache Cassandra needs to be visualized.<p>I'm having trouble coming up with a decision to use the right technology stack. IMO tableau is pretty rigid regarding the structure of data plus not free and so i'm leaning more towards elasticsearch and kibana. But the problem is the data is not huge and there is no requirement to search/retrieve full-text data. Hence i'm stuck between the two options.<p>Please guide me and also let me know if i can use alternative technologies ====== ddorian43 "the data is not huge" you probably don't need cassandra. ~~~ sd_sangit yes the motivation to use cassandra is to get familiarity. ~~~ ddorian43 then you can't do custom/complex queries on cassandra (which bi does/needs). so you either use spark(or something similar, like prestosql) or move the data somewhere else	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
US health insurers doubled profits in second quarter amid pandemic - ProAm https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/14/us-health-insurers-coronavirus-pandemic-profit ====== beckler Friend of mine works at Anthem doing dental contracts. He said they were making money hand over fist for the last few months, because everyone was still paying premiums, but no one was filing claims because most dentist offices were closed. ------ exabrial This headline reads like it's a bad thing... Elective procedures keep hospitals open and costs low. When we look at the year in whole, I'm sure things will even out. ------ missedthecue Well almost all elective procedures have been off the table for 4 or 5 months here so i'm not sure why this should come as surprise to anyone.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Is HTTPS://Basic.lol Legit - scorchingsun https://basic.lol/ ====== JMTQp8lwXL If you look at any other marketplace, gift cards typically sell somewhere from 10% less original value, to the oddball occasional dollar or two over nominal value. I wouldn't trust this.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
AnalyticsMD (YC W15) Applies AI to Optimize the ER - muditgarg http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/28/analyticsmd/ ====== tdaltonc I know a lot of ER doctors. They all hate the software that they have to work with; especially the "resource control" software that stands between them and the drugs and tools they need to treat people. This seems like another tool in that direction. It seems designed to take decision making away from doctors and put it in the hands of management. What do you expect that this tool will do for the working environment of ER doctors and nurses? Or the relationship between them and their patients? ~~~ muditgarg Good question. ER doctors hate when software gets in the way of their clinical decision making. We deliver recommendations to the front line managers but they decide what to act upon. One of the most frustrating things for the doctors often is when they are waiting to treat the patients but can't because there are no beds, or not enough staff or labs are not coming back. Our software anticipates those problems and recommends taking out those bottlenecks in advance. Our hope is that we will make the day of the staff in the ER much less stressful and allow them to focus on spending more time with the patients. ------ muditgarg Just launched our product on TechCrunch. Helping hospitals run smoothly a challenging problem but one we care a lot about. If any of you want to talk about this or have stories from waiting in the ER or a doctors office please share :) ~~~ mendelc Congrats! ~~~ muditgarg Thanks @mendelc ------ monksy How has this performed in the real world? Has it been tried in high traffic areas? (i.e. chicago/nyc) ~~~ 0xdeadbeefbabe Does it get reinforced for doing an obviously bad or good job? ~~~ muditgarg Yes. Our data feeds include the outcome variables we are optimizing for which helps the algorithms retrain as new patterns emerge. ------ kakoni Can you tell more about DecisionOS? Is this something you've built inhouse or is it based on MLLib etc? ------ ratpik How does this data enter your system? ~~~ muditgarg Unfortunately, there aren't any great APIs in the health IT world but we integrate with various hospital systems. We do not ask staff to enter any additional data than what is already in these systems ------ elyrly Is there any lash back from integrating with Epic within the Hospitals? ------ atratus What is your tech stack?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Virtual Femto Photography - wallflower https://benedikt-bitterli.me/femto.html ====== luckystarr This is utterly beautiful. The first example (very simplified) shows a very simple pulse of light and what arises is of intriguing complexity. I immediately thought about Feynman talking about the "TREMENDOUS mess"[1] bouncing around the room. I can't even begin to imagine it. 1\. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG0nFFDrFHM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG0nFFDrFHM) ------ rwmj I thought light doesn't move in a straight line, but instead takes all paths from the source to the destination (it's just that most paths cancel each other out)? ~~~ dr_zoidberg Without trying to think too much over it (still haven't had my morning coffee), I think your representation of light corresponds to a wave vision. However, per wave-particle duality, you can also consider light as moving photons (particle vision of light) and then yes, every single photon moves in a straight light (tries to). So it depends in how you're trying to see light. ~~~ jwmerrill As far as I can tell, this "buckshot theory of photons" is a heuristic that is never actually formalized or used in serious calculations. In actual quantum optics calculations I have seen, a photon is a quantized excitation of a mode of an optical system, and it is definitely not localized to a moving point in space. There are "wave packets" that are somewhat localized in space and move together, but these are not the same as "photons". ~~~ dr_zoidberg The wave packets interpretation reminds me of Schrödinger, but I don't remember exactly why it was dropped back in the day (circa 1940). Sorry I'm so sloppy on these topics, I never studied them formally ("mathematically" if you will -- think what I did more like a "history of quantum mechanics" course) and it's also been a long since last read about. ------ ykl Amazing work from the author, as usual. For anyone who isn't familiar with the rest of Benedikt's work, it's absolutely worth taking a look at.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Anyone ever had a business coach? - l33tbro Anyone ever had a business coach?<p>Interested to hear the context and how you found the overall experience. ====== JacobAldridge Biased response - I am a business coach, and have used one as well. Happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. Warning: a LOT of a business coaches are a waste of money. I've been coaching around the world for 8 years, so must be doing something right, and even I would consider myself a poor investment for a non-funded startup. For larger, faster growing businesses, the problem with most business coaches is, well, 'coaching'. Pure coaching works from the assumption that the client knows everything, they just need the right questions to draw it out of them. In small business, that's complete BS. Most businesses are run by people who are good at what they do, not because they did an MBA and decide to go code / learn plumbing / become an architect. They need some direct business consulting expertise, and a coaching methodology to embed the key points so you're not constantly paying a consultant to come in and do the work for you. Some good articles: [1] [http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/are- business-c...](http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/are-business- coaches-a-waste-of-time-20140422-371gx.html) [2] [http://jacobaldridge.com/business/4-characteristics-of- great...](http://jacobaldridge.com/business/4-characteristics-of-great- business-coaches/) ~~~ l33tbro Interesting. I'll have a look at these links. Same as anything I suppose - fossicking through the supply to weed out the charlatans for the people with substance and authenticity. I guess my questions are around extracting goals and milestones from people. I, probably like many you coach, have that problem of not being able to crystalise exactly what it is that I want. So would you say that helping someone find what they want is a big part of it? ~~~ JacobAldridge _would you say that helping someone find what they want is a big part of it?_ Absolutely - in fact, that's one of the few topics where pure coaching really can help, and it can usually be reached in 1-2 meetings (rather than signing up for a long course - see that first article for some lock-in rip offs). ------ TomSteck Yes, I had a professional coach and I find professional coaching process very useful, because it helps you to verify your own beliefs and actions, in a way you won't be able to do it yourself, neither with your friends or business partners. At the same time, I am aware that there are plenty of people that call themselves 'business/life/name-it coaches' having no idea what professional coaching is. If you are looking for an experienced and professional coach, first of all you should look for a person with accreditation of any big international coach organisation, e.g. ICF [1] is one of the biggest organisation that sets professional coaching standards. You should also understand how professional coaching differs from pseudo- coaching, so if a 'business coach' offers you to share their knowledge or give you an advice, they are NOT really a professional coach [2]. And this is the moment when you realize, that there is a profession called "professional coaching" and a life coaching, business coaching, executive coaching, etc. are only branding/marketing titles, and if a coach is certified/accredited by a large coaching organisation, they should use exactly the same tools to help their clients achieve their goals (regardless of their 'marketing title'). [1] [http://www.coachfederation.org](http://www.coachfederation.org) [2] [http://www.coachfederation.org/need/landing.cfm?ItemNumber=9...](http://www.coachfederation.org/need/landing.cfm?ItemNumber=978&navItemNumber=567)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
