Datasets:

parameterlab
/

scaling_mia_the_pile_00_HackerNews

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (3)

train · 52.4k rows

text stringlengths 44 776k	meta dict
Does a narcissism epidemic exist in modern western societies? - maximveksler https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5783345/ ====== hello_1234 I wonder if narcissism and individualism are also linked to higher suicide rates. ~~~ czbond Possibly; however, aren't the depression rates in Russia pretty high as well? I, being a very independent American, feel that high rates of individualism are a good thing and provide inner power to continue when situations become difficult. ~~~ smt88 I think Russia has extremely high rates of alcoholism, seasonal depression must also be an issue. I just don't think you can learn much by comparing Russia with western Europe and North America. There are too many radically different variables. ------ justboxing Yes, and Instagram is at the forefront of perpetuating this...[1] Source: [https://lendedu.com/blog/millennials-instagram- narcissistic-...](https://lendedu.com/blog/millennials-instagram-narcissistic- social-media-platform/) See the chart comparing narcissism on various social platforms.... The 'Gram is waaay ahead. ~~~ natecavanaugh I tend to agree whole heartedly, but at the same time, IG seems, IMO, to feel a lot less toxic than Twitter. It's a small sample set, and perhaps not really indicative of much besides my personal feeds, but IG definitely has a lot more self promotion, but my Twitter feed comes off far more as a place for people to air their quick take criticisms and gripes. Shallow "hey look at me posts" don't bother me as much as just a lot of generally, even if mildly, negative thoughts and observations. Admittedly, I've long had a very strained and irritated relationship with my Twitter feed, even if I still enjoy the people I follow personally. I just get a much more negative feeling when using Twitter. Just could be me though. ------ lr4444lr I'm sorry, but I can't take such a study seriously when it's using data collected from East Germany pre fall of Communism, when it had one of if not the most intrusive surveillance societies in human history. There's simply too great a possibility that the fear of study participants would have altered their responses to avoid reprisal. To a lesser extent, I'd cast a skeptical glance on this kind of data any society with collectivist pressures until presented with a very high standard of evidence that the participants were convincingly guaranteed their responses were untraceably dissociated from their regular lives. ~~~ nisa Did you read the abstract? They conducted an online survey and asked where the participants where coming from. They collected the data a few months ago. Besides that you seem to have no idea how society actually worked in Eastern Germany - trust to medical personel was actually pretty high and health care was good. STEM subjects were hard science and also medicine education was good. Not sure about psychiatry but western countries did lobotomy until the 80ies... So I guess if they would have screened in the GDR for that, the data might be accurate enough - but you didn't bother to read the abstract. Stasi worked different - they didn't bother with regular folks but were focussed on dissidents (wearing blue jeans and having long hair was often enough, through) and people in power positions or with connections outside of GDR were targeted. Reprisal was not like in North Korea where you end up in the gulag (stuff like that happend, I just want to clarify not excuse them) - it was a much more nuanced system - you don't get the flat or job an stuff like this. People planning for or announcing public discontent with system got often harsh treatment but everday folks could speak open as long as you didn't articulate discontent with the system - even that was allowed to a certain degree. ------ Ghonorea Edgyyy	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The History of the URL: Domain, Protocol, and Port - zackbloom https://eager.io/blog/the-history-of-the-url-domain-and-protocol/ ====== gumby This is a good article. A few nits: It was _the_ ARPANET (or _the_ arpanet since most systems were case- insensitive in those days - Multics, and later Unix, were exceptions, not the rule) as in area's network, that used arpanet protocols like NCP. You do use "the" the first time in your article but seem to have dropped it after that. CHAOSNET was just a LAN protocol like "ethernet" or pup -- also used what we call 10base2 "thicknet" coax. It was developed at MIT's AI Lab and was pretty much used only there and at a few institutions close to MIT like Symbolics and LMI. In the NCP days routing was handled by IMPs (Interface Message Processors) which were not PDPD-11s, and when '11s were used they were smaller than the 11/70s which you used to illustrate the article (11/70s were the largest PDP-11s made -- still 16 bit unlike the 36-bit PDP-10s which were the mainstay of academic computer science in those days). > In this era before ‘mail servers’, if my computer was off you weren’t > sending me an email. In that era few people had what you would consider a personal computer and more likely you logged into a timesharing system that had your mail along with everything else. So your statement is true, yet an anachronism. Even if you did have your own host, the upstream host (one earlier in the ! path) would have your message so you could consider it literally your mail server. ------ wahern DNS was never ASCII only, and I've never seen DNS software make that assumption--that "every piece of internet hardware from the last fourty years, including the Cisco and Juniper routers used to deliver this page to you [assumes ASCII]". The essay links to RFC 1035 to support its claim of ASCII only, but RFC 1035 actually says is "However, future additions beyond current usage may need to use the full binary octet capabilities in names, so attempts to store domain names in 7-bit ASCII or use of special bytes to terminate labels, etc., should be avoided." and "Although labels can contain any 8 bit values in octets that make up a label, it is strongly recommended that labels follow the preferred syntax described elsewhere in this memo, which is compatible with existing host naming conventions. " Indeed, some country TLD servers were (and maybe still are) supporting non- punycoded UTF-8 directly. Lookups are supposed to be case-insensitive, but it's always been verboten to actually modify the case of names in a DNS packet. A query reply is supposed to include the identical question name in an 8-bit clean manner. Indeed, some DNS clients will arbitrarily randomize the case of names to add an element of randomness to thwart DNS spoofing attacks. (If the answer isn't the same 8-bit name, you ignore it just as if it came from a different IP address then you sent it to.) Unfortunately there exist enough broken DNS proxies out that software like Firefox or Chrome can't do this without headaches, but I've never encountered such broken software myself (at least, not that I knew about). At worst I've seen query responses which lack the question portion altogether, and this can cause timeouts (rather than immediate failures) for software which enables anti-spoofing measures. But I've also seen responses which lack the same QID, too. There's always broken software; the threshold for when you can ignore it is highly context dependent. ~~~ bluejekyll > some DNS clients will arbitrarily randomize the case of names to add an > element of randomness to thwart DNS spoofing attacks. I believe this is undefined behavior. It shouldn't be something you count on. The only reference I found in the spec that implies this is: _The question section of the response matches the question section of the query_ From rfc 1034. Which isn't very specific, but could be interpreted by some in the way you mean. If you want to secure the request, it's best to randomize the QID and outbound port. If a server responds with the wrong QID, I'd ignore it. ~~~ wahern From RFC 1034 S. 3.1: "[D]omain name comparisons for all present domain functions are done in a case-insensitive manner, assuming an ASCII character set, and a high order zero bit. When you receive a domain name or label, you should preserve its case. The rationale for this choice is that we may someday need to add full binary domain names for new services; existing services would not be changed." First, we can't speak of it being undefined in the same manner as we do undefined in the C standard. The DNS standards weren't this rigorous, and didn't use consistent terminology like MUST and SHOULD universal in today's RFCs. Second, they were explicit that while the existing services (e.g. IN class and A record type) were ASCII-based and case-insensitive, the binary protocol was meant to be 8-bit clean, that some labels might be 8-bit in the future, and it was expected and mandated that this capability be preserved. So strictly speaking, the RFC allowed a server to, e.g., modify the case of an A record label on the wire, but not of some unknown label. In practice it's easier to simply treat all labels in an 8-bit clean manner, and that's in fact what major implementations do. You literally have to go out of your way to do otherwise while still obeying the standard. Caching name servers like BIND and unbound will reply with the identical question label. For example, notice in the following how the TTL is decremented (and thus being pulled from cache) but the query case is preserved: % dig -t A google.com ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> -t A google.com ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 20838 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;google.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: google.com. 105 IN A 172.217.4.206 ;; Query time: 0 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.2.1#53(192.168.2.1) ;; WHEN: Sat Jul 9 00:45:57 2016 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 44 $ dig -t A GoOgLe.com ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> -t A GoOgLe.com ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 7947 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;GoOgLe.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: GoOgLe.com. 95 IN A 172.217.4.206 ;; Query time: 0 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.2.1#53(192.168.2.1) ;; WHEN: Sat Jul 9 00:46:07 2016 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 44 In reality, the core DNS infrastructure was perfectly capable of fully supporting raw UTF-8 labels (Though a DJB page suggests that some older versions of Unix gethostbyname stripped 8-bit labels.) Unlike other infrastructure, the implementations were fairly homogenous (until a few years ago BIND absolutely dominated), so ad hoc (and broken) implementations were few and far between. And unlike other infrastructure, there was very little incentive to violate 8-bit cleanliness. The biggest problems were not that some ad hoc implementations modified case, per se, but that some ad hoc caching proxies would reply with the case of a cached record. That's out of sheer laziness, or because they didn't read the standard closely enough. It's telling that BIND, unbound, and other major caching proxies are careful to preserve case in the reply even though that's not necessarily the easiest solution. The real problem was edge software, like browsers, e-mail clients, etc, that baked in way more assumptions than warranted. Arguably IDNA and punycode took more effort to roll out than would have alternatives based on raw UTF-8. The core infrastructure software wasn't a real barrier, and the IDNA solution required more code at the edges. While the major browsers were facing lots of work regardless, most ad hoc software would have been fine just fixing 8-bit cleaniness problems and then punting on things like glyph security issues, especially if they weren't directly user facing. The vast majority of edge software would have just required some slight refactoring, not huge rewrites with library dependencies for the new compression scheme, etc. ------ rconti > The first 32 identified the remote host, similar to how an IP address works > today. The last eight were known as the AEN (it stood for “Another Eight-bit > Number”), and were used by the remote machine in the way we use a port > number Gold. Great read, it hits home for me with the right mix of nostalgia, history from before my time, and funny little things I never knew. ------ b15h0p Another nitpick: on iOS Safari, that pizza-poo-domain name actually does show up in the address bar. So there has to be another mechanism that prevents the Amazon-with-Cyrillic-"a"-trick which I guess involves normalization. ------ gregrata Great read! "Thanks" for all the Wikipedia links - I ended up wasting a few hours reading more details ------ echeese For http:com/example/foo/bar/baz how would you determine what the host is? ~~~ wtbob It doesn't actually matter: in a world which used that sort of addressing, one could imagine saying to com 'give me HTTP info for your example/foo/bar/baz,' to com/example 'give me HTTP info for your foo/bar/baz' and so forth; in that case, com would just say, 'hey, go talk to 266.328.0.1 (that's what I call example)' and 266.328.0.1 would cheerfully return the information stored at the filesystem path /foo/bar/baz, or it could say, 'hey, I call foo 463.622.42.17' and your browser would keep resolving. Me, I kinda wish we wrote URLs as [http://com.example.host.invalid/path/to/resource](http://com.example.host.invalid/path/to/resource). ~~~ gumby > Me, I kinda wish we wrote URLs as > [http://com.example.host.invalid/path/to/resource](http://com.example.host.invalid/path/to/resource). The UK's predecessor to the DNS worked this way (a "big endian" hierarchy). Sorry I can't remember the network name; if I remember it was rooted in gb. ~~~ Theodores I am old enough to remember the final year of JANET with the backwards addresses. At the time I was at Plymouth Marine Laboratory with a university email address of the type [email protected] - i.e. backwards. However, in those days there were many different things about networks, you could have several connector types in a room so anything beyond email was a bit like the difference between travelling across state borders in the U.S. and travelling across the Iron Curtain. I can't remember how one got from one's VT terminal to the wider internet on VAX/VMS but that was possible. FTP and some Telnet was how it worked, none of this www stuff. The change of address structure to normal internet style was not that big of a change, you would think it would have been as traumatic as changing what side of the road to drive on or the Millennium Bug, but, the change happened with no huge amount of work needed or resultant disruption. ~~~ rjsw I am old enough to have been a JANET site administrator. The JANET when I used it ran over a private X.25 network with a few gateways to BT's public X.25 network. There was a gateway to the internet at University of London Computer Centre but it only provided an FTP client. ------ userlabs very good info thanks ------ ChristianBundy > This restriction on HTML was ultimately removed in 2007 and that same year > Unicode became the most popular encoding on the web. Nitpick: Unicode is a character set, UTF-8 is an encoding. ~~~ zackbloom Should be fixed shortly, thanks! ------ bluejekyll Nit pick: the modern internet is built on IP, not TCP/IP, but it would be fair to say most protocols use TCP today, but definitely not all. ------ RickHull Great article. Another nitpick: > _It’s important to dispel any illusion that these decisions were made with > precence for the future the domain name would have._ I don't think _precence_ is a word, and I'm not sure what would make sense as its replacement. ~~~ juliendorra Prescience (knowledge of things before they happen) ~~~ schoen Now I wonder if "foreknowledge" could have come into English as a calque of Latin "praescientia".	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Interface from Data: using React to sync UI and offline activity across devices - firasd https://medium.com/@firasd/interface-from-data-using-react-to-sync-updates-and-offline-activity-across-devices-f672b213701c ====== firasd Github link for get-staight-to-the-code types :) [https://github.com/firasd/react-sync-demo](https://github.com/firasd/react- sync-demo)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Who is the most positive impactful person you know? - legionof7 I help out with a positive news podcast at my high school and we're looking to interview people that have made a positive impact! We've currently interviewed people like Austen Allred and TurboVote.<p>You can find the podcast here, https://anchor.fm/somethinggoodhappened<p>Please give interview suggestions! ====== diegoperini Leonard Susskind, a theoritical physicist at Stanford. He has open, free video lectures that cover an entire 4 year cirruculum of a physics degree in his personal website called Theoritical Minimum. ~~~ vark90 Yep, he has an extremely charming personality judging from his videos. Something similar is about Robert Sapolski, also from Stanford. Love watching these guys lecture. Natural born teachers. ~~~ diegoperini I suspect our Youtube accounts are doppelgangers. o/ ------ xparadigm My high school physics teacher. She taught me the importance of being a good human being. And that being kind and empathetic to others is the best thing a person can do. That honesty and integrity are more important than winning. And she also taught me elementary physics. ------ fghtr Richard Stallman: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stallman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stallman) ~~~ smellf How is Stallman a redirect to RMS's page? Shouldn't it go to a disambiguation or name page? ~~~ fghtr Here is the answer: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stallman&redirect...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stallman&redirect=no) ------ iamroot Bill Murray. Netflix has a new release about him, named "The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From a Mythical Man." Highly recommended. ------ en4bz Sal Khan from Khan Academy. ~~~ pcurve I still remember his video on fractional reserve lending and how banks effectively up printing money doing so. ------ gradys Will MacAskill[1] for his contributions to launching the effective altruism movement, which has gone on to inspire many other people to take a much more rigorous and active perspective on doing good. [1] - Many others were involved, but I know the most about his contributions. ~~~ bevan For anyone not familiar with EA or Will MacAskill, I highly recommend these podcasts: Tim Ferriss: [https://tim.blog/2015/11/22/will- macaskill/](https://tim.blog/2015/11/22/will-macaskill/) Sam Harris: [https://samharris.org/podcasts/being-good-and-doing- good/](https://samharris.org/podcasts/being-good-and-doing-good/) Joe Rogan: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buyBzK5yM-s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buyBzK5yM-s) Also, short Economist article on EA: [https://www.economist.com/international/2018/06/02/can- effec...](https://www.economist.com/international/2018/06/02/can-effective- altruism-maximise-the-bang-for-each-charitable-buck) ------ playing_colours John Carmack. First, by making one of the most memorable game of my childhood. Second, by inspiring me and a few of my friends via Masters of Doom [1], with his tweets, videos, by being a Craftsman, the embodiment of a great programmer. Masters of Doom helped one of my colleagues to ignite his passion for coding again, after a long exposure to mind-numbing corporate work. [1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom) ------ deepaksurti Prabhu Ramachandran [1], author of Mayavi [2] The amount of high quality work he does, all the while being positive, cheerful and friendly is a trait to imbibe and admire. I am privileged to have him as a mentor, friend, philosopher and guide. [1] [https://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~prabhu/](https://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~prabhu/) [2] [https://github.com/enthought/mayavi](https://github.com/enthought/mayavi) ------ ryanmercer I'm going to change it a little to the people I've met that have had a sizable impact on the world. I've _met_ Sam Altman briefly last year. His involvement with YC the past several years and co-founding OpenAI have directly and indirectly touched thousands of jobs. I've also _met_ Michael Seibel. His involvement with YC the past several years has directly and indirectly touched thousands of jobs. His co-founding of Junstin.tv allowed it to exist, it is now evolved into twitch.tv which has allowed some creators and gamers to actually earn a living streaming and has created tons of micro-communities for video games and table top fans to both play and watch. Aside from them, I don't really know (nor have I met) anyone else that I feel has directly and indirectly had as much of an impact on society as those two although... I have very casually known, but never met, Kate Bornstein since our mutual participation in the Save Caprica campaign. She's certainly been a bastion of hope for many LGBT persons. She's semi-active on various social media. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bornstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bornstein) ------ ihinsdale Jon Kabat-Zinn [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat- Zinn](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn) ------ batonD Richard Feynman. You could pretend to ask him questions and play sound bites of his interviews/lectures :) ------ berberber Mom ------ gHosts Kent Beck and Andrei Alexandrescu. Andrei is quite amazing to me... Clearly capable of writing code that is wonderful... and incomprehensible to mortal man.... but wonderfully focused on not doing that. On making it comprehensible, and producing facilities that are friendly and nice and doing so with a kindly attitude. Kent, in addition to the stuff he has done on the TDD front... [https://www.infoq.com/presentations/self- image/](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/self-image/) ------ jdmoreira Bill Gates ~~~ pasta At the moment I am readig Factfullness from Hans Rosling [1]. He is very positive about the changes of the last (100) years. Bill Gates is one of those people who contributed a lot to these positive changes. [1] ISBN: 978-12-50-12381-7 ------ baxtr Would love to hear your definition "impact". On a personal level? On a business level? On a global level even? I think it is really difficult to define what impact even means. Sometimes impact is realized even long after someone has died, think F. Scott Fitzgerald ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby#Legacy_and_mo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby#Legacy_and_modern_analysis)) ------ rodolphoarruda Derek Sivers ------ irchans Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen - His company saved the lives of about 10 million people (my wild ass guess) with approximately one million water purifiers and something like 1 billion mosquito nets distributed in Africa. (See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestergaard_Frandsen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestergaard_Frandsen)) ------ ppetty Steve Gleason, former NFL player & ALS survivor & Congressional Gold Medal recipient: [http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-360/0ap3000001010997/Steve- Gle...](http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-360/0ap3000001010997/Steve-Gleason-I- feel-like-I-ve-conquered-ALS) ------ vlindos Milton Friedman. Remarkable economist and very bright person. A noblr prize winner. Defender of the free market. What is remarkable about him is the simple way to argue bringing natural human behavior and historical examples. ------ bishalpaudel Alon Geva: He has really practical and straightforward questions for spiritual awakening: [https://www.youtube.com/user/awakeningrightnow](https://www.youtube.com/user/awakeningrightnow) ------ simple10 Kevin Adler of Miracle Messages. They reunite long lost homeless people with their families. I'm sure Kevin would be happy to do your podcast. [https://miraclemessages.org/](https://miraclemessages.org/) ------ elendilm Christopher Hitchens. His impact on me is so powerful that for the last 4 years I have my ringtone and sms alert tone set to him saying "There are no final solutions. There is no absolute truth" ~~~ etse “there is no absolute truth” sounds awful like a statement of absolute truth ------ mondo9000 The urban landscape is changing from auto-centric to human-centric (pedestrian areas, bike-lanes, light-rail). Jan Gehl and Janette Sadik-Khan are two prominent examples, but there are many others. ------ ArrayList Dr. Michael Greger. [1] [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Greger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Greger) ------ amai Murray Gell-Mann ------ triplee Scott Hanselman ------ q845712 Dawa Tarchin Phillips -- he teaches mindfulness and leadership skills in schools and around the world. ------ davidivadavid Read the question and was about to suggest Austen Allred when I read the rest of your post. :) ------ bishalpaudel Ocean Whitehawk: Spiritual teacher who has completely changed the lives of her students. www.oceanwhitehawk.com ------ rodolphoarruda Tim Ferriss ------ sharcerer Spock ------ gmoore It won't be anyone that uses the word 'impactful'. ------ snyena J. R. R. Tolkien ------ sdan François Chollet ~~~ rytill Really? Sell me on this one. Keras is great, but socially he leads people to be careless about AI safety, which is hugely negative. ------ 0xJRS Jocko Willink ------ meshr Robin Hanson ~~~ qntty The sex redistribution guy? ~~~ meshr Ok, I found Hanson’s view on “sex redistribution” in his blog [http://www.overcomingbias.com/2018/04/two-types-of- envy.html](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2018/04/two-types-of-envy.html) Mad world: It is ok for the US president to pay prostitutes, restrict sex- redistributing websites and it is ok for the first lady to sell body. What is not ok is to advocate more liberal sex policies for scientists. ------ james_s_tayler Tom Bilyue from Impact Theory. ------ antisthenes My parents. ------ oonny Paul Graham ------ genie514 Elon Musk ~~~ allemagne This will be a controversial answer for some reasons I think are misplaced. In my opinion Elon Musk seems like he has a potent toxic side to his personality, and he doesn't seem to have a very good grasp of certain things. He also legitimately seems delusional at times. However in terms of bringing awareness, optimism, and a willingness to actively work on engineering solutions to long-term existential threats to humanity I think his impact on our culture is often understated. ~~~ natalyarostova If someone has a historical record of making delusions become reality, then I think they aren't really delusional. ------ irchans George Washington ------ irchans Sir Isaac Newton ------ HelenePhisher Alan Watts ------ notomorrow 1) John Carmack ------ with_a_herring Jesus ------ tim333 I kinda like Warren Buffett ------ irchans Edward Jenner & Louis Pasteur (vaccines) ------ koosnel Jesus ------ anroypaul Steve Jobs ~~~ jenscow His availability for interview is greatly exaggerated. ~~~ baxtr oh man, I miss him almost every day ------ Repiro Jordan Peterson ~~~ cadence14 This is a 'brave' answer... ~~~ james_s_tayler It's a fine answer. He spends his time railing against Marxism, Postmodernism, SJW culture and telling people to take responsibility. His main messages seem to boil down to become resilient and don't destroy the world.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Sartalics - Sarcasm Missed No More - seasoup http://sartalics.com/ PG, please implement on Hacker News. ====== Uhhrrr This is _so_ necessary.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN - Evolux, Uber meets AirBnB for Per-Seat Helicopter Travel - tuty767 https://rockthepost.com/EvoLuxTransportationLLC ====== blackdogie Uber has already done helicopters, [http://blog.uber.com/2013/07/02/uberchopper/](http://blog.uber.com/2013/07/02/uberchopper/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Obama launches new techhire initiative - pecanpie http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/09/fact-sheet-president-obama-launches-new-techhire-initiative ====== zaroth The Administration will launch a $100 million H-1B grant competition by the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to training and successfully employing low-skill individuals with barriers to training and employment including those with child care responsibilities, people with disabilities, disconnected youth, and limited English proficient workers, among others. The bit about H1-B I think means funded by H1-B fees, not that it has anything to do with the H1B program. I have a sinking feeling that Obama thinks an "IT job" is the guy answering helpdesk calls who tells you to check if everything is plugged in. An 'interesting' bullet at the very end; Information Technology Industry-Credentialing partnerships. The President’s FY2016 budget proposes $300 million to fund IT jobs partnerships between regional employers to develop and adopt assessments and credentials that will give more people the chance to qualify for a better, higher-paying tech job regardless of their pedigree. Shit, I think Starfighter just got its A round! ;-) But of course Starfighter is the absolute last thing that would ever emerge from a program like this. What's missing from this press release? Two things in particular stand out to me; 1) Not a peep about getting more software development / hacking / coding / scripting / _building_ more firmly into K-12, and 2) Nothing about encouraging and helping support _startup_ hiring, the actual engine of job creation. How about a program which helps fund community Maker Studios across the nation? Basically this whole things reads like $400 million of pilot studies which will go nowhere and do nothing. We'd probably be much better off running a highly publicized national / crowdsourced business competition to award 5,000 people $10k - $50k grants over the next 5 years. I'm not saying it would _all_ be money well spent, but probably better than the distinct flushing noise I'm hearing with this one. That, or please just mail $1 back to every citizen.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Sony CEO Accidentally Reveals Secret Details About iPhone 5 - Garbage http://mashable.com/2011/04/02/stringer-iphone-5/ ====== Johngibb Why is it newsworthy that the iPhone 5 will have a camera? ~~~ mooism2 It isn't. It's newsworthy that the iPhone 5 will have an 8Mpixel camera. Why? People love to gossip about secrets. ~~~ baddox The article never says that the Sony CEO mentioned the 8 megapixel part. As far as I can tell, that's still just speculation. ------ MatthewDP Anyone want to bet that the iPhone 5 ends up not having a Sony camera in it? This reminds me of the CEO of the publishing company that blurted out about the iPad days before it was going to be released. ~~~ radicaldreamer Maybe Stringer doesn't really want to sell Apple these parts and is hoping Apple will switch manufacturers. They probably didn't refuse right away to protect Sony's reputation as a supplier to other companies. The OEM and components market seems very politicized. ------ daimyoyo The problem I have with this idea is that Apple made such a big deal last year about the fact that the camera on the iPhone 4 was backlit. Presumably, the company making those image sensors patented the technology, and wouldn't license it to SONY. So won't the camera be a step back for Apple? It would probably be wiser if they kept the camera they use now,(after all, they used that cheesy 2MP in the original as well as the 3G) and update once the factories are back online? ~~~ georgemcbay Everyone is doing backlit CMOS sensors these days. More importantly, Sony invented the technique in the first place. Thus, it is pretty likely that if Sony is doing the camera in the iPhone 5 it is still backlit. ------ teamonkey The link to the iPhone5 seems pretty tenuous to me. Apple has cameras in virtually all of its desktop, notebook, palmtop and tablet range.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Where do new gTLDs stand on trademark issue? - strooper Since trademark is country specific, and new generic TLDs are not, how shall I consider trademark while looking for a domain name? Is there any clear legal stand on this?<p>For example- wifi is registered at USPTO and in many other countries. So, perhaps, choosing wifi.us or wifi.com won't be a good idea. But, what about wifi.shop, or wifi.tech, or wifi.club? ====== guillon I don't recommend it if infringes any rights. You will always be exposed to loosing your name. ~~~ strooper The issue is- trademarks are not universal, country specific. So, which trademark do gTLDs respect? Only US? or even for little countries? Or no ones? ------ Tom1234567890 I think this problem is not only newg TLDs. And I should not distinguish between wifi.us, wifi.com and wifi.shop and so on.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Interim Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn leaves company - madz http://finance.yahoo.com/news/interim-yahoo-ceo-ross-levinsohn-220159342.html ====== paulsutter Good for Ross that he got a payout. Ross is a terrific guy - I worked with him at Altavista - but I can imagine a real culture clash between his style and Marissa's. Love to see what he gets up to next. He would have made a great CEO of Yahoo, better than the predecessors. But a completely different style than Marissa. Marissa is a fascinating choice. She'll shake the place up, all metrics and data driven, make huge changes. It could be a big success, or the place may be too brittle. Either way, something to watch. ------ chrisacky I did this once when I was nine years old. We were playing soccer and I was the team captain. I picked the team, but no one would pass me to the ball, so I quit and went home. (In seriousness though, it's hard to make any opinion on this decision without an actual statement from Levinsohn, which I seriously think he should make. Because at the moment, my perspective is that he just threw all of his toys out of the pram). And also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know of any profession where an "ACTING"-position would then have a high fulfillment rate for going on and taking the actual job. Teaching for example, you get acting heads all the time, when the deputy steps up, but (almost) _never_ will the acting head secure a permanent position. (Perhaps it's different in other countries). And yes, I agree with Chuck below. ~~~ ChuckMcM You can be a bit more charitable than that. Being the acting CEO and then not the real CEO is like dating someone, proposing to them, and then have them get engaged to someone else. Sure you can remain friends but its always uncomfortable around the fiance, the questions "What did they have they I don't?", the whispers, the pity. People, who are professionals, give room to the new leadership, if they were the former leadership they do that by leaving. ------ rdl It's sad for Yahoo that he's leaving, as his experience really would be complementary to Mayer's (media, advertising, familiar with Yahoo!, ...). I'm sure he felt bad on being passed over for CEO, but he would have been great as head of the media part of the business, which IMO is worth at least half of the CEO's compensation.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Rush to Smear Assange's Rape Accuser - rfreytag http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/12/07/julian_assange_rape_accuser_smeared/index.html ====== joezydeco So let's ask the real question here. How often does _Interpol_ get involved with an individual rape case? Commenter in the Salon forum says it best: _"What is odd here, however, is the "international community" suddenly jumping on a bandwagon to freeze the personal finances, cut off legal assistance, swear out arrest warrants, and act quickly on those warrants - all over accusations that were already dropped once for lack of evidence."_	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
‘Decade of Darkness’ for California Spurring Generator Windfall - spking https://finance.yahoo.com/news/decade-darkness-california-spurring-generator-222156000.html ====== blendo Even though this is the view of the CEO of Generac (an AC generator manufacturer), there's some truth here. The operation of electrical distribution in California has changed radically in the last few years, as the risks at the wildland-urban interface have grown, and climate warming starts to drive more heat events. (And Paradise, CA, RIP). Fire season, and it's annual 1-2 month California reign, has again come home to roost.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High - rhapsodic http://www.wsj.com/articles/percentage-of-young-americans-living-with-parents-rises-to-75-year-high-1482316203 ====== rhapsodic Since it's a Wall Street Journal article, to get around the paywall, hit the "web" link above and access the story through Google's search results.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
RSS Still Beats Facebook and Twitter for Tracking News - smacktoward http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/why-rss-feeds-still-beat-facebook-and-twitter-for-track-1800722740 ====== Animats Most of the sources of hard news have RSS feeds. Reuters. The BBC. The New York Times. The Hill. National Weather Service. These are all crap-free. No ads. No "10 ways to waste your time and money". Just news. I have an Model 14 Teletype tape printer from 1926 in a brass and glass case hooked up to the Reuters RSS feed. I've had this at steampunk conventions, and it usually lives in my living room. Push a button and get the news.[1] Or leave it on, and it starts up whenever Reuters posts something new. Technical details.[2] [1] [https://archive.org/details/Aethericmachine14](https://archive.org/details/Aethericmachine14) [2] [http://www.aetherltd.com](http://www.aetherltd.com) ~~~ hvvvggg > hard news > The BBC Have you _visited_ the BBC News website recently? They even have Daily Mail style headlines now, where a random word is capitalised for emphasis: "Up to NINE terrible things happened" I browse with an ad blocker, so those are actual headlines, not Outbrain/Taboola (ugh) links. ~~~ ikawe I recall 10 years ago it wasn’t nearly as terrible. Did something happen to the bbc? ~~~ digi_owl Best i can tell, there is a new generation of "journalists" coming onboard that have been trained in the style of "blogs". And it seems to be far from unique to the BBC, you can notice it with all the national broadcasters (Though BBC being English and thus have a worldwide reach in its original form, is more noticeable outside of the UK). ~~~ kuschku Although I have to be honest, the tagesschau is still immune to this trend. Let’s hope it never arrives at [http://www.tagesschau.de/](http://www.tagesschau.de/) ------ johnchristopher Indeed. But Facebook and Twitter beat RSS for tracking users. edit: > Perhaps most importantly, you don’t need to be constantly online and > constantly refreshing your feeds to make sure you don’t miss anything. That's misleading. If you are using a desktop client then you might miss items from a very active feed if it didn't connect to the web recently enough. That was (to me) the biggest selling point of Google Reader: I could forget about if for two weeks but Google would happily and regularly download feeds while I was not connected. Feeddemon and others couldn't do that unless they connected to proxy-like services. Of course that has some implications regarding privacy. ~~~ Semaphor I don't understand your comparison. The advantage of google reader was that it was a web app? But every other webbased reader had the same advantage, and since Google Reader's demise, we got an explosion of amazing readers, from free over self-hosted to paid. ~~~ johnchristopher `Feeddemon and others` refer to regular applications (see [http://www.feeddemon.com/](http://www.feeddemon.com/)). Google reader was, to my knowledge, the dominant feed reader back then even though other services existed (and filled up the space when GR was discontinued) and had that same advantage. > The advantage of google reader was that it was a web app? Over regular client readers, yes. ------ deepakkarki Yep, I have to agree. It's decentralised, pub sub, no tracking, can use any client you want! Somehow the simplicity is just elegant. The idea of a massive corp controlling what I see (and hence how I think) does not resonate with me. ------ kome I am not the developer behind it, but I want to advertise it: [http://fetchrss.com/](http://fetchrss.com/) is awesome. I can fetch stuff from public Facebook pages I need (without having a fb account) and create a RSS feed of them. Then with ifttt.com I send updates to my mailbox: awesome. Also, fuck Facebook and long live RSS and the open web. ~~~ xrqvt Hmm... this looks really interesting. Gonna' try this with a few reddit links (/r/sub1+sub2...) to see how it handles that. For some reason my current _reader_ is now having problems. ~~~ PersonalOps You realize, of course, that Reddit has a native option [0] for RSS right? [0]: [https://www.reddit.com/r/pathogendavid/comments/tv8m9/pathog...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathogendavid/comments/tv8m9/pathogendavids_guide_to_rss_and_reddit/) ------ m-p-3 At least you can sorT RSS feeds in a chronological order. I don't care what the algorithm believe, I just want to see the news in the order they came out. ~~~ lostmsu Have to give it to FB, they do have that option. ~~~ _tulpa An option which resets every time you visit facebook.com You can bookmark facebook.com/?sk=h_chr which will force chronlogical sorting. But you really really should not get your news from facebook. ------ rabboRubble Twitter is where I follow a specific event. Facebook is where I stumble across bullshit. RSS is where I read news, stories, and technical updates. RSS is how I come here~ ~~~ Jaruzel > RSS is how I come here~ Likewise. I use a homegrown RSS reader that I host at [http://www.weegeeks.com](http://www.weegeeks.com) It's not great and it's not pretty but it does the job. ------ dankohn1 I highly recommend Inoreader. It works almost exactly like Google Reader, but with extra enhancements like filtering feeds and following Twitter accounts as feeds. ~~~ baby I had to choose a replacement after Google Reader ended, and I chose the one with the best mobile app because I go back and forth a lot between laptop and cellphone. Inoreader it was! BTW my list of crypto/security blogs I follow: [https://github.com/mimoo/crypto_blogs](https://github.com/mimoo/crypto_blogs) ------ djhworld I like RSS and use it daily, however the main drawback is a lot of sites tend to truncate their articles and have a "read more" link. Not so useful when you're in an offline environment like the London underground (where I usually catch up with my feeds at the end of the day) Facebook and Twitter suffer from the same issue though ~~~ superflyguy Most UK phone networks let you use the free Virgin WiFi in the underground now. ~~~ djhworld I'm on GiffGaff which isn't one of those networks supported. Additionally I think the rigamarole of getting to the station, connecting to the wifi, swiping back to the article you couldn't read, downloading it etc is a real pain! ~~~ superflyguy Giffgaff most certainly is supported (it uses O2's network). Some people report having to temporarily install the O2 app for a one-off registration. It's no worse whether you're at the station or not, unless I've missed the point of what you wrote. It's better if you can grab the whole article for offline use, though; back when I used RSS a lot - post Google Reader - I used an Android app which could get the whole article. But I've stopped just about all internet time-wasting except to main news headlines and HN, preferring to read books on a kindle. ------ ocdtrekkie I was okay with social-curated news when my social feeds were chronological, but now that everyone's doing algorithms, you miss way too much if you aren't looking at something like RSS. Personally, I use TinyTinyRSS on Sandstorm.io. There's a fantastic TTRSS client available for Windows UWP that works on Windows Mobile too. ~~~ CaptSpify I like TinyTinyRSS, but I wish there was a better web-client for it. The default one is way to slow and bloated. I'd still recommend using it though. ~~~ ocdtrekkie Definitely not a fan of the web client. In my case, I lucked out, the TTRSS app I use on my Windows Mobile phone was universal... It's excellent on desktop too. I never use the web interface. ------ addicted The idea that you get news from FB and Twitter is fundamentally flawed. FB/Twitter are known to have algorithms designed to show you things that you will like (because people stop using Twitter/FB if they see stuff that makes them unhappy). While newspapers have this to a certain extent (all those "Drink 2 glasses of wine a day to live longer" articles) since they aren't targeted based on your individual preferences you still get a very wide variety of news sticking to only a single newspaper, and pretty much all the news if you mix in 2 or 3. ~~~ digi_owl FB sure, as they have made it harder and harder to flip the feed to chronological. But Twitter? I know they insert this whole "in case you missed" but most of the feed is still chronological. A very different problem is with having overly prolific retweeters in your feed, but that is a problem of your making, not Twitter's. ~~~ rainbowmverse Twitter is slowly rolling out an algorithmic feed. It returns to chronological once you refresh, but sometimes I forget and don't realize until I start noticing things are out of order. ------ campuscodi Hallelujah!!! Never gave it up. I felt genuine panic when Google Reader died ------ thescribe I use feedbin, and I love it. At this point I tend to stop visiting sites that don't support RSS. ~~~ xrqvt > I tend to stop visiting sites that don't support RSS Same here. If the site is interesting enough, I'll try and contact the owner and explain why RSS matters. Basically.. few people have the time to visit and sort through individual sites on a daily basis. ~~~ dispo001 I try to visit sites without RSS but most of the time I don't even remember them. ------ Vinnl It's a shame that fewer and fewer sites offer feeds. Most of them still do, luckily, but I've had to dig up [http://feed43.com](http://feed43.com) about once every two months. Though I wasn't really aware that some feed readers could perhaps generate feeds automatically, I'll have to try that out sometime. ~~~ chengiz I was not aware of feed43. Thanks. But do I have to create my own? Can I not use feeds people have already created? ~~~ Vinnl You can, but there's no easy way to discover them as far as I'm aware. As in, I've always made my own. ------ warrenm And this is why I run datente.com And why I use RSS to drive a channel on Telegram Agree with the item or not, whatever pops up next is next from wherever you've subscribed It's great ~~~ newman8r and you don't need to download 15mb of garbage to read a few kb of news ~~~ kome That's a very good point! ------ tekni5 One interesting thing is that a specific twitter search sorted by latest, often produces very decent localized news/reports during some events. One of the first things I turn to confirm the scale of an event, for example blackouts, fire, or meteoroid sightings. Also there are specific feeds on twitter for some cities that report police/fire scanners. If you ever get a power outage you can track the scale within minutes, by looking at which addresses/intersections have stuck elevator reports. ~~~ rainbowmverse I usually just check the power company's outage map. ~~~ tekni5 Usually takes them sometime to update it, never fast enough. ~~~ rainbowmverse It must depend on the power company. This one has it almost immediately. ------ erfgh The problem with RSS is that most feeds treat all items the same so the same prominence is attached to a nuclear strike on New York as is attached to a child scraping its knee. ~~~ Gys To me that is another benefit of rss. I want to do my own 'manual' filtering, to decide myself what is important to me. I do not want some algorithm to feed me. Especially not if that algorithm is commercially biased: its main goal is not to inform me, the goal is to make money from me. ~~~ JohnBooty The problem I've found with aggregating multiple feeds into a single chronological stream is that some feeds totally overwhelm others because they publish more frequently. If Feed A publishes 10 articles a day and Feed B publishes 10 articles a year, the articles from Feed B get totally engulfed and pushed way, way, way down the list... effectively they become invisible. ~~~ dispo001 My aggregator limits the number of items by feed and by domain. The problem is less of an issue if you add many more feeds and filter harder. Those rarely publishing do still get drowned out but it gives you plenty of other things to read. Thanks to volume, at times, if the slow publisher posts something awesome (they often do) it is reposted by the more spammy domains. I do have other ideas to fix that issue but the ink is still wet on those. ------ zby RSS gives the user maximum control - but it lacks the social features. What we need is a way to connect our RSS feeds together. ~~~ nl You mean the lost world of FriendFeed/Google Buzz/PubSubHub. It seemed like a great idea, but the social features really didn't work. People dumped their RSS feeds, but the decentralized nature meant that attempts at flowing comments between sites ended up losing context. ~~~ 0x445442 I was the guy that really liked Google Buzz. I think it was it was tightly integrated with Gmail. ------ pulkitpahwa I skipped RSS for sometime (actually forgot about their existence, my bad!) but I've stopped using facebook or similar platforms for a couple of reasons: 1\. No matter how much I try to catch up, I'll still loose something 2\. They are too distractive, less productive, and addictive. RSS was a great way, is still a great way to catch on your fav news. Thanks for bringing to notice :) ------ marban In case anyone here remembers Popurls fame, I've recently relaunched it under a new brand: [https://medium.com/hvper/popurls-goes- hvper-2867b1b6b2bd](https://medium.com/hvper/popurls-goes-hvper-2867b1b6b2bd) ------ linker3000 Absolutely! The RS reader on my Android phone is probably the most-used app. ([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madsvyat.s...