In-Memory Performance for Big Data (2014) [pdf] - lichtenberger http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol8/p37-graefe.pdf ====== Rafuino Has this pointer swizzling concept been adapted by any big data-focused databases? Would be interesting to see how this works with bigger pools of volatile and persistent memory (disclaimer: I work at Intel on Optane DC SSD/PM-related things). ~~~ lichtenberger BTW: What's your take on random read speed? I think with SSDs now and maybe NVRAM in the future we can address physical storage more fine granular than with HDDs and for instance with [http://sirix.io](http://sirix.io) data is only clustered during writes (batched and synced to the flash drive) and it versions variable length in-memory and physical pages such that not every record has to be copied and written again. For instance to reconstruct a page we have to read from random places (maybe in parallel) to reconstruct a page in-memory. Thus Sirix relies on fast random read speed and on find granular access to the physical stored records. ~~~ Rafuino My take on random read speed? Check out this paper from Lenovo testing the performance of Optane DC Persistent Memory on their servers: [https://lenovopress.com/lp1083.pdf](https://lenovopress.com/lp1083.pdf). There's another good paper from a team at UCSD testing all sorts of usages and file systems with NVRAM here too: [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.05714.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.05714.pdf). Sirix sounds like a good fit to take advantage of App Direct access on Optane DCPM, but you're way more of an expert than me. Perhaps make a request for alpha access at GCP to test Sirix with the new tech? [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeX1tN6Qt- aQUK2iVVi...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeX1tN6Qt- aQUK2iVVioClFX5N-061jqO46vzpHzAPHkjwzVw/viewform) ------ cl0ckt0wer Had to look this up: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_swizzling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_swizzling) ~~~ petergeoghegan The term pointer swizzling isn't familiar to me, but it seems to be the same technique by which variable-width tuples on a page are accessed via a fixed width item pointer array (sometimes called an indirection vector) within most database systems. ------ mpweiher Interesting, sounds a bit like the way write-barriers made the combination of copying garbage collectors and direct object pointers feasible.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Researchers hack Siri from 16 feet away - dosapati http://www.businessinsider.com/siri-silently-hacked-from-16-feet-away-by-french-researchers-2015-10 ====== ChuckMcM Interesting inducing audio on the wire of a connected pair of headphones. (lousy shielding, coax wouldn't work but nobody seems to have coax headphone cables at the low end :-) I've always wondered what would happen if broadcast "Ok Google, call 555-1212, ok" over a loudspeaker in a crowded shopping mall. How many people's phones would simply obey? ~~~ egeozcan Wasn't there actually a radio ad which just did that? edit: found it [http://www.cultofmac.com/328705/toyota-radio-ad-shuts- down-i...](http://www.cultofmac.com/328705/toyota-radio-ad-shuts-down-iphones- because-drivers-wont/) ------ biot A few weeks ago I was in a meeting and Siri blurted out "Sorry I didn't get that". I've never had "hey Siri" activated (I immediately verified) and nothing was plugged into my iPhone 5. Rather disconcerting. ~~~ prawn It will activate if you hold down the home button, something that can easily happen accidentally when your phone is in your pocket or otherwise squashed against something. Mine activated the other day in that manner and my three year old looked around wildly, then said "Was that the robot lady?!" ~~~ biot It was sitting face-up on a table. Other than the possibility of a flaky home button, I'm chalking this one up to the NSA. :) ------ fuzzywalrus There's a few things that seem key to this: Leaving "hey siri" and "ok google" on at all times, requires relatively noise free environment. Also, with the always on feature, you need to properly address one's phone. Simply changing Siri to "Stupidhead" would render the always on attack moot. It's interesting but without direct access, there's only minimal information to be gleaned as commanding Siri to look up the most recent call would only allow the attack to see the most recent call with a direct LOS. Also, this recap can be skipped by going to the original wired article: [http://www.wired.com/2015/10/this-radio-trick-silently- hacks...](http://www.wired.com/2015/10/this-radio-trick-silently-hacks-siri- from-16-feet-away/) ~~~ PerryCox Siri can't be renamed to stupidhead or anything else for that matter, but the always listening feature can be disabled. ~~~ fuzzywalrus I stand corrected, I assumed that you could as you can rename what Siri calls you. Learn something new every day. ------ orahlu This was presented at SSTIC 2015. paper (in french): [https://www.sstic.org/media/SSTIC2015/SSTIC- actes/injection_...](https://www.sstic.org/media/SSTIC2015/SSTIC- actes/injection_commandes_vocales_ordiphone/SSTIC2015-Article- injection_commandes_vocales_ordiphone-kasmi_lopes-esteves_9giaJ0T.pdf) video (in french): [http://static.sstic.org/videos2015/SSTIC_2015-06-03_P09_AGRE...](http://static.sstic.org/videos2015/SSTIC_2015-06-03_P09_AGREMI.mp4) ------ dkokelley As presented, people are only vulnerable if they: \- Allow Siri from the lock screen \- Have headphones plugged in (presumably Apple's) \- Are not using their device or have their headphones in (otherwise the attack would be detected immediately) OR: \- Have audible feedback from Siri disabled P.S. Link to source article: [http://www.wired.com/2015/10/this-radio-trick- silently-hacks...](http://www.wired.com/2015/10/this-radio-trick-silently- hacks-siri-from-16-feet-away/) Original research publication: [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=tru...](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=7194754) ~~~ TazeTSchnitzel > \- Allow Siri from the lock screen Lots of people use 'Hey Siri', myself included. > \- Have headphones plugged in (presumably Apple's) Not that unlikely. > \- Are not using their device or have their headphones in (otherwise the > attack would be detected immediately) OR: > \- Have audible feedback from Siri disabled These would be the killers. The moment Siri's activated you'd hear it loudly in your ears. ~~~ Laaw So what? You know your phone visited a website, but if that site had a zero- day, would it matter? ~~~ dkokelley Generally the result is not immediate. The speed of your network and Siri's delay you should have a second or two to interrupt the attack.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
London Stock Exchange under major cyberattack during Linux switch - DMPenfold2008 http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/open-source/3258808/london-stock-exchange-under-major-cyberattack-during-linux-switch/ ====== badwetter Let me get this straight; Which system was hacked Linux or MSFT?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
"I’m starting another content company, and I plan to make a fortune" - kerno http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/04/im-starting-another-content-company-and-i-plan-to-make-a-fortune/ ====== kevbam Anyone here making money from a content website? I have often thought of starting one, but I am unsure whether or not they could be profitable?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why Art Could Become Currency in a Cryptocurrency World - jchrisa http://thenewstack.io/why-art-could-become-currency-in-a-cryptocurrency-world/ ====== jchrisa This is a follow up to an earlier article on the idea. [http://www.wired.com/2014/07/document- coin/](http://www.wired.com/2014/07/document-coin/) TLDR: Bitcoin is made of CPU-time, this cryptocurrency is made of art. Double spending is not technologically restricted, just socially unacceptable. Unlike Bitcoin, art money reserves a place in the deep future for human values.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Fukushima accident was preventable - Oatseller http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/2053/20140379 ====== bsder Of course it was, as were things like the explosions afterward. However, _management_ always gets in the way--either up front, because there is profit pressure, or on the backend, because there is profit and/or political pressure. This paper covers the up front failures. However, backend failures, like spraying water on the core ( _NOT_ one of the established procedures because calm engineers knew that the reactor could dissociate the hydrogen and oxygen) rather than letting the core melt into the bottom of the containment area _which was designed to deactivate and contain the core_ , were also rampant. This was just like Three Mile Island. If people had _sat on their hands, done nothing, and let the engineered last-chance safety systems do their job_ , things would have turned out better. Reactors should not be for-profit. Rickover showed us all how to do it right, but we lack the stomach. Here is his quote about real reactors: "On the other hand, a practical reactor plant can be distinguished by the following characteristics: (1) It is being built now. (2) It is behind schedule. (3) It is requiring an immense amount of development on apparently trivial items. Corrosion, in particular, is a problem. (4) It is very expensive. (5) It takes a long time to build because of the engineering development problems. (6) It is large. (7) It is heavy. (8) It is complicated." ~~~ dredmorbius The point that it's _organisational_ and _management_ issues which so frequently seem to be behind major disasters -- four of the larger nuclear accidents (Fukushima, the earlier Japanese criticality incident at Tokaimura, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island), as well as numerous other large-scale industrial accidents, of which energy systems play a large role: the BP Gulf Oil spill, Exxon Valdez, Banqiao Dam (China, 1975), recent South Carolina flooding and dam bursts, the Union Carbide Bhopal, India, disaster. _You cannot engineer out human nature._ This isn't a root cause for which there are technical solutions. I _hugely_ recommend Charles Perrow's _Normal Accidents_ and _The Next Catastrophe_. As well as other writings. Note that Rickover also wished we'd never gone to the nuclear option. He defended his choice for lack of options, but would have preferred to see all plants mothballed. "Paper Reactors", which you quote in part, is _excellent_. ~~~ ars > You cannot engineer out human nature. This isn't a root cause for which > there are technical solutions. Have you heard the saying: In the future they will be staffed by a man and a dog. The man to feed the dog, and the dog to bark at the man in case he tries to touch anything. ~~~ dredmorbius I have. Frequently when making comments similar to those above ;-) (The dog is doing his job....) ------ nickff As I understand it, the Fukushima plant was never designed or rated to sustain such a large earthquake or tsunami. If this understanding is correct, we should not have expected it to survive the damage, and the problems were not with the design, but perhaps with the specification (depending on whether you think this should have been foreseen). It seems to be a common thread with all tragedies and disasters that people suffer from hindsight bias, and believe that this specific case should have been foreseen. It is not clear what the cost of building everything to sustain all similar low-probability events would be, and whether doing so would be statistical murder. ~~~ PaulHoule If you read closely you see that the accident was so bad because of one simple problem. If a nuclear reactor has a cooling failure, the fuel will eventually heat up and then melt down. To prevent this you have to keep water circulating around the reactor core. It doesn't take a huge amount of energy to do this, but it does take some. If the power goes out at the station and they can't get emergency power, the outcome is very bad. If they had spent maybe $300k or so they could have moved the emergency generators a little bit higher up. With that investment there still would have been serious damage to the plant but only a very limited release of radioactivity because the fuel integrity and the coarse integrity of the plant would have been protected. ~~~ ansible _If a nuclear reactor has a cooling failure, the fuel will eventually heat up and then melt down. To prevent this you have to keep water circulating around the reactor core._ This is the one simple problem. There are now reactor designs that are passively fail-safe. So that even if all the pumps and everything stop, it will still not result in an explosion or otherwise serious release of radioactive material. I don't know how much those sorts of designs were developed at the time Fukushima was commissioned though. ~~~ guscost BWR reactors like Fukushima are all passive-safe in at least one way, since water moderates the neurons coming off the critical materials, slowing them enough to continue the reaction. If the water boils away, sure the thing will almost certainly melt but there won't be a runaway prompt-critical event like Chernobyl, and if the concrete "bathtub" around the core holds, there won't be much radioactive material released into the groundwater either. From what I heard the concern at Fukushima was that the earthquake had compromised the integrity of the containment structure, so allowing the core to melt down was judged as too risky (I'm not sure if I agree with that decision, but of course my opinion in hindsight is not relevant). In fact the majority of radioactive material that was released in the incident might have leaked from the spent fuel storage, which was also damaged in the earthquake: [http://web.mit.edu/nse/pdf/news/2011/Fukushima_Lessons_Learn...](http://web.mit.edu/nse/pdf/news/2011/Fukushima_Lessons_Learned_MIT- NSP-025.pdf) ------ Johnny555 Isn't every accident preventable in hindsight since you know exactly what the failure mode was? If they'd built the generators on a hillside that was washed away in a mudslide the article would read "Critical backup generators were built on unstable hillside despite warnings from scientists". ~~~ WalterBright The idea with building safe systems is not to imagine what could cause subsystem X to fail, but to figure out how to cope when subsystem X fails. The most obvious design failure at Fukushima was not "how big a tsunami we should protect against" but not asking "how will we cope when the seawall fails". If the critical backup generators had been in a bunker designed to protect them from a seawall breach, the disaster would not have happened. ~~~ lucozade Although it's been a very long time since I did engineering that could actually kill people, this idea that you focus on what can go wrong and how you mitigate it has stuck with me and has proved useful in lots of things. Having said that, the next questions are usually: what is the likelihood of it going wrong and what is the cost of mitigation? I don't envy the people making those decisions on something like a nuclear reactor, with or without hindsight. ~~~ WalterBright At some point, you do assign a probability of systemic failure threshold, as nothing is perfect. The idea behind orthogonal backups, however, is that since they are independent, very high reliability can be achieved with low reliable components. For example, if you've got a main with 90% reliability, and a backup with 90% reliability, the combined reliability is 99%. This can be a lot easier and less expensive to achieve than making one component 99%. The backup generators could have a cheap extra seawall built around them, or could have simply raised them up