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madsvyat.simplerssreader)) Sad to note that apparently around the time HN renewed or changed a security cert configuration about a month or so ago, the app stopped updating this site's feed. Having removed and re-added it, the feed woke up on my phone, but my tablet stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the feed, even after reinstalling the app, manually removing config folders, caches etc., and restoring a backup of the config files from my phone. ------ criddell I used to follow around 60 RSS feeds. Then Twitter became the place where stuff surfaced. A few months ago I got an iPad and started using Apple News and I've found myself visiting Twitter less. Twitter still surfaces more stuff, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Apple's news app fits my desires just about perfectly and it's getting better and better at showing me stuff I want to read. ------ SimeVidas I use RSS exclusively for its notification aspect. I still open the posts on the web (after filtering out the once that I’m not interested in). ------ npguy Try [http://talll.com](http://talll.com) for tech and [http://filll.com](http://filll.com) for finance. Solid collection of rss feeds. ~~~ tinbucket Really good share -- thank you! Are there similar sites for other areas of interest, say history or science? ------ goosh453 Miss the days when i filtered my newsfeeds with yahoo pipes. I could follow around 30 sites with only 10-15 news a day. Reading only the important news. ------ lostmsu Not arguing with the point of this article. If you have to read FB to keep track of your friends, Social Fixer for Chrome cuts a lot of crap from it. ------ jiggunjer I use Google news with a custom filter for stuff about China. Just click on the bookmark once every morning. Don't get much noise, but sometimes hit paywalls. ------ Vadim_M I just use email newsletters from interesting companies and projects. RSS is not much better than FB and Twitter.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What's the best way to get started with NVIDIA Tegra? - amock I'm looking to build a device based on NVIDIA's Tegra and I'm not sure how to get started. There's a form for OEMs to contact NVIDIA about developing for the device and I've submitted that but the message that pops up after submitting the form makes it sound like they're only working with large customers right now. Is there a better way to get started? ====== wmf Buy a Boxee Box, hack Linux on it, and develop your prototype. ~~~ amock That sounds like it might work. I've also started to consider the Zii Egg as a platform instead of trying for a Tegra based device.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Netflix buys US rights to The Fall - aynlaplant http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/international/netflix-buys-us-rights-to-the-fall/5053995.article?blocktitle=LATEST-NEWS&contentID=870 ====== danielhunt Signin Wall	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN Spreadsheet Contractors: How do you feel about being undercut? - sperry I've been looking through the contractors spreadsheet and I notice that there are many people with similar skills with large discrepancies in rates. How do those on the West Coast, for example, feel about seeing others from the Midwest, South or another country charging a fraction of what you do?<p>I know it's known that developers from the West Coast are generally more expensive than other places in the country (and, of course, throughout the world) but, it seems more stark when scrolling through the spreadsheet. ====== noonespecial I'm actually half inclined to pay more for the West Coaster. Why? _He's got better friends._ Sure its an intangible, and I might indeed be crazy (or have a bad case of selction bias from previous contacts) but I imagine a guy in an office in Palo Alto swirling around in his aeron and asking the guy behind him about how to X and getting an answer in 30 seconds. I imagine the mid-westerner embarking on a 20 minute google session to find out the same. They both had equal skill when they started, but the mid-westerner ended up costing more at a lower rate. ------ iamdave A lot of that has to do with cost of living, and cost of living is quite variable with geographic location. For example a developer in my state, SC can easily break even on his time/effort with lower rates than a developer in New York or LA. I assume that developers in larger cities understand that developers in towns no one has ever heard of have lower rates.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Inspiring talk: Why Program by Hand when you can Automate it? - bleakgadfly http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Automation-DSL ====== signa11 _excellent_ quote: "you don't turn a crappy car into a bmw 5-series by testing the crap out of it. testing only shows you just how screwed you are. quality has to be baked in..."	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple to drop Google Maps in iOS 6 for in-house Maps? - blearyeyed http://9to5mac.com/2012/05/11/ios-6-apple-drops-google-maps-debuts-in-house-maps-with-incredible-3d-mode/ ====== yellowbkpk This entire article boils down to one sentence "According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application." The rest of it is speculation about what might exist. ~~~ deepGem As speculative as it seems, this coincides with that mapping company Apple bought in recent times. Forgot the name of the company, but they had some beautiful 3D views of select cities. For all you know Apple might make 3D maps standard in iOS 6. Damn, wouldn't that be something :). ~~~ untog Honestly, the utility of 3D maps is way overblown. Even satellite map tiles are too- way too much extra, unimportant information. ~~~ Terretta > _Even satellite map tiles are too- way too much extra, unimportant > information._ They're great for geocaching though. ~~~ davepm So true, saved so much hunting time by using the satellite maps! Especially the nano's in the middle of cities etc! ------ _djo_ I fear that if true this might be a step backwards for users outside of the US, as Google has spent a massive amount of effort collecting Street View data from all over the world. I highly doubt that Apple or the mapping companies it has acquired have quite the same coverage. ~~~ SkyMarshal Is street view anything more than a fringe benefit? Google Maps got popular long before they had it. As long as you've got detailed street maps, ideally with actual stores and whatnot at their addresses, that should be enough to roll out. ~~~ _djo_ I've found it very useful on more than one occasion, but that's not why it's so important. Rather it's that as a result of their Street View mapping Google has developed an extremely accurate map database of even obscure corners of the world which in turn has allowed them to offer turn-by-turn navigation for those areas. ~~~ mseebach I didn't know that, but in that case it would make sense if causation was the other way around: that Street View was a by-product of "develop[ing] an extremely accurate map database of even obscure corners of the world". "We're gonna be driving around all these places anyway. Let's stick a camera on top of the cars when we do it." ------ dabeeeenster What a lot of hot air. The killer aspect of Google Maps on Android is the turn by turn navigation with traffic. That saves me hundreds of £ a year and is just brilliant. "but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience" I'm sorry, but what a lot of bullshit. ~~~ muraiki I remember when my wife got her iPhone 4S. We were heading out to somewhere and, having an Android phone for work and seeing that her iPhone had a Google Maps application, figured that we could use her phone to help us get to our destination. Imagine my surprise when not only did it not have turn by turn navigation, but it didn't recalculate the route when we made a wrong turn and were clearly driving off of the calculated path. I couldn't believe that such a feature was missing on the iPhone version of Google Maps. Is there some reason that this is the case? I don't know enough about mapping and phones to know if this is due to some technical limitation or not. ~~~ pilom It used to be you could only get those features by purchasing Apples $50/year add on which included turn by turn and device locator functionality (parents could track children or you could catch a thief after your phone was stolen). Not sure if those are still options or not. ~~~ ropiku Can you detail that ? I don't know that Apple ever offered a monthly turn by turn option, only carriers. The device locator was/is free. ------ chucknelson How did this get on the front page of HN? This is just another rumor speculating about things that were speculated on last month, and the month before that, etc. I guess I don't understand what makes this one so much more interesting or credible/worthy of much discussion. Edit: Also, the link/headline is totally misleading. I'm sure others have said this too. ~~~ brk _How did this get on the front page of HN?_ Hn is run on a software stack that allows a registered user to submit a link/URL to an item they determine to be of potential interest to the community. After that link is submitted it appears on the listing of recently submitted articles at the /newest URL. Other users (with sufficient karma) that also find the link of value either upvote it, flag it, and/or comment on it. As an item receives upvotes and/or comments an algorithm ranks it accordingly amongst other submitted stories, making it potentially visible on the "front page" of the site. An items ranking is an overall generic indication that a sufficient number of users have found it noteworthy (or not). It's all really pretty basic and uses a concept that has been around for about 7 or 8 years now. However this "how did this item get to the front page..." question seems to come up with enough frequency that an answer should be more easy to find, or maybe even be emailed to all new accounts so that people will not need to ask these sorts of questions amongst discussions of the article itself. ~~~ stanleydrew I am reasonably certain that chucknelson is aware of the technical way a story makes it to the front page. His question then should be read as "how has a sufficient number of users found this noteworthy?" ~~~ chucknelson Ah, it's nice to have some balance to the snarkiness, thanks! :) ------ rvkennedy And all I want is a decent Google Maps app on my iPhone. The Android map is so far above what iOS offers - having recently lost my Galaxy s2 to a freak elevator accident I thought I'd go back to iPhone for a while, and this was one of many shocks to the system. I'm approaching the feeling that the only things iPhone does better than Android (for my purposes) is store music and sync podcasts. ~~~ marvin Did you drop the phone into the tiny crack between the elevator car and the wall? Because I have nightmares about doing that whenever I carry a smartphone around an elevator. ~~~ nikomen I thought I was the only person who ever had these nightmares. I almost always put my phone in my pocket before stepping in and out of an elevator. ~~~ nthitz My friend managed to lose his keys down the gap. Elevator technicians got them out next time they were in the building. ------ jasonkostempski How about spoken turn-by-turn navigation first so people can stop risking their lives and the peoples lives around them every time a turn is coming up? ~~~ rkudeshi I'm not sure it's fair to pin that on Apple. There are a number of navigation apps in the App Store, free and paid, that anyone can download (I use Navigon and it's paid for itself a hundred times over). It's not as if Apple doesn't permit them, they just choose not to include it for free. Would you say Google is obligated to add free text messages to Android just because Apple has it (iMessage) and it saves money for people? ~~~ matt312 Well, in all fairness, Google _does_ offer free text messages in Android via Google Voice. ------ mxfh That right mockup view comes apparently from a screenshot of Nokia Maps 3D, even down to the old Nokia font and label Coloring: [http://maps.nokia.com/37.7976001,-122.3979938,17.42,195.29,7...](http://maps.nokia.com/37.7976001,-122.3979938,17.42,195.29,72,3d.day) (requires Plugin) WebGL Version: [http://maps.nokia.com/webgl/#\|37.7976\|-122.3979938\|0\|900\|70\|...](http://maps.nokia.com/webgl/#\|37.7976\|-122.3979938\|0\|900\|70\|160) ------ swalsh Can I choose to use google maps if I wish? Or is that against apples command? ~~~ rkudeshi Nothing stopping Google from publishing their own app in the App Store when this happens, much like how Bing has their own Maps app or Vimeo has an app even though YouTube is pre-installed on iOS. In fact, that might even be better for Google. They've griped in the past about how Apple was slow to implement new features. In particular, I know they hated the YouTube app (which Apple made). That's why the mobile site no longer redirects to the app - they wanted to be able to control the experience and iterate faster. (I suspect the only reason Google hasn't terminated their agreement on the preinstalled apps already is because having YouTube and Google Maps on every single iOS device is worth more than fast integration of new features.) ------ shinratdr As someone who uses public transit, I couldn't care less about turn by turn or voice nav. All I want from iOS 6 Maps.app is alternate transit routes. As much as I agree with Apple's move from a srratigic standpoint, as a user I'm worried about possible regressions. I hope they choose to release it only for the iPad or iPod touch to gauge reaction before releasing it to iPhone users. I think the average usage of those products would allow a pretty Maps app that still needs fleshing out, whereas I need my phone maps app to be reliable over all else. ------ philp Coming from Android what I'm really missing — and was hoping to get out of the numerous geo related Apple acquisitions — is a proper competitor to Google's in-house navigation software. The GPS software integrated with iOS is an atrocity compared to what you get with Gingerbread(?) and higher. Seeing that smartphones are increasingly replacing standalone consumer GPS solutions, I think its fair to say that Apple dropped the ball on this one. Maybe I'm jaded but who cares about 3D pictures when what I really want is a solution to get from A to B? ------ canthonytucci Here's hoping I don't have to go back and change all my my UIMapView code. ------ thornofmight Can someone more knowledgable on the subject elaborate on how exactly this 3d works? ~~~ aw3c2 You take aerial imagery and laser-scan/photogrametric data. You can create rough 3D models from the aerial images already if they overlap enough. The laserscanning data and terrestrial photos can be used for more detail and accuracy. You could also use government data if your government provides geodata like coordinates, houses etc. It is impressive but not really hard (theoretically). Check out eg <http://maps3d.svc.nokia.com/webgl/index.html> ~~~ xanadohnt What's this laser scanning? Vector topographic data and aerial imagery is all that's necessary. ~~~ aw3c2 Theoretically just the aerial images would be enough if you have some control points. But I remember the Nokia people say they used mobile laserscan data. Can't find the source anymore though, I thought it was on HN actually. ------ heed Just so it's clear I want to point out that the current Maps app isn't a Google developed app. The only part that is Google is the map data and base map, everything else is Apple tech. ------ destraynor This kind of thing is inevitable. "We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make. We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution." – Tim Cook on Apple's philosophy. (full text here: <http://destraynor.com/cook/>) ------ st3fan Maybe Siri will now also start working in Canada. Seriously, what is holding Apple back. Is Google stalling that? ------ protomyth Apple acquired Placebase in 2009, Poly9 in 2010, and C3 Technologies in 2011. I cannot imagine not replacing a 3rd party product when a company buy 3 companies for the same product, particularly if the 3rd party product is owned by a competitor. ------ jonknee 3D is a cool demo, but turn by turn is actually useful. Let's hope Apple at least matches what Google Maps can do before switching for the sake of taking a jab. ------ surferbayarea Cool! I've lost some love for google maps since they started showing the sponsored link as the first result. What was before a one search, one click activity is now one search, zoom to distinguish between the sponsored and real listing(often close by), then click. Pain! ------ asdfdsa1234 I have been delayed by Google Maps mistakes several times, and I don't even use it often. The error rate is ridiculous. I would love for Apple to come up with a superior product. ~~~ statictype I've found Google Maps to be great for spanning long distance but poor at navigating individual streets. I've been burned many times by landmarks and locations being no where near where it shows on the map (I live in India - your milage may vary). That said, Google's been doing this for years and this is kind of the thing that they would be very good at (making sense out of a large corpus of data quickly). I'd be very surprised if Apple's new maps were as good out the door (let alone better). ~~~ asdfdsa1234 This fits my experience as well--long distances are fine, but closer in it's unreliable. No doubt this is not an easy task and I have to agree that Apple faces an uphill fight here. ------ n9com What happens to apps that use MapKit? ~~~ kyleslattery I imagine it would just keep on working exactly the same, except that the map tiles will look slightly different. ------ T-zex Will they provide an offline mode? ~~~ megablast They would probably provide caching, which is what the current map application does. Hopefully they will let you pre-cache areas, such as you can do in Android, but I doubt it. Anyway, no point speculating too much. ------ danso Out-of-context excerpt: Technology behind Apple's new iPhone mapping system "based on de-classified missile target algorithms" developed by former "aerospace and defense company" Linkbait-conspiracy-tech-blog-post in 3...2...1 ~~~ ricardobeat Lot's of tech in any smartphone (not just Siri) comes from military offshoots.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Small, Modular Nuclear Plants Get Their First Chance in the U.S - Osiris30 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601426/small-modular-nuclear-plants-get-their-first-chance-in-the-us/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post ====== d3sandoval Hey! It's great to see NuScale on my hackernews homepage. After working there as an intern for my first two summers out of hs, I've gotta say that it was one of the most inspiring startups. Since I started, I was able to witness the company grow up from its roots at Oregon State University to develop it's prototypical state-of-the-art designs that I (and many others) think will blow current nuclear power plant projects out of the water. Looking forward to it's first deployments. Hopefully the SMRs will be near enough to where I live to actually get a chance to visit! ------ bdcs Google cache link if you hit the paywall: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.t...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.technologyreview.com%2Fs%2F601426%2Fsmall- modular-nuclear-plants-get-their-first-chance-in-the- us%2F&oq=cache%3Awww.technologyreview.com%2Fs%2F601426%2Fsmall-modular- nuclear-plants-get-their-first-chance-in-the- us%2F&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.864j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Making Wireless Work With Linux Mint/Ubuntu? - daveambrose A few weeks ago, I asked the community which operating system I should install on an old Thinkpad T40 (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=655621). I decided to try Linux Mint and am loving it thus far. One catch: I can't get wireless to work with IBM's internal wireless card - Intel PRO/Wireless 2100.<p>I've dug around on the Ubuntu help forums and didn't really find an answer I could implement. Funny enough, fellow hackers and founders at our meetup here in NYC wished me good luck - as this tends to be a common problem with Linux. Ethernet isn't working as well.<p>So, HN, I turn to you. Can you help me make wireless work on my laptop? ====== jawngee I'm assuming you tried this: <http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/> The other thought I had is to save yourself some pain and find a usb wireless adapter that linux supports since, I believe, the T40 doesn't have a pcmcia slot. ~~~ jawngee [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124183&Tpk=WUSBF54G) Plug and play on Ubuntu. Has a built-in wireless finder. $75 bucks. At minimum wage, you've probably burnt enough hours on this to pay for it. :) ------ aneesh Get NDISwrapper: <http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/> It will allows you to use the Windows driver for that wireless card. ------ fagt I'm sorry, I don't play pokemon.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Free browser extension to help you find docs and wikis, fast - fadymak https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lfendnpddepkibhcchpdjgheapdmgelc ====== altruly The Obie team is thrilled to share with you something new we've been working on. Well, truth be told, we've actually been working on a browser extension for over a year but hadn't found the proper launch pad for it until now. Full details here: [https://obie.ai/personal](https://obie.ai/personal) Today, we are announcing Obie for Chrome a free browser extension to help you find documents, notes, presentations, wikis (& more) FASTER at work. Furthermore, the browser extension was a perfect vehicle to introduce two new (and very important) plans: Personal Free and Personal Pro. You see, before today, Obie was designed for teams and larger organizations—you also HAD to use Slack. Now, Obie is free and available for individual use. WHAT Obie connects with over 16 out-of-the-box integrations such as: Google Drive, Confluence, Dropbox, GitHub and more to instantly enable one source of truth for knowledge at work. WHO Founders, sales people, support agents, remote workers, marketers; anyone who frequently needs to access repeat information, can begin to accelerate work with Obie. WHY We built the Obie browser extension to reduce the friction in getting started with our technology, reduce our dependency on Slack and democratize knowledge access at work. HOW We use an intelligent federated search, combined with home-grown natural language processing and just a dash of rule-based machine learning to create a robust and intuitive search experience. We'll be around to answer any questions and would LOVE to hear feedback if you give it a try - it's free and literally takes less than 1 minute to install and setup!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google+: Social Media Upstart 'Worse Than a Ghost Town' - joshbuddy http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/09/google-social-media-upstart-worse-than-a-ghost-town262.html ====== joebadmo There's a great response from Loic LeMeur: [http://loiclemeur.com/english/2011/09/the-influencers- verdic...](http://loiclemeur.com/english/2011/09/the-influencers-verdict-the- google-example.html) "Time will tell if Google+ will succeed, I am still getting incredible traction and interactions in it (thanks) so I don’t believe the influencers verdict, I was waiting for it to start to show up and it of course did. It’s a great reminder on how to launch a new service: it’s not about the tech bloggers and writers, it’s about normal people and whether they will adopt it or not. Forget the influencers, the history is packed with services that succeeded when the influencers said it would fail and vice-versa. No, Dan, your opinion doesn’t matter. It’s the other millions of users that matter, you might be right, but only time will tell. You’re trashing Google+ just because it will get you some attention today." Edit: And I notice that Google has started to advertise G+ on the home page. ------ Semiapies After a conversation with a cynical friend on this, I really wonder how much of this naysaying is from companies and "experts" who've invested in Facebook and find another player inconvenient. The media linkbaiting end of things is obvious, of course: start by building G+ as the Big New Thing, then explain how it "failed" when it didn't obliterate Facebook after a couple of months. ~~~ r00fus Bingo. Goldman Sachs sold a whole lot of Facebook "stock" to their clients: <http://www.slate.com/id/2280261/> A way for a) facebook early investors to convert equity b) their clients to get an "early in sure thing" deal. The motive to prop up Facebook through their media channels is quite strong... ------ samsoe Seems the author made himself a hater after being too lazy to try the thing out. ------ r00fus Holy F*ck! I just checked my G+ feeds, and there's a ton of activity there now (well, probably been that way for weeks but I have been busy of late). The thing about G+ is it doesn't pester my email. It's there, ready for me to dip into but when I don't want to, it's discreet. Pleasant surprise. ------ esmevane Anyone else feeling as contrarian as I am about these articles? Every time I read someone criticizing Google+, it makes me want to go log in and see what's going on there. This is in addition to the persistent activity reminders nearly every time I use Google software (which is frequently). ~~~ joebadmo [http://lesswrong.com/lw/2pv/intellectual_hipsters_and_metaco...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/2pv/intellectual_hipsters_and_metacontrarianism/) I have contrarian impulses, but I don't think they're productive. Better to acknowledge and try to understand the impulse, then think critically about the subject at hand. ------ RandallBrown Why don't I use Google+? I have no reason to use Google+. It solves none of the problems that I had with Facebook or Twitter and only adds another layer complexity to my daily communications. Google+ may be better than Facebook, but it's not better enough that I want to give up the 6 years of history that I've put into my Facebook profile. It's also not better enough that it's worth the extra time of maintaining yet another social network. ------ signalsignal I suspect the author is experiencing Social Media burnout. I know I am. ------ yanw There is a pattern with these posts, as it's interesting that just before Google announces a major release someone publishes this sort of piece, either criticizing Google on privacy issues or competitive issues or describing a product as struggling. It's PR, someone paid for this and more often than not it takes place right before Google releases something. ------ rprime I see a trend in the world of these so called social media experts, they really love to amplify the gravity of the situation by N+1. Of course, Facebook can/is worse than a ghost town, twitter the same, but in order to fix this, how about get some actual people in there? And please stop trying to predict the future, let them be, if you don't like it, surely someone else does.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Airbnb patents AI that judges if you have neuroticism, narcissism, psychopathy - jeromebaek https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/17/your-online-activity-effectively-social-credit-score-airbnb/ ====== rogerkirkness Airbnb went from cheaper than hotels and generally less BS, to way more BS and way more expensive than hotels. I now yearn for the simplicity of a boring hotel chain. Check in and check out are easy (and consistent). The room is private. The pricing is transparent. The process for cleaning and other standard housing maintenance tasks is invisible. ~~~ Fjolsvith My go-to is Wyndham properties. They have a good app and great loyalty rewards. ------ JohnFen Sheesh. This makes me happy about two things. One, that it's actually pretty hard to find much information about me on the net, and two, that I'm really, really happy that I don't use Airbnb. ------ Jamwinner How does this not explicitly violate the ADA?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Oracle's JVM/JRE plans: hotspot, Jrockit, openJDK (PM of Oracle Jrockit team - gtani http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=59317#332147 ====== adamilardi This article didn't cover what will happen to the JSR process. IBM has a huge investment in java but is now a direct competitor to oracle/weblogic. I'm worried oracle will not be as open with the JSR process and IBM will be less inclined to help make an Oracle product better. I'd really like to see a commitment to the community process that made J2EE great. As far as startups using java... Tomcat and JBOSS application server are free and scalable. Framework combo's i've used are spring/struts/jsp spring/java server faces/icefaces spring/spring web/jsp. ~~~ kls Since Oracle came into the picture, I have worried that we may be looking at 3 wholly incompatible Java distros, IBM , Oracle, and Apache / Open source. I just don't see how Oracle and IBM are going to get along without SUN in the middle. ~~~ adamilardi Agreed. If I was "in charge" I would spin off java into something like the Mozilla foundation. It could be supported equally by Oracle, IBM and others who build product on the technology. ------ bretpiatt Stuff not mentioned here, you'll see JRockit Virtual Edition that runs on OVM without a full OS underneath -- this will compete with the VMW/tC Server/no OS stack on ESX. The OSS JVMs will have the drawback of having to carry a full OS underneath so even if they are as efficient as the closed JVMs you'll still gain advantage for going commercial. The OSS community needs to start looking at how to do the same on Xen. It doesn't make sense as much sense on KVM since you have a full OS there anyways.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Discuss code and docs in repositories (on Sourcegraph) - slimsag https://about.sourcegraph.com/blog/discuss-code-and-docs-in-repositories/ ====== slimsag Hi HN -- This is something I've been working on recently and really advocating for at Sourcegraph. I'm extremely excited about improving how code gets discussed in general, and I'm really excited to hear any feedback and answer any questions you might have about this. Let me know what you think (I want to hear your harshest criticism!) =)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
NRL Tests Cooperative Soaring Concept for Sustained Flight of UAV Sailplanes - mattlutze http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-releases/2016/NRL-Tests-Cooperative-Soaring-Concept-for-Sustained-Flight-of-UAV-Sailplanes ====== mattlutze Pennsylvania State's tests centered on a suite of software which uses sensor and other data to calculate where thermals should be, allowing their UAV testbed to continue flying, possibly indefinitely. It feels like there's a ton of commercial applications for pseudo-"geostatic" aerial network nodes. Though, I'm not sure how we square those benefits against the risks of the military-industrial complex advancing its ubiquitous surveillance capabilities.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Vikram and the Vampire (1870) - ArtWomb http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48511/48511-h/48511-h.htm ====== vram22 This series is well-known to Indians under the Sanskrit name Vetala- Panchavimshati - which means "ghoul('s) N" which is short for "N (stories of the) ghoul [1]". Pancha means 5, I forget or don't know what vimshati means - could be that the whole number part (panchavimshati) means 25. So the whole name of the series means 25 stories of the ghoul (vetala) - as told to king Vikramaditya, a famous king of ancient times, on whose back a ghoul somehow landed, and who then had to carry the ghoul on his back from somewhere to the cemetery 25 times. Each time, while going there, the ghoul told him a different story ending in a puzzle or question. Vikram was renowned as a good and fair judge. The ghoul would tell him each time, that if he answered the question right (which involved judging the protagonists of the story, and saying who of them was right or wrong), he (the ghoul) would get off his (Vikram's) shoulders and let him go. But, if by the 25th time, Vikram still did not get the question right, the ghoul would kill him. Entertaining stories we heard or read as kids. Often with some moral. Typical of Indian legends / folk tales. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul) Edited for better wording / typos. ~~~ vram22 Sorry: s/cemetery/burning ground since Hindus cremate, they don't bury. ~~~ selimthegrim The Bhils in interior Sindh bury. Some sadhus bury as well. ~~~ fellellor So do lingayats in Karnataka iirc. ~~~ selimthegrim Yes, I had forgotten about them too ------ ArtWomb Happy Easter Sundy HN! Bit of counter-programming for those indulging in too much Kyregma and Jelly Belly's ;) Slipping into Burton's prose is like mounting a white elephant for a long stroll into humid, tiger-ravaged jungles. Native folktales provide the antidote to _Myth of a Thousand Faces_ Ur-texts. They're stochastic. Endless. Authorless. Abundant with seemingly coincidental frissons. "Pearls with a thread draw through" indeed! ------ cassandrahere Can't access the link from Germany. Apparently Project Gutenberg is blocking German IPs because of a court ruling. ~~~ cmonnow Gutenberg blocked in Germany.. Irony	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Simple web app for teams - hiburo https://vimeo.com/87337303 ====== checker659 How is it different than, say, Basecamp? ~~~ lauriswtf This app is much simpler and cleaner than Basecamp. It has a great mix of features - I really like the kanban board, achievements and time counter.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Republican Study Committee disavows copyright reform memo - mikedouglas http://www.theamericanconservative.com/an-anti-ip-turn-for-the-gop/ ====== csense Clearly, Hollywood/RIAA has some of the finest politicians money can buy. They got both parties to agree on something. You'd think with all the anti-SOPA protests that the party that just lost the election would be pushing the issue. Hollywood and the media -- key copyright industries -- have never been friendly to Republicans. So they wouldn't make many new enemies with an anti-copyright position. Meanwhile, they might be able to detach younger, technology-savvy, Internet- loving freedom junkies from the Democratic party by taking an aggressive stance on that bloc's core issue. While many HN'ers seem to be donkeys to the core, I daresay a not- insignificant number would vote Republican if that party managed to get its head out of its elephant (the usual idiom features the wrong party's mascot) and put libertarian principles on the front burner. Of course, hoping that politicians -- of any party -- will behave in a way that's actually in the public interest is probably a lost cause. ~~~ pavel_lishin Most of my friends, tech-savvy or not, are fiscally conservative but socially liberal. If the republican party and its candidates dropped its stance on some of the social issues, I can definitely see them attracting a lot of voters who traditionally vote democrat. Not to mention the beneficial effects of having people in office who don't think that rape can be legitimate, etc., etc. ~~~ csense > rape can be legitimate Even if that guy actually believes that, it was a _stupid_ thing for him to say. I'm sure that even he himself would agree after the election results. > fiscally conservative but socially liberal Is it possible to be socially conservative privately but socially liberal publicly? I'm thinking it's not an inconsistent worldview to believe that things like abortions and homosexuality are morally wrong, yet it is not the government's job to enforce those rules. I'd believe that most church-going, God-fearing Americans would say adultery is morally wrong, yet few would support making adultery illegal. In fact, most of the Western world looks down on many Muslim countries for their positions on adultery. When you come right down to it, the reason many Christians believe an omnipotent, omniscient God tells people that it is His will that "Thou shalt not commit adultery," yet chooses not to enforce that moral compass by (for example) bending the rules of reality in a way that makes it physically impossible for us to do so, or making anybody who thinks about it change their mind before they actually do it...is that it is God's will that morality is something humanity should freely choose, rather than something which should be enforced by the power of the Authority above. I fail to understand why so many self-described Christians do not agree with an argument endorsed by God Himself. But theology is rather far afield from my areas of expertise; perhaps there's something I'm missing. ~~~ pavel_lishin > Is it possible to be socially conservative privately but socially liberal > publicly? I'm thinking it's not an inconsistent worldview to believe that > things like abortions and homosexuality are morally wrong, yet it is not the > government's job to enforce those rules. I'm glad you clarified what you meant, I thought your first sentence was just referring to hypocrites. I think it's possible. Your adultery example is good; I personally think that for 99% of people, polygamy doesn't work at best, and harms at worst, but I have zero interest in the government poking its nose into people's relationships, and I'd probably vote for multiple-partner-marriage becoming a recognized legal entity like man-and-woman marriage is today. ------ adinb I knew it was just too good to be true! ------ mtgx Well that didn't last long. It seems the whole party has been affected by Romnesia.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Facebook “Like” button declared illegal in Germany - jamesbritt http://www.slashgear.com/facebook-like-button-declared-illegal-in-germany-19173117/ ====== makecheck I think it's interesting that they reject it on privacy grounds, because that's not even how it seems to be used anymore. I couldn't count on my fingers how many posters and ads I've seen from businesses asking people to "Like" them on Facebook _in exchange for_ this freebie or that one. In other words, soon this data won't really reflect anyone's true interests, it will just be a way for certain people to cash in on stuff (the modern equivalent of clipping every imaginable coupon, I suppose). ------ benmlang That's hilarious, nice one Germany!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Flutter (YC W12) acquired by Google - DesaiAshu https://flutterapp.com/ ====== wehadfun I guess they weren't joking [https://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html](https://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html) ~~~ piyush_soni Wow! :) ... I remember this April fool joke. Cool how it comes true now :) ~~~ dchichkov Haha :)... There was also a reply from the company. On the same day too: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq1FM84uAck](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq1FM84uAck) Looking forward to controlling my living room with gestures :) ------ PStamatiou Wow congrats to the team! I met them when they were interviewing at YC. They were waiting around to pitch pg and gave me a demo.. I was speechless at the time and I quickly began thinking of all use cases this technology could work with. ------ ultimatedelman congrats to them, never heard of them before. went to their website (after reading the note) and tried to find _any_ documentation on how to use the app. found none other than you can "now use previous and forward". became immediately disinterested. ------ kyro Congrats to the team. This makes me think that Google may be trying to incorporate gesture data manipulation into Glass. They should snap up Thalmic Labs too. ~~~ ChuckMcM Please not until we can get our hands on myo device and some access to the driver :-) ------ turing I remember thinking back when they first launched that a Google acquisition could be good for both parties. Congrats to the team, can't wait to see how your technology gets developed and deployed! ------ abbasmehdi Congrats Mehul and Navneet! Very happy to see such a positive outcome. Can't wait to see what you do with Google's firepower behind you. ------ Pxtl Obvious usage: Google is lagging behind their competition in the TV space. Apple's iTV, Ouya is taking Android into set-top space with their own ecosystem, Sony is bringing out the VitaStation... and then Microsoft and Valve have their higher-end devices that threaten to become general-purpose living-room computing/media machines beyond the hardcore gaming crowd. The non-hardcore-gamer set-top space is getting crowded and Google TV flopped. TV is the natural space for gestures, where a mouse and keyboard aren't practical. Microsoft knows this, Sony knows this - that's why Sony planned the camera as a standard feature for PS4 and only gutted it after cost concerns overwhelmed them. ~~~ bpicolo And yet I love my Chromecast so much. An amazing first step. ------ ateevchopra I have always love Flutter. Yes it made me feel like a superhero !. i always showed my non techie friends Flutter how can i change a song just by waving. I was hoping to see more updates and features from you. Anyways. All the best ------ pajju Its great to see a good product acquired by google, a perfect fit. Goes to Right hands. And I hope, Google brings them to the common man sooner in very elegant ways. 2013 is the age of new Interfaces. But, I always have this problem with Google - I don't like to see Google as an Engineering first company. They engineer so much, sometimes never reaching common man. They must first focus from elegance, we call them Top to Down. I've made this mistake a zillion times tyring to engineer too much and forget on usablity and serving purpose. ------ priley Awesome! Looking forward to jedi controls in my Gmail. Great job guys. ------ twodayslate I like how they still let you go to their website and use their product. Most companies that are acquired don't let you do that for some reason. ~~~ nly There's a link at the bottom to access the original homepage and then download the software. ------ kunle Congrats guys. Great outcome for a solid team. ------ oakenshield Congrats Navneet, Mehul, & team! ------ yashodhan What a beautiful website ------ sandeshkumar Just downloaded it in my PC.. wow.. awesome app!.. real magic! ------ zvanness Congrats guys! ------ vollmarj Congrats!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Most churn is unnecessaryand deadly to your business - jslogan http://www.jslogan.com/most-churn-is-unnecessaryand-deadly-to-your-business/ ====== donna i like to believe that if you offer your customers great service they will bring you more customers.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: is Client Side Encryption for payments secure? - sarhus Stripe and BrainTree both provide Client Side Encryption.<p>However, after reading the Matasano article http://www.matasano.com/articles/javascript-cryptography I'm concerned about how secure client side encryption would be.<p>Any thoughts? ====== ritratt I am no expert. Client side encryption is unexplored. Secure crypto is possible only through extensive peer review, which is missing in the case of client side encryption using JS. I think SSL/TLS is sufficient if implemented correctly. The only advantage that client side encryption using js offers is that the contents are not known to the server. Whereas in the case on SSL/TLS, the server basically has access to all your encrypted data since they hold the keys. But I digress. Client side encryption needs more R&D. ------ jtdowney The purpose of client-side encryption in Braintree.js is to reduce the PCI scope for the merchant and is not the only way the data is protected. Every encrypted value is still sent over HTTPS to to the merchant's server and again over HTTPS to Braintree itself. In this chain, however, the merchant will be unable to decrypt the values submitted and can only pass them on to Braintree. (Disclosure, I work for Braintree) ------ ig1 It's not client side (javascript) encryption, it's run over https.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
FEC Complaint Filed on Google, Facebook, and Twitter for Election Interference - grawprog https://bigleaguepolitics.com/breaking-fec-complaint-filed-against-google-facebook-and-twitter-for-election-interference/ ====== pmdulaney Misleading title; suggests FEC filed the complaint.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Unblock US Netflix Using DNS Service - antimora https://tvunblock.com/ ====== xialeban who will be user of the service?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How To Destroy (Almost) Half the Planet for Just 5% of Global GDP - kalvin http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/how-to-destroy-almost-half-planet-for.html ====== digamber_kamat It is very sadistic article. But the figure provided in these does not have valid references. ~~~ mooism2 Not valid how?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How important is a master's degree? - v3rt Hi everyone, I could use some advice - I'm a junior in computer science and statistics (focusing on machine learning) at a top university. I'm also active in extracurriculars (including some leadership positions), and I've just started work on a startup that I had the idea for a few weeks ago.<p>Things just got complicated because my college announced a joint BS/MS program that means I could get a master's degree by the end of the next year, but I'd have to drop almost everything else to do it. Earning the master's would mean sacrificing most of my statistics coursework, as well as a lot outside of class (clubs, sports, even friends to a degree), so the question I'm facing is how much of a difference an MS actually makes in the working world. I'm planning to do startups, or if that fails, probably to go into project-manager type positions in the software industry (potentially machine learning project specifically). In those kinds of roles, does it make a difference to have an MS in computer science vs a double BS in computer science/statistics? I'd prefer to just work on what I'm interested in, which wouldn't lead to the master's degree, but if it's worth it it might make sense to make some sacrifices.<p>Thanks for the help. ====== codegeek Think very hard before you decide to go for any graduate degree whether Masters or even PhD. Not because Masters is bad or good. It is because there is a huge opportunity cost for those 2 years (or less). "how much of a difference an MS actually makes in the working world." I would say not much and I am sure there is an argument for it. Here is why. If you get a job right after your bachelors degree and work for 2 years gaining "real world" experience, you could actually be a lot more valuable to an employer or in the industry IF the employer is looking for someone with your skills/experience. Besides, there is always time to think about a graduate degree. What if you do your MS right after bachelors and realize 5 years later that you actually would have been better off with an MBA or may be no masters at all ? You will never know that until and unless you have real world experience, trust me. My advice: Get a job, get experience in your industry and 2-3 years later, decide if MS is still the right choice for you. Believe me, you will know then. You won't know now. ~~~ v3rt Thanks for that point of view, and that's totally how I'd approach it, but because of the new joint program I'd be able to get the master's in the same amount of time that I would spend on a bachelor's anyways, sorry if I didn't make that clear. I definitely wouldn't spend an additional year or two doing a master's otherwise, but this program reduces the opportunity cost pretty significantly. ------ terrykohla If you're well organized in what you do and find time to keep learning on your own through books, personal projects, etc... then forget the masters, you'll learn much more on your own, while gaining experience and with more freedom. If you can't discipline yourself to do that, then academics would provide you with that structure frame you need to acquire that level of knowledge. Another key point you might want to consider is how knowledgeable the people you're surrounded with are. If you're around people you admire and you can feed off of, forget the masters. If you're not in that kind of environment then the MS will allow you to rub shoulders with ambitious like minded people who will help you grow. ------ tmadar I currently work at a startup and am doing grad school for my masters in pattern recognition. The way the grad classes are designed, you should be able to work and go to school at the same time, because pretty much everyone in your class is working currently too (whether it be 30 hrs a week in research or, say, 40 a week at Garmin). The classes are lecture heavy and the homework load is way lighter than undergrad (tougher, yes, but nothing you couldn't finish in a weekend). tl;dr try and do both if possible, cus it'll only suck for 1 year ------ narayankpl IMHO, in the real world except at the start it would not matter... even at the start likely only if the guy with a MS is much better than you. Also since you are looking at startups, if you are good at what you do and you can fit in well most startups are unlikely to look any further. Look at it this way, I am sure you can pick up a MS/PhD if you find it is the only way... ------ citizenkeys Work with an academic advisor so the classes for your masters degree plan align with a PhD degree plan. Do that and then work on the PhD. Then if you decide to quit early, you can at least earn a masters degree along the way while working towards a PhD. ~~~ argonaut Given that the OP made no mention of any interest in a PhD, and in fact expressed an interest in startups, I think this is the completely wrong way to go. ------ jefflinwood For what it's worth, I don't think a master's right after your bachelor's would impress too many private industry employers. Save your master's degree for later in your working career, when you might want to get an MBA or specialize in one area. ------ mitchi I wanted to stay in school for the social life. The master degree was interesting as well, I can't say it was time wasted. I have no regrets. Thinking about the PHD now. ------ reiz For me a good profile on Stackoverflow & GitHub has more value than a master degree from Stanford.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
First Bluetooth Low Energy App with Flutter - lupyuen https://lupyuen.github.io/pinetime-rust-mynewt/articles/flutter ====== lupyuen Creating a Bluetooth LE mobile app with Flutter is so easy! Let me show you the steps.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
“Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies” - ca98am79 https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html "11.17 Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions" ====== johnrob This document reads like an enumerated list of why the web is better than apps for most things. Unfortunately, apps will likely prevail until OS producers work directly to empower the mobile web. ~~~ general_failure Indeed. It also contains a severe condescending tone how 'big daddy' is doing all this for our own well being. And of course, think of all the children! ~~~ kordless It's a blaming tone. "And we think that you will also know it when you cross it." is a statement that will assuredly not be true for everyone whom they believe 'crossed a line'. ------ pling Oh how blessed are we that the landlords allow such mischief... Seriously people are pissing themselves all over with these announcements as if they weren't possible before. ~~~ chillingeffect > Oh how blessed are we that the landlords allow such mischief... That's a fantastic quote! I couldn't find it via DDG, Yahoo and Google. Is that original to you? It really resonates with me. ~~~ pling I may have heard it somewhere so I can't claim originality but it came out of my head at the time in a sarcastic rage. ------ ca98am79 Section 11.17 > Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided > that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the > territories in which the app functions ~~~ jpmattia > "of approved virtual currencies" ... which begs the question: Are there _approved_ virtual currencies? I'd also be curious whether litecoin is on that list as well. ~~~ gtirloni So largely the US is out since the Fed said Bitcoin is not a currency, right? Or the term "virtual" makes it not required to be approved by the Fed? Who is the approver then? ~~~ jpmattia > _So largely the US is out since the Fed said Bitcoin is not a currency, > right?_ I guess I missed that. I remember the IRS said bitcoin would be taxed using non-currency rules, but the specifics of how something is taxed doesn't necessarily impact whether Apple "approves" it as a virtual currency. ~~~ gtirloni I wasn't even criticizing Bitcoin and got downvoted already? Aww.. I was talking about this, which amounts to almost the same thing: [http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/02/27/yellen-on- bitcoin-...](http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/02/27/yellen-on-bitcoin-fed- doesnt-have-authority-to-regulate-it-in-any-way/) ------ jlarocco OT, but: "We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour." Really? Searching for "fart" in the app store just returned 969 results. Give me a break. ~~~ mhartl To be fair, they do mention this issue: _2.11 Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps_ ~~~ FatalLogic > _2.11 Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, > particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and > Kama Sutra Apps_ Interesting. It looks like Apple may be trying to clean up the market by encouraging devs to consolidate these critical functions in one app ------ rsynnott Spoiler: The only approved currency is Dogecoin. ~~~ MBCook To the moon! Seriously though, I'm a little surprise to see Apple do this. It will be interesting to see if they actually _approve_ any currency, or if this is just a hedge they can use to keep Bitcoin (etc.) apps out of the store but let you trade EBay Bucks and Linden Dollars. ------ dang Title changed from "Apple now allows Bitcoin-transmitting apps" because the article does not mention Bitcoin. ------ FatalLogic It appears that this bitcoin wallet app, which the developer previously announced was being removed by Apple, was quietly reinstated in the iTunes store sometime recently. (I only say "appears" because it's hard to know if and when it was removed.) Anyway, the app's features do now include 'Send and receive payments' [https://blog.coinjar.com/2014/01/09/coinjar-wallet-to-be- rem...](https://blog.coinjar.com/2014/01/09/coinjar-wallet-to-be-removed-from- app-store/) [https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/coinjar-for- iphone/id7252098...](https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/coinjar-for- iphone/id725209873) ~~~ FatalLogic The same app is about to become available in Apple's app stores in Europe and parts of Asia (no US, though) So it now seems even more likely that there this is a real shift in policy and Apple is considerably more positive toward bitcoin payment apps now: [http://reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/276w8l/just_sent_some_b...](http://reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/276w8l/just_sent_some_btc_from_my_iphone_with_the/chxyq5l) ------ kristianp Combined with these clauses, You clearly can't use virtual currencies to purchase in-app items, but you possibly could use them to buy real-world items and also other virtual currencies? 11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected 11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected ------ andrewla Does anyone have historical snapshots of this document for comparison with previous statements about virtual currencies? The Wayback machine appears to only have redirects to the developer login page here. This is being presented as a change, but without a previous version I don't see how we can consider it one -- the language might be unchanged but have been interpreted strictly by the review process, for example by defining "approved" very narrowly. Off-topic, but I notice that the guidelines prohibit buttons for external purchase of in-app content, but as I recall, they used to prohibit buttons for external purchase of any digital content; why is why the Amazon app could not sell Kindle versions of books. I would be curious to see whether there is a change in policy or if Amazon was either being overly cautious or the restrictions were being applied more severely than a literal reading would indicate. ~~~ smackfu This post has some text of rejections from Apple in the past: [https://blog.gli.ph/2013/12/09/the-state-of-bitcoin- mobile-a...](https://blog.gli.ph/2013/12/09/the-state-of-bitcoin-mobile- applications-in-the-app-store-and-google-play/) They used the generic "this is not legal in all jurisdictions" clause. ~~~ pietro So it depends on which stores you submit the app to? Makes sense – and should be relatively easy to figure out. ------ Holbein What about flattr? Apple denied podcast apps that had a flattr button before... is this now ok again as well? ~~~ sp332 That might have been banned for making an in-app purchase without giving Apple their cut. ~~~ Holbein No, flattr cannot be used for in-app purchases. The idea behind flattr is that you voluntarily honor a podcast (or some other work that somebody has created and put online) by putting them on your personal list of people that will get a fraction of some amount you decided to donate at the end of the month. The key concepts being "voluntarily donate" and "not a fixed amount", which differentiates flattr completely from in-app-purchases. Apple was apparently uncomfortable with such a strange concept that it could not bring into line with its capitalistic mindset, and promptly banned it. Sad to hear that Apple hasn't changed its mind on this front. ------ spacemanmatt Would it suffice at _all_ for Apple to make the same assertions over your financial practices using say, a browser that runs on OS X? I'm going to ruminate on this one a bit but I don't like it. ------ thinkcomp "...with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions" Total United States Bitcoin companies that meet this criterion: zero. ------ dinkumthinkum What I found interesting was the style of this document. This is much less formal than what I would expect front Apple, it's sort of jarring ... "brace yourselves" ... I doubt this would have gotten through in days of old. ------ bcl There is no mention of Bitcoin in this document. The title should be corrected. ------ arasmussen Time to spend the next 24 hours hacking on a Bitcoin app. Any suggestions? ~~~ aw3c2 Flappy Coin: You pledge a small amount of imaginary money before launching a game. For each gate you fly through, the sum gets smaller. The longer you manage to play, the less money you lose. Target 14 year olds with "Bitcoin YOLO, are you cool enough to gamble?" Teaches them how Kevin's negative funny fail record from a week ago is nothing to boast about because the bubble burst and he only lost 2 cents, not 5 dollars. LOL, what a wanker! ~~~ slipstream- fun fact: there's already an altcoin called flappycoin. ------ joshdance Someone should resubmit their bitcoin app and see if it passes this time. ------ steffenfrost The coinpocket html5 web app renders this issue moot. ------ outside1234 "If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps." subtitles: "do not exercise your 1st amendment rights or else." ~~~ jonny_eh 1st amendment rights only apply to the government. ~~~ kefka And government grants corporate charters. They, and we need to remember this fact. And, corporations can be unmade as a punishment. ~~~ jonny_eh Do you have a legal precedent to point to? The Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the constitution) didn't even apply to state governments until the 14th amendment. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Ri...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Rights) ~~~ dragonwriter > Do you have a legal precedent to point to? For revoking corporate charter? Every jurisdiction which grants them also already reserves the power to revoke them. E.g., Delaware: [http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/decode/8/1/X/284](http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/decode/8/1/X/284) ~~~ jonny_eh For revoking a corporate charter for violating a customer or partner's 1st amendment rights. ------ kolev "Cryptocurrency" is a misnomer. Bitcoin is an asset and even its biggest supporters agree with that. "Cryptoasset" \- yes, "virtual currency" \- no. ------ javert Bitcoin isn't a "virtual currency," it's a "digital currency." "Virtual" means "simulated." Money in video games is "virtual currency." ~~~ dragonwriter > Bitcoin isn't a "virtual currency," it's a "digital currency." Maybe to you, but not to, e.g., the US Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). See definitions at: [http://fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/html/FIN-2013-G001....](http://fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/html/FIN-2013-G001.html) The FinCEN definition is probably more widely used than whatever rule you are using that excludes Bitcoin as a virtual currency. ~~~ javert FinCEN is incorrect. Go look up the definition and history of the word "virtual." And I've been making this point since before FinCEN started caring about bitcoin. I don't know if you understand that the government does not create truth. ~~~ dragonwriter > FinCEN is incorrect. No, they aren't. > Go look up the definition and history of the word "virtual." Even if that supported your argument (which it doesn't, see next paragraph), it wouldn't matter, because the meanings of phrases aren't necessarily determined by the meanings and/or history of the component words in isolation. But FinCEN's definition of "virtual currency" _is_ consistent with the common definition of "virtual". Their definition of "virtual currency" is exactly the #1 definition of virtual [1] applied to the uncontroversial definition of "currency". (And calling Bitcoin virtual currency would _also_ be consistent with definition #4, particularly definition #4a, though some non-electronic entities that would meet FinCEN's definition would be excluded by that definition.) > And I've been making this point since before FinCEN started caring about > bitcoin. You being wrong for a long time doesn't make you any less wrong. > I don't know if you understand that the government does not create truth. I don't know if you understand that legal definitions established by government _do_ create _meanings_ that are used in legal documents such as contracts, terms of service, etc., whether or not they are "truth" in some abstract, idealized sense. [1] from: [http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/virtual](http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/virtual) ~~~ javert In what sense is bitcoin NOT a currency? It has to not be a currency to be a virtual currency, by the definition you favor. Any answer I can imagine that you would give would invalidate other things we all consider currencies, unless you draw a line based on non-fundamental properties (e.g. such as backing by government force or market cap). And you can't form a proper concept using non-fundamental properties. So the definition you favor actually supports my view, though I think the definition you favor lacks appropriate context and nuance (which is often true of dictionary definitions). Talking about the government defining something creating meaning is just irrelevant. You're obviously telling me things I already know, but the government is technically incorrect on this. Just as they are on calling capital gains "unearned income," for example, since many successful investors work hard and do earn their income. ~~~ jaekwon > It has to not be a currency to be a virtual currency, by the definition you > favor. incorrect. ~~~ javert > being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted Here is the definition he favors, it has to be not formally recognized or admitted as a currency to fit this definition. I shouldn't even have bothered responding to such a worthless comment.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A New Path to Equal-Angle Lines - jonbaer https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170411-equiangular-lines-proof/ ====== zellyn In the penultimate paragraph, they say, "As a result, the authors were able to prove that when you begin by fixing the angle in advance, the maximum number of equiangular lines is 2d – 2 for one particular angle (approximately 70.7 degrees), and no more than 1.93d for any other angle." Earlier, they show that in 3 dimensions, you can arrange 6 lines. 2 > 1.93, so I guess either I or they misunderstood something. [Edit] "for…sufficiently large n" [https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.06620](https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.06620) “in this paper we prove that for every fixed angle θ and sufficiently large n there are at most 2n−2 lines in ℝn with common angle θ” ~~~ jerf One of the things that makes understanding higher dimensionality so challenging for us is that all the cases we can visualize (0, 1, 2, and 3, to a limited extent 4 if you use time as a dimension, which is suitable for raw visualization but makes rotation hard) are very frequently special cases when you ask about some property in _n_ dimensions. I suspect (obviously without proof) that while a 100-dimensional being might have a hard time directly visualizing a 101-dimensional space since all their specialized neural-equivalent-hardware might be set up for 100 dimensions that they would at least have less mathematical trouble with going up one dimension than we do. By that point the dimensions are becoming more regular in a lot of ways, whereas for us we're still stepping from something that's still often a special case (3) to something else that is also quite often a special case (4), with only the ability to visualize things that are super-special cases below us to guide us. Too much special case going on with too many properties for us to get a general understanding of dimensionality very easily. To give one example of a special case we live in where even going to 4 doesn't help much in escaping it, we are used to the unit sphere taking up most of the volume of the enclosing cube. This turns out to be a special case for low dimensionality; in the general case it takes up a vanishing fraction of the volume. This makes sense and is perhaps even obvious if you think about it completely algebraically; if I'm picking variables from -1.0 to 1.0 for each dimension and doing SQRT(a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + d^2 + e^2 + f^2 + g^2...), the more I add inside that expression the less likely the resulting value is going to be less than 1.0. But even as I know this quite easily algebraically, the geometry portion of my brain is screaming "No, it cannot be! The sphere is large!", because it's too trained on special cases and generalizing those special cases into the general case incorrectly. (Yes, the SQRT doesn't do much here since we're doing the unit circle, but it's part of the form.) ~~~ hashhar Your last paragraph had me intrigued. I'm now wondering what other observations we have that are simply special cases due to low dimensionality. ~~~ jerf Well, here's another fun one for you then: Regular polyhedra/polytopes. In zero dimensions the special case is that it's a nonsense question, which is pretty common special case for 0D. In 1D you can't help but have a line be equal to itself, so still a special case of it being nonsense. In 2D you have the special case of being able to form an arbitrary number of regular polygons. In 3D you get 5 regular polyhedra, the five Platonic solids, which also turns out to be a special case. However, in _four_ dimensions, you have _six_ regular polytopes: video [1] webpage [2] I only found this out relatively recently; while this is no secret it only seems to be recently getting around in the math general interest video channels and such. After that, the regular case takes over and you only have 3 forever more; the tetrahedron analogue, the cube analog, and the octahedron analog. So here's a case where 0 through 4 dimensions is a special case, and 5 is the first that fits the general pattern. [1]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7uOj2LRso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7uOj2LRso) [2]: [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/platonic.html](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/platonic.html) ~~~ hashhar Wow. This entire thread is amazing. Thanks a lot for the links to help me go deeper into the rabbit hole. ------ mrcactu5 whoa -- I didn't know geogebra could be put on the web ~~~ murkle We've had that working for a few years now :) [https://help.geogebra.org/topic/welcome-to-the- geogebraweb-b...](https://help.geogebra.org/topic/welcome-to-the-geogebraweb- beta-release-forum) It's compiled from the same source code using GWT (and in fact the GWT / HTML5 version is now the mainstream release)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Minibonds: Matching up lenders with middle market borrowers - cwan http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c515b048-8c10-11de-b14f-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=782015c4-f2e3-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1 ====== patio11 This was what I hoped Prosper and the other P2P startups would turn into. Sadly, rather than targeting businesses frozen out of traditional financing, they ended up going for B2C credit. B2C credit is an extraordinarily efficient market in which most good credit risks can borrow money absolutely painlessly, for close to nothing. The added headache ("Instead of typing five pieces of information into the computer and instantly getting issued a credit card, I think I'm going to write up an eBay style listing of myself, submit my financial details to be wrangled over by strangers, and babysit the auction for a week") and expense in borrowing from Prosper restricted it to mostly high risk borrowers who the banks had spurned. And, as it turns out, banks were largely not rejecting them out of whim or caprice. ------ falsestprophet break the pay wall: [http://www.google.com/search?q=These+are+extraordinary+times...](http://www.google.com/search?q=These+are+extraordinary+times+for+lenders%2C+borrowers+and+savers.+There+are+huge+disconnects+that+make+no+sense+and+it+will+require+corporate+financiers+with+imagination+to+solve+the+conundrum.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en- US:official&client=firefox-a)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
SQL Trick: row_number() is to SELECT what dense_rank() is to SELECT DISTINCT - lukaseder http://blog.jooq.org/2013/10/09/sql-trick-row_number-is-to-select-what-dense_rank-is-to-select-distinct/ ====== vittore I found out that a lot of devs found row_number() when they were looking for way to do pagination, but never come across rank and dense_rank functions. Nice article, it explain difference between these three functions in a much simplier way msdn and technet does.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Review my webapp: memobuild - namarojulian Hi all,<p>Hope you won't mind if this is my first post, but I was told this is a good place to get advice for a new web business. So here it is: http://www.memobuild.com<p>It's basically an editor for large online documents (e.g. documentation, reports, e-books). It follows the What-You-See-Is-What-You-Mean paradigm: authors just need to input the contents in a structured way, the layout and design are automatically taken care of by the application. There are some e-learning features too. The app is powered by Google App Engine / python, and hopefully it can scale nicely.<p>Please have a look and let me know what you think.<p>The next step will be to get in the Google Apps Marketplace to reach out to businesses and schools. Meanwhile I'm trying to get some early adopters. I plan to contact bloggers discussing learning technologies. Any other idea on where to concentrate my marketing efforts? ====== RBr I have composed learning materials using almost every Learning Management System available. Your interface is clean and easy to understand. The simple content section on the left along with easy to understand CMS controls are exceptionally well done. This feels like part of a larger product. Learning materials take hundreds of hours to prepare and I wouldn't trust my time with your new product. Not that it isn't well created, just that I don't have any control over the hosting or storage and I don't see an easy way for me to backup or duplicate content on more trustworthy platforms such as Google Docs or even good old Word. Your application may be a good add-on for a small publisher. A publisher could offer your product (branded as their own) to extend their texts online and keep them up-to-date. I could see the advantage to this for either a business (in sort of a Wiki setup) or a school, however without a real direction, it's a bit difficult for me and your potential customers to see. Overall, I really like this. I wish that it was integrated into a full LMS and that I could quickly and easily spin my content into texts. ~~~ namarojulian Thanks for the feedback RBr! Actually you're the second user today to tell me the lack of export formats is a problem. I plan to offer export options, but it is not simple. There are some features like audio, associations or exercises that cannot be easily reproduced in other formats. An XML file would be a good start though. Connecting with existing LMS: you're right I need to look more into that. ~~~ pierrefar > _Connecting with existing LMS: you're right I need to look more into that._ Please get in touch with me. My profile will tell you why and my contact details. ------ ritonlajoie clickable : <http://www.memobuild.com> ------ iampims That's a really neat app. The inline quiz is a great feature. Which python framework did you use? Small "bug": when you navigate to the login page [1], there's no link to go back to the home page or anywhere else but the TOS. [1] <http://www.memobuild.com/login> ~~~ namarojulian Thanks! Did you also try to put a block with the "answer" style in your quiz? It's not yet documented but quite useful. I built on top of Google's webapp framework. Although if I had to start something now I would probably use tipfy or kay. ------ secret I really like it. As soon as I started using it, it was clear how to do anything. My suggestion would be to change the sample links on the home page to images. Also, it would be nice to try a demo before signing up. ~~~ namarojulian Thanks! You're right those links need a little polishing. ~~~ secret The samples were really well made, they deserve something flashy to show them off :) ~~~ notahacker I'd be tempted to move them below the fold - let the user read that memobuild will give them drag and drop page organisation and collaborative document creation before they click through and start wondering what your app's connection with biometric testing in Australia is A "sample built using memobuild" bar at the top with a link to the home page would seem pretty essential too for exactly the same reason. ------ 10ren I wish there was a way to play with it initially without giving up my email. I hate getting automated 'haven't seen you for a while' app-spam. It's pretty standard though, so maybe it's just me. I'm using App Engine too; seems to be a good choice. And oddly, the performance stats for Python vs. Java seem indistinguishable. I would have thought Java would pull ahead on repetitive server-like tasks. ~~~ namarojulian I love one-click demo too, and hopefully I can add it later. About Java vs. Python, from my experience datastore RPC are often the bottleneck anyway. ------ pedrocr I seem to have found a bug. In: <http://help.memobuild.com/user-guide/creating-document> all the links on the left above "Using the Drafts folder" don't work. I'm using Chrome 6.0.472.53 on Linux. ~~~ namarojulian Confirmed. Thanks for the report! ------ random42 The programmer in me absolutely loved the product. However, I am bit skeptical about how it would be positioned/generate revenue (Mostly because I have zero business acumen) . Good product. Best of luck for revenue generation. ~~~ namarojulian Many thanks! Monetization is tough for any webapp, but I believe there are possibilities for an app like memobuild. ~~~ ollerac I'd pay for an embeddable/skinnable version of your editor. Great interface -- nice work ------ alexpak Personally, I find it really cool. Although, after the publication, the link doesn't work. I tried (<http://docs.memobuild.com/irokez/test/>) ~~~ namarojulian Thanks! Strange the link didn't work, if I click it works here. ------ eduardo_f Looks good! Could you share how you did the video? I'd like to do something like that for my app (it's in the Google Apps Marketplace already by the way). ~~~ namarojulian Thanks! Google Molly at demogirl and say hi from me. ------ pghimire I tried to sign in with my google account only to get a 500. Please check google sign ins. : [http://www.memobuild.com/_ah/openid_verify?continue=http://w...](http://www.memobuild.com/_ah/openid_verify?continue=http://www.memobuild.com/register/federated/google&gx.rp_st=AEp4C1tRGrNmj7ieXys4FXketo5WC0ka4iOF0WU54D9Dfnh3xs-p76e72T7csrg5dACTQus25GobI_Ryldppy9LaVFkAI3YrPewFSCftS2RR-5z4NWymYMBYtyrtWO_3Bk0MwLfMWHnaB4t5MpsFiCPAVE7IsXW3lCU6H_53JBeFV- DjQWwFarWJJELhr3GxxOoPlemT8ROb5PDDcptWSRKATtuHo1i15wlUkfm6E9bd9cofIf8baEmlJ- KGOVjlp6ez4qWfROKs7ZymWJe38oA9_LMy52vFRhQb_Rqck9Uv0vhpJ7IHjxmuq_BhsIVBZQW4WQncIFvt) ~~~ pghimire here is the message: Error: Server Error The server encountered an error and could not complete your request. If the problem persists, please report your problem and mention this error message and the query that caused it. ~~~ namarojulian There is a glitch with Google login that causes this error when you click on the "Continue to memobuild.." button. If you wait for the redirection instead, it should work.. Am I correct? ------ rokhayakebe You need to take it down, hire a designer (/copy writer) to redo the UI and add pricing, otherwise everyday you are missing out on customers/revenue. Although I have not played with the app, it seems to have a great potential. There is definitely a need for this product. ~~~ namarojulian Thanks! Monetization will come. Why take it down? On the contrary I'm trying to get users.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Creative Destruction and Inequality - lkrubner http://www.digitopoly.org/2016/01/04/creative-destruction-and-inequality/ ====== lkrubner This is interesting: \--------------------------------------- In yesterday’s post, I reacted to Paul Graham’s much talked about essay on inequality by suggesting that the premise — entrepreneurship causes inequality — is far from obvious. Indeed, I conjectured that if things were working as they should, entrepreneurship would tend to decrease inequality. My argument was based on where the entrepreneur started in the income distribution, where they ended, what their innovation did to the incomes of others and what they ended up doing with the wealth they accrued. Suffice it to say, that’s alot of moving parts and I will admit that it was hard to see how it fit together.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Royal Constellations - johansch http://www.datasketch.es/october/code/nadieh/ ====== gus_massa What means the x axis?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
One Percenters Control Online Reviews - dnetesn http://nautil.us/issue/12/feedback/one-percenters-control-online-reviews ====== PaulHoule Yes, the "Silent Majority" thinks customer service from Comcast is excellent.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Thinking about buying an Apple Watch? Take a look at the Moto 360 - stevep2007 http://www.networkworld.com/article/2982309/ios/review-apple-watch-vs-moto-360-motorola-android-wear.html?nsdr=true ====== stevep2007 Motorola offers its Moto Maker, a website where the buyer can tweak the watch's design until they're happy with it. Now that Android Wear devices like the Moto 360 are supported on the iPhone, even iPhone users should take a look at the Moto 360, because it may be a better fit with their style and app preferences.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Writing an Interpreter in Go - ezodude https://interpreterbook.com ====== ezodude This podcast goes through some of the highlights of the book, [https://changelog.com/gotime/28](https://changelog.com/gotime/28) I'm reading this now. Less dense than other interpreter/compiler books & All about the code.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tracing fake news: characterizing social media messages by how they propagate - charlysl https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/02/19/tracing-fake-news-footprints-characterizing-social-media-messages-by-how-they-propagate/ ====== godelmachine This research is truly interesting. As interesting as -> [https://blog.acolyer.org/2017/02/16/beyond-the-words- predict...](https://blog.acolyer.org/2017/02/16/beyond-the-words-predicting- user-personality-from-heterogeneous-information/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Find a home close to work - rgbrgb https://www.openlistings.co/near ====== rgbrgb Hey HN, I'm a founder at Open Listings and did a lot of the engineering of this project. We got a lot of inquiries from tech workers who really cared about their commute times, so we used Googles Distance Matrix API [0] to sort listings by commute time. I'll be on here with my cofounders today to answer any questions you might have. [0]: [https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancemat...](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancematrix/intro) ~~~ jboggan I clicked on my last company (Factual in LA) and the first listing was for a $18M penthouse. It also said that the buyer would get a $225k+ refund from Open Listings for buying through them - how does that work? But seriously, it is a very neat tool, thanks for making it. ~~~ jschoenholtz Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse... When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your closing costs. Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun slider: [https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission- refund](https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission-refund) ~~~ ehhuang I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share? ~~~ danieltillett As an Australian I have always been amazed with that in the USA you have to use a buyers agent. Here you visit the properties yourself and deal directly with the selling agent. Only the buyer pays the agent. We do have very high stamp duty (basically a sales tax on real estate) which is 5% of the property price which the buyer has to pay. ~~~ Schwolop I think you mean that only the _seller_ pays the agent. But yes, I agree the American system is a bit odd. For one thing the listings are WAAAAYYY old by Australian standards - here you list your house with an auction or "sale by" date usually six weeks in the future, and ... it sells (usually). It looks to me like the American system has longer listings because there are fewer open- house inspections - your buyers agent arranges a time to inspect on your behalf, or something like that? ~~~ danieltillett Yes you are right - the buyer pays the agent. At the moment is Sydney properties are selling off market which means 0 day sales. The time it takes in the USA seems amazing long. ------ coldcode The site is very nice, but how does anyone afford houses that expensive in those areas? I live in Texas and my nice modern 2000 SF house is only $190. ~~~ rgbrgb It's tough! As a company we're trying to make it cheaper by refunding half of our commission back to the buyer [0]. If you're doing an FHA loan, that can be almost 50% of the down payment. We can also help with the purchase of low income housing if you qualify [1]. We're actually thinking about building some tools to make this inventory more accessible. You might also try checking out our cheekily named list of fixer-uppers, Shitty Listings [2]. As you'll notice, a "fixer-upper" near the California coast can still be pretty pricy but I think there's just a fundamental supply constraint. Incidentally, that's most likely why real estate has been a lasting and valuable asset class. [0]: [https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission- refund](https://www.openlistings.co/our-commission-refund) [1]: [http://sf- moh.org/index.aspx?page=262](http://sf-moh.org/index.aspx?page=262) [2]: [http://www.shittylistings.com/](http://www.shittylistings.com/) ~~~ optimusclimb FYI, your links in the footer on shittylistings.com point to localhost:3000 :P ------ justizin Curious where this number comes from: > It’s sad. The typical car LA or SF commuter spends more than 60 hours each > year stuck in traffic. It seems low, it would be an estimate of just over one hour per week, which would be like 10 minutes each morning and evening. ~~~ smt88 The average commute in the US is something like 23 min, so the average commute in LA or SF should theoretically be a bit higher. I agree that 10 min seems incredibly low. ~~~ rgbrgb Good catch, I'll fact check that number. ~~~ justizin It should be closer to 2h per day off the cuff, I'm sure you can find better sources than my memory. At that rate, though, you save something closer to a hundred hours a year, or more than two work weeks. ------ gricardo99 There's another solution to this problem: remote work. It's 2015, and with the plethora of Internet technologies that facilitate online collaboration I'm still dismayed to see so many tech companies behaving like it's 1985. The insistence and focus on physical location baffles me. Some companies seem to get it and have embraced an online/distributed workforce but many seem opposed to that model. I'd really like to hear others thoughts on why geography is still such a huge factor in knowledge-based industries. ~~~ d_luaz I guess remote work is an option, but not quite a total solution at the moment. 1) not all work could be remote 2) self-discipline/communication is tough Woofoo (about 7 people) did remote, but the founder admit it's tough and challenging even for such a small and motivated company (imagine your workforce > 1000 people), though there are some obvious benefits. It's not just about tools (slack, skype, etc.) and finding a procedure that works, but more about company culture, motivation, discipline, adaptation to remote environment, family at home, etc. Not every employee could survive a remote environment and continue to be productive :( Before everyone could work from home, maybe the idea of multiple office location/work-space (rather than centralized) could be explored, yet it will have many pros and cons. ------ unicornporn What about reverse search? I want to find a work close to home. :) ~~~ dreamdu5t Same here. I don't want to move closer to work as the entire reason I don't live closer is cost. ------ nicolewhite The rent explosion article[0] seems relevant. No 1 bedroom apartments for less than $3000 near my San Mateo office. [0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10050545](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10050545) ~~~ rconti Odd. Just last year I was renting a 2/1 house in Belmont for $2k, until we bought a house. My buddy's renting a 2/1 in San Mateo for $3k. How close is "close"? I'd expect 1bd apartments to be cheaper than entire houses. ~~~ nicolewhite Whatever the default was, I believe it was looking for stuff within a 20 minute drive. I'm currently in a studio in San Mateo for $2.3k, but that's only because I stayed in the same unit I was in last year, so they only raised rent by 10%. If I were a new resident, my studio is around $2.7k. ------ thoman23 Finally, a website where I can find homes for sale. ------ stephengillie Very interesting. The site looks clean and it's fast. Where do you get your data? I used to work for one of the industry dinosaurs; our only competitive advantage was that we had agreements with most of the 674 MLSes to rehost their data for our clients, which were RE Agent companies. Zillow is still using Trulia as a pipe to funnel that MLS data from my former employer. Is that one of the reasons for piloting in CA - fewer MLSes to partner with? ~~~ rgbrgb As a California RE brokerage we join each MLS and get a direct feed from their RETS api. It's a dramatically better data feed than any of the aggregators offer and we get listings the minute they come on market (well our polling interval is more like 5 minutes). So far we have 100% coverage in San Francisco, Oakland/East Bay, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles. We've just joined the San Diego MLS and will have data there soon. And yes, our strategy is to go deep on California, prioritizing data quality over sheer number of listings. ~~~ encoderer You should check out [https://rets.ly/](https://rets.ly/) ~~~ rgbrgb Been on their beta list for almost a year. They've since been acquired by zillow so we're not holding our breath. ~~~ encoderer My understanding is that they are working hard to build APIs that will let Retsly power the _next_ zillow, and that there's support for that internally. Time will tell! ~~~ rgbrgb Cool, if that's the case I hope the API is available soon. In the meantime our internal implementation makes use of this great open source library from estately: [https://github.com/estately/rets](https://github.com/estately/rets) ------ swimfar For people looking for an apartment, padmapper[1] has a similar option where you can give it an address and it will draw a polygonal boundary around it showing the limits for an x-minute commuting distance for walking, cycling, or driving. I imagine the car commute could be inaccurate if there's bad rush hour traffic in that area, but the others should be relatively consistent. I'm not affiliated with the site at all, I just thought it's a really cool feature. [1]: [http://www.padmapper.com](http://www.padmapper.com) You need to click on "More Filters", then "Super-Secret Advanced Features" ------ yellowapple Where does this site get its real estate and/or distance/time data? I ended up doing an address search for my employer (which isn't on the list), but got a "No properties were found within 20 minutes of this location." despite Zillow showing dozens of red dots within 20 minutes _walking_ distance from where I work. ~~~ rgbrgb We get our data directly from regional MLS systems in the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles but we're actively expanding (San Diego is next). If you email the address you're looking for to [email protected], I'll try to prioritize your area. ~~~ yellowapple No need, my query is quiet a ways out of any of those cities (Reno/Tahoe), but thanks anyway. Good to know. ------ minimaxir What's different now than at your launch ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9113240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9113240))? ~~~ rgbrgb Good question. We've done a bunch of transactions, learned more about our customers and built this purpose specific site for our biggest segment (tech workers looking to live closer to the office). ------ jkmcf Interesting. One of my short term plans is to display hiking trailheads near homes for sale. Not sure if anything like that exists (also haven't looked...) ~~~ rgbrgb That's an awesome idea, pretty sure that doesn't exist. Definitely drop me a link if you end up building it! My brother in law keeps asking me for a Twitter feed of land near good surf spots. I gave him a bunch of mansions he can't afford :) [0]. [0]: [https://twitter.com/openmansions](https://twitter.com/openmansions) ------ blizkreeg Doesn't this assume you'll continue working with the same company for a long time? If you work at a company in SF now but 4 years later want to work at place down on MV, or vice-versa, not sure how this helps. ------ noLocalStorage Another website that does not works without sessionStorage enabled. ~~~ rgbrgb Will fix.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