on a 10 foot platform, or built them with snorkels like a jeep designed to cross streams. Building a heftier main seawall would have been an order of magnitude or two more expensive. ------ Oatseller It's a long read, here's a link to an article that summarizes some of the study's findings. [http://news.usc.edu/86362/fukushima-disaster-was- preventable...](http://news.usc.edu/86362/fukushima-disaster-was-preventable- new-study-finds/) ------ FussyZeus Here's something about the real world: Things break. Shit happens. We can sit on a chair now and look back and point out all the things that could've been done better, and I honestly don't see the value in it. When the World Trade Center was built, it was designed to withstand the impact of a common airplane at the time and remain structurally sound. The engineers didn't envision a 757 being flown into them, and so they fell. Does that mean they were engineered poorly too? 9/11 would've been prevented if we built additional structure around the WTC each year to accommodate newer, larger, heavier aircraft, but at what point do you rule safety cost as too high to be justified? On the same note, Fukushima survived a storm massively larger than it was ever meant to. It still failed, but it did so in a way that prevented any direct deaths. As nuclear "disasters" go, I honestly don't even think Fukushima should be among them. Considering what COULD have happened, very little actually happened. How about we just agree to say we got lucky this time and do better in the future? ~~~ mikeyouse > As nuclear "disasters" go, I honestly don't even think Fukushima should be > among them. Considering what COULD have happened, very little actually > happened. There are hundreds of square miles still in the exclusion zone and some 80,000 people haven't been able to return to their homes.. I'd say a nuclear meltdown that displaces tens of thousands of people and costs several hundred billion dollars to clean up qualifies as a 'disaster'. ~~~ thaumasiotes Eh. A traditional disaster kills people. ~~~ dalke Eh? I don't think "a traditional disaster" means what you think it means. The Cerro Grande Fire destroyed about 420 homes and caused ~$1 billion in damages but no one died. The Bel Air Fire destroyed 484 homes but again left no fatalities. Tropical Storm Fay hit Texas and nine counties in Texas were declared disaster areas, but again, no fatalities. ~~~ FussyZeus But that's just stuff, the majority of which was probably insured and even if it wasn't, all of it can (theoretically) be replaced. People can't. ~~~ dalke I don't understand your response. When was there ever a tradition where something had to have deaths in order for it to be called a "disaster"? I gave three counter-examples of events which were labeled disasters but which had no fatalities. While what you said is (theoretically) true, all evidence is that it's appropriate to use the term "disaster" for something which 'displaces tens of thousands of people and costs several hundred billion dollars', and there's no need to distinguish between 'traditional' and 'modern' definitions. How does your comment fit into that context? ------ jonknee In hindsight all accidents are preventable. ~~~ kevan > The Fukushima accident was preventable, if international best practices and > standards had been followed, if there had been international reviews, and > had common sense prevailed in the interpretation of pre-existing geological > and hydrodynamic findings. I think the main point is that the damage wasn't caused by a freak storm that no one could have predicted. It was caused by a series of mistakes that we shouldn't have made with the knowledge we had at the time. ~~~ PaulHoule The report says that for less than $1M they could have raised the emergency generators up higher in which case they could have maintained reactor cooling and had reactor damage but no major harm. Also there was evidence of similar events in the inhabited past. ------ craigching > causing the third most severe accident in an NPP ever. I thought this was the second most severe nuclear power plant accident. Obviously Chernobyl is the first, so what is the second according to this article? ~~~ keypusher Hmm. According to the International Nuclear Event Scale, there have only been 2 events at the most severe level (7): Chernobyl and Fukushima. There was 1 event at a rating of 6, which was a Soviet explosion in 1957. There was also the Three Mile Island accident, which cost a lot of money to clean up (~$1 billion) but I don't think the severity was anywhere near Fukushima. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Sc...