NSA Disruption of Stock Exchange Bomb Plot Disputed - shill http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/nsa-stock-exchange/ ====== jaysonelliot This is the wrong argument to have. The issue is not whether or not illegal surveillance has thwarted any plots. We could put a video camera in every home that can't be turned off and has a direct feed into the local police station. I'm sure that after a few months, the police could then point to all the crimes they'd discovered as a result. Success rates are not the only consideration when determining whether or not we should give a particular power to the government. ~~~ thufry They're not the only consideration, but they are a major consideration. The public's tolerance of any privacy infraction will depend strongly on whether that infraction prevents 1 death a year or 1,000,000. ~~~ jaysonelliot A privacy infraction that prevents a million deaths a year still has to be weighed against other ways to prevent those deaths without violating people's rights. Yes, the easiest way to do something might be to violate the Constitution, but that doesn't mean it's the only way. ~~~ thufry In an imaginary world where an unconstitutional privacy infraction could be demonstrably proven to prevent a million deaths per year, the Constitution would be amended. ~~~ AnthonyMouse You're completely missing the point. Let's take the worst-case disaster scenario: Terrorists are going to get a nuclear weapon and blow up a major city every year. Millions of deaths per year. Here are two ways to prevent this: A) We read everyone's private correspondence without prior suspicion and arrest anyone who we think has obtained nuclear materials necessary to make a bomb. Obviously if we hadn't arrested them they would have killed millions of people, so reading everyone's private correspondence without prior suspicion has saved millions of lives per year. B) We track down and secure all the nuclear material (e.g. what the Russians have lost) using traditional investigative work so that terrorists can't get it. Since it's too hard for them to make themselves, this prevents them from obtaining a nuclear weapon, problem solved. C) We send undercover operatives into terrorist networks and disrupt them before they ever get off the ground. You don't need A if B works. You don't need A if C works. You don't need A if any of D through Z works either. ~~~ thufry Non-renewable energy sources are being continuously depleted. Mankind's options are: 1) Conserve energy through efficiency. 2) Develop renewable energy technologies. 3) Invent cold fusion. Sure, we might not need 1) or 2) if 3) works, but without the existence of 3), it's very easy to make a case for 1) and 2). ~~~ DuskStar Except that in even the mid-long term (several hundred years) non-renewable energy is reasonable. (Based on estimates of Uranium and other fissile reserves) And of course by the time that runs out, we'll have something like Planetary Resources up and running... So while 3) might not ever happen, that does not imply 1) or 2) are the only remaining options. Proof by elimination only works if you can prove for all options, not just your preferred subset. ------ aegiso It's shocking how fast "terrorism" has been redefined from "use of terror as a means of coersion" to "Islamic fundamentalists" to "evil". These days politicians mix that word into a sentence with anything or anyone they want gone, and the public supports the cause, for fear of their own safety. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is strong. But every now and then I like to think back to the original definition. By which it would seem that the United States' response to terrorism has been exponentially more terrorism. Were it not for all of these shenanigans maybe we could have all healed from 9/11 by now. ~~~ redblacktree > Were it not for all of these shenanigans maybe we could have all healed from > 9/11 by now. This thought created a particularly deep reaction in me. ------ hawkharris The only thing that scares me more than terrorism is U.S. policymakers' reaction to terrorism. I'm not sure which civil liberty they'll strike down next in the name of preventing future attacks. Their means-to-an-end attitude exposes not only hysteric, irrational thinking, but a fundamental misunderstanding of the Constitution. ~~~ k2enemy I understand the spirit of your comment, but there should probably be a long list of things that scare you more than terrorism. ~~~ hawkharris I could have taken into account clowns, Stephen King novels and high cholesterol, but for the sake of wordplay and relevance to this discussion, I thought I'd leave it at terrorism. (Jokes aside, though, I understand your comment and agree that we shouldn't let terrorism paralyze us with fear, as it's intended to; plus, the risks of an American being killed in a terrorist attack are very low.) ------ jessaustin _Fowler declined to comment any further, including whether he would seek to reopen the case, given the government admitting that secret, and constitutionally suspect, methods were used to gain access to his phone records._ Well that's troubling. ~~~ NickNameNick It could be an interesting point. Does any investigation which used data from the NSA, especially early in the investigation to obtain warrants and more data suffer from a 'fruit of the poisoned tree' problem, where much of the evidence used later could be declared inadmissible on appeal? Has 'trying to be helpful' on the part of the NSA and/or FBI poisoned thousands of convictions? ~~~ pilsetnieks Considering the article, 50 planned attacks would not result in thousands of convictions, and it isn't known how many of them were in the US (Other countries could have different standards for evidence or may have, in good faith, believed that it was all acquired legally.) Even so, the point was not that some people were convicted of planning attacks but that the attacks were prevented. Meanwhile, it's the _method_ of prevention that should be disputed, not the fact of it. ------ saalweachter _“Hasanoff relayed that the New York Stock Exchange was surrounded by approximately four streets... "_ I love that. It captures downtown Manhattan perfectly. ~~~ SimHacker [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Manhattan_distance](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Manhattan_distance) ------ epoxyhockey _spy techniques publicly disclosed two weeks ago had halted some 50 terror attacks in 20 countries_ Sean Joyce, modern day _Iraqi Information Minister_. Reference: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saeed_al- Sahhaf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saeed_al-Sahhaf) ------ dear If they lock everyone up, I am sure the crime rate would be zero. ~~~ mmagin You'd be surprised at all the illicit activity that happens in prisons, at least in the US. ~~~ uptown I'd also be surprised if any of that crime is counted towards regional crime statistics. ------ seeingfurther The Stock Exchange isn't a place anymore but a network. ~~~ bwhite Like many office buildings, it is of pretty good size and houses a goodly number of workers. What sets it apart from almost all other buildings its that it is symbolic. The financial reporters are still frequently "on location" there, it is in downtown Manhattan, and there is an enormous American flag covering the Broad St side of the building. ------ Alex3917 This reminds me of that time the FBI caught a black kid taking pictures of his family at Disney World, and then claimed they prevented the next 9/11\. Oh wait, this exact same thing has happened literally dozens of times. ~~~ tptacek When did this happen? Link? ~~~ Alex3917 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Sleeper_Cell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Sleeper_Cell) My details were slightly off, but close enough. ~~~ tptacek Just to be clear: no black kid, and a malicious witness trying to weasel out of multiple felony charges. :) ------ gesman Well there is a bigger list of plots that has not been prevented. ------ b6 It's also irrelevant. We're here to talk about their crime spree, not any supposed good works done during. ~~~ MichaelGG It's definitely NOT irrelevant. At some point (say, alien terrorist invasion that'd kill everyone on Earth), most people will decide it's a worthwhile tradeoff. If it only stopped one small bomb against a concrete statue, people would decide the other way. There is certainly a crossover point. The crossover is probably not even close to being reached, but discussion about it is certainly relevant. Many people believe they'd be under major attacks without these secret program. Dismissing their claims doesn't further the discussion. ~~~ b6 I take your point. But if there's a credible threat, they should say what it is and allow the public to decide whether the law should be amended. In all probability, there is no credible threat. That's why they choose to do this stuff without consent, and why they've been blocking the courts from ruling on it for years. And this is more of the same -- more manufactured bogeymen, more obfuscation. They want to talk about _anything_ other than their lies and their crimes.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Do You Resist New Tech at the Office? - sarapeyton https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-resist-new-tech-at-the-office-11560159001 ====== duxup >Attorney Paul Cannon was surprised when some employees at his Houston law firm fought his decision to replace obsolete software they’d been using. I'm not sure this should be surprising. In my experience among lawyers there are a high percentage of Luddites. I think the point that people's identity gets mixed up in it all very much plays a part. People's identity is often tied to work and if they use software all day then a bit change in software certainly impacts that identity, and even just job satisfaction. I think new tech can send messages about what a company values and etc, possibly who it values too. I remember a change in a CRM app I used years ago. The new application was largely influenced by the local management bureaucracy. Accordingly things like dates, SLAs and etc got a large chunk of the screen real estate. The "notes" section, the area where I and my technical coworkers actually kept notes that helped us solve problems, spent most of our time, was reduced to a postage stamp size, only took plain text (the other fields had formatting options)... and was reduced in the amount of characters it would accept. The message felt very clear, the important things were book keeping like dates and times, and special notices for each and every customer. The space where we did the majority of our work was tiny and thus unimportant / not valued.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Mission Bicycle: The Bike Startup - ted0 http://teddy.is/mission-bicycle/ ====== jrockway Yay, more non-functional hipster bicycles. ~~~ ted0 I definitely wouldn't say non-functional. Hipster? Maybe. Check out their new Sutro model. Amazing engineering. ~~~ jrockway A great bike if you always wear shorts, don't ride in the rain, never need to transport anything but yourself, and you don't get thirsty while riding. (What's amazing about the engineering? A low-end internally-geared hub? Internal cable-routing? Internally geared hubs have been around for more than 100 years. Time trial bikes have used internal cable routing for ages.) ~~~ zacker I'm Zack, an owner of Mission Bicycle. As you point out, the bicycle industry has been around for some time. Bicycle design and engineering has been improving for 100+ years. Mission Bicycles are designed for a specific purpose, commuting in American cities. We optimized for: \- Ride feel: A frame geometry that put riders in an up-right position for comfort and visibility and made the bicycle very stable and responsive even at low speeds. \- Strength: Components and materials that are strong enough to last a life time even with the daily abuse of a city commute. \- Ease of use: Other than fixing an occasional flat, brake pad swap, or chain grease there is nothing on the bicycle to fidget with or break. We literally took everything off the bike that you don't need for a city commute which saves greatly on weight. A typical Mission Bicycle weighs in at 16lbs, which is important for when you need to cary it up a flight of stairs. The bicycle features you mention (bottle cages, fenders, racks, etc.) were purposefully excluded from the bicycle's design to save on weight, maintenance, and cost.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Gimmick of the Novel of Ideas - lermontov https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/06/25/the-gimmick-of-the-novel-of-ideas/ ====== throwaway_pdp09 "...the novel of ideas reflects the challenge posed by the integration of externally developed concepts long before the arrival of conceptual art" "These came to obtrude against a set of generic expectations—nondidactic representation; a dynamic, temporally complex relation between events and the representation of events; character development; verisimilitude—established only in wake of the novel’s separation from history and romance..." From the 1st para. Does this stuff mean anything? ~~~ fmoralesc "The challenge that the novel of ideas faces: how does one integrate the exposition and discussion of ideas in the context of a novel (when the origin of those ideas is not the novel itself)?" "[The techniques used in the novel of ideas] are in conflict with some expectations [enumerated here...] about how a novel works, that in turn were established as novels became more than historical retellings and romances stories". It is stuffy, but not meaningless. ------ voldacar Sounds like the sort of thing that could come out of GPT-2	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Can I Help You With Your Job Hunt? - helen842000 Hey HN,<p>After finishing my degree in Comp Sci I trained in technical recruitment. I thought it would be interesting to get paid to understand the industry and learn about the roles that were actually out there, market rates, negotiation skills, interview techniques, resume writing etc.<p>I enjoyed helping people find their ideal role but disliked most of the way traditional recruitment companies worked (profit over people). I absorbed the useful skills & transferred them into my own career.<p>I moved into my own technical roles where I've been for the last few years. More recently I've started managing a team of engineers and have found that a lot of the career mentoring advice (what I assumed was common knowledge) to be the most useful.<p>I have provided highly successful resume assessments in a freelance capacity for a while now and would like to extend this further.<p>Is there anything I can help with on your current job search?<p>In return, I'd just like feedback on your progress.<p>Thanks!<p>(I'm my username at gmail.com if you want to get in touch directly.) ====== matt_s Here's one for you: I used to do web/software development then moved into various roles like Architect, Tech PM, and now manage a team of engineers scaling web/db infrastructure and some DevOps stuff. I work at BigCorp and don't like the prospects of middle/upper management. They seem too far out of touch with reality and don't have marketable skills outside the company (politics, budgeting, etc.) I want to go back to software engineering/architecture - have done some recent work with Rails and I can pick up new tech pretty quick. The fundamentals don't change and background in CompSci is a great foundation for thinking like a computer. Some questions: \- I don't have a github or twitter profile or blog. Does this hurt when looking at newer/small and tech-oriented companies? \- I have applied to a few postings (being picky) but generally don't get past tech recruiter. Any tips on "impressing" a tech recruiter to get to the next level? \- I've worked remotely before, have the discipline for that and would prefer it since it opens up many more opportunities. Any tips for applying to these types of roles? ~~~ tectonic I'd love to chat! ~~~ helen842000 Great! Drop me an e-mail & we can discuss! ------ th1agofm I have a somehow good github having contributed to big projects, have dealt with large scale ruby apps, did a lot of projects and development of backend systems in general but can't find my way to get a _very good job_ outside my country. I already make almost as much as I could with a software engineer role in my country. Would your experience in recruiting help me? I don't mind even to pay you a plus if you get me a good job or have a lunch with you every 6 months to talk with you what's new because for me that's a big endeavor which I can't seen to reach. Most of recruiters I've seen are only interested in doing the obvious: find candidates inside their home country and there's plenty of recruiters like this. I think that a recruiter that specializes into recruiting people from overseas(and with success) is going to be of value to any company and with a unmatched differential. ~~~ helen842000 I'll certainly do whatever I can to help. Feel free to drop me an e-mail. I think a lot of it depends on your expectations of what a _very good job_ is really. Are you looking to relocate or to work remotely? Is it the increase in salary you're after, different culture, or opportunities perhaps? ~~~ th1agofm Different culture, the experience to live abroad. I would rather relocate. I'll send you an e-mail asap. Thanks! ------ sodium Another one for you - Here is my Ask HN post for some career advice few days back: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8551407](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8551407) I would love to get some advice on this, as I am still clueless. ~~~ helen842000 I think it's important to project yourself as 'something specific'. What I mean by that is if you attempt to broaden your search and throw everything onto your resume then it will not come across as a focused application. You will get passed over in favour if specialists on most occasions. By all means have several versions of your resume - perhaps one that brings out your iOS experience that you use for iOS jobs. Another for a different specific focused tech stack or area. Happy to help you revise your versions if you want to send an e-mail across. ~~~ sodium Thanks, will send across my resume for review. ------ zubairq Good to see someone doing this. I do the same at Nemcv.com, in fact offering people $1000 if I can't find them a job. I have NEVER failed. Amazingly, most people do not think they have a problem with finding a job, they think that there are no jobs out there. But good luck! :) ~~~ helen842000 Thanks! Nemcv.com seems pretty smart, do you offer 121 advice alongside the CV builder? ------ ccastillo_cl How a developer of a country with easy access to VISA's (Chile) can be hired and relocated to the US, Canada or Europe? ~~~ helen842000 A route in would be to find a company to work with remotely or maybe multiple contracts. I think it's often hard to get companies to make the leap for an unknown candidate unless you have outstanding experience or rare skills. Best way round this is to keep searching for additional work as an intro to the companies you want to work for in the places you want to relocate to. ------ FlyingLawnmower Are you open to doing resume critiques for students? ~~~ helen842000 Sure!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Chat with the Directors of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - duck http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/11/14881076/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-interview ====== danielbln I hope this marks a turn in the trend of ridiculous handholding, drawn out tutorial sections and checklists upon checklists that have become so prevalent in open world games. BotW is doing an amazing job of just letting me explore and figure out stuff out on my own, without spoon feeding me content like I'm a 6 year old who's using a controller for the first time, or shoving a billion achievements/map markers in my face. I look forward seeing to what other devs learn from BotW and incorporate in their own games. ~~~ xeonoex Agreed. For a period of time I had found that single player games were becoming very easy, repetitive, and became stale after a few hours. They were also getting shorter and started charging for DLC, even when the game could be completed in less than 10 hours when released. I think appealing to casual gamers was a factor, along with profit. I started mostly just playing more competitive multiplayer games. Now, it seems that games are trending back to being more challenging and rewarding. Dark Souls restored my hope for single player games. It was challenging, deep, and the combat system was very fun and flexible. I rarely replay single player games. Before Dark Souls, the last single player game I played through multiple times was Resident Evil 4. I probably spent 100 hours playing Dark Souls. BOTW isn't Dark Souls, but there are a lot of similarities. I now have a backlog of newer single player games I need to beat, but unfortunately it's a lot harder to find the time now. I really hope the trend continues. I wonder if casual gamers moving migrating to mobile platforms had something to do with the trend change. ------ tarr11 My favorite part of BOTW is the villages. I recognize this isn't really something new to the franchise, but with the recipe system, it adds a new dimension. I play with my kids, and my daughter loves to wander around and talk to villagers, discover side quests, look at items in the shops and cook new items. My son mostly skips past them and roams around solving big quests and fighting enemies. I think the weakest part of the game is the Hyrule Compendium, which doesn't really feel very well integrated into the game, and feels like it was added at a late stage, based on the success of Pokemon Go. ~~~ EtienneK The compendium is very helpful when grinding for certain ingredients. Without it, I would have never been able to upgrade some of my armour sets.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dependency Injection Considered Harmful - JayEnn http://rossipedia.com/blog/2013/08/dependency-injection-considered-harmful/ ====== jasonlotito The article doesn't say that. More importantly, the headline doesn't say that. In fact, it says the opposite: Dependency Injection Considered Harmful? Not So Fast. ~~~ JayEnn My bad I missed the ? off. However the original SO question and the relevant comment ([http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18547909/what-would-be- th...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18547909/what-would-be-the-most- powerful-argument-for-writing-solid-applications#comment27285661_18547909)) states that "DI is essentially a bad idea". So I feel the title is a suitable fit either way.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Review my startup, IORAD - create instructions for your app - sunpatel http://www.iorad.com ====== revorad Wow this is beautiful, guys! I'm definitely using this to create some demos and tutorials for my startup's product. So far, the only feedback I can think of is that perhaps you should think of a better name, just to make it easy to recommend to people. I don't know how to even say Iorad (I'm guessing it's an anagram of radio). How much are you charging for this? ~~~ sunpatel Hey thanks. The name is pronounced i-o-rad....like biorad minus the b:) Once out of beta, we will do freemium. Maybe charge between $20-$40/month to download doc, ppt, web version and customize logo. PDF instruction and hosted course (with iorad logo) will be free ~~~ petervandijck Here's the problem with that: most people will use this (I assume) only once or twice, to, say, create instructions for their web app (like commented above), and would be happy to pay 20/40/60$ for the software, but there's no reason for them to buy a subscription. Unless you're aiming at an audience that creates instructions multiple times a month? ~~~ subbu You obviously haven't heard of e-learning industry. These kind of tools are used very regularly by e-learning professionals, and instructors. Sometimes everyday. (How do I know this? I was doing e-learning for a few years.) But this tool faces a stiff competition from established and more sophisticated tools like Adobe Captivate, Camtasia, <http://www.sameshow.com/> ~~~ sunpatel Yes camtasia is a brilliant tool....but we are concentrating on the printable portion...not screencasts. Captivate is great for power users but we are looking for domain guys that want to create robust instructions without copy/pasting screenshots. ------ aaronblohowiak You need to have an indicator that I have reached the end. I clicked on the right arrow about 10 times =/ ------ moconnor This sounds and looks like a great idea, I can imagine using it to show individual users how to do something in response to a support ticket, and then having it as an online reference to send to others with the same questions. One question I had that the site didn't answer: can you only record from windows computers? Or OS/X and Linux too? It looks a bit like an air application, so if you can do it on any platform that's worth shouting about somewhere too. ~~~ moconnor Having signed up I can see the UI but the Capture button is simply greyed out with no explanation in Firefox on Linux... ~~~ sunpatel We have not tested on Linux. If the capture button is greyed out, it means the applet hasnt loaded. Hopefully in the near future we add linux support. ------ jswinghammer This is excellent. I've been thinking about making demos like this for my application lately. Some comments: * The textboxes to create a project should clear the text when I click on them or have nothing in them. Having to clear them myself was frustrating. * The workflow needs to drop you on the next step. After I created my project I wasn't sure why I wasn't already seeing options to get going. * It wasn't easy to clear out slides from my project. I ended up just deleting it and starting over on every mistake. * Sharing didn't seem to require a password when I entered one. * It wasn't really clear how to create the nice demo you made or just make the demo play automatically. The slide concept is interesting but if it just auto-played that might be better. * I wasn't really sure what the first option I was presented with meant after I clicked edit. * The screen could probably stand to be taller. A very nice start and a good recording product. Well done. Keep it up. ~~~ sunpatel great feedback, much appreciated! ------ misterbwong Looks like a pretty cool system. One nitpick on the landing page: put some text or something below the video so that people have something to see while the video is loading. It's disconcerting arriving at a page and seeing nothing but the loader and navigation at the top. ------ jtheory This looks very cool; I signed up for an account. It freaked me out a bit to notice that you're programmatically editing my Java configuration (to disable DirectDraw). How serious is the bug that you're working around with that? I'm glad I was watching the console and noticed that change, because I really do _not_ want that changed on my system. My own website uses Java applets with some animation involved, and tweaking my Java config like that means that if my users have a problem with DirectDraw, I wouldn't be able to reproduce it (nor would notice it in testing). If I hadn't noticed the log comments I'm not sure I would have ever figured out that the config file had been secretly altered by a signed applet. ------ samratjp For sharing - add YouTube support! You might as well offer both pricing models - there's nothing wrong with one- time payee users and subscription users co-existing.There's nothing wrong with that. While the free users are using the product, don't show them premium features, show them that this _dim_ icon can be unlocked with a premium account or whatever (see RescueTime's mouseovers). Of course you should charge more for adding their logos. This looks like something _I_ would sell to the university crowd - trust me, there's plenty of need there from what I've seen! For marketing, get some hotshot instructor to use your stuff. Hmm, you should pitch to Michael Hartl to use your product for RailsCasts! ------ gabewb I used to work as a quantitative analyst, and this would've been great for "Knowledge Transfer." Most of what analysts do (at least at my old employer) is create and manage reports. Teaching another analyst the various Excel/Matlab/Python processes that need to be run and what steps need to be performed is time consuming but really important. The bosses like people to document their tasks, but that usually involves making a quickly outdated Word doc w/ screenshots & text. If I'd been able to record what I was doing as I did it, and add a little annotation, that would've saved a lot of time and effort. ------ petervandijck UI wording nitpick: "publish" is a much friendlier word than "deploy" :) Question: is this aimed at desktop apps (it looks like it)? In a world where everything is moving in the browser, do you think that's a good market? ~~~ sunpatel it is a browser based app:-) yes i liked publish as well...but we liked the "ds"...dash, design, develop & deploy....maybe we will change it based on usage ~~~ christonog How about "distribute?" ~~~ sunpatel love that one...thanks ------ luxative Congratulations. I signed up for an account and played around a bit. I can certainly see myself using this pretty soon. As a couple of people mentioned, instruction creation is a pretty infrequent activity - so a pay per month pricing scheme may not work best. VerticalResponse.com comes to mind (not associated in any way; I don't even use them) - in a market where monthly fees are the norm, they have a pay as you go plan that's tied to distribution (numbers). On another minor point: maybe it's me, but the 'appliance' bit had me expecting a device; I was happy to see there was none. ------ SandB0x Nice! There's a typo on the first slide though - "Interective Simulation", should be "Interactive" :) You should try hard to market this to enterprise users - eg financial software houses and consultancies who knock out apps in Excel. Here you have a) the least intuitive software known to man and b) big budgets. This would be a huge step up from most of the business to business user guides I've seen. EDIT: After another read, your site seems to be somewhat aimed at this market. But anyway, best of luck. ~~~ duck If you are aimed at the enterprise user, I think a less web 2.0 name might be better. It seems like some companies I have worked with will just pass based on that (which is a shame, but that is how it is). ------ julian37 Hi, I've tried this on my Mac with Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, all recent versions, and the Capture button worked in neither. In another comment you mention that you don't have Linux support. Does that mean this is Windows only? If so, why doesn't your page say so? I must say this was a somewhat frustrating experience. This looks neat and I would really love to use it. Is there a timeline for Mac or Linux support? ~~~ sunpatel We haven't had a chance to fully test on the mac. But to get the capture dialog to work, try the following: Enabling Accessibility API 1\. Open System Preferences dialog 2\. In opened dialog open "Universal Access" settings 3\. In the "Universal Access" settings dialog check the "Enable access for assistive devices" option And then restart the browser and iorad.com Definitely let me know if this helped the issue and if you are experiencing anything else. You can contact me at spatel iorad.com. ~~~ julian37 I've sent you a mail but it bounced with a connection timeout. Any idea what might have gone wrong, or got another address? ~~~ sunpatel Try agin spatel @ iorad.com Or my username at gmail ------ shrikant Very VERY nice! Gave it a spin for one of our internal webapps and it seems super slick. Small things I noticed btw: 1\. Susrut Mishra's Twitter link in your About page points to Satyajit Behera's Twitter page :) 2\. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your ToS don't seem to have been defined yet? The link on your signup merely toggles the checkbox. ------ brianmwang This is fantastic! I am definitely going to try this out. My employer sells enterprise software that, in its current iteration, is horrifically complex from a UX standpoint and we're forced to take a gazillion number of screenshots for training materials. This seems like it will definitely save time. Any plans for screencasting down the line? ~~~ sunpatel There are plenty of screencasting tools out there ie screentoaster.com that do an awesome job. Our differentiator is in the printable user guide and making tutorials interactive vs watching a mouse move on the screen. But you are exactly right about the use case, enterprise UX is very complex with tons of different types of "transactions", and copy/pasting screenshots is so painful, thats why everybody avoids it like the plague. ~~~ moconnor "Are u sure u want to delete the selected slide?" If you're going for the enterprise market u might want to sed s/\ u\ /\ you\ /g that... ------ cammil Looks good. I would have liked to see some of your selling points and services displayed to me without having to click on the video/tutorial. That's really a minor though. I thought it was pretty good. ------ jeffepp ummm wow! After 17 takes to get my demo 'perfected' I can't sign up for this fast enough. This is great.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tokyo medical school admits changing results to exclude women - prawn https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/08/tokyo-medical-school-admits-changing-results-to-exclude-women ====== neya Not saying this is right, but the opposite is also more common than you'd think. For example, this is no different than: 1\. Oxford University - extends exam times for women's benefit - [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/02/01/oxford- univ...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/02/01/oxford-university- extends-exam-times-womens-benefit/) 2\. Prof Bumps Female Students’ STEM Grades (Because They’re Women) - [https://reason.com/archives/2018/05/23/prof-bumps-female- stu...](https://reason.com/archives/2018/05/23/prof-bumps-female-students- stem-grades-b) ~~~ eeeuo Yes, #1 "is different" than the OP. It would only be equivalent if women were allowed more time than men to complete the exam.* #2 is a completely misleading headline. It ... never happened. An article in which the 2nd paragraph contradicts the headline isn't written in good faith. [*] I would also argue that extending exams so that each student has a reasonable amount of time to finish is not a bad practice. A student that gives a correct answer in the extra 15 minutes is no less knowledgeable than a student that gives the correct answer in the original allocated time. We are selecting for breadth and depth of knowledge, not speed of recitation or ability to perform under pressure. In a CS exam, you either know the answer or you do not. Extra time is not going to allow you to falsify your level of knowledge. It will, however, give slower workers the ability to fully complete the exam. Students that work quickly but are less knowledgeable than their peers are the only ones that would be penalized by this change. Those students have inflated scores relative to their knowledge, therefore this penalization should be encouraged. In an untimed test, the most knowledgeable student will always get the highest test score, therefore knowledgeable students should not be opposed to increasing test times, they should encourage them. ~~~ skate22 > "In a CS exam, you either know the answer or you do not." This is simply not true. Consider an algorithm proof, with enough time you might be able to derive a proof that you should have known cold. The real world does have deadlines & performance matters, and the women who spent the time studying should get the better grade ~~~ eeeuo You believe that a student that derives a proof from scratch is less knowledgeable than a student that rote memorizes it out of a textbook? My argument comes from the perspective of the real world. It is, in effect, the same type of argument that drives the "interview questions on a whiteboard" discussion -- which qualities are actually important in an employee? As someone involved with hiring for a company that consistently produces high quality, critical code used in important systems, my experience is that "working under pressure" is pretty far down the list of important qualities. ~~~ skate22 Grades are relative though. I'm not saying the person that came to the proof with 30 mins extra is not smart, but they were not able to meet the same expectation as the other students. If everyone gets a 50, the grades will scale, and your final grade will depend on how you performed compared to the rest I've brute forced a few proofs, and if i had done so in overtime, i would 100% stand by my viewpoint that i deserve less points than the student next to me who met the expectation. In an interview it's different too, because you have not been preparing for a clearly defined expectation for 3 months. Now on the other hand, if you were to argue for completely untimed exams, i can get behind that. I really enjoyed some of my take home CS finals, and it really let me perfect my solution to the best of my ability. It really depends on what expectation is set (imo) ~~~ TheCoelacanth What does it matter if students meet the expectation that is set if the expectation has no bearing on anything useful? Surely the university's goal should be to produce capable graduates, not to simply have a contest of who is better at taking pointless exams. If they want to adjust the expectations set for students to put less emphasis on rapid recitation of rote memorization, that is a good thing. ~~~ skate22 So first: most jobs require you to do a lot of stuff that you may not agree with or feel is useful. I don't want to work with the person who is going to only do what they want when they want. At the end of the day the work needs to get done. Secondly: any school that has GPA is essentially holding a contest. Many job postings consider GPA and may use it as a tiebreaker between 2 canidates from school X. It's not a perfect metric by any means, but it is relevant in the world today for new hires. Work in the real world is largely the ability to deliver on expectations. ~~~ TheCoelacanth Okay, but why that particular set of hoops to jump through rather than some other set of hoops to jump through? Why should the university have to stick with one set of hoops to jump through just because it's the one they happened to pick decades ago? ------ mc32 With a low reproduction / declining pop rate, this was the wrong thing to do from a socio-economic perspective, not to mention morality. But really Japan has to seriously put an effort to positively utilize the other half of their able worker pool. If they engaged and got similar participation rates as men, that could go a long way in expanding their economy. ~~~ whatshisface It is way more expensive for households with two working parents to raise children than it is for households with one working parent, and as a result it is possible that _even fewer_ Japanese people would elect to have children. ~~~ tecleandor You're implying that: \- only women will take care of kids \- daycare is as expensive as in your place of origin. (in Tokyo there are public daycare schools, and you have preference for entering if both parents work) ~~~ w00kie And yet hundreds of families are on waiting lists. If you don't get a spot, you have to go to a private facility which can easily cost more than one parent's monthly salary, or drop out of work until you get a spot, but then you're relegated even further down the waiting list. Also, once you're in, you'll have to pick the kid before 6pm in most daycares which means you must leave the office at 5pm and since a lot of companies do not have flex time, that single hour will push you to a part-time position. Then the daycare will refuse to take your child if they have a _fever_ of 36.8℃ and do regular temperature checks during the day and force you to drop your work and come pick the child straight away if they go above 36.8℃. Unless you work close to home and have a very flexible and comprehending employer (or have grand parents close by and ready to help), even with a lucky spot in daycare it is extremely complicated to continue working. Let's not even talk about elementary school where mandatory partake in time- consuming useless PTA activities basically assumes one of the parent does not work. ~~~ topmonk 36.8 C is less than normal human body temperature. ~~~ jacobolus Probably a typo for 37.8°C, which is about the usual standard for child fever. Usually not worth calling the doctor until it’s like 39° or above, but sending a kid home with a mild fever might keep the rest of the class from catching a cold. ~~~ w00kie Not a typo and it's oral or armpit temperature. Japan is weird with their concept of "fever". When I get a flu shot, they ask me to take my temperature and I have to lie every time because they won't give me the shot if I tell them I read 37.4 C ------ ironjunkie I said this here before, but this is exactly what is going all over the world whenever "affirmative actions" are used. The only difference is that in this specific case, they decided to use a clear different required test score in order to apply the unfair advantage at selection. In most other places, specifically in the US they use soft, improvable information (such as an "essay") to cover their base and make it non-obvious that the selection process is unfair. The most famous case would be the Asian discrimination case at Harvard, weirdly everyone is mostly ok with that one ~~~ cbolton A more important difference is that affirmative action is generally used to favor under-represented demographics (or equivalently, to disfavor over- represented demographics). In this case it looks like they disfavored women while they were already under-represented! I'm not quite sure of this but that's what another article [1] suggests: _In 2010, before the measure was allegedly introduced, female student participation was about 40%._ _The newspaper reported that after the two-round application process earlier this year, only 30 female applicants were accepted to study, versus 141 men._ [1] [https://www.bbc.com/news/world- asia-45108272](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45108272) ~~~ PurpleBoxDragon >A more important difference is that affirmative action is generally used to favor under-represented demographics That may be the intent, but in practice it also hurts certain underrepresented groups. For example, among all Asians, if you break down the demographic further by nationality, you'll find some groups strongly over represented and other groups strongly underrepresented. Affirmative actions applied to Asians as a whole hurts the groups which are already underrepresented, and while it hurts Asians in general compared to all other demographics, it helps over represented Asians compared to underrepresented Asians. ------ tristanj Discussion from 5 days ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17675807](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17675807) ------ tompccs I'm still waiting for a "smoking gun" such as this to come out of hiring or admission practices for tech firms and STEM courses. In much of the Western world the majority of people starting their careers in medicine and law are women (this is the case in my own country), but these fields are not, as far as I can tell, any less prejudiced or discriminatory against women than fields which men have a large male majority. Even with actual systematic discrimination in place in Japan, the rate of female doctors (30% according to the article) is still higher than the percentage of women studying CS in the UK (19%, according to [0]). [0] [https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher- educati...](https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education- student-statistics/subjects) ------ aravindet "We won't do it again" is incredibly inadequate. I'm not familiar with the Japanese legal system, but punitive fines for the university plus the criminal charges on the individuals involved seem warranted here. ~~~ deepsun Japanese legal system is not. Their society is based on shame and status. ~~~ throw2016 Every society is based on shame and status. Legal systems are based on codified rule of law, social systems are based on culture, and all cultures use shame to varying degrees to control behavior ie slut shaming, jobs loss, deviant behavior, low status jobs. This forum itself never fails to remind MacDonald and Wallmart workers of their status. Status has always been a central facet of every society. Even a cursory scratch beneath the surface will reveal the rigid class consciousness and status hierarchies in every society. ------ known Doctors who are female, 2015. Spain: 51.6% Sweden: 47% UK: 45.8% Germany: 45.2% France: 44.3% Ireland: 43.2% Italy: 40.3% Turkey: 40% Switzerland: 39.7% Australia: 39.4% US: 34.1% South Korea: 22.3% Japan: 20.3% (OECD) ------ AIX2ESXI Who are we to question Japanese society? They have their reasons. ~~~ genericid Do you also never question other individuals because they have their reasons? ------ supernova87a Kind of reminds you of the score changing going on at universities here in the US (in the news lately) for the goal of favoring some applicants over others? ~~~ muricula Did scores actually get changed, or were they judging by different metrics? ~~~ dingo_bat Is there a difference? ~~~ KirinDave Yes. One practice is honest and one is dishonest. Do you really not see a difference? "We invited you in with your lower score because we recognize it is more difficult for you to achieve that score, and as such are more likely to succeed" versus "We didn't like how smart we were so we lied to you about passing the exam to hide the fact that we're biasing entry standards." Biasing entry standards is a thing that may or may not make sense. For public and public-funded institutions, transparency and honesty are absolutely essential. ~~~ hnaccy >We invited you in with your lower score because we recognize it is more difficult for you to achieve that score, and as such are more likely to succeed This seems like a generous description of affirmative action given it punishes asian students and examples of demographics that benefit underperforming once accepted. ~~~ intended How? One of the key criteria for performance today is "grit", which is an evolution over the previous performance indicators such as education/SAT scores (which had poor long term correlation). The assumption that they will underperform is unsubstantiated. Especially considering - all/most Asian American/SE Asian kids go through the ringer to prepare them from the word go, to get into a prestigious school. (Do note - that if they dont get into their first choice college, they will get into their equally good backup schools.) As the dean of Harvard said - he could fill his class with Valedictorians (and probably have many more to spare). Academic achievement is not the main criteria for admissions - and at least in an american system it shouldn't be. \---- Living in a world where Academics decide everything, you can easily see the kind of damage it does to daily life. Societal worth, marriage prospects depend on what is said on that Degree - even if you are terrible at solving real world problems or have 0 motivation to actually work in your field. ~~~ hnaccy >Academic achievement is not the main criteria for admissions - and at least in an american system it shouldn't be. Instead it should be the color of your skin? That they will underperform is not unsubstantiated in cases like black law students. ~~~ KirinDave The entire thesis is that they're starting from harder place, without necessarily having a superior talent distribution. Therefore, it's not unexpected they'd have a longer mean time to peak performance (which is what studies show). The same is true, by the way, of folks with extremely religious anti-science backgrounds (like me!). Either way, graduation standards don't change. ~~~ hnaccy So you believe that white americans start from a harder place than asian americans? >which is what studies show Which studies? Graduation standards have changed for all races, in undergraduate institutions grade inflation is rampant and hard curves or class ranks are relics. The performance of the student body and specific demographics is increasingly muddled. In premier law schools affirmative action demographics continue to underperform, as well as have lower LSAT scores which strongly predicts probability of passing the bar. ~~~ KirinDave > So you believe that white americans start from a harder place than asian > americans? No. And this, "If anything I am an asian supremcist" angle is so dated, so boring, and so tedious I'm not going to entertain you further. Everyone can see what you're doing. Go debate a 6 year old youtube video rather than waste an instant more of 2018's time. Folks are acutely aware that Asian immigration in the US only allowed extremely rich and overqualified immigrants until relatively recently, and that economic disparity is clearly reflected in many social scales. We're also acutely aware of many eugenicists using "well asian people are just genetically and culturally better" as a blind in America for their racial oppression for years. That history is well-documented. ~~~ hnaccy It's the logical conclusion of your stated thesis and affirmative action as it exists today. >Folks are acutely aware that Asian immigration in the US only allowed extremely rich and overqualified immigrants until relatively recently 18th century Chinese laborers are rich and overqualified? Why say "no", whites don't have it harder than asians, then 180 and state that asian americans are all drawn from some privileged group. I'm not a eugenicist I'm just surprised by how easily affirmative actions proponents cast aside asian american concerns and commonly stereotype them as soulless grade grinders with "Tiger Moms" etc. ~~~ KirinDave Your argument is wrong and ignores reality. You should feel ashamed of yourself for presenting such a disingenuous and widely debunked argument. This venue demands better. For folks who don't know (hnaccy almost certainly does because this is the standard rebuttal to this lousy argument): Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was a real thing, the total combined Asian American population between the 8th census and the 1965 Immigration & Naturalization Act never exceeded 500,000 nationally, and that's adding a healthy margin of error. The recruited labor force was minuscule and not a significant contributor to today's booming population of over 20m. It wasn't until after substantial immigration changes (oh, and federally guaranteeing non-whites could own property) that more folks were allowed in, and so we've had a relatively tiny fraction of US history where immigration was possible and desirable (who's gonna immigrate if you're legally forbidden to own a business or a home because of your skin color?). Folks moving in initially were folks who were rich and capable of going to a country with only minimal resources and support structures. The first year after the I&NA came about, the Asian population in America surged by over 200% and has grown at a healthy clip since then, dramatically skewing the characteristics of the population's wealth distribution. So yeah, there's a substantial bias in Asian immigration, which has had a lot less time to give people with less means (a reliable predictor of maximum academic performance). We'd expect to see this in the data if economic resources enable academic performance, which we can point to multiple obvious mechanisms of. hnaccy's argument only makes sense if you believe there is some essential quality to Asian and White genetics that, in isolation of every other factor, reliably makes them "smarter" than black or brown people. Even a casual knowledge of genetics and epigenetics suggests that this is at best radically implausible at worst an outright lie dating back to 1930s propaganda trying to co-opt science for political gain. ~~~ hnaccy Someone can disagree with the concept and/or implementation of race based admission policies without being a racist eugenicist. I believe my confusion stems from you answering no to my question >So you believe that white americans start from a harder place than asian americans? When it sounds like you do believe asian Americans start in a better place due to historical immigration policies and trends. ~~~ KirinDave > Someone can disagree with the concept and/or implementation of race based > admission policies without being a racist eugenicist. I agree. However, you went a step further and started suggesting a biological essentialism and history erasure. If you simply didn't know you were doing that then admit your opinion is ahistorical and go research the subject. I think you're are now walking this statement back because it was such a weak point. I'm going to take screenshots in case you attempt to abuse editing. > When it sounds like you do believe asian Americans start in a better place > due to historical immigration policies and trends. Please see Dr. Eugenia Cheng's 2017 talk "Category Theory in the Real World" for a primer in how to interpret this. There are multiple axis of privilege. Interestingly enough, admissions standards often address these axis by also considering family income and other historical details like presence or loss of family members. The existence of affirmative action for specific groups does _not_ create a zero sum exercise for white Americans, who also have access to a larger number of economic and social criterion for admissions and financial aid. ~~~ hnaccy >started suggesting a biological essentialism Where? The existence of affirmative action for specific groups necessarily disadvantages other groups based on their race. ~~~ KirinDave > The existence of affirmative action for specific groups necessarily > disadvantages other groups based on their race. Why? ~~~ hnaccy If the number of applicants exceeds the number of spots and some are assigned a higher value due to their race then applicants of other races are disadvantaged. ~~~ KirinDave Actually: I don't see how either of us could make a meaningful case on if this does or does not happen without access to more data and transparency from orgs on their admissions process and criterion. This article exposing the bias is _great_ because it's a step forward towards transparency there, and we see that in fact qualified women were being actively turned down strictly because men were preferred via bias. Ultimately we're asking for what proportion of applicants WERE qualified but denied because they didn't have a "spot", the total admissions volumes, and what that intersection is. What's more, most students apply to multiple colleges and only a few have specific environments that are specifically necessary (you might argue, for example Stanford's connection with the startup world makes it especially desirable, but look at what a untalented failure Lucas Duplan is... maybe not...), it simply changes outcomes in a way that isn't particularly disadvantaging. Personally and in an unsubstantiated musing: I believe that the actual case where a student "doesn't get in to college because of their race" is astonishingly rare. The US has a large enough population that the law of large numbers surely makes a few, and that's one of many reasons I've dedicated my career to providing education for as long as I stay in the field. But your argument seems to carry this unspoken corollary that there aren't resources for white folks or men, but that's something that seems to follow from what evidence I've found. I've found a few sources that suggest white people get about 60% of the private scholarship funding in the US. ~~~ hnaccy From the current Harvard case: >For example, Dr. Card’s simulations show that if Harvard had not considered race, the proportion of African-American students in the Class of 2019 would have dropped from 14% to 6%, and the proportion of Hispanic or Other students would have dropped from 14% to 9%. It follows that there was a group of applications numbering 13% of the Class of 2019 who were disadvantaged due to their race. Yes it's probably quite rare that a student is rejected at say HYP and does not get into any other college but I don't see why that matters? We accept that there is a benefit to attending certain schools over others why should it depend on your race whether or not you "deserve" your first choice or should be happy with second or third choice college? >But your argument seems to carry this unspoken corollary that there aren't resources for white folks or men You're inferring that. ~~~ KirinDave > Yes it's probably quite rare that a student is rejected at say HYP and does > not get into any other college but I don't see why that matters? Because the opposite case, where the economic destiny of folks from previously disadvantaged-in-America ethnic minorities is real and more common. If you're looking for a justification, more good than harm.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Want jobs? Encourage immigration - sathishmanohar http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/25/opinion/wilkinson-jobs-immigration/index.html ====== kiba Jobs. It would seems that we have an obsession with creating jobs. If you hear politicians, and if my perception are right, they talk about jobs. Not whether or not we get more purchasing power than ever before. Not whether or not our lifestyle is more fulfilling than ever before. Jobs. More jobs. Less jobs. More competitive Americans. No manufacturing jobs. Colleges not creating enough people to fill jobs. Robots are destroying our jobs. Robots need to be maintain by something or someone, probably another robot or human being. But jobs are just proxy. A proxy for our self-worth, our independence, or whether or not we have a future. Jobs, for us, are just means to an end. Yes, some of us are musicians, football players, programmers, scientists, etc. We like our jobs. I suspect the vast majority of humans don't really enjoy all that much working their job. Rather than talking about creating jobs and destroying jobs, which is an assumption that exists in a world where there are scarcity and there's boring things to do for humans to maintain their existence, why not talk about the end, what should our goal be in life? We can then rearrange our actions in life based on our conclusion what our life should be and what we want to achieve rather than just simply on what needed to be done at this point in time. After all, if a strong FAI comes, we may not even have jobs. At the same time, we ought to figure out what's our life purpose other than going to a job and work for someone or operating a business just to simply maintain our existence. There's no longer a need to grow your food, goes to the hair saloon to cut someone's hair, pump the gas, etc. How are we going to live for the next 10,000 years and 10,000 years beyond that and so on? ~~~ potatolicious This is a nice thought, and might be relevant a few decades ago when America was at the top of its game in relation to all the other countries on Earth. Now, I'm not so sure. You're talking about a post-scarcity society when a growing portion of Americans can't even put food on the table or a roof over their head. You're talking the personal fulfillment when more and more Americans are forced to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. It's nice that you have the freedom and the time to ponder such ideological issues. It's nice that you're able to look higher on the hierarchy of needs rather than scrabbling for scraps. I mean that in the non-snarkiest of ways, really. But for the vast majority of the population they _need_ a job right now. They don't have time to worry about your high-minded concepts of personal fulfillment, and whether or not a FAI will usher in a utopia of zero scarcity. They need to make rent and put groceries in the fridge _this week_. The politicians are focusing on jobs as a core issue because that's what's foremost on people's minds. It's foremost on people's minds because _it's exactly what they need_. They need more jobs in a stronger economy. Imagine if all the unemployed folk in this country just sat around waiting for the post- scarcity society to hit them upside the head! ~~~ tokenadult _You're talking about a post-scarcity society when a growing portion of Americans can't even put food on the table or a roof over their head._ What are the actual numbers here? How does this situation compare with other countries in the world? The huge majority of Americans have, if anything, excessive food on their tables, and the great majority of Americans live in houses with sounder roofs over more square feet of floor space than people in most other countries. Why should Americans feel any urgency about changes in immigration policy when they know that most people who might like to come to the United States will instantly have more access to food and housing as soon as they set foot in America? ~~~ potatolicious > _"Why should Americans feel any urgency about changes in immigration policy > when they know that most people who might like to come to the United States > will instantly have more access to food and housing as soon as they set foot > in America?"_ Because things out there aren't nearly as bad as the average American believes. As an Asian immigrant to North America, it's constantly shocking how backwards many Americans imagine the rest of the world to be. Yes, much of the world has running water, sewage systems, fast food, and the internet. Not everywhere else in the world is begging for a National Geographic special, or commercials full of starving babies pleading for your aid. The India of 1980 is not the same as a the India of 2011. The China seen in Tiananmen Square is not the same China one sees today. Many Americans' impressions of the rest of the world seem firmly rooted in the Cold War. It used to be true that moving to the USA meant pretty much a guaranteed, dramatic rise in the standard of living. But guess what? America's QOL is dropping precipitously, while parts of the world previously considered "developing" can now give America a run for its money in terms of QOL. There's a great equalization going on, and _that_ is why the US needs to worry about its immigration policy. Ten years ago immigrating to the West was _the_ thing. People would smack their own grandmothers silly for a chance at a one-way ticket out of Asia and into America. You would be surprised how quickly this has changed. I've known many people who came to the US and Canada for degrees and then have voluntarily gone back to Asia, despite offers to stay. tl;dr: America needs to get its head on straight, it's no longer the gold standard for quality of life in this world. ------ georgemcbay I'm pro-immigration, but the article still feels like a bit of a sham to me by highlightling Brin, Omidyar and Yang without addressing the fact that Sergey Brin immigrated to America when he was 6, Pierre Omidyar was also 6 and Jerry Yang was 10. How do you know then that they'll be massive job creators? Certainly each of them had ambitious parents and that's something, but then so does just about everyone who actively works to immigrate to a new place for a better life... assuming we can't figure out who the next Brin will be when they are 6 or 10 (and we can't), is the author arguing we should just open up the floodgates to everyone with educated parents? Because that's a heckofalot of people. ~~~ HistoryInAction But since we don't have a visa that allows for entrepreneurial founders to immigrate here, how can we have examples to highlight their potential contributions? The closest thing we can do is point to similar people. Personally, I think that Vinod Khosla and Manu Kumar are better examples. I'm of the understanding that Khosla didn't have a valid visa when Sun was founded, but an exemption was made because of the sheer success of the company from nearly day 1. The other thing I want to look at is people like Robin Li of Baidu, American educated, employed by American companies, but when it came time to create a company, he went home. Possibly, even likely, that was because a company serving Chinese should be based in China, but it's certain that since he didn't have a green card, he wouldn't be able to get a visa as a founder to stay here. America loses when people who could stay here to found companies return to their country to create jobs and foreign competition there. ~~~ georgemcbay I don't disagree with you at all on the immigration issues and I fully support fast track immigration & citizenship for high-value immigrants, I just think it is intellectually dishonest to use 3 founders who all immigrated before they were teenagers as examples for a point the author was trying to make when they don't really fit the narrative. That the author didn't even mention the age that these men immigrated makes it feel like she was trying to pull a fast one on the reader who has heard the names but isn't really familiar with their stories (which will be most readers). As far as Baidu goes, I don't think it could exist as a non-Chinese company, and more because of China's government policies than the USA's. ~~~ HistoryInAction The fit the narrative of 'immigrants are statistically hungrier for startup success,' specifically referencing this line in the article: "According to statistics from Partnership for a New American Economy, 40% of Fortune 500 companies were created by immigrants or their children." From there, the author goes on to say that if the immigrants and their children are more likely to start companies, why are we preventing young adults from coming here to start companies, especially if they are validated by making something people want as demonstrated by either VC validation or pure revenue numbers? The third path of Startup Visa 2011 is for people valued enough to receive a US education or H1-B visa, as currently they are not valued enough to be allowed to start a company, with no visa existing for them to do so. I find it a bit of a stretch, but not intellectually dishonest, though I do see why it's reasonable to think so. I take the point on Baidu, but that's the sort of company I'm looking to promote as a counterpoint when we pitch our next follow-ups to ABC and NBC after Amit's story. ~~~ _delirium The main thing that seems like a huge stretch is that those are good examples for an idea of a "parental visa", giving visas to immigrants _with children_ who you think are likely to be good parents, whose kids will then grow up in U.S. society and be highly successful. Not as good examples in support of the "entrepreneur visa" idea, which expects the people receiving the visa to themselves start a company in the short term, something that didn't actually happen in any of those examples. ~~~ HistoryInAction I hear you, there are significant flaws in the examples she uses. I still think they're valid in demonstrating a different point than "entrepreneur visa." Her point is that there is an 'immigrant' demographic, and this demographic makes for good founders. Then, and only then, she makes the point that an entrepreneur visa for founders is a good idea. The author uses immigrants' children/very young immigrants not immediately connected to the plan of starting a company to reference the entire immigrant demographic as a whole, since current US policies make it extremely improbable we can come up with good positive examples of a young immigrant starting a company, because US immigration rules prevent this situation from occurring. Her logic is as follows: -Fact: "According to statistics from Partnership for a New American Economy, 40% of Fortune 500 companies were created by immigrants or their children." -Examples: Immigrants' children starting Fortune 500 companies The logic here is using the immigrants' children to support the point that both immigrants and their children start companies, since the only direct immigrants who started the companies were either much older and already gone through the green card or broke the rules to start their company. One of the major problems in our advocacy is that there is this big negative space that we /think/ can be filled. By definition, because it's a negative space, there are no positive examples to point to in making the argument. Positive examples strengthen any abstract argument, so they must be made. In this case, the author goes to young immigrants not immediately connected to startups to make the case that immigrants as a class make for good founders. From there, the author makes one of her major points: -Argument: US immigration prevents people from starting companies shortly after entering the country due to current visa rules -Example: Amit Aharoni/ABC story -Conclusion: Therefore we should change policy to allow more people like Amit in, hopefully creating more successes in this 'immigrant' demographic. ------ potatolicious The US really needs to emulate other countries here. The problem here is that the "immigrant" visa is really the same thing as a work visa, and that leads to a great deal of abuse. For one thing, the eligibility is tied to an employer, who is incentivized to embellish, cheat, and otherwise finagle their way to a visa. The expectation that the visa is _temporary_ also sets a lower bar for entry - even though many of these people will eventually become American PRs/citizens. The recent trend to "stage" the H-1B green card process is a step in the right direction - though it doesn't go as far as it needs to. There is still a major problem of indentured servitude. Once an employee has a green card process in the pipeline their employer has them over a barrel - and many will not hesitate to use this as an opportunity for abuse. Not to mention, with the green card backlog the way it is now, it would be years before "your huddled masses of immigrant entrepreneurs yearning to breathe free" are actually _able_ to start businesses. First they have to go through ~8-10 years as a rank and file employee, before they're granted the legal freedom to pursue their own future. The startup visa would go a long way to alleviating that, though the heavy involvement of VCs in that initiative will mean that bootstrappers and other scrappy startups that _don't_ want to raise hojillions in funding will be still at a severe disadvantage. How do you fix this? IMO the US needs to setup a track for immigrants to _immediately_ receive green cards, where having a job offer is _not_ a prerequisite (though it would certainly help). The focus needs to shift away from fulfilling "temporary shortages" (which we all know is bullshit) to simply permanent, mass importation of worthy talent. Set up the process to filter people based on the assumption that they will permanently stay, as opposed the the current process where we'll let just about anyone in, since they're "temporary" H-1Bs anyways. This will raise the calibre of people you're letting in, and also make sure you're giving top talent maximum freedom once they're here. The whole "immigration policy masquerading as work permit" thing _really_ needs to GTFO. ~~~ _delirium > The US really needs to emulate other countries here. Which other countries are these? As the holder of an employer-tied 3-year temporary Danish work permit, with no possibility to even apply for the Danish equivalent of a green card until I've resided in the country with solid employment for at least 4 years (and passed a language exam, something the U.S. _doesn't_ require), I don't think it can be this one... Though to be fair, the Danish consulate was friendly and efficient with processing the employer-tied temporary permit. ~~~ marshallp most european countries have such a xenophobic system, but the uk, canada, iraland, new zealand, and australia have really open systems in place ~~~ muzz then those countries should be receiving the benefits of immigrant- entrepreneurs and now be hotbeds of innovation because of it. it doesn't seem like that's happening. ~~~ potatolicious I'm Canadian, I'd argue Canada _is_ receiving the benefits of immigrant- entrepreneurs. There are considerable innovations coming out of that country - the fact that it's not a hotbed for internet startups seems hardly relevant in the big picture. Businesses are being created by immigrants, who are creating wealth and employment in their respective communities. The fact that this in general has nothing to do with dotcoms is really a detail. Canada continues to be extremely competitive in traditional engineering disciplines, and is world- leading in many fields of science, not least of which is molecular engineering. The University of Toronto, after all, still holds the patent on insulin. Next time you see a video of the International Space Station, with its bleeding-edge, unprecedented robotic arm, see if you can zoom and see which nation's flag is on it. Or dig into the US's collection of scientific and communications satellites and see how much of their R&D actually occurs in Canada. I hope people on HN realize that the word "innovation" applies to all manners of fields. So often I feel like this community has blinders on, and very narrowly define "innovation" as "things that occur in _my_ field". ~~~ muzz The piece cites companies like Google, eBay, and Yahoo. Can you provide three examples anywhere close to those in terms of number of jobs, in _any_ industry? The benefit may indeed be non-zero, but it doesn't seem that the benefit is signficant. ~~~ potatolicious RIM and ATI? One got acquired and continues to thrive, the other one is busy circling the drain - but both were innovative, significant employers, and remain so, on the scale of eBay and Yahoo. Both companies were founded by immigrants (Chinese for ATI, Greek/Turkish for RIM). Google is a juggernaut that I won't touch simply because they're such an outlier, even in the get-big-fast world of dotcoms. And let's be honest, in terms of job-creating power, this "innovative" industry of software is a drop in the bucket: <http://jobs.lovetoknow.com/Largest_American_Employers> \- the employers with the largest employment impact are not the ones we would traditionally consider "innovative". For reference, Google has about 30K employees world-wide. In any case, we can argue about semantics and labor theory all day. Why don't you go to Toronto some time, climb the CN Tower, hang out in Chinatown, take the TTC to Bathurst, Eglington, Pape, and tell me that Canadian immigration policy hasn't been a gigantic boon for the country. I'm a Canadian expat in the US right now, and the difference is startling. Canada has done a remarkable job of integrating its immigrant population into the middle class - the US likes to imagine itself as a melting pot, but for the most part ethnic diversity in this country is still separated along enormous socioeconomic lines - lines that are significantly blurrier in Canada. The fact that Canadian immigrants are first-class members of society from day one I believe is key to this difference. As is the fact that a "straight to permanent residence" policy sets the bar higher. The US is letting in enormous numbers of refugees and family reunification individual - people of questionable worth to society - with "straight to PR" tracks, but still bars the door to working professionals and highly educated academics with decade-long "indentured H-1B servitude". You tell me if that policy makes sense. ~~~ int3rnaut You mentioned Toronto, do you think the immigration policy has had a gigantic boon for the country, or for Toronto? I'm really just curious. As a young Albertan, still living and breathing here, I question how well the 'cultural mosaic' has stood the test of time. Granted, I do see some good like you mentioned, but looking at some of the recent economic impact data (I'm not an expert in this field and have merely googled and wikapedia'd for my research) it does look like there are systemic struggles that have developed over the last 25 years and that good you mentioned, is fewer and far between. It's a really interesting point of discussion though, so thank you. ~~~ potatolicious I've personally lived in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo, and London (yeah, one of those is not like the others), and I've been to _many_ other cities both urban, and rural. The immigration boon is nearly universal across the board in all the places I have been. I've worked in 3 industries in Canada - traditional mechanical engineering, software, and astrophysics. Immigrants are extremely dominant in all three, and many of the top names are first or second-generation. I think, for the most part, Canada's immigration policy has turned out remarkably well, and needs to be commended for rather deftly avoiding the common pitfall that plagues a lot of countries: integrating immigrants into the middle class, instead of letting them fall into minority ghettos. It's not perfect - I'm sure if you look at the data you will still see an income gap between native-born Canadians and recent immigrants, but having lived on both sides of the border I have to say America's problems are at least an order of magnitude worse than ours. The socioeconomic stratification of immigrants in the US means that several ethnicities are _automatically_ assumed to be poor and uneducated - an assumption that largely doesn't hold water in Canada. With the sad exception of the aboriginal population, there is no real ethnic group in Canada that's as systemically impoverished and and marginalized as the blacks and latinos are in the USA. Sure, we have ghettos, but by and large they're not defined along racial and ethnic lines. The wide gaps between races in the US really does encourage a very pervasive undercurrent of racism that's largely impolite to mention in company, but easily felt. I simply do not get the same vibe in Canada, and that's a very good thing. Having never lived in AB though, I'm interested in hearing your perspectives on it - I know the racial/ethnic balance there is not quite the same as Vancouver or Toronto, so maybe the scene is different. I can tell you that in the extremely industrial town of London, Ontario, the economic stratification between immigrants and non-immigrants can be more easily felt, but even then for the most part the poverty that pervades that city is blind to race. ------ microarchitect Why doesn't the US move to a points-based system like the UK and Canada? This seems like a simple and sensible solution to a complex problem that ensures that the people who immigrate are in some sense "useful" to the country. I also don't understand why the green card backlog isn't being handled efficiently. Surely, if somebody is paying, say more than 20k in income taxes every year for, say 5 years in a row, there is reason to believe their contribution to the country is a net positive. Why not just give them citizenship and be done with it? As an outsider, I feel like the US is the opposite of an "agile" government. It seems like there is a lot bickering and fear-mongering at every level and important decisions are being made based on populism and emotional appeals rather than rational decision making. I'm not sure if this is really the case because my news sources are the likes of Reddit and the so-called "liberal media", but unfortunately this is perception I get. ~~~ tokenadult _I feel like the US is the opposite of an "agile" government._ Yes. That is intentional by the design of the federal Constitution. A friend of mine, an engineer, was discussing American politics with me and another friend, a mathematics teacher, one day. The mathematics teacher decried the inefficiency of United States government. The engineer replied, "I'm an engineer. The one thing I'm afraid of is EFFICIENT government." Many Americans are strongly in agreement with Henry David Thoreau that "That government is best which governs least." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)#.2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_$Thoreau$#.22That_government_is_best_which_governs_least.22) ~~~ microarchitect So what's the reason Americans feel this way? Is there any fundamental reason why efficient governments are bad? What does it mean to say that a government "governs the least"? Does it make the fewest number of laws? Does employ the fewest number of people? Does it spend the least money? All of the above? Some of the above? Why are these good? ~~~ jellicle Americans don't feel that way. ------ jammur I'm shocked at the amount of xenophobia in the comments on the CNN site. Being Canadian, I have no idea whether it is representative of the population at large, but it appears that many Americans have been brainwashed into the thinking that the only immigrants are the ones driving cabs or working at fast food. The problem is that everybody has been talking themselves to death about illegal immigration, and haven't focused on the benefits of legal immigration. Does the Startup Visa have a chance in hell with the current political climate surrounding immigration in the US? ~~~ nobody314159265 The problem is that most Americans are the descendents of the people that arrived, displaced the native population, took their land and exploited it's natural resources. So naturally they are wary of people coming along and doing the same to them. This doesn't really apply to Canada. ~~~ jnbiche I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I have to ask: do you really think there were no indigenous peoples in Canada when the French and English came to settle there? Just pristine wilderness? ~~~ marshallp different scale though, most of canada is still empty and natives can roam free if they want ------ incosta I agree that US needs an entrepreneur visas. But I disagree with author's suggestion that all US-educated graduates must be given green cards. A lot of them came to US to study because they could afford it (often via wealthy parents). I don't think it's fair to give green cards only because they graduated from a US university thanks to their rich parents. Foreign students have one year after graduation to find an employer, convert to H-1B and then ask the employer to sponsor the green card. Nothing wrong with this. However, of course H1-B to green card to citizenship must be done in a more timely manner. In many cases it takes too long. The time spent on waiting for the green card (sometimes as long as 4-5 years or even more, due to slow bureaucracy) must be in some way counted towards the citizenship requirement of 5-year residency. I think as baby-boomer generation starts to retire en-mass, U.S. will have no choice but to liberalize and simplify its immigration policy. It is competing against many other developed countries for younger workers and talent, and the earnings disparity is becoming less of a factor in many developing countries. There's just no way out but to make immigration process faster and more attractive if the U.S. wants to win. ~~~ HistoryInAction There's a 17 month extension, to 29 months, if you graduated in a technical/STEM field under Optional Practical Training (OPT) which I think you're referencing: [http://www.nafsa.org/regulatory_information.sec/regulatory_d...](http://www.nafsa.org/regulatory_information.sec/regulatory_document_library.dlib/sevis/opt_29_month_rule/) "But I disagree with author's suggestion that all US-educated graduates must be given green cards. A lot of them came to US to study because they could afford it (often via wealthy parents). I don't think it's fair to give green cards only because they graduated from a US university thanks to their rich parents." Very insightful! However, the green card wait times are more due to scarcity, with many more people entering the green card pipeline than by law can exit each year, rather than slow bureaucracy. I agree re: the future of immigration policy, but I think the talent war is even more important than you think. Right now, and since the 60s, US immigration policy has been aligned on a family-unification platform, and with strict numerical limits, a huge percentage of American immigration is taken up by family-based immigration. As liberal and pleasing as it is, it's going to have to go, as America will have to fully enter the competition for top talent. ~~~ incosta Speaking from personal experience, my employment-based green card had been delayed by about two years because of so-called "FBI name check". Not because of the quotas. So bureaucracy plays a part (based on what I know, it has been reduced somewhat after Obama took office). I am not so sure about the statements on family-based immigration. First, even close family members often spend many years waiting. More importantly, though: we all ideally want future Sergei Brins just to come and start next Google and hire thousands. But let's don't forget that he came to states as a young child (just as some other founders mentioned in the CNN article) with his well educated parents. By the time he started Google, he was 20-something and effectively an American. Would he be able to do this if he just came as a foreign student? Not so sure. So, we need to get families too, but those who have not just hopes, but also education. We need smart families, smart parents. We need to make America attractive to them. P.S. I am stunned by all negative comments on CNN site saying immigrants take American jobs, and America educates foreigners, but not its own citizens. It seems to me many people don't realize that foreign students are in fact paying for Americans to get to schools by paying much higher tuition fees that make schools profitable and able to offer scholarships to locals. ~~~ HistoryInAction Alright, I concede the point to your personal experience. Agree about the need for "long-term investment" in smart families, but I think the political importance of strict immigration numbers and the short-term pressure over the talent war is going to shift US immigration policies away from families and towards talent. Re: PS - ugh, completely agree. This is one of the better argued articles in terms of foreign immigrants = US jobs rather than purely abstract foreign immigrants = stronger US economy, so the comments are less rancid but still vile. Compare to Rey Ramsey's piece on HuffPo: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rey-ramsey/open-americas- doors...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rey-ramsey/open-americas-doors-to- in_b_974340.html) ------ muzz If you read TechCrunch (Wadhwa's pieces especially) or the ABC article referenced, this piece contains absolutely nothing new, just a rehash of the same things. Sparse, suspect data, plenty of correlation/causation fallacies, and topped off with a populist appeal to "create jobs" ~~~ HistoryInAction One issue in terms of data that I struggle with on researching this issue is that we're discussing a big empty space and wondering why it is empty. Immigrants in the US aren't allowed to build companies and create jobs unless they are very lucky/connected or they wait a long period of time to get their green card, since no visa currently exists for founders. We can't do A/B testing to see if our suspicions that we'd have more startups and more jobs for US citizens if we allowed more founders—not more blanket immigration, mind you—into the country. The people who do find a way in tend to be the best and the brightest of the pool, so our anecdata looks favorable. There seem to be indications that immigrants and first-generation citizens tend to be 'hungrier' than more established populations, though that doesn't say anything about success/failure rates. From a physics perspective, it's like hunting dark matter. We suspect that job growth would result from passing Startup Visa or STEM Green Cards, but economics theories are nowhere close to the rigor of physics theories. VCs still only invest in solid, market-driven ideas. I'd rather trust to them and to the market as a whole as to who sees success than have the government throw up artificial barriers to block non-Americans from American networks of capital and talent, especially when it means the failure to launch of startups that might make my life better. Kauffman does indicate that young companies produce the most net job growth in America: [http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/kauffman-foundation- analysi...](http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/kauffman-foundation-analysis- emphasizes-importance-of-young-businesses-to-job-creation-in-the-united- states.aspx) , though as Steve Blank says, 'startups' are lumped together when there's a large differentiation that needs to be taken into account: [http://steveblank.com/2011/09/01/why-governments- don%E2%80%9...](http://steveblank.com/2011/09/01/why-governments- don%E2%80%99t-get-startups/) The best bit of public policy analysis I've seen on Startup Visa and implications for job growth is from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), but they studied the 2010 Startup Visa, which is much more limited than even the 2011 Startup Visa. The 2011 version of the bill doesn't address STEM Green Cards and is strictly limited in an attempt to pass a conservative House of Representatives, whose majority has a strong anti- immigration faction. So we're left with all of the arguments that you state. However, note that a thoughtful person like yourself isn't the target audience of something on CNN. The NFAP analysis is probably more 'chewy' for someone who wants to dive into the issue. EDIT: Forgot the NFAP link: [http://www.nfap.com/pdf/092910NFAPPolicyBriefImmigrantEntrep...](http://www.nfap.com/pdf/092910NFAPPolicyBriefImmigrantEntrepreneurVisa.pdf) ------ fragsworth This logic has always bothered me, and I know lots of you will disagree, but here it is: Job creation alone is not a noble goal. It should _never_ be used as a reason for making policy changes. There's an economic fallacy at place here. Jobs, in and of themselves, do not benefit us on the whole. You could give some number of people a "job" to walk around in circles all day long and pay them money for it, but the net effect would be that society sees no benefit from this. Productive jobs, however, are good things. There is a conflict, though: the more productive your job is, the fewer employees are necessary - actually resulting in fewer jobs. Hopefully you have witnessed this first-hand over the last few decades. Travel agencies have been replaced by Priceline, Expedia, etc. Tax specialists have been replaced by TurboTax, TaxAct, etc. Even simple legal matters can be handled by LegalZoom and the like, reducing the need for lawyers. All manufactured media products (books, news, movies, music, games) are now transferred digitally, which eliminates the need for factory workers to produce physical products. Online banking eliminates the need for bank tellers. Countless other examples. Essentially, technology _kills jobs_. We develop software and devices to handle what was traditionally done by people, and sell the services at a much cheaper rate because we don't have to pay for all the overhead that old services once required. This is a _good thing_ , however. Anyway, I'm all for immigration, and I'm all for tech companies. But the fact is they destroy jobs more than they create them, and are therefore partially responsible for the current unemployment rate. The logic behind this article is all backwards because of this. ~~~ muzz Agreed. The term for what you describe in your third paragraph is "labor replacement". There is huge profit to be made in labor replacement, with the effect of loss of jobs. It is troubling that few readers pick up on the use of examples with _gross_ jobs created and not _net_ jobs created. In this case, Amit Arahoni's 9 jobs created are gross, not net. A more-clear example would be that of Craigslist. How many jobs has Craigslist created? Well, 30 jobs in gross, but likely a large negative number in net as it played a large part in displacing at least one entire industry (newspapers). ------ kmfrk One thing is work visas; another is college visas. I remember being told (as a European) in the equivalent of high school(?) that if I wanted to go to an American college, I would have to start preparations a year and a half in advance - mainly due to the time spent on processing visas. I would have loved nothing better than to go to an American college, but, at least at the time, that made it neigh-impossible to apply for an American college, when studying at a national university or, hell, another university in Europe or Britain seemed so much easier. I don't know what other people's experiences are, and it may be a cultural thing; maybe the process is otherwise facilitated in, say, India and China. _EDIT: FWIW, this was after 9/11. Just to account for whatever that may have changed._ ~~~ HistoryInAction The NYT had an interesting article about increasing numbers of international students on American campuses, possibly for financial reasons, since most universities are not need-blind for international students. I'm guessing it's easier now, and there are certainly professionals who facilitate the process in China, according to the article. [http://chronicle.com/article/Chinese-Students- Prove-a/129628...](http://chronicle.com/article/Chinese-Students- Prove-a/129628/) ------ cletus The US immigration and visa situation is really quite horrendous. For example, I'm an Australian. That means I qualify for (and have) an E-3 visa. What's that you might ask? It's a special work visa _created specifically for Australian nationals_. It applies for two years and can be renewed indefinitely. What's more, unlike an H1B visa, it's not subject to quotas and the employer doesn't first need to "prove" they couldn't find a suitably qualified domestic worker (a system fraught with abuse that simply acts as a wealth transfer system from companies to immigration lawyers). The problem? When I need to renew it, it may take USCIS _months_. Plus it's more expensive than applying for a fresh visa. Also, once approved they renew your _status_ not your _visa_. What does that mean? It means if you leave the country for any reason you don't have a valid visa to re-enter the US so you have to get a new visa anyway. Basically, you need to leave the country every two years to apply for a new one (since you can't apply within the US, of course). What's more, each time I will have to fill out the exact same set of questions (DS-160), make an appointment, give them my passport and wait for it to be returned. Why does this visa exist? Essentially to settle a trade dispute between the US and Australia over wheat. Australia does not subsidize wheat. The US does (as does Europe) to a huge degree, yet Australian wheat is _still_ price competitive but the US keeps Australian wheat out of the US on the flimsy grounds of "quarantine" (something Australia complained loudly to the WTO as an artificial restriction of trade for years, which like most things that are not to the US's advantage, it simply ignored). This was eventually settled and the E3 visa was one byproduct of this. But you can see just how screwed up the system is that factors like this cause visas to be created. Others have posted about the whole H1B problem (quotas, etc) and the backlog of green card processing basically allowing employers to treat you like indentured servants. That needs to change. Some argue H1B visas are used to pay substandard wages in lieu of employing domestic workers. The substandard wages bit is true but that's because of the H1B processing problem. The real problem for domestic software engineers at least is that most people who call themselves "engineers" or "programmers" _suck_. I've been shocked at some of the people I've interviewed, their inability to code very simple problems and their complete lack of theoretical foundations. _And those are the ones that make it past resume screening and phone screens". The government needs to accept that tech companies are basically the most mobile in the world. Look at big tech companies and you'll see they need data centers, some of which need to be in the US (which really doesn't employ that many people). Everything else can be done from _anywhere*. Barriers to entry, kneejerk legislation (eg Sarbanes-Oxley) and software patents are all contributing to driving the future Googles and Facebooks elsewhere. All of this makes me a little sad actually because the US has forgotten it's route. The US is a country of immigrants (IIRC population 2 million in 1800, 50 million in 1900). One of the reasons I've come to New York to work is because I want to see it. New York is the beating heart of commerce and you can see capitalism and commerce in every form here, some pretty, some not-so-pretty. I want to see it before it doesn't exist anymore. My picture of the US is one of decay, rotting from within, collapsing under a mountain of debt and unsustainable policies that will be its downfall. The Roman Empire was enormous and collapsed. The British Empire was enormous and collapsed. Don't think it can't happen again. ~~~ ryanackley I do agree that the US immigration system sucks. As an Australian, you may not realize the current state of immigration policy in your own country. I'm an American and I live and work in Sydney. I came in on the 457 subclass visa. Not sure if you're familiar with it. It's pretty much the same as the H1B (No E-3 equivalent in the other direction unfortunately). The employer has to prove the job can't be filled by a domestic worker. This particular visa program is also rife with abuse by employers looking to keep costs down [1]. A typical H1B visa holder in the USA would have their health insurance paid for by their employer. 