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Scale#Details) ------ Animats With that Mk 1 reactor design, lose cooling water for 4-6 hours and you get a meltdown. The containment vessel is too small for the pressures in a worst- case accident. It's just not a good design. Peach Bottom station in Pennsylvania has the same Mk 1 design, and that's been a worry for years. They now have extra backup power systems of different types and multiple cooling water sources for that reason. ------ lurkinggrue Aren't all accidents preventable? ------ NumberCruncher >> The 11 March 2011 tsunami was probably the fourth largest in the past 100 years and killed over 15 000 people. For me it still sounds to be a moronic idea to buid a nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Or even to live there. ------ jrjr Could have all been avoided. Japan's power consists of Fiefdoms and no cooperation from adjacent working power sources at that time. They could have run an "extension cord" and saved themselves from the entire mess. ------ jessaustin Of course they _have_ to say that. If they admitted how dangerous nuclear power is, the bribes required to force the taxpayer to build new plants would be simply _enormous_. ~~~ Avshalom Literally no one died of radiation due to Fukushima. ~~~ Karunamon As much as the parent comment is content-free, direct deaths aren't the only thing to consider. There's also cancer and other diseases that can be caused because of the increased radiation in the area, including that which got into the food chain. ~~~ Avshalom Yeah... the number of those deaths is estimated at somewhere between 0 and 100. Which is to say such a tiny number that it won't be empirically distinguishable from normal fluctuations. ~~~ Karunamon I said _diseases_ , not deaths. Cancer isn't always fatal, but they impact the quality of life for the sufferers as well as putting an economic burden on the healthcare system. ~~~ pdkl95 Ok. That's still only a handful of people in the worst cases. Now what is the cost to the healthcare system of the coal power generation that replaced the nuclear power stations that were shutdown after the tsunami? ------ worik Really this is silly. People who advocate nuclear power do not understand the difference between "risk" and "uncertainty". "Risk" is where the probabilities of occurrence can be estimated and the consequences predicted. "Uncertainty" is the set of other things going wrong. Nuclear risk can be managed: We can contain a nuclear pile, we can design piping to withstand wear and sopply redundancy. But with a nuclear power station if some thing unforeseen happens to the containment vessel the consequences are ruin and effectively unbounded catastrophe. A coal burning stations are dirty polluting monstrosities (at their best) but it is all risk. Not that I am advocating coal, I am not! But nuclear is no replacement. We are much better to do without energy than build nuclear power plants. But the main incentive for nuclear power is making materials for bombs, IMO	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Docker Now Part Of Red Hat OpenShift - KenCochrane http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/19/dotcloud-pivots-and-wins-big-with-docker-the-cloud-service-now-part-of-red-hat-openshift/ ====== hosay123 Are you shitting me? Docker is a horrible little Go binary that doesn't even clean up after itself properly when you CTRL+C it. It's barely documented, it does barely anything except some macro combinations of tar+wget+lxc with a schmoozy web site on top. Who is pushing this thing? Why does anyone even care about it? Does anyone even know what a Linux container is? ~~~ druiid Well, I imagine given the current love of Docker on this site you're going to be down-voted with a quickness, but from what I've seen and done with it so far I really don't see the great benefit of it over standard LXC. Essentially it's a neat wrapper and has some cool API features, but I don't see the benefit beyond that. Honestly if I was/am going to hitch my cart to LXC I'd probably be going the libvirt-lxc route so I'd be dealing with something of an actual standard. Edit: I suppose one reason people might prefer Docker over libvirt would be no XML blegh, but it's honestly not that bad. ~~~ hosay123 It seems like the core of Docker is little more than a helper script that should be part of libvirt or LXC proper (which btw, already has a system for building containers from a template), but that would involve less horn-blowing and web design than it would submitting boring, well-tested old patches upstream. ~~~ justinsb DotCloud have done a wonderful job of popularizing the idea of LXC containers with Docker. I think the idea of LXC containers as software-distribution mechanism is a great one, and I credit Docker with getting that idea into my mind. It is great to see that many of Docker's ideas are being implemented upstream; e.g. LXC added support for BtrFS snapshots shortly after Docker launched. Sounds like OpenShift is considering which Docker ideas belong in their platform. It can sometimes be hard to work with upstream projects, who often have a different world-view. I do like the idea of releasing a "sacrificial lamb" project that is a demonstration of your ideas, even if long-term all the ideas belong upstream (i.e. LXC in the case of Docker). ~~~ shykes I think jQuery is a good analogy. One day jquery might be unnecessary, when all browsers everywhere implement all the high-level API goodness. In the meantime... :) ~~~ justinsb A great analogy. Hopefully - just like jQuery - you can get Microsoft on board with LXC as well :-) ------ golubbe This was an awesome collaboration. Over 15 senior contributors at Red Hat working with us at Docker. ------ KenCochrane Here is a blog post from docker: [http://blog.docker.io/2013/09/red-hat-and- docker-collaborate...](http://blog.docker.io/2013/09/red-hat-and-docker- collaborate/) ~~~ agibsonccc Red Hats: [http://www.redhat.com/about/news/press-archive/2013/9/red- ha...](http://www.redhat.com/about/news/press-archive/2013/9/red-hat-and- dotcloud-collaborate-on-docker-to-bring-next-generation-linux-container- enhancements-to-openshift) ------ shizcakes Will you continue supporting Ubuntu / Non-redhat kernel versions as well as previously? Or does this portend a move like what happened with Gluster? ~~~ shykes No, Docker is not becoming red hat - specific. From a technical standpoint this announcement means two things: 1) Docker 0.7 will run on vanilla kernels out of the box. This means virtually all distros will be supported. It also means wider support for hosting providers which don't allow custom kernels (Google Compute Engine for example). 2) Future versions of Docker will _optionally_ support some of the technology used by Red Hat - most prominently libvirt-lxc and selinux. The more places you can use Docker, the more useful it is :) So we have no intention of locking it into a single distro or paas. ~~~ SEJeff I'm assuming by SELinux you mean the work ontop of SELinux for virtual machines and containers with libvirtd named sVirt[1]? [1] [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SVirt_Mandatory_Acce...](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SVirt_Mandatory_Access_Control) ~~~ shykes That seems like the most probable path, although I can't speak for the people making that contribution. What I mean, regardless of how we actually implement, is having an elegant way to deploy containers in environments where the sysadmin relies on SELinux contexts and labels to implement security. ------ raphinou Any info on the switch from Aufs? What is the new solution, and how does it compare? ~~~ golubbe We're using device-mapper thin provisioning technology. Same copy-on-write capabilities, but more compatible with upstream kernel versions ~~~ teraflop Cool. Are there any open issues where those of us who are interested can follow the details? My main question is whether this will require users to create a fixed-size filesystem for each container up front, like you would have to do if you were using LVM snapshots directly. ~~~ jpetazzo Each container will have a "fixed-size filesystem", but: \- it will be thinly provisioned (i.e. it can be 10G or 100G but still use only a few MB on disk if it's essentially empty, like a sparse file), \- it can be grown easily. On the one hand, it's a bit less convenient because you have to care about the disk usage. On the other hand, it's great because a single container can't eat up all your precious disk space (and if you want to run some public/semi-public stuff that's quasi mandatory). If you want to check the current code, you can look here: [https://github.com/alexlarsson/docker/tree/device- mapper3](https://github.com/alexlarsson/docker/tree/device-mapper3) ------ Nux This is good news, docker is getting more serious. :-) Thanks god they got rid of aufs! ~~~ connerbryan Why "thank god"? I'm not trying to be snarky or rude, I'm wondering what's so bad about it? ~~~ antocv There isnt much bad that I see about it but it isnt supported by most vanilla kernels, so for example to get it on ArchLinux I spent a little time to get that into a kernel, only later to find out I forgot my virtualbox modules. Hassle. I think the idea of unionfs should be in a kernel.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Remote debug and live update tool for Unity - bananaboy http://u3d.as/sHr ====== bananaboy This is a tool that I'm selling on the Unity asset store. It's a live update tool for builds that have been deployed to a device (e.g. phone, HoloLens etc). It's mostly transparent; it uses reflection to find all public fields and private fields marked up with SerializeField on all components of GameObjects in a scene. It serialises all that data and sends it back to the client running in Unity. Any changes you make in the tool in Unity are sent back to the server and committed to the GameObjects. I actually think this sort of feature should be built in to Unity; a lot of AAA engines have things like this. It's really handy for debugging issues that only happen on device or for tweaking settings like UI layout on device. Deploying to some platforms like iOS and HoloLens can be time consuming when you just want to tweak something, because you have to build out to an Xcode or Visual Studio project, build the project, package/archive, and then deploy to the device. Happy to answer any questions here!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Easy sorting in Go - miolini https://github.com/miolini/easysort ====== zzzcpan Yeah, OO interface for sort from Go's standard library is crap. But why reflect and all that magic? I was expecting something based on function literals as a decent way to sort truly arbitrary data and not break context. ~~~ miolini Could you please get some example? ------ patrickmn Same idea: [https://github.com/patrickmn/sortutil](https://github.com/patrickmn/sortutil) Wish it was easier without reflection. ~~~ miolini Thanks. But it's also use reflect package.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }

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