457 visa holders are usually required to purchase their own since everyone else is covered under the national health care system. H1B visa holder's children in the USA can attend public schools for free. 457 visa holders in Australia have to pay public school tuition (~$5k/year/child) in Australia on top of paying normal federal and state taxes. Personally, I'm very satisfied with my situation but this isn't the case with all 457 visa holders. Much like the US, Australia is a nation of immigrants. Most people I've met here are 2nd generation (i.e. their parents immigrated). Yet, there is a surprising amount of opposition to immigration[2]. [1][http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/employers-avoid-fines-despite- visa...](http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/employers-avoid-fines-despite-visa-abuse- sanctions-20110725-1hx98.html) [2][http://www.smh.com.au/national/allout-assault-over-issue- of-...](http://www.smh.com.au/national/allout-assault-over-issue-of-boat- people-20110821-1j4sg.html) ~~~ cletus Firstly, you're quite right: I'm not aware of how the 457 works in Australia since (obviously) I don't have to get one. My understanding though is that in spite of the problems you brought up (which are news to me), at least processing is very quick and the process itself doesn't seem to be subject to as much politicking as the US system (IMHO). As for the health insurance [1], this is definitely news to me and I'm a little surprised because it was passed by the Labor (left-wing) government. It's not all bad though: there are arrangements for countries with reciprocal health care agreements (mainly a handful of European countries). If you think about it, that's fair enough. A broken arm in the US without health insurance could bankrupt me. The US doesn't provide Australians health care. Why should Australia provide it to Americans? It's just that the US doesn't provide health care to _Americans_ either. It's a good tip for those going to work in Australia: negotiate for employer- paid health insurance. Honestly though, I don't think Australia is such a great place to live anymore (compared to 10+ years ago) for no other reason than the _insane_ cost of living. It's cheaper for me to live in downtown Manhattan than it is in inner- city _Perth_ and buying lunch doesn't cost me $15 here. But I digress... It is my understanding the Australian visa and residency system isn't paralyzed however. Getting a residency visa is (or at least was) relatively straightforward if you're degree-qualified and you speak English. I agree that there is anti-immigration sentiment but the example you point to about _illegal_ immigration (namely "boat people" from Indonesia and beyond). The problem there is that an awful lot of "asylum seekers" are nothing more than "economic migrants" attempting to jump the queue, where such migration is paid for by essentially indentured servitude to people smugglers once they arrive, possibly for years. There are many reasons to clamp down on illegal immigration. [1]: [http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/457-health-insurance-faq- visa...](http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/457-health-insurance-faq-visa- holder.htm) ~~~ brc I saw an article in a British paper last week. It basically said the UK- Australia people flow is drastically declining. They went on about a whole lot of made-up factors like people missing their families and the rest, but the simple fact of the matter is that the cost of living in Australia is out of control. It used to be you could sell your crappy 2 bedroom semi in an outer London suburb and move to a nice big home in Australia, and have plenty of money left over to send the kids to a good school. Nowadays that's not the case. Same for the young Australian - you used to be able to go to London for a couple of years, save up your money and come back with a decent stash of savings. Also no longer the case. Honestly I think Australia is choking on it's property prices which has fuelled massive debts. It's why your chicken sandwich costs $15, because the rents are out of control because of the price the owner paid for the shop. W/regards to not having access to Australian healthcare, I already knew that because I met a NZ guy ages ago who explained the whole deal. Not sure what the situation is now but back when the conversation took place there was no reciprocal agreement and people from NZ had to pay full-freight to get access to healthcare. ~~~ Zakharov Well, the Australian dollar has doubled in value. That makes it much harder to migrate. ~~~ brc Yes, that was my point, though sadly I seem to have omitted it. Also, the UK authorities are making it much harder for Australians to stay on after completing a 2 year working holiday visa. ------ barumrho In Canada, international students are given work permit up to 3 years after graduation and after 1 year of full-time employment they can apply for permanent residency. I think the US could benefit from a similar policy. ------ ry0ohki While I agree we need to encourage immigration, the "facts" stated in this article seem like a causation does not imply correlation argument that drive me nuts. ------ resnamen It's not a zero-sum game when you bring in bright people. Smart people create opportunity around them. On the other hand, I'm not so enthusiastic about lowering immigration barriers so we can get cheap workers to robotically throw together CRUD forms. (I guess that work is outsourced, anyway?) ------ cletus I believe humanity is approaching an important turning point that will either herald in a new era and a new way of thinking or there are going to be some dark times ahead. The entire of human history has thus far been fueled by population growth. When there were 10 million of us, this wasn't a problem. When there were 100 million of us, this wasn't a problem. When there were 1 billion of us, it was _mostly_ not a problem. Now as we zero in on 10 billion... it's becoming a problem. The way our society and our economy works should in so many ways tell you this is true. Look at the urban decay that occurred in many American cities in the 20th century. Urban decay post-WW2 was fuelled by the interstate system, the cheapening cost of owning a car and that it was cheaper to build new communities than it was to maintain existing infrastructure. Some cities experienced negative population growth with devastating consequences (eg Detroit, Baltimore). Certainly in Detroit's case, there are large swathes of the city that really need to be returned to wilderness. But who's going to pay for the demolition, relocation and clean up? The Western world is essentially dying with net migration being pretty much the only reason any Western country is growing at all. The social experiments of the early 20th century (ie state-funded retirement) are, at present rates, ultimately unsustainable when we get down to 3 or even 2 employed people pre retired person (initially it was in excess of 50 to 1 at least for Social Security). An aging population is a natural consequence of slowing population growth, just like urban decay is. So far we've largely shown ourselves at being ill- equipped at dealing with either, except for politicking around migration, which basically just kicks that can further down the street. It is my opinion that there need to be an awful lot less of us and there will be one day, one way or the other. As much as people point to space as a solution to these problems we have an economy built in basically digging not- that-deep holes for our metals. While there are metal-rich asteroids out there, the cost of moving, processing and using those materials is so many orders of magnitude more expensive (both realistically and conceivably) that I have to wonder if it will _ever_ be comparable (although it might one day be viable just because every other way has become so expensive, which will be an earth-shattering adjustment for us all). So migration is, I believe, a short term fix. But it doesn't address what I believe to be a key driver in unemployment: we're slowly automating our way out of the most unskilled jobs (and increasingly skilled jobs too). That too will be a challenge. ------ droithomme There are a lot of countries that lobby for their citizens to enjoy an open border policy where their people can be able to freely come to the US to live, work and own property. Oddly though, these countries do not have open border policies where Americans can come to live, work and own property in their countries. Let's say you are British. You can move pretty freely throughout much of Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, with a minimum of hassle. If you are American, the situation is very different. There are very few countries you can easily emigrate to. Yet most countries want rights for their people to be able to immigrate to the US. I would be in favor of a global open border policy. Eliminate passports, visas, and all restrictions on the flow of people. As opposed to now where through WTO style agreements goods travel much more freely than people. But I don't support one sided policies where people can move easily in one direction but not the other. ------ ypcx Funny, just today I stumbled upon this video while randomly strolling through the avenues of YouTube: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70KhYzBhT4> ------ mbesto The bottom line is this: How do you assess one's talent? If this were possible then a system could work, otherwise it will never be perfect. ------ mgh2 Americans need to support the Startup Visa: [http://trendguardian.blogspot.com/2010/03/support-startup- vi...](http://trendguardian.blogspot.com/2010/03/support-startup-visa.html) I think Obama is starting to hear too: [http://trendguardian.blogspot.com/2011/04/startup-america- te...](http://trendguardian.blogspot.com/2011/04/startup-america-tell-white- house-how-to.html) ------ etz how many immigrants would it be necessary to let in the country to have one of these success stories?? If we let in only the best and brightest, then success is assured! But if we do the right thing, and let nature take it's course....Assuming that the person is a 1 percenter, then it would only take one hundred people to create wealth. On the other hand, the united states has 300 million people, if 25 percent of the successful startups are by foreigners, then that would mean about 75 million people would have to enter the country to create 25 percent. All for 15 or 20 THOUSAND jobs. What will the rest do?? ------ wavephorm I distinctly remember 2001-2003 during in the post dot-com, post-911 recession when there was loud outcry to cancel all visas to open up jobs for American- born workers. And in subsequent years these ideas took on the form of erecting a wall around Mexico, and eliminating technology-related visa categories, and ending up in today's environment of extreme hostility toward business travellers at American ports of entry. ~~~ jnbiche Do other business travelers experience this extreme hostility at US ports of entry? I don't do nearly as much international travel as I used to, so I'm really interested in hearing others' experiences. ~~~ Mikushi Yes, i am french (from France), been living in Montreal for 5years know, speaks perfect english (no silly french accent), but anytime i have to go to the US i get treated like shit by immigration agent when they see my passport. And it's been consistent across the 20+ times i've had to cross the border. Sometimes they even go into what i believe to be none of their business, last christmas i was coming back from France, going through Washington (just a 6h stop), and despise the fact i had my ticket saying i was going to Montreal, my canadian working visa, the U.S. agent bombarded me with question on what i was gonna do in canada, where i was staying, on a not so friendly tone as if i was lying. This is why i now refuse whenever possible to go through the U.S.. As for the Visa situation, it is really a pain, i had numerous companies contacting me -thinking i was Canadian as i list my town as Montreal- from SF or Seattle, then after successful interviews, getting refused by they H.R. department because i'm French and VISA paperwork is either too much or just not even possible for them. ~~~ felipemnoa >> the U.S. agent bombarded me with question on what i was gonna do in canada, where i was staying, on a not so friendly tone as if i was lying<< This seems to be pretty standard. They are trying to catch you on a lie. I don't know about the "not so friendly tone" though. I guess it depends on the agent and what kind of day/issues he is having. ~~~ Mikushi Yeah but last time i checked, Canada is not part of the U.S. and with a visa and ticket, that should be enough for him, if somebody wants to grill me it should be a Canadian Immigration agent. ~~~ tokenadult [AFTER EDIT: I'm withdrawing an earlier statement in the first posting of this comment after doing some fact-checking prompted by the reply below. Thanks. I'll look up some more analysis of the current policy and its historical origins over the next few days. The sentence below was the last sentence in the original version of this comment.] It's regrettable that today skepticism at the border is so general--surely most visitors to the United States, including you, mean no harm to the United States--but there are legal problems with being selective about whom to interrogate, so almost every visitor is questioned. ~~~ worldvoyageur That some of the 9/11 attackers entered the US through Canada is a thoroughly debunked myth. Plus, all the attackers entered the US legally, with valid visas. The startling persistence of the myth attests to its power to support a particular side of the debate about 'illegals' or 'weak borders'. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumors_about_the_September_11_a...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumors_about_the_September_11_attacks#Claims_that_terrorists_entered_the_United_States_through_Canada) Misinformation: rumors later shown to be false: [...] Claims that terrorists entered the United States through Canada On September 12, 2001, Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA chief of counter-intelligence told the press that five of the terrorists had entered Maine from Canada via a ferry from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and/or a remote border point in Saint- Théophile, Quebec near Jackman, Maine.[1] The myth was revived again in April 2009 when Janet Napolitano, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, informed a Canadian television interviewer that some of the terrorist- hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks entered the United States from Canada. In the same month, senator John McCain also told Fox News that some of the 9/11 hijackers did come through Canada.[2] ------ greenName Increase supply of labor, decrease wages. Econ 101, folks. The Wall Street types benefit from immigration. There might be "more jobs" but there will be lower pay checks. Working Americans are the targets in this upper class scam. Polls show that most Americans are for moderating immigration. Strangely, rich Democrats are the ones most for open borders and "free" trade. The party of labor? No way. ~~~ gjm11 Decreased wages for those who have jobs, _plus more people having jobs_ , might be an excellent tradeoff even if it wouldn't appeal to a 100% selfish person who has a job and doesn't fear losing it. And you need to be awfully careful about what "polls show that most Americans are for". For example, polls show that most Americans would like to see US foreign aid reduced from about 25% of GDP to about 10% of the federal budget. The trouble is that the actual level of US foreign aid is about 1% of the federal budget. So, do "polls show" that most Americans would like foreign aid cut by 2.5x, or that most Americans would like foreign aid increased by 10x? -- In the absence of more information about what "most Americans" actually think the level of immigration is, and what they think its impact is, polls purporting to show that most Americans would like more or less immigration are pretty uninformative about what would actually benefit most Americans, or what they would choose if they had better information. It would be better to keep party politics out of this. (Though from what you've written I wonder whether party politics are your only reason for being interested in the matter at all.) ------ unfare The editor are modding all dissent in this page down. Can't handle another side of the story ? Shame. ~~~ philwelch "Editor"? That's not how HN works. ------ known I disagree. Unless USA aligns Immigrant & Non-immigrant Visas and Outsourcing to Caste system in India and Human Rights in China, American middle class will be destroyed. [http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/sep/29/un-says-indias- cas...](http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/sep/29/un-says-indias-caste-system- a-human-rights-abuse.htm) [http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide- show-1-tech-...](http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-tech- apple-workers-forced-to-sign-no-suicide-pledge/20110504.htm)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Mail Pilot App - dhruvbhatia http://www.mailpilot.co/ ====== swombat I've really wanted to like this app, and to try it, but the reviews on the App Store are absolutely appalling - most complaining that the app is effectively useless. This is combined with a very steep purchase price. Add to that the fact that I tweeted the MailPilot twitter account many times about this and never got a single reply, and this is a definite NO PURCHASE. I really want to find that this app is great, but I'm not willing to ignore a mountain of evidence just because this is what I want to believe. Caveat Emptor, Buyer Beware. Has anyone here actually used MailPilot sufficiently to counter those numerous negative AppStore reviews? ~~~ zenojevski > This is combined with a very steep purchase price. Everyone says the $ 20 or so are a steep price, but I paid twice that for Mailmate[1] and it's worth every drop. It's probably my most used app after Sublime Text (to which it integrates, by the way) and It repaid itself after a couple hours of stress-free operation. Granted, people lament that this app doesn't work well, but my point is that, as pervasive as mail is, every small bit of improvement in this area may could end up greatly multiplied. $ 20 may be much for a "useless" piece of software, but I think it's wrong to start with that as a general assumption for a mail app. [1]: Mailmate: [http://freron.com/](http://freron.com/) ~~~ swombat Mailmate has a trial version that works fine for 30 days. I actually did try it, though I ended up going for AirMail instead... and then went back to Mail.app! I don't mind paying $20 or more for a great email client - I mind paying that for a shitty email client that fails at even basic stuff like, you know, receiving emails. ------ joshuakarjala Hope this one day becomes fast / stable enough that peers start recommending it. As part of the original Kickstarter backing - I gave up on this product long ago because of numerous issues. ------ danieldk For those who like Mail.app: MailTags has been around for years, and adds tags/labels, notes, and reminders to Mail.app. One of the nice things about MailTags is that it stores its information in a header in the e-mail on the IMAP[1][2] server. So, it does not funnel your mail through a server and the tags show up on all your Macs. [http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html](http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html) I thought it was worthwhile mentioning, since I hadn't seen this plugin until a few months ago. [1] This does not work with GMail, since it stores a new copy of the e-mail with the extra headers and then deletes the old one. GMail recognizes the new copy as a duplicate and never stores it. [2] I am not sure if they take any security precautions, since a sender could add the header as well. Would be fun to try I guess :). ~~~ jwr I tried to use MailTags, tried really hard. But it never achieved its promise. First, tagging E-mail was just too much of a hassle, second, there were bugs and issues and I spent a lot of time with support to try to resolve those, and third, there just wasn't that much utility, especially given the speed of Mail.app's search window on SSD drives. I stopped using MailTags and never looked back, although the remains haunt me to this day (Spotlight complains about mail header problems). I would not recommend MailTags, unless you enjoy spending time tagging your E-mail and have some spare time for support conversations. ~~~ danieldk I am still on the fence. I like it generally and it's easy to tag quickly with shortcuts. It's Mail.app that bothers me, because its shortcuts are annoying (even with GMailinator) and IMO it's slow (even on SSDs). Now that there is a great mutt version that supports notmuch (mutt-kz) I might abandon Mail.app. But for now, MailTags keeps it bearable :). ------ tlrobinson Glad to see they don't feel the need to funnel all your mail through their servers like Mailbox did. _Is it secure & private? Mail Pilot never stores, processes, or transmits your data through third-party servers. Your account details, passwords, and personal data are securely stored on your device. All communication occurs directly between your device and your email server._ ~~~ mongrol Which they can't prove since it's closed source. ~~~ matthewmacleod They probably aren't lying. And if they were, it would be trivially possible to demonstrate that the app doesn't send data to a third-party server in general use. And it would be discovered pretty quickly. There is no way—even with open source software—to prove that and app isn't sending data to a third party. Unless you are going to build all of your hardware from raw materials, and build your own software by hand, using a bootstrapped compiler that you wrote yourself. In machine code. Given the above, it's obvious that there has to be a level of trust involved at some point in the process. The majority of people using open-source software aren't building it themselves, and so the trust issue would still be there if the software _was_ open. Who's to say they wouldn't provide a binary that shipped your data off, without including that code in the open release? IOW, your predictable shallow response adds precisely zero value to the discussion about how to ensure privacy in software. ------ toyg Still no support for Exchange. Sigh. I know it's a PITA to work with, but let's face it, the business opportunity is huge. * Fancy mail clients for IMAP/POP: hundreds. * Fancy mail clients for Exchange: zero. * Every Exchange account out there is a corporate/business user, which means s/he is much easier to monetize (and on a large scale). Inb4 "Exchange is proprietary-closed-blablabla": Mail.app works fine with it, so it can be done. Clearly it's just too boring for the cool kids to hack on. ~~~ Justsignedup most people at my job want to leave ms outlook for Mac and mail.app but alas no exchange support on their favorite clients. ~~~ chewmieser AirMail works for exchange. Not perfect by a long shot, but I prefer it over Outlook for Mac. ------ jwr I bought both the Mac app and the iOS app immediately, for one simple reason: this is an effort to attack the "mail problem" that actually shows promise. We live in a world with broken E-mail [1], and there are very few attempts to fix it. And it turned out that very few people are willing to pay for better E-mail. Well, given how much time I spend on E-mail and how useful it can be, I am one of those people willing to pay. I bought the apps even though the iOS one couldn't even work with my (Linux- based, dovecot) IMAP server. I don't mind, I want these guys to take the money and develop the apps. Here's hoping they won't sell the company tomorrow to an evil giant who will shut the whole operation down. [1] Just off the top of my head, some broken aspects of today's E-mail: HTML E-mail, crappy threading, broken quoting, top-posting, problems with attachments, attachment sizes, mail sorting… ~~~ dingaling > I bought the apps even though the iOS one couldn't even work with my (Linux- > based, dovecot) IMAP server. I have a colleague who analysed the Mail Pilot IMAP conversation and managed to hand-craft his Dovecot IMAP folders _just right_ so that the app worked with his VPS. IIRC it was a problem with the app being really picky about IMAP namespaces. The same problem meant that the app didn't work with Fastmail, but despite having been informed of the bug the Mail Pilot team blamed Fastmail and 'non- compliant IMAP implementations'. The Fastmail response was a classic: show us where the bug is in our implementation and we'll fix it in a week. There was no response. ~~~ bowlofpetunias I think I'll forgo the pleasure of paying for an email client who's makers believe that in the real world there is such a thing as a 'compliant IMAP implementation'. ------ kstrauser Heartbleed did the world a favor: it reminded us that you can't throw encryption on top of something and call it secure. Mail Oilot devs didn't seem to learn that. From their support docs at [https://mailpilot.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1315088-...](https://mailpilot.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1315088-do- you-support-encrypted-accounts-requiring-an-additional-level-of-password- authentication-) : > Currently, Mail Pilot only supports normal password authentication. > A future update (currently in development) will include support for: CRAM- > MD5, DIGEST-MD5, Kerberos 4, GSSAPI, NTLM, as well as Secure Remote > Password. So while they claim to value security, the app still requires you to send your password in cleartext. There's no way my IT department would enable cleartext auth on our mail servers, and I'd be too embarrassed to ask them to. ------ hbbio It seems a good mail client for the Apple ecosystem. But it's been around for some time: Why the news now? ~~~ Cthulhu_ Probably (as the title hints at) because they're working on a 'v2' for mobile devices. ------ eddieroger I must be using email wrong. This looks a lot like Mailbox, which I couldn't successfully integrate in to my workflow (making the wait a real bummer). I normally keep my inbox at zero if possible, and carve out time at the end of the week to make sure I start Monday clean, and I base my folders around a modified GTD workflow. Getting an email "twice" (notified on receipt, then again no reminder) seems like it would add unwanted clutter to my life. ------ filmgirlcw I backed this on Kickstarter (for $100 no less) and while I really want to love the apps and the system, I just don't. Not yet anyway. So many or the ideas are strong and the execution is getting better and better, but as someone who gets a few hundred inbound messages a day, it's not ther for me. Not yet. But I love what they are trying to do and I don't regret supporting the development of this as a product that gets better moving forward. ------ aflaisler If you guys are looking for a new experience of email management, with auto- created folders per contacts / projects available on iOS, Android and a webapp, have a look at the project me and my mates are working on: [http://www.mailcloud.com/thanks](http://www.mailcloud.com/thanks) You can signup for the Beta here: [http://www.mailcloud.com/](http://www.mailcloud.com/) ~~~ 1stop What a new experience! I NEVER expected to go to a new startup and have them ask for my email address then send me an email saying I'm in going to get an account soon! Amazing, you guys are so unique, not only changing the way email should be done. But also changing how internet startups should do business. Who needs an actual product, when you have the PROMISE of a new product. Genius! 100% Genius. ------ sikhnerd Unfortunately the fact that it doesn't appear to store any mail locally (and some appstore reviews back this up) is a non-starter for anyone (including me) who ever wants to do email on a poor connection. I've been using Airmail [1] to do essentially everything you can do with Mailpilot, though with not as clean a UI, with pretty good success. [1] [http://airmailapp.com/](http://airmailapp.com/) ------ pfalke If you like the reminder functionality but don't want to switch to yet another mail application on all your devices: [https://followup.cc](https://followup.cc) is a great service, you can also try my own (less sophisticated but FOSS) implementation at [http://www.pfalke.com](http://www.pfalke.com) ------ sorpaas Why we again treat our mail box as a GTD list? Isn't it more convenient to use a fully functional GTD task manager such as org mode? ~~~ jffry Email notifications are universal. Many disparate services all can push out transactional emails, which are then aggregated in one place. To replace email, you would need to create something which is as universally adopted. Good luck! ------ kaivi Just bought this GTD app for both iOS and Mac, and here are some random thoughts: It wouldn't import existing accounts from Keychain. Well, okay. The app does not sync settings between iOS and Mac, and it appears that it is using IMAP folders for sorting e-mails. I guess that's what IMAP folders are intended for. It would be really nice if one could create rules for sorting incoming messages. For instance, move all e-mails from "%@hidemyass.com" to folder "Proxies". Rich text editor for composing e-mails is primitive. No indents, TAB key does not work as expected, no blue colored quote blocks. Can't find a plaintext composing mode. Multiple file attachments in a chain of e-mails - they all bunch up in the bottom. Whenever I send an e-mail, I would like to set a date, by which I anticipate a response. Guess that is a reasonably obvious function which should be implemented. Perhaps I missed it. Say, I have installed the app, but I don't want to deal with garbage older than a week. Whenever I clean up new e-mails, it loads more messages: weeks or months old. I have e-mails all the way back to year 2002 in there. When I set "Remind me" date on iOS, it shows a segmented UIPickerView. A full- sized calendar would be much more practical. The iOS client has just stumbled upon a certain chain of 6 e-mails, and it keeps crashing. Is it possible to temporary quit & disable the default Mail app on iOS? Because both my Mac, iPhone and iPad are trying to open >15 connections to my $2 paid Gmail business mailbox, and all of the devices fail randomly and spam error messages. This has been most frustrating with the default Mail app, not to mention this paid alternative. They've sent their Yacht Club newsletter invitation to an address which I've added first – it was a shared corporate box. Searching for e-mails is done on servers at the same time: extremely slow and frustrating. Now I can only use Mail Pilot alongside Mail.app, which lets Spotlight index the attachments. _Just noticed that they 're building Mail Pilot v2_. Overall, it would be nicer to have Mail Pilot as an extension to Mail.app, but instead it tries to replace it. Guys, you can store my passwords and index my inbox if you need to – just make the experience seamless, so I don't even have to think about it. ------ mike-cardwell I am the author of [https://emailprivacytester.com/](https://emailprivacytester.com/) \- But I don't have any Apple devices, so I'm unable to test this client. Would somebody please give it a test and report back here. ------ ansimionescu If you're on OSX, Airmail is a $2 Sparrow clone and is the absolute best email client I've seen, with a great/active development team. [http://airmailapp.com/](http://airmailapp.com/) ------ uncletaco No exchange support :(. Mail Pilot looks like a great app and would love the ability to consolidate my emails under one app for mac and iOS. Currently I use Airmail for mac and Accompli for mobile. ------ jkmcf IMO, assuming exchange support matters, Airmail on OS X and Boxer on iOS are the best choices. Airmail has been consistently improving and I have no serious complaints against it anymore. ------ alexcason For that price I'd want to test the app for a while first. ~~~ alialkhatib Agreed. $20 is also kind of steep for an app whose current version only has 2.5 stars in the app store (and 3.0 across all versions). It sounds like it crashes a lot and is missing some seemingly basic features. ------ shirman It is strange that the same functionality is not possible to get via chrome extensions ------ switch007 Looks good, but it does need a trial of some kind. I'd definitely try it out. ------ gdonelli Does it use lib MailCore? ------ ewinters123 I love the look, great design. How is it different from other mail apps? ------ DasIch This looks nice and all but they don't seriously expect anyone to be using this without support for signing and encrypting messages, are they? ~~~ matthewmacleod The vast majority of people don't sign or encrypt emails, so I don't see why you'd think that. ~~~ bowlofpetunias The vast majority of people don't pay for an email client. A niche client doesn't have an eco system full of plugins and hacks, so it better be fully featured.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Js.org Subdomains for GitHub Pages - JDDunn9 http://dns.js.org/ ====== colinprince from the terms.html: JS.ORG may also terminate the provision of a certain or all subdomains. Concerned users will be notified at least 7 days in advance by an issue in their GitHub repository ~~~ trothamel I don't know how much a two-letter domain is worth, but I suspect it's a lot. Trusting the current owner is fine, but should something happen to him, the domain might be considered an asset to be sold off, at which point hosting will end. ------ lukebennett I've often thought a .js TLD would be useful but given it would be dependent on a new country being formed and taking that as its ISO country code, I guess it's unlikely. So perhaps this is the next best thing. Though would be nice to have a bit more transparency about who is behind it. ~~~ pavlov It doesn't have to be an independent country, autonomous regions also get 2-letter TLDs. So all it takes is for Brazil to declare Jaraguá do Sul [1] an autonomous city-state. The local government can then apply for the .js TLD and start getting rich by selling domains to developers. Simple as pie! [1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaraguá_do_Sul](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaraguá_do_Sul) ~~~ JDDunn9 What about micronations? Buy an island, declare independence, get a TLD. ~~~ petercooper Unfortunately it requires becoming party to the International Court of Justice which requires Security Council approval. This is why Sealand doesn't have a TLD. ------ niix I think a js.org email would be pretty rad also. ------ rattray Thanks, anonymous hero... actually, who owns/provides this? The only credit I can see is for the web design. ~~~ laurent123456 I wonder how they managed to get such a short domain name, I thought 3 characters was the minimum. And it must cost quite a lot. ~~~ zuck9 The minimum is 1 character excluding the TLD. Like Twitter has [http://t.co](http://t.co) ~~~ killwhitey Actually even zero character ones exist [http://uz/](http://uz/) ~~~ BillinghamJ That isn't a zero character name. It's just the TLD itself acting as a website. It's a 1 label domain rather than the usual 2-3 labels. ~~~ TazeTSchnitzel Well, I suppose the root counts as a zero-character domain. The trailing . makes it fully-qualified. ------ jsorg 40 pull-requests in 6 hours. This will be long night for me... Starting to merge in 5 minutes (after a cigarette) ~~~ zuck9 Amazing how you posted this twice earlier but didn't get attention.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Is there a bias against coders in business? - marcus_holmes I've noticed that as soon as someone I'm talking to realises that I can code, then the whole discussion shifts. I'm no longer asked about business matters, but only about technical ones.<p>I've had my business experience dismissed as irrelevant during conversations "because the only thing anyone cares about is your technical ability".<p>I've even noticed myself talking exclusively to the non-tech co-founder of a startup about the startup's model when the tech co-founder is just as involved with the business and just as knowledgeable.<p>I've noticed that none of the "leaders" in the local startup community can code.<p>I've noticed that people who speak about their successful tend to say something like "obviously I can't code myself" as if that would immediately reduce their credibility.<p>It seems that marketing skills, sales skills, legal qualifications, financial experience, or any other form of business experience is an asset, but coding skills are not. Any evidence of ability to code means that you're incapable of also having business skills.<p>Has anyone else noticed this?<p>Do other engineering practices get the same grief?<p>Any ideas on how to deal with it? ====== sjclemmy It probably depends where it is. I've worked for companies where none of the management team have a technical background (I'm engaged to provide technical expertise and services). However, I've found that due to their lack of understanding of technical matters the management team has a massive blind spot, that even with my assistance they struggle to see how it fits with the rest of the business, to their detriment. ~~~ marcus_holmes Yeah, I've been there before. You have my sympathies. Do they view you as part of the team, able to contribute your expert opinion to the business planning, or just as the person who implements their plans? ~~~ sjclemmy It's... complicated, as always, and it depends who it is. In a recent example, my opinion was given, but key decisions were made (seemingly) without reference to it - I don't think it was intentional, they really need someone on the management team that understands the implications of the advice - hence the reason I say it's a blind spot. I was expecting my words to contribute to the business planning, but the way the decision making was done, the nature of my engagement, the politics of the company etc, it was hard to make sure it was understood as intended before it was too late to change course.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Few days ago someone asked for code annotation, I built this in Polymer - rajasharan https://rajasharan.github.io/annotate-code/dist/ ====== marcofiset Seems pretty cool. The only thing that annoys me is that blank lines are not preserved, even though I click on them.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Hakn, an iOS reader for Hacker News - mcglincy https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hakn.-reader-for-hacker-news./id952484565?mt=8 ====== canda Great design, perfect readability. The total number of comments could be shown on the details page (transition effect to fast). I miss the "new" tab as well. But no attribution / mention of HN/ycombinator? Nice app (but not usable until login and commenting is supported). ------ mcglincy hey y'all! I had some time between other projects at my day job so I built Hakn, an iOS HN reader app that uses HN's new Firebase API. This was also my opportunity to try out Swift on a shipping app. HN's Firebase API is currently read-only, so Hakn doesn't yet support login, submitting, upvoting, etc. Currently Hakn is just a light and easy reader app, good for lurkers like myself :) Hakn is free, so please give it a try and let me know what you think. I'll be bug fixing and tinkering with it as time allows. Cheers! ------ m451 Sweet!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Movie bot that creates custom lists - tejas1mehta http://imse.co ====== tejas1mehta Example lists: \- show me english scifi movies on netflix \- english movies about aliens released after 2000 \- english movies about lawyers on netflix or hulu \- best hindi movies on netflix \- hindi drama movies on netflix released after 2000 \- clint eastwood movies on amazon prime or hbo released between 1960 and 1980 \- movies based on true stories on netflix \- johnny depp fantasy movies on netflix \- the pursuit of happyness \- movies similar to the pursuit of happyness \- movies on jfk released after 2000 \- english movies currently playing in theatres	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Best way to manage a single server from Git in 2017? - simonw I'd like to run a single, small VPS for some personal projects. I want the configuration of this server to be entirely driven from a git repository. What are the simplest tools for doing this in 2017?<p>Puppet? Chef? Ansible? I'm only running one server so I don't want to have to think about separate coordinator nodes, puppet masters or anything like that.<p>For any suggested solutions, are there rock solid tutorials on using them to manage a single instance? ====== oboopfmlrmnmn I suggest you invest a little time with Docker instead of the software you listed	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dolphin 5.0 Release - samuelb https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2016/06/24/dolphin-50-release/ ====== aeontech Dolphin's status update posts make it look like one of the best managed projects I have _ever_ seen, open source or closed. Really incredible work. ~~~ jsheard They posted a write-up of their development infrastructure last year - their system for regression testing rendering bugs is especially impressive. [https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/01/25/making-developers- mo...](https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/01/25/making-developers-more- productive-dolphin-development-infrastructure) ~~~ vvanders Interesting, I'm curious how well their golden image tests worked out for them. They always seem more work than help due to discrepancies between various hardware vendors and subtle bugs/divergences in the way they interpret the spec. ------ mmastrac Great work. I started contributing to Dolphin earlier this year entirely as a result of seeing the well-polished status updates and technical articles that made it to HN from time to time. It's been in a "freeze" for quite some time while bugs were nailed down, but I'm looking forward to being able to land some code finally! And, if anyone is interested in some really cutting-edge ARM or x86 JIT code, there are lots of interesting problems to tackle (say hi in #dolphin-dev on freenode). ~~~ ndesaulniers Note to self: do this. ------ theschwa Why is this emulator so well organized and polished compared to some other emulator projects? They do such great technical write ups, but I'd love to see one about how they manage the project. ~~~ Asooka I guess it has a bit to do with Nintendo's choice of architecture. They haven't moved past the Gamecube architecture - the Gamecube, Wii and WiiU all use the same PowerPC CPU, the Wii is just faster and the WiiU has two. Same for the GPU - they keep using pretty much the same Radeon, just newer, faster, etc. This has allowed the project to remain relevant (able to play mostly current games) for three console generations and find the support of qualified individuals. I agree that it's a bit weird though - the best, most well managed emulators seem to be for Nintendo hardware. From the NES through to the Wii (and I expect Dolphin to support WiiU soon), every console is reasonably well supported and emulated. Part of it might be due to Nintendo picking architectures that aren't too alien to emulate on a standard PC. ~~~ delroth > Same for the GPU - they keep using pretty much the same Radeon, just newer, > faster, etc. The GPUs of the GameCube and the Wii have nothing to do with Radeon GPUs. They were designed by ArtX before they got bought by ATI (now AMD). > and I expect Dolphin to support WiiU soon This is a common misconception. Dolphin will never support emulating the Wii U — it would make no sense to do so from a technical standpoint. The GameCube and the Wii are very similar, the Wii U is a completely different beast. > Part of it might be due to Nintendo picking architectures that aren't too > alien to emulate on a standard PC. Uh... while the CPU side is fairly standard (PPC 750 with just a few extensions like locked cache, paired singles, gather pipe, etc.) everything else is very much custom on GC/Wii. The GPU is an undocumented mixed floating point (on the vertex side) / fixed point (on the pixel side) architecture, with very few programmable elements (TEV/TCG) and a lot of configurable state. The DSP is a programmable 16/32/40 bits chip that kind of ressembles Motorola DSP architectures but still looks completely custom when comparing actual ISAs. The ISA of the DSP was actually fully reverse engineered by emulator and homebrew developers, there is 0 technical documentation about it outside of these communities. And there are more things like that which are far from being standard when you compare to e.g. an Xbox or an Xbox 360. ~~~ Asooka I stand corrected then :). I was thinking about it in comparison to the PS2 and PS3 with their infamously weird architectures. ------ ChicagoHero In case anyone is wondering, Dolphin is an awesome emulator for Nintendo GameCube and the Wii, in full HD. ~~~ distances Thanks, for a while I thought this is about the KDE file manager. ------ cookiecaper Dolphin is amazing, plain and simple. It's been years since I tried to contribute, but it's got a great development community and it's a great place to learn, as you can probably tell from these detailed posts. Kudos to everyone on an excellent release for an extremely compelling project. ------ cm3 I'm so glad that Nintendo's misguided IP stance leading to gameplay video takedowns hasn't affected the Dolphin project. I don't think Nintendo management realizes that more gameplay videos and more fan creations of any kind mean free advertisement. ~~~ steauengeglase They just want to protect their walled garden. Thankfully Dolphin's word of mouth has been really strong. ~~~ cm3 Word of mouth how? I'm not sure I understand. ------ xutopia Say I have a bunch of Wii games... how do I play them on my Mac? ~~~ slantyyz If you happen to have some old real Wii remotes and controller accessories lying around, I _strongly_ recommend you pick up a Mayflash DolphinBar [1] from Amazon for around $20. It's basically a Wii sensor bar combined with Wii-mote compatible Bluetooth radio specifically designed to work with Dolphin (although it will also let you use your Wii-motes as HID controllers and a mouse too). It will save you a TON of headaches in terms of getting up and running, especially on Windows. [1] [http://www.mayflash.com/products/nintendowiigc/w010.html](http://www.mayflash.com/products/nintendowiigc/w010.html) ------ AdmiralAsshat I keep meaning to try out Dolphin on my Dell XPS 13 to see how well it runs on integrated GPU's, but it continues to slip my mind. If the framerate is even halfway decent on Gamecube games, I'd be thrilled. ~~~ shrewduser it should run well. integrated works great so long as you don't want to run the games at much higher than native resolutions. ------ flubert Not related to the Smalltalk implementation apparently. [http://www.object-arts.com/dolphin7.html](http://www.object- arts.com/dolphin7.html) ~~~ kps Or the Xerox Dolphin, the first of the post-Alto PARC machines, followed by Dorado, Dicentra, Dandelion (the Star hardware), Dandetiger, and Daybreak. A Dolphin emulator would be neat.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Charon May Once Have Had Underground Ocean - givan http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-charon-underground-ocean-01988.html ====== seren Which would be very fitting for a moon named after a ferryman of the Underworld.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink? - pguzmang http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html ====== ChuckMcM One practical aspect of the same clothes until age 6 is that kids grow so fast you need to re-use clothes. In the 18th and 19th century when having clothes made was much more expensive, and the number of children a family had was high, the re-use would have been essential. Any parent today who has had two kids of one sex and then the third comes along of the other sex finds they have a bunch of boxes of things that they don't want to use. We sought to keep our baby clothes especially and up to about age 3 clothes as neutral as possible for that reason. ~~~ mc32 While boys and girls wore "dresses" till about age 6 or 7, till they were breached[1], they carried gender markers --at least in the upper classes. The clothes were not interchanged. The styles were different and people of the time would be able to identify the gender. [1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_$boys$) ~~~ mjn Two differences, fwiw: 1\. Boys more often had square collars. For example, if you look at [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_children_of_Charl...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_children_of_Charles_I_of_England- painting_by_Sir_Anthony_van_Dyck_in_1637.jpg), the girl on the left has a rounded collar, while the boy 2nd-from-left has a squared-off collar. 2\. Boys sometimes wore bands ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bands_(neckwear)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bands_$neckwear$) ). Due to their frequent use of lace they often are perceived as feminine today, but were perceived as masculine at the time. You can sort of see that on Roosevelt in the linked article. Some clearer examples are visible in the Wikipedia gallery of unbreeched boys: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)#Gallery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_$boys$#Gallery) Source, unfortunately paywalled (and it's a very minor part of the article, so not necessarily worth digging up unless you're interested in the main article subject): [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1923418](http://www.jstor.org/stable/1923418) ~~~ ars Both of those gender markers look like they would be easy to alter with a bit of sewing, so the idea that clothing is gender neutral to make reuse easier still stands. ------ shirro I am sure with higher infant mortality and bigger families there were massive cost savings in gender neutral clothes for small children. We have our first girl due. I went to the local semi-quality big chain store and a stack of nice pink onesies were on the rack for under $5 (AUD) each. I got them to the self- checkout and found they were all marked down to around $3 which is less than a large cup of coffee around here. So although we will reuse our huge supply of robot, dinosaur and truck outfits, colour coding her gender in public for the benefit of strangers isn't going to be a huge financial burden. More pissed off with the pink toy aisles. I can buy my boys a semi-decent quality kitchen to play Gordon Ramsey in for $110 AUD on special at the same store available in pastel pink only (all the kitchens stuff has pictures of girls on it and is pink - all designed by or for Americans I guess). A similar gender neutral product in the same store is available by online order only for nearly twice the price. So the boys have a pink kitchen because fuck it - boys cook and women haven't been trapped in a kitchen for decades. ------ ams6110 Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence. ~~~ ronnier My guess is that it was very rare but because of agendas, it'll be played up and mentioned to seem as though it was more common than it actually was. Just me guessing... knowing nothing about the subject. ~~~ CapitalistCartr Yes, you don't know. This isn't a matter of opinion or guessing; its a matter of established fact, with lots of written and photographic documentation. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan supposedly said: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." You add nothing to a rational discussion with nasty slander. ~~~ auctiontheory Fantastic quote - I'm going to use that. ------ bobwaycott > _Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of > Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers._ That is the bit of history I'd like to read far more about, from primary sources. Specifically to suss out whether manufacturers and retailers _interpreted_ these color preferences or _manufactured_ them. Also, it's annoying when sites inject links and other shit into copying and pasting a sentence from the article to quote it elsewhere. ------ Zelphyr Now I'm not colorblind but I do know the girl in that first picture isn't wearing pink and OHMYGODTHATSABOY... ------ pan69 Related segment on QI: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f7urmRaRxY&t=2m12s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f7urmRaRxY&t=2m12s) ------ auctiontheory It's only within the last few Presidential election cycles that the Republicans have become "red" and the Democrats "blue," which is the opposite of what you might expect. What has "always" been true usually has very definite origins, sometimes quite recent. ~~~ moocowduckquack Am now just waiting for the GOP to adopt the red flag as a symbol and then the great circle of irony will be complete. ------ harest Everyone who is not colorblind perceives that there is a special emotion linked to a specific color. This applys to Children as well - they are not emotionless entitiys until the age of 6. They have thier favourite colors afore. ------ TazeTSchnitzel It would be nice to return to the times of gender-neutral clothing, and perhaps keep it that way until the child expresses a preference. After all, genitals don't determine gender, they determine sex. ~~~ Tichy That gender discussion is so weird. It seems people who are concerned about being forced into a role because of their gender go to great lengths and mental acrobatics to define some kind of new genders. So they struggle and struggle to actually define new roles they can be confined to. Wouldn't it be easier to simply not worry about gender at all and simply use your sex in any way you please? ~~~ derleth > Wouldn't it be easier to simply not worry about gender at all and simply use > your sex in any way you please? The people who do this fit into the box marked 'genderqueer'. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genderqueer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genderqueer) ~~~ Tichy I don't think so - just because you don't worry about gender boxes doesn't mean you want to live all kinds of gender roles. ------ emmelaich My information on why red/pink _was_ associated with males is that red dye is more expensive. Thus the wearing of red is a status symbol. (Source: talk on Vikings at Jorvik Viking museum/village) ------ vacri _Why have young children’s clothing styles changed so dramatically?_ As opposed to all other demographic segments? ------ circa do you not get the Victorias Secret catalog? ------ Dewie It is interesting that some social conservatives (or maybe just non-liberals?) care about consciously enforcing gender roles through clothing. This would seem to imply that they are similar in their beliefs with feminists when it comes to the nature/nurture question: that gender is enforced through culture. But this is usually thought of as a very liberal idea (or whatever I should call it). Pink as an effeminate color has always seemed kind of arbitrary to me. I just can't see how a color would have a specific gender. ~~~ endtime Sorry to be crude, but there is a very non-arbitrary reason for pink to be associated with females (and to a lesser extent, blue with males). In fact I always assumed this was indeed the cause for the association - I'm very surprised to learn it used to be reversed. ~~~ Dewie > Sorry to be crude, but there is a very non-arbitrary reason for pink to be > associated with females (and to a lesser extent, blue with males). You're excusing yourself for being crude? How is this crude? > Sorry to be crude, but there is a very non-arbitrary reason for pink to be > associated with females (and to a lesser extent, blue with males). In fact I > always assumed this was indeed the cause for the association - I'm very > surprised to learn it used to be reversed. So what is the non-arbitrary reason? The one mentioned in the article? ~~~ meepmorp > So what is the non-arbitrary reason? The one mentioned in the article? You seem smart enough to have figured out the implication, but I believe s/he meant that the inner portion of the labia and opening to the vagina are pink; the word pink is also used as a slag term for the female genitalia. ~~~ Dewie Well in that case: the penis glans is pink. ~~~ meepmorp Sure. I'm not endorsing the theory, merely stating it more directly (or so I think - I might be wrong). ~~~ endtime You're not wrong, that's what I meant. Well, and that the tunica albuginea is bluish, I believe.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Star.Me - Give People Stars - citizenkeys http://star.me ====== dster Great, so now I can get all those stars I missed in kindergarten :) ~~~ citizenkeys Yes! :-)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How much is too much payload for a webpage? - n8m With tons of JavaScript Libraries, Extensive CSS Frameworks and "Cover" pictures a webpage/app can get quickly become very big (payload). How much is too much? ====== J_Darnley 1 byte of javascript is too much. ------ DubaaFashion Yes,I think so. pay more get less for a web	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Obfuscate JavaScript Code Using Node.js - codeforgeek https://codeforgeek.com/how-to-obfuscate-javascript-with-node-js/ ====== lioeters Would have been nice to include links to the source. [https://obfuscator.io/](https://obfuscator.io/) [https://github.com/javascript-obfuscator/javascript- obfuscat...](https://github.com/javascript-obfuscator/javascript-obfuscator/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Theories on Artificial Expression (2013) - binarymax http://max.io/articles/theories-on-artificial-expression/ ====== binarymax Hi All. This is a repost as granted by the HN mods (thanks mods!). I wrote it in 2013, but thought it was appropriate given some of the comments in this post here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10993919](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10993919) ~~~ radarsat1 I think it's a nice article. > While I have no formal proof, I postulate that the problem of Artificial > Expression is NP-Complete (again, not possible to solve using existing > techniques). But this detracts from it, is it is not what NP-Complete means. Also: > Be aesthetically pleasing > Be purely original I think a good deal of human art does not fit these specifications. ~~~ binarymax First of all, thanks for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I agree this is not a definition of NP-Complete, but I was writing this with a less technical audience in mind and wrestled with the description. >I think a good deal of human art does not fit these specifications. Absolutely true! When I wrote the article I spent a good deal of time thinking on these cases, and while art definitely covers much more than this, it fits well as a good litmus test.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
'Explainable Artificial Intelligence': Cracking Open the Black Box of AI - sherm8n http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/617359/explainable-artificial-intelligence-cracking-open-black-box-ai/ ====== harperlee Newbie question: I've heard that PGMs are a superset of neural networks. In PGM materials that's I've read, the topology of the networks shown as example is made of node that are manually chosen and represent concept (smart student, good grades, difficult subject, etc.). Whereas a neural network example is usually a huge set of nodes that end up finding their meaning on their own. I also vaguely recall a tutorial in which you can highlight the nodes that contributed to the classification - the only thing is that they don't have meaning for a human. Then when the article states: > restrict the way nodes in a neural network consider things to ‘concepts’ > like colour and shapes and textures. Aren't these just PGMs? Are they NNs? Is it just a methodology approach on how to select the topology? Don't you lose the automatic meaning / structure search? I'm a little bit confused... ~~~ imh PGMs are interesting in how they represent distributions over the values of their nodes. In neural networks, (for the most part) those nodes are deterministic, so from a PGM perspective the distribution is trivial (up until the final output prediction). Performing inference in a neural net with stochastic nodes would be crazy hard, so the best you can do is usually MC with some kind of reparametrization trick to keep your gradients around. ------ bko I think the author is overstating the importance of being able to explain in human terms decisions made by a neural network. For instance , there is no one reason that I am able to recognize a dog as such. Any feature or combination of features I can think of can be had in another animal. Something deeper is happening when I am able to correctly identify dogs that is unexplainable, at least by me. The examples normally given for wildly inaccurate predictions were concocted by training a separate neural network to trick the original neural network which seems be just showcasing the effectiveness of neural networks rather than highlighting a weakness. Also, I would note that human intuition is not immune to tricks. For instance optical illusions regularly trick our perception. ~~~ mwexler No, the importance is massive, and you understate it. While we may all want to just believe, the regulatory ecosystem worldwide (where it applies, esp. in financial realm) demands that we provide explanations of why models made certain decisions on certain data. Without this ability, models will not be allowed to drive innovation or decisions in many areas of life, from financial (credit and risk) to medical (recommendations for treatment) to legal (best contract approach or best defense approach for a lawsuit). Saying that humans make mistakes and cannot explain their decisions is, in fact, one of the very reasons we want to have better models. We hope they will do better than most people to create a better world. And their explanations will hopefully provide insight into how we as people make good (and bad) decisions. And sure, we can change the laws over time, but having advanced models which can allow humans to understand decisions and even provide diagnostics to improve the models will be transformative. Until then, we will see massive impact in some areas of our lives, and frustrating holdbacks in others, driven either by the distraction of building for regulatory constraints or by choosing not to build in regulated areas at all. ~~~ zebrafish We know why these models make decisions on data. They're optimizing for lower error rates. The black box unveiled for a convolutional neural network is this: over the course of several thousand rounds of performing the dot product of the RGB values of a given training datum against a weight vector, this network has determined that a weight vector containing _these values_ optimally reduce the error produced by "squashing" the output matrices of said dot products in a softmax function when the "squashed" value is compared against the pre- determined true value. If you would also like to be able to correctly predict whether a given input is part of the class for which this model was optimized for, we suggest your weight vectors also contain _these values_ as this will reduce the number of false positives and false negatives you will produce from your prediction. ~~~ ColanR No. If the machine is telling me what medicine to administer to the patient, then I want to know exactly what data points the machine thought were relevant (i.e., the relevant symptoms). Furthermore, I want to know what about those symptoms indicated to the machine a particular diagnosis. ------ yummyfajitas Similarly, I feel that a car shouldn't drive too fast. If it does drive too fast then a human running after it might be unable to catch up! ~~~ parenthephobia This seems flippant. If a car is fast we generally understand why. We don't need to worry that under some rarely-encountered combination of circumstances it will unexpectedly do a handbrake turn and open the fuel cap. ------ bencollier49 There's a hell of a lot of money to be made by the person who cracks this. The major blockers preventing a lot of AI being rolled out across the EU are laws which stipulate that you have to be able to explain a decision to, for example, refuse a person credit. Not to mention the fact that we can correct faulty assumptions on the fly if we can get the networks to introspect. ~~~ sdenton4 Meh. Why not just use a decision tree for the credit decision? Perfectly explainable, and the feature domain isn't as difficult (and full of symmetry) as vision or language problems. ~~~ PeterisP Well, a good way to use decision trees for that is random forests, and you're right back to something that's not really easily explainable. ------ TeMPOraL One issue I don't see considered is - how to ensure that explainable artificial intelligence _doesn 't lie_? Right now, it may not be an issue, but as AI systems get complex ("smart") enough, one need to be sure that the introspective output isn't crafted to influence people looking at it. ~~~ vitiral Right now it looks like it's being used more as a "debugging" output to make more intelligent Al's. Once they can lie, we will have achieved that goal... ------ cr0sh Let's say this is possible. How would we know that it (the AI) isn't doing a post-hoc rationalization, or just outright lying about its reasoning? In other words, why do we trust humans more than machines? In fact, why do we not think of humans as machines - just ones made out of different materials? Why do we have this bias that machines are and must-be deterministic, and since humans aren't, they must not be machines? Furthermore, since we know that these AI models are sometimes stochastic, why do we still insist that they be explainable; when humans exhibit the same kind of output, we don't insist upon their determinism...? I'm not certain that we can make these models - especially complex deep- learning CNNs and others like them - explainable, any more than an individual can tell you how his or her brain came up with the solution; most of the time, we employ post-hoc reasoning to explain our decisions, depending on how the output resolves. That - or we lie. Rarely do we say "I don't know" \- because to do so is to admit a form of failure. Not admitting such is what helps religion continue, because when we don't know, we can ascribe the reason to another external force instead. If we would just be willing to say "I don't know - but let's try to find out" (insert XKCD here), we might be better off as a species. I don't think an AI model will be any different - or can be. If we insist on having an AI be able to deterministically and truthfully tell us exactly how it arrived at such a conclusion, we must be ready to accept that we should do the same with human reasoning as well. Anything less would be hypocritical at best.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How big is a googol? - spatten http://scottpatten.ca/2011/05/how-big-is-a-googol.html ====== p4bl0 Haha I really had fun reading this :-). In particular because I read this just after watching this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2548484>. ------ Jach Fun post. Reminds me of my interest in large numbers a few years ago with googolplex, Graham's Number, Ackerman function, TREE(), Busy Beaver...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Gitlab Saleswomen “told to wear short skirts, heels and 'step it up'” - notkaiho https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/06/gitlab_sales_women/ ====== ackshually That's... not what the source says at all. Very aggressive editorialising for rage clicks. ~~~ happytoexplain The "step it up" is true and low-class even in context, but was directed at both sexes. Of course, being disrespectful to twice as many people would be worse, not better. The rest is also true, except the author apparently didn't know that the hanging part of a dress and a skirt aren't synonymous (I don't think so anyway). But that has no relevance to what makes it deserving of "rage", as you say, so what are you actually referring to? ~~~ wjnc Would you mind explaining how "step it up", which I read as "stepping up the dress code" is low-class? For me there is a natural progression from sports wear, to casual, to business casual, to business, to cocktail casual, to cocktail, to black / white tie. And since we all have that one friend or colleague that's always two levels below the stipulated dress code, I also understand the urge to explain it in male / female terms. It's just more specific. If I extend my sympathy to the non-binaries, I could understand that the dividors "Men:" and "Women:" could have been dropped in the explanation. But why is that such a big thing? ~~~ nabnob Because the dress code for women is more sexualized than the dress code for men, and also expects women to wear heels, something that's not healthy and bad for your joints. ~~~ belorn A common reason for the anti-necktie sentiment among workers is that the tie represent a symbol of submission and slavery (i.e., having a symbolic chain around one's neck), marking which males are lower on the social ladder and thus unsuitable mates. ------ holstvoogd They literally link to the previous post on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22231548](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22231548) ------ kmlx were the men asked to "buff it up", have beards and only wear suits, ties and dress shoes? seriously, this whole thing with telling people what to wear and how to act is depressing. ~~~ unishark Everyone was told to "step it up". The words are twisted pretty far in that story. What they asked for was business casual for daytime then "step it up" with cocktail causal in the awards dinner, giving details what that entailed for men and women. ~~~ happytoexplain >giving details what that entailed for men and women Why did you stop there? ~~~ unishark Laziness mainly, why? It was a screenshot and couldn't be cut-and-pasted. Are you suggesting I twisted words too with my summary? ------ bluesign This is the dress code, if you google cocktail casual, it is short dress + hills. Also stepping up for both men and women, from business casual to cocktail casual ~~~ CrazyStat I googled cocktail casual and I got everything from nice jeans to calf-length (midi) and even longer dresses. ~~~ stringyham Most of (not all) my results are above the knee skirts. ~~~ placer According to reference.com, “cocktail casual” is not formally defined: “Traditional cocktail attire usually consists of knee length dresses for women, dark suits with a tie for men and fancy shoes for both. Cocktail casual, however, [...] has not yet been concretely defined. It means different things to different people, so partygoers who know the host well should feel free to ask for more specific instructions.” Knee-length dresses (i.e. “short dresses”) seem to reasonably fall under the definition of “cocktail casual”. For example: [https://www.clbxg.com/Cocktail- Casual/](https://www.clbxg.com/Cocktail-Casual/) ------ deweller Headline: "Told to wear short skirts..." Actual email: "We ask that you wear...short but somewhat formal dress and heels" ~~~ krapp The issue here is not whether a skirt is a dress, but the implications behind the qualifier "short," which are the same both for skirts and dresses, notwithstanding that a "short but somewhat formal dress" and a "short skirt" are functionally the same. ~~~ QUCLvAdF0L I think the implications are "don't wear a gown" and "wear a plain (this is a business event, not a social one) knee-high dress," since this describes the vast majority of dresses that turn up when I search for "cocktail casual." Anything above thigh-high would indeed be short, but hardly formal. ~~~ gremlinsinc And if the person is transitioning f->m or is non-binary and is offended by the requirement that they dress in a dress at all? Maybe they'd be more comfortable in a tuxedo, or a pant-suit. Maybe they have a scar on their leg and they're self-conscious about and gives them trauma the thought of showing off their legs... ------ meztez And men told to wear blazer/sport coat, slacks, suit and 'step it up'. I don't see malice in the statement, it is just poorly worded. ~~~ happytoexplain It's hard to believe you think that asking a man to wear a suit and asking a woman to wear heels and a short dress are comparable in terms of respect. ~~~ wvlia5 A construction worker has to wear dirty clothes. A stripper, no clothes. A clown, ridiculous clothes. Different positions require different clothing. If you don't like your job, be it for clothing or what have you, you can quit. ~~~ nkrisc The funny thing about the examples you gave is that whether a man or woman, the clothing is the same. You're not making the point I think you're trying to make. A male and female construction worker both wear dirty clothes and a hard hat. A male and female stripper both wear no clothes. A male and female clown both wear ridiculous clothes. Whereas apparently male salesmen should be wearing short skirts and high heels? Or only women? That's the problem. ~~~ wvlia5 High heels and skirt for females and suit and tie for males is what's considered elegant in traditional western fashion. It could also be pink hats for men and and yellow umbrellas for women. Or white clothes for the elderly and brown clothes for the young. Or any other arbitrary rule. Besides, suppose I have a shop and I discovered I sell more if I make men dress ridiculous, women dress erotic and elderly dress funny. So I require a dress code according to age/sex in order to optimize sales. What's the problem? Don't take the job if you don't want to ~~~ krapp > High heels and skirt for females and suit and tie for males is what's > considered elegant in traditional western fashion. But the dress code wasn't "high heels and skirt," it was high heels and _short_ skirts. Men weren't being asked to unbutton their shirts to show off their pecs, or to wear tight pants to show off their bulge, but women were being asked to show off their legs and asses, at least implicitly. ~~~ wvlia5 So? Why can't I have a company in which some people are required to show their asses and not others, based on some arbitrary rule? That's the way I sell and employees can choose to stay or leave ~~~ krapp >Why can't I have a company in which some people are required to show their asses and not others, based on some arbitrary rule? That's the way I sell and employees can choose to stay or leave First, it opens you up to massive sexual harassment and discrimination liability issues, and it's probably not even legal. Second, the bad publicity will drive away good hires and lose you sales, so it's not even good business, unless maybe you're a pimp. Third, it would make you a regressive, sexist jerk. ~~~ wvlia5 1- That only shows there are laws which are pretty dumb. 2- that's just your hypothesis. In my example I made the opposite hypothesis. That's irrelevant in any case. 3- The greatest jerk is the one who tries to impose their own preferences to prevent deals that have been freely accepted by all the parties involved. ------ PaulHoule A story I've heard more than once is that techie people are intimidated by (for lack of a better term) sexy saleswomen and that actually somebody like my mother-in-law who has had a lifetime to develop customer service skills is often more effective. ~~~ gremlinsinc I can see where overt sexualization could be a distraction... like dressed as a model or something...esp when I was younger. Girl next door, or soccer mom might less intimidating as well as the MIL for social anxiety types... A lot of geeks have social anxiety, and are like Raj from big bang theory around the opposite sex -though I think you grow out of it when you're in your 30's esp if married and have to live with a woman. Also dressing like a model could have an air of elitism or superiority if they're wearing like something that cost > $2k obviously. So, I could see that also being a hinderance, people like to deal with people similar to them, or at least I could see it easier to build a rapport. That probably goes both ways though regardless of sex. Like a car salesman in a normal suit with a mickey mouse watch or one in something a boy band artist would wear with an expensive rolex lol. ------ GrayTextIsTruth > it is common practice for male executives to have female subordinates take > responsibility when things go wrong I’m gonna go out in a limb here and say it’s common for _any_ executive to pass the buck to _any_ subordinate. It’s human nature to not want blame. ~~~ xtian > It’s human nature to not want blame. That’s not human nature, it’s a pathological, immature state of mind. ~~~ azangru > it’s a pathological, immature state of mind The word "pathological", presumably, means "deviating from the normal". The word "normal", in its turn, has two distinct meanings: one that is about what is desirable, the other is about what is common. On these grounds, and according to the second meaning of the word "normal", I would argue that fear is not pathological, nor is the desire to escape blame. It's quite normal. Whether some people can control this desire is the question. ~~~ xtian That’s not what pathological means at all… ------ newnewpdro At the relevant companies I've worked this didn't need to be explicitly told to the sales people. The monetary incentives put in place already had all the saleswomen attending events dolled up to the max, because it directly affected their bottom line in a substantial way.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Japanese Girl Sensation: Virtual Boyfriends (Webkare) - blackswan http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/20/webkare-a-girls-only-combination-of-social-network-and-dating-game-from-japan/ ====== litewulf I'm really curious why this is cast as a "Japanese girls are lonely". My girlfriend also watches those horrible Asian romance dramas and (jokes notwithstanding) I'm pretty sure the reason is more to fulfill her sappiness quota and not to cure her deep aching loneliness. I think its more notable for its interesting game mechanic and the utterly evil method they have for getting high page counts per user. (I mean, it seems that the company just implied you advance in the game by looking at pages you wouldn't have looked at normally. Devious!) ~~~ andreyf _...to fulfill her sappiness quota and not to cure her deep aching loneliness_ Just like boys who play counterstrike do it to fulfill their violence quota? Give me a break. ~~~ iron_ball So boys who play counterstrike do it, instead, because they really want to kill people? ~~~ evilneanderthal Depends if it's monday. ------ antirez Ok it's not only in the west the programmers are focused on bullshit... ~~~ bootload _"... Ok it's not only in the west the programmers are focused on bullshit ..."_ Making things that people want? ~~~ tudorachim People simply wanting it doesn't make it important or useful in objective terms. Diggers, for example, _really_ keep up with the service, even though a) almost all of the stories are a waste of time and b) almost all of the commenters are hilariously misinformed, to put it politely. ~~~ pmjordan By that standard, any kind of entertainment is worthless. ~~~ tudorachim No, I don't think so. I think there is entertainment, like reading a good book, or listening to good music, that is worth something because it ... helps you in some way, and entertainment like digg, which is just a complete time sink. This essay by Neal Stephenson puts it into words better than I can: <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/opinion/17stephenson.html> ~~~ maxklein What's a good book? Harry Potter? Shakespear? What's good music? Beethoven? T-Pain? More importantly - who is the judge? The government? You? If so, then are you allowed to decide what is 'good' for others? Are they allowed to decide what is 'good' for you? You see what I mean? There is no absolute when it comes to entertainment. There is no good or bad. There is just stuff that entertains, and stuff that does not. ~~~ bootload _"... What's a good book? Harry Potter? Shakespear? What's good music? Beethoven? T-Pain? ..."_ Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: The Sonnets, 18. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/wssnt10.txt Shakespeare not "Shakespear". ~~~ maxklein Shakespeare can hardly be classified as entertainment anymore. The english is just too old and too difficult for most people to read to be anymore than a chore. Harry Potter is REAL present-day entertainment, and anyone who wants to get into the industry has to understand that. ~~~ bootload _"... The english is just too old and too difficult for most people to read to be anymore than a chore ..."_ Good point. Now if we are talking say _"The A-Team"_ I'd agree. Bodie, Doyle, Tiger and jewelry man, Mr-T. I can see how some might spell Mr. Tee, Mr T or even Mr. Tea if you're a Brit. But meddling with the spelling of the greatest, most recognised writer in the history of English literature? _"... Harry Potter is REAL present-day entertainment, and anyone who wants to get into the industry has to understand that ..."_ I agree J.K. Rawlings, is a modern master of story telling. But I can name plenty of classic literature novels that have gone straight to mass visual media bypassing their literary cousins. Behind each great bit of entertainment is a great script. A lot of these scripts are based on classic lit. ------ river_styx So girls are getting virtual boyfriends now? Great. My chances were bad enough already. ------ Hexstream 3 of the boys look like girls... True to the tradition. ------ lalagrande Doesn't sound very "girls only" to me... ------ newt0311 Only in Japan... ~~~ Prrometheus The Japanese seem more ready than most to project human feelings onto cartoon characters. Thus the popularity of cartoons focused at young adults in Japan, as well as the phenomenon of cartoon pornography.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
S3 static site with SSL and automatic deploys using Travis - andrelaszlo http://laszlo.nu/2016/11/25/s3-static-site.html ====== throwaway2016a Why is it using Let's Encrypt when AWS offers it's own certificates that are free, auto-renew, take seconds to setup in CloudFront, and as far as I know are just as widely recognized? ~~~ andrelaszlo Just for fun actually, it will probably turn out to be a PITA :) ~~~ throwaway2016a I can appreciate that. ------ bobfunk Have a look at Netlify, [https://www.netlify.com](https://www.netlify.com), (disclaimer I'm a cofounder). You can get all of this in 30 seconds on our free plan + instant cache invalidation, deploy previews (we'll give you a unique preview url for every pull request), atomic deploys and no issues with deleting files :) ~~~ tf2manu994 Yep, theyre great. One major problem for me is that their build logs are in pure Black, and don't have any colour output. Also, afaik you can't set up a multi stage build step, like Travis. ~~~ bobfunk You can setup multi stage builds like: npm run build && npm run test ------ moodysalem Most of the time it's fine to just use Github pages though. I do something like this for my site [https://oauth2cloud.com](https://oauth2cloud.com) though. ------ fancy_pantser Note you'll have to manually create and deploy those Let's Encrypt certificates every 90 days because you didn't automate it (which is what they want/prefer). [https://letsencrypt.org/2015/11/09/why-90-days.html](https://letsencrypt.org/2015/11/09/why-90-days.html) ~~~ andrelaszlo Yes I should add that to the notes (author here). Thanks for pointing it out. I have been thinking about ways to automate it but haven't come up with anything I like yet. Any ideas? Might switch to ACM otherwise. ~~~ colinbartlett If you happen to use DNSimple for DNS, they recently released a Let's Encrypt integration that verifies via DNS record. They have web hooks and also make the certs and private keys available via API, so I imagine you could set something up with Lambda. But in my experience, Amazon's certs are so easy to setup and use there is no reason not to. ------ martiuk Now just to set up the redirect so your visitors can only view in https. ~~~ willglynn CloudFront makes adding redirects easy -- set "Viewer Protocol Policy: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS" and it'll return 301s as appropriate. Done. [http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/Developer...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/using- https-viewers-to-cloudfront.html) Now let's say you want to use HSTS so that browsers automatically rewrite HTTP to HTTPS. HSTS can protect users from agents that manipulate HTTP traffic, and it is therefore complementary to any redirection strategy. S3 lets you specify headers with your objects, like Cache-Control and Content- Type and such, but it doesn't support Strict-Transport-Security. (You can get S3 to use custom headers, but they must start with x-amz-meta-, which doesn't help here.) If the S3 origin can't return Strict-Transport-Security, that leaves CloudFront -- but CloudFront has no specific mechanism for HSTS nor any general mechanism for adding a response header. So... it's trivial to set a policy to redirect HTTP to HTTPS, but it's _impossible_ to get S3->CloudFront to articulate that policy with Strict- Transport-Security headers. Sigh.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
New Programming Language? - aditya_samaddar http://www.dailytoreador.com/news/article_908db38e-a998-11e3-bc17-0017a43b2370.html ====== aditya_samaddar New computer programming language "found". The title had me laugh out loud, but then got me thinking. Anybody else feel that reporting for tech news is usually done by somebody who has no clue what they are talking about?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tardigrades crash-landed on the Moon and probably survived - muxator https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/tiny-tardigrades-crash-landed-on-the-moon-and-probably-survived/ ====== headalgorithm See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20634080](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20634080) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20628574](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20628574)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What is the best way to get started with practical LISP? - wheresvic1 Looking for tips and pointers on learning and getting started with practical LISP, i.e. say build a web API or a basic GUI, etc. ====== deepaksurti Use Practical Common Lisp [0] as the book to start learning Lisp, Common Lisp is the more production version lisp. Download LispWorks Personal Edition [1], if you want to start working with an IDE setup. Use it when working through PCL. LW also has GUI library, mobile runtimes and other libraries available from QuickLisp [2], CL's package manager to install various libraries. After working through PCL, you will have a good CL foundation. You can expand your macro (pun unintended) knowledge by working through [3]. Other good resources: PAIP and Land of Lisp. Note about PAIP is more a specific application of CL to solve classical AI Problems, despite that it is still counted as among the best programming books out there. Hope this helps and `Welcome to the Dark Side`. PS: Except `Land of Lisp` cited in the resources, everything is free. [0] [http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/](http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/) [1] [http://www.lispworks.com/products/lispworks.html#personal](http://www.lispworks.com/products/lispworks.html#personal) [2] [https://www.quicklisp.org/beta/](https://www.quicklisp.org/beta/) [3] [https://letoverlambda.com](https://letoverlambda.com), [http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html) [4] [http://landoflisp.com](http://landoflisp.com), [https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp](https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp) ------ macmac I would look to Clojure / ClojureScript. Suggest you start here [https://www.braveclojure.com/foreword/](https://www.braveclojure.com/foreword/) and when you feel fairly comfortable you can proceed to [https://github.com/metosin/compojure- api](https://github.com/metosin/compojure-api) for a solid approach to building a web API. ~~~ brudgers I like Clojure as a language, but there are a lot of moving parts because Clojure is built as a DSL on other languages (Java and Javascript) and because the middle point of Clojure tooling lives in Emacs. To me, Clojure is a great production language and but a not so a great teaching language. ~~~ ooooak Clojure is a programming language. it's not a DSL by any mean. I don't have much experience with it but it does not look like a DSL to me. maybe you know something that I don't. ------ brudgers The second Racket getting started tutorial, [https://docs.racket- lang.org/continue/index.html](https://docs.racket- lang.org/continue/index.html) and the third, [https://docs.racket- lang.org/more/index.html](https://docs.racket-lang.org/more/index.html) ------ ooooak > [http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/](http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/) try this book out. if you don't hate JVM then Clojure could be a good idea. ------ bewe42 I recommend reading SICP and using Clojure to implement the exercises. There're plenty of solutions out there should you get stuck or need inspiration. Not only are you going to learn a LISP-like language, you also study one of the best programming books plus get to know a compelling language. ------ zerr Unless it's hobby, not sure how pragmatic idea is to program in AST nowadays... Even Norvig switched to Python. ------ wheresvic1 What about an IDE, tooling, etc? ~~~ bwbw223 Emacs is probably the way to go- it has its own lisp dialect for scripting the editor. I don’t have any experience using it as I use vim, though :). ~~~ brudgers For Lisp in general, Emacs is all a person really needs. That's not a comment about IDE's or editors. Because Emacs has eLisp, there's no need to pick another lisp like Clojure or Common Lisp. eLisp is a full fledged, well documented, Lisp with a lot of features. It even has built in coverage for interactive user interfaces of windows and menus (though not exactly what people might call GUI's). It can reach out and do networking, though it is closer to the Unix model of making system calls than language libraries or "built in sockets" approaches...but the proof is in tools like Magit and sx-mode or even the older Rmail and GNUS. Basically, Emacs is a virtual Lisp Machine which is why some people are able to live in it all day, everyday, year after year.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A.I. Wants to Know How You Plan a Trip - furcyd https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/business/ai-technology-travel-planning.html ====== logifail > Through user testing [..] customers were most interested in learning about > the cheapest flight, the shortest flight and the flight that offered the > best combination of saving time and money. Displaying search results based > on this information, even though the changes were small, made a big > difference in sales... No-one could possibly have expected consumers to care about those things <rolls eyes> Seriously, is this the best we can come up with? "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" springs to mind.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Freelancer.com Pays $3.2M To Buy Digital Marketing Marketplace, Warrior Forum - malditojavi http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/15/freelancer-buys-warrior-forum/ ====== downandout I'm sure that Freelancer.com did their due diligence, but as a mere user of this and other marketing forums I don't see how this valuation makes sense. The site's primary source of revenue is the percentage it takes from WSO sales - "Warrior Special Offers". These are normally rehashed guides with such useful information as how to put Adsense on your site, with titles like "Make $300/day on Autopilot!". WSO's are the butt of jokes on other Internet marketing forums, as they are usually nonsense. Some other forums actually have sections dedicated to quickly throwing together useless WSO's with attractive titles, creating fake reviews, and getting them sold through Warrior Forum. Definitely not an acquisition I would have made. ~~~ MicroBerto As someone who got wayyyyy too heavily involved into the whole "internet marketing" scene a few years back, I can confirm the sentiments above. In my eyes, Freelancer just simultaneously paid millions of dollars for an obnoxious digital _wasteland_ while devaluing their own brand by associating themselves with these clowns. I can honestly say I have never, and will never, use Freelancer. Especially now. ~~~ genericacct As if they weren't devalued enough by their habit of accepting completely illegal and immoral projects (i saw tons of requests for filipino camgirls and carding/cracking activities).. ------ capex I once joined Freelancer.com. Oh boy, what an experience it was. First off, there is a free plan for freelancers, but you should be paying ~$24 to get things going. The second is charging money for tests, charging money for showing up as featured, and various other tactics to get money out of freelancers. I moved out as soon as I could. ~~~ mattbarrie Where did this $24 number come from? It's free to sign up and bid on projects and we charge a 10% commission for freelancers on a free plan only when you accept. What's wrong with a fee to make a project featured? Ebay does this. We charge for tests so people don't game them by writing down all the answers. ------ fest /non-related rant ahead From a perspective of person who is (pro)actively looking for more work, freelancer.com is full of projects along the veins of "write me some software". It does not make sense to even bother applying to projects like that, as the time spent writing an application letter exceeds potential income. ~6 years ago I did a fair number of small projects on rentacoder.com - the quality of average project description was much higher (did they do any vetting on incoming projects?). odesk.com on the other hand has a lot more projects whose authors understand a thing or two about how software development works (i.e. reasonable project description among other things). ~~~ mattbarrie Hi fest I'n the Chief Executive of Freelancer.com. The employers from RAC are all on Freelancer - and they are a lot more active than they were on the old site (which had a use interface from 1995 and was very difficult to use). Regards Matt ~~~ josourcing You're going to need to name names if anyone's going to believe you. I've only seen ONE employer from RAC at your scamtablishment. Perhaps exaggeration is your strong point? ~~~ mattbarrie Ah, I know who you are now. We had a conversation when we acquired RAC because you wrote that book "Outsourcing Through RentACoder" and were upset we shut the site down. ------ pulmo The last time I checked Warrior Forum was basically a marketplace for scammsters scamming newbies and selling scam paraphernalia. Long term value? Make 50.000 bucks in 10 days and get the Ultimate Master Traffic Money Maker for free! ~~~ dirktheman I'm always amused by these Internet Marketers selling Internet Marketing Strategies to Internet Marketers. The whole site is basically an enclosed ecosystem of people selling and buying each others stuff. ------ marcomassaro Somebody needs to make an elance, odesk, freelance competitor that is private - contractors or companies need to apply and be pre-vetted to be on the site for design/dev and projects posted are above a minimum budget threshold. ~~~ poopsintub A country specific version of freelancer was an idea after I couldn't get a gig against every other third world country bidding on what seemed to be the same project with multiple accounts. Since it seems there were few and far American accounts bidding compared to other countries, "American only" struck me as something that would be useful as a developer. Though, I'm pretty sure people go there to pay insanely cheap prices. If they want to pay $100+ hour for experience and high quality, they would find a local company and meet with them. It's not like Angie's list where you're going to pay more or less the same price and you can filter out who you want to chose. ~~~ octopus _I couldn 't get a gig against every Indian and other third world country scamming the system with 10 accounts a piece_ I'm not Indian, but some HN readers may find offensive that you equate Indian with scammer. ~~~ poopsintub Edited. I didn't intend to be offensive. I feel the system is flawed and can be manipulated by anyone. The vast majority of bidders seems to be outside of America. ~~~ octopus _I feel the system is flawed and can be manipulated by anyone._ This is, unfortunately, true. You can however make some money on Freelancer if you offer quality and keep your prices at a medium level. ------ josourcing Proof that Barrie doesn't know what the hell he's doing. He just bought a bunch of scammers! But then, seeing how Freelancer.com is a scam in itself, it all seems very clear now. ~~~ mattbarrie Only enough to have the largest user base and the fastest growing site in the industry.. and the only publicly listed. ------ rootuid [http://warriorforumsucks.com/](http://warriorforumsucks.com/) There is money to be made milking the vulnerable. ------ whoismua Not to diminish the work that goes into building a successful forum (most fail), but that's a nice out. With the right strategy it can even FU money.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Heat Wave to Hit Two-Thirds of the U.S. Here’s What to Expect - QuickToBan https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/17/us/weather-heat-wave.html ====== hpoe So I get that the infrastructure isn't as well in place to deal with things like this but where I live 100+ isn't that absurd, and that's nothing to say for places like Arizonia which is two blocks away from the sun and 90 is considered cool, with 100+ being a common occurrence. So what makes this particularly bad? ~~~ bspn The humidity amplifies the effects of the heat. I remember the first time I travelled to Arizona and was expecting to suffer when I saw the forecast temperatures were 100+, but the dry heat was - I hesitate to say comfortable - but very different from a 90 degree day on the East Coast with high humidity. An extended period of extreme heat + humidity can be brutal on the body, particularly those already vulnerable or without adequate air conditioning. ~~~ nickjj Yeah humidity is no joke. I'm in NY and when it's ~90f degrees out with high humidity, it's an unescapable heat unless you have an A/C. I'm in ok shape I guess. I walk 3-5 miles a day in all types of weather ranging from about 10f to 100f degrees but when high temps hit with high humidity my skin immediately glazes over and I know to take it easy. My arms will be dripping wet in less than a minute just standing outside doing nothing with a ~60 BPM heart rate. ------ tomohawk We see a lot more weather hype in the news than we used to. Winter storms have names. We get "arctic vortexes". And normal summer temps are flogged as a massive heat wave. Someone in the biz was telling me that the reason is that many 'news' orgs would rather have an article about the weather than about a lot of other subjects, so they've steadily increased the number of weather related coverage. ~~~ frankbreetz Also extreme weather events are increasing in both quantity and severity. [https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/report- findings/...](https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/report- findings/extreme-weather) ------ jaytaylor Now NYT disables reading from incognito. Lame. [http://archive.is/cF01U](http://archive.is/cF01U) ~~~ joemaller1 Logging in sort of defeats the point of private mode. ~~~ eli Most people were using private mode to read more articles than they paywall allows without paying for a subscription. ------ beezle Slow news day? Not like this is the first heat wave to ever hit more than a couple states. Drink lots of water, move slow, go to work early and leave late (its cooler and less people to get edgy with!) ~~~ beezle No clue why the angry downvotes - from the subheadline of the story: "Dangerously hot temperatures are predicted from Oklahoma to New England. Here’s the forecast, with some tips on staying safe." I add to their list of things that can help, get downvoted, but people complaining about blocked incognito mode, all ok?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Right Way to do Wireframes - pinstriped_dude http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSxF-pISj1w ====== vitovito It should be noted that this isn't a movie showing "the right way to do wireframes," it's from a talk about how there is no "right way to do wireframes," there's only the appropriate way to do wireframes at the appropriate level of fidelity for your task/project/client. There are several "right way to do wireframes" videos on YouTube from that talk, each illustrating how a different professionals did wireframes for the same project using different processes and techniques. Experimenting with different design techniques, processes and critiquing methods is one of the goals of my ongoing design workshops: <http://vi.to/workshop/> (if you're in Austin, TX, you should come out!) ------ gyardley OmniGraffle Pro rocks for wireframing - I use it all the time. Be sure to add some web-specific stuff to your Stencil library - I use the ones here, and judging from the labels in the mockups in the video, so does that guy: <http://konigi.com/tools/omnigraffle-wireframe-stencils> In addition, learn how to effectively use grouping and layers, especially shared layers - this is functionality that's easily missed if you just open OmniGraffle and start screwing around with it, but it's so useful. Should you have a subscription, lynda.com added a decent OmniGraffle tutorial not so long ago. ------ hussong While the video makes the wireframing process look like a lot of fun, the resulting UI just looks rather crammed and confusing to me. I'm wondering whether this is a side effect of the tool in the sense that it's easy, fun and rewarding to add more elements (think FarmVille). ------ euroclydon I would love to what tool were they using to create the layout after the paper wireframes? It looks like it can make 5X better looking web pages than I can, in half the time. ~~~ pclark Visio or OmniGraffle ~~~ ams6110 It's OmniGraffle, you can catch a glimpse of the menu bar at around 0:44 or so. ------ kellishaver I really hate to be "that person" but while I enjoyed the video, I really could have done without the vulgarity in the music. My kid was watching. \- Yes, I know there's a mute button, but I didn't recognize the song, so I didn't know to mute it until it was too late. \- No, I don't shelter my kid from everything, nor do I think I should, but I also don't think a 7yr old needs to be pointlessly exposed to such things in her own home, either. ~~~ blhack You know what I was doing when I was seven? Catching salamanders. Maybe your 7 year old daughter should be doing something other than watching youtube videos about creating website mockups. I'm all for involving your kids, and that is awesome, but it is a Saturday night, and it's rapidly becoming spring. Take your daughter out and do something fun with her. ~~~ kellishaver Wow, way to jump to conclusions about my parenting abilities there. Just to put your mind at ease that my kid's not wasting her life away on the internet, we'd finished up an art project we'd been doing together and I was browsing HN while waiting for her to get out of the shower so we could watch Doctor Who. She came back in the room just as I was playing the video and came over to see what I was doing. She's very interested in learning HTML/CSS and wanted to watch. This was after spending several hours today outside playing with the neighbor kids, before, that is, she came in to do her chores (put away the clean dishes, put her laundry away, help gather up the trash) and have dinner, wherein she ate her vegetables without complaint. After Doctor Who, she read for a bit and went to bed. Tomorrow will be playing with the cousins and visiting the grandparents. She's a very smart, happy, well-behaved kid living a quite balanced and normal life. I'm very proud of her. ~~~ blhack Whoa, I really apologize if I came across as harsh there, I seriously didn't mean any offense, just that at 7 years old, I wouldn't have even known how to process a youtube video, or what a wireframe even _was_. I guess my point was that I doubt the creator of this video ever imagined that a seven year old would be watching it, so it's a bit silly to get mad about the content of it. Also, when I made the comment I had just gotten inside from having my four year old niece help me tune up my bikes...it was really more of "hey, playing with little kids is really fun and everybody should go do it", not "GRR YOU ARE T3H SUX-ZORE!". Sorry, that came across wrong and I apologize; my bad. ~~~ kellishaver Ah, I see. No hard feelings. Thanks. :) FRT, I wasn't "mad" about the music in the video, either, just a little annoyed by it, because it seemed pointless in context and didn't add anything to the video. There was no reason for it to be there, so I was caught off- guard by the fact that it was and so the thought to wait and watch the video later never occurred to me. A video about wireframing-doesn't sound like something you couldn't watch with a kid in the room.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
SEO SPAM network - Details of a mass attack (many .gov, .com and .edus hacked) - ddbb http://blog.sucuri.net/2010/05/seo-spam-network-details-of-wp-includes.html ====== neurotech1 Part of the problem is that a lot of security advisories basically say "run the latest version". Restricting access with .htaccess is a good idea; [http://www.themepremium.com/wordpress-security-restrict- wp-c...](http://www.themepremium.com/wordpress-security-restrict-wp-content- and-wp-includes-on-wordpress-using-htaccess/) ~~~ snewe If you fail to upgrade immediately, malware is often installed and remains after an upgrade. I missed one site by a day and got infected. The default option to print the WP version in the <head> of each blog would certainly lower the likelihood of a script finding an outdated site. Unfortunately once hacked, truly cleaning the site requires 1\. Backing up theme, making list of plugins installed 2\. Inspecting theme for any hacks. (difficult if you wrote your own) 3\. Deleting _all_ files 4\. Walking through the wp_options table for any leftover holes (very difficult) 5\. Re-install WP 6\. Re-install theme and plugins. The WP team needs to work in something like you linked to into the core. ~~~ neurotech1 I'm actively reviewing WordPress 3.0 beta for upgrade and plug-ins. Once I've got the .htaccess fix working in 3.0 beta I'll post the patch. There are a few ideas I'm considering for securing and monitoring WP installations for intrusions. ------ vaksel i got hacked by something almost exactly like this like 3 months ago. They uploaded a folder called .files with about 2K html files there to each of my folders. Probably a few million crap files all together. Was a huge pain in the ass to clear all that crap out. After that point I killed all wordpress installs, since it has such a huge target on it's back. ~~~ sucuri2 This .files attack was common too. We posted about it a while ago: [http://blog.sucuri.net/2010/05/it-is-not-over-seo-spam-on- si...](http://blog.sucuri.net/2010/05/it-is-not-over-seo-spam-on-sites.html) ~~~ vaksel btw your blogsite is very scammy looking. I got a message from my host with a link to your site, where you instructed to download and install a file...and I was 100% sure that it was just just a scam, where you sent out spam messages pretending to be hosts, with a link to the blog post where you were asking me to download malware. In fact I was in the process of contacting customer support of my host, when I noticed the letter I got in recent history. You should really spend a little time making it look more legitimate, ~~~ sucuri2 You lost me there. We never sent messages to anyone to download and install files. Can you forward the email to me (dd at sucuri.net)? *but I agree, we really need some improvements on our design. ~~~ vaksel what I meant was that I got a letter from my host telling me I got hacked(a week or so after I fixed everything)...and they linked to your site. But after hitting your site, I got the impression that it was just a scam site trying to get me to install some malware. ~~~ sucuri2 Oh, sorry about that. I misunderstood it. But it is nice to see hosting companies linking to us :) I am still looking for a designer to work on our blog/site. ~~~ aarongough Shameless promotional plug: <http://waldendesign.com/> I work for them 2 days per week, I'm sure we'll be able to help you if you're interested. ------ AndrewWarner Anyone know anything about sucuri.net? Reputable? ~~~ sucuri2 Yes, we are reputable :) ~~~ AndrewWarner Thanks for all those emails! A few hours ago I didn't know if you were legit. Now I see how considerate you are. So glad I met you on HN. ------ pyre I'm failing to see any mention of a .gov domain in the article. ~~~ sucuri2 Just do the suggested searches at the bottom of it: [http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&q=inurl%3A%2Fwp- includes%2F+...](http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&q=inurl%3A%2Fwp- includes%2F+%22viagra%22++inurl%3A.gov&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=a9f1b4a1f96dfa78) ------ maukdaddy _badminton.mit.edu_ Oh god no! Don't let it be true!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The coronavirus did not escape from a lab. Here's how we know - havella https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html ====== better0uts1d3 But if life was a movie, then it must've escaped! Would make life as black and white as movies are, and not gray and nuanced and complicated and unsolvable as life actually is	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Backup Solution? - wglb http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/backup2009 ====== trjordan FWIW, Time Machine can actually be set up to do remote backups. You can even (p)re-configure the disk image if you want to limit the size, in case you don't want to partition your disk. I'll grant that it's a bit of a pain over the 3-click built-in solution, but it's what I'm using these days. Enabling network backups: [http://rajeev.name/blog/2007/11/03/time-machine- with-smb-and...](http://rajeev.name/blog/2007/11/03/time-machine-with-smb-and- nfs-shares/) Limiting backup sizes: [http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200711080201215...](http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071108020121567) ------ telemachos I just bought a TimeMachine here since my whole house is now Mac and it finally seemed worth it. The initial set-up was a bit hairy: my wife's machine got caught in some sort of bad loop and every time we tried to restart her initial backup, it grew. First it was going to be 45 GB. When that failed and died, the next try was 90GB. We killed that, messed with a few things, tried again, and sure enough it was now going to be 135. Ugly. Having said that, after wiping the TimeMachine and starting from scratch, everything has been perfect. And obviously all the backups after the initial one are very small and quite fast. So I suppose I would give it a B-. ------ pclark <http://www.tarsnap.com/> ~~~ telemachos The blog post specifically mentions tarsnap in a list of applications that he then dismisses (they don't "just work"). You might disagree, but if you do, please say why. ~~~ eli I'd probably agree that it doesn't "just work" (in the sense that e.g. dropbox just works), but if you're reasonably comfortable with a command line and have used tar before, it's pretty straightforward. ------ drewcrawford The problem with these sorts of services is that they require finicky clientside software. The problem with real "storage" services (S3, Rackspace, etc.) is that they're ridiculously expensive--on the order of "buy a new backup drive every few months" expensive. Plus there's no way to ship drives to them or have them ship drives to you in an emergency. I'd love to colocate a Backblaze pod in a datacenter and just rsync a few TB up to it. That way I can handle my own xattrs, my own bare metal, and not worry about finicky client software. Problem: $8k or so is way outside my backup budget... Yeah, I know I could just colocate a $500 NAS, but it seems to wasteful to have so much CPU, power, etc., just for one backup. If only we could round up a few hundred HNers to split a Backblaze pod... ~~~ jcapote FYI, you can mail drives to S3: <http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/> ~~~ drewcrawford Device Handling $80.00 per storage device handled. Data Loading Time $2.49 per data-loading-hour. Partial data-loading-hours are billed as full hours. Yes, on the order of cost-of-drive. ------ jhancock For my servers (linux), I use tarsnap. For my workstations (OS X) I use SuperDuper.app to image my hard drive. ------ thaumaturgy We've spent many hours evaluating different backup services -- we're specifically looking for one with a partner program that's appropriate for our business. The good news is, most services now (claim to) offer encryption as part of their basic package. For Mac users, Carbonite does seem to be the best service available. For Windows users, I'd recommend SpiderOak, who are cheaper in most cases than other services, and they seem to offer a reasonably good client program. For potential resellers, in our opinion there just isn't a good one available yet. We hadn't found CrashPlan though, and so far it looks promising. ~~~ sreitshamer The problem IMHO is that the encryption is just that -- a "claim". You can't access your data on their servers, so you can't verify it. You can use your own password, but there's no way to verify it's being used. Backblaze's blog <http://tr.im/BPfR> for instance says that "IT" has access to my data without knowing my password. ~~~ thaumaturgy One of the advantages (and disadvantages) to CrashPlan, for service providers, is that it allows you to run their server software on your own infrastructure. But yes, I agree with you otherwise. I'd much rather trust cperciva with data, but unfortunately his system lacks some critical features for our uses. ~~~ cperciva _I'd much rather trust cperciva with data, but unfortunately his system lacks some critical features for our uses._ If you haven't already done so, please send me an email listing the lacking features which you find critical. I can't guarantee that I'll add them, but it's always useful to know how many people need what features. ------ sreitshamer <http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/> would seem to fit his needs for all but the bare-metal restore. But it's unclear whether he requires an online (offsite) solution or not. For local backup, Time Machine works fine for all but restoring hard links, fifos and devices, which may not matter in his case. You just have to remember to plug in your USB drive, or be near your Time Capsule pretty often. ------ svrishi I have been using <http://www.jungledisk.com> (acquired by Rackspace over a year back). You pay only for the storage you need (I prefer that over unlimited backup services), you can choose Amazon s3 or Rackspace cloudfiles for storage, client software available on all three platforms works fine and you can encrypt the data with your own passphrase. ------ CRASCH <http://www.hybir.com> full online backup bare metal restore windows only for now. Interesting performance advantages can be seen in the screen casts here: <http://www.hybir.com/Action/HybirBackupAction.html> (blatent self promotion) ------ kylecordes The main problem with Time Machine is how badly it "works" with File Vault... backing up the encrypted stripes only, and only when you aren't logged in to your Mac, which in my case is approx 0% of the time. ~~~ shpxnvz I wouldn't call that working badly - it seems to be about the only reasonable way to handle the situation. I just started working a logout at the end of the day into my schedule and never really thought about it since. I'm curious what you would rather have it do… backup the content unencrypted, or force a logout every hour to do the backup? ------ RyanMcGreal Back in time + sshfs + cron job is working pretty well for me. ------ codemechanic Try Tonido Backup. <http://www.tonido.com/app_backup_home.html>. Works on Windows, Mac and Linux. It is free too.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The FBI Botched Its DNC Hack Warning in 2016 but Says It Won’t Next Time - elorant https://www.wired.com/story/fbi-hacking-victim-notifications/ ====== mwfunk One issue with the article: it talks about the DNC hack but not the RNC. Both were hacked by Fancy Bear, but only the DNC info was dumped online. Whatever they got from the RNC stayed secret, almost certainly for kompromat. ~~~ sevenf0ur The RNC was not hacked, that's fake news: [https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/jan/11/donald- tru...](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/jan/11/donald-trump/trump- says-russians-were-unable-hack-republican-na/) > While Russians were able to get into the email accounts of some Republican > individuals and state-level Republican organizations, they did not break > into the Republican National Committee’s current system, according to the > director of the FBI. It looks like the Russians tried to hack everyone and were largely successful against the DNC. ~~~ Simulacra Wired seems to disagree with you. [https://www.wired.com/2017/01/russia-hacked-older- republican...](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/russia-hacked-older-republican- emails-fbi-director-says/) and Reuters: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-cyber- rnc/russ...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-cyber-rnc/russia- hacked-republican-state-campaigns-but-not-trumps-fbi-head-idUSKBN14U2DD)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Difference Between Good Writers and Bad Writers - franciscop http://goinswriter.com/the-difference-between-good-writers-and-bad-writers/ ====== franciscop It really reminded me to the differences between good programmers and bad programmers. Seen from _Engineers should write_ [1] [1] [http://www.shubhro.com/2014/12/27/software-engineers- should-...](http://www.shubhro.com/2014/12/27/software-engineers-should- write/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Please rate my HN reader - richardg http://ireadhn.g-webtech.com/ ====== dcpdx This is great. No more cmd+T to read a linked article in a new tab and then returning to HN. You got yourself a user. Couple suggestions: -Create a style for visited links. I find this valuable when perusing the list. -Needs a "More" button at the bottom of the Home and New lists. -A pane to view/submit comments would be nice. Maybe re-size the article pane by half and add a comments pane when clicking a comment link for an article. I'm sure you have all sorts of ideas as this is just a prototype, but I really like it so far. ------ angryasian very similar to twidroyd. cool product would be better if you used a fluid layout and had the actual article take up the most space.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Multi-Armed Bandit Problem - zenburnyourface http://camdp.com/blogs/multi-armed-bandits ====== mcpherrinm Eugh, this website has custom behavior for the left-right arrow keys, which breaks the back keyboard shortcut in Firefox (alt+left arrow key). Non- standard navigation on a page that IMHO doesn't need it. ~~~ triplesec spacebar scrolling also broken in ff. grrrrr ~~~ zenburnmyface haha ironically left-arrow right-arrow replace space-bar scroll. ------ mailshanx Just had a look at your book, and it looks amazing! Hope you will complete it:D On a separate note, im surprised that in the many discussion of the MAB problem on HN, the Gittins index was never mentioned. Under certain (mild) assumptions on reward distributions, the GI gives a provably optimal solution to the MAB problem... ------ bun-neh One thing to expand upon: This is just the classic formulation of the Multi- Armed Bandit Problem. There are countless variations to the formula which have slightly different underlying assumptions. ------ spitfire Good article. I'd like to know what he used to output those graphs. ~~~ zenburnyourface It uses Python's Matplotlib with a custom styling, available here: [https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic- Programmin...](https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programming- and-Bayesian-Methods-for-Hackers/blob/master/styles/matplotlibrc) ~~~ spitfire Thanks! I quite like the output. Are you the author? If soI took a quick look at your book and it looks excellent. [https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic- Programmin...](https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programming- and-Bayesian-Methods-for-Hackers) ~~~ zenburnmyface I am the author. Thanks, I appreciate that!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: MessageBook, an extension to limit FB usage to Messenger - chejazi https://messagebook.github.io/ ====== qnsi I don’t know how this extension work, but I have no problem with that. I just go to messenger.com and never visit fb.com. How does the extension work and why?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
There's a (Vim Plugin) For That Part 1: Fuzzy Finder - rudyjahchan http://blog.carbonfive.com/2011/10/18/theres-a-vim-plugin-for-that-fuzzy-finder/ ====== phleet Command-T is a much more maintained version of this, last time I checked: <https://wincent.com/products/command-t> ~~~ rane In the Vim world plugins don't really have to be maintained. I like both FuzzyFinder and Command-T, but right now I'm using the former; gets the job done quite nicely and occasionally I use modes other than the basic file search. ------ hornbaker I couldn't live without Fuzzy Finder, and the following two lines in my .vimrc file which _really_ make it fast and simple: "re-map <leader> from \ to , (comma) to avoid a reach let mapleader = "," " map comma-f to open fuzzy finder in the working dir, " ready for a wildcard filename search map <leader>f :FufFileWithFullCwd __/ <CR> ------ gurraman What a coincidence: I wanted something like this and created a similar, albeit much simpler, plugin[1]. I've been trying to work around a bug (an event wasn't triggered when the completion menu is visible) for a long time and finally found a solution today when searching through GitHub. The project I found the solution in was FuzzyFinder. So I implemented a fix, but got curious about the plugin itself (I've used it before, but it was quite buggy back when). So I searched YouTube for some videos, and the one I watched was the one the OP made :) [1] <https://github.com/strange/pyxis-vim> ------ johncoltrane I like LustyExplorer (<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1890>). I've mapped its 3 features like this: ,f to choose a file ,b to choose a buffer ,g to search for a word/pattern in active buffers In each case the results are filtered incrementally, more or less like in all the other similar vim plugins and the original in TextMate. ------ bbq For emacs there is <http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/InteractivelyDoThings> ------ netmute I tried to ditch Command-T in favor of FuzzyFinder, but it really can't replace Command-T. I'm unable to recursively search for a file in my current project dir. Even when I do funny things like :FufFind **/ it takes forever to scan the project dir and then doesn't come up with the file I want. As much as I want this to be an alternative to Command-T, it isn't :( ~~~ subleq Why do you want to ditch Command-T? I've been satisfied with it. The one thing I do wish it had was ctags searching. ------ iron_ball I started with FuzzyFinder, and although I've been using PeepOpen lately, I think I'll be going back to FuzzyFinder. It makes it easy to traverse the entire filesystem (which PeepOpen does not), and it makes directory structure apparent for situations where I don't remember the exact filename, but I don't want to mess with a full tree browser either. ------ pyrhho What I would love is a fuzzy finder that also did a 'git grep' for the search string too, so I could open files defining a function for example. ------ rane nnoremap <F2> :<C-u>FufRenewCache<CR> " Updates cache, useful after adding or removing files nnoremap <C-t> :<C-u>FufFile __/ <CR> " Makes the search recursive ------ jes5199 did they fix the bugs where your keypresses could appear out of order? because seriously, I don't want to have to slow down my typing to get software to work. ------ mwynholds Nice! This might be the final reason to abandon RubyMine. ~~~ ludicast I abandoned RubyMine to go back to vim myself. Do it and do it today. ------ zenobia Nice tip, thanks! Vim is full of treasures :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tensorflow 1.6.0 Released - MichaelBurge https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/releases/tag/v1.6.0 ====== tormeh Any idea why AMDs fork[0] hasn't been merged yet? 0: [https://github.com/ROCmSoftwarePlatform/hiptensorflow](https://github.com/ROCmSoftwarePlatform/hiptensorflow) ~~~ ma2rten There is some discussion on it here: [https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/issues/22](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/issues/22) ~~~ mastazi While that thread mentions the HIP port at some point, it's really about the OpenCL port. ------ minimaxir 1.6.0 does not appear to be installable via pip yet, though. (you can install tensorflow==1.6.0rc1 if you really want it now) The inclusion of AVX instructions should give model training a notable speed boost at lower numbers of CPUs. ~~~ puzzle I thought the plan was to have common code for the generic, non-critical parts like graph handling, while operators would be shipped in multiple variants, keyed and loaded at runtime by CPUID. You can even delegate that to glibc if they are packaged as shared libraries and it's a recent enough version. Maybe in 1.7? ~~~ netheril96 Do you have any evidence that the TF developers are going to do that? ~~~ puzzle I heard it from someone at Google at a public event, but there was no date attached to it. I should have asked. ------ xvilka Still no OpenCL support... ~~~ make3 you're complaining about a free, open source project. your contributions are welcome ~~~ ancarda I get the sentiment, but how many people can just casually add OpenCL to Tensorflow? For a lot of people, even if talented programmers, they may not be able to do anything but ask and beg. My webcam doesn’t work with Linux. Should I write a driver despite not knowing the kernel API, C, or how webcams even work? I would be better off sponsoring development somehow — this is something I’ve wondered if it’s possible to do. Someone with the skills could be paid by me, and other affected users. ~~~ ndr Asking nicely would help. Offering to pay someone to put in the work would be even better.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
An offer you can't refuse - __ http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13610871 ====== ccorda I got into this debate with some finance friends this weekend. This essay I've seen linked gives a rebuttal: [http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2009/05/you- realithe-...](http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2009/05/you-realithe-of- courth-thith-meanth-war.html) "Think about it. The political stakes for the Obama Administration in the Chrysler fiasco are monumental... This leads to my second point. The negotiations over carving up claims to Chrysler Corporation prior to bankruptcy were just that: negotiations. Notwithstanding whatever principles of Truth, Justice, and the American Way the Chrysler non-Tarp lenders would have us believe undergird their positions, they were simply one party among many to a very complicated negotiation over the proper distribution of value of a very large and troubled company. Yes, there are general principles and precedents concerning the division of spoils in a corporate bankruptcy which normally guide such processes. Yes, many of these have been laid down over decades of contested and uncontested bankruptcies prosecuted through our court system. That being said, none of these precedents are Holy Writ. The parties to the Chrysler negotiation tried to agree to a prepackaged division of spoils which they could present to a bankruptcy judge and thereby speed the company's restructuring. They failed. Did someone—the government, the UAW, the non-Tarp secured lenders—overreach? Maybe. Does it matter who? Not in the least. A pre-agreed deal was not struck, so the distribution of claims to Chrysler will be determined in court, by a judge, who will listen to advocates for each group argue their case. The process will take longer, and perhaps introduce additional stresses and strains that Chrysler can ill afford, but everyone will have their day in court. Even those poor, put-upon non-Tarp lenders. In fact, even though they would likely be loathe to admit it publicly, everyone may be happier that the company has fallen into Chapter 11. That way, each can say to their own constituents that they tried as hard as they could, but were unable in the end to get everything they wanted. (Chief among these, by the way, I would place the Administration.) The corollary point of negotiations is this: they are hard, and often unpleasant. Parties to a bankruptcy say hard, unpleasant things, they threaten and cajole, and they use all their powers of persuasion, soft and hard, to convince the other parties to the deal to give them what they want. In this context, why should anyone be surprised that agents of the government threatened recalcitrant lenders with IRS audits, excoriated their behavior in populist press conferences, or promised to destroy their institutional reputations in the public eye? The government was simply using the real and imagined powers at its command to browbeat its counterparties into agreement. This is standard operating procedure in high-pressure negotiations." ~~~ anamax > In this context, why should anyone be surprised that agents of the > government threatened recalcitrant lenders with IRS audits, excoriated their > behavior in populist press conferences, or promised to destroy their > institutional reputations in the public eye? Why do I think that you wouldn't be nearly so accepting if it was Bush or Nixon instead of Obama. Actually, it's quite rare for govt to get involved in bankruptcy. Do you really want to argue that involving the IRS is appropriate? ------ sethg The article leads with: _NO ONE who lent money to General Motors (GM) or Chrysler can have been unaware of their dire finances. Nor can workers have failed to notice their employers’ precarious futures. These were firms that barely stayed afloat in the boom and both creditors and employees were taking a punt on their promise to pay debts and generous health-care benefits._ False equivalence. If I hold GM or Chrysler debt and I perceive that the company is going downhill, then I can sell off that debt at a discount and cut my losses. If I spend twenty years working for the company under a contract providing generous retirement benefits in lieu of money up front, and _then_ I start wondering if the company will actually be able to afford those benefits, I'm stuck riding the elevator all the way to the bottom (where "the bottom" is whatever minimal pension the government can guarantee). Obviously in a case of insolvency these are both contractual obligations that the company can't satisfy, and everyone has to take some kind of haircut, but if the law doesn't give retirees priority over bondholders in this situation, then the law is an ass. ~~~ yummyfajitas UAW members did not get generous retirement benefits in lieu of money up front. They got above market wages up front AND generous retirement benefits. ~~~ sethg If they hadn't gotten such good retirement benefits, they would have gotten _even more_ money up front. Before the Japanese arrived on the scene, these contracts made perfect sense from the management's point of view, because American car companies were making money hand over fist. When competition from Japan became serious, such contracts still made sense, because they would rather pay later than pay now. And, well, "later" has arrived. ------ patio11 An aside: I really hate people willy-nilly throwing around the word "socialist", because it leaves me with no good descriptive adjectives for when the government expropriates several billion dollars from private investors and hands it to a labor union. (I assume there must, somewhere, be a Democrat who feels the same about "racist".) ~~~ sethg John Scalzi once quipped that in a socialist country, the government nationalizes _successful_ businesses. ------ akamaka Lots of pleasant thoughts about fairness in this article, but no mention of the simple fact that the financial sector has rapidly burned through their collective reserves of political capital over the last year, and is hardly in a position to make demands. ~~~ danteembermage Careful, you've got an abstraction layer that's maybe not appropriate. Imagine for a moment that I am a person near the end of my working life and very wisely and prudently put most of my retirement funds in a portfolio of church bonds, municipal bonds, and long-term corporate bonds including GM's. "The financial sector...rapidly burn[ing] through their political capital" doesn't imply that I should get five cents on the dollar while people behind me in line get forty. I have been receiving a paltry interest rate for years precisely because I was promised I was first in line in the event of a bankruptcy. There are real people behind these massive losses, and the fact that Wall Street bilked me with transaction costs on the way in to this portfolio means I'm more deserving of sympathy not disdain. ~~~ akamaka A lot of people are hurting right now, and you're quite right that investors both large and small have been hit the hardest. But after a year spent clamouring for government help, whether bail-outs for big banks or compensation for individuals who bought ABCPs, investors have lost their place at the front of the political line. They still have the judicial branch to turn to, but the days of executive branch fast-tracking are gone, and there's little point in complaining about it. ~~~ danteembermage You're right that losing your place in the front of the political line has dire consequences, and certainly investors have lost their place at the front of it, but think really carefully about who was campaigning for government help and even more important, for whose benefit were the auto bailouts in the first place. I think it would be difficult to claim that the answer to either question is the firms' bondholders. It's true, they may have indirectly benefited if the bailouts had succeeded, but the purpose of the bailout was never to help the holders of GM's debt. I don't really think punishing misbehavior should be pertinent to creditor hierarchy in bankruptcy, but if we intend to punish clamoring then I think this proposed settlement may have things slightly backwards. ------ hapless The government's offer wasn't made in a void. In _exchange_ for re- prioritizing creditor claims, the government was offering billions of dollars for debtor-in-possession financing that _is not available from private sources._ There was no use of force here. The government holds a carrot, DIP financing, but they don't really have a stick. ------ dunk010 I'm torn on this - on the one hand it's those employees' healthcare which is at stake - real people and real lives. On the other hand there is due process, and the risk of making it very difficult for the government to encourage private investment in the future. If only this had been seen up front - surely employees' healthcare should have had better protection from the start, but these things are only obvious in retrospect. Perhaps the government needs to legislate to force companies to make their employees benefits higher priority in the case of a bankruptcy. ~~~ gaius Mutual funds are huge shareholders too. Are those not real people and real lives? UAW members have done very, very well over the years, it's about time they shared some of the pain. What goes around, comes around. ~~~ Xichekolas > _Are those not real people and real lives?_ As someone else has pointed out, the average retail investor that _might_ own some GM bonds through a mutual fund would maybe lose a _few percent_ of their portfolio. The average GM retiree losing his pension/healthcare is looking at a _near total loss of income_. That said, I definitely see the legal problem here. The two solutions that come to mind for solving it are: 1\. Let the retiree VEBA go without the last $10 billion owed it, accepting whatever that means for retirees. 2\. Have the government pay the $10 billion in cash rather than GM stock. (Just as a disclosure, my dad is a GM retiree. He gets a $35k/yr pension and health insurance. His insurance used to be quite awesome, but in the last five years has become merely 'good'. Best financial decision he made was to divest his GM stock in November 2003, which at the time was 80% of his portfolio.)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Computing a Risk Estimate Using Netflix’s Riskquant - skuenzli https://nodramadevops.com/2020/02/computing-a-risk-estimate-using-netflixs-riskquant/ ====== zerotolerance I've been looking for a reason to dig into this tool. For those who haven't heard of RiskQuadrant, Netflix put out an article about the project about two weeks ago: [https://medium.com/@NetflixTechBlog/open-sourcing- riskquant-...](https://medium.com/@NetflixTechBlog/open-sourcing-riskquant-a- library-for-quantifying-risk-6720cc1e4968). The project itself is at: [https://github.com/Netflix-Skunkworks/riskquant](https://github.com/Netflix- Skunkworks/riskquant). ~~~ skuenzli (Author) The `riskquant` tool is really cool and the library is even cooler. I'm excited that tech folks are starting to quantify risks for their quickly changing systems. Risk management in tech/cybersecurity is really immature compared to other domains like structural engineering (earthquakes), finance (portfolio risk position), or environmental health and safety. riskquant and similar tools do the critical work of making proven risk analysis methods accessible in delivery pipelines and deployment platforms for inclusion in continuous risk monitoring systems and scaling periodic risk analysis activities.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Explorers find wreck of Japanese WWII aircraft carrier sunk in Battle of Midway - spking https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rv-petrel-battle-midway-kaga-wreck-aircraft-carrier-ww2-paul-allen-a9161481.html ====== ThrowawayR2 Since the headline doesn't mention it, it's the IJN Kaga.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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